Chapter 14

Joint Combat Practice (1)

The joint combat class for 1st and 2nd graders is a passing event, but it is actually quite important in the overall scenario. This is because it is the event where the main character, Tailly, holds a sword for the first time.

Tailly, who had previously learned fighting skills according to the combat club curriculum, suddenly grabs a sword and cuts down the lightning strike of ‘Lazy Lucy’.

Taily is a person born with the talent of a swordsman. This is a turning point in life for Taily, who did not realize his talent and only trained bare-handed fighting techniques.

Of course, there is no way she could be Lucy Mayril’s opponent with a talent that has not yet fully blossomed. Although he succeeds in cutting down Lucy’s lightning once, he is overpowered in one hit by the intermediate lightning magic thrown by Lucy, who was momentarily embarrassed, and falls.

Thanks to this, Lucy ends up being disqualified for breaking the rule of using only basic elemental magic.

From that, his talent as a swordsman was confirmed, and his name began to spread among first-year students. Because I received a blow from the fearsome Lucy Mayril, and although I lost by disqualification, it was true that I beat Lucy Mayril.

“There haven’t been any variables yet, so things will go as they should, right?”

It was a long-awaited weekend. It was an opportunity to catch up on things that couldn’t be done during the week when classes were in session.

When it comes to food, I have more room than I thought. After becoming skilled at hunting to a certain extent, the efficiency of hunting improved, but the most decisive factor was gaining a knack for setting up hunting traps.

[New product]

Noose trap A trap installed by tying a rope obtained from the Olen Pavilion construction site to an elastic tree trunk. It is effective in catching small animals.

Production Difficulty: ●●○○○ [ Production skill has increased. ]

I improvised it according to the instructions in the survival tips book I borrowed from the student library, but it turned out better than I expected. My production skill suddenly increased, and my woodworking skill was almost at level 10.

Above all, it is time-efficient. Just because I’m at school and taking classes doesn’t mean the trap I set up disappears, so I can use my time much more efficiently.

After returning home from class, all I had to do was go to the place where I set up the trap and collect the wild animals hanging from the trees.

It started with small creatures like squirrels and rabbits, and when it really hit the jackpot, something like a raccoon was hanging around. Of course, there are more times when the line breaks or the beef jerky that was left as bait disappears, leaving it in vain.

Still, the advantage is even greater when you consider the fact that almost no labor is involved except for setting up the trap.

Once the dual food procurement system of direct hunting and trap hunting was established, it became possible to procure enough meat to feed myself. Rather than the hunting itself being a problem, the labor required to prepare the game was more of a burden. Well, it’s a happy worry.

Even excluding hunting, I was able to significantly improve my standard of living after school started.

There were limits to the level of production using materials only obtained from the forest, but by picking up discarded items from the construction site or classrooms at Sylvania Academy, various materials that could not be obtained from the forest were able to be procured.

In particular, this is a time when several buildings are being expanded within the Academy under the sponsorship of ‘The Golden Daughter Lortel’. Thanks to that, there were quite a few construction sites on the outskirts of the academy, and I was able to get various construction materials by snooping around those places.

Thanks to this, I was able to obtain a lot of pieces of wood that were left over from their original use, and ropes that were shabby and rusty and had ambiguous lengths of nails left behind. Nevertheless, the biggest harvest was the hatchet.

-Percussion! Percussion!

The cheerful sound of firewood being struck down echoed through the forest.

I was chopping firewood using the stump of a tree I had cut down as a workbench. The hatchet that the construction workers handed over to me because it was old and no longer used was truly the best harvest of the month.

Thank you! Labor workers! Tears are flowing...!

“Whew... it’s hard...”

I repeated the process of cutting the logs into large chunks with the wind blade and then splitting them lengthwise with the hatchet.

In the first place, the basic wind magic, Wind Blade, cannot produce enough power to cut down an entire tree.

So, when starting a bonfire, thin stems of trees that were randomly cut down from the forest were used. They were all of different sizes and often contained moisture, so their efficiency was poor.

However, if you can use the right ‘firewood’, you can achieve a tremendous increase in efficiency in terms of fire management.

Managing that bonfire was truly very painful. The heat had to be maintained while the person was asleep, and the fire had to be maintained to block access from nearby wild animals.

However, with the poor kindling, the fire did not last long and often went out midway, causing acrid smoke to suddenly enter the shelter. It’s already difficult to secure four or five hours of sleep a day, but even if you do, you end up having trouble sleeping in the middle.

“Looking at it stacked up, I couldn’t be more confident.”

Roughly fifty pieces of firewood were left to dry next to the camp. Although I had a hard time chopping with an axe, I felt proud when I was done. It would have been nice to be able to split everything with a wind blade instead of cutting them all with an ax like this... Well, I guess I would have run out of magic before I even finished cutting half of it.

Still... once the moisture remaining in the firewood evaporates, it will become an efficient and decent fuel.

“Ugh... look at the sweat...”

My regular clothes were already soaked with sweat.

On weekends, I washed my regular clothes twice a day.

When I go to collect medicinal herbs and edible grass, when I go hunting, when I prepare daily necessities like now, when I inspect the camp, etc... Every moment of my life was a series of aerobic exercise, so there was never a day when my body didn’t sweat.

I went back to the stream with the intention of washing off my sweat. Although it was only a few tens of meters away, a part of my heart felt warm as the camp came into view. Seeing the appearance of the camp becoming more livable as the days go by makes me feel proud.

“...”

However, recently, uninvited guests are often seen.

When I caught sight of Lucy sleeping in a languid pose on a flat rock near the stream, I sighed again.

After meeting Lucy Mayril at camp, she would often come to my camp and take a nap on her own.

There was no particular regularity to the visiting times, and he seemed to wander around the academy randomly, stopping by whenever he remembered.

– ‘hi.’

Even though we weren’t really acquaintances, if we ran into each other, we would naturally say hello, naturally take a nap at my place, and when I came to, he would naturally disappear.

Yenica Palover shows complete dominance over the Golden Daughter Lortel.

As mentioned, it is the final boss of Act 1 and the first moment it appears in the scenario is this practice class.

“Ed, do you want to see it too?”

With a grin, Yenika handed me the bracket.

No, it’s okay, I’ll check later... I was thinking about keeping my distance, but then I suddenly wondered who my opponent was.

In any case, I am a person who should not exist in this scenario. I was worried that my intervention would cause a major change in the bracket.

Most first-year students attending this class are those who study a lot of scenarios. My basic course of action is to keep some distance from such important figures, but in this case, I can’t help it even if I were to spar with them directly.

How can the class be like that in the first place?

So, no matter who the opponent is, let’s deal with it calmly.

“Let me see...”

“Here! Stay here! Look!”

Yenika seemed happy to see someone reacting to her words in earnest for the first time in a while, and cheerfully handed over the bracket.

If you look at the conclusion, there was no major change. Most of the matches were exactly as I knew them. Except for one thing.

‘Article 13 – Ed Ross-Taylor vs. Fenia Elias Cloel’

The name looked familiar.

“....”

Oh... God...

“.......”

Still, isn’t this a bit...

*

There was a commotion among the occupants of the royal residence. Apparently, newly stocked clothing items from the clothing store in the living area on the southwestern side of the island were popular.

All the goods distributed by Elte Trading Company are selling like hot cakes. Princess Fenia was not very pleased with that fact.

“The fox-like merchant’s plans... are clear to the eye, but...”

Princess Fenia, who was gifted with the insight to gauge people, found the snarky insides of the Golden Daughter Lortel very dear to her.

One of three Class A students recognized by Professor Glast in the placement test. The only daughter of the continent’s great merchant, Elte Keheln, she is a girl born with a sly spirit just like her father.

The appearance of always being polite and well-behaved hides the true nature of putting everything in the world on the scale of profit.

In the private room of the royal residence, the princess sat down on the magnificent bed and sighed.

For Lortel, even this sacred place of learning is nothing more than a means of making money. That magical talent and outstanding brain that can instantly memorize a book once read is not utilized for learning.

The princess felt it in her sixth sense. The activities of the Elte Company, which is gradually taking control of Sylvania’s logistics, may not have anything to do with her at all.

“I really don’t like this woman, but... I don’t think I should treat her based solely on my personal feelings...”

I collapsed on the bed, which was littered with all kinds of magic books, documents, and bags.

“Again... You’re thinking about the reign and the situation. I... It’s been a long time since I came to this land of learning...”

No matter how luxurious the royal residence is, it is still very different from the real imperial family.

At least in the imperial family, people can’t do things like bury themselves in bed or leave reference books or documents lying around on the bed in such a ungraceful manner.

Although I felt a great sense of self-deprecation at being in a situation where I felt deviant from such unsightly behavior, I still felt a strange sense of satisfaction as a human being.

Even with a bitter smile, the princess stretched again.

“Ouch! Huh... right... the most important thing is to hone myself through learning.”

After thinking about that, I checked the notice distributed to first-year students. I had to carefully check the information announced regarding classes.

And after seeing the group formation for the joint combat practice, the princess buried herself in bed again.

“It’s just like this... It’s a strange evil relationship...”

After three days and nights of deliberation on whether to encourage his expulsion or not, I ultimately put it on hold. Instead, he asked Guard Commander Claire and Dean McDowell of the Ministry of Magic to keep an eye on him. Because he was an unusual being whose true intentions could not be seen through even the princess’s insight.

As the semester began and she got caught up in all sorts of accidents, she was put on the back burner... but in any case, to the princess, she was someone she couldn’t ignore.

“Nothing difficult to think about...”

I settled into the soft bed and decided to fall asleep for now. I didn’t take off my school uniform properly and I didn’t properly organize the scattered books, but the first thing to do was to relieve my body’s fatigue. Of course, this was an act that would have been unthinkable in the imperial family.

He was a man with many unknowns, but in any case, he did not seem to have outstanding magical talent. I thought I could probably win without any problems.

Anyway, Princess Fenia had too many things to worry about right now.

All Emperor Cloel wanted from her was to let go of everything and simply enjoy the joy of learning. All she had to do was put aside the complicated reign and political situation and enjoy life as a student.

However, that simple thing was very difficult for this young monarch.

In a way, that was the monarch’s fate.