Chapter 6: Grading Test (1)

༺ Grading Test (1) ༻

It might be the same for Earth, but this world had misfortune and unfortunate tragedies decided by the scenario.

People full of pride and honor might unexpectedly fall into the pit of helplessness, and a citizen leading a normal life could also be caught up in a natural catastrophe.

For Marie Dunareff, her future was destined for despair.

The unfortunate event was both unstoppable and unavoidable. The timed bomb instilled inside the final boss of the 1st arc, Marie Dunareff, would definitely go off, and what was important was the timing of the explosion as well as the aftermath.

Depending on how the aftermath was dealt with, it could lead to the future attack of the fundamentalists, but could also reduce the triggers of the great collapse.

“Everyone. Shout out loud~! Ba~ baba! Baba! Ba~ baba! Baba!”

“Yeeeyy~!”

“Wooohh!”

Like a tourist bus of teenagers, the large magic carriage was filled with people singing a song and playing music. It would take over 30 minutes to get to the Liberty Hall from this place on a carriage, and it was always up to the sunbae in charge of guiding the students to enliven up the mood.

“Thanks for clapping along, everyone! That was great! Here are some potatoes!”

“Thank you, Senior Marie!”

Marie, who was in charge of guiding the freshmen, used her characteristic ability of creating friends to shorten the gap between herself and her juniors in just 3 minutes.

She was a beauty with an easygoing personality... and besides, she charmed others with her overwhelming amount of food so there was no way the freshmen wouldn’t like her.

People that gave away food were nice people most of the time.

“We are almost there. Right! You see that old lady next to the window? That lady with an afro hair makes potato croquettes and they’re very delicious! You should try them when you have time! And juustt over there, there is the Creation Hall, where students learning magic gather for research. They make a lot of strange things. And over there is the stamina training room! We call it the training room! You can borrow a lot of interesting weapons so I recommend you go there at least once! But I was restricted from going there this holiday... I was using nunchucks and I accidentally broke a window...”

– Hahahaha!

Marie was as friendly as a capybara and immediately grasped the hearts of her juniors.

Soon, the carriage arrived at the hall.

“You have to get off in the span of 2 minutes! But don’t run, and get off slow! You have plenty of time!”

She kindly guided the students after getting off the carriage first.

“The professors are inside, so you can go in one by one and line up! Then, good luck everyone!”

Good luck?

The other freshmen were curious about her sudden encouragement, but I knew what was waiting ahead. I was worried something might happen because of the Precept but fortunately, nothing happened.

That was when Marie stopped everyone in their tracks.

“Oh, right. Everyone! Here are some steamed and sweet potatoes for you!”

How many steamed potatoes and sweet potatoes were there inside that basket? I’m sure there have at least been 50 potatoes so far.

“See you again later!”

Leaving behind Marie who was energetically waving her arm until the end, we walked into the Liberty Hall as our sight immediately turned dark. It seemed that we were the last batch.

“W, what?”

“Can anyone see anything?”

The crowd buzzed from the sudden darkness in front of them. It was natural for them to be anxious considering how their peers suddenly disappeared from their sight, while being unable to touch anything.

Spatial Expansion. It was the unique spell of Senior Professor, Lady Josephine Clara.

“Do not be flustered, rookies!!”

“Uhk?!”

The shout echoing one’s eardrums... was the voice of Old Man Haman the professor of martial art studies.

I could still vividly remember how he used to shout that he was still in the prime of his life even though he was only 2 years short of his retirement age.

“How could the new cadets of our academy be flustered by something like this! I can only imagine how hard it would be to raise you incompetent fools into warriors!”

This old man was always the same.

Huu, he brought my mind back to the marine camp I went to back in my school days. Those were some crazy days back then.

“Stand up straight! You over there! You bony-looking one! I am looking at you!”

“Huek!”

Students were the only ones that couldn’t see what was ahead, and the professors standing on the platform were able to see everything.

Academy; school; education. It was easy for people to misunderstand, but this Merkarva Academy was a superhuman training facility that was centered around training instead of education.

The history of this world’s humanity was that of a constant strife against the demons.

Along with the ominous words of Fermack, light covered my sight.

****

Half of the darkness enveloping the Liberty Hall was lifted as the professors gathered in one place.

“There are a lot of gems this year.”

Professor Lulara of Alchemy said while looking at the students half-encroached by the darkness.

The signboards of Grade 2 and... Grade 1.

The freshmen that had been standing in front of those signboards were next to them without being isolated in the ‘testing ground’ which had been infinitely expanded by Lady Josephine.

“One Grade 1 and four Grade 2s, huh.”

The young-looking blonde-haired beauty, Lady Josephine, looked at the remaining students of this place while lifting her monocle.

Granddaughter of the Sword Emperor, Alicia Arden.

Druid of Avelorn, Yuel.

Mercenary of Flying Swords, Dorron Warsky.

Golem Mage, Kranel Luden.

They were geniuses who had been famous even before the admission.

Considering how most of the professors of the guardian academy were Grade 2 with only a few of them being at Grade 1, it was possible to say that these students were as strong as a professor in terms of their ability.

Of course, their ability to fight in an actual battle was a completely different matter, but it was clear that their talents were at the level of a genius already.

However, this was one of the only four academies worldwide. Here, geniuses were overshadowed by even greater geniuses.

Josephine turned towards the Grade 1 signboard.

“...”

There was a mysterious girl with a sharp gaze who was standing straight as if she had been straightened up by a right-angled ruler.

Her nun clothes tightly tied by chains and her short hair were exactly the same as what Lady Josephine had seen in the past.

She appeared like a temperamental cat from a distance, but Josephine was with the chairman of the academy, Eriu Casarr, when first inviting her, so she knew her true identity.

‘What is the chairman thinking?’

If not for the dozens of yellow talismans stuck on the entangled chains, even Lady Josephine would have been greatly against inviting this girl.

Heavenly Yaksha, Hua Ran.

‘Knight’ was not a suitable description for that girl. A ghastly aura that couldn’t be concealed by the indifferent look on her face was devouring the nearby air.

“...I suppose there would be no need to gauge your abilities. Please wait until everyone else is done with their test.”

Leaving behind the cream of the crop, Josephine and the remaining professors gazed into the dimension where the students had gone into.

“By the way, is there even a need to bother about these kids?”

One of the professors, Professor Ronan said while looking at the students through one of the crystals.

Most of the students were in Grade 5, so he was evaluating them along with 3 other professors, but he was also in charge of the four Grade 6 students.

“Honestly, wouldn’t it be better to expel these ungifted students...”

Grade 5 was already quite useless, and Grade 6 pretty much meant they were completely ungifted. They could only barely perceive even the most basic of astral bodies so it was hard to make use of them. They were like pebbles who just happened to be awakened.

Professor Ronan used his cold gaze to stare at the under-achieving students whom he would not even consider as his disciples.

He had also been hailed as a genius when he was young, and thus could not understand the minds of ungifted and normal students.

Considering how education was meant to cultivate the wide range of students instead of focusing on the small number of geniuses, Professor Ronan was by no means a good educator.

Lady Josephine heaved a sigh at the professors that were too much of an elitist and changed the atmosphere by slapping the air with her whip.

“It is the chairman who wants every student to walk down the path of education. Are you dissatisfied with anything?”

Any complaints?

Professor Ronan closed his mouth. Just like other elitists, he became humble in front of someone who was more of an elite than him.

“...”

But even Lady Josephine was unable to refute the words of Professor Ronan while looking at the boy with a pony-tail stuck in the dimension she made.

Grade 6.

These ungifted students which were as rare as the few geniuses were usually unable to withstand the burden of a guardian.

It would be great if they could even defeat Grade 5 monsters.