Academy’s New Guard is Unusual - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

‘Hoo-.’

Derek was in charge of a unit with a three-digit headcount.

He was a seasoned soldier, but even Derek couldn’t help it this time.

Because the opponent was a war hero.

‘War hero, Jeron.’

Rumors about Jeron were rampant.

He wields a sword like a Sword Master, his magic is as powerful as an Archmage’s, he uses divine power more brilliant than a Cardinal’s, and he spreads curses like a Black Mage who made a deal with a demon-. That was the gist of it.

It was strange. If you’re a Sword Master, be a Sword Master; how can you also be an Archmage, a Cardinal, and a Black Mage? They even say he’s top-tier in all of them.

That makes no sense.

Of course, it’s not like there aren’t people who have learned multiple things.

Aura, Black Magic, Divine Power, and Magic—these four powers were like a chain that bit and countered each other.

A knight using Aura is weak to a Black Mage, and a Black Mage can’t use their power against a priest who wields Divine Power.

There were quite a few people on the front lines who handled various powers. However, at best, they were just side branches.

Even if Jeron was a war hero, it made no sense for him to handle all four powers at a top-tier level.

That’s why everyone thought the rumors were exaggerated.

Derek was one of them.

However, after conducting operations with Jeron, Derek realized that the rumors were not exaggerated at all—no, they were actually understated.

“Is there something on my face?”

“Ah, no, sir!”

“No, my ass. Speak up if you have something to say.”

“Th-then how are you able to use Aura, Magic, Divine Power, and Black Magic all at once?”

Derek hesitated for a moment before blurting out what he was curious about. Jeron’s brow furrowed, but Derek, who was busy taking out his notebook to jot things down, didn’t see it.

“You just have to max out all your stats to S.”

“……I beg your pardon?”

“I’m joking.”

Jeron added nonchalantly. It was a voice so deadpan that it didn’t sound like a joke at all.

Jeron changed the subject as if it were nothing.

“Aura is…… well, I come from a fallen sword-fighting family.”

“Ah, is that so.”

“The family head said he would revive our ruined house, so he beat me with Aura every day. Said it was the family’s secret technique.”

“Yes? What kind of barbaric-.”

“He said that if your bones or muscles rupture from being hit by Aura, Aura accumulates. Well, the effect was incredibly good. Thanks to that, I became sturdy.”

Being hit with Aura is several times more painful than just being hit with a club. And to think he was hit with Aura continuously since he was a child-.

Derek was at a loss for words, but Jeron continued speaking as if it were nothing.

“Then suddenly, a witch appeared, burned down the family, and kidnapped me. The reason was that my body was sturdy, so it was good for experimenting with the fusion of Black Magic and Magic. Thanks to that, I became able to use Black Magic and Magic at the same time.”

Witches were classified by society as beings more dangerous than demons. Because to a witch, humans are just test subjects.

To be kidnapped by such a witch and experimented on-. In some ways, it was more terrifying than the Aura training.

“Then suddenly, the Theocracy raided the witch and took me away, saying they would save me. They said they would train me as a combat priest.”

“Th-the combat priest? That horrific-.”

“Oh, you know?”

“……I had a combat priest among my peers.”

“You must have had a hard time.”

At Derek’s bitter reply, Jeron nodded as if he understood.

“Yes, every time we went into battle, they would take off their clothes and stab themselves with swords while cursing God-.”

“Not all combat priests are like that. Of course, most of them are. I don’t take my clothes off.”

“Th-that’s a relief.”

“What if I catch a cold doing that? Tsk, tsk.”

“……? Ah, that’s right!”

Something was weird, but Derek nodded and played along for now.

The opponent was a war hero. How could he dare to say it was strange?

And he subtly changed the subject.

“You’ve made a huge contribution this time. Everyone is talking about how the war might end thanks to Jeron-nim. Everyone is saying that Jeron-nim will become the youngest Grand General.”

“Bullshit. Why the hell would I plant a stake in the army?”

Jeron said, disgusted.

The Imperial Army, the strongest military force in the history of the continent, the greatest power in the world. In the Imperial Army, the rank right after the Commander was Grand General.

To call such a Grand General position “planting a stake”-.

It was a terrible joke. The bigger problem was that there wasn’t a hint of laughter in Jeron’s voice.

At that moment, Jeron stood up from his seat. Derek hurriedly followed suit.

“Then go bust your ass. Berick.”

Jeron patted Derek’s shoulder and walked away.

It’s Derek, not Berick-. Derek swallowed the words that had come up to his chin and offered a salute.

“Honor to the Empire-!!”

Jeron didn’t look back and just waved his hand.

Watching Jeron’s back, Derek suddenly became curious.

Jeron was already a war hero. And this time, he had made a contribution that would change the tide of the war. He couldn’t even guess what kind of reward he would receive.

‘Perhaps, as the rumors say, the youngest Grand General might be born-.’

Derek’s eyes sparkled with anticipation like a boy’s.

“……What? You’re going to discharge?”

A middle-aged woman with an eyepatch over her left eye stared at me.

One of the five Grand Generals of the Empire, and among them, the one who ranked at the top: ‘Red’ Cassandra.

I nodded lightly.

“Yes, I’m going to discharge.”

“Did that bastard Brown call you?”

“Grand General Brown has called for me before, but-.”

“That bastard, daring to mark my property? I should rip his tongue out.”

I wish it were a joke, but unfortunately, Cassandra was serious. In the first place, Cassandra was the type of person who was always looking for an excuse to fight other Grand Generals.

I hurriedly spoke before a civil war could break out.

“Of course I refused. How could one body serve two Grand Generals?”

“Then why?”

Cassandra’s single eye gleamed viciously. Just looking at her gaze made my breath hitch.

“The war isn’t over yet. You know that if you discharge now, your records will be erased.”

It was true. The unit I was in was a classified unit. If I discharged now, the military exploits I had accumulated so far would be erased.

Still, I wasn’t particularly disappointed. It wasn’t even a good record, and it was actually better for me to have it erased so I could move more freely.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“The war is ending soon. But why are you, the one who contributed the most, bailing out?”

The war is ending soon-. That was the talk circulating on the front lines these days.

But, no. Unfortunately, the war would never end.

“I have things to do.”

“Like what?”

“It’s a secret.”

“I thought we were closer than that.”

“Don’t say things that could be misunderstood.”

“Misunderstood? We’ve rolled around naked together, haven’t we? Very passionately.”

“That was in the belly of a Great Demon, wasn’t it?”

Cassandra laughed out loud. It was a sound like a bear laughing. Cassandra’s eyepatch crinkled slightly.

“You won’t be stopped anyway. Because you’re a fucking asshole.”

“Don’t they say the subordinate follows the superior?”

Cassandra put a cigar in her mouth.

“The other members will be disappointed.”

“They’ll be happy. Aren’t they the ones who were dying to get rid of me?”

“Usually, you want to bully the ones you like.”

“Cut the crap-.”

I cursed without realizing it. Cassandra’s one and only eye drew a thick arc.

“You’re acting out just because you’re discharging.”

“Yes, well, isn’t a Grand General just an old lady when she discharges? Or is it old man?”

“I’m unmarried, so call me a young lady.”

“Your conscience is…….”

When I stiffened, Cassandra laughed shrilly.

“Fine, go ahead and discharge.”

Cassandra said as if she were doing me a favor. I bowed my head deeply toward Cassandra.

“Thank you.”

The unit I was in wasn’t a place where you could easily discharge just because you wanted to. It was quite a stretch even for Cassandra.

“So what are you going to do after you discharge?”

“I’m going to Elysium.”

“Why? Are you going to be a professor? With your personality?”

“How could you say such a thing. Where else is there an intellectual like me?”

“Hahahaha!”

Cassandra burst into laughter, holding her stomach. She laughed so loudly that my ears hurt.

“Anyway, not a professor.”

“Well, if you became a professor, there would be quite a few people coming to find you. I’d like to visit once, too.”

I couldn’t bring myself to deny it.

“Or are you going to enroll as a student?”

“How could I enroll at this age.”

“True. It is creepy. You were fresh-faced when I first saw you. Now you’ve become a complete old man.”

“I’m still young.”

“I’m a young lady too.”

I couldn’t bring myself to nod. Cassandra flicked her cigar and asked.

“If you’re not a professor, and not a student, then what?”

“I’m going to get a job at the Guard Corps.”

“That’s a funny joke. Why not say you’ll be the principal instead?”

Cassandra laughed loudly.

She didn’t seem to believe it.

It was a natural reaction. Elysium was the greatest academy on the continent, but it was just an academy, after all.

The guys who graduate at the top of Elysium are the ones who come here, to the southern front. And I was in the top ten even on that southern front.

For me to say I’m going to go to Elysium after discharging was a story that even I, the person involved, found hard to believe.

However, I had no choice.

Because the game I transmigrated into was an academy story.

It wasn’t even just an academy; it was a romance fantasy, an academy in a Ro-Fan.

Originally, Ro-Fan is a pink-colored genre where romance is the main focus.

If I transmigrated into such a Ro-Fan, why did I roll around on the battlefield-.

‘Damn stat distribution.’

I looked at the translucent window and traced my memory.

‘Love is harder than graduation’, or ‘Yeonjol’ for short, was a game that hadn’t been officially released. You had to be invited to play it.

I, a trash-game expert, was also invited and started Yeonjol.

Yeonjol was…… a 100% pure organic trash game.

There are several reasons why Yeonjol is a trash game, but the most fatal one was its insane difficulty.

Yeonjol was so difficult that even guys who would gobble up any trash game as delicious would all click their tongues and quit. Yet, I kept holding onto that game.

It wasn’t for any grand reason. It was just simple stubbornness.

On the day it had been two years, I finally cleared the game.

True to a trash game, it was a sad ending. I was about to skip the ending credits and turn it off, thinking I’d never play it again, when I saw a button called ‘Hard Mode’ on the home screen that hadn’t been there before.

‘Hard Mode in a Ro-Fan?’

I pressed Hard Mode as if I were possessed.

Something was strange, but at the time, I brushed it off lightly.

Next was the character creation screen. Naturally, I set the appearance with great care. Because customization was the most fun part of Yeonjol. As a decadent handsome man who looked like he had a story-.

And what came out was the stat window.

Yeonjol had a total of four stats.

Aura, Black Magic, Magic, Divine Power, these four.

Just as I was about to allocate the stats, a notification popped up saying that a special perk I had never seen before had been granted. It was a perk called [One Who Has Seen the End]. Thanks to the perk, the bonus stats quadrupled.

Yeonjol originally gave very stingy stat points.

Originally, even if you poured all your points into one, A was the limit, but if you poured all the bonus stats into one, you could hit S+.

S+ was a grade I had never seen before either. If I poured it into Aura, it was certain I would easily become a Sword Master.

But I didn’t pour the stats into one; I distributed them all evenly.

It was because of the compatibility system. Stats were related to the resistance of each stat, so going all-in carried too much risk.

Yeonjol, a Ro-Fan game, had the character’s narrative set according to the stats you set.

If you invested in Aura, the setting would be that the character was a genius born into a sword-fighting family.

When I set all the stats to S, it seemed to overload.

It’s just a game, so it was a bit strange that an error occurred just because I distributed the stats.

……I should have stopped there.

Even though it was a character story, a chillingly brutal setting was listed at length.

Of course, I pressed ‘Yes’ without hesitation.

The reason was simple.

‘I didn’t know I would transmigrate.’

I really didn’t know.

Truly.