Young Man, Younger Brother, And Fight

Some time had passed since Rudel and the others returned to the academy from the border town. Bargas was still hospitalized in the infirmary. The injury to his arm had been severe enough that he continued to require treatment even after returning.

After their return, the three heirs of the Three Dukes had also been summoned by the headmaster. It concerned the escape of the Dragoon Lilim and the Empire’s experimental Ogre.

“You certainly have a talent for bringing all sorts of trouble with you. Since I came to this academy… no, since the academy first opened, it has been rare to see students cause this many problems.”

Faced with the somewhat haggard headmaster, Rudel and the others could not help but feel apologetic. The headmaster and the teachers had been subjected to all sorts of restrictions in connection with the incident, including gag orders and information control, and had then gone to considerable lengths to determine how the three should be disciplined.

Surprisingly, aside from the Arses Family, none of the other houses had interfered much over this particular incident, which had made things somewhat easier… but the Arses Family alone had insisted with abnormal persistence that Rudel be severely punished. The headmaster had gone through no small amount of trouble, deftly evading their demands while appealing to the royal palace.

“Haah… Well, even if you merely got caught up in it, this was still a serious incident. The three of you will be confined for one week. Officially, the story is that the Dragoons Lilim and Cattleya rescued you… so for now, use the time to rest.”

With the headmaster sighing repeatedly before him, Rudel asked a question.

“What happened to those two?”

“The official account says they rescued you, which has effectively wiped away all of their previous offenses. Quite a few people went to considerable lengths for that… The Diade and Halbades families agreed to turn a blind eye, but this has become an open secret among the nobility and royal family. With the matter of the Empire’s experiment involved as well, it does not appear possible to make any of it public. From what I heard, because the Arses Family alone lodged a protest, the two of them were apparently given confinement as punishment.”

“Good thing you got off with confinement, Rudel.”

At the headmaster’s answer, Unias closed one eye and grinned at Rudel. Luecke sighed as he looked at Unias, clearly exasperated.

“We are among those being confined as well, you know.”

In contrast to the two of them, Rudel felt somewhat dejected upon learning that, as expected, the letter asking his family for help had been useless. He had said he would help, yet in reality the only things that had saved them were the Diade and Halbades families agreeing to overlook the matter and the fact that the Empire had actually conducted an experiment. Rudel himself had done nothing.

“…Well, you students need not concern yourselves with it. At least, ‘for now.’”

With that, the three left the headmaster’s office and headed for the confinement rooms in the boys’ dormitory.

Rumors about Rudel and the others had spread throughout the academy. According to them, the group had accepted a monster-subjugation job in a town near the border, failed, and then been rescued by Dragoons. Once the rumor spread, reactions around the academy were broadly divided into two camps. The first was essentially, Had Rudel done something again? If anything, most people merely treated it as one more addition to Rudel’s legendary exploits.

The second reaction, however, was more troublesome. It was especially common among first-year students who knew little about Rudel… A carefree noble had tried to make some pocket money and gotten himself stranded. That was how they saw it.

For commoners and demi-humans, who were often oppressed in everyday life, dangerous jobs where they risked their lives were a means of survival. They disliked the idea of students taking such work for amusement. It also mattered that Fritz had become one of the central figures among the new students.

A group of students harboring those frustrations gathered in the cafeteria for lunch. Around six students, including Fritz, voiced their complaints loudly enough for the nobles eating nearby to hear. The only reason this was tolerated was that Rudel, along with Luecke and Unias, had been restraining the noble students who wanted to crush Fritz.

Naturally, the other noble students had been furious at Fritz for mouthing off to Rudel in front of so many people. After hearing about it from his former classmates, Rudel had subtly warned them not to lay a hand on Fritz. Since the issue concerned Rudel, Luecke and Unias had given similar instructions to their own followers.

And the result of that restraint led directly to what happened in the cafeteria…

“Must be nice being a noble. Whenever you’re in trouble, a Dragoon comes running to save you.”

“Rudel’s supposed to be the biggest problem student since the academy opened, right? Even someone like him gets to live an easy life in the future. Guess being born a noble really does mean you’ve already won.”

“Rudel has a younger brother, doesn’t he? I heard his brother’s trash too. Apparently, he abandoned the princess during an academy event.”

Unfortunately, because of the day’s class schedule, only students from the Basic Course were in the cafeteria. With no one present to rein things in, that final remark became the spark. As a second-year student still in the Basic Course, Chlust naturally heard it as well.

“…Say that one more time, you penniless peasants.”

Chlust rose from his chair and glared at Fritz and the others, ignoring the followers around him who tried to stop him. Meeting Chlust’s gaze, Fritz stood as well. To Fritz, the Arses Family was the noble house he despised most. He himself had been born in Arses territory, and after struggling under crushing taxes while working to survive, he had needed tremendous effort just to enter the academy two years later than the usual age of fifteen.

“I’ll say it as many times as you want. The Arses Family is nothing but a collection of scum… You and Rudel are both scum.”

Fritz stood just like Chlust and glared back at him. Several other students from commoner backgrounds also rose to their feet, and an ominous atmosphere settled over the cafeteria.

In the boys’ dormitory confinement rooms, Luecke was reading after his meal while Unias devoted himself to strength training. At this point it could hardly even be called punishment, but Rudel was also engaged in mental training. With his eyes closed, Rudel controlled the magical power flowing through his body.

…The student assigned to monitor them had been shocked the first time he saw the scene. In one room was a man performing an absurdly intense workout. In the second was a man silently reading through towering stacks of difficult books. And in the final room, despite its occupant doing nothing more than sitting still, magical power filled the entire chamber.

As for Rudel, he was practicing seated meditation that Izumi had taught him. Perhaps because of that, the supervising student, influenced by an absurd book about the East he had once read, found himself imagining the sort of training where someone meditated until they began floating in midair.

“Ugh… Somebody hurry up and take over for me! Next time I come back, it’ll probably be even scarier, and Rudel looks like he’s about to start floating while sitting there… H-he won’t float, right? But it is Rudel…”

To the student who came by periodically to keep watch, the sight was nothing short of abnormal. After the supervisor finally left again, Unias called out to the other two.

“You guys should move around a little! If you stay cooped up in rooms like these without exercising, you’re just going to get worse and worse.”

“Do not lump me together with you. Exercise and food are obviously best in moderation! You eat huge amounts from morning until night and do nothing but strength training… Why not try studying for once?”

Luecke answered Unias with a sarcastic jab. This time, Luecke called out to Rudel.

“More importantly, what exactly are you doing, Rudel? I have been sensing magical power through the wall for a while now.”

“…Mental concentration.”

“What’s that supposed to be? You can actually get stronger doing something like that?”

Unias joined in this time, and the three began talking together. At first their conversation had been serious, but gradually it drifted further and further off topic…

“I still think breasts are the most important thing in a woman. What do you two think? Don’t tell me either of you likes small breasts. If you follow such a heretical path, I’ll correct you myself!”

“Are you an idiot…? What matters is balance. Obviously, the overall proportions are what count!”

“Ah, Izumi’s coming.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

As they chatted about nonsense, Rudel sensed Izumi approaching the confinement rooms. The fact that Rudel could detect Izumi before she had even appeared was abnormal enough in itself. But when Izumi failed to show up immediately, the other two started wondering whether Rudel had been lying…

“Rudel, it’s bad! Your brother—Chlust and Fritz are—!”

“…Izumi really did come.”

“You two connected by something or what?”

Luecke and Unias stared at Izumi after she threw the door open with tremendous force. Both were impressed that Rudel had sensed her approach. Still, something was clearly wrong with Izumi. Was she panicking? Had she run all the way here because something serious had happened? Those thoughts crossed their minds.

“What happened?”

Rudel calmly asked Izumi.

“Chlust and Fritz are fighting in the cafeteria! It kept getting worse and worse… Now the commoner students and noble students have started fighting each other, and most of the upperclassmen are out on field lessons today. There aren’t enough teachers left here to get it under control.”

It truly was terrible luck. That day happened to be one of the academy’s regularly scheduled mandatory field lessons, and most of the upperclassmen were attending. Since more students than usual had enrolled in the session that year, a large number of teachers had gone with them as well. The reason Izumi had stayed behind at the academy was because Rudel, being confined, could not attend…

Everything was beginning to move in exactly the most convenient direction.