6. I Should’ve Just Taken the Theory Classes…… (2)
Just as Jayden began to deeply regret that he had worked so hard on the thesis for nothing, the knights approached him with eyes burning with a sense of mission, determined not to let a talented individual like him be snatched away.
As if it were the knights’ turn this time, they began to run him ragged in a corner of the drill ground under the pretext of gauging Jayden’s swordsmanship skills.
Under the pretext of testing his physical strength, they put him through extreme endurance training befitting soldiers, and even had him spar using only basic swordsmanship, which was one of the knights’ examinations.
“Huff…… huff…….”
“Your basics are quite solid. You could start the introductory volume of the Imperial Basic Sword Forms right now.”
“I agree. Good sword line, Number 13.”
“Huff…… huff…… yes.”
“You said you haven’t really learned any other swordsmanship, right?”
“……That’s correct.”
Satisfied with Jayden’s answer, the knights immediately began teaching him the Imperial Basic Sword Forms.
The two great pillars of the Northern Army were the Special Anti-Monster Knight Order, which honed swordsmanship and combat methods solely for facing monsters, and the Special Terrain Specialized Reconnaissance Unit, specialized in exploring special terrains and responding to monsters.
Commonly called Monster Knights and Rangers, they were the core fighting force in the northeast, a group with fierce rivalry and strong pride.
Because of this, the Knight Order also began to move in order to snatch Jayden, whom the Rangers had set their sights on.
It was one thing if he lacked talent, but the knights couldn’t sit still after confirming that Jayden’s basic swordsmanship was solid and that he had talent for knighthood as well.
They began teaching not only the Imperial Basic Sword Forms, which were normally learned in the upper years of the basic academy, but also methods of utilizing mana suitable for monster battles.
The problem was that learning all of that was no easy process.
“Huff…… huff…….”
-Chirp!
When the knights, feeling slightly sorry for working him so hard, gave him a break and withdrew, the titmouse that had gone out to play came back and settled gently on Jayden’s head.
“Titmouse, I think I’m going to die.”
-Chirp!
The titmouse patted Jayden’s head with its small wings as if to say he had worked hard. Then, as Jayden’s stamina and mana recovered with the titmouse’s song once more, time passed, and the knights’ grueling training resumed.
Then, perhaps feeling a sense of crisis, the Rangers began forcibly carving out combat training time to take Jayden outside from time to time.
Each time, the knights fumed with anger.
The knights weren’t the only ones fuming. The Academy professors had also set their sights on Jayden.
Letting a genius like Jayden be snatched away by the knights and Rangers was not something they could simply be happy about.
While it was good that Jayden was growing, they had hoped he would grow intellectually alongside them and accomplish great things as a scholar later on.
If that wasn’t possible, they had at least hoped he would leave great achievements in strategy and tactics as an officer.
From then on, another hell began.
Because he had to help the Magical Beast Studies professor whenever he had a spare moment.
But ironically, Jayden was not the only one walking the path of hell.
The starting point was the children’s eyes, which had first looked at Jayden being run ragged with pity, beginning to change.
It was around two months after Jayden had been squeezed by the Rangers and knights in hellish training.
He had begun receiving private tutelage in the Imperial Swordsmanship from the knights and training, and at the same time occasionally sparred with them in live combat; it was then that the children saw his movements changed from before.
Knowing something in your head and moving your body accordingly were different matters; no matter how much experience he had from his previous life, embodying it was another thing entirely.
But as that gradually melded into his body through recent real combat experience with the Rangers and the knights’ grueling training, the swordsmanship he had achieved in his previous life began to fuse with his basic swordsmanship.
Naturally, the Imperial Swordsmanship—a simple sword path that was an advanced form of the basics—could not help but be influenced as well.
“Are we going to be pushed aside like this?”
“No.”
Two boys who had ranked first and second upon entering the Military Academy looked toward a corner of the drill ground with serious expressions.
Number 13 was being run ragged there, and what had changed from before was that Number 3 was also receiving instruction from the knights on one side.
Number 3 had set aside swordsmanship training for a while to focus solely on theoretical studies, finishing all the coursework for a semester, and was now concentrating on building his martial prowess over there.
Number 1 and Number 2, who were watching this quietly, wore serious expressions.
But they weren’t the only ones staring blankly at the drill ground. All the top-ranked students from the same class looked upon the scene with envy.
And on the day Number 3 officially began receiving instruction from the knights, as if a fire had been lit in the students’ hearts, they began studying like mad.
From the start, the Military Academy placed more importance on practical skills than theory classes, so the students could easily finish the coursework at any time if they just put in the effort.
Because of this, professors who advanced through the curriculum quickly helped add the remaining time to training, and all the Academy students requested to be trained alongside the knights and Rangers just like Jayden.
From Jayden’s perspective, he wanted to tell these foolish classmates who were willingly walking into hell to reconsider, but the knights and Rangers had already welcomed them with open arms and led them down the path of hell.
“Huff…… huff…….”
“Is it hard? Look beside you.”
The students who had entered hell of their own accord looked aside at the knight’s words.
There, they saw Jayden being run ragged by the knights.
“That kid started this several months earlier than you lot. That’s how much stronger he’s become.”
At the knight’s words, the exhausted, glazed-over eyes began to come alive. The moment he saw that, a smile flickered across the knight’s lips before vanishing.
“It doesn’t matter what swordsmanship you’ve learned until now. Throw it all away starting today. At your age, that sort of swordsmanship is a luxury.”
“Build from the basics. Otherwise, you’ll eventually collapse.”
“I’m not forcing you to learn the Imperial Swordsmanship. As long as you grow stronger in whatever way, that’s enough. However! You must build your foundations solidly.”
“Is this all? A kid younger than you is rolling around like that over there.”
“You call him a monster? Then what about Number 3? They’re both nine years old. What are you lot, who are older than them?”
“If they’re both monsters, what are you? In the first place, didn’t you come here praised as geniuses?”
At the knights’ words, the children trained with desperate effort, even though they were so exhausted they could collapse at any moment.
One might think that working children too hard would damage their bodies, but the knights were professionals.
They only pushed the children to the ideal level for growth and provided ample rest time. Thanks to that, while the training hours were hellish, they were quite effective in terms of physical development.
After rolling around like dogs for several months building their foundations in this way, the children’s weapon technique fundamentals began to be firmly established.
From then on, the knights began teaching through joint training.
What the Academy professors would normally teach from the basics, the knights taught by running the children ragged.
Then, naturally, the military studies professors and the professors teaching basic close combat and swordsmanship fundamentals joined in to devise a more systematic training method.
But the children’s hellish training did not end here.
The Ranger training joined together with professors who taught combat theory lectures and the Magical Beast Studies professor to design a new, more combat-realistic training system.
Thanks to that, the children’s hours in hell grew longer, but the greater the pain, the faster their growth.
As a result, rumors gradually began spreading to other grades.
Rumors that this year’s freshmen were lunatics, and news that they were growing like monsters through hellish training, spread throughout all grades in the Academy.
At the forefront of those rumors were Number 13 and Number 3.
The rumor was that Number 3, with monstrous swordsmanship skill, and Number 13, with monstrous techniques and experience, stood at the forefront leading the entire grade.
Beneath them, along with Number 1 and Number 2 leading the way, the other students were said to be powerful enough to rival second and third-year students.
Naturally, the second and third-year students couldn’t help but rebel.
They too had entered this place hearing themselves called geniuses and endured the rigorous training regimen, so they found it unpleasant that the freshmen were trying to measure themselves against them, no matter how monstrous they might be.
They could excuse the occasional monster.
But an entire grade trying to compete with them was absolutely unacceptable.
In the end, the top ten representatives of the second year requested to tour the Military Academy where the first-year students were, and the Academy professors, eager to show off the freshmen, immediately approved.
No matter how much the Military Academy was like the army, they too had pride, and because they believed protecting it was important, even the Northern Command did not take issue with this.
In truth, they were curious about that as well—whether these new students really were good enough to overtake the other years.
“Good to see you. I’m Second Year No. 1.”
“It has been a while.”
When the student who had become No. 1 after moving up to the second year greeted him, the military science professor nodded.
As the military science professor was among the oldest of all the academy’s professors, he received the greeting as their representative, and Second Year No. 1 immediately asked,
“So… where are our adorable juniors?”
“At this hour, they should be on the training ground.”
“Thank you.”
Second Year No. 1 answered on behalf of the others and headed straight for the training ground. There, they saw some three hundred students working themselves to the bone under the knights’ instruction.
Several knights were toying with the students, and the first-years, gritting their teeth, were struggling desperately to land even a single blow on the knights who were mocking them.
The problem was that this was not the ordinary instructional sparring they knew so well. The knights were striking and threatening the children as though it were real combat.
It was interesting to see them endure that at such a young age and try to create openings together.
They, too, had begun training as though in real combat after advancing to the second year, but it had never been this intense when they were first-years.
And so, they admitted it.
“It is way more aggressive than the training we had.”
“Yeah. The professors weren’t just talking nonsense.”
“Still, saying they’ve already surpassed us is crossing the line.”
Though only about once a quarter, they had gone out on simple missions.
From the perspective of the second-year students who still remembered what that felt like, the first-years were no different from greenhorns.
No matter how much the rangers had taken them out and trained them like it was the real thing, training and actual mission execution were different.
“Good to see you. I’m Second Year No. 1.”
When the second-year representative approached and greeted them, the knights stopped the training and returned their greeting.
“We came after hearing the rumors. That our first-year juniors have begun to get ahead of us.”
“Mm… There is a rumor like that. But they are still chicks who have barely begun to learn.”
When the knights said so with troubled expressions, Second Year No. 1 spoke firmly.
“All the more reason to make it clear. Just as the army values hierarchy, I believe the military academy should do the same. Please help us prove it decisively on this occasion so there will be no more talk.”
As the knights hesitated at the second-year representative’s words, First Year No. 1 stepped forward.
“If our seniors put it that way, I think it would also be a problem for us not to oblige. We accept.”
“They’ve gone this far. Surely it can be allowed?”
At the second-year representative’s words, the knights sighed and gave small nods. It had, to begin with, been something they had more or less foreseen from the moment the second-years said they wanted to come observe.
The elder professors had also subtly arranged for a situation like this, thinking that if things continued as they were, the hierarchy between the years would collapse. From the knights’ point of view, they had no choice but to allow it.
And so, after preparing sparring swords and light armor in case of any mishap, they set up a small sparring ring on the training ground.
“Go out there and sweep them away.”
“Yeah, there’ll be no need for the rest of you to come out.”
Second Year No. 10 stepped forward, gripping his sword, and from the first-years, No. 11 came out.
At that, Student No. 10 asked Student No. 11 with a puzzled expression.
“I heard No. 13 was supposed to come out?”
“No. 13 and No. 3 are being treated as exceptions to the year’s rankings. Since your side sent out your tenth-ranked student, we responded in kind.”
At No. 11’s answer, Second Year No. 10’s expression began to twist.
“You little bastard…”
“Words aren’t necessary, are they?”
At No. 11’s words, Second Year No. 10 raised his sword with a stiff expression. No. 11 likewise lifted his sword and took his stance.
It was the stance of the basic sword forms he had learned through countless grueling sessions.
Then the knight’s hand rose and fell, and at the same time, the two boys’ swords collided in the middle. As both were swordsmen who had reached the second stage, their blades clashed at a speed far surpassing the movements of ordinary people.
And unfortunately, the result was No. 11’s defeat.
“…Sorry.”
“It’s fine. We just have to win from here on.”
As he said that, the next student stepped forward. Second Year No. 10, who had initially intended to sweep them all away, seemed to have exhausted his stamina as well and had to step down.
Starting with No. 11 and Second Year No. 10, they continued the sparring one by one.
And the result turned out to be unexpected.
“Huff… huff…”
“Second Year No. 1 wins.”
Even at the knight’s words, Second Year No. 1’s expression was not bright.
He had won, but only by the breadth of a sheet of paper, and above all, the final result was five to five.
That alone was enough to wound his pride, but the famous No. 13 had not even come out, and neither had No. 3, who was called a genius.
It was as good as saying that if those two had participated, they would have lost.
“Are you really not the strongest in your year?”
“…Regrettably, I am not.”
No. 1 smiled bitterly and looked toward No. 13 and No. 3, who were watching them.
Then Second Year No. 1, as if suddenly curious, asked the knight,
“Are No. 13 and No. 3 really that much stronger than this guy?”
At Second Year No. 1’s question, the knight smiled and called the two over. Then, saying that they should spar with him, a match soon unfolded in which the knight fended off the joint attack of No. 13 and No. 3.
The moment he saw it, Second Year No. 1 admitted it.
“They’re monsters. Those two could even devour the third-year seniors.”