Departing Boy

Rudel had turned fifteen that year, the age of adulthood. His body had grown larger, and his rigorously trained physique had become sturdy and powerful. By now, he had mastered basic magic, and besides swordsmanship, he had also learned spearmanship, archery… and various other disciplines. Lena, the younger sister who constantly followed him around, had turned eight and begun growing as well, receiving the same sort of education as Rudel.

And for Rudel, this year was especially important. That was because it had been decided that he would attend the national academy located in the capital of Courtois.

“Big Bro, are you really going to the capital?”

Rudel answered as he parried Lena’s attacks with his sword while she swung around her favored spear.

“Yeah. You should aim for it too. If you don’t go there, you can’t even earn the qualifications to become a knight.”

Seeing Lena look lonely made Rudel’s heart ache a little as well. Now that he understood loneliness, Rudel thought it was a rather troublesome emotion to have.

“Don’t worry. I’ll come back during the long holidays.”

“Really?!”

Even while having such a heartwarming conversation, the two of them continued swinging weapons at each other, which made the whole scene rather difficult to take seriously. Their skill levels were high enough that it almost looked as though they were trying to kill each other while laughing. The sharpness of Lena’s footwork and thrusts was enough to put grown adults to shame. And Rudel, who dodged them while casually carrying on a conversation, was no less impressive.

…Had the two of them not been so thoroughly underestimated, they would likely have already become famous throughout Courtois in a positive sense.

Rudel actually was famous in Courtois. A stupid brat too incompetent to even appear in high society… That was the reputation Rudel had gained among the public. In Courtois, where great importance was placed on the legitimate eldest son inheriting the family, younger brothers were almost never permitted to succeed unless something truly extraordinary happened.

Feeling his sweat make his clothes cling uncomfortably to his body, Rudel called an end to their training. Lena immediately sat down where she was and began catching her breath.

“Is the academy fun?”

“Who knows? To me, it’s simply a place where I can become a knight, so I don’t care whether it’s fun or not… In fact, if it were nothing but fun and I couldn’t even become a knight there, I wouldn’t want to go in the first place.”

Rudel answered Lena’s question while maintaining his training sword. Following his example, Lena began caring for her spear as well.

“How do you become a knight?”

“You complete the general education requirements and the subjects required for knights, then pass both the practical and written examinations.”

“Uuuugh… I’m bad at written tests.”

After finishing that conversation, Rudel noticed that the sun had begun to sink. He stood up and started walking toward the mansion. His internal clock was also telling him it was lunchtime.

Several days later, Rudel boarded a carriage to enroll at the academy. As befitted a family counted among the Three Dukes, even the carriage was luxurious, while the furniture and daily necessities being taken along were all expensive.

The people of the territory watched that carriage with terribly dark expressions.

They naturally did not feel good watching the child of the nobles who squeezed them dry depart in a luxurious carriage. Even as Rudel set off, neither his parents nor the servants treated him any differently than usual. Some of the servants were even delighted.

“He’s finally leaving.”

Recently, Rudel had begun to find that lonely. For the past ten years, he had made a particular effort to treat others with courtesy. Even so, because their opinion of him never changed, he believed the fault must lie with himself.

He could no longer bear being judged forever by how he had been in the past, and at the same time, he believed that only proved how inadequate he still was. Even so, Rudel still wanted to become a Dragoon.

At the beginning of that journey, Rudel held a letter from his younger sister Lena in his hand.

“Do your best!”

Those few words alone lightened Rudel’s heart considerably… When he looked out the carriage window, the sky seemed incredibly high. At the same time, he caught sight of one of the dragons he admired flying through it. He hurriedly leaned so far out the window that he nearly threw himself from the carriage, staring after the dragon.

The dragon soon disappeared from sight, leaving Rudel exhilarated. He even mistakenly began to wonder whether the dragon had appeared to celebrate his departure. Taking that as encouragement, Rudel resolved to work hard at the academy as well.

Rudel was in a cheerful mood after getting to see a dragon before arriving at Courtois Academy in the capital. Before long, his carriage became caught in the traffic jam outside the academy, something of an annual tradition on enrollment day. Still in high spirits, Rudel did not mind and simply passed the time inside the carriage.

He occupied himself by reading the book about Dragoons that he had read so many times its pages were worn, along with the brand-new textbooks required at the academy.

“No matter how many times I read this book, it’s still great.”

It might have seemed a little strange to see a fifteen-year-old boy grinning while reading what was practically a picture book. The ordinary students walking past the carriage looked at Rudel as though he were some sort of creep.

Then one girl loudly said,

“How stupid. Reading some picture book that glorifies Dragoons like that… Humans really are barbaric. And nobles are absolutely hopeless.”

Rudel reacted far more strongly than usual. He set down the book, jumped out of the carriage, and glared at the girl. With green hair and long ears… she was unmistakably an elf, one of the demi-human races. Rudel immediately objected.

“I want you to take that back…”

Even Rudel himself did not understand why he had jumped out of the carriage and confronted this girl. Normally, he would never have cared about the opinions of those around him, so his own reaction felt strangely excessive… Rudel decided to convince himself that he was simply nervous because he had come somewhere unfamiliar.

“…Sorry. I went too far.”

“Huh? What are you talking about? More importantly, that crest on your carriage belongs to the House of Grand Duke Arses, doesn’t it? So you’re the legitimate heir to the worst territory in Courtois?”

Just as Rudel tried to end the matter, the girl moved closer to confront him instead. The Arses family’s governance was truly appalling. Rudel knew that and felt sorry for the people of the territory. He himself had raised the issue with his parents several times, only to be told, Don’t interfere! and completely ignored.

The girl, with her large, slightly upturned eyes, continued berating Rudel.

“You’ve got some nerve! There are people suffering because of your family, and you’re sitting around reading picture books! Why don’t you do something you actually should be doing?!”

The elf girl scolded him in a condescending tone. Yet the servant riding in the carriage merely nodded along with her words and made no attempt to defend Rudel. Rudel was the legitimate heir of one of the Three Dukes, so this went far beyond simple rudeness. For an elf girl who was merely an ordinary student to behave this way could, in the worst case, result in the execution of her entire family.

It was considered unacceptable for commoners to show contempt toward nobles. Because of that, the guards stationed at the academy gates gathered to bring the situation under control. Since something like this happened every year, however, they never bothered formally reporting it, and such incidents usually ended up being quietly brushed aside…

“I understand that they’re suffering. That’s why I’ve come here to learn… If I offended you, then I apologize.”

Rudel could not understand why he had gotten involved with this girl in the first place. Normally, he would simply have ignored her…

Everyone present was taken aback by Rudel’s response… It was rare for a high-ranking noble to apologize, leaving them unsure how to react.

At that moment, a boy entered through the academy gates on foot just like the ordinary students. He wore fine noble clothing, though he had deliberately loosened it into a slightly casual style. Coming upon the awkward scene between Rudel and the girl, the boy laughed.

“Hey, hey. What’s a sheltered little rich boy like you doing hitting on an innocent elf girl like that?”

??? Everyone there failed to understand what he meant. At the moment, the actual problem was that nobody knew how to respond after Rudel had apologized. …Though depending on how one looked at it, perhaps it could vaguely resemble him trying to flirt with her…

The boy had gleaming blond hair and mismatched eyes, one blue and one green, along with features so beautiful they were almost unsettling. He looked unnaturally handsome… and embroidered onto his clothing in golden thread was “the crest of House Hardy, Counts of Courtois.”

“No, it’s already over.”

The elf girl was the first to recover. She quickly left the area as though fleeing from both the Hardy boy and Rudel.

“Huh? In the event, this is supposed to lead straight into a duel and trigger my route with her, isn’t it? Did I mess with history a little too much?”

The people around him found the boy unsettling as he spoke loudly to himself. The guards were all thinking, A duel?! Give us a break! This guy is from one of the Three Dukes! We’ll be held responsible for this! So they forcibly separated Rudel and the boy, gave Rudel’s carriage priority, and hurried it through the gates into the academy.

This was the meeting between the boy who was the “protagonist” and Rudel, the “designated loser.”