Promotion Quest (1)
While the academy's second-year elites endured their share of hardships—mentoring juniors, tackling special assignments, and the like—the rest of the second-years hadn't exactly been lounging around either.
Star Land. The grueling training inside the pocket dimension known as the Shadow Mine. Look here, look there; even if you covered your eyes in exhaustion, the thunderous march of golem hordes still echoed in your ears. Creatures that already viewed ordinary humans as beneath them charged in with full armament and murderous intent. Clearing it once didn't mean the end, and on unlucky runs you had to face vine-wielding demonic beasts on top of the golems.
"Robes Briang. You no longer need to participate in field training. Join the integrated combat class as soon as it opens."
"O-ohhh!"
Students who proved themselves could escape this hell and join the upper ranks, but the pressure on those left behind only grew heavier.
"Damn it, if Robes drops out too our defenses are going to be paper-thin."
"What kind of nonsense is this? Are they telling the rest of us to just die?"
"Alright, alright, let's not complain. Let's think up new tactics instead. Instead of relying on a single tanker, have several people rotate aggro and—"
The students naturally grumbled, but unless they planned on dropping out of the academy entirely, they had no choice but to endure.
Damn it. Among the remaining students, it feels like there's almost no one stronger than me anymore. Even if I wanted to hang back and play it safe, the formation collapses and it's over anyway. No way around it.
A student with a power level of 7 was nothing more than a supporting member among those rated 10 or 9, yet among those stuck at 5 or 4 they were hailed as the undisputed ace. People who would normally have been content staying in the middle of the pack now had to become the center of their teams, whether they liked it or not.
If word gets out that I cooperated with the Fourth Prince's faction, there'll be talk, but without that guy's help right now, we won't survive.
He's annoying, but among the members here he's one of the more capable ones. For now, we have to coordinate.
Students with middling abilities had no choice but to form teams with others of similar skill if they wanted to survive. Factions, nationalities, social status—none of it mattered if you were dead. Having experienced similar situations before, their judgment was swift.
Watching the students, the trio of instructors conversed among themselves.
"With this, forty students—including the previous top performers—have moved on to Professor Psyche's class. The sudden request delayed the start of lessons, which was inconvenient, but we've ended up with a reasonable number."
"I wonder how many will actually pass."
"In any case, cases of complete 'transformation' are extremely rare. Most will either see no change or only a slight shift based on their existing color."
Cutting off Neville and Emilio's conversation, Istal spoke up.
"Well, she'll handle that part herself! More importantly, I'd like to take charge of the remaining students from now on. Any objections?"
"What's your angle?"
"I plan to teach them the movements of the 'army'!"
The two professors fell silent for a moment at the sight of the martial arts instructor's beaming smile. When Istal spoke like that, it meant she intended to keep the remaining members together as a group rather than continue weeding them out individually. According to the academy's existing educational policy, it would have been more efficient to keep selecting the stronger ones and treating the final survivors as "necessary expenses," but…
"Do as you like."
"I don't mind either."
Neville recognized that further selection would yield diminishing returns, while Emilio had already sent all the female students he cared about upward and held little interest in those left behind. Whether their answers would prove fortunate or unfortunate for the remaining students remained to be seen.
Some time after the spectacular adventure in the Eastern Mountains had concluded.
After treatment, rest, and handling a few administrative matters, we safely returned to the academy. Fortunately, no new demonic beasts appeared afterward, and there were no major movements from the Ivestan side either. The higher-ups seemed busy determining the actual results of the new beast subjugation, planning countermeasures, and covering up information, but from our perspective on the ground, none of it was particularly important.
The students who participated in the operation were ordered to keep quiet about what they had seen and heard, which was also for our benefit. If everything we had done became public and Ivestan attempted some military provocation, the nobles would swarm like hornets, accusing the Eastern Army Commander of sparking war through unnecessary aggression—and we wouldn't get off lightly either. Of course, given that the operation itself had been authorized by the Emperor and the Chancellor, and that the princess had participated, the actual chance of punishment was effectively zero. Still, it was best not to create unnecessary trouble.
Instead of official rewards, the participating students received Dietrich's "small gifts," and the amounts were quite generous. As expected of the head of one of the empire's prestigious families, his pocket money operated on a different scale. The Midas Company was growing steadily, but it still couldn't compare.
Having received generous compensation and escaped the grueling wilderness expedition, most students returned to campus life with smiling faces. Most, that is—because there were exceptions.
"Hey, Midas! If it's money you want, I'll give it to you, so just lend me the cube for a— S-sorry! My mistake!"
"Um, Manager, people keep asking me about— Eek?! N-no, it's nothing!"
"Senior, are you free this evening by any chance— I-I'll come back another time!"
—Wheeeeeeeng…… Pop!
Anyone who tried to approach me scattered in panic, and even a nearby mosquito executed an emergency retreat skill. Fiore, watching from the side, expressed her admiration.
"Even mosquitoes have survival instincts!"
"If we analyze this phenomenon and develop a magical device for repelling mosquitoes, wouldn't it sell like crazy?"
"The side effect of repelling people too would probably get it banned pretty quickly."
Despite our banter, Ligret showed no particular reaction. Ever since the final battle in the Eastern Mountains, she had been like this—lost in deep thought, responding absentmindedly when spoken to, occasionally brightening as if she'd thought of something only to shake her head with a serious expression. It was the classic image of someone wrestling with an important problem, except that any living creature that came too close would flee in terror from the menacing aura she emitted.
I'd experienced it a few times myself, so I knew she wasn't actually angry or trying to threaten anyone. She was just frustrated because her thoughts weren't coming together, or in a slightly bad mood. But because she normally had such a cool, indifferent demeanor and brushed off most things without much reaction, people who didn't know her well saw this as a dramatic change.
Her monstrous physical strength probably contributed to the reaction as well. After all, when a carnivore shows even mild irritation, the surrounding herbivores all tense up. Of course, there were always people oblivious to atmosphere, and Crow—prime example that he was—had charged in without reading the room and gotten beaten even worse than usual before being dragged away. Well, it was Crow, so whatever.
Since there was no point in bothering other people, we headed straight back to the special district mansion without detouring. Fiore, having received a message from Akasha, left for the shopping district, and Chepe, who served as both maid and escort, went with her. That left only Ligret and me.
I spoke to Ligret, who was lying on the sofa with her eyes closed.
"Asleep?"
No response.
"Doesn't seem like you're asleep."
I waved my hand in front of her face, but still no reaction. Fine, if that's how you want to play it.
Thud.
"…What are you doing?"
At Ligret's incredulous question, I answered confidently.
"Hmph, waking up someone pretending to be asleep."
"And you do that by sitting on a person who's lying down, you lunatic?"
"After getting uppercut for making noise near someone's ear and being thrown three meters into the air for shaking their shoulder, even a sane person would end up like this."
Ligret let out a short sigh, grabbed my clothes with one hand, and casually tossed me aside like a stuffed bear before sitting up. Whew, no attack this time.
"So, what's the problem this time?"
At my question, Ligret frowned deeply and spat out her answer.
"That last fight. I was thinking about what would've happened if that butterfly woman hadn't interfered."
Hmm, so she'd been running shadow simulations. I had a feeling I knew the result, but I asked anyway.
"How did it go?"
"Total annihilation."
"Hmm."
"After repeating it dozens of times, I could probably take down two of them, but anything beyond that didn't improve no matter how many hundreds of tries I made."
Well, yeah. From my perspective, the fact that she could even take down two more in that hellish situation was already impressive, but Ligret wasn't satisfied and kept running virtual battles over and over.
"But do you really have to fight them head-on? If things look bad, you can just run. Did you try that too and fail?"
"I tried it about ten times for fun, but it was so easy I got bored and stopped."
"Oh? So the results were good?"
"If I throw you, with your intact tongue, into enemy lines, it succeeds about three times."
"……"
I didn't particularly want to ask about the other results. In the name of borrowing a pretext, seven Chrome Midases. Anyway, the fact that she was trying to get stronger wasn't a bad thing. It wasn't bad, but even so, staying in this state until she succeeded was problematic. The princess also seemed to be quietly bothered by the fact that she hadn't been able to win on her own in the last fight. She was the type to bottle up stress, so even if it didn't show now, I feared future repercussions.
Actually, I already knew the solution. The problem was that I couldn't start it on my own.
Just then, the communicator let out a sharp beep.
"Fiore? What's going on?"
[A new notice just went up on the bulletin board. It looks like Professor Psyche's class schedule has been set.]
"Oho."
The long-awaited promotion quest had finally arrived.