The Class A Challenge
Whether by chance or by design, I couldn't tell.
[Ep.4 Midterm Examination in progress.]
[The contributor who has accumulated the most contribution so far is Lily Elbrit.]
[A portion of the top contributor's stats will be unsealed.]
After finishing Ene's training and slipping back outside, the episode skipped once more.
Before I knew it, I was standing not in front of my usual Class C but in front of Class A, and a commotion was boiling over from inside.
Vrrrk!
"I'm telling you, a beastkin in Class A doesn't make any sense!"
"Did they cheat or something?"
"What's wrong with it?!"
In the center of Class A, a crowd of platinum-haired elves had gathered in a heap, trading heated arguments back and forth.
At the heart of the quarrel, Geomsin stood still as if nothing were the matter, but Aisha beside him could not do the same.
"This is ridiculous."
"Forget Class B—you're in Class A? Did you commit fraud or something?"
"Fraud? This is the skill of Geoms— no, of our Ranga oppa!"
Ranga, apparently. The name of the wolf beastkin Geomsin was possessing.
Well, well. So he managed to climb into Class A after all. If he hadn't even managed that much, I would have been disappointed.
"This is truly—!"
"That's enough."
When Asuka, the platinum-haired beauty at the middle of the elves, raised her hand, the outraged elf's mouth snapped shut mid-shout.
"It's fine. Eloni Academy isn't so sloppy that they'd let something like that slide. If it were real, it would show."
"B-but Asuka! A beastkin rising to Class A is something that has never once happened in the Academy's his—"
"Someone over there is rewriting history too, isn't she?"
When Asuka pointed behind her, the eyes of every student in the room converged on a single spot.
Nice of you to finally notice.
"Hello, everyone."
With a light bow of my head, every gaze in the room turned awkward.
Ria Elfosis was a person of interest and a walking topic of conversation. A student I absolutely needed to befriend for connections and magical advancement alike—yet one single person had been holding the whole room still.
"......Hello?"
Asuka Elfosis.
Second princess of the Elf Kingdom, a heaven-sent talent qualified to become its next queen.
Our eyes met. It was the first time I'd seen her face since enrollment.
Certainly, she radiated the beauty and poise befitting a princess of the elven kingdom. Up close, I could appreciate it all the more clearly.
'Yeah, there's just no arguing with that.'
The Child of the World Tree was as good as decided: Asuka Elfosis. She was only nineteen, yet her level had already surpassed the original Geomsin himself. In my current state, there was absolutely no way I could harm Asuka by force.
No wonder her sister, the so-called historical genius, had been pushed out of her place.
"Ria Elfosis?"
"Yes, Ria Elfosis. I've just been moved up to Class A."
"...I see. I'm Asuka Elfosis. Well... I imagine you already know."
She rose from her seat and approached me.
We were fairly different in height, but her presence was so overwhelming that I didn't feel pushed back in the slightest. The ruffled atmosphere of the classroom transformed in an instant into a stage for the two of us alone. The whole business about beastkins and fairness had long since evaporated.
"I do. How could I not know the princess?"
"Come now—here at the Academy, everyone is 'equal.' Relax. Relax."
Equal, is it.
It sounds like a given thing to say, but it was hardly a line Asuka should have been delivering. From everything I'd gathered piecing together information about this place, one thing was clear: Asuka was not simply 'nice' the way the rumors claimed.
For starters, casual speciesism was baked into her foundation, and she carried the arrogant bearing of a noble besides. Above all, she had an enormous pride in her own ability—so much so that the idea of being outshone by anyone was something she couldn't even imagine.
"In any case, let's get along."
"Of course."
Clasp.
'Oh, look at this.'
It wasn't that she squeezed my hand with force. Whatever else she was, Asuka maintained a surface-level 'niceness'—even a princess couldn't openly crush a classmate's fingers.
What this was... was a contest of spirit.
Life mana came surging down our joined hands, rough and unrestrained. Not the brute strength of a grip, but the sheer scale of mana—displaying, crystal-clear, the gulf between herself and me. An act of intimidation.
'What should I do...'
Simply letting her push was one option. Since Asuka couldn't be subdued by force anyway, it was better to avoid making myself an enemy or a threat and cultivate a different path instead. If all else failed, I could always rack up Asuka's contribution rate as high as possible.
But.
"Nnh?!"
"The rudeness goes both ways, I'm afraid."
Life mana came pouring in.
Flowing in. Flowing in. Flowing in—
"W-wait a second—"
"Is something wrong?"
The face that had been wearing such leisurely composure flooded over with sheer disbelief. The moment the mana she'd been shoving into me began draining back out of her like a runaway flood, Asuka jolted violently and tried to wrench her hand away—but I didn't let go.
"Eeek!"
In the end, she tore her hand free by sheer force. If she'd yanked it while still connected like that, she'd have taken mana backlash for her trouble.
"Are you alright?"
"Ah— you...!"
"I can heal that for you."
"No, thanks!"
Asuka spun on her heel and stalked back to her seat. Her hand was flushed red—she probably did need treatment—but if she refused, far be it from me to insist.
'She's strong enough to recover on her own, anyway.'
With a body and mana pool like Asuka Elfosis's, it would heal in no time.
I returned to my own seat as well, and the students who'd been watching Asuka's every reaction scurried to theirs, desperate to stay out of the line of sight of her tightly clenched eyes.
Ah. Peace and quiet at last.
"She tried to settle it with a contest of mana, so I just... adjusted the direction a little."
Asuka's mana was beyond imagination. It dwarfed the combined level of Ene and me right now, and its sheer quantity would probably rank within the top handful in the entire World Tree. If it had been a straight contest of mana, I could never have won.
But there was no reason I had to receive that torrent with my own body.
I wove a subspace with magic and funneled every scrap of mana flooding into me into it. Of course, a single subspace couldn't hold it 'all'—so if one filled up, I made another. If that filled up too, I made another.
By the time I'd crossed roughly fifty of them, Asuka's mana had finally hit bedrock.
Holding more than three subspaces at once would strain even Academy-level mages, but I was different. If I wanted, I could make hundreds.
[Promising talent Asuka Elfosis now regards you with wariness.]
[Asuka Elfosis's contribution rate: 7.8%]
It climbed again, huh.
The professor in charge of Class A came in, and the frosty atmosphere thawed a little.
In total, five people had been promoted to Class A through the placement exam. Two of them were an elf and a nymph; the remaining three were me, Geomsin, and Aisha. Since Geomsin and Aisha were beastkins, their promotions had drawn controversy, but with Asuka—the center of the class—staying silent, the whole thing got waved through unresolved.
"......"
'This is getting uncomfortable.'
Needless to say, the number of glares aimed my way had multiplied.
Class A's lessons were more or less on par with Class C's. To be precise, Class A's material was far harder and more intricate, but from where I sat, it all felt about the same. What mattered, of course, was the talent—
"......Hmm."
Tap. Tap.
Rustle.
"Hmm..."
Yaaawn~
—...and thus we must remain ever grateful to the life mana, the very wellspring of the World Tree...
'No one particularly special stands out.'
Class A had no exceptional talent either. Not that these students lacked ability—each and every one of them possessed outstanding mana sensitivity, talent, and a breadth of knowledge, and their level far exceeded your average ranker. Pick any student at random and train them for a week, and they'd be good enough for the top hundred.
But that wouldn't be enough.
'At that level, no one can beat Asuka.'
This wasn't a simple contest of strength to pick the strongest. The final choice belonged to the World Tree itself, and the candidates had to display talent brilliant enough to catch its eye.
By that measure, Asuka Elfosis's talent ranked among the finest the World Tree had ever nurtured. Ordinary talent would never surpass her.
"...I'd rather just raise Ene, honestly."
Between these students and Ene, there wasn't much difference. If anything, Ene was far superior in certain respects.
Right, how hard did I train her? I found myself a little curious just how thoroughly 'I' had run Ene into the ground.
"...Club President?"
"I'll kill them... kill them all..."
Something about her looked... deeply ominous. Even more than usual.
'What on earth did I do to her?'
While I was reviewing the skipped portion, Ene—trembling from head to toe—gripped the windowsill and began shuffling toward somewhere.
"Where are you going?"
"Application... friendly-match application..."
Thud!
Ene collapsed.
Apparently I had run her into the ground quite thoroughly.
'Her body is perfectly fine. Is it her mind that's gone?'
When I checked her condition, her body was already healthy enough to need no healing magic at all. The problem lay in her spirit—and a soul worn just a little too threadbare.
What in the world had I...
"...No, seriously. I taught her THIS?"
Having confirmed the skipped memories, I stared at myself in the mirror.
"Am I insane?"
I was not in my right mind.
Shaking my head at my own absurdity, I picked up the paper dangling from Ene's limp hand. So this was the application.
"You've suffered enough—let me take care of this for you, Senpai."
"......"
"Get some rest."
Thump!
"...Why did this end up here?"
The 'second' swordsmanship club room of Eloni Academy.
A single letter came flying toward Asuka Elfosis, who was seated with a grave expression at the club table. The one who caught it and brought it over was the fox beastkin who had just joined. She pulled the letter from the mailbox placed outside the club room and set it down on the table.
Her friend Nove Ersosa, who had founded the new swordsmanship club alongside her, shook her head.
"Looks like it got sent to the wrong place. I heard before that the spear-arts club and the 'first' swordsmanship club were rivals. Though apparently not anymore."
"...They sent it here because it's 'also' a swordsmanship club?"
"Guess they got confused. Hand it over—I'll take it to the swordsmanship club for you."
"Ha."
Asuka was irritated. Already so many things were gnawing at her nerves, and now pointless trivia like this was kicking up a fuss.
Still grumbling, she flipped the letter over to its back side.
Flutter.
"Some new student must have made a mistake. Honestly, shouldn't the seniors be the ones handling that sort of thing?"
"......"
"Of course, it's not as though we're in any position to talk—having kicked our way out of a club after only a single day—"
"...No."
"Hmm?"
"It's a challenge letter. We accept."
Whether by chance or by design, I couldn't tell.
Member — Ria Elfosis.