Dragoon.

“I told you not to raise a hand!”

“So you’ll save the noble! Teachers are enemies after all!”

“As if I could let the matter end with me belittled by a common imbecile! Shut up and watch!”

The first and second years of the fundamental curriculum had divided up between commoner and noble, using the cafeteria tables and chairs in their intense battles, and it had grown beyond what the teachers could handle. With their lack of numbers and the combat-oriented teachers off with the upperclassmen, the remaining teachers were classroom centered.

In such a classroom, the ones who constituted the center of this quarrel were Chlust of the Arses House and a commoner boy called Fritz. At first, both sides had started the fight with their fists, but once it looked like Chlust was going to lose, he took out the knife he carried on hand. From there, Fritz went into the magic he had only just learned, and accepted a wooden sword his friend had brought over to fight Chlust.

“You indigent excrement! Don’t think you can live on, mocking nobles all the way…your family and all the people around you shall be killed”

“Just because you can’t win, you lay hands on the people around me… you nobles really are the lowest of trash. Up until I came to this academy, I worked as an adventurer. I know just how dirty you folk are, and I know what I have to do!”

Knocking Chlust’s knife aside, Fritz put a kick into his stomach and slammed him against the cafeteria wall. As some students raised a cheer at that sight, the noble students were pissed.

With the case of Chlust abandoning the princess the year before, he had lost the trust surrounding him. But there were a number of young nobles who abandoned her, and as they were rarely criticized for it on the surface, his followers still stuck with him. Even so, this situation worsened the attitudes towards Chlust even further.

‘A noble disgrace who can’t even beat a commoner.’

The nobles fighting around looked on Chlust with cold eyes.

(Why… why are you looking at me with those eyes!? Why was so wrong? Why am I losing to the likes of this commoner…)

Unable to get his thoughts in order, Chlust tried to get back on his feet, when Fritz started knocking him about more than necessary. Fritz had chosen the path of beating him so badly he wouldn’t even think to get back at him. All around the demi-human students usually looked down upon hit the nobles around and blew them away with magic.

It was true madness. At the entrance of the cafeteria where such hysteria spread, the teachers and a portion of students lost their minds as the remaining upperclassmen who caught wind of the ruckus began to gather. Rather than the textbook teachers, hope was gathering on those upperclassmen.

And of course, Rudel was included among them.

◇

Hearing the situation from Izumi and released from the disciplinary room, Rudel’s party of three made their way to the dining hall. At the entrance, they could hear the voices of teachers and the rampaging students within. Perhaps from their heightened tensions, even the teachers cowered at the jeers tossed around.

Seeing that circumstance, the one to take the vanguard was Eunius. While he was usually classified as a sociable noble, once he was angered, his tempered large build and fearsome face struck fear into the hearts of all. The other upperclassmen opened a path for him and followed behind.

“Move.”

Receiving Eunius’ glare, the underclassmen went through a moment’s surprise, but even if they were dealing with an upperclassman, they thought they had the numerical advantage, and didn’t even try to step down. The students who fell unconscious a moment later… were blown away by his fists.

The students sent flying around the entrance caused eyes to gather on the upperclassmen making their way into the cafeteria, and the hall was enveloped in silence for a moment. Eunius at the lead, then Rudel and finally Luecke, seeing upperclassmen step in one after the next, the students of the fundamental curriculum were gradually gaining an understanding that they had done something terrible.

On the entrance of the Three Lords’ eldest sons, the nobles stopped their squabbles. But that’s not how it went for the commoners. The students who just enrolled that year were especially lacking in knowledge when it came to Rudel and the others. Those underclassmen could only work under the foolish preconceived notion that these were the idiotic nobles that had to be saved by the dragoons.

“So even the upperclassmen are joining in? Then so be it… I’ll be able to take Rudel down before my third year. For you who can only hold his head high in these academy walls, I’ll teach you that thing called reality.”

Fritz turned his wooden sword towards Rudel. The subjugation jobs he had carried out to that day let him hold confidence in himself. Unlike the academy’s students who only learned theory, Fritz truly was strong. To Fritz who thought to become a knight once he left, his life here was no more than a game.

The fact the princess attended was another reason Fritz commuted to the academy. He had come to attempt to change the country called Courtois from the inside. Forging relations with those who would become the next generation, he held an ideal of making a country of his ideals. But no matter how you looked at it, his methodology was terrible.

Fritz had done jobs all over to learn of the world, but he only held common sense of a narrow scale. Crying out that nobles were evil, his thoughts from the standpoint of an adventurer that would earn money as long as they had strength tied in with his actions in this incident.

His ideals were splendid, but his methods were bungled. That was the boy called Fritz. A child with nothing but strength had lined up pretty words and pushed them through with brute force.

Not knowing any of that, To Rudel, Fritz was the sort of existence he should be protecting from his standing as a noble. He didn’t particularly think anything of the boy’s belittling comments. He was actually more irritated at Chlust for laying a hand on Fritz. But even Rudel had to revise his thoughts after looking around.

In the kitchen, the aunties who would often throw in a bonus slice for him were shaking in fear, and even the teachers had been injured. The dining hall everyone used was in disorder, and it wouldn’t be usable for a while to come. Here and now, were Fritz’ actions any different from those of a bandit? Rudel was rapidly losing his interest in Fritz.

“… I’ve no interest in you.”

Saying that, Rudel passed by Fritz’ side and headed for Chlust.

“What are you doing, Chlust? And you call yourself a noble aiming to be a knight?”

“… Don’t mock me! Trash like you has no right to look down on me! This is all your fault. If only you weren’t there, I’d never find myself here, and I’d never lose to the likes of him!”

Chlust wept as he screamed out in vexation. His eyes were fearful as he looked at Fritz who tormented him. As Rudel had heard the gist of things before he came to the cafeteria, he turned back to Fritz and cut into conversation.

“I’ll apologize for the trouble my brother has caused you… but you’ve gone too far.”

“…! Like you’re one to talk. How about you say that to the people suffering under Arses rule.”

Fritz returned words of cynicism. Just like that, he lowered his wooden sword towards Rudel… Rudel didn’t even try to dodge or block. Fritz hammered in a few more blows, but Rudel didn’t even flinch. The wood sword was the first to break.

“W-why…”

Fritz was surprised at the lack of effect of his own attacks, but without paying a hint of mind to that, Rudel declared for all to hear.

“Bring a stop to this idiotic ruckus. If you wish to continue, I’ll take you on seriously next time.”

A fearsomeness different from Eunius’ had put a stop to the students’ quarrels.