Chapter 57: Scarcity Empire Point, the "Maximilian Hall"—a computer lab built through the patronage of the knight Maximilian.
"That concludes today's lesson on accessing the internal server known as the Intranet."
The instructor was wrapping up the ninety-minute session. It was the [Information Processing] course, a new addition to the curriculum this semester.
"You'll be using computers frequently from now on, so make sure to practice your typing speed, document creation, and filing every day. Everyone, submit the documents you worked on today before you leave."
Hannah, an elite cadet, carefully moved her mouse and clicked the send button.
Click.
[Transfer Complete]
"...Is that it?"
She assumed it was.
Coming from the southern countryside, everything about the machine felt foreign to her. The keyboard, the mouse, the monitor—it was all so overwhelming.
"Well then, good work. Good luck with your next class."
The lecture ended. The next session was [Aerial Drop] training, another official addition to this semester's schedule.
"Ugh, I can't believe we actually have to do this. What a pain."
"I know, right? Who do they think they are, telling us to jump out of the sky? Do they think we're circus performers?"
The noble cadets grumbled as they moved to the next location.
Hannah found their complaints absurd. Rumors were already rampant that those same nobles had been renting private transport planes to practice in secret.
"...Sigh. I wonder if this is going to cost more money."
"They said not this time. Besides, what's a little extra money? We'll make it all back once we become knights."
"You only say that because you don't know my family's situation."
The commoner cadets huddled together in small groups as they walked.
Hannah, however, was alone. No one spoke to her. She had been ostracized ever since the Jacob incident. Not that she minded; in fact, she preferred it this way.
"...That must be it."
Before long, they arrived at the training grounds. A massive transport plane was parked on the runway, and parachutes were lined up on long tables in front of it. The elite cadets fell into formation.
As they stood there, whispering and staring at the aircraft—
"Quiet—!"
With a thunderous shout, an instructor wearing a jump helmet and goggles emerged from the transport. Every eye fixed on him.
"Greetings. I am the instructor overseeing your first jump today."
The man wore the uniform of a Major, appearing to be from the paratrooper division.
"The most important elements of jump training are control and discipline. This is because the place you land will eventually be a battlefield. Therefore, during this training, you will obey my orders without question."
His face was completely obscured by the dark visor and goggles, but for some reason, his voice sounded familiar to Hannah.
She was certain she had heard that tone somewhere before...
"Today, we will conduct landing drills from an altitude of 500 meters. Now, don your parachutes! Move!"
The cadets went forward in turn and strapped the parachutes to their backs.
"Board the transport!"
The cadets climbed into the plane, casting wary glances at the instructor.
"Stop dawdling!"
The instructor shoved the loiterers inside.
He's quite aggressive, Hannah thought, a twinge of worry creeping in. The noble cadets were going to hate this.
In fact, word was that some cadets had been running to their parents the moment things didn't go their way, leading most instructors to be cautious around them.
"Sit down and buckle your belts."
Everyone sat in the side seats of the transport's interior.
Just then, two cadets began messing with their belts, chuckling softly. "Why do we even need these?" they whispered. It was Lois and Dare Tan—scions of high-ranking families, famous even within Empire Point.
"Hey."
The instructor's gaze snapped to them.
"Do you think this is a field trip?"
The atmosphere inside the transport turned frigid instantly.
The two cadets didn't answer, so the instructor asked again.
"I asked if you think this is a field trip."
"...No."
Lois's reply was curt. In other words, it was disrespectful.
He likely thought a mere Major was beneath his station. Usually, instructors would let it slide at this point.
"No—?"
Apparently, this instructor wasn't like the others. He strode over, grabbed Lois by the collar, and hurled him out of the transport. He did the same to Dare Tan.
"Gah!"
"Ack!"
The two tumbled onto the asphalt outside.
"Get up."
They scrambled to their feet, their faces turning beet red up to their ears. They were clearly humiliated.
"On your heads."
"..."
"..."
The two remained silent. They didn't move into the disciplinary position. To Hannah, the situation looked incredibly tense.
A normal instructor wouldn't go this far. Lois and Dare Tan were heirs to high nobility. It was precisely because of their status that they felt they could slack off during training.
"I said, on your heads. Are you morons who don't understand plain speech?"
Despite their status, this instructor was unyielding. He was a soldier through and through, devoid of flexibility.
At that moment—
"...Instructor. May I ask your name?"
Lois, unable to take it anymore, snapped back. Asking for a name in this context was a clear challenge. His face was twisted with resentment as he glared at the instructor through gritted teeth.
The instructor repeated the question.
"My name?"
"Yes. I came here to be trained, not to be insulted."
Hannah watched the confrontation out of the corner of her eye.
The instructor would probably have to back down. She didn't fully understand the dynamics of rank yet, but a paratrooper Major couldn't be that powerful.
"Why? So you can go home and tell your mommy?"
The instructor asked with a faint, mocking sneer.
Hannah's jaw dropped involuntarily. The other cadets were equally stunned. It was a shockingly provocative thing to say.
"...Are you kidding me?"
Just as Lois and Dare Tan glared at him, exhaling heated breaths—
The instructor ripped off his helmet.
"!"
"Ah!"
In an instant, Lois's face turned deathly pale. He flinched back before slamming his forehead into the ground. Dare Tan followed suit immediately.
The rest of the cadets stiffened with equal tension.
"How amusing."
It was a face that no cadet at Empire Point could fail to recognize.
For Hannah, the image of him glaring at them over Jacob's corpse flashed through her mind like a traumatic memory.
Maximilian of the Sentinels.
He looked between the two cadets, his eyebrows twitching.
"What changed?"
"I'm sorry!"
"No, answer the question."
"I'm sorry!"
"...Can you brats not understand a simple question?"
He swung his foot, kicking both cadets in the ribs.
Thud! Thud!
The moment they fell over, they scrambled back into the disciplinary position, planting their heads in the dirt. They desperately suppressed their groans of pain.
"'I'm sorry' is not the correct answer. I asked you what changed."
"...I-I didn't know you were a Knight, sir!"
"And if you didn't know, does that change anything? If you wanted praise, you should have acted like that even after seeing my face."
"I'm sorry!"
"I'm sorry!"
"...Pathetic fools."
Maximilian ignored the two and scanned the interior of the transport. He then pointed to his Major's insignia.
"Officially, a Knight is treated with the rank of Major on the battlefield. You lot are far more insignificant than that."
Dane, the Superintendent of Empire Point, had asked Maximilian—who already had experience with aerial operations—to conduct the first training session. Maximilian had readily accepted.
Maximilian suspected that Dane knew exactly what would happen if an ordinary paratrooper instructor had been assigned to this class.
"Just because you're cadets doesn't give you the right to change your behavior based on who you're looking at. If you walk around with your necks stiff just because you're a Knight, you'll be the first to die. Because on every battlefield, a Knight is the primary target."
In a rising nation, the children of influential families are often tempered like steel. But in an Empire where wealth and power have stagnated for too long, the noble heirs are nothing but trouble.
"Respond."
—We will keep that in mind!
The cadets' shout filled the transport. Maximilian nodded and spoke to the two still pressing their heads into the ground.
"Lois. Dare Tan. You two are being disciplined for insubordination."
"I will correct my behavior!"
"I will correct my behavior!"
"Get inside."
They jumped up and hurried to their seats. Seeing the dust on their heads and their dazed expressions, Hannah took a deep breath.
"Today, we will practice jumping and learning how to deploy a parachute. However, parachutes are only for this week. In the future, jumping without a parachute and using mana during freefall will be key evaluation factors. Respond!"
—Yes, sir!
The cadets were now hyper-focused on Maximilian. Discipline had been firmly established.
Shock therapy.
That was likely why he had appeared in a helmet to hide his identity.
* * *
After the first aerial training session at Empire Point, in Dane's office.
"How was it?"
"There were certainly a lot of disrespectful brats."
Dane smirked at my words.
"It can't be helped. Those kids see the instructors at Empire Point as either washed-up retired knights or soldiers who suck up to the nobility. Didn't you think the same when you were a cadet?"
"No. I never thought that. If anything, I felt a bit of skepticism toward the special treatment I received."
Being an Ebenholtz, I had received my fair share of favors.
Like the time an instructor led only me to a different area during mana mud training so I could easily get a perfect score.
Of course, I didn't actually feel skeptical. I was actually quite grateful to that instructor back then.
"But from what I heard from my father..."
The word 'father' still felt awkward on my tongue. Zebestian was hardly a fatherly figure.
"He said he was disciplined quite a bit. I can't really imagine my father being hit, though."
"...Neither can I, but that was nearly forty years ago. Back then, war was a daily reality, so I'm sure even he took a few hits."
"Then, Superintendent. I think it's time we return to those days."
Dane's expression turned serious.
This wasn't just about reminiscing or making training harder.
I was talking about the approaching 'wartime.'
"I heard you've been harassed quite a bit by the cadets' parents lately."
Dane furrowed his brows in distaste.
"With everyone getting updates instantly on their devices, they call the moment they think their child's grades might drop."
"Overhaul the school regulations of Empire Point entirely. Take them back to how they were forty years ago, before those devices existed."
Dane scanned me from head to toe.
"I wonder if that's possible."
"From now on, the greatest patron of Empire Point is Ebenholtz. Announce it as the wish of Ebenholtz. It's the start of a new semester, so the timing is perfect. Disrespectful punks only understand once their heads have been knocked around a bit."
The name Ebenholtz was, simply put, a mana-based nuclear umbrella. No noble would dare to throw a fit.
Dane suppressed a laugh and nodded.
"Very well. Starting this semester, I will adjust the regulations with the support of Ebenholtz."
"Good. And this..."
I handed him a manual on the "Aura Sphere" theory, along with a copy of the latest magical engineering journal set to be published next week.
"It's the 'Aura Sphere.'"
[Magical Engineering Journal: Theory of the Week — On the Possibilities of the 'Aura Sphere']
"It will be officially released soon, but most knights won't be able to get their hands on it for a while, even if they want to."
I anticipated a shortage. And it wouldn't just be because of the knights. Anyone with an interest in mana—and the Revolutionary Group—would try to get it.
Therefore, I planned to implement extremely strict procedures and security at the purchasing stage to tightly control the supply.
Of course, it would be leaked eventually, but the goal was to delay that as long as possible.
"Is that so?"
"Yes. The list price for a single copy is 50,000 dollars, but once the hype builds, it might soar to more than double that."
"...The list price is 50,000? Is it mana-locked?"
"It is."
Mana security. It was a magical lock where the pages only activated when mana was injected. Since it remembered the first mana signature it encountered, each book could only be used by one person.
It was a security method usually reserved for high-level spellbooks.
"I consider my 'Aura Sphere' to be a strategic resource."
My manual would certainly be worth that much.
...
After Maximilian left.
Dane spent a long time engrossed in the completed theory book.
"...He certainly made this well," he muttered softly, removing his rimless reading glasses.
Thinking about the theory, it wasn't something that could have been conceived in a short time. Looking at the number and complexity of the mana formulas within the technique... it must have required long periods of deep contemplation, countless trials and errors, and a massive amount of 'grunt work.'
Dane let out a hollow laugh as he thought of Maximilian.
"So this is what he was pondering while he should have been training."
The instructors had cautiously reported that Maximilian didn't seem to focus on his classes. He didn't train hard and seemed half-hearted about everything.
Today, Dane had received something resembling an answer from Maximilian.
'...I never thought that. If anything, I felt a bit of skepticism toward the special treatment I received.'
Compared to the Empire Point of Zebestian's era, the current academy was nothing more than a place for children to play house while looking for a career path.
Had Maximilian lost his motivation because of the state of the world?
Dane's face suddenly became grave as he summoned all the faculty and instructors.
Starting today, the regulations of Empire Point would be completely overhauled.
...
The main castle of the Great House Kandel. Sonette Kandel sat in her study late into the night, reading a theory book.
[Knight Technique: Aura Sphere]
[Author: Maximilian Albrecht von Ebenholtz]
It was the official release of the "Aura Sphere," which had passed the inspection of the Central Mana Graduate School. Since the Kandel family was a major player in the world of magic and magical engineering, obtaining a copy had been easy.
"A spherical aura..."
A technique that assembled aura into a mana formula, implanted it into a mana stone, and then released it to form a spherical protective shield.
It was a work written by the young knight of Ebenholtz.
The logic of this "Aura Sphere" was perfectly established, and the flow of the circuits was flawless.
However, the difficulty was quite high. The barrier to entry was also very steep. Not only because of the expensive price of the manual but because 'high-purity mana stones' were essential.
"Hmm."
They say mages are practitioners who explore magic, while knights are experts who command mana itself.
Sonette Kandel acknowledged Maximilian's achievement. This man had invented a combat-oriented technique that was overflowing with practicality. It was worth keeping.
"Check-in."
She slotted Maximilian's manual into her bookshelf.
"You've created a fine technique, Sir Maximilian."
This wasn't just simple storage. The knowledge allowed into her 'Library' had to pass through extremely fastidious criteria.
Stepping back, Sonette nodded as she looked at the bookshelf.
"It even looks good as decor."
True to the Ebenholtz name, his aesthetic sense wasn't bad. It was a very luxuriously made hardcover edition.
She expressionlessly picked up a high-purity mana stone from her desk.
Zap!
She activated her mana and formed the "Aura Sphere."
Whirrr—
A spherical aura expanded around her body.
For Sonette, a single attempt was enough. This was because she had already 'stored' it in her library.
"The feel of it... is even smoother than the theory suggested."
She left a satisfied one-line review.
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