“Lord Eugene, meal time…”
“Let’s eat quietly.”
“Yes, sir!”
Guuh
Sigh…
Eugene sighed as he watched Aaron shout during every meal.
Whenever that guy stood up and shouted, other students and instructors would look at him.
‘This is really uncomfortable…’
But the funniest thing was that every time he received such greetings, Antonio, from afar, would look at him enviously.
‘Really, this place is full of crazy people.’
Eugene shook his head and put food back in his mouth.
“By the way, who do you think it’ll be?”
“What?”
Ken Pelven, sitting in front of him, asked a strange question.
What is he talking about out of the blue?
“Your opponent.”
“Huh? My opponent?”
“Huh… didn’t you hear?”
Rohen, sitting next to Ken Pelven, made a perplexed expression.
“What didn’t you hear?”
“We have a sparring match today, remember?”
“What??”
Eugene frowned at Rohen and Ken’s words.
A sparring match today?
This is the first time he’s hearing about it.
“Didn’t the instructor tell you? We were told after class.”
‘That explains why I didn’t hear about it.’
The previous day, Lina, who had been his instructor, hurriedly left the training hall.
‘The class was tough yesterday, so she must have forgotten to mention it.’
“So, what’s the schedule for today?”
Eugene laughed at his own question.
Do I have to hear about the schedule from my team members?
Normally, the team leader should know the schedule and inform the team members, but in his team, it was the opposite.
“Today, there’s no morning or afternoon class; we start sparring in the morning.”
“Hmm.”
Why a sudden sparring match?
They had already tested each other’s strengths and weaknesses during the team leader selection process.
‘Maybe this time, it’s to spar in a proper venue.’
Since the previous place was unfavorable for wizards, this time, it might be a fair venue for them as well.
“They say the winning team will have advantages in the first exam.”
“Really?”
Eugene showed interest at Rohen’s words.
If they mentioned “the winning team in the sparring match,” it means the sparring match would be team-based today.
And there would be advantages in the exam.
‘I’m getting curious.’
Eugene’s eyes sparkled with the goal of passing the first exam excellently and gaining attention.
***
After the meal, the first-year students gathered at the sparring ground, forming a circle around it.
‘This is my training hall…’
A familiar place for Eugene.
It was the training hall where he had been receiving training for the Magic Swordsman.
‘There seems to be no separate training hall for Magic Swordsmen.’
It was as expected.
Since no one in the academy’s history had chosen to be a Magic Swordsman, there was likely no separate training hall for them.
The training hall itself was just a large open space without any special facilities.
He had anticipated this from the beginning.
“As you all know, today’s class is a team-based sparring match.”
Instructor Deiker stood in the middle of the sparring ground.
“The name of this sparring match is ‘Tag.'”
“Tag?”
Eugene tilted his head in confusion.
Why would a sparring match be called ‘Tag’?
“When forming a party to hunt monsters or engaging in wars within a kingdom or territory, what do you think is the most important thing?”
Everyone remained silent when a female student raised her hand.
“Yes, Sophia.”
“It’s to protect the leader of the group.”
“You know well, that’s the correct answer.”
“Oooooooh.”
As Sophia answered correctly, exclamations of admiration flowed from the surroundings.
“As I mentioned before, when you form a party to hunt monsters or go to war, you must protect the leader of your group.”
‘So they’re teaching us to capture the enemy leader.’
Eugene nodded, understanding the purpose of the sparring match.
Capture the enemy leader.
It means that to defeat the enemy, you must first capture their leader.
In the martial arts world of Zhongyuan, protecting the leader was always the top priority during wars.
This was because if the leader died during a battle, the soldiers’ morale would drop, possibly leading to defeat.
Moreover, if the enemy leader died, there would be no one to give orders, causing chaos among the enemies, making them vulnerable to an attack.
‘So that’s why it’s called “Tag.”‘
They referred to the team leader as the “tail.”
“Team leaders, come forward and take a ball from this box.”
Deiker came out holding a box.
Inside the box were balls of different colors, and teams that picked the same color would face each other.
Male students would face males, and female students would face females.
“Also, since there are only five teams, one team will advance without a match.”
The students started murmuring upon hearing about the automatic advancement.
Automatic advancement is a significant advantage.
This is because, instead of gauging the opponent’s strength through direct combat, they could observe and analyze from the sidelines, which was a considerable benefit.
‘I wonder which team will get it.’
Eugene stepped forward and picked a ball from the box.
For the male teams:
Team 1 VS Team 4
Team 2 VS Team 5
Team 3 advances without a match
For the female teams:
Team 3 VS Team 4
Team 1 VS Team 5
Team 2 advances without a match
As the matchups were decided, smiles and frowns appeared on the students’ faces.
‘Hmm… Team 2…’
Eugene looked at Bambi Galeron, the leader of Team 2.
For some reason, Team 2 was cheering as if they had already won.
“Leader.”
“Are we up against Team 2?”
“Sigh… damn…”
“Why?”
Eugene looked at Arid, who was sighing.
Why is he suddenly sighing?
“You don’t know Bambi Galeron, Team leader?”
“…Just speak comfortably.”
Eugene shook his head at Arid’s strange formality.
Since being defeated by Eugene, Arid had been uncomfortable around him and rarely spoke, but when he did, he used this awkward formal language.
“Ahem, don’t you know Bambi Galeron?”
“Who is that?”
“How can you not know Bambi Galeron?”
“That’s why I’m asking, who is he?”
“Bambi Galeron is the grandson and disciple of Sword Master Cohelb Galeron.”
Indeed.
Bambi Galeron was famous among the students as the grandson and disciple of the Sword Master.
He was even rumored to be the strongest among the students, except for Sophia Dikantel.
‘So that’s why their team was so happy.’
Eugene laughed knowing which team they were up against.
“How are we going to attack?”
“No matter how we attack, we can’t win…”
Smack!
“Ouch!”
Eugene smacked the back of Arid’s head for dampening the morale.
In a situation where they should be boosting morale, he was already giving up.
“Hmm… there might be a way.”
Eugene looked at the large, round sparring ground with a sly smile.
Thus began the sparring match.
Team 1 and Team 4 from the male side started first, with Team 1, led by a royal, easily defeating Team 4.
And on the girls’ side, teams 3 and 4, which included Sophia Dikantel, faced each other, and as all the students had expected, team 3 easily won the sparring match.
“Now it’s our turn.”
Eugene, who had been watching the other teams’ sparring matches, leisurely got up from his seat.
“Leader… are we really going to use that method?”
Rohen looked at Eugene anxiously, stuttering.
While the other teams were sparring, Eugene had explained his strategy to his team members, but it sounded utterly ridiculous.
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”
Eugene reassured Rohen, patting him on the shoulder.
“Teams 2 and 5, come to the sparring ground.”
As Deiker called out the teams, both team 2 and team 5 stepped onto the wide sparring ground.
The ground was spacious enough for all 20 members, 10 from each team, to stand without feeling crowded.
“If I think it’s dangerous, I will stop it. Killing is prohibited.”
“Yes.”
All 20 members responded in unison to Deiker’s words.
Step, step.
“Are you ready? Begin.”
As Deiker left the sparring ground and gave the start signal, the mages in team 5 immediately cast their shields.
Eugene’s team had the mages up front casting shields, with the knights behind holding their swords.
Even Eugene, the team leader, was positioned among the knights, giving the appearance of a defensive formation.
“Are they planning to go defensive?”
Bambi Galeron, the leader of team 2, moved forward with his formation.
Originally, team 2 expected team 5 to attack and planned to tire them out slowly, but seeing team 5’s defensive stance from the start, they had to change their strategy.
“Huff.”
“Are they trying to conserve their strength by not engaging?”
Bambi grasped the hilt of his sword at his waist.
At that moment,
Shhh.
The mages of team 5, who had been shielding, suddenly dispelled their shields.
“What the…”
Thud!
As the shields disappeared, Eugene, who had been protected among the knights, rushed forward at an incredible speed, appearing right in front of Bambi.
“Goodbye.”
Bang!
Eugene, having approached Bambi in an instant, kicked him away as Bambi was in the process of drawing his sword.
Crash!
“Ugh…”
Bambi, kicked out of the sparring ground, fell outside, leaving all the students in the training hall gaping in shock and speechless.
‘Just as planned.’
Though Bambi had flown far from the force of Eugene’s Hwepoongak, the fact that Bambi had tried to block Eugene’s kick with the side of his sword in that brief moment showed he was indeed different from other students.
“… Team 5 wins.”
“Waaaaah!”
As Deiker declared team 5’s victory, the members of team 5 cheered simultaneously.
When Eugene had first explained his plan, the team members thought he was crazy, but that thought had completely vanished now.
“Crazy…”
“Did you see that? A mage just overpowered Bambi by sheer force!”
“He didn’t just push him, he sent him flying…”
“They say he’s a magic swordsman… Are magic swordsmen really this powerful?”
“Seems like the leader of team 5 is just really strong…”
“And what was that speed? I didn’t even see him move… One blink and the leader of team 5 was already in front of Bambi.”
“Wow… This class is full of monsters…”
“Tsk.”
While the students stared at Eugene in shock, Antonio, who had advanced by default, looked at Eugene with displeasure.
Antonio had been excited, thinking Eugene would surely lose against a strong knight like Bambi Galeron, but seeing Eugene win the sparring match so impressively annoyed him.
Cliche Novel 