TGSA 21

Chapter 21

 The Graduate’s Path (5)

“Graaaah…!”

In the pouring rain, Lester’s scream echoed.

The blade, clad in sword aura, had pierced into his right thigh.

“M-my leg…!”

“Don’t make such a fuss.”

I withdrew my sword.
The mana had already been completely retracted.

“It’s not as if your leg’s been cut off.”

“Ugh…!”

Lester collapsed, clutching his thigh. His once-handsome face twisted hideously under the unbearable pain.

“E-Ernas Lanzstein, just now…!”

Shaking all over, Lester shouted at me.

“Just now—you used sword aura, didn’t you?! How can you possibly use sword aura?!”

“Is it really that surprising?”

“Impossible! How in the world…!”

“Well, I suppose from your perspective it would be hard to believe.”

I looked down at him as I spoke.

“After all, you just attempted to form sword aura yourself… and failed.”

“…!”

“On top of that, it looks like you’ve lost most of the mana you acquired from the elixir.”

Lester’s face trembled violently.

“Y-yes, even I—who received preliminary training from the Lancaster family—failed to form sword aura! Then how could you succeed?!”

His anger turned to shock.

“D-don’t tell me… did you somehow acquire an elixir beforehand? Did you gain massive amounts of mana from it…?!”

“No. Like you, I only obtained one red elixir during the last competition.”

“T-then… doesn’t that mean you and I should have the same amount of mana?!”

“The amount of mana one can absorb from an elixir differs for each person, Lester.”

“…!”

Lester’s eyes widened. He understood what I meant.

“I—I succeeded in settling more than seventy percent of the red elixir’s mana. Are you saying you absorbed even more than that?”

“That’s right.”

“T-that can’t be! Even I, praised as a ‘prodigy,’ could only manage seventy percent at best. How could the likes of you…!”

“There are plenty of people in this world more talented than you, Lester.”

“…!”

Serine’s mana cultivation method was already top-tier among academy freshmen.
And I… was the creator, the one who knew every last setting of this world’s mana system.

That was why I could stabilize over ninety percent of the red elixir’s mana.

“Anyway, shouldn’t you start stemming the bleeding? You’re losing a lot of blood.”

“Urgh…!”

Too distracted by arguing with me, Lester had even forgotten to treat his wound.

“In that state, there’s no way you’ll be able to roam the mountains and track down the instructor.”

“…!”

Had he still possessed enough mana, maybe. But now, it was impossible.

“And the instructor you bribed isn’t even in this testing ground. How unfortunate for you.”

Failing the first test meant immediate expulsion.

The heir of one of the Six Great Sword Clans, Lester Lancaster, would be thrown out of the academy.

“Y-you… you planned this from the start…!”

“And weren’t you the same? You’re hardly in a position to criticize me.”

“S-shut up…!”

But in truth, there was nothing Lester could do now.

“Lester, we fought a fair duel. And you lost.”

I spoke coldly.

“If you act pitiful and whine about the outcome… your father will be furious.”

“…!”

“Of course, he’ll be even angrier at the fact that you lost in the first place.”

At the mention of his father, Lester shuddered.
Confirming that, I turned away.

A wretched cry sounded behind me, but I paid it no mind and walked off.

Walking alone through the forest, I sank into thought.

‘So Lester is out.’

Among the heirs of the Six Great Sword Clans, Lester was the first to fall.

In the novel, too, he tried to trample the protagonist Arcandel, but was counterattacked and eliminated.

‘This will make the conflict among the six clans all the fiercer.’

The balance they had barely maintained would now collapse.
The clans would move more aggressively, and the Lancasters, unwilling to fall behind, would rage desperately.

It would spiral into a bloody feud.

‘The academy forbids killing… but crippling someone’s limbs is fair game.’

Killing another student meant immediate expulsion.
But as long as you didn’t take a life, even crippling injuries were tolerated—
so long as they were the result of a proper duel.

That was the reality of Richtenauer Sword Academy.

‘To survive here… I’ll need to grow even stronger.’

I had stepped onto the path of a graduate earlier than most.
If I continued honing my sword aura, I could surpass them.

But that alone wasn’t enough.

‘Because… that guy is here.’

The prodigy of Blue Class 2.
The strongest heir among the Six Great Sword Clans.

Lester might have been called a “prodigy,” but that boy was in a different league.
Even stronger than Arcandel, the protagonist himself—
a true genius of the sword.

‘To defeat him… my current strength isn’t enough.’

I kept walking, brooding over this, until I came to a small valley.

The rain had swelled the waters, making them surge violently.
And there, a woman stood gazing down at the current.

“Instructor Annerize.”

“Oh, Ernas.”

Annerize yawned sleepily and looked at me.

“Still here, Ernas? A bit surprising.”

“I had something to take care of first.”

“I see.” She nodded knowingly.

“Every year, the first test is full of personal duels. After all, it’s the perfect chance to knock out rivals.”

As she spoke, Annerize raised her wooden sword.

“Then… shall we begin?”

“You’re not planning to run?”

“If it’s you, Ernas, you’d chase me down anyway.”

She smiled and took her stance.

“Come at me. I won’t be going easy.”

“Understood.”

I nodded, assuming my stance as well.

“Please teach me a lesson, Instructor.”

Today, I would defeat Annerize to earn my pass—
and then move on to my next step.

“Damn it, damn it…!”

As he received treatment from an instructor, Lester shook with rage.

Other wounded students were being treated nearby, their curious glances only deepening his humiliation.

‘To think I’d be expelled after failing the first test…!’

Even after losing to Ernas, Lester hadn’t given up.
He woke his retainer Yuser, forced him to administer first aid, and went searching for an instructor.

But his wound worsened, blood loss grew severe, and stamina drained away.
Mana depleted, Lester couldn’t endure—
eventually, Yuser had to carry him down the mountain.

“The Lancaster heir failed?”

“Has any heir of the Six Great Clans ever failed the first test before?”

“He was hailed as a prodigy… was he just a fake?”

Each whisper around him drove him closer to madness.

He wasn’t just here as an individual.
He had entered the academy as the Lancaster heir, the clan’s representative.

His failure was the clan’s disgrace.

‘If Father hears of this…!’

Henry Lancaster, his father, valued the family’s honor above all.
Anyone who tarnished the family name was never forgiven.

And now, the so-called prodigy son had failed miserably.

‘H-he might even demand my head…!’

He might not kill his own son outright—
but demanding suicide was not impossible.
Lester had seen him order retainers to do the same.

The thought alone terrified him.

‘Damn it, this is all… all because of Ernas!’

Shaking in fear, Lester cursed him in his heart.

‘If not for him, none of this would have happened…!’

Everything was Ernas’s fault.
Grinding his teeth, Lester clung to that belief.

‘Something’s not right! He must have used some trick!’

The more he thought, the more absurd things seemed.

How did he detect Yuser’s concealment?
How did he use Lancaster’s sword techniques?
How did he manifest sword aura?

None of it made sense.

‘Yes… even beating Rufus Ignatius was suspicious!’

Clearly, Ernas had cheated somehow.

The more Lester thought this way, the more convinced he became.
It was the only way to preserve his sanity.

‘I can’t let this go! He must be punished!’

As he stewed in anger, the area suddenly grew noisy.

“…!”

He looked up, startled.

The overseer of the first test—“The Flame Prison Sword,” Professor Calleon Ignatius—was approaching.

“Lester Lancaster.”

“P-Professor Calleon!”

Lester tried to stand hastily, but his bandaged thigh throbbed, making him wince.

“Looks like a serious wound.”

“N-no. Just a scratch.”

“A scratch? And yet you can’t continue the exam?”

“Ugh…”

He bit his lip and fell silent.
Calleon’s gaze lingered on his thigh.

“The instructor told me—it was a sword wound.”

“T-that…”

“Strange, isn’t it? There shouldn’t be a single student carrying a real blade up there. So how did this happen?”

“…!”

At that, Lester understood why Calleon had come.

Not to mock him for failing—
but to investigate, as the overseer.

“Well… the truth is…”

“Speak honestly.”

“It was sword aura…”

Then, a sudden thought flashed in Lester’s mind.

“P-Professor Calleon!”

Forgetting even the pain, he leapt to his feet.

“Ernas Lanzstein! He was carrying a real sword! He stabbed me with it!”

A brilliant move.

Ernas did indeed have a real sword.
Carrying one secretly was against school rules—
if caught, he would be punished.

This was his chance to bring Ernas down.

“He disguised it as a wooden sword! If you examine it, you’ll see right away!”

It was technically Lester’s own sword, originally.
But still, Ernas currently had it.

That fact alone was enough to damn him.

‘Fool! If only you hadn’t coveted my sword, this wouldn’t have happened!’

And he had injured another student with it.
With luck, Ernas might even be expelled.

“Professor! I may be leaving the academy… but I can’t stand by and watch someone like that roam freely! Before more students get hurt, please—”

“That’s odd.”

Calleon cut him off.

“Your story doesn’t match Ernas’s.”

“…What?”

“Just moments ago, Ernas descended the mountain and turned himself in.”

“Turned… himself in?”

Yes—surrender.

“He admitted he had injured another student with a real sword. And he handed over a short sword to us.”

“…What?”

“He claimed it happened while confiscating a hidden blade another student possessed. But guilty nonetheless, he said, and bowed his head, asking to be punished.”

“…”

“You say Ernas concealed a real sword. Yet he voluntarily submitted it. Strange, isn’t it?”

Lester felt suffocated.

None of this made sense.

Hadn’t Ernas stolen the Superte Workshop blade out of greed?
Then why give it up voluntarily—
risking punishment?

‘Ernas… just what are you plotting?’

What scheme was Ernas Lanzstein weaving?

Lester couldn’t tell. He couldn’t understand.

But one thing was certain.

“I’ll need to conduct a full investigation.”

“P-professor Calleon…”

“And if, during that investigation, I uncover anything unacceptable… I’ll be notifying the Lancaster family.”

“…!”

Lester Lancaster had fallen into the worst possible situation.
That much was clear.