Chapter 471
Simon carried Heidi into the infirmary inside the ship.
“Now put me down. No, really, put me down… sir.”
Heidi wriggled in his arms, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, her voice barely more than a whisper.
Simon chuckled playfully.
“Using honorifics now? So you finally believe I’m a second-year?”
“Th–that’s…!”
She covered her burning face with her hands.
“S-someone as strong as you couldn’t possibly still be a freshman… sir.”
Simon set her down, and the two entered the infirmary together. A medic who had been waiting examined her condition.
“There are some mild stress symptoms and a scrape on her wrist. Aside from that, all vitals are normal. As long as she gets enough sleep starting today, she’ll have no problem attending class.”
“That’s good to hear, Heidi.”
Simon spoke, and Heidi blinked while staring at the bandage around her wrist.
“Am I really okay?”
Yesterday, she hadn’t slept a wink, had cried, fainted, and collapsed.
“Yes, you’re in excellent health.”
Come to think of it—
Right after Simon rescued her, she thought she had dozed off for a moment. But afterward, all the fatigue had vanished as if it were a lie.
‘Did he… do something for me?’
Simon only kept smiling without saying a word.
While the doctor left to fetch some medicine, Heidi whispered timidly.
“Um… umm…”
“Hm?”
“Thank you so much for bringing me to Keyzen… sir.”
Still unused to addressing Simon with honorifics, her eyes darted awkwardly around, which only made her look even cuter.
“I really should repay you, but… my family circumstances aren’t good, so if you’ll wait a little—”
“I didn’t do this expecting a reward.”
Simon cut her off sharply, dropping his arms at his sides.
“As Student Council President, it’s my duty to protect students during missions. I just did my job. You don’t need to feel like you owe me anything.”
“B-but still—!”
“All right. If you really want to repay me…”
After a brief moment of thought, Simon spoke.
“…survive the first-year competitions.”
“What?”
“If you make it all the way to graduation, that’s even better—but that’s a height even I haven’t reached yet. At the very least, you’re the first student I’ve saved as council president. I want you to fight through the countless competitions and endure until the end.”
Simon leaned back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling.
“That’s all.”
Heidi’s eyes welled up with emotion as she looked at him.
‘Amazing.’
Just one year apart, and yet his skill, his mindset—everything was on another level.
‘Me too.’
She clasped her hands tightly over her chest.
‘I want to become like him too.’
To grow strong and help many people.
At that moment, the person she respected most in the world shifted, from her father to this senior.
“Senior.”
“Uh, y-yeah.”
Simon scratched the side of his head, still awkward with that honorific.
‘I respect you. Someday, I’ll work hard here at Keyzen and become like you.’
Unable to say the words out loud, Heidi swallowed them back down and instead smiled brightly.
“Thank you so much for saving me.”
Someday, she would return the grace she received from him by helping countless others.
At that moment, a girl’s lifelong role model was born.
* * *
After thirty minutes of rest, a Keyzen staff member gathered all the freshmen for an announcement.
“All right, freshmen! In ten minutes, the Underworld Whale will arrive at Keyzen!”
Simon stood beside him, and more eyes drifted toward Simon than toward the staff giving the explanation.
“Everyone has received one of these, correct?”
“Yes!”
The freshmen held up crystal orbs. They looked similar to common amplifying crystal spheres, but these had multiple safety mechanisms.
“In just a moment, you’ll be dropping from thousands of meters in the sky.”
“???”
Confusion spread among the freshmen.
“These orbs will be your lifelines. Let me explain how to use them. There are two safety locks. First, pull this pin—”
The staff kindly demonstrated the process step by step, but some students were already fumbling in panic.
“Once you disengage both locks and wait a moment…”
Whoosh!
From the orb’s opening, a bubble surged out, quickly wrapping around the staff member’s body. His voice was muffled inside, and he tried punching and clawing at the bubble, but it was too sturdy to burst.
Pop!
Gathering Darkness at his fingertips, he pierced the bubble and slipped out. Then he turned to the students.
“You all understand now?”
“Y-yes…”
The replies from around the room were half-hearted and uncertain.
The staff member raised his voice.
“If you can’t even handle this much, you can’t call yourselves proud students of Keyzen! Think of it as your final entrance exam. Just stay calm and follow the instructions.”
This was the official manual.
Last year, Sillage had personally handled everything with his own power. But since no professor-level necromancer had come this year, the manual safety equipment was being distributed instead.
At that moment, a servant holding a communication orb shouted.
“We’re about to arrive at Roke Island!”
“Freshmen, return to your seats at once!”
“Yes!”
The freshmen rushed back to their seats. Simon moved among them, checking to make sure everyone was seated properly.
“Senior, you’re so handsome~!”
Kyaaahaha!
Some of the girls teased him playfully.
Simon pretended not to hear, wearing a stoic expression, though the tips of his ears were bright red.
“Is this really the time for jokes? Everyone, focus!”
Princess Molly shouted back at them, and the rowdy freshmen quickly shut their mouths.
Meanwhile, the ship was once again enveloped in a barrier, and seawater began flooding into the whale’s belly, rising to the ceiling in an instant.
“Student Council President, it’s about to begin!”
A servant looked to Simon.
Simon sat down and called out to the others.
“Hold on tight unless you want to fall off!”
At that, every freshman gripped their seat handles with all their strength.
And then—
Shhhhhhhaaa!
Like a faucet bursting open all at once, the water in front of them gushed forward at terrifying speed.
The students felt their bodies lifted, the velocity so overwhelming they couldn’t even scream. They buried their faces against the seats.
Moments later, the darkness of the tunnel gave way to a blinding light as the ship burst out.
“Whoa…!”
With the fierce wind came a breathtaking sight. The icy air stung their skin as the freshmen lifted their heads. They were soaring at an altitude so high the entire Roke Island below looked like a toy.
But the awe didn’t last long. As the whale’s water jet weakened, the ship began to nose downward.
‘Here we go.’
Having experienced it once before, Simon only smiled calmly.
We’re falling.
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
“Kyaaaaaaaaah!”
The ship plummeted, faster and faster, pressure crushing down as the surroundings blurred like streaks of light.
Some students lost their grip and tumbled out of the ship. The barrier had been released to prevent collision hazards.
“Oops.”
As guide, Simon deliberately let go of his handle and drifted free. The ship fell first, and students who lost their grip spun helplessly through the sky.
“All right, everyone—stay calm!”
Simon shouted:
“Activate your crystal spheres and get inside the bubbles! Just do exactly what you were taught earlier!”
Most of the freshmen snapped to action, quickly activating their crystal spheres and entering their protective bubbles. But a few had completely lost their wits. They couldn’t even scream, just frozen stiff as they plummeted through the sky.
‘Good thing I prepared for this.’
Simon activated the dark magic he had set aside.
<Simon’s Original – Royal Guard>
After Skull Drone, now Royal Guard. It was the first time he was using two Cloud-type dark magics in a row, but there was no other choice.
From Simon’s subspace, turquoise bones shot out, wrapping around his body.
The Royal Guard’s cloak formed behind his back, transforming into two pairs of fluttering wings. Bones clamped onto his body like joints, glowing with radiant force as they generated lift.
<Royal Guard – Flight Mode>
A magic circle unfolded behind him, and from within it, Cloud erupted like flame. Simon’s body shot upward into the air.
His first target was a girl struggling with her initial safety lock.
“Ugh! Why won’t this work?!”
Tears welled in her eyes as she screamed in panic.
“Stay calm!”
Simon swooped in from behind, grabbed her, and released the lock for her. Instantly, her body was wrapped safely in a bubble.
‘Next!’
Leaving an emerald tail in the sky, Simon darted from one student to another, unlocking their safety mechanisms. Bubbles bloomed across the sky.
“All right, you’re safe now!”
Amidst this, one junior stood out in a good way.
Arthur was helping another student who couldn’t manage the locks, unfolding a bubble for them.
“Well done, Arthur!”
Simon gave him a thumbs-up.
“This much is nothing!”
Arthur grinned and returned the thumbs-up without hesitation.
‘As expected of the Mercenary King.’
With years of hardened mercenary life on the battlefield, he was leagues above the other noble freshmen in experience. To him, danger like this hardly even registered as danger.
“Good, but now you get in your own bubble too, Arthur! I’ll handle the others!”
“Yes, sir!”
Arthur pulled out his own crystal sphere and yanked the safety pin.
But—
Snap!
He pulled too hard, and the pin broke.
“Uwaaaaaah! I’m doomed!!”
In one instant, all the strengths that set him apart were nullified—Arthur was, after all, a fool.
“Simon-senior! Please save me!!”
‘Oh, for crying out loud—why him too, when I’m already swamped…!’
Simon activated another student’s orb for them, then moved to the next as he shouted:
“Arthur! You can land on your own, right?”
“Huh?! That’s cruel!!”
“You’re a special-admission student!”
Simon yelled while unlocking another freshman’s lock.
“If your goal is to be Keyzen’s strongest, something like this should be child’s play!”
Arthur’s tearful face suddenly shifted.
“When you put it that way…!”
He pulled a new sword from his subspace.
“…I can’t help but want to succeed!!”
He swung his blade in the air, creating shockwaves. Simon, seeing Arthur fire himself up, moved on to rescue the next student.
“Whew.”
Thanks to his efforts, every student falling from the ship was now descending safely inside their bubbles. Those who fell later were being personally managed by servants and Keyzen staff.
Simon shifted his Royal Guard suit into low-speed flight and looked down.
‘It’s beautiful, no matter how many times I see it.’
His alma mater came into view.
A lush jungle, a polished plain, waterfalls with drifting leaves, and snow-capped mountains. Roke Island’s landscape contained all four seasons, like a living painting.
And in the very center, the Keyzen campus rose proudly with its buildings jutting skyward.
Now calmer, the freshmen also looked upon the scenery in pure awe.
“Welcome to Keyzen, everyone!”
Hearing the Student Council President’s voice, the freshmen engraved the unforgettable sight of the heavens into their memories.
All the new freshmen who had ridden the Underworld Whale thus arrived safely on Roke Island.
Arthur, in an attempt to land “heroically”, swung his sword toward the ground to create wind pressure—only to blast sand all over nearby students. But it was no real harm done.
Many freshmen collapsed onto the ground to catch their breath. Some were hunched over, vomiting.
It was the same sight as a year ago. Yet soon enough, energy returned, and the air buzzed with lively chatter and exaggerated retellings of their “heroic” descent.
“Student Council President! You worked incredibly hard leading us!”
As Simon landed, he dispelled the Royal Guard back into subspace. Assistants from the school had come out to greet them. Simon bowed in return.
“My apologies for the delay. We ran into a slight problem at Langerstine…”
“No problem! We heard about what happened. The important thing is that the students all arrived safely.”
One of the assistants then turned to the freshmen.
“All right, everyone! Form up in four columns! We’ll be changing you into your Keyzen uniforms and heading straight to the entrance ceremony.”
The freshmen began moving toward the servants to line up, but they kept laughing and talking among themselves, ignoring the assistant’s hoarse shouts for order.
“Hey, you lot.”
Simon clapped his hands and stepped forward.
“Four columns. Now.”
With just that command—
Even the students who had been goofing off snapped to attention, dashing into line in perfect order.
Simon spoke again:
“Count off from the front, seated.”
“One!”
“Two!”
As they sat and called out their numbers, the assistants turned to each other with astonished expressions.
“A-amazing!”
“How did you get such unruly new students to obey so quickly…?”
Simon scratched his cheek awkwardly.
“Ah, well… that’s a long story.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters