The Spark of Rivalry
I was in a room where one wall was made of transparent glass. [Break it.] At the voice echoing through the room, I stared at the sturdy-looking lump of metal placed before me. Because the voice told me to break it, I threw a punch at it. With a loud crash, the metal dented. But the price for striking it was that my hand didn't come out unscathed, either. Pain flooded in, but I didn't stop pounding. The metal lump hadn't been broken yet. It was only after my hand was a mangled mess that the metal finally shattered.
Immediately after, the room filled with a suspicious smoke. As I inhaled it, my mind grew hazy and my vision went black. When I came to, my hand was perfectly fine again. That was when someone approached and plunged syringes into various parts of my body. Looking at the needles, I felt a deep sense of revulsion, but my limbs were bound by chains, making it impossible to even resist. A moment after the needles were inserted, extreme pain followed. It was the sensation of all the blood vessels in my body melting away. I knew why I hated the syringes—I had already experienced this unbearable agony several times before.
Trembling as I was bound, I let out a scream that didn't even form a sound. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. I hate this. As I thought that, flames surged from my body. The silver hair of the person who had stuck the needles into me shimmered in the flickering fire.
*
"Ugh...!" I gasped, eyes snapping open as I scanned my surroundings. All I saw was the familiar sight of my room. I slowly caught my breath. ...Was it a dream? Even though it was just a dream, it was strangely vivid, leaving me feeling disoriented even after waking up. Lately, it feels like I've been having dreams more often. I'm not sure why, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling.
Anyway, that was a truly nasty nightmare. To be subjected to such terrible things in a dream... it was comparable to the one I had the night before my military discharge. If I said it was hard to tell which was worse—that dream or the time I woke up the day before discharge to see the ceiling of the enlistment screening center—you might get an idea of how bad it was. Checking the time, it was a bit early to get up, but also an awkward time to fall back asleep. I took a long shower to wash away the lingering grime of the nightmare, but since there was still plenty of time before school, I decided to put some effort into making macarons today.
Since payday wasn't far off and I had a bit of extra cash, I’d bought ingredients for different flavors at the mart yesterday, so I planned to make strawberry macarons today. While holding the bowl with my feet and whisking the meringue, I miscalculated my strength and the batter splattered onto my face. It was too wasteful to throw away, so I wiped it off with my hand and licked it, thinking: Making macarons this hard... honestly, it isn't a very rational thing to do.
Even if I didn't give Sylvia macarons, she wouldn't care much. I'm just a guy with one arm and not much money; there are more than enough reasons why I shouldn't have to do this. But I couldn't stop. Sylvia thinks of me as her first and closest friend. She thinks I approached her out of a pure desire to be her friend. But what is the truth? Even if that’s not the case anymore, my initial approach to her was definitely to achieve a goal. That’s why I was someone who could never be her friend. Still, I chose to maintain my relationship with her. To repay even a little of the debt of gratitude I feel toward her. To keep from being crushed by the weight of the guilt I feel every time I wear this ring.
Today, too, I packed the macarons to give to her.
*
A corner of the gymnasium was bustling with people. Two groups of 30 students each were looking at each other with awkward expressions. One side was Class 1-A, to which I belonged. The other side was Class 1-B, people I’d only seen when passing through places like the cafeteria. As the silence stretched on because it was awkward to be the first to speak, Eve clapped her hands, drawing the children's attention.
"I'm sure you all heard this morning that starting today, training will be held jointly, regardless of whether you're in Class A or B!"
Perhaps because of the defense battle against the monster invasion in the western border region last time, the academy's curriculum had changed. Since students might be mobilized again like last time, the allotted class time for training was increased so we could get used to working with people who had more diverse abilities, and the training that used to be conducted class-by-class was changed to joint training. That was the reason all the first-year students were gathered in the gym like this.
"The original intent is for you to mix with students from other classes and coordinate your efforts, but since you're seeing each other for the first time today, you don't really know how each other fights, right? Facing each other directly is the best way to understand someone else's combat style. So, today, we're going to have 5-on-5 mock battles between classes and take time to observe how the kids from the other class fight!"
At Eve's words, the awkward atmosphere shifted.
"Bring it on, you jerks! I'll show you the power of Class A!"
"You heard her, everyone! We must never lose to the Class A kids!"
As Daniel shouted first, a loud voice came from Class 1-B—likely from their own designated mood-maker—and the other kids started chiming in, beginning to heat up the atmosphere. A month is enough time to develop a sense of belonging to one's class. At the mention of a class competition, it seemed the competitive spirit of these hot-blooded teenagers had been ignited. Watching the scene, Eve smiled, as if she had been aiming for this exact atmosphere. It was certainly an effective way to dispel the awkwardness between them.
Groups with a sense of belonging are usually quite closed off, making it hard to mix naturally with other groups. For such groups to become friendly, they need a catalyst to naturally rub shoulders. Like stimulating their competitive spirit in this way, for example. If she had just said, "You'll be taking classes together from now on, so please get along!" and left it at that, it would have only been awkward. Seeing this, I thought that Eve was a teacher through and through. Though, seeing her laughing out loud, I couldn't help but wonder if she was just doing it for her own amusement.
Anyway, looking at the scene, I felt a strange sense of nostalgia. In the original story, after the gymnasium incident, the number of students dropped and the classes were merged. In the original, there weren't even 30 students total between both classes... Anyway, if I had known it would be like this, I wouldn't have had to say that to Yoon Siwoo yesterday. Since there were other heroines from the original story in that class anyway, if I’d just left him alone, they would have taken care of his mental state on their own. Well, it's already too late to regret it. Besides, I hadn't really given Yoon Siwoo any counseling yet, either.
Thinking such things, I listened to Eve talk about today's training. The mock battles seemed to be held in groups of five from each class. To balance things out, Eve designated who belonged to which group. For the record, my name wasn't in any group. Simply put, I was the odd one out. They said that if I got used to my body before getting the prosthetic arm, it might be hard to adapt after getting it, so I was currently exempt from most practical classes and was only observing.
I had never been "exempt" from anything during my military service... As I stood there blankly, feeling a strange sense of deprivation, Jessie, who had seen me, said to me:
"Please wait just a little longer. Someone very famous whom my older brother knows helped with the prosthetic design, and the design was finished yesterday. I'll make sure it's produced as quickly as possible so we can take classes together! In two weeks—no, within a week, somehow!"
She didn't have to be in such a rush... I felt like I was being indebted to her, and it was a bit burdensome.
"It's okay if you take your time making it."
When I said that, Jessie grinned and shook her head.
"I don't want to! I want to see Scarlet-yang admiring the prosthetic arm as soon as possible."
At that answer, my chest felt strangely ticklish, so I just gave a slight nod.
*
While I was lost in sentiment and staring blankly, it seemed the preparations were finished. Five people from each class's first group—including Daniel and Andre from Class A—came out, put on protective gear, and Eve cast magic on them. Inside the illusion magic Eve cast, a mock battle between the first groups of each class began, with a building in between them. At the same time, the students, sitting divided by class, began to cheer for their respective sides. I observed the faces of the Class B kids shown on the screen Eve had projected from a corner seat in the back right, where Class A was sitting. They were probably people who didn't have much significance in the original story. How did I know? Because people with high significance in the original story stand out the moment you see them.
Academy genre trope: Most of the time, appearance is directly proportional to importance. Like this Class B girl sitting next to me, staring intently at me for some reason. First, the cute appearance that catches the eye, and the unique hairstyle of twin tails. And above all, the name of this insane attention-grabber with pink hair is Flone Dolos. As you might guess from her appearance, she was one of the heroines of the original story. Honestly, I wanted to ignore her, but I couldn't bear the intense gaze I felt from beside me and ended up glancing at her. Then, her face turned bright red and she said to me:
"Hey, it was love at first sight... would you like to go out with Flone?"
I wanted to ignore her because I had a feeling it would be like this. I laughed inwardly and ignored her confession without responding, but the person next to me couldn't do the same. Sylvia, who was sitting to my left, glared at Flone for her suspicious behavior of confessing to someone of the same sex upon first meeting. A normal person would have been a bit intimidated by Sylvia's icy gaze, but unfortunately, Flone was not a normal person. At that look, Flone's face turned even redder as she said to Sylvia:
"Hauaaa, you're so pretty... Hey, would you like to go out with Flone too?"
At those words, Sylvia's gaze, which had been "What is this person?", changed to "What on earth is this...". Sylvia was thrown into confusion by the bizarre behavior of confessing to someone of the same sex, and even to multiple people at once, but Flone's eccentricities didn't end there.
"Kyaaaak! You're so handsome! Hey, hey, would you like to go out with Flone?"
This time, she spotted Yoon Siwoo, who was watching us from nearby, and let out a shrill scream as she ran toward him to confess. Just as Sylvia's pupils were trembling violently at the sight of her confessing to a man as well, a female student ran out from where Class B was sitting. A tall, blue-haired girl with a calm impression scooped up Flone, who was clinging to a flustered Yoon Siwoo.
"Ngaaaak! Marin! Put me down! Put me down!!!"
Flone, who was barely 150cm tall, struggled in the girl's arms.
"If I put you down, will you behave? If you're not going to behave, I'll keep doing this."
"I'll behaveeee!"
When the girl put Flone on the floor, Flone became quiet, watching the girl's reaction. The girl who had subdued Flone in an instant was also quite a beauty. And she was also one of the heroines of the original story. Yoon Siwoo, you bad guy. Anyway, Marin Eloise, the blue-haired girl who acted as Flone's suppressor, bowed her head several times to Eve and the Class A side to apologize.
"I'm sorry for the interruption during class. She's the type to confess to anyone regardless of who they are if she finds their face to her liking... I will warn her to be quiet. Now, Flone. You apologize too."
"I'm sorry..."
Eve gestured for them to go sit down. I had naturally assumed they would go to where Class B was gathered, but Flone pointed to where I was and looked at Marin with eyes overflowing with lingering attachment. Marin sighed, then approached me with her and said:
"I'm sorry... It seems she wants to sit here and watch, would that be alright?"
Flone looked at me with eyes that said, Please. Since she was a child who, even in the original story, would show affection and confess to anyone whose appearance she liked—her brain as pink as her hair—I sighed inwardly and nodded. Flone smiled brightly and tried to sit directly to my right, but Marin sat in that spot first, then sat Flone on her lap and hugged her. It felt less like an expression of affection and more like she was binding her with her own body to prevent her from doing anything foolish. I had been worried that if I just let Flone sit next to me without any measures, she would cling to me or Sylvia, who she had confessed to, so I was relieved.
Flone struggled in her arms for a bit, then gave up, turned her head to look at me and Sylvia, and started talking.
"Hey, so, will you go out with Flone? Won't you become Flone's 69th and 70th girlfriends?"
As Sylvia looked at Flone with an expression like she was staring at an incomprehensible creature, Marin gave a bitter smile and introduced herself.
"Please don't pay her too much mind. It's just her way of asking if you can be her friend. Ah, I'm Marin Eloise, the class representative of Class B. And this is—"
"Flone is Flone Dolos! You two are so pretty, so I want to be friends. So, please become Flone's girlfriends!"
Flone shouted, cutting off Marin. Seeing Flone like that, Sylvia opened her mouth with a slightly stiff expression.
"...I am Sylvia Astra. Flone-yang, I'm sorry, but I will decline."
She hadn't intended it, but since Sylvia was a bit sensitive about friends, speaking so bluntly could hurt someone's feelings like that. Sylvia looked at me while fiddling with her ring.
"I'm Scarlet Evande. I'm sorry, but I will decline as well."
I answered that way because I felt it would be fine not to get particularly close to Flone. Sylvia seemed to be in a slightly better mood, her ears perking up.
"Why, Flone really likes you two..."
"Flone."
"..."
Flone said that with a tearful face, but when Marin called her name softly, Flone seemed to give up and became sullen. And since the person who had come over to sit next to us had gone quiet, there was no more talk between us for a while. This is so damn awkward... Stuck between three heroines from the original story who had all gone quiet, I felt like I had to say something. Searching for a way to resolve the awkwardness, I suddenly saw the first-group members of each class fighting fiercely on the screen floating in front of us. Could I resolve this awkwardness by stimulating their competitive spirit? That thought flashed through my mind, and I opened my mouth, speaking whatever came to mind.
"Class A and Class B... which side do you think has the advantage?"
Then, answers came simultaneously.
"Well, obviously—"
"Class A."
"Class B."
It was Marin who answered Class B, but it wasn't Sylvia's voice that answered Class A. Wondering what that was about, I looked toward where the voice came from, and Mei, who had been sitting in front of me, was slowly turning her head to look at us. Huh, that's not it...
"Hmm? It sounds like I heard something I can't just let slide. Who are you to say something so foolish as to think Class A has the advantage?"
"Me? I'm Mei, the class representative of Class A. Anyway, to think you'd say Class B has the advantage—you must have a terrible eye for things. I wonder if you're even qualified to hold the title of class representative?"
With a snap, I saw an optical illusion of veins bulging on both their foreheads. No, I was just trying to make some casual conversation. When the leaders of groups get involved, a simple friendly match turns into a war. The leader of Class A and the leader of Class B glared at each other and growled. The air seemed to turn icy, and the kids around us shivered. The only person who could remain nonchalant in this situation was Flone, who was making a blank face in Marin's arms.
"It looks like you're the one with no eye for things. Then, shall we make a bet on who will win? There are 6 groups in total, so let's go by the overall win rate. It's certain that Class B will win at least 4 matches anyway."
"Oh, is that so? A bet sounds good. What are you going to wager?"
Suddenly, I remembered a story the company commander told us during a soccer tournament between companies in the military. 'If we lose, I think the company commander will be very disappointed.' Why do the memories of running until I died at those words keep coming back to me?
"Well, it's a bet between classes, is there anything else class representatives would wager? There's only one thing to bet."
Marin said that with a bright smile, and Mei nodded with an identical smile. That word was "Pride."
With a single word I’d uttered without much thought, a civil war broke out among the first-year students of Aegis Academy.