It’s been a week since eating the fragment of the Demon King.
During that time, Iria experienced various changes in her body, but the biggest difference was concerning hunger.
For the past week, Iria hadn’t eaten at all. She didn’t really feel hungry.
That day’s meal of the Demon King’s fragment was packed with energy, so even with a small piece, she felt full.
If she could last a week after eating a human, then she could last even longer after eating a fragment. This was quite a remarkable discovery.
As long as she had enough fragments, there was no need to hunt down humans.
However, fragments of the Demon King weren’t easy to come by.
Thus, Iria felt the urge to dive deeper into the Empire’s underground. Of course, not right now.
As a week passed, the written exam at the Academy finally came to an end.
Students, temporarily free from the shackles of exams, lined up with relieved expressions.
And instantly, the results were outputted, leading to slightly varying expressions among the students based on their grades.
Some sighed in relief over good results, while others wore despairing looks.
Among them, Iria leaned closer to the latter.
She froze in place, shocked by her shocking report card.
“······.”
She received good scores in the three subjects recognized as external practicums. Despite some minor deductions, her practicum report was praised as excellent.
But the rest was the problem. A shocking score that barely avoided failure covered everything else.
She definitely wasn’t slacking off in class.
It seemed that her inability to read and write was a significant roadblock.
“Iria! How did you do on the exam?”
“Nope.”
Iria responded immediately to Rena’s typical bright question.
She truly didn’t do well. Even with good scores in the external practicums, the total score still didn’t even meet the average.
Rena sighed like she expected it.
Having been by Iria’s side, she knew just how terrible Iria’s foundational skills were.
Just looking at how she performed in the external practicums was enough to realize it.
While reading had become somewhat habitual for her, writing was a total no-go.
There was no way she could score well on the written exam that required her to express spells in sentences.
“Well, Iria struggles with language. I kind of saw this coming.”
The reason Iria could achieve top student during the entrance exam was that it solely consisted of practical skills.
So, she figured this time, she would surely lose the top spot.
“I guess it’s goodbye to being the top student.”
Would school life become a bit easier now? Her scores were a disaster, but on the flip side, she felt relieved.
Iria finally felt free.
However, she wouldn’t get to enjoy that feeling for long. There was a pesky intruder that would shatter that feeling in an instant.
“Huh? What are you talking about? The practical exam is still coming up.”
“······Ah.”
Her torment was just beginning.
*
The Empire’s Academy was thoroughly based on skill, giving far more weight to practical exams than written ones.
Students would compete in one-on-one duels to determine their ranks, often referred to as the ranking matches, and today was the day that it happened.
The rules were as follows:
Students would engage in a total of ten duels with randomly selected opponents, and regardless of wins or losses, they would each receive one mana potion after the duel ended.
No items or potions besides the distributed potions could be used, and the received potions couldn’t be passed to others.
The rules were simple but tough.
How to allocate the given potions and conserve mana depended solely on each individual.
With multiple duels in a day, maximizing the use of the allocated mana was crucial.
Even the strongest students could face defeat against weaker ones if they wasted their mana early on.
Mana could become a costly resource if swayed by unnecessary emotions, testing one’s ability to respond coolly and rationally in real combat.
Iria checked the match list from the audience seats. Her turn was a bit late. So, she decided to sit in a good spot and just watch.
In her hand was a glass of lemonade, and next to her was Albert for some reason.
After taking a sip of her drink, Iria glanced over at him.
“We keep running into each other lately.”
Surprisingly, Iria initiated the conversation this time.
Maybe it was because of the conversation she had with Leonard earlier, but she was a bit concerned about Albert.
He claimed to have sealed the Seed of the Demon King alone and locked it underground. Whether it was true or not, she thought it was wise to be cautious.
Albert adjusted his glasses and replied without turning his head.
“It’s probably because we share similar tastes in locations.”
“You must dislike sunlight.”
“I also don’t care much for noisy places.”
Indeed, the places she had bumped into Albert had some commonalities.
The shaded bench in the park had a vibe similar to this.
Iria preferred places that were shaded and decently quiet. It seemed Albert did too.
“Running into each other so much feels like you’re stalking me.”
“I’m the one who always sits down first.”
“So I’m the stalker then?”
“Your reaction suggests otherwise. Let’s call it a coincidence.”
It was a bit too frequent to just be coincidence, but Albert didn’t seem concerned about it at all.
He seemed indifferent to the world, generally cold—he had a few traits in common with Iria.
Iria glanced at him briefly before looking away. The momentary interest had fizzled out. Albert wasn’t an interesting person.
Just as another heavy silence was about to settle in, Iria let out one last line.
“By the way, I was curious about something.”
Albert turned his gaze towards Iria without moving his head, giving her a silent signal that he would answer within reason.
Iria asked.
“You mentioned you have another job aside from being an Academy professor, right?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“What kind of work do you do, Professor Albert?”
“Is that something you’re interested in?”
Iria nodded.
She wanted to know if he would be a hindrance when she eventually barged into the Empire’s headquarters or if he was just an ordinary professor.
If only she could read memories right now, that would be super convenient, but alas, she couldn’t break through Albert’s mental defenses.
“I have various tasks, but primarily I hunt monsters. Is that sufficient of an answer?”
“······.”
As expected, he was her enemy.
Iria decided not to approach him any further.
“Are you leaving?”
“I’m up soon.”
Rising from her seat, she left without looking back.
Objectively speaking, Albert wasn’t a bad person, but he was a bad monster for Iria.
How could a monster hang out with someone who specializes in hunting them?
In that regard, the two were inversely opposite, so Iria left first.
The long wait finally brought Iria’s turn.
Holding the practice sword, she stepped into the dueling arena with her characteristic blank expression.
She looked utterly uninterested.
Iria didn’t particularly like practical exams, as she found it puzzling how to handle things at a student level.
It was quite hard for someone like her, whose daily life used to be a slaughterfest, to restrain an opponent without killing them.
She couldn’t just let herself lose on purpose either.
Anyway, Iria’s first opponent was a student from the Combat Magic Department. She didn’t know his name, but she felt like she’d seen him at least once during classes.
“If I beat you, I’ll become the top student too-!”
As the duel began, he immediately began chanting spells.
High-level spells took a lot of time to cast, so he resorted to low-tier magic.
Several lightning strikes flew towards Iria.
To the student, they seemed fast, but to Iria, it wasn’t anything extraordinary.
She lightly shifted her body to dodge and leaped towards him. He couldn’t follow her movements with his eyes at all.
By the time he regained his senses, Iria was already in front of him.
“W-What?!”
Startled, he instinctively shrank back, but Iria didn’t mind and grabbed the hem of his clothes.
“W-Wait!”
Most students from the Combat Magic Department had rather poor physical abilities.
The student Iria had a hold of now was no exception. He struggled with all his might but couldn’t resist her.
Dragged around like trash on the arena floor, he was suddenly flung somewhere.
Iria’s expression remained unchanged from start to finish. After throwing the student, she spoke.
“You’re out.”
“Ah.”
Exiting the arena during a duel results in disqualification. This could be deemed a somewhat humane victory.
She won smoothly.
