Ch. 44
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The atmosphere among the delegation approaching the city gates was nothing short of bleak.
Although primarily composed of children, a group representing an entire nation should exude confidence and dignity. Yet, their expressions were uniformly somber, as if they were attending a funeral.
At the forefront, the knight commander’s face was the worst of them all.
‘For my future to come to such a meaningless end… My path to success… My…’
Plod, plod.
The knight commander sat atop his horse, utterly spiritless, his gaze vacant.
The mission assigned to the Royal 5th Knights, which he led, had seemed, in simple terms, like an absolute windfall. Guarding children for a while meant earning the royal family’s favor and securing a golden opportunity for promotion.
That was, until they lost a student.
And not just lost—but presumed dead.
“Haaa…”
The knight commander wasn’t the only one heaving a heavy sigh.
Following closely behind in a similarly haggard state was Dinel, the combat instructor.
“Haa…”
The two men, tasked with ensuring the delegation’s safety, were completely devastated.
For all intents and purposes, they had already failed their mission.
Losing a child wasn’t an uncommon occurrence in this world. However, if that child happened to be a noble, the situation grew significantly more severe. And if they were a student of the Royal Academy? That made things far worse.
Other nations might be different, but in Dmitri, being a student at the Royal Academy meant being recognized as a talent of the king.
King Dikel III was famously protective of promising individuals.
And among those talents under the king’s personal attention was none other than Geenie Crowell.
It was widely known that an entire Spirit Studies Department had been established for her sake.
> “His Majesty has given a direct order. Geenie Crowell must be included in the delegation.
> I regret to say this, but… you will have to reduce the number of combat students by one.”
Dinel recalled the headmaster’s words as he patted his shoulder and walked away.
At the time, he had clenched his fist so tightly it trembled.
The mere idea of Geenie Crowell—who had been shoehorned into the combat division simply because she was rare—taking a seat from his students was infuriating.
Logically, he understood.
The swordsmanship division, which consistently performed well in tournaments, couldn’t afford to lose members. The delegation’s numbers were fixed.
And according to the headmaster, the king wanted to show off the youngest Spirit Mage in the continent. That much, Dinel could somewhat comprehend.
But accepting it emotionally was another matter entirely.
Despite being an instructor, he absolutely despised that student.
That was why, when the combat students bullied Geenie Crowell, he never stopped them. In fact, he enjoyed watching it.
However, he had never wished for her to disappear like this.
“Commander.”
“What is it?”
Dinel drew his horse closer to the knight commander and lowered his voice.
“The replacement student will take at least a few more days to catch up with us… Won’t that delay our schedule?”
“They said they’re sending the fastest horse from the royal palace. We’ll just have to wait.”
“But even if the horse runs through the night…”
“What can we do? That’s the best option we have.”
On the morning Geenie Crowell vanished, the knight commander had barked out frantic orders.
> “Who? Geenie Crowell? …What are you all doing?! Send out search parties immediately!”
At first, they assumed she had simply wandered into the forest and gotten lost.
Finding her before she became monster fodder was the priority.
If she was already dead, they at least needed to recover her body.
The initial search yielded nothing.
Expanding their radius, they discovered unusual monster tracks and followed them. That was when they found golden hair tangled in the tree branches—far too much of it.
Signs of a desperate escape were evident, and the tracks led them to the edge of a cliff.
Below, a raging river roared, and fresh orc tracks were still visible in the area.
The knights and instructors who had pursued the trail were left speechless, their faces pale.
Looking down, they saw the current was so violent that even a knight falling in would have little chance of surviving.
A heavy silence of impending death settled over them.
Then, came the realization.
Reporting this back to the commander meant facing his wrath.
From that moment, chaos ensued.
They could have continued searching in the hopes of a miracle, but doing so would mean missing the festival’s timeline.
Priorities had to be set, and as the leader, the commander had to make a difficult decision. The delegation had no choice but to resume their journey.
One knight was sent back alone, riding to the nearest city to send an urgent telegram to the capital.
> [Geenie Crowell—Missing!]
A student meant to participate in an international competition was missing, so a replacement was required.
Before long, the knight who had gone to send the telegram returned—astonishingly—with the king’s response in hand.
Its contents, in summary:
> [Sending a substitute. We will discuss accountability upon your return.]
The knight commander felt as though his very insides were rotting.
Compared to Dinel, his burden of responsibility was on an entirely different scale.
“This is an absolute nightmare.”
“Bringing in a replacement is already complicated, but the entry procedures will be a headache as well. The Tower of Magi is notoriously strict.”
“Yes, I’ve heard that.”
“In the future, we should formally propose sending additional students as backups to prevent emergencies like this. A contingency system would be—”
“Are you mad? This is an unprecedented incident! It should never happen again! You’re an absolute fool for even suggesting it.”
The knight commander had always been ill-tempered, but in the past few days, his nerves had been utterly frayed.
This was a major stain on his record, and he wasn’t willing to accept it.
“You’re taking this too harshly. All I meant was that… injuries can happen before competitions, and unexpected events are always possible. I was simply suggesting we prepare for them.”
“Let’s drop it. I already have enough headaches as it is.”
The knight commander scowled at Dinel’s excuse, his expression twisting into something fierce. Without another word, he roughly struck his horse’s flank, surging several meters ahead in a huff.
He clearly wanted to be left alone.
Dinel muttered a curse under his breath, making sure the commander wouldn’t hear it.
The delegation’s atmosphere was, in every way, at rock bottom.
With the ever-imposing knight commander in a foul mood, the knights naturally treaded carefully. And with an instructor unable to suppress his frustration even in front of the students, morale was bound to plummet.
The adults tried to keep things hush-hush, but the children weren’t oblivious.
At the very least, they all understood that a student was missing.
For children, the death of a peer was a shocking event.
One of the boys from the combat division—who had been a ringleader in ostracizing Geenie Crowell—was now crying silently, guilt-ridden.
Even the knights from commoner backgrounds who had been friendly with her had reddened eyes.
Normally, the knight commander wouldn’t tolerate such weakness, but just this once, he let it slide.
That didn’t mean he was any less irritable.
“Hansen! Philo!”
At the commander’s call, Hansen and Philo spurred their horses forward.
“Yes, Commander!”
“You called for us, sir?”
“Go handle it.”
Without so much as glancing at them, the commander merely jerked his chin toward the heavily armed gatekeepers standing at Vallen’s gates.
Handling entry inspections and bureaucratic procedures was a task for the grunts—far beneath someone of his status. But for the Royal 5th Knights, that grunt work fell on Hansen and Philo.
“Yes, sir!”
The two knights quickly galloped ahead of the delegation toward the city gates.
They were tense for good reason—Vailan had a deep-rooted disdain for Dmitrians.
The two nations had been bitter rivals for ages, which meant entry inspections were often needlessly strict.
Their treatment of one another was always cold, bordering on outright hostility, and both sides seemed eager for any excuse to tear into the other.
Each nation blamed the other for the fall of their respective empires, fueling the long-standing resentment.
Even in the Winkan Festival, Vailan and Dmitri cared about only one thing—defeating each other.
So, there was no reason to expect a warm welcome for their delegation’s arrival.
Or at least… there shouldn’t have been.
“Ah, welcome! We’ve been waiting for you!”
“Finally! Welcome, students of Drike Academy!”
There shouldn’t have been.
“Wh… What?”
“Why are they being so welcoming…?”
Completely caught off guard, Hansen instinctively yanked his horse’s reins, while Philo froze, his face twisted with suspicion.
They had expected to be stonewalled at the gates for hours, enduring unnecessary delays and snide remarks. But instead, they were being cheerfully welcomed?
Something wasn’t right.
“You have no idea how long we’ve been waiting for you.”
“Exactly! Now, let’s get the handover done quickly.”
“…Handover?”
“The Shavel Captain ran off, leaving me stuck with that problem child! I should have never let them in so easily in the first place… I had to write twelve reports because of it! Hurry up and take responsibility for them.”
The gatekeeper’s face radiated relief, as if an enormous burden had just been lifted.
Hansen and Philo exchanged uneasy glances before dismounting.
It was clear—this was a major misunderstanding.
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