Later that afternoon, after an hour of debating where Ard would sleep, Ard finally chose the men's dormitory, which disappointed Eva and Beatrice, while Alicia cheered in victory. Ard immediately headed to the men's dorm toward his assigned room before Eva could pull any stunts. When he reached his door, Ard took a deep breath and let it out. He opened the door and saw Geoffrey lying casually on the bottom bunk bed.
"Oh... are you rooming with me, Ard?" Geoffrey asked cheerfully, getting up and sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah... this floor is supposed to be exclusively for nobles, right?" Ard asked.
"Ah... it doesn't matter. We who are from the Durnhill Kingdom don't care who's a noble or who's a commoner, as long as you don't cause trouble and don't offend us to the point of making us angry, ha ha ha," Geoffrey replied, laughing.
"Ha ha... true," Ard said, joining the laugh.
"Ever been to the Durnhill Kingdom?" Geoffrey asked.
"I've never left the Orthus Empire," Ard replied. "I lived until I died in Durnhill and almost married Milia, who was no longer a noble, in my third life," Ard muttered to myself.
Ard glanced at a large, two-handed sword leaning against the wall right next to the bed. Geoffrey saw Ard looking at the sword.
"That's my sword, an inheritance from my grandfather. Since I can't use a dimensional box, I just put my sword there," Geoffrey said.
"It must be annoying to carry that around every day," Ard replied.
"Not really. I have a dimensional bag that I was carrying this afternoon. I usually put my sword in there when I go out. What about you? Where's your weapon? Tomorrow we have combat practice because the instructor wants to know the extent of our strength, right?" Geoffrey asked, showing him his bag.
"Um... I don't have a weapon yet, haha," Ard replied. "I definitely can't show them 'that'," Ard muttered to myself.
"Oh, I see. You'll get your weapon tomorrow," Geoffrey replied.
Finally, they started chatting. Geoffrey talked about his homeland, and Ard just answered, "yeah," "okay," "go on," just to keep the conversation moving. That night, "groook... groook," Geoffrey, who was sleeping below, was snoring loudly. Ard, sleeping on the top bunk, just lay on his back, staring at the ceiling and enduring Geoffrey's snoring until he couldn't sleep. Then he raised his hand.
"Dimensional box,"
As soon as he spoke the words, a swirling black hole appeared in front of Ard's hand. Ard then reached his hand in and, "shriiing," pulled out a long, double-edged sword with a black blade, a hilt base winged like an angel's wings but black, and a pommel with a glittering black gem. "Shiiing," he raised the sword.
"Hello Exgrandal. Ever since I could use the dimensional box in my seventh life, for some reason, this sword was already inside my dimensional box. And I've been using this sword ever since. Mirea told me its name... according to her, this sword belonged to the first hero who came to this world 3,000 years ago, and because he was betrayed, he became the demon lord, which is why the blade turned black. After losing to the female hero who founded the empire 1,000 years ago, they say this sword was lost to history... and apparently, it was in my dimensional box, haha," Ard muttered to myself, looking at the sword in his hand.
Ard opened his dimensional box again. He put the Exgrandal sword, which is called the "unholy sword" in history books, back inside his dimensional box. After that, he looked back up at the ceiling and put both hands behind his head. He ended up enduring Geoffrey's very melodious snoring all night, which kept him from sleeping.
"Hmph... does he usually snore this loudly? (thinking) As for the sparring tomorrow... I hope that princess doesn't cause any more trouble, and I definitely can't let her see Exgrandal, my sword," Ard muttered to myself.
***
The next day, on the training ground, the ten students of Class S gathered. A burly man in his thirties with a sword at his hip stood facing the ten people who were lined up sideways in front of him.
"Welcome to the sword combat class for the new heroes. My name is Roland, and I am your instructor," Roland said, introducing himself.
"Thank you, Instructor," replied all ten, including Ard.
Roland saw Alicia carrying a long, thin fencing-like sword at her hip, Milia next to her carrying two short swords at her hip, Beatrice carrying a thin sword but with a rose-like handguard, and Geoffrey carrying a two-handed sword on his back. Ainsley carried a kukri-shaped blade, Irwin and Patricia carried normal long swords, and Rosalind carried a large curved sword on her back. Roland noticed Eva and Ard were not carrying swords.
"Princess Eva, you don't have a sword?" Roland asked.
Without saying a word, Eva opened her dimensional box and pulled out a sword with a guard that looked like a pair of angel wings, a shiny double-edged blade, and a white gem on the pommel.
"Ah, the holy sword Exelion," Roland exclaimed.
"Whoaaah," Alicia, Beatrice, Milia, Rosalind, Geoffrey, Ainsley, Irwin, and Patricia were amazed at the sight of it. Meanwhile, Ard, who saw the sword up close because Eva was standing next to him, immediately turned pale.
"Wait... Exelion? Why does it look exactly like my Exgrandal... just a different color? In all nine of my lives, I never knew this princess had a sword like that. She never once took it out when fighting me. Did she not take me seriously or something?" Ard muttered to myself, shocked and feeling underestimated.
Roland approached Eva, then examined the sword and knelt on one knee in front of Eva.
"Forgive me, Princess, may I borrow that sword for a moment?" Roland asked.
"Please, sir," Eva replied.
Roland immediately held out both his palms as if asking for something, and Eva placed the sword on Roland's palms. But "thud," the sword immediately slipped and fell, sinking into the ground as if it were incredibly heavy and no one but Eva could lift it. Roland immediately stood up and looked at Eva, smiling.
"Pardon me, Princess, I just wanted to verify if that sword was real or not, because after the first female Emperor defeated the Demon King, that sword was supposed to vanish from history, and we have a statue of it in the imperial palace square," Roland said.
"That's right, Instructor Roland. That's what history says, but this sword suddenly appeared in my dimensional box," Eva said.
"Let me try it," Geoffrey stepped forward and tried to lift the Exelion sword embedded in the ground. He couldn't move the sword at all, even as his face turned red from using all his strength. Then Ainsley, Alicia, Milia, Rosalind, Irwin, and Patricia also tried, but of course, none of them could lift it. Beatrice, however, didn't even want to attempt it.
Finally, they discussed leaving the sword stuck in the ground. "Hmm," Roland and Eva turned to look at the hum beside them; their faces were immediately shocked, as were Beatrice, Alicia, Milia, Rosalind, Geoffrey, Ainsley, Patricia, and Irwin, who had the same expression as Roland and Eva. The reason was that they saw Ard calmly lifting the Exelion sword and examining it.
"Huh," sensing he was being watched, Ard turned to look at the others, startled. He glanced at the sword one more time and then back at the others. Only then did he realize he had done something that no one else was supposed to be able to do, and he forced a very stiff smile, but his face was pale,
"Um... ha ha ha... how did that happen? Um... sorry," Ard mumbled, as he let go of the sword and it plunged back into the ground. "Damn it, why did I have to be curious? I just wanted to know if this sword was really heavy or not... why did it turn out like this?" Ard muttered to myself.