Chapter 112
The academy remained utterly peaceful, completely unaware whether the Imperial Count was undergoing a tax audit or not.
“Aaah, you crazy idiot! I told you not to leave any food behind!”
“Ah! What can I do if it tastes bad!”
“Then don’t eat it in the first place!”
Peaceful.
“I almost died for real today…….”
“My arm won’t move. Seriously. For real.”
Peace…ful.
“Mark! You hit my face earlier and laughed, didn’t you!”
“Teppy, you bastard, you threw sand? And you still call yourself a knight?”
“I’m not a knight yet? I’m just a kid? Aren’t I?”
Peaceful… right?
In any case, the children were adapting to the academy day by day, and thanks to that, training proceeded smoothly without any major issues.
“Hmm.”
Meanwhile, Daphne had a bit of a concern.
The Galaxy Sword Second Form, Lightspeed Swift Strike, just wouldn’t become familiar in her hand.
On top of that,
“I don’t know how to manifest sword aura.”
She had definitely manifested sword aura before entering the academy, but ever since then there had been complete silence.
The instructors said that if she kept practicing steadily, she would be able to manifest it again, but……
‘There seems to be some reason it’s not working.’
Daphne smacked her lips and gripped the sword again.
If she just kept practicing steadily and honed her senses, someday she would figure out what was lacking, she muttered to herself.
It was at that moment.
“Holy.”
“Wow, insane.”
“Amazing!”
The children’s cheers rang out.
Daphne stopped swinging her sword and turned her gaze toward where the children were gathered.
An unusual energy could be felt through the crowd of children.
No way?
“Is that sword aura? No, does it make sense to manifest sword aura at this age?”
“This is seriously crazy…….”
At the tip of a single sword soaring into the sky, a faint but unmistakable sword aura had formed.
Daphne’s mouth fell wide open.
Who, who is it? Who manifested sword aura?
“Joshua! You little punk, I knew you could do it!”
“Hey hey! When you leave the academy, wanna come to my house? I’ll treat you well!”
The one who had manifested sword aura was Joshua.
Joshua was only ten years old.
Considering that sword aura manifestation usually occurs after coming of age, this was an extraordinarily early achievement.
Daphne had known Joshua was talented, but she hadn’t expected this level.
Daphne let out a hollow laugh and approached him.
“Hey.”
Joshua, who had still been staring up at the sword aura in a daze, snapped back to reality and turned to look at Daphne.
“How did you do it?”
“Huh?”
“Sword aura. How did you do it?”
Joshua, who had been dazed until then, shook his head a couple of times and focused again.
“You’re asking how I manifested sword aura?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.”
Joshua thought for a moment before answering.
“I just… did it and it worked?”
“…….”
Daphne’s face crumpled instantly.
Then she strode up to Joshua and kicked the back of his knee hard.
“Eek! Why did you hit me!”
“This is why geniuses are so annoying. Tch. So irritating.”
At those words, the children surrounding them stiffened.
“Ugh. She’s a genius too. Ugh.”
“Ughhh. So annoying.”
From the children’s perspective, both Daphne and Joshua were equally out-of-spec geniuses.
So they couldn’t quite understand Daphne showing jealousy.
“Joshua. From now on, whenever you have free time, you have to teach me how to manifest sword aura.”
“Why me?”
Joshua asked genuinely out of curiosity.
There are other instructors — why me of all people? Wouldn’t it be better to learn from the adults?
But Daphne didn’t seem to take it that way.
“Look at this. I desperately saved your life when you were about to die, and this is how you repay the kindness. This is exactly why they say not to take in black-haired beasts. Even looking at your pitch-black head made me think it wouldn’t work out. My god, no matter how much I saved you, to be this ungrateful.”
“……What?”
“Aigo! If I was going to be treated like this, I should’ve just let you die back then! No, no. I should die! What’s the point of living like this — let’s die, die! I’ll die!”
For a moment Joshua thought of his long-deceased grandmother.
The one who would say “I should die” no matter what was said.
“I’m gonna die! I’m just gonna dieeee!”
A familiar grandmotherly aura was coming from a five-year-old child……
Joshua squeezed his eyes shut.
***
Splash!
Teiti, sitting by the pond in the garden, kept throwing small pebbles into the center of the water.
Tap, splash!
He had lost count of how many he had thrown.
But this was something Teiti always did when organizing his thoughts, so he didn’t stop.
Tap, splash!
Teiti recalled what Daphne had said last night.
-Dragons don’t need to be searched for.
-I’ve got a new informant. So you go help Bunny or whatever.
Those words made his blood boil.
The first reason was that she had found a new informant while leaving behind a useful talent like himself,
The second reason was that she was still telling him to help that damn Bunny! Bunny! Human.
“Aaah! Why should I help a human!”
Teiti threw a tantrum and flopped backward.
Then, at the edge of his wide field of vision, someone appeared.
It was Bunny, standing there hesitantly.
“Hmph!”
Ever since the day she made the request, Bunny had been following Teiti around like a tail.
She would look up at him with moist eyes like a little baby rabbit, and every time she did, Teiti felt like his anger would explode.
-You think if you look at me like that I’ll feel sorry for you?!
He did feel a little sorry.
-Absolutely! Absolutely! Absolutely not!
Saying “absolutely” felt a bit ambiguous because his feelings kept wavering.
-So don’t come near me! If I see you, I’ll really kill you!
But when she really stayed out of sight, he got a little worried, so Teiti kept checking whenever he had a chance whether Bunny was there or not.
“So annoying, seriously.”
Teiti ruffled his loosely tied hair and clicked his tongue.
Helping humans — he hated it.
As he had said, humans are insignificant anyway, and because of that their life cycles are short and death is close.
Since insignificant beings are just continuing their insignificant lives, there’s no need to deliberately let them live longer, is there?
That’s what he thought……
-I really am an insignificant human.
-But my mom is different. She’s someone who worked her whole life just to raise me somehow.
-My mom is a great person who saved a life. So even if I’m insignificant, my mom isn’t.
‘This little brat sure talks well.’
Ugh, seriously!
Teiti grumbled and tried to shake off the intrusive thoughts that kept interrupting.
So he pulled out the newspaper he had tucked in his arms.
Maybe reading something would help organize his thoughts.
[Once Again, the Disaster]
This morning’s newspaper was covering black mages on a large scale.
[The Disaster’s Terror — How Long Will We Just Take It?]
[Criticism Pours on the Imperial Family for No Measures… Local Cities Defending Themselves with Their Own Forces]
It wasn’t that the imperial family hadn’t prepared any measures.
This academy, the Guardian army, the search teams made up of Tower mages — they were making various efforts.
But humans are the type to praise a hundred good deeds and condemn one failure.
Moreover, invisible measures like these are beyond the understanding of insignificant humans.
So they were all distrusting and tearing each other apart.
“Humans really are…….”
Tsk tsk. Teiti clicked his tongue and turned to the next page of the newspaper.
[Search for the Disaster’s Base Resumes]
[Last Trace: Ansiha Mountain Range]
“……Ansiha Mountain Range?”
Teiti muttered in a voice tinged with slight unease.
Previously, Daphne’s group had encountered a chimera there.
Daphne herself had dealt with the black mages in the vicinity, and the warrior Heros had cleanly cleaned up afterward.
The imperial family must know about it, so why is the Ansiha Mountain Range being mentioned again?
“Well, it’s not like they’re actually hiding in the mountain range, right?”
That place is sacred land where the roots of the World Tree extend.
Black mages in a place like that.
It doesn’t make sense.
Yeah, it doesn’t make……
“……What if the black mages are targeting the World Tree?”
Those scum’s goal is to conquer this world.
In other words, they would never leave the World Tree — which lived in the past, passes through the present, and knows the future — alone.
“This is driving me crazy, seriously.”
Having reached that thought, Teiti recalled his parents in the elf village.
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