Chapter 5.Welcome to the summoners school.(8)

IfI were to make up an excuse, Id say it was becauseI was inthe graduating class.

I I have nothing left to study.

Its not like I became the council president fornothing. Ive studied hard over the years, andthanks to that, I can graduate just by getting a passing grade in5 classes. Inother words I dont have anything to do!

Thats whyI began trying to run away from thatnight study time along with the seniors whostayed inthe school forfive, six years. But

Th, the hell?! Whydoes the school evenhave traps like these?

What the?!

Cages would fall from the sky, floors would disappear all of the sudden

The things thatIve never experienced over the four years of my school life suddenly began happening.

And.

President, let us join you!

The entire council decided to fight back!

The faculty obviously got annoyed by this, andwent to Nicerwin Ein to complain. They complained about how the council, whowere supposed to be model students, werent studying. However, whenNicerwin Ein, the origin of all evils, heard this, he smiled.

They are being model students, though?

WhenI went to ask him the meaning of thatlater on, Nicerwin Ein answered me with a smile.

Why do you think I told them they could skip night study time ifthey could run? I was telling them to all run.

Thats whenI realized something. T, this man is a demon!

Of course, there was a penalty. Those whogot caught whilerunning away had to stay foran hour longer thanothers. We have to stay inschool forfourteen hours!

Buteven so We the students, I mean, we the heroes worked to get across the countless traps inorder to get to the holy dorms.

Andafter a week of hard work, we managed to get to the front gates.

Rise, earth.

Uaaah!

W, what the?!

Whenthe shouts came from behind me, I quickly looked behind. What I saw there was a stone giant

It is immoral fora student to run from school.

Sir Maroon!

Maroon Harcen. He was a man whorose up from his status asa peasant into a knight. He was an elder inthe summoner corps inthe army, andhe was someone whowas contracted to the spirit of the earth.

And he is also our teacher!

Call me professor.

Professor! What is the meaning of this!

I looked atmy fallen comrades, andshouted out indespair. Sir Maroon simply flashed Nicerwins signature smile inresponse.

Punishing students?

Thats whenI realized something yetagain. T, this guys just like Nicerwin!

Its unfair to use elementals!

Hoho, do you still not understand the words of professor Nicerwin? Run ifyou can. Thatmeans you have to use all kinds of tactics to escape. Did you think wed let you off with just traps? No. Ifyou want to escape, you must beat the entire faculty. This is war.

war?

Right. War. I may be a graduate from this school, butnormally, I wouldnt set one foot here. Then, do you know whyI came back?

No, I dont.

There was a lot of talk surrounding this, actually. Whywould five elders inthe summoners corps, along with the twenty soldiers below them, all come to the school? Fora while, people thought thatthe military was bribed into giving the school all these soldiers.

Professor Maroon told me the truth behind this matter.

I came to train talented individuals.

What do you mean?

I mean exactly what I said. The summoners corps oncewas an invincible troop thatprotected the empire, butthings have changed now. There arent any talented soldiers thatare coming in, andalmost no one enlists any more. Eventhoughone might have a powerful summoned beast, he would be either too weak, orhave no experience inbattling atall. They usually die beforemanaging to do anything. Its ridiculous.

So how does this relate to all this?

Nicerwin gave me a suggestion: What ifI train them beforethey get into the army?

What do what?!

Right. This entire process of running away is training. You tell me its unfair to use an elemental? Youre a summoner aswell, are you not? Summon your beasts, then. Take us down, andwin back your freedom!

I decided to use my summoned beast afterhearing this.

Then Ill Keh!

Buteven beforeI summoned anything the earth elemental struck me behind my head! The summoning failed! No, wait!

U, unfair!

Idiot. I told you to do whatever you could. The same applies to us. How do you expect us to block all the students inthe school? Were severely outnumbered, meaning thatwe have to do whatever we can aswell. Did you think wed wait foryou to summon your beast? Real life isnt like a novel. Villains dont always wait forthe hero.

Then, guh!

No excuses. Study foran extra hour.

I felt a blow to my back onceagain, andmy vision darkened.

A month had passed sincethen. The first years came to see me.

I heard you were the president of the student council.

Right. Im the president of the council, Nerkia Nes Leria.

Please lead us!

Ten students bowed down to me asthey said this.

Lead what?

We are the Student Liberation Army.

Eh?

What army?

The Student Liberation Army. We are a group of first years whoare unwilling to succumb to the night study time.

I had heard about you.

Most of the first years succumbed to the night study time. No, there was no need forthem to resist it.

The tuition of this school is extremely expensive. Its more expensive thananyone would ever imagine. Andthen it rose.

The tuition was already a little too much fornobles. Some nobles cant evenafford it.

Thats whysome of the new students tried to study hard enough to be able to graduate inthree years.

Most of the students here would rather graduate infour orfive years, butof course there were exceptions.

Andsince were almost done with school anyway, we decided to go crazy. Butthe first years just decided to take advantage of the night study times to do their homework. I guess theyd rather work inschool instead of the dorms? I mean, its not like you can work properly indorms anyway.

Sincebeing inschool lets you interact with other students whilestudying, it can be considered to be a good thing.

Only forfirst years, though.

ButI guess not all of the first years were fine with this setup.

By the way whydid you name it Student Liberation Army?

Professor Nicerwin named us this.

What.

The story they told me was quite something. The Student Liberation Army was a club made up of twenty four first years. Hoho, a club? Nicerwin said thatit was alright to run, butits still against the school rules. Its only alright ifyou succeed.

Butthen these first years made a club out of this bs.

I wondered ifthese students went crazy afterstaying inschool forso long, butafter taking a look atthe official club approval document intheir hands, I could only laugh.

Student Liberation Army

Club Patron: Nicerwin Ein

Club Leader: Aris Ril Letia

25 Members

The patron is Nicerwin Ein.

Hoho, are they siding with the enemy now? Wait, hold on, isnt Aris the representative of the first years? Shes the leader?

Call the students back.

A bit later, a few students came into the room.

I gave them some tea andcookies, andtried to make them a little calmer by doing so.

Mm Sothe patron of this club is Nicerwin Ein?

Yes.

The leader of Aris.

Yes. She was the first one to suggest all this to us.

Cant she just call her family over? Im sure they can end all this.

The girl was from a powerful family of a marquis. They had the power to end just about anything inthis nation.

What differentiated this empire from others was the number of powerful nobles.

Normally, big empires had a huge amount of prestigious nobles. There were cases wherethere were over twelve thousand, even.

ButKaruan was different.

There were just 29 prestigious nobles intotal. Five counts, andtwenty four marquises.

Honestly, this was a ridiculously low number of nobles. There was no way there could be thatlittle insuch a huge nation.

Andmore thanhalf of these nobles from actually from subordinate nations. Ten are from the nation of Raina, andseven are from Zearu.

Inreality, there are just ten prestigious nobles inthe nation.

One of these ten nobles was the Letia family, whichwas the family Aris belonged to.

The daughter of this family ran away becauseshe didnt want to study? Itd be faster to just call the family.

She called them already.

Yeah?

Yes. The marquis wife came inperson. She then had a private chat with professor Nicerwin Afterhearing his words, she told our leader to study hard, andthen left.

What?

She also told our leader to never call her about things like this ever again.

Did the woman get brainwashed?

The same happened forother nobles aswell. They all got persuaded inten minutes orless.

Hah

I didnt think hed be normal, but He managed to take down Aris mother herself. He took down the woman famous forbeing soparticular about everything. No, he made her into his ally?

So, what do you mean about me leading you?

We heard thatyou were one of the first to run. Atthe same time, you are the student council president. You also escaped to the front gates faster thananyone else.

I ran first. Thatis true. Im the student council president aswell. But.

I didnt escape. They just let me be.

What do you mean?

I mean just that. They let me be. There were plenty of traps, sothey didnt really need to do anything untilI got to the gates. I was only used to showcase the fact thatthis was a war.

A war?

yes, a war. We need to beat the faculty by making use of anything, andeverything. Right, sohow many summoners do you have?

Fifteen.

So ten are not yetcontracted? Hmm evenso, the leader andher closest friends should have powerful beasts by their side.

The leader does not possess a beast yet.

Really? Thats annoying

I thought shed have a summoned beast, butI guess not. Thatd probably mean thather family left her to mature a bit beforesummoning anything.

But sinceher family is famous fortheir martial arts, she should still be able to help. Alright, I will help you.

Back then, I didnt realize. I didnt realize how big this organization was going to be. Andbecauseof thatfact, I was able to have memories of school thatI would never be able to forget about.