Subjugating the Queen
While Sia was meeting Dorothy, Siu was ranging through the forest in search of people to take on as comrades, just as he and his sister had agreed beforehand. The sounds of fighting rang out from every direction. Most of it was examinees colliding with one another. The powerhouses he had already marked were surely assembling factions of their own, or else already locked in combat.
If I could find someone who'd actually help against the Queen...
From Siu's point of view, a partner with a rare ability was worth far more than a fighter whose name was already famous. He was confident he wasn't weak, but neither he nor his sister had awakened an ability. If he could bring a hidden gem onto their side—someone still unknown, someone who could cover what the two of them lacked—it would pay off not only in the remaining exams, but in team work after they entered the Academy.
He was tearing through the trees when he felt a violent clash of mana.
A fight between heavy hitters?
He started to read the flow of it, hunting for information—then felt a third presence cut in, and the collision died almost at once.
"The hell are you?!"
"It's fine. Just ignore me and keep doing what you were doing."
"Who's supposed to ignore someone clicking a camera right next to them?!"
What is this?
The situation was strange enough that Siu changed course to see it for himself.
Click.
"Hey, loser♡ How about you deal with that camera first, then we continue?"
"Cut the crap and keep fighting me, would you? You were going to show me a great house's power, weren't you? Scared your loss is going to make the front page?"
"Haa. So street-trash losers are rock-stupid all the way through, huh."
"The hell did you just say?!"
From what he could catch, two people had been fighting when someone with a camera barged in.
A reporter? No—a photographer?
The woman in black did not look like an Academy examinee. Short black hair, a dark coat, an outfit unified in black from head to toe—she stood a little apart from the other two and photographed them as if nothing about the scene were unusual.
"Hey, loser♡ Ever heard of image rights?"
"I'm quite familiar with freedom of expression."
"Kyahaha. You're kind of fun, aren't you?"
It was a thoroughly mismatched picture. Of the three, there was at least one Siu knew for certain. The one with the swords was Jin Seoyul, a swordswoman of the Jin Clan, a house famous for its blade work. Amusingly enough, for a great house, the Jin Clan was better known online by a peculiar nickname than by the family name itself.
"Bring it, Cookies & Cream!"
"Loser, I might actually kill you for real♡"
That nickname was Cookies & Cream—because, true to the name, the clan was born with hair split half white and half black. Jin Seoyul wore the trait proudly, her hair tied up in twin tails. She was a slender girl just shy of five feet, dressed in silk and a skirt that breathed an East Asian elegance, a pair of blades in her hands. The catlike smirk she wore while looking down on people made her tone a little frivolous, and yet the old, refined presence of a great house still rolled off her in waves.
The one facing her was the opposite in every way: a riot of street rebellion. A jacket she'd graffiti-painted herself in loud colors, a sleeveless mesh crop top, a secret two-tone streaked with hot pink, short denim, sneakers. A girl in flashy delinquent fashion, through and through.
Right—she was supposed to be a multi-ability user.
Siu couldn't pull her name out of memory, but he remembered she was one of the prospects, a girl said to command all kinds of powers.
Click.
"That guy over there would make a decent subject too."
"Someone's there?"
"Looks like we've got another one♡"
Damn.
He hadn't expected to be found. He had been careful with his concealment, and he had suppressed his mana as far as it would go—and still the girl with the camera, that faint strange smile on her face, had picked him out. He was still processing the surprise when her lens swung toward him, and Siu had no choice but to step into the open.
"Ohh?"
The one who looked interested was Jin Seoyul.
"That blond guy's pretty strong, huh?"
Her blade-tip turned all the way toward Siu. The graffiti girl, pride stung, flushed and snapped.
"Hey, Jin! You looking this way or what?"
"Shut it, Durumi♡ I'll deal with you one-track hot-blooded meatheads later, so sit tight and watch."
"My name is Yi Rumi!"
What now.
He had dropped his stealth, but he had no intention of picking a fight he didn't need.
"I'm not here to fight."
He said it first, then offered a good-natured smile and an open hand.
"Hmm♡ Then why was a handsome guy like you hiding and watching?"
"I'm looking for comrades to take down the Queen with me."
He laid out his reason without dressing it up. Subjugating the Queen was the hidden objective of this exam, and he was putting together a team of people who would actually go after her.
Kyahaha.
Jin Seoyul burst out laughing, as if she'd just been told a particularly good joke.
"Ohh? So the blond guy's deliberately walking the stupid, hard road?"
"That's right. Want to come with us, Jin Seoyul?"
"You know my name? I'm flattered♡"
Hmm.
A soft curve touched her lips. What to do with this. She looked from Siu to the girl with the camera to Yi Rumi and back again. She had no interest in the plan. She had wanted to fight the strong, handsome blond—but there were far too many eyes.
Oh well.
"I don't like that kind of thing♡ It's not my style. Crushing idiot losers under my own feet is way more fun♡"
Click. She slid her swords home.
"If you're going after the Queen, why don't you try sweet-talking that loser Durumi over there?"
"My name isn't Durumi, it's Yi Rumi!"
"Same difference, loser♡"
The way she giggled while raking Yi Rumi's nerves made it obvious the two of them already knew each other.
"That so? A shame, but I won't force it. See you around."
"You're really going after the Queen? That's something♡ If you actually take her down and make it to the 2nd Exam… I'd like to have heard your name by then."
Jin Seoyul waved and turned on her heel.
"Hey—don't you walk away!"
"Bye-bye, Durumi♡ See you at the second exam."
"Kh."
She showed the three of them her back without a flicker of caution, pride in her own skill written in every unhurried step. Left standing there in the sudden quiet, Siu made the same offer to the two who remained.
"What about you two? Any interest in passing the 1st Exam by taking down the Queen Alpharan?"
"Uh…? Me?"
Yi Rumi blinked, as if she hadn't expected the invitation to include her.
"I'm asking both of you."
"And you've got the skills to be making that kind of offer?"
Instead of answering, Siu let the mana he'd been hiding surge out in a brief, perfectly controlled burst. The precision of it was enough. Yi Rumi was convinced on the spot.
Soft click.
"I'm Prim. Nice to meet you."
The photographer, by contrast, lowered her camera for a moment and held her bracelet out to Siu as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Her face was a cold blank, impossible to read, and her voice was gentle anyway. It looked suspicious from every angle.
She reminds me of her.
A small flicker of fondness rose in him, because something about the girl called Tiss to mind. Not the looks—those were nothing alike. But the intelligent eyes, the composure, the chill, and the way she did things out of nowhere. She was definitely not ordinary. Hoping she was the hidden gem he'd been searching for, Siu decided to take her in.
"My name is Siu. Nice to meet you, Prim."
The instant Prim became his comrade, Yi Rumi scratched her head and spoke up too.
"Um, could I come? I-I mean, if we can actually raid the Queen, that's a guaranteed pass, right?"
"Of course."
And just like that, Yi Rumi fell in with them as well. Siu kept up the search for the Queen, rejoined Sia and Dorothy before evening, and the Queen-raid team was locked in at five.
A survival gauntlet was unfolding through every corner of the forest. And yet, down a path that led into an underground cavern, an unexpected expedition was getting underway. Five people—just five—were attempting what everyone else had written off as impossible: the subjugation of the Queen Alpharan.
—BOOM!
"Everyone watch it! If you breathe that smoke in the wrong way, you're done!"
Not one of them came from a great house. Not one of them was famous. Siu and Sia, whose membership in the Order had never been revealed; Dorothy, who had come from the outer districts; and the remaining two besides—it was a combination Tiss would never have imagined. If she had seen them, she would have tilted her head and gone, What kind of lineup is this?
"Where'd the Grand Duchess of the North go?"
"There's not a single great-house kid in sight."
Siu and Sia's team was a combination that deserved to be called Team Dark Horse. The most out-of-place figure among them was the one at the rear, leisurely photographing her companions as they fought.
Click.
"Hey, Prim! Stop shooting like some embedded reporter and throw a flare or something!"
"Hold on. Stay still for three seconds. I think this is going to be the shot of the day."
"Argh, I can't see a damn thing!"
"You have no sense of romance."
The girl behind the camera pulled a photograph from her bag with an indifferent face, then stuck her hand into the picture and drew out a flare. That was exactly what it looked like. She pulled several more the same way and tossed them through the cavern until the dark was bright.
"Rumi. That expression just now was cool. Want to try it again?"
"Y-yeah?"
The girl Prim had called Rumi scratched her cheek, then smiled as if she couldn't quite hide how pleased she was.
"Okay—next step is one flashy hit! I'll show you something properly cool!"
Rumi dropped her stance. Wind coiled around her feet, and a fierce current of mana began to spiral through her body. Then—
Crackle!
With a burst of sparks she shot forward like a thrown spear and scythed a kick across the beast's throat, her riotously graffiti-painted jacket flaring behind her.
Click-click-click.
Prim mashed the shutter.
"Well? Prim?"
"Hmm…"
Prim fussed with the camera, studied the shots, and frowned slightly.
"Looking at it again, not great."
Then, as if it were nothing, she turned and made Siu and Sia her subjects instead.
"Siu and Sia come out much better."
"Hey! Mine was way flashier!"
"Yeah, but it flares so hard I can't get a clean lock on the subject."
At Prim's words Rumi spat fire and lightning in turn, driving back the beasts crowding in from behind—but Prim's dry assessment did not soften.
"I'd heard the title All-Rounder, but I didn't think it'd be to this degree."
"R-right? I was kind of a prospect when I was little! There wasn't much I couldn't do."
Siu soothed her when she started to droop, and only then did Rumi brighten and puff up again. Having talked her down, he went over to Sia, who was resting against the cavern wall.
"Sia."
He called his sister's name with quiet worry.
"Mm…?"
"You're more tense than usual. Ease up. It's over for now."
"I know… I got impatient without meaning to."
After hearing Tiss's name from Dorothy, Sia had asked again and again who that Tiss was, laying the girl in her memory against the one Dorothy described. She still couldn't be sure. The timing lined up, but the appearance Dorothy painted was far too different from the Tiss Sia knew. She hadn't let that restlessness ruin the work, but Siu was worried all the same, watching her tire faster than she ever did.
"The Queen's nest is just ahead. Hang in there a little longer."
"Yeah. Let's finish this quick and go see if Tiss is really the unnie we know."
The five of them stepped carefully into the chamber where the Queen waited.
And then, not long after—
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The Queen Alpharan has been subjugated.
The 1st Exam is now over.
The announcement that the Queen kaiju had been brought down rolled through every corner of the forest.