I Just Smiled, That's All
Light poured into the auditorium.
Through the newly created door strode a woman, silver hair swinging boldly about her shoulders as she made her entrance without a shred of hesitation.
It was an appearance so out of nowhere it bordered on absurd.
As everyone stood frozen in disbelief, one person who knew exactly who the culprit was shot up from her seat.
"Clouddd Envooyyy Dukee?!"
"It's been a while, Lady Leo."
The Cloud Envoy Duke, Birang Brenis.
One of the Empire's Six Swords, and bearer of one of the Empire's sacred relics. Like Besk, the former Imperial Sword, she owned a special weapon forged from Metamor.
Going by what I'd heard from Besk and Leo, there was nothing strange about her enrolling at the academy at all…
[???]
[what]
[EMPIRE INVASION LOLOLOLOLOL]
[ALERT!!!]
[Cloud Envoy Duke showing up out of nowhere, what is this]
[hahahahahahahahaha]
[straight-up academy raid LOL]
[are we at war now?]
[why is an NPC here]
[NPCs can enroll?]
She was a resident of this place.
An NPC.
"My apologies for being late. If they hadn't blocked me at the entrance, I would have arrived right on time."
The Cloud Envoy Duke pointed behind her with a somewhat displeased expression.
I distinctly remember designing four doors. Now there were five.
"You could have said something."
"I did. No one listened."
"Really? I gave instructions to let everyone through, provided they qualified."
"I am sufficiently qualified. I passed the examination."
"Hmm… let me verify that."
[???????]
[how does an NPC even take an exam]
[huh?]
[that's gotta be a lie right?]
[she's pretty tho]
[the test was a broadcast day, how'd she solve that lol]
[just kill her, Lily]
[cut off an arm first, let's goooo]
I called up the blue window in front of everyone, tapped through a few screens, and gave a small nod.
"So it is. Seems there was an oversight on our end, given the unforeseen circumstances."
"…Was it truly a mistake?"
"Of course."
It was a mistake. It's true that I never predicted this situation.
Just before the entrance exam concluded, while confirming the final list of successful candidates, I'd noticed something rather odd.
《Passer — ■□ ■□■■ 〓〓〓〓》
A participant whose data had been entered not as a user, but in some entirely different format.
She was Birang Brenis — and, at the same time, an NPC.
Because she wasn't a user built on the system's foundation, naturally, she had never been recorded on the clear list.
And since she wasn't recorded, not a single user had known.
Which was exactly why I was curious.
As I said, there was no problem with her passing and enrolling. Her skill surpassed both Leo and the Sword God from before he lost his sword.
The problem was—
Why had she come? And how?
The invitations I created were inaccessible to anyone who wasn't a user. Even if she somehow connected, she couldn't possibly have solved the problems. How would someone who doesn't know the first thing about my streams know the schedule of my very first broadcast, or what platform I even stream on?
So I had deliberately blocked her entry to see what she'd do — and her reaction had been far more extreme than I expected.
As if she were hiding something else entirely.
"I have plenty of personal questions, but we'll save those for later. Please, take a seat."
"Understood."
"Ah, and student Birang."
Jolt.
Birang's whole body flinched.
I had no idea why she'd come here, but that title clearly hadn't grown on her yet.
How many people in the Empire, after all, had ever been in a position to call one of its Swords a mere student? Perhaps in the past — but surely not now.
"…What is the matter?"
"While it's true the mistake was ours, demolishing academy facilities without authorization is a violation of school regulations."
Therefore—
"Student Birang will be assigned ten demerit points."
[demerit points on day one?]
[wait she breaks a building and ALL she gets is demerits?]
[?]
[academy's gonna get wrecked a lot huh]
[can't we just kill her]
[Lily really is a saint]
[if it were me I'd have put a hole in her like that door, yep]
[Lily is a literal angel fr]
[this chat is full of absolute savages lmaooo]
"……"
"Please take your seat. If you wish to file an appeal, the headmaster's office is open to you."
"…Understood."
Birang sat down in the empty seat wearing an expression that read distinctly as humiliated.
Had she really not expected to be punished? Given that she'd gone and wrecked a door, she must have braced herself for the fallout at least.
"Master didn't say anything tho, so how'd you even get in?"
"…I got lucky."
"Hmmmm?"
Leo, having sidled up to Biram all friendly-like, tilted her head. She clung to her and pestered her relentlessly, but the woman never opened her mouth again.
"……"
Instead, she stared harder at me than at Leo sitting right beside her.
Come to think of it, maybe it was me she'd come here to see all along.
"We will now begin the entrance ceremony."
■
I hadn't built Eli Academy to cultivate talent or provide structured education.
All the basic lectures could be viewed through the stream, and even if you missed the live broadcast, you could always catch the rerun or one of the NewTube recap videos. Which meant most of the academy's facilities would end up used once or twice and then sit idle.
The students learning here would attend perhaps once a week — two or three times at most.
It's basically content, really.
The sprawling grounds, the dazzling buildings, the assortment of mystical decorations and magecraft devices that looked wondrous just to gaze upon — all of it was me deciding that if I was going to build something, I might as well build it in style. And for my own part, apart from lecture days, I doubted I'd be resident at the academy more than a handful of times.
"Of course, the facilities will be open to students twenty-four hours a day. With the exception of a few areas that have time restrictions."
[can't wait]
[hahahahaha]
[G O A T L I L Y]
[kekeke]
[class starts right away?]
[so what happens now?]
"Now, for the most important part of the entrance ceremony. I will call up the students who enrolled with outstanding results."
Dun-dun!
The brightened auditorium dimmed once more, and the air grew taut with anticipation. The murmur of scattered conversation died away entirely.
With every gaze in the room converging on a single point, I turned over the single sheet of paper resting on the podium.
"This student ranked a staggering third among the entire first enrolled class."
[3rd]
[3rd means it's Yena right?]
[KEKEKE]
[YENA! YENA! YENA! YENA!]
[Yena supremacy, no debate]
[what does 3rd even get you]
[anyone got the ancestor's coin toss]
"The student who proudly claimed third place among this year's exceptionally talented incoming class will receive 3,000 points weekly, three uses of restricted-access facilities, and benefits befitting a 'third-place' rank in every academy facility they use from now on."
Rewards would scale with rank beyond the top three as well, but…
"They'll be drastically lower than the top three."
"Does that ranking stay locked in, or…?"
Someone raised a hand from the darkness, yellow eyes glinting.
A face I'd seen in the real world recently — a rather familiar one.
"No. It will continue to change through subsequent examinations."
After all, this ranking was itself merely part of the entrance exam. It couldn't hold forever — if you wanted to keep it, you'd have to work harder.
Someone — Gunner — gripped her rifle and gave a firm nod.
She'd come in at a low rank, true, but she carried herself like she had nothing to be ashamed of.
The newly arrived rankers were the same. Every one of them had carved out a place at the very top among countless competitors, so they all surely believed that if they just applied themselves to learning, they could do the same.
After all, half the students taking my lectures before this hadn't been anything like top-tier rankers. Many were rankers outside the top hundred, or even complete newcomers who'd never watched me before.
[ohhh]
[Gunner's kinda pretty tho]
[DCK champion, whoa whoa whoa]
[wasn't she just riding Choco's bus tho?]
[unnie…]
[Choco literally spoon-fed her the win tho]
[hahahahahahahaha]
[quit stalling, announce the rankings]
[Yena we're waiting for youuu]
"Alright! Then, the long-awaited third place! Here we go."
"Fufufu."
Along with someone's chuckle, a suspenseful sound rang out across the hall.
Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum.
[drum roll drum roll]
[DUM-DUM-DUM!]
"…What are you doing, Lady Leo?"
"Doing the drum roll, obviously."
"……"
"Alright! Third place!"
Swoosh.
Yena rose from her seat, waving with eyes curved into crescents of delight. Then, as though it were only natural, she strolled leisurely up toward the podium.
Watching her, I broke into a fond little smile.
"Thank you—"
"BIRANG BRENIS!"
WHUMP!!!
[?]
[??????????]
[LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL]
[rip Yena LMAOOO]
[the Cloud Envoy Duke took 3rd]
[this outcome was foretold]
[straight-up CUT lmaoooo]
Every light in the auditorium swung onto the podium — and onto Birang, who was rising slowly from her seat.
Being seated so close to the stage, Yena had taken the full blast of the confetti cannon, and she stared at me with a face of utter, absolute disbelief.
Not even someone watching the world end could have pulled off that expression.
"Miss Lily?"
"Yes, student Yena?"
"Why— why. WHY?! Wasn't I third?!"
Yena's rank had most certainly been third. It never changed until the very end, and to everyone watching, third place had been indisputably hers.
"That's right. You were third."
"Was… third?"
"As you just saw, there was an error on our end. Student Birang's score had failed to be recorded. It's been properly restored now."
"…That's not fair. That is so not fair."
Yena shook her head back and forth, as if to deny reality itself.
But reality is a cruel and merciless thing.
"Regrettably, student Yena's final rank is fourth."
[aww lol, 4th's still solid tho]
[LOLOLOLOL]
[4th's still top-tier tbf]
[doesn't the benefits drop off a CLIFF from 4th down? lmao]
"Then WHAT was that smile for?!"
"Which one?"
"Back there! When I stood up, you had this big smug grin on your face!!"
Oh, that?
"I just smiled, that's all."
It was a little funny, wasn't it?