Unfortunately, the final exam fell within Enrique’s jurisdiction. Having spent the entire last semester in Tylesse, Ivan was unable to teach.
“To truly assess training outcomes, real-life scenarios are essential,” Ivan mused, furrowing his brow as he reviewed the exam questions. It appeared that Enrique had limited education strictly to the trainees’ level.
“So, what do you say? I’m still active duty, right? Don’t I have expertise in teaching as well?”
“I can’t agree,” Enrique chuckled at Ivan’s grumbling.
“What can’t you agree with? The kids I’ve taught have even caught a spy. This isn’t the level to teach at university.”
Ivan sighed, pushing Enrique’s teaching materials aside.
Survival skills only skimmed the surface of camping. Human anatomy barely touched on field emergency treatment, and understanding of demons was merely explained at a basic level.
Improving survival in extreme situations, sustaining combat immediately after limb loss, creating variables in combat with demons… None of these had even been addressed.
What did they teach for a whole semester? Wasn’t this material enough to cover in just two weeks?
“Hey hey, that’s all classified military information. If we open all the training curriculums to foreign nobles, what’s left for us?” Enrique chuckled, sprawled on the sofa, her presence mocking as she occupied the professor’s research lab sofa and tapped her legs.
A smooth silk dress peeked through the gaps in the code, but Ivan, being sensible, paid no heed to the elderly woman with a two-century age gap. He silently skimmed through the teaching materials, narrowing down the exam scope.
Enrique straightened up with a sigh and glanced briefly at Ivan before chuckling to herself.
“What’s up?” Ivan asked.
“Just admiring the view,” she replied with a playful tone.
“Don’t you have anything to do? It’s the knights’ department exam,” Ivan reminded her.
“I’ve got 100% practical skills. It’s just a matter of watching the sparring and giving out scores,” Enrique assured him.
“I’d like to suggest a pay cut to Her Highness,” Ivan joked.
“Hmm… Then would I have to retire?” Enrique teased back, smirking as she approached Ivan’s desk.
“By the way, heard you’re going to negotiate with Duke Volonovin. Are the preparations going well?” she inquired, her tone shifting to a more serious note.
“Where did you hear that?”
“I have a few disciples in the Counterintelligence Command. Do you think I wouldn’t know?” Enrique remarked.
“I guess I need to rearrange the training schedule,” Ivan conceded.
“Don’t bully them for no reason. It’s annoyingly petty,” Enrique added.
When Ivan glared at Enrique, she waved her hand with a smirk.
“It’s not scary to stare at me anymore. Such days have come. I really feel like going to work,” she said with a hint of amusement.
“Stop talking nonsense and leave if you have nothing to do,” Ivan retorted.
“I don’t want to. I’ll watch until you finish work,” Enrique declared.
“Suit yourself,” Ivan said, turning his gaze back to the exam preparation.
Square, square. The sound of a pen moving echoed in the late-night research lab.
Then, suddenly, Ivan spoke up.
“Jill Ber is dead.”
“I know,” Enrique replied, her tone somber.
After a moment of silence, Ivan continued speaking without stopping his pen.
“Veolgrin and Einar are in danger. There are sinister forces targeting the party.”
“Alexander?” Enrique questioned.
“Probably. But he’s not the only one.”
“What a wonderful world. No matter how hard you try to protect, it falls apart again,” Enrique lamented.
The two continued their conversation without looking at each other, Enrique with a tea cup rolling in her hand, Ivan with exam papers.
“Who should take charge first? It might be better if we each take one person.”
“No. You have to protect Patticia.”
“You’re going to both of them?”
“Somebody has to protect Patricia. You attract more attention than me. You’re not suited for infiltration.”
“Fair enough.”
In this city, there are two people who must be protected: Elizaveta and Patricia. The princess and the saint.
If either of them dies, the problem becomes serious. Krasilov barely survived, crumbling, or a holy war declared by the Holy Empire.
Coincidentally, both of them have a presence in this university. As long as Enrique holds this position, it won’t be easy for external forces to infiltrate.
While he is absent, one member of the hero party must protect this city.
“Then you’ll start with Drovian?”
“Probably.”
Ivan casually replied as he handed over the exam papers.
Kalion and Drovian. If one had to support one of the two countries first, naturally, Drovian would take precedence.
Drovian is a country connected to Krasilov and other countries by land routes. It’s also a human nation, meaning it had a somewhat extensive external intelligence network.
While the internal situation of Kalion was truly unknown, at least Drovian was understood to a certain extent.
Moreover, if the hero party were to die, it would suffer the greatest blow. The only force maintaining present-day Drovian was the authority of Einar.
On the other hand, Kalion maintained a strict parliamentary system under the rule of the queen. Even the great Veolgrin was merely one secret member among many in Kalion.
While it was inevitable that the country would weaken if Veolgrin died, the nation itself wouldn’t come to a halt.
The situation was different for Drovian, which would collapse immediately if Einar died. Therefore, in terms of priority, the issue of Drovian was more urgent.
“Who could possibly kill Einar? It’s beyond prediction, except by time.”
“Jill Ber was in the same boat.”
“True.”
Enrique set down her tea cup and rummaged through her coat. She took out a flask containing liquor and popped the lid open.
She took three short glasses from a cabinet in the corner of the lab and placed them on the table.
“What’s the secret to long life?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think about it and answer, lad. Um… trying to recall more joyful moments than sad ones.”
Since sad moments come to mind effortlessly anyway. And, with age, those kinds of things happen really, really often.
So, if there’s a secret to longevity, it’s making an effort to recall joyful moments before anything else.
Therefore, Enrique doesn’t mourn those who leave first. Instead of lamenting their departure, she chooses to immortalize their memories forever.
-Chug.
The glass was filled with liquor. As he flicked his hand over it, flames rose above the glass.
“Let’s have a drink.”
Following her gesture, the glass floated up in front of Ivan. Without a word, Ivan picked up the glass.
“For those we can never meet again.”
“Hmm.”
Ivan raised his hand and downed the drink in one gulp.
For those we can never meet again.
Unlike her, a vampire, or him, stained with too much blood, Jill Berg would have gone to heaven.
So, for the colleagues we can’t reunite with even in the afterlife.
For those who always leave first. And finally, for those who have found eternal peace. Cheers to that envy.
Enrique swallowed the drink and wiped his mouth.
“I’ll leave first. See you tomorrow, disciple.”
“Hmm.”
Enrique left without showing her face until the end. Ivan didn’t look at her. Everyone has a face they don’t want others to see.
Even after Enrique left, the sound of the pen moving continued in the lab for a while.
A burning glass still shone alone on the table.
As the night grew darker, it wasn’t until the fire in the glass burned out all the alcohol that Ivan finished preparing for the exam.
In the darkened lab, he looked at the empty glass on the table.
“To cheers.”
After briefly toasting the empty glass, he left the lab. The scent of whiskey, thick with blood, seeped out through the open door and drifted into the sky.
Under the dark night sky, white snowflakes were falling.
Under the light of magical lanterns illuminating the streets, heavily.
Feeling the sensation of the snowflakes illuminating his path, Ivan walked towards the command post.
*
“I will begin the exam.”
Upon Ivan’s words, the students looked at the exam papers with tired eyes. Quietly pondering why there was a final exam in PF General Education.
Standing in front of them, Ivan quietly began to speak.
“You’re allowed to attempt copying others’ answer sheets. If you don’t get caught, we’ll recognize it as your skill.”
In a place like this, if he could act outside of his sight, even if he got all the exam questions wrong, he could still pass.
Ivan nodded silently and pressed the clock on the podium.
“Begin.”
The students sighed as they grasped their exam papers. The quiet auditorium was filled with the sound of papers being turned.
Ivan slowly scanned them, gauging the time.
*Tock, tock.*
About thirty minutes later, someone knocked on the classroom door. The students’ gazes all turned towards the door.
“What is it?”
“Senior, it’s urgent. Just a moment.”
Opening the door abruptly, Dmitry’s face was pale blue. As Ivan stepped out of the door with a frown, Dmitry urgently spoke.
“The enemy forces are approaching.”
“Who?”
“Duke Volonovin. All the command personnel are gathering near the capital, but it’ll be difficult to synchronize. Their marching speed is too fast.”
“At this point, the Duke is attempting a rebellion?”
“All agents sent to contact the Duke’s side have lost communication. Senior, you need to prepare for deployment.”
Ivan sighed deeply as he glanced at the exam hall.
At the point when the Second Division was encamped, the commanding officer of the First Division attempts a mutiny? And with no warning signs like this?
That’s impossible. The internal intelligence of the command headquarters was flawless. To prepare for a rebellion, it would require more than one or two things, and it’s definitely impossible to do everything outside the intelligence network of the command headquarters.
But if there really is a marching division heading towards the capital…
“What’s the count?”
“Three thousand, composed only of cavalry.”
“Prepare the defense system but don’t initiate an attack.”
“…Understood? But why…? If we don’t buy time, the enemy will reach Frechenkaya before the capital defense force assembles.”
“It’s not a rebellion.”
Ivan sighed and pressed his eyes tightly.
“It’s just an attempt to gain leverage at the negotiation table. Volonovine’s only leading three thousand cavalry and rushing in without supply lines. There must be no reason other than that. No First Division artillery units either.”
Duke Volonovin isn’t a fool. Even if he were to attack hastily, he would know that he can’t occupy Frechenkaya with just three thousand cavalry.
So, this is just a somewhat aggressive negotiation strategy. It’s closer to a move to showcase his military strength.
“He’s in a hurry. The Duke.”
This signifies the precarious political position of the Duke. He wasn’t someone unaware that radical means would inevitably bring about radical consequences.
So, it’s a strategy to still assert his strength to the princess and to raise his own value higher. Of course, it would be meaningless since it was detected in advance.
He was once known as the strongest man in the country. And he was also one of the top nobles when he first rose to power.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes, senior.”
His military career began with conscripted soldiers thrown into the front lines. And since then, the First Division has always been responsible for the front lines.
The commander of the First Division, Mikhail Arturovich Volonovin, known as the “Professor’s Tactician”. The Iron Fist of “The Great Ivan”. Conqueror’s Blade. Ambassador of the North. Commander of the artillery of Krasilov.
He was a man who, if he were just twenty years younger, would have been recommended for the hero party in place of Enrique.
Ivan quietly moved forward.
It’s been about ten years. He thought to himself.
—
“How are we supposed to handle our exams?”
“I don’t know either… Should we just turn them in? Is there a TA for this class…?”
“Who’s going to call Professor Enrique…?”
From the second week of classes until the end of the semester.
There’s a professor who disappears for the entire semester, only to show up a week before finals to give the exam, then disappears again during the test?
In this unbelievable reality, the students were bewildered.
