An Unprecedented Record
The grand auditorium of the academy stood empty after every student had been transferred out. The staff had left as well to welcome the returning freshmen and assign their ranks, leaving a silence so complete that the earlier excitement now felt like nothing but a dream.
“Whew~! Now I can finally breathe.”
The student council president, Hina, had thrown away every last trace of modesty, dignity, and solemnity. She popped open the top button of her uniform that had been irritating her since earlier.
Even though she wore a skirt, she spread her legs wide without a care, fully embracing her freedom while radiating the aura of a total delinquent or street thug.
“President. Even so, please maintain at least a minimum of decorum.”
“Cut the crap, Shion. It’s just the two of us here anyway.”
Hina grinned and patted the seat beside her with a loud smack. Who could possibly stop this bold student council president? Shion Terehart, her best friend and the student council vice president who had shared countless ups and downs with her over the past two years, let out a sigh and sat down next to her.
“Who do you think will come back first this time?”
“Well, it should be the top entrance student, shouldn’t it? Word of her talent reached all the way to the island. They say she’s the greatest genius the continent has ever seen.”
“There’s also that kid from the North. She used to follow me around going ‘Big Sis~ Big Sis~’ when she was little, but she’s grown up a lot now.”
“You mean Yulia Frostwolf? She is certainly strong, but… their head-to-head record speaks for itself.”
“Yeah, that’s true.”
Hina clicked her tongue.
Ever since she had been on the mainland, and even after arriving at the academy, stories about the continent’s two geniuses had never stopped circulating.
The mage born with the power of the stars—the greatest talent in history.
Shepia Evergreen.
The girl who had single-handedly slain northern orcs at the age of twelve.
Yulia Frostwolf.
Though they frequently sparred and competed, Hina had never once heard of Yulia Frostwolf coming out on top.
“Still, you never know what’ll happen in this world, right?”
“Why are you stating something so obvious in such a dramatic way?”
“Haha. That, and my gut is screaming at me.”
Intuition. To some it might be laughable, but when it came from a top-tier swordsman, it carried real weight. A top-tier swordsman’s intuition was practically the power of foresight.
Knowing full well the results Hina’s intuition had delivered over the past two years, Shion could not simply brush her words aside.
“So what exactly is your intuition telling you this time?”
“That first place this year will be someone completely unexpected.”
Well, just as the president said, this generation overflowed with outstanding talents. The S-class, which normally held only three or four students, had a staggering seven from this freshman year alone.
The academy, notoriously strict when measuring talent, had placed seven of this year’s freshmen into S-class. That alone was more than enough reason to call this the golden generation.
“Hmm. By the way, Shion. Where’s my greatsword?”
Suddenly, Hina began searching for her weapon. She normally refused to be separated from her sword and had hidden it under the podium earlier, so her abrupt hunt for it was extremely suspicious.
Anyone else would have simply told her its location, but after spending nearly two years with this battle-maniac, Hina and Shion had reached a realm where a single glance or gesture was enough for them to read each other perfectly.
“Your greatsword? What for?”
‘What is she planning now?’
“Oh, right. It was in the broadcast room.”
‘I can sense a presence coming from the broadcast room.’
Hina retrieved her greatsword from beneath the podium. Shion signaled that she would handle it, but Hina shook her head.
‘Your magic has too obvious a precursor. If they run, it’ll just be annoying.’
A suffocating tension swirled through the auditorium. Hina gripped the handle of her greatsword, which was far larger than her own body, with iron strength.
-Creak.
With the groan of hinges, the broadcast room door opened. The auditorium floor exploded as Hina launched forward at maximum acceleration.
“Who the hell are you!”
The academy’s strongest swordsman, whose power fell short of neither the graduates nor the faculty. Hina Lionhart’s greatsword came crashing down to pulverize the intruder.
“Wait—Stelle!”
Just before the greatsword could crush the unidentified intruder’s head, a boy’s bare hand shot out from inside the broadcast room.
A descending greatsword versus an unarmed hand. The outcome should have been obvious, yet Hina’s intuition screamed a warning. If she brought it down now, it would end badly.
Following that instinct, Hina twisted the sword’s trajectory. A feat of redirecting a full-powered downward swing using nothing but wrist strength. One corner of the auditorium detonated.
The intruders broke into a cold sweat at the absurd display of raw power.
“What the hell. You almost cut me in half.”
Hina’s sharp eyes locked onto the intruders. They wore academy uniforms, and the red brooches on their chests marked them as freshmen. The odd part was the cursive letter engraved on those brooches—an F.
Hina mentally flipped through the student roster. Many mistook her for a simple delinquent due to her rough speech and behavior, but Hina was surprisingly sharp. She quickly realized these intruders were the F-class boy and girl: Hint and Stelle.
That only made her suspicions stronger. She could not—must not—dismiss them. She had personally confirmed every new student’s transfer earlier. The West Forest staff had reported that they had verified the entire freshman class.
Setting aside the female student, Stelle, who was still blinking in confusion, Hina focused on the boy with dull golden hair and squinty eyes. He looked like he knew exactly what was going on. Hint met her glare with the gentlest smile he could manage.
After a brief standoff, Hint spoke first.
“So, if I may ask, what rank did we achieve?”
At the utterly unexpected question, Hina burst out laughing.
“Hahahahaha!!!”
It was an old academy tradition. An annual event of the entrance ceremony: ‘Return to the Academy.’ Of course both Hina and Vice President Shion had taken the test in their time. Hina’s record back then had been forty-two minutes—a massive improvement over the previous record of forty-nine minutes that had become the talk of the academy.
Hina glanced at the auditorium clock. Only ten minutes had passed since the test began. An impossible, unprecedented record that utterly shattered her own previous achievement. The vice president cut in after the brazen girl who had set that record then casually asked what rank they had earned.
“Hold on! How in the world did you two come out of the broadcast room?!”
“Is that part of the test as well?”
If it wasn’t mandatory information, there was no need to explain. The boy’s calm attitude made the vice president’s temper flare, but the student council president waved her greatsword and stepped between them.
“That’s enough, Shion. What would we gain from shaking down our juniors? The important thing is that these kids are standing here right now.”
“President!”
Ignoring her longtime friend’s protest, Hina rummaged behind the podium, pulled out a sheet of paper, and walked over to them.
First Test: Return to the Academy
1st Place — F-class. Stelle
2nd Place — F-class. Hint
Hina’s congratulations arrived alongside their names being engraved onto the massive sheet.
“In the academy’s thousand-year history, an F-class student has never once had their name carved in this spot.”
Stelle and Hint stared at the paper now floating in midair. It might be new to Stelle, but Hint recognized the item. In the original story, it was the sheet that announced test rankings every single time.
“I hope your names remain here next time as well.”
“Yes.”
“Yes!”
Watching the two energetic juniors, Hina smiled. She normally had little affection for the weak, yet these two newcomers were beginning to grow on her.
Hina accepted a bundle of documents from Shion and handed them out to Stelle and Hint.
“This is the ‘Reward List’ given to first and second place. You may each choose one thing, so pick whatever you want.”
The president held out the catalog. It contained countless rewards suitable for first and second place—from fairly expensive Rare-grade artifacts to Points that could be used as currency inside the academy.
Stelle’s eyes went wide. The academy was a strict meritocracy. Even F-class students who performed well in tests had the right to excellent rewards. The items were so dazzling that even a country girl like Stelle was stunned.
After scanning the list until she was practically drooling, Stelle snapped back to her senses and shoved all the papers toward Hint.
“Stelle, this is…?”
“I didn’t do anything this time. I can’t accept this. You use it.”
“Hehe. I won’t refuse, then.”
Accepting Stelle’s conscience along with the list, Hint selected two items. Upon hearing his choices, both the president’s and vice president’s eyes widened.
“Are you really sure about that?”
Of course she couldn’t interfere with his personal choice, but it still felt like a question worth asking. Hint simply smiled and nodded.
Because the volume of items was so large, Hint and Stelle filled two disposable spatial inventories to the brim before leaving.
“In the end they really chose those.”
“It’s their choice. Looks like that kid understands exactly what F-class means.”
“Well, yeah…”
Shion’s words trailed off. Given what she knew about how F-class was treated, the two items Hint had taken were somewhat understandable. Still, there was something more pressing to address first.
“But President. Weren’t those one-time-use inventories?”
“Oops. You noticed?”
Shion pressed a hand to her forehead and sighed. It seemed her friend had taken quite a liking to their juniors.
“Fine. Since you’ll be covering the cost with your own money anyway, I’ll let that slide. But how did they appear from the broadcast room?”
“Maybe they used spatial magic?”
“There wasn’t the slightest trace of mana flow. There’s no way I would have missed it.”
“Then I guess they must have a Legendary-grade artifact or something.”
“Do you honestly think that makes any sense…?”
Seemingly uninterested, Hina spouted some nonsense and dropped into a random chair. Her mind remained fixed on the moment she had swung her sword earlier.
Her descending blade. The boy’s hand stretching straight toward it. The image refused to leave her head.
If he meant to block it, he should have used his arm. If he meant to dodge, he should have grabbed the girl and rolled away long ago. But Hint’s choice had been entirely different.
Thrusting a bare hand toward a greatsword as large as his own body as it came crashing down?
‘No way.’
Hina knew about the skill called Parry. She had succeeded at it a few times by pure coincidence and had it used against her as well. But it wasn’t something you could simply decide to do.
It was a miracle that required the opponent’s attack to reach its absolute peak impact at the exact instant one’s own counter reached its optimal striking point—an extreme moment so fleeting that adding any number of zeros after 0.0 would still not be enough.
It was a level of difficulty that even she, the strongest student council president in academy history, could not perform intentionally.
‘That guy… he tried to parry my attack.’
Attempting a parry could be overlooked a hundred times over. The stat gap between the boy and Hina was overwhelming. If it truly was an unavoidable strike, betting on that near-zero chance to overcome the difference with a parry was not a bad gamble.
But the real issue was that Hina’s intuition had chosen evasion in that moment. No matter how many times she replayed it, the future where her sword was repelled remained vividly clear.
Hina’s body trembled with excitement. An irrepressible laugh of pure joy escaped her.
“Hehe… hehehe…!”
“What is it? Why are you suddenly laughing in such a creepy way, President?”
“It looks like an interesting guy has entered the academy.”
A junior with a promising future. Hina burned the name Hint into her memory.