Chapter 211
As soon as he passed through the front gate, the dark and gloomy sky brightened, and a clear blue sky unfolded overhead.
Simon brought his golem board to a stop.
‘W-What is all this?’
It was as if he had entered an entirely different world. Simon was standing atop a tall stage that stretched from the main gate to the center of the school grounds, and below it, countless people were cheering wildly.
Simon! Simon! Simon!
They were even chanting his name.
He stood frozen in disbelief, when suddenly, a booming voice rang out beside him.
—Student Simon Follentia, who was admitted as Special Admission No. 1! He’s passed first place again! Please welcome him to the stage!
Waaaaaaaah!
At the center of the stage stood a flamboyantly dressed host shouting through an amplifying crystal orb. As their eyes met, the host beckoned toward Simon.
‘There weren’t this many people outside the gate. It must’ve been concealed with illusion magic. As expected, this is…’
Simon’s gaze turned to the large mana screen floating in midair.
It was broadcasting, in real time via Observer, the scenes of other students battling the monsters made out of Prima Materia.
‘So this was all part of Keyzen’s exam.’
Apparently, the exam concluded once students reached Keyzen’s campus.
On another mana screen, a ranking board was displayed.
At the very top, in the golden No. 1 slot, Simon’s face, name, nationality, and intended major were listed.
‘Did I really arrive in first place?’
Click!
Click!
Flashes burst from all directions as magic-powered cameras fired away.
Simon winced and raised his arm to shield his eyes. Beside the cameras, masked men in black ties were furiously scribbling into notebooks at incredible speed.
‘Even the scouts are here?’
He was overwhelmed, but a sense of sharp focus returned.
Simon calmly straightened his tie and checked his attire before walking onto the stage toward the host.
“Please give another round of applause for student Simon Follentia!”
“Waaaaaaaah!”
To the sound of roaring cheers, Simon reached the center of the stage. The host removed the amplifier from his mouth and spoke softly.
“You must be very surprised. Would you like an explanation? Would a brief interview be alright?”
Questions were being fired rapidly, as if rushed. Of course he needed an explanation, but he could probably get that once he was offstage.
“It’s fine. I’ll answer anything I can.”
With a businesslike smile, Simon accepted the amplifier.
“You must’ve been shocked! Is your body alright?”
“I’m still in a daze, but yes, I’m fine!”
“First, could you please introduce yourself?”
His first public appearance as Keyzen’s Special Admission No. 1. Hundreds of eyes were on him. No mistakes allowed.
Simon took a light breath and opened his mouth.
“Hello. I’m Simon Follentia.”
* * *
Fwoooosh!
Thousands of meters above Roke Island.
Hector, clad in the wings and scales of a Corpse Dragon, refused to be ordinary like the other students. He was taking the aerial route above the clouds.
The moment he regained his senses, Hector realized this was all part of Keyzen’s exam and immediately took to the sky.
Of course, taking to the skies didn’t make it easier. Keyzen had released a large number of Prima Materia monsters in avian form into the air as well.
Each blast of divine light was lethal and targeted Hector relentlessly. He considered joining up with the others on the ground route, but ultimately chose to press through the sky until the end.
There was no defeating that guy through normal means. Driven by that one belief, Hector fought and dodged the flying monsters until finally, he spotted the Keyzen campus from high above.
‘Now I just have to descend!’
He’d been delayed avoiding attacks. He’d lost a fair number of scales too. Glancing back at the monsters chasing him, Hector gathered all his Darkness and concentrated it in the wings of his Corpse Dragon.
His legs lifted upward, his head pointed down, and in that posture, he began a high-speed dive toward the campus.
Fweeeeeeee!
The rushing wind nearly ripped the scales from his body.
But Hector was more than willing to endure. And he was certain.
‘This time, I’ll be first for sure!’
In an instant, the Keyzen campus grew closer.
Seeing the empty school grounds and a translucent curtain of Darkness spread like a membrane, Hector felt even more convinced.
This was definitely part of Keyzen’s exam.
‘The second semester at Keyzen starts with my victory! I, heir to the Moore family…!’
His body pierced through the curtain of Darkness.
‘This is the best!’
“Waaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The background suddenly shifted, revealing a crowd of people raising their arms and cheering.
A shiver of ecstasy ran through Hector’s body.
Hector raised both arms and roared, a cry that resembled the roar of a dragon.
—While the interview was in progress, student Hector Moore has arrived!
‘As expected, I… wait, what?’
—As expected of the Moore family, one of the finest noble houses! Please give a round of applause to Hector Moore, who claimed second place after overcoming all the other special admits and monsters!
‘Second place? Not first?’
—And now, back to the interview with Simon Follentia, who arrived first…
Hector’s expression turned cold.
He saw Simon, already on stage, holding the amplifier and answering the host’s questions.
“Grrrrrrrrraaaaaaaargh!”
Hector’s roar, face red with fury, shook the entire hall.
* * *
The interview passed without incident.
How they spent their vacation, what kind of black magic they’ve been practicing recently, the most difficult part of life at Keyzen, or their determination heading into the second integrated semester.
He had worried they might ask about his past or background, but thankfully, there were no questions that were hard to answer. They were all the sort of things students could reasonably respond to.
After wrapping up the interview, Simon stepped down behind the stage, where a woman was waiting with her hands neatly clasped.
As their eyes met, she bowed her head first.
“Simon.”
He didn’t know her name, but she looked familiar.
She was Professor Jane’s assistant from Class A. He had occasionally seen her during training or when Jane had called him over.
Simon also bowed politely in return.
“Have you been well, Miss Assistant?”
He was genuinely glad to see someone he recognized here.
“I’ve been well. But more importantly, I saw you on the screen earlier. Looked like you took a real beating. Are you hurt?”
At her words, Simon clutched his throbbing left arm.
“This arm’s a little sore.”
She stepped forward and gently grabbed his arm.
“How’s it feel here?”
“It’s fine…”
“And here?”
“Ow! That hurts!”
As Simon let out a yelp, she nodded with a smile.
“Come with me. I’ll take you to the medical station.”
“Thank y—”
Waaaaaaaah!
Another wave of thunderous cheering exploded. Both of them turned their heads.
It was hard to see from here, but it seemed someone had just arrived in third place. The host was shouting the name Shatel Maer.
“Let’s go.”
Simon began walking alongside the assistant. It was originally the job of minions, but since this was such a large event, the assistants were taking charge of escorting students themselves, she explained.
“But, Miss Assistant, what exactly is all this?”
Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Simon asked. She let out a small laugh.
“Sorry. It must’ve surprised you. You’ll get the full explanation during the entrance ceremony, but think of this as a kind of comprehensive performance assessment for the first-year students. It affects your grades too, and today, at least fifty students are going to be forced to take off their Keyzen uniforms.”
Simon’s heart sank at her words.
“Fifty of them?”
“And this test is being conducted in a fully public format. Kind of like that open duel assessment we had when the princess from the Dresden Kingdom came to watch.”
She said that and glanced at Simon, gauging his reaction, before continuing.
“Of course, I understand how you feel. I went through the same thing back when I was a student here at Keyzen. Honestly, it doesn’t feel great. I was exhausted from the exam, vomiting, peeing myself, just a total mess, and the whole time, I had to imagine an audience watching all that. It was kind of infuriating.”
Simon jumped and waved his hands frantically.
“N-No, it wasn’t that bad for me! I mean, Keyzen gave us this stage to make our names and reputations known, so…”
She curled her lips slightly, as if to say she saw right through him.
“I’m just a lowly assistant, not even a real staff member, but as an educator, let me apologize. The entrance exam was already decided, but it was the main headquarters that forced it to be held as a public event.”
“Huh? Why would headquarters do that…?”
“Well, after that terrorist incident involving the first-years, a lot of people started questioning Keyzen’s authority.”
The Four Kingdoms. And great houses like the Ivory Tower. It wasn’t easy for one single organization to suppress all of them by force and rule them.
In that sense, Efnelle had taken the smarter path.
After destroying all existing nations and monarchs, they created a single empire—the Holy Federation—and built a national foundation with religion above royal authority. They controlled information, and under the system of Inquisitions, they managed their population.
In contrast, Neftis chose the more difficult route of harmony, uniting their factions under the name of an alliance. The backlash from that gave rise to the Anti-Keyzen movement, and the recent Saint incident gave them the perfect ammo.
“Making the test public was a show of strength. A demonstration that Keyzen is still the strongest, and that even the students involved in the incident aren’t backing down.”
According to her, when Keyzen first announced the difficulty of the test, even the audience had been shocked.
Seventeen-year-old kids who hadn’t even completed the first semester were immediately thrown into life-or-death scenarios, made to fight holy monsters and real priests, and were stripped of their Keyzen uniforms’ protective features before being tossed into a battlefield.
It wouldn’t have been surprising if some of their Cores had been destroyed.
But in the end, the vast majority of students overcame their fear, fought the priests, and pushed their way to the Keyzen campus with everything they had.
The audience had been deeply moved by this, and the atmosphere when Simon entered had been built on that sentiment. In the end, everything was playing out just as headquarters had envisioned.
‘...They really are a powerful organization. It feels like they’re toying with the entire political landscape.’
Simon could already guess the headlines of the newspaper articles that would be circulated across the former kingdoms. He smiled inwardly and cleared his thoughts.
“By the way, what happened to those priests from earlier?”
“That’ll also be explained during the entrance ceremony. But to put it simply, think of them as people who escaped from the Holy Federation and are now cooperating with Keyzen.”
They arrived at the emergency medical station. The assistant gave a respectful bow and left, and Simon received treatment.
Fortunately, his left arm didn’t even require a splint, and treatment was completed quickly. He was told to avoid straining his left arm for the next two days.
After receiving some medicine, Simon exited the medical station and walked back toward the student waiting room.
Murmur murmur murmur!
At that moment, the crowd’s murmuring rose again. Simon’s gaze turned toward the mana screen, and a pleased smile spread across his face.
‘It’s Maelyn!’
She had arrived near the Keyzen campus as one of the top ten.
Now, only her battle with that priestly old man remained.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters