Chapter 47: Practice Week Part 2

To understand why Professor Blanc and others gave such evaluations of Ellie, we need to follow the sequence of what Ellie did, step by step.

Before they started, Blanc spoke to the students of Group 1.

“Alright, everyone~ We’ll walk to the practice area together, but make sure to use your magic to reinforce your bodies~”

If someone walked without using magic from the school, it would take about 4 hours to get there.

For adults who aren’t used to physical labor, it wouldn’t be easy, and even more so for students who haven’t fully grown yet.

The sounds of magic reinforcing bodies echoed from all around.

“Alright, let’s go~ Follow me~”

The first hour went without any issues.

Magic helped a lot.

But after that, some students started to get tired.

“Heh… heh…”

“Ugh…”

Students who had used too much mana early on, those who weren’t good at managing mana over long periods, or those who just weren’t physically fit started to fall behind.

Of course, even if they fell behind, they weren’t abandoned.

If it seemed like they were really struggling, they’d take a short break.

But they were split into groups for this reason.

Blanc watched the students and thought to herself.

‘Is it about time?’

When she looked at the other groups, the situation was similar.

Just as some students were about to ask for a break, “Guys, we’ve already passed the halfway point! Let’s keep going!”

Ellie, who was at the front of Group 1, shouted energetically, then went over to the students falling behind.

Instead of just saying to try harder without any plans, she started giving specific advice on how each student could ease their fatigue.

“Do you remember what we learned in Mana Studies last week? Not dispersing it, but circulating it. Focus on that. It’ll feel better, right?”

To another student, she said, “You’re turning it on and off too much. Try imagining a tiny flame that stays on instead.”

Then, she went to another student.

“Let me see your hand for a second.”

“Uh? Oh!”

“I’m fine, so it’s better now, right?”

The male student who received some of Ellie’s mana turned bright red and quickly ran ahead.

In this way, Ellie helped all the students who were falling behind in Group 1 match the speed of the others.

Seeing this happen in Group 1 naturally created an unspoken pressure on the students at the front of Groups 2, 3, and 4.

“Hey… I’m running low on mana too. Come on, you should come with me.”

In Group 2, two male students said this.

“Guys, I’ll be back in a second?”

In Group 3, a female student said this.

“Wait a moment.”

And in Group 4, a male student stepped back to help the students who had fallen behind in his group.

It was clear that these actions were sparked by Ellie.

Blanc looked at the students and inwardly marveled.

‘Wow…?’

In the end, every group succeeded in reaching the practice area without taking a single break.

“Well done, everyone!”

And there was a student who worked harder than even the professors, helping the students who had collapsed on the ground.

It was, of course, Ellie.

Moreover, she didn’t only help the students in her own group.

She quickly ran over to Group 2.

“You all did really well!”

“What, what… Hmm-hmm…”

“Well, of course, this is something that children of the proud Murasu family would naturally do… Hm-hm…”

She praised the two male students who had helped their group members, then went to Group 3.

“You! You did really well!”

“Hmph, do you think I’d be happy if you keep praising me? Ha, not happy at all. Idiot.”

She praised the female student who had helped her group, and then went to Group 4, doing the same.

“You really did great!”

“Uh, um… Ah, well… Uh… Mm…”

By the way, the student in Group 4 was the heir of a duke family who couldn’t even look Ellie in the eye anymore.

He had ranked 6th in the midterms.

In this way, Ellie moved between the groups, creating a chaos that wasn’t really chaos, and then returned to her own group and chatted calmly with her friends.

‘This student, in the future…’

Blanc thought to herself and then said to the students.

***

“Alright, everyone~ If you’ve caught your breath, I’ll take you to the dorms~”

On one side of the practice area, there were buildings lined up like modern Korean pensions, with signs on the doors saying “Group 1 Male,” “Group 1 Female,” and so on.

“Go inside, drop off your luggage, have the lunch prepared inside, and rest. We’ll regroup in 40 minutes~”

Once everyone had gathered, Professor Teleman, who taught magic combat, took over Group 1.

“Then, let’s move on right away. As I mentioned last week, our subject’s practical exercises are…”

Magic combat is mostly composed of duels as the main part of the lesson.

There are only limited practical exercises that need to be done outside.

“It’s hunting.”

Teleman led the students to the edge of a forest.

“In this forest, there are deer, rabbits, wild boars, and other animals. There are also wolves that survive by hunting and eating those creatures.”

He gestured to the students.

“Form teams of at least 3 and at most 7 people. The goal is for each team to hunt at least one animal.”

He then distributed the points.

“Small animals, like rabbits, are worth 3 points. Deer and wild boars are worth 10 points. If anyone is injured during the hunt, 1 point will be deducted per person.”

Also.

“This point system is shared by the team, and each individual’s score is the team score divided by the number of members. For everything else, I’ll be grading based on this point system.”

Just like in the first lesson when he taught them resource management and battle tactics through a simple game, Teleman was skilled at organizing educational games like this.

The more people there are, the higher the success rate, but the number of people to share the points with increases as well.

And considering that injuries result in a penalty for the whole team… ‘what should they do?’

The students in Group 1, who originally intended to form teams with their friends, were unsure and hesitated.

And once again, it was Ellie who stepped up first.

“Hey, let’s split up.”

“Huh?”

“Ot!”

‘Does academic performance at the academy directly correlate with magical ability?’ Not necessarily.

But in general, it does.

So, rather than having the top 5 students from the midterm all on one team, it would be better for them to be the core of different teams.

Moreover.

“You guys go with Stella. You too! And, uh, your name’s Wilbur, right?”

“No, just Wil.”

“Okay? Then come with me! Oh, Tifa, you go with Clea!”

Ellie quickly assigned everyone in Group 1 to 5 teams.

‘Hoho…’

Moreover, when Teleman checked, he saw that Ellie hadn’t just randomly placed the students.

She separated those who had bad synergy into different teams, ensuring there was a good mix of stronger and weaker students overall.

“Ellie student is truly impressive.”

“Haha, thank you? Teleman ‘professor’?”

Teleman smiled and didn’t say anything more to Ellie.

“The time limit is 2 hours. If no one from your team returns by then, you’ll be disqualified. If you can’t catch anything, just return on time and you’ll receive the base points.”

Above all, the most important thing is safety and teamwork.

However.

Teleman himself didn’t believe that any of these students, especially the ones led by Ellie, would fail at hunting.

***

“Then, let’s begin!”

In simple terms, the day’s schedule was moving, having lunch, group practical exercises, and then dinner time.

On this day, Groups 2, 3, and 4 each did different exercises and returned.

Tomorrow, Group 1 will do one of those, and Group 2 will be doing the hunting exercise.

In this way, all the groups will do 4 different exercises over the four days.

Therefore, during the practical week, the dinner menu would change based on how well the group responsible for hunting that day did.

While the academy provides bread, drinking water, vegetables, spices, and dairy products, they purposely don’t send meat.

In the worst-case scenario, students could end up consuming only dairy for animal protein throughout the practical week.

Students who like tasty food might feel afraid, and even those who aren’t particularly picky would naturally want to eat meat after finishing their tough exercises.

Hmm.

‘What will happen today?’

‘Will they be able to eat meat?’

This was the hope and worry shared by about 100 new students (and 5 professors who had to eat the same meals) on the first evening of the practical week.

“Hey! Make sure to manage the BBQ fire well!”

They were betrayed, in a good way.

“Eh, Ellie, these rabbits…”

“Chop them up and put them in a stew! If there’s too much meat, just add more vegetables and water!”

It wasn’t just the students who were shocked; even the professors were taken aback.

For example, Professor Claude, who had finished the magic phenomenology practice with Group 2, absentmindedly thought:

“Who brought all this?”

No, that couldn’t be right.

That didn’t make sense.

But no matter how he thought about it, there seemed to be way too much meat.

There were already three deer, one, two… three…

Blanc, who had been in charge of Group 3’s exercise, approached and asked.

“Did someone come by and leave this…?”

“It doesn’t seem like it.”

In that case.

Both professors turned their gazes toward Ellie, who was leading the cooking process from atop a chair.

“Ah! Be careful with draining the blood, if it’s already congealed, just use magic! The meat’s burning on grill #3! And we need more people, so can Group 3 send 5 members and Group 4 send 4? Group 2, please set the table and bring out the bread!”

The two professors muttered, “Hmm, what kind of student is this?”

“I’m really curious too~”

‘It was clear she was someone destined for greatness.’

Looking up from below, they felt even more certain of this thought.