Chapter 213 : Chapter 213
Chapter 213
Pan had realized his true self, accepted it, and begun his journey toward Master.
So who should he share this joy with?
Obviously, the one who'd mocked and teased him the most.
On this day, like any other, Rozalin was making her peaceful patrol of Akarind Academy.
Before her appeared Pan, striking a rather insolent pose.
He had his sword slung over one shoulder like a fishing rod, wearing an expression heavy with melancholy—from where, who knew.
It was an eyesore, but since his face was handsome, there was at least something worth looking at.
"What?"
"Well, well. If it isn't......"
If it isn't?
A vein twitched on Rozalin's forehead.
"The lonely senior who boasts about being the teacher's Top Disciple but ended up reaching Master all on her own?"
Another vein joined the first.
"You little shit, what'd you eat for breakfast to make you this stupid?"
"Ahh, but behold who stands before you."
Behold?
Rozalin's eyes narrowed to slits.
"Having received an entire night of personal tutelage from the great Cassian himself, the one who has begun walking the path of Master...... Pan! The real deal, unlike some fake Top Disciple, stands right here!"
In that instant, a torrent of thoughts erupted and vanished inside Rozalin's head.
ing.
Rozalin summoned superhuman patience to calm every fiber of her being, then flashed a sweet smile.
"You wanna die?"
Her mouth didn't get the memo.
But unlike his usual self, Pan wasn't intimidated. He leveled his sword at her.
"Why don't we settle once and for all who the real Top Disciple is?"
"Fine. I'll crush you and then go to Cassian to reclaim the truth!"
The students who'd been watching heaved a collective sigh.
"......What about my midterm?"
"Wait, you two don't have time for this, what about the mid—hey? The midterms......"
Their voices didn't reach.
In any case, the two of them prepared their swords, bickering as always.
No—not as always.
"What are you doing?"
"Heh."
Pan's stance was strange.
It wasn't a stance for attacking, nor could it really be called one for defending.
Standing at an angle, one hand swept his hair back to reveal his clear forehead.
"Kyaaaa?!"
Several female students among the watching freshmen—and a very small number of male ones—let out shrill screams.
His visual impact was that devastating.
"......?"
Rozalin's sense of reason was demolished.
"You're not gonna fight?"
"This is my sword. Heh heh."
Rozalin studied Pan with a serious expression.
This brat—he'd tried the whole disciple thing or whatever and apparently lost his mind in the process.
A good beating ought to snap him out of it.
Rozalin angled her sword downward and charged.
She might have been a shield, but that didn't mean she couldn't attack.
On the contrary, her most meticulous, most lethal strike drove toward Pan's opening.
"Heh."
And Pan deflected it with a peculiar movement.
It had a refreshing quality, like strolling through a spring breeze.
Wind tickled Rozalin's hair, and with a whoosh, her sword was knocked aside.
"Huh?"
She instinctively retreated two steps and settled into a defensive posture, eyes narrowing.
If she was being honest, she hadn't been able to follow that sword at all.
The strange thing was that the sword hadn't felt threatening in the least.
It had simply approached quietly and brushed her blade aside.
More defensive than offensive.
A sword on a completely different axis from the swordsmanship Pan had shown before.
"So that's how it is."
It couldn't be a lie that he'd learned from Cassian.
And that made her mood even worse.
One small consolation: Pan's hand was trembling faintly after blocking her strike.
He seemed to have realized something, but it wasn't complete yet.
Sure enough, hadn't Pan just said it himself?
That he'd only vaguely grasped the path to Master.
Which meant—
"You're not a Master yet, are yoooou?!"
Rozalin's voice cracked and squeaked at an odd pitch.
She grinned and spun her sword in lazy circles.
Pan, unfazed by her taunt, began stepping slowly.
Light footwork, like someone enjoying a stroll.
'A stroll doesn't always mean peaceful scenery.'
Akarind Academy was built upon savage land.
A casual walk might lead to an encounter with a monster.
Or perhaps a security captain who'd lost her mind over the teacher might pick a fight.
Or perhaps a crazed hunchbacked old man with a spear might throw a fit demanding a spar.
Or perhaps a young man and woman might be stuck together, swords forgotten, flirting and giggling—an enviable, no, rather irritating sight.
A stroll meant walking at ease through all of those scenes.
CLANG! CLANG!
Their swords clashed two or three times.
Each time, Pan felt the shock in his wrist, but unlike before, he wasn't pushed back with nothing to show for it.
"Ha."
With each swing of Pan's sword, the breeze that had been drifting about transformed into a gale.
Every time the sword moved, wind surged and subsided as if the force of Ocean Hall itself was stirring.
It was a gale strong enough to throw off one's balance without full concentration.
Before anyone noticed, the surrounding students had backed up five or six more paces from where they'd started to watch the spar.
"When Pan swings his sword...... the wind picks up and makes him even cooler."
"The way his hair whips around is art."
Such was the sentiment from some, while—
"Oh ho, that little brat's gotten stronger again. Might be worth crossing blades with him before long!"
—there was a crazed hunchback, and—
"......But what about our exam?"
—there were students on the verge of tears.
And a short distance from all of them—
"Mm."
Cassian watched the two with a serious expression.
Pan's growth was better than he'd expected.
More than anything, it was very Pan, a kind of growth he himself hadn't foreseen, and growth unlike the Pan of the future.
"Good."
At that level, he could trust Pan to go out on a demon subjugation.
Cassian observed the students' midterm exams whenever he had time.
Just watching them practice was enough to tell what Sword Intent they pursued, what winning strategies they'd prepared.
Two hundred teams in total.
Among them, roughly five teams seemed likely to scrape by with a pass.
If the midterm bosses had a bad day, maybe seven?
That was about what he'd originally estimated.
'For the final exam, I'll assign one team each to Duke Crownhardt, Pan, the Spear God, and Rozalin.'
If there were many teams, he'd double up.
If few, he'd match them one-to-one.
With midterms wrapping up like this, it was time to move on to the next step.
'I need to go see Gwen.'
It was time to revise the school regulations in preparation for the upcoming Academic Exchange Conference.
Cassian turned toward the Chairman's office.
"So please, you two...... our midterm exams......!"
There was a very, very slim chance that only two or three teams would pass.
Very, very slim—but possible.
***
The main building of Akarind Academy had been completely rebuilt after demolishing the former Old Building.
The long, arc-shaped three-story structure housed the faculty office, Chairman's office, Academic Affairs Office, Admissions Office, Planning Office, Administrative Office, and various other facilities all concentrated in one place.
Lord Murray's office and Queen Charlotte's office were here as well.
In other words, the offices of the head of the Belmein Kingdom, the head of the Akarind territory, and the head of the Academy were all gathered under a single roof.
Akarind Academy City was both a hybrid cultural space and an experimental political space.
In a place like this, no one person's office could be symbolically placed above the others.
Sihan offered a solution without hesitation.
'In cases like this, the people's will always goes on top.'
As a result, the third floor of the main building housed Akarind Academy's most elegant conference room.
An oval table made of natural wood seated a hundred people without emphasizing any single position.
Every seat was embedded with a mana crystal that could amplify the occupant's voice.
State-of-the-art Magitech had been installed so that visual or image materials could be projected when needed.
Sihan had leveraged every scrap of technology from the world he'd crossed over from, and the result was a product of overtechnology.
This was the first time all faculty members had gathered here.
'So that's...... Cassian.'
The newer faculty members stole furtive glances at Cassian.
That detached expression.
That composure, even in a setting like this.
Exactly as the rumors described.
'This is my first time seeing him.'
'Impressive. He's just sitting there, but his presence feels different.'
'So he's the greatest swordsman of this era......'
Of all people at Akarind Academy, the teachers had the hardest time catching a glimpse of Cassian.
They had to teach nearly two thousand students.
Having been appointed this year, they'd had to rush to build curricula, assign homework, and grade exams.
The students' level was high, so nothing could be done sloppily.
After day after short day passed like that, they couldn't even enjoy Akarind Academy City, let alone meet Cassian.
Perhaps that was why the faculty's gazes toward Cassian were a complex mix of curiosity, competitive spirit, and awe, flickering in and out.
"You're popular."
"Me?"
"Everyone's been clamoring to meet you."
Freutche sidled up next to Cassian and jabbed his elbow into his ribs.
To Cassian, it was baffling.
"Why? They aren't my students."
"Is there anyone in this world who swings a sword and isn't your student?"
"Perdius?"
"......Other than him."
"The Emperor?"
"You're insane."
Freutche stuck out his tongue in exasperation.
That guy was absolutely saying those things in earnest.
Even having reached this level, he never boasted or strutted about his abilities.
'Then again, that's exactly why everyone respects Cassian.'
From the Academy's perspective, Cassian was a figure of both love and frustration.
Every student enrolled solely to meet him.
Yet his classes were only once a week.
Every other instructor had to fight tooth and nail not to be overshadowed by Cassian's brilliance.
And even that one class per week often failed to happen as scheduled.
A demon might appear.
Or some worldwide crisis might erupt.
When that happened, Cassian would vanish without warning.
It fell to the remaining instructors to fill the gaps left by his absence.
Even exhausted and worn thin, it was hard to blame him.
He was, quite literally, a pillar of world peace.
Once the teachers had more or less settled into their seats, Gwen tapped a small wooden gavel.
TAP! TAP!
"Then let us begin the First General Faculty Meeting."
All eyes converged on her.
Receiving their gazes with calm composure, Gwen began to speak.
"There are two items on the agenda today. The first, as some of you may have already heard, relates to the Academic Exchange Conference. The second concerns the curriculum reform needed to accommodate students after the conference."
Gwen manipulated the mana crystal on the desk, and one wall lit up as data was projected onto it.
A neatly organized presentation detailing why Akarind Academy was holding the Academic Exchange Conference at this particular time, along with its expected effects.
A murmur of admiration rippled through the room.
"As you can see, if this Academic Exchange Conference comes together properly, we'll see a range of benefits from student recruitment to expanding the surrounding commerce. So regarding this, I'd like to hear your various opin—"
"N-no, we can't!"
Everyone's gaze swiveled toward the source of the near-scream that had interrupted the Chairman.
There stood a young woman who looked barely twenty, as if she'd just graduated from an academy, her face drained white.