Chapter 80
Grandia Academy's midterms.
Just as in modern times, students being ground down during exam season was only natural.
Especially since this was where the continent's greatest elites gathered, competition among the cadets was bound to be fierce.
It was routine for the library lights to remain on all night, while cold weapons and magic flew through the training grounds twenty-four hours a day.
The cries of suffering cadets could be heard throughout the academy.
-Reverse Magic······ This formula is absurdly complicated.
-Is it really reasonable to be tested on a thousand years of continental history all at once······?
-My stats won't go up at all! Damn it, I have to manage it before the practical······!
-I hope the matchups are kind to me in this practical.
The students were applying themselves earnestly.
The fervor for study throughout the academy was more intense than the temperature of early summer.
‘Shall I start gathering them?’
I couldn't just sit back and do nothing either.
Though I had stored away my ultimate move, there was one other thing I needed to prepare.
Team members.
-Come to think of it, this practical is a team match, right?
-Was the event called capture the flag······?
-We'll need to recruit our teammates carefully for this.
-Having one fast member on the team would be reassuring······.
-Fuck······ They said we could form our own teams! What the hell is someone like me, with no friends, supposed to do?!
Unlike usual, this practical was not in the form of one-on-one duels.
Three-person teams.
Three students formed a single team.
Those teams would compete against one another in three-on-three matches.
It was a format that could test not only the cadets' individual abilities, but also their teamwork.
‘The event is······ capture the flag.’
It was exactly as it had been in the original.
Capture the flag was a common arcade mode found in all sorts of games.
Its rules and format likewise deviated little from the classic version.
Protect your team's flag and steal the opposing team's flag.
Since everyone had to be assigned a role, the abilities of the team members were also important in this practical.
‘First, I need to form a team.’
I needed to gather members.
The opposing side would be putting together an impressive team in its own right.
‘Actually, Rin probably wouldn't care who her teammates were······.’
She wasn't the sort of person who would care whether her teammates were strong or not.
She would probably regard them as beings whose presence or absence made no difference.
Even so, despite being treated that way, all kinds of talented people must have flocked to her.
Geniuses naturally attracted admiration.
‘I need to keep that in mind.’
Of course.
I had a combination in mind as well.
‘One reliable defender, one swift sprinter······.’
Someone to guard our team's flag from the rear, and someone to snatch the opposing team's flag from the front.
As it happened, I could immediately think of someone for both roles.
I smiled broadly and made the two of them a proposal.
“So, I’d like to ask the two of you to join my team.”
“······.”
“······.”
Purple and yellow eyes.
The two girls quietly looked this way.
They were Lanne, Class A's runner-up, and Caitlyn, Class B's top student.
“Of course!”
It was Lanne who broke the brief silence.
Her eyes were sparkling brightly.
“I never dreamed Sir Victor would need me!”
“I always need you, Lady Lanne.”
“Hmm! I’m happy to hear you say that.”
Lanne readily accepted my request.
“You are the benefactor who saved my life, sir! I’m simply delighted to have the chance to repay you, even in this small way.”
“That’s a relief. With you on our team, I won’t have to worry about guarding the rear.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but I’ll still do my best!”
“Haha, I’ll do my best to live up to your trust as well.”
Haha, hehe.
A cheerful exchange.
“Hah.”
Caitlyn, on the other hand, was frowning fiercely.
A hand nervously swept back her yellow hair.
A sigh escaped between her lips.
“Fuck, I was wondering what you called me here to say this time······.”
“Miss Caitlyn.”
“I don’t want to, so don’t drag me into it.”
“Oh······ I assumed you’d accept without question.”
“Bullshit. You want us to get trampled by that monster of a woman and become a laughingstock in front of the entire student body?”
It was a remarkably cynical response.
Her tone was twice as sharp as usual.
“Fuck that. I’m not doing it.”
“It’s not as though I plan to lose.”
“How?”
“How the hell are you going to beat that monster of a woman?”
Why was she so irritated?
After thinking about it for a moment, I soon remembered a detail related to Caitlyn.
‘Come to think of it······ Caitlyn once said that Rin had beaten her mercilessly.’
Had that memory remained as a trauma?
Caitlyn seemed uncomfortable even hearing Rin's name.
She took a deep breath, then spoke in a more subdued voice.
“That team······ I hear they’re all being assigned to Class A. You plan to take down an all-Class A team with this lineup? A team led personally by Rin Glacia? And with a Class B weight tied to your ankle?”
Class B deadweight.
She was referring to herself.
“Don’t be reckless. Just refuse the match. It’s not a ranking match, so you should be able to decline. If you refuse, the faculty won’t force you into the match. Besides, I hear you still haven’t properly answered that declaration of war.”
“She left before I had a chance to answer.”
“What a vicious bitch.”
Something about the girl was different.
Something viscous flowed from within her.
It felt like blood, or perhaps tears.
“Anyway, I’m not interested. If you’re doing it, do it without me.”
“But I really need you, Miss Caitlyn.”
“What did you think I meant just now?”
“I’m asking even after hearing you.”
“Hah······ So what, fuck. You’re determined to drag me in by force?”
“It’s not exactly by force. It would be a good offer for you as well.”
“What?”
Caitlyn furrowed her brow as if asking what I meant.
I made the girl an offer.
“Let’s do this. If our team loses this match, I’ll settle our previous bet for you.”
“······What?”
“I mean I’ll get rid of the slave bet.”
“You’re not saying you’ll remove it if we win, but if we lose······?”
“That’s right. As you said, if we lose this match, I’ll have dragged Miss Caitlyn into it against her will and made her a laughingstock in front of the entire student body. As an apology for that, I’ll settle the slave bet we made last time.”
“What if I intentionally lose? I could half-ass the match, couldn’t I?”
“That part will be entirely your choice.”
“······.”
It was a confident answer.
Caitlyn looked as though she couldn't understand what I was saying.
She frowned, as if checking whether she had understood me correctly.
“Do you perhaps want to lose?”
“No. I intend to win.”
“Just hearing your offer makes you sound like some bastard desperate to lose.”
“What do you think? It doesn't seem like there’s anything for Miss Caitlyn to lose, does there?”
“······.”
“At this point, please just give in. Even without these conditions, if I give the order, you’ll have no choice but to participate by force, won’t you? Wouldn’t it be cleaner to make it feel like you’re participating voluntarily?”
“······Fuck.”
Caitlyn eventually accepted the proposal.
She continued to grumble under her breath.
“Go get stomped by that monster of a woman, then. If necessary, I’ll lose on purpose······.”
It was merely a mutter.
I chuckled behind my mask.
‘As if.’
Anyone but her?
Caitlyn, who hated losing more than anything in the world?
Though she herself didn't seem to realize it, the girl was incapable of doing such a thing.
“······Why me, of all people?”
“Who knows.”
Hehe.
I chuckled lightly.
“Because I hold Miss Caitlyn’s abilities in very high regard?”
“······.”
“You don’t look like you believe that at all.”
“Don’t pretend to acknowledge me for no reason.”
It was a toxic response.
She looked even more irritated by those words than when she had to imitate a dog.
Caitlyn spoke after rubbing her face dryly several times.
“······Fine. I’ll do it. Happy now?”
“That’s the answer I was waiting for.”
Tap-.
I placed my hand on the crown of the girl's head.
Then, as I always did, I stroked her hair.
Perhaps she had no strength left to resist, because Caitlyn simply sat there and quietly accepted my touch.
‘Well, one way or another, that's settled.’
The dream team I had envisioned.
It was the moment the perfect team for defeating Class A's top student was complete.
***
Meanwhile.
Rumors were spreading throughout the academy.
Humans were creatures who sought gossip in any environment.
Even with exams right around the corner—no, precisely because of that—the students sought out stories about other people even more.
-You know that hot topic everyone's been talking about.
-Ah~ You mean the Class A top student fighting the Class E top student?
-What do you mean, fighting? I hear the Class E top student still hasn't answered her.
The subject of discussion this time was Victor.
Specifically, the fact that he still hadn't answered the declaration of war he had received from Rin.
-He still hasn't answered······ That means he's refusing, right?
-Of course. Honestly, who would accept something like that?
-No matter how you look at it, a match against Lady Glacia is······.
-At Lady Glacia's level, even being scared is understandable.
The prevailing assumption was that Victor would refuse the match.
That was how most of the cadets saw it.
No matter how well he had been doing, it seemed that even he had to tuck his tail between his legs before a true genius.
-Putting that aside······ What the hell did he do to get on Lady Glacia's bad side?
-She must have found him irritating. The Class E top student did run his mouth a lot.
And then.
Some students, sensing their chance, began tearing into him.
-I knew that bastard would get what was coming to him someday.
-How irritating must he have been for that quiet Class A top student to step forward?
-He finally met his match.
Since Victor had attracted so much attention, many cadets also envied him.
Thus, on a day when an unpleasant atmosphere was billowing through the academy.
Someone visited the Class A classroom.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Bang-!
The door was kicked open with a thunderous crash.
The gazes of the Class A students, who had been chatting away, turned toward it.
Through the open doorway, a boy walked in with both hands in his pockets.
“Hehe.”
A low chuckle.
A snow-white clown mask covered his face.
The corners of the clown's mouth were twisted grotesquely.
““······.””
The cadets' gazes converged on him.
But regardless, Victor continued walking lightly.
He stopped before a girl sitting in the corner of the classroom.
“Lady Glacia.”
Rin Glacia.
There wasn't a single strand of disorder in her blue hair.
Her cold, dead pupils turned toward the boy.
“······.”
“······.”
Their gazes crossed in the air.
The two silently stared at each other for a moment.
Before long, it was the clown who broke the precarious silence.
“I accept.”
“······.”
What he meant required no explanation.
There was no need to ask what he was accepting.
“Let’s have a go, then.”
It was the declaration of war Rin had thrown down several days earlier.
He had slammed straight into it head-on.
Rin's deep blue eyes blinked.
“······.”
An indifferent gaze.
Her exhaled breath contained subzero cold, and each breath bloomed into pure-white flowers.
Victor did not waver even before such a girl.
“Ah··· Come to think of it, I think you’ve got a misunderstanding, so let me clarify.”
A breezy remark.
“You’re the challenger.”
“······.”
“After all, you lost to me once, didn’t you? During the last practical.”
Twitch-.
Rin's brow twitched briefly.
At the same time, the students watching the two of them were left gaping.
The absolute ruler of the first-years.
A queen called the most dominant top student in history, who had earned the admiration and fear of countless students.
Before such a queen, a mere clown had dared to throw cold water on her.
You lost to me.
That single remark carried exactly that meaning.
Amid the shock, the boy behind the mask was grinning from ear to ear.
‘Ah.’
This is it.
This is dopamine.
Afterward.
The news spread rapidly and turned the academy upside down once again.