The First Lesson of a Deadly Academy
"By the way, I didn't realize we were in the same class. I was a bit nervous because I was late on my first day, but I'm glad to see a familiar face. Did you happen to be late, too?"
"I... I took a wrong turn..."
"I see. We haven't even introduced ourselves yet. I'm Yoon Siwoo. And you?"
"Scarlet... Evande..."
"Right, Scarlet. It’s fate that we were both late on our first day, so let’s get along well."
"......"
Don't talk to me, you oblivious idiot... Can you really not hear the silent screams of the protest group currently condemning this sea squirt? My skin crawled under the weight of the crowd's gaze, and my stomach churned. For the love of god, turn your chair around! A chair is a piece of furniture where your back is supposed to face the backrest!
No matter how much I shouted that inside, this clueless protagonist wouldn't take his eyes off me, just sitting there with a bright, sunny smile. Thinking he might be waiting for a response to his "let's get along" comment, I gave a quick nod, and only then did he seem satisfied, nodding back at me.
No, you jerk, don't just nod, sit properly!
It was right then, while everyone was looking at me and Yoon Siwoo, that my eyes—the only ones in the classroom looking toward the front—caught something unnatural. As if it had been there the whole time, a giant, bat-like monster was hanging upside down from the ceiling above the teacher's podium.
Seeing that scene, I realized it all over again: this world wasn't just some fun-filled place overflowing with dreams and love. At the same time a few students with sharp instincts whipped their heads toward the front of the room, the monster opened its mouth.
"Everyone, evacuate the classroom!"
As someone shouted, a horrific noise engulfed the classroom. "This is insane. A monster?! The Academy is supposed to be inside a barrier!"
"Damn it, the door won't open!"
"The windows won't break either! If it’s a barrier, it’s at least an intermediate-class monster—we can't handle this on our own!"
Most of the students huddled toward the back of the room to avoid the monster. The classroom echoed with the screams of panicked students and the shouts of those who, realizing the door wouldn't open, were scrambling to manifest defensive measures with their own abilities. Amidst it all, the only ones calm were Sylvia and Yoon Siwoo, who stood their ground in combat stances. I, sitting still in my chair, was not included in that group. I was staying put because I knew those two would take care of it anyway.
...Honestly, if I moved, I felt like I might wet myself, so I was just staying still.
Unlike me, Sylvia was diligently chanting a spell to take down the monster.
"Alf"
"Ad"
"Astra"
⟨ Starfall ⟩
Every time she recited a verse, starlight-like radiance shimmered around her. A high-elf, Sylvia Astra. In this world where spirits were hard to find, she was a contractor capable of borrowing the power of the Star Spirit, and the destructive power of her spells was already beyond that of most active-duty heroes. Once she finished the chant, a sphere of light condensed in her palm, shining brilliantly. She aimed her palm at the monster that was flying toward her, baring its fangs.
"I graduated from dealing with intermediate monsters a long time ago."
The sphere of light flew toward the monster—and passed right through its body as if nothing had happened, then vanished.
—Ah?
Sylvia, confident she would finish it in one blow, let out a confused sound, and naturally, she couldn't react to the monster's fangs diving toward her neck.
Splatter—! Blood sprayed. It was the blood of the monster, which had been pierced by Yoon Siwoo's sword in an instant. With a heavy thud, the monster's body crashed onto the classroom floor. Yoon Siwoo pulled his blade—which shone with a pure white light matching his hair—out of the monster's corpse, turned to Sylvia standing behind him, and asked with a smile, "Are you okay?"
"Yes..." Sylvia replied in a small voice. It was the moment the protagonist planted a flag with the heroine. And I was watching it happen right in front of my eyes. It would have been nice if I had some popcorn. It was a bit of a shame that I couldn't see the face of Sylvia, who had fallen for the protagonist at first sight, since I was in the back row, but it was still deeply moving to see this scene up close.
Yoon Siwoo shook the blood off his sword with a needlessly cool pose. When he let go of the sword, it vanished, leaving behind a streak of light. Wow, come to think of it, he has an inventory—why don't I?
I was suffering from a sense of relative deprivation when it happened. Cracks began to form across the entire classroom, starting from the corpse of the monster Yoon Siwoo had stabbed to death, and with a sharp clink, the monster's body and the traces of the battle vanished cleanly from the room.
To put it simply, everything we had just experienced was an illusion spell. Furthermore, it was a high-level illusion, so only those who realized they were under the spell could break it. Of course, that didn't apply to Yoon Siwoo.
Yoon Siwoo, the protagonist of The Academy's Holy Swordsman, possessed a sword called the Radiant Holy Sword. It was a cheat-tier sword with the setting that its wielder was immune to any deception, granting near-perfect resistance to illusions and charms. Yoon Siwoo was a broken character who possessed no less than seven of those holy swords. The Academy's Holy Swordsman was a damn overpowered novel. Unlike someone who was just a one-trick pony for spitting fire.
Anyway, while everyone was dumbfounded, realizing what they had experienced was an illusion, a woman dressed in a way that made it obvious she was a mage walked into the classroom. It was 'Eve,' the world's greatest illusionist, known to readers as 'Eternal Mom' because her actual age was a secret despite her youthful appearance. She was also the homeroom teacher who would be in charge of Class 1-A for the next year.
"Seventeen students who did nothing and just trembled, zero points," Eve said, standing in front of the podium and scanning the students still huddled blankly at the back of the room. "Ten students, including those who shouted to evacuate, those who realized it was a barrier, and those who tried to prepare defensive measures with their own abilities, get 50 points."
Then, she slowly turned her eyes to where the protagonist and the heroine were gathered, stared intently at Sylvia, and said, "You get 80 points for landing an attack capable of dealing effective damage to the monster, but since your response to the unexpected situation was a mess, I'm deducting points—60 points."
Eve passed by Sylvia, who was clenching her fists in frustration, and looked at Yoon Siwoo with eyes full of interest. And for a moment, our eyes met. She bared her teeth and grinned. Eh? Why?
"Honestly, I didn't even expect it, but there are two excellent students who realized it was an illusion the moment they saw it. These two get 200 points!"
Everyone, clap! At Eve's words, the students clapped, looking bewildered. I didn't do anything, so why 200 points? Is this a hidden camera prank?
Eve looked around at our entire class and continued. "The average is 32 points right now, but you should all work hard to aim for an average of 80. If you can't, you'll die."
She said it as if it were nothing, but in reality, by the time the story reached its conclusion, you could count the survivors of this class on one hand. Even Eve, the homeroom teacher speaking right there, couldn't avoid death.
...Can I, a human flamethrower, survive in this insane world?
"I look forward to seeing if everyone can stay alive until next year. Welcome to Aegis Academy, everyone!"
Along with Eve's bright voice as she spoke with a smile, I said my goodbyes. Bye-bye, my beautiful school life.