The Academy’s Hard-Headed Swordmaster

Izuna Hella was born with a vision unlike ordinary people.

Her eyes could see the essence of others.

The essence formed by the accumulation of a person’s identity, ego, karma, and so on. What the ancient Greek philosophers called “Idea”.

Thus, from a young age, she lived withdrawn from others.

In her eyes, everything in the world was simply too dangerous for a young, innocent girl like her to handle alone.

Even after she became somewhat accustomed to this sense, there were still beings she feared just by looking at them.

Masters who had reached a certain level, serial killers who had slaughtered countless people, veteran knights who had long survived on the battlefield.

Those who had lived by killing others were, in their very essence, terrifying beings.

Yes, just like Kyle standing before her.

“…How can someone like that be at the Academy?”

Izuna shuddered, looking at the form visible beyond Kyle.

Her eyes, which over the decades had learned to describe that form with words, began to reveal information about Kyle vividly before her.

The information about Kyle Meyer was as follows: Aura Master, Sword Saint, Courageous Knight, Hero.

However, another shadow superimposed within him sent information completely opposite to that.

Human slaughterer, warmonger, sword demon, psychopath, heartless demon king.

“I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Izuna trembled, looking at Kyle, who bore several titles horrific enough to be recorded in history, any one of which would be enough for a single person.

The thought that he would kill her with a single glance overwhelmed her.

Her predictions, based on her ability to see essences, were mostly accurate, so the delusion that Kyle would kill her would likely become reality.

Thud, footsteps approached.

Her body, infected with fear, became overly sensitive, perceiving Kyle’s footsteps as thunder.

“Kyaaaaaak—!”

The moment she screamed, light footsteps echoed from all directions.

Maids, sprinting from afar, embraced her and carefully lifted her.

Only after being carried away in the maids’ arms was Izuna finally able to breathe a sigh of relief and faint.

“…She’s doing it again.”

Kyle gave a wry smile, looking at Izuna disappearing while screaming. It had happened at the party last time, but he couldn’t believe she would scream and faint in his own mansion.

A maid approached Kyle, who was chuckling to himself.

“I apologize, sir. My lady often has seizures…”

“Is it possible to see her separately?”

“I’m sorry, there’s no way…”

“Well, I suppose I can’t have a private meeting with an unmarried lady.”

Kyle scratched the back of his head and nodded to the maid, acknowledging her words.

In fact, he was fortunate that he wasn’t being suspected of doing something to Izuna.

If Izuna hadn’t fainted so frequently, he would have been interrogated by the maids and might have been falsely accused of harming the Duchess.

He was the successor of the Meyer Count family, the Empire’s Sword, but the other party was a Princess. A being even the Empire’s Sword had to yield to.

“Please tell the Princess to take care of herself.”

“Understood.”

Leaving those words behind, Kyle left the mansion.

He regretted not being able to ask Izuna about his status window, but he had achieved his purpose in trying to meet her.

Having achieved his goal, Kyle decided to sleep at his own mansion since he was already out.

And not long after, he was interrogated by Yuri, who had come to the mansion, asking why he had visited Princess Hella’s mansion alone.

* * *

“Kyle Meyer. You’re truly amazing.”

“Hahaha.”

Professor Wolfgang, the instructor for the Strategy and Tactics Understanding course, grinned at Kyle.

Kyle smiled awkwardly, then quickly closed his mouth, realizing his smile had completely disappeared.

“How many times have I explained this? You shouldn’t move like that here.”

“But… I thought it would work.”

“Strategy isn’t based on gut feeling! There are set rules depending on the situation!”

There were cases where generals with exceptional tactics and strategies turned the tide of battle, but that was only when the skills and power of both sides were unequal.

Assuming the strength of the two forces was completely equal, strategy operated according to a certain formula.

A smaller force would inevitably lose to a larger force, or that a siege force three times the size of the defending force was needed to capture a castle, and so on.

Seeing Kyle’s actions in the first class, which seemed to transcend this formula, Wolfgang had thought he was a brilliant tactical genius.

He was a genius, indeed. Just not the kind of genius he had in mind.

“It’s a mistake to think that every soldier can act like you! A mistake! If they did, they’d all die!”

“Can’t you just move alone?”

“Are you an Aura Master? No, even an Aura Master wouldn’t be enough. Do you cleave mountains and part seas with a single swing of your sword like the Grand Masters in legends?”

“Not exactly…”

“Then please move as you’ve been taught!”

As a knight, as a single entity, Kyle was a high-performing combat unit. Even Wolfgang, who didn’t know he was a Master, could see that.

However, on the scale of war, a talent like Kyle would eventually be consumed by troop numbers and strategy.

He didn’t know what Kyle would become in the future, but as a student in the Knight Department, he was most likely to become a knight—and thus, he would have to lead his vassals and fight against knights from other territories.

If he continued to move based on his own standards, countless soldiers would die.

“If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to fail you!”

“Ah, that’s a bit…”

“If you don’t want remedial classes, then get your act together!”

“I’ll try harder next time.”

Kyle said so and returned to his seat.

He grumbled inwardly, but he knew that Wolfgang’s words were not wrong, and that they were ultimately for his own benefit, so he kept his mouth shut.

In fact, he wasn’t wrong.

As an Academy student, he wouldn’t have much use for tactics or strategy… but what would happen after all this was over and he returned to his territory to become a knight?

Then he would need strategy and tactics.

Right now, it was just easier and more efficient to brute-force his way through things. He couldn’t keep doing that when he got older.

“If I’m not careful, I could end up cursed like Sir Gawain.”

Thinking so, Kyle focused on the class, and after about 3 minutes and 54 seconds, he found himself with his head buried in his desk.

“Ah.”

Looking down at the desk, which had pulled him in like a black hole and finally manipulated even time, Kyle slowly raised his body after seeing Arthur looking at him.

The class was over and it was lunchtime.

He should have already run to the dining hall and been eating, but for some reason, Arthur hadn’t woken him up.

“What? Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You were sleeping so soundly. I just watched for a bit.”

“What’s the point of looking at a guy’s sleeping face…”

Sighing, he headed to the dining hall with her.

Eating the usual set meal, Kyle began to feel bored with this familiar school life.

Whenever he felt this way, something always happened.

* * *

“Does anyone know the role of a knight? Explain.”

“—Yes, a knight is a superhuman who surpasses ordinary soldiers… troop deployment, neutralizing enemy commanders, subduing enemy generals, monster extermination, and so on…”

A knight is a superhuman.

All of them are powerful beings that ordinary soldiers cannot imitate, and thus there are several special missions that only knights can undertake.

Among them, monster hunting is a task more often undertaken by mercenaries and adventurers than knights.

Knights learn how to deal with people, not how to fight monsters.

“That’s how it used to be. Not anymore.”

However, as times changed and an era of peace arrived… the instances of knights confronting people decreased.

These days, knights didn’t deal with people.

They dealt with monsters more often than people.

From Kyle’s perspective, having dealt with more people than monsters, it was something he couldn’t comprehend.

But the times had changed, so the Academy also changed its curriculum accordingly.

“For the next week, starting tomorrow, you will leave the Academy and go monster hunting.”

“…Which monsters are we hunting?”

“It depends on where you go, but mainly—”

Gawain began explaining the monsters the students would encounter.

Most of them were monsters that Aura users could defeat without any problems.

However, Kyle tilted his head in confusion as he listened.

The monsters Gawain was describing were those that a hundred students wouldn’t even catch a glimpse of if they went together.

Kyle wasn’t the only one with this question, as another student asked the exact same thing. Gawain chuckled at the question.

“Good question. For this training exercise—we instructors and professors will not be supervising you.”

“…What does that mean?”

“You will have to hunt monsters with the upperclassmen you are paired with.”

The students began to murmur at those words.

Students going monster hunting together?

However, when Kyle heard this, he had a premonition that he would meet someone quite familiar.

* * *

“Hmm… Kyle Meyer?”

“It’s been a while, Senior.”

“Ahaha, it has…”

His premonition was correct.

On the day of the training.

Senior Ruby smiled awkwardly upon seeing me.