The Academy’s Doomed Young Lord Dies Ten Thousand Times

Chapter 30 - Teacher and Student (1)

The first time Acaite saw Rain. That is, when he saw him in the training hall on the day of admission.

Acaite thought of Rain, who was demonstrating his swordsmanship, as someone with innate martial talent. Or if not that, a relentless training fanatic.

But after hearing the stories circulating, he soon felt something was amiss.

The stories he heard were only that he was an underachiever who had not shown any prominence until now. If one only listened to the rumors, the term 'no talent' would be more fitting than 'martial talent'.

An underachiever who had been in seclusion suddenly returned with immense military power. That alone was strange enough, but the anomaly didn't end there.

'It wasn't just his swordsmanship.'

Rain's strength, unlike other geniuses, did not lie in his physical specs or magic capacity.

No, rather, in those areas, he was average to below average.

It was hard to believe, but Rain's strength stemmed from his experience in countless battles.

Not from mock battles that were nothing more than the games of young masters and ladies of noble families, but from experience that could only be gained on a real, blood-splattering battlefield.

And that experience was not on the level of one or two times. What Acaite associated with Rain was the image of veteran knights who had been in and out of the battlefield at least a hundred times.

Acaite, who had roamed countless battlefields to become a Master Knight, could recognize it.

'Was the rumor of his seclusion a lie? If so, did the Duke of Enlight really send him, who was an underachiever, to the battlefield? Did Rain Enlight survive that battlefield and continue to fight?'

No matter how he thought about it, it didn't add up.

If the Duke of Enlight had thrown Rain Enlight onto the battlefield with the intention of killing him, there would have been simpler ways.

Even if he had done so, it was impossible for Rain Enlight, who was an underachiever, to survive and survive on the battlefield.

Conversely, even if it was to train Rain, it didn't make sense. 'Practice like a real battle' is an illusion.

And Acaite knew that better than anyone. There was no way that fighting style was forged simply through practice.

"Haha-. No matter how I think about it, it doesn't make sense."

Acaite muttered with a dry laugh while waiting for Rain, who had requested a meeting. Where in the world did that monstrous guy pop out from?

The subsequent achievements were even more unrealistic. It was absurd enough that he had taken down a Living Armor in the entrance examination with his meager physical abilities, but in the practical test on the first day of the semester, he had apparently even taken down a Gargoyle.

Well, there was the fact that the person he had subjugated it with was a 'very green sprout' that Acaite had his eye on.

'Her name was... Yuna, I think.'

She had messed up in the entrance exam and evaluation, but it seemed that was more influenced by a lack of experience and a mentor.

Her physical abilities were solid, and even in the process of messing up, he could feel a flash of brilliance.

"Is his eye for talent good too?"

Thinking about it that way, Rain's extraordinariness was highlighted again. From what he could see, it didn't seem like the two had a prior connection, but Rain had marked Yuna like a ghost. It was called a pair, but it was almost at the level of being chosen.

Since Acaite was the only one among the faculty who had recognized Yuna's true potential, his bewilderment was doubled.

It was a given that Rain had recognized Yuna's talent, but if that was the case, it meant that Acaite's and Rain's eye for talent were almost on the same level.

To Acaite, Rain was an unpredictable guy. And this was probably a sentiment shared by everyone at the academy.

In any case, the student named Rain Enlight had more than a few suspicious points. Enough to make an ordinary professor hesitant to even approach him.

'Did he get possessed or something?'

But who was Acaite? An eccentric knight who was second to none, and a maverick among mavericks even among the various eccentrics in the Master Knights.

"What should I do~?"

Acaite muttered in a sly tone. Superficially, it was a phrase with the meaning of deliberation, but in reality, it was a phrase whose intention was transparent.

That's why Acaite had summoned Rain Enlight to his office.

It was to teach Rain how to become stronger. If necessary, he was willing to give private lessons outside of work hours. The reason?

To be honest, it was because it seemed like it would be fun.

How fun would it be if this irregular turned this rotten academy, and the old-fashioned Knights League, upside down?

Acaite was the kind of eccentric who had such imaginations.

***

Acaite had summoned me after today's classes ended.

"Yo, young Enlight. Come to my office after your schedule is done today. I'll give you some counseling."

He was an unpredictable person to begin with, but I had no idea why he would say such a thing out of the blue. Was it just interest?

Well, it didn't really matter. Acaite wasn't going to counsel me on human relationships or grades, so what was left was counseling on my combat style.

'He is, in fact, the type I'm aiming for.'

Acaite was, in a way, my goal. Unlike the fighting style of typical knights who overwhelmed their enemies with physical ability and stubbornly polished one path, Acaite was the type who covered for his lacking physical abilities with ingenious and diverse combat styles.

The fact that he didn't care about the means to achieve victory, unlike other knights who were bound by honor, was also quite a model element for me.

And if I could get advice on my combat style from such an Acaite, it would be a great help in taking a step up.

"Hoo."

Knock, knock.

After taking a deep breath, I knocked politely on the door. And after a moment, an answer came.

"Come in."

As a middle-aged man's voice came from inside the door, I opened it without hesitation. And there…

"Yo, young Rain Enlight. Sit comfortably! Don't be shy."

The masked knight and my supervising professor, Acaite, was sitting with his feet on the table. No, it might be closer to lying down, but anyway.

"...Excuse me."

"So stiff~."

After confirming Acaite's slyness, which was just as I had seen in the game, I sat down. The sooner the conversation, the better.

"You said you would give me counseling."

"Oh yeah, right. Are you getting along with your friends? I see they're all girls! That one, the blonde lady who's the freshman representative, and Yuna, and the Princess..."

"..."

This eccentric.

"Just kidding, lighten up~. Ah, that expression is your default setting, right? My apologies."

That frantic talkativeness had acted as a charm in the game, but whether it was the influence of the original Rain Enlight or just because I was facing him in reality, it was quite dizzying.

"Man, your recent activities are quite something, huh? I was surprised during the entrance exam, but this time you even took down a Gargoyle?"

Acaite rattled on like that while grasping some documents.

"...The credit for that matter goes more to Ms. Yuna."

"Ah, certainly, that student named Yuna's destructive power far exceeded my imagination. I didn't expect her to do that well when I decided to take charge of her."

That's probably right. If things had gone as they did in the original work, Yuna would have been struggling a lot right now.

"But, you were the one who set the direction, right? You were the one who made that Yuna realize how to fight, and you were the one who accurately evaluated the power she had and established a strategy."

...This sharpness was also just like in the game. That keenness that was sly yet suddenly struck the core.

"Thank you for the compliment."

"Well, it's not like I called you here just to give you compliments like this."

And the words that followed as he tossed the documents back down... were quite heavy.

"You know, to be frank, you're damn suspicious."

"..."

"I can see it. Your strength isn't from talent, but from experience. But according to the rumors, you were in seclusion for a while? Where could you have experienced that? Just looking at you fight, it's not just once or twice, it's like you've rolled around on the battlefield over a hundred times."

Words that pierced quite sharply into my essence. It seemed my own assessment of him as a dangerous person was not wrong.

"And besides, you recognized the capabilities of someone whose capabilities even I couldn't properly grasp. Isn't that strange just by looking at it?"

...As expected, his intuition was good. For a moment, I wondered if I had been acting too conspicuously, but it couldn't be helped as it was for survival. Anyway, I tried to change the subject as much as possible.

"Was your purpose an interrogation?"

"Whoa whoa, if it felt that way, then my words must have been a bit forceful. Actually, I was trying to say that I don't give a damn."

Where in that story did it sound like that. When I made that face, Acaite let out a laugh from behind his mask.

"Haha, I really don't give a damn. Whether you were possessed by a spirit, or made a contract with a demon."

"Is that something you should say as a knight?"

"Well, if it seemed like you were plotting some huge conspiracy, I would have wrung your neck, but it doesn't seem like that?"

He says such bloodthirsty things so casually.

"Anyway, let's get to the point, boy. You want to get stronger, right?"

At those words, I let out a small, dry laugh. Would there be anyone in this academy who would say no to that?

"...Yes."

"Then answer the questions I'm about to ask you well."

***

"I can roughly feel it from your fighting. You're the type who doesn't care about the means to achieve victory, right?"

"That's right. You can't discuss honor after you're dead."

"We're on the same wavelength. Then why did you insist on only using swordsmanship in the exams you've taken so far? It would be better to mix in other weapons appropriately for the situation."

"...I didn't have the opportunity to learn."

"That's strange. Contrary to perception, the sword is among the more difficult weapons. And you don't seem like the type to wield a sword out of bravado."

He really knew how to poke at sensitive spots. I just shrugged at Acaite's words. Acaite, who saw that reaction, moved on to the next stage without delay.

"Are your enemies monsters, or humans?"

"..."

What came next was another sensitive question. It was a question with a seemingly fixed answer in general, but...

Basically, the enemies in , especially the bosses, were mostly humanoid.

Knights were beings who protected humans against monsters, but if one only trained in anti-monster combat, they wouldn't be able to properly deal with the scenario.

‘More than anything, this guy hates sugar-coated words.’

I stared at Acaite blankly. If I just spewed out nice-sounding words about how the essence of a knight is to fight monsters or whatever, there was a high chance I wouldn't even get my money's worth.

Therefore, I answered.

"I tend to think that enemies exist without distinguishing between monsters and humans."

Acaite's reaction to that answer was...

"Hmm."

Quite subtle. Perhaps the reason I thought so was because I couldn't read his expression due to the mask.

But after hearing the next words, I had no room to care about Acaite's mood.

"...Hey, you... you've killed people before, haven't you? And not just one or two."