Chapter 5. Welcome to the summoner’s school. (8)
If I were to make up an excuse, I’d say it was because I was in the graduating cla.s.s.
I… I have nothing left to study.
It’s not like I became the council president for nothing. I’ve studied hard over the years, and thanks to that, I can graduate just by getting a pa.s.sing grade in 5 cla.s.ses. In other words… I don’t have anything to do!
That’s why I began trying to run away from that night study time along with the seniors who stayed in the school for five, six years. But…
“Th, the h.e.l.l?! Why does the school even have traps like these?”
“What the?!”
Cages would fall from the sky, floors would disappear all of the sudden…
The things that I’ve never experienced over the four years of my school life suddenly began happening.
And.
“…President, let us join you!”
The entire council decided to fight back!
The faculty obviously got annoyed by this, and went to Nicerwin Ein to complain. They complained about how the council, who were supposed to be model students, weren’t studying. However, when Nicerwin Ein, the origin of all evils, heard this, he smiled.
“They are being model students, though?”
When I went to ask him the meaning of that later on, Nicerwin Ein answered me with a smile.
“Why do you think I told them they could skip night study time if they could run? I was telling them to all run.”
That’s when I realized something. T, this man is a demon!
Of course, there was a penalty. Those who got caught while running away had to stay for an hour longer than others. …We have to stay in school for fourteen hours!
But even so… We the students, I mean, we the heroes worked to get across the countless traps in order to get to the holy dorms.
And after a week of hard work, we managed to get to the front gates.
“Rise, earth.”
“Uaaah!”
“W, what the?!”
When the shouts came from behind me, I quickly looked behind. What I saw there was a stone giant…
“It is immoral for a student to run from school.”
“…Sir Maroon!”
Maroon Harcen. He was a man who rose up from his status as a peasant into a knight. He was an elder in the summoner corps in the army, and he was someone who was contracted to the spirit of the earth.
And… he is also our teacher!
“Call me professor.”
“Professor! What is the meaning of this!”
I looked at my fallen comrades, and shouted out in despair. Sir Maroon simply flashed Nicerwin’s signature smile in response.
“Punishing students?”
That’s when I realized something yet again. T, this guy’s just like Nicerwin!
“It’s unfair to use elementals!”
“Hoho, do you still not understand the words of professor Nicerwin? Run if you can. That means you have to use all kinds of tactics to escape. Did you think we’d let you off with just traps? No. If you want to escape, you must beat the entire faculty. This is… war.”
“…war?”
“Right. War. I may be a graduate from this school, but normally, I wouldn’t set one foot here. Then, do you know why I came back?”
“No, I don’t.”
There was a lot of talk surrounding this, actually. Why would five elders in the summoner’s corps, along with the twenty soldiers below them, all come to the school? For a while, people thought that the military was bribed into giving the school all these soldiers.
Professor Maroon told me the truth behind this matter.
“I came to train talented individuals.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I said. The summoner’s corps once was an invincible troop that protected the empire, but things have changed now. There aren’t any talented soldiers that are coming in, and almost no one enlists any more. Even though one might have a powerful summoned beast, he would be either too weak, or have no experience in battling at all. They usually die before managing to do anything. It’s ridiculous.”
“So how does this relate to all this?”
“Nicerwin gave me a suggestion: What if I train them before they get into the army?”
“What do… what?!”
“Right. This entire process of running away is training. You tell me it’s unfair to use an elemental? You’re a summoner as well, are you not? Summon your beasts, then. Take us down, and win back your freedom!”
I decided to use my summoned beast after hearing this.
“Then I’ll… Keh!”
But even before I summoned anything… the earth elemental struck me behind my head! The summoning failed! No, wait!
“U, unfair!”
“Idiot. I told you to do whatever you could. The same applies to us. How do you expect us to block all the students in the school? We’re severely outnumbered, meaning that we have to do whatever we can as well. Did you think we’d wait for you to summon your beast? Real life isn’t like a novel. Villains don’t always wait for the hero.”
“Then, guh!”
“No excuses. Study for an extra hour.”
I felt a blow to my back once again, and my vision darkened.
A month had pa.s.sed since then. The first years came to see me.
“…I heard you were the president of the student council.”
“Right. I’m the president of the council, Nerkia Nes Leria.”
“…Please lead us!”
Ten students bowed down to me as they said this.
“Lead what?”
“We are… the Student Liberation Army.”
…Eh?
“What army?”
“The Student Liberation Army. We are a group of first years who are unwilling to succ.u.mb to the night study time.”
“…I had heard about you.”
Most of the first years succ.u.mbed to the night study time. No, there was no need for them to resist it.
The tuition of this school is extremely expensive. It’s more expensive than anyone would ever imagine. And then it rose.
The tuition was already a little too much for n.o.bles. Some n.o.bles can’t even afford it.
That’s why some of the new students tried to study hard enough to be able to graduate in three years.
Most of the students here would rather graduate in four or five years, but of course there were exceptions.
And since we’re almost done with school anyway, we decided to go crazy. But the first years just decided to take advantage of the night study times to do their homework. I guess they’d rather work in school instead of the dorms? I mean, it’s not like you can work properly in dorms anyway.
Since being in school lets you interact with other students while studying, it can be considered to be a good thing.
Only for first years, though.
But I guess not all of the first years were fine with this setup.
“By the way… why did you name it ‘Student Liberation Army’?”
“…Professor Nicerwin named us this.”
“…What.”
The story they told me was quite something. The Student Liberation Army was a club made up of twenty four first years. Hoho, a club? Nicerwin said that it was alright to run, but it’s still against the school rules. It’s only alright if you succeed.
But then these first years made a club out of this bs.
I wondered if these students went crazy after staying in school for so long, but after taking a look at the official club approval doc.u.ment in their hands, I could only laugh.
Student Liberation Army
Club Patron: Nicerwin Ein
Club Leader: Aris Ril Letia
25 Members
…The patron is Nicerwin Ein.
Hoho, are they siding with the enemy now? Wait, hold on, isn’t Aris the representative of the first years? She’s the leader?
“Call the students back.”
A bit later, a few students came into the room.
I gave them some tea and cookies, and tried to make them a little calmer by doing so.
“Mm… So the patron of this club is Nicerwin Ein?”
“Yes.”
“…The leader of Aris.”
“Yes. She was the first one to suggest all this to us.”
“…Can’t she just call her family over? I’m sure they can end all this.”
The girl was from a powerful family of a marquis. They had the power to end just about anything in this nation.
What differentiated this empire from others was the number of powerful n.o.bles.
Normally, big empires had a huge amount of prestigious n.o.bles. There were cases where there were over twelve thousand, even.
But Karuan was different.
There were just 29 prestigious n.o.bles in total. Five counts, and twenty four marquises.
Honestly, this was a ridiculously low number of n.o.bles. There was no way there could be that little in such a huge nation.
And more than half of these n.o.bles from actually from subordinate nations. Ten are from the nation of Raina, and seven are from Zearu.
In reality, there are just ten prestigious n.o.bles in the nation.
One of these ten n.o.bles was the Letia family, which was the family Aris belonged to.
The daughter of this family ran away because she didn’t want to study? It’d be faster to just call the family.
“She called them already.”
“…Yeah?”
“Yes. The marquis’ wife came in person. She then had a private chat with professor Nicerwin… After hearing his words, she told our leader to study hard, and then left.”
“…What?”
“She also told our leader to never call her about things like this ever again.”
“Did the woman get brainwashed?”
“The same happened for other n.o.bles as well. They all got persuaded in ten minutes or less.”
“Hah…”
I didn’t think he’d be normal, but… He managed to take down Aris’ mother herself. He took down the woman famous for being so particular about everything. No, he made her into his ally?
“So, what do you mean about me leading you?”
“We heard that you were one of the first to run. At the same time, you are the student council president. You also escaped to the front gates faster than anyone else.”
I ran first. That is true. I’m the student council president as well. But.
“I didn’t escape. They just let me be.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean just that. They let me be. There were plenty of traps, so they didn’t really need to do anything until I got to the gates. I was only used to showcase the fact that this was a war.”
“A war?”
“yes, a war. We need to beat the faculty by making use of anything, and everything. Right, so how many summoners do you have?”
“Fifteen.”
“So ten are not yet contracted? Hmm… even so, the leader and her closest friends should have powerful beasts by their side.”
“The leader does not possess a beast yet.”
“Really? That’s annoying…”
I thought she’d have a summoned beast, but I guess not. That’d probably mean that her family left her to mature a bit before summoning anything.
“But since her family is famous for their martial arts, she should still be able to help. Alright, I will help you.”
Back then, I didn’t realize. I didn’t realize how big this organization was going to be. And because of that fact, I was able to have memories of school that I would never be able to forget about.