The Academy Entrance Ceremony (3)
Just as the Earth Dragon swung to batter my shield aside, a barrier of pure divinity surged up in my place, deflecting the blow.
"Lady Alrn?"
It was Phoebe.
She'd just been called a loser to her face, and she was still helping me! As expected of a Saintess! Absolutely radiant!
"Do you all realize everyone is watching us?"
Thanks to Jackal and Frey lunging at the barrier-shoved Earth Dragon like a pair of madmen, I had a moment to breathe, so I turned my gaze toward the crowd of students.
The terrified screaming from the chaos minutes ago had vanished without a trace. Now they were all watching us with the wide-eyed excitement of people settling in with a bucket of popcorn.
And it wasn't just the students.
The professors standing before them and the golems surrounding us were doing exactly the same.
At this point, I'd bet everyone's figured out what's actually going on here.
Then again, with this many clues lying around, the only ones still too busy to put two and two together would be Jackal and Frey, who are completely absorbed in tormenting the Earth Dragon.
"So this attack really was staged by the Academy, after all."
'That would be my guess, yes.'
"Figures a scrub academy would do something this dumb."
Having tossed that back at Phoebe, I charged at the Earth Dragon and slammed my mace down on its claw. Cracks began spiderwebbing across the claw until the whole thing snapped off and crashed to the ground.
The Earth Dragon raid was finally drawing to a close.
It was honestly convenient having a clear roster of designated damage-dealers. All I had to do was tank up front, and victory basically delivered itself.
This is way too good a deal.
If only I could keep forming a party and running content like this going forward.
I'd mentally braced myself to go solo, but having comrades makes everything so much easier. Judging by my current reputation, it seemed impossible — but hey, nobody can predict the future, right?
In the end, the Earth Dragon couldn't withstand our assault.
Its claw snapped off.
Its tail went flying.
Its wings were cleaved away, and with its eye pierced through, the beast let out a tiny death rattle that couldn't compare to its original ear-splitting roar before collapsing flat onto the ground.
At that very moment, the spectators began to applaud.
Great. Now I feel like a gladiator in the arena.
"Huh?"
"What's going on?"
The two of them, who hadn't spared a single glance for how the situation was unfolding, tilted their heads in puzzlement at the sight of people clapping for them. Looking a bit pitying toward the pair, Phoebe hurried over to explain — and I dismissed my weapon and headed for where the students had gathered.
"Impressive work back there."
It was the Pitiful Prince, striking up conversation with me.
Why is this man — who ignores everyone except the people he's been close to since childhood — showing interest in me?
"You've certainly proven you have the qualifications to take the representative seat from me."
It was about the entrance exam, then!
So refusing the representative position wasn't enough to stop the snowball?! Of course it wasn't! Soul Academy publishes the top twenty entrance exam scores! I knew if people saw me sitting in first place, it would ripple out one way or another!
But this isn't the timing for that, is it? The results don't get announced until after the ceremony — so how does this man already know!
"Allow me to reintroduce myself, though you already know who I am. Third Prince of the Soladin Kingdom — Arthur Soladin."
The proper courtesy would have been to bow along with him, but I couldn't bring myself to open my mouth. I had no idea what I was going to call Arthur.
Joy is Airhead Lady. Phoebe is Loser Saintess.
So what do I call Arthur? His nickname, the Pitiful Prince? Or maybe Loser Prince?
Either way, the outcome would be an absolute disaster!
That's lèse-majesté! Lèse-majesté!
I might be the daughter of a powerful count's house, but there's no way I get to say that kind of garbage to an actual prince!
"Lady Alrn?"
Was I not going to get an answer?! I racked my brain desperately, but no matter how I turned it over, I couldn't see a way through. As long as the Mesugaki Skill existed, there was no escaping this compulsion.
Fine. I'd be running into this obstacle eventually just living school life alongside him anyway. Better to take the beating now than later. With that grim resolution sealed in my heart, I looked up at Arthur.
'Lovely to meet you...'
"I don't know why you're asking when you clearly already know, but. My name is Lucy Alrn, Pitiful Prince."
"...Huh?"
Staring at Arthur's face — eyes gone perfectly round, as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard — only one thought came to mind.
I'm screwed. I am completely, utterly screwed.
This was not a situation where words like "damage control" belonged anywhere near my mouth. I had just called the man who despises pity more than anything in the world the Pitiful Prince.
"Would you care to say that again, Lady Alrn?"
Arthur's lips curled upward, but there was not a trace of a smile in his eyes. Watching those eyes glare into mine — frozen solid — I felt a hiccup climbing up my throat.
"Just want to make certain I didn't mishear you..."
"Good day to you, sir."
Just as I stood there, mouth sealed, unable to find a single word to say, a voice slipped in between us.
It came from one of the golems that had served under the Earth Dragon. A human voice, emerging from that stone hulk.
That voice was unmistakably... Luka?
"My apologies for the ordeal of facing the Earth Dragon. That was a magnificent battle — one I would never have expected from mere incoming students."
'Thank you very much.'
"Did you come all the way here just to say that?"
"No. I came because we're about to resume the entrance ceremony. If you find it difficult to walk, I'd be happy to carry you there in this golem."
'I'm quite alright.'
"Did piloting a golem turn your brain into a golem's too? Do I look exhausted to you?"
"Ahaha. I'm glad you're doing well, then."
Who would have thought I'd ever be relieved to see Luka's face? Thank you! For giving me an excuse to escape this situation! I promise that when I remember this favor and come to crush you later, I'll do it as cleanly as possible! Sorry, but "not crushing you" isn't an option on the table!
You're a troll, after all!
'My apologies, Your Highness...'
"Scrub academies really have zero situational awareness, huh? I'd love to keep chatting, but I have to go. Take care now, Pitiful Prince."
In the rush of the moment, I'd let the word prince slip out of my mouth a second time. When I quietly lifted my bowed head, I found the prince's face had lost even the composure to muster a smile.
Ha. I'm dead.
My brain had gone bone-white, and I couldn't summon a single word of rescue, so I fled toward the gathered students like a criminal escaping the scene.
'I don't need you telling me that!'
When I returned to the students' ranks, the others quietly made room for me on their own. The fear in their eyes was still there — if anything, it seemed even thicker than before.
Was it because they'd learned that the thug they'd thought was merely foul-tempered actually had power to back it up?
Normally, realizing that would have deflated me, but this once, I was fine.
My mood had already been slammed into rock bottom — there was nowhere left to fall!
"I imagine the events of moments ago have given you all quite a shock."
Judy's voice pulled me back to reality, and I stared blankly up at the podium.
"I'm sure you've all guessed already: this attack was something our Academy prepared in advance. Why would we prepare such a thing? To observe how each of you responds to a crisis."
"As you all know, our last entrance examination was marred by an unfortunate accident."
At Judy's mention of the accident, the eyes around me all swung toward me.
"Thankfully, it was resolved without a single casualty. But had things gone even slightly differently, several people would have lost their lives."
"Even within a dungeon that is almost perfectly controlled — inside the Academy itself — crises like this can be born."
"So consider this: what would happen inside a real dungeon?"
Judy paused and swept her gaze across the students, as if deliberately giving us time to think.
"A dungeon is filled to the brim with variables."
"No matter how seasoned the adventurer, it is impossible to perfectly predict what will occur within one."
"So tell me — what happens if panic like today's takes hold when an unforeseen crisis strikes?"
"I'll tell you as someone who once worked in the field. Every one of you would be dead."
The moment Judy pronounced it, a heavy silence settled over the students.
The speeches in the game were never this brutal. Was this the backlash from the exam incident?
"You are the ones who will one day conquer dungeons."
"Your destinations may differ, but the fact remains the same — all of you will set foot inside a dungeon."
"And when you do, the panic you cause will take the lives of everyone around you."
Surveying the students, whose mood had turned utterly grim, Judy's solemn expression softened at last into a smile.
"But you need not worry. Because from this moment on, we will be teaching you how to prepare for exactly that."
"Starting today, the Academy will teach you how to survive."
"We will teach you how to respond, no matter what crisis descends upon you."
"Students — on the day you graduate from Soul Academy, you will be people capable of conquering any dungeon in existence."
"That is my promise to make it so."
With those words, Judy bowed once in a formal greeting, then — as if the grave voice from moments ago had been nothing but an act — switched to a bright, cheerful tone.
"Now then, this concludes the entrance ceremony. Students, please proceed to the class assignment board at the Academy entrance..."
If you asked Arthur what he hated most in all the world, he would name a single word: pitiful.
Conceived in a single careless night of the King's indiscretion, born the son of a baron's daughter with no ties to power, losing his mother to an accident no one could explain before he turned five — and with her, losing the King's attention entirely — Arthur had been a pitiful creature despite being a prince.
That was what everyone believed.
But Arthur hated the word pitiful. He hated the pitying stares.
Because the moment he became a pitiful person, he would no longer be able to keep the promise his mother had left him.
Arthur strove with everything he had never to be pitied. He worked to become someone so admired that the very word would never even cross anyone's mind. He wanted to become someone who could look the King in the eye — the King who had looked at him at his mother's funeral and murmured, "poor child" — and declare, loud and proud, that he was nothing of the sort.
His efforts bore fruit.
By now, no one pitied him at all.
A genius, they said. Remarkable, they said. People praised him and looked up to him, and not a soul ever called him pitiful.
Until now.
Pitiful Prince.
That contemptuous smirk. Those eyes, laughing at him.
Even after a long while had passed since parting with Lucy, Arthur couldn't drive the scene from his head.
One who delights in mocking and insulting people regardless of rank, just to see them angry — was that how the rumor went?
Well, the rumors weren't entirely wrong, were they.
Pitiful Prince, was it?
Ha. Damn it all.
He'd had no business teasing Joy, of all things.
- Ding
I was staring blankly after the students streaming into the Academy building when the chime of a message window snapped me back to my senses.
QUEST CLEARED!
You have successfully enrolled in the Academy!
Your reward will now be granted!