The Half-Placement Exam - Part 2
‘So this is finally my debut stage as an instructor.’
I stood atop a high vantage point that offered a sweeping view of the central area of Zone E and looked down. By now, the roughly forty students should be scrambling through the vast forest. The teaching assistants assigned to Zone E with me were handling the outer perimeter, while I had taken the very center for myself.
‘They said the stronger artificial creatures tend to gather in the center.’
Of course, we just called them monsters for convenience. They weren’t real demons. Who in their right mind would release actual demons and risk the students dying? Everything inside was an artificial construct. I couldn’t remember the official name… but who cared? All the other assistants and instructors called them monsters too. Anyway, I’d heard they had safety measures in place so that, barring extreme circumstances, no student would actually die.
Still, even with those safeguards, a quick preliminary sweep had shown far too many creatures that would be overwhelmingly difficult for the students to handle. So I had gone ahead and quietly cleaned up the excessively strong ones in advance.
‘How predictable.’
It was obviously Marius’s idea. He was probably trying to put me in a tough spot. And with the precious Ditrua among the students, his nasty intentions were crystal clear.
‘I’m standing on top of your head, you bastard.’
I’d have to deal with him properly later. For now, since the exam had officially begun, I started on my first order of business.
‘Good thoughts. Kind thoughts.’
I calmly settled my mind, seeking inner peace. That way my presence would fade, and the students would be less affected by it.
How much time had passed? I sensed a presence and opened my eyes to find a girl with a rare shade of lavender hair entering my field of vision.
‘Her name was… Rilke, I think.’
I vaguely remembered her from the entrance exam—she’d passed in the upper ranks. Three Dark Wolves were now circling her.
‘Dark Wolves, huh. How interesting.’
Just like their wolf-like appearance, their basic traits were similar too. Among lower-tier artificial creatures, they were known for high intelligence and relentless persistence.
‘She runs into tough opponents the moment she steps into the center.’
Dark Wolves excelled at coordinated hunting. The more of them there were, the exponentially more dangerous they became. Even with safety measures, it was said that fatal injuries could occasionally occur if things went wrong. Since I needed to step in before that happened, I kept a close watch on the lavender-haired girl’s fight.
But she handled the Dark Wolves far more simply than I’d expected.
‘Not bad at all.’
Her skill was impressive, but what caught my eye even more was her style. Her sword was thick-lined and rough. It was completely different in nature from the formalized swordsmanship that had evolved through standardization. It felt as if the insights she had gained from real, bloody battles had been melted directly into her blade.
It looked unrefined, yet it seemed deliberately crafted to embrace that lack of refinement. ‘She trained a sword style like that to this level?’ A girl with such a youthful face? Out of all the countless sword arts in existence, it was fascinating that she had chosen this one.
‘She must have stumbled upon some kind of fortuitous encounter.’
The odds of her realizing something like this entirely on her own were extremely low. If she had, she’d be counted among the top few geniuses in history. Since that was unlikely, she must have met a truly exceptional teacher.
‘Memo complete.’
I mentally filed away the information about her. Judging by her skill, as long as she didn’t get overconfident, the chance of her suffering a serious injury in this forest seemed low. I probably didn’t need to pay her much attention during the exam.
‘Next.’
Just then, someone else entered the central area. The second new student to reach the heart of the zone after the lavender-haired girl was…
‘Ditrua.’
One of the people I had expected. I had briefly observed her sword during her unannounced visit to my quarters with that intruder. Her ability was more than enough to have taken first place in the entrance exam.
*
“Kueeeeeeek!”
The monster let out its final scream. A bright smile bloomed across Ditrua’s face as she watched.
“Uahahahaha!”
She burst into wild laughter.
“Die die die!”
The creature had already collapsed, but she mercilessly hacked its corpse again and again with her sword. The sensation of the blade sinking in, transmitted through her hands and wrists. The ecstasy that followed. Thanks to it, the pent-up frustration in her heart was melting away.
For the finishing touch, she kicked the severed head with all her strength.
Thud!
The head flew far into the distance with a satisfying sound. Ditrua wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand and smiled with deep satisfaction, like a farmer who had just finished harvesting.
‘I was right to come here.’
If she had chosen private tutoring in the palace, she would never have felt this kind of liberation.
“That felt so refreshing!”
There was one fact that only Ditrua’s closest aides knew: she carried an enormous amount of pent-up rage. It was part of the reason she had chosen to wield a sword instead of a wand or pen like the other princesses. Swinging a blade was simply the best way to vent her anger.
Blowing enemies apart with magic from a distance was fine, but it couldn’t compare to this tactile satisfaction. Besides, magic required annoying calculations, didn’t it? A sword that let her rely purely on instinct was far superior. Of course, her swordsmanship instructor would probably faint if he heard her say that.
‘Wait a second.’
Her reason returned in a flash. Come to think of it, someone might have seen her like this.
‘That was too much.’
She quickly shut her mouth and cautiously scanned her surroundings. Fortunately, no one was nearby, and she couldn’t sense any presence. Relieved, she took a deep breath and calmed her emotions.
‘Still, I think I got enough of it out of my system.’
The anger that had accumulated deep in her heart—she had released a considerable amount of it during today’s exam. Maybe over the four years she would spend at this academy, she could purge it all?
After thinking for a moment, she shook her head.
‘That’s probably impossible.’
Even if she did, the moment she returned to the palace, she would surely go right back to how she was. Still, today’s results weren’t meaningless. A smile appeared on her face once more.
That was when she sensed someone’s presence. Ditrua immediately pointed her sword in that direction. But what emerged wasn’t a monster—it was a girl with lavender hair.
“What the… a princess?”
Rilke made a disappointed face. She had heard an incredibly wicked laugh and assumed it was a monster. And monsters that could laugh like humans were usually strong ones. She had thought she could earn a lot of points, but it was only a dream.
“Didn’t I tell you not to call me princess? My name isn’t ‘Princess,’ you know?”
Rilke snorted at her.
“Hmph! You’ve enjoyed countless privileges your whole life thanks to that princess title.”
Ditrua’s eyes widened at the unexpected reaction.
“Yet you hate being called princess? How funny. Is it the pleasure without responsibility or something?”
Then, as if it were nothing, she added,
“—is what I almost said.”
If anyone else had heard that, they would have been utterly shocked. Ditrua’s lips and the corners of her eyes shot upward. This was a new kind of shock.
“You’re not right in the head either, are you?”
For Ditrua, there was no real malice in the words. After all, she didn’t think she was right in the head either. But of course Rilke had no way of knowing that. Especially since she had said it to pick a fight.
Staring at the princess with a sullen expression, Rilke raised her sword and pointed it at Ditrua.
“Whatever. I knew it would come to this anyway. Bring it on. Got it?”
“Huh?”
Ditrua found Rilke’s behavior hard to understand. Why was she suddenly suggesting a fight?
“Playing innocent now? Student-versus-student combat isn’t prohibited in this test, is it? Plus, if I take you down, I’ll probably get first place. Right?”
“Oh, is that how it is?”
Her eyes gleaming, Ditrua slowly advanced toward Rilke. For a moment, Rilke looked flustered.
‘What’s with this girl?’
She had thought the princess would be elegant and refined, but those eyes suggested she was anything but sane.
‘Was she always like this?’
Rilke had only seen Ditrua during the entrance ceremony a few hours earlier, when she had recited the new student oath. She had never imagined the princess possessed this kind of temperament. It was a little bewildering, but in a duel, an opponent’s personality didn’t really matter. Whether they were kind, evil, sane, or crazy—everyone was equal before the sword.
With a resolute expression, Rilke raised her own blade and slowly approached Ditrua.
From far away, Altair watched the scene unfold.
‘How interesting.’
It was hard to predict who would win. ‘Their styles are complete opposites.’
Rilke’s wild, thick-lined, self-taught swordsmanship versus Ditrua’s refined, elegant blade work. The occasional bursts of Ditrua’s madness showing in her sword were a variable, but even taking that into account, their styles stood at opposite extremes.
‘No other students have reached the central zone yet.’
Now she had the perfect excuse to focus entirely on their duel. Altair pulled a piece of jerky from her pocket and bit into it.