Placement Exam: Interlude
Three days had passed since that horrific encounter.
Aria was safe, at least in the strictest sense of the word. So was Albert, who emerged without a single scratch on his body. Yet calling Aria "safe" felt like a cruel joke. The shattered stone walls and pavement had been drenched in so much blood that one shrank from imagining the violence that had taken place, and her small body still had not finished knitting itself back together. Whatever she had endured in that subterranean nightmare, she had yet to open her eyes.
Whether to call this a blessing or not was hard to say, but having everyone return with their lives was a miracle in itself.
Naturally, the exam had been called off. Not long after the trial began, the boss monster had met an abrupt end, causing the surrounding barrier to collapse prematurely. Because of that sudden collapse, Principal Arhen had sensed the anomaly immediately, halted the proceedings, and rushed toward the coordinate where the beast had been felled. But the sudden evacuation left the general student body in an absolute uproar.
When the rescue team arrived at the site where the command unit—the boss of the exam—had been eliminated, they discovered the battered, bloodied Aria and Albert just as described. With Aria comatose and Albert pushed to the brink of a severe psychological breakdown, no one could coax a coherent word out of the boy about what had transpired. Even an Archmage could not glean the truth without a firsthand account, leaving them to pass the days in agonizing uncertainty.
Meanwhile, students who knew nothing of the dark undercurrents voiced endless grievances, forcing the academy to schedule a makeup placement exam for everyone except the direct victims of the incident.
And as for me…
“You’re here.”
“Yes, Headmaster.”
Stepping into her office, curiosity got the better of me, and I couldn't help glancing around. The room was in complete disarray, desk buried beneath towering, disorganized drifts of unprocessed paperwork.
Wait… are those candies…?
It wasn't just documents. Massive, colorful mounds of hard candies, pastries, and confectionery rose in precarious little mountains across the room.
Whoa…
No matter how legendary an Archmage was—capable of casually slinging spells that mocked the very laws of physics—it seemed they were still human when it came to everyday life.
“Right. You said you witnessed everything that happened with your own two eyes.”
At the sound of her voice, I swallowed hard, abruptly reminded of why I had been summoned here in the first place.
—No need to be so stiff, Evan. Arhen isn’t scary at all, you know!
I knew she wasn’t the sort of person to harm me, but the memory of what had happened just days ago kept my shoulders rigid. Anyone would feel nervous standing before someone who could freeze time itself with a wave of her hand, casually capturing a High Demon as though snatching a fly from the air.
“That voice… Estelle?”
—Long time no see, Arhen! Didn't expect to run into you under these circumstances!
“So you’re awake? That means…”
—Yep! Evan has already awakened to his power as the Hero. Though he's only taken his very first baby steps.
“What in the…”
Come to think of it, Estelle had spoken as though she already knew Principal Arhen back during our first encounter.
“Well, I suppose that explains it,” Arhen murmured thoughtfully. “Otherwise, there’s no way a novice could pull off the absurd feat of slicing an arm off a High Demon…”
“…”
She spoke as if stating an obvious fact of life, but hearing it from an Archmage who had subdued that very demon in the blink of an eye gave me a strange, surreal feeling.
“Well then… it's rather awkward to have this conversation standing up, isn't it?”
“Ah… yes, I suppose…”
Was she telling me to sit? I reflexively looked around the room, but every chair and sofa was swallowed whole by paperwork or wrapped confections. There wasn't a single open spot for two people to sit and chat.
“Um… there doesn't seem to be anywhere to sit…”
“What are you talking about? I have no intention of talking in a dump like this.”
“Pardon…?”
Then where…
“Follow me.”
The corner of her mouth curved into a mischievous grin.
“Haah… that sweet aroma… it’s simply heaven~!”
—Still having a massive sweet tooth, just like the old days, huh?
“Back then, we never had the luxury to indulge in things like this. For me, this place is paradise on earth!”
Arhen dug with pure bliss into a towering parfait loaded with seasonal fruits, chocolate drizzles, and layers of cream. I managed an awkward smile, staring down at the identical parfait sitting on the table in front of me.
Was it really that good?
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dessert like this before.”
“Of course you haven't. This particular treat exists nowhere else in the world.”
“Is that so…?”
—So you finally made your dream come true, after all?
“Hehe.”
Watching Principal Arhen giggle with childish delight, she looked like nothing more than an ordinary young girl her apparent age. It was hard to reconcile this image with the stories of an ancient Archmage who had roamed the world for centuries.
“Is it really all right for us to discuss this here, though?”
“Doesn’t matter in the slightest. Everyone’s in class right now, so the place is dead quiet.”
I hadn't been worrying about other students so much as the shopkeeper standing behind the counter, but…
Well, I'm sure it's fine.
If it weren't, she wouldn't have brought me here in the first place.
“Now then… I suppose it's time we get down to business.”
“Yes.”
Right. This was the reason we were here. Straightening my posture, I began recounting the events: our encounter with the Demon of Delusion, how we had been dragged into the nightmare realm, and every single detail of what took place within that endless loop.
As my story drew to a close, the playful light on Arhen’s face completely evaporated, replaced by a dark, grim scowl.
“You… are you all right?”
“About… what, exactly?”
I feigned ignorance, but I knew precisely what she was asking. I had watched Aria die more times than I could count, standing helplessly by as she threw her life away over and over again. To witness such carnage and come out without breaking—she was asking if my mind was intact.
To tell the truth, I wasn't all right.
The scenes from that day haunted my sleep, turning every slumber into a suffocating torment. My nightmares had grown far worse than before, to the point where closing my eyes genuinely terrified me.
“Past or present, the Saint is always the same…” Arhen murmured, resting her chin on her hand. “Forever wrenching the hearts of everyone around her.”
Had the previous Saint been like that, too? Hearing her say that only deepened the hollow ache in my chest.
“The Saint’s authority is fundamentally unnatural. She claims it’s a direct grace bestowed by God, but… frankly speaking, it’s such a foul, miserable ability that you have to wonder if that so-called deity has some kind of twisted sadistic streak.”
“…”
Beneath the biting edge of her words, a raw sorrow lingered. Arhen’s past as a celebrated member of the previous Hero Party was common knowledge; she was undoubtedly remembering the companion she had once fought beside.
Silence hung heavy over the small table. We both kept our heads bowed, lost in somber thoughts, when a chirpy voice broke the gloom.
—Hmph, I hate heavy atmospheres like this.
Estelle sounded thoroughly displeased with the sullen mood.
—Looks like I have no choice! Time to break out my stellar impression of the things Evan blurted out back then!
“Wait, what?!”
Did I hear that correctly?
—Hey, Arhen, listen to this! When he was trapped in that nightmare, his sheer willpower was so intense that his thoughts bled right out of his subconscious, you know?
“H-Hold on! Stop right there—!”
—He looked at this generation’s Saintess and went, ‘I th—’ Yaaah?!
Thud! Clang!
Panicking, I grabbed the hilt of the Holy Sword and slammed the scabbard repeatedly against the floorboards. That secret could never, under any circumstances, see the light of day. Never!
“Pfft… well, I think I have a pretty good idea of what he said.”
“Ugh…”
“Don’t look so mortified. Even I find this generation’s Saint truly extraordinary… It’s hardly unnatural for a boy your age to fall for a girl like that.”
“N-No, that’s not… I mean, I never actually said I… liked her like that…”
It was just that Aria’s resolve had been so dazzling. Watching her refuse to yield despite the unbearable agony, throwing herself into ruin just to pull Albert back from the abyss—I had simply been overwhelmed by awe and reverence, and some strange words had slipped out in the heat of the moment. That was all.
And yet…
“You’re worried sick about her, aren't you?”
“…Yes.”
Seeing her treat her own life with such reckless disregard frightened me to death. I couldn't shake the terrifying dread that one day, she would simply shatter completely.
“Hold on to that feeling.”
“Headmaster…?”
“All you need to do is become strong enough to protect her.”
“…”
Could I really do that? I had let that Demon of Delusion slip right through my fingers this time, too.
“But… I failed to finish that demon off.”
“…That couldn’t be helped. Even back during my adventuring days, that creature was notoriously slippery.”
“Slippery… back then?”
The phrasing caught me off guard. That sounded as if she had already hunted it before.
“Indeed. I was certain we had obliterated it back then… How on earth is it still drawing breath?”
Revived after being destroyed? I had always been taught that slaying a demon required either total physical obliteration or complete spiritual purification.
“What kind of monster is that demon, exactly?”
At my question, Arhen pressed a hand to her temple as if nursing a migraine, letting out a weary sigh.
“Known by the moniker of the Demon of Delusion, Nightmare is a direct minion belonging to that wretched bag of bones.”
“A… bag of bones?”
“Well… I loathe giving that bag of bones any credit, but calling him an executive of the Demon King’s Army makes it sound like a trivial matter.”
An executive of the Demon King’s Army… To refer to an apocalyptic entity of that caliber as a mere "bag of bones" proved just how absurdly formidable Arhen truly was.
“Do you know how Archmages get their titles? Those who twist the very laws of reality craft an epithet reflecting their unique, personal magic.”
“Yes… Stella mentioned that to me.”
“Oh? You mean that top student of the year who skipped out on her oath and ran away?”
“You know Stella?”
“Of course I do. I went through my own rebellious, wandering phase just like her once.” Arhen’s eyes drifted toward the ceiling, bathed in fond nostalgia.
—Back then, calling her a 'mage' was being polite. She was practically a lawless delinquent, Estelle chimed in.
“Hush, Estelle.”
—Eep…!
The gentle luminescence pulsing along the Holy Sword’s crossguard vanished instantly. Did she just hide back inside the scabbard?
“At any rate, in my case, my signature magic is the Power of the Word, making me the Archmage of Kotodama.”
“Ah.”
That struck me as bordering on reckless overconfidence. Taking an epithet that literally explained the nature of your magic gave the enemy every tactical advantage before a fight even started. Then again, she was someone so overwhelmingly powerful that handing out advantages made no difference whatsoever.
“To return to the matter at hand—that bag of bones I mentioned is a cadre of the Demon King named Maleficent.”
“An executive… named Maleficent?”
“Now I can be entirely sure. He is the only creature alive capable of finding a seam around my magic.”
Hearing that, the puzzle pieces finally snapped together in my mind.
“Could he be…”
“Your guess is correct.”
Principal Arhen lightly flicked the spoon against the rim of her empty parfait glass, her voice dropping into a chilling register.
“He is my arch-nemesis.”
And across Arhen's youthful face, a dark, fathomless hatred burned.