Entrance Ceremony (2)
After the entrance ceremony ended, the new students poured out of the auditorium in a great mass. There was only one topic on the lips of those who couldn’t wipe the displeasure from their faces: the commoner top student walking alone up ahead.
They’re still badmouthing him behind his back instead of coming to their senses.
In contrast, Erika clicked her tongue and shook her head as she watched them. They probably hadn’t even realized Schluss had been mocking them. A noble was supposed to be upright and honorable above all else. She felt ashamed that they shared the same class.
“Wow. Our top student sure is bold, huh?”
“……Eins.”
Before she knew it, someone had sidled up beside her and spoken without the slightest hesitation. It was Eins von Wittgenstein, the eccentric prodigy and heir to the illustrious Wittgenstein family. She wondered how he could treat her with such familiarity after only meeting a few times. It was terribly uncomfortable, though Erika made every effort not to show it.
……She really did try.
“What kind of confidence does he have to suggest dropping out? How many people have held the top spot the entire first semester?”
“Not a single one.”
“Not one? Whoa. That’s seriously bold.”
Erika shot a sidelong glance at the impressed Eins. Her thoughts were entirely different. Schluss hadn’t taken a risk or thrown out a provocation. Maintaining the top rank would be child’s play for him. It was hardly surprising that someone who had sold his lifespan to a demon would produce the best grades. It was clearly cheating, yet she could tell no one. After all, she had nothing but circumstantial speculation without solid evidence.
Even so, Erika chose to wait and endure. If a commoner had paid such a price to claim the top spot at the Imperial Academy, Schluss’s remaining days had to be few. If she simply held on, he would inevitably pay for his sins on his own.
“I heard a rough outline about the special exam. They said it tests how long you can last inside the Barrier of Fear.”
“……The Barrier of Fear?”
Erika’s eyes narrowed. She had heard of it. The knight orders supposedly used that barrier when they wanted to run especially brutal entrance tests. It awakened primal human terror so intense that simply not wetting yourself counted as passing.
“How long did he last to get a perfect score? Do you get full marks for not crying or something? Whoa! I should’ve double-majored and taken the special exam myself!”
“……”
“Is his courage really that impressive? Then let’s test it.”
“Eins, what are you—”
Erika, who had been walking with her head turned away in disinterest, widened her eyes. Eins was stretching his arm toward the back of Schluss’s head. Cold sweat broke across her skin as she activated an amplification spell. By magnifying the faint mana waves, she immediately recognized that he was constructing a spell formula.
“Wait.”
“That’s fire magic, isn’t it!”
“Hey, just stay quiet for a second.”
As the formula slowly took shape and mana poured into it, Erika’s hands began to shake violently. It was unmistakably a fire spell. The amount of mana flooding in climbed without limit—one thousand, two thousand, three thousand—until it surpassed ten thousand. The spell had enough power to reduce an entire building to dust.
“Hey! Commoner top student!”
“……?”
At Eins’s playful shout, Schluss turned with an annoyed look. The instant Erika tried to stop him—
“Stop that spell right—”
BOOM!
A roar that tore through the air erupted as flames exploded in midair. The blaze shot forward in less than a second, reaching Schluss…… yet just before swallowing him, it split in two and streaked past both sides of his body.
When the flames finally died, thick smoke blanketed the area. The ground was scorched and gouged in clear, deep marks. A few students standing behind Eins were so stunned by the overwhelming power that they fell flat on their backsides.
But Schluss Heinkel, who had taken the spell head-on—
“Why did you call me?”
—simply stood there calmly and answered. Not a single flicker disturbed his face; only perfect composure remained.
Eins and the entire group of freshmen who had witnessed it fell silent for a long moment.
Maybe the pressure of delivering the speech had made me nervous. This damn…… Why is this happening?
I kept losing and regaining my vision over and over. The moment my concentration slipped even slightly, this was the result. Using my sixth sense like actual eyes and ears was nowhere near as easy as it sounded. I had only possessed this body for a few days, after all.
Oh. There we go.
I finally restored everything to normal. I was feeling rather proud that I was getting used to it when—
“Hey! Commoner top student!”
“……?”
A voice full of mischief rang out from behind. At this point I could recognize who it was from voice alone. It matched the exact tone I had imagined in my head.
Eins von Wittgenstein. The academy’s resident troublemaker.
Hiding my pleased reaction, I turned around.
Goddammit.
What was the problem this time? The instant I turned, both my vision and hearing cut out again.
Stay calm. Restore it as fast as possible. Otherwise I would look like a complete idiot just standing there blankly.
But why did I feel this warm energy on both arms? Was the sunlight suddenly stronger? Never mind.
It was almost finished.
I’m back.
The moment my vision returned, all I saw was thick smoke. Beyond it, the freshmen stood with eyes wide open.
I had no idea what had just happened. Even Eins, who had called me, was staring in a daze. Still, I figured I should at least answer so I wouldn’t look like a fool.
“Why did you call me?”
“……”
Silence again. With so many people around, that uncomfortable quiet kept descending. I glanced around belatedly to assess the situation. The ground…… was gouged out……? In a perfect Y-shape centered on me.
Now I understood. That bastard had shot magic at me.
“Commoner top student! You really are tough as nails! I like you!”
“……”
Eins, having recovered from his shock, now wore a bright smile as he walked over. A kid who charged headfirst into everything without thinking. But the moment he judged someone outstanding, he acknowledged them without reservation. That was the true nature of Eins von Wittgenstein.
So the fact that he had fired magic at me without warning wasn’t surprising at all. Still, if my vision hadn’t cut out at that perfect moment, I would have flinched in a pathetic display.
For once, I was grateful for my clumsy control over my sixth sense.
“My name is Eins von Wittgenstein. You can call me Eins.”
“……”
Eins threw an arm around my shoulder as he spoke. I was beginning to feel conflicted. Eins certainly possessed tremendous talent—at this point in time, anyway. In the original story he ran around causing trouble before getting utterly crushed by Hurtlocker in a duel. After that he simply stuck to the protagonist’s side and became a mindless cheerleader.
His talent had always carried a clear ceiling. I had never considered him necessary for the final battle…… but completely ignoring him felt wrong. In this world where the future had already twisted, there was no telling how things might change.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Schluss Heinkel. Now get your arm off me.”
“……”
I spoke low enough for only Eins to hear. His expression gradually stiffened, and he slowly withdrew his arm.
For now, I would stack both favor and dislike at the same time. That way I could cut ties whenever necessary. He was such a lighthearted, mischievous guy that there was no telling what trouble he might cause. It was better to stay prepared. Getting entangled with him unnecessarily would only become exhausting.
“Uh, um…… Sorry. How about we grab a meal together later—”
“Let’s meet again once the semester starts.”
“Huh? Uh, sure……”
I cut Eins off cleanly. Once he took a liking to someone, he showed infinite goodwill unless they stabbed him in the back, so this level of cold treatment wouldn’t matter.
I glanced behind me. Erika, Trie, Iris, and the rest…… The named characters filled my view. Becoming acquainted with them beforehand would certainly help in the long run. But I had far too many things to handle before the semester began, so I decided to let it go.
I turned my back on Eins and headed straight for the dormitory, ignoring Erika’s clearly audible voice behind me.
“That rude bastard—”
“Haa……”
Lady Lichtenburg let out a weak sigh as she closed the door. Her legs buckled, threatening to give out, but she caught the doorknob and barely held herself upright.
—Oh, right. What did Big Sister Erika say?
The image of Yulia speaking with a bright smile on her pale face kept replaying in her mind. She must have been trying to change the subject because her mother kept tearing up. The topic was her long-cherished wish of attending the Imperial Academy’s entrance ceremony……
Yulia was the lady’s other daughter—Erika’s younger sister. Unlike her lively, gifted older sister, Yulia had been born with an incurable disease. No physician had ever identified its cause. As Yulia grew, the illness steadily devoured her strength until she could no longer walk.
Heaven is truly heartless.
Lady Lichtenburg wiped her tears and staggered down the corridor. Every doctor had said the same thing: Yulia would not live past ten. That was the optimistic prognosis. Some had even claimed it would not be strange if she died tomorrow.
Of course the lady refused to believe any of it. No—she did not want to believe it.
“My lady.”
“Yes, what is it?”
“A man at the rear gate is asking for you. He said you would understand if he mentioned the Crow……”
“……”
Crow. Lady Lichtenburg’s expression hardened at the word.
“Shall I open the gate?”
“No. Leave it closed.”
“Understood.”
Leaving the bowing butler behind, Lady Lichtenburg hurried down the corridor and stepped outside. She crossed the dark garden toward the rear gate, but no one was there.
As she wondered, a black silhouette slowly emerged from the pitch darkness.
“Lady Lichtenburg. The information you requested has arrived.”
“Who told you to come all the way to the house? I clearly instructed you to send it by mail.”
“It may contain sensitive information, so we had no choice but to exercise extreme caution with security.”
“……”
“Haha. Even so, you look terribly uncomfortable. Did you really hate facing me this much?”
Lady Lichtenburg frowned and kept her lips pressed tightly together. Under normal circumstances she would never have commissioned the Crows. But because the matter concerned a commoner her daughter Erika had taken an interest in, she had no choice but to borrow the power of the shadows.
“Just hand over the information.”
“Here it is. Hehe.”
“……”
Lady Lichtenburg took the single sheet of paper from the man’s servile smile. She tried to pull it through the iron gate, but met resistance. The man refused to let go.
“……What are you doing?”
“Just one thing I’d like to confirm. Is your daughter by any chance—”
“Speak one more word and you will not leave here alive.”
“Haha. My apologies. I overstepped. The request is complete, so I’ll take my leave.”
The man sneered, turned, and vanished into the darkness.
Lady Lichtenburg watched him disappear before lowering her gaze to the paper. It contained information on Schluss Heinkel, the freshman commoner top student who had recently become a major topic.
The first section was merely basic data she already knew, so she read on without much expectation. But when she reached the part detailing Schluss’s past—
“What is this……”
—her hands began to tremble violently. By the time she finished reading, her face had gone deathly pale with shock.