novelraw Chapter 109 : Ed Etar (1)
Chapter 109 : Ed Etar (1)
Chapter 109: Ed Etar (1)
The current situation of the 5th Class was always the same.
The pitiful ten students were each too busy preparing for the Student Ability Evaluation for any conversation to be heard, leaving the room filled only with the sound of pages being turned.
And as time flowed by as quickly as those turning pages…….
Before we knew it, it was December.
Winter had arrived.
Cold and overcast days, with occasional snowfall, where gray and white took turns painting the world.
Tomorrow, at last, the long-awaited Student Ability Evaluation would begin.
The day before, I separately called Kiena and Hei to my dormitory.
“Tomorrow’s the Student Ability Evaluation. You’re confident, right?”
The Joint Admission System applied only when we were in the same class.
Therefore, only if all of us—including Kiena and Hei—passed would the day finally come for me to advance to the 6th Class, which I had long desired, at the end of this year.
Hei nodded vigorously.
Then, claiming that his Physical had been upgraded, he demonstrated it right there.
He manifested a black flame sphere and swallowed it.
At once, Hei’s entire body burst into black flames.
It was the 모습 of someone who had now fully realized that he was a Double Caster and was using it without restraint.
“Looks like you won’t have any problems, Hei.”
“Really? So all that’s left is to pass now?”
Hei looked extremely excited.
“I’ve become a fully mature Lycan too! I can control all three now, Artel!”
Kiena said excitedly as well.
She looked like she wanted to summon them right away and show me, but since this was the dormitory, she refrained from doing so.
“Then let’s all do our best tomorrow.”
“Yeah!”
The moment the three of us shouted our resolve in the dormitory—
A notice flew in via a Mob.
[5th Class Student Ability Evaluation Notice]
The 5th Class Student Ability Evaluation will be conducted at 10 a.m. in the auditorium, targeting all students.
All students being evaluated must participate with their personal belongings packed (this is so that students who pass can head to the 6th Class immediately).
The evaluation order will proceed as follows.
I checked the evaluation order.
Kiena
Hei
Artel
Coincidentally, the three of us ended up taking the test last.
“Let’s all get ready.”
Before the day ended, I briefly stopped by the Secret Room of the library.
‘Day 128. The 4th Class is the same as ever (meaning there’s nothing noteworthy!). By the way, tomorrow is the Student Ability Evaluation. I guess it’s the same for the 5th Class, right? I’ll be joining you soon!’
It was Banshi, who had left a simple memo along with a fairly cute drawing now.
I hadn’t asked how the Student Ability Evaluation of the 4th Class was, but since Banshi hadn’t said anything in particular, I could only infer that it probably wasn’t that difficult.
‘Yeah, hurry up and come up.’
I left a perfunctory reply as well.
The day of the 5th Class Student Ability Evaluation.
Nylon gathered all six teachers at the training grounds.
Summoning, Earth, Wind, Water, Light, and Darkness.
Since Nylon was concurrently in charge of the Fire Element, these six were the teachers currently assigned to the 5th Class.
It was just before the Student Ability Evaluation was about to begin.
Naturally, the teachers lined up in front of Nylon with bewildered expressions.
“P-Professor. The Student Ability Evaluation is about to start. Why were we suddenly summoned……?”
One of the teachers asked.
“Ah, it’s nothing much. I called you because I doubted your capabilities.”
“Excuse me……?”
“The 5th Class is made up of students undergoing an advanced course. I suppose I just wanted to personally check whether you also have the capabilities befitting that.”
“Even so, why call us right before the Student Ability Evaluation starts? You could have done this after it was over.”
“That’s not something you need to worry about. There’s someone else who’ll be handling the evaluation.”
The method of tying up the teachers that I had mentioned to Etar before.
Nylon had deliberately called them now in order to carry it out.
“Why are you suddenly conducting a capability evaluation?”
Another objection followed.
It was the Darkness Element teacher, Draco Jeb.
“Well, it’s because the professor has officially changed. With my authority, I can do at least this much, can’t I?”
Nylon replied rather arrogantly, folding his arms.
It was a deliberately intended posture.
After all, the opponent was a mage from the Draco Family, for whom courtesy was a luxury.
“Who exactly is supposed to conduct the Student Ability Evaluation? All of us here are the assigned teachers.”
Jeb persistently latched onto that point.
“Why do you care, when you don’t even have any assigned students?”
“……What did you say?”
The two soon engaged in a tense battle of sharp glares.
The other teachers, overwhelmed by the killing intent in the air, could only shrink back and nervously watch the two.
“No matter if this is the Ed Branch School run by the Ed Family, is it really acceptable to pull such dirty tricks?”
“Dirty? What exactly?”
“To my eyes, it looks like nothing more than intentionally binding all the teachers in one place.”
“Yeah, that’s right. You saw it well.”
“…….”
He had tried to catch his opponent off guard with that remark, but when Nylon answered without the slightest hesitation, Jeb was left speechless.
Soon after, Nylon manifested a powerful barrier spell made of molten lava at the entrance of the training grounds and spoke.
It radiated heat intense enough to melt bones at a mere touch.
“Until my evaluation is over, no one leaves. The Student Ability Evaluation will be conducted directly by the Headmaster anyway, so the rest of you teachers should stop worrying about that and focus on my evaluation.”
“Heh, so that’s what you wanted after all. An excuse to let the Headmaster conduct the evaluation himself. It’s so dirty it’s childish—so much so that I’m at a loss for words.”
Jeb could easily tell why Nylon had gone to such lengths.
It was because of Artel of the 5th Class.
Since it was related to that student, wasn’t that exactly why he had bound all the teachers?
The other teachers, not fully grasping the situation, could only look on in confusion.
“Dirty, huh……. Well, as if your family’s any better.”
Nylon replied while staring straight into his eyes.
“What…… did you just say?”
With an insult aimed at his family, Jeb’s composure finally shattered.
“Then if you’re that dissatisfied, why don’t you be the first to receive my evaluation. I find your aptitude especially questionable.”
“Even if I die, I don’t know.”
The moment Jeb answered, black energy visibly unraveled around his body like shredded threads.
“At this opportunity, I’ll teach you personally—that the Ed Family can never surpass the Draco Family.”
“Delusions are free.”
Nylon confronted him head-on, and lava likewise began to shred apart like tangled threads.
“The other teachers should step back. If you get caught up and end up injured or unconscious, I won’t take responsibility.”
“Y-Yes…… yes!”
From the other teachers’ perspective, it was nothing more than shrimp getting crushed in a whale fight.
But soon, upon witnessing the magic of Professor Nylon and the Darkness Element teacher Jeb, their mouths fell open.
It was a banquet of red (赤) and black (黑) unlike anything they had ever seen.
‘Monsters like these…… were holding the same teaching positions as us……? These are family mages……?’
In an instant, the status of being a teacher felt utterly shabby.
If those two were butterflies freely spreading their wings and flying through the sky, then they themselves hadn’t even broken out of their eggs, let alone become caterpillars.
It was also the moment they saw with their own eyes what true power family mages possessed.
The ten students gathered in front of the auditorium at exactly 10 a.m., each carrying their own suitcase.
At the entrance to the auditorium, a Fire Element barrier spell had been deployed, designed so that only when it was a student’s turn and they stood at the front would the barrier be released.
‘Interesting. No one’s watching directly, yet it releases automatically like a machine.’
The 300 years during which I had been gone.
Given how long that was, it was the moment I directly confirmed that even standard barrier magic had undergone considerable advancement.
‘But still, did Nylon cast that barrier too? For something like that, it looks strangely high-level.’
Well, he was a teacher I had personally seen implement Orbification.
I had felt it since the 3rd Class, but mages of this era had all been raised to a higher baseline.
That barrier spell was just one example of it.
Thus, the first student went in, and in less than five minutes came back out, dragging their suitcase again.
The student’s shoulders drooped, and their expression was gloomy.
Looks like they failed.
Then the second, then the third.
Every student who entered came out after a fixed amount of time looking exactly the same.
Dragging their suitcase with slumped shoulders, returning to their dormitory.
That was all there was to the 모습 the students showed.
Then, when it became the next student’s turn, someone lightly tapped my shoulder.
“……What?”
It was Reina, the Light Elementalist who had sparred with me once before.
“It’s a farewell.”
“What farewell?”
“This noona is going to pass and head to the 6th Class. So take care. Kid Artel! Don’t cry saying you miss noona.”
I wasn’t even particularly close to Reina, so I had no idea why she was saying something like that.
No—this wasn’t the important part.
Reina clearly hadn’t developed any new magic.
She stubbornly clung to the Breath she had shown me before.
She was just using shallow tricks, constantly changing the appearance and method of manifestation to make it look like a different spell.
Reina went into the auditorium like that.
“Artel, what do you think? Do you think Reina will pass?”
Hei asked, and I answered firmly.
“No.”
No matter how free delusions might be, Reina had gone beyond delusion and was outright fabricating her own life.
As if I were an omniscient absolute being, what would happen five minutes later was vividly clear before my eyes.
‘She’ll come out dragging her suitcase with a gloomy expression and go back to the dormitory.’
And that became reality.
Etar was present in the 5th Class auditorium.
And the Student Ability Evaluation of the 5th Class, led by him, began.
A total of ten students.
A place where each student was evaluated one by one by observing the magic they had personally developed.
“Hello.”
The seventh student, Reina, bowed politely the moment she entered and greeted him.
“Is the Headmaster…… personally conducting the evaluation?”
“Why? Because I’m a Fire Elementalist, do you think you won’t receive a fair evaluation?”
“No, of course not! I’ve seen you in photos, but this is my first time seeing you in person, so I’m nervous.”
“Alright, then shall we begin the evaluation?”
Reina nodded and began to manifest the magic she had developed.
But at the same time, Etar frowned.
The method of manifestation, the appearance.
Everything was crudely strange, yet it was clearly a spell Etar knew.
“Stop.”
“……Pardon? Why?”
“Wasn’t this what you were trying to do?”
Etar asked as he demonstrated the exact same Fire Element Breath.
“…….”
“This is the worst. To try and deceive me by slightly changing the manifestation method and appearance of an existing spell.”
“That’s not…….”
In an instant, Reina looked like she was about to cry.
“There’s no need to continue the evaluation. Try again next year.”
“……Yes.”
Reina bowed her head deeply and, dragging her suitcase and showing a shabby retreating figure, was about to leave the auditorium—
“Student Reina.”
Etar suddenly called out to her.
Holding onto a sliver of hope, Reina answered brightly.
“Yes?”
“One thing I ask of you. Do not inform the students waiting outside that the Headmaster is personally conducting the evaluation. If it’s discovered, you will be expelled immediately.”
“……Understood.”
With that, Reina left, and Kiena, eighth in order, entered.
“Hello! Huh……? Aren’t you the Headmaster?”
“…….”
Etar couldn’t take his eyes off Kiena.
‘What is this…… why does it feel so unpleasant?’
From the small-framed student, he felt something indescribable—something he couldn’t quite put into words.