Sword, Magic and Academic Society

Two weeks since entering the academy.

I found myself already with too much free time on my hands.

Up until now, I had a clear goal called 'exams' so I devoted all of my free time to studying, avoiding wasting even a single second. But after gaining admission, I realized that if I continued to follow the same routine and became a 'swotter' in this life as well, these three years of academy life would surely pass me by in the blink of an eye.

For the first two weeks after the afternoon lectures, I immersed myself in books related to emission magic in the Royal Library of the Royal Capital, which boasted the largest collection of books in this kingdom.

Books in this world were more valuable compared to my previous life, but as long as they were the students of Royal Academy, they could avail of the library's contents — which was quite huge even compared to my previous life's standards — free of charge and borrow up to three books, except for some special ones.

I headed straight for the library and began my research on how to use external magic. Most of my time was spent like this...

This was just to pass the time and wasn't considered studying, so I persuaded myself. However, I felt that what I was doing was no different than what I did in the school days of my previous life— that was, going to the library from school, sticking around until closing time, borrowing the necessary books, quickly eating some soba noodles on my way home, and then continue self-studying until bed-time. The question 'What am I even doing?' along with a feeling of impatience strongly welled up inside me.

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Two weeks later, after reading all the related books but finding not a single hint, the impatience inside me had grown to the point that it was getting harder to hold it in. At this rate, all I would do was either study or practice my sword swings...

In the beginning, I even casually thought of 'let's join a fun-looking club'. But upon enrolling, I discovered that there were hardly any active clubs. The Hill Road Club I had established at the suggestion of Godorfun held its activity before morning lessons. I couldn't let the Hill Road Club fill up my free time in the evenings or holidays.

As a matter of fact, after confirming my classmates were running at their own pace, I listened to everyone's 'goals' and came up with a detailed training plan that I passed among the club members. The key points we decided were— they would be divided into two groups, one would be running from the back gate to the main gate, while another group would follow the same route as mine, a whole round around the Academy's perimeter as well as several hill dashes. Aside from that were trifling matters such as departure time among other things and after that, their morning training started.

For the rest, as long as they were capable enough, they might give this training more thought and come up with another training plan of their own.

However, there was one strict rule I had set: anyone unable to complete three hill dashes, along with the 40km route around the Academy's perimeter within an hour and forty-five minutes would be placed in the second team where they would have to take the half-route (even though it was a shortcut through the school grounds, it was still around 30km).

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The majority of my classmates, the cream of the crop, were placed in the 2nd group. As each of them was someone who was the star of their families and must have been lavished with praises, it was a sight to behold when their faces scrunched up as if they were forced to swallow a bitter bug when I announced "You are in the 2nd group because you lack the skills suitable enough for this Hill Road Club. If you feel indignant, either raise your abilities quickly or just give up."

Some of them even had tears in their eyes. I kind of felt sorry for them, but that was something I must ignore.

Why did the situation come to this? This was entirely to improve my situation and clear the task given to me by Godorfun. If they wanted to complain, Godorfun was the one to blame here.

In case they did manage to get into the 1st group through hard work, they should be able to recover enough mana to attend morning classes properly even if they started running from 5 a.m. And even if they couldn't move up, they would still grow to a level where they could recover somewhat before the start of morning classes with two months of running the half-lap course.

If they got fed up and quit, they would be exempt from the challenge without any risk.

Kukuku. That was right, it was a plan that ensured my victory through and through. My excuse was impeccable. The half route didn't fall under the condition of Godorfun's "clearing the condition by slacking off on those who are motivated."

I simply established a training method suitable for their current abilities, responding to their motivation. The crucial point was my training plan to appear suitable. As long as they surpassed their past selves, this would prove that my devised solution was for the best, leaving Godorfun with no excuses left to complain about.

To establish the fact that they were giving it their all, I didn't forget to adjust to my classmates' starting times every morning to pass by them all while checking on their runs and encouraging them.

"Don't think with your head! I said the same thing yesterday! Go home!"

"You are relying too much on body strengthening! Go home!"

"Don't look with your eyes! See with your heart and feel with the soles of your feet! Or just give up!"

While saying things even I didn't quite understand, I pushed them with unreasonable harassment, intending to make everyone quit, but so far, not a single person has given up. However, I'm sure a quitter would surely appear sooner or later.

I was a living example of how much such unjustifiable words of discouragement from my boss, even though I was giving it my all, sapped away the will of a person.

On a side note, if someone did climb from the 2nd group to the 1st group, despite my emphasizing 'running the designated course' that much, the course would suddenly change, but as far as I was concerned, I wouldn't acknowledge such a fact.

I would stick to my own plan without changing and safely clear my task. I just needed to ensure that.

Getting back on track, the activities of the Hill Road Club were no longer under my control. And now, two weeks after my enrolment, I suddenly found myself with lots of time to spare.

This inevitably pushed me to study and focus on my swordsmanship, but I had the feeling that if I called this my 'hobby' without a definite goal, I might not be able to traverse my path of freedom. It was hardly any different from aimlessly studying to acquire qualifications. When I thought of that, I moved to an unpopular spot after breakfast to utilize that free time and practiced 'fireball'.

However, in a place that should not have any passerby, a man, seemingly an occupant of the Royal Academy's general dormitory dog house, showed up with a basket woven from plants on his back. His appearance was like "a village man going out to gather firewood in the mountains."

Out of curiosity, I decided to strike up a conversation.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Allen Rovenne. Where are you going, senpai?"

I didn't know what grade he was from, but given his appearance, he shouldn't be in the same grade as me. The boy showed a surprised expression when he heard my name and answered.

"So you're Allen Rovenne from Class 1-A? I am Riyad Gufus from Class 3-B. I heard from the rumors that you're an eccentric guy, a schizophrenic, or the lust incarnate but you seem quite normal to me."

Perhaps recalling the rumors, Riyad-senpai let out a hearty laugh.

"Ahahaha. Rumors in the end are just rumors after all."

I also smiled back to play it down. But Gufus, huh?... It was a name missing from my mental database. So I guess he must be from an unremarkable baron family or someone of commoner origin.

"What are you doing in this general dormitory?"

Riyad-senpai asked with a puzzled expression.

"Huh? Of course, because I live here. I just finished my morning breakfast from the dorm mother and was practicing here to kill time."

Hearing my words, Riyad-senpai's eyes turned weird as if he was looking at an incredibly eccentric person.

"Ohh... Morning breakfast, huh?... You must have passed the qualification for Class A, right? Aren't you going to move to the aristocratic dormitory?"

"I don't feel the need to. And you too, senpai, aren't you from Class B? Why are you here?"

"In my case, my family runs a pharmacy. I go to the nearby mountains from time to time to collect medicinal herbs and mushrooms as part of my future studies, and then sell them to my family. Due to the location, this general dormitory near the back gate is more convenient to commute from for such reasons."

"Since I'm not from a noble family, I can take care of my own needs to a certain extent," Riyad-senpai brushed it off with a casual smile.

My favorability for senpai shot up in my mind. There's no need to mention his point but considering he was going to graduate from Class B, he surely was an elite with a promising future. Still, I didn't feel a shred of arrogance from him. And considering he didn't put the aristocratic dormitory into his eyes for his own convenience was also praiseworthy.

"Are you going to collect herbs? If you don't mind, can I come with you?"

I asked quite naturally, though senpai seemed rather surprised by my request.

"I don't mind but it's honestly a mundane task, and not particularly interesting. I don't think it'll be helpful for your future. I've never heard of the members of the kingdom's Knight Order gathering medicinal herbs by themselves."

"I have yet to decide if I will join the Knight Order. Maybe, I'll become an explorer. As for greenhorn explorers, their job is often to collect medicinal herbs, right? You never know when these things may come in handy in your life. So, please let me come along."

An explorer's debut quest was to collect medicinal herbs, and following that, a newcomer returned with loads of medicinal herbs, surprising the pretty receptionist who thought he was just an impertinent newcomer— it was the epitome of development in an isekai reincarnation story. Though it's a pity I don't have cheat but covert training, it wasn't a bad idea to learn about medicinal herbs harvesting So I decided to tread on the template. I have nothing but free time on my hands, after all.

While such thoughts were cooking inside my brain, senpai casually dashed away my hopes.

"Ahaha. Now I understand, you're indeed quite an eccentric person. But I don't think you'll ever get the quest to collect medicinal herbs. Students of the Royal Academy are assigned as D-ranks when they register as an explorer, and after graduating, they are unconditionally promoted to C-rank. There's no worthwhile quest for medicinal herb collection for Rank D in the areas near the Royal Capital."

...I never asked for such privileges...

I had already acquired the D-rank explorer's right that our gardener Oliver had worked so hard to achieve.

But I guess it was alright. I was genuinely interested in this world's materials. I had amassed a fair bit of knowledge from books, but the chance to learn from an expert and gain hands-on experience was invaluable.

I bowed my head at a 45-degree angle to reiterate my desire to accompany him.

Senpai graciously accepted my request.