Boy, Boar, And Classmates

The boar-shaped monster’s red eyes glowed ominously as it let out a roar and charged at Rudel and the others. With his classmates frozen behind him, Rudel poured all the mana in his body into his sword and blocked the charge head-on. Izumi, who had also managed to react, slashed at the boar with her katana, but…

“Wha—! It’s too tough! I can’t cut it!”

Her blade chipped, and Rudel, unable to withstand the force any longer, was sent flying. The boar scraped at the ground several times with its hind legs before… charging at Rudel once again. Having crashed into the trees, Rudel felt pain throughout his entire body.

“Guh!”

This time, Rudel dodged the charge and fired magic at the boar. His basic fire and wind spells struck it, but they failed to leave even a scratch.

“Bring it on!”

Rudel regained his stance and confronted the boar. Seeing him do so, several students who had reacted a little later attacked with magic and the weapons in their hands.

Numbers were strength… but the monster was not weak enough that an exhausted class and an injured Rudel, who had already been sent flying, could continue fighting it indefinitely.

Even so, Rudel refused to give up. The Dragoons were Courtois’s strongest force. That also meant there was nothing behind them if they lost. A Dragoon’s defeat meant the defeat of the kingdom itself. …Something Rudel had once read in a book flashed through his mind.

The tusks jutting proudly from the boar’s lower jaw bore down on Rudel…

Rudel summoned every ounce of strength in his body and swung his sword. And the result was… the boar’s tusk stabbed into the ground, while Rudel lost the contest of strength and was sent flying yet again. But having had one tusk broken, the enraged boar charged at Rudel once more. Rudel was already struggling just to stand, making it impossible for him to evade the beast’s body slam.

“That’s enough.”

The instant that voice rang out, the bodyguards who had been waiting behind them attacked all at once. Their magic scorched the boar, while swords and spears sliced and pierced through its body. …Rudel and his classmates were forced to witness a level of combat ability utterly different from that of students.

It was all over in an instant. Faced with the bodyguards who had defeated in moments an opponent they themselves had been helpless against, Rudel felt frustration welling up inside him. The swordsmanship and magic he had worked so hard to polish had been completely useless, and the reality was that he would have died if they had not saved him.

Rudel found both facts unbearably frustrating.

“Forfeit? Don’t be ridiculous! We’ve come this far—I’m not giving up now!”

After Rudel dragged himself back to his feet, Izumi had told him, “We should forfeit.” Blinded by frustration and humiliation, Rudel had rejected the idea.

“Rudel…”

Izumi lowered her head. Perhaps understanding how Rudel felt, she could not bring herself to say anything more.

“We’re almost there…”

That was right. They were almost at the destination that served as the finish line… only half the route remained. Yet forfeiting was their only realistic option. The entire class was exhausted, and Rudel himself was injured. Continuing would mean risking their lives.

Watching Rudel, Basil thought to herself,

(Reality really is cruel. If that monster hadn’t shown up, they might actually have made it to the finish… Well, I suppose it’s only natural that a child can’t properly judge the situation yet.)

From a bodyguard’s perspective, Basil had already concluded that continuing was impossible and had sent several people to inform the teachers. The only question now was how to make Rudel give up, but she had decided that indulging a child any further would be too much trouble and abandoned the idea of marketing herself to him.

Basil had no desire to work for an employer who lacked judgment. But then…

“W-We can still go a little farther, right?”

“Y-Yeah, we can keep going!”

“We’re almost there, so let’s do our best.”

The classmates had looked at Izumi and Rudel and spoken up of their own accord. Whether they had done so out of self-preservation or because they were concerned about Rudel was impossible to tell, but…

Rudel looked at his classmates. Only then did he finally understand that they were in no condition to continue. Being covered in scratches was unavoidable, but their weapons were battered, and their faces were utterly exhausted. Continuing like this would be dangerous…

Rudel clenched his right hand into a fist. After a while, he slowly relaxed it and spoke…

“Our class… will forfeit.”

“Well, that’s surprisingly sensible.”

Watching Rudel from a short distance away, Basil voiced her impression. She had been surprised that the noble children had wanted to keep going at all, and she had praised Rudel for seeing that and deciding to forfeit. Even so, she had already helped herself to the boar tusk Rudel had cut off and was holding it in her hand.

For some reason, the rest of the monster had dissolved into black mist and vanished. This tusk alone had remained as evidence of the abnormal boar. …Yet Basil found the tusk extraordinarily beautiful. It looked almost like a top-quality material… and she quietly slipped it into her own belongings.

Academy regulations forbade the bodyguards from intervening until the very last possible moment. Unless the students asked for help or clearly expressed their intention to forfeit, they were not permitted to step in. The bodyguards had exploited that rule to make their rescue as timely as possible… but now there was no guarantee they would be hired under favorable terms.

If only Rudel had held out a little longer…

“I told you, I can walk…”

After taking heavy blows all over his body, Rudel was walking with one arm draped over Izumi’s shoulder and the other over Basil’s. At first, he had stubbornly tried to walk under his own power, but his body had quickly protested. The physical exhaustion from using mana combined with bruising across his entire body had apparently been too much.

“If you can’t walk fast enough to keep up with everyone, then there’s no helping it. We’re almost there, so endure it until then.”

“As expected of the heir to the Arses Family. But… your body is clearly screaming for you to stop.”

Izumi had supported him out of genuine concern, while Basil had used her proud figure as a weapon to get closer to Rudel… With those different motives, the two of them helped him all the way to the forest exit.

From an outside perspective, it was an enviable sight. The other bodyguards were also flattering noble children in an effort to sell their services.

Yes, to an outside observer, it looked as though Rudel had beautiful women on both arms.

And at the worst possible moment, Aleist’s class had reached the goal under their own power. Seeing Rudel’s battered class, Aleist’s classmates looked down on them. Having reached the finish without assistance had made them rather full of themselves.

“You guys forfeited? What the hell were you doing in a forest with nothing but weaklings like these?”

“How pathetic. You’re a disgrace to the nobility…”

“Aleist, you say something too.”

Then one of his classmates called out to Aleist as well. As far as Aleist remembered, this was the event where Rudel exhausted his entire class and “failed to reach the finish, just as expected.” He vaguely remembered seeing such a scene during the event. And Rudel, with a beauty on each arm, had appeared in that event as well.

In Aleist’s memory, Rudel had been an idiot who openly forfeited while leaning on a beautiful female bodyguard and the prettiest girl in the class, “Izumi Shirasagi.” …That was how Aleist remembered it.

There had been no interaction between them during this event. But Aleist had grown ambitious. He thought he might as well leave a good impression on Izumi and the beautiful bodyguard while he had the chance…

“You forfeited, and you’ve still got a beauty on each arm… Are you screwing around? Why don’t you think about how much trouble you’re causing everyone else?”

Rudel’s class became angry at those words and at the jeers coming from Aleist’s classmates. They had encountered a dangerous monster and fought for their lives… Did they really deserve to be mocked this much? …Rudel also stopped leaning on Izumi and Basil and stepped forward to face Aleist.

“It’s true that we forfeited, but we encountered a dangerous monster. And I know we caused trouble for everyone.”

Rudel had meant that he had exhausted his class and then tried to force them to continue anyway. Aleist, however, had been referring to the two beautiful women.

“Oh yeah? What kind of monster?”

Rudel explained it to Aleist. It had been a ferocious boar-like monster, with a black body, white markings, and red eyes… The moment Rudel finished describing it, Aleist burst out laughing.

“No monster like that lives in this forest, idiot. Think about it. If there were monsters that dangerous here, they wouldn’t hold this exercise in the first place. If you can’t even understand that and still make excuses like this, you’re just embarrassing yourself.”

After saying that, Aleist glanced at Izumi and Basil, then walked off with his classmates in tow. Both women had looked at him as though wondering what his problem was.

“S-Sorry, Rudel.”

“We’ll do better next time.”

“I can’t believe they don’t believe us… Want us to have a teacher explain it to them?”

As Rudel stood there silently, his classmates tried to comfort him. Rudel, however, had been staring in astonishment at how few injuries Aleist’s class had suffered. His own class had been hurt just from walking through the forest… and frustration surged within Rudel.

He could have prepared better. From the moment he was placed in command of the class, he could have gathered information and made sure they had proper equipment… Rudel turned back toward his classmates. After looking over every one of them,

“Everyone, this time was my mistake. I’m sorry… Even so, if you’ll let me command you again next time, I swear I’ll get our class to the finish. No, we’ll take first place! Next time, I’m aiming for first! So please, let me lead you again… I know I’m asking something selfish, but I’m begging you!”

Rudel bowed his head, leaving everyone around him bewildered. They had been certain he would blame them instead… Yet one member of the class voiced support, then another, and another. Of course, Izumi had been the first.