I Became a Swordsmanship Genius at the Academy

---

“…What, did you say?”

Luke, sitting at the high seat, widened his eyes.

It was because an unbelievable story had burst forth from the mouth of the guardian captain, who was kneeling before him.

“Say it again.”

“I-I’m so sorry—”

“Say it again!”

Under the pressure of Luke’s murderous aura, the guardian captain opened his mouth with difficulty.

“The those who trained under the foreigner managed to fend off the ambush.”

“And?”

“The citizens, seeing that, all rushed to train themselves…”

Crash!

Before the guardian captain could finish, a large table flew past him.

“Damn! Shit, shit!”

Luke couldn’t contain his anger and smashed everything around him indiscriminately.

Furniture, walls, ceiling. In an instant, the room became a total wreck.

[Maintain the percentage of fear among the citizens of the castle town above 70% for one week.]

[Clear Reward: Death of Kim Il-shin, Dimension Selection Transfer Ticket]

[Current Percentage: 12.7%]

Luke, checking the quest screen, grabbed the back of his neck.

It felt like the percentage pointed to the number of days he had left to live.

“You. You said staying still is the best option. So what now?”

Luke’s bloodshot eyes turned to his advisor Sabak.

In this situation, the only thing Sabak could say was one thing.

“…I’m sorry.”

Sabak’s voice, which usually maintained composure among the emotional rulers, was trembling.

This was happening because something utterly unexpected occurred.

“To fend off an ambush with just a little over a month of training. Is this even possible…!”

Sabak also believed that ordinary humans couldn’t match monsters.

That’s why he didn’t see the trainees as a threat, and thus this result came to be.

“I’m sorry. Really… I’m sorry.”

While Sabak repeatedly apologized with his head bowed, Luke, eyes shut tight, spoke.

“Phew… Bring me the next plan.”

“…Huh?”

Sabak lifted his head, a questioning look on his face. It was an unexpected statement.

He didn’t think Luke would give him another chance.

He was a person entirely unfit for forgiveness.

“If things keep going like this, it’s over. You’ll get your head chopped off, or your body torn apart to be food for those monsters. We all die.”

“Lord Luke…!”

“What? Am I wrong?”

“…….”

“So! Find a way somehow. You’re the only one with a head on your shoulders, so find a way for us to survive.”

Sabak realized this was his last chance.

As Luke said, if things continued like this, there was only a future of death awaiting them.

Thus, he had to wrack his brain and come up with a plan to turn the situation around.

“I’ll come up with a plan.”

As Sabak spoke with determination, Luke plopped down into his chair and waved his hand.

It meant to leave.

“……”

After everyone left, Luke stared at the completely broken table with dark eyes.

He contemplated a future where the plan would fail.

‘If this doesn’t work… who should I kill? Who should I kill to make that bastard suffer the most? Those idiots will be hard to kill… Right. I should start with that idiot. Then, before I die, I’ll kill as many as I can…’

*

“Finally, it’s over.”

“Ugh… I thought I was going to die…”

“I’m glad we could finish it today.”

After organizing and sorting the flood of applicants after the ambush was over, it was already night.

Kim Il-shin and the others trudged home, exhausted.

“I’m hungry.”

“Let’s eat right away when we get home. It’s too late to cook fresh rice, so we’ll make do with the leftovers from yesterday.”

“Whoa. Didn’t we eat beef yesterday? Is that still left?”

“No. We finished all the beef. What’s left is some vegetable stew and garlic soy sauce, and….”

Each time Hazuki mentioned a leftover dish, Hanarin’s expression grew darker.

There was nothing she craved, which was meat.

“There’s… none?”

“If I’d known it would be this late, I would have prepared something in advance, but today we have no choice.”

“Yeah. It can’t be helped… Right.”

Hanarin walked along, dragging her feet.

Watching her, Hazuki exchanged glances with Kim Il-shin and smiled.

“By the way, I think we have a few fish left. I’ll grill those for you.”

“Really?! Why didn’t you say that earlier!”

“I just remembered it.”

It was clear to anyone that she was pretending not to know to tease, but Hanarin, the subject of it all, was happily grinning.

She walked on with a light step.

“By the way, why did you do that earlier?”

Suddenly, Hanarin asked Dildil.

“…What do you mean?”

“Yeah. You were doing well, and then suddenly you ran out.”

She asked purely out of curiosity, not to blame or scold.

Advising was something Kim Il-shin had done well enough already.

She was just curious why he had acted that way.

“That’s….”

“If it’s hard to say, you don’t have to.”

“…No, I’ll tell you.”

Dildil, who said that, pondered for a moment before speaking.

“My parents… were murdered.”

“Uh, uh…?”

Hanarin froze.

She had been expecting something like ‘I just couldn’t hold back my excitement’ or similar, but she never anticipated such a heavy story.

‘If I had known it would be like this, I would have asked more cautiously…!’

But the water had already been spilled.

Hanarin, fidgeting in her seat, listened to Dildil’s story.

*

[Isn’t life too precious to live and die within such narrow castle walls?]

[There’s surely a better world out there.]

Dildil’s parents were people who always longed for the outside and wanted to break free from the castle walls.

Unlike Dildil, who just vaguely dreamed of the outside world, they had concrete plans to explore it and were ready to execute them.

[After this ambush, we’re going to go.]

[In the meantime, Grandpa will take care of you, so you have to listen to Grandpa until Mom and Dad come back, okay?]

But the plans didn’t come to fruition.

That day, they were killed by the monsters that broke through the castle walls.

Young Dildil only cried, believing his parents had died in an accident.

It wasn’t until a few days later that he learned the truth.

[What’s with living in such a dreary place? Tsk, it’s annoying. Hey, is this where that guy Sabak lives?]

[Yeah. But he’s not home right now….]

[This sucks… Hey. Here, give this to Sabak for me.]

A letter dropped by a guard who came to visit Sabak, taking care of Dildil.

Even then, Dildil, full of curiosity, opened the letter before Sabak arrived and read its contents.

The writing was so poorly done it was hard for little Dildil to understand.

He painstakingly read the letter, interpreting it one word at a time.

[Congratulations. You were right. If I hadn’t been annoyed, I would have killed you too. Turns out breaking down the castle walls without anyone noticing isn’t easy.]

Dildil had no choice but to be horrified after reading the first line of the letter.

Suppressing his voice that wanted to leak out, he read the rest of the letter.

[Upon checking, those bastards really were planning to go out. As promised, I’ve prepared a place for you, so come over.]

It took dozens of readings for Dildil to finally understand the content.

His parents had been murdered.

By someone he trusted enough to leave his child with before embarking on a long journey.

[No. Grandpa wouldn’t do that.]

At first, he couldn’t believe it. He thought the letter was a mistake.

[Grandpa! A letter came!]

[…You didn’t open it, did you?]

But the look in Sabak’s eyes at that moment was chillingly cold.

Though usually gruff, it was a side of him Dildil couldn’t imagine, for he usually took good care of him.

Afterward, Dildil began gathering information, wandering here and there to verify the letter’s content.

Of course, it was futile.

Before long, Sabak became the advisor of the rulers and left for the castle, and Dildil realized that the letter’s content was the truth.

Advisor Sabak and Ruler Luke.

Both of them were the murderers of Dildil’s parents and also targets of his vengeance.

Sabak betrayed his neighbor for power, and Luke killed with ease at the slightest hint of a threat to his power.

Dildil wanted revenge but thought it impossible.

He believed it would be an unattainable goal for someone as weak as him.

[Oh, what’s this…?]

So he had nurtured a dream of going outside while relying on the novel that had fallen from the sky.

If he couldn’t take revenge for his parents, he at least wanted to achieve their lifelong dream.

And he wanted to explore the outside and have various experiences for himself.

Thus, Dildil, who dreamed of the outside, had inadvertently grown stronger.

He had gained a master and comrades, and he had even defeated the monsters he once feared.

While he was getting closer to the goal of going outside, he was also inching closer to that goal of revenge.

Having gained strength and allies, Dildil wanted to accomplish both goals.

‘Don’t let your emotions show, always keep your vision broad. If you put in the effort, you can do it.’

However, he did not intend to be swayed by emotions.

Like his master said, he wanted to put an end to his mistakes starting today.