Chapter 81
-Let's see what you've got.
Light verbal sparring.
The few words I'd thrown out were enough to shock the students.
-You're the challenger, after all.
-You did lose to me once before, during the last practical, didn't you?
Accepting the match while rubbing salt in the wound by bringing up the last practical.
The top student from Class E had slammed straight into the declaration of war from the top student of Class A.
The news spread among the students like wildfire.
The sensational news turned the academy upside down once again.
-Haha! She really said that?
-I'm telling you! That guy's a complete lunatic!
-I thought he'd obviously refuse, but I never imagined he'd confront her head-on like this...!
Its impact was beyond imagination.
Enough to make the story appear on the academy newspaper's front page the next day.
Maybe everyone had been starved for dopamine during exam season, because the news spread before anyone could stop it.
-I hear even the student council is keeping an eye on it?
-The student council? The one that only admits students in the top one percent?
-Well... they're the two most talked-about first-years at the moment.
-How could we not look forward to the practical now? I wish the written exams would end already!
-And this event is capture the flag, right? Since it's a team match, it'll be flashy and much more fun to watch, too.
Expectations rose.
The two had become, in name and in fact, the hottest topic at the academy.
Regardless, I merely waited for the date with a broad grin on my face.
“You insane bastard...!”
Of course,
the team members who heard the news saw things differently.
“What the hell were you thinking? I heard you even provoked that monster of a woman...!”
“Haha! A declaration of war worthy of Sir Victor.”
Lanne took it cheerfully.
Caitlyn, on the other hand, screamed while tearing at her hair.
“It would have been enough to accept quietly! You barged noisily into the Class A classroom, rubbed her the wrong way, and came back out? Why? What were you thinking? Thanks to you, the entire student body is talking about nothing else!”
Caitlyn ranted as though she was about to lose her mind.
Thick resentment filled her yellow pupils.
Her eyes seemed to ask why I had made a needless mess of things.
Well, as someone who had been forced into this, she had every right to feel wronged.
She had made her distaste obvious from the moment I first proposed it.
‘But...’
Who cares?
We’re already in it, so how are you going to back out now?
If you didn’t like it, you shouldn’t have made that slave bet with me.
“Why did I do it...?”
A question asking for my reason.
I cleared my throat briefly before answering.
“......Well, just because? I thought it would be more fun that way?”
“You lunatic, you lunatic, you lunatic! Aaaagh, you’re seriously insane...!”
In the end, perhaps her lid had blown off, because she began bouncing up and down in place.
Electricity that escaped her unconsciously leapt into the air.
Bzzzt, bzzzt-.
Caitlyn looked as though she was about to die of happiness.
Seeing that reaction, I naturally broke into a pleased smile.
‘I wonder if this is how my father felt when he brought home a chicken on his way back from work.’
I felt as though my stomach were filling up all on its own.
It was such a sense of fulfillment that it made me wonder whether men could get pregnant too.
What?
You’re asking how an orphan who had never had a father, let alone a mother, could understand that sentiment?
That’s a naïve thing to say.
Being born without parents,
even if one is
born with nothing but great
affection,
what does an
incomplete
birth matter?
Whether one has both parents or not is irrelevant when it comes to cherishing something and feeling paternal love.
I muttered, overflowing with paternal affection.
‘Must be nice, you bastards, having parents.’
As expected, it was impossible to communicate with people who weren’t orphans.
It was one of those moments when I found myself missing my fellow Slayers for no reason.
I forcibly smothered the anger writhing inside me, then added a benevolent smile around my mouth.
“Hehe.”
“Grrk, grrrk...!”
Meanwhile, Caitlyn looked ready to foam at the mouth entirely.
I smoothly changed the subject and tossed a question to Lanne, who had been staring blankly from beside us.
“Come to think of it, Lady Lanne, have you ever faced Lady Glacia?”
“Hmm! I’ve crossed swords with her a few times. Since we’re first and second in rank, we’ve had several sparring matches.”
“What was she like?”
“That... Honestly, she was overwhelming! It was hard to believe she was my age.”
“Well, I hear Lady Grandia is good enough to trade blows with most of the faculty.”
“Even though we were only one rank apart, I could feel the enormous gap.”
At present, Rin was unquestionably the strongest first-year.
In fact, even among all the students in the academy, there were very few who could beat Rin.
‘Including the student council president, maybe three in total...?’
It was a terrifying talent.
A genius capable of making anyone other than Lanne feel the wall before them.
Of course, as the protagonist, Lanne was destined to surpass Rin someday...
‘But that’s a matter for later.’
Even in the original story, Lanne’s awakened form was not unlocked until the latter half.
Which meant she wasn’t a force I needed to account for right now.
The girl gave an awkward smile, uncharacteristic of her.
“Actually... after we sparred a few times, she stopped wanting to fight me.”
“What do you mean, she stopped wanting to fight you?”
“Literally. Around the time I suffered my fifth crushing defeat, she told me, ‘You’re weak too,’ and stopped serving as my sparring partner the next day. Instead, she seemed to devote herself to swordsmanship alone.”
“Hah... That bitch is still like that?”
Caitlyn cut in suddenly with a click of her tongue.
I’d noticed it before, but she really seemed to hate Rin.
‘Then again, is there anyone who doesn’t...?’
She was prickly, foul-tempered, and vicious by nature.
But when it came to Rin, how should I put it? She became especially cold.
There was a gloomy air about her.
‘I wonder... did the two of them have some history?’
The question crossed my mind briefly, but I brushed it aside for now.
What mattered first was the matter directly in front of us.
I could hear about the two of them later.
“Shall we assign roles first?”
Capture the flag.
Each team member would take on one role.
“You all know the rules, right?”
It was a game of stealing the opposing team’s flag while protecting your own.
The capture-the-flag field was divided into three main zones.
1. Zone.
The location where the team’s flag was planted.
2. Zone.
The middle of the field.
3. Zone.
The location where the opposing team’s flag was planted.
“The zones each role can enter are different.”
[Sprinter]
-The role that targets the opposing team’s flag.
-Can move freely through all zones.
[Assistant]
-The role that supports the team members.
-Can move between Zones 1 and 2.
[Keeper]
-The role that guards the team’s flag.
-Can remain only within Zone 1.
As you can see, each role was restricted in the zones it could enter.
During the game, the roles assigned to each person could be changed at the team captain’s discretion as often as necessary.
However, all three people had to take different roles.
“There’s something I’m curious about! What happens if a team’s sprinter is bound by the enemy or rendered unable to fight? The only role that can enter Zone 3, where the opposing team’s flag is located, is the sprinter, isn’t it? If the sprinter goes down, the rest of the team can’t do anything.”
“That was a good question, Lady Lanne. If a role is judged unable to perform its duty, or completely incapacitated, the remaining team members will temporarily be granted permission to enter that zone. As you said, a single sprinter’s retirement must not lead to the team’s defeat.”
“Hmm! I see!”
Lanne nodded enthusiastically.
After finishing the explanation, I assigned each of them a role.
“Lady Caitlyn? Please take the sprinter role.”
“What? Me?”
“Of course. No one can match Lady Caitlyn’s speed.”
“No... Even so, don’t you trust me too much? If I become the sprinter, I’ll be the only one on this team who can approach their flag. Besides, you said that if we lose this match, you’d release me from the slave bet binding me to you, right? What if I betray you?”
“Then I suppose I’ll have to accept it.”
“Seriously?”
“It means I trust you that much.”
“......”
Caitlyn furrowed her brow.
Her expression seemed to ask what kind of bullshit I was spouting.
“Lady Caitlyn’s feet are the fastest, after all.”
“So you don’t think I’ll be a liability...”
“I don’t.”
“......”
Tap-.
I lightly tapped the girl’s forehead.
It was my way of telling her not to overthink it.
“I can’t tell whether you have no plan or you’ve got something up your sleeve...”
Caitlyn grumbled soon after, along with a sigh.
In the end, she appeared to accept the role.
“......Fine. But don’t whine after we lose.”
“Of course.”
“You’re annoying.”
“Was that a compliment?”
“Do I look like I meant it?”
And so,
the roles we would take in capture the flag were decided one by one.
[Team Victor]
-Sprinter: Caitlyn Letus
-Assistant: Victor
-Keeper: Lanne Kihano
We waited for the approaching date of the practical exam.
***
A hectic week passed.
The midterms were already underway.
Over the previous two days, the students had taken their written exams.
-Hey... Wasn’t this week’s Curse-Breaking Theory exam absurdly difficult?
-They brought up concepts even active cursecasters might not know.
-I heard someone cried while taking the Department of Magic exam?
-Fuck, at least it’s over...
-What do you mean, at least it’s over? Now we have to take the practical exam.
All that remained was the practical exam.
It was time to show the skills we had honed over the past three months.
Moreover, this practical was drawing the attention of especially many students.
[Match 1]
[Team Victor vs. Team Rin]
Because a blockbuster match had been scheduled for the very first day.
Victor and Rin.
The students cheered when their match came up.
The two hottest figures in Grandia at present.
Their war of nerves had been so fierce that the match could not help but feel sensational.
-That guy... I heard he charged straight at Lady Glacia?
-He was really something! Totally different from how gloomy he looks, right?
-Still, I don’t think he stands a chance against Lady Glacia...
-Why are you saying something so obvious? This matchup is completely out of his league.
-He deserves applause just for accepting the match instead of running away.
Most people were predicting an overwhelming victory for Rin.
They admired his courage in accepting the match, but expected him to lose in the end because of the gap in caliber.
Some students even sneered that he would run away on the day of the exam.
Regardless, the days passed until the scheduled date arrived.
“Hmm.”
And so, the day of the practical exam arrived.
We stood before the prepared field.
It wasn’t a simple training ground, but a capture-the-flag field designed for this exam.
Though it was only a space for six people to fight, it was large enough to easily surpass most soccer stadiums.
The interior had been enchanted with spatial expansion, making it far vaster than it appeared outside, with a different environment arranged in each zone.
‘It’s huge...’
Recording crystal orbs had been placed throughout the field.
Outside the stadium hung a hologram.
Its light shone like a scoreboard, broadcasting the inside of the field in real time.
The other cadets were probably watching the match through this hologram.
‘Did they whip this up in just a few days?’
Once again, I felt the weight of Grandia’s standing.
To build an entire field like this for a single exam.
‘I’ve never seen money wasted quite like this.’
I let out a short, hollow laugh.
The waiting area where the contestants gathered before entering the field.
The matchups for this game had been helpfully written on a nearby wall.
[Team Rin]
-Sprinter: Dexi Clueis
-Assistant: Rin Glacia
-Keeper: Gale Levint
[Team Victor]
-Sprinter: Caitlyn Letus
-Assistant: Victor
-Keeper: Lanne Kihano
I slowly looked over the members of the opposing team.
Fortunately, it was a lineup within the range I had expected.
‘No problem.’
We just had to stick to the plan.
Just as I took a deep breath, the group standing opposite us gathered.
They stood in the waiting area as well, each stretching.
It was Rin’s team.
“......”
Among them, I saw a blue-haired girl standing blankly by herself.
An expression devoid of emotion. Dull eyes.
Her atmosphere was so cold she could have been a doll.
Her beauty looked as though ice had been carved to its limit and shaped into a jewel.
An untimely winter wind.
I quietly turned my gaze away.
Before long, an announcement came through the crystal orbs.
《Cadets, wait in your respective zones.》
《This practical exam will be conducted in the format of capture the flag.》
《The team that steals the opposing team’s flag and brings it back to its own zone first will win.》
《The exam will also end if an entire team is subdued or incapacitated, or if the team captain declares surrender.》
It was Jaber’s voice.
She was supervising this practical exam.
Her uniquely mechanical voice lingered by my ears.
Following the signal, we began walking toward the field entrance.
《Cadets, prepare.》
Wind whipped around us.
A faint halo of light surrounded the area.
“Then, shall we go?”
《Enter.》
Fwoosh-!
My vision was obscured by a dazzling white flash.
The prepared magic teleported us inside the field.
At the same time, as my vision receded, a blue screen appeared.
Ding-!
[Sub Quest]
-Title: I Will Stand at the Flag.
-Description: Win the practical exam ‘Capture the Flag’ overwhelmingly.
-Penalty for failure: None
-Reward: Item ‘Unbreakable Flagpole (B+)’
[Time Limit: Until the exam ends]
And so.
A match that would go down in academy history began.