Volume 2 Chapter 2 Training, Start!
The day I was supposed to leave my territory to begin my training had arrived.
A six-hundred meter dreadnought-cla.s.s battleship was prepped and ready for my departure at the s.p.a.ceport.
When I looked at it- I couldn’t help but be dissatisfied.
“No, I want to use my flagship-cla.s.s battleship here.”
A flagship-cla.s.s battleship over a thousand meters long will stand out just from its size.
Even though I had bought three of them, there’d be no point if they were never used.
Amagi rejected my opinion,
“The training of the crew hasn’t been completed. In addition to that, it’s been judged that the dreadnought-cla.s.s battleships are the ideal size to use for the s.p.a.ceport owned by the Razel viscount house. In any case, if we send out more ships than this, we’ll be perceived as a threat.”
The fleet prepared for my departure consisted of three-hundred ships.
As a count, I wondered if this was fine– but I understood that I wouldn’t really want a large fleet knocking at my door either.
“I want to increase the number to show off my power.”
“Don’t stir up trouble with the people who’re going to take care of you. Master, it’s time to leave.”
The surroundings were full of people who had come to see me off.
Officials, soldiers, housekeepers– Brian was there too, crying like usual.
“Lord Liam, I hope you grow quite splendidly.”
He always seemed to be crying for one reason or another, but I was only going to be gone for three years.
From a personal opinion, I actually quite doubted I’d grow that much as an individual.
Afterall, this was just training in name only. I was going to pampered while living in luxury.
“I’ll try to meet your expectations Brian.”
“Lord Liam!”
Brian was crying out my name, but I ignored him and turned to Amagi,
“–I’ll leave things to you for now.”
Amagi smiled,
“Understood.”
◇ ◇ ◇
The residence of the Razel family.
The servants had lined up to welcome Peter, of the Peetak house.
His pink hair was set quite flashy, and his skin was a wheat-like tan.
He didn’t look like the heir of a high-n.o.ble.
His body was thin and he didn’t seem to have had much training.
“Heh~ so this is the mansion I’ll be staying at? Quite impressive for a viscount.”
With his slow and informal tone, he sounded like he was looking down on Randolph.
Randolf could feel his temper rising,
(He seems a bit stupid, but I need to endure this for our future contacts. This is all for the glory of the Razel house.)
Randolph hid his true feelings and answered Peter with a smile,
“I’m glad it’s to your liking. We’re throwing a party to celebrate your arrival, it must’ve been a tiring trip, so I hope you can join us and take a break.”
“Understood, then I’ll allow you to guide me to my quarters.”
Randolph didn’t falter at Peter’s att.i.tude.
The reason was because of the mountain of offerings his parents had sent over.
When compared with the amount sent over, an att.i.tude of this degree was still permissible.
“That’s right, I’m also thinking of having my daughter be your personal guide from tomorrow on.”
His daughter was to be Peter’s guide- this was all for the sake of the two’s marriage.
Even though he didn’t see any value in Peter’s himself, he’d still like to establish a relationship with the Peetak family.
Therefore, he decided to give his daughter over as a bride.
One of the benefits of accepting n.o.ble children as a place to study at was the ability to easily find potential fiancées.
People would come to make a connection under the pretense of training.
Therefore, marriage talks and the like could be smoothly finished in no time.
Peter responded after hearing this,
“The viscount’s daughter? Is she beautiful?”
-he didn’t seem to understand.
But Randolph laughed and forgave him,
(A man of this level will be easy for my daughter to manipulate.)
This person was trash, but his family was something he wanted a connection to.
That’s what Randolph thought.
◇ ◇ ◇
The residence of the Razel house was wide.
Compared to my mansion, it was a little narrow, but it was still pretty large.
After arriving at the s.p.a.ceport, I came to the residence with the other n.o.ble children.
Knights of the viscount house had acted as our guides.
Even though they had the corresponding position, they didn’t seem to be official imperial knights.
“These will be your living quarters from today onwards.”
They had lead us over to double-rooms.
Everyone was yelling out “Impossible!”, but the knights ignored them.
“You aren’t guests, you’re here to train. As such you will follow our policies.”
They were relatively clean rooms, but they didn’t seem to be enough to satisfy the n.o.ble children.
What did I think?
-The room I lived in during my previous life’s death was definitely worse than this.
I thought they were just going to pamper us, but it looks like they’re going to take the training seriously.
The knight raised his voice,
“Leave your luggage here, change your clothes and start running laps! Go!”
When I entered my room to deposit my luggage, there was a man from a baron house named [Kurt Sera Exner] who was a.s.signed to be my roommate.
—whew, I win. My house was of a higher rank than his.
The knight started yelling as I thought of such things,
“Hurry it up!”
One of the n.o.ble children started yelling back in retaliation,
“Don’t think you can get away with this, you’re just a lowly knight. Don’t you know who I am? I’m the second son of the-”
“Who the h.e.l.l cares?! This is Viscount Razel’s territory! Your house doesn’t matter!”
The child who resisted was beaten, and the other children who witnessed it suddenly began to move in earnest.
Naturally, I changed my clothes and proceeded to the training grounds.
“I will re-train the values of those of you who’re still clinging to your house’s names!”
The knight’s enthusiasm was in full swing.
-it looks like there was no luxurious life waiting for me in the Razel house.
“d.a.m.n it, don’t you think that this was different from what we were told?”
As I complained, I couldn’t help but notice the my roommate actually had quite the nice face.
He had blonde, bob-cut hair.
His eyes were purple and his other features had an effeminate beauty to them.
At an extent, his face was flawless.
—this kind of upset me.
The knight was outside our dormitory, standing in front of the building’s garden, which to us had become our new training ground to do laps.
“First we’ll build up your stamina with daily runs! You hear me?! From now on, we’ll be doing this every morning!”
Amagi, Brian, why did the two of you choose this place for me to study at?
The ‘training’ life I had imagined had disappeared on the very first day.
◇ ◇ ◇
A week had pa.s.sed since the most recent set of n.o.ble children had arrived.
Randolf had gathered the knights in charge of education, and listened to their evaluation of this year’s batch of children.
The lowest ratings were given to of course- Peter.
“Lord Randolph, make sure to keep an eye on him. He takes naps during cla.s.s because he’s been playing around with women in his chambers every night until morning.”
Peter was taking cla.s.ses together with the other n.o.ble children that the viscount wanted to make connections with.
Their training regimen was separate from Liam’s.
“Yes, I’ll look into it.”
However, because he already considered him a fool, Randolph didn’t really care.
He didn’t have any expectations for Peter as an individual.
“And what about the other children we accepted?”
The knight who was in charge of Liam reported,
“I had to use a little force on the first day, but since then they’ve quieted down. There’s always a variation in personal education from house-to-house, but we should be ready for a full-fledged education within a year.”
Randolph lowered his voice into a whisper,
“Are there any children in particular that stand out?”
“First, there’s Kurt of the Exner house. The talent and personality of this individual is quite admirable. Then there’s Liam of the Banfield house. He’s quite interesting.”
Randolph replied,
“The Banfield house, really?”
Randolph remembered that the Banfields had sent one of their sons.
They were an impudent house that sent over an entire fleet consisting of three-thousand ships, pushing all the labor and maintenance costs onto his viscount house.
The quality of the ships weren’t even that good, and the skill level of the private military’s crew was poor.
There was nothing to see there.
(On the other hand the Peetak house seems to have procured the latest models of ships. As I thought, the Peetak house truly was the correct choice to a.s.sociate with.)
The Peetak house brought a fleet consisting of three hundred ships.
However, immediately after dropping Peter off, they quickly returned to their territory to not burden Randolph with the costs of supplies and maintenance.
Their quick response time and level of skill quite impressed him.
They were supposed to be a n.o.ble’s private forces, but many of them were only trained to be at the same level as pirates.
Under such circ.u.mstances, Randolph couldn’t help but admire the Peetak family’s forces, which had both quality and skill comparable to the imperial army.
That, compared to the other two who were studying at the Razel house…
“I see, educate them both strictly.”
“Understood!”
Randolph didn’t expect much from those the knights had to teach.
The only important one was Peter.
-As a side note, although the fleet of three-hundred ships belonged to the Banfield house, the viscount misunderstood them to be of the Peetak house.
◇ ◇ ◇
Three months had pa.s.sed since I had started my training.
“Hmm? This is unexpectedly easy.”
Everyday, I was living the life of physical exercise, taking lessons, and doing servant work from morning to night.
But I noticed.
—it was very easy.
There was no need to process electronic doc.u.ments in an office, and there was no need to deal with troublesome individuals.
The exercises they put us through weren’t even that hard.
Master’s One-Flash training was more difficult.
The day’s morning exercise was finished so I started having breakfast in the cafeteria while chatting with my uppercla.s.smen.
This training period was supposed to last three years.
I was able to meet up with other n.o.ble children taken into the Viscount family, and was able to build a nice senior-junior relationship with them.
“Did you hear? Apparently the rich people are going to have another party today.”
“The third years are the one’s setting it up.”
“They’re also the ones who’re going to be serving them.”
The first years did ch.o.r.es, while the second years would start their full-fledged education.
As third years, they’d get to partic.i.p.ate in parties held in the viscount house.
However, they weren’t partic.i.p.ating as invited guests.
“Hey Liam, isn’t that your roommate?”
Turning towards the corner of the cafeteria, I could see Kurt eating alone.
—I didn’t really like that att.i.tude he took that seemed to say he was different from everyone else.
“I don’t really talk to him.”
As I said so, the uppercla.s.smen resumed their talk,
“Isn’t he the heir to a baron house? Man, that must be nice~”
“You guys, watch your words. What if he decides to take revenge after he inherits his t.i.tle? Be careful.”
“Nah, he’d probably be too busy with work.”
It looks like the uppercla.s.smen have their own struggles to deal with.
Kurt left the cafeteria immediately after he finished his meal.
◇ ◇ ◇
Training Grounds.
The knight instructor was yelling at us like usual.
Even though he was an athlete, wasn’t he too hot-headed?
“From now on we’ll be training in pairs! This is the time to show off your specialties!”
As n.o.bles, we were required to know martial arts.
Because of that, everyone had something that they could consider their ‘specialty.’
Naturally- I chose a wooden sword to be my weapon.
Surprisingly, it was Kurt who asked if I could be his partner.
The wooden sword he chose was in the style of a double-edged western sword.
The stance he took was quite dignified.
Kurt turned his gaze towards me.
“-I’m not good at holding back, so I’ll apologise beforehand.”
When he told me that, I-
“The h.e.l.l, are you looking down on me? I’m a One-Flash user’s license holder.”
Kurt tilted his head,
“The One-Flash? I’ve never heard of that style before. Is it a minor school?”
I could feel my right-hand’s grip on my wooden sword tighten.
When the knight gave the signal, n.o.ble children everywhere began their matches around the field.
I tried to beat Kurt as the knight watched over our match.
“-?!”
—this guy was somehow able to receive my blow.
I was stunned for a moment after he somehow blocked my attack, but I quickly took my distance.
d.a.m.nit! If I make a mistake and seriously attack him, I might turn him into mince-meat.
But he’s not the kind of person who I can beat with pure speed.
Kurt held his sword at the ready and silently continued to stare at me.
-I could tell, he was strong.
◇ ◇ ◇
—Kurt’s mind was kicked into high gear.
(This guy is strong.)
After facing Liam, this conviction was only strengthened.
There were expectations for Liam to have a bit of strength, but this was beyond belief.
(I thought it was just some minor swordsmanship style, but what was that last attack? I feel like there was something similar to it in the other schools…)
Kurt Sera Exner was the heir to the Exner house.
The Exner house was gossiped about as an upstart, but it’s lord, the Baron- was a knight strong enough to be called a master swordsman.
He was strong enough to protect his territory as his land’s one and only knight.
Naturally, as his heir Kurt was then tempered from a young age.
With training akin to surviving on a live battlefield.
Kurt, who had already obtained the license to a famous swordsmanship school and was trained by a master, was sick and tired of this easy-going and warm environment.
Half a year had already been spent wondering if this was actually training or not.
But-
“–was that the secret technique of your minor school?”
Liam answered back,
“We’re called the One-Flash. Remember that.”
“Oh, I doubt I’ll ever forget.”
—Liam started to smile.
Seeing his stance, Kurt started sweating.
(If I don’t do this right, I’ll be taken out with one blow.)
Kurt’s heart was beating like crazy.
Like, before they even noticed, the tension between the two had skyrocketed, that was the kind of game they were playing.
To not miss even a single one of Liam’s movements, Kurt didn’t even blink.
(Where are you going to strike at? No, I don’t even think your sword can reach me.)
The two of them were still reading out the other without moving.
Liam let out a breath,
Then-
“Stop goofing off!”
The knights who were in charge of the lessons whacked both of them on the heads with their fists.