Volume 2
Chapter 2
"Excuse me, Ms. Norn, someone's injured. Could you please treat them?"
Irisdina Francilt was
there, supporting a female student who appeared to be injured.
Behind her was her
close friend Tima Lime, who was carrying what looked like Irisdina's
belongings.
"Understood.
First, have the injured student sit on that chair."
Ms. Norn immediately
went to check on the student, and Nozomu also took out the necessary medical
supplies, such as medicine and bandages, from the shelf and went to her side.
"What happened～～～～"
Ms. Anri, in place of
Nozomu and Norn who were treating the injured student, was asking Irisdina and
Tima about the situation.
Apparently, it was
caused by being caught up in the war for popular items at the school store.
"Hmm, a sprained
ankle, but no bone damage. The muscles seem fine too. It should heal with a few
days of rest. I'll apply some ointment just in case."
While Ms. Norn
skillfully administered treatment, Nozomu assisted her. Then, his eyes met
those of Tima Lime, who was accompanying the injured student.
"!!"
As soon as her eyes
met Nozomu's, she immediately looked away and hid behind Irisdina.
(…………Did I do
something to her?)
Nozomu felt a little
downcast by being so openly avoided by a girl he had never even spoken to, but
he was currently helping Ms. Norn, so he decided to focus on that.
"There, that
should do it. Make sure to rest for a while."
"Thank you very
much."
The female student and
Irisdina thanked Ms. Norn after the treatment was finished. Even though she
wasn't directly involved, seeing her properly thank the person who had helped
the injured student and brought her to the infirmary showed Irisdina's
character.
Irisdina was the
daughter of a powerful figure in the Kingdom of Forsina, a major power in the
western continent. Even the teachers at this academy couldn't ignore her, but
she didn't flaunt her status and was known by everyone in the academy as a
virtuous person who worked hard every day.
"Well then, as
the teacher said, you should probably stay quiet for a while."
"Y-yes!! Thank
you very much!!"
When Irisdina spoke to
the female student, she blushed and replied in a flustered voice.
With her appearance,
outstanding abilities, and noble character, she was called the
"Black-Haired Princess" in the academy and had been confessed to by
many male and female students, but she apparently had never accepted those
feelings.
Incidentally, Lisa
Hounds, Nozomu's childhood friend, had fought her to a draw in a mock battle in
the first tier of the second year. She was also called the "Crimson-Haired
Princess" due to her appearance and fiery red hair, and they seemed to be
rivals in practical skills.
"Thank you for
helping too."
Irisdina thanked
Nozomu.
"N-no, I just
happened to be here."
Being stared at by her
too-perfect features and deep black eyes, Nozomu's reply became quite awkward.
"Ai, it's almost
time for class…………"
Suddenly, Tima, who
was behind Iris, spoke. Indeed, lunchtime was nearing its end, and it was
almost time for the afternoon classes to begin.
"Oh, is that so?
Then, teachers, we'll head back to the classroom. Thank you for the
treatment."
"I see. Alright.
Nozomu-kun, thank you for your help. You should head back to class too."
They said so, bowed
once more, and left the infirmary. Looking at the clock in the room, there were
only a few minutes left until the end of lunchtime. It seemed there wouldn't be
time to finish the rest of his lunch.
"Understood, I'll
head back to class."
Nozomu replied and
returned to the classroom.
***
In the hallway
returning to the classroom, I, Irisdina, asked my best friend about her strange
behavior in the infirmary earlier.
"Tima, I knew you
weren't good with men, but wasn't your attitude towards him just now a bit
exaggerated?"
The "him" I
was referring to was the male student named Nozomu in the infirmary. Tima was
indeed not good with men, and she would barely be able to speak if she stood
alone in front of a man.
But her attitude
towards him just now was excessively extreme.
"I-I'm sorry,
Iris. But that guy... he's the one who... who played around with
Lisa-san..."
Lisa was a female
student in the same third grade, first tier as us. She was an excellent student
who had reached the same A rank as us, and one of the few people who could
fight me evenly in practical skills.
Come to think of it, I
had heard a rumor like that back in the first year. I heard that she was dating
a male childhood friend but was cheated on and betrayed. Could he have been
that person?
"However, based
on the rumors I've heard, he doesn't quite match the description of that
person."
Preparing medicine for
the injured person and helping with the treatment weren't things someone like
that would do, based on the rumors.
"Yeah. But I was
scared at that time..."
Tima became depressed
and looked down. She was kind but a little timid, and she worried too much
about what others thought.
It seemed that because
she had heard the rumor, she had reacted excessively.
"Well, if we have
the chance to meet him again, you can apologize then. It's not good to worry
too much, Tima."
"…………Un."
Class was about to
start. I hurried to the classroom while comforting my best friend.
***
"Alright～～. Let's start the
afternoon class now～～～"
Ms. Anri's drawn-out
voice echoed through the training grounds.
The afternoon class
for the 10th tier was Comprehensive Combat Arts.
Unlike the one-on-one
mock battles so far, this class involved forming parties for combat, making
teamwork a crucial key in addition to individual combat ability.
In the first place,
fighting powerful magical beasts single-handedly was extremely dangerous even
for veteran knights, and the rewards were also small, so freelancers such as
adventurers basically formed parties of several to dozens of people. When
exterminating powerful magical beasts, they would temporarily team up with
other parties or ask for help.
Therefore, the academy
had been incorporating many classes such as team battles from the third grade
onward to cultivate the judgment to handle various situations and understand
their respective roles through combat in multiple parties.
However, while his
classmates formed their respective parties, Nozomu was still alone, unable to
team up with anyone.
(I knew it would be
like this, but this is bad.)
This class was
meaningless unless they teamed up in groups, but even when Nozomu tried to call
out to his classmates, they ignored him and wouldn't acknowledge him.
(At this rate, I won't
be able to join the class.)
If he couldn't form a
party like this, the class itself couldn't proceed, making it meaningless for
Nozomu.
However, his
classmates had already formed their parties, and there was no room for Nozomu
to join in now.
"Hey, you. If you
don't have a party to join, why don't you team up with us?"
At that moment, a
student called out to Nozomu, but that person was someone neither Nozomu nor
anyone else had expected.
Surprisingly, it was
Mars who had called out to him. His cronies were surprised, and the classmates
murmured.
"H-hey Mars, are
you serious?" "Why would you bother to invite a useless guy like
him?"
Those were natural
reactions. Mars was a student who had especially picked on Nozomu in the class.
Nozomu, being an
outcast in the class, was the first to be excluded from the list of potential
teammates, and Nozomu himself hadn't spoken to them, thinking that they
wouldn't team up with him given how Mars always picked on him.
Mars ignored his
cronies' complaints and just stared at Nozomu.
Nozomu also stared at
Mars. Nozomu didn't know what Mars was thinking, but he had no choice.
"…………Okay. I'll
join."
"……Alright."
Thus, the most
unlikely party in this class, Nozomu and Mars's merry band, was formed.
***
The class was still in
the form of a mock battle. Mars's party and Nozomu's party faced four
opponents. Two male swordsmen, one male spearman, and one female dagger user
wielding two daggers.
Mars's two cronies
consisted of one archer and one mage who used magic.
At the signal to begin
the mock battle, the opponent's swordsmen and spearman immediately cast
enhancement magic on themselves and charged at Mars.
"Hmph!"
Mars drew his
greatsword and parried the two opponents' attacks. A high-pitched sound of
metal clashing echoed, and the attacks, their power amplified by enhancement
magic, assaulted Mars, but Mars, who had enhanced his body with Ki techniques,
didn't budge at all.
Nozomu tried to attack
the two who had stopped moving, but his attack was blocked by a gust of wind
that suddenly passed in front of him. Looking in the direction the wind blade
came from, he saw the dagger user chanting a spell.
Another wind blade
attacked, separating him from Mars. It seemed the opponents' plan was to
isolate Mars and Nozomu and defeat them individually. Considering that Mars was
the most capable fighter in this party, separating him was strategically
necessary.
The other swordsman
from the opposing party charged at the separated Nozomu.
"Gotcha!!"
Nozomu immediately
drew his katana and parried the opponent's sword. Having enhanced his body, the
momentum of the charge was strong, but Nozomu's parry caused him to lose his
balance.
Nozomu immediately
tried to follow up with an attack, but suddenly a fireball slammed into him
from behind and exploded, blowing him away.
"Agh!"
"Hey, hey, is
that okay? We got him caught up in it too."
"Who cares? A
useless guy like that is only good as bait anyway."
The ones who had fired
the fireball were none other than Mars's cronies. For them, Nozomu was
literally just bait, and even if they got him caught up in the attack, they
didn't care in the slightest.
"Damn it!"
Nozomu got up and
regained his stance, but the opponent's swordsman immediately charged at him
again. Furthermore, the other dagger user joined in, and Nozomu was forced into
a purely defensive position. While parrying the three blades, he repeatedly
moved to avoid taking simultaneous attacks from the two...
"There!"
"Hahaha! What a
good target!"
The two cronies also
attacked Nozomu with magic and arrows, making it impossible for him to do
anything. He was swept away by the area-of-effect magic and his openings were
exploited by accurate shots from the arrows.
The two cronies'
attacks complemented each other well in terms of long-range attacks, their
respective strengths intertwining effectively, cleverly eliminating the
weaknesses in their attacks, such as the magic's casting time and the gap
before the next arrow could be nocked.
In a de facto
one-on-four situation, Nozomu had no way to strike back. He could parry, but if
he tried to counterattack, the cronies behind him would attack him along with
the others, forcing him to deal with them. Then he would be attacked again by
the opposing party, falling into a loop.
However, that
situation crumbled. Feeling an intense chill from the side, Nozomu used Flash
Step and retreated with all his might.
What entered Nozomu's
vision as he retreated was Mars swinging his greatsword. Having defeated the
two opponents he was facing, Mars had used Flash Step to charge straight into
the chaotic battle between Nozomu and the two opponents he was facing.
Mars, with wind blades
swirling around his greatsword, swung his sword horizontally with all his
might. The area around Mars was swept clear by his enhanced strength and the
wind blades, and the remaining two members of the opposing party were blown
away and incapacitated, ending the mock battle.
Nozomu and Mars glared
at each other in silence. Nozomu was clearly angry at Mars, who had obviously
swept him up in the attack, and at his cronies, who had attacked him as well.
Until now, Nozomu had
turned a blind eye to everything at the academy. The old him would have
immediately looked away and withdrawn.
Nozomu himself hadn't
noticed this change in himself, but he had clearly changed.
Although anger was
welling up within Nozomu, he gradually began to feel a question arise in his
mind due to Mars's unusual behavior.
Although Mars had
swept Nozomu up in his attack, the look in his eyes didn't hold the contempt he
had shown Nozomu before. Nozomu couldn't understand the thoughts deep within
his eyes, but he knew that it wasn't hostility, at least.
When Nozomu thought
about it, since becoming a third-year student, Mars's attitude towards him had
clearly changed.
He no longer insulted
him, and he no longer picked fights with him during class.
(What in the world is
going on?)
Along with his anger,
Nozomu was now more concerned about Mars's change. However, neither of them
spoke, remaining silent. Mars's cronies spoke to him, but he ignored them, just
looking at Nozomu.
Eventually, the bell
signaling the end of class rang, and they were dismissed. Nozomu left the
training grounds, unable to find an answer to the question that had sprouted in
his heart.
***
Walking down the school
hallway after class, Mars was pondering the mock battle from earlier.
"That guy... he's
changed."
What he recalled was
that guy glaring at him after he had attacked without caring if he got caught
in it. The past him wouldn't have done that. He would have just looked down and
turned away.
Mars didn't know what
had happened to that guy, but he could sense that something had changed in his
state of mind.
"…………But what
kind of training has that guy been doing?"
Mars was impressed by
Nozomu's movements in the mock battle earlier, where he was effectively one
against four. He had been dealing with the other two opponents, so he had only
caught glimpses of the fight, but there was no wasted movement in the way that
guy had handled the four attacks.
He himself wouldn't be
able to handle attacks from four people while in a suppressed state like that
guy. His movements themselves were slow, which was probably why the people
around him, including the guys he was fighting, hadn't noticed, but they were
frighteningly precise.
He was constantly
moving into the opponents' blind spots and always maneuvering to be in a
one-on-one situation. Moreover, in that situation, he had sensed his sudden
ambush and reacted instantly. There was no doubt he had a very wide field of
vision.
"That guy's quite
the seasoned fighter. Where did he gain such experience?"
The only places to
gain combat experience in this town were the academy or taking on guild
requests. There was no one at the academy to fight him, and his rank wasn't
high enough to take on extermination-type guild requests.
Students could only
take on extermination requests from the guild if they held a certain rank or
formed a party of multiple people, otherwise, they could only take on
miscellaneous tasks. The academy students were, after all, a collection of
inexperienced individuals, and the academy wanted to avoid losing valuable
potential, so such regulations were in place.
"…………Could that
guy be going into the forest alone?"
The only other place
where he could gain practical experience was the forest, but it was reckless
for a student to enter the forest, where magical beasts roamed, alone, and no
one did such a thing. Even though there weren't any powerful magical beasts
near the town, it wasn't absolute, and there had been cases of travelers being
attacked.
But otherwise, there
was no explanation for the precision of that guy's movements.
"…………Should I go
check it out?"
Mars made up his mind
and walked quickly down the hallway.
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