Chapter 188 : The swordsmanship training starts with warm-up exercises
The arena.
The first-year students of class two were gathered there, each with a sword in hand, and lined up.
“Well, Shin-sensei, what would you like to start with? If nothing else, you plan to kill them, right?” Eldmed asked in a happy tone.
“No. There is a certain order in the way of the sword. First, we will do some light warm-up exercises. I would also like to get a grasp of everyone’s level of swordsmanship and physical abilities, so let us have them trade blows, shall we?” (Shin)
“Sounds good. All of you, pair up at random and spar! When the time is right, Shin-sensei and I will call out to you!” (Eldmed)
Eldmed hit the stone paving with his cane and grinned.
“Begin!” (Eldmed)
Each of the class-two students called out to the demons from the same clique and their close friends to form a training group.
“There’s seven of us, so that leaves one, right?” (Sasha)
When Sasha said that, Lay gave a refreshing smile.
“How about I take on two at the same time?” (Lay)
“Lay, you should take on Anos. Because there’s no one else who can match his freakishly huge strength.” (Sasha)
I quickly looked around the arena.
“Don’t mind me. I’ll find myself a random opponent.” (Anos)
“HUH?! W-What are you saying now?! As if any other student could practice with you in a serious sparring match!” (Sasha)
“Come on now, I have the body of a six-year-old. In terms of power, I’m equal to any of them.” (Anos)
After saying that, I walked off to find a training partner.
“…Equal…? Really…?” Sasha muttered next to Misha, who was shaking her head in response.
“Hey, Anosh. You got no partner? Pair up with me, then.” (???)
One of the students in black called out to me.
If memory serves me right, he was one of the students I had ripped into 888 pieces a while ago. (T/N : ref. ch.147, or S2 E5 of the anime. He was one of those who attacked Emilia and threatened to dismember Izabella when Anos intervened and tore them apart using threads without killing them.)
“Sure, why not.” (Anos)
“Alright. The name’s Ramon. Ramon Aiber.” (Ramon)
“Nice to meet you.” (Anos)
I drew a magic circle and put my hand in the center of it.
What I pulled out of it was a child-sized iron sword.
“Huh. So you can use storage magic. Pretty impressive for a little guy.” (Ramon)
“Oh, it’s nothing much.” (Anos)
“Say. How about we move someplace further away?” (Ramon)
“I wouldn’t mind if we stayed here, though.” (Anos)
“It’d be easier to practice in a wider space, right?” (Ramon)
Perhaps it was my imagination, but I sensed a hint of nastiness in Ramon’s smile.
What was he thinking, picking a transfer student for a sparring match?
“Fine, then.” (Anos)
Ramon and I moved to the edge of the arena.
I could see Sasha and the others looking at us with concern.
Though of course, I don’t think it was my safety they were worried about.
“Oh right, there’s something I’d like to ask you before we begin.” Ramon said while pulling out the demon sword at his waist.
“That black uniform you’re wearing, is it because you’re royalty?” (Ramon)
Unlike the one I used to wear, the uniform I was wearing was black.
The reason I changed it was simply because it’d be harder for people to find out who I really was if I wore a different one than when I was here as ‘Anos’, and for that same reason, I had magically altered my own magic power to make it look like I was part of royalty.
Anyone as skilled at detecting sources as Lay and Eleonore would’ve noticed it was me, but such people were rare, even two thousand years ago.
“The way Dilhade is now, referring to someone as ‘royalty’ doesn’t mean anything anymore, but yeah, I am.” (Anos)
At that moment, Ramon approached me and asked in a low voice.
“This conversation will stay between us. So what do you think of that?” (Ramon)
“I’m not sure I see the point of your question.” (Anos)
“Well, it’s not that I’m dissatisfied with it. It’s nothing like that, but I just wanna hear your unfiltered opinion of the way Dilhade is right now.” (Ramon)
I see.
Well, if all he wanted was someone to complain with in the academy, I didn’t mind leaving it at that, but maybe that wasn’t all it was.
The royal faction was dissolved per my order.
But only in appearance.
Even if I didn’t allow the existence of the royalists as an organization, it didn’t mean that I could change the feelings of their former members.
“Unfortunately, I’m only six years old. There’s a lot I don’t know about the world.” (Anos)
The moment I said that, Ramon smiled vulgarly.
“Then just for you, I’ll teach you what you gotta know. The world has gone crazy. We, the members of royalty, should be held in much higher regard than this. This is all because of those dumb laws about equality and fairness they made.” (Ramon)
No matter what was done, there was always a certain number of people who were dissatisfied with it.
Although, they were free to think whatever they wanted.
As long as they didn’t harm others.
“Hmm. Come to think of it, I heard that royals had some special privileges. Is this true?” I said, as if inquiring about it.
“Yeah, it is. Normally, we do. We’re the ones in charge. Here in Dilhade, us royals have gotta be the ones at the top of the hierarchy. Just between you and me, though, it looks like that Demon King of Tyranny was actually made up by the Unitarians.” Ramon uttered, as if it were the truth.
Good grief. What kind of nonsense was he trying to drill into a six-year-old’s head?
It appeared that what he was saying weren’t mere complaints.
“You think the Demon King of Tyranny is an impostor?” (Anos)
“Y-You idiot! Not so loud…!” (Ramon)
Despite being a considerable distance away from them, Ramon was watching Shin and Eldmed, as if he was scared.
After confirming that they weren’t paying attention to us, he sighed in relief.
“Maybe you didn’t realize, being a kid and all. But think about it reeeal hard, ‘kay? Don’t you think it was way too convenient that the ceremony of the second coming of the Demon King coincided with the gathering of the Hero Kanon, the Demon King’s right hand Shin, the Mother of Spirits Reno, and the Fake Demon KIng Avos Dilhevia? No matter how you look at it, this whole thing reeks of a setup.” (Ramon)
Was he serious about it, or was it just his way of recruiting me?
Either way, it didn’t seem like I would come to any decent conclusion.
“I’m not really up to date with that sort of topic. Are you saying that the Unitarians are the bad guys in this?” (Anos)
When I said this in a childlike manner, Ramon happily took the bait.
“Yeah, they are. I’d say the real Demon King of Tyranny never reincarnated. He died two thousand years ago. Taking advantage of that, those damn Unitarians had someone pass himself off as the reincarnated Demon King. And that’s the guy named Anos.” (Ramon)
“Huh. Well that’s interesting.” (Anos)
