Midterm Exam (5)
"Aaaargh!"
"Hold on!"
"You idiots! You should be able to block that barehanded!"
Chaos reigned. The knight-class students, despite having weights of several hundred kilograms strapped to their bodies, were tumbling every which way — rolling, bouncing, soaring into the air and crashing back down.
With magic of that magnitude unleashed, it would have been normal for at least one of them to break a bone or need months of recovery.
Yet when the spell finally ended, not a single knight-class student failed to rise from the ground, however haggard they looked. And around each of them, fine particles of mana clung to their bodies.
"So that's how it works. The secret behind the knight class's magic resistance."
"Whether you call it proper or just crude..."
"Crude, but efficient. What do you think, Frey?"
"At that level..."
Comparing the current magic class to the knight class —
"Fifty of them won't be leaving Department Head Alketo's research lab anytime soon."
For reference, the first-year magic class had fifty-two students.
"I don't like that."
"Why not?"
"Imagine being stuck in a lecture hall teaching only two people, Frey."
I pictured it.
Quiet and nice, actually?
"So why don't you like it?"
"Ugh. I was a fool for even asking you. That's not youth! It's far too bleak!"
"I'm starting to have a new concern."
"What?"
"Once the midterms are over, I want to ask Iren why she's so obsessed with youth. I already had a different question prepared, but..."
"Could you not talk like you've already won? Hmm, what to do about this..."
"There is a method, actually."
"A method? What kind?"
"How do you believe creativity develops?"
"Through free thought, wouldn't you say?"
"No."
I watched the knight-class students charging at Professor Durham.
"Human creativity explodes under intense desire. The knight class is suffering like that — shouldn't the magic class do the same?"
"Hmm. I don't know what you mean, but you've got a method, then?"
"Shall we?"
"Fine. Go ahead."
With Iren's permission, I returned to the classroom and put it into action immediately.
Three minutes later, Iren screamed.
"Who! Told you! To do it like this!"
Wham! Iren shattered a bear-shaped monster lunging at her with a single punch. Whoa — an Iron Bear, the kind even seasoned knights struggled to subdue with a sword, taken down that easily!
Seeing Iren furious somehow made me want to laugh, so I answered her.
"The desire to survive is still a desire, isn't it?"
"Frey, you! Just wait till we get out of here!"
As Iren fumed and froze everything around her solid, I turned my gaze elsewhere.
Each student was trapped in an individual illusion space. And each of those spaces had been assigned a "trial."
"This is a problem."
Karl stared at the hundreds of golems with pseudo-consciousness bearing down on him.
"Aaron! Aaaroon! Where are you!"
Elena searched for Aaron while house-sized snakes blocked every direction.
"Ugh! I have to find Elena!"
Aaron, likewise, blasted approaching wolf beasts with magic as he searched for Elena.
"What is this!"
"Young Master Katram! This was you, wasn't it! You used a similar spell earlier!"
"I'm scared! I'm scared! Save me!"
The students' screams filled my ears. Hmm. This might be a little fun.
Just as I had with Iren, I projected my voice to every student in the magic class.
"Can everyone hear me? You must be panicking after suddenly falling into an illusion spell. But this is an illusion spell — and also not an illusion spell."
The students' faces hardened even as they fought. I continued.
"This is another world, adapted from a spell in a grimoire from the library. I'm sorry to say that if you die here, you will experience the real pain of death."
"Why the hell did you put this spell on us!"
Oh — one of the higher-ranked students was wailing. Was his name Roten?
"Good question. Because at this rate, most of you will be stuck in Department Head Alketo's research lab for an entire year."
"What."
"This is a training space to prevent that. All you need to worry about is surviving. Ignore time. The time ratio between here and the outside is 100 to 1. A hundred days in here is only a single day out there. Of course, if you want out, I'll let you leave. But I guarantee you this — anyone who quits will spend the entire year with Department Head Alketo."
Gulp.
The students seemed to be imagining life with Department Head Alketo. They pictured their futures, thrashing about in his research lab, trying to decipher multi-layered magic circles they couldn't decode even a tenth of a percent of.
"N-no way!"
"A year locked in the department head's lab? I'd rather die!"
"Even his undergrad lectures are full of incomprehensible jargon — in his research lab I'd go insane from not understanding a word!"
"Fighting monsters is better than that!"
A murderous glint entered the magic-class students' eyes. Good. That's the spirit.
In two days of outside time, I'd fill them to the brim with creativity!
"Amed. Let's go scout the magic class."
"Pardon?"
Amed Triscol. The second-ranked student in the knight class, right behind Irina.
The Triscol family had been a knight lineage for generations, famous for their brilliant achievements on the battlefield. Had Irina never enrolled, he would have claimed first place among the first-year knights without question.
"Why would we go scouting?"
"A few days ago, Her Highness the Princess and Frey came over to our side."
"I had no idea."
"The professor knew. They checked us out, so we should check them out too."
"Lady Irina. But would checking even mean anything?"
Amed could only sigh. His complexion was terrible — though not from the grueling training.
"I heard the Third Princess crushed adamantium with her bare hands. What exactly can we do?"
"Idiot. We're not facing the mages — we're facing the tricks those mages set up. So if we just learn what magic they're practicing, we'll have a shot."
"But I heard the two we'll be facing will minimize their tricks against us? And one of them supposedly outclasses the professors."
"Amed. Shouldn't we still find out the magic class's average level for the sake of the other students? You can't only think about yourself."
"Lady Irina is the Finance Minister's daughter, yet you have no greed for wealth~."
"That's a stereotype. Father is an honest man to begin with."
"Aww, what a good girl, Lady Irina."
"Could you stop patting my head now that I've dropped the disguise?"
Irina grumbled, but she didn't push Amed's hand away. Ever since she'd stopped transforming, he'd been trying to get closer, and she didn't mind it.
The other knight-class students, meanwhile, were staring at Amed with looks of pure horror.
"But the magic class will just be scribbling on parchment in their lecture hall. What are we going to learn by scouting?"
"I heard Department Head Alketo gave them something. Confirming that alone should help."
Step by careful step, Irina and Amed made their way toward the magic-class lecture hall. Using a stealth technique unique to knights, they slipped close and peeked through the classroom window.
After watching for ten seconds, the two crouched beneath the sill.
Amed spoke with grave seriousness.
"They clearly cast an illusion spell anticipating scouts from the magic class."
"I think so too. Since they came scouting first, they must have prepared countermeasures."
"Who cast the illusion? Professor Violet?"
"It could be Frey. His illusion magic is rated higher than Professor Violet's."
"Illusion magic depends on imagination, right? And you have to arrange everything individually, so you need an exceptional mind too..."
"That's not important right now. Let's look again."
The two stood back up and peered into the classroom.
"Try touching this trap."
"Yap."
"Two hundred golems with pseudo-personalities pour out."
"How did you restock them?"
"I secretly carved summoning marks onto the Academy's training golems. They'll crush the knight-class students under pure weight."
"Good thinking. I tried raising the temperature of my flames."
"Ordinary heat wouldn't even scratch the knight-class students, would it?"
"If the firepower can melt a kilo of steel in a tenth of a second, that should work, right?"
"Lady Elena came up with a fine idea as well."
"Aaron's even more impressive. He found a way to use ice magic and fire magic at the same time."
"How does that work?"
"You make an ice sheet with ice magic, then melt just a little of it with fire magic. In the direction they'll slip and fall, you plant needles that can skewer a hundred monsters."
"That's a brilliant idea!"
Hahaha! Karl and Elena laughed. And around them, storms, flames, and blizzards raged all at once. Within the swirling vortex, mages chanted their own spells and hurled magic at one another — and every time the spells collided, the entire building shook as if struck by an earthquake.
"Lady Irina."
"Hmm?"
"Is the building shaking also part of the illusion magic?"
"Well..."
Irina and Amed decided to simply turn back.
First-year magic students couldn't possibly cast magic of that caliber, so it had to be an illusion — but the risk of trying to pierce through it to scout was far too great.
As they left, Iren stood in the middle of the classroom, blanketing it in a blizzard, and pouted.
"This is not youth!"