“Okay,” Yui said. She took out the chocolate and gave a piece to everyone, including Clois.
“It’s okay if we have one too?” Lyle asked.
“Yeah.”
After Yui handed out the chocolate, everyone popped it in their mouths. It was smooth but not too sweet, and it instantly melted completely. It was simply superb.
“Whoa!” Ivo exclaimed.
“You don’t have any more, Finney?” Clois pressed Finney, not satisfied with just a single piece.
“Unfortunately, that’s the last of them. If you want more, line up yourself.”
Yui basked in ecstasy from the chocolate’s aftertaste, only to be brought back to reality by multiple piercing gazes. She looked around at her surroundings. Many students were glaring at her. Their eyes held a mixture of scorn, hatred, and even outright hostility.
This wasn’t because she was a Liefe. For them, it was an honor to be able to participate in the training camp, and they were all working the absolute hardest they could. Compare Yui’s actions up until then: skipping classes, running away, and skipping more classes. Quite a few of them already didn’t take kindly to the fact that a Liefe had been selected for the camp, and with her flippant behavior added on top of that, many were outraged at her. All of their futures were on the line, and they were earnestly trying to succeed. Their disdain was, in a way, to be expected.
Yui’s friends knew this was her own fault, so they did nothing to try and counter the angry gazes. Yui herself had known how her actions were going to be perceived by others, and she had gotten used to nasty looks long ago, so while they were a bit annoying, she hardly paid them any mind. Besides, there was a more pressing issue at hand.
“Hey, Finney, is it true that the guild’s grandmaster plus a church cardinal are here to watch today?” she asked.
“Yep, they are. Speaking of which, General Kieran, in charge of army personnel, is also here,” Finney replied. By this point, no one questioned why he knew something like that—it was because he was Finney. That was all they needed to hear to satisfy their curiosity. “I’m sure you know better than anyone why they’re here, right, Yui?”
He was quite right. Unfortunately, Yui knew their reasoning well, and her expression spontaneously darkened.
It had started right after the previous year’s tournament, when an obviously high-status person had shown up at her home. This unthinkably important person was General Kieran, who was the second most powerful in the army after the commander in chief, and the man who managed the army’s personnel. He’d appeared there to try to recruit her. Yui thought it odd that he’d come, even though she hadn’t fought in the tournament once. However, he’d apparently been to the qualifier at her school before the actual tournament. He had originally wanted to see the famous prodigy, Ivo, who had instantly defeated every one of his opponents. After that, Kieran had accepted an invitation to watch Ivo’s mock battle to humor the boy, only to witness Yui easily beat him. That’d been when Kieran had first thought that he wanted to have Yui join the army, and why he’d gone to her home to recruit her.
Yui had been genuinely glad that he’d noticed her ability, but she had absolutely no intention of joining the army, and she’d turned Kieran down on the spot. But he’d refused to back down—he’d shown up countless times to try to convince her otherwise. Things hadn’t stopped there either; the grandmaster of the guild and one of the church’s cardinals had both joined the fray, each for the same reason as Kieran. No matter how many times Yui refused, the three of them wouldn’t give up, so at a loss for what to do, Yui had sought help from her mother’s powerful then-fiancé, Layce, the prime minister. Yui had just wanted some advice, but when Layce heard everything, he drove the three away, and they hadn’t shown their faces around Yui since. The clever way Layce had spoken with them then had been quite fitting for the prime minister, and it had changed Yui’s perception of him.
The cardinal, the grandmaster, and Kieran had probably come to the camp thinking that they had a chance while Layce was gone. However, Layce was always several steps ahead. Yui checked her pocket, making sure that the charms he had given her were still there. They were. She felt relieved, knowing that she’d be all right as long as she had them, and at the same time, she was grateful for how thorough Layce was.
“The army, the guild, and the church, huh?” Lyle sighed, impressed. “That’s some lineup. You don’t want to work for any of them, Yui?”
“Not at all,” Yui replied instantly, sounding uninterested. “I’m going to take over the bakery.”
“With your ability, you’re not interested in anything bigger? Well, I do think it fits you, Yui. It’s like you’re going your own way, without being influenced by others.”
“You could also say it’s being unable to read the room, airheaded, and inconsiderate,” Ivo remarked.
“How rude,” Yui said indignantly. “I can read the room. I just don’t care what it says.”
“That’s even worse!”
After they chatted for a while, the teachers entered the hall. Berg was among them. The instant he came in, he fixed his eyes on Yui and glared at her, as if to say, “You’d better not run away.”
With the arrival of the teachers, the students automatically began lining up in front of them. Their expressions were all a mixture of anxiety and determination. The third-year students and below still looked somewhat calm—they always had next time—but the fourth-years had to decide their future courses next year, so they were much more tense and motivated than the other students. The fifth-years who were present were only there to help out the teachers and manage the large number of underclassmen, and the only ones who had been selected to attend had already chosen where they were going after graduation. That meant that this was pretty much the last chance the fourth-years had to show their strength and receive offers.
When the students finished lining up, the teachers began to explain the camp’s main event: the mock battles that the observers were going to watch.
“We’re about to move to the arena, where each of your groups will participate in the mock battles,” one teacher began. “In the morning, your groups will be fighting against a preselected opponent, one group at a time, and in the afternoon, there will be two fights—battle royale style. Half of the groups will participate in one, and the other half will be in the other. The last group with members left standing, even if it’s only one person, will be the winner.”
“There’s a special prize for the victorious groups, so please do your best,” added another teacher.
At the word “prize,” the quietly listening students got excited. Hushed discussions about the contents of the prize could be heard everywhere.
“Quiet down! We aren’t done talking yet! The mock battles have been designed with actual combat in mind, so there are real risks involved. We have excellent healers at the ready, and we’re prepared to step in and interrupt the fight as soon as we see things getting dangerous. Still, keep your wits about you, and do as much as you can to avoid hurting anyone.”
“Finally, there are many important individuals that will be observing today, so be sure to not make any careless mistakes. Be courteous.”
With that, the explanation was over, and they began heading to the arena. Among the sea of stiff expressions, Yui alone looked annoyed, but she had gotten chocolate, so she gave up and moved along with everyone else. When they got to the arena, they all lined up. Both the students and the teachers turned to the seats where the royal family was sitting and bowed. They then turned to the observers and did the same.
“Stay safe, and show me your best,” the king said. “I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s efforts.”
With that, they began. The group that was set to go first remained on the field, and the rest of the students went to the seats around the edge of the arena. For safety’s sake, a powerful defense spell had been cast—it was centered on the arena, and it divided the spectators from the competing students. When everyone had taken their seats, the entrances to the arena closed. A wave of tension washed over the first group of students.
“The mock battles will now begin! Your time limit is fifteen minutes.”
After the teacher spoke, a door separate from the entrances opened. Two four-legged magic beasts that resembled wolves came rushing out.
The students hadn’t known what they would be fighting against in the mock battles. Apparently, the academies had analyzed each group’s test results and past performances—they’d then decided on which magic beasts would be appropriate for the groups to fight. The magic beasts had been captured from the enchanted forest surrounding the training facility. Everyone figured that the first-time students would be surprised when they heard they would be battling against magic beasts, but they seemed to have already heard about past training camps from the upperclassmen, so there had been no noticeable confusion. However, magic beasts rarely, if ever, appeared in towns and cities, so this was the first time nearly all of them had seen one. Now that the students were face-to-face with them, many felt overwhelmed and afraid.
The students in the first fight were a mixed-gender group from Dyne composed of five third-years. At the outset of the match, they were tense and moved clumsily, unable to smoothly coordinate their actions. One student hurt their arm. However, they managed to recover and successfully defeat the wolves.