Chapter 80 |
Win.
Midterm season at Grandia Academy.
Just like in the modern world, exam season naturally ground students down.
And since this was where the continent’s top elites gathered, competition between cadets was bound to be fierce.
Keeping the library lights on all night was the baseline, and in the training grounds, melee weapons and magic flew around the clock.
All across campus, cadets groaned.
- "Magic reverse-calculation... this formula is ridiculously complicated."
- "How does it make sense to test all one thousand years of continental history at once...?"
- "My stats just won’t go up! Damn it, I have to pull this off before the practical...!"
The students were fully locked in.
The academic heat on campus felt hotter than early summer itself.
'Should I start gathering them now?'
I couldn’t just sit back either.
I had a trump card saved, but there was something else I needed to prepare too.
My teammates.
- "Come to think of it, this practical is a team match, right?"
- "The event is... Capture the Flag, was it?"
- "Then we’ve got to recruit teammates carefully."
- "Having one fast teammate would be really reassuring..."
- "Fuck... self-formed teams? What’s someone with no friends like me supposed to do?!"
This practical was unusual in that it wasn’t a one-on-one duel format.
Three people per team.
Three students formed one squad.
Then those squads would compete in three-versus-three matches.
It was a format that tested not just individual skill, but team coordination too.
'The event is... Capture the Flag.'
Exactly as it was in the original.
Capture the Flag was a common arcade mode you could find in any game.
Its rules and structure also stayed close to the classic format.
Defend your team’s flag, steal the enemy team’s flag.
Since everyone had to split roles, teammate ability mattered just as much this time.
'First, I need to build the team.'
I had to gather members.
The other side would have a stacked lineup too.
'Honestly, Rin probably wouldn’t care who her teammates were...'
She wasn’t the type to care whether her own teammates were strong or weak.
To her, they were probably all the same, there or not.
Still, plenty of talented people would’ve flocked to her anyway.
That’s what happens around geniuses. People admire them.
'I should keep that in mind.'
Of course.
I already had a combination in mind.
'One stable defender, one fast sprinter...'
Someone to guard our flag in the rear, and someone to snatch the enemy flag up front.
By coincidence, both roles had obvious candidates.
Smiling brightly, I made my proposal.
"So, I’d like to ask both of you to be on my team."
"..."
"..."
Purple eyes, yellow eyes.
The two girls quietly looked at me.
Ranne, second in Class A, and Caitlin, first in Class B.
"Of course!"
Ranne was the one who broke the brief silence.
Her eyes sparkled.
"To think Sir Viktor would need me!"
"I always need you, Miss Ranne."
"Hm! Hearing you say that makes me happy."
Ranne accepted immediately.
"Are you not my lifesaver, Sir? I am only glad I can repay your kindness, even a little."
"That’s a relief. If Miss Ranne joins us, I won’t have to worry about our rear flag."
"I’m not that great, but I’ll still do my best!"
"Haha, then I’ll make sure I live up to your trust as well."
A warm, friendly exchange.
"Hah."
On the other hand, Caitlin frowned deeply.
She irritably swept back her yellow hair.
A sigh slipped through her lips.
"Fuck, I was wondering what you dragged me out here for this time..."
"Miss Caitlin."
"I said no, so don’t shove me in."
"Oh... I thought you’d accept, naturally."
"Yeah, right. What, so we can get stomped by that monster bitch and become a laughingstock in front of the whole school?"
A deeply cynical response.
Her voice was twice as sharp as usual.
"Fuck that. I’m not doing it."
"I don’t plan to lose, though."
"With what?"
"Hm?"
"How are you going to beat that monster bitch?"
Why was she this irritated?
I thought for a moment, then remembered one detail from Caitlin’s setting.
'Come to think of it... Caitlin once got utterly crushed by Rin.'
Maybe that memory had stayed with her like trauma.
Caitlin looked uncomfortable even hearing Rin’s name.
She took a deep breath, then spoke in a calmer voice.
"That team... from what I hear, it’ll be all Class A members. You’re saying this lineup can beat a full Class A team? A team led by Rin Glacia herself? While dragging a Class B deadweight on your ankle?"
Class B deadweight.
She meant herself.
"Stop acting tough and just refuse the match. It’s not a ranking battle, so you can refuse, right? If you refuse, even the staff won’t force the matchup. Besides, you still haven’t properly answered that declaration, have you?"
"She left before I had the chance to answer."
"That vicious bitch."
Her mood felt different somehow.
Something heavy and sticky seemed to be dripping inside her.
It felt like blood, and like tears.
"Anyway, I’m not interested. If you want to do it, do it without me."
"But I really need you, Miss Caitlin."
"Did you hear anything I just said?"
"I heard you, and I’m still asking."
"Hah... then what, fuck. You’re going to drag me in by force no matter what?"
"Not really by force. This isn’t a bad offer for you either, Miss Caitlin."
"What?"
Caitlin furrowed her brow as if asking what nonsense I was talking about.
I made my offer.
"Let’s do this. If our team loses this match, I’ll clear up our previous bet."
"...What?"
"I mean I’ll cancel the slave bet."
"Not if we win, but if we lose...?"
"That’s right. Like you said, if we lose this match, that means I forced you in and made you a laughingstock in front of everyone. As an apology for that, I’ll settle the slave bet from last time."
"What if I throw on purpose? I could half-ass the match."
"That would be entirely your choice, Miss Caitlin."
"..."
A confident answer.
Caitlin looked like she couldn’t process what she was hearing.
She frowned, as if checking whether she understood correctly.
"Are you trying to lose or something?"
"No. I plan to win."
"Listening to this offer, you sound like you’re dying to lose."
"What do you think? Doesn’t this leave you with nothing to lose, Miss Caitlin?"
"..."
"At this point, just come over to our side. Even without these conditions, if I order you to join, you’d have to participate anyway, right? Wouldn’t it be cleaner if it at least feels voluntary?"
"...Fuck."
In the end, Caitlin accepted.
Her lips still muttered complaints.
"Go get crushed by that monster bitch... if I feel like it, I might just throw on purpose..."
That kind of muttering.
Behind my mask, I smirked.
'As if.'
Anyone else, maybe. But her?
Caitlin, who hated losing more than anything in the world?
She didn’t seem to realize it herself, but she was the kind of person who could never do that.
"...Why me, of all people?"
"Who knows."
Heh.
I laughed lightly.
"Because I rate your abilities very highly, Miss Caitlin."
"..."
"That look says you don’t believe me at all."
"Don’t pretend to acknowledge me."
A prickly reply.
She looked more irritated by those words than when I imitated Pikachu.
After rubbing her face dry a few times, Caitlin spoke.
"...Fine. I’ll do it, okay?"
"That’s the answer I was waiting for."
Tap.
I placed a hand on top of her head.
Then, as always, I ruffled her hair.
Caitlin didn’t even have the strength to resist. She just sat there quietly and let me.
'Well, one way or another, that settles it.'
The dream team I had in mind.
The best team to defeat Class A’s top student was finally complete.
***
Meanwhile.
Whispers spread throughout the academy.
Humans will find gossip in any environment.
Even with exams right around the corner, no, because of that, students sought out other people’s business even more.
- "You know what’s been the hot topic lately."
- "Ah, that Class A top student and Class E top student match?"
- "What match? The Class E side still hasn’t given an answer."
This time, the topic was Viktor.
Specifically, that he still hadn’t answered Rin’s declaration.
- "If he still hasn’t answered... that means he’s refusing, right?"
- "Of course. Honestly, who would accept that?"
- "No matter how you look at it, a match against Lady Glacia is..."
- "If it’s Lady Glacia, chickening out is understandable."
Viktor was going to refuse the challenge.
That was how most cadets saw it.
No matter how well he had been doing, they figured he had no choice but to tuck his tail before a true genius.
- "Anyway... what did he do to get on Lady Glacia’s bad side?"
- "He probably got on her nerves. Class E’s top student has been acting cocky."
And then.
Some students took the chance to tear into him.
- "I knew that bastard would end up like this one day."
- "If even that quiet Class A top student stepped in, he must’ve really crossed a line."
- "He finally met his match."
He had drawn so much attention that plenty of cadets envied him.
And so, while that ugly atmosphere kept swelling, one day, someone visited the Class A classroom.
"Excuse me for a moment."
Baaam!
The classroom door was kicked open with a loud crash.
The Class A students who had been chatting all turned toward it.
Beyond the open door, a boy walked in with both hands in his pockets.
"Heh."
A low laugh.
A pure white clown mask covered his face.
The clown’s mouth was twisted into a grotesque grin.
"..."
All eyes turned to him.
But Viktor kept walking lightly as if none of it mattered.
His steps stopped in front of one girl seated in the corner.
"Lady Glacia."
Rin Glacia.
Not a single strand of her blue hair was out of place.
Her lifeless, cold eyes turned toward the boy.
"..."
"..."
Their gazes met in midair.
For a moment, they stared at each other in silence.
Soon, the clown broke that brittle quiet.
"I accept."
"..."
Accept what.
No one needed to ask.
"Let’s do this."
It was his head-on response to the declaration Rin had thrown at him days ago.
Her deep blue eyes blinked once.
"..."
An indifferent gaze.
Each breath she exhaled carried biting cold, blooming pale white flowers in the air.
Viktor didn’t waver even in front of her.
"Ah... come to think of it, I should mention this since you seem to be mistaken."
A bright little line.
"You’re the challenger."
"..."
"After all, you did lose to me once, right? During the last practical."
Twitch.
Rin’s brow flinched for a moment.
At the same time, the students watching them were left gaping.
The absolute ruler of the first years.
The queen called the most overwhelming top student in academy history, feared and revered by countless students.
And before that queen, a mere clown had the nerve to throw cold water in her face.
You lost to me.
That was the meaning behind his words.
In the middle of that shock, the boy behind the mask was grinning from ear to ear.
'Ah.'
This was it.
This was dopamine.
After that,
as the news spread at lightning speed, the academy was thrown into chaos once again.
