Chapter 037
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-Hello, everyone! It’s that time of year again! Welcome to the biggest event of the first-year, first semester! The Summoned Creature Race! I’m your commentator, Runba Tes, a third-year from the Summoning Department!
“Woooooah!”
The students filling the summoning practice grounds roared with excitement.
Celia wore a puzzled expression.
“Is this really an exam?”
The Knight Department’s dueling exams had spectators, but the Summoning Department’s practical exam was on a completely different scale.
Not only was there commentary, but there were also proper spectator stands.
They even had magical video displays set up in places with good visibility.
Lis, sitting next to Celia, burst out laughing.
“The Summoned Creature Race is a tradition for the Summoning exam, so it’s always popular. Plus, it’s one of the events chosen for the exchange matches with other hero academies, so it draws a lot of attention.”
“Mr. Student Council President! From the newspaper club! Is the first-year next to you your sister, Celia Jerdinger?”
A male student with a magic tool for recording video around his neck approached them, holding a notepad and pen.
“That’s right.”
“Oho! Would it be possible to get an interview with you two?”
the newspaper club student requested.
“Popcorn here! Get your cold drinks!”
“Place your bets! Place your bets! Who will take first place? Here are the current odds!”
On top of that, students from the merchant club were out and about, not just selling goods but also organizing gambling.
‘What kind of exam is this?!’
The first-years, used to the solemn atmosphere of their exams so far, screamed internally at the chaotic, marketplace-like scene.
Meanwhile, the ones suffering the most mental damage were the first-year Summoning Department students.
“Ugh! Why is everyone so loud? I can’t concentrate!”
As Dade clutched his head and shouted, the other first-years around him nodded in agreement.
The students, who had been endlessly nervous, were at a loss now that the entire school had shown up and turned it into a festival.
If anything, this atmosphere was putting even more pressure on them.
Of course, there were some who remained composed.
The most prominent among them were the aces of the Summoning Department, Eliza and Woreden.
“To think they’d treat a daughter of the Hergin family as a mere spectacle. How unpleasant.”
As Eliza furrowed her fine brow, her followers nodded in agreement.
As for Woreden, he simply stood there with his usual expressionless face.
Eliza glanced at Woreden before her eyes landed on Leo, who was warming up off to one side.
As Leo stretched, bending and straightening his knees, Eliza asked with a sneer.
“You showed outstanding skill in the Knight Department’s practical exam. Are you well-prepared for the Summoning exam too?”
“Of course.”
“As expected of our year representative, so full of confidence.”
Eliza’s eyes narrowed.
“But you never showed your face during the practice sessions for the Summoning exam… I suppose you think this practical is beneath you?”
The summoned beast race would normally have students ride beasts they had already contracted.
However, many first-years had yet to contract a flying beast.
So, Lumerne Academy provided them with some.
The key to this exam was how quickly one could tame those flying beasts.
The Summoning Department had provided training time during the exam period, but Leo was the only one who had never participated.
“Hey, Eliza. Why would you say something like that?”
Dade scowled at her barbed words.
However, the gazes of those around them on Leo were not favorable.
“Let’s be honest, it’s true he’s not taking this seriously.”
“He may be famous in the Knight and Magic Departments, but in Summoning, he just has a lot of spiritual power. I’ve never seen him contract a spirit or a beast.”
“Isn’t he looking down on the Summoning Department?”
“If you’re just going to half-ass it, why don’t you just drop out?”
Because the Summoning Department had few students, they tended to have a strong sense of attachment to it.
For Leo to show such confidence after never once attending a practice session was bound to provoke a backlash.
The Summoned Creature Race was a competition where one used the full extent of their summoning arts to quickly navigate obstacles and cross the finish line.
The obstacles were all formidable, and interference between contestants was allowed.
It was common for participants to get seriously injured in the race.
With such a dangerous race ahead, Leo’s failure to show up for a single practice session didn't sit well with the Summoning students.
Leo had lived through every possible ordeal in his past life—land battles, sea battles, even aerial combat—but naturally, none of the students knew that.
“That’s harsh.”
"Ha! Are you siding with him because he's the class president of your class?"
When a student from Class 5 got defensive, a student from another class scoffed.
“The atmosphere isn’t great.”
Chen Xia stepped in to mediate.
“I understand everyone’s on edge before the exam. Still, these accusations…”
“Chen Xia. Your Knight Department scores are good, so I guess you don’t have to worry too much about Summoning, huh?”
a female student sneered.
As she became the new target, this time it was Class 10 that bristled.
The Summoning Department students glared at each other, a hostile mood brewing.
Watching this, Leo was about to click his tongue.
“How noisy.”
A low, heavy voice echoed.
Everyone’s gaze shifted to one side.
Woreden, who had been standing with his arms crossed and eyes closed as if uninterested, had opened his hazel eyes.
“If you’re going to divide into factions and bark over who’s ridden a beast a little more, don’t do it in front of me. Do it somewhere else.”
“What? What did you just say, Woreden?!”
“I said it’s annoying to listen to you all prattling on as if riding a beast a few more times is some great achievement.”
A male student from the eastern continent in the Summoning Department, Sen Liu, looked particularly incensed as he spoke on behalf of the others, staring at the expressionless Woreden.
“Ha? Did that strike a nerve? You barely showed up for taming practice either, didn’t you?”
Woreden let out a short laugh at the male student’s smirk.
“What’s so funny?”
“Shall I tell you why I didn’t attend the taming practice?”
“What?”
“Because it wasn’t worth training for. Unlike you, I’m not some underdeveloped fool who can’t even handle a simple griffon.”
At those words, sparks flew from the eyes of Liu and the other students.
“You son of a bitch!”
The male student threw a punch at Woreden.
*Thwack-!*
But just before it could connect, Liu’s fist was caught by Leo’s hand.
“Fighting before an exam will get you more than just a scolding.”
“Hmph! I don’t need to hear that from you!”
Liu shook off Leo’s hand and returned to where the other Summoning students were gathered.
Leo sighed, ‘Sheesh,’ as he watched him go, then turned to Woreden.
“You could try to be a little more tactful, you know?”
“Is stating a fact a problem?”
“I don’t know how great you are, but I don’t think you have the right to mock other people’s efforts, Woreden Tiden.”
Woreden, a full head taller, glanced down at Leo, gave a cold smirk, and then walked away.
“The atmosphere is worse than I thought.”
He had just been diligently attending his Summoning classes, but he hadn't realized the students in the department didn't get along.
Dade sighed at Leo’s words.
“You take all the other majors, so you wouldn’t know, but the mood in our year’s Summoning Department is pretty bad right now.”
“Why?”
“The top students in our year’s Summoning Department are you, Xia, Woreden, and Eliza, right?”
“Right.”
“In the Summoning Department, the skill gap between majors and non-majors is usually huge. But since you and Chen Xia took the top spots, the second-year summoning seniors called us all out for a ‘talk’.”
“They called you out for that? What a bunch of seniors pulling rank.”
“I know, right?! And on top of that, when the seniors called him, Woreden just straight-up ignored them.”
Thanks to that, the second-years got even angrier and chewed out the first-years.
“Anyway, everyone was already in a bad mood because of that… and then during the exam prep, you and Woreden barely showed up for training, which just made things worse.”
“I can see why the mood is bad.”
“Exactly. So, try to be understanding.”
“Got it.”
With that, Leo looked around at the students preparing for the race.
Amidst their universal tension, he could feel a strange hostility.
‘So, this kind of problem can happen too.’
He could certainly see how his actions might look neglectful to others.
‘Of course, I have no intention of slacking off.’
As long as he was competing, his goal was nothing less than first place.
***
-Ladies and gentlemen! The time has finally come! The contestants are all at the starting line!
The first-year students lined up inside the starting line.
Ahead of them, they could see the enclosure where the griffons were kept.
As soon as the race started, the students had to tame a griffon from that enclosure and take off.
The Summoning students readied themselves, their faces tense.
“Alright, you rookies! Don’t get nervous, just do what you practiced! If any of you choke under pressure and can’t perform, I’ll personally kick your asses after this is over!”
Yura, the judge, raised the starting pistol and yelled at her students.
Her words drew a few laughs from the Summoning students.
Yura had managed to ease their tension.
“Alright, then!”
Yura raised the starting pistol.
“Three, two, one!”
*Bang-!*
*Kwagagagak-!*
The moment the race started, a flood of elemental magic poured down around Leo and Woreden.
Leo froze at the sudden turn of events.
-Oh! What is this?! The Summoning Department students! It seems they’ve planned this in advance, unleashing a barrage of checks on Year Representative Leo and the top student from the south, Woreden!
The crowd murmured at the unprecedented situation.
The Summoning students from Class 5 also looked shocked.
“Hey! What was that?!”
“That’s dirty! Those Summoning department bastards!”
“Hey! Have you no shame?!”
“Compete fairly!”
-Haha! Boos are pouring in from the Class 5 section!
The students watching from the stands were in an uproar.
“Cl-Class President!”
“Hey! Leo! Wait! I’ll help you!”
“Don’t worry about me, just go!”
When his classmates stopped to dispel the elemental magic hindering him, Leo shouted urgently.
“This is an exam! I’ll handle it myself, so don’t fall behind! Go, now!”
“Ugh!”
“Leo! Sorry!”
The Class 5 students took off belatedly, their faces filled with frustration.
The ground, turned to mud by water magic, clung to Leo’s feet.
Fire and wind blocked his path.
Woreden, who had received the same treatment, unleashed his spiritual power.
“Pathetic.”
*Fwoosh-!*
Although the Summoning students had concerted their efforts, Woreden dismantled their elemental magic with ease.
It was a feat impossible without overwhelming skill.
“You seem to be having trouble. Shall I help?”
Woreden asked with a smirk, and Leo chuckled.
“No, I’ll handle it myself.”
“Is that so? Then I’ll be on my way.”
Woreden strode leisurely toward the griffon enclosure.
In the meantime, the other students were finishing taming their griffons and taking to the skies.
Watching them from the starting line, Leo gathered his spiritual power.
“I knew I wasn’t popular, but I didn’t expect them to interfere as a group like this.”
Yura clicked her tongue as she watched Leo smirk.
‘This is going to be tough for him.’
If this weren’t an exam, he could probably break through such a check.
But this competition had a restriction: only summoning arts could be used.
Furthermore, from what Yura had observed, Leo’s main summoning art was beast summoning, not elemental magic.
And now, he was being targeted by an entire department’s worth of elemental magic.
It seemed unlikely that Leo, whom she considered still inexperienced in practical application, could overcome this predicament.
‘The emotional rift between the first-years is deeper than I thought. Still, for them to gang up on him like this…’
It wasn’t against the rules, but it wasn’t a pleasant sight.
As a professor, she had tried to look out for her students, but it seemed her efforts had been insufficient.
Just as Yura was blaming herself and thinking she needed to calm the students down…
“—!”
At the sound of Leo’s voice, Yura felt the hair on her body stand on end.
Like a song, the soft, melodic words were not of any human tongue.
“——! —!”
As the melody continued, the power of the spirits weakened.
*Fwoosh-!*
Soon, the force that had been hindering Leo vanished.
The spirits, which had been obeying their contractors’ orders, now giggled and danced around Leo in circles before disappearing.
The power to influence spirits already contracted to others.
‘Did that crazy kid just use Spirit Language? That’s something they don’t learn until the second-year elemental magic class, at least.’
Yura could only let out a hollow laugh as she watched Leo make his late start.
‘He’s really something else, that one! I have to make him a Summoning major, no matter what!’