I Became the Academy's Turn-Based Swordsman - Chapter 24

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Chapter 24: Did You Deceive Me?

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At Ruidel Academy, students were assigned to classes based on their entrance exam scores as soon as the entrance ceremony began.

When people thought of an academy, they tended to imagine departments like Swordsmanship or Magic, but Ruidel’s classes were a little different from those in other stories.

Ruidel was an academy in name only. In reality, it was closer to a military academy that trained people to clear dungeons.

With that in mind, Ruidel’s classes were divided into three branches: the Raid Corps, Reconnaissance Corps, and Support Corps. Each branch was further divided into A, B, and C Classes based on performance.

The first was the Raid Corps.

The Raid Corps prioritized clearing dungeons above all else, making it the academy’s most popular and prestigious branch.

Naturally, outstanding talent gathered there, so the academy and the Empire often concentrated their support on it. The reputation students earned after graduation was also incomparably greater than that of the other branches.

Though it came with considerable risk, many students applied for the sake of their futures. Most major playable characters, including Aren, belonged there as well.

The second was the Reconnaissance Corps.

While the Raid Corps prioritized clearing dungeons, the Reconnaissance Corps did exactly what its name suggested. They scouted dungeons, created maps, marked boss room locations, and served as the link between the Raid Corps and Support Corps.

Their duties also included dealing with lesser monsters inside dungeons, but they rarely faced boss monsters head-on.

That meant less risk, but it also meant they received far less recognition than the Raid Corps.

Surprisingly, Adeline had once belonged to Ruidel Academy’s Reconnaissance Corps. Despite that, she had conquered numerous dungeons and earned achievements comparable to those of the Raid Corps.

Lastly came the Support Corps.

The Support Corps specialized in rear support rather than combat. During dungeon raids, they handled supplies, treatment, assistance, equipment repairs, and a variety of other duties that supported the Raid Corps and Reconnaissance Corps.

They rarely stood on the front lines, but they did step forward when necessary. As a result, capable Support Corps graduates were sometimes recruited into the Imperial Army or as strategic advisers to the Imperial Court.

For example, Eugene, who was applying for the Raid Corps without the slightest hesitation at the very front of the line, would officially become a first-year Ruidel Academy Raid Corps A Class student.

And now, I was back at the testing grounds where I had taken the entrance exam a few days ago to receive my class assignment.

‘There are more people than I expected.’

That was my first thought as soon as I arrived.

From the academy’s perspective, there was no reason to turn away applicants who wanted to come.

Fresh young talent was walking in of their own accord, willing to work for the Empire. Why stop them?

As long as they possessed the bare minimum of talent, most applicants were accepted.

Of course, about half of those accepted would die as the scenario progressed.

From what I could see, everyone who had made it past Shukarit had been accepted. Quite a few who failed to get past it had been accepted too.

There seemed to be even more successful applicants than in the original game. That was probably because of the variables I had created.

Especially Senia. Most of the applicants assigned to her group seemed to have passed.

As I looked around at my fellow students, a familiar voice reached me from afar.

“Cecil, are you still mad?”

“If I hadn’t received an acceptance notice, I would’ve resented you forever.”

“I’m telling you, that wouldn’t have happened. My score was probably lower than yours.”

“That’s your own fault!”

They were the Ren sisters, whom I hadn’t seen since the entrance exam.

On the day of the test, Cecilia had glared at me as if she wanted to bore a hole through my face. I had tried to speak to her, but Viktor Grace intercepted me.

Still, it looked as though both of them had passed. The academy probably hadn’t wanted to lose someone as talented as Cecilia.

Their relationship also didn’t seem as strained as I had expected.

They were both strong-willed, after all.

Then Senia spotted me crouching on the ground.

“...?”

Her expression changed about four times as she stared at my face.

“Ah!”

“Wh-What is it?! Why all of a sudden?!”

She grabbed Cecilia and pulled her over to me.

“You’re sitting normally today? I thought you’d make another entrance onstage in armor like last time.”

“There were circumstances back then.”

Cecilia, who had been dragged over with an unhappy expression, stopped the moment she heard my voice.

“Uh...? Huh...? Uhh...?”

Cecilia stood frozen like a malfunctioning robot before the words slipped from her mouth.

“You... Don’t tell me... you’re Halibal?”

“Greetings, young ladies.”

“R-Really?!”

Cecilia couldn’t take her eyes off my face for quite some time.

It was an understandable reaction. After my burn scars healed, I had received the same looks hundreds of times at the barracks over the next few days.

Mine had reacted the same way when she stopped by the barracks to check whether the scars were gone.

More importantly...

‘So did I.’

The Halibal Velder from the original game had been like a dried-up corpse, endlessly repeating things about a knight’s honor and pride.

Vacant eyes, dark circles beneath them, and a gaunt face. Then he suddenly showed up with that bizarre accuracy modifier, so he was bound to leave a strong impression.

That was why, when I first saw my face after every burn scar had vanished, I thought, ‘So the original Halibal looked like that because of the cult’s brainwashing.’

Perhaps thanks to my training, the face beneath those scars was far more normal than I had expected.

“How is it?”

“W-What do you mean?!”

“Didn’t you dislike my burn scars?”

It probably hit Cecilia even harder.

Even though we had interacted for quite a long time, she still sometimes couldn’t hide her startled expression whenever she saw me.

She made it obvious that she felt sorry each time, but there was nothing I could do about trauma etched deeply into her mind.

Now that its cause had disappeared, I thought things might improve a little. That was why I had been most curious about Cecilia’s reaction.

She avoided my gaze for a moment, then covered the area beneath her nose with her palm and spoke quietly.

“...It’s not bad.”

Right. What had I expected?

That was practically high praise.

Senia chuckled at her answer, then asked with a gentle smile.

“That’s right. Which branch are you planning to apply for, Halibal?”

“Are the two of you planning to join the Raid Corps as well, my ladies?”

“Yes. We probably will...”

Cecilia cut her off.

“...Cecilia.”

“Yes?”

“No... Um... It gets confusing when you call us both ‘my lady’...”

She looked away for a moment, then added in the same quiet voice.

“...You can call me by my name.”

‘I was planning to anyway.’

The academy was a place where rank didn’t matter.

In the original game, Aren spoke casually to Cecilia from the beginning. Aren didn’t use titles like young lady or young master for Eugene, Richard, or even upperclassmen.

I had intended to speak casually once the term began as well.

The problem was that I had spent so long in the military that I couldn’t easily stop speaking formally.

I would have to be more active at the academy than I was now, and being this stiff would probably put me at a disadvantage.

There was no reason to refuse when she had opened the door for me first.

“Okay, Cecilia.”

“...That’s enough.”

Senia watched us with her arms crossed and a mischievous smile.

“Then will you call me Senia from now on too?”

“I’ll... do that.”

“Oh? Why are you still speaking formally to me?”

‘Because you started it.’

More importantly, the image of her as a complete lunatic during the entrance exam was still lodged in my head, so I couldn’t bring myself to speak casually.

“I don’t mind. It might even be better since it distinguishes me from Cecil.”

“I’ll try to speak more casually with you from now on.”

“By the way, could you answer the question I asked earlier? Are you applying for the Raid Corps too, Halibal?”

“Of course he is. He’s the hero who first conquered the Evil God’s Abyss in the Empire.”

...Of course?

Thinking normally, she was right.

I had been entering dungeons constantly, and as she said, I was also the first person to clear the Beast Dungeon.

But I had no intention of applying for the Raid Corps.

‘I’m applying to the Reconnaissance Corps.’

The dungeon bosses I had defeated so far hadn’t dropped anything besides Shards.

The Beast Dungeon was no exception.

It gave me Adamant, but that was all.

Starting with the next dungeon, though, things would be different.

Why was the Beast Dungeon called the tutorial dungeon?

Because only after entering the dungeon following the Beast Dungeon did the so-called Treasure Chest System unlock, granting additional rewards beyond item drops whenever a dungeon was cleared.

Treasure chests dropped equipment as well as Shards.

In other words, my inefficient farming until now was about to become overwhelmingly more efficient.

To grow stronger, I needed to enter dungeons as soon as possible, and I also needed to keep clearing the Dungeons of the Evil God.

That was where the Reconnaissance Corps’ advantage shone.

They could enter dungeons before the other two branches.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a privilege. They had to enter without knowing anything about the dungeon’s structure, which came with its own risks.

But that wasn’t a problem for me.

‘I know the dungeon maps.’

Not everything, but I knew roughly what would appear where, what monsters were placed in each area, and where the traps and dead ends were from my knowledge of the original game.

There was no risk for me, only rewards.

There was absolutely no reason to turn that down.

Still, I couldn’t tell the two of them that outright.

It was clear that they liked me.

Whether it was simple affection or something more, I didn’t know.

So I had no idea what choice they would make if they heard that I was applying for the Reconnaissance Corps.

If Cecilia, who needed to join the Raid Corps, got swayed by my words and started considering another branch, I had no idea what kind of butterfly effect it would cause.

“I probably will.”

So I could only give them a vague answer.

“As expected?”

“I told you.”

Neither of them looked surprised as they nodded at my answer.

“Then shall we go submit our applications too?”

“Sure. It’s best to finish things quickly.”

I had ended up deceiving them without meaning to, but what could I do?

‘I just hope they don’t resent me later.’

Before long, the students gathered at the testing grounds began submitting their applications one by one. I mixed into the crowd and handed mine to an instructor.

The instructor glanced at my application, which read Reconnaissance Corps, frowned for a moment, and gave me a look that asked, ‘Is this right?’

Unfortunately, it was.

A little more time passed, and the final class assignments were finally complete.

“From this moment, the class assignment results for Ruidel Academy’s first-year students will be announced. Students whose names are called should confirm their name, branch, and class, then assemble in their designated locations.”

When the board unfolded at the instructor’s shout, every student’s gaze turned toward it.

“First, the Raid Corps.”

[Raid Corps A Class]

Eugene Reygal

Ran Pen

Aren Bright

Richard Dane

......

As expected, Aren, Eugene, and Ran were in Raid Corps A Class. Mine and Elia had applied for the Support Corps, so it was only natural that they weren’t there.

I felt relieved for a moment at the same result as the original game...

‘Where are Senia and Cecilia?’

No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find either of their names.

Just as I was about to read from the very top again in case I had missed them, the two approached me.

“Are you looking for something?”

“...Yes?”

Then they asked a loaded question.

“Next is the Reconnaissance Corps.”

With a sinking suspicion, I looked over.

[Reconnaissance Corps A Class]

Halibal Velder

Cecilia Ren