Chapter 101: 057. Imperial Prince Saw Him -1 (Part One)
**
“Well then, we’ll start the sparring session now.”
The academy’s instructor tightly held a wooden sword as his eyes became bloodshot. With a deeply-tense expression, he stared at the opponent before him, Charlotte Heraiz.
He addressed her. “Go easy on me, Charlotte.”
She silently nodded her head.
The instructor swallowed back his dry saliva. Sweat trickled down the hand gripping the wooden sword.
How long had it been since the last time he felt this nervous?
He glanced at his surroundings.
The gazes from the students were pricking his skin. He also saw the Paladins in charge of the academy’s security as well.
All of their attention was focused on him.
‘I’m screwed.’
Cold sweat also began gushing down the instructor’s face. While everyone was watching, he had to confront the girl right in front of him.
She was only seventeen years old.
To the instructor who had wielded the sword far longer than she’d been alive, this sparring was not something he could back away from.
But how embarrassing would it be if he lost to this girl?
No, hang on – it shouldn’t be a disgraceful thing to lose to her. She already defeated many other instructors by now, after all.
‘Eleven in total…’
That was the number of the instructors that went down trying to ‘spar’ against her. All of those people lived their lives while relying on their sword and yet, none of them could win against a single seventeen year-old girl.
But all of those results so far came about through sparring sessions that purely tested one’s swordsmanship technique.
However…
‘…In this sparring, we’re allowed to use either divinity or Mana!’
She was still a little runt who hadn’t mastered a proper way to wield divinity or Mana. If the instructor fought against such a girl, then he’d surely have an overwhelming advantage!
‘That’s right! Since I’m about to be embarrassed here, let me at least fight you with everything I have! I shall show the true extent of my skill that nearly got me through the entrance test of the elite organisation, the Heavenly Army!’
“Fuu-heuph!’
The instructor immediately injected his divinity into the wooden sword. Powerful waves of divine power whipped around his surroundings. The students and the Paladins gathered around to spectate all gasped out in admiration.
The instructor formed a satisfied smile.
Indeed, take a good look! Look at my skill that was almost good enough to enter the Heavenly Army… No, wait! Any order of the cross that I wanted to!
With this one strike of mine, I shall defeat you, Charlotte! And I will regain the honour and pride of the instructors of the Humite Academy in the process!
“Oh, the god of war Heim!”
The instructor brought out all of his power. He squeezed out every drop of strength residing within his body.
“Grant me your grace, your strength, to defeat my enemy-!”
Not even once before in his life did the instructor squeeze out so much divinity out of himself or pray this fervently to his god.
The instructor let out a spirited roar, “Uwooooooh-!”
He strengthened his body with divinity, and then raised the wooden sword in his hands. Burning spirit could be felt oozing out from his whole frame.
Charlotte stared at the instructor. She felt the kind of charisma from him that no other instructors could match up to.
His determination-filled appearance reminded one of a noble warrior about to confront a demon king.
“Now, behold! Charlotte, this is the true form of a Paladin who can unify his sword with divi…”
Divinity began gushing out from Charlotte’s sword in the next instant.
“…!”
The instructor’s brows shot up high.
Not even a hint of flicker could be seen on the gentle waves of light.
The energy of divine nature and her wooden sword became one and went onto create a blade of pure light.
Anyone could tell the clear difference between her sword and the instructor’s attempt where divinity was leaking out everywhere.
She gently sucked in her breath before exhaling out. Divinity exited along with her breathing.
The tip of her wooden sword was slowly lowered, and it ever so faintly scratched the ground, causing the floor to split apart as if it was a block of tofu being cut down by a famous treasured sword.
It was a chantless activation where she didn’t offer up a prayer. But even then, the firm and sturdy blade of light formed out of pure divinity still manifested without any issues.
The instructor bearing witness to this sight felt his bowels tighten.
Despite being so young, the light in his opponent’s eyes were scarily sharp. On top of that, her sense of presence came across as large as a mountain.
The overwhelming difference in their skills ruthlessly pressured the instructor’s entire being.
Eventually, he failed to withstand this pressure and his lips parted open all on their own. “Bloody hell, this is…”
It was right then, Charlotte dashed forward.
She swung her divinity-infused wooden sword, cleanly slicing apart the instructor’s own wooden sword in the process.
Was that really all? Now strengthened by divinity, she was as powerful as the gale-force winds.
She merely cut down her opponent’s wooden sword and brushed past him, yet the floor of the drill hall caved in deeply while the instructor was viciously flung away to a distance and he ungainly rolled on the ground, after he failed to withstand the impact force.
“Keo-uhk!”
He spat out a pained grunt.
He tried standing back up, but his legs lost all strength and he plopped back down on his butt.
The spectating Paladins and students were freaking out by what they just saw.
“H-how, how did you, that level of… enlightenment…?”
The instructor’s whole body was shivering nonstop. His life, built up on the foundation of decades of swordsmanship, was crumbling down in this one single instant.
He stared at Charlotte.
She didn’t even have a bit of hesitation in her movement. That clean, smooth strike earlier was so gorgeous that even the instructor became entranced by it.
Charlotte looked back at the downed instructor and performed a simple greeting befitting a proper knight. “Thank you for your guidance. It was a good match.”
With this, twelve people had fallen.
There were no more instructors remaining in the academy that she could fight against. The defeated instructor’s head faltered as if he felt unhappy at this outcome.
**
(TL: In 1st person POV.)
The warm spring breeze was gently flowing through the open windows.
“…Your highness. Imperial Prince-nim?”
Someone was shaking me out of my slumber. I barely managed to crack open my eyelids and raise my head to take a look.
Charlotte was looking at me from above. “It’s already lunch hour, your highness.”
I somehow ended up falling asleep in the library.
While standing back up, I yawned and stretched my limbs.
Heis was on standby at the library’s entrance, and he nodded his head while looking back at me.
Man, it’s already lunch time?
We walked down the academy’s corridor.
Plenty of students were out and about, since it was lunch time and all that. However, quite a lot of people were staring at Charlotte as we walked past them. It didn’t matter whether they were a boy or a girl, their faces were heating up from just looking at her.
“…Did something happen?”
I asked her, but Charlotte tilted her head to indicate that she also had no clue what was going on here.
We continued walking down the corridor and eventually spotted a crowd of students gathered in front of the cafeteria. They were murmuring among themselves while staring at a certain poster placed up on the wall.
[A banquet to celebrate the special envoy from Aslan.]
I couldn’t help but frown a bit after checking out the poster.
What the heck, a banquet? Weren’t they from our enemy nation? Was there a need to hold a celebratory banquet for them? And since the poster was plastered on the wall of the academy, it implied that the organisers wanted the scions of the noble families studying in this place to attend, didn’t it?
Charlotte must’ve read my expression, because she began explaining without my prompt. “It’s an established custom whenever an envoy from another kingdom visits the empire. It’s normal for the envoy to pay a visit and take a look at the key facilities in the area.”
“And what do they do, exactly?”
“They hold banquets. Honestly, it’ll be rather simpler to see it as an ostentatious display to emphasize the greatness of the Theocratic Empire.”
“A banquet that’s also a… display, is it?”
Hang on, is there something to ‘display’ ostentatiously during a banquet, anyways?
“The banquet itself will be held within the hall of the academy, and at the same time, a festival and an athletics showcase will be held on the streets of Humite. Various athletic activities that include sparring, shooting, high jump, sprinting, handball, horse riding, gymnastics, and etc., are being prepared at the moment.”
“…Isn’t that like the Olympics?”
Judging from the scale of the event alone, it sounded like we weren’t talking about your average field and track event, but the full-blown Olympics instead.
I mean, numerous nobles’ children attended the academy. Not only that, the nobles of other nations also were here, so the number of participants alone would be well over five hundred.
And I heard from her just now that even regular citizens were allowed to participate, which meant that the overall scale should be quite considerable.
I asked her, “Will it even be worth it?”
“The quality of the education system basically signifies the kingdom’s overall national strength. In addition, the plan is to perform an official military inspection before the banquet as well. By displaying the might of the Order of the Golden Cross, the organisers most likely wish to emphasize the empire’s strength.”
“…Oh, really?”
Since Aslan, an enemy nation to the empire, was involved this time, I thought that there was a good chance of the festivities being quite over the top in spectacle.
It was probably okay to assume this whole thing as a sort of an armed protest, if you will.
After going through this ‘banquet’, the folks from Aslan would have to think seriously hard about what kind of a bribe they needed to grease the Holy Emperor, Kelt Olfolse’s palms.
“Hmm, so basically, it has nothing to do with me then. Wait, are you two going to participate?”
Charlotte and Heis both nodded their heads.
“If your results are good during the competition, you can even earn the financial support of the Imperial Family.”
She explained further and Heis animatedly nodded several times more.
“You can bring more fame to your family’s…”
“Ooh?! Heis, it’s been a while!”
Heis’s expression hardened in an instant from that voice.
Charlotte and I turned our heads and took a look at who was trying to talk to him.
Three boys walked up to our group, then one of them slung his arm around Heis’s shoulders. This boy opened his mouth. “It’s been so long since your punishment came to an end, so how could you not come and say hello to us? And here I was, so worried that you got dragged back to the northern frontiers again.”
I began tilting my head in confusion, and that prompted Charlotte to whisper in my ear. “They are scions from the duke and marquis households.”
Aha, these were the punks who framed Heis in the past?
By the way, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the fact that Charlotte knew who they were. It couldn’t be that she memorised the list of all the nobles attending the academy, could it?
I shifted my gaze over to Heis next. Unfitting for that big frame of his, he was making an awkward expression while trying to dissuade the boys. “S-seniors, how about discussing my story lat…”
“Oh, and who are these fine folks?”
The boys ignored him and approached us.
Maybe they practised swordsmanship or something because their physiques were quite considerable for their age.
They briefly stared at me before shifting their attention to Charlotte, only for their faces to freeze up right there and then.
