BSS 44

Chapter 44

╻Well, nothing ever goes the way you want

The mood among the delegation approaching the castle gates was unbearably gloomy.

Even though most of them were children, a group representing an entire country would normally walk with their heads held high, brimming with confidence. Yet their expressions were uniformly dark, as if attending a funeral.

Among them, the commander of the knights leading the group looked the worst.

“My future, blocked so emptily… my career path… my…”

He trudged forward, sitting atop his horse with a vacant, soul-drained expression.

The mission assigned to the Royal Fifth Knights, which he led, had been a golden opportunity in plain terms. Guarding a few children would win the royal favor and open up chances for promotion.

That was, until they lost a student.

And not just lost—a disappearance presumed dead!

“Haahhh…”

It wasn’t only the knight commander sighing as if the ground itself had swallowed him.

Dinel, the martial arts instructor following close behind, looked equally devastated.

“Haah…”

The two men, fully responsible for the delegation’s safety, were mentally shattered. Their mission had essentially failed.

In this world, a single child going missing wasn’t uncommon. But if that child was a noble, it became serious. And if they were a student of the Royal Academy, it became extremely serious.

In Dimitri, attending the Royal Academy meant the king himself considered you a talent. King Dikel III was famously protective of gifted individuals.

And the talent the king had taken a special interest in was Genie Crowell. The story of how an entire Department of Spirit Studies was created just for her was fairly well-known.

“The king has specifically ordered that Genie Crowell must be included in the delegation. I’m sorry, but… you’ll have to reduce the number of students from the martial arts class.”

Dinel remembered the face of the dean as he passed by, patting his shoulder.

When he first heard the request, he clenched his fists tightly. He resented Genie Crowell for coveting a spot in the martial arts class simply because she was rare.

Rationally, he understood. The fencing class always produced excellent results in tournaments, so reducing its participants wasn’t feasible. And the king wanted to proudly showcase Genie, the youngest spirit practitioner on the continent.

But emotionally, it was hard to accept. As an instructor, he couldn’t stand one student he disliked.

That was why he had even enjoyed watching the martial arts students bully Genie Crowell.

But he had never wanted her to disappear like this.

“Um, Commander.”

“Yes?”

Dinel leaned close to the commander, lowering his voice.

“It will take a few more days for the student replacing Crowell to catch up… won’t that delay the schedule?”

“The king has sent the fastest horse possible, so we just have to wait.”

“Even if the horse runs all night…”

“What can we do? That’s the best option.”

That morning, when Genie Crowell went missing, the commander had yelled furiously while organizing search parties.

“Who? Genie Crowell? …What are you waiting for? Send the search parties immediately!”

As usual, they assumed she had simply gotten lost in the forest while running an errand. Finding her before monsters did was the top priority. If she were already dead, they would at least need to recover the body.

They searched nearby but found nothing. Expanding their search, they discovered suspicious monster traces. Following them, they found a cluster of golden hair caught on tree branches.

The trail led to a cliff. Below, the rushing river and fresh orc tracks left the teachers and knights aghast.

Looking down, the current was so fierce that no knight standing there could survive falling in. A heavy silence of impending doom settled over the searchers.

When they reported this to the commander, they could already imagine the scolding and wrath that would follow.

From that point, chaos began. They could continue searching in hope, but then they wouldn’t meet the festival schedule. Priorities had to be maintained, and the commander had to make a difficult decision as the leader. The delegation had no choice but to continue their path.

One knight was sent back the way they came to the nearest city to send an urgent dispatch.

[Genie Crowell Missing!]

Since a student scheduled to participate in the international tournament was absent, a replacement was naturally needed. Soon, the knight who had gone to send the dispatch returned with the king’s reply. In short:

[A substitute will be sent. Accountability will follow after.]

The knight commander’s insides rotted with frustration. Dinel’s responsibility was incomparable.

“This is such a headache. Bringing a replacement is one thing, but customs procedures will be far more complicated. The Tower of the Mage is notoriously difficult, isn’t it?”

“That’s what I heard.”

“Next time, we should formally propose bringing extra students as backups. A candidate system might be necessary…”

“Are you insane? This is unprecedented! It must never happen again! You truly are thoughtless.”

Normally irritable, the knight commander had reached the peak of sensitivity over the past few days. He clearly did not want to accept this situation, which tarnished his career.

“You’re overreacting. I just meant… a student could get injured before the competition, and unforeseen events could happen anywhere… so we should be prepared…”

“Enough. My head already hurts enough.”

Frowning at Dinel’s explanation, the commander didn’t even look at him, flicked the horse forward a few meters, and went on.

He seemed to want to be alone. Dinel muttered curses under his breath.

The delegation’s morale was at rock bottom. With their commander in a foul mood, the knights naturally held back, and the instructors’ inability to hide their anger in front of the children caused morale to drop further.

The adults were discreet, but the children knew everything. They noticed that one student was missing.

For a child, the loss of a peer was shocking. The boy from the martial arts class, who had bullied Genie Crowell, wept openly. Even the commoner-born knights who were close to Genie had tears in their eyes.

Normally, the commander would not tolerate such weakness, but he allowed this. Outbursts over everything else were one thing.

“Hansen! Philo!”

At the commander’s call, Hansen and Philo spurred their horses forward.

“Yes! Commander!”

“You called?”

“Go.”

The commander barely glanced at them and merely nodded toward the two heavily armored gatekeepers at Valen’s castle gates.

Customs inspections were tedious tasks usually handled by low-ranking men, but for the Royal Fifth Knights, it was Hansen and Philo’s duty.

“Yes!”

The two knights raced ahead to the gate, reaching it before the others.

They were nervous because the people of Veilan particularly disliked Dimitrians. The two countries had been longstanding rivals, and inspections were unnecessarily strict.

Their attitude toward each other was consistently hostile, almost aggressive, and always on edge. Each blamed the other for any perceived loss of prestige. At the Winkan Festival, both nations were content merely to outperform the other.

So naturally, the delegation could not expect a warm welcome.

“Oh! Welcome! We’ve been waiting for you!”

“Finally, you’ve arrived! Welcome, Drike Academy students!”

This should not have happened.

“W-what…?”

“Why such a reception?”

Startled, Hansen instinctively pulled on his reins, and Philo froze, disconcerted.

They had been ready for any number of grievances or hours of waiting outside the gates, but this… warm reception was unexpected.

“We’ve been waiting so long for you.”

“Yes! Please hand them over quickly.”

“…Hand them over?”

“Because Shabel ran off, I’ve been stuck with that troublemaker. It wasn’t easy letting her enter the country at that time… I wrote twelve incident reports just for handling her entry. Please take responsibility quickly.”

The gatekeeper looked unusually relieved.

Hansen and Philo, confused, dismounted and approached the gatekeeper. They clearly misunderstood the situation.