Chapter 40

An Academy Field Exercise Is Guaranteed to Be Attacked (4)

Contrary to what many people believed, Ivan was not particularly obsessed with axes.

(Dmitri, who had once been his direct subordinate, disagreed with this statement.)

However, in Ivan’s opinion, an axe was a tool with an incredible number of advantages.

When splitting or cleaving something, its center of mass delivered far more force than a sword.

The back could be used as a blunt weapon, while the curved edge of the axe head could hook and entangle an opponent’s weapon like a rake.

Even excluding its advantages as a weapon, it had many other uses.

Ivan had once organized a list of the various applications of an axe.

It could serve as a bottle opener, a can opener, a door opener, a skull opener, and an opener for practically anything else that could be opened.

Shing.

The reason Ivan was thinking about this was simple.

He was currently drawing a sword.

Personally, he did not particularly like swords, but it was necessary.

Ivan intended to respond to the attack on the field exercise with his utmost effort.

The fact that he had demoted his axe to a secondary weapon should have been enough to demonstrate how serious he was.

‘Veolgrin.’

Every time he remembered that arrogant elf, his teeth ground together.

She had appeared after preparing all manner of offensive spells in advance, and then called it a test?

Meanwhile, Ivan had arrived as though he were merely going out for a stroll, without even bringing most of his equipment.

At best, he had possessed a single pistol and one axe.

That was his excuse.

Ivan knew perfectly well that it was an excuse, but he had still learned an important lesson from it.

‘Remain armed at all times for the possibility that someone with the combat strength of the Hero’s Party may suddenly appear and become hostile.’

Fundamentally, Ivan did not care what kind of weapon he used as long as it could kill.

There might be weapons he was more accustomed to, but there was no type of weapon with which he was unskilled.

After all, he had spent twenty years on the front lines.

Standard-issue weapons broke frequently, so soldiers at the front had to use whatever they could get their hands on.

Ivan fastened daggers to his waist and sleeves, slung a sword diagonally across his hip, hung his axe behind his lower back, and placed a pistol, spare magazines, and several explosive cartridges inside his coat.

“This year’s class is truly remarkable, is it not, Lady Enrique?”

“Ah, yes.”

“I have great expectations. To think that Lady Enrique herself would personally oversee the examination! Many of Pritchenkaya’s nobles wished to observe it together.”

“You mean they wanted to turn the students into a spectacle?”

“N-No! That is not what I meant!”

Enrique shook her head with a blank expression.

The man chattering beside her was a second-year major professor in the Department of Knighthood.

His name was…

She could not remember it.

Enrique had, fundamentally speaking, lived for a very long time.

(She refused to admit this.)

That meant she had met and parted with as many people as the years she had lived.

Long-lived races viewed the world in the following way:

They deliberately avoided remembering people who did not need to be remembered.

Unless they wished to spend their entire lives mourning every acquaintance they would eventually lose, they had no other choice.

This man was not worth remembering.

Enrique had never bothered to memorize the name of this so-called professor.

“I hear that young Oskar’s abilities are particularly outstanding. I am truly looking forward to seeing him.”

“Ah, you were from Thales, were you not?”

“Yes! You remembered me!”

She vaguely felt as though she did.

He had probably belonged to some royal guard order in Thales…

Enrique shook her head.

“Isabel is also an exceptional talent. Yuri Frank is excellent as well.”

“Isabel is one thing, but Yuri Frank… I have read that student’s file too. Well… she is fairly capable for a commoner.”

“A commoner…?”

Enrique let out a quiet laugh.

The girl was a war orphan, so technically, he could call her a commoner.

Still, did this smooth-faced fool know that half of the Hero’s Party had been born as commoners?

Maximilien, Einar, and Enrique herself.

But what could she do?

If those noble lords wished to think that way, then so be it.

No longer possessed of youthful passion, Enrique merely shrugged.

“Enrique.”

At that moment, Ivan approached from a distance with steady steps.

Enrique ignored the chattering professor and raised her hand high.

“Oh, Ivan! What brings you here?”

“May I observe?”

“Today’s exam? I do not mind, but why bother?”

“There is something I wish to confirm.”

“Something to confirm…?”

Enrique grinned and moved to stand beside Ivan.

The expression of the professor beside her immediately turned cold.

What was with this blatant difference in treatment?

In his eyes, the man who had just arrived was nothing more than a shabby gardener.

“A pleasure to meet you. I am Robert Saint-Nard de Mondrang, a full professor in the Department of Knighthood. What is your name?”

“Ivan Petrovich.”

The name alone told him everything.

Since the man possessed only Krasilov’s characteristic patronymic and no family name, he was clearly a lowborn commoner.

Robert’s gaze grew even colder.

He frowned.

“Commoner, you should know your place and find the position suited to you. Surely the university has plenty of trees requiring maintenance. Why did you come all the way out here?”

What was he talking about?

Ivan tilted his head.

This was rather unusual.

It had been so long since anyone had tried to provoke him in such a manner that he found it difficult to decide on an appropriate response.

Normally, Ivan would have buried an axe in the other person’s head.

Once people began looking down on someone in the military, all manner of annoying problems followed.

However, this was a university.

How was one supposed to respond in ordinary society?

Ivan paused to organize his thoughts.

Fortunately, he did not need to act himself.

“Professor.”

“Yes, Lady Enrique!”

“Do you wish to die?”

“…Excuse me?”

Enrique glared at Robert with blazing eyes.

“Ivan is my guest. At the very least, he is my friend, and in the greater sense, he is my comrade. You dare insult my guest in front of me? Is this how manners are taught in Thales?”

“I…”

“Close your mouth. I have a sharp nose, and your stench was already irritating me. Four years ago, I would have killed you for that alone. The world has truly become a better place.”

Enrique’s killing intent oozed thickly into the air.

Ivan reached out to calm this unreasonable and hysterical premodern elder.

“Enrique. It is fine.”

“No, this bastard is pissing me off!”

“The exam must begin. The students are waiting.”

“Ah, seriously.”

Enrique cracked her neck and turned away.

Robert, who had been directly exposed to her killing intent, was still trembling.

Ignoring him, Ivan followed Enrique toward the forest.

The students had gathered in a clearing.

The first major examination for the first-year students of the Department of Knighthood—

[Ambush Response]

—began.

There were fifty-two first-year students in the Department of Knighthood.

Each of them was equipped with the university’s standard-issue gear as they looked toward Enrique, who stood atop the platform.

Enrique raised her hand and opened it wide.

A small orb rested in her palm.

“This examination will test your response to ambushes. Students I personally trained are scattered throughout this forest. They will attack you directly.”

The students did not react to Enrique’s words.

They had expected as much.

“But that alone would not properly distinguish your abilities. Some of you might simply be lucky enough not to become targets. Therefore, you will receive bonus points if you defeat the attackers who come after you. And one more thing.”

She shook the orb as she spoke.

“Each of you will receive one of these. It is a magical tool enchanted with a simple location-detection spell. If you protect it until you reach the opposite side of the forest, you pass. In addition, you will receive bonus points if you escape with more than one orb.”

A disturbance spread among the students.

The best way to respond to an ambush was to form a group.

Fundamentally, gathering in numbers eliminated blind spots.

However, what happened under these conditions?

The optimal solution would be to form a small group, endure until the attackers and other students had worn one another down, collect their orbs, and escape.

“Not everyone will pass. The first five to leave the forest will receive the highest score, and points will be deducted according to your escape time. You have four hours. Protect your orb and cross the forest within that time. Understood?”

Ivan listened to Enrique and nodded.

This was nearly identical to the curriculum used to train recruits in the Annihilation Unit.

The test was already familiar enough for that reason alone, but the method was also “familiar” in another sense.

‘It provides an ideal environment for an outside hostile force to intervene.’

This forest was included within the Pritchenkaya administrative region.

Moreover, a military unit was stationed only a short distance beyond its outskirts.

In other words, it was considered a perfectly safe area.

That must have been why the university had approved such an extreme examination.

However, this was an academy field exercise.

Therefore, an outside enemy attack was guaranteed to occur.

In that case, rather than asking why, he should consider how.

‘They cannot already be hiding in the forest. Enrique’s subordinates must have searched it beforehand.’

Then where would the attack begin?

It would not come from the sky.

Ever since the incident involving the elves’ aerial warship, Krasilov had become extremely serious about defending its airspace.

An attack from the surface was also nearly impossible.

Even if the enemy somehow managed to bypass the nearby military units, the previous train terrorist attack had occurred in this region, so Counterintelligence Command was currently on extremely high alert.

In that case…

‘Underground.’

By process of elimination, the only place from which the attackers could appear was underground.

Such reasoning was only possible if one began with absolute certainty that an attack would occur.

However, Ivan was a reasonable man, so he did not doubt it.

‘Those equality-obsessed bastards.’

If the attackers were traveling through underground tunnels, only one race came to mind.

Dwarves.

Those communist midgets.

An underground assault planned by them was almost impossible to counter beforehand because there was no way to predict where they would emerge.

However, considering their tactical objective, deduction was possible.

If the dwarves attacked, and if the Demon Army deliberately targeted an academy freshman midterm examination, then their targets were obvious.

‘Isabel or Oskar.’

The children of the Hero’s Party were, by their very existence, objects of horrific hatred to the Demon Army.

The Hero’s Party had slaughtered most of the Seven Demon Generals and even killed the Demon King.

The members themselves had now integrated into every level of society, making them difficult to attack directly.

Their children were different.

From the demons’ perspective, the people who had driven their entire race into ruin were now living happily and raising children of their own.

That alone would be enough to drive them mad.

From that perspective, the entire incident was perfectly transparent to Ivan.

If the motive, method, and target of a terrorist attack had all been identified, then it was no longer terrorism.

It was merely a disturbance.

Ivan looked toward Isabel in the distance, holding her orb.

For some reason, she was grinning foolishly.

Click.

Ivan rested his hand atop the sword slung diagonally at his hip.

He had even brought a sword specifically to deal with dwarves.

Dwarves were a race difficult to handle with an axe.

In other words, he was fully prepared.

“What is this… Seriously, Mister.”

Isabel smiled broadly as she looked toward Ivan standing at the edge of the platform.

The sight of him standing proudly with a sword slung like a knight, despite how poorly it suited him, felt remarkably reassuring.

Ivan was a gardener.

Strictly speaking, he was a government secret agent, but outwardly, he was still a gardener.

If Ivan had gone so far—truly, deliberately gone so far—as to attend this examination, what other reason could there be?

“He worries far too much. Seriously.”

Isabel desperately controlled her expression and looked away.

That deeply considerate man was worried about her.

He probably also wished to see the results of the training he had given her.

Fine.

She would show him.

Isabel rolled her shoulders and gripped the hilt of her sword firmly.

She would demonstrate the results of those horrific days of training directly before his eyes, confidently claim first place, and make him proud.

Then she could naturally thank him for helping her train by inviting him to dinner.

Or perhaps coffee.

Hmm…

Maybe even a play.

Krasilov was a nation renowned for its culture and arts.

For a moment, Isabel imagined Ivan watching an opera.

The image suited him so horribly that she could not help laughing.

At that very moment—

Ivan, being an exceptionally efficient man, was finishing his preparations to shave the dwarves.