Chapter 406
Chapter Title: 1v1 Tournament
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It was then, as the first-years chattered excitedly in the grand lecture hall.
Creeak—
The front door of the grand lecture hall opened.
At the same moment, the bustling first-years fell silent.
Thump— Thump—
The one who entered through the open door was Mel.
At Mel’s appearance, the first-years opened their mouths and began to talk again.
“What do you think the assignment will be?”
“Maybe something survival-related, like what the seniors did last year?”
“It could even be an inter-department competition.”
“Oh? Then you and I would be enemies, wouldn’t we?”
“You’d better look forward to it. I’ll take you down without mercy.”
“That’s my line.”
They were busy engaging in a heated debate, speculating about the assignment.
The reason all the first-years had stopped talking when the door opened was simple.
They had jumped to the conclusion that the first-years’ most feared professors, Halind and Artian, were entering.
Halind was, naturally, the wall of lamentation feared by all grade levels, and with Artian, if you so much as chattered or got distracted in her class, you’d be punished by another heroic spirit.
Compared to those two professors, Mel was gentle and benevolent.
In other words, to put it nicely, she was a comfortable professor among the first-years. To put it badly, she was a pushover.
Normally, such an attitude might have been upsetting, but Mel simply beamed.
It would have been strange for a Dragon Lord like her to get angry at students who were still so young for such a trivial reason.
“Everyone, please pay attention.”
At Mel’s words, the students looked at her.
The students from the Magic Department, in particular, all focused on Mel.
Putting everything else aside, from the perspective of the first-year magic students, Mel was the best magic professor.
It was only natural for them to listen to her words.
However, the students from the Knight and Summoner Departments weren’t quite as focused.
But the first-years’ chatter didn’t last long.
“Huh? Who the hell is still talking? You think Professor Mel’s words are just hot air?”
Artian, who had suddenly appeared, spoke in a fierce voice.
She had even arrived with another heroic spirit already inhabiting her body.
In other words, she had appeared in berserk mode.
‘Kyaaaaaaah!’
All the students who had been talking screamed internally.
As Artian’s menacing and bloodthirsty gaze turned toward them, the first-years averted their eyes.
“Huhu, it’s quite alright, Professor Artian.”
When Mel gently smiled and restrained her, Artian growled.
“You’d better count yourselves lucky.”
Once all the first-years had fallen silent, Halind revealed himself from behind them.
“Those who ignored Professor Mel and continued to talk will receive ten demerit points.”
At his words, the penalized first-years couldn’t utter a single peep.
“How pathetic.”
Sasha clicked her tongue softly.
Meanwhile, Halind ascended the platform.
“The reason I’ve gathered you here today is none other than to announce the final exam assignment.”
At his words, the dispirited first-years’ eyes began to sparkle.
It was the long-awaited announcement of the final exam assignment.
Looking at the first-years, Halind spoke.
“It seems you’re all nursing some useless expectations.”
The corner of Halind’s mouth curled up.
With a cynical smile, Halind continued.
“It appears some of you are enjoying the fact that the World Summit and the final exams overlap.”
Halind’s eyes grew chillingly cold.
“Listen carefully. Under normal circumstances, nearly half of you would have been expelled before you even had the chance to take the final exams.”
At Halind’s sudden declaration, the first-years’ faces stiffened.
“It means that many of you were lucky enough to survive until now because the school’s operating policies changed this year. Surely none of you are under the delusion that you survived because of your ‘skill,’ are you?”
Halind’s cruel words brought many students to the verge of tears.
“And then there are those of you with some semblance of skill.”
But Halind wasn’t finished.
“It is true that numerous dignitaries and heroes will be visiting Lumerne for the World Summit. It is also true that you first-years will be presenting the results of your year-long efforts through your final exams in front of those visitors. But remember this.”
Halind’s eyes narrowed.
“The audience will be less interested in purely evaluating your skills and more interested in using your mentors—that is, your second-year seniors—as a basis for comparison.”
The first-years’ faces hardened.
“The current second-years achieved what can only be described as a monumental feat during their first-semester finals last year. A great invasion of fiends and monster hordes in a situation completely isolated from the outside world. Though they were nothing but inexperienced first-years, they overcame that great crisis. On top of that, they even succeeded in subjugating a Gigantes. That incident was the decisive event that led to the current second-years being called the Golden Generation.”
Halind swept his gaze over the first-years and said.
“The entire world knows that you are the mentees of the second-years. In such a situation, do you think you can prove your worth when compared to them? The mentor system has certainly provided you with a great opportunity, but it has also created the side effect of you and the second-years being judged by the same standard. Do you really think outsiders will conclude, ‘The first-years are impressive’? Or will they conclude, ‘The second-years are incredible, but the first-years are this bad’?”
Halind’s eyes turned cold.
“To be so full of dreams in a situation where you might become a laughingstock for the rest of your lives. What’s more, more than half of you will be expelled after the final exams. Have you forgotten that fact as well?”
When Halind finished speaking, the first-years’ faces turned deathly pale.
They had overlooked it.
The fact that their year was a little different.
They had been intoxicated by their own improved skills.
But now, hearing that their comparison group would be the second-year seniors known as the Golden Generation, their spirits sank.
Seeing the first-years bow their heads in silence, Artian, who had returned to her original personality, looked flustered.
“I-Is it really necessary to crush the first-years’ spirits like this?”
“I believe it’s a necessary step. It’s true that a sense of tension was lacking among the first-years.”
Mel smiled gently.
Indeed, the atmosphere among the first-years had completely changed.
‘We’re going to be compared to the second-year seniors?’
‘One mistake and I could be expelled.’
‘Ugh. My stomach suddenly hurts.’
‘What on earth could the assignment be?’
The first-years, who had only been looking at the good things, were now forced to acknowledge the bad.
Certainly, some among them would experience glory.
But they would be the minority.
Far more students would taste bitter defeat.
On top of that, there was the pressure of potentially being expelled from the academy.
Their entire attitude toward the final exams was transformed.
The once-lax atmosphere began to crackle with taut tension.
Halind looked down at the first-years with cold eyes and spoke.
“Now, I will announce the practical exam assignment for the final exams.”
At his words, the first-years turned their nervous faces toward the blackboard.
Tap-tap. T-tap.
He picked up a piece of chalk and wrote the exam assignment in large letters on the board.
The students began to murmur amongst themselves.
Thud.
Putting down the chalk, Halind looked at the students.
“This year, your final practical exam will be a 1-on-1 tournament.”
***
“A 1-on-1 tournament? Wow, that’s brutal.”
After the announcement of the first-years’ practical exam, Karl, who had heard the news from Juen in a private room at the library, clicked his tongue.
At Karl’s words, Juen, who had come to deliver the news, looked puzzled.
“What do you mean?”
“It means they’re going to look at nothing but pure skill. You can’t coast along, and you can’t rely on luck.”
“Isn’t that a given?”
“I survived my entire school life by coasting.”
Karl clicked his tongue.
“Guess selling my know-how is out of the question.”
“……You were planning on selling something like that?”
“Of course.”
As Juen sighed deeply at the sight of Karl shrugging, Karl spoke.
“Alright, shall we begin?”
“Begin what?”
“Analyzing the data.”
Karl used an item to open a sub-space.
With it, an enormous amount of paper bundles came tumbling out.
Thud—!
Juen’s eyes widened.
“Why do you think I went through the trouble of renting a private room?”
Karl grinned.
“Because of these confidential files.”
At Karl’s words, Juen reached out and checked the materials he had prepared.
Written on them was none other than data on Aina Veydean.
She slowly read through the information.
In addition to that, there was even a sphere that had recorded a video via magic.
“Where did you get all of this?”
“Let’s just say I’m on good terms with the staff?”
Karl chuckled.
Aside from the professors who taught the students, there were many staff members who handled school maintenance and repairs.
The affable and friendly Karl had been on close terms with them since his first year.
“I asked them to film the other first-years while they were training.”
Karl’s most outstanding ability was his information gathering.
He had put that ability to full use ahead of this year’s first-year final exams.
“Compared to knights or summoners, mages have a harder time dealing with unexpected situations.”
Karl’s expression turned serious.
“In Chelsea’s case, well, she’s specialized in that area, so she doesn’t show any weaknesses. But even Abad and Chloe are lacking in their ability to handle unexpected situations compared to the top students of other departments.”
It was an unavoidable characteristic of mages.
Mages fundamentally lacked mobility.
To produce powerful effects, they had to remain in one place for a long time and concentrate.
While this allowed them to create immense variables on the battlefield, it ironically made the mages themselves extremely vulnerable to unexpected situations and variables.
The point Karl wanted to help Juen with was to thoroughly analyze the data on persons of interest and eliminate as many unexpected situations as possible.
“When did you prepare all this? This data isn’t very useful unless it’s a tournament.”
Seeing Juen’s bewildered expression, Karl grinned.
“Juen, you’re an amazing mage. Honestly, you could aim for year representative in just about any exam. But I figured the one assignment where you’d be at a disadvantage would be a 1-on-1 duel. Mobility is crucial in a 1-on-1 duel, and compared to Aina, Haviden, and Sasha, you definitely lack mobility. You can compensate for that with invisibility magic, but in a 1-on-1 tournament, even that is tricky to use.”
Karl crossed his arms.
“That’s why I prepared this data, to prepare for the worst-case scenario where you’d be at the greatest disadvantage.”
“Was it really necessary to go this far?”
“I’m not much help to you as a mentor, am I?”
Objectively speaking, Karl was inferior to Juen not only in mana but also in his ability to handle magic formulas.
Juen, too, was a possessor of incredible talent who could be called a genius without reservation.
Compared to someone like Juen, Karl was average.
“Still, you chose me as your mentor, saying you had things to learn from me.”
Karl looked at Juen with a serious face.
“Having gone that far, I’m going to do my best to help you become the year representative. I’ll be the so-called king maker.”
“Senior Karl……”
Juen’s face was filled with emotion.
“Senior Karl, you’re truly the best mentor!”
As Juen ran up and hugged him with a bright smile, Karl said.
“Yeah, yeah. Spread the word about what a great mentor Senior Karl is. And if I’m still at school next semester, make sure you buy lots of my stuff.”
After saying that, Karl continued.
“Alright, shall we check out the persons of interest? I’ll tell you this upfront. Abad’s mentee, Fritz, and Chen Xia’s mentee, Jane, are just as much of a concern as Aina, Haviden, and Sasha.”
Their school grades might be lacking compared to the top of the year, but their combat prowess was nothing to scoff at.
Worse still, there was little data on those two.
‘These guys must be the Shadow Candidates.’
Karl knew from Leo that there were Shadow Candidates among this year’s first-years.
Shadow Candidates.
Frankly, even to Karl, they were an unknown quantity.
“It’s true those two are tricky, but… we can put them on the back burner for now.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because my first-round opponent has already been decided.”
“Decided?”
“Yes. We drew lots during the announcement.”
“Who’s your first-round opponent?”
Karl looked slightly flustered.
In response to his question, Juen took a deep breath and showed him the subject of the data she was holding.
“Don’t tell me… Aina Veydean?”
As Karl stared with a stunned expression, Juen nodded.