Chapter 71 - The False Teacher (1)

I raised a hand to object.

"Wait, hold on... Aagh!"

THWACK!

I had raised my hand, but Katrin’s sword didn’t stop. The flat of the blade struck me hard enough to send me sprawling across the ground.

"Oh, sorry. I was concentrating so hard I didn’t see you raise your hand."

Katrin apologized with a contrite look. As if someone as capable as her could have missed what I was doing. The corners of her mouth were definitely turned up!

But with everyone watching our sparring match, I couldn’t lose my temper at her. As I staggered to my feet, she asked,

"Why did you stop? Though I suppose it was about time we did."

"No, it’s just that the more I think about it, the less this feels like proper sparring. It makes no sense to fight as if we’re using sword aura when we aren’t even using mana, does it?"

"Oh, you’re right. It doesn’t."

She nodded. Apparently she’d realized it too.

"But it was enough to gauge your skills, so it doesn’t matter."

At that, all I could do was sigh. In the end, I’d have to count it as a workout rather than a proper sparring match.

And when I looked around afterward, people seemed to have gotten all sorts of wrong ideas. Ugh. I’d only wanted to show enough skill that they wouldn’t look down on me. Surely this wasn’t going to turn into one of those novel clichés from my past life?

"Now you all know where your skills stand, don’t you? Save your pride in being awakened nobles until your abilities live up to your noble names!"

Katrin had climbed back onto the platform and was giving the students a stern lecture.

"We nobles aren’t recognized because we’re a privileged class with inherited abilities. We’re recognized because we used those abilities to defend people from monsters and foreign enemies, and still do. If any of you look down on knights or anyone else without the skill to back it up, I’ll train you myself through sparring until you have that skill. Be prepared."

Standing on the platform with her sword planted before her, Katrin looked so impressive I almost wanted to give her an enthusiastic round of applause. The problem was that the nobles and would-be nobles sprawled on the ground were hardly going to take her words to heart.

Centuries had passed since the Great War and the founding of the kingdom. Duties were becoming mere formalities, while rights had long since hardened into privileges. And since rank was based on actual ability, there was no chance of a revolution. This place could only keep rotting under its entrenched class system.

But that had little to do with me. I had enough problems of my own without worrying about anything so grand. And with that, the afternoon classes ended.

First day of classes. Friends: zero. People to talk to: zero. It looked like my status as an outcast was official.

I returned to my dorm room with those disheartening results. My roommate wasn’t back yet. It looked as though I’d be eating dinner alone too. Then again, would I have eaten with him even if he were here?

I pushed that depressing thought out of my head and hurried through dinner. After halfheartedly doing my homework, it was time for bed—which meant dorm curfew.

But Piar still hadn’t returned. Was he already staying out without permission? If he was going to spend the night away without telling me, I had no reason to cover for him. I went straight to the dorm office on the building’s ground floor.

"My roommate hasn’t come back yet."

"Ah, Piar has a visitor, so he has permission to stay out for one night."

"Oh, is that so?"

Couldn’t someone have told me earlier? Or was Piar supposed to tell me? Either way, I’d come down for nothing. I shook my head and was about to go back upstairs when a thought struck me. I turned to the dorm staff member again.

"Is Piar the only one staying out? What about his older cousin Mirisa?"

"Ah, Mirisa is staying out too... Oh, I wasn’t supposed to tell you about a female student. I’d appreciate it if you’d forget you heard that."

Leaving the flustered staff member behind, I went back up to my room. They both had a visitor and were staying out for the night.

Their home domain was nowhere near the capital. If the visitor was family, they’d be from the village head’s family in a rural village. Someone had come all that way to take the two of them out overnight? It looked as though I might be able to wrap this up sooner than expected.

Back in my room, I changed clothes in a hurry, opened my bag, and took out the dagger I’d hidden deep inside. I had a greatsword propped against the wall, but the dagger Katrin had given me was perfect for a nighttime outing.

Holding it again after so long sent what felt like a current through my palm. The dagger hadn’t spoken since the first time it addressed me. Hoping it would speak to me again someday, I tucked it into my belt.

Finally, I threw on the cloak that had served me so well at the marquis’s house. I turned off the light, arranged the pillows and blanket to look as though someone was sleeping, and opened the window.

I drew up my mana.

HUM. HUM. HUM.

A pleasant energy enveloped my whole body. Far away, I could sense the energy I’d planted. The whole reason I’d become Piar’s roommate was to plant some of my energy on him. It took a little while to find it, but thankfully I could tell which direction he was in. As I’d suspected, it wasn’t a direction I’d expected him to go.

I slipped out the window, closed it behind me, and leaped away. On that cloud-filled night, a young ability user dressed in black crossed the academy grounds.

* * *

Mana made it possible to use inherited abilities, and through mana cultivation techniques, it enabled knights to wield their swords. The world I’d been reincarnated into was built on mana. Before the Great War, the ancient empire had been sustained by mages and knights who used it.

The Great War had brought knights down from their former standing and magic into decline, but the inherited abilities that arose during the war were based on that same mana. Their immense power had eclipsed the mana wielded by knights, but unfortunately, inherited abilities couldn’t be put to as many different uses as magic or a knight’s sword.

If knights and mages were ordinary infantry, individual inherited abilities were more like cannons or fighter jets—specialized weapons with tremendous firepower. I’d read that some mages in the ancient empire could unleash spells as terrifyingly powerful as inherited abilities, but that knowledge had died out around the time of the Great War, so it hardly mattered now.

Because I possessed both a physical-enhancement inherited ability and a knight’s mana, I could use the two at once. Add in my mana-sensing ability, which was better than most people’s, and I could leave a trace of my own energy on someone and track them from afar. It wouldn’t work if they got too far away, but fortunately, my target wasn’t far from the academy.

After running for some time, I leaped over a wall topped with jutting iron bars, and my target was right ahead. I sensed them in a shopping district not far from the academy’s main gate: a street of businesses catering to academy visitors and students, from restaurants and gift shops to places to stay.

It reminded me of the shopping streets outside universities in my past life, or the commercial districts near military bases. Perhaps that was why most of the shops were dark at this hour, just as they would have been back then. A few streetlights were still lit, though, so it wasn’t too dark to get around.

'It’s not an inn?'

I avoided the streetlights and cautiously followed the scent of mana. Contrary to my expectations, it led me to an ordinary shop. It was closed, so I couldn’t be certain, but it looked like a place that sold souvenirs.

"It’s not an inn, and it’s practically reeking of suspicious energy."

The building was fairly large, with a shop on the ground floor and what looked like living quarters above. The scent of mana I’d left on Piar drifted from the upstairs, where the lights were still on.

"Now what?"

I studied the upstairs window, thinking over my next move.

* * *

Three people were talking in the lit room upstairs.

"... So everyone was really surprised."

"Oh?"

"Still, they didn’t look down on us as much as I thought they would. Though I suppose it’s more that they don’t pay us any attention at all."

The girl eagerly recounted what had happened, and the man nodded along.

"Why would anyone pay attention to people like us? There’s a duke’s son, the heir to a count’s house, and even a princess."

"Ah, I heard Princess Aisha had enrolled."

"Exactly. As long as commoners like us don’t draw attention to ourselves, no one takes any interest in us."

The man agreed with the boy.

"Thanks to you, Master, we haven’t made any mistakes. We didn’t know anything about noble etiquette. If we’d come here without hearing about it from you, we’d have caused trouble over and over."

"She’s right."

Piar and his older cousin looked happily at the mentor who had brought them this far. They’d been startled to hear late that afternoon that someone had come to visit them. To think it was Master! Piar and Mirisa had rushed to the visitors’ room at the main gate.

From there, the two of them had come with someone who served their master to a shop being used as temporary lodgings, and they had been talking ever since. Their master, a thin man with the common name Louis, looked to be somewhere between young adulthood and middle age. He had a somewhat cold appearance, but he had always been warm to Piar and Mirisa. They’d parted from him in their village long before coming to the capital, so they were delighted by his sudden visit.

Their master offered the two of them some reassurance. "I’m glad you’re holding up so well."

"You gave us our abilities and sent us all the way here, Master. This is nothing."

Master also asked with concern, "Has anyone given either of you trouble for having inherited abilities?"

"Some people seem to find it unusual, but that’s all."

"Oh, right. The boy I share a room with asked about it too..."

"Who?"

Mirisa knew at once whom Piar meant. "Oh, the Duke of Gresia’s illegitimate son? People have been whispering about him."

"Well, he isn’t that strange. Or maybe he is. He doesn’t seem like an ordinary boy either..."

The master’s expression stiffened slightly. "The duke’s illegitimate son... What did he ask?"

But Piar only shrugged and answered matter-of-factly. "Nothing much. Where I came from, what ability I have—that sort of thing. Just what you might ask someone you share a room with."

"Fair enough."

"Still, a child of a ducal house asking a commoner..."

"That’s what struck me as unusual. Maybe it’s because he’s an illegitimate son..."

"Ah, an illegitimate son..."

Both Mirisa and their master nodded at Piar’s words. It would have been highly unusual for the son of a great noble house to take an interest in a commoner, but being an illegitimate son changed things.

"Though I heard his family recognizes him to some extent..."

"What?"

Mirisa had caught her master’s murmur, but he shook his head.

"More importantly, tell me more. What was the entrance ceremony like?"

"Well, that day..."

He listened to them for a good while longer, then rose from his seat.