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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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My fist moved before my mind could process.
-BAM!!
Something humanoid flew through the air, crashing into the wall, taking several of Lemnos’s companions down with it. The hallway erupted in chaos.
“Whoa!”
“Kyaaa!”
“It’s… it’s a person!”
The projectile embedded in the wall was Edgar Lemnos, unconscious, his face bruised and swollen, eyes rolled back. Despite his mangled face, the rest of his body seemed unharmed. Mid-level Sword Expert, as expected. I had underestimated his durability and held back too much. The students he’d collided with were worse off.
“He… he hit a Five Pillar…!”
“Who? Who did it?!”
Students flocked to the scene, drawn by the rumors of someone attacking a Five Pillar. Lemnos’s companions, stunned by his sudden flight, hesitated, exchanging glances. They had come for a one-on-one fight, but now… These youngsters were useless.
“What are you waiting for? Should I go first?”
My words spurred them into action. They drew their weapons.
“Atlas… you…”
River, who had fallen after Lemnos’s attack, stared at me in shock. Her expression was a mixture of confusion, worry, sadness… and fear. I wondered what my own face looked like. I couldn’t see it, but it must have been terrifying.
“Little person! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”
A long-haired man to Lemnos’s right raised his longsword and shouted. I didn’t recognize him. If he wasn’t in my memory, his family wasn’t significant. His warning was meaningless. I knew the dangers of antagonizing the Five Pillars.
But… did he just call me a “little person”?
“Little person? Did you just call me a little person?”
“Yes! I don’t know how you got into the Academy, but a little person like you can’t possibly survive after making an enemy of the Five Pillars…”
-Whack!
His jaw dislocated with a sickening crack. So focused on his threats, he hadn’t even seen me move. What a waste of a good longsword. His height annoyed me, forcing me to raise my arm in a wide arc. I put extra force into the punch. He flew across the hallway, several teeth trailing behind him.
Little person? Me?
Just because I’m short? Little people were half the size of average humans, slightly stout, though not as much as dwarves. They might resemble short humans, but there was a key difference: Little people, due to their unique foot structure, didn’t wear shoes. He didn’t even know that, yet he dared to call me a little person?
This was going too far. I preferred resolving conflicts verbally, but it was too late for that. A burning rage, like hot tar, threatened to consume me. It already had, halfway.
“Gah…!”
“Attack!”
“Kill him!”
The remaining companions, seeing their comrades fall, charged at me, weapons drawn. Coordinating a group attack was difficult, and their movements were clumsy, lacking training. Four weapons – a hand axe, a shortsword, a dagger, and a longsword – swung from different directions. The longsword would reach me first. I grabbed the attacker’s wrist, pulling him towards me.
“I…!”
“Huh?!”
He lost his balance, stumbling forward. With his feet off the ground, he lost control of his longsword. I yanked it towards me, stabbing the dagger-wielding attacker behind him in the shoulder.
“Agh!!!”
The longsword plunged deep into his right shoulder. He screamed, dropping his dagger. The hand axe and shortsword were almost upon me.
“I am a citizen of the Empire!!!”
I grabbed the shortsword wielder and threw him, like a judo throw, into the path of the hand axe. The axe missed me by a hair.
“Huh?!”
The shortsword wielder, seeing his comrade hurtling towards him, tried to stop, but it was too late.
-Thud!
“Aagh!!!”
The shortsword plunged into the longsword wielder’s side. Even a shortsword had a blade at least 60cm long. It pierced his side completely.
“You…!”
Ignoring the injured comrade, the axe wielder charged again, swinging at my head. I dodged, moving into his right side, delivering a powerful punch to his ribs.
“Ugh…!”
His body lifted slightly from the force of the blow. I felt the crunch of breaking ribs. He dropped the axe. I caught it and embedded it in his shoulder.
-Thwack!
“Aagh!!!”
His collarbone snapped. He crumpled to his knees, screaming, forgetting his injured ribs. Some blood splattered on my face.
The remaining attacker, seeing his three companions fall, turned pale.
“You… you think you can get away with this…?”
“…You…”
He was still standing. His voice trembled, his finger shaking as he pointed at me, his eyes darting around nervously.
“You… you can still fix this! I opposed this unethical behavior! I’ll convince them…!”
“You… racist bastards.”
“Racist…?”
He froze, confused. He didn’t even understand what he’d said.
“I’m not a… little person! I’m a normal human who hasn’t finished growing yet!!”
“What?!”
-BAM!!
My fist slammed into his face, sending him sprawling.
“Oh… he wasn’t?”
A familiar voice echoed through the now silent hallway.
I had expected to enjoy my time at the Academy… It wasn’t going as planned.
“You’re Russell?”
“…”
“Meet me outside tonight. Duel.”
“…I’m not allowed to duel.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Who’s the strongest among the current Five Pillars? You… or me?”
“I won’t duel.”
That unpleasant encounter on the first day…
I knew what the Five Pillars represented. I knew that Russell was one of them, and the importance of our family’s role. Father had told me maintaining a good relationship with the other Five Pillars would be beneficial. So I had looked forward to it. It was my first time interacting with peers in similar positions.
But they were all strange. Lemnos, constantly challenging me to duels, Albion, always surrounded by his followers, looking down on everyone, Ferda, with his fake smile and subtle digs at my weaknesses, Phrygia, the only girl, beautiful but utterly incomprehensible. None of them were normal. They probably saw me the same way.
I didn’t want to interact with them, but I couldn’t antagonize them, not with Father’s orders. And class wasn’t any better. The constant whispers and stares were overwhelming. I didn’t know how to handle the attention. They seemed to expect me to lead them, but I had only ever known swordsmanship.
The only positive was being in the same class as the little person… Atlas. But even then, the constant crowds prevented any meaningful interaction.
I wanted to get closer…
He didn’t seem to dislike me. He hadn’t looked annoyed when we met…
Just watching him from afar was strangely calming. Social interaction at the Academy was difficult, but his presence made it bearable. She hadn’t realized Lemnos saw this as a weakness.
She was watching Atlas, as usual, when someone deliberately bumped into him. It wasn’t just once. Five times that day, different students, all part of Lemnos’s group, subtly harassed him.
Those are Lemnos’s followers…
She had seen them with him in the lounge. She confronted Lemnos, but he ignored her. She didn’t know what to do.
Should I duel him, as he wants?
But Father forbade me from dueling…
Torn between her family’s orders and Atlas’s safety, she spent the entire day agonizing over the decision.
“Hey, Lemnos is fighting the little person!”
The next day, the incident happened. Lemnos, lacking patience, had made his move.
Atlas is in danger!
Lemnos was a mid-level Sword Expert. Atlas, judging by his first-day performance, was also an Expert, but he would struggle against Lemnos. But arriving at the scene, she realized she was wrong. Students were scattered across the hallway, writhing on the ground.
“H-help…”
One student collapsed, his ankle mangled.
“You call those weapons? No wonder you lose, you idiots.”
“Run!”
“Trying to run after attacking me? Not a chance!”
Atlas, wielding a shortsword he’d picked up somewhere, was decimating Lemnos’s followers. His short stature and the short sword, inefficient for attacking the upper body, forced him to adopt a low stance, targeting their legs.
“My… my leg!!!”
“Agh!!!”
Another student’s calf was severed. Lemnos’s followers lay scattered like corpses. The onlookers, witnessing Atlas’s brutal efficiency, had retreated to the end of the hallway, watching in horrified silence. The wide hallway was now occupied only by Atlas and his victims. Lemnos lay unconscious. Atlas, standing amidst the carnage, calmly wiped the blood off his shortsword with a student’s uniform.
Despite his small stature, his unwavering demeanor made him seem larger than life.
How…?
How can you be so… imposing?
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I was confident. I was justified. I might have overreacted, but I was the victim.
Lemnos started it. He drew his weapon first. His followers attacked first. I might have thrown the first punch at Edgar, but they charged at me with weapons. They were about to lynch me! I had to defend myself!
I’m the victim here!
“Wh-what kind of monster are you?! You’re expelled! Expelled!!!”
Oh, this isn’t good.
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