Embrace the Magic (11)
mercenary.
It’s a job where you get paid to do dangerous work.
From simple escorts and guards to subduing demons and participating in wars, there was almost nothing he didn’t do.
Since they were people who did all kinds of things, they were sensitive to the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents.
If the opponent was strong, he would quickly bow down, and if the opponent seemed weak, he would press down on them.
“As a mercenary… you rebelled quite fiercely, didn’t you?”
“Yes, the ranks are quite high. There are only two gold-plated mercenaries, and the rest are silver-plated mercenaries.”
“It seems like the interrogation was easy even though you had a high rank.”
“Because I’m a mercenary.”
Mercenaries are known to say that ‘trust’ is important, but there are few mercenaries who can truly be trusted. They are often swayed by more money and betrayed by a sword pointed at their necks.
“How did you handle it?”
“Nine died during the arrest, and seven were held in custody for the time being. One or two of them are so badly injured that it seems unlikely they will see the sun tomorrow morning.”
“Hmm, the Kingdom of Veros and the Kingdom of Paris… Those two countries always move together.”
“Because we are a small country.”
Compared to the Ingram Empire, all of the Thirteen Nations Alliance were weak nations.
If we had not been united, the gap would have been so large that we would always have to be mindful of other countries. However, even within the 13-nation alliance, which was a combination of weak countries, there were differences in strength and weakness.
The Kingdom of Landert was by far the most powerful nation within the 13-nation alliance.
Its territory is more than twice that of the Kingdom of Riaz, and its population is nearly three times that of the former.
On the other hand, the Kingdom of Veros and the Kingdom of Paris were the weakest and weakest within the 13-nation alliance. They were different from other countries in terms of territory, population, economic power, and military power.
“You’re annoying me.”
“If it weren’t for the Ingram Empire, these are places that should have been dealt with long ago.”
The Kingdom of Riaz was ranked approximately 4th or 5th in power within the 13-nation alliance. It was not weak, but it was in an awkward position where it could not do as it pleased.
However, there was a big difference between the Kingdom of Veros and the Kingdom of Paris. If the two countries combined their power, they would barely be able to equal the Kingdom of Riaz.
“What should I do?”
“Deal with the guys you’ve captured before morning. Burn their bodies too.”
“Wouldn’t the Kingdom of Veros and the Kingdom of Paris… be a problem? Since the communication bead was discovered, all the information here must have been leaked as well.”
“There’s no problem. Is what we’re doing something that other countries shouldn’t be doing?”
The special forces training camp was a place where orphans and abandoned children were gathered and raised as soldiers. It was not illegal, and from the perspective of other countries, it was not a problem at all.
“ah!”
“It’s not because of the eyes of other countries that we hide it. It’s because of the smart guys in our country.”
“Yes.”
It’s ridiculous that the special forces training center was kept secret, but it was because of the aristocracy of this country. If it weren’t for their classism, there would be no need to hide it and teach the children like this.
“The nobles may be a bit annoying, but what can I do? I have to put up with the suffering.”
“We will deal with the mercenaries within today.”
“What about the boundary level?”
“You just have to maintain the current level. But you need to be alert. You have to look around often so that you don’t neglect your duties.”
The policy did not change despite the intruders. No actual damage was done.
“Oh! Don’t the kids run around the playground in the morning?”
“Yes, I start running at seven o’clock.”
“We’ll dispose of the bodies of the dead mercenaries at that time. It’ll do the job of keeping the kids on their toes.”
“Hahaha, that’s going to send shivers down my spine.”
The next morning, during the funeral, the body was loaded onto a cart. More than 100 children watched the scene closely.
As expected, from that day on, the children’s talking decreased significantly. Their concentration during class also increased.
But a child is a child. The underlying tension quickly disappeared. As expected of an age where it is difficult to maintain concentration for long, after ten days, he laughed and chattered louder than before.
* * *
These days Rodin was reading a book about antiquity.
From the most famous stories of the ancient magic empire to the dragon age before that, I have been reading books regardless of the era.
‘I want to learn a language.’
There were many books related to mythology that were written in characters other than the continent’s official language. There were even books that were written entirely in characters I didn’t know from beginning to end.
To read such books, one must know the letters, but unfortunately, the contents related to the ancient language were stored together in the deep storage. It was an area that Rodin was currently inaccessible to.
‘I’m stuck here. Sigh.’
There were about 200 books related to ancient times. Half of them were written entirely in characters I didn’t know. They were books that I couldn’t read at all without first learning the characters.
Moreover, the written characters were at least five types. You had to know at least five different ancient languages to read all the books.
‘I give up here.’
This time I turned my steps towards the math books.
I’ve been reading one or two math books a month now. I’ve been beyond the level of my afternoon classes for a long time, and I’ve entered a slightly specialized area.
Yeah.
I barely managed to get the math book out from high above.
This library tended to keep the more difficult or specialized books on the top shelf. I just got the book I just read because it had grown a bit tall recently, but if it had been a month ago, I would have had to wait until next time.
The little boy who read books every day seemed like a novelty to even the teaching assistant who practically lived in the library.
The cleaning assistant glanced between the bookshelves.
A third-term trainee boy wearing brown clothes was seen reading a book.
“Still the same.”
The more I looked at it, the more amazed I became.
The youngest of the third generation students uses the library every morning and evening.
Among the first and second trainees, there was not a single trainee who used the library consistently. There were less than 20 trainees who visited the library even once.
But a library regular appears in season 3.
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As a librarian, it was a very moving experience.
‘It’s a shame I couldn’t choose a field to focus on.’
The little boy never looked at one book for long. He just took out this book and that book and looked through them little by little.
The fields were diverse, from history to mathematics, herbal medicine, etc.
It seemed like he hadn’t found a clear favorite topic. I could understand that because he was still young.
‘Things will change as you get older.’
* * *
The Continental Language Test is administered over the course of a full day.
In the morning, the test was to look at a word and write down its pronunciation symbol and meaning, and in the afternoon, you just had to look at the pronunciation symbol and write down the word.
Of course, the math class in the afternoon was canceled.
Most of the third-term trainees absolutely hate math, but they were depressed all day because of the ‘test’.
“Can you play well?”
“I hope the part I studied comes out.”
“That’s right. What difference will it make if we worry now? We can only trust in our god, Rodin.”
All third batch trainees gathered in the classroom to take the test.
Those who cram late, those who give up and talk nonsense, and those who close their eyes and meditate.
Children of all kinds waited for the test time. Rodin was in meditation.
Knock knock!
The door opened with five minutes left in the exam.
The instructor came in first and stood in front of the desk, and then the teaching assistants were placed near the children. They were the ones who would monitor them for any cheating.
“Everyone, put your notebooks in.”
The children hastily put away their notebooks at the teacher’s firm tone.
Two months have already passed since the induction ceremony. The children have become quite close with the teaching assistants. They joke around and even get snacks that are not provided at the training center.
But I couldn’t become close with the instructor at all.
The instructor was a fearsome presence from the beginning until now. Even if the instructor opened his eyes or coughed in vain, his body would stiffen.
“The exam is due at 12 o’clock. Students who have finished the exam may submit their answer sheets and leave the classroom.”
The teaching assistants came out and distributed the test papers. As soon as the children saw the test papers, they closed their eyes tightly.
‘Hmm, as expected. Most of them are commonly used words.’
Rodin scanned the problem with his eyes and was sure that his prediction was right. He glanced to the side and saw that Headler had a good expression on his face. The expressions of Rant and Corey sitting behind him didn’t seem bad either.
‘How to solve the problem?’
The day I skimmed through history books at the library, I decided not to reveal all my skills. It was for survival.
What matters is how much you reveal.
‘I want to be wrong a lot, but.’
The instructors and teaching assistants didn’t know that he had finished studying the continental common language a long time ago, so it would be okay if he barely passed.
The problem is the children.
Especially, Headler, Landt, and Corey from Office 301, who live together, already know everything.
What if the teaching assistants sneakily ask the kids and find out that they’ve already finished studying the official language? What if they pass the test just barely?
It was obvious that he would be caught hiding his skills.
‘It’s a bit difficult to get them all right.’
Rodin took matters into his own hands, slowing down the pace so that he could finish just in time for 12 o’clock.
It wasn’t a good idea to solve the problem too quickly and leave the classroom. I had to be careful not to stand out too much.
‘finished.’
I finished all the problems just before the exam ended.
I intentionally got 4 questions wrong out of 100. That was a pretty high score.
‘But it’d probably get less attention than getting them all right.’
After lunch, the test resumed again.
Rodin only got two questions wrong this time, because the test of seeing the pronunciation symbols is easier than the test of seeing the words.
‘This is enough.’
I finished writing the answer sheet and took my hand off it. As if he had been waiting, the instructor knocked on the desk.
Knock! Knock!
“Stop! Assistant. Walk away.”
“yes.”
Finally, the test was over. The teaching assistants went from the back to the front and collected the answer sheets.
“Ugh! It’s over.”
“It’s freedom.”
“Is it really free?”
The test was over, but there were hardly any happy children. Most of them were looking back at the problems with despairing faces.
“Did you do well? This problem is all…….”
“Let’s go out first. Let’s go out and talk.”
As Headler was about to start talking excitedly, Rodin immediately stopped him.
The classroom atmosphere was the worst right now. There was no need to irritate the kids by telling them that they did well on the test.
As Headler and Rodin moved, Rant and Corey, who were sitting behind them, followed suit. All four of them had bright faces. They looked like they wanted to laugh out loud but were holding back.
“Haa, I’ll live. I thought I was going to die from frustration.”
“Me too. I couldn’t even breathe comfortably in the classroom.”
“hungry.”
As it was dinner time, the group walked to the restaurant and chatted.
“Did you do well on your test?”
“Oh my, this is pretty.”
Hedler turned around and lunged at her. Rodin dodged behind Lant.
“why!”
“No contact. I may kill you.”
“Well, I’ll accept everything today.”
“I guess you did well on your test.”
I could tell he did well on the test just by looking at his expression. Even Rant, who was the slowest at studying, was smiling from ear to ear today.
“Pass. Sure.”
“I think I’ll pass too.”
“Me too.”
Fortunately, everyone did well on the test.
I’ll have to wait and see the results, but the atmosphere was good. I thought that if I didn’t make any big mistakes while writing the answer sheet, I would have passed.
“let’s eat!”
Even though we didn’t leave that early, we were the only ones in the cafeteria. Most people were still in their classrooms, feeling hopeless, and a few who had left were loitering around the classroom.
The test results were announced five days later.
Only seven children passed the test, while a whopping 45 had to retake it the following month.
“Wow, Rant. That was close.”
“It passed. That’s enough.”
Headler, who had known the continental common language from the beginning, received a high score of 95 points. Corey received an 88 points, comfortably exceeding the passing score of 70 points.
But Landt got 71 points. If he had gotten 3 more questions wrong, he would have had to retake the test.
“Wow, but I feel betrayed.”
“what?”
“That guy over there. Number 60.”
Number 60 was a kid named Drock who was the leader when we first gathered. He was tall because he was in the first row, and he was also in good shape because he had been eating well recently.
“Why him?”
“Do you know what he told me? He said that he didn’t study at all and that he never would. He told me to hit him if I wanted to. He just kept yelling at me.”
“They’re all like that.”
“That guy over there said he didn’t study, but he passed. Wow! What a world where people can’t trust each other.”
Unlike Rodin, who thought there were too few people passing, Headler was surprised that there were more people passing than he had expected. It seems he really thought only one or two people would pass.
Rodin thought that about 20 people would pass.
Memorizing the dictionary wasn’t that difficult, and I was only given two months to do it.
‘I didn’t realize that children are distracted.’
The children quickly got bored with whatever they did.
Even playing was like that. If the same game kept happening, it would get boring and they would often look for new games.
It was greedy to want those children to focus on their studies.
