The Academy's Terminally Ill Side Character

"Now let's start evaluation of everyone's performance."

Leo's voice cut through the stillness like a blade.

I glanced up at him.

Of course. Even after going full berserker and nearly turning this into a horror movie, he was back to business like nothing happened. That was Leo for you.

"Seriously?" Violet groaned, not even looking up. "Can't we take a moment to not be graded like schoolkids?"

Leo ignored her.

"Mira. You took too long preparing your second cast of Blazing Torrent. Two seconds slower and I would've taken a hit."

Mira winced. "Noted."

"Trent. Good positioning. Poor shield angle in the first clash. You let three hits bounce wide—almost hit Rin."

"…Noted," Trent grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I was tracking the wrong angle. My bad."

He sounded annoyed, but not surprised. He was used to this routine. We all were.

Leo turned next to Violet.

"Too aggressive in the opening ten seconds. You chased down stragglers before Ama's barrier was up. That risked everyone."

Violet didn't flinch. She just raised her eyebrows.

"And you lost your damn mind halfway through. Want to grade yourself on that?"

A brief silence followed.

Leo didn't answer.

Instead, he moved on.

"Ama."

"Yes, Commander Leo~?" she sang, half-sarcastic.

"Your healing timing was decent. But you shouldn't have used Calming Mind that early. I was still in control."

Ama blinked. Then smiled wide.

"You were also laughing like a lunatic and spraying bark guts everywhere."

"...Still in control," Leo muttered, sitting back down with a thud.

His spear clattered beside him.

And finally, everyone turned to look at me.

Oh boy.

Here it comes.

Leo's gaze locked onto mine.

"Rin."

I sat up straighter. "Yes?"

A pause. Just long enough to make me nervous.

"…You did well."

Wait.

What?

I blinked.

Did I hear that right?

Leo didn't repeat himself. He just looked away, like the words had cost him actual HP.

Violet gave me a mock gasp. "Wow. Did Leo just praise someone?"

"Shut up," he said without looking at her.

"Should we mark the calendar? Someone get a pen. This day needs to go in the history books."

Even Trent looked mildly surprised.

Mira covered her mouth and smiled.

I scratched my cheek awkwardly. "It was really that good?"

Leo nodded without hesitation.

"Yeah. You didn't slip up. Your awareness of the field was solid. Honestly, I was impressed you caught on to my [Berserk Mode] that quickly. And even though it wasn't your job, you covered the rear perfectly. That kind of initiative isn't common, especially in a first fight. I didn't expect that from you. You exceeded my expectations."

Uh… was it just me, or was that too generous?

I shot a quick glance at the others, wondering if they were silently stewing—but to my surprise, no one looked annoyed. In fact, most of them seemed… genuinely approving. Mira gave me a quiet thumbs up. Violet smirked like she'd known it all along. Ama winked at me like I'd joined some kind of secret club.

Everyone looked fine with it.

Well—except one.

Trent.

The big guy was glaring at me, arms crossed, jaw clenched just a little too tight. It wasn't exactly anger, more like… frustration. Like he wanted to pick a hole in what I'd done but couldn't find anything concrete. That alone seemed to make him more irritated.

He looked like a teacher forced to give a student an A on a test he thought they'd fail.

"…Anyway," I said, scratching the back of my head, trying to shift attention, "I just acted on instinct, I guess. Nothing special."

Leo didn't respond. He just kept staring at me with that quiet, satisfied look on his face.

Was he… proud?

Okay. That was even more uncomfortable.

Please criticize me a little…

But he didn't. Not even a nitpick about posture or reaction time.

The awkward silence that followed was thankfully broken by Violet, who raised a hand like a student in class.

"Okay, hold up. Can we rewind for a second?"

Uh-oh.

She leaned forward, eyes narrowing. "Back when Leo went berserk—you shouted out what was happening. But no one else figured it out until later. So… how exactly did you know?"

Crap. Right. That.

The purple-lacquered hawk never forgets.

I tried to play it off. "I mean, come on, wasn't it obvious? He was laughing like a maniac and cutting down trees like he had a personal grudge against foliage. Anyone could've put two and two together."

Ama tilted her head. "Hmm… but even so, you said Berserk Mode out loud. By name."

Damn it.

I gave them a sheepish smile. "Lucky guess?"

Yeah… no one looked convinced.

Their eyes stayed on me, sharp and suspicious—especially Violet's. I could practically hear her mind racing.

Before I could come up with another half-baked excuse, Leo stepped in.

"It's not that strange," he said calmly. "A while back, before we joined the academy, I went into [Berserk Mode]... and he was the one who stopped me."

Wait, what?

My head snapped toward him.

Did that really happen? Did I—or rather, the old Rin Evans—actually stop Leo while he was in [Berserk Mode]?

I tried to keep my face neutral, but inside, I was spiraling. I had no memory of that. But then again, I didn't have most of Rin's memories in the first place.

Still, Leo said it like it was fact. And Leo Taylor wasn't the type to lie. In fact, if there was one thing I did know about him, it was that he hated lies more than anything.

So… it must be true.

Which raised a bigger question: what kind of relationship did Rin and Leo have before?

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Thank you for reading the chapter. I hope you continue to do read more in future.

It's my first novel so if there's any kind of mistakes you find in the novel related to grammar please tell me and I'll edit it as soon as possible. H