Chapter 238: Step Up

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A sensation of floating and slight intoxication.

We who had come to attend the class of Raidou-sensei, were surprised by the several tens of new students that were going to participate.

Since the turmoil with the variants, the light in the eyes of the students that attend this academy have changed quite a lot.

…Well, it was the same for us, in a different meaning though.

(This is…a barrier. But for what purpose?)

The moment the class begun, Raidou-sensei and Shiki-san were ‘cooperating’ to form some kind of magic.

And then, along with that sensation I felt not long ago, everyone was isolated in some sort of barrier.

The figures of Raidou-sensei and Shiki-san are nowhere to be seen.

(Eh? There’s no one else aside from me?!)

If it was only Shiki-san, the class would normally advance close to the boundaries of common sense, but in the case of Raidou-sensei, it doesn’t work that way.

That person does outrageous things at times.

For example, calling strong mamonos that I don’t even know where he brought them out from and have them fight the students.

…But lately, when Shiki-san leaves the class and only Raidou-sensei is left, he makes us do quite the absurd trainings.

Well, that means he is seriously looking at us and doing what he can, so it actually…makes me happy as well.

But in this time’s lesson where newcomers are participating, there’s no way those two are doing the same lesson for everyone.

Think.

In order to be employed in the Kuzunoha company, I have to get stronger.

And for that sake, the thing that I can’t neglect is to think and deal with the situations.

(Illusion magic huh. Isolation and illusion. They are caging us with that, most likely.)

My body can move.

But I am not even sure if I am actually moving it.

From the ground of the outskirt field, black muddy monsters come out and were approaching me.

I could feel clear hostility so I intercept them.

I can use my arrows and spells as normal.

They show effect.

But at this rate, there will be no end to it.

Since I have sensed this situation is illusion magic, the method to break this deadlock is to conquer the spell.

With the intention of confirming how much leeway I have, I purposely receive an attack that I can tell I will be able to recover from.

“!!”

It hurts.

It hurts quite a bit.

My skin was cut as normal and blood came out from it.

I immediately heal the wound with healing magic.

If it were the illusion magic we learn, even if it is magic that’s being strengthened with the barrier, I shouldn’t be receiving damage since I have already seen through it as an illusion.

But this is something that Raidou-sensei and Shiki-san cooperated to set up.

Common sense doesn’t work.

There might be the possibility that the barrier is only for isolation, and the illusion actually doesn’t have anything added to it.   

And in truth, I can’t sense the presence of Jin and Sif, who were right by my side, and the other members. I can’t even hear their voices.

Rather than fearing this situation, I could tell that fear of those two teachers was being born slightly inside of me.

Suddenly, the body of the black muddy mamonos had expanded, their bloodthirst had increased even more, and their movements had grown sharper.

I see, so that’s how it is.

What a bad natured illusion.

“But this is an illusion. Also, this is a class. That’s why…it can be broken. It can definitely be broken!”

There’s no way I can’t overcome this.

That’s one of the things I, Amelia Hopelace, have learned after being trained in Kuzunoha company.

As long as it is not actual combat, Raidou-sensei and Shiki-san rarely do things that are impossible to overcome.

In the days like today where everyone is made to do the same…the lesson’s content is not over with just this!

I parry the muddy mamonos and defeat them while I move around and search for seams in the barrier or any hint that can serve to break the illusion.

Without taking much time, I found it.

That place where the scenery was slightly warping.

I boost my magic power, clad it into my arrow, and shoot it there.

“I did it!” (Amelia)

I could feel that peculiar sensation of a barrier crumbling.

As if a thin skin was being peeled, the world with black muddy mamonos overflowing was disappearing, and I returned to the place that has the same landscape.

I could tell that the upper half of my body had sprung up.

So I was…sleeping.

I look at my surroundings.

Jin and Daena were the same and were looking around restlessly.

…So I wasn’t the first.

There was slight regret in my chest.

The words Shiki-san used to warn me a number of times resurfaced: ‘You don’t have as much talent as the others’.

Even when I sacrifice my sleep time to train, I don’t know if I will be able to surpass my limits.

And in reality, even when I am training like this, there’s Jin or someone else that’s on par or ahead of me. Really, geniuses are so troublesome.

But…that’s fine.

At the very least, I am able to keep their pace.

If I just close the distance bit by bit, I will someday be able to catch up with them…right?

“…Eh?”

As I was thinking this, Raidou-sensei and Shiki-san were looking at me and were showing a surprised face.

What’s wrong?

…Did they think…I was less capable than this?

Uh, if that’s the case, that’s pretty shocking.

At our surroundings, there’s still Sif, Yuno, Izumo, and Misura, who are groaning in their sleep.

The new kids are all wiped out and writhing.

Being in third place is, well, not that bad, I suppose.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

“Jin beat them all down and escaped by chance, Daena used strengthening magic on his fist and found the seam by chance.” (Makoto)

“Yeah.” (Shiki)

“They were unintended escapes.” (Makoto)

“Right. It seems like we will need to place restrictions the next time we do something like this.” (Shiki)

“Tomoe, who is specialized in this, would have been able to do better than this though. Well then, I will head to where those two are.” (Makoto)

“Yes. I have prepared your special bow and arrows. Go ahead.” (Shiki)

What Shiki gave me were not arrows with an arrowhead, but arrows that have a suction pad as their head.

The bow is also not the same as the one I use normally, but a special one that I use at the academy with the students.

Moreover, it is quite the crude one.

It is a lot smaller and weaker than the bow and arrows that I first received from the Highland Orcs in this world.

In order to work as a teacher in this school, I learned Feather Touch *EX* to hold back, but Shiki said that even with that, people will be at death’s door. <EX is a term in games suggesting that this is an improved version of original.>

I could only laugh at that.

When I was sniping my students in the lessons, I obviously didn’t aim for their vitals.

But Jin and the others are already at the phase where they are doing a step up, so it seems like Shiki thought of a way I can properly use a bow…and this is the result of it.

Really, how did it turn out this way?

“…Hoh~”

“Hm?”

Shiki let out a voice as if he didn’t expect something.

I search for the reason of it, and look around the students that are still sleeping and I see that one other student had woken up.

Heh~, I can understand why Shiki is surprised.

It is Amelia.

It wasn’t by chance, she actually broke through the illusion properly.

That’s impressive.

Just in case, I made it so that the difficulty of breaking the illusion lowered as time passed on.

Even when taking that into account, the time Amelia took to wake up was fast.

In essence, she is at the top.

“Is Amelia’s resistance against magic strong?” (Makoto)

“Her resistance to magic? That’s not something that increases often, but…this is surprising. No matter how much she has trained, that girl had…” (Shiki)

“That girl is Shiki’s favorite after all. She is giving out an aura of ‘I love Shiki-san’ from her whole body, but well, that’s not bad.” (Makoto)

“Raidou-sama, it is not as if I am teaching Amelia because of a reason like that, I just…” (Shiki)

“Yeah yeah, I understand. If that really were your reason, in your case, it would end up with you teaching practically all the female students and taking care of them.” (Makoto)

It would really turn out that way, no joking.

Well, anyways, it seems like a new talent of Amelia has been discovered, maybe?

That girl is pretty versatile in a lot of things after all.

She has a tendency to only have small grains in each part, but it is impressive that she is able to do so many things.

“…Regarding the part-time jobs, it is certainly true that more than 80% of the female students said that they wanted to take part in it, but…how to say it, it is vexing.” (Shiki)

“Well then, I will be going there as Raidou-sensei and corner those three a little more with my bow and arrow.” (Makoto)

Rather than archery, this reminds me of when I played at the shooting stands in the festivals.

It is now safe to shoot at the vitals I have been avoiding before, so let’s aim for them.

Even if it’s not a threat, receiving attacks at the places that are directly connected to death is dangerous in itself, and I think they will seriously try to oppose it.

Ah, right.

This bow is like a Youkyuu. <A small bow shot while sitting. Popular in the Edo period.>

It gives off that kind of feeling.

It has suction pads though.

I have to try hard in a different meaning so that I don’t end up playing around.

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆  

“Sen…pai…if you continue taking a class like that, one of these days, you will die.”

“Shut up. Also, I won’t die, so don’t worry. At worst, they will bring us back right as we are about to anyways.” (Jin)

“Jin, instead of calling it not dying, it is more like…we are not allowed to.” (Misura)

“Stop it…Misura. Jin, Amelia, and I, had to face hell again after we conquered that illusion, you know? Anyone would want to vent some steam.” (Daena)

“That was…how to say it, it was practically horror. You three, how many tens of times did you die?”

“After somehow waking up, I was watching together with Onee-chan. I wonder, is it really possible to hit the head, heart, and neck so frequently without any magic? I began thinking that he was holding some sort of incredible instant-kill weapon.” (Yuno)

“…Hey.” (Amelia)

“What is it, Amelia?” (Izumo)

After safely(?) finishing the class of Raidou-sensei that seems to have stepped up in difficulty, we were doing the customary contemplation meeting.

A number of *kouhais* still had pale faces, and even with that, they still stuck to us all the way here. They followed us to the library. <kouhai=juniors>

The reason why I immediately rejected the words of the kouhai A that instantly began crying, was because after breaking out from the illusion magic, we faced the bow and arrows of Raidou-sensei and received fatal wounds several times -no exaggeration.

We could tell that he was holding back, but that in itself was frustrating. He hit us repeatedly.

I can’t deny that I feel like crying.

Within that group, Amelia who was as equally dejected and silent, had spoken.

Izumo noticed it and asked Amelia, and she laughed weakly and continued her words.

“He said that he didn’t aim for the eyes because, even with suction pads, it was still dangerous. It is true that if you are using a bow, shooting at the eyes is pretty effective and we are also taught that it is a place that can bring certain death. But from how it felt, I think that he would have been able to shoot at both of our eyes even when we were moving all around…” (Amelia)

Eyes.

Seriously?

“…Ah right, Sensei spoke about that with father before. He said that using black coated arrows to shoot at the opponent’s eyes was really effective in night warfare. He said that if there’s moonlight, you can shoot as much as you wanted and the bow would be peerless.” (Yuno)

Yuno threw in information of Raidou-sensei.

“It is not that the bow is peerless, but more like, Raidou-sensei himself is though.”

“Even with a bow and arrows that are practically toys, when it hits you, it still reverberated in my body. Sensei and Shiki-san said that it doesn’t have any power, but I saw my life flash before my eyes several times.” (Daena)

Daena said this with eyes as if his soul had left him.

I felt the same way.

Sensei said things like: ‘This is no time to be having *revolving lanterns*’, so he probably has had those kind of experiences before. <the moment life flashes before your eyes>

In other words, there’s people out there that are able to make that Raidou-sensei feel the same way as us.

I don’t want to think of that.

I feel like I will have to do my best so that I don’t enter that state.

How fearsome is the revolving lantern state.

“At any rate…even though my main job is mage, it took me more time to break through the spell compared to Jin and Daena. That’s shocking.” (Sif)

Sif was feeling down.

Now that she mentions it, in this time’s illusion magic, Sif took quite a long time to break through it.

…In my case, I was rampaging around and it went well. That’s what I was about to say, but I refrained from.

That doesn’t serve as comfort.

“Same here. It made me realize that increasing the amount of elements you can use and the cards in your hand doesn’t mean that your field of vision has expanded.”

“To think that even you senpais are having it hard…”

All of the candidate kouhais that followed us all the way here are the people that had climbed from the academies at the surrounding towns and reached all the way here to the main academy of Rotsgard.

They are a group that had focused in one talent to begin with, so when coming to the main academy, it gets difficult to satisfy the level of the other fields that are being requested.

I also don’t like the policy of the main academy to demand a minimum level of skill in set areas from all the students though.

In a sense, the lessons of Raidou-sensei have the same policy, so it probably feels even more difficult because of that.

“…The first time we took the class of Raidou-sensei, we were simply showed a mock battle between Raidou-sensei and Shiki-san. At that time, we were probably a lot weaker than you guys here, so they probably didn’t do something like breaking through illusion magic so suddenly because of that. That’s why…I might be slightly jealous of you guys. I don’t have any intentions of having you guys catch up or surpass me, but I can tell you this: as long as you follow the lessons of that sensei, you definitely won’t get weaker.” (Jin)

I don’t know the real intentions of those two. But even if for a bit, I certainly did feel this way.

That’s why…I don’t care if they stay in the class or not, that’s their own choice, but I at least encourage them.

“Right. At the very least, I don’t regret at all continuing until now. Your career choices will definitely widen. If you try hard, you can even get bonus training, you know? That training is also incredible, so I recommend it.” (Misura)

Misura smilingly continues after me.

But at the latter half, I felt like darkness showed slightly.

Well, he is trying to encourage them like I am doing, so let’s not touch that topic. Yeah.

“Saying things like: ‘I am going to die’, is too soon. Continue, there’s no problem. This is the class in this academy that can make you the strongest. I can say this with certainty. If you still want to run away after we have said all this…being married as a student is the best, you know? All your escape routes disappear completely. Your wife and child are the strongest.” (Daena)

Daena was…I am not sure if he is trying to encourage them or implicitly deny marriage.

It is true that in the beginning, he was the one who wanted to escape the most.

At those times, he muttered things like: ‘I have a family’ and ‘I have to show results, or else’ as he continued climbing.

“If you are a mage, this class here will change your world. You will have to train your body no matter what after all. You will be taught that it is necessary. Your brain and body; you will be able to train both. There’s no class that can compare. You can tell that to the other kids that are not here. With more numbers, the difficulty of Sensei’s class will increase after all. It is something to be thankful for, but this is a powerful medicine that you are required to take in diluted at first though.” (Izumo)

Izumo makes a bitter smile as he shows the muscles in his arm.

Even if slender, it has a number of scars on it, and moreover, there’s clearly more muscle in it than before.

His pure white skin was now tanned.

Even as a mage, what serves as your foundation is in the end, your body.

This is also a basic of Raidou-sensei’s class.

“Hm…I don’t really have anything special to say though. You guys are all people that have climbed up with your own efforts instead of relying on your pedigree, right?  Then you must already understand that it will feel easier eventually, and that you will use up all your strength eventually, right?” (Yuno)

Because Yuno comes from a household with a big company, she is seen as an *Ojou-sama*. <Daughter of a high-class family.>

Or more like, she is actually an Ojou-sama.

Rembrandt company has enough capital to buy a small country.

But from her words, rather than having the eyes of an Ojou-sama, it looked more like the eyes of the hungry workers that work in a company.

“Right. It is assured that you won’t die, but if you didn’t have the resolve of betting your very self, you wouldn’t gone through the trouble of coming all the way here. There’s plenty of easier paths you could have taken after all. This is only a possibility, but there’s the chance that you can get close to Raidou-sensei and the Kuzunoha company, you know?” (Sif)

Sif is more of the utility view huh.

But I concur with the ‘assured that you won’t die’.

If you don’t test yourself now, lay yourself bare and train to your bones, for what reason did you even come to this academy?

If you are only trying to graduate from here to gain status, you wouldn’t even get close to Raidou-sensei.

Because it will only make it hard for you.

“…Your trump cards and your best; show them all here. No matter what you bring out, no matter how much confidence you have in them, they definitely won’t work. Consider it a blessing that you will be able to learn this in class rather than in actual combat. Become stronger and stronger, and find the next stage. Within the lessons of Sensei and Shiki-san, we have learned new skills that we wouldn’t have been able to think of before. If you want to find real trump cards that you can really rely on…there’s no place as better as this to come up with those ideas. I am looking forward to the day when you guys can settle down as our kouhais.” (Amelia)

It seems like Amelia is trying to teach them the importance of showing all of their power.

At first, we also tried to hide our trump cards a lot and tried not to show it to others.

But that was truly pointless.

We should have shown them and quickly aim for higher heights.

If they are going to stay in this class and do this from the very start, the things they can obtain will increase.

The time to breakup the meeting has come, and the kouhais muttered: ‘we will try and do our best’. Looking at their visage, I made a wry smile.

Now then, I wonder how many people will remain.

Sensei said that he presently didn’t have any plans of cancelling classes, and the reconstruction of the town has finished its first stage.

Train and be trained.

My student life will change little by little.

I am looking forward to that.

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