There's Also A Fifth, The Miscellaneous Knights

Tina picked up Young Master Naiye’s crystal shard and placed it on the table.

After infusing it with mana, she expertly activated it and unfolded a huge three-dimensional virtual map.

Most people in the Academy only use civilian magical technology.

But Ice Tina can use most magical technology skillfully because of her previous contact with Young Master Naiye.

Also, she herself doesn’t really reject magical technology.

Then Tina manipulated it a few more times.

The virtual map began to refine and gradually turned into a map of the Auriel Knight Academy.

Tina divided it into ten regions.

The Elemental Knights held three sections, and the Sky Wing Knights held two.

The Dragon Knights had two, and the Three Moons Knights had two.

The final section was neutral, belonging to no one.

The Auriel Knight Academy is enormous, the core of the capital and even the entire kingdom, occupying more than half of the capital city.

Each region was already a vast district.

The Academy’s mission: the first half is to educate and train the young, while the main latter half prepares them for conquest.

As knights, they fight for the highest goals.

To become the Knight King and receive Queen Auriel’s blessing, there are only two paths.

One is to become Student Council President and rule in that position for five years.

The second is more direct and simpler: conquer the entire Academy.

This is simpler and doesn’t require time—just conquer the whole Academy to immediately obtain the Queen’s blessing.

It is clear: one path is power, the other is strength.

This is Queen Auriel’s most direct method to train the female knights.

The young ladies here are all powerful knights, not greenhouse flowers—each possesses superhuman strength.

However, conquering the Academy is as difficult as conquering the world.

To date, only one Knight King has conquered the Academy and received the Queen’s blessing.

The female knights fight and campaign against each other; the Auriel Knight Academy has fought like this for three thousand years.

Of course, it’s not as deadly as a real war with catastrophic casualties.

Because it’s within the Academy, students have special protection from the Queen; they won’t beat each other until rivers of blood flow—at least they won’t die easily.

Outside, these female knights are already battle-hardened veterans.

If anyone thinks these female knights are little girls who can be casually bullied or humiliated, they’ll usually meet a horrible end.

“Amazing, Lina’s Elemental Knights actually took the third region—fits her fiery personality.”

Naiye looked at the distribution on the map in surprise; Lina’s crimson mark was particularly conspicuous.

“They’ve been fighting fiercely with the Sky Wing Knights recently, while the other two knight orders remain indifferent.”

“No wonder I detected from the start that Lina and Nia had a strong stench of gunpowder¹ between them, and that the Academy has been brutal lately.”

Ice Tina understood her sister’s meaning; she was actually very anxious when she learned Naiye was coming back.

Currently the Elemental Knights are the strongest and are attacking the Sky Wing Knights.

But they suddenly paused recently because everyone knew this Young Master of the House Naiye wanted to stir things up.

Fire Lina currently didn’t want any sudden changes…….

“Sigh, can’t it be calmer like when I first enrolled? It never settles down……”

When Naiye first enrolled, the whole Academy was very stable; everyone was students learning their paths and diligently advancing along them.

Who would have known that after graduation, war would break out these past few years and the Four Great Knight Orders would immediately commence their campaigns.

Back then Young Master Naiye had never experienced any combat from start to finish, as delicate as a greenhouse flower.

“………….”

However, this Young Master Naiye from the greenhouse suddenly asked a cruel question.

“How long has this fight been going on? How many people have died?”

“…………”

Tina raised an eyebrow, momentarily taken aback by Naiye’s serious tone.

This is war, the war academy created by Queen Auriel.

Although there are protective measures, that doesn’t mean people won’t die in battle.

War is cruel because people die.

Moreover, the Auriel Knight Academy is fundamentally a place judged by strength and ability.

If one’s skill is inferior and they die, it’s their own fault.

It is said this often relates to a person’s willpower.

One example: a female knight was injured, not terribly, but she was so terrified she was close to death from fear.

In the end she died just like that; one could even say she scared herself to death.

Though cruel, this is also Queen Auriel’s way of training the female knights’ willpower.

Thus Auriel’s knights are often as solid as steel.

Ice Tina closed her eyes and then answered.

“It’s been three years; eighty-six dead, approaching a hundred.”

A three-year war period is indeed the longest continuous fighting the Academy has seen; Naiye hadn’t entered any wartime periods that whole year.

The Academy’s wars start when war is declared and stop absolutely when it’s over; it’s normal for fights to erupt for a single purpose and then end immediately once finished.

And nearly a hundred—this is the most female knights to die in such a long time.

That’s with the Queen’s protection in place, yet still so many have died.

Young Master Naiye fell silent; Ice Tina remained unfazed.

“What’s the situation with that last region? Why is it neutral?”

A few seconds later, Naiye pointed at the final region and asked.

“It’s a neutral zone; the Four Great Knight Orders can’t occupy it—unless it comes to the end, in which case it’s occupied by a fifth knight order.”

“A fifth knight order?”

Naiye had never even heard of a fifth knight order.

“The Miscellaneous Knights—basically mercenaries.”

When Tina said ‘Miscellaneous’, Naiye glanced at her.

She half-expected she was about to be reprimanded.

But this Miscellaneous Knights group appears in the form of mercenaries.

Naiye suddenly became interested.

Young Master Naiye asked Ice Tina to summon a rider from the Miscellaneous Knights.

Soon after, a Miscellaneous Knight arrived.

She was a brown catgirl; her armor was light knight’s plate, specially modified and lightened.

Calling her a knight felt off—she had more the look of a ranger or rogue wearing armor.

Her brown ears and tail were big and fluffy, looking very touchable.

The cat-eared girl trotted toward this grand and valuable manor in high spirits, both envious and excited.

The famed Young Master of Lycoris was seeking her!

She hoped to earn a good sum from this trip!

When her big cat-eyes appeared in Young Master Naiye’s room.

At first glance she thought Young Master Naiye looked like a delicate pretty boy, clearly easy to topple!

At the second glance she saw the pure and icy Ice Element knight—admiring Discipline Chair Tina as an iceberg beauty!

Only on the third glance did she notice Ice Tina’s armor casually discarded on the floor, and her lithe, sexy body displayed there before Young Master Naiye!!!

“Meow!!! Sorry! I didn’t know you were busy! I’ll leave at once!”

Her cat pupils were wide; her paws partially covered her view—or so it seemed.

She said she’d leave, yet kept scanning the room nonstop.

Young Master Naiye calmly watched the catgirl.

This cat girl was not simple.