Protagonist And His Friends

Several days had passed since the riot in the cafeteria… Chlust was trembling inside his dorm room. Ever since that day, everyone had looked down on him. The nobles called him a disgrace, while the commoners looked at him as though he were their enemy. Chlust could not even bring himself to attend class and could do nothing but tremble.

“Every last one of them just says whatever they damn well please!”

Chlust shouted while wrapped in a blanket. At that moment, the locked door was forcibly kicked open. Standing there was his older brother Rudel, accompanied by the dormitory manager. Chlust had once lost the key to his room and had been using a spare key provided by the manager.

Rudel had tried to enter Chlust’s room, but when he was told that the door could not be opened for that reason, he had simply forced his way in. Rudel exchanged a few words with the manager. He said he would pay for the repairs, and the manager nodded before leaving.

“…Chlust, come outside.”

“W-What are you doing?! Come outside? Don’t just barge into my room! Get out right now!”

Confused, Chlust shouted angrily at Rudel. Rudel listened… then forcibly picked Chlust up and carried him out of the room. He took him straight to the courtyard of the boys’ dormitory and tossed him down. Two wooden swords had been prepared there, and Rudel threw one toward Chlust.

“Pick it up, Chlust.”

“You too…? Do you hate me that much? Everyone keeps bullying me…”

Chlust began muttering under his breath without even looking at Rudel. He was still trembling slightly. Rudel forced him to his feet and grabbed him by the collar.

“Starting today, I’m going to train you. I’ve already gotten permission from both the academy and our family, so resisting is pointless… Take your stance, Chlust!”

What the frightened Chlust saw was Rudel’s serious expression. Faced with that earnestness and an intimidating pressure he could not bring himself to resist in his terrified state, Chlust reluctantly raised the wooden sword.

From that day onward, Chlust’s grueling days of training began.

Several weeks later, Unias arrived with his followers at Luecke’s table in the newly rebuilt academy cafeteria, where Luecke was eating with his own entourage. When Unias boldly sat down across from him, Luecke’s followers started to complain, only to stop themselves. Unias’s expression was completely serious, and there was a distinctly angry air about him.

“I’ve got a few things I want to ask. Seems like a lot happened while I was stuck in remedial lessons…”

Luecke cut him off before he could finish and began speaking.

“You mean Fritz? Apparently he punched one of Aleist’s friends for hitting on women, so Aleist beat him senseless and put him in the infirmary. At first, Aleist apparently tried to mediate, but once he found out his friend wasn’t at fault, he stopped holding back… How immature.”

“No! That’s not what I meant… Aleist beat up Fritz!?”

Unias immediately latched onto the subject of Aleist. It apparently had not been what he originally wanted to know, but his interest had been piqued, and he questioned Luecke.

“It’s famous by now. Apparently Aleist said something along the lines of, ‘I only meant to teach him a lesson. I regret what happened, but I don’t regret doing it.’”

“I see. That makes me feel a little better… but more importantly, why the hell wasn’t Fritz punished?! And then there’s Rudel! Is it true he withdrew from the Individual Tournament in the second term?!”

When Luecke glanced at Unias’s followers, they looked awkward. He concluded that they had probably been telling Unias what happened while he was stuck in remedial lessons, only for Unias to storm straight over here midway through the explanation.

“You muscle-brained fool… It is your own fault for being detained for so long. As for Fritz, his meeting with Princess Aileen, who had come to the academy incognito, resulted in him being completely absolved. It was troublesome enough having a princess who knew nothing of the circumstances interfering because of Fritz’s nonsense. As for Rudel, unfortunately, this year he intends to attend only the minimum required classes and spend the rest of his time looking after his younger brother… Chlust.”

Unable to accept that, Unias slammed his fist onto the table. The students throughout the cafeteria turned toward him, but Unias ignored them and continued.

“He should still compete in the Individual Tournament! And what the hell is the academy thinking, letting Fritz off without punishment? Do they seriously think we’ll just accept that?”

“It was the princess’s word… Princess Fina opposed it, and so did the academy. Neither side would yield. …No one was satisfied with the outcome. But Rudel lost all interest in Fritz… then said that if Fritz was going to remain here anyway, he might as well use him to help Chlust recover. That caused quite the argument.”

Luecke spoke with a laugh. Rudel had no interest in Fritz’s punishment; his thoughts were focused entirely on Chlust. Rather than leave his brother terrified of Fritz forever, he wanted to give him an opportunity to recover.

“Fritz was furious when Rudel told him he had no interest in him. It was rather amusing. So Fritz proposed a condition… In exchange for fighting Chlust, he demanded that he be allowed to fight Rudel as well. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“That’s not funny at all! And Rudel withdrawing from the Individual Tournament because of that is even less funny! Can’t he at least compete in the tournament during the second term? It’s not like he has to stay glued to Chlust every second of the day, right?”

Luecke got the impression that Unias was angry because he would not get the chance to fight Rudel. It was an emotion Luecke could not understand.

“You can have a match with him whenever you want, can’t you? Chlust is being made to graduate this year, so Rudel does not have much time.”

“You really don’t get it… I’m talking about fighting in an arena packed with spectators. There are battles you can only have under those circumstances… It’s an opportunity that comes only once a year.”

Even after hearing that, Luecke still could not understand, so he simply gave up trying. Luecke himself was dissatisfied that Rudel would not be attending classes. He had no other friend with whom he could properly discuss magic. Rudel was also one of the rare people capable of recognizing when Luecke was joking.

Since no one ever imagined that Luecke would make jokes, the matter genuinely troubled him. Rudel, who could understand that side of him, was considered valuable not only by Luecke but also by the other students around him who were interested in magic.

“Give it up this year. Aleist will be there, so there should be no problem.”

“You’re not planning to participate either?”

“Of course not. I am busy with magical research and experiments… and they have not been going particularly well.”

Luecke sighed and began thinking about his experiments, wishing that instead of Unias, Rudel were there so he could ask him for advice…

In the girls’ dormitory, Izumi gazed dreamily at the katana Rudel had given her as a present. Sitting in her room with the blade drawn, Izumi’s cheeks were flushed. Anyone unaware of the circumstances would undoubtedly have found the sight terrifying. Her roommate called out to her.

“A present from Rudel? It certainly isn’t very romantic.”

“Yeah, but it’s an incredible sword. I’ve only seen a handful of blades this fine. My family has fallen on hard times too, so I’m genuinely happy to have it. Apparently it wasn’t that expensive, but this is an excellent sword.”

Izumi looked delighted. Neither she nor her roommate realized it, but the katana Rudel had given her was an extremely expensive masterpiece. Rudel could have afforded it if he spent every coin he had saved from monster-subjugation work, but it was valuable enough that a single sword cost as much as building a house.

“He said the blacksmith was from the East too, so I’d really like to meet him someday.”