Nishiura Pens Down, Swords Up: Throw Your Studies to the Wind Volume 1

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-7183-1586-0
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 250 Seiten

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

The third son of a viscount, Allen Rovene has hated studying since the day he was born. And no wonder-after suddenly regaining the memories of his past life at the age of twelve, he realizes he spent the entirety of his previous life hunched over a desk, studying like a studyholic! Reborn into his dream world of swords and magic, he's determined to make the most of his second chance by ditching the books and living a carefree, unburdened life-until he realizes the path to freedom has a detour in the form of the most renowned school in the kingdom: the Royal Knight and Mage Academy of Yugria. To become the magic-wielding, sword-swinging adventurer of his dreams, Allen's going to have to repurpose his well-honed study skills toward one goal-passing the hellish entrance exams and heading to the Royal Academy!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Nishiura, Mao

Weitere Mitwirkende

Maro

Nelson, Emily

Leseproben

Soldo looked taken aback as he tilted his head quizzically. He clearly hadn’t anticipated I would ask a serious question. “Why, you ask... I cannot say for certain, but perhaps there were only three influential families of prominent royal blood at the time the judgment was made?”

I couldn’t readily accept Soldo’s proposed explanation. For those three families to have come out on top of the fierce political struggles and then maintain their position for hundreds of years... No, there had to be some kind of deeper reason. Maybe now they held their positions simply because that was the status quo, but there must have been some initial reason they had been able to keep them in the first place.

It was like how in , there had been a three-way deadlock between the warring factions that had prevented the concentration of power within a single family. Come to think of it, the Tokugawa family had had three branches too... Sure, I was getting off topic, but cramming the facts of history into your head was pointless if, in the real world, you couldn’t explain things had turned out the way they had. Thanks to my newfound interest in history, I was now coming to understand that the reason you studied the past was so you could use it as a guide for the future. Maybe my failure to realize that in my past life was one of the reasons I had never managed to achieve anything of note.

If I hadn’t awakened, this would probably be around the point where I’d lose any interest in studying and attempt to distract Soldo with fruitless questions. But I wasn’t that child anymore.

Ultimately, my desire to understand the of history was unnecessary for a short-term goal like studying for entrance exams. So I left the question be, and Soldo continued his lecture, moving on to the rank of marquess as my hands semiautomatically took notes.

Nine distinguished marquesal families were spread across the sprawling lands of the Kingdom of Yugria (saying that, I still had no idea of the actual size of this kingdom). Each family had a vast estate of their own, and each also served as a minor ruler over the counts, viscounts, and barons within their region. In other words, this kingdom was composed of nine large regions, every one of them led by a marquess that often—overtly or otherwise—fought in his or her own interests. Each region featured a Noble College, a large branch of the Explorer’s Guild, and various other establishments and institutions. The children of noble families who hadn’t managed to enter the Royal Academy generally enrolled in the Noble College of their own region, just as my older siblings had done.

The next rungs on the hierarchy belonged to the counts, viscounts, and barons. Being Japanese (at least, originally speaking), the sheer number of noble families in this land was overwhelming to me. The number of counts—eighty or so—was high, but that was at least understandable. On the other hand, the kingdom’s viscounts numbered over one thousand, and the barons exceeded eight thousand.

To put it in the context of my past life, if the marquesses were like the rulers of the Kanto or Chubu regions of Japan, the counts were the prefectural governors, the viscounts were the city mayors, and the barons were like the town chiefs. I didn’t really know how big this land actually was, and of course, the ruling system here was different from Japan’s, but since Japan had undergone a lot of consolidation in its municipalities, I was pretty sure there were now no more than two thousand town-level governments left there. Meanwhile, the number was certainly much higher here. In a kingdom with a history as long as this one’s, and with population growth constantly leading to newly established regions and newly conferred titles, the number of nobles had slowly ballooned over the years.

Naturally, given said growth and the staggering number of nobles out there, the percentage of commoners with noble blood was high. In fact, it would be nearly impossible to find a commoner who have some noble blood in their veins. There were many noble families, but within each family, only one person could inherit the title; those who weren’t chosen for succession would instead assimilate into the working class. It wasn’t even unusual for a commoner to be able to trace their bloodline back to the family—though they wouldn’t be conferred any special treatment for that.

In the founding days of the kingdom, there hadn’t been as many noble families as there were today, and it had been those with strong magical abilities and the resulting genetics who’d been given special positions in the aristocracy. Now, however, there was no great divide in magical ability between nobles and the rest of society. In fact, it was fairly standard practice for a noble family to adopt a commoner child who showed signs of great magical talent—though the exchange was transactional rather than charitable. In exchange for the family providing support to the child throughout their higher education—whether in the Royal Academy or elsewhere—the child would be expected to use their newly acquired influence to elevate their family’s position within the aristocracy.

Speaking of schooling, there was a compulsory childhood education system in this kingdom, attended by noble and commoner children alike. After completing one’s required education around the age of twelve, one could opt to advance to an institution of higher education, the most prominent of which were obviously the Royal Academy and the Noble Colleges. Owing to the kingdom’s long history and stable social system, a fairly high percentage of the population had completed some form of higher education, even when you counted the common folk. Reina was only the daughter of a poor, local baker, but she was already set to attend a seamstress’s college.

What I was coming to realize was that this world, in some ways, was not so different from Japan. The majority of the population went on to complete higher education, and your grades and the name of your alma mater would have a significant impact on your future prospects. Even accounting for the moderate advantages of belonging to a mildly well-off family, it seemed educational history was still paramount to one’s future.

I tried to force a do-over, but to no avail.

Soldo was staring at me again, his lecture on hold as he surveyed me with a threatening eye. I hurriedly offered him my notes, which I had still been taking through muscle memory even as my mind had been wandering. My messy scrawl in this world was a far cry from the neat handwriting of my past life, but I was still confident in my ability to summarize the main points concisely and highlight any areas I wasn’t sure about.

Soldo’s eyes widened as he reviewed the sheets of paper, although, as I’d expected, he refrained from offering me any praise. He was probably worried that praising me at this point, rather than encouraging me to keep going, would just convince me that I’d made enough of an effort to call it a day. Sure, Soldo had watched over me ever since I’d been born, but for my part, I’d been on the receiving end of his sermons as far back as I could remember. There was nothing couldn’t tell by looking into his eyes either.

“We must maintain this rhythm, Young Master. For the next two and a half months, you will study at this pace or die trying! I will guide you on the path to certain admission to the Royal Academy!”

I got what he was saying, though. The Allen who’d existed up until this point wouldn’t have been able to summarize the contents of even one of Soldo’s tedious lectures like I’d done today. That Allen wouldn’t even have been able to listen to him for an hour. There was still a lot I was unsure about when it came to my awakening, but the feeling of suffering I’d always had while studying had vanished in an instant. On the other hand, I hadn’t lost the urge to play around either, nor did I feel any guilt at the mere thought.

Study Schedule

Ever since that day, I’d been diligently testing out and analyzing the various consequences of my awakening, as well as all the new ways of thinking that had accompanied it. Because Soldo’s lessons stretched across most of the day, I could only really move freely before breakfast and between dinner and bedtime.

The entrance examinations for the Royal Academy tested both practical skills and subject knowledge, and as such, it was common for aspiring test takers to devote half a day to one area and the other half to the other. In my case, however, my practical skills were apparently already considered strong enough that I’d safely score above the passing grade, and as such, Soldo had petitioned my father six months ago to permit him to implement what he referred to as the “Absolute Success Strategy.” This method removed any practical training from the curriculum, instead allocating the full day for lectures in an attempt to remedy my woefully lacking subject knowledge. However, despite the name of his strategy, Soldo’s schedule...

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