The Villain Reborn as Game's Final Boss

Chapter 259: Partner [2]

"A strong fighter won’t depend on his weapons. For him, they are and would always be a way of forcing his power on his surroundings... nothing more than that. If he goes to battle without a weapon, he would be able to fight the same way as he had fought using his primary weapons. So never depend on them."

Though Zenur was giving pretty good advice to these ignorant fools, I couldn’t help but be amused by his explanation.

After all, knowing Zenur’s personality, this was his way of introducing the assignment.

"But all things considered... the majority of the world’s history still considers knowing your weapon a core part of stepping on the actual path to power, or whatever it is called."

"..."

"..."

"So a small visit had been arranged by the academy to make you understand how the weapons are made in their forge, and what is the story behind every creation and all those things."

Zenur spoke while moving his hand in a dismissing gesture.

From his actions, it was clear that he didn’t feel any need for the visit to be arranged, and that too at a forge.

"Still... considering that your seniors would have more experience in using weapons than you, a small change had been made in the assignment. You will have to partner with any one of the students from the senior years, and both of you will be paired together for the entirety of the visit. Any questions regarding that?"

Zenur asked, though he seemed to know what questions the students would ultimately end up asking.

Dramatics for sure.

"Which year do we have to choose from?"

One of the students asked the most basic question that Zenur should have already explained, but chose not to.

"Good question."

Haa...

"You can choose your partner from any year... My advice would be to go with the ones from the senior-most year, that is if they accept to be your partner. But unfortunately, the students from the third and fourth years would already secure the seniors from the fifth year."

"..."

"..."

"Still... there’s a small chance that some among the fifth-year students will decide to partner with you, so... try your best, as the more detailed your report about the visit and the weapons... the better you will score. That’s all."

Tapping the table with his hand, Zenur swept his gaze across the class, seeing if there were any more questions, but knowing that there was nothing else to talk about—

"Where would the visit be?"

I chose to fill the silence with a question that many might have missed asking, or probably, looking at their faces... the question didn’t even seem to knock on the doors of their minds.

After all... making a student from the senior-most year select them might have been the biggest worry clouding their minds at the moment.

Still... as always, I was there to help the poor souls.

"Where do you wish to go?"

Hm?

Instead of answering my question, Zenur went on to ask a question himself, making me look at him in silence.

Why was he—

Ah!

"The academy should have already selected the location, so I don’t see any point in asking me... instructor."

I uttered the words with a neutral face, not taking the effort to even give a small smile. After all... I could see the sarcasm behind Zenur’s question.

"Oh! Is that so? I thought the headmaster should have already discussed it with you, but I guess he didn’t."

Zenur shrugged his shoulders at the end.

This bastard—

"Or did he?"

Another question.

Now the entirety of the class was looking at me with curiosity.

Well... everyone had their eyes narrowed at me with confusion filling them.

"I don’t see why the headmaster would discuss something like that with me, or... is it that he didn’t disclose the location to you?"

"..."

"My apologies, I shouldn’t have asked something rude."

Zenur didn’t refute my statement, though he managed to return a small smile.

I could even see his face showing signs of twitching from time to time.

Well... that was somewhat satisfying.

I could tell that Zenur was just trying to tease me, but... he had to learn that messing with me, even with a good motive in mind, wasn’t the best thing to do.

"Levaith Duchy."

Zenur, seeing that there was no fun in teasing me, answered without any hints of his previous carefree attitude.

"The Duke of Levaith Duchy in the Veltran Empire had specifically sent the proposal to the academy, as it was his wish to help educate the students in whatever way he could. This was just a small contribution on his part. Anything else?"

Zenur first looked at me and then once again swept his gaze across the class before preparing to walk away.

"The visit would be after a few days, so be quick in choosing your partner."

Saying his final words, the bald instructor left the class, though I could feel his gaze on me at the end... and I respectfully chose to ignore it.

"It’s rare for Duke Levaith to go out of his way and open his forge for the students to visit."

Kevin’s comment made me turn my head to look at him, though the guy was currently speaking to Noah, who looked curious to hear the new piece of information.

"Is he a bad guy?"

A typical protagonist question... and a childish one at that.

"Uh... I wouldn’t say so, but a forge is practically the heart of the House... and allowing us to visit it means that everyone would be able to see the forging techniques used by the blacksmiths under House Levaith. That means—"

"He is letting the world witness their secrets for free."

Noah’s interruption made Kevin nod his head.

Though what Kevin had said was true, there was a little catch to it.

Based on my deduction, Duke Levaith was trying to use this visit to boost his image in the minds of the public after the attack on one of the auction houses in their duchy, though the offer must have been presented far earlier, as after the recent attacks—