Chapter 212
Simon ran quickly to a spot where he could clearly see Maelyn’s screen. The cheers of the crowd echoed right beside him.
On screen, Maelyn was facing off alone against that old priest.
Cleverly, she laid down ice in rapid succession to create physical obstacles, then rode the ice forward to shake off pursuit, successfully.
Just from her expression, it was obvious how exhausted she was. Gasping for breath, as if filled with rage, she stumbled into the Keyzen campus.
The announcer shouted loudly,
—This is why everyone hypes up the Ivory Tower! Let’s give a big round of applause for Maelyn Villene, our ninth student to pass...!
“YOU KEYZEN PSYCHOPATH BASTAAAAARDS!”
She immediately burst into swearing upon her entrance.
Though her raw voice was slightly drowned out by the cheers of the crowd, she kept fuming and yelled again,
“Are you even human?! Huh?! You were trying to kill the students, weren’t you?! Try calling that an evaluation test! I swear to go right now and—!”
Click!
Click!
Click!
Suddenly, flashes from magical cameras burst from every direction, and Maelyn stopped mid-sentence in a hurry.
Reporters swarmed in, and behind them, scouts from various organizations appeared. Even a representative from the Ivory Tower was there.
‘Ugh.’
Only now did Maelyn realize what kind of situation she had walked into.
“Maelyn Villene! As a top-ranking passer, can you share your thoughts on the test?”
One reporter raised a magical camera and shouted. More and more journalists crowded toward her, while the audience chanted her name.
Dazed only for a moment, Maelyn swiftly smoothed out her tousled sky-blue hair with her fingers, neatly placed her legs together, straightened her uniform, clasped her hands gracefully, and beamed a radiant smile.
“Hello. I’m Maelyn Villene from Class 1-A.”
Her voice fluttered like a soft spring breeze, and Simon couldn’t help but let out a dry chuckle as he listened.
She was now going on about how hard she worked, and how it was all thanks to the magic she learned at Keyzen, as if she hadn’t just dissed the school moments ago. Waving gently toward the cameras, her expression held a professional composure.
After a brief interview with the announcer, she let out a heavy sigh as she stepped off stage.
“Ugh, seriously. This is so fu—…”
“Congrats, Maelyn.”
Simon, who had been waiting, clapped and welcomed her. Maelyn, who spotted him belatedly, gave a shy little wave, her face flushed.
“Knew you’d be here already. What rank did you get?”
“First place.”
“Wow, you’re seriously...”
She let out a hollow laugh, then suddenly burst into an excited voice.
“Hey! Speaking of which, didn’t you lose your mind the first time you saw that Holy Beast made of Prima Materia? That was insane, right?!”
Simon grinned and agreed.
“Yeah. It was nasty.”
“Exactly, exactly! These freaks! Pulling this on the very first day of school is just too much!”
She ranted like she’d been waiting for this moment, then finally turned to the screen with a much more relieved expression.
“What about Kami and that lowly commoner?”
“No need to worry too much.”
Simon briefed her.
“They both joined large-scale parties. They’re at the core of their teams, and Dick is basically acting as the leader.”
“Typical show-off.”
Maelyn scoffed.
“Doesn’t he get a thrill out of bossing around nobles as a commoner?”
“Not sure.”
Simon shook his head.
“When forming a team, Dick always starts out at a disadvantage because of the social class barrier. But in the end, everyone ends up trusting and following him. I think that’s his real strength.”
Maelyn blinked.
“Wow, you’re really sugarcoating it, huh? Did that sly snake bribe you with something?”
“No, I really think so.”
“Hmph, always taking his side just ’cause you hang out all the time.”
She snorted and looked toward another screen.
“Our Kami doesn’t even need to be mentioned.”
Even Dick once said that Kamibarez wouldn’t last long in Keyzen because of her poor athletic ability and timid heart. But now, she was holding her own as a proud Keyzen student.
You can always tell when someone’s pretending to be kind, but truly good-hearted people always get noticed eventually. Seeing others rally around her, it was honestly impressive.
Simon and Maelyn continued chatting like that as they arrived at the student waiting room.
Most students seemed to have gone to wash up, so it was spacious. Hector was absent, and the third special admission student, Shatel, was also gone.
Simon and Maelyn sat and chatted quietly while watching and cheering for Dick and Kamibarez.
“Whoever planned this test is an absolute monster. A monster.”
Watching Kamibarez dodging attacks from the priests, Maelyn still hadn’t cooled off as she ground her teeth.
—Students 68 through 75 are entering now!
The rankings were filling up quickly.
Kamibarez’s final rank was 347th.
Dick’s final rank was 420th.
Unlike Simon, Maelyn, and Hector—who made it to the top ranks through overwhelming individual skill—both of them had joined large teams and thus ranked a bit lower. Still, it was a solid mid-tier showing.
“Simoooon! Maelyn!”
Kamibarez, covered in dirt from head to toe, came running up teary-eyed. Simon and Maelyn comforted her and gently patted her head.
“Kami! Thank you so much for today!”
“See you later in Rochest!”
Her teammates, who had bonded with her during the battle, waved goodbye.
Kamibarez waved back, then turned once more to Simon and Maelyn.
“I’m really happy I get to keep going to school with you all!”
She smiled brightly.
“Jeez, why’re you smiling like a goofy idiot? Ugh, my heart.”
Maelyn crouched in front of Kamibarez, checking the wounds on her knees and feet.
The battle must have been intense, one of her shoes was missing, and her uniform elbow was soaked with blood.
“Let’s go get you treated before those leave scars.”
“Yes!”
Maelyn took Kamibarez by the hand and led her to the infirmary.
A moment later, Dick appeared in the distance, surprisingly intact, waving lazily at Simon. His relaxed strut and smug grin were full of his usual mischief.
“Nice work! Dick.”
“Just doing my thing~”
The two boys bumped fists to celebrate their victory.
Stretching with a dramatic “ooof”, Dick glanced around.
“Where’re the girls?”
“In the infirmary. You don’t need to go?”
“It’s just scratches. Spit’ll fix ’em.”
Instead of treatment, Dick was more interested in getting briefed. He demanded an update on the situation, and Simon relayed everything the instructor had explained.
“Tch, so they called in the press and turned it into a big show, huh? Very Keyzen.”
“You don’t seem that surprised?”
“Of course I’m not! I totally expected it. Adults all think the same. No matter the situation, they act based on profit and saving face. Honestly, they’re simpler than kids.”
A short while later, the last of the lower-ranked students arrived, and the entrance exam officially came to an end.
In addition to arrival order, the final scores would be calculated based on crisis response ability, mental endurance, long-distance travel methods, and most importantly, aptitude against holy magic and priests.
As a side note, the Underworld Whale was reportedly unharmed.
The corpse of the Underworld Whale and the sea of blood had been part of a large-scale illusion spell, created with the help of even the Crows. Many students had their minds shattered at the sight, so in terms of theatrical impact, it was a massive success.
To the students who had safely completed the exam, one hour of free time was given before the entrance ceremony.
The communal bathhouse was packed with students. Once they had washed up, a fresh new Keyzen uniform was waiting for them.
The design hadn’t changed much. Dick, who was always interested in magical equipment, had read the instruction manual first and said the holy resistance seemed to have been slightly reinforced.
After changing into the stiff, pleasantly-scented new uniforms, the students headed toward the main auditorium. Maelyn and Kamibarez, coming from the girls’ dormitory, would likely meet them at the auditorium.
Simon and Dick walked among the crowd, chatting idly—when it happened.
“You’re seriously telling us to leave like this? This is a joke, right?!”
“What kind of school does this on the first day?!”
On the path to the auditorium, near the rear entrance where the teleportation spell circle was, a commotion erupted.
Dick looked confused.
“Huh? What’re they doing over there? I see someone from our class too.”
The students gathered at the rear gate weren’t in uniforms, but were instead wearing loose, pajama-like green clothing.
‘Ah.’
Simon immediately grasped the situation and looked on with pity.
They were the fifty students who had failed the entrance exam.
“Outsiders are not permitted inside.”
The attendants, sweating profusely, were blocking the failed students from entering.
“Outsiders? Did you just call me an outsider, you son of a b****?! I’m a student too!”
“What kind of school takes away your uniform before the entrance ceremony?!”
A few students stopped in curiosity to watch the commotion.
Most people averted their eyes or continued walking at a distance, but some went out of their way to taunt the failed students.
“Ugh, pathetic.”
“Couldn’t just leave quietly, had to crawl in all the way here.”
These were mostly students who had bad blood with those who failed.
“Isn’t that Recon from Class B?”
“He acted like such hot stuff. Hurry up and teleport them out of here already.”
The victors sneered, and the losers shouted back tearfully.
“You call yourselves human?!”
“Get lost, commoner. You really think you’re still on our level?”
“You couldn’t even talk back in class…!”
As the argument grew more heated, someone slipped past the attendants using Spirit Form.
“It’s Spirit Form!”
One of the failed applicants—an aspiring Spiritologist—dashed at terrifying speed into Keyzen campus.
Thud!
But just as quickly, a woman also using a translucent Spirit Form intercepted and brought him down to the ground.
“This is unacceptable.”
Naturally, Keyzen had placed personnel capable of countering Spirit Form as a precaution.
She grabbed the boy by the nape and dragged him out of the campus grounds.
“...Assistant Instructor Arita?”
At that, her steps halted.
“R-remember me? It’s Recon! The one you were always kind to! The one who got a 90 in Spiritology!”
The boy shouted desperately, clinging to the hem of her pants.
“Please, call Professor Umbra! There’s something wrong with this! I was in the top 100 in performance and assigned to an upper squad—how could they just dump me like this? They broke people’s minds with this disgusting setup!”
“......”
“You know what happened during the Saintess incident! I almost died back then too! And that was because I stayed behind to protect the others who were running away!”
The assistant instructor bit her lip slightly, then spoke.
“You are no longer a part of Keyzen. I will escort you out.”
Recon’s expression twisted in anguish as even she betrayed him. He used Spirit Form again to escape her grasp.
“Recon!”
“Hey, all of you!!”
Returning to normal, Recon shouted at the students.
“What the hell are you all laughing at?! You think you’re safe now? You think just being placed in an upper squad means you’re better than me?!”
The students booed and gave him thumbs-downs.
“Boo~ So pathetic, Recon! Get lost!”
“Your parents are counts, so who cares if you can’t be a necromancer?”
As Recon’s eyes bulged and he began drawing in Darkness—
“What is this commotion.”
A voice—neither loud nor soft—rang out, yet it carried overwhelming weight across the audience. The students immediately parted to the sides.
A man in a white suit from head to toe, wearing a white fedora, walked forward.
Instantly, a heavy silence fell, so deep you couldn’t even hear breathing.
He pulled one hand out of his pocket and tipped the brim of his hat upward, revealing the eyes hidden in shadow.
It was Bahil, one of Keyzen’s star professors.
In truth, he had just stepped out of the Operations Office and arrived at the auditorium.
“I asked what is going on.”
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time