[571] Reaction and Response (3)
* * *
The disused training ground southwest of Alpheas School of Magic.
It wasn't in use anymore, but because the battlefield's bounds were set to how it looked thirty years ago, being there didn't count as an off-field disqualification.
Iruki stopped by a pile of old training gear, and the team arrived one after another.
Amy, who'd been chasing Prings, stomped up, huffing.
"Ugh! He slips away like an eel. Did he grease himself or something?"
Iruki greeted her.
"Good play. Thanks to you we could keep Eden at bay."
"I went after the Triumvirate. If your hand's weak you can get counterattacked," Dorothy said.
"I picked up the scrambles Iruki gave up."
They had no way to communicate directly, but from coordinates and situation reports alone they moved like a single organism.
"So Dorothy, you gathered your cards?"
"Yeah. I've got the Triumvirate, and my last card's still face-down."
"Show it now. We need to see hands to plan strategy."
Dorothy drew a random card. "Open."
A black came up, completing the four-step strongest hand ○●○● (Democracy).
"Nice. That'll do it. On other players' master cards, Dorothy's status will read ⓡⓡ●ⓡ. If she hit the best hand with three random cards, we can actively call Kang."
Sabina said, "The problem is Eden. Looks like she's trying to make Infinity."
"That's why I called you all in. From the next round, stop collecting scrambles and hunt Eden. If you find her, mark her position for me with Shining."
"You sure? That's a big hit for our side."
"I know. But let's just hold out today. Dorothy has Democracy, so if we call Kang we can at least take one enemy player out of the equation. We won't lose too much in card count. Besides, Shirone probably has Democracy too—"
Iruki glanced around. "Has Shirone arrived yet?"
"No. From the coordinates he seems to be on the opposite side."
"But you memorized the hideout layout. If he casts spatial transfer—"
Footsteps sounded outside the training ground.
Everyone snapped to alert and turned. Shirone appeared, looking exhausted.
"Shirone? What happened to you?"
Blood trickled down his forehead, his face was flushed, and his clothes were streaked with dust.
He passed his friends without a word and collapsed onto a pile of equipment, exhaling hard.
"Am I late? Sorry."
"What happened? Did you fall off a cliff or something?"
"Kaiden… didn't call Kang."
No one understood at first. Shirone lifted hollow eyes and said, "He's insane. He fought me for six hours straight."
Faces registered bewilderment.
"Fought for six hours straight? What about the scrambles?"
"I kept gathering them. But somehow he tracked me down right away."
"Hershi's ability, then," Sabina said.
Sona's tracking was among the best in her discipline.
"So… how was he in a fight? You look hurt."
Shirone touched his forehead. "At first I was thrown by the sword. But after that it got manageable. Of course, it was reconnaissance, so we'll know more once we engage properly."
Kaiden using a sword was something you wouldn't even see on the graduation exam, so the others couldn't form a clear picture from Shirone's report alone.
Fermi's party were all pro-level mages. If they'd fought only with swords, there might have been room to maneuver.
Shirone lifted his head. "Anyway—Eden?"
He'd guessed the enemies' strategy too.
"I stopped her. And I have to keep stopping her. Dorothy completed Democracy."
Iruki explained the plan. "Eden is currently Saint (○○). If we have three cards between us, unless it's a total bust we'll win. But don't call Kang. She won't fight anyway."
If she broke her pacifism, her overwhelmingly powerful defense would actually grow weaker.
"From the next round, their movement will get more complex. Hershi will likely figure out our location in return," Dorothy said.
"When we're grouped like this, Hershi won't be able to pinpoint us exactly. But we can't gather everyone every round, can we?"
Iruki nodded and looked at Shirone. "On that note… how are you set?"
Shirone drew his cards. "I've got three cards. I chose all randoms, and my hand is the Triumvirate (○●○)."
Nade's mouth quirked. "How many spins?"
"Three on the last one. Black came up twice in a row."
That made it certain.
Shibulsangpokmae can return confirmed cards back to random.
"Thinking about it, one second is a surprisingly long time," Shirone said.
"Right. Normally judgment happens in zero seconds. Anyway, if we can keep collecting scrambles we can form the strongest hand."
Sabina sniffed, "What are you talking about? Are you two crazy?"
Nade put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll explain later. For now, we're in a good position. Stop Eden's run today, and come up with countermeasures tomorrow."
Iruki said, "We can't collect scrambles ourselves, so Shirone and Dorothy need to actively call Kang."
"Got it."
Lulu's voice came through. "Ten minutes remain until the fourth scramble summon."
* * *
"Headmaster, it's Pandora."
She knocked on the headmaster's office door and waited until Alpheas' voice called, "Come in."
Inside were Alpheas, Vice Principal Olivia, and Colli, the head teacher in charge of the graduating class.
It was an odd gathering. Pandora suspected it had to do with today's mass absences.
Her reason for coming wasn't unrelated.
"Thank you for seeing me."
"Of course. Now, what did you want to discuss?"
Pandora took a breath and approached the desk. "I'd like the fairness of the graduation-class evaluations to be fully reexamined."
The teachers fell silent.
Pandora majored in scent magic. Once a promising student who vied for first or second in the advanced class with Boil, she'd been pushed down by the influx of Shirone and Dante's teams and other fierce graduation competitors, and now she fretted over twenty-third place.
"I don't complain about my low rank—that's on me. But… how is this possible?"
Her question was reasonable. "I used vacation to do research. I collected data from the kingdom's five major prestigious schools."
"Pandora—" Olivia began, then stopped.
"Do you know the numbers? The average capability of Alpheas' graduation class is a whopping 3.8 times higher than the average of the other five major schools. The average is 3.8 times higher."
The school council had already noticed.
"This is absurd. Alpheas is facing far tougher competition than even the royal magic schools that have twenty Tio slots. Either increase the Tio, or—"
"That's not that simple," Alpheas said.
"Tio isn't assigned lightly. Any school can have years where exceptional students cluster."
"Headmaster, you know that!" Pandora's voice rose. "It's not just this year. Fermi's team, Prings, Anchal, Eden—these are people who should already be professionals. Anchal didn't even unseal the magic barrier last year. It's like they don't intend to graduate."
Colli said, "But that's an individual decision."
"Of course. Still, the fact that such talents keep piling up in the graduation class year after year is a real problem. If you look at Alpheas' records, for seven years the graduation rate among the top ranks has been under thirty percent. That's clearly abnormal; it indicates the cycle of producing graduates has broken down for some reason."
"That's true," Alpheas admitted.
"But Pandora, your argument stretches the logic. You can't combine the low graduation rate of top students with this year's unusually high average as the same issue. This year's graduation class is strong because the incoming students are extraordinary—the new students who stood where you did."
Rhetoric didn't sway the room. Pandora's eyes filled as she bit her lip.
"Honestly… it's just too hard."
The teachers' eyes softened.
"You might think it cowardly, but it doesn't feel fair to me either. Is it so wrong to want to compete on equal footing with other prestigious schools? At this rate, no one will want to enroll at Alpheas."
Olivia stayed silent. Pandora had clawed her way up from the lowest classes, and rank twenty-three in the graduation class was a number she'd never faced before.
"All right, Pandora. I'll bring this to the school council—"
"There's a problem." Alpheas cut Olivia off. "There are always problems, everywhere."
Tears in her eyes, Pandora looked up.
"Maybe Alpheas School of Magic is wrong. But Pandora, that doesn't change your graduation. Everyone in the graduation class is competing under the same problem. In my view, your problem is one thing."
Alpheas sighed. "There are just too many people better than you in the year you sit the exam."
The moment you accept that reality isn't fair, true competition begins.
That's why everyone else, except Pandora, stayed silent and fought.
"It sounds cruel, but you know it too, right? Worlds where you get what you ask for exist only in dreams. Organizations don't move for one person. It's not that they won't—they can't. So if you want to force through what you want, you must choose: represent the majority and fight the school, or fight yourself. Any other decision is delusion. You understand? You're a mage."
"…Yes."
You have to overcome it. Others are overcoming it and running toward success.
Colli watched the sorrowful Pandora and thought, 'A disgustingly cruel, damned competitive system.'
"Thank you for your time. I'll be going."
Pandora left with a deflated bow, and the three teachers finally spoke frankly.
"Pandora has a point," Olivia said first. "This year's graduating class is overheated."
Colli added, "It's because talented students have kept piling up. You could say it's their choice, but at this point it's getting questionable. What does the council think?"
"We know and look the other way. We don't want to make it public," Alpheas said. "Istas—professional-level talents are staying at the school targeting Istas. The talented have stacked up, and it exploded this year when a wave of major newcomers arrived. It's understandable Pandora feels deprived."
Olivia sighed. "Do you have to be so blunt? Comfort her and send her off, at least."
"If improvement were possible, we'd have done it already. But you know the council won't change its mind."
Olivia sighed again. "Miro is already out in the world. It's time to shut Istas down."
"I'd considered that. The students were just faster than us," Colli said. "The Scramble Royal has begun. The twelve I reported earlier are currently engaged."
"Those troublemakers," Alpheas muttered, standing and looking out the window.
"What happens if we stop the Scramble Royal?"
"It gets very messy. The council will side with the students no matter what, and the school will be forced to close. This is tangled in international politics—Kashan, the Yor Order, the Kingdom of Tormia, and especially since Anchal is almost certainly a spy for the Jincheon Empire, the right move is to stay quiet and close it next year."
Colli rubbed his throbbing temples. "Fermi's Ardino family is an issue too. For now, we have to hold on until the graduation exam."
Alpheas let out a hollow laugh. "This will be the greatest graduation exam in the school's history."
Olivia added, "Or the worst."