Chapter 119

[Part 1: Rement Academy Invasion Operation END]

[Part 2: The Eternal One, The Nocturne’s Tale]

Even after defeating the boss, the situation was not flowing optimistically.

Because the combat mode was forcibly deactivated, Alphalion and Sisiella managed to escape the dot damage judgment and barely saved their lives, but the Gestalt chief, pursued by the Empire, had no choice but to leave the castle before Adella regained consciousness.

Why didn’t Abyss help? It was obvious he would have been discarded like a used item.

The only good thing was that the building had cleanly blown up, allowing us to sleep in a better lodging than before.

Anyway, because sleep was automatically skipped, it didn’t really feel like anything was happening.

Once again, an unfamiliar ceiling welcomed me.

[Veixel: Ah, can you hear me well?]

“Yes, but I think it would be good if you could raise your voice a bit.”

[Veixel: Ah, oh. Yes, I’ve raised it a bit more.]

[Grad Student Save Me: For Act 2 bosses, it doesn’t matter if there’s not much, but you need to know the skip sections well since the story is quite long.]

[LG Chaos: For story matters, the manager will take care of informing, and during battles, Veixel and I will participate in the briefings.]

“Alright. Then I look forward to your help.”

[Grad Student Save Me: Yup! But where is this? I’ve played hundreds of rounds and never seen this respawn location before.]

“…”

[Grad Student Save Me: I’m really seeing this for the first time while playing the game, you know?]

Ignoring the person who had lost trust from the start, I inspected the room.

As I slowly tried to rise, I suddenly felt a strong pressure on my legs. It felt numb, like the blood was not flowing properly.

When I pulled back the blanket, I found a girl sleeping soundly with her legs on mine.

“Grrowl…”

What new morning was breaking? The sun was already high in the sky.

I understood the fatigue but had little time left, so I hurriedly shook Adella awake.

“Are you waking up?”

“Umm… Huh? Oh, sister! Did you sleep well?”

“Yes. How about you?”

“Yawn… I feel like I’m still so sleepy from being so tired. I haven’t slept at all, nyaaa…!”

Adella stretched her arms wide.

Her white and slender arms reached here and there.

– Whoa

– Kyaa

– Thank goodness, Adella-sensei, you’re alive!

– Her armpits are crazy, lol

– Lick lick lick lick lick lick lick lick

– Wow, kyaa

“Have you really not slept at all? What time is it now? It’s already two in the afternoon.”

“Whose fault is this! I’ve never had such a rough sleep! Honestly, it was a bit scary, but it felt good, so I’ll let this one slide.”

“… what?”

– ?

– ?

– ?

– Huh?

– ??????

– Are you talking about sleeping?

– Huh?

I wondered if I had misheard for a moment and asked her back.

“Are you talking about sleep talking…?”

“Sleep talking? Was that sleep talking…? Ah, I guess it must have been, haha…? I’m not sure if that’s the case or not…”

– What on earth happened at night…?

– Bad thoughts, bad thoughts, bad thoughts, bad thoughts

– Adella, you brat! What did you do to our No Name?

– LOL, I’ve never seen a situation like this before

– Isn’t this actually scripted too?

– No way, it’s actually more lively without a script

– So that’s why Adella is set as eighteen years old as an adult?

└ The teacher seems very interested in her preferences.

Anyway, whether it was nonsense or not, I had no time to listen further.

With this much conversation and game loading, over ten minutes had already passed.

“Let’s pack light and leave quickly.”

“Leave? Where? Aren’t we going to the Abyss branch?”

“I’ll explain the details while we go. For now, I’d like you to put on your clothes first.”

As we stepped outside, I felt how nice the inn we stayed at was.

Alongside it were upscale residential areas, and nobles dressed in elegant everyday clothes strolling about the streets.

“I can’t believe I slept in a 3rd District inn…! I should have stayed longer; it’s such a waste!”

The place where I borrowed the lodging voucher from Gestalt and slept turned out to be right in the middle of the capital.

Because the guards were thoroughly scouring the slums to reclaim the laurel wreaths, they purposely arranged for us to stay in this location, where it was dark under the lantern.

[Grad Student Save Me: Of all places, it had to be the 3rd District. We’re supposed to go to the 15th District in the southwest. If you meet the retired commander there, you should be able to escape the city walls without issue.]

Every now and then, the sound of military boots was chilling, but thanks to walking calmly alongside Adella, we could pass without noticing.

“What? The Abyss branch was destroyed? Then what about Gestalt?”

“Gestalt is safe. He is a vampiric race, so he must have escaped the capital without issue. What’s important now is how we get out of here.”

The Bahamut Empire’s capital was closed off.

The four castle walls were thoroughly manned by battalion-level soldiers, and dozens of them rotated guard duties during the day as well.

Thus, the main goal was to escape the capital without triggering a quest and clear Part 2.

We skillfully avoided the knights strolling in the capital and eventually reached the 15th District, where we could see a man in armor sleeping on the cold stone ground, where no sunlight fell.

The smell of alcohol indicated that he was completely drunk in broad daylight.

“I recognize that face.”

“Do you know him?”

A face once seen is never forgotten.

That forgetfulness could endanger lives later on, so I always made it a habit to remember names and faces.

[Retired Knight Commander – Alphonse Shippot]

The knight commander that Laura easily defeated when determining the ‘infamy difficulty’ in the prologue.

I thought it was truly hopeless for the Empire to have someone like him in such a position, and as expected, he seemed to have been cut from his position shortly after.

“You…!”

As we continued to loiter about, the man who woke up glared at us wide-eyed and pointed his finger.

“Y-you! Because of you…!”

He approached briskly, holding a broken glass bottle in his hand.

His face was full of rage, looking like someone who would act out no matter what happened.

[Grad Student Save Me: In this case, it seems like a light suppression will do here. Just make sure not to kill him!]

Following Dae-sal’s words, I took the charge head-on and slammed him down to the ground.

“Ugh!”

“We’ve met before. We fought in the capital once.”

“You don’t look like much of a big deal.”

Adella whistled as she observed the situation.

Back then, it was Laura who fought and won, but now that I was in solo mode instead of a duo, it seemed she recognized it as me.

“What nonsense! I am the knight commander of the Bahamut Empire…!”

He tried to draw his sword from his waist, but unfortunately, there was nothing in his hands.

“I was… I was a knight commander…”

The expression of him claiming to be a knight commander was so shabby and pitiful that it was enough to become a laughingstock.

* * *

How did Alphonse Shippot reach the position of knight commander?

Those who did not know his circumstances thought purely that he had advanced his position through the influence of his father, a Swordmaster.

It was not wrong to say that Alphonse was able to join the knighthood partly due to his father’s strong pressure to do so.

The problem arose when the Bahamut Empire competed with other major powers for colonies.

An empire rich in resources but with no depth, especially revealed its vulnerabilities in the military field.

However, the Empire command’s behavior of trying to mask the sacrifices of allies with additional troop deployments and the acquisition of colonies led to knight commanders, who always operated on the front lines, quickly becoming scapegoats for those trying to protect their hometowns from the barbarians.

In such situations, no knights wished to apply for the commander’s position.

While knights were elected only from the central knights, once a position was held, the fate was to return once again to the frontlines once war broke out.

On the other hand, those knights who could stick around in the capital and enjoy a glorious life did not want to give up their spots.

Eventually, it was a foregone conclusion that Alphonse, the highest ranking and least popular knight, would be pushed into the role of knight commander.

“Here, I brought the sword you requested.”

However, when news of the knight commander losing to a little boy in a one-on-one duel spread through the capital, it quickly reached the emperor’s ears, leading to immense pressure to resolve the situation before the emperor became furious, resulting in the knight commander losing his position.

In the end, they had to find a new scapegoat.

And the knights who looked down on Alphonse for wanting to give up the position of knight commander could relieve their anger by kicking him out of the order.

Taking away his treasured sword was just a bonus.

“Thank you, kids… I’m really grateful to you for finding it…”

[Grad Student Save Me: With Alphonse having reclaimed the Ashutai sword, he will tell you the way out of the capital. Just follow his instructions.]

“What’s wrong with a knight commander struggling with his juniors? Plus, isn’t your father a Swordmaster?”

Adella asked with an air of disbelief.

“I was, after all, born a commoner. When I was at the academy, Lord Shippot adopted me.”

“A commoner? Yet you made it to the central knights, so you must have had quite the talent with a sword?”

“No, I had no talent whatsoever. I barely managed to dodge expulsion from the academy, and normally I wouldn’t have even dreamed of joining the knighthood.”

“That doesn’t make sense. If you’re not recognized for your skills, you can’t join the central knights.”

“That too was due to Lord Shippot forcibly enrolling me in the knighthood. Honestly, I still don’t understand why he rated me so highly.”

Alphonse lowered his head to the ground, looking gloomy.

The one who knew his own worth best was none other than Alphonse himself.

After Lord Shippot passed away in the heretic war, Alphonse was thrown into a thorny path.

The ‘Ashutai sword’ bequeathed to him by his father was something he could not stop questioning endlessly.

Why did his father hold him in high regard? The reply was always the same.

[Persevere.]

In the end, after twenty years of swinging swords and honing his swordsmanship with excruciating effort, all he achieved was a disgraceful forced retirement.

“I should have tried to apply for the magic department instead of pushing myself into the knight department back then…”

A casual remark caught Namé’s attention, and she suddenly asked him a question.

“Do you know a bit of magic?”

“Magic… I liked magic when I was young. Was it Isabella…? Now the name is fuzzy in my mind. My childhood friend Bella would keep telling me about the magic she’d learned by herself in the library with a chirpy voice whenever she got a chance. Deciding to come to the capital was all thanks to that child.”

“Then why did you apply for the knight department?”

“But Bella liked men who wielded swords and wore armor. So without knowing, I aimed to be a proper knight and only practiced swordsmanship. Ha! Sounds silly, right? In the end, it turned out I was completely unsuited for it.”

Alphonse sighed heavily, lamenting his fate.

Ten years, twenty years of dedication, and he thought things would change, but his skills were even worse than those of fresh recruits in their late teens who just joined the knighthood.

As we exited the winding forest path, we didn’t realize that the topic of conversation was far from enjoyable.

When we reached a hill where the capital’s castle walls were visible in the distance, he drove his sword into the ground with a thud.

Kneeling on one knee, he brought his other arm to his chest, parallel to the ground.

With his head slightly bowed, Alphonse expressed his gratitude to us with utmost politeness.

“The Ashutai sword was the only keepsake Lord Shippot left for me. I cannot thank you enough for finding it…”

Adella, uncomfortable with the somewhat intimate situation, scratched her head.

“But where are you planning to go now?”

“I have no reason to stay in the capital anymore, so I must return to my hometown. To where I truly belong.”

“Is that so…? Well, I wish you the best of luck.”

As Alphonse tried to turn his back, Namé pulled on his sleeve, turning his steps back.

“Is there something else you need?”

[Grad Student Save Me: No Name? There doesn’t seem to be a need to learn Alphonse’s swordsmanship here, does there? It doesn’t match well to teach Adella either.]

At the moment of parting, if Alphonse requested compensation, he would offer to teach them the swordsmanship he devoted his life to instead of money. That was what Namé had seen in the Tree Wiki.

“You know magic swordsmanship, right?”

Namé focused on Alphonse’s arm. Typically, someone using a greatsword would have both arms similarly developed in muscle.

However, Alphonse’s right arm was particularly thinner than his left. This was a common side effect that occurs when magic was improperly used during swordplay.

“Magic swordsmanship… it’s just a technique created by a talentless knight trying to survive.”

“Then could you show us just a short demonstration?”

“Well, if that’s the case…”

Alphonse drew the Ashutai sword.

With a deep breath, he concentrated and began to chant the incantation.

As he did so, two slender rings of light appeared around the greatsword, spinning in different directions.

“This is a technique I naturally picked up after wielding the sword for a long time, and it allows me to hit a bit harder.”

With a shout, Alphonse slammed the greatsword into the ground.

Boom—!

The stone floor was slightly dented. However, that was all there was to it.

Too much force exerted in his body caused the trajectory to be unstable. In fact, it was even slightly off from the intended target.

“Ah, I missed again… Is that good enough? I hope you manage to reclaim the laurel wreath.”

Alphonse couldn’t hide his disappointed expression as he sheathed his sword.

As expected, his strike was at a level that was certainly failing for a swordsman.

“I’ve never seen anyone so lacking in talent. If it were like this, I might as well have applied to the knight order instead of the academy.”

After Alphonse left, Adella commented as if the air had been let out of her balloon.

“Unique Magic…?”

However, Namé, seemingly unable to believe it, continued to watch Alphonse’s receding figure for quite some time.

‘Someone who struggles even to handle his own body is said to have founded a unique magic regarding swords?’

Looking only at the shallow dent on the sword blade, it didn’t seem that impressive, but,

There were clear signs of the earth cracking a full thirty steps away from where Alphonse had struck.

“What a waste of talent. If he had just worked a bit harder, it could have been different.”

Talent, true talent, is what this expression referred to.