The Overwhelming Victory
Alphonse, the representative of Class B for the performance evaluation, was one of the top-ranked students in the grade, just like Kimihee. In truth, he had felt rather confident before the evaluation began. He was certain they would defeat Class A.
In Class A, the only overwhelmingly powerful individuals were the Saintess candidate Sena and one of the Imperial Princesses, Karen. Everyone else was nothing but a ragtag bunch. Even if the Princess, who often skipped attendance, or Sena, who rarely stepped forward, were present, he had calculated their odds of victory as quite high.
But now...
“What the hell are these guys?! How did they sneak in?!”
“Where did they suddenly pop out from?!”
It seemed he had been mistaken. The Princess hadn’t shown up, and Sena hadn’t made a move either. Yet without either of them, Class B was being utterly ravaged. To make matters worse, even Kimihee—who was on a similar level to him—had gone completely silent.
The fact that he couldn’t reach Kimihee meant one of two things.
‘Either they’re engaged in a fierce battle, or they’ve already… been taken out.’
In his heart, he wanted to believe it was the former. But...
“Alphonse, help us!”
“Kyaaaaah!”
“What the—? Who are these crazy bastards?!”
Watching his comrades being mercilessly trampled only made the latter possibility feel far more likely.
Regardless, this was no time to stand around. If the class representative was eliminated, they would lose. But even if he did nothing, the outcome was painfully obvious. Therefore, he had no choice but to step forward himself.
“Alphonse is making his move. Retreat!”
The moment he prepared to advance, the Class A students who had stormed in began to withdraw. He couldn’t let them escape now. If he did, they would simply recover their stamina and come charging back.
-Swish!
Alphonse kicked off the ground and swung his practice sword. The strike was precise enough for a student—under normal circumstances, most opponents would have been hit squarely by that blow.
However...
-Whoosh.
Contrary to expectations, the Class A student dodged his attack with ease. Alphonse took a moment to examine who it was.
‘Who is this guy?’
No matter how hard he looked, this face didn’t ring any bells from before. While Alphonse was lost in thought staring at the opponent before him...
‘Huh? He’s actually pretty decent.’
Meanwhile, Kuhn—a blue-haired student from the lower ranks of Class A—tilted his head with a puzzled expression. The reason Kuhn and the other five Class A students had fled wasn’t just because of their stamina. It was because of Alphonse.
Their grades, at best, placed them in the middle ranks. In contrast, Alphonse was considered one of the top students in the grade, excluding a few exceptional cases. So even though they had received training from the Demon King… no, from the professor, they couldn’t help but feel intimidated. Ever since enrolling, they had always been in the position of the weak.
But...
-Whoosh! Whoosh!
Contrary to what they had expected, his sword strikes weren’t all that threatening. Of course, all they could do was dodge, but it was undeniable that the attacks weren’t landing.
As Kuhn continued to evade his strikes...
“You look like a mage, but I guess that’s not the case.”
Alphonse muttered to himself, clearly under some serious misunderstanding. Kuhn gave an awkward smile and scratched the side of his head.
“Uh, I am a mage, though?”
“What? Don’t make me laugh. How could a mage move like that?!”
“Well, um…”
He had simply done everything in his power to avoid the Demon King’s final weapon. Nothing more, nothing less.
“You’ll understand once you get hit by the final weapon yourself.”
“Huh?”
Just as Alphonse furrowed his brow, wondering what that was supposed to mean...
-Boom!
A sudden explosive sound echoed from somewhere nearby. As Alphonse turned his head at the deafening noise to see what was happening...
“Ah. Looks like it’s over now.”
“Yeah.”
“Guess we don’t have anything left to do.”
Kuhn and the other Class A students wore even more relaxed expressions. That was only natural. The person who had just appeared was Sai, the one who had been beaten the most by the Demon King over the past month.
The performance evaluation match between Class A and Class B has concluded.
Result: Overwhelming victory for Class A.
Heinz, who had been guarding the gates of Class B’s fortress, was rendered speechless by the scene unfolding before his eyes. And for good reason.
“Kyaaaaah!”
“It’s a monster!”
“How can this be one of our fellow students?!”
“I-I surrender!”
A single student was single-handedly demolishing the entire Class B defense. Heinz’s face turned deathly pale at the sight. However, he couldn’t just stand by.
While his practical skills were only at the upper ranks, his strategic mind was among the very best. The moment he began channeling his mana to cast a spell...
“H-huh?”
Before he knew it, Sai was standing right in front of him. Heinz looked behind Sai with a panicked expression. What he saw was...
“What the…?!”
Everyone else had already been eliminated and vanished. Sai looked at Heinz, whose pupils were trembling violently, and spoke.
“Looks like you’re the only one left.”
The moment those words left his mouth, Heinz’s vision shifted to the neutral zone.
***
In truth, even Sai was quite surprised on the inside. To be honest, he had expected an overwhelming victory, but...
‘This is way too easy.’
He never imagined it would be this effortless. Class B was dropping like flies even though he hadn’t gone all out yet. A faint sense of emptiness crept over him.
‘We went through all that suffering just for this?’
Just how many times had he been beaten by the Demon King’s so-called Physical Magic? And every time he got hit, he was healed right away, so he couldn’t even pass out properly.
“Just thinking about it again gives me chills.”
As he rubbed the goosebumps on his arms, he finally arrived at the room where the enemy commander was supposed to be. The enemy leader was definitely one of the top-ranked students. So perhaps this one would be a little different from the others he had faced.
Even the Saintess candidate Sena was far stronger than him, after all. Having organized his thoughts, Sai raised his leg.
-Crash!
He smashed the door in front of him. Inside, he saw Kuhn’s group—who had infiltrated the enemy camp—and the Class B students. From the looks of it, the fight still wasn’t over.
‘I see. Since the kids haven’t finished yet, the commander must really be something.’
It had better be. Otherwise, he would be truly disappointed. Sai approached Kuhn and asked.
“Since you guys couldn’t finish it, I guess the enemy commander isn’t an easy opponent after all?”
“Nah. It’s just like Kai said.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. That guy’s a total pushover. Just food.”
If Kuhn was speaking with this much confidence, there was no need to ask any further. Sai let out a deep sigh, his face filled with utter disappointment.
“Haa… So we got beaten half to death for this?”
“Exactly. It’s making me feel so pathetic.”
“I agree.”
“Anyway, let’s just finish this quickly.”
“Are you bastards calling me ‘food’ by any chance?”
At that moment, Alphonse glared at them with fierce eyes. A month ago, they wouldn’t have even been able to meet his gaze, but now...
“Who else would we be talking about?”
“Why ask something so obvious?”
“Right?”
Having experienced hell itself, Alphonse now looked almost cute to them. Upon hearing their answers, Alphonse’s face twisted into a furious scowl. Then...
“I’ll kill you first!”
He kicked off the ground and swung his sword with great force. Sai, without even looking, simply raised his own sword and blocked it.
-Clang!
The sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the fortress. Seeing Alphonse’s trembling arms, it was clear he was putting every ounce of his strength into the blow.
“What? Is this really it? For real?”
“……”
“Wow… Damn, this is just making me feel even more pathetic.”
He had thought that since the guy was supposedly one of the top students, he would be different. But it turned out he was just the same as the rest. He talked about killing, yet there wasn’t even a hint of killing intent. The only real difference was that he reinforced his body with aura. But even that was barely the size of a grain of rice. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Sigh. Let’s just end this quickly.”
“Yeah. Sai, look at how red his face is getting. It’s starting to feel a bit pitiful.”
“Hurry up and finish it so we can enjoy five whole days of freedom!”
Nodding, Sai brought the flat of his sword down on Alphonse’s head.
-Boom!
Alphonse took the blow directly to the crown of his head and collapsed to the floor.
“Just how on earth did you guys get this strong in just one month?”
“Hmm?”
At that moment, Alphonse asked in a voice filled with confusion about the secret to their growth. The Class A students, including Sai, briefly recalled what had happened over the past month. Immediately, they began trembling as if suffering from PTSD.
After catching his breath, Sai answered.
“You just have to go to school at 8 a.m., attend classes until 10 p.m., and then get beaten up by Professor Elric during after-school training. Then you somehow end up like this.”
The Class A students nodded vigorously in complete agreement. Soon after, Alphonse completely vanished from view. Thus, the match between the two classes ended in an overwhelming victory for Class A.
As a side note, thanks to Sai’s loose lips, getting beaten by Elric briefly became a trend at the academy. But that was still a long way off.
***
At the same time, the Chairman, Hein von Haberz, who had been watching the match between the two classes through a video crystal orb, was left utterly speechless. He had expected growth since Elric had been so confident, but...
“You’ve turned the students into knights who look like they’ve survived real battles.”
He honestly hadn’t expected it to be this extreme. Who could have predicted this? In just one month, turning ordinary students into beings capable of overpowering most knights—who could possibly achieve such growth? Without a doubt, no one but Elric could have done it.
“I don’t know whether I should be happy about this or not.”
In the end, Elric had produced results. To keep his promise, he would have no choice but to do as Elric said.
“Hoo… It’s obvious that some parents are going to raise hell.”
As he stroked his beard while speaking, a sudden tremendous explosion erupted from the screen.
It seemed something quite ominous had occurred.
***
Three minutes before the terror attack.
Zan, who had been following the Demon King’s orders, was completely at a loss for what to do. The first match had already ended far sooner than expected. He had predicted it would take at least two hours, yet...
At that moment, one of his subordinates asked him a question.
“Lord Zan. What shall we do?”
Should they proceed now? If they didn’t act immediately, more professors and students would gather at the academy. In that case, the chances of the terror attack succeeding would vanish completely.
‘It would be best to strike while those students are exhausted.’
Having organized his thoughts, Zan ordered his subordinates to begin the terror attack. Completely unaware that the Class A students were far from exhausted—in fact, they still had stamina to spare.