The Day Before the Cyclops
With sudden and explosive interest in Simon's "private tutor" hanging in the air, Simon was forced to wear an awkward smile, while Pier's alter ego dangling from his uniform like an ornament grinned wickedly, clearly savoring the situation.
[KHAHAHAHAHA! It seems the little whelps adore me!]
...You're rattling my skull. Please be quiet, Pier.
[Tell them I would gladly offer instruction! That is, if they die and join the Legion!]
Kizen forbids turning living people into undead, you know.
Simon forced a smile and spoke up. "Sorry. He prefers to keep his identity hidden. And he's incredibly busy — honestly, teaching even one person like me is a massive interruption to his work."
Meilyn pouted. "So you're just not going to tell us? How stingy."
Dick snorted, hands behind his head. "It's not stingy, it's obvious. If your Summoning grades go up, Simon might get pulled out of the school. Would you tell them, if you were him?"
"...W-well, when you put it that way."
"It's not about that at all. He's genuinely too busy. That's the whole reason."
"Okay, okay, everyone!"
As always, it was Camibarez who played peacemaker. She sprang to her feet and thrust a fist into the air.
"We've rested ten minutes! Back to practice!"
"Huh? Has it been that long already?"
"Come on, one more round!"
Their practice for the field assessment ran late into the night.
The weekend passed, and a new week dawned — the week of the Cyclops field assessment.
At the same time, one great change came over life at Kizen, starting this very week.
"Scott Snyder. Ten points deducted."
The Student Protection Period was officially over.
Professors could now formally evaluate and grade students — and punish or discipline them as they saw fit.
"You brought me this pile of garbage and called it an assignment?"
"Too slow! Too slow! All of you are glacial! TAs! Dock twenty points from every student who can't keep up with the pace!"
"Get out of my class. Now."
The professors of Kizen bared their true nature as if they'd been waiting for this moment all along.
They transformed so completely that it was hard to believe these were the same people who had recently doted on their students. Classes grew brutally harder, points were stripped without mercy from anyone who couldn't keep up, and students judged inadequate were summarily ejected from the classroom itself.
The students wept at the professors' changed attitudes — but at last, they understood they had arrived at the real Kizen.
The weak have no place at Kizen.
Proving the point, only two days after the Protection Period expired, twenty students were already packing their bags.
And that was before a single midterm, field assessment, or duel evaluation had even taken place.
Simon himself had a rough couple of days adjusting to the new atmosphere.
If there was one professor treating students exactly as before, it was—
"Alright, run!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Professor Hong Peng of Magic Combat.
Strictly speaking, she had never cared one bit about the Protection Period in the first place. From day one she'd made students cling to a galloping hippo, cursed them and made them crawl up hillsides, and hurled them headlong into hippo herds without a shred of mercy.
So while every other professor's class difficulty had shot through the roof, Hong Peng's class remained exactly what it had always been. If anything, her class now felt positively relaxing by comparison.
It helped, of course, that she wasn't the type to nitpick for deductions or grind students down mentally.
"Hah! Hah! Honestly, I'll take mindless running like this over that any day!"
Dick panted raggedly beside Simon as he ran. "I can still see Professor Bahil's eyes after he docked me ten points twice in a row! Hah! Hah! Magic Combat class forever, damn it! I'm taking it next semester too!"
Simon chuckled. "Ha! Hah! You two are way too relaxed!"
Simon and Dick turned their heads.
"Whoa — Meilyn?"
Meilyn, who always trailed behind on every run, was overtaking them today. Gasping for breath and clearly at the end of her rope, she was still running like her life depended on it.
"Hah! Hoo! What's with you? You can't just crank the pace like that!"
Instead of answering, Meilyn clenched her jaw — and charged right past them. Dick's eyes wavered.
"...She's running on pure spite. Hoo! But what's gotten into her?"
"The Cyclops assessment is tomorrow."
As leader of Group 7 and a designated combat member, she felt a heavier responsibility for this assessment than anyone.
Meilyn's greatest weakness was her stamina — and her slow reflexes, which meant she couldn't properly dodge the Cyclops's attacks. So instead of pouring her remaining time into Dark Flare, she had thrown everything into conditioning her body.
She really is something.
First place in the entire entrance exam.
First place in Class A.
The only student to average above 90 on Professor Jane's test.
Simon had always assumed Meilyn was simply a genius — but in truth, she was a ferocious, unrelenting grinder.
According to Camibarez, Meilyn barely slept because of how much she studied.
They would study together late into the night in the girls' dormitory lounge, and Camibarez would doze off for a nap and come back the next morning to find Meilyn in the exact same spot, studying with nothing but a nasal strip on her nose.
She reportedly powered through the crushing fatigue and drowsiness with medication, just to keep it from affecting her classes.
Study, study, study — from the moment she woke until the moment she dropped.
What on earth drove her to work herself this hard, Simon could not fathom.
"Alright — rest break!"
The instant Hong Peng's order came down, the students collapsed onto the grass as if they'd been waiting for it. The TAs circulated, handing out stamina-recovery drinks.
"Uuugh."
Dick drained his drink in one gulp and flopped onto his back, arms spread wide. "Forget everything else — if you take Magic Combat for all three years, you'll graduate with a body like a god. That much, I guarantee."
"......"
At Dick's joke, Camibarez slowly ran her hands up and down her own legs.
Watching her, Simon smiled faintly. "A bit of running in Magic Combat isn't going to bulk up your legs, Cami."
"Wh-what? No! That's not it at all!"
"You're so petite, Cami — a little more muscle wouldn't hurt you."
"That's not what I meant!"
Just as warm, easy laughter settled over the three of them, Meilyn strode up at a brisk pace.
"Simon! Check this out for me."
"Hm?"
"The Jet-Black stomp thing."
She bent her knees and leapt straight up from the spot — to a startling height, with a solid plane of Jet-Black formed beneath both feet.
Whoosh!
She swept down over the grass and turned back to Simon, eyes gleaming. "Well? What do you think?"
"Uh, hmm."
Simon scratched his head. "You're good at it? Genuinely."
"Really, really? Hehe! I kept practicing for tomorrow!"
"That's amazing, Meilyn!"
Overcoming a weakness in such a short span of time. It was a remarkable achievement, just as Camibarez had said — though heaven knew what grueling effort lay behind it.
Judging from the way her feet landed, her feet had been worked to the bone. They didn't look to be in great shape at all.
"Don't overdo it, Meilyn," Simon said, worry creeping into his voice. "We already took down the Cyclops in the simulation, remember? Passing the assessment is well within reach."
"...Yeah. But 'passing' isn't going to satisfy me."
A fire lit in Meilyn's eyes. "First place. I'm working for first place, no matter what."
Just as Simon opened his mouth to respond, the TAs began clapping briskly.
"Everyone, up! We're running to the next destination in one go!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The students, long since accustomed to Hong Peng's classes, sprang to their feet and lined up.
"Move out!"
At Hong Peng's cry, they charged down a magnificent hillside, drinking in the crisp breeze.
The whole slope was blanketed in a riot of yellow rapeseed blossoms, so dense it looked as though molten gold had poured over the mountainside.
Simon couldn't help but marvel at Hong Peng's uncanny eye for picking the most gorgeous natural scenery as her classroom.
"Thimon!"
Suddenly Hong Peng popped up beside him. Simon jumped. "Ah — yes, Professor!"
"Are you practicing the Jet-Black technique I taught you properly?"
"Of course!"
She had taught him to activate the Jet-Black within his body to temporarily amplify his physical capabilities.
"Oho, you learn quick! No matter how I tink about it, Thimon, you're a perfect fit for the Magic Combat major."
"...Ahaha."
"Professor!"
Just then, Brad, the Magic Combat TA, came sprinting up, out of breath. He shot Simon a quick sidelong glance, then turned away and reported to Hong Peng.
"We have an injury in the rear column. A student seems to have twisted her ankle."
"Ah, I'll go take a look."
Hong Peng gave Simon's shoulder a light pat and ran off after Brad. Another TA led the students down the hill and declared a break. Everyone sat in the grass and drank.
"Cami, where'd Meilyn go?"
At Dick's question, Camibarez shrugged. "I don't know. I was trailing behind the whole time — I thought she was with Simon."
Just then, a murmur rippled up from the rear of the group.
Simon spun around and shot to his feet, and Camibarez clapped both hands over her mouth.
"No — don't tell me—"
The color drained from Dick's face. Through the crowd of murmuring students, a girl was visible being carried on a TA's back.
Her ankle was wrapped in bandages.
"Meilyn!"
Kizen Central Ward.
Meilyn lay staring blankly at the ceiling, like someone whose soul had left her body. Simon, Dick, and Camibarez stood around her bed, their faces grim.
"Miss Meilyn Villenne."
The doctor in the white coat flipped through a file. "You've badly sprained your leg. You'll be on crutches for the time being. Attending lecture is fine — but for one week, you are to sit out every practical class that requires physical movement."
It was a bolt from the blue. Meilyn pushed herself upright, eyes flushed red.
"No — you can't! An injury like this, I can still walk just fine!"
"Student."
The doctor smiled thinly and tapped her file twice. "This is not a recommendation. It's an order."
"......!"
Meilyn bit her lip hard.
"I know how dedicated you are to your classes. But no means no. Every class that involves walking is off the table."
This was exactly why injured Kizen students gritted their teeth and suffered through their wounds rather than setting foot in the infirmary.
For the doctors, the patient's recovery came first. For the students, survival at Kizen came first. Those two values collided at every turn.
Doctors naturally prescribed weeks of rest for injuries sustained in class — but every day of that gap tightened the noose around a student's neck.
Get hurt, and it was your own loss.
"......"
After the doctor delivered the one-sided verdict and left, a heavy silence settled over the room where only the four of them remained.
Everyone had worked so hard preparing for the assessment — and now, on the very eve of the live exercise, one of their combat members had wrecked her leg.
But not one of them blamed Meilyn.
It was a freak accident. And they all knew no one had fought harder for this group project than she had.
"...Meilyn."
"I'm really sorry. Get out."
Meilyn spoke with her head buried in her hands. "I want to be alone."
"......"
Her face was completely broken. No words of comfort were going to reach her now.
Dick and Camibarez exchanged a look and nodded.
"S-Simon."
Camibarez called to him in a small voice, tugging at his sleeve. But Simon didn't move.
"Sitting around here moping changes nothing."
Camibarez and Dick jumped.
It was a remark far too cold — nothing like the Simon they knew.
Meilyn bit down hard on her lip and raised her head. "...Then what am I supposed to do?"
"We find another way."
"A way?"
She let out a short, hollow laugh — bitter, and bordering on hysterical.
"You know as well as I do! This is a week's worth of work on tactics and positioning! We drilled ourselves half to death around these exact positions, and tomorrow — tomorrow — is the live exercise against a real Cyclops! Another way? What other way, you— Oh. Oh, I see! You're mocking me right now, aren't you? Yes, yes, fine, it's all my fault! You three getting the lowest score on the assessment — my fault! If that score drags you down later and gets you expelled from Kizen — my fault too! All of it! I just had to stick my nose in and break my stupid—"
"That's enough."
Simon's eyes glittered.
All three of them felt a chill run down their spines. Is that really Simon? He felt like a completely different person.
When the room fell silent, Simon let out a quiet sigh and spoke.
"If the rest of you are okay with it — I'll take her place as a combat member tomorrow."