Zac’s POV…

I see…. Soma-san’s words and actions are all from a realistic point of view. Not killing bandits and capturing them instead might sound good to the ears of some people, in reality, it’s nothing but a cruel ideal. A cruel ideal from the point of view of the victims and mercenaries who would actually be doing the job.

“…Soma-san, if I may ask…. Is there a reason for the people who came up with those claims to come up with them?”(Zac)

“The first candidate is religion, other than that there is Self-justice, hope for ideals to come true(no matter what the sacrifice is), people going with the delusion of them being able to save lives with only fancy speeches”(Soma)

“….Are you saying that speeches help people take care of themselves are useless?”(Zeek)

“No, that’s not what I said. I said is “with only fancy speeches” other than speeches one needs to be in the right circumstances to apply what he/she learned from the speech in his life. For example, you may go and give a public speech about how important it’s to make sure that open wounds are kept clean and treated properly. But without the knowledge on why and how, and without the availability of suitable medicines, and without the money needed to get those things your speech will be useless. On the other hand, if those things are already available then people will just clean their wounds and will treat them properly without the need for you to tell them making your speech redundant. But claims about how bandits shouldn’t be killed are about something that many people go through their lives without feeling directly. And so when those people hear speeches about those claims they would just agree with it because they haven’t heard about the horrors of bandits since the time of their grandparents when they were poor and living in some village. Since they have never heard about it for such a long time they convince themselves that the bandits are less “bad” ”(Soma)

“…They haven’t heard?”(The four Brothers)

“You guys yourselves hadn’t heard about till last week, right? Mercenaries specialized in killing bandits don’t go around telling people about what they experienced, and people would just steer clear from looking for stories about such scary things convincing themselves that if they hadn’t heard about it then it doesn’t exist”(Soma)

He is right…. I have never thought about how bandits are dealt with, and what did they do. And the Mercenaries were angry with us at first, I don’t blame them for that, no one wants to remember and talk about such things….. but what about Soma-san, from what I heard he specialize in hunting big monsters, what was his experience with bandits, kidnappers, and thieves?

“…Soma-san, what about you? What is your experience with bandits, kidnappers, and thieves?”(Zac)

“Me? I grew up in a particularly bad slum. My parents were dead for as long as I remember, and in that slum, people die regularly because of starvation or because they were killed by others looking for food. And there were many criminal hideouts in that slum, and they would kidnap children from that slum from time to time to make some pocket money. And of course, I was targeted by food thieves and kidnappers alike, and so to protect myself I had to learn how to fight back. That’s why I spent most of my time hiding inside boxes and barrels just staring at the thugs and criminals fighting and also at the knights who came to capture the criminals. I would spend hours not moving and just stare at them through the cracks trying to memorize every movement they made. Of course, as a child, I can never imitate those movements, but I can see and learn about the openings they have by seeing how were those openings were used against them by their opponents. Finding their openings and using them against my opponents was something I could do even if I am a child. And from there I started using what I learned against food thieves, and I effectively trained myself using them as training dummies. Eventually, the turn came to be targeted by two kidnappers, I led those kidnappers outside the slums defeated, and exposed them to the people of the town. After one day they came after me intent on killing me for some reason this time, thus I led them to the middle of the slums where a lot of obstacles are left all over the place. I managed to steal the weapon of one of them a short sword and used the sword and the surrounding environment to keep cutting them where their skin was thin, by the joints, forehead, neck, and between their fingers. The small cuts accumulated and their bleeding increased. I kept at it till they were completely exhausted, and then I finished both of them by stabbing them through their necks. From that day on I became known as the Bloody Kid in the slums….. well, I was taken in by an orphanage later on turning my life for the better”(Soma)

….Isn't that the way to hunt Horned Rabbits when under-leveled he showed us during the first week? But to think his life was like that….. Akud has a slum-like area as well, it’s the place where Soma-san opened the open market. Were their lives like this as well?

“Now… enough of this topic. Let’s properly start with the class! Starting tomorrow, the Actual Combat classes will be held on the training grounds! You guys are going to start learning about Body Reinforcement, Physical Enhancement, and Mana Armour! You’ll start with the Body Reinforcement! All you have to do is sit in a meditation posture and control your Mana and have it move around inside your bodies in circles! Doing this requires a lot of concentration, and the faster your Mana moves the better! I want you to keep doing this and increase the time you are able to keep it up! At the start, it will be difficult to even keep doing it for mere seconds, but as you keep at it that time will increase naturally!”(Soma)

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After finishing his class, Soma headed towards the Club Building and headed towards a particular club, The Queen Society. Soma headed directly to The Queen Society holding a notice signed by both himself and the Headmaster Leona. The Queen Society clubroom was being used as a headquarters by the boycotting students who were protesting this morning. They were having a meeting about how ineffective their protesting was with a frustrated Mira at their head. Suddenly the door was opened without even knocking first, and from there appeared their enemy Soma holding the notice up so they can see it.

“…You?! How dare you enter here like that?! This is MY Queen Society! You have no right coming into here without MY permission!!”(Mira)

“Are you stupid or what? Where do you think you are? This whole building belongs to the Academy, and besides as of this moment YOUR Queen Society is disbanded, and all of its members are required to cooperate with the authorities in their investigation about the small blades found with your students belonging to this club. And as of this moment, all of you are not allowed in this building, now get out”(Soma)

“BULLSHIT?!! Whatever you said is nothing but bullshit!! This place belongs to me!! Who would lesson to degenerate like you?!! Filthy commoner not knowing your place! You better take back all the nonsense you spouted just now and submit to me the Queen or else all of us here are going to turn your filthy corpse into a messed up pile of meat!!”(Mira)

“Continuing with my business here, Mira Hoggs you are charged with the destruction of the Academy’s property and with unauthorized modification to the Club Building. And as was decided by the Headmaster, here is a pill containing all the expenses needed to reverse the destruction and modifications you caused plus an added fee as a punishment. Furthermore, all of The Queen Society members are under the suspicion of being the ones behind all type of harm done to many students over the past five years, and to advance the investigation on the matter all of you will be visited by the town’s guards and will be requested to go with them for a simple interrogation. In case you refuse to cooperate with them you’ll be arrested right away. And lastly, if the number of days you don’t come to your classes reach three days you’ll be expelled from the Academy”(Soma)

“INSOLENT FILTHY COMMONER!!! Get him! Cut his limbs off! Burn his eyes! Shred his body! Stump on his head! GO get rid of this fool!!”(Mira)

Heading his mistress's orders, one of Mira’s personal guards unsheathed his sword and dashed towards Soma with the other guards behind him. Soma calmly started walking towards the personal guards coming at him. Soma lightly evaded the sword swung at him and countered with a frontal kick at the first guard’s abdomen launching him backwards towards his friends. The kicked guard collided with his friends knocking them out and then kept going slammed on the wall breaking it falling outside the building from the third floor. Amidst the surprised Mira and her followers, Soma walked towards the broken wall and placed his hand on it, and with that, the scattered fragments of the wall returned to their original positions as if going back in time. Once the wall was repaired, Soma faced Mira and her followers and released a small amount of intimidation at the followers only, making sure to exclude Mira.

“Now, Go home! Before I use force to remove you!”(Soma)

That sentence from Soma alone was like a signal. All of Mira’s followers rushed at the door leaving the clubroom and Mira behind. all of them were running away from Soma with extremely terrified expressions on their faces. All of them ran away as if staying in the room for even one more second meant their death. The left-behind Mira frankly tried to stop her followers from running away but all of them ignored her completely. Seeing that Mia was the only one left in the room, Soma walked towards her and kicked her towards the door. Mira who is now outside the room glared at Soma with everything she had, but Soma just ignored her and walked away as if nothing happened.

“Remember this, you filthy commoner! I’ll get you back for this humiliation!!”(Mira)