章節 23: Forward [2]
"Is that all you've got?! C'mon! Put some strength into those legs! Push! Faster!"
"Huff... huff..."
Sweat was pouring out of every pore on my body, and it was torturous just to try and keep to my feet right now. We had already spent several hours on the training fields, doing all kinds of calisthenics-based workouts like running, pushups, squats, and much more, and the only reason I was standing was due to my inner obstinacies
Something that made it even more painful was the fact that time moved so excruciatingly slowly to me, making everything just that much more agonizing.
At the same time, our teacher's words echoed through my head:
'-The most important quality of a strong melee combatant is stamina!'
Those words somehow kept me going despite my body already having depleted all of my energy a long time ago, and I had somehow made it through to the end of the session. Now all that was left was to stay on my feet.
'I... I won't fall... I refuse to fall...'
The faces around me were all very different, with some looking just as pained as I, while some looked like they had simply worked up a bit of a sweat, still standing tall while easily regaining their breaths.
Unfortunately, one of these people was a brown-haired girl who couldn't help but look at me with a smug smile. Celine's face was practically screaming the words, 'Ha! Is this all you got?', and although I realized that I shouldn't care, it was impossible for me not to get a bit frustrated.
It was one thing to struggle a bit, but it was another thing to struggle while seeing someone you knew do many times better than you.
In fact, all of the faces that I knew from before had made it through the session in much better shapes than me. Cerus, Celine, Wyll, Frey, Evan, and Ken all seemed to be quite fine, even if their breaths were a bit ragged.
Just like Celine, Cerus was also looking at me, yet, somehow, his eyes didn't belong to someone who was gloating or pitying me. No, his eyes were... looking for something? It was hard to explain, since to me, it appeared that he was searching for something as he inspected me, but I had no way of knowing what. Also, I was too tired to care as well.
'I should be happy that Wyll isn't trying anything at least. But I guess he can't really do anything with our instructor so close by.'
Our teacher finally spoke up, his tone harsh and uncaring.
"That's all for today. Remember that you all are supposed to gather in your designated homerooms after lunch for your theoretical lectures. Class dismissed."
Every muscle in my body had already gone numb after the training session, showing just how much I had underestimated the level that the courses of the academy were on. However, I didn't dislike it. It merely showed me that I had a long way to go, which wasn't anything new to me anyway.
Therefore I dragged myself forward toward the showers that were part of the sports hall as I had no intention of eating before I managed to wash off the excessive amount of sweat on my body and change back into my school uniform.
'Ugh... the clothes are sticking to my body...'
The gym clothes that I was currently wearing, a black tank top and a pair of dark sweatpants, were so soaked with sweat that I could have probably wrung out a whole bucket of liquid out of them.
With the scorching sun still sitting high in the sky, I was just happy that I hadn't passed out yet from heat stroke. It had truly been a hellish experience for me, with my body clearly not up to par as compared to my classmates, who very quickly left my sight as they made their way back to the main campus grounds.
After what felt like an eternity I finally managed to make my way into the shower room inside the large sports hall, where I relished the cold water that ran down my body.
'One step at a time...'
-------
"You look like shit."
"...thanks."
Despite her lissome appearance, Zoe spoke some very contrasting words as I sat myself down to eat in front of her. In contrast to my worn-down image, the ice princess looked everything but exhausted.
Not that she looked energetic either, but it was obvious that the lecture she had attended hadn't made her even the slightest bit tired. Still, I had more important matters to attend to rather than check out a girl in the dining hall.
"Munch!"
'Delicious!'
"...weirdo."
Ignoring her hurtful words, I kept stuffing my mouth full of the delicious food in a desperate measure to regain all of the energy that I had previously spent.
-------
"As most of you might know, Wurden hasn't always been as peaceful as it currently is and it wasn't until somewhat recently that the four great nations made peace with each other, deciding that working together was imperative for the future of the world."
The small, older lady with the huge glasses scribbled down some words on the whiteboard behind her before she continued with her lecture about world politics and the international state of Wurden, which I just now was the name of this world.
"This is called the Treaty of the Four Nations and would come to be the pillar of cooperation between the states Abas, Jonum, Servini, and Laktom. From this treaty, a lot of derivative laws and agreements have been created, one of which is the collection of talent in the very academy that we are currently part of."
Her name was Eleanor Lugh and she was apparently one of the many teachers responsible for the freshmen. She had explained to us that she was responsible for a number of different kinds of social studies as well as the head teacher responsible for the 'Potion Crafting' course.
Needless to say, that didn't matter much to me as I wasn't part of that course, but it was still interesting to get to know someone so different from me. That said, it was still unbelievably tedious to listen to her lecture about the world not only because it was difficult for me to understand but also because she was talking excruciatingly slowly to me.
"... but it's still a fact that no one can be sure how the political leaders will act despite the official agreements. For example, we saw a clear overstep from Laktom just a couple of years ago where they had kept a lot of biomagical experiments hidden from the other nations. When this secret was revealed, Laktom had to, not only, pay a pretty hefty fine, but they also had to dismantle the current research they were doing as well as stop any future research regarding biomagic for a long time. This sanction is known as ..."
'She just doesn't stop...!'
Mrs. Lugh's lecture was endless as she only stopped speaking for a couple of seconds in order to put down some notes on the whiteboard, notes that all of my classmates diligently copied onto their own notebooks. I also brought a notebook but due to the overflow of information, I had given up long ago regarding taking notes.
"This also led to Laktom withdrawing from a lot of the official agreements and is now the only great nation that doesn't send its young and talented individuals to the Academy of Heroes. So even now, despite them still being part of the Treaty of the Four Nations, they are to some extent regarded as the renegade of the nations, a black horse that doesn't follow the same philosophies as the other nations."
It was interesting, it really was, but no matter how I tried, I just couldn't find it in me to enjoy the lecture but I still made an effort to not show it on my face at least.
"...is my lecture not to your liking, young man?"
Unfortunately, it appeared that I had failed quite miserably as the short madam was now unmistakably staring at me, her curly grayish hair fluttering a bit as she repeatedly tapped the ground with her foot.
Not only her, but after a moment everyone else in the class had also followed her lead, with everyone staring at me in suspense, waiting to see my response.
'I don't have a choice, do I?'
Ultimately, I sort of knew that no matter what kind of excuses I came up with it would only serve to exasperate the situation. Therefore I simply told her the truth, naturally excluding the part where I would say that my brain was literally moving faster through time than the world around me.
"I'm sorry. I'm just having some trouble following along which makes it difficult to get invested. My apologies."
All in all, it was a pretty perfect apology. I mean, what kind of teacher would dismiss a student who was having...
"Then, young man, if you're having trouble following along now that we are reviewing general knowledge, how do you think you are going to fare when we begin with the more advanced parts of the course?"
...or not.
"I'll only say this once. If you guys believe that simply being good at fighting or magic is enough to assure your stay at this academy, you are sorely mistaken. Just like your combat instructor has the authority to expel you, I have too. So, young man, please do your best to 'follow along' with those bored eyes of yours."
Unlike her appearance, it turns out that the small lady teaching us was somewhat of an Iron Woman.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
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