n

n

n

nThe day I was supposed to leave my territory to begin my training had arrived.

nA six-hundred meter dreadnought-class battleship was prepped and ready for my departure at the spaceport.

nWhen I looked at it- I couldn’t help but be dissatisfied.

n“No, I want to use my flagship-class battleship here.”

nA flagship-class battleship over a thousand meters long will stand out just from its size.

nEven though I had bought three of them, there’d be no point if they were never used.

nAmagi rejected my opinion,

n“The training of the crew hasn’t been completed. In addition to that, it’s been judged that the dreadnought-class battleships are the ideal size to use for the spaceport owned by the Razel viscount house. In any case, if we send out more ships than this, we’ll be perceived as a threat.”

nThe fleet prepared for my departure consisted of three-hundred ships.

nAs a count, I wondered if this was fine– but I understood that I wouldn’t really want a large fleet knocking at my door either.

n“I want to increase the number to show off my power.”

n“Don’t stir up trouble with the people who’re going to take care of you. Master, it’s time to leave.”

nThe surroundings were full of people who had come to see me off.

nOfficials, soldiers, housekeepers– Brian was there too, crying like usual.

n“Lord Liam, I hope you grow quite splendidly.”

nHe always seemed to be crying for one reason or another, but I was only going to be gone for three years.

nFrom a personal opinion, I actually quite doubted I’d grow that much as an individual.

nAfterall, this was just training in name only. I was going to pampered while living in luxury.

n“I’ll try to meet your expectations Brian.”

n“Lord Liam!”

nBrian was crying out my name, but I ignored him and turned to Amagi,

n“–I’ll leave things to you for now.”

nAmagi smiled,

n“Understood.”

n◇ ◇ ◇

nThe residence of the Razel family.

nThe servants had lined up to welcome Peter, of the Peetak house.

nHis pink hair was set quite flashy, and his skin was a wheat-like tan.

nHe didn’t look like the heir of a high-noble.

nHis body was thin and he didn’t seem to have had much training.

n“Heh~ so this is the mansion I’ll be staying at? Quite impressive for a viscount.”

nWith his slow and informal tone, he sounded like he was looking down on Randolph.

nRandolf could feel his temper rising,

n(He seems a bit stupid, but I need to endure this for our future contacts. This is all for the glory of the Razel house.)

nRandolph hid his true feelings and answered Peter with a smile,

n“I’m glad it’s to your liking. We’re throwing a party to celebrate your arrival, it must’ve been a tiring trip, so I hope you can join us and take a break.”

n“Understood, then I’ll allow you to guide me to my quarters.”

nRandolph didn’t falter at Peter’s attitude.

nThe reason was because of the mountain of offerings his parents had sent over.

nWhen compared with the amount sent over, an attitude of this degree was still permissible.

n“That’s right, I’m also thinking of having my daughter be your personal guide from tomorrow on.”

nHis daughter was to be Peter’s guide- this was all for the sake of the two’s marriage.

nEven though he didn’t see any value in Peter’s himself, he’d still like to establish a relationship with the Peetak family.

nTherefore, he decided to give his daughter over as a bride.

n

n

nOne of the benefits of accepting noble children as a place to study at was the ability to easily find potential fiancées.

nPeople would come to make a connection under the pretense of training.

nTherefore, marriage talks and the like could be smoothly finished in no time.

nPeter responded after hearing this,

n“The viscount’s daughter? Is she beautiful?”

n-he didn’t seem to understand.

nBut Randolph laughed and forgave him,

n(A man of this level will be easy for my daughter to manipulate.)

nThis person was trash, but his family was something he wanted a connection to.

nThat’s what Randolph thought.

n◇ ◇ ◇

nThe residence of the Razel house was wide.

nCompared to my mansion, it was a little narrow, but it was still pretty large.

nAfter arriving at the spaceport, I came to the residence with the other noble children.

nKnights of the viscount house had acted as our guides.

nEven though they had the corresponding position, they didn’t seem to be official imperial knights.

n“These will be your living quarters from today onwards.”

nThey had lead us over to double-rooms.

nEveryone was yelling out “Impossible!”, but the knights ignored them.

n“You aren’t guests, you’re here to train. As such you will follow our policies.”

nThey were relatively clean rooms, but they didn’t seem to be enough to satisfy the noble children.

nWhat did I think?

n-The room I lived in during my previous life’s death was definitely worse than this.

nI thought they were just going to pamper us, but it looks like they’re going to take the training seriously.

nThe knight raised his voice,

n“Leave your luggage here, change your clothes and start running laps! Go!”

nWhen I entered my room to deposit my luggage, there was a man from a baron house named Kurt Sera Exner who was assigned to be my roommate.

n—whew, I win. My house was of a higher rank than his.

nThe knight started yelling as I thought of such things,

n“Hurry it up!”

nOne of the noble children started yelling back in retaliation,

n“Don’t think you can get away with this, you’re just a lowly knight. Don’t you know who I am? I’m the second son of the-”

n“Who the hell cares?! This is Viscount Razel’s territory! Your house doesn’t matter!”

nThe child who resisted was beaten, and the other children who witnessed it suddenly began to move in earnest.

nNaturally, I changed my clothes and proceeded to the training grounds.

n“I will re-train the values of those of you who’re still clinging to your house’s names!”

nThe knight’s enthusiasm was in full swing.

n-it looks like there was no luxurious life waiting for me in the Razel house.

n“Damn it, don’t you think that this was different from what we were told?”

nAs I complained, I couldn’t help but notice the my roommate actually had quite the nice face.

nHe had blonde, bob-cut hair.

nHis eyes were purple and his other features had an effeminate beauty to them.

nAt an extent, his face was flawless.

n—this kind of upset me.

nThe knight was outside our dormitory, standing in front of the building’s garden, which to us had become our new training ground to do laps.

n“First we’ll build up your stamina with daily runs! You hear me?! From now on, we’ll be doing this every morning!”

nAmagi, Brian, why did the two of you choose this place for me to study at?

nThe ‘training’ life I had imagined had disappeared on the very first day.

n◇ ◇ ◇

nA week had passed since the most recent set of noble children had arrived.

nRandolf had gathered the knights in charge of education, and listened to their evaluation of this year’s batch of children.

nThe lowest ratings were given to of course- Peter.

n“Lord Randolph, make sure to keep an eye on him. He takes naps during class because he’s been playing around with women in his chambers every night until morning.”

nPeter was taking classes together with the other noble children that the viscount wanted to make connections with.

nTheir training regimen was separate from Liam’s.

n“Yes, I’ll look into it.”

nHowever, because he already considered him a fool, Randolph didn’t really care.

nHe didn’t have any expectations for Peter as an individual.

n

n

n“And what about the other children we accepted?”

nThe knight who was in charge of Liam reported,

n“I had to use a little force on the first day, but since then they’ve quieted down. There’s always a variation in personal education from house-to-house, but we should be ready for a full-fledged education within a year.”

nRandolph lowered his voice into a whisper,

n“Are there any children in particular that stand out?”

n“First, there’s Kurt of the Exner house. The talent and personality of this individual is quite admirable. Then there’s Liam of the Banfield house. He’s quite interesting.”

nRandolph replied,

n“The Banfield house, really?”

nRandolph remembered that the Banfields had sent one of their sons.

nThey were an impudent house that sent over an entire fleet consisting of three-thousand ships, pushing all the labor and maintenance costs onto his viscount house.

nThe quality of the ships weren’t even that good, and the skill level of the private military’s crew was poor.

nThere was nothing to see there.

n(On the other hand the Peetak house seems to have procured the latest models of ships. As I thought, the Peetak house truly was the correct choice to associate with.)

nThe Peetak house brought a fleet consisting of three hundred ships.

nHowever, immediately after dropping Peter off, they quickly returned to their territory to not burden Randolph with the costs of supplies and maintenance.

nTheir quick response time and level of skill quite impressed him.

nThey were supposed to be a noble’s private forces, but many of them were only trained to be at the same level as pirates.

nUnder such circumstances, Randolph couldn’t help but admire the Peetak family’s forces, which had both quality and skill comparable to the imperial army.

nThat, compared to the other two who were studying at the Razel house…

n“I see, educate them both strictly.”

n“Understood!”

nRandolph didn’t expect much from those the knights had to teach.

nThe only important one was Peter.

n-As a side note, although the fleet of three-hundred ships belonged to the Banfield house, the viscount misunderstood them to be of the Peetak house.

n◇ ◇ ◇

nThree months had passed since I had started my training.

n“Hmm? This is unexpectedly easy.”

nEveryday, I was living the life of physical exercise, taking lessons, and doing servant work from morning to night.

nBut I noticed.

n—it was very easy.

nThere was no need to process electronic documents in an office, and there was no need to deal with troublesome individuals.

nThe exercises they put us through weren’t even that hard.

nMaster’s One-Flash training was more difficult.

nThe day’s morning exercise was finished so I started having breakfast in the cafeteria while chatting with my upperclassmen.

nThis training period was supposed to last three years.

nI was able to meet up with other noble children taken into the Viscount family, and was able to build a nice senior-junior relationship with them.

n“Did you hear? Apparently the rich people are going to have another party today.”

n“The third years are the one’s setting it up.”

n“They’re also the ones who’re going to be serving them.”

nThe first years did chores, while the second years would start their full-fledged education.

nAs third years, they’d get to participate in parties held in the viscount house.

nHowever, they weren’t participating as invited guests.

n“Hey Liam, isn’t that your roommate?”

nTurning towards the corner of the cafeteria, I could see Kurt eating alone.

n—I didn’t really like that attitude he took that seemed to say he was different from everyone else.

n“I don’t really talk to him.”

nAs I said so, the upperclassmen resumed their talk,

n“Isn’t he the heir to a baron house? Man, that must be nice~”

n“You guys, watch your words. What if he decides to take revenge after he inherits his title? Be careful.”

n“Nah, he’d probably be too busy with work.”

nIt looks like the upperclassmen have their own struggles to deal with.

nKurt left the cafeteria immediately after he finished his meal.

n◇ ◇ ◇

nTraining Grounds.

nThe knight instructor was yelling at us like usual.

nEven though he was an athlete, wasn’t he too hot-headed?

n“From now on we’ll be training in pairs! This is the time to show off your specialties!”

nAs nobles, we were required to know martial arts.

nBecause of that, everyone had something that they could consider their ‘specialty.’

nNaturally- I chose a wooden sword to be my weapon.

nSurprisingly, it was Kurt who asked if I could be his partner.

nThe wooden sword he chose was in the style of a double-edged western sword.

nThe stance he took was quite dignified.

nKurt turned his gaze towards me.

n“-I’m not good at holding back, so I’ll apologise beforehand.”

nWhen he told me that, I-

n“The hell, are you looking down on me? I’m a One-Flash user’s license holder.”

nKurt tilted his head,

n“The One-Flash? I’ve never heard of that style before. Is it a minor school?”

nI could feel my right-hand’s grip on my wooden sword tighten.

nWhen the knight gave the signal, noble children everywhere began their matches around the field.

nI tried to beat Kurt as the knight watched over our match.

n“-?!”

n—this guy was somehow able to receive my blow.

nI was stunned for a moment after he somehow blocked my attack, but I quickly took my distance.

nDamnit! If I make a mistake and seriously attack him, I might turn him into mince-meat.

nBut he’s not the kind of person who I can beat with pure speed.

nKurt held his sword at the ready and silently continued to stare at me.

n-I could tell, he was strong.

n◇ ◇ ◇

n—Kurt’s mind was kicked into high gear.

n(This guy is strong.)

nAfter facing Liam, this conviction was only strengthened.

nThere were expectations for Liam to have a bit of strength, but this was beyond belief.

n(I thought it was just some minor swordsmanship style, but what was that last attack? I feel like there was something similar to it in the other schools…)

nKurt Sera Exner was the heir to the Exner house.

nThe Exner house was gossiped about as an upstart, but it’s lord, the Baron- was a knight strong enough to be called a master swordsman.

nHe was strong enough to protect his territory as his land’s one and only knight.

nNaturally, as his heir Kurt was then tempered from a young age.

nWith training akin to surviving on a live battlefield.

nKurt, who had already obtained the license to a famous swordsmanship school and was trained by a master, was sick and tired of this easy-going and warm environment.

nHalf a year had already been spent wondering if this was actually training or not.

nBut-

n“–was that the secret technique of your minor school?”

nLiam answered back,

n“We’re called the One-Flash. Remember that.”

n“Oh, I doubt I’ll ever forget.”

n—Liam started to smile.

nSeeing his stance, Kurt started sweating.

n(If I don’t do this right, I’ll be taken out with one blow.)

nKurt’s heart was beating like crazy.

nLike, before they even noticed, the tension between the two had skyrocketed, that was the kind of game they were playing.

nTo not miss even a single one of Liam’s movements, Kurt didn’t even blink.

n(Where are you going to strike at? No, I don’t even think your sword can reach me.)

nThe two of them were still reading out the other without moving.

nLiam let out a breath,

nThen-

n“Stop goofing off!”

nThe knights who were in charge of the lessons whacked both of them on the heads with their fists.

n

n