Chapter 3
Victor, one month since possessing this body.
His greatest achievement.
Eliminated at the Academy entrance.
“So Grandia Academy isn't what it used to be. Just look at this underqualified idiot making a fuss about getting in···.”
The teaching assistant let out an exaggerated sigh, as if deliberately making sure it could be heard.
A boy stood timidly in front of him.
Applicant number 3720. Real name: Victor.
The teaching assistant clicked his tongue in displeasure.
‘Tch··· And he looks strange, too.’
Perhaps it was because of the mask covering his face.
A clown mask with a broad grin.
If that was fashion, then he had a truly eccentric aesthetic sense.
Thanks to it, the teaching assistant could not shake his unease.
‘What a mess. What a complete mess.’
He rifled through the results.
A glittering crystal ball.
[Victor]
Theory:A+
Stamina:E
Strength:E
Agility:E
Divine Power:E
Sorcery Resistance:E
Mana Sensitivity:E
He had set a new low for the day in every category except theory.
How had someone like this even thought to challenge the entrance exam?
At this level, his stats were enough for a duel of the century with a goblin.
In vulgar terms, he was mob-level.
‘What a funny guy.’
There were people like that sometimes.
People blinded by their dreams, challenging goals they had no chance of achieving.
The teaching assistant hated trash of that sort most of all.
Even while clicking his tongue, the clown in front of him kept acting smug.
“Huh? Are the results really that bad?”
“If you have eyes, look for yourself. Your overall grade is E.”
“Doesn't E grade stand for Excellent?”
"Then what does A grade stand for?"
"Asshole? Moron?"
“Do you think that makes sense?”
The boy reacted comically, as if he truly had no idea.
Somehow, that reaction suited the clown mask perfectly.
The teaching assistant roughly ignored him and explained the final part of the exam.
“This is the final stage. You will spar with the teaching assistant in charge.”
“A spar?”
“You may be injured. In fact, a fair number of applicants are injured every year. It would be best to give up now. With your skill, you won't pass; you'll be carried away with something broken.”
“You're being rather hurtful. I came all this way, so shouldn't I naturally take the exam until the very end? Besides, the results aren't final yet.”
The clown replied leisurely.
The teaching assistant could only snort.
“Ha.”
It isn't final, huh.
That wasn't exactly wrong.
In theory, that was true.
He had received the highest score in theory, at least, unless every category had been the lowest possible score.
If he got a perfect score on the final practical test, he might just scrape by.
‘He could probably claim the very last spot.’
He might make it into the lowest class—perhaps the bottom of Class E.
But that was only if he managed a perfect score on the practical test.
‘That makes no sense.’
The lowest score in every category except theory.
Stamina, strength, magical power··· there wasn't a single category where he stood out.
No, he was exceptionally bad at all of them.
And yet he intended to get a perfect score on the practical test?
In a one-on-one spar with a teaching assistant, no less?
“I don't know whether he's being unreasonable or simply has no idea of his own limits···.”
Still, he could not turn away someone who insisted on taking the exam.
The teaching assistant decided he would have to control his strength carefully to keep the boy from getting hurt.
“The practical test is simple. You must land three hits within ten minutes of the start of the spar.”
“Three times?”
“Any method is acceptable. They don't even have to be proper hits. A brief touch will do.”
“So merely grazing you will count. And three times within ten minutes. Isn't that too easy?”
“······.”
You think so?
He stared at the clown with that thought in his eyes.
The boy scratched his head awkwardly.
“Um··· let's just give it a try.”
“Be careful not to get hurt.”
That was the condition the teaching assistant had set for passing.
It was normally an assignment that students near the top of the academy could pass without trouble.
Even those around the middle struggled with it, while anyone below that level had difficulty grazing the teaching assistant even once, let alone three times.
Teaching assistants weren't scarecrows, after all.
By the time lower-ranked students barely managed to land one hit, the teaching assistant would have already planted five fists into them.
“Tch.”
It was customary for teaching assistants to be graduates who had finished with excellent grades.
In other words, they were an insurmountably tall wall for applicants who were mere fledglings.
“Do we start right away?”
“Enter as soon as you're ready.”
The clown was not even carrying a weapon.
A single old-fashioned robe and a mask with a grotesque appearance.
The teaching assistant let out yet another sigh.
‘He really doesn't seem to have any intention of giving up.’
The teaching assistant finally took up a stance.
A tightly clenched fist.
Meanwhile, the clown took a twig from inside his robe.
He had wondered if it was a wand for sorcery or some kind of magical tool, but it was neither.
It was simply an ordinary twig that could easily be picked up by the roadside, with no mechanism whatsoever.
“Heh heh.”
The boy fiddled with the twig.
He alternated between gripping it and releasing it with both hands.
‘Is he trying to stall for time?’
Just as he tilted his head in puzzlement, the teaching assistant's eyes caught something strange.
It was faint, but the area around the twig writhed like a heat haze.
His vision began to ripple in a way that was almost unnatural.
“······?”
“Then, I'll begin.”
Before the teaching assistant could react, the clown leaped.
The boy charged straight at him along a direct path.
Crack, crack-crack-!
The leaves trembled with a noise like shattering glass.
As if it were a headwind, a pitch-black rift opened in midair.
“What···?!”
The teaching assistant was flustered.
It was a sight he had never expected.
As a result, his fist shot out reflexively.
Fwoooosh-!
A cleanly extended straight.
‘I hit him.’
A strike aimed by predicting his route.
He was certain it was a perfect hit.
But.
“······?!”
Betraying that certainty, the end of his fist caught nothing at all.
There was no sensation of impact, only the feeling that he had missed by a wide margin.
Whooosh-!
The teaching assistant staggered from the momentum.
The clown had vanished from sight.
His silhouette seemed to glitch, then scattered apart.
‘He disappeared···?’
During that brief moment of distraction.
Tap-.
Someone touched him on the shoulder from behind.
“That's one.”
“······?!”
When he turned around in surprise, the clown was standing there with a broad grin.
The mask's eyes and mouth seemed even more widely torn than before.
The teaching assistant shook off his arm and stepped back.
But the boy had vanished from in front of him once again.
Tap-.
The twig touched his shoulder one more time.
“That's two.”
“What···!”
Whoosh-!
He swung his arm roughly, but the clown was not there.
He stood directly in front of the teaching assistant, far away from him.
As if he had remained in the same place from the very beginning.
He stood there blankly, giving a steady little nod.
“······.”
Was he seeing an illusion?
Could he be an illusionist?
That was impossible.
The boy's mana sensitivity was clearly E grade.
He should not even have been able to sense mana, let alone use magic.
“Assistant?”
“······.”
“Are you all right? There's still one left.”
If so.
How was he supposed to explain this situation?
Movements he could not follow, positions that changed from moment to moment.
‘What am I being subjected to?’
The eyes visible beyond the mask.
They seemed to glint a vivid red.
No.
Had it really been an illusion?
The corners of the clown mask's mouth stretched wide.
A gigantic maw yawned open, blood tears dripping from within.
Dozens of sticky tentacles writhed across its tongue.
A chill ran down his spine.
“Hah, hah···!”
It had been a hallucination.
He closed and opened his eyes once, and everything was normal.
There was no red light, no bloody tears, and no tentacles on the mask.
It merely continued to smile ominously, just as before.
‘An illusion? A curse? A dream? Or···.’
It was none of those.
This was···.
“I'll go again.”
“······!”
He stepped forward from over there once more.
The teaching assistant widened his eyes, determined not to lose sight of the movement.
Tap, tap-tap-.
The clown approached with somewhat frivolous steps.
He seemed to take a few steps forward, then retreat, and even spin around once with elegance.
‘What··· what is this!’
It was impossible to discern the intention behind those steps.
He had never seen such clumsy movement in his life.
The teaching assistant clenched his fist.
“Hnng···!”
After predicting the route, he loaded magic onto his fingertips.
He abandoned his intention of subduing the boy without causing injury.
His opponent was unpredictable.
Even if it hurt a little, he decided to subdue him decisively.
A white arrow drew taut, as though nocked on a bowstring.
-Lightning Spell, Third Form-
‘Thunder Arrow (雷箭)’
Cracklecrackle-!
Flashes and currents of electricity shot out in every direction.
This time, he was certain he had caught him, but.
Fwish-.
He disappeared.
His feet glitched, and the blur spread across his entire body.
When he opened his eyes again, the clown had vanished from sight···.
“That's three.”
Tap-.
As always, he appeared behind him.
The twig was lightly placed on his shoulder.
A chill ran over the back of his neck.
The teaching assistant simply stood there blankly, without even turning around.
‘This···.’
No.
It was not that his eyes had failed to follow.
This was not a matter of something so simple.
He could sense no power whatsoever.
He could detect no sorcery, mana, or sign of divine power.
“What on earth···.”
The teaching assistant muttered vacantly.
“How··· how is this possible?”
All stats: E grade.
Those movements were utterly impossible for someone with such grades.
Thud, thud-.
Footsteps that rang unusually loudly.
The clown approached and leaned his head forward in front of the teaching assistant.
“Huh?”
The mask.
Smiling.
“Is there some kind of problem?”
The teaching assistant swallowed his breath.