Top Instructor of a Third-Rate Academy

021

Silence descended on the training ground after everyone had left.

Bridget sat there blankly.

Various scenes were flashing through his vision.

The spar with Pan, who created his own rhythm.

Then, Pan's appearance, saying he had to be evaluated against Sordian.

Pan's eyes as he prepared to thrust his sword even while facing his fierce attacks.

And Rozalin's sword.

'It was unbelievable.'

He thought he had learned the Vürhelm swordsmanship well through his lessons with Instructor Cassian.

For the past two weeks, it felt like he had realized that the world he thought was his own was just the front yard of his house.

"You're still here?"

Just then, a boy entered the training ground.

It was Pan.

Thanks to training together for a few days, it was now possible to converse more naturally than before.

"Just."

"Right?"

There were no other words, but Pan nodded as if he understood Bridget's feelings.

He sat down next to Bridget.

"You?"

"It's the last place I'll probably see."

"Are you going to Class C?"

"Yeah. Because the instructor is there."

Bridget easily understood.

Pan, that idiot who only knows the instructor, would not move from Class C.

To think that such a kid had achieved a greater feat than all the Class A students combined.

It was hard to believe.

'Huh.'

But why isn't this kid asking me where I'm going?

Bridget turned his head sharply.

"Aren't you going to ask?"

"You can't go anywhere. Because you lost."

"...Huh?"

"50 wins, 1 loss."

It seemed he had counted himself along with the Class C students in the 50 wins.

"Wait a minute, unlike the others, I fought fair and square."

"Yes, so you lost once."

"You little bastard?"

"Huh? If you're upset, want to go again?"

"Yeah, let's go! Let's go! Pick up a wooden sword!"

The two stood up, bickering.

The two picked up wooden swords and clashed.

54 matches, 53 wins, 1 loss.

"Damn it!"

* * *

We headed to the infirmary.

Sordian was lying on the bed, and he had quickly regained consciousness thanks to Yuria's divine power.

I was sitting in a chair, and next to me, Rozalin and the huge man from before stood on either side of me as if to guard me.

Yuria was also sitting quietly in a chair by the wall, and with five people in the small space, it felt full.

Sordian was lying with one eye open, staring blankly at the sky.

He was so calm that it was hard to believe he had been fighting for his life with us just a moment ago.

"What a pathetic sight."

"I think it was unavoidable. As you said, it was a complicated situation regardless of your own will."

"The drink I had yesterday was a bit strong. My emotions were all over the place, and the pain... you said you were from the Holy Kingdom? Your divine power is amazing. It far surpasses the level I received when I was training in the knight order."

Yuria did not react to his compliment.

Perhaps feeling awkward, Sordian fumbled near his eye.

I heard from the remaining Class A students.

That eye of Sordian, they said Avril had messed it up.

"That guy would do something like that."

"Why does he go that far?"

"Well. I don't know the exact reason, but the goal was always one thing. Money."

Rozalin shrugged her shoulders.

"That guy, if there was a sure way to make money, he would have sold weapons to the devil."

"Dividing Class A and C, and provoking Sordian to injure him, all of that?"

"But in the end, didn't the swordsmanship skills of the Class C students improve dramatically?"

Everyone's gaze turned to the man named Hati.

He was the man who called Rozalin 'sister,' and no matter how you looked at him, he was born in the north and seemed to be over thirty.

Hati, who received the people's gazes, scratched his tattooed bald head.

"So in the end, he moved the instructor and made even the most untalented Class C students grow enough to surpass Class A in just two weeks, right? And Pan as a bonus."

"...For such, a reason?"

"From a larger perspective, he sacrificed one person to achieve a great result. A money-grubber's idea."

"Is that so, a scapegoat. Hah."

Sordian closed his eyes with a look of despair.

"How miserable."

Avril.

He was a person I really couldn't like.

"It can happen."

But Rozalin had an attitude as if it was no big deal.

At my gaze, Rozalin looked at me with a slightly guilty expression.

"You might think it's harsh, instructor, but we were too cornered to consider things like ethics or morals. If you can kill ten demons by sacrificing one person? Then even I would, well, I would have thought about it."

Hati's thoughts didn't seem to be any different.

Even Sordian himself, instead of getting angry, was just trying to accept the situation calmly.

"Goldline is that kind of people."

"...But that's just a merchant's way. What are you going to do now?"

"What can a one-eyed idiot do? Seeing as they talked about failing to qualify and all that, I've probably been fired as an escort too. I'll just live as a mercenary."

"Then that's good. Rozalin. Is there enough room in the guard?"

"Hmm?"

"Huh?"

Rozalin blinked.

"Is it okay for me to hire guards as I please?"

It's not like she doesn't know the psycho chairman's personality.

He would be happy, saying he supports the decision of an honorable retired knight for the safety of the students.

"You're asking me to be a guard?"

Sordian looked at me and Rozalin as if he didn't understand the situation.

"In the end, it was the school's fault, so it would be good if the school could take responsibility. You said you have a lot of places to go too, Rozalin."

"That's why I brought this guy, but, hmm, I wonder if he'll be useful for a while?"

She had said there was a lot to do to stop the demon's movements.

She might have to be away again, just like when she went to the Vürhelm marquisate this time.

And at that time, if Avril or someone else pulls some strange trick again...

"Hmm hmm. Well, alright. I'll educate him well. Hmm hmm!"

"What, now..."

Just as Sordian was about to say something.

Hati strode over to him.

For some reason, he had an excited expression.

"Heh, it's been years since I've had a subordinate. Sister, I'll take responsibility and educate him. It's been about 3 years, right? Since he's a former knight, he won't run away."

"Instructor, let's go outside and talk. I have something to give you. Don't see a harsh sight."

Huh? Uh-huh?

I was dragged out of the infirmary by Rozalin's hand.

Only Hati and Sordian were left in the infirmary.

"Hey! If you have any sense, you should slip out and go somewhere!"

Yuria immediately followed behind us.

Rozalin grimaced and growled as if she disliked Yuria, but Yuria paid her no mind.

She looked at Yuria, who was standing opposite her with an expressionless face, then sighed, "Tsk," and slowly started walking.

"Instructor."

Yuria didn't open her mouth for a while.

She calmly looked around Akarind Academy while feeling the wind.

I thought it would take a long time for her to organize her thoughts and speak, so I quietly walked beside her.

"Let me tell you an old story. A story from 10 years ago."

Her eyes scanned the empty air.

"After dropping out of school, I went straight back to my family. Then the Marquis of Vürhelm, my father, reprimanded me severely. The daughter who was kicked out of an academy in the imperial capital for being a hooligan had dropped out of a rural academy in the kingdom and returned. I had tarnished their honor, you see."

It wasn't a story from 10 years ago.

It was a story from before Rozalin returned to this life.

"The daughter who had left school had something she wanted from her father. So to ask for a favor, she had to get her father's approval. So she went on a dungeon exploration by the head of the family's order. That's the one I said I'd give you. The mandrake."

The mandrake root was retrieved by Hati again.

Because Yuria had warned that if I rashly ate a medicinal herb with powerful mana, my body might explode and I might die.

We had to hire a decent alchemist to process the herb and make a potion.

"So I went there, and it was a trap. There were assassins."

"The head of the Vürhelm family...?"

"No. It was people from another family that we were on bad terms with. They were people sent to aim for the mandrake. So we fought, and well, I lost an arm, and got the mandrake."

I couldn't feel any emotions like resentment or anger in the simple story.

Had it dulled over the course of 10 years?

Or had she solved all these problems at the Vürhelm family she visited this time?

"But when I came out, there were people sent by my father. He knew. That there were assassins there."

"No way..."

"It was too dangerous for him to go himself or send my brothers, so he sent me as a scapegoat. And what if I get the mandrake and run away? The assassins might get the mandrake too. So he sent a knight order."

I stared at Rozalin blankly at the story that was beyond imagination.

Rozalin didn't look at me.

She just looked at the Akarind tree standing in the distance and met the blowing wind.

"So what do you think I did?"

Rozalin looked at me sideways.

"I ate it. And I ran away. I immediately joined a mercenary corps and rolled around as much as I could. I even led a mercenary corps as a girl, and I negotiated with the northern barbarians. I created a swordsmanship, and I became a great general. Ah! I succeeded!"

"This time?"

That was a story from the past.

Then, now.

What did Rozalin, with 10 years of experience and even comrades, do to get the mandrake?

Rozalin grinned.

"I told them all to fuck off."

"Is that okay?"

"I don't need to go there to get recognized and ask for favors anymore! I can just forge my own path. I've lived recklessly once, so what's the problem with just living! It's a family that's going to be destroyed in 2 years anyway!"

Rozalin cackled.

It was the only thing she had said today where I could feel emotion.

"So instructor. You have to be healthy. You know?"

It was a rather sad-sounding statement.

About three days after that.

Rozalin came to see me in the faculty room.

"Oh, the faculty room is nice. It's not as noisy as it used to be with the teachers."

"Only we use the old building. It's become a private office."

"This is nice."

"By the way, why?"

She held out a potion the size of her fist.

"This is?"

"The present Avril said he'd give you. He had already commissioned an alchemist to make a potion that neutralizes the toxicity of the mandrake and enhances its medicinal effects."

Inside the potion bottle, the characteristic dark green liquid I had seen from the mandrake leaves was sloshing around.

It looked to be almost 500ml.

"He didn't prepare this in one day, did he?"

"Avril is like that. He's like a sinister mastermind. Anyway, teacher! Drink it! I heard from Yuria that your body is like trash! That you're going to die soon! I can't stand a terminally ill teacher!"

What's what.

Anyway, I drank the drink Rozalin handed me.

The taste itself wasn't bad.

It felt like drinking a healthy green juice concentrated about three times.

"How is it, do you feel a surge of energy in your body? Are you okay? Like, do you feel like you won't be able to sleep?"

"Wait a minute, I just drank it, what kind of reaction..."

Are you making such a fuss about already?

I wanted to say that, but my mouth wouldn't move.

No, not just my mouth, my whole body wouldn't listen.

As the world turned black, I realized.

Ah, I'm about to faint.