# May Is So Green
"May is so green, we are growing..."
"Kids these days don't know songs like that."
"Look who's pretending to be a modern kid. Ivan is actually the youngest among us transmigrators. His transmigration happened at the earliest age."
"...?!"
In this bizarre transmigrator club room that still had no official name, pain and sorrow hung heavily in the air.
The three transmigrators lay slumped over piles of books, their faces blank with despair.
"I'm in the Knight Department, so why do we have written exams..."
"I have a status window but no memo function..."
"I hate magic..."
In this pre-modern fantasy world, May isn't Family Month. But if there's one thing Earth and this other world have in common, it's that universities have exams.
"I envy you, Ivan. You're a grown-up with lots of money and no assignments or exams."
"Say that to my brother and you might be found dead the next day, Yuri."
"That would be a good opportunity to join my parents."
"Wow, you're making your own orphan jokes now, so I can't even argue back."
"No, I meant going back to Earth."
Sadly, St. Yansk University is prestigious. It's prestigious enough to shatter the common sense notion that first-year college students should spend their midterms drinking.
Faced with murderous exam coverage and terrible piles of assignments, the transmigrators were becoming exhausted.
While all university transmigrators were trembling in this harsh pre-modern society, Ivan was currently...
"AAAAARGH!!"
"Shh, be quiet."
Pouring healing potion onto a student's wound.
"S-save me...! Urrrgh!!"
"That's not what you should be saying."
"I-I am... the son of a viscount...!"
"Shh. Choose your next words carefully."
He sat calmly beside the student who was foaming at the mouth and sobbing, and spoke quietly.
"Speak."
"I will... I will never throw cigarette butts... on the ground again...!"
"And?"
"I won't... damage the street trees...!"
"Excellent."
In front of a gardener, throwing cigarette butts under street trees is a terrible evil comparable to a capital offense under international law.
Taking into account that the other party was still a young student, Ivan was providing free smoking cessation clinics to a total of thirteen students.
# Episode 9. An Attack Always Happens During Academy Field Trips
"Hey! Mister!!"
This happened after Ivan had finished dealing with the thirteen environmental destroyers.
As peace returned to the campus, Ivan was closing the lid of his healing potion.
Turning his head toward the voice, he saw Isabelle waving and running toward him from a distance.
"Hmm."
"Greetings usually consist of words like 'hello,' 'good morning,' 'have you eaten?' or 'how are you doing these days?'"
Isabelle approached with a bright smile and looked around. After glancing at the shrubs covered in blood and healing potion, she made a sour face.
"Um... were you attacked by demons?"
"Something like that."
"You must have had a hard time! I heard screaming during exam period and thought you might be killing someone again, so I came to check!"
"I'm quite concerned about the image you have of me."
Isabelle laughed with an "Ahaha" and turned her head slightly. That was answer enough.
"Oh right, please help me! I need your assistance..."
"Help?"
"Well, I have a practical evaluation that's too difficult. I mean, is a first semester midterm practical supposed to be this hard?"
"Hmm."
Ivan wondered what he could do for a Knight Department midterm exam.
They probably wouldn't be teaching prisoner interrogation, information concealment, or sabotage.
Ah, perhaps military strategy? Fortunately, he had field command experience, so he could offer some advice in that area.
While Ivan was lost in thought, Isabelle smiled and said:
"Ambush response!"
"...Hmm."
That seems like a rather... special subject to teach first-year college students.
Ivan reconsidered the usefulness of this university. Is such a school really necessary?
Anyway, it was within his range of expertise. Both ambushes and ambush responses were part of his military specialties.
"This must be Enrique's class?"
"Yes. Goodness, I wonder what use teaching such things could be."
"I wonder about that too."
Ivan nodded readily and took the lead.
Pritzenkaya is considered a highly developed metropolis within the United Kingdom. And in this uncivilized pre-modern era, a metropolis encompasses an entire wide-ranging living area.
In other words, it needs sufficient resources like farmland, plains, forests, and rivers nearby. Pritzenkaya was like that too.
The forest that spread east outside Pritzenkaya's outer walls. Ivan arrived at the forest entrance with Isabelle and did some light stretching.
"Coming here reminds me of that time. Wow, I really thought I was going to die that day."
"Hmm."
The triangle of conscience in Ivan's heart gave a slight twinge. In reality, Ivan had used Isabelle for an experiment.
The kind that tested whether a protagonist could die in the tutorial.
While it had been necessary, Ivan was an honest person and felt guilty about it.
"You're making a really annoying expression right now."
"I naturally have a smiling face."
"I really want to hit you."
Isabelle narrowed her eyes and grumbled.
"Hmm. But the exam location hasn't been announced yet. What we're doing where... Why did we specifically come here?"
"Enrique lacks imagination."
"...What?"
"If Enrique is conducting ambush training, it's one of two places. The Pritzenkaya underground waterways, or this forest. If she had to choose the more difficult one, it would be here."
Enrique is an extremely rigid and dogmatic fanatic. Ivan nodded as he recalled the Enrique of old times.
Like all elderly people who have lived long lives, Enrique is also someone who cannot escape her own prejudices.
Therefore, Ivan was certain. If she were to specifically set an "ambush response" exam, given her personality, it would most likely be conducted throughout the forest.
"Understanding the test-maker's intentions is a basic skill for any examinee."
"Wow, were you a good student, mister?"
"I wasn't bad."
Something the students of this fantasy world couldn't even imagine, but students in South Korea receive mandatory education for 12 years starting from age 7.
"I'm pretty good at written exams too. I'm confident I can get an A in almost all practicals, but for some reason, Professor Enrique's class is just too difficult. She's so merciless even during regular practical evaluations."
"Enrique was always like that."
"Wow, are you also a St. Yansk University graduate? Senior?"
"No, I didn't go to college."
Kim Seon-woo also never got his college degree. After military service, he entered this other world during his third year and spent another 20 years in military service.
For a moment, the inner Kim Seon-woo screamed and coughed up blood. Ivan silently continued walking.
"Anyway! Yes, um... well, I guess if you learned anything from Professor Enrique, you're a senior. Right? Hmm..."
"You don't need to comfort me."
How dare this pre-modern native.
"Yes... a well-educated uneducated mister. So how do we start preparing for Professor Enrique's exam?"
"Start?"
Ivan smirked and put his hand inside his coat. He grabbed a small metal ball.
He took it out and rolled it on the ground as he spoke.
"We've already started."
"What? Huh?"
-BOOM!
The metal ball immediately exploded, releasing a cloud of hazy smoke.
Isabelle hastily backed away, coughing. Smoke bomb...? No, this is...!
"You crazy old man! You're setting off chemical bombs on a student!!"
Without answering, Ivan crouched in the smoke. Tap, tap. After rolling his feet a couple of times, he sprang up into a tree and hid in the shadows of the forest.
From behind the shadows, he whispered softly.
"I'll match your level."
"I swear if I catch you, you're dead. I'll shave you bald."
"...I'll train you as if it were real combat."
The Annihilation Squad officer's field training begins!
Ivan was racing through the forest, firing shots at Isabelle to maintain distance.
There was no need to use his full strength. Since Isabelle had almost fully developed line-of-fire detection, a single warning shot was enough to intimidate her.
Therefore, he used live ammunition. Directly threatening one's life was the most effective way to fully awaken line-of-fire detection.
"You're insane! Mister, are you crazy?! Y-you're shooting a gun!!"
-BANG—!
Each time she shouted, he would aim precisely between her eyebrows, fire, and retreat.
She would have learned a lesson from this. When targeted for an ambush, one must move more stealthily than the opponent.
An ambush is fundamentally like hunting. Both hunter and prey need to blend into their surroundings to avoid each other's gaze.
So Isabelle, dressed in unnecessarily fluttery clothes, deserved a failing grade from the start of the exam.
Ivan nodded as he smeared mud under his eyes to block reflective light.
Click, bang.
To distract Isabelle's attention, he fired a shot half a beat later and changed positions.
'Come to think of it, an external field exercise.'
Ivan looked around with sharp eyes. This forest, as he had recalled before, is close to the Pritzenkaya Capital Defense Force's military camp.
In other words, it's a highly secure safe area. Therefore, Enrique could also use it as an exam site without much worry.
However, Ivan knew.
'It's "common sense" that attacks happen during external field exercises...'
Ivan was a very sensible person, so he decided to combine Isabelle's training with searching for signs of an attack.
Isabelle clutched her torn skirt hem, trembling.
"What... is this really...!!"
Why so serious! I mean, common sense dictates that when a 10-year-younger girl suggests simple training in the forest, the first thing that comes to mind should be a picnic, right?
Not quite a date... but still. Not out of affection or attraction, just gratitude for saving her that time. To express thanks.
With that grumpy, monstrous personality, he obviously wouldn't have any friends. So she had planned to be his friend, if only briefly.
Isabelle stared blankly at the picnic basket that had been swept over by chemical bombs and dirt, and trembled when she saw the ruined sandwiches through the open lid.
"Mister."
She tied her disheveled hair back tightly and smiled coldly.
"I'm really going to kill you."
To teach "common sense" to that insane secret agent who lacked it.
The Hero awakens.