166. Anyway, He's a Good Kid
166. Anyway, He's a Good Kid
"Why... why are you following me?! You've got nothing to do with this!!!"
"No, I'm curious."
Andy had fled the lecture hall after the assembly ended, leaving the chaos behind, so I chased after him.
"If you keep running away like that, it just makes me want to chase you more."
"Ugh... fine!! I'll tell you!"
"You should've just done that from the start."
Having realized running from me was impossible anyway, Senior Andy stopped in his tracks.
It wasn't just about chasing him; I'd also naturally steered him toward a deserted area.
Andy clutched his head and lamented.
"Ugh... I didn't want to do this either."
"Then don't do it."
"If only I could, how wonderful that would be...."
Scratching his head as if he had no choice, Andy spoke.
"You knew, didn't you?"
"Knew what?"
"If it doesn't involve you, there's no explanation."
"What do you mean?"
His eyes were filled with certainty.
"The fact that the Saintess-nim secretly came from the Holy See... isn't it because you beat up all the Holy Knights?"
"That's... not something I can outright deny."
"So it really was because of you!! This... it's all because of that person!!"
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To summarize, this was the gist of it.
It was a secret to the students that the Saintess had come, but it was disclosed to the professors as confidential information.
At the time, the plan was to stop by the academy briefly and leave right away, so it seemed like a measure to avoid friction with the professors.
Apparently, during the meeting to disseminate that information, someone suddenly brought up this point:
Since the Saintess-nim is present and the Master is also staying, shouldn't we show the academy students' potential in this test?
Someone chimed in that it was a good idea, and from then on, it was treated as a done deal.
"So... you're saying it got changed because they want to look good in front of the Saintess and the Master?"
"Yeah... well, the only way to put on a spectacular show is sparring, or so they said... Apparently, the test won't just be conducted quietly but will take place in the arena with everyone watching."
"That's ridiculous."
"The test format hasn't even been decided yet... It's a test for my lecture, but it feels like everyone's lost their minds. They're making a huge fuss about seating the Saintess-nim up front and showing off the students' wonderful skills..."
The thing I was worried about had blown up.
It seemed the Saintess's power had pulled their desire for recognition in a strange direction.
For now, it was just a change in the test format... but it could get worse going forward.
Should I send her back like this?
'... No. It's probably been a long time since she's gone out.'
If Carmel didn't use this as an excuse, when else would she ever leave the Holy See?
Knowing what it felt like to be trapped and unable to go out, it was hard to scold her over this.
Though in Carmel's case, it was she who was trapping herself.
"So what are you going to do?"
"About what?"
"If you do it properly, you'll obviously take first place and that'll be the end of it."
"I told you before. I don't want to do that kind of thing among the kids."
"You're saying you'll go easy on them? With your personality, do you really think that's gonna work? Someone pokes you a little and you're gonna blow up again."
"If there's still someone with guts big enough to poke me after I've beaten everyone up like that, I'd actually like to see their face."
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A format change a week before the test...
The test format was 'undecided,' with only one week left, and they hadn't even decided how it would be done.
They said it would be a competition format, but no one knew if it would be one-on-one, a survival match throwing the entire grade into the forest, or a team battle.
Even the professors setting the questions didn't know, so it couldn't be helped.
The exam admission students' community was burning up.
There were people analyzing what on earth caused this to happen, and others just swept up in emotion, venting their anger.
And among them, there were also those cool-headedly analyzing how to navigate the changed test.
-It's actually a good thing it changed to sparring. The basic fitness test requires reaching standards set by those muscle-head Experts, but for this, you just have to knock them down, right?
-Yeah, this is actually an opportunity. We can discipline those idiot sword-jockeys.
-Well, the nuance sounds like using magic is fine... but is it really okay for an Instructor's skill test?
-It's allowed by academy rules, so that's why they tried to skip sparring in the freshman year and fill it with basic fitness.
-No, why is that even allowed?
-Why is some bastard who doesn't even know that attending the academy? Oh, are you a freshman? You'll learn this later so find out in advance.
-It's an old debate. The Experts' Aura Blade is, at most, similar in principle to a Magic Blade that wraps mana around a sword. The argument is that if that's the path that leads to the sword-wielders' ultimate realm, then isn't magic also one of those paths?
-Even hearing it, I don't know what the hell that means.
-Don't bother understanding. Just in terms of the conclusion, the argument that 'Since Aura Blade is also a type of magic, aren't swordsmen using magic during duels? Then wouldn't it be fine to use magic during swordsmanship sparring time?' has gained traction.
-An Aura Blade, manifested through strong personal imagery, is a completely different domain from magic. The Headmaster would know that better than anyone, so what the hell is that nonsense?
-The mage magistrate bastards' level is exactly that, what do you expect?
-What's a mage magistrate?
-This guy really is a freshman. It refers to those worthless mage bastards who can barely cast a fireball but go around passing judgments like a Grand Magistrate as if they've realized the truths of the universe.
-Mage magistrate? Hey, what class are you in, wanna fight?
-Your mom─
Inside the constantly updating notebook, many people's opinions were being actively shared.
I was gradually becoming more familiar with using this notebook.
Available to any exam admission student, this notebook circulated an enormous amount of information.
Among it were both useless chatter and truly important things.
It was crucial to skim through it as if speed-reading and pick out only what was necessary.
'In sparring... magic can be used? Isn't that strange?'
-It might seem strange, but in a one-on-one, the moment an Expert properly executes an Aura Blade, it's hard for a mage to win. Mages are actually at a disadvantage in personal combat.
'Still, this lecture doesn't even teach magic, so it's weird that magic can be used.'
No matter how much I thought about it, it was strange, but now there was no changing what had been decided, and adapting was the only option.
I'd read hundreds of lines, but in the end, this was the extent of usable information.
While reading, truly useless vulgarities also flooded in, but I let them all go in one ear and out the other and turned to another page.
On another page, a ranking of students no one wanted to meet in a sparring match was listed out.
Confidently occupying the top ranks were the Five Pillars.
Not only were they far stronger than their peers from having received a gifted education since childhood, but because of their backgrounds, no one could touch them recklessly unless they had truly incredible guts.
On the bulletin board where individuals could anonymously write their opinions, next to Zeke Albion or Nivas Perda were comments like 'incredibly threatening magical skill,' 'scared of his insidious nature capable of collective retaliation if things go wrong.'
Next to Edgar Lemnos and Lucia Russell were strings of victim testimonies: 'Not at student level.' 'I got taken down in 3 seconds during the Hunting Festival.'
Further below, Liber was listed too.
It seemed his rampage of challenging people to duels left and right at the start of the semester had a big effect.
About twenty other students were listed, but there was no name for Emy.
It seemed others stood out too much for her to be seen.
Then who took the number one spot as the student no one wanted to meet in a sparring match?
Lemnos and Russell, the two swords of the Five Pillars, had achieved the upper Expert rank and entered the full-fledged realm of superhumans, but they didn't make rank 1 in danger level for this sparring.
The name confidently chosen as the number one opponent to avoid in sparring was none other than....
-Atlas Nemea.
-I hate even running into him in the hallway.
-Beware of dog (got bitten).
-What are the professors doing, not dragging this bastard off.
-He beat up a Clover Kingdom upper-rank Expert with one finger, so what can the professors even do lololol. What can they do besides twiddling their thumbs and watching lololol.
-Is he even a student?
-Is it true he was arrested on suspicion of demon worship but released after 2 hours?
-Rumor has it he wasn't released but beat them all up and walked out??
-I heard after he got dragged off, all the Holy Knights were hospitalized in the ICU, is that true?
-I saw that guy beat up the swordsmanship instructor. He was beating him brutally... It seems like there are other professors too who get beaten up by him.
-No, he just beats up everyone he lays eyes on, nobles, the Church, how the hell is that little runt still fine?? Is he some secret child hidden away by the Imperial Family or something?
Below that, far more unrefined, raw slander was written.
One could only hope that, really by some accident, Atlas didn't see this bulletin board.
-If he sees what's written, a few more corpses will appear.
'Hey, no matter what, surely he wouldn't kill.... would he?'
-That's something no one can know.
It was too hard to read anymore, so I closed the notebook.
The slander about Atlas, densely packed and written anonymously, was hard to look at.
I thought everyone was being too harsh.
Atlas was a good person, so why did no one recognize it?
Even if Atlas sometimes threw fists first without thinking when he got angry,
and cut off someone's leg for saying a single wrong word, Atlas was a good person.
-Don't you think that sounds strange even as you say it?
'But he's a good person... it's true.'
It was definitely because they hadn't personally talked with him.