Chapter 8. Departmental Exam (1)
“Mmm.”
Mayer Delilah stuffed the muffin she had bought before entering the Academy into her mouth in a single bite, then chewed with a satisfied expression.
But the moment did not last long.
“You eat things like that?”
At the familiar voice from behind her, Delilah scowled.
“What is it? I’m trying to eat.”
“Tsk. Finish chewing before you speak. Have some dignity.”
The owner of the voice was Armin N. Pollon.
He was the son of a baron from the Empire.
Delilah did not like the man who had now taken up a position beside her.
His swaggering attitude was irritating enough, but more than anything……
“I keep telling you, if you come work under me, I’ll let you eat as many of those as you want.”
Despite normally treating others with contempt, he was constantly trying to recruit her on the grounds that he supposedly recognized genuine ability.
Gulp.
“What do you want? I’m trying to eat. I already told you I’m not interested.”
Pollon came from a wealthy merchant family and had a tendency to think he could buy people with money.
It was something Delilah despised.
“Playing hard to get, aren’t you? It is not as if you have anywhere else to go.”
And whenever she rejected him, he always said something like that.
She wanted nothing more than to turn everything upside down and make him regret it, but she could not.
There was the difference in status between a noble and a commoner, of course.
More importantly, Delilah’s circumstances made it impossible for her to deny his claim that she had nowhere else to go.
A half-blood demi-human.
It was a label that had followed Delilah her entire life.
Even the teeth she had just used to chew the muffin were far removed from those of an ordinary human.
They were sharp and hard, like the teeth of a beast.
It was a trait inherited from the Subterranean blood that made up half of Delilah’s lineage, an ancient demi-human race that lived beneath the earth.
Because of that trait, Delilah could never avoid hostile stares wherever she went.
‘I still get fairly good grades at the Academy, don’t I……?’
That was an entirely objective assessment as far as she was concerned, but in truth, she was greatly underestimating herself.
When practical and written scores were combined, there were not even ten cadets in the entire Academy who ranked above her.
“Come on, think about it seriously. If I get into the Department of Command and take you under me, you’ll finally be able to make up for those practical evaluation points you’re lacking.”
Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?
“So stop wasting your time and join me. Seriously, where else are you going to find someone like me who looks at someone like you without prejudice?”
Once would have been more than enough for this bastard’s nonsense. Why did he insist on going on and on?
As Delilah desperately repeated calming thoughts to herself, feeling as though a blood vessel in her forehead might burst, a small commotion broke out nearby.
“Hey, is that him?”
“Who?”
“That handsome blond guy with blue eyes. Isn’t that Klein, the one everyone talks about?”
“Huh? Really? How do you know?”
“I saw him at a banquet when I was younger.”
“Wow.”
The new cadets near Delilah and Pollon whispered among themselves while staring toward the main gate.
Klein.
There was already no one at the Academy who did not know of his absurd talent, and his overwhelming gifts had made him famous even beyond its walls.
Delilah noticed quite a few cadets gazing at Klein with admiration and longing.
He really was…… someone who lived in a completely different world from her.
He probably received looks like that wherever he went.
She was a little envious….
If she had possessed that sort of reputation herself, perhaps an idiot like Pollon would not keep pestering her.
Just then, Pollon approached the new cadets.
“You lot have never seen Klein before?”
“Uh, no.”
“It’s our first time.”
“Haha. I happen to know him somewhat.”
At Pollon’s words, Delilah examined the new cadets he had approached.
Every one of them was rather attractive.
More importantly, do you actually know Klein?
Surely you are not calling the memory of getting thoroughly thrashed in sparring class an acquaintance?
“Even in the Department of Combat, they say he has already surpassed the Professors when it comes to swordsmanship.”
“Wow, so the rumors were true?”
“Of course. Impressive, isn’t he? I have crossed swords with him several times myself, and I could barely last four exchanges. Even the Professors cannot endure ten exchanges against him.”
Right. You lasted about three exchanges.
After begging him to go easy on you for three exchanges because you respected him as a fellow noble, you damned bastard!
Of course, the new cadets had no way of knowing that.
Their eyes shone even more brightly as they looked at Pollon.
“Then doesn’t that mean he has no reason to keep attending the Academy?”
“I heard famous Adventurer Parties and even royal courts are already watching him. Apparently, if you can exchange more than three blows with him, respectable Adventurer Parties start contacting you. I have received offers myself.”
“Wow! Senior, you’re incredible too!”
“Heh. It is nothing worth making a fuss over.”
In the middle of that conversation, one of the new cadets noticed Shane walking beside Klein.
“But who is the person next to him? He has such a…… distinguished air about him.”
“Who? Oh. That idiot Shane.”
“Pardon? Shane?”
Standing beside Klein, who was known as a genius of the century, Shane was naturally someone who drew curiosity.
Pollon once again began showing off what he knew.
“Yeah. Shane, the idiot who is jealous of his younger brother’s talent. He is reasonably intelligent, but his Mana Affinity is poor, so even after five years, he is still only at the Second Circle. He is jealous of his brother and keeps trying all sorts of things, but every one of them ends in failure.”
“Ah…… I see.”
“Just ignore him. His personality is awful anyway, so he is not the sort of person anyone wants to associate with.”
“Thank you for the advice!”
At Pollon’s words, Delilah briefly searched her memories.
That bastard challenged Shane to a spar right after losing to Klein, didn’t he?
If Delilah remembered correctly, Pollon had spent more than ten minutes struggling against a Second-Circle Mage.
‘What did he say back then? That since he was learning magic too, he would only use magic?’
Pollon was quite skilled with a sword.
His magic, however, was nowhere near the same level.
He could barely manage Second-Circle magic.
Back then, he had struggled against Shane for quite some time before finally closing the distance and overpowering him in hand-to-hand combat.
Delilah turned her attention toward Shane.
Since Klein was a celebrity, his older brother Shane also frequently became a topic of conversation.
Even now, cadets who had been talking about Klein were sending disdainful looks toward Shane beside him.
Delilah could not understand them.
Shouldn’t people simply worry about their own lives instead of caring so much about what someone else did?
‘His life must be exhausting too.’
As she watched Shane with that thought in mind, Delilah tilted her head slightly.
‘But…… did he always have that kind of presence?’
Delilah’s senses were sharper than most people’s, and she thought back to the last time she had seen Shane.
They had never spoken to one another, but she remembered seeing him nearby while attending the same classes.
Back then, how could she describe him?
He had seemed gloomy, as though he looked at everything in the world with irritation……
Now, there was no emotion whatsoever on his face.
Even though he had clearly noticed all the eyes directed toward him.
‘Well, it has nothing to do with me. Who am I to worry about someone else right now?’
Just as she was about to look away—
Delilah suddenly realized that their surroundings had gone quiet.
Puzzled, she looked around.
Pollon, who had been standing there so confidently moments before, was now visibly cowed, his gaze fixed on the ground.
“……?”
It was not only Pollon.
The female cadets who had been listening to his incessant bragging had also quietly turned their eyes away.
Wondering what had happened, Delilah looked over and saw Shane slowly sweeping his gaze across the area with the same expressionless face as before.
“Ugh, what is with those eyes…….”
His face remained utterly devoid of emotion.
Even so—
Delilah barely managed to resist the instinctive urge to lower her head.
How could she describe it?
It felt as though a great predator were calmly looking down upon her.
The silence lasted only a moment, however.
Soon, the Academy grounds once again filled with noisy conversation, and Shane was already walking away with Klein, who wore a wry smile beside him.
“Tsk, tsk…….”
The cadets who had never been particularly interested in Shane simply went on their way.
Those who had been speaking ill of him, on the other hand, remained with their heads lowered, awkwardly clearing their throats.
Pollon was among them.
—
Klein was uncomfortable with the current situation.
The moment he and Shane arrived at the Academy, they had been greeted by completely opposite reactions.
Over the past several days, Shane had somehow stopped showing hostility toward Klein and the rest of the family, even if he had not exactly become warm toward them.
But Klein worried that if Shane continued receiving looks like these at the Academy, he might eventually return to the way he had been before.
As Klein looked at him anxiously—
Shane spoke quietly.
“Klein.”
“……Yes, Brother.”
“There is no need to make that face. No—do not make it.”
“Pardon?”
“I no longer care how the people around me look at me.”
“…….”
“And remember this. Sometimes, looking at someone the way you are now only hurts them more. I am not someone to pity.”
“……! I-I did not mean to…….”
Klein had never expected Shane to say something like that.
Only then did he think back on the way Shane had always reacted to him.
Had his own attitude perhaps made his brother even more uncomfortable all this time?
That thought occurred to him.
Watching Klein, Shane gave a faint chuckle.
But the smile passed so quickly that anyone who had not been watching closely would never have noticed it.
“I am fine now.”
“……I am sorry, Brother.”
“Forget it. Their gazes are nothing more than envy in the end. They cannot defeat you, so they search for someone who can be compared to you. I merely happen to be that person. It is little more than instinct. I will not be wounded by fools who envy others without even recognizing their own pathetic insecurity.”
Shane had once been the embodiment of Envy itself.
If something as trivial as that sort of jealousy could hurt him now, that would be laughable in its own right.
“…….”
Then Shane swept his gaze around them with an expression completely different from the smile he had just shown Klein.
Not the slightest emotion remained upon his face.
Perhaps the cadets had overheard the conversation between Shane and Klein.
Or perhaps it was because of Shane’s eyes, whose depths were as unknowable as a bottomless abyss.
Whatever the reason, the cadets all lowered their gazes at once.
‘Wh-What the hell? He is completely different from what I heard.’
‘What kind of eyes are those……?’
‘S-Senior? Are you sure he is really an idiot?’
‘Ugh…….’
Having forced the cadets to avert their eyes with nothing more than a look, Shane turned toward Klein as though to prove his point.
Klein could only smile wryly in return.
Expecting Shane to suddenly become as sociable as Klein might have wished would have been unreasonable.
Still, merely seeing that Shane was no longer being hurt by such treatment was enough to ease some of Klein’s worries.
Soon afterward, they arrived at the examination hall.
A considerable number of other cadets were already gathered there, and most were around Shane and Klein’s age.
Like the brothers, they were all fifth-year Academy cadets.
“It seems everyone is here. Welcome. My name is Levi Benjamin, and beginning this year, I will serve as the Head Professor of the Department of Command.”
At his introduction, the gathered cadets immediately recognized him despite never having seen his face before.
The former Commander of the Razorwind Knight Order, one of the Empire’s Knight Orders!
Although he had come from the family of a baron in a foreign country, he had risen to become an Imperial Knight Commander through sheer ability alone, an unprecedented feat.
He was someone almost anyone would have heard of.
Was that the caliber of person required to become a Head Professor immediately upon joining the Academy?
The cadets’ eyes gleamed as they stared at Benjamin.
Meanwhile, Shane was quietly amused.
Benjamin was someone Shane had also encountered in his previous life.
An old veteran who had burned his own flame until the very end on a brutal battlefield.
Although that would not happen for another ten years, Shane’s Legion had been forced to delay its advance for five full days because of that one man.
Recalling the memory, Shane looked at Benjamin with a new sense of appreciation.
Before that battle, Benjamin had merely been a particularly talented man with a soul somewhat stronger than those of ordinary people.
But the soul Benjamin had displayed on that battlefield had been so steadfast that even Shane had been unable to stain it with Corruption.
‘He is a valuable talent for the future.’
Discovering people who might prove useful in the years to come gave Shane an unexpectedly fresh sense of enjoyment in this new life.
Alex, standing beside Klein with a bewildered expression, was another such person.
Shane had no intention of allowing the souls of those heroes, which had been extinguished so pointlessly in his previous life, to meet the same fate again.
While Shane remained lost in such thoughts, Benjamin continued speaking.
“From this moment onward, all of you will take the departmental exam. If you pass, you will spend the next year studying Command Studies under me.”
