The Academy’s Ankle Reaper

“Why… why are you following me..!! This has nothing to do with you!!!”

“Well, I’m curious.”

I chased after Andy, who was fleeing the chaotic classroom after the morning assembly.

“If you keep running away like that, I’ll want to chase you even more.”

“Ugh.. fine!! Just tell me already!”

“You should have said that earlier.”

Andy, realizing that escaping from me was impossible, finally stopped.

I had chased him, but I also naturally lured him to a more secluded area.

Andy held his head in frustration.

“Ugh… I didn’t want to do this either.”

“You don’t have to.”

“If only it were that easy….”

Andy scratched his head as if he couldn’t help it.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

“Knew what?”

“It doesn’t make sense unless it’s tied to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

He wore a look of confidence.

“That the Saintess secretly came to the Church Country… Isn’t it because you took down all the Knights?”

“While I can’t say that’s completely untrue…”

“I knew it was you!! This is all because of that person!!”

…

In summary, this was the situation.

Though it was a secret for students that the Saintess had come, it had been disclosed as confidential information to the professors.

She was just passing through the Academy and was supposed to leave soon, so it seemed this was a measure to avoid friction with the faculty.

This all came up during a meeting where someone suddenly suggested that with the Saintess and the Master present, shouldn’t we showcase the Academy students’ potential during the tests?

Someone agreed that it was a good idea, and things progressed smoothly from there.

“So… you’re saying this change was because you wanted to make a good impression on the Saintess and the Master?”

“Yeah… I mean, the only flashy way to show off is through sparring, right? It’s not just a test; it seems it’ll be done in front of everyone in the Arena.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“The exam method hasn’t been solidified yet… it’s supposed to be my test, but everyone seems to have lost their minds. With the Saintess sitting right there, they’re in a frenzy to show off the students’ amazing skills…”

The concern I had feared had come true.

It seems the Saintess’s presence had strangely stirred up their desire for recognition.

For now, it was just a change in the testing methods… but it could escalate further.

Should I just send them back like this?

‘… No. It’s been a while since she’s gone out.’

When else would Carmel have an excuse to step outside the Church Country?

Knowing the feeling of being trapped, I found it hard to blame her for wanting to get out.

In Carmel’s case, it was more about her own self-imposed restrictions.

“What will you do?”

“What do you mean?”

“If you do it properly, it’s obvious that you’ll come out on top.”

“I already told you, I don’t want to do that kind of thing among the kids.”

“Think you can take it easy on them? With your personality, do you really think that’s possible? If someone pokes at you, you’ll explode.”

“If there’s anyone bold enough to poke me after all the times I’ve beaten them, I’d like to see their face at least.”

…

A week before the test, and the method had changed…

With only a week left until the ‘undetermined’ test method, how it would go still wasn’t clear.

They said it would be a spar at some point, but no one knew if it would be one-on-one, survival in the forest with the whole year tossed in, or a team battle.

Even the professors setting the problems didn’t know, so it was inevitable.

The incoming students’ community was buzzing.

Some were analyzing why this was happening, while others were just swept up in emotion, outraged.

And among them, there were those calmly analyzing how to navigate the changed test.

– Changing to sparring is actually great. They need to reach the physical standards set by those dumb experts, but this only requires knocking them out, right?

– Exactly, this is an opportunity. I can teach those foolish sword-wielding idiots a lesson.

– They claim that using magic is alright, but… isn’t this a skill test for swordsmanship?

– Because it’s allowed by school rules, they don’t do sparring during the incoming students’ time and try to get by with physical fitness.

– But why is that allowed?

– How can someone who doesn’t even know this be attending the Academy? Oh, are you a new student?? You’ll learn later, so better know it now.

– It’s an old debate. The Aura Blade of the experts is fundamentally similar to the Magical Blade with mana entwined in the sword, but if that’s the pinnacle for sword-wielders, doesn’t it mean magic is also one of those paths?

– I don’t get what that means.

– Don’t try to understand. To sum it up, the claim is that ‘since Aura Blade is a type of magic, sword-wielders can also use magic during sparring, right? So it’s fine to use magic during swordsmanship tests?’.

– Aura Blade, being manifested by a strong will, is completely different from magic. The Principal surely knows this, so why the nonsense?

– That’s the level of the magic users; what else would you expect?

– What’s a magic user?

– This one is truly a newcomer; I’m talking about those moronic sorcerers who can only use Fireball but strut around like they’ve discovered the truth of the world, acting like high-ranking judges.

– A magic user? Hey, what class are you in? Want to spar?

– No thanks.

…

The notebook continued to refresh with many active opinions being shared.

I was starting to get used to using this notebook.

This notebook was accessible to any incoming student and contained a massive amount of information.

Some of it was useless, while some was genuinely important.

It was vital to skim through it like speed reading and extract only what was needed.

‘Spar… can I use magic? Isn’t that weird??’

– It seems strange, but in one-on-one encounters, if an expert properly utilizes the Aura Blade, it is hard for a magician to win. In a match-up, the magician is at a disadvantage.

‘Still, it’s odd that we can use magic in a class that doesn’t even teach it.’

No matter how much I thought about it, it was odd, but now that it had been set, there was no way to change it. We had to adapt.

After scanning through hundreds of lines, in the end, the usable information was just this much.

I had heard plenty of pointless slang throughout my life, but just brushed it aside and moved on to the next page.

On the other page, a list of students they did not want to encounter in sparring was neatly lined up.

Occupying the top ranks were the Five Pillars.

Having undergone gifted education since childhood, they were much stronger than their peers. But unless you had a truly formidable backbone because of their background, you couldn’t just mess with them.

In the forum, you could anonymously post personal opinions, and beside Zeek Albion and Nivas Perda were comments like, “extremely threatening magical abilities,” and “fear of retaliation if provoked.”

Next to Edgar Lemnos and Lucia Russell were horror stories like, “not on a student level,” and “cut me down in three seconds during the Hunting Festival.”

Further down the list was River.

It seemed his habit of challenging everyone to duels at the beginning of the semester had significantly impacted his reputation.

Other than about twenty other students listed, Amy’s name was missing.

She likely didn’t stand out since others were so prominent.

So, who was ranked as the number one student they did not want to face in sparring?

Lemnos and Russell were the two swords of the Five Pillars, having achieved the high level of expert entering the realm of true prowess, yet they did not rise to the top of the danger rankings for this spar.

The name that boldly claimed the title of the number one no-spar opponent was none other than…

– Atlas Nemea.

– I wouldn’t even want to run into him in the hallway.

– Watch out for biting (I’ve been bitten)

– What are the professors doing, not catching this kid.

– Even experts from the Clover Kingdom were beaten down with just a finger; what can the professors do? They can only stand there, thumbs up their noses, watching, right?

– Is he really a student?

– Is it true he was taken for suspected demon worship and released after just two hours?

– No, it’s rumored he knocked everyone down and came out in a rage instead??

– They say after he got dragged away, all the Knights went into critical condition; is that true?

– I saw him beating the swordsmanship instructor. He was brutal… It seems there are others among the professors who also got hit.

– I get it that he’s messing with nobles, the Church… but why is that brat still perfectly fine??

– Is he some undercover royal kid or what?

…

Below, there were more unrefined raw gossip written down.

I could only wish that Atlas wouldn’t accidentally see this forum.

– If he saw this, there would be more corpses.

‘Oh come on, even so, there’s no way he’d actually kill… right?’

– You never know about that.

…

I closed the notebook, finding it increasingly difficult to read.

The anonymous slander against Atlas was hard to bear.

I thought everyone was being too harsh.

Atlas is a good person; why doesn’t anyone see that?

Though it’s true that when he gets angry, he tends to throw punches without thinking, and he could cut a leg off for a slip of the tongue, Atlas is a good person.

– Doesn’t that sound a bit odd, even as I say it?

‘But he really is a good person… isn’t he?’

It was clear I didn’t think so because I hadn’t really talked to him directly.