On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 363

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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First Day of Infiltration, The Organization Was Destroyed — Chapter 363
Time to Wield a Real Sword (3)
The students had changed.
Especially the Second Years.
“Their aura has shifted,” Amil observed.
In just a single week, the Second Years had transformed, and Amil watched their changed presence with careful attention.
Their swordsmanship hadn’t improved dramatically.
Their physical strength showed no major difference either.
Yet there was an unmistakable shift in the overall quality of their presence.
“According to the knights they spar with, something like the feeling of a practice match has vanished. Some of them were even unnerved,” a report had come in.
“Mm.”
What had caused this transformation in those students?
The other grades showed no such dramatic change.
The capable ones simply continued to excel, while the weaker ones improved only marginally.
But the Second Years’ growth rate stood apart.
‘What happened in just one week?’
Had they all learned some extraordinary breathing technique as a group?
The knights they faced had been so flustered that they’d had to raise their own combat level in response.
While the students still weren’t at the level of defeating the knights outright, the compiled reports painted an impression that was decidedly striking.
“So you’re saying the students’ swordsmanship has become keener and more relentless?”
“Yes, their mental state has also changed considerably. It’s as though…… they’re rushing forward with the intent to kill.”
The Northern knights knew that feeling well.
The Renfield Family knights in particular had faced numerous Northern noble house knights through such “struggle” training just a few years prior.
“It’s not usually visible in young students. It’s remarkable, really.”
“Mm.”
Amil eventually called Yurio in and asked directly.
“Yurio.”
“Yes, Councilor—or rather, Family Head.”
“Did you perhaps receive some special instruction from Teacher Ziel?”
“Ah…….”
Yurio hesitated a moment before speaking carefully.
“Actually…….”
Amil felt a small shock.
“Real swords?”
“Yes…….”
“Huh.”
His surprise wasn’t born from shock at young Second Year students being given real swords to wield.
Quite the opposite.
“Just as I thought—he’s a man perfectly suited to the North.”
“Sir?”
Wasn’t that precisely the case?
To be honest, Amil had harbored misgivings.
No matter how dangerous the argument, students who would one day need to draw steel and cut down enemies were still drilling with practice swords.
From what he’d heard, there was a regulation at the Sword School that mandated the use of practice swords only within the academy grounds, except for external training or under specific conditions.
When he’d first learned of it, he’d found it utterly absurd.
Northern children learn to handle and maintain real swords from around age ten.
There were cases like Yurio that differed somewhat, but the vast majority of Northern children followed this path.
Most grew comfortable with the blade and learned swordsmanship that way, yet the children from south of the Mountain Range were far too fragile in comparison.
And now Teacher Ziel had taken such a step.
‘He’s drawing them to his side by any means necessary.’
“Did the teacher perhaps say anything else on the matter?”
“Ah…… he explained that since we must now establish the direction of our swordsmanship, using real swords became necessary.”
“Just as expected. A truly excellent teacher.”
“That much is certainly true.”
Yurio agreed without objection.
The students themselves had felt it clearly.
Over the past week.
In every class Teacher Ziel conducted, they’d wielded real swords.
And in the practical training that followed the next week, they’d distinctly felt their strength grow.
Their aura.
At first, I didn’t quite understand what he meant, but now it was beginning to make sense.
‘My mindset has changed.’
The attitude with which I face my enemies.
That terror—if I don’t kill them, they might kill me instead!
And then there’s the completely different way swordsmanship unfolds when wielding a real blade.
Just by switching from a practice sword without an edge to a real sword with one, so much had transformed!
“Keep going just as you are, Yurio. If you do, you’ll surely become a fine knight in time.”
“Thank you, Family Head.”
“Good. Remember, I’m watching over you.”
“Yes!”
“Oh, and one more thing.”
Amil added a final remark.
Yurio left in high spirits.
Karen spoke up, her tone tinged with discontent.
“So you always single him out and praise him? I’m jealous.”
“Why not? You got praise too this time.”
“Huh?”
“I praised you. I thought you might have mistaken it for a passing remark, but it was genuine praise.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
And it was true.
Amil had asked Yurio to tell Karen that she was growing remarkably well and doing excellently right now.
“He really said that?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow… I think I might actually cry.”
“I didn’t see you crying.”
“Right. I was lying.”
Karen turned her head sharply away.
She appeared absorbed in her swordsmanship, but the faintest glimmer of tears glistened at the corners of her eyes.
‘I can do this. I really can.’
She drew the real sword.
Only then did the path her swordsmanship must take become clear to her.
It was precisely after learning the Renfield Family’s swordsmanship directly from Amil.
“To be honest, I thought you’d only teach me the basics…”
At first, of course, that’s what she’d assumed.
But it turned out otherwise.
Amil had genuinely transmitted the Renfield Family’s swordsmanship to her.
Of course, it was impossible to abandon everything she’d learned before and completely replace it with the Renfield Family’s style.
And so it was born.
A swordsmanship uniquely Karen’s own—the Renfield Family’s techniques filling the gaps in her previous training.
It was precisely the Northern-style Rapid Sword Technique, wielded with a short sword slightly shorter than a standard blade.
Shink.
Karen drew her sword.
Teacher Ziel’s words came back to her.
‘Your blade always falls just a touch short. Remember that.’
Short at the end meant the point couldn’t quite reach her opponent.
So she decided to make that her weapon instead.
A swordsmanship that drove deeper and unfolded faster to compensate!
That was the Northern-style Rapid Sword Technique—Karen’s new swordsmanship.
‘Now I can do it too.’
“But seriously, it’s cute. Karen.”
“Uh, u-um?”
“Cute, I said.”
“…Me?”
“What are you talking about? Have you lost it?”
Yurio stared at her as if bewildered.
“Not you—your sword. It’s so small. Looks like something kids would use.”
“…Want to die?”
“W-wait, did I say something wrong?”
“Drop it.”
Karen cleared her throat and held up a sword.
“This one?”
“Yeah. You said it wasn’t easy to find, right? Because the length is different from other swords.”
“That’s right. The width and center of gravity are different too. Still, I’m so glad I managed to bring this last one. You have no idea.”
Karen swung the blade through the air, testing its feel.
She’d put it away during practical training since she couldn’t use it there, but it was a sword she quite liked.
“This feels just right for me. It doesn’t look like I’ll grow any taller anyway. It’ll take some time to get used to it, though.”
Karen nodded, her expression full of anticipation.
“Today I’m definitely breaking through stage two!”
“I’m going for stage four!”
The Renfield Family’s practical training was now centered on the Ladder of Struggle.
Naturally, the students’ goals had shifted in that direction as well.
Karen had broken through stage one but hadn’t conquered stage two yet, while Yurio was on the verge of breaking through stage four.
In any case, the lower-tier students like Karen now had their bearings and were moving forward in a single direction.
The other families’ practical training was the same.
“He really is envious.”
“Of whom, sir?”
“Of whom else? Celia.”
Kundel Family practical training.
Celia was drawing Amos’s envy in abundance today as well.
More precisely, it had been since yesterday’s training.
“How can someone change so drastically overnight?”
“Well… perhaps she gained some enlightenment?”
Enlightenment was certainly an important element for knights, but it didn’t cause changes of this magnitude.
“Gaining a little enlightenment wouldn’t produce a presence like that out of nowhere.”
Until now, at best, it was simply the aura of someone holding a sword.
But now it was different.
“Going!”
In that serious execution of Swift Swordsmanship, he could sense the ferocious aura of a warrior.
An aura that hadn’t existed before.
A kind of presence, one might say.
It seemed that something had awakened that.
‘The environment isn’t conducive to self-awakening. There’s no way she was deployed to a battlefield last week.’
Amos was a seasoned knight.
He had experience participating in major wars, and he had fought life-and-death battles against knights of other nations.
Though still lacking, it wasn’t easy to emit that sharp, honed aura she was struggling to refine.
‘What kind of lesson did Ziel conduct?’
In the end, there was only one person he could ‘suspect,’ and unable to contain himself, Amos called Celia over and asked.
“Celia.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did you perhaps receive some special instruction from Ziel?”
“I was instructed to use real swords in all the lessons he conducts going forward.”
Amos slapped his knee.
‘That was it, after all.’
The power and technique channeled through a real sword were absolutely incomparable to those of a practice sword.
He finally understood the reason such presence had been drawn out in such a short time.
Of course, simply wielding a real sword couldn’t transform a person so drastically.
“But how exactly did he conduct the lesson?”
“One versus one hundred.”
“What?”
“The instructor was one, and we were one hundred. All one hundred of us rushed at him simultaneously.”
……
Around the same time.
Daren posed a similar question and received an identical answer.
“One versus one hundred?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Delev, explain this more concretely.”
“Simply put, all of us second years, every single one, charged at Ziel with real swords. That was all there was to it.”
……
He wondered if this could even be called a proper lesson.
Delev had shown such remarkable skill growth today that when Rihart brought him over and asked about it, he’d received this answer.
‘What in the world….’
Today, Delev had not only succeeded in executing a counterattack against the knight assigned to train him, but had followed through with a secondary strike.
The moment of sudden silence that fell across the training ground refused to leave his mind.
‘Impressive, truly. He’s returned to his natural Heavy Sword Technique and then reapplied our Swift Swordsmanship on top of it…… the boy is something else.’
Amos was a student he genuinely disliked, but Delev was someone he couldn’t help but admire.
‘He’s not the type to whom that old saying about sons of warriors applies.’
“Why do you…… see it that way, sir?”
“Ahem. No, never mind. Delev, you…… are you getting along well with Celia?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking if you and our daughter are getting along.”
“…….”
After a moment’s thought, Delev opened his mouth.
“I’m not entirely…… sure, but it does seem like we’re getting along better than before…….”
“Excellent!”
Suddenly, a hand came down—tap—across both his shoulders.
“Keep it up, you hear? That’s an order.”
“Sir?”
“And if you have time during the break period, come visit the House sometime.”
“What?”
“You understand, yes? Keep being friends with Celia.”
“Yes, I understand…….”
After offering this emphatic instruction, Daren watched Delev return to his seat with evident satisfaction.
“Mm. The future looks promising.”
“What future…… ?”
“Oh, ahem. Head Butler. Haven’t you left yet?”
“Ah, yes, sir. There is news for you to hear.”
“News?”
The Head Butler handed Daren a letter.
“It is from Lord Renson, who was dispatched to the Southern Region.”
“Lord Renson?”
Daren’s eyes sharpened.
The Rihart Family dispatched their knights to various regions for several reasons.
Had this been a routine report, the Head Butler would have had no reason to come all this way with the letter.
Crackle.
As Daren opened the letter, his brow furrowed.
“Telvir Academy is…… preparing an exchange tournament with Edelwein Academy?”
The Head Butler took the letter to examine it as well, and his expression shifted similarly.
“Then there’s a chance our Celia will participate in this as well.”
“Indeed, sir.”
Daren’s eyes gleamed.
In truth, the outcome already seemed decided.
Victory belonged to the Renfield Family.
Which meant the Kundel and Rihart families would have to compete for second place.
But if things went this way…… .
‘A chance to elevate the Family’s honor—there is still an opportunity left.’
“I need to meet with the Department Head.”
It seemed the moment was finally approaching when Rihart could stand at the very top once more.
‘I must become the primary sponsor family of the exchange tournament.’
Once again.
The scale of the event that Ziel had orchestrated was about to expand.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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