WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Oblivious

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◈ The Weakest Knight Became a Swordmaster, But Only in Dungeons ◈

Chapter 8: Subjugation Test (2)

──────

Instructor Rachel’s assessment of Ron rose.

The insight needed to pinpoint a golem’s hidden core was certainly worthy of high praise. Still, that alone did not rule out the possibility that he had simply gotten lucky.

But what he had just shown was different.

The instructors’ experience and judgment were not so shallow that they could fail to recognize a clear glimpse of talent.

Even so.

‘Now then, what will you do, Ron Hazely?’

He had only overcome the immediate crisis. The battle was not over.

The golem had merely fallen. It was still in perfect condition.

What would he show next? How would he overcome this obstacle?

Just as Instructor Rachel watched in anticipation and the fallen golem began to rise...

“This is it.”

Tap tap tap!

Ron bolted away at full speed.

It was a lightning-fast escape.

“...”

“...”

Silence fell among the instructors.

Then Instructor Logan let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha ha!”

And Instructor Rachel...

“Pfft, pffft! Ah, this is ridiculous...!”

She laughed so hard her stomach hurt.

-

Elise Lorendia usually wore her magenta hair half tied up, but during battle, she put it into a ponytail.

Every time she swung her sword with a sunny smile and not a trace of exhaustion, a fierce wind of flower petals and sword strikes slaughtered the golems.

She had already defeated plenty of golems, and the test was nearing its end, but Elise did not slow down.

‘I still haven’t found that particularly strong golem.’

She wanted to face the golem said to be exceptionally powerful in this test.

So she spread her magical flower-petal wind through the area to search.

Then she sensed a golem that seemed stronger than the ones she had defeated so far.

‘Found...!’

Elise ran toward it.

Clang!

And saw it.

“Huh?”

Ron Hazely, the weakest cadet with light-brown hair.

He was using a mana-infused sword to redirect and deflect the golem’s blade.

Lightwing Sword, Wing Unfurling.

It was clumsy compared to the instructor’s demonstration, but Ron had definitely succeeded.

‘How did he...?’

It was a technique that even she had not yet mastered.

There should not have been a single first-year cadet, only one month into school, who could already perform that technique.

Elise narrowed her eyes.

She knew who Ron was. He had placed last in the entrance exam and last in mana capacity. In the previous test, he had barely avoided expulsion through sheer luck.

An honor student would have been one thing, but Ron was the cadet for whom displaying such advanced swordsmanship would feel the most out of place.

Without realizing it, Elise stopped walking.

Had Ron been hiding his true ability all along?

Curious to see what he would do, she watched him.

Tap tap tap!

“...?”

Ron... ran away at full speed.

At first, she thought he might hide somewhere and try to ambush the golem, but Elise’s flower-petal wind magic told her that Ron was earnestly fleeing.

‘What is with that guy?’

A bewildered laugh escaped her.

Thud.

The fallen golem barely pushed its massive body back up.

‘For now...’

Elise decided to set aside her questions about Ron.

One thing was certain. Ron had given up on fighting the golem.

Elise slowly stepped forward, narrowing her eyes seductively and smiling sweetly.

Whoooosh!

Rustle, rustle!

A wind of mana-infused flower petals scattered from Elise’s sword. The golem turned its gaze toward her.

“Ron Hazely. If you aren’t going to take it...”

Then I’ll gladly have it.

* * *

“I will now call out the numbers of cadets who failed to meet the minimum standard! The cadets assigned those numbers will be expelled soon!”

Number 17, my number, was not among the candidates for expulsion that Instructor Logan called out.

‘I survived...!’

After fleeing from the C- rank golem, I had barely managed to find and defeat one remaining golem.

Thanks to that, I met my quota of ten. I had narrowly avoided expulsion.

I was sitting down to rest, overwhelmed with relief, when...

“What a relief...”

“Hm?”

I heard a familiar voice and turned toward it.

A female cadet with deep-purple hair flowing like waves, a skull-shaped hair clip, and bangs covering one eye.

Violet came into view.

The moment our eyes met, Violet gasped and awkwardly looked away.

I had already noticed that she had been looking this way with an immensely relieved expression.

‘Was she happy that I didn’t fail?’

What a kind girl.

She had already grown attached to me. I was touched.

“Violet!”

“Gasp!? M-Mr. Hazely...!?”

How could I pretend not to notice when she cared about me this much?

I immediately walked over with a bright smile and sat beside her.

Violet tensed up around the knees she was hugging. She fidgeted with her fingers pressed together.

Her eyes wandered everywhere.

“Man, that was damn exhausting... You did well.”

“Y-Yes... You did well too, Hazely. Hehe.”

‘But she didn’t make the top ten? Neither did Turak.’

The two people I had grown close to so far.

Violet the necromancer and Turak the barbarian were both very strong, yet neither had earned outstanding results.

I could understand the barbarian having trouble because of intelligence, but why had Violet failed to place highly? I had no idea.

“Mm...”

Violet kept her eyes lowered, but the corners of her lips were raised.

She rocked very slightly back and forth. She looked quite happy.

Well... in Elwi, she had been an outsider without even one friend.

Maybe she was happy simply to have even one person she was close to, and for him to be sitting beside her.

‘...Hm?’

Then I felt another gaze.

More precisely, I caught sight of someone looking at me from the corner of my vision.

When I turned my head, I saw a female cadet with magenta hair.

Elise Lorendia.

The protagonist of For Elise and the honor student who had placed first in the entrance exam.

While chatting with her small friend Lara, Elise had been quietly watching me...

“Hm?”

When our eyes met, she did not look away. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and openly gave me a questioning look.

The corners of her lips curled up slightly, as though she were plainly asking, ‘I’m curious about you. What do you think about that?’

It was an expression Elise often made in Elwi whenever she suspected someone or wanted to test them.

‘Looks like she did see it.’

While fleeing from the C- rank golem, I saw her flower-petal wind magic.

That meant Elise had probably witnessed me using Lightwing Sword’s Wing Unfurling.

After that, she must have defeated the powerful golem I had given up on.

The last-place cadet had used a technique that even the top-ranked cadet could not use? If I were Elise, I would have questions too.

‘With suspicions at that level, it should be fine.’

I had not been in my Swordmaster state, and the technique had been incomplete.

She could not possibly uncover the truth that I was the one helping Elise from behind the scenes over something like that.

So what was the natural reaction here?

Swish.

Pretending that our eyes had met by chance, I quickly turned my head away.

Good. That was natural.

“With this, the Subjugation Test has ended! Good work, everyone! Get plenty of rest for tomorrow!”

That was how I survived.

And perhaps because of my efforts in this test...

[Your stats have increased.]

[Physical Grade: “D-” → “D”]

‘Oh.’

My stats had gone up too.

* * *

“I looked into Cadet Ron Hazely.”

A few days later, in the instructors’ lounge at Griffin Knight School.

Rachel, a red-haired woman in a pointed hat, spoke to Logan, a black-haired man, while sucking on a lollipop.

“Are you going around investigating cadets? Even my wife doesn’t do that.”

“Want to die? I just checked the information in the academic records. It’s easy to look up basic student information, right?”

Logan gave her a mischievous smile. He had clearly teased her on purpose.

Rachel narrowed her eyes at Logan, then turned away from him.

“He grew up as an orphan in the back alleys. Specifically, the back alleys of Brenvel.”

“Brenvel...”

“I stopped by there once for a mission. Everyone had this delightful custom of carrying at least one dagger tucked inside their clothes.”

Rachel continued.

“The streets were a mess, and you often saw lepers and robbers. It seems Cadet Ron lived there before joining a mercenary company. He mostly did odd jobs, like cleaning, laundry, and oiling equipment. With the money he earned, he attended some shabby-looking swordsmanship school and learned swordsmanship. Then, somehow, he awakened mana... That seems to be how he made it here.”

Thinking back on it, Ron’s actions in the two tests now made sense.

He looked for ways to survive even if it meant abandoning his pride. He prioritized analyzing his opponent’s weaknesses, then tried to fight in the way most likely to succeed despite his meager strength.

That must have been the way Ron had lived his entire life.

Rachel shrugged.

“Anyway, he grew up without an environment that could support him, so it wouldn’t be strange if his talent awakened late.”

That was the point Rachel wanted to make.

“He seems worth watching. We can’t say how far his talent might go. If he eventually fails, then it can’t be helped, but still.”

To thoroughly understand the cadets, draw out their abilities, and raise them into steadfast knights who would protect the Empire.

That was the role of this knight school and the duty of its instructors.

Ron had originally been seen as a weak cadet who would be expelled quickly, so the instructors had mostly paid him no attention.

But after surviving two rounds of elimination and showing clear glimpses of talent...

It was only natural that he had now become a subject of interest to some instructors.

Logan chuckled.

“Looks like you’ve taken quite an interest in Cadet Number 17.”

“I won’t deny it. But you’re the same, aren’t you?”

“I have nothing to hide!”

Rachel gave the broadly smiling Logan an unfriendly glare.

......

At one of Griffin Knight School’s outdoor training grounds one evening, under a sky streaked with sunset.

“Again!”

Whoosh!

Clang!

“Aagh!”

Elise Lorendia, the magenta-haired female cadet, was walking with her friend Lara.

When she suddenly heard a scream, she turned toward the sound.

Ron, the weakest cadet with light-brown hair, and Turak, the barbarian with short grayish-brown hair, were exchanging blows with practice swords.

Ron was sent flying helplessly, but he quickly got back up and assumed a stance. His entire body was drenched in sweat.

“Again.”

Turak chewed on jerky as he took up his stance as well. He appeared to be helping Ron train.

Elise stared at Ron for a while.

“What’s wrong? Do you have business with them?”

“No, I was just looking. Shall we go?”

Elise gave Lara a sweet smile as she answered.

The two started walking toward the dormitory again.

As they did, Lara glanced sideways at Ron.

Elise had always looked upward, striving to improve.

To Lara, it was very strange to see Elise take an interest in Ron, a male cadet stuck at the bottom.

‘Hm?’

Then Lara happened to notice that Ron was fairly good-looking.

Lara’s eyes narrowed.

‘No way...’

An embarrassing suspicion began to take root in Lara’s mind.

Footnotes:

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