By the time they passed through the high wall that ringed the building and entered the grounds, they were exhausted from the earlier confusion. When they got out of their carriages, many other students seemed just as tired as them.
They gazed up at the building again, this time, from a much closer distance. Yui felt like the eerie aura had only gotten more intense than earlier. The thought that she would have to spend two weeks here was just depressing. She honestly wasn’t even confident that she’d be able to fall asleep alone at night, and she fervently prayed that she’d be in a room with someone else. There was an enormous gap between her current dread and the pleasant time she’d spent in her spacious room on the train.
Several teachers from the various academies had accompanied them, and the main teacher in charge of the Luster Academy students was the villainous-looking Berg, who also served as the student guidance counselor.
“All right, everyone’s out of their carriages,” Berg said. “We’re going to the hall, so everyone, follow me, and make sure you don’t lag behind.”
The students began to move, streaming after Berg as he walked ahead. He opened a large door, and when they went inside, a long, gloomy corridor lay before them. It seemed like something might jump out at them at any moment, and more than a few students were pointlessly darting their eyes around, frightfully observing their surroundings. Lyle was one of them, and Yui clung to his arm as they advanced down the corridor together. Both were trying desperately to endure their fear. Finney, on the other hand, was smiling as brightly and affably as ever, and Ivo didn’t seem afraid either; he was behaving normally. The biggest coward among them—Clois—was struggling the most.
The moment they finally stepped foot in the hall, they were taken aback. Their fear completely disappeared.
“Oh? It’s normal,” Lyle remarked.
“Yeah, it is,” Yui said. In a sudden reversal from the dark and eerie corridor, the hall was anticlimactically normal, bright, and pretty.
“It looks like the students from the other academies are here,” Finney said.
“You’re right,” Clois replied. The hall was easily large enough to fit several hundred people, and looking around, the other students were already assembled.
You could quickly tell which academy a student attended from their uniform. The school in the east, Dyne Magic Academy, had black uniforms with red stripes, while the western Celeste Magic Academy had gray shirts and gray-and-white checkered bottoms. Finally, Luster Academy wore all white.
“Luster students, line up,” one of the teachers said. They did as they were told. All of the students lined up in front of the teacher representing their school, and Berg began to speak.
The Luster students had been immunized to Berg’s face and his intensity, which could put a hardened criminal to shame; they knew that he actually liked to look after others and be helpful. However, the students from the other schools couldn’t look at him straight on. A few fearful ones here and there managed to secretly peek at him out of the corner of their eyes.
“My name is Berg, from Luster Academy,” he began. “First, I’d like to talk about this facility, which I’m sure everyone here has questions about.” They had been told that the camp was near the town of Bahal, but no one had informed them about the kinds of places where the training camp was usually held, so the first-timers listened intently to what Berg was about to say. As they did, they hoped that there hadn’t been some sort of incident or scandal, or any other questionable events in the past.
“This place is normally for military training exercises,” Berg continued, “and we’ve been given special permission to use it. And, well, I know how it looks, but it has the best facilities around. It’s a privilege to be able to borrow them while you’re still only students.”
They were then told that, apparently, when this place was being designed, someone had said that it would be boring to make just a regular training facility—no one else had thought to stop them. No, far from it: each one had upped the ante even further, and by the end, it had resulted in a building that resembled the site of a gruesome tragedy. Now, it was often used as a place to mentally train rookies in the army to withstand their fears.
Finally, Berg added, “But don’t worry; your rooms are completely normal.” Sighs of relief could be heard coming from everywhere.
Next to speak was a young-looking male teacher with an intimidating air that was different from Berg’s. “There’s an enchanted forest surrounding the facility, so make sure you don’t go outside without permission. We can’t take responsibility if anything happens to you.”
An enchanted forest was what dangerous forests that were inhabited by large numbers of magic beasts were called, and normal people never got near one if they didn’t absolutely have to.
As for magic beasts, there were two kinds. First were what had originally been normal animals—either domesticated ones like dogs or cows, or wild, forest-dwelling animals like birds or wild boars—that had mutated one day and come to possess magic powers. These altered animals were big compared to their normal variants, and they were clearly a different kind of creature. Countries and researchers all around the world were studying these mutations and why many of the mutated animals lived in enchanted forests, but the cause was still unclear.
The other kind was made up of living things that possessed magic from birth. Innate magic beasts weren’t like mutated magic beasts, which behaved violently and instinctively; many of them were peaceful or intelligent. Not all of them looked like animals either, and in fact, they came in many different varieties.
They were also told that the dim and stagnant air around the fortress hadn’t been their imagination at all. It was actually a magic barrier to prevent magic beasts from entering. However, it was still a mystery why that specific kind of barrier had been decided upon, and it was suspected that it was there in part to create an even gloomier ambience.
After the explanation, the students were given several other simple warnings. They were handed a few sheets of paper and told to read them to get all the details. Then, to end everything, a female teacher from Celeste spoke.
“Now, please assemble by school year and create groups of five. You can team up with anyone as long as you’re in the same year, and it doesn’t matter if you’re from different schools. You’ll be spending the entire duration of the training camp with your group, so be sure to carefully consider your decision.”
The students began moving before she finished speaking. The battle seemed to have already started on the way there, and a competition for the strongest students unfolded all around them. After all, important people from the army, the guild, and the church had all come to observe this camp, which meant that the students’ future career prospects were on the line. Every one of them was desperate to stand out from the crowd, which made their desire to team up with powerful students and get ahead of everyone else quite understandable. But, making sidelong glances at those frenzied students, Yui’s group was relaxed.
“There are exactly five of us, so this works, right?” Lyle said.
“Uh-huh,” Yui agreed.
“I think so,” Finney said.
“Yeah,” Ivo said.
“Sure,” Clois said. “I don’t really mind.”
Lyle, Ivo, and Clois had finished on top at the middle school tournament, and everyone acknowledged their ability, so they received invitations left and right, but they turned them all down without hesitation. Before going away, the rejected students never failed to glare at Yui when they noticed she was there. They weren’t happy to see a Liefe at the training camp—or to see that she was with the others. This was an ordinary occurrence for Yui, and she didn’t pay it any mind, but every time someone gave her a dirty look, her friends’ moods worsened.
Ivo’s annoyance was particularly intense. He drove away the other students with glares of his own. “Dammit, this is so annoying,” he muttered.
“Should I throttle them?” Clois asked.
“Sure!” Lyle said enthusiastically. “Finney, do you have any embarrassing information on those guys?”
“I do. What are you looking for?” Finney pulled out a mysterious notepad from his inside pocket.
Lyle’s face went stiff. He had been half joking. “You actually have some...” However, Ivo and Clois were raring to go, and they eagerly looked over the notepad’s contents.
“It isn’t really worth getting angry over,” Yui said.
“They mess with you because you’re like that!” Ivo shouted angrily.
Lyle chimed in. “He’s right! You’re actually the strongest out of all of us, but they just assume you’re weak. That isn’t frustrating?”
“Not at all,” Yui flatly replied, and the fired-up Ivo and Lyle hung their heads.
It seemed she’d taken the wind out of their sails. People had always spoken ill of Yui, ever since she was a small child, and she didn’t feel like getting angry about it after all this time. Normally, one might expect someone to become a ball of insecurities after being called worthless for so long and so continuously, but Yui was remarkably talented and intelligent—being a Liefe was nothing to her. More than anything, the knowledge and magical skill she had attained with her own efforts had given her an unshakable confidence in herself, and no matter what anyone said, she wouldn’t get hurt. She only thought it was a bit troublesome.