Chapter 221 : Chapter 221
Chapter 221
The two days Sihan had requested.
I spent the free time steadily writing the foundational textbook.
There were also two classes in between.
The Special Class students who hadn't gone on the demon hunt came to see me every day.
"Teacher. Can we become Sword Masters too? I—I know the ones who left are amazing people, but please pay us some attention too."
Bridget and Eleveth grumbled.
The two of them harbored something like a rivalry with Pan.
They seemed unhappy that only Pan had been guided toward the path of Sword Master.
"Shouldn't the master be stronger than the disciple, at least?"
Freutche, too, was privately put out.
Sordian was someone who'd always progressed slowly, so he didn't mind.
"Why must you be so cruel to me alone?!"
Jacy and Shasha weren't really honing their swordwork in the Special Class so much as learning formations and training methods.
Latrine had been added to their group.
The three of them apparently gathered for drinks after each training session.
Graduate students drinking every single day—it felt a bit indolent.
"So what! You've gotta let us blow off steam or we won't survive!"
"We'll officially be graduate students starting next semester anyway! Let us drink our fill while our status is still ambiguous!"
"The Duke's not even here, so it's fine if we drink ourselves to death!"
Youth, I suppose.
And then there was.
"I—I think just watching over you from the sidelines, Teacher, in your frail and sickly state, is more than enough for me!"
I'd thought so for a while, but Freizia had always been a bit peculiar.
She kept pairing me with Pan, Rozalin, other students, even other teaching assistants.
I'd thought everyone maintained a proper student-teacher relationship, free of any soft sentiments like that.
"Teacher. Don't say that to Rozalin. Please. Oh, and maybe not to Yuria either? Actually, probably best not to say it to anyone."
Why?
"Because you don't understand ordinary people's hearts, Teacher."
"Me?"
"For example...... we're all in the Special Class, right? But some of us went to fight a demon and some didn't. Have you ever stopped to think about how we feel?"
At Freizia's words, I turned to look at Chamson.
Feeling my gaze, Chamson shook his head in a fluster.
"I—I wasn't thinking anything. Just, I wanna go too—no, who am I kidding, trash like me doesn't have the skill, I'd just be a burden if I went, so I should just stay here and do more hellish training. In the end, the people who went are the ones the teacher trusts and believes in, unlike someone who even the students look down on and pick on as an exam target without a second thought......"
I understood perfectly.
I was a terrible instructor.
"That's not it! That's not what I mean! It's absolutely not!"
"Chamson, please stop. The more you say, the more you'll just hurt the teacher."
Freizia watched me with that faint smile of hers.
She was right.
The point of clashing with Avril over certain students hadn't been to play favorites with talented or outstanding ones.
I'd wanted to look after every student properly—to establish universally applicable theory and pave a path toward an ideal sword.
"Got it. I'll work harder."
"Oh dear, I don't think that's what I was getting at."
Freizia smirked, then glanced at me.
"But could I become a Sword Master too? It'd be kind of fun to hit Master while Pan is away."
On the off chance it might work, I tried guiding Freizia.
And Freizia.
"Huh? Why won't you give me an answer? What? You want me to move like a hummingbird flitting through autumn? What does that even mean? Try being a fairy skipping across a lake in staccato rhythm? What does that even mean?"
Freizia fled without understanding a thing.
Too early for her, it seemed.
'The day will come when she understands.'
Meanwhile, regular class sessions continued.
Only sixty people had left for the demon hunt, but their absence was palpable.
"I never expected sixty seats out of a lecture hall this size to be this noticeable."
They say you notice a person more once they're gone.
The students' expressions were restless too.
After all, those who'd departed were, before being members of a demon subjugation expedition, the students who'd passed the midterms.
Conversely, the students here were the ones who'd failed.
Of course their spirits were low.
"Which is why I've prepared something for you."
I brought out the opening sections of the foundational swordsmanship manuscript I'd been working on for days.
Copies made by the teaching assistants were distributed to every student.
The students looked at me, wondering what it was.
"Today's class returns to the basics. Because you failed."
Their expressions grew solemn.
Shame, jealousy, anger.
A host of negative emotions stared back at me.
"In truth, failing this midterm is for the better. Because school is a safe space where you're allowed to fail."
The Academy was a safe space in many senses.
A space that protected children—not yet adults—physically and mentally.
A space that gave them the experience of failure.
A space that let them live a preview of life.
That said, failure was still failure.
And failure always brought pain.
"So we must accept that failure and think about how to overcome it."
Even that was part of the education.
"The difference between the students who passed and those who didn't comes down to strategy and the tiniest of details."
The two hundred teams had been balanced from the start.
The skill gaps between them were virtually nonexistent.
"So if you fill in those details, you'll be able to breeze through a midterm-level challenge within a month."
The students' eyes sharpened with focus.
Meeting those eyes, I felt the tangle of complex emotions from recent events begin to settle.
"Good. Let's begin class."
***
Today's lesson was subtly different from the usual.
Everyone already knew that Cassian's teaching style had changed significantly since last year.
Rather than giving answers outright, he offered abstract guidance—pointed the way, then turned many questions back on the students.
"Today, though...... he went into really foundational stuff, but with incredible precision."
"And a really narrow scope, too."
The students reflected on the lesson.
For example: in the past, when taught how to walk, they'd obsessively studied why the right leg's muscles were necessary for a step.
Today's lesson felt more like learning the very concept of taking a step.
What could be so important about learning to walk, as if they were toddlers?
And yet, once they'd learned it, everything was different.
"I didn't realize that's what holding a sword meant."
"Same...... if that's what it means to truly see, then I've been blind my entire life."
These were students who'd already studied the fundamentals.
The Advancement Class students had been under Cassian's tutelage for a year—nearly two.
And even they found today's teachings revelatory.
Bridget sighed and said:
"We keep getting stronger, but it feels like the teacher's getting stronger even faster."
They had Cassian as their teacher.
But Cassian didn't have a Cassian, and he grew stronger all the same.
Could he teach himself?
It certainly felt that way.
"He's a real monster. Well, if we keep going, one day we'll be strong too. Right?"
Bridget spoke brightly, reining in her impulse toward impatience.
But the usual reply—a simple yeah—didn't come.
"Eli?"
She called Eleveth by her nickname and turned to look.
Eleveth seemed lost in some deep contemplation.
So deeply that she hadn't even heard Bridget's voice.
"Eli?"
Bridget called again, gently.
Eleveth's eyes grew slightly more vacant, tracing something in the empty air.
The rapid movement of her gaze looked as though she were seeing a vision.
"Everyone, step back!"
Bridget immediately cleared the area.
Auditors and knights who'd noticed Eleveth's state rushed over and moved the surrounding desks and chairs.
Experienced Advancement and Graduation Class students ushered the freshmen away.
"She's entered the Trance State."
"Over here too!"
It wasn't just Eleveth.
After a single class, a full twelve students had sunk into what appeared to be a deep state of realization.
The clatter of furniture being cleared echoed from every corner of the lecture hall.
Close friends stationed themselves nearby as guards, worried that an external shock during the awakening might cause harm.
"......This place really is a monster factory."
The knights stared at the students in disbelief.
Most of the twelve were at the Aura Walker to Runner level.
A tiny handful were Adepts and Experts.
And they'd changed like this after a single lecture.
The more they learned, the more staggering it became.
"Where do you think the teacher went? More training?"
"You saw him bring part of a textbook. He might be working on lecture materials."
"Whatever it is...... I want to stick right next to him and follow everything he does all day."
"Same. I want to know everything he eats, smells, and sees."
"I wish I could live one day inside his brain."
"I want his eyes."
Students, Auditors, and knights found a strange common ground as they talked.
Bridget watched Eleveth quietly.
They were close—no, they'd long since gone beyond what "close" could describe.
But knowing that didn't stop the twinge of jealousy at seeing someone else reach a breakthrough first.
"Soon. Me too."
She said it aloud, hiding the petty feelings underneath.
It was a somewhat meager congratulation.
And the Cassian they so admired was busy preparing to hunt a demon.
***
"Ready?"
Sihan had set up a small space in front of the research wing where Blue Light was quarantined.
Every wall of the space was covered to the brim with magic circles and unidentifiable instruments.
"Goddammit, this isn't going to fail, right? I didn't sell my damn pride in a miserable negotiation and come all the way here because I wanted to die one day sooner."
Blue Light's legs bounced with anxiety.
Fair enough—if this strategy failed, he'd be consumed on the spot.
"I told you, it's been done before."
"That was a you from several years in the future—smarter and better than you!"
"I'm plenty good right now. Relax."
Sihan flashed a confident grin, then pressed a button on the panel beside the isolation room.
With a hiss of escaping air, the Holy Power and mana treatments sustaining the room shut off.
Immediately, black flames began licking up Blue Light's right arm.
The demon, far away, had reacted instantly and was hurtling toward them.
"Intercepting!"
In that instant, Berlis—stationed outside the space—shouted a spirited "Hyah!" and deployed her black magic.
The magic circles, energized with mana, immediately amplified Bonnie's power.
In a flash, Bonnie's upper body swelled to roughly 1.4 times its normal size, as if subjected to a curse-enhancement, and a red glow poured from his eyes.
His butler's uniform tore helplessly against the bulging muscles, and between the rips, Bonnie's marble-hard physique gleamed.
— Amamamaaa? Maaa? Amamama?
A voice like a deep-sea creature speaking from the ocean floor resonated with a muffled drone.
The flames on Blue Light's arm sputtered, then stretched out like a serpent and lunged toward Bonnie.
Almost simultaneously, a vicious demonic aura came shrieking in from outside like a bolt of lightning, tracing a long arc as it hurtled in.
It felt as though a massive storm cloud was being sucked into this space in an instant.
In mere seconds, Bonnie's entire body was engulfed in that dark cloud.
"Reverse!"
At that exact moment.
The magic circles that had been coated in black magic flipped to blinding white in an instant.
The moment Berlis cut her spell, the three clerics standing by outside poured in Holy Power.
"Hah!"
I drew my sword and immediately set my Sword Intent.
What I willed into that space was a sword forged of holy power.
Sacer.
The Fantasy that mimicked divine power fused with mana and layered itself onto my blade.
Fssshh.
Bonnie, struck by the Holy Power, deflated like a punctured balloon and crumbled into bone dust that scattered across the floor.
And all that remained in that space was a pitiful parasitic demon, trapped within Holy Power.
— Amamamaaa? Maaa? Amamama?
A flickering indigo will-o'-the-wisp (Will-O-Wisp) swayed in the air.
My sword cleaved straight through its center.
CRACK.