Brothers And Boy

The academy cafeteria had been wrecked by the students of the basic years. In the kitchen, staff members who had failed to escape in time fled deeper inside while trembling, and at the cafeteria entrance, teachers tried to enter and bring the situation under control. However, both the commoner and noble students had already reached the limits of their patience.

“I told you not to interfere!”

“You’re helping the nobles?! I knew it, the teachers are our enemies too!”

“You think we’re just going to stand here and let commoners make fools of us?! Stay out of this!”

The teachers were unable to intervene as first- and second-year students of the basic years split between nobles and commoners and fought fiercely using magic, cafeteria tables, and chairs. Their small numbers were part of the problem, but another major factor was that the teachers accompanying the upperclassmen were the ones suited for actual combat, while those remaining behind primarily taught classroom subjects.

At the center of the fighting in the student cafeteria were Chlust of the Arses Family and Fritz, a commoner-born boy. At first, they had fought each other with their fists, but when Chlust began to lose, he drew the knife he carried. From that point on, Fritz fought back using the magic he had only recently begun learning and a wooden sword that one of his friends brought him.

“You worthless piece of poor trash! Don’t think you can insult a noble and keep living… I’ll kill your family and everyone around you!”

“The moment you can’t win, you go after the people around your opponent… You nobles really are the lowest kind of scum. I was an adventurer before I came to this academy. I know exactly how filthy people like you are, and I know how to deal with you!”

Fritz knocked Chlust’s knife away with the wooden sword, then kicked him in the stomach and sent him crashing into the cafeteria wall. The students who saw it erupted into cheers, which only further enraged the noble students.

Chlust had lost the trust of those around him after abandoning the princess the previous year. However, several noble children had abandoned her as well, so few people had openly condemned him for it, and his followers still continued to associate with him. Even so, the reactions toward Chlust only worsened under the present circumstances.

‘A disgrace to the nobility who can’t even beat a commoner.’

The noble students fighting around him looked at Chlust coldly.

(Why… Why are they looking at me like that?! What did I do wrong? Why am I losing to some commoner…)

Unable to organize his thoughts, Chlust tried to stand, only for Fritz to beat him far more severely than necessary. Fritz had chosen to hurt him until he no longer even wanted revenge. Around them, demi-human students who were normally looked down upon were also punching noble students away or blasting them back with magic.

It could only be called madness. As the insane scene spread throughout the cafeteria, the teachers and a handful of students at the entrance could do nothing but panic. Then, the upperclassmen who had remained at the academy heard the commotion and began gathering. More hope was placed in those assembled upperclassmen than in the teachers who mainly specialized in classroom instruction.

Naturally, Rudel and the others were among them.

After hearing the situation from Izumi, Rudel and the other two were released from confinement and headed straight for the cafeteria. Near the entrance, they could hear the teachers arguing with the students rampaging inside. The students were so worked up that even the teachers were intimidated when insults were hurled at them.

Seeing the situation, Unias was the first of the three to step forward. Unias was ordinarily among the more easygoing nobles, but when angered, his large, well-trained body and intimidating face were enough to frighten his opponents. The other upperclassmen made way for him and decided to follow behind.

“Move.”

The student whom Unias glared at froze in surprise for an instant, but when he realized that even though these were upperclassmen, they were fewer in number, he refused to back down. A moment later, the student lost consciousness… Unias had punched him and sent him flying.

All eyes turned toward the student who had been sent flying from the entrance and the upperclassmen entering the cafeteria behind him, and for a moment, the cafeteria fell silent. With Unias in front, followed by Rudel, Luecke, and the other upperclassmen entering one after another, the basic-year students gradually began to realize how badly they had misjudged the situation.

The noble students stopped fighting at the appearance of the heirs of the Three Dukes. The commoner students, however, were another matter. In particular, the students who had enrolled that year knew too little about Rudel and the others. With the preconceived notion that they were incompetent nobles who had needed to be rescued by Dragoons, the younger students underestimated them.

“So now the upperclassmen are joining in too? Fine by me… This means I get to beat Rudel before I even reach my third year. I’ll show you what the real world is like, you bastard who can only throw his weight around inside the academy.”

Fritz pointed his wooden sword at Rudel. The subjugation jobs he had completed up to that point had given him confidence. Compared to academy students who had done nothing but study, Fritz really was strong. To Fritz, who intended to leave the academy and become a knight, life there was little more than play.

The fact that the princess attended the academy had also been one of the reasons Fritz enrolled. Fritz had come to the academy intending to change the Kingdom of Courtois from within. He dreamed of building relationships with the people who would become central figures of the next generation and turning the kingdom into his ideal nation. However, no matter how one looked at it, his methods were terrible.

Fritz had worked for a living and learned something of the world, but the common sense he possessed covered only a narrow sphere. He proclaimed nobles to be evil, and his mindset as an adventurer—someone who could earn money as long as he had strength—had led directly to his present actions.

His ideals were admirable, but his methods were poor. That was the kind of ‘boy’ Fritz was. He was merely a strong child who lined up pretty words and forced them upon others through strength.

Rudel knew none of that. To him, Fritz was still someone who needed to be protected from the nobility. Fritz’s remarks looking down on him had not bothered him in particular. If anything, Rudel had been angry with Chlust for laying a hand on Fritz. But even Rudel had no choice but to reconsider once he looked around.

In the kitchen, the older women who often gave him extra-large portions as a bonus were trembling in fear, and the students had even attacked the teachers. The cafeteria everyone used had been destroyed and looked unlikely to reopen for quite some time. At this point, were Fritz’s actions really any different from those of bandits? Rudel rapidly lost all interest in Fritz.

“…I’m not interested in you.”

Saying that, Rudel walked past Fritz and headed toward Chlust.

“What are you doing, Chlust? And you still call yourself a noble aspiring to become a knight?”

“…Don’t look down on me! Scum like you has no right to look down on me! This is all your fault. If you weren’t here, none of this would’ve happened to me, and I never would’ve lost to someone like him!”

Chlust shouted in frustration through his tears. His eyes were filled with fear whenever he looked at Fritz, who had beaten him so badly. Rudel had already heard the general situation before arriving at the cafeteria, so he turned toward Fritz and began to speak.

“I’ll apologize for the trouble my brother caused you. …But you went too far.”

“?! You’re the one saying that? I’d love to let the people suffering in Arses territory hear you say it.”

Fritz answered Rudel’s words with bitter sarcasm. He then swung the wooden sword down at Rudel… but Rudel neither dodged nor defended himself. Fritz struck him again and again, yet Rudel did not budge in the slightest. Instead, the wooden sword itself eventually broke.

“W-Why…”

Fritz was stunned that no matter how many times he struck him, it had no effect. Rudel paid him no mind and addressed everyone present.

“Stop this foolish brawl immediately. If you insist on continuing, then next time I’ll deal with you seriously.”

Faced with an intimidating presence different from Unias’s, the students stopped fighting.