The First Class (2)
Two professors appeared on the training ground where the students had gathered.
Supervising Professor Lucilla, and Assistant Professor Helena.
Both were armed to the teeth, ready to fight at a moment's notice, and just as they had promised to show the students hell, they wore grim, ominous smiles.
By this point, even the students couldn't help but feel that something was deeply wrong.
"...What is this? The mood's off, isn't it?"
"Are we not doing orientation?"
"What kind of class are they planning, showing up dressed like that?"
They whispered to the people beside them. What they had forgotten, however, was that the professors standing before them were superhumans who had long since transcended ordinary men. A whisper at that volume would reach those ears as clearly as if someone had switched on a speaker.
"Excellent question, Cadet Bruny! Today's class will be divided into three parts!"
"Before we get into all that, everyone line up by class, please~"
Even as Professor Lucilla spoke, Professor Helena was already herding the students into place with brisk efficiency. From F Class all the way up to S Class, she sorted them according to their ranks. Faced with a crowd practically sprouting question marks, Lucilla began to explain how the lesson would proceed.
"First, you of S Class. You will be undergoing special training with me."
"Those of you in A, B, and C Class will be doing group sparring with me~"
"And you of D and F Class will be doing physical training."
At that, the students broke into a murmur. The upper classes didn't seem particularly bothered, but the lower classes looked distinctly unhappy. In a way, it was only natural. Professor Lucilla's words sounded like a declaration that she meant to teach them unequally, according to their rank.
A few of the lower-class students had just raised their hands to object when Lucilla lifted a finger and went on.
"I already know what you're about to say. Unfair. Discriminatory treatment. That's what you want to call it, isn't it?"
"Yes, Professor! Even so, this is—!"
"But there is one thing you are misunderstanding. I am not particularly discriminating against you."
As she said it, Lucilla drew something from her pocket. I sharpened my sight to look, and saw a small bracelet resting in her hand. She tossed it lightly and caught it, over and over, then flicked it down off the platform.
—KUUUNG!
The sparring ground shuddered, and a cloud of dust billowed up. Upper ranks and lower ranks alike went white at the sight.
"For the next week, the students of S Class will wear gravity-enhancement bracelets and carry out their special training."
"......"
"Are the students of the other classes prepared to wear this bracelet? If so, raise your hands. I will make a special exception and permit you to take the S Class lesson."
Not a single hand went up. The only ones who could move even a little while wearing that thing were the S Class students. Anyone beneath them would be crawling across the ground like a grub the instant they put it on.
"I have no interest in your backgrounds. The only thing I care about is strength."
"......"
"You want to take the S Class lesson? Then become as strong as the students of S Class."
There is a saying that a sparrow chasing a stork will tear its own legs. Judging students by their backgrounds and treating them differently is discrimination. But assessing objective ability and matching the level of instruction to it was an educator's proper duty. Lucilla was saying all of this purely for the students' safety, and because they understood that, not one of them could find a word to say.
"Then I will take it that there are no objections, and we will begin. S Class, follow me."
"A, B, and C students, come along with me~"
The S Class students followed Professor Lucilla toward the special training ground, and the A, B, and C students moved off to the left side of the yard behind Helena. The only ones left on the right were the lower-ranked students of D and F Class. Humiliation sat on their faces, tangled with a burning hunger to grow stronger.
Nice. Just as I thought—they're not taking attendance.
And I was standing among them.
If you asked why a B Class student was over here, I would give you two reasons. The first was to avoid attention. Assistant Professor Helena had said she would be running a sparring class, and sparring would inevitably force me to use sword manipulation. Everyone else holding a sword and swinging it, while I alone threw mine? Rumors would spread for certain, and there was every chance they would reach Sylvia's ears up in S Class.
D and F Class is nothing but physical training, so I don't have to worry about that.
The second reason was even simpler. I happened to be stuck with a body that desperately needed physical training.
Every time I look, it's catastrophic.
Behold the stats of the weakest man on the face of the earth. Right now I was on roughly the same level as a slime, the lowest grade of monster there was. Throw a sword with any real effort and I would keel over on the spot; run a little and I would be gasping for air. If I wanted to get stronger, I had to forget practice and sparring alike and start with physical training.
And this class just so happens to fatten up physical stats quite generously.
The academy's first week of classes was brutally hard. Part of it was to wring the slack of ordinary society out of the students and break them into academy life, and part of it was to grind everyone together until some bond formed between them. The most important reason, though, was to hammer the fundamentals into people who didn't even have the fundamentals yet. Complete this class properly, and your physical ability would climb to at least D−.
...Of course, the process would be hell. That was simply the price of surviving at the academy.
Let's do this.
Surviving the academy, step one. The hellish physical training had begun.
Once the sparring for A, B, and C Class was underway, Assistant Professor Helena came back over to the D and F Class side. She dragged a sack along behind her, and it was packed full of gravity-enhancement bracelets just like the one Professor Lucilla had shown them. Helena passed the bracelets out to the students as she spoke.
"These are weakened to one-tenth of the bracelets given to S Class. Everyone, go ahead and put them on~"
I gave the bracelet Professor Helena had handed me a light shake. For something so small, it was considerably heavy. That, however, was only a taste. To feel the real effect, I had to put it on.
Krgh...!
The moment the bracelet closed around my wrist, the reaction was immediate. The gravity-enhancement magic worked into it took hold of my entire body, and it felt as if someone beneath me had seized hold and started hauling me down. A scrub like me had no means of enduring that. I dropped flat where I stood and looked around at the students nearby.
"Urgh—!"
"My body... my body won't move...!"
"I feel like I'm about to lose five centimeters of height."
The others were in much the same state as I was. Groans rose from every corner as students strapped the bracelets on, and most of them, like me, had either sprawled out or collapsed into a sit. A few were still on their feet, but even their legs were trembling.
"The task you've been given is to circle the training ground five times. Any method is fine. Even if you crawl, so long as you follow the set route, it counts as a lap!"
With that, Helena pulled something else from the sack. It was a robot shaped like an eagle, with a magic circle set into each eye.
"You'll get your check from this little friend. It's got surveillance magic and basic intelligence magic on it, so no cheating!"
That was the end of it. Helena headed off toward the training ground on the left, and the students left behind hauled themselves up one by one and started circling the yard. I meant to follow them. It was not, as it turned out, easy.
I genuinely cannot get up.
My raw strength was catastrophic. This wasn't a matter of standing being difficult. No matter how I shoved against the ground, I couldn't even lift my upper body. I did, however, have a particular power that could break me out of this.
Reinforce the body with magic power.
Magic power is the root of all things in the world. It is also the power that makes a superhuman a superhuman, and with enough of it, even a child can defeat an adult. On the first day of my possession, in the middle of a spar, I had learned magic enhancement. Calling up the memory of the examination hall, I began to circulate the magic power through my entire body.
"Krrrgh...!"
Magic power burst from the mana heart beside my heart and seeped into my muscles. The muscles of my whole body strengthened past their limits, and my upper body slowly began to rise. After about a minute of straining, I finally managed to get to my feet.
...Now, if I made it to the starting point of the running course, I could begin the evaluation.
Wow. This really isn't easy.
It felt as if I had destroyed myself with strength training the day before, slept in the cold, and caught a full-body ache of a cold on top of it. Every limb weighed a thousand pounds, and I staggered with each step I took. Even after I reached the starting point and set off along the course, I stayed in much the same state. Was I actually going to finish this? No matter how I turned it over, it seemed impossible.
AAAAARGH—!!!
Anyway, I kept walking. Partway through, my magic power ran dry and I had to drop out once; after that I crawled, and crawled, and somehow managed to finish. Regrettably, though, only a single day had passed. Until next Thursday arrived, this hellish training would go on.