“Good. Garfield Moti. I accept your return to the lecture.”After the lunch with Elena, we headed to Ishtal for the Basic Swordsmanship lecture.Before the class began, Professor Zimmer stood before the students and permitted Garfield’s return.At Zimmer’s words, Garfield answered in attention stance, tense.“Y-yes. I’ll work hard from now on! I won’t be a burden to the class!”“Right. I was excessive before. I offer my sincere apology.”When Professor Zimmer bowed his head, Garfield hastily raised him.“N-no, it’s fine!”The students buzzed in surprise at Zimmer’s sudden change.It’s rare for a professor to apologize to a student.Especially in front of so many watching students.'An apology to Garfield is a clause stipulated in the contract with Zimmer.'Zimmer himself had said he felt sorry to Garfield about that matter, so apologizing wasn’t so difficult.Garfield had been merely a pretext and a scapegoat for grade adjustment.“Thank you for accepting my apology. That will be all.”After speaking with Zimmer, Garfield returned to my side with a bright face and lined up again.“Thanks—this is all thanks to you, Lord Loen.”“Don’t forget you owe me a meal later.”After permitting Garfield’s return, Zimmer briefly met my eyes and continued.“There’s one more announcement. I previously limited the number of A grades for this lecture to a single student, but in accordance with the amended Union ordinance, at least 5 percent of the attendees must be assigned A. Since this lecture has around a hundred attendees, that means about five must receive an A.”The students buzzed again at Zimmer’s statement.It didn’t match the ten A’s Verdandi originally planned, but even raising it to five for now was a relief.Zimmer didn’t stop there and loosened the grading even more.“To be honest, limiting A to one student felt like an emotional decision. To express my apology to you all, I will set A at the current maximum ratio—25 percent. Likewise, the grades below will also be set at their maximum ratios from the top down. Let this serve as my apology for the confusion.”“!!”“Professor, you’re the best!”“Waaah!”Compared to before, the grading criteria had become extremely lenient.This instantly dispelled the hostility toward Zimmer as if it had never been, and the students each let out cheers of joy.At this point, it was practically handing out grades.This, too, was a clause stipulated in my contract with him.With other subjects it’d be different, but the body-focused Basic Swordsmanship lecture is heavily disadvantageous to me; the ratio needs to be like this for me to secure grades comfortably.While the excited students murmured and dreamed of a rosy future, Zimmer spoke again.“Quiet. But since you’ve chosen the path of a warrior, I trust everyone agrees that beyond grades, you must devote yourselves more to training. The intensity of practice will remain as before.”“……”Zimmer’s one line doused the warm mood with cold water.With a small smile, he pointed to the drill field and spoke quietly.“What are you doing? Go run.”***“Huff. Huff.”The death rally of the Basic Swordsmanship lecture took place again today.My rank this time was 45th.Though I hadn’t skipped daily workouts even amidst busyness, my rank hadn’t risen beyond this.The lower ranks were attendees from other academies, so they were easy to overtake, but the mid-and-above ranks were entirely occupied by Ishtal-born human weapons.Monsters who folded the ground as they ran and flew through the sky. In pure physical ability, they couldn’t be compared to me.Of course—these are “knight” cadets who sprint across battlefields under showers of magic and arrows with bare bodies.“……I can feel the wall.”While Bell’s mana sphere neutralized the [Gu-eum Jeolmaek] trait and made magic usable, the penalty of Gu-eum Jeolmaek remained.A crazy penalty that halves Strength, Life, and Endurance stats.By trickery I somehow connected only the magic circuits, but it seemed I couldn’t overcome the system-level stat reduction.As I lay on the ground gasping, someone approached and spoke.“Still, your time improved. What matters is that you’re getting better—like someone said.”A solid-looking boy in the shade. Gaurel.“That’s true. And Garfield, too.”I took my eyes off Garfield—still running laps on the drill field—and stood up, accepting the water bottle Gaurel offered.“Up we go.”As I rose, I faintly felt someone’s gaze from afar.Turning my head, I saw Freya, as always surrounded by aides and students, silently watching me.When our eyes met, she quietly turned her head and avoided my gaze.'…Looks like my rejection of her proposal is weighing on her.'Freya had flatly refused my offer to help solve the Sports Festival supply issue.And without any proper alternative, she was surely struggling to find a plan even now.'…Come to think of it, a letter arrived from Sheika.'That Freya was personally combing Stella Harbor to find new suppliers.Her effort was a little pitiful, but that, too, would be the price for rejecting my proposal.“What, do you like Freya too?”“……?”“You were staring blankly. Most men admire Freya, you know. She’s second place in this month’s student popularity poll.”Popularity poll.Union Daily conducts a monthly popularity poll—anonymous ballots from students.If Freya is second, then this month’s first must be Elena.If Elena is an idol who shines upon everyone like the sun, Freya is a mysterious presence who lights the night road like a gentle moon.Depending on taste, the two split popularity, and their ranks often flip.Beatrice and Kiriel usually follow after the two.Beatrice, with the dignity and bearing befitting an imperial princess, is quite popular, and Kiriel, though a bit ditzy at times, is a High Elf with solid baseline style who gets along well with many students—thus very popular.“Ah, and your name’s on it this time too.”“Mine?”“Yeah, was it 52nd place? Higher than I expected.”'Fifty-second, huh.'If Izelin Academy’s students bloc-voted, that rank is plausible.It doesn’t mean much, but it’s not bad news.I recall that placing first in the Union popularity poll grants the title [Darling of the Academy].Of course that won’t happen… just saying.As we chatted briefly, ragged breathing drew closer.“Huff, huff… I—I have returned.”Click-.When Garfield, the last in rank, came in, Zimmer stopped the stopwatch in his hand.“Twenty-three minutes, seventeen seconds. You’ve improved.”Garfield had cut his previous time by dozens of seconds. He was steadily moving forward.“Good. Continue to devote yourself.”“Y-yes, huff…”After Garfield finished the hellish rally, the Basic Swordsmanship lecture moved on to the next stage in a gentle mood.***Eredor, Hall of Truth, 5th floor. Beatrice’s office.Beatrice sat with impeccable posture, quietly gazing at the crystal sphere resting upon the table.Bathing in moonlight through the window, the sphere shone nobly in the dark.It was the one used in practice a few days ago; for some reason she liked it and had asked Martelgia to grant permission to take it out.Though beautiful, it wasn’t particularly exceptional compared to her aesthetic collection.Perhaps it tugged at her heart because she had made it with her own hands, or because it was a collaboration with her teammates.As Beatrice watched the sphere with a faint smile—Thump-.All at once, she felt a chill spreading through her body.“……Kuh.”Then a stabbing agony, as though an ice needle pierced her heart, surged upon her.A pain she had suffered countless times—yet to which she never grew accustomed.Clutching her chest with one hand, she groped across the table with her trembling other hand.Creak-.With difficulty, she opened a drawer and took out a glass vial.Beatrice quickly swallowed an emergency pill she kept prepared.As the red pill entered her body, the flame mana flowed gently along her mana circuits.Hiss—.As the heat within the pill spread through her, the cold convulsions soon receded.“Haa, haa.”Having passed the crisis, Beatrice reclined into the chair with rough breaths.This pain that had tormented her for so long. When would she be free of it entirely?When would she be rid of this curse and able to roam outside as she pleased?But… Beatrice herself knew.This was neither disease nor injury, but an inborn constitution.No matter where they searched across the continent, no cure could be found; the Empire’s countless mages and physicians had sought remedies in every way, but there was no proper stratagem.All they had managed was to develop a pill that merely offset the pain of irregular seizures.“Whew.”When the lingering pain in her body fully subsided, Beatrice rose with a sigh.As she stood and steadied her breathing with cold water—Knock knock-.With the sound of knocking, someone visited her office late at night.“……Come in.”A beautiful woman with a cold impression entered as the door opened.She gave Beatrice a courteous salute.“I greet Your Highness the Princess.”“……What is it?”Lifting her gaze—Wayne. Teaching assistant to Martelgia of Intermediate Magic Theory.Her true identity: an inspector dispatched from the Imperial Special Affairs Bureau.Not long ago, she had been sent to the Union to investigate the anomaly in the Howling Mountain Range.No matter how excellent the Chairman’s connections, he cannot reject all influence from the Cassandra Empire.The Chairman had fended off most of the “official” inspectors, but it seemed he hadn’t fully grasped the Empire’s hidden dagger.No—even if he had, he could not have blocked an imperial operation.“Your Highness. At the site where the incident occurred, we found several noteworthy pieces of evidence.”“……”Inside the transparent bag Wayne offered were scraps of cloth.“This is a magic robe woven from third-grade mana-thread that my predecessor, Assistant Demer, favored. And, the Union school uniform… as well.”“A school uniform, you say—can we find the owner?”“Regrettably, the damage is too severe for current methods.”White cloth shredded to the point of barely being recognizable after exposure to powerful magi.There are limits to analyzing the nature of the mana.Beatrice nodded as if understanding.“Very well. Then investigate every mall and clothing shop in the Union and compile a list of those who newly purchased uniforms or requested alterations within the last month.”“I receive your order.”“Also collect the roster of every student assigned to Group C in that practical class, as well as the positional data of the autonomous golems stationed in the testing grounds.”The irregularity during the practical exam.The traces of Dark Magic Stones and the disappearance of Assistant Demer.And the school uniform fragments found at the site.Through this chain of information, they might be able to # Nоvеlight # take a step closer to the truth of the incident.

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