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Chapter 20: Academy (3)

In an instant, the sparring grounds went silent.

Some were astonished at Henry’s might, while others were simply stunned by the absurd situation. Ronan had returned to his normal weight with the cancellation of Henry’s magic as he was being thrown, and his body had hit the wall with maximum force, causing tremendous damage.

“Phew…”

Henry’s red-hot upper body was reminiscent of a divine warrior. He took a deep breath and brushed back his sweat-soaked hair.

“Officer.”

“Huh? Oh, yes…?”

“You should call the outcome of this battle.”

“Ah, ah! T-that’s right! The winner is Cadet Henry.”

No one could deny Henry’s victory. The next challengers had lost their will to fight the moment they had witnessed Ronan’s defeat. Henry cooled down his heated body and steadied his breath.

‘What a scary bastard.’

Ronan was the first person to give him a hard time since Barren. Henry caught his breath and walked over to the fallen Ronan, looking him in the eyes.

“Are you okay?”

Ronan was staring blankly at the ceiling, but when Henry spoke to him, he quickly got back to his feet.

“I’m fine,” he replied bluntly.

The top-ranker\'s self-esteem was crushed. Such a reaction was only natural.

‘How cute.’

Henry held in a laugh at Ronan’s prickly response, he understood how Ronan felt. Henry flexed his stiff neck and turned to his classmates, who were watching him.

“Next challenger, step forward.”

All he had to do was to defeat one more person to hold the new undisputed top rank of the class. Henry did not want to miss this great opportunity. However, the challengers who were waiting for their next turn all avoided his gaze.

‘Cowards.’

Although he had won with a magic expedient, he did not think of it as a bad thing. After all, his magic was solely his own strength.

As soon as Henry noticed the other cadet\'s dampened spirits, he deliberately approached the remaining challengers, looking them in the eyes in the hopes of establishing dominance.

“You’ve not fought me yet, have you? Step forward.”

“Ah, no! It’s okay, I’m forfeiting!”

Seeing how the cadet trembled with fear without even daring to look at him, Henry concluded that the cadet was a man with no pride to speak of. When he tried to persuade the rest of his classmates to spar with him, he received the same response from them. Feeling frustrated, Henry turned toward the officer.

“Sir, what should I do? They all said they’ll forfeit.”

Beric was unable to form words after witnessing this absurd situation. This was unlike anything he had ever encountered in his teaching career. His response—or lack thereof—was understandable.

This new student was a monster. A monster that managed to throw the top-ranking student across the room with ease. Fighting against such an opponent would simply be unfair to these cadets. However, Beric also knew that he could not just go soft on the cadets on account of their broken will. After all, these soldiers were to become commanders in the future.

“You cowards! What do you think you’re doing! Do you still think you deserve to be officers?!”

“We apologize!”

“Next challenger, step forward now!”

At the officer’s roaring instructions, the remaining challengers had no choice but to queue up to spar against Henry.

“Phew.”

It was a battle between Henry and the remaining challengers, who trembled as though they were at death’s door. It was like a swarm of mice lined up to enter the jaws of a tiger.

* * *

A perfect score in theory class.

A perfect score in the hand-to-hand combat test.

A perfect score in the swordsmanship test.

Henry achieved all of these in a single day, causing a great commotion in the academy. There were some cadets who had received perfect scores in theory classes before, but there were none who received perfect scores in the tests of skill—neither hand-to-hand combat, nor swordsmanship. It was truly an extravagant debut for Henry.

When this news reached Iselan’s office, he could not contain his laughter.

“Kahahahaha! That crazy fella! I knew he could do it!”

If things had gone awry, a bad impression that Henry got in through nepotism could have spread throughout the academy, but Henry had done a perfect job dispelling that stigma.

Not just that, he had now truly solidified himself as a legendary figure in the academy.

* * *

Henry returned to his room after his dinner.

“Hmm?”

Henry was surprised to see the face of his roommate, whom he had yet to meet because he had been immediately sent to class. It turned out that his roommate was the former top-ranking student that he had overtaken—Ronan.

Henry made eye contact with Ronan briefly, but Ronan quickly turned his head away. He looked as if he wanted to do nothing with Henry.

‘What the? Is this guy still pissed or something?’

Henry would later find out that Ronan had held the top seat in both the hand-to-hand combat class and swordsmanship class. Since Henry had dethroned him in both classes in a single day, it was only natural for Ronan to be displeased with Henry.

‘What a cute bastard.’

Ronan’s self-esteem as a man was understandably shattered. However, he was still the only one who had not lost his spirit against Henry and fought to the end. As strong as his pride was, Ronan was able to back it up with his skills.

Henry thought favorably of such men: those who were not satisfied with what they had and knew how to come to terms with their own shortcomings. Henry felt that a man like Ronan, who was barely old enough to be his grandson in his previous life, was adorable in his own way.

“You said you were Ronan, right? Let\'s have a proper introduction, at the very least. I’m Henry Morris.”

Whether Ronan liked it or not, they would have to spend the next few weeks together. Henry couldn\'t care less about the other weaklings in his class, but it didn’t seem like that bad an idea to build a friendship with this guy.

‘Besides, it seems like he’s the son of a fairly important house.’

Ronan had a more affluent air to him compared to the other cadets. It was something that was difficult to hide. Henry felt that it would be great if Ronan turned out to be the son of a well-respected family. Henry could use him to hear the latest news from the imperial palace.

Ronan pondered for a while before finally giving his own name.

“I’m Ronan Foram.”

‘Foram?’

For a moment, Henry doubted his ears. Could this be the same Foram as Kington Foram?

“By Foram, you mean…?”

“Yeah. I’m the adopted son of the Foram family.”

Kington Foram.

The man who had surpassed the retired Lord Valhald to become the First Sword of the empire, and took the titles of Knight King and Grandmaster. Even men of his status were duty-bound to the Noblesse Oblige.

‘So, something like that happened, huh?’

It was not often the case that adopted children revealed their adopted status first. It was an admittance of powerlessness in the family. However, Ronan willingly identified himself as an adopted child. There had to be many reasons for that, but Henry decided not to probe any further.

Henry decided to change the topic. “No wonder your footwork seemed strange, it means you’ve mastered Foram’s swordsmanship, huh?”

As soon as he heard Ronan’s last name, he immediately understood why Ronan’s footwork was a little different.

“Same goes for you, right? I’ve never seen that kind of martial arts before. Your swordsmanship as well. Who exactly are you?” Ronan asked.

Henry thought Ronan would be a stubborn guy, but surprisingly, he was easy to talk to. As the two continued their conversation, they began to form a strange bond of sympathy, eventually talking until they lost track of time. Eventually, the conversation came back around to Henry’s unusual talent.

“But really though, what the hell are you? You got perfect scores on not just the theory test, but in melee combat and swordsmanship as well. My father’s a monster, and I see a little bit of a monster in you too.”

“Didn’t you ever think that, perhaps, it’s you who’s stupid?”

“Fucking bastard.”

Henry laughed. “If you want to fight me again, be my guest.”

They were both twenty years old. In truth, Henry was actually an old man in his eighties, but it seemed that his mind was getting younger as time passed, perhaps because of his newfound young body.

“Still, I’m grateful that you’ve joined us in the middle of the curriculum,” said Ronan.

“Why?”

“You should know, since you’ve faced our other classmates, but they’re all unskilled and pathetic.”

“I agree. For cadets that are to become commanders, they sure are pathetic.”

It seemed that the majority of the other cadets were adoptees of respected families too. Since they were adopted just so the biological children could avoid military service, it was common for most of them to receive subpar education.

‘Although I doubt it’s their fault.’

The issue was that expandable adoptees tended to live with their adoptive family for a long time while being treated like objects, which severely damaged their self-esteem. They were having it a little better than the servants of the family, but compared to the biological family members, they were treated like garbage.

Years of this sort of treatment often left these adoptees lethargic and unenthusiastic about anything in life, and this usually persisted even after enlistment.

‘It’d be absurd to expect anything from people who have been through that.’

This was another one of the many consequences of the new emperor’s reign, a rot at the top of the kingdom that spread like a disease. Thanks to this, Henry was able to reignite his anger against the emperor once again.

“That means you’re not from the Swordsmanship Academy, right?” asked Henry.

“Of course not. That’s a place people like me can’t even dream of.”

Seeing Ronan calmly recounting his plight, Henry genuinely felt sorry for him.

‘He’s an even greater man than I thought. He’s not even from the Swordsmanship Academy and yet he’s this skilled.’

Henry was certain that Ronan was a genius. After all, the twenty-year-old was able to push Henry, who had already Awakened once and mastered the Sword King’s sword art, to the limit.

“Still, compared to the other adopted kids, I’m one of the lucky ones. Usually, the adoptive families don’t teach their adopted kids things like their family’s style of swordsmanship.

“Then how did you learn?”

“I fought for it.”

“Fought?”

“You didn’t think that there was only one adoptee, did you?”

Only then did Henry understand Ronan\'s words. The nobles had a tendency to adopt numerous children in anticipation for an uncertain future. Ronan had fought to be the one to learn Foram’s swordsmanship.

‘Such talent being put to waste.’

If it hadn’t been for the rotten system and the greed of the nobles, Ronan might have been able to make a career for himself after entering the Swordsmanship Academy. Henry found himself wanting to befriend him more and more.

Most of Henry’s close friends were dead, and the others looked up to him but never treated him as a friend. Thus, despite being a rather strange approach coming from him, Henry decided to be straightforward and build a friendship with this man.

“Ronan.”

“Yeah?”

“We should stay on good terms.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“I just felt like saying it.”

“You’re crazy.”

Henry’s approach seemed to work, as Ronan burst out laughing.

“Ronan.”

“What?”

“What will you do after you finish your military service?”

Henry was curious as to what Ronan would do in the future. His sole duty was to be sent here for military service anyway. After it was over, Ronan would become an unneeded member of the family.

“Well. I haven’t really thought about that.”

“Do you have to go back to your family or something?”

“Actually, I don’t know. Even if I go back, there’s no one there to welcome me. No matter how good I am, I’ll never be able to overcome the direct family lineage.”

“Is that so?”

Ronan wasn’t wrong. No matter how good he was, he was only outstanding compared to the other adoptees. The reality was, the Foram family only treated him as a tool. However, Henry was rather grateful. Thanks to Foram’s folly, he had found himself a diamond in the rough that no one else recognized.