I Start with a Bad Hand!

“Well, your expression looks really bad….”

Roxanne’s gaze quickly darted to the grade board and back. Hmm… talking about grades is always awkward no matter the situation. Not knowing how to respond to her concern, I scratched the back of my neck.

“But, well… who can I blame? I didn’t study.”

Honestly, it’s more surprising that I got that score. Swallowing the last part, I chose my words carefully to end the conversation and leave.

“And the scholarship conditions are to stay within the top 10. So, it’s fine.”

Thanks for worrying about me. I waved lightly and turned to leave.

***

“Hey, it seems like only weirdos came from the Sereti Empire.”

The friendly match was just around the corner. While I had been lying in my room after the exams, the students from the Sereti Empire had already finished their welcome party and were roaming around the academy.

“No, they were training in the training yard and suddenly just took off their shirts and started running!”

Agnes’s face was bright with a big smile as she spoke.

“Isn’t that ridiculous? They even walk around the corridors with their shirts open, exposing their chests. It’s so embarrassing.”

“I didn’t know you could smile so brightly.”

“And if you make eye contact with them, they wink at you. It’s unbelievable, really.”

Despite saying it was unbelievable and embarrassing, Agnes seemed to be enjoying the situation quite a bit.

‘Indeed, they do look different from people from the empire.’

The students from the Sereti Empire, who came from across the sea, mostly had olive skin and curly hair. Their relaxed stride and the loosely tied robe-like clothes they wore were quite different from the neatly uniformed academy students. But it wasn’t just their exposed skin that caught my attention.

‘I’ve seen those patterns before.’

I was sure I had seen someone wearing a robe with those patterns somewhere before. The feeling of déjà vu was strong as I stared at them. One of them noticed me looking and naturally smiled and winked.

‘Hmm… that’s uncomfortable.’

Avoiding the wink awkwardly, I continued walking towards the archery field. All the archery club students, regardless of grade, had been gathered. A senior I hadn’t seen before was leaning against a table under a makeshift tent. He was holding a small wooden horse.

“The rules are simple. Bring the national treasure from the enemy’s camp to our camp.”

The start is from each camp. So, we’ll clash once in the middle. Moving the two pieces on either end of the table closer, the senior continued to speak. In using pillage as a game, they were showing the true spirit of the empire.

“…A national treasure? It’s a friendly match, and we’re using national treasures?”

“They just call it a national treasure. See these wooden blocks? Each side places an object of the same color. Last year, we used a book, and they used a glass cup.”

The senior tapped the wooden blocks on each side, ours being blue and Sereti’s yellow.

“So we won’t know what the other team’s national treasure is until the day of the game?”

“That’s right. It’s to prevent any possible cheating.”

Hearing this, I absentmindedly ran my fingers through my hair. Looking at the blue block, I remembered a detail from the original story that I had almost forgotten. If the original setting hadn’t changed, our chosen national treasure was somewhat… sneaky.

“The setup is like this: twenty people go into the enemy camp to retrieve the national treasure, ten people stay in our camp to defend, and twenty people move in the middle zone regardless of offense or defense.”

Agnes chimed in.

“Who are the people moving in the middle zone this time?”

A few students and I raised our hands.

“Have you all chosen someone to handle the horses? Remember, they don’t have to be from the equestrian club.”

Those who had raised their hands looked at each other and nodded. It wasn’t difficult to choose someone. As far as I knew, the person I had in mind was the best. Seeing that all the students had found riders, Agnes gestured for us to lower our hands.

“The horsemanship of the Sereti Empire students is inferior to that of our empire. But other than that… honestly, they have many exceptional talents.”

The senior from the archery club continued, begrudgingly admitting the skill of the Sereti students.

“That’s why we’ve lost four years in a row.”

“Four years?”

Simultaneous groans erupted from the students. I knew that last year, students from the Thomple Empire had gone to the Sereti Empire, and they had lost both at home and away, four years in a row.

‘Their pride must be hurt.’

That’s why the national treasure chosen by the Thomple Empire for this game was a bit special. I picked up one of the blue wooden blocks and fiddled with it. The Imperial Academy’s secret weapon. A brilliant move. A game-changer.

‘It’s probably because of those shimmering blue eyes.’

Our national treasure was Roxanne.

Unlike the past humiliating defeats, this time the students, led by the crown prince, fought fiercely until the very end. In the final confrontation, Roxanne was in the tent.

When Roxanne removed her robe and made eye contact with the students from the Sereti Empire, they could only nod and acknowledge her as a national treasure upon seeing her eyes. At that moment, Roxanne mounted the horse she had prepared and fled the scene. The Sereti students, not anticipating that the national treasure would escape on horseback, were thrown into confusion, and thus, the Thomple Empire secured its first victory in five years.

When I read the novel, I thought, ‘Ugh, what’s this?’ and moved on, but being a participant now made me feel differently.

‘This is kind of underhanded.’

Of course, there were no rules saying that the national treasures each empire selected couldn’t be human, and the Sereti Empire people accepted it without complaint. But I couldn’t help but think, ‘You guys really wanted to win…’

Honestly, I didn’t quite understand why they went to such lengths. Aren’t we allies? Even though we had lost for four consecutive years…

‘Shouldn’t this be about fostering cooperation rather than competition?’

As the subtle tension between people, who initially seemed to be casually observing each other, began to grow, my thoughts solidified. Even those in the archery club, who seemed indifferent to such competitions, were no exception.

“Dietrich, stop. Don’t shoot.”

…Was that said in Sereti language? I had barely learned basic conversation skills in the foreign language, so it took me a moment to process. When I looked at the archery club senior with a bewildered expression, he responded with a nonchalant look.

“They’re watching you.”

‘They?’

Oh, right, there were a few Sereti Empire students watching us from across the training field. When I reflexively turned to look at them, the senior stepped closer, blocking my view naturally. While pretending to organize the arrows, he whispered quietly.

“They’re trying to gauge our skill level. So don’t show them more.”

We can’t reveal all our cards before the game even starts. An unusual seriousness crossed his face. Caught up in his intensity, I lowered my voice as well.

“Why suddenly speak in Sereti?”

“Their capital city is a port city, so they know all sorts of foreign languages. But Sereti is only spoken in our empire, so they’re not as familiar with it.”

Really, that’s the reason? Using Sereti to prevent them from understanding, even though we both struggled with the language, was amusing. Noticing my thoughts, the senior whispered sheepishly.

“They started it.”

The senior wasn’t wrong. The Sereti Empire students we passed in the training grounds and the academy’s dining hall indeed spoke various languages. Some I had never heard before, but often I could distinguish the languages even if I didn’t understand them.

‘Is that Spanish?’

Wow, they ask in Spanish, and someone answers in French? The academy now seemed filled with multilingual students. The Thomple and Sereti Empires shared the same primary language, with only slight accent differences making their speech easily understandable to each other.

Nevertheless, the added layers of linguistic diversity underscored the complexity of our interactions, and this friendly competition felt anything but straightforward.

So, when discussing important matters, each group used a language only they could understand. The Thomple Empire students mostly used Sereti, while the Sereti Empire students switched between various languages. However, none of them spoke Lucero. Damn it.

I had just started learning Sereti and didn’t know any other languages well, leaving me struggling in the middle. Whenever the two groups had their foreign language conversations, I would awkwardly fade into the background. Until then.

“These guys really suck.”

An all-too-familiar language reached my ears clearly. Did he just use the F word?

“Hey, watch your language.”

“Why? They can’t understand anyway.”

Not as well as German, but a foreign language I could understand. Though I couldn’t speak it well, I could somewhat listen to it.

‘Especially when it’s such explicit language.’

Sure, we’ve heard all kinds of European languages. It would be strange if it wasn’t included. With an indistinct accent, the Sereti Empire students were now speaking English.

“He rides well, but… I don’t know about… and….”

“What good is riding well….”

Listening to this confusing evaluation, I tried to piece together what they were saying calmly.

‘What are they saying? There are so many phrases I don’t understand.’

Aside from the curse words, I couldn’t grasp much.

Just then, I made eye contact with them. One of the Sereti Empire students, wearing an especially ornate robe, winked at me. I responded with a vague smile, and the student turned to his friends, continuing without changing his expression.

“They always make that dumb face and smile when they don’t understand.”

This was followed by a chorus of snickering laughter.

“Look, that girl does it too.”

I maintained that ambiguous, dumb smile, thinking I shouldn’t get caught up in their words. It was just a low-grade provocation, and falling for it would be foolish.

With that resolve, I resumed my early morning training.