LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 104: Difference Between Individuals
"Alright students, pay attention here now, we are about to start the rapid elimination part of the trial in a few minutes..."
Hearing the words of the academy staff, the freshmen students starts perking up as all of a sudden, they felt the heaviness of the matter bearing down on them, the fact that they are about to compete for supremacy in their own grade level making nearly all of them shake, some from excitement, some from nervousness, and some for other more perverse reason.
Despite the majority of the freshmen acting like this though, there are some who appears to be unaffected by the thing they just heard from the academy's staff, acting as if this major event for fellow freshmen of theirs is just nothing in their eyes.
Of course, among those nonchalant enough to act like that, mostly, are the collections of the greatest geniuses among the freshmen, people who are literally a cut above the rest not only in terms of their talents, but also their actual combat prowess, and as for the rest of the people who can act like this, they are mostly ones who either thinks too highly of themselves or too lowly of their opponents.
"I heard that there are quite a lot of monsters in our year level..."
"Yeah no shit, haven't you seen that duel yesterday?"
"Those guys are outliers, we can't really compare ourselves to them"
"That means they have guaranteed spots for that Primaria Class already"
"Unless of course...."
With a considerably plenty people looking at the group of two young men and two ladies comfortably talking among themselves, the supposed leader of this group couldn't help but notice the gazes landing upon them, making him turn around to see whoever it is that is the source of these gazes.
Of course, knowing what sort of trouble this emperor-like young man is, those people who are just observing and talking about him instantly averted their gazes away from him the moment that they thought he would turn his eyes towards them.
"Hey, Diluc, you wanna deal with them later in the arena?" pointing at the gigantic arena right in the middle of the structure, the young elven duchess said with the warmest smile on her face, something that any men of any age will decide worthy of dying for had it not been for the sharp, violent glint of light coming from the depth of her eyes.
"No need to stress too much on those things, we'll deal with them as we go" looking at the two elven beauties waiting for his reply, the emperor-like young man then answered while shrugging his shoulders in response.
"He's right, Alfia, we might as well conserve as much energy as we can if fellow freshmen will not attack us" the elven princess added with a nod of affirmation to the words of the young man, the two of them having their gazes moving on each other, the young man nodding at her with a smile causing the elven princess to avert her gaze from him.
"T-the plan is good already, we can stick with it..." looking a bit timidly towards the two elven royalties, the frail-looking Michael pointed out a bit shakingly, his words a bit more comfortable than how he usually is whenever he is talking with anybody else, a thing that Diluc notices as well.
Hearing a large trace of decisiveness and firmness on his voice though, Diluc couldn't help but nod to himself as he felt like he is, in one way or another, manages to influence this usually meek and timid young man to express his own thoughts.
With that, the four of them runs the plan on their minds again, thinking of possible strategies or techniques that they had missed, with their leader even jokingly saying something that outsiders will believe as utterly ridiculous rambling of a deranged.
"What if I just push everyone out and the four of us remains?" muttering to himself, Diluc unknowingly made the three feel quite threatened with his suggestions, not because they fear that the young man will throw them out as well, but rather they are threatened thinking of just what sort of thing the young man will do to push out all masters of magic and martial art the same age as them, with apparently the 'same' talent as them.
Despite this crazy suggestion being off the table for Diluc's group though, this also starts the spark of ideas in the head of some of his group, some even being interesting enough that they even managed to integrate them into their plans.
And with that, talking among themselves waiting for a few more minutes, the time passes by quickly, with the very same male academy staff appearing right in front of the crowd with a presentable uniform of the academy.
"All right children, listen up because this uncle will only say it once..." the man said as loud as he can, pulling towards him the attention of those students who has yet to stop talking among themselves, said students feeling quite surprised the moment that they heard the thunderous, shouting voice of the man, almost as if they are in the military rather than the academy.
"First and foremost, no killing shall happen within the arena, and any remote attempt of doing so will be punishable by suspension at least, and expulsion at most"
"Second, just like what the principal said just yesterday, students are allowed to use any normal weapon they want, but other than that, any sort of supplementaries shall be banned, pills and magic weapons included, of course, if you can craft it yourself within the confines of the competition, then we are not going to prevent you from using them during a fight"
"And lastly, observe respect for each other for goodness sake!!! we are educated people, and you are geniuses who managed to enter, or even surpass the standards of the academy, so for the good of everyone, I hope that you all be a bit more responsible compared to the classes who had come before yours"
As the academy staff said such words, the students couldn't help but smile to themselves as they knew that at the very least, they are not going to die in a competition meant to discover who are the people who are meant to be on the Primaria Class, and this liberation from the grasp of death alone makes most of the shaking students feel a bit safe once again, allowing them to gain some of their confidence back in order to prepare for that match-up.
For those who had quite the confidence in their talents though, they just smile before shrugging off this rules, thinking to themselves that even with other people ganging up on them, there won't be any problem dealing with them since the disparity between strength is quite the significant, or rather, large amount.
"Alright, so much of the mundane things... I am here today because the principal is currently busy dealing with things that her martial sister request her of..." remembering the white haired, horned beauty and how she looks whenever she fights with practically anyone, the academy staff couldn't help but shiver a bit as the image of her fighting in a bloody battlefield appears in his mind, something about her just scaring the living hell out of weak willed people.
Fortunately for him, he's a cut above the rest, hence he is just often scared a lot whenever he encounters the principal in that state, a thing that is really quite rare for a staff of his level.
"Now, I heard from her that she's finished with the thing she is currently dealing with and about to return to the academy, please look forward to her arrival" the academy staff then said with a forced smile on his face, thinking of completely different things compared to what he is talking about.
'Please don't come back too early you might ruin the selection for the Primaria Class again...' the academy staff thought to himself as he recalls how the principal joins in on the fun whenever she laid her eyes upon interesting students, and with her being the one with the biggest say within the academy, they can do nothing to stop her from doing whatever she wants, even if that includes 'sparring' with a young talent that enters her eyes.
And of course, due to this, the task of cleaning up and dealing with the consequences of her actions is something that falls completely into the hands of staffs like them, meaning that double the work for them.
'It's not like I can complain, she increases the pay of those who works harder so she's clearly someone who appreciates us, its just her antics...' thinking of this, the academy staff stops before he can think of something related to this any further out of fear for the principal, composing himself before he starts announcing the start of the Primaria Class's student selection.