Meria Su had been out on the training grounds of the Social Hall since early morning.
Ordinarily, she would have had to share the space with Paranglin, who also taught strategy, but he had sent word through one of his assistant instructors that he had no desire to watch a bunch of greenhorns get all worked up and play soldier so early on. For the time being, he would be focusing on theory and economics classes.
Meria sincerely sympathized and respected his decision.
Thanks to that, she was able to prepare the training ground exactly as she pleased.
"These little..."
The preparations had been completed over an hour ago.
The assistants were lined up in perfect order and waiting, yet Shuren and his gang, the very people meant to attend today's class, were nowhere to be seen.
"Should I just beat them all to death..."
It was a class she had volunteered to take on herself in order to beat manners into them, but that did nothing to stop her temper from rising.
Creeeak.
Just then, as an ominous sound came from the hand gripping her halberd, someone came into Meria's view, trudging toward her from afar.
'Charten!'
She nearly called out his name aloud.
Meria checked the time.
There were still ten minutes before class began.
Ordinarily, she had intended to find fault no matter when they arrived and beat them for it, but Charten was an exception.
He was not late to begin with, so she could simply use tardiness as an excuse to conduct a merciless lesson on Shuren's gang and the unaffiliated ones who arrived afterward.
Charten, who was looking her way, also seemed faintly surprised, then smiled with his long, narrow eyes.
Of course.
There was no way her beloved disciple would simply pass by after seeing her.
It had all been because there had been too many people around.
And nobles, at that.
There were assistants present, but they were all people under her influence. Surely it would be fine to exchange a few private words for a moment.
"I greet you, Master."
"...Hmph."
She had ruined it.
When Charten bowed first and came in politely, Meria instinctively let her pride take the lead.
The dignity she needed to maintain as his master and the hurt she felt as a woman over all the time that had passed overlapped, and she had ended up demanding that Charten coax her until she felt better.
But Charten had no such intention at all.
To begin with, he was neither sulking at Meria nor angry with her.
On the contrary, he believed his master was furious with him and refused to speak to him.
That had been the cause of three years of silence and estrangement.
Meria Su was pointlessly clinging to her pride and shoving her own fate into a pit.
"Lady Bashport, you are early."
"Good morning, Viscount."
Meria Su's head whipped around.
Among the assistants stood Rea, dressed in trousers.
"Have you had breakfast?"
"I prefer moving my body on an empty stomach."
"What a coincidence. So do I."
"Wait! Wait! What are you two snickering about among yourselves! Rearie Bashport, what do you think you're doing without even greeting your professor?"
Meria, seized by jealousy, snapped at her sharply, but the answer came from the assistants instead.
"Professor Su, Lady Bashport came out earlier than we did and greeted you."
"You said nothing for a while, Professor, then told us to prepare for class, so Lady Bashport has been helping us until now."
When the assistants stepped forward to support her directly, Meria was flustered.
In truth, the reason they defended Rea was that she had provided simple bread and drinks to those who had come out to work from dawn, and had helped prepare the class with them.
"Lady Bashport, now that the preparations are finished, standing with us was clearly a mistake. Hurry and go before the professor to ask forgiveness."
At the female assistant's words, Rea quickly went to Charten's side, lined up, and bowed to Meria.
"I was foolish and failed to show proper courtesy. I apologize."
"This will be your first and last warning. If this happens one more time, then..."
"Run, you bastards! The professor's over there!"
Meria's warning was drowned out by Shuren's sudden shout.
Everyone looked toward the direction from which the shout had come.
"Run faster, faster!"
Shuren's gang was running over in all sorts of ways.
Shuren himself was dangling limply from Belgirt.
"Young Master! Why are you not running when you are telling everyone else to run? This servant is about to die from how heavy you are!"
"What do you mean, I'm not running! Even now, I am charging so fiercely that heaven and earth are rushing at me!"
"Good grief! I knew it when you said you needed a morning drink to cure your hangover!"
The wind blew.
And it was a very violent wind.
As Rea pressed down her windblown hair, the wind whispered by her ear.
"Next time, I will not let it pass like this."
The wind became a gust and rushed straight toward Shuren's gang.
Just before Meria Su's fist reached the face of the person at the very front, Charten sighed.
"They're in trouble."
Thwaaack!
"Enemy attack! It's an enemy attack!"
"Protect the young lord!"
"We can't handle this!"
It was truly a horrific sight.
Meria Su's merciless beating, and the straggler gang who, while helplessly suffering that beating, were already giving up.
If there was any mercy in it, it was that whenever those who had been beaten enough began to pile up, the assistants and Charten grabbed them at the right moment and pulled them to the rear.
"Aaagh! Aaagh!"
When Meria charged toward him with a murderous air, Belgirt quickly shoved Shuren forward.
"You traitor!"
"Save such words for your first love!"
"You shut that mouth...!"
"If you do not shut that mouth, I will tear off your limbs."
He had been about to bicker with Belgirt, but his face was already caught between the spear and axe blade of Meria Su's enormous halberd.
However, Shuren was not afraid in the slightest.
He had drunk plenty anyway, so he thought dying like this would hurt less and would not be so bad.
"My apologies, but I am someone for whom it would not be strange to die at any..."
"Who said I would kill you?"
"Pardon?"
Meria answered Shuren's blank question coldly.
"Do not expect me to grant you a rest like death."
"Then?"
"I will tear off your limbs, make you kneel before your father, and let you live the rest of your life begging."
"Egh..."
"No. Perhaps it would be better to leave your limbs attached and sever only your tendons, so you crawl around on your torso like an octopus or a squid."
Still caught in the halberd, Shuren stiffened his voice and apologized to Meria.
"Professor Su, I do not fear death, but I am sincerely afraid of living in disgrace under my family's name. I apologize for my rudeness just now."
"Hmph."
Only then did the professor release Shuren from the halberd.
"I intended to see how much longer you would put up that pathetic resistance, but you are honest in an unexpected way. Is that why you are the head of a faction, after all?"
Shuren, barely freed, broke into a cold sweat.
If he had pointlessly bluffed, he might have ended up in a state worse than death.
Shuren, the head of the faction, had been subdued and made to apologize, and the rest of his gang had been beaten just shy of death and sent flying.
"Are you all right? Can you stand?"
In the midst of that chaos, only Rea checked on the straggler gang, supported them, and helped them get to their feet.
She dusted off the dirt with a towel, prepared water for them to wash their hands, and treated them kindly, but Shuren's gang only silently accepted her help.
"I'm injured too."
"..."
Shuren gestured, but Rea merely stared at him and did not move.
After replacing only the bucket of water that had grown dirty from everyone washing up, Rea paid no attention to Shuren at all.
"Belgirt, ask that woman if she's gone deaf and blind."
"Yes, Young Master. By any chance, are you deaf and blind?"
"No."
Belgirt reported vigorously.
"She says she is not!"
"...Then ask her why she is ignoring a noble lord's request."
"Why are you ignoring our young master's request for help?"
Rea smiled even at Belgirt, who was putting on a ridiculous act.
"Since my lord worries that anything touched by the hands of a Bashport like me may contain some plot or poison, merely watching is the only help I can offer. Or shall I not look at you at all?"
"Yes! Young Master! Miss Bashport says, since my lord worries that anything touched by the hands of a Bashport like me..."
"Shut up."
"Understood!"
That damned servant, even worse than a parrot, had been repeating Rea's words until Shuren's burst of anger drove him off a distance away.
Though he had not been directly beaten by Meria, all strength had left Shuren's body. Lying sprawled on the ground, he threw a childish fit at Rea.
"Help me up."
"I am sorry, my lord, but..."
"Enough. I said help me up."
"My lord, you regard Bashport..."
"Ah, enough! Help me up!"
Shuren flailed his arms and legs so shamelessly that it was almost painful to watch.
"I said help me uuuup! Lady Bashport, help me up!"
"Wh-why are you doing this?"
"Do it! Do it! Do iiit!"
At the sound of her flustered voice, he flailed even more wildly.
Every time he heard her helpless breathing, Shuren's mood gradually improved.
Swoop.
Just then, an arm was thrust out toward him.
Of course.
How could a wench like you possibly overcome the unreasonable demands of a young lord from a great southern house?
Shuren inwardly cheered and grabbed that hand, rising to his feet with vigor.
"Huh?"
It was a rather sturdy forearm.
Before Shuren, who had sprung upright in an instant, Charten stood with his languid expression, grinning broadly.
"Thank you for helping him, Viscount."
"Not at all. Feel free to ask me anytime."
Shuren's and Meria's faces crumpled at the same time.
"What are you all doing? Assemble and line up at once!"
Meria Su shouted, swinging her halberd.
"Class begins now!"