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The year 2095 AD, mid July.
The week after the first sester's finals were over for the National Magic University affiliated First High, the students devoted all their energy towards preparing for the Nine Schools Competition during the sumr. However, he
Tatsuya Shiba that is, was completely out of tune with such school spirit. This was partially due to the fact that his logical nature overrode his emotions. That being said, the primary reason for his being at school today was because the faculty had summoned him for a eting in regards to his exam scores.
"Tatsuya."
"Leo...... Why is everyone here?"
Having finally escaped from the Faculty Room, Tatsuya found his classmates Saijou Leonhart, Chiba Erika, and Shibata Mizuki waiting for him outside.
Tatsuya's little sister Miyuki was part of the Student Council, which was currently in the middle of preparations for the Nine Schools Competition in the School Council Room, so she wasn't there.
As if to replace Miyuki, Miyuki's classmates Mitsui Honoka and Kitayama Shizuku were there with worried expressions.
The Faculty Room was located on the teacher's floor, which was separate from where the students usually attended classes.
However, that did not an students did not pass by.
Regardless of whether the passersby were of the sa grade or even upperclassn, everyone snuck glances over at the five people surrounding Tatsuya.
Which was only natural. They stood out. A lot.
This was not a distinction reserved for today's situation, this was always the case.
Tatsuya had been appointed to the Public Morals Committee even as a
Course 2 student and, through his nurous accomplishnts during recruitnt week, had proved that his selection was no fluke, ultimately resulting in his fa spreading across campus. While his single-handed annihilation of the terrorist organization had not been publicized, his outstanding success during recruitnt week was enough to garner quite a lot of attention from his classmates and even female upperclassn.
Erika was a publicly acknowledged beauty.
Owing to her constant proximity to Miyuki and Erika, Mizuki's appearance seed to pale slightly in comparison. That being said, her elegant and refined beauty was rated quite highly among male upperclassn.
Despite being constantly ridiculed by Erika (or maybe "constantly bickering" would be better), Leo's Germanic features and superb athletic abilities identified him as "soone worth noting" among the female population (the "pure Japanese style" that Leo refers to would be black-haired and black-eyed).
As for Honoka and Shizuku, they were two superb students even among the 1st Year Course 1 students. Their appearance would easily qualify within the boundaries of cuteness (Strictly in terms of appearance, Tatsuya would be the most mundane).
Whether they wanted to or not, a group that transcended the Course 1 and 2 boundary and socialized together naturally drew extra attention.
Even so, possibly because this cohort's 1st Year Representative, Student Council mber and far fad beauty Miyuki wasn't here, there were actually significantly fewer onlookers than usual.
However, the people who paid these glances no heed whatsoever were unexpectedly close by.
For example, this man right here.
"It should be us asking what you're up to, right? Why did you get called to the Faculty Room?"
Hearing Leo's question, Tatsuya imdiately understood.
It appeared that his friend was concerned on his behalf. For a mont, Tatsuya contemplated fabricating a reason to divert them, but he changed his mind upon reflecting that they deserved his honesty.
"The teachers interrogated
about the technical skills portion of the exam."
Hearing this, Leo squinted his eyes in displeasure.
"......Interrogate sounds a tad suspicious. So what did they ask about?"
"Long story short, they wanted to know if I was tanking the test." Erika was the first to express her outrage at Tatsuya's answer.
"What the heck? Tatsuya-kun doesn't benefit in the slightest for doing that. Only a moron would ask that."
Erika's observation was not wrong, so Tatsuya could only smile back wryly. It was another story altogether if soone cheated to get a higher score, but there was no point in intentionally getting a lower score. This suspicion was just as ridiculous as Erika surmised.
"However, I can understand why the teachers think this way."
"Why?"
Shizuku's soft words bewildered Mizuki. "Tatsuya-kun's scores are just that astounding."
Tatsuya did not preen at Honoka's answer, but being overly humble might elicit a negative reaction as well. Unable to decide between the two, Tatsuya could only smile wryly again.
For First High
the final exams for magic high schools included magic theory examinations based on recall and technical skills examinations.
On the other hand, language arts, math, science, sociology and other mundane topics were graded based on daily howork. This was an institution that focused on high quality training for Magicians, so from the school's perspective, having the students focus too much on subjects outside of magic was redundant (Tatsuya and company make the distinction between Magicians and Magic Artificers only because their training naturally branches out in two directions. Normally, society will lump Magic Artificers into the sa category as Magicians, but will not use "Magic Artificers" to refer to Magic Researchers who cannot use magic).
In terms of magic theory, the mandatory classes covered the foundations of magic learning and magic theory on the test; two additional topics were picked from the electives magic geotry, magic languages, magic botany, and magic architecture; as well as one selected from either magic history and magic systems theory, for a total of five topics.
Magic technical skills were asured through application ability (the speed of magic design), magic tolerance (the scale of the Magic Sequence), interference ability (strength of rewriting Eidos) as well as the combined Magic Power given from the culmination of all three, thus resulting in four scores.
Students with superlative scores would have their nas and ranking publicly announced on the campus website.
The 1st Year students' results had already been announced.
Those who had earned the highest combined scores between magic theory and technical skills were completely as expected.
First Place: Shiba Miyuki.
Second Place: Mitsui Honoka.
Third Place: Kitayama Shizuku only a few points behind.
The first three were all nas from Class A, and it wasn't until Fourth place that a male student nad "Tomitsuka" from Class B appeared. Beyond that, familiar nas included Morisaki at Ninth Place. The first twenty spots were all Course 1 students.
A glance at the Technical Skills portion would yield the sa result. While the placents swapped around a little, the first twenty places were still occupied by Course 1 students.
Strictly speaking, First Place was Miyuki, Second Place was Shizuku, Third Place was Morisaki, Fourth was Honoka. Combined score notwithstanding, Class A dominated the Technical Skills portion to the extent that it caused their teachers considerable headache (Class distribution was supposed to be split evenly through A to D, so this sort of academic showing obviously revealed that Class A grasped the materials for the first sester much better than the other three).
However, if based solely on the Magic Theory portion, an entirely different and astounding picture revealed itself. First Place: Class E Shiba Tatsuya.
Second Place: Class A Shiba Miyuki.
Third Place: Class E Yoshida Mikihiko.
Honoka was fourth, Shizuku at tenth, Mizuki at seventeenth, Erika in twentieth, while Leo and Morisaki fell out of the rankings.
When separating Course 1 and 2 students, the difference in technical skills played a heavy role. However, the general consensus was that students that scored poorly on technical skills would also have a hard ti grasping the theory as well. Because of all the complex concepts, it was very hard to understand the theory without perceiving it firsthand.
Even so, two of the top three were Course 2 students.
That alone was an unprecedented situation, yet Tatsuya's accomplishnt was even more amazing. His average from the theory portion
not the total
was easily a dozen points higher than the second place score, leaving him in sole and undisputed possession of First Place.
"Even if theory and technical skills are two different things, there should be a limit."
"But I don't believe Tatsuya-kun would tank his score."
After Shizuku objectively expressed her opinion, Mizuki countered back in a displeased tone.
"Of course Shizuku knows that."
"But the teachers aren't like us, since we know what kind of person Tatsuya-kun is."
Honoka and Erika both started to smooth things over.
"Yeah, they only know us from the other side of the terminal screen......"
Just as Leo said, this was a major deficiency in modern education. Even if modern teachers personally ca to the lecture hall like teachers from the previous century, it still wouldn't guarantee that they could fully understand their students.
To address this problem, the school had created opinion boxes to replace last century's office hours system.
"......How about asking Haruka-chan?"
Counselors handled the situations where students were unsatisfied with the school or other on-campus incidents. Discounting whether the label "Haruka-chan" was appropriate, the suggestion itself bore rit, but Tatsuya sharply shook his head.
"I talked with Ono-sensei yesterday. In truth, she inford
about all the major questions they would ask today."
"Such an unreliable teacher."
"Don't be that way. New counselors don't possess much in terms of authority anyways."
It was Tatsuya's turn to smile gently and comfort the irritated Erika. "......Tatsuya-kun must've been even harsher than , right?"
As Erika guessed, Tatsuya's words were considerably more confrontational.
"Whoa?"
Erika's precise retort caused Leo to elicit a strange noise. "......What is it?"
Erika squinted as she asked.
"This woman is actually capable of saying sothing serious." Leo widened his eyes as he softly muttered to himself. "Silence!"
Erika smacked him with a rolled up notepad.
As a matter of fact, even in an age where digital information was so common, notepads were still prevalent. Especially for magic-based schools, during the teaching of magic languages, the very motion of "writing" was in itself an important act. Since teachers primarily used pictures and diagrams in magic geotry, using a notepad to record the drawings was vastly easier compared to using a terminal, so magic high school students were more likely to carry notepads than students from normal schools. That being said, the exact reason why Erika carried around a notepad despite not being in class remained a mystery.
"Ow......"
Leo was unable to dodge the incoming blow from the notepad and crouched down, holding his head in pain. It wasn't like he was just sitting there taking the hits without trying to resist, but currently, Erika's smiting speed was much greater than Leo's evasion speed, so (?)in this situation, whenever he unilaterally decided to butt in, he would be unilaterally smote.
"......You violence addict, my head isn't a drum!"
Leo lodged a serious protest, which was casually ignored by Erika.
Probably due to the fact that this scene had endlessly repeated itself over the last three months, Mizuki only let out a helpless smile and left them to it, rather than panicking like she had in the beginning.
Also, she used this to redirect the tangent back to the original topic, avoiding any possible escalation of the conflict.
"Tatsuya-kun, did you solve the teachers' misunderstanding?"
"Well, yes, on so level."
"On so level?"
At Mizuki's concise question, Tatsuya supplied further details with an unwilling expression on his face.
"The teachers understand that I wasn't intentionally getting them wrong, but they still advised
to transfer."
"Transfer?"
"Why? Why would they do that?"
Mizuki and Honoka both shouted out with their faces completely pale, while the other three wore similar expressions.
"Among the Nine Schools, Fourth High is renowned for their specialty in Magic Research, so the teachers suggested I transfer there. I declined, of course."
Two people let out sighs of relief, while two others looked furious. The forr two were Mizuki and Honoka, the latter Leo and Erika.
The last mber of this conversation wore an unreadable poker face.
"......So if soone doesn't excel in technical skills, then they should join a school that doesn't emphasize technical skills at all, isn't that completely self-contradictory for a school? I can understand if soone's grades were bad and they couldn't keep up in class, but that's obviously not the case with Tatsuya."
"Probably because he's an eyesore. Maybe Tatsuya-kun knows more about magic than the teachers themselves."
"Relax, you two."
If left alone, Leo and Erika would only feed off each other's fury, so Tatsuya stepped in to extinguish them.
"It's just as Leo said, barely passing is still passing, so there's nothing that would necessitate a transfer. It's possible that the teachers only had my best interests at heart. Regardless, even if that was the case, these best interests possess no empathy, and are solely in place to protect themselves."
Tatsuya's soft tone did nothing to cover his acidic assessnt, causing the originally furious pair to shrink away. This was precisely the cooling effect that Tatsuya aid for, and while the thod may be called vile, but alas, the result was not the most ideal.
"At the end of the day, I think that teachers shouldn't be mistaken in the first place."
Just as everyone was hesitant towards what to say next, Shizuku spoke up in a singular manner that was neither supportive nor critical. From the way her comnt relaxed the tension caused by Tatsuya's mocking words, the overall effect would probably be categorized as supportive.
"Fourth High doesn't scoff at technical skills, but when compared to the combat-centric magic that would be expressed in the Nine Schools Competition, they are more interested in further intricate techniques, the more complex and procedures the better."
"Is that so? Shizuku-chan, you know quite a lot about this."
"That's because my cousin studies at Fourth High."
Hearing Shizuku's answer to Mizuki, Honoka and the other four people said "So that's how it is" as they nodded. Given that this ca from a student attending Fourth High, this should be a reliable source of information.
As everyone professed agreent to these words, they also sprouted considerable mistrust towards the teacher that summoned Tatsuya.
However, this group of individuals wouldn't focus their attentions on a stranger (the teacher) who wasn't with them at the ti.
"Speaking of which, it's almost ti for the Nine Schools Competition, right?"
Leo probably recalled what Shizuku was saying earlier, to which Tatsuya nodded at his inquiry.
"Miyuki is already complaining. There are a lot of things to account for, including vehicles, tools, and uniforms."
"Isn't Miyuki-chan also participating in the competition? That sounds tough."
Mizuki wasn't being overly polite, but she was honestly concerned on Miyuki's behalf.
"However, Miyuki should be able to cruise during the newcors' competition, so the preparation work should be more intensive."
Erika replied in a manner that half supported and half refuted the earlier sentint.
"Don't be overconfident. The scion of the Ichijou Family started attending Third High this year."
Shizuku's objection was a little off the mark. The official and newcors competitions in the Nine Schools Competition were separated by gender, so there was no way Miyuki would go against the young master from the Ichijou Family.
That being said, no one intentionally retorted at this.
"Is that so......"
"You say Ichijou, as in Ichijou from the Ten Master Clans?"
From their heartfelt expressions of surprise, this appeared to be the first ti Erika and Leo found out that soone in their year was descended from the Ten Master Clans. Mizuki didn't seem too astounded, maybe she knew sothing about the "scion of the Ichijou
Family".
"That might be a tough opponent. That being said, Shizuku you sure know a lot."
"Shizuku is a die hard fan of 'Monolith Code', so she watches the Nine Schools Competition every year, right?"
Honoka, who knew Shizuku as well as she knew herself, answered Erika's question.
"......Hm, yeah."
Hearing Honoka answer for her, the normally expressionless Shizuku nodded in slight embarrassnt. Honoka owed Tatsuya a favor, so it wasn't surprising for her to be interested in Tatsuya. However, Shizuku was different; she only knew Tatsuya because her best friend Honoka was interested in him, as well as the fact that he was Miyuki's older brother. Initially, Shizuku had only comnted from the periphery, but gradually she had lowered her guard and started expressing herself openly.
"Now that you ntion it, besides the All-Japanese and the International University Intramural, 'Monolith Code' can only be seen at the Nine Schools Competition."
Standing diagonally across from the embarrassed Shizuku, Tatsuya nodded upon hearing Honoka's answer, wearing an expression that signified that he understood that sentint.
Nine Schools Competition was an inter-school competition between high schools affiliated with magic universities. In other words, it was an internal competition that happened to be open for public viewing.
That was because the Nine Schools Competition was one of the few stages that provided magic competition as entertainnt.
Every year, a total of 1200 students entered their first year at the nine magic high schools.
In comparison, there were anywhere between 1200 and 1500 young n and won of age 15 every year who developed enough magic talent to be accepted.
In other words, for the youths that manifested magic talent, if they aid to beco Magicians or Magic Artificers, almost every single one of them would enter one of the nine magic high schools.
So the magic competitions at the high school level, besides kenjutsu, martial arts, and a few others, were completely monopolized by the nine magic high schools.
In order to allow the general public to better understand and beco invested in magic competitions, as well as to further society's acknowledgent of magic, the Nine Schools Competition had beco one of the few major events to propagate these ideas.
"Our toughest opponent this year is going to be Third High, right?"
"Probably."
Knowing this to be Shizuku's area of expertise, Erika specifically asked for her opinion. In response, Shizuku simply nodded happily.
"And this year you're not in the audience, but one of the contestants, right?"
Shizuku was Second Place in technical skills for their year; so even if the official roster hadn't been publicized yet, Shizuku was like Miyuki in that they were guaranteed to be selected.
"Yeah......"
Hearing Mizuki's question, Shizuku quietly nodded in response, her face illuminated with motivation.
After finals were over, Tatsuya spent almost every afternoon in the HQ of the Public Morals Committee.
Imdiately after sumr vacation, the election for the new Student Council President would be held.
After a new President was elected, a new Public Morals Committee would be selected, along with its new corresponding Chief based on the new elections.
According to tradition...... More like according to bad habits, there had never been a smooth transfer between Chiefs of the Committee. More often than not, the unorganized activities record and current mbers were tossed to the incoming Chief to handle.
That being said, when Mari took over as Chief during her first year, there was no problem with the transfer the following year. However, the 2nd Year students in her Public Morals Committee had insufficient experience, so Mari wished to minimize the confusion during the transfer of power between Chiefs.
Regarding all the docunts necessary for the transfer, Mari tossed that responsibility to Tatsuya.
"I'm starting to think I'm a goody two-shoes......"
"A goody two-shoes that's bad to the core? I think this dual nature of yours is quite interesting."
"............"
This comnt was overly pertinent, rendering Tatsuya unable to reply.
"However, this ti I'm very grateful for your good side, since without your help, we would only be repeating past disasters."
Mari comforted him in this way probably because she felt a little guilty seeing Tatsuya silently plugging away at his work.
Yet, Tatsuya did not possess split personalities, nor was he rely helping to organize the material. He was the only one organizing the materials.
These words achieved no comforting effect whatsoever. "Even so, you've started preparing for the transfer very early?"
Tatsuya asked a piercing question without stopping his hands from their work.
The docunts he was preparing would be completed in a week.
If no further input of additional details was needed, this would create a two month buffer zone.
Also, there was no guarantee that major events or incidents would not occur during this ti period.
This wasn't the type of material that should be created as soon as possible.
"Once we start preparing for the Nine Schools Competition, we won't have the ti to compile this. There's a mountain of things to do, from verifying the roster, training, adjusting equipnt, gathering and analyzing data, to devising strategies."
All these things had nothing to do with Tatsuya.
"......When is the Nine Schools Competition going to be held?"
That being said, cutting off the conversation here would be awkward, so Tatsuya focused all his attention back onto data organization as he asked this.
"Ten days, from August 3rd to the 12th."
"That's quite a long ti."
"Hm? You've never seen it?"
"Yes, since I've always been busy with errands during sumr vacations."
Tatsuya's answer thoroughly confounded Mari.
"But according to Mayumi, your little sister goes to see it every year, to the point that she even rembers what events we competed in......"
Tatsuya almost burst out laughing.
"No, it's not like we're attached at the hip 365 days a year......
Occasionally we move separately as well."
"Eh? ......No, that's true. It's just that whenever we see the two of you, it's like you're always with each other."
"Speaking of which, we're usually on our own at school."
After Tatsuya objectively pointed this out, even if Mari's expression revealed her incomprehension, she nevertheless still accepted it.
"If that's the case, no wonder you were completely lost when I started talking about the preparations for the Nine Schools Competition."
"Yes, to be honest, I don't even know what competitions are being held. I only know about 'Monolith Code' and 'Mirage Bat'."
While it was true that he was multitasking between making conversation and creating the data files, this only served as a refresher for Tatsuya. And for Mari, who was currently idle
or more like the one who didn't want to do anything
this was a good way to pass the ti, so Tatsuya was more talkative than usual.
"That's because those two are the most famous......"
Mari tilted her head, as if she didn't know where to start. She held her fist before her mouth, as if she were about to cough (but didn't actually make the coughing sound).
"The contests in the Nine Schools Competition focus on the events in athletic magic contests that require more Magic Power."
"This I know."
Tatsuya replied without stopping his fingers from working.
"In the past, they would change the events every competition, but recent years have seen the sa contests every year.
There are six contests: 'Monolith Code', 'Mirage Bat', 'Icicle Destruction', 'Speed Shooting', 'Crowd Ball', and 'Battle Board'.
Kenjutsu, Chinese magic martial arts and other combat related contests, as well as athletic competitions like gymnastics and basketball are held at a different event."
"Doesn't 'Crowd Ball' and 'Battle Board' rely heavily on physical abilities?"
"Yes. Magicians are only human, so there's no reason to undervalue physical capabilities. Even in 1 on 1 duels between Magicians, there are cases where the individual with the superior physical abilities has erged victorious. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on this point."
"That's true."
Tatsuya knew this very well, so his agreent with Mari's words was truly heartfelt.
"Of the six contests, only 'Monolith Code' is a team event, the other five are solo acts."
"Isn't 'Crowd Ball' a two man show?"
"This is where the Nine Schools Competition gets evil. In order to emphasize the importance of Magic Power, this contest has a solo performance rule. I have a booklet that summarizes the rules, want to take a look?"
"Sure, I'll take a look later."
Tatsuya stopped typing and accepted a small booklet from Mari. "Huh, a hard copy. How strange."
"Anything related to the Nine Schools Competition wouldn't be surprising. Virtual terminals would hurt the Magic Power's conceptual foundation. On the other hand, besides Magicians, there are very few people that actually use substantial terminal devices, and the number of Magicians using virtual terminals has also increased."
"I see, so that's why the Nine Schools Competition uses hard copies instead of terminal devices."
"Eh? So Tatsuya-kun prefers the usage of virtual terminals?" She probably heard the critical elents in Tatsuya's undertone.
With Mari's normally brash manner and her amusing tendency to be "poor at organizing
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