The captain, who spoke in a heavy tone, continued with a voice that was neither slow nor fast.
“Colossians and their fragments are constantly appearing in the southern part of the Empire. It is truly unprecedented.”
His voice had the power to attract attention.
“Many troops have gone and are heading south. We are mobilizing virtually all available power.”
The cadets couldn’t even blink and focused on the leader’s words.
“As troops are concentrated in the south, problems are occurring little by little in other areas. Our Griffon Knights also performed missions in the eastern highlands before coming here.”
The leader’s eyes, which had sunk low for a moment, soon shone more sharply than before.
“It was a mission to deal with a giant who suddenly appeared and wiped out all nearby villages.”
Estimated number of deaths 175 people.
The wounded became that ship.
Not to mention the damage of Gasan.
After saying that, the leader paused for a moment before opening his mouth.
“Tell me again. This is a crisis.”
The captain’s spirit as he was talking was surprisingly ferocious, so the cadets forgot to even swallow their saliva.
“We came here not to show off the dignity of the Knights, nor to encourage the buds that are just starting to grow.”
The instructor who was waiting to the right of the knights was listening to them with a complicated expression.
The captain continued to speak.
“lately. One member of the Templars died. I threw myself in to stop an attack on the city.”
When the member’s death was mentioned, the expressions of the other members of the Knights also darkened.
However, only the captain continued to speak without any change.
“It’s such a dangerous battlefield, and it’s a dangerous situation. And you guys will be heading to such a battlefield as well.”
The dispatch of cadets to the front was already scheduled.
There were only those who were prepared to do so.
“I have only one thing to say to you cadets.”
The captain took a short breath and said.
“Develop your skills. Train every day and desperately absorb everything you learn. It will be a powerful weapon on the battlefield.”
Those were the captain’s last words.
He turned his head, met the instructor’s eyes, and stepped back.
It was only then that Instructor Cowl stepped forward and spoke.
“It was a warm encouragement from the Griffin Knights Commander. Did you engrave everything well!”
“yes-!”
It was more than warm, it was too hot, but everyone answered in a loud voice, as if it was clear that they had a deep impression.
Kaul nodded and said.
“okay. So, let’s have a brief question and answer session. Everyone, if you have any questions, raise your hand and ask.”
Normally, everyone would have raised their hands in a scramble.
However, the atmosphere was completely subdued by the previous leader’s speech, so no one was able to step out easily.
At that time, Vice-captain Levaltz stepped forward.
“My name is Levaltz, the vice-captain! Everyone must have a lot of questions, right? Don’t be afraid to ask. It doesn’t matter what the Knights eat on a daily basis or what they play with when they rest, it doesn’t matter.”
One of the cadets raised his hand as if encouraged by Levartz’s words.
“Oh, yes. you. What is your name?”
“This is Daniel from the Black Lions!”
“Yes, Daniel. Any questions?”
“Is there any other way for the knights to train their physical strength?”
It was a very Daniel question.
Levartz answered with a grin, as if he was satisfied with the question.
“There is nothing very special. run every day In particular, he usually runs up and down the mountain right behind the knights grounds several times. Wearing armor.”
“Oh oh. To the mountain wearing armor?”
“okay. look at my body Don’t you think that should be enough?”
Levartz said while patting my muscular body.
Daniel’s eyes widened even more and he nodded.
“That’s right!”
“You know something! Hmm. By the way, do you think you need to build up some muscles? If you’re curious about the muscle training menu, I’ll talk to you later.”
“I wonder! thank you!”
“Yes, yes.”
After the first Q&A, the atmosphere was definitely relaxed, and others mustered up the courage to ask questions one by one.
Starting with questions such as what are the tips for handling Gigant well and whether there are other ways to build mana well?
There were people who really asked trivial questions about the knights’ meals and hobbies.
Abel listened quietly to the questions and raised his hand at the very end.
“Oh, yes. Abel. What are you curious about?”
“What do you think is the most important thing to be strong?”
Instead of answering right away, Revaltz opened his mouth slowly, touching his chin.
“You will survive.”
“yes?”
“No matter how talented you are, no matter how talented you are, death is the end. If you survive for a long time, you can accumulate a lot of experience and train again.”
Levartz grinned again.
“So fight to survive. under any circumstances.”
“… … All right.”
The question and answer session ended with Abel last.
After that, other articles came out and gave simple advice word by word, and soon after, the face-to-face meeting was completely over.
The cadets were soon brought under control and returned to their dormitories.
On the way back, Henna suddenly opened her mouth.
“There is no lecture today, so I thought I’d take a break.”
“however?”
Darin blinked and asked, and Henna pursed her lips in response.
“How can you rest after hearing that? I can’t rest even if I’m stabbed by my conscience.”
“Indeed, it is.”
Most of the other cadets were probably the same.
If I go back like this and rest, the speech the leader gave will flicker in my head.
“Hmm. Put on your armor and run through the mountains… … .”
Meanwhile, Daniel was muttering the story he had heard from Levartz with a serious expression.
It looked like he seriously wanted to follow that method.
Mei, who was walking beside her, heard that and spoke softly.
“If you do that… … Will they be caught right away?”
“I guess so? Too bad.”
It was a natural story.
There is a small mountain for training within the academy grounds, but it’s a different story for only first-year students wearing armor to run around it.
Abel listened to the other cadets’ stories with one ear and let them out with the other, thinking about something else.
‘Survival.’
What Levartz said left a deep impression on Abel as well.
It wasn’t a completely new story, but hearing it directly from the vice-captain of the Griffin Knights made it feel different.
‘There is a saying that the one who survives is the strongest.’
Although Abel sometimes bets his life, he was well aware of the value of life.
Because when you die, everything is over.
Even so, I couldn’t stop doing it because I knew that if I didn’t do anything, I would face ruin anyway.
Stop the predestined doom.
It was the game’s catchphrase, and it’s now Abel’s number one goal.
‘Well, he must’ve risked his life once or twice.’
The position of vice-captain of the Griffin Knights is not a position for a self-confident who values his life the most.
Levartz’s horse, do whatever it takes to survive! Rather, it would be closer to the meaning of never giving up in any situation.
As Abel thought about that, he suddenly made a complicated expression.
It was because he suddenly remembered the future of Vice-captain Levartz.
Among the reasons why Levartz was famous among users, the biggest factor was neither his personality nor his strength.
‘Out of 10 routes, only one route survived him.’
Levartz dies on most routes.
In fact, Abel had also witnessed Levartz’s death countless times. Even though it was in game.
but only one
He has a way to survive.
It is to succeed in recapturing the ‘White Eagle Fortress’ in the upcoming future.
‘The problem is that the difficulty level is insanely high.’
The bigger problem was that the operation to recapture the fortress was not an unconditional event.
‘It was an event that appeared with a certain probability when certain conditions were met.’
If that event doesn’t pop up, Levartz will die as it is.
To be precise, more than half of the members of the Griffin Knights died.
For some reason, thinking about it made me uncomfortable.
The knights, including Levaltz, had only met once. It wasn’t even that deep a conversation.
But I thought that it would be nice if that didn’t happen.
‘Anyway, this isn’t a game, so I’ll have to think about whether there’s another way.’
Abel kept pace with the other cadets and headed back to the dormitory, with the new homework in mind.
* * *
Academy’s principal’s office.
There were four people there.
Magnus, the owner of the principal’s office.
A first year student, to be exact, Instructor Cowl in charge of the Black Lion class.
He was also the leader and vice-captain of the Griffin Knights.
“So, how was it to see it in person?”
Magnus crossed his arms and spoke to the leader.
His attitude and voice were very comfortable. On the other hand, the leader answered with a solemn attitude.
“It wasn’t bad.”
“If you’re not bad, that means you actually look pretty good.”
“… … .”
Seeing the leader not answering, Magnus grinned.
Until Magnus retired from the front lines, he too had been active as a member of the Imperial Knights.
Although they belonged to a different knightly order from the leader, they had built a friendship by carrying out many operations together.
To be precise, Magnus was always closer to bullying the leader.
At that time, Levaltz, who was sitting next to the leader, cautiously opened his mouth.
“To be honest, I didn’t understand until I saw it myself. No matter how much it is, they say that they are going to involve the first year cadets in the operation.”
“however?”
“I got it when I actually saw it.”
Levartz paused for a moment before opening his mouth.
“Abel, that guy is one year old. Even if you train for one year, you will rise to the level of an active knight.”
At those words, Magnus shook his head.
“As you can see, there are a lot of monsters among the first year students except for Abel.”
“yes. After seeing it in person, I was completely convinced that he had put such a river.”
The precipitation that Levartz mentioned was the recent change in the academy.
It’s natural if it’s obvious, but there were many people who were opposed to such a change.
Isn’t it overpowering future talent to overcome the current crisis?
Isn’t it still a crisis to that extent?
Those were the claims.
To some extent, Magnus also agreed.
But most of those who make such claims are ignorant of one important fact.
“Is he still motionless?”
It was the leader who spoke this time.
“… … That’s right.”
The captain spoke in a slow voice.
“It is not moving a single step while standing in the waters of Behern.”
“How many troops are deployed over there?”
“Imperial knights and 500 riders are waiting.”
The size of the troops the commander said was beyond common sense.
It was a level that he could deal with even if dozens of giants above a certain level flocked to him.
However, when Magnus heard that, he frowned.
“Not enough.”
“yes. It’s not enough.”
lack. No one disputed that statement.
The captain opened his mouth in a heavy voice.
“Colossians are appearing sporadically in various places, so it is difficult to just withdraw troops.”
“No matter how difficult the situation is… … Whoa.”
Magnus let out a deep sigh as he spoke.
“Do you remember how the last great war ended?”
“… … yes.”
The captain was able to speak without having to rummage through memories of the past.
“The primordial giant. The great army of the Empire and Kingdom was literally swept away by him.”
“okay. He wasn’t even trying to kill us in the first place. It was just something that bothered me along the way.”
Magnus closed his eyes for a moment.
It was a month ago that the original giant was discovered again. And soon after, the number of colossi and their fragments began to increase rapidly across the continent.
It was exactly the same as in the past.
Eventually, Magnus opened his eyes again and spoke.
“The cadets of the academy are outstanding financial resources. Through practice, they can grow even faster. So I have no intention of reversing my decision no matter what.”
With a steady voice, looking somewhere, he finished his words.
“Because it’s better to do it now than to regret it later.”