Winter has passed in an instant, and it is time for green leaves to emerge, gently tapping the dirt ground.
The warm sunlight and refreshing breeze, full of the scent of spring, opened the Academy's thick door like a key.
Spring. It was the season that announced the start of a new semester.
As in previous years, a large number of new students, with countless dreams and hopes, passed the difficult entrance examination and set foot on the Royal Academy, and soon after, cadets who had advanced to their second or third year followed them, and the new students ended up becoming flagships.
“Only 200 third graders?!”
“There are 500 people in the second year….”
“They said there were so many dropouts and dropouts… It was true.”
They say that although about a thousand freshmen pass through the academy each year, only 10% of them graduate, and it seems that this is indeed the case.
Aren't the numbers of those poor seniors proof?
The new cadets had a variety of expressions on their faces, including fear, anticipation, and confidence, but their purpose was the same.
graduate!
For this purpose, the new cadets showed their determination to survive no matter what.
The Royal Academy of Pendragon.
It is a place where success is guaranteed if you just graduate, and it is a place where not only the lower classes but even the nobles put in all their effort and study.
also,
“…Is he here?”
“You said someone noticeable? Oh, there they are!”
It’s also a great place to build connections… .
The eyes of the cadets, especially the nobles, Youngsik and Youngae, were fixed on a few people.
Isn't it said that the reason why the largest number of test takers flocked to the school in the past ten years, and why 500 more cadets entered the school than last year, is to establish a relationship with them?
And as if to prove that these words were not said in vain, the eyes of the new cadets were shining with burden.
'Black hair! It's him, no, it has to be him. Unless he's Lionel's successor, there's no way he could have that much presence!'
‘…Windler Youngae.’
'Is that the young lady of Joan of Arc? The one rumored to have been adopted by His Majesty the Marquis because he was impressed by her talent… .'
'He's the grandson of the swordsman… Oh, he's a barbarian! There really is a mysterious race!'
'Well, where could the disciple of the Mercenary King be?'
It was said that after blood ties came regional ties, and after that came school ties.
This was a common saying in the South, and even throughout the continent, and there were many new cadets who wanted to build a relationship with them using school ties as an excuse.
There were those who entered the academy just for that purpose, and many of them were children of upper-class families whose success was already guaranteed.
Although they may have been vulgar, they eventually passed the difficult test and entered the church, so if they have that much sincerity, even vulgar people can be admired.
In that sense… .
'If I say 'Faculty of Swordsmanship', I can make a face, right?'
'Haa, I have to go to the swordsmanship department myself… But why do they attend the swordsmanship department so diligently? My brother clearly said that when you're in your second year, you only take liberal arts classes, and that swordsmanship is taught by the family's knights…?'
'That's unusual. Well, it's a stroke of luck for me.'
The fact that these big names were faithfully attending the academy was a blessing and a stroke of luck for the new students.
I thought that some of them wouldn't come to the academy at all when they were in their second or third year, but here we are, all gathered together!
The first-year students in the Department of Swordsmanship dreamed of such a bright future.
A future where I can hang out with them.
……of course.
“-I am Damian, the teaching assistant of the Department of Swordsmanship who will be in charge of managing the first-year students starting today.”
“……?”
The problem may be that it is the way of the world that things do not go as planned.
“I don’t like being like this from the first day, but since that’s what the instructor told me to do, I’ll just do it. Please don’t blame me, blame the instructor.”
“??”
“Okay, just do one hundred laps. 1st to 30th place pass, 31st to 50th place are held back, and everything else is a penalty. Okay, run.”
“Uh, uh, what the heck….”
"excuse me?"
"……yes?"
“To your senior, and to your teaching assistant at that! Do you think this is your living room? Don’t you address me properly? Get out of here.”
“…….”
The first-year student of the Department of Swordsmanship who asked the question was terrified.
The aura of the second-year student who called himself a teaching assistant was so strong and fierce that it made my legs tremble.
This was the same for other first-year students, and among those who were overwhelmed were the spirits of the knight family.
'Well, if it's Damien, then Damien Follett? The second son of the noble knight family, Follett?'
‘Was that Damien Youngshik like this? What’s with his momentum…?’
Although their age difference is only one or two years, they cannot help but overwhelm each other.
But Damien Follett didn't care whether they were surprised or not.
On the contrary.
“I’ll give you 10 seconds. Those who don’t run after that will be considered disobedient and will be penalized accordingly. By the way, you should know that from 3 penalty points, you will be considered for expulsion.”
“…….”
“Send, 1, 2, …8!”
“What!!”
2 I wanted to refute why the number 8 suddenly appeared next, but the new recruits were already overwhelmed and started running without even having the courage to refute.
130 new students in the Department of Swordsmanship.
It was the largest number since the creation of the Swordsmanship Department, and Damian was burning with the desire to reduce this incredible number.
'I'm just so busy with my work, damn it!'
For Damian, who was an instructor who had nothing to do anyway and whose job was to handle everything, 130 people was too many.
And anyway.
'Half of these, no, more than 70% of them, they're all falling, falling!'
Damien, who had unintentionally developed an eye for things over the past year, saw that there were a lot of strange people mixed in among them.
You can tell at a glance that they are either spies or people raised by some force.
Even if such things existed, it would only muddy the waters, and Damian had no desire to see that sight.
I already had a lot of work to do, and I didn't want to waste time on things like that.
'Please, let's cut it exactly halfway down to 65, no, let's just leave a clean 60.'
It would be great if only something less than that remained.
Damien. There are two years left until he can end his life as an assistant (slave).
If he wanted to live the remaining two years in peace… .
'Don't throw ashes in my path, you filthy bastards!'
I'll gladly become a demon!
Damien, the Hammer Knight, glared at them without mercy, his spare axe clutched in his bosom.
“Wow… Assistant, you found your calling, right?”
Meanwhile, Lee Han, who was watching this whole scene from a high hill, couldn't help but be amazed.
It was going very well.
The skill to take the initiative and control the flow by overwhelming with momentum and words, and the look in his eyes that thinks about how to make people the most miserable.
It couldn't have been anything other than an innate talent, and he was doing it so naturally that even Lee Han had mastered it in his eight years of military service.
“Talent, and a tremendous talent at that. That’s innate.”
“Are you saying that I’m born with something like that?”
“Well, managing people isn’t something that just anyone can do. If you look at how well you’ve been doing from the start, I guess I can leave all the first-year classes and exams to you.”
“…….”
“Why do you look like that?”
“…No. I just think I know who brought out Mr. Damien’s talent.”
“?”
“He might be better at it since he realized it by rolling around with his whole body….”
“Well, I guess I was treated like a human being, huh?”
“…….”
The gray-haired boy, Derek, was speechless and shocked.
If that was done humanely… .
'How much more inhumane can you manipulate someone?'
Derek swallowed his words and remained silent, not having the courage to look into the abyss.
Sometimes there are truths that you don't need to know.
* * *
Let me be clear: Lee Han didn't leave the new recruits to the assistants because he was annoyed.
Simply… .
“Why are there so many strange things?”
I just left it to him because most of the first graders this year were full of yellow-haired guys.
Lee Han was immediately visible.
I think the assistant teacher thought that about 70% of them were suspicious guys… .
'Except for about twenty people, there are only suspicious people.'
More than 80% of them were weird guys.
Lee Han had been busy recently and had not been able to pay attention to the work of the academy, so today was his first time seeing the new cadets.
But I never thought they would pick only such suspicious guys… .
‘…what’s that smell?’
There are quite a few who smell like blood.
They may not be criminals, but they are still people who should be in a mercenary force or an intelligence organization, not in a hall of learning.
When I see such unpleasant people here and there, my eyebrows naturally furrow.
'What kind of person chose this?'
I don't know what criteria they used to get you into the swordsmanship department, but they had absolutely no intention of accepting people who were obviously going to muddy the waters.
I have absolutely no desire to teach.
'I think I'm going to turn everything upside down.'
It was scary to see Lee Han have such a cold expression….
“The instructor will endure it. This also happened because of the instructor’s reputation.”
“What fame?”
“Didn’t the battle footage from Modred spread? Of course, his fame hasn’t spread yet, but there’s probably no noble or merchant who doesn’t know the instructor’s name. Those suspicious people are probably people who came to spy on or persuade the instructor. So please don’t be too angry. It’s a fate that famous people have to endure.”
“…Are you kidding me right now?”
Lee Han clenched his fists slightly and looked at the black guy, and the black guy, Roen, immediately raised both arms and made a sign of surrender.
“Please, look at me. If I get hit even as a joke now, my head will explode.”
“That’s a joke.”
“……That’s not a joke.”
Roen retorted with a serious expression.
Because it was a serious statement, not a joke.
As if to signal the start of a new semester with the scent of spring in the air, the freshmen's cries echoed like an orchestra in the training grounds of the Department of Swordsmanship.
… for a long time.
