Editor : Amethyst00



The unexpected and sudden start of the opening match caught everyone off guard.

However, the 400 first-year students who had been startled quickly scattered across the entire Erek grand ground, running toward their respective class's weapons.

"Move!"

"Form up quickly!"

Their panic was short-lived.

Though still inexperienced first-years, they were cadets from a hero military academy who had seen all manner of hardship and combat.

Moreover, these 100 students were handpicked from among the first-years.

Despite the sudden emergency, they responded instantly.

That was when—

Taaat!

“Attack Seiren!”

Several students from Azonia activated their aura steps and charged toward the Seiren students.

Seiren was an academy long known for admitting only elves capable of using star magic.

In other words, it was a school that specialized in magic.

Thanks to that, it was famous for producing the most powerful mages, but that also meant its knight and summoner classes were relatively weak.

As such, they were bound to have weaknesses in close combat.

Just then, an elf pulled a spear from the ground and swung it at the approaching beastkin.

Whooosh—!

Thudthudthudthud—!

The spear moved swiftly, knocking back the beastkin students.

"Urgh?!"

"What the—!"

The beastkin students were startled and retreated at the unexpected counterattack.

A Seiren girl, Angel, who had gracefully landed on the ground, glared at the Azonia students.

"It seems you think our school is only good at star magic and that our knight class is weak."

Thud!

"As long as I’m here, you’d better not even think about a rear assault."

Angel slammed the spear shaft into the ground and narrowed her eyes.

"Hah, Seiren has some gutsy ones too, huh!"

Then, a large tiger beastkin stepped forward.

"What’s your name?!"

"Angel Bizan."

"I’ll remember that! And you should remember the name of the man who will defeat you—Carlos!"

"Angel! Move aside!"

At that moment, another Seiren girl shouted from behind.

Just as the words left her mouth, Angel jumped high into the air.

Yoinia Tela, who had been behind Angel, released her magic with a flash in her eyes.

"Arc Ray!"

Keeeeeng!

Arc Ray—one of the easiest and most versatile star spells to learn.

Among Seiren’s first-years, Yoinia, who rivaled the honor student Leah in pure mana capacity, made the spell incredibly powerful.

Countless particles of light rained down on the beastkin students pursuing Seiren.

"Aaaaargh!"

Carlos, who had boldly challenged Angel head-on, collapsed.

Having been deemed incapacitated, Carlos was instantly warped out of the arena.

"Ugh!"

"What the hell?"

All the Azonia students who had been targeting Seiren were now staring at Angel and Yoinia.

"Tch! Annoying! Go for that one first!"

The beastkin students turned their attention to Yoinia.

At that moment, Angel swiftly blocked the students charging toward Yoinia.

But the number of attackers quickly grew too much even for Angel to handle alone.

So she picked Yoinia up over her shoulder and began sprinting with incredible speed using aura steps.

Yoinia cast enhancement magic on Angel as she held on tightly.

With her staff, Yoinia began firing spells at the beastkin students in pursuit.

bl

"Ah! The Seiren students! Their teamwork is phenomenal! Especially Angel and Yoinia! They’re pulling off guerilla tactics to buy time so the rest of the relatively close-combat-weak Seiren team can form up!"

From the commentator’s booth, Runeba, a 4th-year from Lumene, shouted with excitement.

The opening match had just begun, but the Seiren students were showing outstanding performance! Despite the chaos, not a single Seiren student had been eliminated!

Even amid the confusion, Seiren was quickly coordinating and overcoming the crisis together.

"Professor Sedgen! How do you see the situation?!"

"Elegant! Absolutely elegant! The coordination from Seiren is especially impressive! And very unexpected!"

"Unexpected? In what way?"

"Isn’t it surprising that Seiren’s first-years are displaying such excellent teamwork?"

"Absolutely! At the start of the semester, there were all sorts of rumors about how the Seiren first-years couldn’t get along because of intense competition!"

"Exactly! I won’t name names, but one of our exchange students even had to study alongside the Seiren first-years! They were like scattered bean powder back then!"

"Oho! Scattered bean powder! What a colorful expression! Hahaha!"

Sedgen and Runeba chatted excitedly.

In the Lumeiren Competition, it was practically tradition to diss both sides a little for fun.

They were just following tradition in their commentary.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the Lumeiren Competition.

Bzzzzt!

Static buzzed over the mic.

"Professor Ain? Professor Len? Are you trying to drag me off again?! What did I do wrong?! Stay back! No—! Again?! Harrid told you to do this?! Why do you always follow that guy’s orders—Let me go! Let go! You dogs of Harrid! Nooooo! Mmph!"

"Professor Harrid! Please, just one more chance! If not me, then who else can—"

"Drag them out. Professor Yura."

"Aaaagh!"

Sedgen’s screams and Runeba’s pleading voice rang out, followed by Harrid’s chilling tone. Then, everything quieted down.

The crowd could see Professor Sedgen and Runeba being dragged from the commentary booth.

Moments later, the screen cut to a new commentator—Elena, seated calmly.

"This is an announcement from Lumene. There was a brief broadcasting issue. From now on, commentary will be handled by our top professor, Harrid Edmond, and me, Elena Zeron vice student council president of Lumene. Please forgive the earlier mishap."

With her hands clasped and her voice sweetly playful, Elena stuck out her tongue, earning delighted reactions from the audience.

The screen returned to the match.

"Ugh. Why do I have to clean up this mess?" Elena frowned and grumbled.

"Focus on the commentary."

"Yes, sir."

Elena replied primly and reactivated the mic’s amplification spell.

"They’re making a mockery of our school."

Eliana mumbled, and Carl responded.

"You’re about to do the same thing, so don’t be so critical."

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

Eliana narrowed her eyes, and Chelsea chimed in.

"He’s not wrong."

"Xia! The others are bullying me!"

Eliana clung to Chen Xia and whined.

"You two are too harsh. If you say the truth so plainly, Eliana will be hurt."

"You’re the cruelest one here!" Eliana shrieked.

"Anyway, how come Seiren’s students have such good teamwork now? Weren’t they all at odds with each other?"

Chloe asked Eiran.

Eiran nodded.

"Yes, it’s true the first-years used to be very divided."

At the start of the semester, Seiren had a rigid hierarchy, and students saw each other as rivals to climb over. It bred distrust and hostility.

But that changed when the Comet Mage of Seiren arrived.

"After the midterms, where the students taught by Leo excelled, the rest began to reflect. Especially Yoinia, who started working closely with Angel, and preached the importance of cooperation."

Yoinia, who led the elite upper-class team, was thoroughly defeated by lower-class Angel and reevaluated herself.

"Yoinia—she’s now ranked second among the first-years, right?"

"Yes, and she and Angel are known as an ideal pair."

"A knight and a mage—when in sync, they make for the ultimate combo." Carl nodded.

"Still, Eiran, why are you only telling us this now?"

"Um, you never asked…"

"Aha! But you’re from Lumene, aren’t you?"

"I’m an exchange student! I’m going back to Seiren soon…"

"What? You’re betraying us?!"

"No, that’s not—"

"So our friendship meant nothing to you?! Betrayer! Traitor!"

"Oh no…!"

As Eliana accused her loudly, Eiran’s large eyes welled up with tears.

Seeing that, Eliana gently put an arm around her.

"Heh, there’s a simple way to prove our friendship."

"W-What is it?"

"Tell me all the weaknesses of Seiren’s second-years. If you do that, our friendship is saved…"

"Eiran! How much longer are you going to stay here?"

Just then, the Seiren second-years appeared.

"Eiran! We missed you! When are you coming back?"

"Gasp! Why are you crying?"

"Did the Lumene kids bully you?!"

Seeing Eiran with teary eyes, they panicked.

They immediately turned fierce eyes toward the Lumene students.

"You bullied our Eiran?!"

"We didn’t expect this from you!"

"N-No! It’s a misunderstanding! The Lumene students were very kind to me!"

Eiran hastily calmed her friends.

"Then why are you crying?"

Aris, a Seiren second-year, asked suspiciously, and Eiran explained.

"Miss Eliana said that to prove our friendship, I had to reveal all your weaknesses…"

That made the atmosphere even tenser.

"We didn’t expect that! Lumene is so sneaky!"

"Eliana Raden! Prepare yourself!"

"Let’s go, Eiran! They’re just trying to take advantage of your innocence!"

"Take off that Lumene uniform, too!"

Fuming, the Seiren students took Eiran back to their side.

The Lumene second-years all stared at Eliana.

"Great job. You’ve shamed the whole school."

"Now we all look shady thanks to you!"

"Come on, it was just a joke! A joke!"

As Chelsea and Carl spoke coldly, Eliana pouted and protested.

"What now? Seiren’s probably going to target you first."

"Guys? You’ll protect me, right? We’re friends, right?"

Eliana smiled sweetly.

Carl replied,

"You caused this. You clean it up."

"I knew you’d say that! You jerk! Chelsea? If they target me, you’ll help me, right?"

"Why would I?"

"Nella? Tade?"

"I’m a healer. I’ll patch you up."

"I’ll be in the rear. You’re on the frontlines—how would I help you?"

"Chloeeeee!"

"I’m in the rear too."

Chloe sighed, and Eliana clung to Chen Xia.

"Xia! They’re all being mean! You’ll help me, right?"

With a soft smile, Chen Xia shook her hand free.

"Who are you again?"

"You jerks!!!"

bl

"There you are, Luke Eldar!"

Kaboom!

"Eeeek?!"

Luke flinched at the explosion beside him.

"What did I do to deserve this?!"

"You! You were Plov-sunbae’s mentee, weren’t you?!"

"Y-Yes, but—"

"That’s your crime!"

"T-That’s ridiculous! Hiiiek!"

"Don’t run! Fight back!"

As Leah chased him with blazing eyes, Luke ran even harder.

Just then—

Bang!

"Luke Eldar! Fight me!"

Medvez blocked Luke’s path.

"Why you too?!"

"It’s natural for a beastkin to feel a burning desire to challenge the strong! Come at me!"

"Luke Eldar is my prey! Back off!"

"Heh! Prey belongs to whoever catches it first!"

"In that case…"

Leah smirked.

Voooom—!

"Die, both of you!"

"It’s just a match! Why are you yelling ‘die’?!"

"Plov-sunbae told us to kill each other!"

"That was just figurative for survival—!"

As Leah’s power surged ominously, Luke’s terrified expression suddenly hardened.

Noticing the change, Medvez’s eyes gleamed.

‘His aura just shifted!’

He grinned and cracked his knuckles.

‘First, I’ll handle Leah Tingle’s attack—!’

Just as Medvez prepared for Leah’s strike—

Slice—!

A sharp wave of sword energy aimed at Leah.

Startled, Leah countered with a blast toward the direction it came from.

Kaboooom!

Amid the massive explosion, Leah landed on the ground.

Tap!

Aina landed in front of her.

"Aina Beidna! Are you interfering?!"

Leah yelled, and Aina pointed her sword.

"Your opponent is me."

bl

The first-years who had been flustered by the sudden survival match were regaining their composure.

Across the vast Erek grand training ground, each team began forming proper formations and taking out opponents.

Watching them, Leo smirked.

"Well then, time to truly begin."

Rumble rumble rumble—!

The ground started to quake.

The first-years, focused on each other, wore confused expressions.

‘Watching the enemy in front of you is easy. But on a battlefield, threats don’t only come from what’s right before your eyes.’