Top Instructor of a Third-Rate Academy

Chapter 191

"Finally done......"

Jacy and Shasha collapsed onto their desks.

"Finally" was the right word — it had been an odyssey.

The task of classifying the swordsmanship characteristics of nearly fifteen hundred students and assigning them into groups that matched those characteristics.

Of course it was difficult.

But.

"......Must be nice."

"Ah."

The two of them shut their mouths under the withering glare of Latrine, who had not yet finished her own work.

The number of people Latrine had to classify was roughly four hundred fifty — the full combined total of knights and soldiers.

If it had simply been four hundred fifty, the placement would not have been difficult.

The Crownhardt Ducal House was a military house that guarded the front lines.

They managed their members' information more meticulously than any other house.

But the standards of information Akarind Academy demanded were too exacting and difficult.

"What is the color of their swordsmanship?"

"......Pardon?"

"I mean, do they use defensive swordsmanship, or offensive swordsmanship?"

"We teach all knights and soldiers the Crownhardt regimental swordsmanship. The knights then adapt it to real combat situations......"

"I see. In that case, does this person usually stand at the front, or do they play a support role from behind? What is their stamina like? Their height? What muscles do they primarily use when wielding a sword? Are they right-handed or left-handed? Do they have courage? Are their eyes good?"

"......Please give me a moment to check."

Naturally, there was no way to check all of that.

But the military had a method more reliable than any other.

"All personnel, assemble."

Rank was king.

At Latrine's word, all four hundred fifty knights and soldiers attending class assembled at the training ground.

From among them, the soldiers stepped forward and compiled answers according to questions from Cassian and the teaching assistants.

Latrine then collected that data and reassigned people to groups accordingly.

It was an extremely barbaric and analog method.

"Is all of this truly necessary just to form groups?"

"Yes."

At Cassian's answer, Latrine looked at Shasha and Jacy.

The two of them had not added a single objection to Cassian's words.

It did not seem to be merely because they were slaves — that is to say, graduate students.

Rather, they were moving like that because they genuinely understood the necessity.

Just what was he planning to do with these groups......

"Ah, there is a piece of information I missed. Could you possibly reassemble the knights......"

"Excuse me?!"

"Ah, no. Never mind, it should be fine. Whether the knights have awakened Aura and their level of proficiency — you have that information, yes?"

"......Yes."

Latrine had genuinely been on the verge of tears.

It was a raw, unfiltered emotion she had never shown even before her Duke.

What on earth was this man.

In any case, grouping the roughly two thousand people was all done.

Ten people per group, two hundred groups.

Each group had seven to eight students, and depending on the group, two or three knights and soldiers were assigned.

The students were also diversely placed, from freshmen to auditors, and no matter how many times the four of them looked it over, it was a fairly balanced arrangement.

"Now we need to have these people evaluated...... what kind of evaluation would be good?"

The issue now was the difficulty of the midterm evaluation.

"You said you would give an assignment so difficult that the entire group would have to throw themselves at it."

But these were ten students from what could be called the world's finest academy.

Each group had one auditor, two freshmen-to-Advancement-Class students who were learning Aura, four students who had not learned Aura, one soldier plus one knight if they could use Aura, or two knights if they could not.

For a difficulty that would challenge these people.

"Do we not need to procure a Chimera, a Drake, a Sand Worm pack, a Dire Wolf pack, or perhaps a Minotaurus?"

Jacy and Shasha seriously rattled off the names of large-scale monsters.

Every monster they named was powerful enough to claim regional dominance.

Such monsters, and what exactly?

Latrine looked at the two women as though she could not believe her ears.

"Does that make sense? No matter that knights are included, you are sending a team with students on a raid like that."

And Shasha and Jacy looked at Latrine with expressions that said they did not understand.

No matter that knights are included? A team with students?

"I think the perspective has shifted a bit."

"Excuse me?"

"Even though students are included, I was listing those monsters because I was wondering if it was right to drag along dead weight like the knights and soldiers."

"......?"

For a moment, Latrine was so dumbfounded her mouth fell open.

What was what now?

No matter how high the level of Akarind Academy students, to compare them against knights?

"You are greatly underestimating our knights. We are not just any unit — we are the bulwark that stood at the front lines fighting barbarians."

Monsters and barbarians were different.

Monsters were creatures whose brains had been invaded by Demonic Energy, living on pure instinct alone.

Their innate physical abilities were formidable, but they were the sort that soldiers could deal with readily.

Even the pathetic knights of the Belmein Kingdom regularly went on monster extermination missions.

But barbarians were different.

They wielded countless powers according to the religions they followed.

The tribes that believed in shamans and great spirits etched tattoos across their bodies and charged with the power of sorcery.

The fanatic bastards would consecrate every part of their bodies through Geis and charge in, and when a necromancer was mixed in, lunatics armed with Necromancing would rush them.

Crownhardt had always held the line against such foes.

Undefeated at the front.

That was their label and their pride.

"We are not fools, so we are not ignorant of Akarind Academy's strength. But Akarind Academy does not know the strength of the Crownhardt Ducal House."

"I know."

Cassian quietly spoke, cutting off Latrine's words.

"You say you know? You have not merely picked up stories from Academy classes, have you?"

She already knew that Cassian had graduated top of his class at the Imperial Royal Academy.

The Imperial Royal Academy taught the Empire's history and current politics at great depth.

Then he would naturally have heard about the Crownhardt Ducal House's history of victories and battle strategies in class.

"Mere classroom knowledge cannot reveal the full combat power of the Crownhardt Ducal House. Looking at documents a hundred times cannot match experiencing the real thing once......"

"Which is why I know."

Her words were not wrong.

Seeing people in person once was faster than looking at documents a hundred times.

And conveniently, had Latrine not summoned every group member for the paperwork?

Once during class.

And once just now.

Two looks — at their standing posture, their attitude, their bearing — was enough.

"Because I have seen them twice."

"What do you......"

"I will show you the details in class."

Cassian glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

Three hours remained until class time.

"At least I can get two hours of sleep. Please go back and rest well, and I will see you shortly."

"Teacher, then the midterm evaluation target is......"

"Something just came to mind. Let me think on it a bit more overnight, and I will discuss it in tomorrow's class."

***

When morning came and students arrived at the classroom, they drifted in small groups toward the classroom wall.

On the paper that covered one side of the wall, students' names and groups were densely written.

The number was a full two thousand.

Students who had confirmed their groups began to move with awkward expressions, searching for their groupmates.

"Hello......"

In truth, the students of Akarind Academy, despite being fellow alumni, were not very close with each other.

To begin with, unlike other academies, Akarind Academy had no school-wide events.

External field trips were conducted by grade level, and events like sports festivals or school festivals did not exist.

Large-scale festivals required the academy's finances and surrounding infrastructure to be excellent.

The Akarind territory of the Belmein Kingdom had been nothing more than a rural third-rate territory before the Goldline Merchant Guild arrived.

A school in the middle of nowhere.

No matter that the student population was not small, bonds between upperclassmen and underclassmen could not have been strong.

As Akarind Academy's status changed, inter-grade friendships had only worsened.

Newly enrolled students did not particularly respect their Akarind Academy seniors.

They knew those seniors used Aura and had achieved feats of global significance.

But at the end of the day, were they not people who had scraped by at a third-rate academy?

Once they themselves took Teacher Cassian's classes and learned Aura, they would achieve even greater results.

There were more than a few students who had fallen into that kind of arrogance.

No — it was the majority opinion among the freshmen.

"Ahem, well. The name is Malebas. A knight of the Crownhardt Ducal House."

On top of that, Crownhardt's knights and soldiers were looking at them with displeased expressions.

Last night, the sudden full assembly after work hours had been just for groups, they said.

After that rumor circulated, the mood among the knights had grown quite volatile.

They seemed unable to accept the very fact that they had been assigned to such groups and were expected to work together.

Not that they could quit this class.

Attend class and build your skills.

It was an order straight from Duke Crownhardt himself.

'Then what if we attend class but cause havoc?'

If they had attended class diligently but the instructor's skill was not sufficient to teach them, that would simply be unavoidable.

As they were watching each other with such thoughts.

Cassian slowly entered the classroom.

"Good to see you."

All the students' commotion subsided at once.

Whatever their relationships, whatever their moods.

The three syllables of the name Cassian had the power to overwhelm people.

"You will have seen the groups posted outside. Thanks to the teaching assistants' help, the groups could be formed quickly. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude."

Latrine, who had come in to audit, blinked — unable to fathom what he intended to do with these groups.

'Why am I a teaching assistant? Why am I suddenly a graduate student? Huh? Did the Duke sell me off without my knowing? Surely not.'

Whether or not Cassian was aware of Latrine's feelings, he continued.

"The groups you confirmed today are groups formed for the final evaluation through the end-of-term assignment. And likely, for the entire second semester, my class will maintain these groups as they are."

Which meant, like it or not, they would have to live and die together with these people for nearly a year.

Various emotions flickered in the gazes they exchanged.

"Teacher. I do not have a group."

Just then, Pan raised his hand from the back.

All eyes turned to him.

"Neither do I."

Not just Pan — Bridget, Eleveth, Freizia, Kantaros, and several others raised their hands.

Most were members of the special class.

Curiously, among the knights, one person had also not been assigned.

It was Chamson.

He too raised his hand with an awkward expression, drawing the stares of the knights around him.

"You are the midterm exam bosses."

"......What?"

"Exactly as I said."

Cassian began writing names one by one on the blackboard at the podium.

Pan. Bridget and Eleveth. Chamson. Kantaros. The Spear God. Hati. Rozalin. Freutche. Sordian. Freizia. Crownhardt.

And lastly, Cassian himself.

Having finished writing, Cassian smiled.

"This midterm evaluation is simple. Each group of ten will choose one of these people and defeat them. Win and you pass. Lose and you fail."

A bomb had been dropped.