That's Just How It Is Wherever People Live

“The familiars have all reached their assigned positions.”

“How’s the mana flow?”

“Everything’s normal.”

“Good.”

Upon the enormous map laid out before the supervisors, dots of various colors glowed as they scattered across the region in groups of four.

“When do you expect the exam to end?”

Behind the supervisors, who were checking their connections to the familiars used for grading, a middle-aged man reclining in an ornate leather chair spoke.

“At the earliest, we expect the results to be ready by the afternoon of the day after tomorrow.”

The vice principal answered the man’s question without hesitation.

The man let out an impressed “Oh.” and looked up at the map with interest.

“That’s faster than usual. I suppose the rumors that this year’s first-years are exceptionally talented must be true.”

“I can’t say yet that their overall level is high, but the top students are certainly more capable than those of previous years.”

“Come to think of it, you said there was one particularly remarkable student. The name was… Ah, yes, Kairos….”

“It’s Kairos, Superintendent.”

“Ah, Kairos, that’s right.”

The superintendent scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed.

The vice principal did not bother adding anything and continued speaking as he looked up at the enormous map again.

“There are many promising talents besides Kairos. Several prodigies have already perfectly mastered first-tier magic.”

“Oh-ho, first-tier magic already….”

The superintendent stroked his beard in admiration.

“I hear that Lady Clostermann and that Kairos boy have already reached the threshold of the third tier?”

His voice carried unmistakable anticipation.

“That’s correct, Superintendent. Both students are preparing for their promotion exams under the guidance of the academy’s finest instructors.”

“Ha-ha, that’s truly commendable.”

The superintendent smiled with satisfaction and turned his gaze to his left.

“Come to think of it, Miss Erica, you achieved fourth-tier advancement in your second year, didn’t you?”

At the sudden question, Erica flinched slightly and lifted her eyes from the map to look at the superintendent.

Then she smiled brightly—a perfectly polished smile—and answered.

“Yes, Superintendent.”

“At this rate, I wonder if your record as the youngest person to advance a tier might be broken.”

The superintendent laughed heartily, as though he had made a particularly amusing joke.

“……Ha-ha, then I would be honored.”

Erica smiled awkwardly and lowered her head.

Only when the superintendent chuckled and turned his gaze back to the vice principal did Erica look up at the map again.

‘There are only two second-tier magic users…?’

No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t accept that. That child had casually unleashed second-tier magic over and over, hadn’t he?

“Miss Erica.”

Then the superintendent called her name again, and she turned her head once more.

By then, the superintendent was leaning back in his plush chair and asking in a languid voice,

“Is there perhaps a student whom the Deputy Minister has taken a particular interest in?”

“Yes, Superintendent. My father only said that he wished to meet ‘the student with the most promising future.’”

“Ah, I see.”

The superintendent nodded as though pleased and grinned.

“Then I would like to recommend two students I’ve been keeping an eye on. I trust that won’t be a problem for you, Miss Erica?”

“Two students…?”

“They’re exceptionally talented children. I’ve already heard their names, even here.”

The superintendent tapped his fingers lightly against the armrest.

“Ah….”

The smiles vanished from Erica and the vice principal’s faces at the same time.

But Erica soon answered with a businesslike smile, as though nothing had happened.

“Of course. My father will certainly be pleased if they’re students you recommend, Superintendent.”

Inside, she was shouting ‘That conniving pig bastard.’ for perhaps the hundredth time, but that was simply how things worked in society.

The superintendent nodded in satisfaction and rose from his seat.

“Then I’ll deliver the list of recommended students directly to the vice principal later.”

“The exam is about to begin, Superintendent.”

The vice principal spoke in a voice as stiff as his expression.

“I suddenly feel hungry. I’ll go have a bite to eat and come back.”

The superintendent smiled brightly. His mouth was smiling, but the corners of his eyes did not rise at all—a thoroughly artificial smile.

The superintendent hummed as he left the room. Erica and the vice principal silently watched him go, their faces stiff. Then, as soon as the door had closed completely, they turned to face each other as if on cue.

“Do you have any idea who the students might be?”

“I’m not sure…. I haven’t received any information in advance.”

The vice principal’s sigh felt much heavier than usual.

Erica answered with an awkward smile, “I see.” The vice principal took off his hat as though frustrated and added,

“The other two will certainly be Kairos and Ellie, though.”

In a way, it was the obvious outcome. Kairos and Ellie were not merely the first- and second-ranked students; they were ‘the leading figures of their generation,’ who would carry the future of Luminous—and, beyond that, the entire magical society—on their shoulders.

‘Then what about that girl….’

But another child’s face kept appearing in Erica’s mind.

The little brat who had blocked her attacks time and again. The sole suspect in that incident, and possibly the culprit who had left her beloved younger sibling in that state….

Honestly, she wanted to have a proper conversation with that child one more time.

It was true that Erica herself had lost her reason in anger and refused to hear anything the child had to say. But thinking about it calmly now, there were several things that didn’t quite add up if that child were the culprit.

Erica had gone back to the school in person because she was certain that brat would score highly on this exam.

She believed she would be able to personally hand the child an invitation to the Friesna estate.

‘Even so, beating Ellie will be difficult.’

It felt as though everything had become hopelessly tangled from the very beginning. Erica let out a small sigh and raised her head.

Her gaze naturally shifted toward the red dot indicating the location of Ellie, the young lady of House Clostermann.

※※

“This is… a hint?”

The underachiever tossed away the shovel in her hand with an incredulous expression.

“Tempus Redire.”

I stepped forward as though I’d been waiting for this moment and pointed my wand.

A flash of light immediately flared inside the hole, and the tattered scrap of cloth lying there returned to a piece of parchment about the size of my fist.

“Huh?!”

The underachiever staggered backward in shock, as though she had seen a ghost.

I snorted, bent down, and picked up the restored parchment. Then I slowly read the words written on it.

“It says… southwest from the summit.”

“Southwest would be this direction.”

Julia pivoted ninety degrees without hesitation. Ellie also looked up at the sky to check the direction, then nodded.

“Is that all?”

The underachiever came over beside me and muttered in dissatisfaction.

I nodded as I tucked the restored parchment into my clothes.

“This is only the first hint.”

The exact requirements varied depending on which teacher had designed the assignment, but normally, we had to find at least five hints to reach the final objective.

“Still, this is a pretty good hint.”

If it was southwest from the summit, that meant the search area had been reduced to roughly one-quarter of its original size.

I turned to Ellie and Julia and said,

“Let’s make finding the third hint our goal for today.”

It had taken us an hour and a half to find the first hint, so it wasn’t an entirely impossible goal.

Of course, the difficulty would gradually increase, but if Ellie and Julia worked together, finding the third hint should be manageable.

“Yes!”

Ellie nodded energetically. Julia also nodded halfheartedly and said, “Yes, yes.”

“Will three really be enough? We said we were aiming for first place.”

Only the underachiever shrugged with a displeased expression.

She really was getting carried away all by herself. I suppressed a deep sigh and turned southwest.

“Let’s see how much time we have, and find more if possible.”

After that, the tedious mountain hike began again.

For twenty minutes, we walked on in silence, in the order of me, Ria, Julia, and Ellie, with little conversation.

“Um, excuse me….”

Ellie’s cautious voice broke the silence. When I turned around, she had already come right up to me.

“What is it?”

I asked with a gentle smile.

Ellie hesitated, stammering, “Th-that is…,” before cautiously continuing.

“R-Randy… found something strange….”

“Randy was the familiar squirrel, right?”

“Y-yes… yes!”

Apparently pleased that I remembered Randy, Ellie’s expression brightened.

“What happened?”

When I asked, Julia and the underachiever also crowded around me, curious about what had happened.

Ellie flinched slightly under the sudden attention and continued.

“Th-that… another team has already found the second hint.”

“Whaaat?”

As expected, the underachiever reacted first.

She let out an incredulous laugh and shook her head.

“Even we, who cleared every task in under a minute, only just found the first one!”

“Even so, that’s incredibly fast.”

Julia likewise nodded in agreement.

‘They’ve already found the second hint…?’

I was just as baffled. The first and second hints should have been particularly difficult to find, shouldn’t they?

“I-I don’t know the details either. But Randy definitely said that team had found the second hint….”

“Hmm, I see.”

There was no way Ellie’s familiar could have lied.

Besides, seeing how certain the normally timid Ellie sounded, Randy must have stated it quite firmly.

“It isn’t Kairos’s group, is it?”

“N-no… If it had been Kairos’s group, Randy definitely would have mentioned it separately.”

Ellie cautiously shook her head.

“I understand. Then ask Randy to keep watching that team.”

It bothered me, but it was still too early to jump to conclusions.

The second hint might have been easy, while the third and fourth could be hidden unbelievably well.

“Let’s just focus on doing our own work properly.”

In any case, the grading criteria for the exam weren’t limited to getting the correct answer. What mattered was the ‘process’ of solving the problem.

Even if we fell a little behind, we should focus on demonstrating the exemplary problem-solving process the school expected.

‘There’s no need to get rattled for no reason, Evan.’

I steeled myself once more and stared straight ahead.

Still, thanks to Ellie’s news, I finally began to feel that the exam had truly gotten underway.

I pretended not to know anything, stretched, and activated mana detection.

Two teams not far away were heading in different directions. I roughly gauged their routes and nodded.

‘Still, I should prepare just in case.’

I, Evan Friesna. In ‘legitimate’ exams, I was a man who had never once lost first place.

And that undefeated legend would certainly continue this time as well.