The Extra’s Academy Survival Guide - Chapter 77

“Don’t come close to me.”

“What?”

“Don’t come anywhere past this radius.”

It was the day that I needed to supervise the freshmen exam.

We were already into the second half of winter break. I had gotten used to my life of not being able to use magic power to some degree, and the preparation of materials to enlarge the cabin was also near completion.

In fact, I had already taken care of any major work that I needed to finish before the start of the next semester, so once I finished supervising this exam there wouldn’t be any more problems.

I prepared to take care of my last remaining business swiftly as I entered Assistant Professor Cleoh’s lab.

Among the students in the school’s scholarship program, I was the first to arrive. On one side of the lab, I saw Anise by herself, checking over the magically engineered items.

When I greeted her with a pat on the shoulder, she jumped back like a grasshopper, leaping away from me far past the center table and all the way to the window.

As she breathed heavily, she stared right at me.

“Why are you acting like that all of a sudden? What’s wrong?”

“Uhm… Y-You stink. I don’t really like the smell of sweat. So, please don’t come anywhere near me.”

The academy was a place that valued appearance to the point that there was a clause for maintaining dignity and class written inside the school’s regulations. In doing so, cleanliness was something that was strictly controlled. At the very least, I had never been pointed out before for my clothes or appearance.

I smelled my sleeves, as I thought I may have gotten a little negligent over break, but there was nothing particularly wrong.

“I don’t smell, though.”

“And your, uhm, gaze? The energy you give off? Things like that, they aren’t matching with me. Anyway, just stay away from me.”

I was rather dumbfounded by the sudden but noticeable boundary she had put up.

I nodded my head in defeat. I figured she must have some reason for acting like that.

Then, I swept all the documents off the messy lab table, cleaning it.

That was because if the place wasn’t somewhat straightened out before Assistant Professor Cleoh arrived, the interior of the lab would only become an even bigger mess.

Since Anise, who was usually so thorough about everything, hadn’t done something so basic yet… She must have been so busy, to the point that she didn’t even think of it. That was why I wanted to lend her a hand.

Most of the documents were to be discarded as it was past the point of keeping them. Looking over them, after I finally grabbed the remaining documents that were scattered in a corner, the pile ended up quite heavy.

Slam!

Before I could finish cleaning up the papers properly, the lab door opened as Assistant Professor Cleoh boisterously entered.

“Heyyyyyyy!”

Assistant Professor Cleoh gave an energetic morning greeting, one that was livelier than the students. Even in the morning, she put a box of snacks on the table.

“Do you want a scone?”

Assistant Professor Cleoh laid the snacks on the table as she asked Anise to make some black tea.

Anise had been checking over the magically engineered items for the test for quite a while. As I extended my hand towards her, she startled before she gave me some other documents to check over. Extending one arm as far as possible while holding the other to her chest, it seemed like she was trying to give me the papers while keeping as much distance as she could. People would think there was a wild animal in front of her from the way she was acting.

I grabbed ahold of the papers. I was already used to doing the work, so there wasn’t a need for her to explain it. It was just a simple inspection.

“Clevius and Onyx, you both arrived too! Since all of the exam supervisors are here, let’s quickly clean up and head out!”

Assistant Professor Cleoh, who quickly sat down in her chair with a snack in her mouth, laid out the final plans for the exam on top of the table.

“Just like the notice, the exam’s location will take place in the Right Mountain. Since there are a total of four examination supervisors, we will divide up our roles in advance. One person each to supervise the north, south, east, and west side. If there is a safety accident or you catch someone cheating, you can report it immediately with the homing pigeons that we prepared in advance. To determine if there was any cheating, follow the documents on the exam’s supervising regulations that were handed out… Well, I don’t know how amazing these freshmen are or if they would actually organize a way to cheat the exam… But even if they are your cute underclassmen, you can’t just let them go!”

After saying that, Assistant Professor Cleoh started to munch on her scones again.

She was full of energy. It was because she had just come back from her short break after staying up for days, taking care of all her paperwork.

She originally was a person with that type of energy, but after staying up overnight for the past few days, she had become a corpse. She seemed like a person that periodically reset their personality.

“And the thing you must be most careful of is the freshmen themselves! Some of them are not people that you would easily get to meet in person, so I’ll give you a briefing about them in advance. The one with long silver hair that comes down to their waist. They will also be wearing a red butterfly pin. If you happen to run into them, you need to be as polite as you can, got it?”

At its core, Silvenia was a place where the value of learning preceded that of a noble’s status.

To some extent, that gap narrowed when it came to being in a higher or lower school year.

Of course, that didn’t mean there would be a deranged commoner that would treat an aristocrat so informally. So, at the very least, you could expect everyone to be polite to some extent out of courtesy.

But there was definitely a limit when it came to that unwritten rule.

And anyone with a level of status that went beyond that line had to always be treated with the utmost respect, even if they were your underclassman.

Of course, someone that honorable, who precedes such status, wouldn’t easily have been able to enter the school. So, that unwritten rule and the line that divided it was all a bit ambiguous, but…

Last year, when Princess Penia had entered the school, you could clearly feel it.

If the person was a princess or saint, even on school grounds you needed to treat them at least at the level of a veteran professor—or perhaps even higher.

That was just a precaution on the chance that we might be rude.

In fact, it would be harder to fail to recognize when they were such a person. Clarice, who was a saint in the face of the public, looked more like a saint than anyone else… But sadly, she was just a fake.

At that current moment, the truth hadn’t been revealed. However, the real Saint Clarice had been replaced by another student. The girl that attended the school under the name Clarice was a stand-in using all sorts of physical disguises and counterfeit magic.

The real saint was the student named Kylie Eckner, who is a first-year student assigned to class C. Of course, that was just her alias.

To enter Silvenia, she had changed her appearance. She looked like an innocent girl with brown hair, living under the guise of a normal student.

She even held a fake identity that said she was an aristocrat that came from a small, unknown city-state on the eastern part of the continent.

The truth was revealed right before the final chapter of Act 3, but I was pretty surprised when witnessing it for the first time, since it was quite a shocking twist. I should have been suspicious because she was able to enter Ophelis Hall with a free pass, even though her status wasn’t all that incredible.

The only people that knew the truth were Headmaster Obel, the three main deans, the head maid of Ophelis Hall, and the top members of the Telos Religious Group.

It was such a perfectly executed trick that even the guards escorting that stand-in didn’t realize she was wearing a disguise. Who knew just how much time they had put in to prepare it all.

I’d applaud the Saint’s effort to obtain the chance to be a student at Silvenia, but it would still be hard for her to graduate peacefully like she wanted.

The Saint of Mistrust Clarice took on the role of finishing the final chapter of Act 3, ‘Lucy Subjugation’, in which all of the big names joined forces.

Without her, Taylee wouldn’t be able to master God Slaying Sword, which he used to cut down the final boss of Act 4, The Evil God Nebula.

Since she was such an important character, I hoped everything went smoothly, without any issues.

“Anyway, everything else is written in the manual, so you’ll be fine as long as you adhere to it. If you want to ask about for any more details, you can send over a homing pigeon! I’ll remain on standby at the top of Right Mountain! Then, that should be about everything!”

Assistant Professor Cleoh checked the time as she nodded her head.

“Then, let’s head on up to Right Mountain to set up the apparition-type magically engineered items, finish inspecting the altar, and wait to greet the students that arrive! Alright, let’s finish these snacks and head out!”

***

I already knew the results.

All of the incoming students would fail the class assignment examination.

Actually, there was no such thing as failing in the examination, but that was how the students would feel. Not a single student would make it into Class A. Instead, they would be divided up depending on their scores.

Since it wasn’t a story that the protagonist’s generation directly dealt with, it was only briefly mentioned in .

Assistant Professor Cleoh’s failure to control the difficulty of the Class Assignment Examination resulted in not a single student within the first years making it into Class A…

Though, in the end many students in Class B that received good grades halfway through the semester got promoted to Class A.

The ‘Joint Combat Training’ Episode was where the first-year students were filled with competitive spirit at the chance to earn the title of being in Class A.

That time, the protagonist’s generation would be the upperclassmen, so they would have the chance to join the joint combat training with the new first years’ generation… Even though the class was just supposed to be a friendly match, the first-year students acted rather serious and combative.

That was because the grades that were given during the joint combat practice would ultimately have a large impact in deciding the rearrangement of classes later on.

Therefore, the first years that ended up facing off against the second years still tried to win by any means, regardless of the fact that they were facing upperclassmen. Not only that, but for extra points they also went around asking for random duels outside of class… Though, they all were defeated by Taylee.

In fact, it was just an event to check Taylee’s growth and see if he had become strong enough over the past year.

It was also an episode where you became the upperclassmen and could experience the satisfactory feeling of having underclassmen.

Nevertheless, it was still an episode that you couldn’t take it easy for… That is because, within that episode, the Saint Clarice that was hiding amongst the crowd started to pay close attention to Taylee.

***

Halfway up Right Mountain.

“Eughk.”

Assistant Professor Cleoh was leading as Anise followed close behind. Then it was upperclassmen Onyx, Clevius, and me following suit.

Assistant Professor Cleoh was climbing with a bunch of grading papers while the rest of us were all following along, clutching onto the apparition-type magically engineered items.

When it came to magically engineered items that were sensitive to magic power, as a general rule it was prohibited to carry them with telekinesis-type magic. Though, unless it was a very precise item, it wouldn’t have much of an effect. However, it was procedure to carry things by hand, just in case.

Even though the mountain wasn’t all that difficult, carrying all of these items with us took up much of our energy and strength.

As almost all of the students that were a part of the school’s scholarship program were males, we didn’t have much of an issue carrying the baggage. Anise, on the other hand, was panting heavily as she seemed to be reaching her limit.

“Hey, give me some of your items if you’re tired. You keep falling behind.”

Each large semi-disc shaped magically engineered item was quite heavy. Carrying all of that up the mountain, even a healthy man would run out of breath. Although she did carry a lot less than the rest of us, her frame was rather small. Carrying the items up the mountain must have been too much for her.

As we kept moving forward, Anise gradually kept slowing down until all of us in the back had fallen behind.

I walked past Onyx, who was sweating heavily, I came up next to Anise. I then took a few of the magically engineered items she was holding, adding them to my pile.

“Ahh… Agh, thank you, Onyx. Without you, it would have been too heavy… Kyaaghk!”

As Anise turned her head to express her gratitude, she stepped back in shock upon seeing my face. She nearly tripped before catching her balance, but some of the magically engineered items fell behind her.

Clunk, Clank!

Clevius snatched up the magically engineered items that had fallen and were rolling down the road. I guess he really was the top student of the combat department for a reason.

“Shouldn’t you be more careful?! What if it had broken…?!”

Saying that, Clevius put the magically engineered items into the bundle that he was holding. It didn’t seem like adding those few items would make him lose his strength anytime soon.

“I-I’m sorry… I didn’t realize Ed was right behind me.”

Her ears were completely red, and she was breathing hard. Just how difficult was it for her? Looking her up and down, that was the impression I got.

It was clear that Anise was overdoing it. After spending a few days with her, I really felt that she was the type to be strangely keen about everything.

It wasn’t like I didn’t understand that way of thinking. Being pushed into a corner, it was easy to get scared of the thought that you would fall behind if you ended up getting a little lazy.

I had also previously gone through a lot, having overworked myself thanks to that same way of thinking.

Thinking about it, Anise’s current state didn’t seem like a stranger’s story to me. For some strange reason, I really wanted to fix that stubbornness in her way of thinking.

Resting was also a part of the job. Even though it was obvious, no matter what you did, doing it for a long period of time would eventually become tiring.

“You should take a break before coming up. We’ll start setting up the installation first.”

“Wh-What?”

“You guys don’t have any complaints, right?”

After saying that, I looked back at the other two following behind us. Onyx and Clevius nodded their heads.

Anise was carrying about a dozen or so magically engineered items. I took them one by one, handing one to Onyx and then to Clevius. They casually grabbed them as they placed them in their own piles. After checking everything, I grabbed my own and placed it in my pile.

After repeating that over and over, in no time Anise no longer had anything left in her hands.

“Wait. Hold on…! Why are you doing this without asking me…?!”

“I told you to take a rest.”

I looked straight at Anise as I said that. Either way, she didn’t have the stamina to keep going and she was pushing herself just to carry those items.

I rearranged the magically engineered items I was holding onto as I freed one hand and grabbed Anise’s shoulder, making her sit down on a nearby rock.

Anise looked up at me with a stunned face as she kept breathing heavily.

“When you need to rest, you should rest. You’re not the only one who is gonna get hurt.”

Having said that, I shook my head as I signaled to the others.

In fact, it was embarrassing to call it a mountain. If we just went up for a few more minutes, we would be at the top in no time at all.

***

“I’m going to spread out the magic power stones. As for you guys, please proceed with installing the magically engineered items in the correct places. Since they will arrive after lunch, we still have lots of time, so let’s take it easy~”

Assistant Professor Cleoh spoke with a bright smile on her face.

“You all worked hard~ Once we finish installing everything and go over who will be in charge of each section, we can begin supervising. The work itself isn’t that difficult, so it will take about thirty minutes to install everything in the places we pre-planned.”

Clevius took a deep breath as she started laying out the magically engineered items. Onyx and I did the same.

The number of magically engineered supplies themselves had decreased considerably. It was because she had already installed a few at the checkpoints on our way up.

“Phew… Low-grade apparition-type magically engineered items are already this heavy… if it was graded any higher, it would feel like I was carrying a boulder.”

Onyx sighed deeply as he sat on a nearby rock, wiping off his sweat. Maybe because it wasn’t as hard as he had thought, Clevius drank only a little bit of water to wet his throat as he began to stretch.

Even though his physical strength and swordsmanship were excellent, whenever there was an actual fight, he got scared out of his wits. He was quite a strange person.

House Nortondale, the greatest swordsmen on the continent. Since he had been treated as a failure within his family, he had lived his entire life agonizing over that fact while lowering his head, but… Well, that was a story that Taylee would have to take care of later.

I rested for a bit, looking around the summit of Right Mountain.

A magnificent altar stood upright on an open piece of flatland. The huge headstone was full of unknown characters. It was so massive that I thought it would be better to call it a pillar, rather than a headstone.

The headstone was so large that it was cut off by the sky.

That was the final stage of Act 3. ‘The Substitute Altar’.

I closed my eyes, thinking back on it.

A sky full of dark clouds. The archmage that was called an extraordinary genius looked up at those clouds.

The apostle of Telos that had the head of an eagle and flapped their massive wings, covering the sky.

The god that warned of the end of Acken Island, the magician that tried to kill the Telos’ apostle, and the party that tried to stop the magician, which concluded in front of that very altar.

Leaving behind a glowing pillar, the girl with that large witch hat murmured.

“I don’t believe in a god.”

“Hey! What are you doing there?! What are you! You!”

Suddenly, Onyx started shouting as I came to my senses.

“What is it, Onyx?”

“Ah. Nevermind… I thought I saw someone at the top of the altar just now… Hm… Sorry, I must have seen something else…”

Who was going to climb a pillar that large, all the way at the top of Right Mountain?

Still, I looked around, just in case. But I didn’t see a shadow of what could have been a person.

“Haah… I must have overdone it coming up all the way here. Now I’m seeing a bunch of crap.”

Onyx sighed, tilting his head.

“Let’s install the magically engineered items quickly and finish the exam. Once this is over, there won’t be anything else left to do until break is over.”

It required a lot of effort just to finish that last task.

Grumbling, we got up from our seats.

We had to move quickly so that we could greet the incoming first-year students on time.

“…Hey.”

Onyx, who grabbed a few of the magically engineered items to install, suddenly raised his head.

“I think some of these are broken… Aren’t they…?”