The Rankings That Shook the Academy
Chapter 10. F-Class (4) — Rewinding time to yesterday.
Hint and Stelle, tucked away in the abandoned warehouse far from the academy building, had no idea, but the academy had descended into absolute chaos.
The cause was the results of the academy's first exam: Return to the Academy.
— 1st Exam: Return to the Academy —
1st Place — F-Class. Stelle
2nd Place — F-Class. Hint
3rd Place — S-Class. Shepia
4th Place — S-Class. Yulia
...
For the first time in the academy's thousand-year history, F-class students had claimed both first and second place.
The names hanging above the countless talented stars gathered at the academy drew every student's attention.
“F-class took first place?”
“What? They must've cheated.”
“But the student council president personally recorded the rankings. There can't be a problem.”
“This is like something out of a novel. Maybe they're incredibly skilled infiltrators pretending to be F-class?”
“No way.”
“Weren't they just lucky? Like, maybe a teleport error dropped them right next to the goal.”
“Or perhaps they have exceptional movement abilities even if they're useless at everything else?”
“Don't be stupid. If someone had movement skills faster than the princess, they'd be at least A-class. Don't you know the academy's creed?”
Yet since the people in question were nowhere to be seen, all anyone could do was speculate.
Because there was no F-class classroom in the academic building, meaningless rumors and wild guesses spread and grew. After the exam, idle boys and girls began spinning increasingly detailed stories until countless rumors—now impossible to distinguish from truth—filled the halls.
“I heard the academy secretly raised them as human weapons.”
“They're prophets who can see the future, so they read the exam contents in advance.”
“They're the student council president's secret boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“Wait, there's a girl too?”
“They're both dating him.”
“If you split in half, that's not my problem.”
The absurd rumors spread unchecked. Of course, a few came close to the truth.
“They say the academy has many hidden treasures. Maybe they found a legendary relic in the West Forest?”
Surprisingly, that was the correct answer.
Though everyone laughed it off.
As time passed, people calmed down and headed to their dorms or the cafeteria at the sound of the bell. Only one girl remained in the now-empty corridor.
“F-class. Hint. Stelle… was it?”
Yulia Frostwolf lingered in front of the ranking board until her childhood friend, the princess, came to find her.
“I have something to ask. Do you have a moment?”
“Yes, of course, Lady Yulia.”
“…You know who I am.”
“There isn't a man alive who doesn't know the lone flower of the North.”
What an unpleasant man.
That was Yulia's first impression of Hint.
Unlike the flustered, shaggy-haired girl behind him who resembled a giant dog, the boy with dull blond hair and squinty eyes that made it impossible to tell where he was looking left a bad taste in her mouth. Those eyes peeking through the slits seemed to scan her entire body.
The sensation of being seen through made Yulia nearly take a step back.
“What is it you wish to know?”
“I'll be direct. I want to know how you two achieved such excellent results on the exam.”
Of course. They had come looking for them because of their high scores.
Now Hint understood why Yulia Frostwolf—the one who admired strength and despised the weak—had sought out F-class students like them.
Hint's eyes swept over Yulia.
…It was fortunate that the marks hadn't appeared yet.
Especially after closely examining her nails and wrists, Hint let out a sigh of relief.
The heroine he had been wondering how to approach first had come to them instead. Unexpected, but a favorable situation.
Hint stepped toward Yulia.
Yulia instinctively shifted into a combat stance.
“Why are you approaching?”
“I don't mind telling you, but there are too many ears listening.”
“You'll tell me?”
“There's no reason to hide it, but I don't particularly want it to spread either. If you promise to keep it a secret, I'll tell you.”
Yulia nodded.
“Very well. I swear on the name of Frostwolf.”
It was only a verbal promise, but a ducal house had pledged its family name.
Sufficiently satisfied, Hint approached until he was right in front of Yulia and whispered into her ear.
“In truth, we discovered a relic in the West Forest.”
“!!!”
He deliberately omitted the word “legendary.” If the story sounded too far-fetched, she might not believe it.
At the news Hint shared, strength gathered in Yulia's fist.
“Can you tell me what it was?”
“It was a cabin that shows the way. Thanks to it, we reached the academy without any interference.”
A cabin that shows the way?
Questions rose in Yulia's mind.
But before she could organize them, Hint continued.
“More precisely, a cabin that reveals the path forward. What you think of this is your choice.”
Leaving the frozen Yulia behind, Hint walked past her.
“The emotions you keep buried inside can become poison or driving force depending on how you use them. If you don't know how to wield them, visiting that place once might be a valuable experience.”
Yulia felt her heart drop.
Her own flaw that she had never told anyone.
The dark feelings she harbored toward her own close friend.
She glared at the boy who spoke as if he knew every detail of her situation.
“You… who exactly are you?”
“Huhu.”
The boy smiled.
“I'm Hint of F-class. I hope you'll remember that.”
“What were you two talking about earlier?”
“She asked how we got first place, so I just leaned in and whispered ‘It's a secret~' in her ear.”
“Ahaha. What was that about?”
After their brief encounter with Yulia, Hint and Stelle were searching through the academy's various thickets and groves.
This had been Hint's suggestion—to locate hidden pieces left behind by seniors within the academy grounds first.
“Look here, Hint! There's a doghouse in a place like this!”
“If you check the ceiling, you'll find a whistle.”
“Whoa! It's real!”
Acquired.
“I just need to climb the tree, right? Leave it to me. I was the tree-climbing champion back in my hometown.”
“Huhu. Thank you. I really needed that golden egg up there.”
Acquired.
“Wow! Hint, look at this! It's an incredibly huge, glowing bone!”
“Indeed. It looks extraordinary at a glance. Shall we take it?”
“Yeah, let's.”
Acquired.
Was it fun because items appeared wherever they went?
Stelle began actively exploring.
Following behind her, Hint thought to himself.
‘The Hound's Whistle, the Golden Egg, and the Suspiciously Huge Bone. These three should be enough.'
Aside from the Hound's Whistle, which provided bonuses to the Beast Tamer class, the Golden Egg and Suspiciously Huge Bone were exchange items with no effect other than being convertible to money. However, through a specific process, these items could help obtain divine-beast-level blessings that were otherwise unobtainable in the early stages.
“By the way, Hint. What are we going to do with these things?”
“Right. I should have explained that first.”
Arpia Academy was an enormous island.
While further subdivision would yield more, combining the academy with the city on the opposite side of the island resulted in eleven distinct zones.
There were volcanic terrains that couldn't occur naturally, and to the north, mountain ranges of ice.
To the west lay a desert, and to the south, small islands—too ambiguous to be considered part of the main island—that served as stages for major exams like midterms.
Beyond these plausible terrains were poisonous swamps where toxins bubbled and mana springs brimming with magical energy.
One might wonder how so many different terrains could coexist on a single island.
The reason was the “territorial lords.”
Over a thousand years, countless academy graduates had captured—or monsters had willingly entered and settled on—the island: calamitous beings on the level of natural disasters.
A flame dragon resided in the volcanic zone.
An illusory ice bird dwelled in the glacial zone.
A colossal giant hiding in the sand lived in the desert zone.
They were monsters among monsters, beings one only gained the right to challenge after reaching end-game specs.
In game terms, they were end-content monsters tied to achievement dragons.
“Tomorrow, we'll take these and go meet the territorial lord of the forest, ‘Fenrir.'”
“Whaaaaat?!”