Chapter 241. To the Horizon Knights (1)
Horizon Knights.
Those with burning passion, co to the desert.
Major irrelevant.
Number of recruits: 0.
Inette stared at the recruitnt notice for the Horizon Knights with a look that suggested she did not even know where to begin criticizing it. She had never seen a notice like this before.
“Major irrelevant? And what is this supposed to an, zero recruits?”
Inette grumbled.
If a major practical training notice was posted at the Imperial Magic Academy, it should have been a fairly verified institution at the very least. Yet this one did not care about majors, did not specify the number of people to be accepted, and was severely lacking in explanation.
Was it an expedition? A dungeon raid?
All it said was to co to the desert.
At the Academy, rumors had already spread everywhere that Radel was going to do his major practical training with the Horizon Knights. On top of that, even third-year seniors from the Combat Magic major were going with him.
She had no idea how this slippery bastard had managed to sweet-talk the third-years, but the fact that he was dragging seniors who were not even his classmates to such a ridiculous place was unbelievable.
Unable to understand it, Inette asked Radel directly.
“Are you really going there?”
“Yes. I have to.”
Radel remained perfectly calm.
“Why are you taking the seniors with you?”
‘Taking’ them? Anyone hearing that would misunderstand. Every senior said they wanted to co of their own free will.”
It sounded suspicious beyond belief.
Yet Gusto nodded as if it were only natural.
“His Highness the Prince did make the suggestion, but the seniors submitted their applications themselves. It is truly a correct decision.”
“A correct decision, my foot. I heard there is not even food there. They say you end up catching and eating mice and scorpions on sight. Who would want to go to a place like that?”
As Inette shuddered, Radel shrugged.
“I heard that Senior Shartea already left several days ago.”
The 3rd Princess?
At Radel’s words, Inette was deeply shocked.
“What…? The 3rd Princess went there?”
Why would a mber of the imperial family deliberately go to such a harsh place?
But thinking about the Shartea she knew, it was not entirely surprising.
She had probably left while claiming it was for swordsmanship training or sothing like that.
“Then what about ?”
If even the 3rd Princess was going to the Horizon Knights, there was no reason the 7th Princess herself could not go.
And then, as if it were nothing, the unlucky apprentice holy knight standing beside Radel casually added,
“I am going as well. I happened to think that I needed so high-intensity training.”
“You too, apprentice holy knight?”
“Yes, of course. It is because His Highness the Prince is going.”
The 3rd Princess, and now the apprentice holy knight.
When people she absolutely did not want to lose to were all going, Inette felt a sudden spark of competitiveness ignite within her.
Still, an uneasy feeling lingered in the back of her mind.
“But they say you eat mice…”
“Well, mice are sothing you commonly eat on the streets. If you starve for over ten days, anyone ends up doing that.”
Gusto, who had once co from the streets, seed completely unfazed by an environnt bad enough to require eating mice. Ironically, his attitude of treating it as nothing struck directly at Inette’s pride.
“As if I could not go.”
She had eaten monsters in Raviedel. Was she supposed to be unable to eat a mouse?
Her pride wounded, Inette asked Radel,
“When are we leaving?”
***
The Horizon Knights did not have interviews.
If you submitted an application, you were accepted without exception.
“Why are there no interviews?!”
The third-year seniors, who had secretly hoped they might fail the interview, clutched their heads. All three of them were seniors who had been persuaded by Radel to submit applications for major practical training with the Horizon Knights.
At that mont, there was only one thought in their minds.
“I want to take it back.”
They wanted to take back the mont they had fallen for Radel’s semi-forced persuasion and submitted the application.
They wanted to sew shut the mouths that had said it did not matter where they went.
There was sowhere they could go. There were places they already planned to apply to.
There had been a place they had truly wanted to go for their major practical training.
Because they could not take back that empty, flattering remark, things had ended up like this.
“No, wait.”
Right… even earlier than that.
They wanted to turn back ti to the mont they had picked a fight with Radel in the first place.
Thinking about it now, it had been that bastard who, when they said they had sothing to say, casually suggested going behind the main building.
He had even led them into a secluded alley and smiled at them.
At the ti, they had only thought he was an overconfident brat.
The mont sothing felt wrong was when he pulled a water pitcher out of his clothes.
Smiling, he had said,
“Did you know, seniors? Flying golems do not co around here very often.”
Wait… how did he know that flying golems rarely ca here?
They barely had ti to question it.
“You can scream if you want. No one is coming anyway.”
“What? What are you talki— Aaaah!”
From that mont, an unforgettable ti had begun.
It was the longest thirty minutes of their lives.
His movents had been so fast that it was hard to believe he was really an Academy student.
Whenever they tried to pull sothing out, he rushed in and twisted their wrists.
Later, he had confiscated even their staffs, every last one.
They did not even know how many tis they had wanted to run.
But learned helplessness had frozen them in place.
“We should have checked properly!”
“Checked what properly? That he is a lunatic?”
“Who was it that said no matter how much he struggled, he was still just a first-year?”
The third-years raised their voices, blaming one another.
They had heard rumors that Radel was strong, but they had thought they were exaggerated.
At best, a first-year.
They thought he was simply one of the better ones among first-years, and that had been the mistake.
There was no way to undo it now. The applications had already been submitted.
They now had to leave for the desert with Radel.
“Let us pretend we are crazy and run. I want to run. Is this really right?”
“You idiot… we are already finished.”
“Yeah. And even if we run, what then?”
No matter how much they ran, it would not change anything.
They would have to return to the Academy anyway.
And there was no way Radel would let them go quietly after that.
So this was what it felt like to be marked by a junior.
The third-years regretted it deeply.
“Did not they say he got beaten by Senior Estina?”
“Do you think Senior Estina and us are the sa? Are you really insane?”
“No, think about it! None of this makes sense!”
One of the third-year seniors shouted while tearing at his hair.
It seed he had reached the stage of denying reality due to excessive stress.
“I am going to tell the professors everything. I will say this is wrong!”
“And then what? Are you going to say you got beaten by a junior?”
“Do it, then! Go tell them everything if you can!”
Getting beaten by a first-year, not even a second-year.
This was not sothing that could be brushed off as a brief embarrassnt.
If it beca known that they had picked a fight with the first-year representative and ended up like this, the rest of the Academy would surely ridicule them.
They had to take this secret to their graves.
That was the only way to preserve what little pride they had left.
“Damn it. I just thought he was a little arrogant and annoying, so I wanted to teach him a lesson.”
“Exactly. A senior can say that much to a junior, right?”
“Honestly, what did we even do wrong…?”
Even to the end, they believed they were not at fault.
In any case, it was ti to depart.
The third-year seniors grumbled as they headed toward the Black Falcon Dormitory, where they were supposed to et Radel.
As they stood there waiting in front of the dormitory, first-years looked at them with oddly sympathetic expressions and whispered among themselves.
“What… what is this?”
They were used to seeing juniors who feared them. Seeing juniors who pitied them instead felt strange.
Then, all of a sudden, so large-built juniors approached them and spoke in an unusually friendly manner.
“At first, we also could not understand His Highness the Prince’s profound intentions. But now, everything is completely different.”
“That is right. Seniors, your lives will soon change as well.”
What are they talking about…?
Sensing a strange atmosphere, the third-years trembled.
The clear, innocent eyes of the large juniors suddenly felt terrifying.
***
The blazing sunlight that seed ready to burn everything away.
The largest desert of the Cretian Empire.
In the Carmine Desert, filled with red rock and sand, the screams of rchants echoed.
“Aaah! A death worm!”
“Damn it, scatter!”
“At this rate, we will all be eaten! Abandon the cals and run!”
KOO-GU-GU-GUANG!
A death worm burst out from beneath the sand in an instant, splitting its mouth into three and lunging at the rchants.
It was large enough to swallow several people without difficulty.
Neither quite a snake nor quite an earthworm, the death worm was one of the most dangerous monsters that lived in the desert.
It was also the monster that rchants crossing the Carmine Desert feared the most.
They hid beneath the sand, sensed vibrations, and then struck their prey.
When a death worm appeared, the best option for rchants was to abandon their cals and run.
While the monster devoured the cals, they could escape.
But so rchants could not easily abandon cals that had traveled with them for such a long journey.
They drew their weapons and tried to face the death worm.
CLANG!
“Stop it! Are you trying to take on a death worm?”
“Then are we just supposed to let it take the cal?”
KOO-GU-GUNG!
When the death worm opened its mouth and charged, even the young rchant who had drawn his weapon could only barely dodge.
HIIIII!
In the end, the cal he was riding collapsed under the death worm’s attack.
The rchant riding it was thrown onto the sand as well.
“Aaaagh!”
Seizing the opening, the death worm rushed forward at terrifying speed, its mouth gaping wide.
“No!”
Those who had fled early stamped their feet in despair.
KOO-GUANG!
Just as the death worm’s mouth split into three to devour the young rchant—
SWOOSH!
A blade that had flown at incredible speed pierced the death worm.
-KIIII!
Startled, the people looked toward where the sword had co from.
From the distant horizon, a group of warriors was charging toward them.
No, not warriors.
It was a knight order.
“T-the Horizon Knights…!”
“It is the Horizon Knights!”
The rchants who recognized them cried out, trembling.
The Horizon Knights rushed in and slashed at the sand worm.
The massive body was torn apart in an instant, the pieces scattered rcilessly at their feet.
“Kuh-hah!”
A man with bright red hair flowing like a mane laughed with his mouth split wide.
“Another good catch today!”
He was Carlos Alcazaba, the commander of the Horizon Knights.
After saving the young rchant’s life, Carlos strode toward him without hesitation.
Then, in a swaggering manner, he extended his thick palm.
“Hey.”
The rchants watching the scene unconsciously hunched their shoulders.
Death worms were terrifying, but in the desert, the Horizon Knights had a reputation just as fearso.
The rchant who had barely survived looked up at Carlos with a dazed expression.
Carlos picked at his ear and tossed out a single word.
“Life fee.”
And just like that, the young rchant was stripped of every last coin he had.
Otherwise, it was obvious that the threatening red-haired man would not let him off easily.
There was soone watching this scene.
It was Shartea, who did not like the situation at all.
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