Chapter 570

The content of the fourth day’s lecture was about explaining the Ka`har and evaluating the effectiveness of the assignments submitted by the students.

Since the Ka`har, excluding their cavalry, were no different from the Westerners, there wasn’t much to explain, so most of the lecture time was focused on the latter.

Fortunately, evaluating the students’ assignments wasn’t too difficult. All I had to do was recite the evaluations Ferne had already written.

The desire for alcohol must have been incredibly strong, as Ferne managed to grade all eighty assignments and write comments within less than two days after I took away her alcohol and assigned her the task. Even I was a bit surprised.

Judging by the occasional mix of Hersh’s handwriting, it wasn’t entirely Ferne’s work alone.

If I ever need to assign her something again, I’ll make sure to take away her alcohol first.

“With this, the four-day special lecture is now complete. Good job, everyone.”

I placed the chalk on the lectern and gave a light bow to the students.

“If you don’t forget what you’ve learned over the past three days, you should be able to survive at least once or twice in a life-threatening situation. So, make sure to remember it.”

Though it was a short lecture, I had now taught them all the basic survival skills. The rest was up to them.

Whether they survive and grow stronger or fail and lose their lives—I could only hope for the former.

“I look forward to seeing you grow into pillars who will support the Empire through diligent study and training.”

With those sincere words of encouragement, I left the lecture hall amidst the students’ applause. Surprisingly, I felt quite satisfied.

=============

Hassharl’s lecture caused both shock and controversy.

The knights were astonished to learn that it was possible to subjugate enemies in such a way, while the nobles debated the authenticity of the lecture’s content.

In truth, it was Hassharl himself who needed to prove the validity of his methods, but true to his nature, he had no interest in proving anything.

After all, it was impossible to prove without capturing monsters and other races and performing a dissection show.

Thus, whether Hassharl’s methods would be adopted into the knight order’s guidelines was entirely up to Leopold’s judgment. Even if adopted, they would only be useful against monsters for the time being.

“Hmm…”

It was a somewhat difficult decision for Leopold as well. If they adopted it recklessly and suffered significant losses, it would be quite troublesome.

“For now, hire adventurers to test it on weaker monsters. Then, we’ll reconsider whether to adopt it.”

Leopold’s choice was to use lives that could be bought with money.

Most adventurers weren’t even at the level of squires, so a perfect test was impossible, but they could at least handle imps.

“And to any noble who proves its effectiveness using their own private soldiers, I will personally reward them. That should suffice.”

Leopold didn’t expect many nobles to risk their private soldiers for mere monetary rewards, but even one or two would be enough for him.

After all, one test was usually enough.

=============

After finishing the lecture and collecting the hefty lecture fee from the academy, I spent my days training during the day and writing about strategies for dealing with high-level monsters at night.

It wasn’t for the academy students but for the Imperial Knight Order, who would face such monsters directly. Whether they adopted it or not was their choice.

In any case, I spent my days like that. It wasn’t as fulfilling as hunting monsters, but it was still a productive time.

Originally, I had planned to hunt monsters and accumulate feats, but unfortunately, the monsters appearing near the Empire weren’t worth the effort.

Unlike the Life Force Technique, which could kill civilians indiscriminately, enemies worthy of a hero’s feats didn’t appear that often.

Rather than hunting down creatures that offered no help in getting stronger, it was much more efficient to leave monster hunting to my companions and focus on my own training.

So, I spent my time refining my swordsmanship and techniques, becoming more precise and familiar with their use. That was until a messenger from Leopold or Ludwig came to seek my help.

If Leopold called, it would be about finding Nidhogg’s corpse. If Ludwig called, it would be about the Ka`har starting to move.

I couldn’t tell which would come first, but either way, both were significant matters that couldn’t be ignored.

—-

Perhaps because I left monster hunting to my companions, they began to grow stronger at an impressive rate.

Though they sometimes returned covered in wounds, thanks to the divine artifacts from the Holy Kingdom, most monsters were easily defeated, so it was only natural they grew stronger.

No one had yet broken through their limits, but they were all reaching the top tier among masters. A good thing, indeed.

Freide also spent the first few days visiting my training ground to spar with me, but after being completely defeated several times, she eventually gave up and now spent her time hunting monsters with Damien’s group.

She must have realized that the only way to close the fundamental gap between us was to accumulate deeper feats.

Her recent goal was to defeat me with Milia and Damien. Well, it still seemed like a long way off.

Ferne, when sober, was busy devising ways to more effectively kill fairies by referencing the students’ ideas and my lecture content. When not sober, she was busy dragging Hersh around and drunkenly rambling.

From my perspective, it seemed like she’d die before the fairies did. She might even make history as the first Fairy Guardian to die of cirrhosis or stomach cancer.

From the fairies’ perspective, it would be a disgrace, but in a way, it could be seen as a petty revenge.

Ophelia went to the Mage Tower to meet Floheta, supposedly to get advice or information on magic, but returned a few hours later with a tired expression and served me a cup of black tea.

“Since when did you start serving black tea?”

“Well… I just realized how blessed my working environment is.”

She awkwardly turned her head and fiddled with the long magical cigarette in her mouth.

Apparently, Floheta’s condition at the Mage Tower was that of a complete wreck. And not just Floheta—all the mages in the tower were the same.

The team investigating Nidhogg had to spend their days in damp underground sewers, digging through the earth, while the rest were working day and night on the development of airships and new weapons under Leopold’s orders, barely getting any sleep.

It seemed to be a clear display of the hardships of being a state-employed researcher.

“Blueprints were piled up like mountains in the lab, failed prototypes littered the corridors, and you could even hear screams like, ‘How does a ship fly in the sky!?’ I barely managed to escape by using you as an excuse when they tried to recruit me.”

Ophelia shuddered as she recalled the experience.

So, she served me high-quality tea as a form of flattery.

They say to make someone appreciate their blessings, show them the misery of others. It seems that saying holds true.

Though it was typical of Ophelia to express gratitude with just a cup of tea.

…Anyway, judging by the state of things, it seems the invention of the airship will take a bit more time. A shame.

“If you’ve realized how blessed your environment is, why not focus on improving your skills? You don’t plan to end your life as just a high-level mage, do you?”

“I was already planning to do that. If I stayed in the capital any longer, I’d be dragged into the Mage Tower under the guise of ‘cooperation.'”

Hmm… It wasn’t an unfounded worry. If Leopold had asked me to lend Ophelia for the airship project, I might have agreed after some consideration.

In any case, Ophelia also began hunting monsters the next day.

Unlike the others, who returned to hunting as soon as they recovered from injuries, she occasionally returned to the mansion for a couple of days to “satisfy Claire’s needs.”

Lacey and Bels were so busy with the diocese’s affairs that they rarely left the cathedral, and Agnes seemed to have been assigned to the special dormitory I once used.

…As I expected, she had bought a taxidermied beastman from Freide to decorate her room.

Bethania stayed at Astraea’s cathedral, visiting me every four days to discuss the scriptures before returning.

All in all, it was a peaceful time.