5. Experience Is Never Wasted (3)
At Jayden's words, Selina blankly echoed back, as though it was an answer she had never expected.
"Do you think that makes any sense?"
Facing such a Selina, Jayden quietly uttered his next words.
"I don't think it's impossible. The North has accumulated many grievances against the Central region over the years, and most Northerners are united around Leonhardt. If we can persuade just them, it will be enough."
"Ha... Even if you persuade those savages, if only the North breaks away, won't they be isolated?"
"It won't be like that. The North isn't the only place dissatisfied with the Central region. Isn't there one more place burning with anger from the lack of Central's support?"
"Ah... the West."
The West, facing borders with countless nations, was a place where conflicts constantly erupted. Though it earned enormous wealth through trade, it was also a place that poured even more money into dealing with those conflicts.
Yet the current Central politics was far from resolving issues diplomatically with other nations, instead indulging in internal power struggles. From the West's perspective, it was infuriating.
"If we join forces with the West based on the North's strong army...."
"East and West could be newly connected around the North?"
"Moreover, it won't be just the West. Some lords in the East and South must also hold grievances against the Central region. In particular, the Eastern Merchants' Guild pays massive taxes to the Central government, yet the Central is lukewarm about pirate suppression, so there may well be dissatisfaction."
At Jayden's words, Selina, who had been looking at him with an expression asking how he knew even that, nodded her head heavily.
She had merely intended to hear Jayden's thoughts lightly, but she had ended up hearing something far more tremendous than expected.
If she were to write a thesis based on what Jayden had just said, it was significant enough to be submitted to the Northern Command for review.
'It's a pipe dream, but a few points are worth examining.'
Having instantly grasped how feasible it was, Selina pondered briefly before speaking to Jayden.
"What you said today... May I speak of it to others?"
"I don't mind."
"All right, I understand. I listened well. I'll mention it to the Military Science professor too. Thank you!"
Watching Selina vanish in a flash as though she had just remembered something, Jayden shook his head and left that place as well.
At that time, Jayden hadn't thought much of it.
He had simply thought that he should steadily accumulate bonus points in this way so that he could later obtain the scores needed for early graduation.
In fact, in his previous life he had only thought about it and never succeeded, and he believed the situation wouldn't change simply because it was the Northeast.
Literally, a dream was just a dream.
Because there was no way the Northeast could properly escape from the Central region's clutches.
"Where is our bbaepsae...."
With classes completely cancelled due to a sudden monster incursion and nothing left to do, Jayden peeked around under a tree to see if his bbaepsae was there, then plopped down.
-Chirp!
"Hm?"
For a moment, wondering if he had misheard, he looked around in every direction. But he couldn't see his bbaepsae anywhere.
"An auditory hallucination?"
The moment he was thinking that he might be hearing things because he missed his bbaepsae so much.
-Chirp!
At the sound of the bbaepsae coming from above, Jayden hurriedly raised his head. Then he saw the bbaepsae he had been longing to see.
His own personal bbaepsae, colored as though yellow and red had been mixed together overall, dotted here and there with blue.
The thought that the little guy had finally appeared brightened Jayden's expression.
"Bbaepsae!"
-Chirp!
At Jayden's call, the bbaepsae flew over with small flaps of its wings and settled softly on his head.
Then, as though it knew how hard things had been, it pecked a few times before chirping away, beginning the bbaepsae's song.
It sounded almost like white noise, and Jayden blankly enjoyed the natural scenery while listening to the bbaepsae's song.
He quietly closed his eyes and listened to the bbaepsae's song for a moment, then opened his eyes when the little one stopped chirping.
"You little thing...."
It hadn't even been that long, yet he felt vitality spreading through his body.
His depleted mana was also recovering, beginning to circulate through his mana circuits.
"Thank you."
-Chirp!
When the little guy nodded slightly as if to say it was nothing, Jayden stroked the cute creature's head with his finger and then cautiously asked.
"You're not going somewhere again, are you?"
-Chirp! Chirp-chirp-chirp!
"Hm? You made a friend? Do you like them more than me?"
-Chirp-chirp!
As Jayden whined with jealousy, the bbaepsae flicked his finger away with its small wing.
-Chirp-chirp!
"You have a friend around here? Hmm...."
Looking at the bbaepsae telling him to train hard because it would come find him whenever things got difficult, Jayden put on a disappointed expression.
"Our bbaepsae has a severe case of wanderlust."
-Chirp!
Watching the bbaepsae firmly push away the whining him and fly off, Jayden made a resentful expression and got up from his spot.
Thanks to the bbaepsae, his body had recovered to some extent, so he felt refreshed.
With the fatigue from battle having subsided somewhat, he took another long look around the academy before returning to his dormitory.
And when the next day arrived, the classrooms were officially assigned.
Even for a military academy, students still had to take required courses that would be considered common sense, and because of this, Military Science and Magical Beast Studies were also structured so that only the most basic subjects could be taken.
Thus, unlike other academies where students chose subjects they wanted to learn, every subject became mandatory, and so they were divided into classes.
Added to this was a competitive system: ranks 1 through 30 were placed in Class 1, and after that they were split into groups of thirty.
The classes changed exactly once every four months, and from the perspective of students who had to maintain or raise their current ranks, hell had begun.
Still, befitting a military academy, Military Science and Magical Beast Studies were at the center; the problem started here.
"Number 13?"
"Yes!"
"I heard from Selina. I'll give you bonus points."
"Thank you."
The moment he said he would give bonus points in front of everyone rather than calling him aside, curiosity began to appear on the students' faces.
They wondered what on earth Jayden had done to receive bonus points.
But the reason soon became clear.
It was because the Military Science professor kept throwing questions at Jayden to verify whether what Selina had said was true.
The problem started with the fact that he answered without difficulty despite it being merely the most basic Military Science.
Perhaps the Military Science professor was the type to get excited easily; every time Jayden answered, he posed an even more difficult problem.
The problem was that from Jayden's perspective, he had enough experience under his belt that he couldn't bear the thought of being unable to answer such things, so he answered.
"Not bad. I'll expect even more next time."
"Th... thank you."
When the first class ended with the professor only asking questions, Jayden put on a bewildered expression.
Still, the professor hadn't earned his stripes for nothing; he did manage to progress through the material intermittently during the questioning.
And the next period, Magical Beast Studies....
Selina, having apparently heard the news as well, wore an amused expression as she proceeded with the lesson and asked Jayden questions.
Unlike Military Science, Magical Beast Studies had many problems that couldn't be answered even slightly without real knowledge.
But the moment he answered every single one, the expressions of Selina and the other students went blank.
"Hm...."
The problem was that exhausted by the Military Science professor's barrage of questions, he had answered haphazardly, intending to just get it over with.
He should have pretended not to know to a moderate degree, but mentally and physically exhausted, he had indiscriminately answered everything.
"G... goblins had such a habit?"
It was a goblin habit even Selina was hearing for the first time.
It was a peculiar goblin habit that would only become known ten years later: they had a weakness whereby if they excessively smelled rotten milk or rotten fruit, they staggered about as if drugged.
Jayden, who had spoken of it without realizing, froze.
'Did I just screw up?'
It was a weakness not yet known at this time.
Because it was a fact learned from observing goblins that had occupied a village full of rotten food when everyone had coincidentally evacuated during the devastation of the North.
Breaking into a cold sweat, Jayden avoided Selina's gaze, which looked at him with a strange expression.
And so, even after Magical Beast Studies ended, Jayden had to endure the professors' barrage of questions in the theory classes thereafter.
In truth, foundational studies were not a difficult field, so from Jayden’s perspective they could only be easy. And since there were even professors who threatened to give him penalty points whenever he hesitated, wanting no more attention, he had no choice but to answer every question.
“It seems Number 13 doesn’t quite belong in the first year after all.”
“The gap in level is far too great, isn’t it?”
“Hoo… Still, isn’t it customary not to advance first-years? We should keep him here somehow for about a year, then let him skip ahead.”
“Even so, at this level, listening to our lectures would be meaningless for that student, wouldn’t it?”
The professors gathered in their own little groups and began discussing Jayden.
Until now, when teaching foundational studies at the military academy, there had occasionally been students who had no need to learn them.
But even they would soon struggle if they were taught second- or third-year level material privately or given assignments, so it had never been a major problem. The issue was that Jayden had surpassed even that level by a vast margin.
The theory taught at this military academy held no meaning for Jayden.
That was only natural, since this place was practically designed to turn students into weapons of war, making it already weak on the theoretical side.
“A thesis.”
When Selina, who had been listening quietly, suddenly brought up a thesis, the other professors all looked at her at once.
“For Number 13, let’s have him take the exams for the common-knowledge subjects at a sixth-year level, and for military studies and monster studies, have him submit theses.”
“To a nine-year-old?”
The military studies professor looked utterly dumbfounded. Selina responded with an expression that said there was no other choice.
“Exams aside, which he could take immediately, wouldn’t he need preparation time for a thesis?”
“That’s right. So for a while, wouldn’t it be fine to have Number 13 prepare his personal theses during monster studies and military studies classes?”
At her words, the military studies professor nodded gravely.
“Most importantly, all of you keep quiet about the fact that Number 13 is a genius.”
“Why? Wouldn’t it be better if word got out?”
“If his genius in theory gets highlighted, the academies in other regions might try to snatch him away!”
Selina glared at the balding professor who had said something stupid.
“But he’s a soldier, isn’t he?”
“What does that matter? It’s not as if this is the only military academy, and if Central Command gives an order, we could have him taken from us with no way to resist.”
“I… I see.”
At Selina’s words, everyone nodded.
And so, following Selina’s suggestion, all the professors assigned Jayden a special set of exams and theses.
One might have expected everyone to resent Jayden receiving special treatment, but perhaps because of what Jayden had shown them so far, no one made much of an issue of it.
And not long afterward, Jayden scored full marks on the exams and wrote theses for military studies and monster studies.
From Jayden’s perspective, since things had turned out this way, he wrote the theses by dragging in everything he knew, as if he intended to put an end to these bothersome theory classes once and for all.
In case there might be anything lacking, he devoured the related books in the academy and fleshed out the knowledge in his head as he wrote the theses for military studies and monster studies.
However, since he prepared both at once, the two theses ended up being written in a similar fashion, but he had no need to worry about that either.
He was not a professor, and thinking that this was more than enough for a nine-year-old, he simply submitted them.
And the very next day.
“Number 13.”
“Yes.”
The military studies professor called Jayden during class with a serious expression.
“You are exempt from theory classes.”