No, I'm Telling You, It Copies. (2)

A few days after the notice went up on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Academic Bulletin Board — precisely, a Friday morning. The practical exam for the Swordsmanship Department was about to begin.

Students from the swordsmanship and Sacred Arts lectures trickled steadily toward the entrance of the Forest of Hallucinations, and there was no one among them who failed to see the man and woman standing before the forest gate.

Professor Elia Claudius. Contrary to the impression her role as a swordsmanship instructor gave, she was the most popular professor in the Academy, beloved for her striking beauty and gentle disposition. Having been appointed professor at a young age, the age gap between her and the students was nearly nonexistent, and a fair number of Swordsmanship Department students harbored secret crushes on her.

And the professor standing beside her — Niger Caritas.

He was simply a nightmare.

Thus, the sight of the two professors standing side by side was like a painting, though the Sacred Arts students could hardly bring themselves to offer such a compliment. The students who had been deceived by Niger's looks and his gentle manner of speech knew all too well that this picturesque pairing was no pairing of beauty and the beast's better half — it was angel and devil.

Yes. That was a painting of an angel and a demon.

Silence hung over the gathering.

It was nothing more than the Academy midterm, but the first-years who knew the rumors about the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Forest of Hallucinations were understandably a little afraid. The Forest of Hallucinations was, just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as its name promised, a field where hallucinations took hold and whatever you feared most appeared before your eyes. A place that read the fears and anxieties buried in your heart and conjured illusions to match — so it was easy to understand why the students had gone pale as sheets.

And so I put on my kindly smile and began to speak.

"Teams have been assigned at random. If any Brother or Sister here has grievances about their pairing, I ask that you recognize this and kindly bear with it."

I hadn't bothered to hand-pick the teams; random assignment was simpler. It was only an Academy exam, after all — even if a student got the worst of an illusion, it would end with nothing worse than a fainting spell.

"Teams will enter through the visible entrances one at a time, at five-minute intervals. Once this briefing concludes, Teams 1 through 10 are to form a line and wait before the entrance of the forest."

"Each team that completes its preparations is to take one of the mana stones I will be handing out before entering. These stones exist to confirm that you are conducting yourselves properly during the exam, so the moment you lose one, you may face point deductions or outright disqualification."

It wasn't as though I could watch each and every student, so I planned to distribute one mana stone per person. They were measuring mana stones — as long as the students kept hold of them, there would be no trouble.

"Inside the forest, you will each encounter the thing you fear most, or the thing you most wish to avoid. These are mere hallucinations, of course, but — peculiarly — the illusions of this forest are capable of physical interaction, so do keep that in mind. It would be in your best interest to avoid crossing paths with other teams as much as possible."

Overlapping wouldn't be a disaster in itself, but handling multiple illusions at once would be an ordeal. Which, incidentally, also closed off the shortcut of several teams pooling their strength to clear the forest together.

"An illusion you have dealt with will not reappear for the rest of the day. However, should you encounter an illusion too powerful to handle — or a situation of comparable danger — the Sacred Arts students are to send their divinity up toward the sky. Either I or Professor Elia, along with the safety personnel, will come to your aid."

"The exam ends the moment you escape the Forest of Hallucinations. Proceed according to the maps you have been given — Swordsmanship students will engage the illusions in direct combat, while Sacred Arts students will support the fighting and make use of a variety of divine incantations."

So I spoke, sweeping my gaze across the students one by one.

Bellatrix, wearing her usual indifferent expression, met my eyes and let the corner of her mouth curl up ever so slightly. Lutz glared daggers at the sight of me standing beside Elia. Klana Whitepeltz, the current top student of the first-year Swordsmanship Department, flashed me a bright, beaming smile, and countless other students swallowed hard as they listened.

"I believe that covers everything you need to know about the Forest of Hallucinations. Are there any further questions?"

The students answered with silence. I had explained things in more than enough detail that there could hardly be anything left to wonder about, but in any case, all that reached my ears was the whisper of leaves brushing together.

"Then let us begin the Swordsmanship Department's midterm practical examination — and the midterm alternative assignment for the Sacred Arts lecture. Teams 1 through 10, proceed to your designated entrances."

With those words, the students at the very front gripped their mana stones tight and stepped into the Forest of Hallucinations.

It was still morning, and a chill breeze stirred through the air. The students shivered one after another in the bleak atmosphere.

It didn't take particularly long for all the students to enter. There were ten entrances into the forest in total, and with teams entering at five-minute intervals, in less than an hour the only two souls left in the clearing were Elia and me.

"Well, they'll all do fine, won't they?"

Once we were alone, Elia let out a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠long breath and struck up a conversation. Her expression had been somewhat stiff earlier, but now she was beaming at me again.

"Yes, I don't foresee any particular problems. They are excellent Brothers and Sisters, after all."

Granted, I had worked the students rather hard on grounds of gross insolence — but simply being admitted to the Academy was proof of exceptional talent. Which meant, in other words, that students incapable of escaping the Forest of Hallucinations or prone to causing some catastrophe were harder to find than not.

"I know, but... hmm. Kids these days have such vivid imaginations, I worry they'll conjure up something truly strange."

"That is a possibility, I'll admit... but Professor Elia, 'kids these days' hardly applies when the age gap is this small."

I was twenty-two at most — no, wait, since I was Niger now, twenty-six — and Elia was older still, at twenty-eight. A mere eight-year difference hardly qualified anyone as a child.

"Professor Niger... that's only because you're still young yourself. When you reach my age, you feel yourself growing older with every single day, you know."

"Ah. Yes..."

People in their late twenties always talked like that. A measly two-year gap — what difference could it possibly make? Besides, in a world where mana and divinity existed, remarks like that hardly carried much meaning anyway.

"Making that nasty thinking face again."

"...I am not."

"Really, now?"

"My apologies."

I was thinking it in complete earnest — I genuinely could not fathom how Elia read my expressions. Niger's face was by default an unreadable mask, nearly devoid of expression. Just how devoted was she to appearances, that she could pluck thoughts out of a face that never changed?

By protocol, professors and safety personnel were to remain outside the Forest of Hallucinations and stand by. If a student sent up a distress signal we would charge in at once, but barring that, staying out was the more sensible course.

And with good reason — imagination, in the end, is proportional to the life one has lived. The longer you live and the more you witness, the more your mind has to draw upon when it conjures horrors.

The noble freshmen who had only just entered the Academy, the commoners — they were people who had seen and survived things most could hardly picture. Some had faced enemy soldiers on battlefields, some had faced beasts deep in the wilderness, some had faced the predators of back alleys.

And then there was someone else entirely — someone with every villain and scoundrel imaginable, along with weapons and bombs that didn't even exist in this world, crammed to bursting inside his skull.

Me. I'm talking about me.

The moment I stepped in there, if things went truly wrong, a nuke would fall on the forest. I'd watched atomic bomb detonations on YouTube plenty of times.

They were only illusions, so no one would actually die — but I had no desire to walk into a forest full of unconscious exam-takers. And since these hallucinations could physically interact, getting beaten down by one would hurt to some degree, which would assuredly earn me a sea of resentful glares.

And so I was taking the long way around, circling the forest. Because I needed to be waiting at the exit the students would emerge from. We had promised to weigh the process, but this was still a competitive evaluation — extra points would go to those who escaped quickly.

With that in mind, I quickened my pace a little.

Weeds and leaves brushed against our clothes with a soft rustle. Birdsong came drifting from somewhere far off, echoing faintly through the trees. The chirping of insects — and, from within the Forest of Hallucinations, the screams of students. The forest we walked through was perfectly peaceful, but tilt an ear just slightly, and every manner of commotion came flooding in.

Beside me walked Elia, humming a tune under her breath. Whether it was the pleasure of walking together or simple fondness for this cool, crisp forest I couldn't say, but she looked to be in quite high spirits — eyes closed, head swaying side to side as she followed my steps.

Worried she might trip and fall if she kept that up, I found myself staring — and then she slyly opened one eye and beamed at me.

"It's fine. I won't fall~"

"...It's making the people watching anxious."

"Heehee! Well, if you're going to worry about me, I suppose I'll just have to keep walking with my eyes closed a little longer."

That was not, strictly speaking, worry.

But watching her lips curl up a little higher, I decided to let it go.

And so I lifted my mana stone. I wanted some sense of how things were going inside the Forest of Hallucinations — those screams echoing so clearly even now were starting to grate on me.

And through the mana stone, I could see the students' situations unfold.

First, the very first team. I hadn't checked which number it was, but a pack of wolves conjured from illusion had the students surrounded.

Uh. Hmm.

Next team, then...

Hm. Everyone's working hard, at least.

Curse words aimed at me drifted through now and then, but I could repay those with lectures.

Except.

The one who called Niger a son of a bitch — one point off their score.

That bastard, talking that way to a teacher who might as well be the heavens themselves. Utterly shameless.