Chapter 48
Chapter 48
“Hey, Johan? Where’s the flag?”
“You didn’t really think I’d just tell you if you asked, did you?”
“Hmm……”
After realizing the position I built was fake, he wandered around the area before eventually coming up to me and asking where the real one was.
If this were a real situation, I would’ve tortured him for the answer, but this was just an exam.
He had no choice but to find the flag I hid on his own.
That was the whole point of being a scout in the first place.
“Tch!”
In the end, he gave up on me and went off to search for the hidden flag himself.
After a short while—
Fiuuuuu boom!
A flare shot up, signaling the end of the test. Our team had won.
Well, it was only natural.
If you faced an opponent who hadn’t even properly established a position, instead of defending from a position, they’d be forced to defend the position itself.
When forces are equal, protecting something is always harder.
“Ah, we lost. Johan! Where the hell did you hide the flag?”
“Over there.”
For the guy trudging back in defeat, I pointed out where I had hidden it.
“Over there…?”
“Yeah. Buried it underground.”
There was no rule saying you couldn’t bury the flag.
What kind of position mattered anyway? As long as you protected the flag, you won.
There was no more certain way to hide it than burying it underground.
Of course, there was always a chance some lunatic might think of that, so I deliberately piled up an unnatural stack of rocks above where I buried it.
And on top of that, I added an illusion spell shaped like a flag.
That way, the opponent wouldn’t even think to dig beneath the rocks.
They’d already assume the rocks themselves were the decoy.
It’s always darkest under the lamp.
“Wow, you guys are seriously… dirty.”
“Since when was war fair?”
“Shouldn’t exams be fair?”
“Who knows. The rules didn’t say it wasn’t allowed.”
It was right on the edge of a gray zone.
Either way, I had dug a trench and planted the flag inside it.
It just so happened that due to an unfortunate accident, the trench collapsed and buried the flag underground.
So I was completely justified.
The instructors watching the test unfold didn’t see it that way.
“What the hell is that bastard doing?”
This bastard had shown signs of it during the class placement exam, and now he was pulling this nonsense again in the midterms.
What made it worse was that, just like Johan said, there was no rule against burying the flag.
It made sense.
Digging trenches and using elevation differences to hide a flag was a basic tactic.
But collapsing the trench itself so the flag couldn’t even be found—
“Georg, what do you think about this situation?”
“…Why are you asking me? I don’t know that bastard.”
“Don’t deny it. Everyone knows Johan is practically your disciple!”
“That’s not fair!”
Under attack from the other instructors, Georg felt wronged.
If he were really his disciple, he would’ve just taken the criticism.
But Johan was more like a parasite who only took what he needed from the workshop.
The instructors pressed their temples.
“Sigh… We can’t even disqualify him. If he claims the trench collapsed by accident, what can we do?”
Johan had walked the fine line without breaking any rules.
They had already been caught off guard once during the placement exam, and yet they hadn’t refined the rules properly.
That was their mistake.
“We have no choice. Let it pass.”
To calm the commotion, the chairwoman stepped in.
Olga Hermod.
Johan hadn’t violated any rules. That much was certain.
“So instead, we’ll add a rule. Treat the flag as a person. You can use trenches, but excessive concealment of the flag will not be allowed.”
“Understood. We’ll notify the students after the exam.”
And just like that, a new rule was added.
After the first test ended, I clicked my tongue at the announcement.
This was clearly aimed at me.
But honestly, I deserved it.
“Johan, what are we going to do now?”
“We all expected something like this, didn’t we? We’ll just go with Plan B for the next test.”
“Right!”
For reference, the exam was conducted in three rounds.
Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to fight like this three times?
I’ve never been in the army, but was this what they called field training?
Three days of this… I was already exhausted.
It was supposed to give students a chance to show their skills, but they could at least consider how tiring it was.
“Our strategy wasn’t something we could reuse anyway. Let’s go with a standard approach this time.”
And so, we prepared a new strategy for the second test.
The second mock war began.
“Isn’t that bastard doing this on purpose?”
This time, I built the position even more lazily than before.
I stuck the flag into a wooden stick and declared,
“The position’s built, and if the flag counts as a person, it can move, right?”
Thus, Johan’s mobile fortress was born.
The five of us carried the flag and roamed through the forest.
The two scouts who came ahead to check our position were quickly subdued by sheer numbers.
At that point, I tossed the flag aside and used our 5-to-3 advantage to crush the opposing team.
“At least this is better than the first test. There was a way to counter this, but the scouts acted carelessly. They should’ve retreated the moment they noticed the numbers disadvantage.”
“Still, doesn’t this stray from the purpose of the test? We’re supposed to observe offensive and defensive tactics. This is ridiculous.”
“They say offense is the best defense. It’s not entirely wrong.”
Once again, the instructors argued over my barely rule-abiding strategy.
In the end, after a faculty meeting, the rules were changed again.
This time, it felt personal.
“This is too much. That was fair this time, wasn’t it?”
A new rule was added.
The flag couldn’t move more than fifty meters from its original position.
“Johan, what now?”
“Let’s just do it properly this time. We already won twice. No need to win all three.”
“That’s true. And doing it properly doesn’t mean we’ll lose.”
“Exactly.”
That confidence was all theirs.
I was already mentally and physically drained from the first two battles.
I just wanted to go back and rest.
It’s not like I hadn’t trained, but I wasn’t on their level.
I was exhausted.
And so, the third test began.
We built a proper position.
“That’s definitely a decoy! I saw what they did yesterday!”
We sent out scouts properly.
“Don’t chase! They’re definitely waiting with a trap!”
We used standard tactics.
“There’s definitely something else! Don’t act rashly, hold defensive positions!”
And we won.
“...What was that?”
Because of all the dirty tricks we had pulled before, the opponent overthought everything.
That’s how important perception was.
Though, since we used proper tactics this time, the match lasted much longer.
“Haa…”
By the time the practical exam ended, the sun was already setting.
We had been rolling around since morning.
And now they wanted us to take a written exam tomorrow?
Were they insane?
It hadn’t been this bad in first year.
Things had changed way too much in just one year.
I thought once Olga Hermod became chairwoman, life here would become easier.
I thought once Ariel’s issue was resolved, I’d have plenty of free time.
I was wrong.
This damned academy had always been like this.
I guess I just wasn’t meant to be happy.
“Good work, Johan!”
“I knew you’d pull it off!”
“Yeah. You guys too.”
I meant it.
Even someone as underhanded as me had managed to win because I had teammates who didn’t judge me.
At this point, I guess I was starting to feel something like camaraderie.
“By the way… what were your names again?”
It was a little embarrassing, but I still hadn’t memorized their names.
We were on the same team, and I even led them.
In my defense, we barely spent any time together.
They always moved as a group, and I stayed behind alone.
That was part of the strategy.
“Come on, don’t ruin it.”
“Yeah, yeah. Johan doesn’t ask for names.”
“Don’t break our illusion.”
“……”
What was wrong with these guys?
What kind of image did they have of me?
Was asking for their names really that shocking?
For the first time, I was at a loss for words.
“What was that about…”
I muttered as I watched them leave.
What kind of illusion did they have about me?
More importantly, was I really someone worth having illusions about?
“Yeah… I’m not exactly the type to have friends…”
We lived in different worlds.
I’d probably stay alone until I graduated from this insane place.
It didn’t really bother me.
After all, there was at least one person I could call a friend.
“Yuna, want to grab some coffee?”
I called out to her.
She’d usually appear with that goofy laugh of hers.
“Yuna?”
I looked around.
“Where did she go this time…”
She didn’t appear.
It felt lonely.
Just as Johan thought of Yuna as a friend, Yuna also thought of Johan the same way.
Watching him was fun.
The way he thought resonated with her.
They didn’t need long conversations to understand each other.
Even if they understood each other, it didn’t mean they always agreed.
Johan and Yuna were different.
If there was one biggest difference, it was their view on killing.
“Is the exam about to end?”
Johan had a strong aversion to killing.
That was a good thing.
It meant he had grown up in a better environment than Yuna, who had been forced to kill from a young age.
Her parents had been murdered by a noble.
There hadn’t even been a proper reason.
They had simply made eye contact on the street.
So Yuna took revenge.
Fortunately, she had the talent for it.
‘But others aren’t like me.’
They didn’t have the strength.
They didn’t have the talent.
Most people simply endured reality and lived with their heads bowed.
So Yuna acted in their place.
A child who had lost their parents once gave her a flower.
She slit the throat of the one who had killed them.
That was how she lived.
Yuna didn’t resent Johan for thinking differently.
She envied him.
That way of life was something she had lost.
So she helped him.
Following the traces of dreams.
“Ah…”
Yuna let out a sigh.
Being with Johan was fun.
So she had stayed with him longer than she should have.
“Was I here too long?”
A faint smile formed as she looked at the thick fog creeping in.
She had made too many careless moves.
She had only meant to stop by briefly to find a disciple.
But she had stayed far too long.
And she had known who ruled this place.
Yet she had let her guard down.
Tap.
The sound of a staff echoed.
Her vision wavered.
The thick fog twisted her sense of balance.
The sky felt beneath her feet.
The ground surrounded her like walls.
Then what was above her?
She slowly lifted her head and gave a bitter smile.
“So… I’ve been found.”
There stood the archmage.
Olga Hermod.