Nishiura Pens Down, Swords Up: Throw Your Studies to the Wind Volume 6

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-7183-1596-9
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 6, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Pens Down, Swords Up: Throw Your Studies to the Wind

With the Royal Academy's camping trip now behind him, Allen is looking forward to spending the rest of the semester focusing on his hobbies-that is, until an urgent request from the king himself arrives. Yugria faces a grave threat, and the fate of an entire kingdom now somehow depends on the Royal Academy's...Sailing Club? Charged with transporting some of Yugria's greatest ice mages to the battlefront, Allen and Dan soon find themselves racing the clock to reach the very edge of the kingdom before tragedy strikes. Their mission is a challenging one, and with an assortment of eccentric mages along for the journey, it definitely won't be smooth sailing-especially when two of those mages are also beautiful young women who can't seem to keep their hands off of a certain classmate. Will they make it in time, or will jealousy's stormy seas spell disaster for Yugria?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nishiura, Mao

Weitere Mitwirkende

Maro

Nelson, Emily

Leseproben

Chapter One: The Crisis and the Envoy

Crisis

The short winter break at the Royal Academy soon came to an end, and following the Marquesses’ Meeting, the spring social season had begun in Runerelia. Nobles from all over the kingdom converged upon the capital, each with their own agenda; some hoped to strike profitable business deals with nobles from distant regions, while others traded valuable information, such as that concerning the renown and relationships of children from prominent aristocratic families.

Of course, not noble made the journey to Runerelia. Poorer nobles from the outlying regions without children of marriageable age or business to conduct had no reason (nor could many afford) to make the trip. However, if those nobles had a son or daughter preparing to take the entrance examination for one of Yugria’s prominent schools, such as the Royal Academy, the journey was essential no matter the expense. The spring social season was where information that could prove beneficial in the upcoming exams could be acquired for the right price, and was also a prime opportunity to make oneself known to the kingdom’s most influential families. A successful social season could mean the difference between passing and failing the exams, but that was just the start. If one’s child acquire a spot at one of those prominent schools, their educational accomplishment, potential marriage partners, and future career would all depend on their parents’ performances throughout the spring social season.

Over the centuries, the Royal Academy had cemented its role as the main producer of the future pillars of Yugrian society. It possessed astronomical resources and held significant influence across all facets of the kingdom’s governance, as did its graduates. Having a child admitted to such a school could easily propel a family on the fringes of nobility to kingdom-wide prominence and also served to further the influence of the region said child hailed from—or rather, the influence of the marquess who presided over it. The balance of power between the nine marquesal families was a delicate one, and counting even a single additional Royal Academy student among their subjects could swing the scales heavily in their favor. Understandably, for nobles with a metaphorical horse in the Royal Academy race, participating in the social season was both an honor and a responsibility—this year more so than ever.

Across the kingdom, nobles with eligible children were putting more effort into preparing them for the entrance exams than ever before, collectively driven by the rumors that had arisen after the Royal Academy’s annual camp. The current Class 1-A—most of whom were already known for their exceptional talent even prior to their enrollment—had achieved the highest score in history, easily beating the record set over a century prior despite being only in their first year. Even before the camp, Class 1-A had enjoyed a high reputation among the Yugrian elite, as one would expect from a group counting the “wonder child” Leo Seizinger, Feyreun von Dragoon (often referred to as the pride of House Dragoon), and Jewelry Reverence, commonly heralded as the reincarnation of Saint Sally Reverence, among its ranks. Of course, having the Indomitable Godolphen von Vanquish as their homeroom teacher—by order of the king, no less—had only added to Class 1-A’s renown.

However, the remarkable growth Class 1-A had achieved since their enrollment hadn’t exclusively been attributed to Sage Godolphen’s guidance. In fact, it was widely believed most of said growth was owed to the presence of another man—or rather, a boy. He’d emerged out of nowhere like a comet across the night sky, his brilliance almost blinding: the boy now known as the “living anomaly.” At this very moment, new stars were twinkling to life across the Royal Academy, their own brilliance undeniably set ablaze by his fiery spark. It was only natural that any parent would want to secure a place for their own child among such a dazzling constellation. And so, they flocked to the capital and busied themselves with dinner parties and discussions, completely oblivious to the disaster currently unfolding in a distant corner of the kingdom.

In the weeks to follow, an unprecedented calamity would change Yugria forever. That calamity would lead to the birth of a new star in their sky—and drastically alter the orbit of another one forever.

???

Barely a few days after the Marquesses’ Meeting, a certain report was brought to the urgent attention of Yugria’s most important figures. An emergency meeting had immediately been convened in a heavily guarded room hidden deep within the Royal Palace—a meeting which at this moment more closely resembled a funeral.

The worrying report, which had come from the Fourth Legion of the Royal Order, was based on the account of a group of explorers working in the Yabré Baronry in the Glaux Region. The explorers, as the report explained, had stumbled upon a clutch of hell locust eggs in the nearby marshes, with closer examination of the surrounding area revealing it to be one of thousands. The Fourth Legion had immediately dispatched a reconnaissance team to validate the accuracy of the explorers’ claims, but unfortunately had found them to be true. To make matters worse, the reconnaissance team had also estimated the remaining incubation period as somewhere between eight and ten days. Yugria’s leaders had found themselves in a hopeless position. They had barely over a week to organize and execute a large-scale extermination, and if they failed, a hell locust plague would bring the kingdom to its knees.

Most of the time, hell locusts—insect-type monsters found all over the continent—were regarded as little more than annoying pests. A hell locust plague, however, was no mere annoyance. A single egg (which an average adult would only just be able to hold with both hands) would produce approximately one hundred hell locusts, give or take a few either way. Fortunately, each clutch only contained a dozen or so eggs, so the resulting swarms could be exterminated relatively quickly. However, while a fertile hell locust would only lay a single clutch under standard breeding conditions, during a plague, it would lay thousands.

Scholars had yet to identify the cause of the plagues, and there was no pattern to their occurrence, with anywhere from a few decades to a few centuries between afflictions. Plaguing hell locusts possessed a ferocious appetite. They could turn an entire forest into a wasteland within minutes of emerging from their eggs, turning devastation into fuel as they began their journey, moving as one toward lusher, greener feeding grounds.

If the potential plague they currently faced headed toward the Rosamour Empire in the humid north, it would let Yugria avoid significant desolation. Sadly, such a miracle was unlikely. Past outbreaks had shown that the hell locusts preferred to target areas with milder climates and abundant greenery, which in this case, would take them south—directly toward the heart of Yugria. The rye-producing Glaux Region would fall victim first, quickly followed by the Dosuperior Region, the kingdom’s largest supplier of wheat. This year’s crops had only just been sown, and the seedlings had barely broken through the soil; a hell locust plague would their fields in just seconds. If that happened, the plague would be the least of their worries. In a matter of weeks, Yugria would be facing famine, soon to become just another of the countless kingdoms that had fallen into ruin as a result of hell locusts in the past.

If the plague was to occur in the summer when most of the grain crops had already been harvested, the potential impact would have been much smaller, with the Royal Order and the private armies able to exterminate the hell locusts before they could cause too much harm to the remaining crops. Unfortunately, it was not summer. It was early spring. The swarm would tear through their kingdom in the blink of an eye, leaving despair and desolation in its wake.

The resulting decrease in strength would leave Yugria vulnerable and if worse came to worst, would even present its neighbors with a prime opening for war. Given recent events, it would be foolish to expect the Rosamour Empire to sit by and twiddle their thumbs instead of seizing the opportunity to conquer the weakened Yugria in one fell swoop. If the eggs hatched, the subsequent extermination operation would monopolize Yugria’s forces for months, leaving the kingdom wide open to attack.

Of course, it would make matters much easier if they could simply destroy the eggs before they hatched, but doing so presented its own set of problems. Getting rid of even a single hell locust egg was a daunting endeavor. While they could be crushed or incinerated, one poorly aimed attack could lead to disaster. When threatened, the egg would somehow accelerate its incubation—and once it hatched, the resulting hell locusts would immediately devour the shells of their brethren, hastening the arrival of the entire swarm.

No, there was no room for error when dealing with a hell locust plague. Freezing the eggs was the most effective method to prevent them from hatching, but ice was one of the rarest magical affinities, with only around one in a thousand people possessing the talent. Mages with both an affinity for ice magic and the skill to wield it without damaging the eggs were rarer still, numbering no more than a few hundred across the entire kingdom. The ice-affined magic stones those mages would need were also...