On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 400

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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 – Episode 400
A New History of the Imperial Knight Order (2)
They clashed again.
Karen fought to deny her opponent any opening.
From her numerous sparring sessions with Celia, she’d learned that hesitating even slightly against Swift Swordsmanship invited the counterattack to slip through the gap.
Celia’s brother would be no weaker than her—likely stronger.
‘I’ve only learned a little, but I’ll use everything I have!’
Karen poured all her concentration into wielding the Imperial Secret Sword Technique she’d received directly.
This swordsmanship is formidable. It resembles the standard form at first glance, yet compensates for its weaknesses with speed and power.
Swordsmanship alone cannot overcome the limitations of her breathing technique and the inefficiency of mana that stems from those limits, but—
Whoosh, clang!
Still, Karen intended to win.
‘I envy Edelwein.’
Joshua, who was parrying Karen’s blade, found himself thinking exactly that.
More precisely, he envied the students being taught by that instructor named Ziel.
It wasn’t because they’d achieved great things.
It wasn’t because their average ability threatened even the upper-year students of Telvir.
He envied their bearing.
This bearing—the confidence, the trust, the persistence—was something he only ever saw in young nobles from Great Houses who’d arrived equipped with everything.
Everyone believed that a knight’s strength, potential, and future were fixed from the moment of birth.
But the students under Ziel’s charge at this academy seemed to think differently.
‘I’ll win this tournament and prove it!’
Karen’s swordsmanship grew fiercer.
“Karen’s pushing forward?”
“When did Karen get this strong?”
“Didn’t she say she’d only trained for two days?”
The murmuring in the spectator seats carried astonishment—particularly the look on Celia’s face was worth seeing.
“Hey, you’re fighting your brother and that’s the face you make?”
“…….”
“She’s not even answering.”
Celia looked quite serious.
‘I don’t think I could fight like that.’
What was Celia’s dream?
To defeat both her brothers.
But it seemed Karen might accomplish that first.
‘It’s different from being overwhelmed by Swift Swordsmanship, but still… sigh, Delev’s gotten incredibly strong too.’
Since enrolling at Edelwein Academy, Celia’s goal had been top honors at graduation.
But then came Delev, a formidable competitor, and Yurio’s unexpected emergence as a prodigy, plus the other rising top-tier students already climbing—and now Karen too.
‘……Maybe I should collect more of Teacher Ziel’s usage tokens?’
If I gathered tokens as much as possible and did special training each time I’d accumulated enough—
“Hey, Celia. Are you listening to me?”
“Mm, I’m listening.”
“Then why aren’t you—”
“Subordinate. Did you forget our promise?”
“…….”
“Call me Boss. And fix that habit of yours—short answers.”
Delev grumbled beside her.
“Acting like you didn’t forget I saved your hide…….”
“What did you say?”
“My apologies, Boss. Yes. Let’s watch the match.”
Of course, Joshua was no easy opponent.
‘The right.’
In that fleeting gap, Joshua charged forward, his blade grazing across Karen’s shoulder.
Blood droplets scattered through the air.
It was the moment when Joshua, who had been purely on the defensive, drew first blood with a single counterattack.
“You’re a formidable fighter, indeed.”
Alyx, who had been satisfied with Karen’s valiant effort, couldn’t hide his disappointment.
Swift Swordsmanship is a technique that exploits the opponent’s openings.
Once wounded, the opponent creates even more gaps.
“It seems this will likely end in a round or two, Teacher Ziel.”
“No. It won’t end that quickly.”
“What?”
Karen glanced down at her wounded shoulder, then tore her sleeve with a sharp rip.
She wrapped the torn fabric tightly around the injury and raised her sword once more.
“Hah.”
Joshua let out a hollow laugh.
Wrapping the wound wouldn’t heal it instantly, but it would at least compress the injury enough to make it less distracting.
“Tough one, Second Year.”
“Because I hate losing.”
“Good.”
Joshua swung his sword once through the air, then aimed it at Karen.
“Let me finish this quickly.”
In that instant, Joshua seemed to vanish from her field of vision.
‘That’s…!’
Celia had mentioned it to her.
Rihart’s true strength lay not just in swordsmanship itself, but in that footwork—the way he disappeared into his opponent’s blind spot.
That footwork, which even Celia still struggled to master!
Clang!
She blocked it.
She’d moved by pure instinct, responding to the chill that arrived from behind her back.
But she hadn’t defended perfectly.
Rasp.
This time, her flank.
Not a fatal wound, but enough to impede her ability to continue the match.
Yet even after landing the blow successfully, Joshua tensed.
‘Not a single change in her expression.’
He wasn’t fighting a magic puppet, and yet she remained this composed.
Her eyes were still sharp, still alive.
If this had been real combat, he would’ve expected panic, or at least considerable alarm…
Clang!
“Huh.”
In that brief moment, her counterattack came so swiftly that Joshua caught his breath.
This time he was defending.
Karen’s blade thrust sharply toward him, pressing him relentlessly.
If her skill had been even slightly better, if she’d been more practiced in Rihart’s Swift Swordsmanship…
‘I would’ve taken a wound myself.’
But now it was time to end this.
The intensity of her pressure had diminished.
If only she’d studied that swordsmanship technique more deeply.
Compared to Sir Relio’s blade, it was nothing—but considering Karen’s age, she showed real potential.
Rasp!
In one motion, he cut across both her thighs.
“Yield.”
“I won’t.”
“I don’t want to keep hurting my brother’s friend…”
Before he could finish, Karen kicked off the ground with everything she had—
‘What?’
She threw her entire body forward, not her sword.
Joshua hesitated for a moment.
The sheer unexpectedness of the move made his conflict last longer than it should.
Any counterattack now would land on her head or chest—fatal wounds.
“Damn…!”
Then a solid impact swept across Joshua’s upper body.
“What the—!”
“Karen did a body tackle…”
He’d assumed victory was assured.
But this variable he hadn’t accounted for!
“Ugh!”
Joshua didn’t fall.
Despite the impact, he grabbed Karen’s shoulders and shoved her to the side.
“Am I insane?”
A dazed murmur.
He’d never imagined someone would abandon defense entirely and collide with him head-on in a match like this.
“What kind of fighting style is—”
Both drew their swords again.
But the excitement had died.
Joshua ended the match in an instant.
“Victory goes to Joshuah Rihart!”
In the end, Karen had lost.
Yet it was Karen, not Joshuah, who left the deeper impression.
“Karen, you were incredible!”
“Is Karen in the top tier now? What about us?”
“We just lost to Karen, that’s all.”
There was one student who envied her genuinely.
‘Could I have made an impression like that if I’d gone out there?’
Celia had felt disappointed about not being selected for the Inter-Academy Exchange, but looking at this now, there was no room for regret.
She’d been chosen because she deserved to be.
That much was clear.
‘What kind of swordsmanship has she been learning?’
“Boss, Karen seems pretty strong.”
“Shut it, subordinate.”
“Right.”
When Delev started needling him from the side, irritation flared up—but what could he do about it?
No matter how he looked at it, he had to admit the truth.
Even if he’d been standing in Karen’s place, he doubted he’d have drawn as much attention as she had.
‘I wish I hadn’t skipped the masquerade ball and gone instead.’
Celia’s gaze was fixed entirely on Karen. Growing that strong in such a short time meant there had to be a catalyst behind it.
Celia needed that kind of catalyst desperately. She was already strong, but that was no reason for her growth to stagnate.
Upper Walker Rank.
She’d already reached that height.
Yet Celia wanted to grow stronger still.
Of course, she and Delev had captured the Red Raven remnants, who were presumably at Expert Grade, but Celia simply wanted to be the strongest among her friends.
‘I need to collect Ziel’s training vouchers.’
She had money for equipment anyway, so gathering Praise Cards—which could be exchanged for vouchers to receive special training—seemed like the top priority.
In any case, that was the end of Karen’s match.
“Well done, Student Karen.”
“Professor Alyx! I’m sorry. I lost.”
“Sorry for what? That was as good as a win. Honestly, if that had been real combat, your opponent would’ve been seriously rattled by your final strike.”
Alyx lavished praise on her without pause.
“That’s an incredible result. And it wasn’t just any fourth-year—it was Joshuah Rihart!”
“True. The fourth-year from Telvir I beat earlier was… on a different level.”
“You managed to unsettle an opponent like that? You should be proud! Honestly, even Yurio couldn’t have done that.”
A white lie, partly.
The reason was obvious: scouting.
“So, the thing is—if you don’t have plans to visit your family during break, we could arrange two months of apprentice training with the Knight Order—”
“Student Karen Aswan.”
“—of apprentice training—”
“Teacher Ziel!”
“Well done. That final strike was excellent.”
“The training—”
Ziel glanced at Alyx, who suddenly looked downcast, then turned to Karen with a proposal.
“Train with the Imperial Knights during break.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s a swordsmanship perfectly suited to you. A swordsmanship even I cannot teach. You’ve found the blade that fits you—go and learn it well.”
Karen hesitated for a moment.
The Steelheart Knight Order.
It shimmered before her eyes—still only rumor until now.
If she had her choice, she wanted to stay with Teacher Ziel even after graduation.
He was her benefactor, after all.
Yet she couldn’t entrust the whole of her life to him even after she graduated.
I’ve already received far too much.
So after graduation, I must walk my own path and repay the kindness you’ve shown me.
“I will.”
“Karen!”
Alyx was deeply moved.
“You’ve made an excellent choice. As an Apprentice Member, you’ll undergo training during every break period, and by the time you graduate, if you pass the examination after we’ve calculated your training hours, you’ll become a Full Member.”
“That’s wonderful!”
With this, Karen’s future path had been decided in advance.
It was an achievement that not only the current Second Years, but even the Third and Fourth Years had failed to accomplish.
Early recruitment into the Imperial Knight Order!
Normally, this would be something worth discussing only around the Fifth Year level—and yet here it lay before Karen now.
“This has worked out splendidly, Professor Alyx Rockbolt.”
“We’re the fortunate ones. Students with talent in Secret Sword Techniques are rare to find. But to discover one before their swordsmanship habits become fixed—that’s extraordinary luck indeed.”
Alyx could hardly contain his joy.
As an Enforcement Knight dispatched to this Academy, one of his assigned duties was precisely this: to uncover talented individuals and bring them into the Imperial Knight Order!
Having just discovered an exceptional prospect and secured her recruitment, his performance report for the year had gained substance.
And from the Aswan Family, no less.
If this came to pass…
‘Would this become a historic moment—the first time someone from a Minor House outside the Great Families entered the Imperial Knight Order?’
That blasted Breathing Technique.
Countless talented individuals had been turned away at the Imperial Knight Order’s threshold, not for lack of brilliance, but for their Breathing Technique alone.
Yet today, Alyx felt he had discovered a solution to that very problem.
‘I should propose to the Commander that we expand the initial transmission of Secret Sword Techniques to the entire Academy.’
A new chapter in the history of the Imperial Knight Order was being written this day.

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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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