WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How the Child of Prophecy Survives ◈
Chapter 5: True Warrior
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The auditorium where the entrance ceremony was being held was already full of people and buzzing with conversation. Since most of the incoming students came from noble or military families, this was not simply an announcement of enrollment. It was a political gathering of sorts.
Above all, it was one of the few events personally attended by Their Majesty the Emperor, who was almost entirely absent from public life. No one could afford to miss it.
Still, everyone knew that the Emperor had become even more secretive over the past few years. Since the Emperor had not appeared at last year's entrance ceremony, rumors were openly circulating that the Emperor would not show up this time either.
“Come to think of it, where's your family?”
Robert poked Ernst in the side as he asked. Robert could enter as a new student, but his family had been barred from the ceremony because they were nonhereditary nobles. Ernst, on the other hand, came from a hereditary noble military family, so his family could have attended without issue.
“My father is rather busy.”
“Is that so?”
Robert answered as though it did not matter, but he seemed a little relieved. He must have worried that Ernst would run straight to his family and leave him alone.
“Good. Those cold stares. They're so exactly what I expected that I can't even be surprised.”
Robert grinned at the people frowning at his insignia, which had neither gold braid nor silver pins.
“And one more thing. I was right. Ernst, we need to mingle with those people chatting over there. Quite the difficult task.”
Resting a hand on Ernst's shoulder, Robert gestured with his chin toward the new students talking in small groups. Those who had already become acquainted at the Youth Military Academy or in society must have formed close bonds.
“You don't need to be so concerned about making friends.”
Ernst spoke to Robert in an even voice.
“That isn't the goal. Nor is it particularly meaningful as a means to one. You only need good results. A person with irreplaceable ability can never be cast aside.”
It was Hires's advice. Ernst would never forget what he had learned from the father he respected, and he would always put it into practice.
“Wow, my father used to say that too. But if I had that sort of ability, I wouldn't be worrying about this in the first place.”
“You should be stricter with yourself.”
Ernst offered Robert, who was grumbling, a little more advice.
“Being generous to others can be tolerance and consideration. Being generous to yourself is nothing but laziness and recklessness. Before saying you can't do something, why not ask yourself whether you've done your best?”
“...Yes. Your father really is a soldier. A very stiff and frightening one, too.”
“He is an admirable soldier.”
“I suppose so.”
Robert muttered softly. He was a little surprised by how greatly Ernst respected his father. Robert had assumed Ernst's father would be extremely strict. Yet Ernst did not dislike or fear him. He respected him. It was rather astonishing.
“Fine, friend. Then how about giving an ignorant man, who was pushed here by his father without knowing anything, some more useful advice?”
Sensing the atmosphere in the auditorium change, Robert leaned close and asked in a low voice.
“Don't think you can catch up with others by learning only what the academy teaches. Everyone will have learned as much as they can before coming here.”
“So you're saying I should make time to study separately? But where am I supposed to learn that? Right?”
“This could be a deal.”
“What do you want?”
“There's nothing I want from you yet.”
“Fine. Put it on my tab, friend.”
Robert was extremely sensitive to the word deal, so once Ernst brought it up, matters proceeded smoothly.
If he had time, Ernst would help Robert study. The payment would be put down as a debt. Robert's family, the Zimmermann family, were nonhereditary nobles, but they appeared to be very wealthy merchants. They might prove useful someday.
Step! Step! Step! Step!
The atmosphere abruptly fell silent. At that moment, soldiers appeared at the second-floor windows of the auditorium.
“The Bewachter.”
Whispers spread among the nobles. The Bewachter, the Emperor's personal guard, stood in black uniforms lavishly decorated with gold braid, silently looking down with Valt guns in hand. If anyone made a movement of unclear intent, the Empire's finest soldiers would respond appropriately at once.
“It looks like Their Majesty has come.”
“Oh my God. We may get to see Their Majesty.”
“I heard the Emperor might not come.”
“Shh. Be quiet.”
The high voices of excited boys echoed through the auditorium. Rather than joining those pressing forward to see the Emperor from closer up, Ernst quietly stood near the rear of the area prepared for the new students, his hands behind his back. Robert initially tried to follow the boys forward, but after glancing at Ernst, he stood directly beside him in the same pose.
I'm scared to death.
Robert rolled his eyes as he assessed the situation. The nobles who had come to observe the entrance ceremony were frowning at their uncontrollable sons. The Bewachter looked down at the boys with cold eyes. The instructors, or those who appeared to be instructors, were also silently shifting their gaze as they examined each new student one by one.
Perhaps the evaluation had already begun. And the few boys who quietly held their places amid the confusion clearly seemed different from the rest. Robert became certain that he needed to stick even closer to Ernst.
“Silence. Return to your places.”
The boys who had crowded forward to see the Emperor froze at that resolute voice. It was partly because the speaker was a brigadier general, wearing a glittering golden laurel wreath and a single golden jewel. But the voice also carried the intense authority that only someone who had ordered operations to kill people on an actual battlefield could possess.
With a single word from Brigadier General Gauss Schultz, commander of the cadet corps, all the disorder was corrected, and the boys hesitantly returned to their places.
From above, the division among the incoming students would have been obvious at a glance. Those whose insignia bore gold braid and who had attended the Youth Military Academy stood together at the front. Behind them stood students with silver pins, and at the very back stood students like Robert, whose insignia had nothing at all.
That was why Ernst, with an insignia decorated with gold braid and silver pins, looked so out of place standing quietly at the very back.
With prominent brown eyes beneath a completely shaved scalp, Cadet Corps Commander Gauss glared at the new students before stepping aside with disciplined strides. Then an elderly man with thick white hair and a beard stepped forward at an unhurried pace and stopped directly before the students.
His dark eyes curved gently.
“I am Major General Armin Mannheim, Headmaster of the Imperial Military Academy.”
Armin spoke in a mild voice. Yet it resonated so powerfully that it filled the entire auditorium and seemed to make their chests tremble.
“Some of you will not even graduate, and some of you may die in training accidents. It is regrettable, but it is also a common occurrence every year.”
With those few words, Armin impressed upon everyone that this was not a nursery for children, but a military academy that trained officers for the Empire.
“I hope to see all of you commissioned after graduation four years from now.”
Armin spoke kindly, and that was precisely why his voice felt merciless as he spoke of death.
“Learn for victory, and fight for Their Majesty the Emperor. Glory is not given. It is won.”
As he half-listened to Headmaster Armin Mannheim and counted the new students, reaching fifty-four while noting their characteristics, Ernst looked up at the familiar phrase.
Answers are not given. They are reached.
That was what the father Ernst respected had told him.
“...”
At that moment, Ernst felt as though his eyes met Armin's.
But as if it had been an illusion, Armin slowly moved his gaze and met the eyes of every new student.
Suddenly, Ernst realized that his chronically poor concentration had kept him from paying attention to the entrance ceremony at all. He also realized how strange it was that the Emperor had not appeared despite the presence of the Bewachter.
Ernst slowly looked around, focusing especially on the second floor. Among the new students, overwhelmed by Headmaster Armin Mannheim's words and charisma, Ernst was the only one looking around like that.
That was why Ernst met the eyes of several Bewachter guards. When, following what his father had taught him, he identified a location from the Bewachter's deployment and their lines of sight, one of them stared directly at Ernst, slowly dipped their chin, and blinked in a silent warning.
Pretending to know nothing, like a curious young boy with poor concentration, Ernst began rolling his eyes again and resumed counting the new students.
But Ernst found it terribly difficult to ignore what was behind him. From the Bewachter's deployment and their gazes, he had deduced the location of the one person they had to protect.
“...”
Directly behind Ernst, who stood at the very rear of the new students, deep, rough breathing slowly escaped. Then, even as Headmaster Armin Mannheim continued speaking, someone slowly walked away.
To Ernst, every other sound seemed endlessly distant, while only those footsteps boomed like thunder. They grew farther away, then vanished.
“Congratulations on your admission. From this moment on, you are glorious soldiers of the great Mihanil Empire. Never forget that.”
Armin's short speech came to an end. Snapping back to his senses, Ernst realized that his body was drenched in cold sweat. A headache belatedly stabbed through his head, and he frowned.
At that moment, when everyone else was proud to have entered the Imperial Military Academy, only one person was frowning. It left a deep impression on the Headmaster, the Cadet Corps Commander, the Head of the Academic Department, and the various instructors and disciplinary officers beneath them, who were watching the new students.
And if the person who had made that deep impression was also the one who had dared to keep rolling his eyes and looking elsewhere during Headmaster Armin Mannheim's speech, they would remember him all the more clearly.
“What is that guy doing?”
One of the upperclassmen attending the entrance ceremony muttered quietly as they watched Ernst. No new student had ever acted so distractedly during an entrance ceremony.
Even as he left the auditorium behind a disciplinary officer, Ernst kept looking around.
So that's why the ceremony was held indoors. To guard against snipers.
Ernst realized that, despite the clear weather, the Imperial Military Academy held its entrance ceremony in an auditorium rather than outside because it had to guard against snipers.
Most of the academy's cadets were children of high-ranking noble families, and those teaching them held officer ranks. Even Their Majesty the Emperor attended. Since the ceremony was always held at the same place and time, they had no choice but to be wary of snipers.
“You. Why do you keep looking around like that?”
The moment they left the auditorium, a disciplinary assistant leading the new students spoke while glaring sharply at Ernst. Rather than say something unnecessary, Ernst gave a brief reply.
“I'm sorry.”
“...You'd do well to focus.”
There was little more to say after Ernst apologized. Judging by his insignia, he was from a hereditary noble military family. That was the end of it.
But if Robert, standing so close beside Ernst, had done the same thing, he would have faced a major obstacle from the very beginning of his four years at the academy.
The new students were first issued cadet uniforms and required to change into them. Then room assignments began.
First, the cadets who had come up from the Youth Military Academy were assigned rooms in pairs. Since most students fell into that category, fewer than ten cadets remained. Considering that there were sixty new students in total, it was easy to see how isolated they would be in the years ahead.
“Your Majesty the Emperor! Thank you!”
Right after the room assignments were finished, the disciplinary officer told the cadets to go to their rooms, unpack, and return. The moment Robert entered the room, he spread his arms wide, dropped to his knees, and cried out.
“Isn't that a rather trivial thing to be so happy about?”
Ernst spoke evenly to Robert, who had been assigned as his roommate.
“Hey, think about it. What would happen if I shared a room with some other young hereditary noble? I might have to massage that bastard's feet every night!”
“That won't happen. In principle, cadets in the same class all stand on equal footing.”
“Yes, in principle.”
“They could have paired people with their own kind.”
“It is best to build relationships with people who can make up for what you lack.”
“Your father must have said that.”
“Exactly.”
“Get out here this instant!”
“Let's get out right now.”
Ernst and Robert, who had been chatting as they unpacked, immediately threw down their belongings and rushed into the corridor.
“What a mess. One demerit point each.”
“...”
“...”
They had to accept the demerit points imposed by upperclassmen who had barged into rooms that were not yet fully organized. The cadets from the Youth Military Academy had not unpacked at all. They had simply placed their bags neatly in a corner of the room.
The students who followed the order to unpack received demerits, while those who did not quietly got away with it.
It was probably meant to take the new students down a peg, but the cadets from the Youth Military Academy knew about this small initiation and could avoid it. It only widened the divide between them. In fact, the upperclassmen approached the cadets from preparatory academies and spoke to them quite familiarly. They all knew one another through society.
“Fine. Things have gone wrong from the start.”
“They haven't gone wrong yet. Not over something this minor.”
“You may be all right, but I don't even know what I'll get demerits for next.”
Robert knew that the initiation was not over. And people with shabby insignia like his would be its targets.
Ernst merely shrugged at Robert. He was not Robert's older brother or nanny. It was something Robert would have to overcome himself.
But Ernst's thought did not last long.
The initiation for new students came in many forms, including one involving the rooms where they lived.
After finishing their first meal at the Imperial Military Academy, Ernst returned to his room and found the belongings he had brought from home mixed together with Robert's and scattered across the floor.
“One demerit point, Zimmermann.”
Ernst silently observed the upperclassman disciplinary assistant who appeared as if they had been waiting to say it.
“Do you have some objection, Krieger?”
The disciplinary assistant glared at Ernst in an intimidating manner. They knew that some of the belongings among the mess belonged to Ernst. But Ernst's belongings, despite his hereditary noble military background, were so sparse that they could not tell which belonged to Robert. So they had simply overturned everything.
Still, they had only given Robert a demerit point, so that should be good enough, they thought.
But Ernst could not simply let the matter pass.
“No, I don't.”
Even so, Ernst only answered politely.
“Good. You'd do well to keep it that way.”
Ernst smiled faintly as he listened to the upperclassman's warning.
He watched the departing upperclassman closely. Then he took in everything: those glancing toward his and Robert's room from the corridor, their gazes, expressions, breathing, positions, and posture.
As if he were playing one of the enjoyable games he played with his father, Ernst gathered a great deal of information in an instant, analyzed it, understood it, sorted it, and obtained a meaningful conclusion.
“Let's clean up. If we leave it like this, we'll get more demerits soon.”
“Damn it.”
Ernst led Robert into the room and locked the door. In the disordered room, he found that the clothes Hires had newly bought for Ernst's admission to the Imperial Military Academy had been ruined by ink spilled from a broken bottle. He began carefully folding them and setting them neatly in a corner.
“What are you doing?”
Robert was already exhausted just from organizing their belongings. He could clearly see the hardships ahead. Yet Ernst calmly finished tidying everything, sat at his desk, and began reading something.
“I need to study. Robert, you should study too.”
Just as Robert had, Ernst rudely used his name without permission. Robert naturally did not mind.
“What are we studying? We only enrolled today.”
“Robert.”
Without taking his eyes from what he was reading, Ernst quietly called Robert's name. His concentration was more limited than other people's. He had to finish his work while he could focus.
“After going through this, hearing you say something like that makes me think I'll soon have this room to myself.”
“...”
Robert kept his mouth shut and quietly moved beside Ernst to see what he was reading. It was the Imperial Military Academy's regulations, issued to every cadet.
“Fine.”
After that short answer, Robert sat at his own desk and began reading and memorizing the regulations like Ernst.
Robert was far quicker with calculations than most fourteen-year-old boys. It was a talent inherited from his father, who had made a fortune in business in Grimman, the imperial capital, and something he had developed by following his father around and learning from the moment he learned to walk.
Even to Robert, Ernst felt strange. He was refined, calm, polite, mature, and somehow unsettling in a way that was difficult to explain.
Tap.
As Robert silently focused on memorizing the regulations, he shifted his eyes at the sound beside him. Ernst had put down the thin book of regulations and was moving the neatly arranged items on his desk around.
Ernst arranged the desk in six different ways. It looked extremely distracting, yet every arrangement was efficient and orderly, with none of the items placed inconveniently. Then Ernst began memorizing the regulations again.
Robert felt a faint chill at Ernst's bizarre behavior.
“Weirdo.”
“You still haven't memorized it?”
“And you have?”
“Yes, I have.”
“...Already?”
Robert turned toward him in shock at Ernst's claim that he had memorized a book of more than twenty pages in less than thirty minutes. Ernst was still turning pages and reading.
“Then why are you still reading it?”
“Just in case.”
“...Fine. What's the plan? I'm sharing a room with you. It's good to share plans with a trusted companion, right?”
Ernst put down the regulation book, which he had already memorized, and looked at Robert.
“Do you know how to hunt?”
“Hunt?”
Robert raised his eyebrows at the unexpected question.
He had never hunted before. And the only hunting he knew was nobles riding leisurely on horseback before shooting prey driven out by hounds with guns loaded by servants.
“Yes. Hunt.”
But the hunting Ernst knew was entirely different. He knew how to crawl through forests covered in damp mud and moss, endure the itch of insects crawling over his body beneath fallen leaves, set traps, cut off an animal's breath, skin it with a dagger, scrape out its innards, and cook the prey he had caught himself into something delicious.
That was hunting as Ernst knew it.
“I rather like hunting.”
Remembering the time he had spent with his father, Ernst smiled softly, looking a little shy.
Some people said that once people looked down on you, it was over, so you had to keep fighting. That was all bullshit. Once you start growling to threaten everyone around you, you have to keep doing it until you die.
So once is enough. Wait quietly for the right moment, then act only once.
When the other person relaxes and steps close, tear out their throat and kill them in one bite. That is enough.
A frightened dog barks. A true hunter, one who knows how to cut off an enemy's breath, remains silent.
At least, that was what Ernst had learned from the father he respected.
He could not kill anyone. Ernst had never killed someone in the first place. But he could give the person who had played that nasty prank on him a terrible fright.
Ernst had that much ability.
After all, who had taught him?
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