Chapter 7

On Friday, there was an International Relations class shared with the Department of Knighthood.

Setting aside the Department of Administrative Sciences, some might wonder why students from the Department of Knighthood were sitting there taking a class like this.

The reason was simple. This class, grandly named ‘International Relations,’ was in fact a course covering the history, culture, and affairs of various countries across the world.

And once students finished learning about the influential nations dividing the continent among themselves, they would move on to the next step:

For the Department of Administrative Sciences, diplomacy. For the Department of Knighthood, war.

The Ciedel Royal Academy was originally a military academy built for the purpose of defending the capital from enemy armies and magical beasts. Since then, this class had been one of the mandatory courses for the Department of Knighthood.

Then, about two hundred years ago, when the Department of Administrative Sciences was newly established and a large number of noble students were admitted, it became a joint requirement shared with Administrative Sciences. It was a class with its own history and tradition.

For a class taken jointly with another department, the academic competition was surprisingly fierce. Not because it was a required course, but because of the professor’s letter of recommendation.

Students in the Department of Administrative Sciences aiming to become bureaucrats were ready to do whatever it took to obtain Professor Keron’s letter of recommendation, which was given strictly to only the top five students across the entire grade.

With Tislin ranking around 5th or 6th, she could potentially aim for a recommendation if she worked a little harder. However, she wasn’t a bureaucratic noble and lacked the passion to pull extra study hours for a recommendation letter she didn’t even need.

Unlike bureaucrats who had to take exams and needed letters of recommendation, becoming a ruler of a territory required nothing more than bloodline or a plot of land attached through marriage.

“…Thus, we have learned about our country’s protectorates: the Grand Duchy of Luxen, the Duchy of Seben, the Duchy of Blios, and the Duchy of Hort. I mentioned earlier that there are no eternal allies in international relations, but at least for now, these four nations can be considered our allies.”

The reality wasn’t that simple. However, Professor Keron had a reason for putting it that way. His nationality wasn’t Cassady-Minorca, but the Grand Duchy of Luxen.

If a professor from Luxen described a protectorate as a vassal state, it could be interpreted as the Grand Duchy of Luxen being dissatisfied with its relationship with Cassady-Minorca. By the same token, if he stated that relations between the protectorates and the mother country were not always friendly, it could be interpreted as implying that the Grand Duchy of Luxen would actually break away.

‘It’s all political statements.’

Tislin stared at the familiar professor’s face and muttered somewhat cynically to herself.

“Now that we have learned about our allies, it is time to learn about our enemies.”

The professor wrote down a single word in elegant handwriting.

“Parpanan.”

Even the combination of the letters carried a decorative and strange shade.

It was the name of the great empire that had divided the continent in two and reigned as the ruler of the north for the past few centuries. The authority accumulated in that name had not entirely vanished, even when the great empire corrupted and became an enemy.

“Parpanan. They are our enemy nation. Not some hypothetical enemy we point at when playing war games, but our actual enemy who has waged war against us for the past fifty years.”

There was a sharp edge to the professor’s words. The backs of the students who had been sitting slouching and twirling their pens straightened up naturally.

“Allies can make mistakes with each other. Between allies, there is room for redemption. But a mistake made against an enemy can only be repaid with your life. Therefore, Parpanan is a country you must understand better than any other.”

Without giving the students time to catch their breath, Professor Keron posted a massive map on the chalkboard.

It was a map of the continent they all knew well. Yet, it felt unfamiliar.

Familiar countries like Cassady-Minorca, Ortus, Halie, and Lingon were all at the bottom of the map, half-hidden by the podium. Instead, occupying the center was a massive landmass made of four giant pieces: Parpanan.

“Parpanan is divided into its capital, Bamulus, and four administrative districts: East, West, South, and North. Each administrative district is ruled by local governors dispatched by the Emperor, so-called ‘Dukes.’ They are different from the hereditary Dukes we know. They could be actual Dukes, higher in rank, or even commoners by origin.”

Those four Dukes were widely known. Among them, the one the people of Cassady-Minorca knew best was the ‘Southern Duke’—though he had died a few years ago.

“Each of Parpanan’s administrative districts, the so-called ‘Duchies,’ is individually comparable in size to the entirety of Cassady-Minorca, and their economic scale is no different. Although some regions were conquered in the early days of Hezra’s reign, even excluding those areas, it is undeniable that Parpanan is an overwhelmingly massive empire.”

Even though he was merely listing facts, it almost sounded like praise. The power behind the professor’s tone made that illusion even stronger.

Tislin subtly rolled her eyes while pretending to twist her body. Arkin Rudera was sitting all alone in the very back row. He didn’t even have a book on his desk, so it was blatantly obvious he was just sitting there. The seat beside him was empty.

‘Is he unable to come because of knight duty? …Not that it has anything to do with me.’

She forced her focus, which kept straying in that direction, back to the professor on the podium.

Professor Keron was from Luxen and had a history of tutoring Adelinde, so he was acquainted with Tislin, Damien, and Arkin Rudera alike. It would be troublesome if the professor thought Tislin was sneaking glances at Arkin Rudera.

Fortunately, the professor seemed completely oblivious to what Tislin was doing, fully absorbed in his lecture.

‘He was always like that.’

Nothing had changed from the time he taught Adelinde. His strictness—like stating he would only give recommendations to the top five students—was just as firm as ever. Adelinde must have cried about seven times, refusing to go to class. Hmm, a week, that was.

“Until the tyrant Hezra showed signs of madness, Parpanan was a great empire occupying half of this continent and the undeniable center of the world. Now, it is our greatest enemy. No amount of emphasis on this would be enough. However, I know all too well that even if you sit here and I explain passionately, only those who listen will listen, and those who don’t won’t give a damn. Therefore…”

Ah, this feels ominous.

“I am going to assign you a collaborative project. This project will replace your mid-term exam for this semester.”

A midterm replacement assignment just one month into the semester? Tislin let out a quiet groan. Sierra, sitting beside her, tapped the back of her hand lightly.

‘Together?’

‘Of course.’

The two exchanged familiar glances before focusing back on the professor.

Professor Keron tapped his fist against the map on the board and spoke:

“Parpanan is a country with which we have no exchanges. Therefore, the goal of this assignment is to grasp and understand what kind of place Parpanan is.”

“I have a question.”

“Go ahead.”

A student from Administrative Sciences raised his hand high and spoke.

“Which exact aspects are we supposed to discuss? For instance, politics, culture, military… What should we focus on?”

“Everything. Research all aspects and write about all of them.”

Terrrible.

The Administrative Sciences students fell into a collective panic. Only the clueless Knighthood students blinked, thinking, ‘Does that mean we can just write whatever then?’

“Of course, depending on your individual interests, the fields you know well and excel in will differ. To learn more from this assignment…”

Wait a second. Don’t tell me.

“It would be better to collaborate with a student from another department. I will randomly assign pairs in groups of two, so please share your knowledge with each other and complete the assignment.”

Groans erupted from all around.

“Don’t those Knighthood kids miss class constantly for knight duty and stuff? Doesn’t that mean we’ll practically have to write the paper ourselves?”

Well, there was that problem too.

Conversely, the Knighthood students likely had similar complaints. They at least knew a bit about Parpanan’s history or culture, but the Administrative Sciences kids were clueless about military affairs, so they’d likely have to handle the most crucial parts themselves.

The atmosphere was visibly dissatisfied, but Professor Keron, if anything, looked excited.

“Now, the pairs are as follows…”

Having already prepared the pairings in advance, he posted a large sheet of paper beside the board. It was a roster with Administrative Sciences students listed on the left and Knighthood students on the right.

Tislin lowered her gaze to find her name.

Among the names written without order, the name ‘Tislin Ermiz’ was written accurately without a single typo. And beside it…

Beside it…

Tislin Ermiz — Damien Xsanov

As if fearing someone might get confused, a line had even been drawn between their names. Her head spun.

“Tis, what are you going to do?”

Sierra’s voice spun in her ears before fading. Tislin shut her eyes tight.

‘How could things turn out like this?’

Not any other time, but right after their engagement was decided and they had just discussed breaking it off?

The talk of breaking off the engagement remained between the two of them, so setting that aside, could Professor Keron already know about the engagement?

If it had spread far enough for Luxen nobles outside the territory like Professor Keron to know, even if she broke off the engagement, the tag of ‘ex-fiancée’ wouldn’t fall off.

‘No. Rather than that, he probably just showed consideration for Damien.’

If he wanted to show even more consideration, he could have just omitted the assignment altogether, but it seemed Professor Keron’s favor toward Damien Xsanov didn’t extend quite that far.

Still, while doing it, pairing him with a familiar face so he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable…

‘What nonsense about pairing!’

Anyway, it wasn’t strange to show enough consideration to form a group with an acquaintance for Damien, who was exceptionally busy and essentially a war hero of the Allied Nations.

The students inside the classroom were busy talking while looking for their group members. It was a relief that Damien wasn’t here. Tislin let out a sigh of relief.

Just then, someone tapped her on the shoulder gently.

Surprised, she whipped her head around, and Arkin Rudera signaled her with a subtle look. Tislin, looking up at his messy hair—almost identical to when she went looking for him last time—mouthed a question:

“What about your partner?”

“We basically finished talking. It’s not like we’re doing the project right here anyway.”

At those words, Tislin let out a deep, simmering sigh. Flustered, Arkin messily ruffled his hair.

“Uh, Damien couldn’t come today because of work. It’s not that he intentionally skipped.”

“I didn’t think that far.”

“Ah, right.”

Feeling awkward, Arkin turned his head this way and that before suddenly adding:

“Anyway, he’ll be back tonight. I’ll pass along the word about the project. Still, you two will need to see each other’s faces once, so it’s better if you set the schedule, right?”

They needed to meet again anyway if she wanted to break off the engagement quickly. Persuading herself with that thought, Tislin nodded her head.

“I’ll do it.”

Why do professors always delusionally assume that students only take their class?

Starting with Professor Keron, other professors poured out assignments as if they had been waiting for the moment. Tislin spent her entire weekend devoted to assignments. As she cleared them one by one, thoughts of breaking off the engagement were half-forgotten.

“What about that International Relations project? I bumped into Irina and Kisha on my way to the library earlier, and they were super worried too.”

“There’s nothing to worry about… I’ve roughly prepared for it.”

In truth, she had only roughly organized the direction.

‘Is it a relief that I learned the Parpanan language?’

It wasn’t something she learned to use for assignments, though.

There were hardly any students in the school who could speak Parpanan. It was safe to say virtually none. Where would anyone use the language of a country with which the only interactions were war, espionage, smuggling, and kidnapping?

Thus, simply being able to read books written in Parpanan gave Tislin a clear advantage in this assignment.

In truth, since the rough preparation was finished, she had planned to go find Damien yesterday. But just the thought of walking to the Department of Knighthood building made her heart pound wildly, so she ultimately gave up and worked only on what she could do alone. It was the exact same path she had walked to meet Arkin Rudera, so she had no idea why she was acting like this all over again.

On the other hand, Sierra worked on her assignment yesterday morning, and though she had a date in the afternoon with a Magic Department student she had been introduced to earlier, she said she couldn’t go because the project discussion ran long.

Seeing as she postponed the date to the next day, it didn’t seem like she had fallen for the Knighthood student she was working with.

“Speaking of which, how was your date? Did he say anything about you postponing it by a day?”

“Ugh. Well.”

Sierra twirled her hair and slurred her words. Tislin’s eyes immediately narrowed.

“Was it bad?”

“All the guys Eden introduces are pretty much the same. He wasn’t bad, but not to the point where I’d go out of my way to meet him a second time.”

“That means it was bad.”

“He just lacked charm, but he wasn’t a bad person. But Tislin Ermiz, shouldn’t you be worrying about your own love life instead of mine right now?”

Hit right where it hurt, Tislin subtly turned her head back to her assignment. After burying her nose in it and writing frantically for a long while, she placed the final period and pushed it to the side.

“Ooh. Finished everything?”

“Just this one.”

There was no time to delay. Tislin stood up, holding a high stack of books borrowed from the library.

“To return the books? Want me to come with you?”

“It’s fine. It’s only a few volumes.”

Holding books stacked up to her chin, Tislin headed toward the library.

Located at the center of the campus, the library was bustling with students in the middle of working on assignments.

There were particularly many Administrative Sciences students. They were all in similar positions.

There were quite a few Magic Department students as well. That side seemed to be half-and-half idling slackers and crazy researchers; she had heard the latter practically lived in the library and research labs.

Yet Sierra Pontinaire managed to seduce guys like that and go on dates.

‘Maybe I should have gone on dates too before I got engaged.’

It had been five long years since her unrequited love for Damien Xsanov began. With her standards raised sky-high, Tislin had turned down all the introductions Sierra offered to set up.

If they had at least dated, it would be one thing, but to do all that over a mere crush… Had she known she would be frantically trying to break off an engagement after actually getting engaged, she wouldn’t have acted so unnaturally squeamish.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“Dates… Ah.”

The weight of the books crushing her arms suddenly grew weightless. A hand lightly grazing her bare skin took away all the books stacked high. Tislin raised her head blankly, following the movement of the books.

A familiar voice echoed back in a low rumble:

“Dates?”