Holy Studies Department (3)
It had been a week since I started attending the Academy. Or rather, counting by the weeks on the calendar, it was more accurate to say two.
"Aria?"
"[Did you call for me?]"
When I answered Stella’s call, her expression shifted strangely.
"Um... are you mad at something?"
"[...It must be your imagination, Sister. I am merely a little fatigued, that is all.]"
"Oh... I-I see..."
I hadn’t expected Stella to ask something like that. Had the stress been piling up without my realizing it, just from being back in a chapel routine lately? Because I couldn't speak normally and instead communicated by projecting my thoughts, my raw emotions tended to bleed through far too easily. Even though I thought I'd managed to keep my feelings under wraps, tiny slivers of annoyance and weariness must have slipped out despite my best efforts.
Still, I felt somewhat wronged here. It was all the fault of this chapel inside the Academy.
Forcing a person to be good against their will...
Religion truly drove people mad. Not that I, a saintess, had any business saying such things, but cooping myself up in a room doing nothing but praying, or listening to scriptures drone on all day before singing sacred hymns, was exhausting. Or worse, sitting inside the confessional booth listening to student after student pour their hearts out just to counsel them through their petty woes. Setting everything else aside, the confessional had only been open for a week, so why on earth was it already so wildly popular?
Subjected to that day in and day out, anyone would slowly lose their mind. If you were the kind of person who thrived on that brand of mental labor, it probably wouldn't be an issue, but I definitely wasn't one of them, which made it all the more grueling.
To think I'd actually miss the Great Cathedral...
Back at the Great Cathedral, I hadn't stayed for very long, and since I lived there as the Saintess, I had plenty of free time. But here at the Academy, I was technically just another student, treated and scheduled exactly like any ordinary nun. It had only been a week, and yet I felt like my brain was being systematically washed in the dogmas of light.
Should I just hurt myself...?
I never would have entertained such a thought before, but after experiencing the thrill of the Demonic Realm and fighting off a demon the moment I arrived at the Academy, plunging into this peaceful chapel life was torture. How was I supposed to endure this?
Tough as it had been, living in the Demonic Realm had felt far more comfortable. It sounded absurd to say I preferred a place where people died every waking hour, limbs went flying, and corpses carpeted the ground, but it was true. Of course, perceiving all of that through my divine spatial awareness hadn't been particularly great for my mental health, so it wasn't as if I’d been blissfully happy either. Not that I actually wanted to go back to the Demonic Realm, of course. Sure, it was packed with plenty of exquisite sensations, but it wore a person down to the bone, which I didn't care for.
Regardless...
Life in the Academy's chapel was stifling beyond belief. Aside from general education courses, I had to take classes designated for the Holy Studies Department, so skipping them wasn't an option. Since this was an academy, I had hoped for real combat training—jumping in the way to take hits for people when they were about to get hurt, or healing them when they suffered severe wounds.
After all, my true objective was to nurture the party, slay the Demon King, and return home while leaving behind the legacy of a sublime, selfless saintess. The Academy was supposed to be a stepping stone toward that grand plan. I hadn't enrolled just to rot away spending all day offering dull prayers to the gods.
Yet they say joy follows hardship.
After a week of wallowing in chapel boredom, an event where I could finally shine had arrived. Or rather, calling it a class might not be entirely accurate; it was closer to an exam.
Finally...!
The Class Assignment Exam!
The purpose of this exam was simple: the Academy needed to gauge our exact capabilities, as they didn't yet know what each student was truly made of. Following the initial entrance exam, this final placement evaluation determined what level of instruction we would receive. In the game, this very exam decided your class tier. Reaching a higher class during academy life was one of the highest priorities in a playthrough, because class tier drastically altered the efficiency of your training. If you wanted to hit maximum stat potential, Class A wasn't an option—it was an absolute necessity.
Right now, no one had been assigned to an official class. Everything would be determined by combining entrance exam scores with the results of this Class Assignment Exam. Since the entrance scores were already locked in, how well we performed today would dictate the entire trajectory of our academy life.
And the most important factor?
The class I ended up in.
Class A...!
Class A was my only acceptable target. Evan, Stella, and every future member I needed to recruit into the party would all be placed there. Candidates for the Hero Party were overwhelmingly eccentric, vibrant personalities. Gathering them to subjugate the Demon King required sharing a classroom, striking up natural friendships, and forging unbreakable bonds. You couldn't just throw people together on paper; they had to genuinely connect as comrades.
"We will now begin the briefing for the Class Assignment Exam."
The instructor activated a mana-inscribed crystal sphere and began the explanation.
The Class Assignment Exam operated on a three-person squad system: one student from the Swordsmanship Department, one from the Magic Department, and one chosen at random from the remaining disciplines. Though various minor departments existed, nearly all martial combatants fell under Swordsmanship and all arcane practitioners under Magic, leaving the other departments comparatively sparse. I was a prime example, belonging to the Holy Studies Department. Holy Studies was actually among the more populous of the secondary disciplines; other departments were practically deserted. It was no exaggeration that the Academy poured astronomical funds every year into teaching as many students as efficiently as possible.
The test site was the Great Rainforest managed by the Academy. While the core objective was survival, squads earned points by defeating other teams or slaying demonic beasts. Furthermore, by the exam's scenario design, hunting down the commanding entity orchestrating the beasts would award the subjugating squad maximum points and instantly conclude the exam. They called it a 'commanding entity,' but in the game, it was simply known as the area boss monster.
Matches everything I know to the letter.
In the game's canonical storyline, no demons raided the Class Assignment Exam, so I didn't need to fret over outside interference. While capturing that demon alive might have altered events slightly, worrying about hypothetical what-ifs paled in comparison to the immediate gravity of the placement exam. Preparing for an ambush when I couldn't even confirm whether one would happen was borderline impossible anyway.
In short, the real crisis wasn't a demonic raid—it was whether or not I could squeeze into Class A. If I failed to make the cut, I wouldn't be able to serve as the party's emotional anchor, nor could I support their growth through various academy exploits. That was practically equivalent to letting the world end. True, working hard could theoretically promote someone to Class A later on, but by the time I caught up, their friend circles and bonds would already be set in stone. Not a chance.
I had to treat this as my one and only shot and give it everything.
"Now then. As I call your names, step forward and assemble in your groups of three."
The fateful team gacha had begun...
In the game, teams were chosen completely at random, with the gacha odds scaling according to the difficulty setting. On Easy, you were practically guaranteed to team up with prospective Hero Party members, but on the hardest difficulty, it was pure, unadulterated chaos. If you were lucky, you might snag one decent party candidate, but more often than not, you were saddled with nameless NPC extras devoid of any story relevance who did nothing but drag you down.
All I could do was desperately pray that my teammates wouldn't be dead weight. As long as they possessed two brain cells and listened to basic instructions, I had more than enough meta-knowledge to hard-carry us straight into Class A.
Please...! Just give me someone normal...!
I pleaded fervently inside my head. I begged so desperately that I even found myself praying to God—a deity I hadn't genuinely believed in for a second, Saintess title be damned.
Names echoed across the grounds in steady succession. In the end, the first among our group to be called was Stella.
"Ah..."
Her eyes lingered on me with profound regret, as if not being placed on my team were the tragedy of the century. There was nothing I could do to change it, however, so I simply offered her an awkward, helpless smile.
How much longer did I wait for the next roster call?
"Evan."
Evan's name rang out.
And then, as the instructor's thought waves echoed into my mind, I froze solid.
"Albert Lakharr."
Albert Lakharr. The very boy who had nearly come to blows with Evan the day before the entrance ceremony.
And then...
"Aria Saint Anastasio."
My name was called.