Musou Knight: Crow of Cinders-Chapter 59: Invitation Letter

Chapter 59 - Invitation Letter

With no external interference, I enjoyed a rare period of peace. I instructed the servants to leave me in the training area by myself, allowing me to destroy additional training dummies for attribute farming.

It took me the entire afternoon to destroy another one, using merely a wooden pole. My arms, shoulders, back, and legs were trembling. Wind started coming out of my ears. It was as exhausting as when I tried doing burpees ten times in my forties.

An attack badge appeared, increasing my attack power by 10. However, no manual or scroll dropped this time.

I returned to my mansion for dinner. After a bath, Dorothy brought me a letter.

As I couldn’t read the local language, I asked Lenitia and Lia for help. They gathered in my room.

Lenitia was modest as she wore a casual long dress. On the other hand, Lia was in see-through lingerie. Did she expect something? Can’t tell.

"What do you want?" Lenitia asked while she glanced at Lia, visibly disgusted.

"Help me read the letter." I passed the letter to Lenitia.

Lia pouted, yet she peeked at the letter, reading it together with Lenitia.

Lenitia read the letter and then looked at me with a scornful smirk.

"Congratulations, Sir Crow. You’ve been invited to the prestigious Frogine Knight Academy and to attend the royal knight class."

I furrowed my brow. "Royal knight class? What is that?"

The game and the developers never explained this part. They didn’t provide specific details about each academy, offering only generalized life stories of the main characters, supporting figures, and antagonists from all factions.

Lia peeked at the letter and smiled wryly. "Yes, the special class for the top squires and knight candidates. Only ten are accepted at a time each year. The rest are put into classes according to their level and primary musou element."

This got me curious. I asked, "So, is everybody in the royal knight class high-leveled?"

"I don’t know about this city’s academy, but in my country, all level 3 students are transferred to the army when the semester ends. You either get stuck there for a decade or achieve level 3 before you can leave. Lia and I both successfully completed our nation’s academy curriculum."

Lia added, "Her Highness spent two years. I only took one, and I got to level four."

"Lia!"

Lia laughed and hugged Lenitia. "I’m so sorry, Your Highness. Here, an apology kiss. Muah!"

Lenitia resisted, and both ladies laughed as though they were messing around. I sighed and shifted my attention to the letter.

It seemed I would be wasting my time there. After all, I knew how I could increase my level without attending the academy. However, I could also use this excuse to stay away from the upcoming war between Invidia and Avaritia.

"When will the new semester start?" I asked Lenitia and Lia.

The women reread the letter. Lia counted her fingers while Lenitia burst into laughter.

"Your suffering starts in ten days. May the Lord of Perseverance have mercy upon your soul even though you don’t deserve it."

"Oi." I snarled at Lenitia.

Lia chuckled. "It will be alright. It’s just hazing that you need to worry about."

"Hazing."

"Yes. Hazing. Most senior knights in Constantia Academy always bullied weaker newcomers and juniors. I believe the culture is similar everywhere. We used to fight in the Junior Knight Tournament and fought squires and knights from other academies. They said their seniors bullied them a lot."

Oh, nice. I forgot that they had the annual tournament for junior knights and senior knights too. However, in the game, it was just a side-feature, where players could pick a no-name mob character and duel other players online.

I sighed. I doubted I would be participating in one of those.

"Anything else that I should know?"

Lenitia sneered. "I don’t know. I never studied at this academy. Maybe they have a different curriculum."

She had a point. It was useless asking her.

"Alright. You two can leave."

"What? You called us in the middle of the night just to kick us out?" Lia’s expression turned stiff.

I confessed. "I’m too exhausted. You see, I almost puked this afternoon during my training. Let me rest."

"Then, let me sleep with you." Lia giggled and hugged my arm.

"..."

I took a deep breath and princess-carried her. Walking out of the room, I dropped her to the floor. Then, I turned to Lenitia, who laughed at her attendant.

Lenitia exited the room willingly. Crossing her arms, she mocked Lia.

"Serve you right."

Lia’s eyes were moist when she looked at me with those puppy eyes. Unfortunately, I had no musou or stamina to spare for the night raid. I shut the door in front of her.

After kicking the women out, I turned to the chests full of scrolls. Instead of sleeping normally, I chose an efficient way to manage time. I grabbed a random scroll from the chest and unfurled it.

As I had predicted, it shone. A wall of moon rune texts emerged, forming a wall. They entered my head, and I fell into a dream once again.

In the dream, I saw a clone of myself committing a shameful act. In front of him was a faceless silhouette of a woman. They were... doing that.

I wanted to facepalm, but I couldn’t. Was this the infamous dual-cultivation thingy that wuxia novel authors loved to write about?

Both my clone and his partner continued the deed, ignoring my existence. The suffering of watching my clone doing it with a doll continued. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

A hundred years passed in the dream. That stupid clone passed the knowledge to me, including the experiences of what he did.

As I woke up from my trance, I found myself lying on the floor. My back and shoulders ached.

As I sat up, I looked at my groin.

Damn the dream and the method.

Fortunately, my pants were not wet or smelly. However, it would take a while for the thing to calm down. I changed my mood by looking out the window.

It was still the middle of the night, yet my exhaustion lingered.

I crawled to my bed and collapsed. I had to skip training today.

Just as I was about to pass out, the windows creaked open. A silhouette slipped into my room.

I tilted my head to look in that direction. However, as I hadn’t lit the candles, the lights were out. I couldn’t see the person’s face.

The person slipped into my bed. Her first word immediately told me who she was.

"General, your mare yearns for war."

"..."