-”W-Woah!”

-”What even is this?”

-”What’s that blue thing?”

Everyone was gasping and staring at a Gate with admiration. It had a circular rim with a blue fissure in the middle of it.

Yes, it was a simultaneous teleportation device that can transport people and stuff from point A to point B.

A staple of modern fantasy, yet this world wasn’t ready for it yet.

I was serious. This thing wasn’t supposed to be invented until five years later. And at that point, it was no more than a blueprint waiting to be picked up by a genius scientist.

Immediately, I tried to look through Marcela’s memories. But…nothing. She wasn’t involved in this at all. She never handed the blueprint of the Gate to anyone, nor did she give any notable technological advice to any researcher.

Then, it could only mean one thing…

‘Something has changed.’

The fact that it changed didn’t bother me so much as the fact that it changed in unexpected ways. I definitely had no hands in this. So, there was only one possible explanation.

‘Someone else has the knowledge of the novel…’

And I didn’t like it at all.

‘You’d better hide yourself well.’

Only I can have the knowledge of the novel.

No, I’ll make sure I’m the only one alive that does.

.

.

.

.

After stepping through the Portal, I was transported to a spacious training ground adjacent to a venue filled with weapons “of all sorts.”

Not really, since there wasn’t a single Crosslance here. ‘Guess I’ll have to make do with a Sabre for now.’ Definitely going to file a complaint later.

“You’ll have an hour of training before we move on to spars!” 

After shouting that, Savannah left the room. However, I knew that she was still somewhere in here, watching…like a total stalker.

I glanced around the armory to see how everyone was doing.

As I’d expected, most cadets, including Artoria, were at the swords section. This kind of weapon was famous, after all. Though, I didn’t know how many of them were here to actually choose a weapon instead of fawning over Artoria.

‘The benefit of being a Protagonist…and also the 1st-ranked in the entrance exam.’

Anyways, Artoria chose a Broadsword that slightly dwarfed her small figure. It looked as if the sword would swing Artoria around instead of the other way around. But I wasn’t too worried since it was still going like the novel.

Oh, and Erika was back. She gave me a dirty look and then chose a short spear that was suitable for stabbing.

I knew that she wanted me to give up my seat, but since Savannah had finalized everything, no one could change their seats anymore.

Onto the Imperial Princess. She chose a Rapier, which was…strange. She was supposed to struggle with using a Sabre, and only changed to using a Rapier when Artoria confronted her.

Well, it was probably nothing. Minor changes like this were good. It only meant that Artoria’s harem would be stronger than ever.

Enough of swords. I glanced over the other sections.

In the ranged section were Maire and Lucy, who chose a bow and a whip respectively.

Mages of the Empire often used Grimoires, which stored their spells and amplified them. As such, it wasn’t surprising to see Ria floating a Grimoire around her.

But unlike normal Mages, Miseria chose a big double-handed Scythe. The reason being that she could fire off spells faster than most people and that she was strangely proficient with the Scythe.

The training ground had all kinds of fancy facilities. Gravity rooms, self-repairing dummies, shooting ranges, and— forget it, it’d take me all day to list all of them.

Since I didn’t have any use for those facilities, I just stood in the middle of the training ground and practiced my Martial Manual.

Since no one except Petra and I knew of this Martial Manual, I could practice it freely as long as I didn’t hit anything.

“[Shredding Slash]”

Twenty-two seconds.

It was a big improvement, but nowhere near useful enough in an actual battle.

By the way, the other cadets were snickering at me, which was understandable since to them, I must’ve been standing around and slashing my sword every so often.

Though, I could feel that two particular stares were different. One was from the Imperial Princess, who was frowning. The other was from Miseria. She still looked as dull as ever, but her pupils contracted slightly whenever I slashed my sword.

‘Weird…’

*

*

*

*

‘Her name…Astrape Knovski, isn’t it?’

Miseria sat down on the ground with her Scythe leaning against the wall right behind her. For the past hour, she’d been observing Astrape keenly.

Others might not have noticed it, but a minuscule yet violent explosion of Mana occurred every time she swung her sword.

As for how she noticed it while almost nobody else did?

[Authority of Mana]

An S-ranked skill, and one of the three Authorities she had. It gave her complete and perfect control over her own Mana, and granted her the ability to visualize other sources of Mana.

Right now, Astrape’s Mana looked like a violent storm that was ripping through the fabric of reality.

Despite that, Miseria was only slightly intrigued. She’d seen many people with amazing Martial Manuals before, and by the look of it, what Astrape was using was completely unusable in battle.

There was another reason why she was paying less attention to Astrape, and it was a certain blonde girl who was decimating dummies with every of her swing.

‘Artoria Kilvillain…’

A complete Commoner with basically no background. Yet, she managed to top even Miseria herself in the entrance exams. 

With her [Authority of Mana], she could tell that Artoria’s potential was high enough to rival even hers. The Mana that surrounded her was Holy, powerful, and graceful.

Unwittingly, she grinned.

But as soon as the grin came, she slapped herself to wipe it off her face.

‘No, I can’t smile right now. Artoria’s still too weak.’

And…she didn’t want everyone in this room to go insane just because she broke her usual stone-cold face.

With a determined gaze, she vowed to groom Artoria until she was strong enough to give her a good fight.

“Ehem, may I have your attention, please?”

Miseria snapped her head toward the voice. Who would dare interrupt her thinking session!? 

It was Savannah, her homeroom Professor. With a face that was as serious as something with the body of a little girl could be, she read off a piece of paper and spoke.

“It’s time for the spars. First up, Miseria Ecertold and Jacob Arseman.”

Without any particularly notable thought, Sylvia picked up her Scythe and dragged herself up the raised platform right in the middle of the training ground. ‘Why do I have to waste my time like this…’

She’d rather have Artoria go through the training she herself went through when she was still a little kid.

It consisted of s—

“I’ll prove that the so-called prodigy is a fake!”

Miseria looked at her opponent with annoyance. Again, her thought was interrupted by someone else. And this time, it was by a guy that was like an insect to her. Utterly worthless.

“I’ll smash your face in!” The insect continued.

‘Looks like I’ll have to teach him his place.’

“Ready? Go!”

As soon as Savannah started the battle, Jacob charged at Miseria in a straight line.

‘Is he serious?’

Was he disrespecting her by going easy on her?

Miseria wanted to beat him down with her Scythe techniques, but she had a better idea. Since it seemed that no one actually believed her to be powerful, she’d just have to make sure that they wouldn’t dare underestimate her in the future.

When the attack reached her, Miseria simply brought her forearm up and blocked it. Not waiting for the insect to do anything else, she converged Mana in her own throat and spoke.

{Kneel.}

Her cold voice echoed through the training grounds.

Every living thing, from the smallest of worms underground to the cadets outside the arena all groveled under her feet.

Of course, the insect that her Command was directed at kneeled like a humble servant paying respect to his master.

But Miseria frowned. Something was amiss. Her Command had reached everyone inside the training grounds, yet it didn’t affect everyone.

The first one she noticed was Savannah. She was still standing with her arms crossed, ready to intervene in the battle at any moment.

It only made sense, Miseria thought. It’d be absurd if a Knight Commander like Savannah would heed an Authority exerted by a mere [E+] rank like Miseria.

The others were…less predictable.

Her cousin—Eleanor Silvat, was standing there without a care in the world. ‘Again, it makes sense.’ Eleanor was the only person her age whose abilities Miseria would consider rivaled hers. Unfortunately, she was the Imperial Princess, so Miseria couldn’t force her to fight no matter what.

And then there was Artoria. Miseria knew that she was special, but not this special. Someone like her resisting her [Authority of Command] without breaking a sweat? It was just…unheard of.

It took her quite a lot of effort to refrain from expressing any kind of emotion. Then, her attention drifted toward the final person—Astrape Knovski.

As a part-Dragon, Astrape should’ve been the most affected out of everyone in this room. Yet, she was completely fine, and Miseria was sure of it.

‘So, why are you pretending to kneel?’

It was almost as if she wanted to hide from Miseria.

Still, she decided to put that aside for now. ‘If you’re really strong enough to break my Curse, then I’ll hear more about you sooner or later.’

Miseria forced herself out of her own thoughts and focused on the match again. Unknowingly, she’d been stepping on the back of the insect’s head all this time.

‘Old habits die hard…’

Lifting her shoes out from his head, Miseria knocked him out of the arena with a simple kick.

“Miseria Ecertold wins! Oh, and please bring Jacob to the Infirmary for me.”

Miseria nodded and moved closer to the insect to try and pick him up.

Despite her victory, no one really cheered. They were too shaken from what had just happened.

That was, except for one person.

“As expected of Lady Miseria! You completely destroyed your opponent!”

It was Erika. She was blabbering praises on and on without caring for the mood of the room.

‘If she’s going to be annoying…’

She should be useful as well.

So, Miseria ordered Erika to pick up the insect and follow after her, which Erika happily obliged.

‘Ark doesn’t allow Servants to be here… Good thing I have Erika.’

Unbeknownst to Erika Vermillion, she’d been Servant-zoned.

*

*

*

*

‘Haha, Miseria is as powerful as I’d expected her to be.’

Really, with Heroines like this, I could sit back and let the plot happen while I take it easy and f—

“Next up, Artoria Kilvillain and Astrape Knovski!”

‘Eh?’