169. Exam
169. Exam
"Haha, as expected of Master-nim! You're so magnanimous!!"
"You're all such impressive people, as befits academy professors! Haha!!"
Late at night, Master Hulan was having drinks with the academy faculty.
This was already the fifth drinking session, if not more.
Overjoyed by the visit of a Master—of whom there were fewer than ten in the entire world—the academy's faculty were doing their utmost to get on friendly terms with him.
Even if he didn't do anything for them, building a good relationship with an individual who personally possessed national-level military power was something that would inevitably prove useful someday in life.
Hulan didn't dislike this kind of treatment either.
If they asked for too much, that would be another story, but at least so far, the academy people hadn't crossed the line Hulan had set.
The most they'd done was ask for an autograph, or to take a photo together once,
They hadn't asked him to raid another territory for them, or to kill someone, or anything like that.
As a beastman who possessed many dragon traits, Hulan usually ran into pointless trouble when wandering through backwater villages, so it was fortunate that nothing like that happened here.
He planned to leave once the end-of-term tests—which everyone kept begging him to watch—were over, but staying settled in one place recently was something he hadn't done in a long time.
Whether staying for less than two weeks even counted as settling down was a bit questionable, but he himself considered it settling down.
The drinking went on for a long while before wrapping up. Everyone else had collapsed, but Hulan stood up completely unaffected despite having consumed that much alcohol.
"Hulan-nim!"
As he walked back to his quarters in a slightly tipsy mood after the gathering ended, about ten beastmen appeared en masse before him.
They were beastmen of various tribes, each wearing a brooch on their chest indicating they were academy students.
If they were attending the Empire's academy, they were likely all chieftain candidates or heirs of influential families supporting such candidates.
From the looks of it, they'd waited until the drinking session was over.
"Please, we beg you, return to the Union!!"
"It's you again. I told you I have no intention of doing so."
Ever since word spread that he'd come to the academy, they'd come to Hulan and bowed their heads to him several times already.
Having dealt with them so many times, Hulan frowned as if bored.
They annoyed him by making him repeat things he'd already said multiple times, but they were fellow beastmen he'd met in this faraway land.
He didn't want to brush them off too harshly.
"To unite numerous tribes with different customs into one, the blood of the dragon is absolutely necessary! The current Great Chieftain cannot bring the tribes together! Though we, in our past inadequacy, made an exceedingly unsightly display...!! Please, could you not take pity on us just once and lead us, wretched as we are?"
Their demand, in the end, was for Hulan—who had left the Union and was drifting on the periphery—to take up the position of Great Chieftain of the Union.
How ridiculous it was, asking Hulan, who had fled because he was sick of exactly that, to become the Great Chieftain.
They were probably still young and ignorant of many things.
Unhappy with the current situation, they clearly harbored the fantasy that if some special sage just led them, everything would get better.
He understood that such childish thoughts were natural when one was young, so he intended to talk them out of it with words.
"The Great Chieftain is not someone who reigns supreme. As you said, everyone has different customs and different instincts. That diversity is precisely our strength as beastmen. Therefore, it's natural that we might clash with each other, and it can appear as though we're not united. But I know. When we face a single colossal enemy, we bond more solidly than any other race. ...And is it really a problem that we aren't united right this moment?"
"...Pardon?"
"The reason we came together as a single group was to fight against a massive enemy that made it necessary for us to do so. Are we still doing that? Are we facing a powerful foe we can't overcome unless we are one?"
"Yes! The humans...!! Those filthy humans still exist, do they not!"
"Humans as enemies... not even worth listening to further."
"Please..!! Please, take pity on your fellow kin! You are the Union's sole Master and the last surviving bearer of the dragon bloodline..!! Please!!"
The words 'the last surviving bearer of the dragon bloodline' stuck in his mind.
'...In the end, they never stopped their infighting.'
It was a thing of the distant past, but up until the time Hulan left the Beastman Union, the dragon beastmen had not been alone.
Their numbers were never great, but there were about ten of them. Hearing that Hulan alone was the last one remaining was quite shocking, but it was something he could accept.
After all, the very reason he'd decided to wander was because of the sight of his kin, blinded by greed and tearing at each other like beasts.
'What dragon bloodline? In the end, it's all the same beastly bloodline... It doesn't seem like something you, who are living in comfort at a human academy on your fellow tribesmen's money, have any right to speak of.'
Judging that they weren't worth listening to any further, Hulan turned his back on them and walked away.
"Refusing us yet again... Could it be that Hulan-nim is not what he claims?"
"You wretch!! To doubt the dragon bloodline! Blasphemy!!"
When a beastman with feline features voiced suspicion, a beastman with canine features rebuked him sharply.
In the corridor, where the Master had vanished and only drunk faculty members remained, one of the beastmen who had been bowing his head muttered in a low voice.
"I understand. This is... a test, isn't it?"
"A test... what do you mean?"
As the other beastmen grew agitated, he continued without stopping.
"A test to prove ourselves by uniting as one, isn't it?"
"Right... that's it! He's definitely testing whether we're qualified."
"It's fortunate we have something we've been preparing."
"We will prove it without fail."
—————————————-
Not long after the tests began, the day that had long been announced arrived—formerly the physical fitness exam, now the sparring day.
As it had been announced that this test would take place at the Circular Arena, the entire year assembled at the Circular Arena, which swarmed with people for the first time in a while.
Gathering like this here... Right, it felt like the first time since my duel with Edgar.
No one stared openly, but I could feel multiple gazes on me that they couldn't quite hide.
They probably hated having to see me.
After all, the me they'd watched until now was someone who toyed with opponents and beat them into a complete mess.
"Hey, Atlas."
"It's Edgar."
We'd been separated because attendance was taken by dividing men and women, but Edgar, who'd spotted me from afar, approached.
"You've been completely absent from the dorm lately. Did you move or something?"
"I couldn't stand that garbage place where outsiders could just waltz in when you weren't there."
"Well, having someone open your door and rummage through your things would piss anyone off."
Edgar laughed in exasperation, as if recalling the scene from that time.
"About the test opponent... I know you wouldn't care who it is, but if it's happening anyway, I'd like it to be you. With you, I have faith that even if I go all-out for real, you'll be completely fine."
"What am I, some sturdy practice dummy?"
"Something like that, except a dummy that doesn't just take hits but strikes back viciously too."
"And then you'll end up flat on your back in front of everyone again."
"If I lose because I gave it my all and couldn't help it, then I'll happily lie flat."
It was a refreshingly straightforward response.
A bewildering amount of change.
It felt as if he'd become an entirely different person from the Edgar I first met.
He must have gained some kind of enlightenment when he broke through the wall to the upper Expert rank.
For Lucia, it had been a stage she passed through naturally without much change, but occasionally people whose personalities transformed like this did appear.
[Ahhh...]
A broadcast rang out through the Circular Arena.
[Due to feedback that the method of pairing up and observing multiple matches simultaneously didn't provide enough time for each individual to properly showcase their performance, it has been fully revised. The test will now proceed in a Battle Royale format, with twenty people gathered in one place and fighting until only one remains.]
The content was absurd.
Originally, it was supposed to be multiple one-on-one spars happening simultaneously, but now it had been changed again to a Battle Royale format where they'd brawl until only one person was left standing.
The test content had been changed once recently, and now it was changing again on the day itself?
Everyone was clearly out of their minds.
"You lunatics!! Changing it again on the day of?!!"
"Hey, seriously, isn't this too much?!!"
"I only practiced one-on-one, damn it!!"
[Dear students, if you have been diligently preparing all along, there should be no problem whatsoever.]
The broadcast sounded like it was pointedly directed at the wailing students.
Looking around, I spotted journalists holding artifacts and recording everything.
———————————-
Edgar Lemnos, who had exchanged brief greetings with Atlas, encountered someone familiar while moving to reunite with Zeke.
"Hey, Lemnos."
"Oh, it's Bol Te. What's up?"
It was Bol Te Jin, the tiger beastman and exchange student from the Beastman Union.
"This might be needless worry, but... the atmosphere is getting stranger as time goes on. You be careful too."
"Me?"
He'd appeared out of nowhere right before the test to tell him to be careful?
It smelled suspicious.
"It's not just you. The ones with names... I think all of them should be careful."