On the second day of Rei’s life as an instructor, Rei was standing inside the gymnasium together with Glink, just like the day before.
In front of Rei and Glink were forty students.
They were the students of the third-year S-class.
In the previous day’s mock battle against Rei, the students had suffered a severe shock from being shown the overwhelming difference between Rei and themselves, but because they were still young, they had mentally recovered to some extent after a night’s rest.
(Well, it’s not very convincing coming from me when I call them young.)
Holding the mock battle spear he had used yesterday as well, Rei glanced over the students of the third-year S-class.
「Now then, we’ll be starting right away with mock battles again today, however……」
The moment they heard Rei’s words, a murmur ran through the students.
That was only natural. In the mock battle held yesterday, the gap in strength had been rubbed in their faces relentlessly.
Faced with Rei, who had strength that could truly be described as monstrous, there wasn’t a single person who could keep smiling when told to fight him again.
However……the one who spoke up in front of those students was not Rei, but Glink.
「Everyone, please calm down. After what happened yesterday, I understand why you would be scared about being told to fight Rei today.」
The moment Glink said the word scared, several of the students frowned in displeasure.
They were probably the more competitive ones among the students.
Even so, the reason they didn’t speak up was likely because they felt that if they said anything, another mock battle with Rei would be unavoidable.
Glink continued speaking to the students.
「However, please think about it carefully. Those who will become knights, and those who will become adventurers. I believe many of the people here will choose one of those two paths in the future. And whether you become a knight or an adventurer, the opponents you must fight will not necessarily be weaker than yourselves.」
What Glink said was true.
In battles where knights were dispatched, fighting an adventurer with a title or an opponent clearly out of their league was by no means an impossible story.
Furthermore, when it came to adventurers specifically, that was even more obvious.
Even when taking on a request as an adventurer, it was not at all uncommon for a different monster than the target to show up. More often than not, such monsters were strong ones.
After confirming that the students were listening closely to his words, Glink continued.
「When faced with such an opponent, what will you do? Encountering an absolute powerhouse stops your body from moving altogether. So much so that you get overwhelmingly run right over without even having time to run away. ……However.」
Pausing his words for a moment, Glink turned his gaze toward Rei.
「Rei here is an overwhelming powerhouse, just as you all experienced his strength for yourselves yesterday. Since you can fight someone like Rei without dying, don’t you think that’s fortunate? What would happen if you encountered someone like Rei in actual combat? ……You understand that well enough from yesterday’s mock battle, don’t you?」
At Glink’s words, the students who had been keeping quiet each widened their eyes as if they had realised something.
「Th-That’s right. Being able to fight a monster like that and get away safely makes it worth enrolling in this officer academy on its own.」
「Safely? ……In the sense that my life wasn’t in danger, sure, it was safe, but in my case I have quite a few bruises.」
「Using that kind of strength without holding back even against women, isn’t that a bit too harsh?」
「Are you an idiot? Monsters or whatever else, do you think an enemy is going to care whether you’re a man or a woman?」
「If anything, Orcs and such target women first.」
「There are other people who’d probably target you in the same way as well.」
「……Yeah, come to think of it……that person is a bit much……」
「Still, that person’s skill is the real deal without a doubt. If I had to to choose, I’d definitely choose to fight Rei instead of that person.」
「No, normally nobody in their right mind would choose to fight an S rank adventurer.」
The students exchanged words like that.
Glink watched them silently for a few minutes, and when he judged that they had sorted things out, he spoke up again.
「Now then, it looks like I can consider the matter settled. I will ask one last time. Those who wish to have a mock battle with Rei, ready your weapons. If you do not wish to and want to run away, I won’t force you. What will you do?」
Listening to that question, Rei realised that Glink had a nasty streak beneath his polite way of speaking.
The ones here were the third-year S-class.
In other words, they were all the most elite students among the third-years at the officer academy.
If asked whether students like that could act like cowards and run away in front of everyone just because their opponent was scary, it would be difficult for them to do so.
Because they had pride in being the elite, there was no way they could easily do something like that.
If they did act like that, they might not have to fight today, but there was no doubt they would be looked down on by the other students.
Furthermore, if word of this spread to the other classes, the S-class itself might be looked down upon, and there was no one here who could stomach that.
No, if that were all, there might still have been some who would run away, but Glink……an instructor of the officer academy, was right here.
If they did something like that right in front of him, it would undoubtedly have a bad effect on their grades.
When they had gone through the trouble of making it into the S-class, which was recognised as having the highest skill, getting evaluated as someone who ran away when facing a strong opponent……would be an absolute disaster.
To keep that from happening, they had no choice but to stand up to Rei here.
Glancing over the students, Rei gave a small smile beneath his hood.
However, because he was wearing his hood, the students couldn’t see Rei’s expression clearly, and it even gave them the impression of a carnivore licking its lips in front of its prey.
……Even though Rei himself was just smiling in admiration that nobody was running away in this situation.
「H-Hey. Don’t tell me we’re going to get beaten to a pulp to his heart’s content?」
「No way……no way. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that won’t happen. Probably……probably.」
「It’s completely obvious how shaken up you are, you know.」
Listening to the students whispering back and forth, Rei wondered to himself.
Why was he being feared this much?
He thought about it for a moment, and when he still couldn’t find an answer in the end, he decided he could put off what he didn’t understand for later and lowered his hood.
「Alright, then it’s time for mock battles today as well. ……However, going one by one takes a bit too much time, and on the other hand, taking everyone on at once makes things too busy. So we’ll go five at a time. Eight groups of five will make just enough for one full class. We’ll keep repeating mock battles against me like that until class ends.」
Normally, the students would have been happy to hear that.
Even against an opponent you couldn’t do anything about alone, having five people was usually enough to manage somehow.
However, when their mock battle opponent was Rei, it was a different story.
「Hey, what do we do, he said five people.」
「No matter how you look at it, five people isn’t enough. In the first place, it didn’t even work when all of us fought him together, right?」
Yes, he was an opponent who had easily brushed them off even when a full class of forty people challenged him all at once.
Challenging an opponent like that with five people made it impossible to believe they could win.
「Hurry up and split into groups of five. ……I’ll give you a hundred seconds left. Anyone left over after that, I’ll pair up at random myself.」
At Rei’s words, the students hurriedly looked for people to team up with.
Even though they were all grouped together as the S-class, not all the students had the exact same level of skill.
It was a fact that there was a clear ranking of skill even within the S-class, and because of that, not everyone was able to group up smoothly……
「You, you over there, the one across there, the one standing right there, and you.」
In the end, Rei decided the remaining group of five at random.
Normally, compatibility between the weapons they held was also a factor, but he didn’t seem to care at all.
However, Glink made no move to stop him and simply watched closely.
That was only natural. Just because you were a knight didn’t mean you could always form a group with an ideal balance of weapons, such as having someone provide cover fire with a bow from the rear at all times.
And when it came to adventurers, that was even more the case.
Because of that, covering for each other and fighting together even in a somewhat awkward situations was an important thing.
「Alright, starting from over there in order, you’re Group 1, Group 2, Group 3……and so on. We’ll start with Group 1. The time limit for the mock battle is five minutes. If you can land a single hit on me during that time, you pass. As for your grades……」
Rei paused his words for a moment and looked toward Glink.
Catching his gaze, Glink understood what Rei wanted to say and gave a small nod back.
「I’ve got Glink’s permission too, so anyone who manages to land even a single blow on me will get the highest score for their mock battle grade.」
The moment they heard Rei’s words, a murmur ran through everyone.
That was only natural. This was the officer academy, and almost everyone here would become either a knight or an adventurer in the future.
What was valued there included things like intelligence, of course, but strength in actual combat was still evaluated most highly of all.
In other words, for the students attending this officer academy, mock battles were close to the most important class of all.
When told they could get the highest score for their mock battle grade, there was no way the students wouldn’t get fired up.
Even the fact that their opponent was Rei changed in their minds once again to the idea that they could fight someone as strong as Rei here without any danger of dying.
(I know I’m the one who brought it up, but they’re a pretty opportunistic bunch.)
The students, who until just a moment ago had looked like they wanted nothing to do with fighting him, were suddenly brimming with motivation the instant the bait of grades was dangled in front of their eyes.
The fact that they didn’t have to defeat Rei, and only needed to land a single blow on him, probably lowered their mental resistance as well.
Giving a wry smile at how completely their attitudes had changed, Rei readied his spear.
「Now then, let’s get started. Alright, Group 1……come!」
The instant Rei said that, the students assigned to Group 1 sprang into action.
Each holding mock battle weapons, two with long swords charged toward Rei, one with a spear moved behind them looking to strike at an opening, and at the very back……two readied bows, likely the main hope when it came to landing a hit on Rei.
Since Group 1 had managed to get two archers capable of long-range attacks into their group, they could be called lucky.
Then again, whether the arrows they loosed would actually hit Rei was another matter entirely.
In fact, the arrows shot to keep him in check were easily knocked down by the spear Rei swung.
Even though the arrowheads were blunted at the tip, the speed of the arrows was almost no different from normal ones.
No, if anything, since they were fighting inside a gymnasium and the distance to the bow wielders was short, their speed could even be called faster.
「No way!」
They had seen the exact same sight countless times in yesterday’s battle, yet seeing it again like this still shocked them regardless.
That shock easily showed in the accuracy of their arrows, and the other archer, seeing their companion’s movements falter, slowed down as well.
Once the cover fire weakened like that, Rei was able to deal with the attacks from the long sword wielders with ease, and with a horizontal sweep of his spear unleashed while dodging their attacks, one of the men holding a long sword took a hit squarely to the torso and crumpled to the ground.
He hadn’t fainted.
He had only been struck over the armour he was wearing with the shaft of the spear, but the impact had penetrated right through the armour.
It didn’t go as far as a broken bone, but it was a blow that would undoubtedly leave a bruise.
The other man holding a long sword had his blade tangled up by the spear and his weapon was easily sent flying high into the air.
In the instant the man looked up, Rei kicked him in the torso while holding back his strength, sending him flying.
Seeing the two long sword wielders holding the front line get taken out like that, the two archers must have snapped back to their senses in a panic. They loosed several arrows in rapid succession.
However, every single one of those arrows was effortlessly knocked down by Rei’s spear.
Trying to strike at that opening, the man holding the spear unleashed a thrust at full speed, but Rei easily dodged it with his footwork, and on top of that, he managed to grab the shaft of the spear as it was thrust out with one hand and lifted the spear and the student right up with it.
Because Rei also understood that this was a mock battle, whereas he normally would have slammed the student holding the spear straight into the floor, he slowed the momentum and set him down instead.
Of course, at that point, that student was treated as unable to fight.
Once the three vanguards were taken out like that, there was no way the archers could do anything on their own anymore, and they each took a hit and dropped out.
After a battle that could only be described as one-sided, Rei turned his gaze toward the archers……specifically toward the one whose movements had slowed first, and spoke.
「Someone providing support from the rear shouldn’t get shaken up so easily. For the ones fighting on the front line, the accuracy of their support literally means the difference between life and death. You need to be stronger mentally. And as for you, don’t get dragged down just because your companion faltered. As for the long swords, both of you weren’t stepping in deep enough. Spear user, unleashing a thrust is fine, but you’re a step too slow in pulling it back. That’s exact reason why I grabbed your shaft. Also, the moment your body is about to get lifted up, let go of your weapon right away.」
Listing off their flaws starting from what stood out to him……and leaving the students who heard that with crestfallen expressions on their faces, Rei spoke up again.
「Next.」
With that short word, the next five stepped forward toward Rei, wondering if they were going to get torn apart verbally as well.