Allen, who had changed from his school uniform to training clothes, stared blankly at the vast training ground with unfocused eyes.

“Allen.”

“…Oh my! Nigel, um… Oh, the weather is so nice today! Haha, ha…”

“Don’t pretend nothing’s wrong.”

“…Ah. Noah told you? I told him so many times it was a secret from Nigel!”

Allen glared at Noah sulkily.

“No, I asked first. Your gait was so strange, I couldn’t help but notice your clouded eyes.”

“I-I’m not that bad, am I? Right, Noah?”

Allen looked at Noah desperately, full of hope.

“Uh…”

Noah couldn’t find the right words and just rolled his eyes.

“You are that bad. Just tell me what’s going on. What’s there to worry about over a mere two-hour class?”

“…”

Nigel crossed his arms and stared intently at Allen. But the words wouldn’t come out, and Allen’s lips just protruded.

“If you don’t want to talk to me, then don’t.”

“Ah, no!”

Allen urgently grabbed Nigel’s arm as he turned away.

“It’s just… hard to say. Do we really have to argue about this?”

“Yes. You said at the train station when we first met that we’re friends and it’s fate. Are you the kind of person who can’t tell his friend but can tell Beselion whom you just met yesterday?”

At Nigel’s sharp retort, Allen hung his head low.

And that lowered face… far from being dejected, was beaming.

It was the first time Nigel, who always denied their relationship or said nothing, had called him a friend first.

“…It’s really nothing. That’s why I didn’t say anything. …Do you want to hear it?”

Allen said, idly kicking the sand covering the training ground floor.

“Yes.”

The answer came immediately.

Allen tried hard to pull down the corners of his mouth that kept trying to rise, and raised his head.

But when he actually saw Nigel’s face, his own face began to flush.

“…It’s because I’m the same.”

“What?”

“…I said it’s because I was afraid you’d find out I’m a weakling!”

“…”

He had mustered up the courage to speak, but the other party was silent.

As expected, Nigel must be disappointed that I’m so pathetic. Even though it was an expected reaction, it still stung.

“What’s wrong with that.”

“…What?”

Allen’s eyes widened at the unexpected response.

“You know I’m… directionally challenged from our first meeting.”

“That’s… true. But that’s something you’re born with, and you’re good at studying.”

“Allen, you’re good at finding your way too. It’s just different, not bad.”

“Is… that so?”

“Yes. There’s no need to worry about it, okay? Besides, I knew you were weak from when you carried my luggage.”

“…So you knew all along.”

Allen scratched his head.

“Yes, so don’t try to put on airs in front of me and get hurt. Just do it, whether you’re good at it or not.”

“Nigel…!”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Then three claps were heard from behind, and someone placed a muscular, firm arm on Nigel’s shoulder.

“That was a very impressive conversation. Yes, a sword dances joyfully only in the hands of one who knows their limits well.”

The owner of the arm was a person with high-tied red hair, the one who had taken Noah away at the entrance ceremony.

The name was probably…

“…Professor Roneh?”

“…Master.”

She was the professor in charge of first-year swordsmanship and Noah’s childhood sword master.

“How admirable. You know my name before introductions. Are you Noah’s friend? Oh dear, I don’t know your name.”

“That’s alright.”

Professor Roneh ruffled Nigel’s hair with her rough hand full of calluses and scars, then stood in front of the students.

“Hello, freshmen? I’m Roneh, and I’ll be teaching Basic Swordsmanship Introduction this semester. Now, applause!”

Clap clap clap clap.

“Hmm, good, good. Indeed, freshmen have a pure side that I like. Your seniors don’t even pretend to listen.”

Roneh laughed heartily.

“I’m a professor in the Swordsmanship Department, but in my class, no department gets special treatment. I’ll run you all the same regardless of department. Now then, let’s start with a light five laps around the training ground, begin!”

With a resounding command, Roneh started running around the training ground.

The students who had been watching hesitantly scrambled to follow behind Roneh.

“Huff… huff…”

“Ugh… I-I feel like I’m going to die.”

“How is it? Don’t you feel itchy to move your body now? Come on, don’t dawdle, get up quick! Everyone grab one wooden sword from the pile in front, begin!”

At the powerful voice hitting their ears, the students each picked up a wooden sword with trembling arms.

“Now, today we’ll learn swinging. I’ll demonstrate several times, so watch carefully and follow along!”

As soon as she grabbed the wooden sword, Roneh’s face became serious without a trace of a smile.

Roneh spread her legs up and down, firmly fixed her abdomen, and swung the wooden sword.

Whoosh!

The swing was so fast that the trajectory of the wooden sword was completely invisible.

The fierce wind sound from the wooden sword was not just sound, it violently shook the students’ hair as it passed.

“Ah, excuse me. It’s been a while since I used a wooden sword, so I forgot to control my strength. Sorry about that.”

Roneh lightly swung the wooden sword a few times to gauge its weight, then took a proper stance again.

“Hmm, now it’s good. Now everyone follow me!”

If Cledian was hell with questions, Roneh was hell with swinging.

Roneh placed Noah at the very front and had the students continue swinging in time with Noah’s movements and commands.

And she walked among the students, correcting their postures.

“Your upper body posture is good, but fix your lower body more firmly. And you’re putting too much strength in your arms. If you swing like that, you’ll get injured right away.”

As Roneh was walking to the right, her gaze caught on one student.

‘That one’s posture is quite good.’

Roneh’s eyes gleamed with more interest as she approached the student.

‘That child was… Noah’s friend, wasn’t it?’

Thinking they flock together, Roneh approached Nigel with a pleased smile.

At the sudden shadow cast over her, Nigel stopped swinging the wooden sword and looked up.

“Though your muscles are still lacking, your form isn’t bad. With some correction, it could become quite usable.”

“…Thank you.”

The way she accepted the compliment at face value was also pleasing.

“So, who taught you the sword?”

“A former temple knight taught me the basic stance.”

“I thought there was an elegance not seen in imperial swordsmanship. You, what’s your name?”

“Nigel Ars, Magic Department.”

“…Magic Department? Not Swordsmanship Department?”

“Yes.”

Looking closely at the training clothes, the emblem on the chest was not the sword and lion of the Swordsmanship Department, but the goddess’s hand and owl of the Magic Department.

The name also sounded familiar…

“So you’re the one Heres has been bragging about so much.”

Whenever she went to the professors’ lounge, her colleague professor boasted so much that even Roneh, who rarely remembered names, had memorized it.

“You, have you thought about changing majors? I’ll personally train you well. Let’s see… Tactician! Since you’re smart, how about becoming a tactician? I’ll support you fully.”

Roneh’s support was a rare opportunity. The Swordsmanship Department students pricked up their ears and looked at Nigel with envious glances.

“I appreciate your words, but I’m not interested in swordsmanship.”

“Interest can always develop. Don’t worry, just say the word anytime!”

“…Yes.”

Nigel, feeling disgruntled that the person telling her to be interested wasn’t, while receiving unwanted attention from other professors, nodded reluctantly.

Heres, assigned as the professor in charge of this year’s Magic Department freshmen, was overflowing with joy these days.

For the childhood dream of wanting to guide young students on a good path, he gave up the coveted position of royal magician to become a Siena professor.

But the ideal and reality were so, so different.

The passion to provide quality lectures to students growing day by day, the aspiration to worry about and solve students’ troubles as if they were his own.

The commitment to stand firmly beside and support them among respected Dean and fellow professors so that students can make good choices in the future, and so on…

The resolutions etched in his mind as a new professor were now just blurred memories like ink on water-soaked paper for him, now in his fifth year as a Siena professor.

Now he just wished that no one, student, professor, or dean, would call for him.

Still, students who came running to him with emotions clearly visible on their faces, whether causing trouble or raising objections about grades, were somewhat more welcome than the dean who only came to work when he felt like it, or the regular meetings held to publicly push one’s duties onto fellow professors.

No, no. He shouldn’t be fooled by those clear and youthful faces.

Heres still wondered if these children, who stake their lives on 1 or 2 points of mere department scores that weren’t even official academy figures, were truly deserving to be called the future of the empire.

On his first day of work, when he heard the precautions, Heres doubted whether he had heard correctly.

How could it be true that these smart students, who at least pretended to be kind in front of him, were growling at each other behind his back, dividing into factions over 1 or 2 points?

He thought they were just doing it lightly out of boredom since they were all cooped up in the dormitory, but he didn’t know they were this serious.

In his early days, he still got goosebumps remembering barely separating students who were half-dead fighting over department scores while on night duty, and sending them to the temple together amicably.

What was even more chilling was that the main actors of that commotion were his assigned students.

He couldn’t count how many times he had to bow his head to clean up the aftermath of that incident. He couldn’t write “2 department points” in the report.

‘But this year is different…!’

The days of eagerly agreeing to be in charge of the year with particularly many mischievous students, blinded by passion and thinking he could change the students for the better, were now goodbye.

This year, he was in charge of the 1st year Magic Department!