The Entrance Ceremony (4)
I was still too green for this. A transmigrator who couldn't keep a cool head, I had already made one dangerous mistake after another—let a sneer slip in front of Silvia, and drawn Estelle's eye by saving Lucy. A stack of coincidences had kept anyone from pinning down who I was, but if I kept acting without a thought in my head, it was only a matter of time before my identity came out.
Get your head on straight.
I was special, and I was useless. A transmigrator in possession of an EX-grade trait, the Extreme Sword Constitution—and still. That didn't make me some veteran of transmigration, and I carried a curse besides, one that would not let me take a sword in hand. Weighed objectively, I sat closer to an extra than to any overpowered protagonist.
One wrong step and I die.
The Academy was not as safe as I had imagined. Estelle, the final boss, was here, and that was only the start—dark mages who had slipped inside, a villainess, third-rate thugs, hazards in no short supply. Flash an opening at any of them and I might as well stick my neck out and ask, nicely, to be killed.
It was past time to stop rampaging like a man who couldn't tell his past life from this one.
Until I'm strong, I keep my head down.
Right now I was a scrub. But I had found a hidden road in Sword Control, and if I grew at a steady pace, I could surely become someone to fear. Until that day I had to understand my station and bury my strength completely. How to bury it, of course, was a problem I still had to chew on.
"Hans, once the shock has settled, would you care to get a meal? I'll pay—as thanks for saving me."
"I must respectfully decline. A commoner at the same table as an imperial princess? Out of the question."
At any rate, that was precisely why Estelle's invitation had to be refused, no exceptions. True to a mastermind, she was brilliant and quick to read a person. Linger over a leisurely meal and she would have counted the moles on my body, with ease to spare. I had gone so far as to give a false name. Whatever tie I had with Estelle needed to end today.
"The imperial family received a favor that saved a life, and you think it acceptable to wipe your mouth and walk away?"
"Ahaha..."
"I truly wish to repay you, so be good and cooperate, won't you?"
But Estelle would not give an inch. She closed on me without hesitation, as if she meant to learn everything there was to the man in front of her, and she had already caught my sleeve—planning, clearly, for the chance I might run.
Mm. I think I might have completely fucked this.
"Ah—everyone, would you look this way for a moment."
I was giving serious thought to shaking her off and bolting when a voice came suddenly from behind. I turned. The Drake stood on two legs with its head cut clean off, and Headmaster Gustav was seated on top of it. The students were flustered, as anyone would have been, and Gustav looked down at them and laughed, a deep rolling laugh.
"I understand how unsettled you feel. I will explain everything, so please listen."
With that, Headmaster Gustav began. The attack, he said, had in fact been a special event prepared by the Academy, and the Drake an illusion of his own making. He added that surveillance crystal orbs set all through the Main Auditorium had watched every student's performance from start to finish.
Most of those who heard him looked dumbfounded. A few pushed back hard.
"Even so, this is going too far!"
"You can't stage something like this without our consent!"
"I'll tell my father and file a formal complaint!"
In fairness, that was the natural reaction. Meeting a monster on a battlefield and meeting one in the sitting room of your own house could not possibly feel the same. From where they stood, this was a vicious hidden-camera stunt.
Their words were right, and they were wrong. They had forgotten what this place was. Arbel Academy—a school that manufactured heroes.
"Did you not sign the documents before the entrance examination? That you would submit to the Academy's educational policy, and give your all in any circumstance."
"Th-that's—!"
"Evil appears in places you do not expect, at times you do not expect. This time, the Academy prepared the test. Next time, who can say."
Not a shade of doubt showed on Gustav's face as he spoke. It was an attitude impossible without boundless conviction in his own creed of education. He gave off the spirit not of an archmage, but of a teacher, and under that pressure the students could protest no further.
"Even so, what you say is not wrong. Today's attack was a rather forceful, demanding lesson for new students to face."
"......"
"Therefore, as an apology, I will grant every one of you new students a single pass to the Academy Vault. One use. You may take whatever item you wish."
Grievances forgotten, the cheers went up at once. They could hardly have done otherwise. The Academy Vault held every kind of treasure and elixir brought in through the patronage of countless royal and noble houses, along with Archmage Gustav's own collection. There would be more of worth in it than in the treasure house of an ordinary kingdom.
"Of course, limits will be placed on what you may take. And the rewards will be tiered according to how well you performed in this lesson."
Gustav added that, and the cheering did not thin. The students at the top were pleased, because a better reward awaited them. The students at the bottom were pleased, because a prize had dropped into their laps for doing nothing at all. I cheered with them, and started turning over what I ought to claim.
How's the Academy going to rate what I did out there?
My part in the fight had been anything but small. My thrown sword had punched through the Drake's eye, and that was what had made the kill possible. The greatest credit belonged to the S-class students, yes. I figured I came right after them.
Anyway. Now's my chance.
I slid a look toward Estelle. Caught up in Gustav's speech, she had forgotten I existed entirely. I was not about to waste the gap. Silent as a cutpurse, I set quiet footwork between us and drew away.
"Whew! I can finally breathe."
Pushing through the press of bodies, I made it out of the Main Auditorium. Guards held a perimeter around the building, and students who had escaped ahead of me were already outside. I drifted toward them as if I belonged there, and before long a member of the staff was coming our way.
"Gentlemen, this way, please. Ladies, over here."
"We'll guide you to the dormitories and see to your room assignments. Follow us."
The students outside the Main Auditorium fell in behind the staff and made for the dormitories. A dedicated train carried us ten minutes. About five minutes past the main gate, the men's dormitory rose into view—vast and imposing, as if some medieval European palace had been rebuilt for the purpose—and every face around me went slack with surprise.
"This is Dormitory Proctor Johann Borzoff. Give him your name and your rank, and collect your room key."
The guide left as if the work were finished. On the first floor, only the students and the proctor remained.
Bald, a short beard, a middle-aged man cut in broad, heavy lines. He looked strict even at a glance. He was.
"Before I hand out the keys, I will tell you the rules of this dormitory. Listen well. Remember them. Do not break them."
"...."
"For the record. Pass twenty penalty points, and you are thrown out of the dormitory. Know that."
Johann's eyes were cold enough to prickle the skin—the eyes of a man who would punish, without mercy, anyone who broke a sacred rule. The pressure was no small thing. The students listened with pinched, cowed faces.
I, of course, was somewhere else entirely.
What hidden pieces were in the dormitory again?
The Academy game had been stuffed with hidden pieces. A secret archive buried in the library, a hidden dungeon that had simply always been there, special items left behind by heroes who graduated from the Academy, and more besides. And the place where the greatest number of those pieces lay concealed was right here. The dormitory.
A place with history, in more ways than one.
Where the graduated seniors had stayed the longest. One of the oldest buildings on the Academy grounds, and one that hid every kind of impossible space. The dormitory was a treasure vault in its own right, and Proctor Johann the watchman set over it.
Try anything at all, and he shuts it down to the second.
Hidden pieces were hard enough to find with no one in the way. Johann raised the difficulty on top of that. No movement after curfew. No entry into restricted zones. No tolerance for damaging dormitory property. Said aloud, it all sounded perfectly reasonable. The trouble was that hidden pieces could not be found by reasonable means.
By rights I ought to prepare more before I try this...
Unfortunately, my situation left me no room. Silvia and Estelle already had me zeroed in their sights. One slip, and I could be taken. Only if I secured the hidden piece that had just come to mind could I slip the both of them clean.
First day of dormitory registration. Time to cause a little trouble.
If there was no other way, then there was no other way. I decided I would break the dormitory rules in a heap, starting from my very first day.