Chapter 22

Standing in front of the entrance to the principal's office, was Rayto and Lux. There was a short moment of silence after they both came out.

Then, all of a sudden...

"I'm exhausted." Rayto huffed with a straight face as he blinked.

The principal gave a long speech—or is that what he should call it?

Anyway, she gave them a lengthy introduction about what happened shortly after the fall of the Old Empire and the reason why this school exists.

Due to the autocracy of the Old Empire—back when men were the supremacists.

The Old Empire had practically monopolized machine dragons back then.

And when the coup had ended, most of the machine dragons monopolized by these people had been destroyed.

It was then, after the fall of the Old Empire, that researchers found out women had more potential, with the dragon machines being more compatible with them than with most males.

With these findings in mind, a school was built by the new empire for the females of noble families who wanted to become drag-knights.

Rayto, thinking about what Relie had said, now ruffled his hair with an irritated look, every grain of disdain evident in his voice.

"Tsk. That woman is a pain in the ass. Who does she think I am?" Rayto clicked his tongue, frowning, while Lux just laughed nervously.

"H-haha."

When briefing both Rayto and Lux...

She started going off-topic, talking about how, "If I were both of you, I wouldn't lay hands on the girls..." and other such warnings that one could consider as a threat.

Then.... as if insinuating something, continuing with, "they are girls from noble families," and, "you don't know what calamity would befall you if you..."

But of course, he only shot a slightly annoyed glare at Relie who simply brushed it off with a shrug.

Lux seeing Rayto's annoyed expression smiled wryly.

But then again... Even Lux himself could have sworn she wasn't always this demonic in the past.

While it's true it had already been several years since he had met Relie for the first time, she seemed to have changed a little from the last time he'd seen her.

Lux could only compliment her: as expected of the eldest daughter of the Aingram House.

Having to deal with strong-headed nobles from this and other kingdoms.

It was only natural she would develop this kind of personality more, especially if she wanted to protect her sister.

"Rayto-san, I believe it's best not to think about it."

Lux said, shaking his head as he glanced at Rayto, who heaved a soft sigh.

"I know, I know, I'm not that short-tempered. It was the fact she could say those words with a dead-straight face..."

"...And that smirk of hers as well."

With words along the lines of, "You both should be grateful you get to attend an academy with many females for yourselves. It's such an honor, isn't it?"

Coupled with a smirk on her face...

Why wouldn't Rayto be exasperated?

"W-well, now that we are out of there, I believe we should leave this place..."

Lux's somewhat nervous voice reached him, causing Rayto to look over at him with a nod.

"Sure, sure. let's leave," Rayto agreed. Turns out that even someone like Rayto can't fully deal with the likes of Reile.

"That aside, I'm mentally tired for today. I can't even begin to imagine the headaches waiting for us in the future."

"Rayto-san, they call those type of statement a flag."

"Arghh... Can't be bothered with that now, can I? Besides, it's only the truth."

Currently. There weren't any students in the school.

The last semester had just ended, with a new one beginning in less than a month.

The third years would resume briefly for about a week to three or four, depending on the capital's decision, before heading off for their official training.

Two weeks after the third years resumed, the new students would also start at the academy.

Rayto and Lux would resume three weeks to a month later, starting as special students since they both outrightly outrank the first years.

Relie would have originally told them to join the third years in their training, but she thought about it again.

No. Lux aside, Rayto seemed to be the perfect person.

But she was also worried about one thing: the inevitable clash between the current academy strongest and the two boys – especially Rayto.

As far as she knows, she knows both—Rayto and Lux—are divine drag-knights which would be a good eye-opener and a chance to change the mentality of the current academy strongest knight.

But at the same time, she couldn't help but be worried.

Hence, she decided it would best for them to resume much later and get acquainted with other female students before the inevitable clash.

That was why she also delayed both Rayto and Lux's resumption date. It was precisely because of the upcoming yearly tournament.

In other words, Relie Aingram had planned everything from the moment she had sent her request to the Queen.

Lux's invitation was also supposed to come much later, but Rayto's appearance just seemed to make everything easier.

"Fufufu... This school will be lively for a while."

For those stuck-up young maidens who think they are hotshots because of the current privilege they have, the prowess of both boys would undoubtedly be shocking for them.

Even as the principal herself, she would have to admit that the current students of the academy have yet to experience much.

"Well, I'll just look forward to that day."

Relie smiled, resting her back on the backrest of her office chair in anticipation.

'Should I also attend the tournament while I'm at it?'

....

Massive Timeskip!

Other than having daily spars with Lux at abandoned ruins northeast of Crossfort, Lux and Rayto would usually be busy with different tasks.

For Lux, it was the service he had to provide for the citizens of the new kingdom due to his situation.

Meanwhile, Rayto would either be working to improve his cafe or in the hangar his system space created for him.

Because of this, Rayto's progress in wielding his divine drag-ride was increasing every day.

+100,000 Atismata Social Credit!

His stats hadn't changed much, more or less stuck at the same number. Rayto didn't worry much about this.

What he needed now wasn't the increase in stats—though it would certainly it—but more importantly, the experience of riding a machine dragon.

With that in mind, he had also been gaining lots of experience through Lux, who was basically his test subject.

A live, moving, strong test subject who doesn't break under one move.

At some point, he had even begun to learn swordsmanship from Lux's movements alone. Though it felt weird at first, the more he fought Lux, the more he could see through his movements.

It took him some time to convince Lux about switching his tactics and Lux to get used to attacking in his Wyvern Dress Gear.

In the end, Rayto had pulled it off.

However, because of Lux's machine design, with the extra armor, Lux still had greater power but lacked speed.

While Rayto would have loved to modify both of their machine dragons to address this, he wasn't good at that.

In short, he sucks.

-500 Atismata Social Credit!

Unless he scams—ahem, recruits—a certain princess to help him with this aspect, he wouldn't make any progress.

Other than that, Rayto still continued with his daily physical training.

He just knew that one day his fit body would come in handy!

—Due to the author's laziness, the tournament arc will be skipped. Since no major events occurred in that arc, it was completely skipped in the LN too.

Instead of writing another ten chapters worth of minor details, the author believes just skimming over it and continuing on would be better—

Currently...

His only concern currently was the upcoming tournament, and even then, if you asked him if he would lose.

Rayto, with his dead-like eyes and a serious expression, would say this with absolute confidence: "Nah, I'd win."

True to his confident words, with enough research and training, now, instead of just spamming [Howling Roar] over and over again, due to energy manipulation, Rayto could confidently say this.

Plus.... Thanks to Lux, who oversaw his training and pointed out areas for improvement, Rayto was well-prepared.

However, the problem with making such a statement for a tournament like that was that Drag-Knights could use their Divine machine dragons if they wished.

Call it overconfidence on Rayto's part, but after the third to fourth rounds, facing three ex-class and one divine drag-knight, Rayto knew he was so cooked.

At that point, Rayto had no choice but to spam [Overdrive] repeatedly.

Fortunately for him, the tournament contestants were split into four groups with about 30 people each, with only five rounds.

Most participants were either from the military, noble houses, or other kingdoms.

Naturally, with the hype from the crowds and Rayto's skills, some people had begun to take notice of him.

With his reputation skyrocketing, so did the progress of his main quest, surpassing 10%.

[Main Quest Progress: 12.3%]

In the end, Rayto came in fourth place, losing only to a divine drag-rider from the Kreutzer house.

Speaking of which, that guy seemed to hold a grudge against Rayto, but that's a story for another time.

While Rayto himself disappointed, Lux said that it wasn't normal winning against even one divine drag-knight with a Wyvern.

And of course, Rayto didn't defeat the said drag-knight.

Given the monstrous processing power of a divine drag-machine, it far surpassed that of a typical Wyvern, resulting in insane consumption of physical and mental energy.

Rayto purposefully dragged out the fight using Lux's tactics of defense, waiting for the opponent to exhaust their energy.

While this strategy worked against the first opponent, it failed against the second.

At the end of the day, Rayto finished in fourth place.

"Seems like that statement, 'Nah, I'd Win,' is actually cursed," Rayto lamented.

Rayto should have never said those three words.