Ch.39Chapter 39. A Happy Ending Anyway (2)

“I’m sure you’ve all heard already.”

“Hehehe.”

“This year’s competition has been decided with the first years taking first place.”

“Hehehehe.”

“It’s not just something to laugh about. And regarding the undead we saw inside…”

“Ah, I heard about that. The Vice Chancellor’s secretary? That person came separately as soon as they entered the Academy and told us the results. Said not to tell anyone else. The Imperial government decided to investigate it as a top secret matter.”

“…Sigh. Yes. There will likely be interviews with an investigation team from the Imperial government soon. For now, everyone just needs to talk about what happened yesterday in as much detail as possible.”

Professor Amillion’s expression wasn’t particularly good, but I couldn’t hold back my rising laughter.

I, along with Elaine, Cynthia, and Emily, who had participated as first-year representatives, were in a separate meeting with Professor Amillion since morning.

Except for me, the others all looked visibly tired, but I wasn’t at all.

Rather, the news I heard this morning improved my mood and raised my spirits.

First place in the inter-grade competition.

It was achieved more easily than expected.

Yesterday, Elaine’s brother said it wouldn’t be an easy decision.

But it was quick and easy.

The quest completion message hadn’t appeared yet, but it would probably show up once the official announcement was made.

It was so easy that all the fuss and worry from yesterday seemed ridiculous now.

And that wasn’t the only good news.

‘They say the live broadcast was cut off from the moment the green one appeared.’

I had been trying my hardest to control my strength thinking I was being recorded on video, but there was no need for that at all.

If I had known, I wouldn’t have needed to struggle so much against that skeleton knight on horseback yesterday.

Anyway, thanks to that, there was no worry about anyone discovering that I had secretly brought the green one with me.

‘Ah, it wasn’t made by the Academy anyway.’

“First place…”

Elaine muttered in disbelief while fidgeting with her sword handle.

“Yes, you all did well. Really…”

Professor Amillion nodded to herself as she looked over the four of us one by one.

Meeting the professor’s eyes, I nodded along with her.

Compared to usual, it was hard work.

“May I ask a question?”

“By all means.”

“So when will the official announcement of the competition results be made?”

“…I heard the results will be announced as a notice sometime today, and there will be a separate award ceremony soon.”

“Ahhh.”

Right now, my interests weren’t in the undead or the hardships we went through yesterday.

I just wanted to complete the quest and learn magic.

“Now, let’s start from when you encountered the ghouls. At that time…”

Professor Amillion returned to a serious expression and began questioning us.

**

<Main Quest (2) ‘Stand Out’ completed!>

<Quest clear reward will be given.>

‘Hehehehe.’

The quest completion message appeared after I finished the morning interview with Professor Amillion.

When the interview-like investigation ended and we were all about to go eat together.

The system message that blocked my view had never been so welcome.

As soon as I saw the system message, I said I would eat separately and immediately left.

This was a time for learning magic, which was far more important than lunch.

I needed to make this decision calmly by myself.

Like last time, the message wouldn’t disappear from my sight until I completed my selection.

<You can unlock a skill as a reward. Please select a skill to unlock.>

‘Ohhh.’

A message to select a skill.

It was quite heart-pounding.

<Warning! Once you select one type of skill tree, you cannot learn other types of skills.>

For once, there was a kind message along with it.

I quickly entered the skill window to check the list of skills I could learn.

There were a total of 4 skills flashing as available to unlock.

When I checked the skills, I immediately understood what it meant by not being able to learn other types of skills.

‘So I have to choose one path, like fire magic or water magic.’

The game-like elements were evident from the words “class” and “skill.”

Just like in games where choosing to be a mage doesn’t mean you can use all magic, the same applied here.

“Hmm.”

I thought about it more seriously than ever before.

I haven’t thought this seriously about anything since coming to Arcaria.

The names of the four magics I could unlock were very intuitive.

Fire, Water, Wind, Earth.

Words referring to the four elements commonly known as the four great elements.

I wondered what kind of magic these were, but probably once I learned one, many derivative magics would become available.

It seemed the class and skill system was following the clichés of games.

‘This isn’t easy.’

The decision wasn’t easy.

I don’t know much about magic, but I’ve experienced many magics used by opponents while facing numerous enemies.

That made it even harder to decide.

Fire, water, air, and earth-related magics all clearly had their own strengths depending on the situation.

‘Damn, how nice would it be if I could learn them all.’

I wanted to become a great mage who could spew fire from one hand and water from the other, but that wasn’t possible.

This status window wouldn’t allow that.

I should be grateful it even told me that learning one means I can’t learn the others.

‘I need to decide right away again.’

Just like when I chose the mage class last time, the translucent system message wouldn’t disappear from my sight no matter what.

It probably wouldn’t go away until I made a choice.

And after much deliberation, I decided.

My choice was.

**

“Con-congratulations!”

“You were amazing yesterday!”

The two other girls from our class who never spoke to me first came up to me.

Annes and Marie, was it?

“Ah, thanks!”

I was in such a good mood that I immediately responded to them.

In my current state of mind, I was willing to respond even if the detestable Cain greeted me.

I was now a mage.

‘Hehe.’

But Cain Hover never greeted me first.

I could see Cain sitting stiffly in his seat behind the two girls.

He clearly looked unhappy, which was both gratifying and annoying.

‘I want to test my magic, but he’s not taking the bait.’

I deliberately stared at Cain wondering if he would pick a fight like before, but there was no reaction from him.

I wanted to face that fireball Cain shot at me again.

This time not by hiding it in space, but with my “magic.”

The magic I chose was “Wind,” meaning air.

While the first things that come to mind with magic are shooting fireballs or hurling ice, this time I chose performance over romance.

Realistically, what suited me best wasn’t shooting fire or spewing water.

Those were too flashy and eye-catching.

Eye-catching magic?

It might look cool, but it didn’t suit me.

Magic using invisible “air” suited me much better.

And honestly, there were too many mages using fire or water.

In our class alone, there was Cain who used flame magic and Emily who used frost magic.

Practicality plus rarity?

This was a no-brainer.

“You, you were really amazing. I didn’t know you were that strong…”

Even as Annes said this, she was subtly checking Cain’s reaction behind her.

Seeing this, I glanced at Cain again, but Cain Hover still showed no reaction.

Cain was treating me like I didn’t exist, not even looking in my direction.

A bit disappointing.

“Well, I was lucky.”

“Lucky? No way! You handled a monster that even a third-year senior couldn’t deal with.”

“Ah, that was only possible because senior Gareth from third year had already drained most of the monster’s power.”

‘Was that natural enough?’

I gave the pre-prepared answer to Annes’s question.

This was what we had agreed to say when talking with Professor Amillion this morning.

There were a few other things we all agreed to say in the same way.

They said it couldn’t be helped until the investigation was completely finished.

Lying and acting weren’t my specialties, but I agreed to go along with it.

Since coming to the Academy, I’ve gotten better at acting and lying.

“R-really? It didn’t look that way in the video.”

“No. Thanks to senior Gareth draining all its power, it just looked like I defeated the monster easily.”

“…I see.”

Fortunately, Annes and Marie seemed to believe me.

It’s definitely true that if you keep doing something difficult, you get better at it.

Last time Cynthia fell for my acting in a similar way, and this time it worked too.

“Anyway, congratulations! Our grade got first place!!”

Marie was as happy as if she had won the competition herself, even though she hadn’t even participated.

These girls who barely greeted me despite being in the same class.

‘Hehe. Let’s just take it as a good thing.’

“Yeah, yeah. It’s because everyone cheered us on that we got good results. Hmm.”

I decided to just go with the flow since I was in a good mood.

I don’t know if they actually cheered, but their expressions seemed genuine now.

Maybe until now they couldn’t help it because of Cain.

“But are you attending class today?”

“Huh? Class?”

“Yeah. Professor Amillion said earlier that those who participated in yesterday’s competition could rest today. But you came to the classroom.”

“Ah.”

I had forgotten because I was so immersed in the feeling of having learned magic.

Now that I think about it, after the morning interview, we were told we could go home and rest for the day.