Top Instructor of a Third-Rate Academy

Chapter 1

In the countryside, an academy holds a meaning beyond a simple educational institution.

It was the vigilante group responsible for the town's security, and the sage and administrator to the rural lord.

Even the scope of such trivial tasks fell under the duties of an academy instructor.

“They say an official notice came from the capital, and the way we pay taxes is changing. The townspeople don't really know what it means.”

“Ah. That would be the one about reducing 10% of tax revenue if you mandatorily send one of your children to the academy, starting this year.”

“The academy? Aish. Even if it's 10%, the tuition for the academy is no joke.”

“There's a system called a scholarship. It's a system to support talented students among the commoners. They hold a test for students from ages 7 to 10, so please try sending your children.”

“Alright, I'm sure Instructor Cassian will handle it well.”

It was around the time I had been answering people's questions for a while.

“Instructor Cassian, sir!”

I heard a voice calling me from afar.

I turned my gaze to where the voice had come from.

Clothes soaked to the point her top was drenched, matted hair, terror-filled eyes, legs that had given out once and were then forced to move, and a lot of dirt from having fallen several times.

I instantly grasped the situation and approached her.

“Monsters. Where?”

“The North Gate! Outside the North Gate! In Old Man Hans's field, an orc……!”

There was no need to hear any more of her explanation.

I already knew everything.

I started running in the direction the girl had come from.

After running for about ten minutes, I reached the castle wall.

There, a young soldier with a deathly pale face was waiting for me.

“I-Instructor!”

“Where are they?”

“Five orcs! They're old orcs. The guards were dealing with a disturbance on the east side…….”

“How many people are there?”

“Two!”

Two against five orcs.

It was as if a dark future flashed before my eyes.

‘Faster.’

I moved my feet a little more diligently and ran toward Old Man Hans's field.

After running for another ten minutes, I could hear the cries of monsters and what sounded like the shouts of people in the distance.

― Kaaak!

“……ld on! If we just hold on a little longer……!”

“Hyaah!”

I charged between the soldier and the orc with a deliberately exaggerated shout.

My target was the orc on the outermost edge, the one that seemed a little tired.

Its body was tilted at an angle, and its flank muscles were tightly contracted and strained; it must have had an injury on its leg.

Unlike the other orcs or the soldiers, its reaction was also subtly slow.

Just like that, one orc lost its life.

“Instructor!”

The two soldiers retreated behind me as if everything was fine now.

One of them had about half of his helmet caved in, and his face was covered in blood, as if he had suffered a head wound.

The other one's hands were soaked in blood, which seemed to be a mix of orc blood and his own.

Thankfully, besides his slightly sluggish movements, he didn't seem to have any major problems.

“You've taken care of two.”

“We-we somehow managed to get two, but those two are the problem!”

“Those guys, they're old, but they look like warriors!”

Where they pointed, two orcs were breathing heavily through their noses.

They were wearing crude brass armor, and though the blades were a mess, they were holding glaives, weapons exclusive to Orc Warriors.

Guys who were pushed out of a power struggle with younger warriors and came down to the human settlements.

Though somewhat weakened, their lethality could not be ignored.

“Please support me.”

“Ye-yes!”

Hoo.

I calmed my trembling arms and legs and stabilized my breathing.

I narrowed and fixed my vision, which until now had been scanning broadly and roughly.

Along with the sound of my pounding heart, information about the orcs began to flood in.

‘Rough.’

Their movements were rough, even for orcs.

Warriors who had roamed battlefields following their instincts for a long time. They were high-ranking and cunning, having accumulated long experience on the front lines.

Looking at the trajectory their swords moved, they had a way of fighting that seemed more suited for a giant beast than a human.

Guys who had spent their years hunting orcs, ogres, and trolls, rather than humans.

That very point bought me time.

‘Little experience fighting humans. Their muscles and bones are worn down. They're tired.’

The muscles that reacted with a slight delay, and the bones, seemed to have reached the end of their lifespan.

That was likely why they were chased out of their group and came here.

Those wounds were probably sustained while fighting the younger orcs.

One had a problem with its right shoulder, and the other had trouble with its left thigh and left arm.

Those two weaknesses swayed precariously in the air.

Based on their past and present movements, I drew a trajectory.

‘If I swing my sword…….’

In the empty space, the trajectory of how the opponent would move was drawn like a picture.

Observational skills superior to others, the logical intuition to connect them, deduction, and even the calculation to produce a solution.

My ability was to push all of that to its extreme.

Based on the information I pieced together in an instant, I found a motion to perfectly evade the two orcs' attacks and pierce them.

‘Just one chance.’

Slowly, I took a step for that single opportunity.

Zing!

Perhaps because I had heightened my sight and senses to their limit, a pain as if my muscles and nerves were about to burn up began.

The soldiers' conditions weren't good either, so I had to hold on.

No, I had to finish this.

“Hoo.”

I exhaled again and took half a step forward.

The two monsters' muscles tensed up.

If I took one more half-step from here.

It would begin.

After taking one last breath.

I ran.

― Kyaaaak!

The orc with the good leg charged at me as if to jump.

I dodged to its injured right side.

And as if it had been waiting, the other orc stomped and charged toward that spot.

The line connecting the two orcs.

I swung my sword toward that trajectory.

‘Ugh?!’

Zing, a pain as if the muscles in my right arm were about to burst flared up.

The suddenly overheated ligaments, muscles, and nerves screamed in pain all at once.

‘Ah.’

In that brief hesitation, the trajectory went awry.

The orcs' teeth, fists, and blades drew near, and.

Shaaaaa!

They immediately scattered below with a pattering sound.

The trajectory of the sword I had failed to swing.

A silver blade cut across that trajectory, drawing a beautiful line.

Thud!

I couldn't properly balance myself and rolled several times on the ground.

While I tumbled, the dirt ground and the sky swayed dizzily up and down.

My shoulder that hit the ground as I fell, my knee that landed wrong, and all sorts of pains, big and small, rushed in at once.

Ah, I think I'm going to die.

I squeezed my eyes shut and consciously blocked out the information that had come in through them.

I once again calmed the senses I had accelerated for that brief moment.

As I slowly, slowly killed the pain.

“Instructor.”

A familiar voice came from above my head.

“Is that you, Rozalin?”

“……You know you almost died just now, right?”

“I feel like I'm dying right now.”

“I'm not joking. Why are you so reckless? Why does someone with such poor swordsmanship skills always step up like this?”

Poor swordsmanship skills…….

Haha.

They were painful words, but I couldn't deny them.

What good are good eyes?

When my body is made of glass and can't keep up with them.

The reason I was stuck in a third-rate academy despite my eyes and intuition was precisely because of this.

But still, I had to move.

“I'm an instructor, after all. At the academy.”

The swordsmanship instructor of Akarind Academy.

That was me.

My body was frail, but my eyes at least weren't bad, and thanks to them, I was able to get a position as an instructor.

In the countryside, an academy holds a meaning beyond a simple educational institution.

It was the vigilante group responsible for the town's security, and the sage and administrator to the rural lord.

An instructor at the academy had to handle all sorts of odd jobs as if they were a side gig.

Just like right now.

“That's a job for capable people.”

“I was the closest, and I had nothing else to do. If I hadn't come……”

“I know. That those two people could have died. But……”

Rozalin stopped there and closed her mouth.

Curious about her expression, I slowly opened my eyes.

But Rozalin had already turned away and was striding off.

The white uniform, the pride of Akarind Academy, and long, light-blue hair that looked as if the color had faded.

The swordsmanship genius Akarind Academy prided itself on, Rozalin Vürhelm.

I got up and gave a slight bow to the soldiers who had been supporting me just before.

The soldiers, who were cleaning up the orc corpses, saw me and bowed their heads.

“You've worked hard. Thank you so much again for today.”

“Not at all, it was Rozalin who did well.”

I hurriedly followed after Rozalin.

I could hear the guards murmuring behind me.

“Well… he's a good person. It's just a shame about his swordsmanship.”

“He has good eyes. Sometimes he speaks really fiercely.”

“Still, with skills like that, who would listen to that instructor? Plus, you say his eyes are good? I couldn't understand a single thing he said.”

“Don't be like that. Still, he's someone who never shirks from situations like this and always puts his life on the line. Hey, how many times do you owe him? Ten? Twelve?”

“Hey, you gotta be clear. Did he save us? He just buys time until the academy students save us.”

“You said he's a smart guy. Maybe if he taught something other than swordsmanship, it would have been much better……”

“Have some decency and stop your back talk. Still……”

A bitter taste filled my mouth, but I forced myself to walk on, pretending not to know.

Because their words weren't wrong.

Just as we were nearing the town, Rozalin's steps stopped.

When she looked back again, her eyes were more indifferently sunken than ever.

“Instructor, why are you always like that?”

No, it seemed she might have been a little angry.

“You have jack-all skills, yet you always nag the students. Your stance for moving the sword is wrong. You're using your strength incorrectly. Your footing is wrong……”

“That's……”

“Because you can see it, so you're telling them? That's what you always say. So, is there a single second-year student in the academy right now that you can beat?”

There wasn't.

No matter how much of a third-rate academy in a rural fief it was, the students who enrolled here were people who had at least passed the entrance exam.

“I have no idea why the dean trusts someone like you. What? Creating a systematic method for swordsmanship training that isn't the barbaric teaching style of the world's current sword masters?”

Unable to answer, I wore a bitter smile.

I didn't have anything to say in response.

Because all of her points were true.

I knew it too.

What the students of Akarind Academy called the school's faculty and staff.

The school's dean was timid and only cared about money.

The chairman was a psycho.

The magic instructor was skilled but lazy, and so on.

But the most pathetic among them was me, the swordsmanship instructor.

An instructor who served as a handyman, hired to handle all the school's odd jobs, who couldn't even beat a student.

The shame of Akarind Academy…….

“So why on earth does someone like that recklessly charge in front of a magical beast? Do you have two lives? No, maybe ten?”

“Just because I'm weak doesn't mean I don't have a duty. If I had stayed back, more ordinary people would have died.”

As my words ended, a spark ignited in Rozalin's eyes.

And.

“I'm quitting.”

She spat out the words, just like that.

“I hate your nonsensical critiques, and I hate cleaning up after an instructor who throws his life away like this. I don't know why I have to feel so frustrated and hopeless because of you. Why I, for someone like you……”

As she continued to speak, Rozalin's expression became strangely complex and hard to read.

An expression that was a mixture of disappointment, anger, and many other things.

I deliberately looked away, avoiding her gaze and staring only at the floor so as not to read her emotions too deeply.

Rozalin, who had been watching me for a moment, slowly turned her body.

Slowly, very slowly.

“Goodbye, Instructor.”

She bid me farewell like that and started walking toward the academy.

The clicking sound of her boot heels filled the empty space between Rozalin and me.

Click.

Clack.

Cli—huh?

“Kyaa?!”

Suddenly, without any warning, Rozalin missed her step and fell.

I was about to rush toward Rozalin, but she shot up from her spot first.

Then, after glancing around, she suddenly whipped her head around and looked at me.

‘Her eyes?’

Was I mistaken?

Though only a few seconds had passed, her expression, no, her entire atmosphere seemed to have changed.

What is this, something difficult to read, a sudden mix of countless pieces of information……?

“O-Ooh? You-you're the instructor, right?”

Instruc, tor?

The sudden change in address from Rozalin, who had only ever called me Instructor her whole life, felt strange.

I instinctively took a step back.

And Rozalin took two steps forward and grabbed my hand.

“Instructor! Wh-what's the date right now?”

“Imperial Calendar, year 65.”

“Ah, so it's still one year before the 1st Demonic Invasion! I succeeded! I really regressed! Crazy! I'm back!”

1st?

The demonic what did what now?

But before I could even get my bearings, Rozalin threw her arms around me in a tight hug.

“The instructor is alive! You didn't freaking die!”

Th-uh, wait a minute.

I'm completely out of it right now, but what on earth just happened?

And why did her way of speaking suddenly change like this?

“Instructor! I've run for 10 years to protect you! Don't worry anymore! Mwahahahat!”

What's with this girl, she's scary.

I became a little more scared than when I was fighting the orcs earlier.