Chapter 94 - Five Great Powers and Thirteen Knights of the Oracle [1]

94. Five Great Powers and Thirteen Knights of the Oracle [1]

The day after the tumultuous Thousand Blade Festival.

I was on the way to Year 1 Class A with Ria.

On the way,

「「Fuwaa…」」

We yawned almost simultaneously.

「Ahaha, Ria, that was quite the yawn.」

「Fufu, the same goes for Allen too.」

We were a little short of sleep because we were participating in the celebration party until late at night yesterday.

「Even so… It’s a little chilly today.」

Looking up at the sky, it was covered with clouds.

Dark clouds which seemed like it would start raining at any moment.

「Yeah… we can wear winter clothes starting in October, right?」

We went to our classroom while talking about that.

When I opened the classroom door, a slightly unusual scene spread out.

Rose, who has a reputation for being a weak morning person, had already reached the academy before us.

(It’s rare for her to come this early in the morning.)

I and Ria put our bags at our seats and greeted Rose.

「Good morning, Rose.」

「Good morning, Rose. You’re early today.」

「Aa… Good morning, Allen, Ria… Fuwaah 」

As usual, Rose, who had artistic bed hair, slowly turned her body towards us, and let out a deep yawn that almost made me yawn too.

「Ahaha, you seem quite sleepy.」

「Looking at your appearance, I’m guessing you didn’t sleep much yesterday?」

「Nn, yeah… Last night we had the celebration party, and most of all, I used〈Winter Sakura〉for too long. My spiritual power was completely… Fuwaa…」

When she yawned again, the classroom door slid open, and an elderly male teacher walked in.

(Oh, who is this?)

He stood on the podium, cleared his throat, and spoke.

「Um… There is a message for everyone of Year 1 Class A. Um… Today, the director went to Ringard Palace due to an emergency summon from the government.」

Everyone in the class began to buzz all at once.

「Emergency summon from the government?」

「You know, considering the timing, it must be regarding the Black Organization.」

「Aa… Must be like a countermeasure meeting.」

After that, the male teacher took out a piece of paper from his pocket and read out the lines written on it.

「Um… What is written here is from the director herself.『Everyone, I’m sorry, but due to a sudden appointment, today’s class will be self-study. The Soul Dress Area can still be used in the morning and afternoon, so make good use of it. However, soul dress training and the use of the spirit swords are prohibited. That’s all.』…is what it seems to be. Then, I shall excuse myself here.」

After passing on the message, the teacher bowed deeply and exited the classroom.

「Self-study, huh… It’s my first time at Thousand Blade Academy.」

At Gran Swordsmanship Academy, every day was self-study for me, so I feel a little nostalgic.

「Um… If soul dress training is prohibited, then we should do strength training…」

「Fuwaa… It’s just the right thing to blow off the sleepiness…」

Then we went to the Soul Dress Area as the chime of the first period rang.

Everyone from Class A arrived at the Soul Dress Area and began to self-study on their own.

Ria read a swordsmanship book, sitting beside me. Rose reviewed the form of Sakura Blossom One-Sword Style, and Tessa was meditating in the corner of the room.

In such a situation, I concentrated my mind and started swinging.

「Fuh! Ha! Sei!」

Assume Seigan no Kamae, slowly raise the sword, and cut.

It’s a simple, plain training, but in the end this is the most effective.

『Your skill as a swordsman depends on how many times you swing the sword.』- so is written in the Swordsmanship Book.

Then, for about three hours in the morning, I just kept swinging the sword without rest.

■

After morning class, next is lunch break.

I, Ria and Rose went to the student council room with our lunch boxes to attend the regular meeting.

When I knocked on the door, the president’s voice replied as usual.

I slowly opened the door and entered with a greeting.

「Good morning.」

And then,

「Ria-san, Rose-san, good morning! And…… Good morning, Allen-kun.」

While the president greeted Ria and Rose cheerfully, she took a slightly unfriendly attitude towards me.

……Apparently, she’s still holding a grudge against me for yesterday.

(Haa… How do I cheer her up?)

And as I was wondering how to handle it,

「…? What’s going on?」Ria asked.

「Aa, actually, in the poker game yesterday–」

「-Allen-kun behaved indecently towards me.」

She cut into my explanation, and said something ridiculous.

「P-President…! What kind of ridiculous things are you saying?!」

When I asked her to correct herself,

「…Allen, is that true?」

「…Depending on the situation, I won’t forgive you…」

Light disappeared from the eyes of both Ria and Rose.

There was no sign of their usual kind self.

The two of them became『empty』and simply stared at me.

「T-That’s not how it was… It’s a bad joke!」

I sensed danger and immediately approached the president.

「President, please stop the vicious joke! Haven’t we already solved yesterday’s incident?!」

In response to my slight meanness, she exposed me to the seniors in return. We should have been even with that.

However,

「Because, Allen-kun… you defeated all the students that I sent forward all on your own. You can’t call that even!」

The president pointed out such childish things.

「S-Such tyranny…」

Certainly, I defeated them all, but…

That exhausted me quite a bit too, so that should be enough.

「Um… Well then, will you listen to a request from onee-san?」

「……I understand. However, I ask that it be within the bounds of common sense.」

I can’t blindly abide by the president’s『request』.

The reason is that there was one case where the vice-president was requested to get Blood Diamond from the Holy Ronelia Empire.

「Yes, of course. Now we can reconcile.」the president said, and laughed

(What kind of “request” will she shoot at me?)

Just thinking about it, upsets my stomach.

「Haa… Well, I’m going to clear up the misunderstanding now, so please be silent and eat your lunch or something.」I said.

「O-K!」the president replied.

Then I explained the incident last night to Ria and Rose carefully.

「Oh, so that’s what it was… Thank goodness…」

「Seriously, I was totally surprised…」

I heaved a sigh of relief as light returned to their eyes.

Then the regular meeting and lunch party finally started.

「Which reminds me… What happened to Lilim-senpai and Ferris-senpai?」Ria looked around the room while opening the lid of her lunch box.

「They are recuperating because of yesterday’s fatigue. It’s seems that Allen-kun beat them up good, and they probably can’t move properly for another couple of days…」

「A-Ahaha… I feel a little bad…」

Lilim-senpai and Ferris-senpai stood up no matter how many times they got knocked down.

In particular, Lilim-senpai, she said, “I can’t afford to lose to my junior!” and came at me again and again.

Because of that, I had to consume a lot of darkness.

As a result, I was forced to rest and fell into the president’s ambush.

「Both Lilim and Ferris are strong, so don’t worry.」

When the president summed up the story as such,

「-By the way, how was the haunted house?」she asked.

After that, the stories about the Thousand Blade Festival opened up.

The story of the quality improvement for next year’s haunted house.

The story of Jean Bael, the Head of Swordsmanship Club.

Talks about the strategy to win the Thousand Blade Shadow Festival.

Then, when the topic of the Thousand Blade Festival was exhausted,

「Now that I think about it, Leia-sensei was off today. I hear there was an urgent call from the government… Do you know anything, president?」

I asked about the message in the morning that I was curious about.

「Yes, I know. The Emergency Five Academy Directors’ Meeting. I heard my father was participating too.」

She said and picked a fried egg from the corner of the lunch box to her mouth.

「The agenda is『Black Organization』…Is it?」

「Yes. The government is really at a loss as to how to deal with the Black Organization. They are doing as they please. Just when we received news that they cooked up problems in Vesteria Kingdom, the very next day, they invaded our country! Recently, there are rumors that they have dealings with the Polyesta Federation.」

As the daughter of House Arcstria, she probably harbours strong animosity towards the Black Organization.

「And… As I found out recently, the Black Organization is looking around for rare “monsters” called “phantom spirit”.」the president continued.

At that moment, Ria’s hand, which was carrying rice, stopped all of a sudden.

「…What’s up, Ria? Did food get stuck in your throat?」

And when I held out a glass of water,

「N-No… It’s okay, don’t worry about it.」

She shook her head with an awkward smile on her face.

「I see, that’s good.」

「Un, thank you.」

When Ria and I were having such an exchange, Rose, who was not good at difficult explanations, interjected into it.

「We heard that the directors of the Five Academy were gathering and holding an emergency meeting, but… what about this city’s defences?」

…Certainly, Rose is right.

Each director of Five Academy has tremendous authority and “power”.

All of them leaving the city at the same time, even an amateur could see that it was a dangerous thought.

「Well, it’s certainly stretched a little thin, but… don’t worry. The schedule of the emergency meeting is super top secret. There is no need to worry about information leakage. The Black Organization wouldn’t be able to attack at such good timing.」

The moment the president said that, a huge explosion echoed.

「「「Wha?!」」」

When we hurriedly looked out the window, our gymnasium was up in flames.

Moreover, it was not only that.

A group dressed in black cloaks climbed over the outer wall and invaded one after another.

「The Black Organization?!」

Immediately after the president shouted so, an in-house broadcast sounded.

「Emergency broadcast! Emergency broadcast! Our academy is under attack from a mysterious group which seems to be the Black Organization! Students should intercept as much as possible! I repeat! Our academy is–」

Thousand Blade Academy, which was hit by a surprise attack, fell into unprecedented chaos.

「-Allen-kun, Ria-san, Rose-san, will you help me?」

「Yes, of course!」

「Yes!」

「Leave it to me.」

And we began to move at once to intercept the Black Organization which had invaded Thousand Blade Academy.