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After we entered the city, Cortina guided us to the particularly big inn even by this city’s standards. To my knowledge, that inn was quite a high class one in the entire Maleva.

“Uh, Cortina…”
“Hey, call me teacher during the academy hours.”
“Ah, right. Teacher, this inn is quite a high-class, isn’t it…?”
“Hmm? Did you hear that from your parents too?”
“Ah, no…”

I slipped up. If I had heard it from hearsay, I shouldn’t have known about the worth of some inn. Cortina could catch on to contradictions even from such minor details, so I had to be careful.

“Nnnh, ah well, you don’t have to worry about that. Maxwell is the one that’s providing the funds.”
“I heard it was from donations, though?”
“That money has already been allocated according to how it should be used, so he can’t use it as he pleases. He probably just wanted to come to have fun and made up a reason for it.”

Having annual budget limitations was just like the world of politics. If that’s the case, this sudden excursion was paid by Maxwell’s own pocket money, huh?

“You don’t have to worry about it, you know, Nicole? I will just make up for it with the director remuneration from next year.”
“You don’t have to put so much effort into playing around.”
“What are you saying! I am an old man that has a little time left to live, you know? If I do not enjoy my life now, when else?”
“Your ‘little time’ is still over a hundred years!”

While listening to their usual banter, everyone started entering the inn in droves. I got fed up with listening to them, so I went and joined the line.

After we were guided to the big hall inside the inn, Cortina started explaining our next course of action. She was just one of the teachers, but her words held more power than the rest of them. After she lined everyone up in the hall, she started explaining our schedule as the representative.

“Okay, attention attention! Later, after we are done with the lecture about the chivalric order, we will have lunch in the dining hall at their place. The goal is to have you experience the food rations of the chivalric order.”

After clapping to gather attention, she said it with a well-projected voice. As expected from someone who could spearhead an army, her voice had a great volume and quality to be well-heard.

It was rare to find a voice like hers that didn’t feel unpleasant despite being so loud. Her voice was quite like an opera singer.

“After that, I plan to have you experience the order’s training first-hand, so once you are back to your rooms, make sure to change into your gym uniforms. Since they can also be used as pajamas, I believe you should have brought two pairs at least, right?”
“Yesss!”

The students returned a lively answer to her question. Seeing them like this, I could see that they were still kids in the end, well-bred or not.

Most of the students of the Magic Academy also aimed to become civil officials when they grew up. Even so, knighthood was something of a dream job for the boys. Many of them were looking excited, being able to experience the training of those same knights.

Even I was feeling quite eager. I once challenged a knight and faced an honorable defeat. Ever since then, I stopped challenging people head-on and instead studied the art of assassination, and refined it to extremes.

How far would the current me go if I faced a knight head-on? I wanted to try it one time.

“Maxwell can come up with nice plans once in a while, huh?”
“Huh, did you say something?”

Letina asked in puzzlement, but I shook my head in denial. Cortina was still explaining things, so we shouldn’t be whispering.

Maleva was the capital of Alecmarle. However, there was nothing sort of a royal castle in it. Instead, it had chivalric facilities set up in each of the four directions and had one order stationed in each of them, protecting the urban area from the outside.

Knight lodging houses to the northeast, infantry training grounds southeast, cavalry parade grounds northwest, and archer shooting range southwest.

There were also other facilities inside the city itself, like the management command post and material warehouses.

By dividing the army into divisions, they could avoid the danger of being made powerless in one go… Apparently.

The one we visited was the infantry training grounds southeast. It was called infantry grounds, but it was just a big open field with no particular establishments on it. If anything, maybe the lodging house that the infantry used for meals and small breaks.

First, we had to listen to a lecture about how the chivalric order came to be, so we were guided to the lodging house with an in-built cafeteria.

The four classes of my school year amounted to about 100 students at most, so the cafeteria was more than big enough to accommodate us all.

“Well then, everyone. I’m glad that you have visited us. First, we will teach you about our chivalric order, then let you have a meal, and finally, let you experience our training.”

An elderly knight that was acting as our guide explained it to us in a surprisingly gentle manner. They brought a chalkboard into the cafeteria and explained about the typography and history along with explanatory diagrams.

“In this city, there once lived a young boy called Alec who would late become known as the Sword Saint. A stray dog had ripped off one of his arms, but he did not get disheartened and still chose to follow the way of the sword, and arrived at the pinnacle of it.”

It was the story of One-Armed Sword Saint Alec, who would later become revered as a War God. But his tale was filled with many dubious points.

Like, when he retired from being an Adventurer and joined the chivalric order in this city, he received the sword with two hands.

Old myths and tales were often full of such vague parts. You should just remember them as ‘there was once a person like this’ and stop there.

This land also had other tales about the Wind God and God of Destruction, hinting that they were quite the history nerds. They even had a bridge at the west of the city, which was assumed to have been created by the Wind God.

The knight explained about such famous places, but surprisingly his explanation didn’t make us bored. It seemed that they provided an educated knight to guide us.

“Well then, we seemed to have reached the end of the story, so let us have you taste the camping food of the chivalric order. As their name suggests, they are provisions that knights received during camping… So to be honest, they aren’t delicious at all. You better prepare yourself, okay?”

Hearing his explanation, the students couldn’t help but return bitter laughs. Just as he warned, the food we were provided afterwards wasn’t very good.