Chapter 8: The School of the Doomed (3) | The Hundred Reigns
"By the Abyss!"
"Come on, Simon, don't be like that," Anna chided him while Tiella scratched her cheek in embarrassment. The three of them had gathered to decide their courses. "What's done is done."
"Antonine I could live with because I assumed she would keep to herself and her posse, but Thalas?" Simon grumbled. "What is he even doing here?! Can someone with a Class even attend this institution?"
"Well, I do," Anna replied with a chuckle. "Maybe he wants to spend more time with his fiancée. So many things can happen in a school full of handsome men…"
Simon somehow doubted it. The Imperial Military Academy was something of an elite institution to train officers and leaders for Endymion's army, so the curriculum only lasted a year, and the teachers assumed you had at least some experience… Yet Thalas was blatantly overqualified for the institution anyway. He had learned to wield a Class since he could walk and held the Berserker's power. This place had nothing to teach him, so why attend it at all besides rubbing shoulders with noble bra–
Ah, I get it. He's here to recruit. Simon cursed himself for not anticipating this. Euphemia anticipates a conflict with Louis very soon now that they know Father died, so she sent Thalas to find prospects within the imperial nobility.
Every House worth its salt sent a child to the Imperial Military Academy sooner or later for the networking opportunities alone. The graduates would form the empire's ruling elite, and whoever kept them in their pocket could aspire to the throne even without the Overlord Class.
Why? Why did this have to happen to him? The prospect of spending the year having to share a space with that asshole had immediately shattered most of Simon's enthusiasm for joining the academy. Simon told himself it was only a year and that he could make it bearable by minimizing the time he spent near Thalas.
He would thankfully be swamped with work anyway. Academy courses were highly modular, but they only had one free day per week and an exam at the end of each month, which would usually involve an exercise in the field or a mock battle, according to what Simon had heard. The mere list of potential subjects already gave him a headache.
"Swordsmanship," Anna read aloud, "Equitation, Imperial History, Siegecraft, Noble Etiquette and Dancing, Melee and Unarmed Combat, Archery, Tactics & Strategy, Languages, Magical Theory, Divine Mysteries, Artillery, Shipbuilding, Monster Anatomy, Foreign Affairs, Tribal Studies, Arts and Literature…"
That was too many courses for a lifetime. Had the last Overlord designed the schedule assuming all students could redo the year or something?
Considering the risk of assassination, Simon was tempted to take courses that would give him direct practical experience… but Thalas' presence and the fact that the likes of Leonard could quickly pick up on the fact he had a Class caused him to grow cautious. He decided to avoid Swordsmanship and Melee courses to focus on Tactics & Strategy, Magical Theory, Equitation, and Monster Anatomy. Anna also insisted that he study Divine Mysteries with her, and while he wasn't particularly interested in the Church of the Light's teachings, it should provide him with useful information on undead and demons.
"Tribal Studies is the study of non-human tribes like the elves, the beastmen, and the goblinoids, correct?" Simon asked Anna.
"Yes," she confirmed. "Interested in our colonies' culture?"
"Somewhat." Simon mostly wanted to gather information on the kish capital his father had been interested in. "Come to think of it, I wonder if we have other tribe members besides humans among the students."
"There's always a handful of smart goblinoids, demons, or beastmen among the students, and I've heard we'll receive our first scalefolk this year," Anna replied. "I don't think an elf has ever attended this place, however."
That didn't surprise Simon much. While the empire didn't officially discriminate between the world's Tribes, the truth was that humans represented the largest percentage of the empire's free population, and the Church of the Light heavily discriminated against the pagan beliefs most Tribes clung to. Most beastmen, goblinoid, or scalefolk were slaves, and the elves of Illusea had been the empire's greatest geopolitical rivals since Mardok's time.
Then again, joining the army was one of the very few paths of advancement opened to non-human Tribes. The few who managed to either pay the academy's tuition or received sponsorship from a general could eventually rise to the highest echelons, especially if they served under the War Party's authority. The likes of Louis didn't care where their troops came from so long as they showed strength and merit.
"I can't wait to show you the bathhouse," Anna said. "We have a sauna, including a mixed gender one. Perfect to find yourself a wife."
While Tiella blushed at the suggestion, Simon simply teased her. "The courses haven't even begun, and you're already thinking about relaxing?"
"These are my golden years, and I mean to have fun," Anna replied without any shame whatsoever. "That reminds me, the Dueling Club meets each week on our free day's morning. Be ready to rise with the sun, or I'll have to drag you out."
"You won't, the rooms' doors are magically sealed so only students and their designated staff can enter them," Simon countered. One of the first things he had done today was to check that out to waylay any potential assassins. "Besides, I didn't sign up for any clubs."
"Come on, what are the alternatives, the theater troupe?" Anna rolled her eyes. "The gardening club?"
"Private lessons with my men-at-arms." Anna gave Simon 'the look,' much to his dismay. "Fine, fine, I'll see what I can do."
"Don't be late."
And so began his first day at the Imperial Military Academy.
Dassein was supposed to give a speech to new students, but since he was apparently too busy with the hunt for Laurent Linconnu to do so, the duty fell on the headmaster, Tolstoff Naberius. That man proved as boorish as he was old—partly because he spent half of it thanking the imperial family for their patronage and sucking up to Thalas' for his 'august presence this year'—so listening to it all proved a struggle.
All this flattering had the welcome side-effect of causing a large chunk of the students to flock to Thalas' side to suck-up to him, which ensured that he spent more time paying attention to his sycophants than his half-sibling. A few boys also introduced themselves to Anna and Tiella the moment the headmaster finished his speech, with the former doing most of the talking. Tiella struck Simon as the shy wallflower kind so far, who only spoke when spoken to.
Simon actually liked it this way. He never understood Anna's urge to talk for the sake of it.
Whatever the case, nobody walked up to Simon for now, but he knew that would change once people realized he and Anna spent time together. At this point, the flatterers and the ambitious would realize that becoming his friend meant gaining access to the Overlord's niece, and that was an opportunity worth tolerating a bastard for.
For now, he would enjoy these precious first days of relative anonymity.
His first course of the morning was Tribal Studies, which took place in a backroom away from the main atriums. Simon wondered why until he realized only four students had shown up for it, himself included—Anna and Tiella preferred to attend the more popular Swordsmanship course. Two of them looked like bored noble dilettantes expecting an easy course for easy grades, though the third had already opened their notebook before the teacher even arrived in anticipation. It had to be the one person on the campus interested in non-human culture.
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"Oh my, we have one more student this year," the teacher said with a deadpan tone upon entering the room. A gaunt man with pale skin and black hair, he reminded Simon of the corpses crawling inside Duchar's den. "Oh well, this will be more interactive. My name is Adrien Adrissant, and I shall be your Tribal Studies teacher this year. I also teach Foreign Affairs, so you may see me again if you follow both courses. "
Simon shrugged and sat at a free desk as the man began a lecture on the history of the world. He actually liked the lack of people present since it would allow some back and forth. There was nothing more boring than someone speaking to a hundred people bored out of their skulls.
He sensed movement to his right and looked up to see a student approaching him. It was a handsome man of Simon's age with short blonde hair and lilac eyes. While he bore the standard academy uniform, he showed no brooch or sigil that would associate him with a noble family.
"Can I sit here?" he asked, pointing at the desk next to Simon's.
"Sure," Simon replied, immediately on edge. Was this the first opportunist knocking on his door? Whatever the case, the stranger sat and began to listen to the lecture.
"All natural life in this world derives from the mana trees and their dryads, themselves seedlings of Illusea's Worldtree," Mr. Adrissant explained. "The very first Tribe, and the one almost all others descend from, is the elven one. Elves were one of the first forms of sentient life to appear on this world."
"Alongside dragons," the blonde student said.
"Alongside dragons, of course." The teacher smiled thinly. He clearly disliked being interrupted. "I'll go over it later, but this is a fascinating case of what we call convergent evolution where distant species independently evolve similar traits."
The blonde student crossed his arms and hung back, having picked up on his teacher's distaste.
"Anyway, dryads created the first fairies out of raw mana to serve as their attendants, and those fairies' naturally born descendants became the Elf Tribe," Mr. Adrissant explained. "They are a race of near-immortal creatures with a symbiotic connection to mana. So long as they remain in a mana-rich environment, they cannot die, but this also means that elven communities can only exist in close proximity to manatrees like Illusea. Should they try to live in mana-poor environments like our modern cities, they would slowly wither and die."
Hence why Agnes Firebrand almost never left Frightwall. The castle fed her by the grace of the Overlord, condemning her to an eternity of servitude.
"Over centuries of natural selection, elven subspecies capable of surviving in low mana environments at the cost of a shortened lifespan began to appear and spread out, forming what we call the Human Tribe today. Us. Human hunter-gatherers would then spread out beyond the mana trees' roots to conquer the seas and continents. Some of these groups would then use primal magic to adopt animal features in order to survive particularly harsh environments, creating what we call the Beastman Tribe today." One student raised his hand. "Yes?"
"So it would be possible to transform a human into a beastman?" someone asked.
"Yes, of course. Some curses and polymorph spells can turn people into frogs and stone, so growing wings and tails is a relatively simple matter for a talented mage." The teacher cleared his throat. "However, remember that the beastmen's ability to shift between humanoid, animal, and intermediate forms is the result of millennia of evolution and selective breeding, so don't expect to gain their abilities so easily. Not to mention that beastmen traded their physical gifts for a lower intellect. They are a slave Tribe for a reason."
"Yeah, right," the blonde student next to Simon muttered under his breath, too low for the teacher to overhear.
"Moving on," Mr. Adrissant said. "The last Tribe to descend from the elves are the goblinoids, which were the result of an archdemon's attempt to create foot soldiers by exposing human children to demonic miasma. The Goblin Tribe is by far the most adaptable of them all in spite of their limited intelligence, since individuals quickly evolve into wildly different forms based on their environment. Give them plenty of food and they'll grow into large ogres; extreme environments result in hardy trolls; let them organize and they eventually turn into relatively smart orcs, and so on."
"What of demons and scalefolks?" Simon inquired out of curiosity.
"Demons aren't considered a Tribe, but rather intelligent monsters. They have no ecological niche, and while they can breed with mortals, they are born from places of raw miasma like the Abyss rather than biological reproduction." The teacher crossed his arms and turned to Simon's neighbor. "Scalefolk are a different story in that they descend from dragons, who appeared around the same time as the elves. Researchers are still divided on where dragons come from, but most agree that scalefolk are the descendants of deformed and wingless wyrmlings that managed to survive after being thrown out of their parents' nests. Since those rejects were subjected to the same environmental pressures as humans, they developed similar humanoid features over time."
"Is that why all lamias are hot?" another student joked, though he was the only one to chuckle.
"Funny," the teacher replied with the driest tone imaginable, "But factually correct. Most scholars now believe that lamias and mermaids evolved a human torso for the twin purpose of luring foolish humans away from their camps to devour them, and increase the chance of being spared rather than killed outright in case of capture."
The idea slightly disturbed Simon. "Their bodies are lures?"
Mr. Adrissant nodded sharply. "Remember, scalefolks and dragons may be intelligent, but this is not human intelligence. Beastmen, elves, even goblinoids can feel emotions like we do because we're closely related; whereas dragonkin brains perceive the world differently. Trying to reason with them is no different than talking to a crocodile. You might reach something of an understanding with the animal with hard work, maybe even what can pass for respect, but it will forget all that 'affection' the moment it feels hungry. It is simply its nature."
"Yet a dragon ruled our empire for over two centuries," the blonde student pointed out.
"Thanks to a large human administration and the Overlord Class' Perks helping with that, but point taken," the teacher replied.
He was more right than he knew. The dragon Overlord Gargauth likely had centuries of experience dealing with humans under his belt.
"You say beastmen are less intelligent than men, then how do you explain the Kish Empire?" Simon asked. The student next to him perked up when he mentioned the kish, strangely enough.
"Skipping forward a few lessons, aren't we? But as a matter of fact, there is a pretty clear answer." Mr. Adrissant raised a finger. "Songbirds."
Simon raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Songbirds?"
"Yes, the Kish Empire—which was the only large beastman nation ever created—was the dominion of a now near-extinct branch of the Beastmen Tribe with songbird-like characteristics; the eponymous kish people. This group quickly realized that their music had a hypnotic effect on other beastmen and animals, which they used to enslave warring groups into a large confederation that ruled most of Telluria… until the Year of the Doom, that is. More proof that beastmen can only thrive under the rule of strong leaders capable of quelling their instincts like our Overlord." The teacher waved his hand. "But we'll discuss the kish in due time. For now, we'll start with steady fundamentals."
Simon sighed in disappointment. A pity, but not unexpected. At least he had confirmed one teacher knew something about the kish people, so this could help him learn more about whatever his father had been investigating.
The rest of the lesson mostly covered the anatomical differences between the various Tribes, from their physical characteristics to their diets, which was vaguely interesting but not immediately useful. He thanked the professor for his lesson and then prepared to leave for the Divine Mysteries course.
The blonde student from earlier stopped him as he was making his way to the door.
"You're looking into the kish treasures too?" he asked out of the blue.
Simon froze in surprise. He hadn't expected that. "The kish treasures?"
"You don't know?" The student put a hand on his waist in a way that reminded Simon of Lauriane. "The kish were both rich, wealthy, and relatively magically-advanced for beastmen. Many of their riches were buried across Telluria during the Doom, still waiting to be rediscovered."
Really? Was that what Father had been after? No, an Overlord had no need for gold and plunder. The 'magically-advanced' part did pique his interest, though.
"Between us, I've heard rumors about a lost palace to the far east," Simon said, fishing for details.
"You too? According to what I could gather, the whole place is crawling with undead and demons bound to protect the Kish Dynasty's secret treasure." The student looked over his shoulder, then leaned over to whisper into Simon's ear. "Apparently, it's a relic of divine power."
"Divine power?" Now that was interesting. Could that be what his father had been looking for? "Not of the Light, I'd assume?"
"My thoughts exactly," the student confirmed. "Beastmen don't want to talk about it much because they're afraid of being burned at the stake. And I'm sure that palace is only one unexplored ruin among many. I hoped this course could teach me more about it."
"Same." Simon raised an eyebrow. "What's your name?"
"Casval. You?"
Simon noticed that he didn't put forward his family name, unlike literally any other noble beneath the sun. Quite a good sign. "Simon. Just Simon."
"Well, Simon, happy to meet you." Casval warmly shook Simon's hand. Either Casval indeed had no idea who the latter was, or he was among the best actors Simon had ever encountered. "Are you interested in investigating those rumors further? I'm on my way to the Divine Mysteries course, but we can discuss them afterwards."
"How fortuitous." Perhaps a bit too much… "I'm actually attending the class as well, so we can talk about it on our way there."
"Sweet." Casval chuckled. "We could start a treasure hunting club or something."
Had he just made a friend? Perhaps the rumors of a kish treasure had indeed spread to the student body and this was all a fortuitous coincidence, yet… yet he had a sinking feeling in his gut.
Something about this Casval put him ill at ease.