A Classroom Without a Single Normal Student

The classroom fell dead silent.

The students, who had moments ago been glowing with confidence over the rods of light they'd created, were now plunged into confusion.

So, in other words...

"Do... what, exactly?"

"All you have to do is transfer the mana infused in the rod into the condensation stone. It's simpler than it looks."

In answer to Yena's question, I drew the mana back out of the condensation stone and sent it flowing into the rod once more. To anyone watching, it looked as easy as flipping a switch off and on again.

I handed each of them a condensation stone that had gone stone-gray. They accepted them with sour, unconvinced expressions, and one by one they tried—half hoping, half doubting. Sadly, not a single person succeeded on their first attempt.

Even Leo, our great hope, couldn't pull it off.

"Think of it like pouring water from one cup into another. You pour it out as-is. No—wait, I'm not saying tilt it."

"Is this not right?"

Having heard the words water cup, Yena was now quite literally tilting her rod against the condensation stone.

"It's a metaphor. It's not an actual cup of water."

"Ohhh...."

And still, the challenges kept coming. Even while wracking their brains, not one of them gave up—they kept trying, over and over, though it didn't do much good.

It was just like back then. The struggling students, and me, waiting patiently until they managed it. And whenever someone asked how, this was the answer I gave.

"A stone condensation stone has already absorbed mana once, so its conductivity is considerably higher than ordinary stone. Keep trying, and at least a trickle will get through eventually. And once it flows even once, the second and third attempts become far easier."

"......."

"If one stream of mana doesn't seem like enough, there's no problem with using two and forming them into a single current. When you're trying to pour water into a narrow-mouthed cup, mobilizing a lot of water at once is one valid approach. Of course, that requires the stamina, endurance, and sheer volume of mana to back it—"

Beriad possessed abilities on par with a ranker, but he was not a ranker.

His name appeared nowhere on the rank battle leaderboards, where even a simple registration showered you with rewards, nor in the class rankings or the level rankings.

The reason was that he used the Secret System—the setting that hid every ranking, every scrap of fame, every achievement from public view.

An unofficial ranker, registered nowhere at all.

DeoEn had its share of reclusive masters who had no interest in making a name for themselves—whether as a persona or as genuine inclination.

Beriad was the latter.

He didn't particularly put himself forward in real life either, and he had no love for standing out in DeoEn. That disposition happened to align perfectly with the hidden trait he'd stumbled upon by chance.

'A trait that grows stronger the closer one is to darkness.'

It went beyond mere color scheme—it encompassed dark disposition, sparse relationships, personality itself. And so, in what felt like the blink of an eye, he had grown stronger than rankers in the top fifties, yet he had never once revealed himself before a crowd.

...He didn't think of himself as lonely.

That was simply the hand he'd been dealt, and living this way wasn't so bad. The game, too, must have looked at him and granted him the familiar trait of darkness.

'...What on earth is this.'

And then, a gale of tremendous change swept toward him.

While circling a hunting ground in search of prey, he happened to catch sight of someone.

Someone shredding a colossal boss monster, dozens of times her own size, with a spear thin as a skewer.

Lily.

She seemed born of light itself, glittering so brilliantly that his gaze was drawn to her before he could stop it. The spear at her fingertips twisted—and something formless pierced straight through the monster's heart.

His left eye, the one that read enemies, flinched.

It was too deep to be a mere skill. Too fast to be magic, and too strange to be spearmanship.

He grew curious. So he looked her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up.

True to someone brimming with light, she was easy to find.

A rising rookie who'd started DeoEn less than a month ago. A powerhouse who'd defeated a single-digit ranker—someone even he wasn't sure he could beat. A bug-like user who wielded mana and skills as if they were extensions of her own limbs. And finally, a celebrity riding waves of popularity thanks to her outrageous character customization.

'My exact opposite.'

Wandering alone, forever accompanied ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠by darkness—she was the polar opposite of everything he was.

Beriad erased everything he'd learned, and closed the window.

Someone with no connection to me.

'Her abilities, I'm curious about. But.'

If he entangled himself with that woman, his darkness would inevitably shallow out. And if the darkness vanished, the very meaning of his existence—the thing that held him up—would vanish with it.

'Lily Elbrit.'

He must not meet this woman.

"......"

Some time after that.

"I was only going to watch for an hour, I swear..."

How had it come to this? This was fake. There was no way this was meant for him. He, who never watched anyone's stream under normal circumstances—there was simply no way.

"Damn it all..."

And yet, before he knew it, he would catch himself watching nothing but Lily's stream, not even having gone hunting that day. Beriad denied that he'd been sucked in, even as his finger pressed play on Lily's channel. He'd looked up her streaming schedule as if it were second nature, sighed, and gripped the condensation stone.

The next class.

If he could just manage this one thing, he could meet Lily—she of that impossibly ancient... no. Just Lily.

And he might not stop at merely meeting her. He might even learn the secret of the technique that had intrigued him from the very start.

But.

Right up until he'd started watching Lily's stream, his dark influence had held steady at around 98%. In the span of those few days, it had dropped by a full 11%.

If this kept up, he would fall below 50% and be crushed under penalty after penalty. In fact, the moment he'd once dipped below that line, he'd collapsed from a ranker to the level of a trainee mage. Below that, the penalties escalated to the point where combat play became outright impossible.

"This won't do. I can't go."

Watching the stream was one thing. But this—he truly could not do this.

'Absolutely not!'

"So, transferring mana is fundamentally the same as controlling the mana inside your own body. If you think of it as letting it flow out, that should be more than enough to—"

"......"

Well, I'm fucked.

"Which is why... hmm?"

In the middle of my explanation, I turned my head toward a sudden, violent corruption of mana.

Beriad was laboring to move mana that had grown pitifully thin. Even at a glance, the state of his mana was dire—a flickering flame on the verge of guttering out.

As I approached him, his face within the shadows flinched.

"Is something the matter? Your mana doesn't look right at all."

Beriad shook his head firmly.

"...Nothing's wro—"

Hm?

The mana, already faded to a whisper, began corrupting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠faster still. Beriad's body, which had held perfectly still until now, started to tremble, little by little.

'Why is it dropping even more?'

Curious, I stepped closer to examine him properly—and the mana faded further.

"Do you have some strange penalty or something?"

"...No. So stay away."

"Hmmm?"

Sounds like there is one, though.

'No manners, this one.'

I was a professor now. Whatever he got away with out there, if you came here to study as a student, the bare minimum of courtesy was mandatory. Ignoring his order to retreat entirely, I simply sat down right beside him.

Beriad jolted in shock, sent his chair clattering backward as he scrambled away—and in that instant, his darkness vanished completely, his face laid bare.

"There is one. Why are you lying?"

"......"