Chapter 40: I Became a Swordsman in the Middle Ages

Newbie Gacha (7)

[ Beginner’s Essential Reading – Volume 3 ]

1. How to Respond to Anomalies

If you suddenly find yourself in an unfamiliar environment, these are the first things you must do:

- Look for cover to hide your body. Minimize exposure to potential demon threats as much as possible. If none exists, make your own.

- Once secured, calmly assess your situation. The first priority is to determine what type of field you're in.

(Refer to Volume 1, Entry #48 for more details)

***

The knights were completely stunned when the ground beneath them abruptly froze.

Beatrice cautiously peeked her face out from a hastily dug hole.

Approaching her were Riharten and Dessen, both visibly alarmed.

“Betty, do you know something we don’t?”

“I—I swear I don’t know anything!”

“Are you a spy or something?”

“I swear to the Goddess, I’m not!”

“Then why are you the only one digging into the ground?!”

‘Because that’s what it said in the manual…’

Beatrice felt entirely wronged, but she quickly shared what she knew.

“This must be a training exercise.”

“Training?”

The other knights quickly gathered around her.

“Yeah. Why else would someone go as far as changing the weather if this wasn’t training?”

They glanced around at one another, eyes wide.

She had a point—if this weren’t training, the emergency alarms would’ve sounded by now.

“So what do we do now?”

“I recommend digging a hole…”

“What? That won’t help much with the cold, will it?”

‘Because there’s no way Lady Cecilia stops here, that’s why.’

With resigned eyes, Beatrice cast a glow of Light Blessing over her head, forming a shimmering halo of light.

Her instincts were spot-on.

“Look over there!”

“Gasp!”

Floating in the sky above them were countless icy spears.

Beatrice turned pale and immediately dove back into her hole.

***

From above, Cecilia was hugging Rude as they watched the scene unfold.

“Hmm… that blonde knight’s not bad. Good instincts.”

“Betty is the strongest.”

“Lia thinks so? Well—”

Rude’s smiling expression suddenly hardened into a cold stare.

“The rest are garbage.”

Boom!

The recruits below had descended into chaos, running around aimlessly in all directions.

There wasn’t even a hint of discipline.

Thankfully, the spears had been tuned with low penetration strength—otherwise, several of them would have been skewered by now.

“They’re just beginners.”

Cecilia didn’t seem too concerned.

This was all about establishing dominance early on.

Without setting the tone, no one would show their true abilities.

“Sorry for cutting into your break. I’m sure you’ve been busy lately.”

Rude, who had been frowning the entire time, finally smiled again at her words.

“Nah. Using my magic like this now and then is refreshing.”

“In that case… can I ask for one more favor?”

“Huh?”

“Could you mix in a few real ones this time?”

Rude paused for a moment, then looked up at her.

“…Wait, what?”

“Training should be like real combat, right? Isn’t that a famous saying?”

“Hold on, if you throw in real ones, then it is real combat!”

“Please?”

“I-If it’s Lia asking… I guess I can’t say no.”

‘…Is this even allowed?’

Reluctantly, Rude extended his hand toward the air.

‘Well… if they can’t survive even this much, they’d definitely die on a real battlefield.’

The icy spears, which had previously felt more like blunted weapons, now carried a deadly intent.

If one struck the wrong spot, it could be fatal.

The number of real ones was small, but the fact that some were real mixed in made all the difference.

“Then I guess I’ll…”

“What else could you possibly do?!”

Feeling the ominous wave of mana rising beside him, Rude panicked.

Swish—

Cecilia was halfway through drawing her sword when Rude slapped his hands over it in alarm.

“?”

“If you do that, they’ll actually die. Come on, they’re still rookies!”

Rude let out an awkward laugh, desperate to keep her from escalating further.

“You’re saying people would die from this much?”

Rude’s eyes widened.

‘No, she doesn’t get it. Cecilia…’

She didn’t understand the hearts of the weak.

Because she had never been weak.

After all, Cecilia was the one who had reduced the knight order to rubble when she was just 6 years old.

‘Commaner…! You seriously failed on the parenting front…!’

But the self-assured, peerless Sword Princess didn’t see any problem.

With a serene expression, Cecilia raised her sword to the sky and declared:

“Tempest.”

***

The icy spears alone had been more than enough of a threat.

Now, with a massive storm howling through the frozen field, the recruits were being pushed to their limits.

Thoooom!

“W-what was that just now…”

A huge crater had been carved into the earth.

While the ice spears were numerous, they shattered relatively easily.

But that attack just now? It was different.

“Looks like a few tough ones were mixed in…”

The moment the knights realized this might actually kill them, they snapped into focus.

They hadn’t come this far just to die after finally joining the Windsor Knights.

“Anyone with defensive Blessings, deploy barriers! The rest, strike down the projectiles with your swords!”

Riharten took command.

He bore the Blessing of the Iron Wall, and could deflect the most spears of all.

With that reliability, he naturally assumed the role of field leader.

Now that they had someone calling the shots, their movements became swift and coordinated.

These were military trained individuals, after all. They were confident in carrying out their superior's orders.

Once they got the hang of countering the attacks, the hellish storm of ice finally began to subside.

“Haaah—”

Many knights collapsed where they stood, exhausted.

The cold had drained their strength, and every hit from the mana-enhanced ice crystals hurt twice as much.

Thank the heavens for Beatrice, who had used the Blessing of Light to continually dispel their status aliments—

Otherwise, the outcome could’ve been far worse.

Still—

“Finally. It’s over.”

A knight let out a sigh of relief—

Only to be met with countless stares.

“W-Why’s everyone looking at me? There’s no way she’ll do more after this, right?!”

And just like that, all eyes shifted to Beatrice.

The others were battered and bruised, but Beatrice looked relatively fine.

A bit winded, perhaps, but otherwise unharmed.

It was all thanks to that hole.

Unlike the others who had to block attacks with their entire bodies, Beatrice only needed to guard a single opening.

“Betty! What do you think comes next?!”

“…This is probably just the beginning.”

She spoke awkwardly, digging her hole even deeper with her little trowel.

“Why do you keep digging?!”

“What do you mean it's just the beginning?!”

Beatrice nervously dropped a clump of dirt by her feet, then replied:

“Lady Cecilia gave me a book, and in it, it said…”

She shared a part of what she had studied:

—Demons always seek to exploit human’s weaknesses.

—If you understand this tendency, in reverse, you can predict how they'll act.

—If your stamina has been drained, the next challenge will likely demand more physical exertion.

—If you've been frightened, then something that shakes your emotions will likely follow.

The gathered knights fell silent, thinking hard.

“Weaknesses, huh…”

“…If only it were just one or two.”

Exactly.

After enduring the ice storm, they were completely drained physically and mentally.

“What do you think?”

Once again, all eyes turned to Beatrice.

She answered, sounding uncertain.

“Lady Cecilia doesn’t seem the type to overcomplicate things.”

“In that case…”

“The next thing will probably have to do with… the cold? It’s freezing.”

She was absolutely right.

The snowy terrain beneath their feet exuded a relentless chill.

The ice piling around them only added to the creeping cold.

And the worst part? They barely had enough mana left to resist it.

“Now that you mention it… yeah, the cold seems like the next logical step.”

“Should we start a fire or something?”

“That’s it!”

With their minds made up, the knights headed to the nearby forest, intending to cut down some trees and gather firewood.

They stacked it neatly, and Beatrice concentrated light beam into a single point and lit the fire.

“Ahhh, finally some warmth…”

“Thank goodness. We can at least do something about the cold.”

Their confidence began to return.

Working together had brought some progress.

They were reminded of how vital it was to not be alone.

Even in that short time, a sense of camaraderie began to blossom.

…Though a bit of competition came with it, too.

‘So this is why they only accept through the formal test…’

‘Isn’t she the only subordinate in the Windsor Order that follows Lady Cecilia directly?’

The way some of them looked at Beatrice changed.

She was a fellow recruit, yet already seemed far ahead.

Fwoooosh—

That’s when a piercing wind, cold enough to rattle their bones, swept through the field.

Everyone instinctively braced themselves, and the wind only grew stronger.

“It’s starting!”

“A blizzard! Brace yourselves!”

“The fire! The fire’s going out!”

By the time they scrambled to protect the flames, it was already too late.

The blizzard was so fierce they could barely open their eyes, and the fire had long since been buried in snow and wind.

“Damn it! She might have a cute face, but she’s a straight-up demon!”

Dessen couldn’t hold it in any longer and shouted an insult.

Beatrice, meanwhile, had gone pale, her hands trembling uncontrollably.

“What’s wrong?”

The puzzled Dessen followed her pointing finger—

And there she was, Cecilia standing right behind him, silently staring.

Dessen passed out on the spot while still standing.

***

Watching the shivering knights, Cecilia felt a tiny twinge of guilt.

‘Maybe I went too far?’

But this level of pressure was necessary to reduce the mortality rate.

Most rookie casualties on the battlefield didn’t happen because they were weak, but because they couldn’t perform at their full potential under pressure.

With proper use of their blessings, many could have survived.

But panic, mental fog, or lack of focus often led to needless deaths.

That was just tragic.

“Do you like the picnic spot?”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!”

They shouted through chattering teeth, doing their best to endure the cold.

Even standing still was difficult in the blizzard.

“I’m glad to hear that. I put a lot of thought into choosing it.”

Cecilia said this casually, hands clasped behind her back.

“Starting today, you’ll be training with me for the next two weeks.”

“H-here?! Right here?!”

“Yes.”

The knights’ faces twisted in horror at the mention of two weeks.

‘They must be thrilled. It’s not every day a pretty Sword Princess personally trains you.’

That had to be why they looked like that.

“The goal is survival. Someday, you’ll be facing demons in conditions even worse than these.”

‘Though… that’s not the only reason I designed the training this way.’

Cecilia had a more specific agenda.

Extreme conditions.

Of course, as mentioned earlier, every Windsor knight needed to be ready for combat in harsh terrain.

But that wasn’t something rookies would encounter right away.

Dungeons that could alter the weather were typically the domain of high-ranking demons.

For now, that was far above their pay grade.

So then, why did she push them into such brutal conditions?

The reason is simple.

‘Since I’ve got them all gathered in one place, might as well crack them open.’

Newbie Gacha!

Every Blessing was different.

And their limits varied wildly.

Even Cecilia didn’t know the full potential of all the blessings the new recruits carried.

But now, with everyone run ragged and pushed to the brink—

This was the perfect time to find out.

There’s an old saying: when pushed to their limits, humans show impossible strength.

Therefore, Cecilia was curious.

‘How many of them will break through? I hope we’ve got some S-ranks in the batch…’

She genuinely wanted them to grow stronger.

Which is why she said—

“Everyone, close your eyes for a moment.”

“Huh? Uh, yes ma’am.”

The knights shut their eyes. Darkness is all they can see.

“That is your future.”

“!”

‘Everyone’s having fun with it.’

Cecilia beamed.

She had spent 5 whole days coming up with that joke, just for today.

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