But while I and some other students knew that the deaths were fake and no one really died, several students were clueless. And those are the ones who were getting out of control right now.
"What the hell was that!?"
"Do you people even know how what people died out there?!"
"You call this an entrance exam? This is a fucking death game!"
"My friend died there, you know! Just you wait bastards, I'll contact my father and close this good-for-nothing academy!"
"H-How can this be? M-My, brother died! What will you do about that!?!"
Despair, anger, and confusion, was the emotions controlling these students, making them say whatever came to their mind. And I can't blame a single one of them for this, nor can the academy.
After all, what they were doing is only to be expected if you don't know about the fake death concept.
People will think their loved ones died...and death is absolute. Means they won't be coming and back, I think it's enough to make you go crazy.
I was waiting to see how the academy officials will handle this havoc and right then, Mr. Halls came on the stage. I wouldn't have noticed him if not looking in that direction because the sound of his footsteps was buried under the sounds of all this shouting.
He walked up to the mic and activated it, causing a small magic circle to appear at a distance from his mouth.
"May I get your attention please?" he said, the words were loud due to the mic and they were heard by every single student.
The shouting stopped but it only lasted a second and was overtaken by some kind words, directed at Mr. Halls.
"Now what do you want old man? Want to kill the rest of us?"
"Fuck off! We ain't listening to ya"
"Get lost motherfucker!"
Any normal man would have gotten irritated when being abused by a bunch of teenagers like this but Mr. Halls remained his composure. He simply waited for the crowd to quiet down and after that, he spoke up.
"I know you all are angry due to the nature of the fourth exam, one that involved death. Normally, I would have come forward and apologized to all of you but I won't be doing that here," he continued. "Since the students who died out there, are not dead."
"What?"
"Did he just say they are not dead?"
"Oh, come on, now you decided to lie and escape out of this. Not happening, you can't fool me! I have seen my friend die by own eyes, and you will pay for that."
His words caused a ruckus among the students, some did not believe what he said, some who didn't want to believe it, and some who were just confused.
Anya was the confused one, probably because I had already told her a bit about this. I could have explained it to her now but…why take the trouble when Mr. Halls is there for me?
This is a thing he should've expected. I mean, if you don't know anything about the fake death concept and saw your loved ones die with your own eyes, and then a man comes and says they are not dead. How legit does it seem?
And if the academy is not being operated by a bunch of fools, then they should have a solution for this. I wanted to see that.
"Quiet! All of you. I said no one died in the last exam and it's the only truth. The academy won't ever do a thing that can endanger the lives of our students…And about the students who you saw die…here they are."
As he finished his sentence, several students who were moving in a line came out from the back side of the stage and joined Mr. Halls. I studied their faces and saw that Ster was among them.
'So they were not sent home immediately after failing the exam.'
"See, I said he's alive, didn't I?" I said to Anya as I pointed my index finger at Ster.
"Y-You're right," she gulped.
The reactions were more or less the same no matter which student you took. The people they saw dying were standing right in front of them. Mr. Halls, not leaving this opportunity, came forward.
"Let me explain this to you," he said. "As you can see, the students who supposedly died in the fourth exam are standing here, besides me. How can that be possible?
The reason for this is that the thing about 'you will die if you're careless' was a lie. We made up that situation so all of you can take the exam seriously, it was a survival exam after all.
And if you are wondering how these students are alive, even when they were killed by the monsters. It was because of the barrier that surrounded the forest…in reality, it was the combination of healing and teleportation magic circle. That's why; when anyone died there they were healed and then sent back here."
There was silence across the room. I heard whispers like "So that was it huh", "I'm glad no one died", "I kind of knew this must be the case," and things like that.
In the end, the students who were panicking a minute ago were calm now. The failed students went back and then Mr. Halls continued.
"Now, I guess everyone understands what happened, and with that in mind let me tell you what you all have to do now. First of all, let me congratulate every student present here. You are officially a student of Zaforths magic academy…"
He explained what we'll be doing from now on. There wasn't much to hear so I'm cutting right to the chase here.
We were told that from now, we will be living in the academy dorms. We can't go out of the campus without any special reason and all the daily necessities will be provided by the academy.
When this was made clear, our results were revealed. I was panicking badly because I didn't want to go to class A but I messed up and performed over the top in the second exam.
Later it turned out I was worrying over nothing, the class I was giving was class B, though Anya was in class A. Right now I don't know how exactly this class system works so I was confused about whether I should be happy or sad since I was in class B.
After that, we were told to go back and bring out stuff and shift into the dormitories. I and Anya went to do just that; we didn't have many things so we were done quickly.
Now let's come to the dormitories. Behind the main building, four more buildings were located. They were sorted out by the class a specific student is in, for example, building 1 for class A, building 2 for class B, building 3 for class C, and so on.
At first, I thought the dorms were divided by academic year but it turned out the dorms for senior students—that is to say second years and above—have their own separate buildings and each of them was also divided by classes.
There are four years and four classes, which means there are a total of sixteen buildings being used as dorms. My mind was blown away by this, I mean, how massive an academy can be!
Anyway, I parted ways with Anya since both of us were in different classes now, and then made it to my room. It was on the second floor of the class B building.
Opening the door I went in. You can say the room was had a decent size, nor too big nor too small. It was furnished with a white bed, a wooden desk, a chair, and a wardrobe to store my stuff.
As I moved around I found that a small bathroom and kitchen were also attached to the main room.
'Eh! Do I have to cook my own food?'
It's not like I don't know how to cook, it's that I don't want to!
I put my luggage on the desk, closed the door shut, and threw myself onto the bed.
'Ah fuck!'
The bed was hard, no, the bedding is too thin and because of it, I can feel the wood.
Hmm, I can say this is the most uncomfortable bed I've ever experienced in this world. Still, can't do anything about that.
It was almost evening and the students were tired after the entrance exam so we were told to rest. Tomorrow the opening ceremony for the first-year students will be held and then our classes will start.
I didn't have anything to do so I decided to sleep. I am not some superhuman, like the other students, I was also tired.
I passed out only after a few minutes, without even realizing that I didn't even take a shower.
At this point, I slept without care, totally unknown of the surprise that was waiting for me tomorrow, an event that will change my life.