This chapter is updated by Novels.pl
One of the advantages of having a set classroom at school was that it fostered building interpersonal relationships.
Regional proximity and blood relations are both powerful impetus for developing bonds and, regardless of whether they are official or unofficial organizations, serve to differentiate and categorize groups within groups.
For the practical application of this sentint......
"Morning, Shiba. I heard about it already, nice going."
"Morning, Shiba-kun, great job."
"Good morning, Shiba-kun, I'm rooting for you."
"Hey, go for it, Shiba."
......And so, even students who normally weren't very close to him were voluntarily bridging out towards him through greetings and words of encouragent.
As soon as Tatsuya entered the classroom on Monday, he received a string of support from his classmates.
The reason why they did this was natural: Tatsuya was selected as one of the representatives for the Nine Schools Competition.
"The grapevine is quite active."
"Yep. This was only decided last week and there hasn't even been an official announcent yet."
"Yeah, so where did they get the news?"
Leo, Mizuki, and Erika did not appear to be feigning ignorance, so they probably weren't the culprits.
However, it's not like those responsible were issued gag orders either.
At the ti, only upperclassn attended the eting, so they likely heard the news from their club leaders.
"Speaking of which, didn't they make the announcent today?"
Erika tilted her head to one side and asked, at which Tatsuya nodded in a solemn manner.
Including the technician team, the official roster for the Nine Schools Competition was finalized last Friday.
The original titable called for the roster to be finalized two weeks ago, so they were obviously several steps behind.
The fact that the contestants were already decided may have been a blessing in disguise, since all the competition-use CADs and uniforms that usually took the longest ti to prepare had already been assembled. The only bottleneck was that because the engineering candidates hadn't been settled, all of the maintenance and testing work was yet to be done.
Miyuki was a contestant herself, but owing to the constant stream of preparation work she was entirely unavailable. For her, Tatsuya was willing to sacrifice anything, but still couldn't dispel the notion that he was being railroaded.
"I think 5th period will be changed to an assembly, right?"
Mizuki said this as she gazed at the terminal screen set into the table before them that listed today's class schedule.
All grades shared the sa schedule with three periods in the morning and two in the afternoon.
Even so, besides labs, technical skills, and physical education classes, standardized classes (classes set as progression goals) advanced according to the student's own pace. Modern schools allowed for personalized education to be displayed on the terminal screens in class and did not heavily restrict start and end tis.
In modern schools, the higher the grade level, the less emphasis was placed on determining class ti and break ti. The fact that the school changed the entire 5th period into an assembly to properly send off the representatives was a clear sign of how highly the school viewed this event.
"Tatsuya-kun will also be onstage during the ceremony, correct?"
"Hm, yeah......"
Tatsuya stamred out a reply to Mizuki's question because this was precisely the point of contention that plagued him.
"And Tatsuya is the only First Year student, right?"
Just as Leo said, the only First Year student accepted into the technician team was Tatsuya.
Experience in CAD maintenance was absolutely necessary, so naturally upperclassn should be the ones selected for the technician team, except that Tatsuya's skills were vastly different from the masses.
Of course, when taking into consideration that he was a pioneering expert in the developnt of CAD software, he would definitely be overqualified for serving as an engineer in a high school competition.
But, regardless of whether they were in his year or higher grades, no one was aware of this detail.
Only his sister Miyuki knew.
"Those Course 1 students look so~ very~ aggrieved."
The Course 1 students were still smarting from the results of the finals and this selection would only serve to throw more oil on the fire. This was blatantly obvious even without Erika verbalizing it.
"But all the contestants are Course 1 students......"
That was Tatsuya's perspective.
Since all the contestants for the Newcors Division were Course 1 students and Tatsuya was only an auxiliary mber, no one on the outside would comnt on this.
But for the people in question, this was insufficient to comfort the other Course 1 students that aid to beco Magic Artificers.
Tatsuya was rarely in a position that aroused jealousy. He also lacked the ability to envy others.
His life experiences were not rich enough for him to observe all the minute details.
"There's nothing they can do about it. Jealousy alone isn't a good enough reason."
So when he heard Mizuki's piercing comnt, Tatsuya was unable to formulate a reply.
"Relax, this ti no one is going to throw stones or magic at you."
At Erika's overly extre thod of comforting him, Tatsuya could only smile wryly.
After 4th period, Tatsuya reported on ti to the backstage, where he was handed a thin jacket by Miyuki, who arrived before him.
"This is?"
For all intents and purposes, this was a normal jacket, but Tatsuya still wanted to verify that.
"This is the uniform for the technician team. Please put that on during the ceremony in place of the actual uniform."
The one who answered was Mayumi. With the expected answer.
Mayumi herself was wearing a western-styled sports jacket. That was probably the uniform for contestants.
Miyuki, who was still in her school uniform, let out an expectant smile as she held out the jacket to Tatsuya with both hands.
A brief, mischievous urge flashed across his mind, but Tatsuya knew that resistance was futile.
Tatsuya frankly removed the jacket of his school uniform and hung it on the coat hanger prepared ahead of ti.
Next, he slightly bent his knees and allowed Miyuki to help him put on the jacket.
Standing behind him, Miyuki tugged the jacket over her brother's shoulders before looping to the front and adjusting the collar and sleeves. Afterwards, she took a step back to glance over her brother's torso and letting out a wide, satisfied smile.
Tatsuya was largely aware of why his sister was in such a fantastic mood.
Her happiness was likely caused by the school emblem embroidered over the jacket's left breast.
The emblem was styled after a flower with eight petals. Miyuki's uniform had the sa emblem over the sa location. The emblem of First High.
And not a replacent either, but the symbol of a Course 1 student.
"Onii-sama, that suits you perfectly......"
The intramural competition uniforms were largely the sa as the normal ones, which was natural since it was only intended to identify which school the contestants belonged to.
However, in Miyuki's eyes, Tatsuya's appearance was finally restored to its rightful state.
Tatsuya honestly couldn't care less but it was precisely because he didn't care that he didn't want to spoil the mood. There was still so ti until the comncent of the ceremony, so Tatsuya waited around wearing the uniform for the technician team.
Miyuki was completely srized by the dashing figure Tatsuya cut in his uniform. She remained standing there without tiring in her uniform. Tatsuya gazed around him but failed to catch sight of Miyuki's western sport jacket. Even with the copious amount of ti remaining, Tatsuya still felt that she should get ready as soon as possible.
"Don't you need to change?"
"I'm serving as the ceremonial assistant."
Hearing Tatsuya's question, Miyuki snapped out of her srized expression to reply with her usual smile on her face.
In other words, this was the only ti that Miyuki was excluded from the participant standing and served instead as the representative for the send-off party...... At least that's how Tatsuya interpreted Miyuki's words.
"Is that so, that's quite a heavy responsibility."
"Please don't remind ......."
There was no way she would shrink at such a marginal duty, but she still employed that weak tone and faltering gaze, prompting Tatsuya to smile softly and lay a hand on his sister's head.
The surrounding onlookers directed cold gazes towards the two of them.
The team mbers responsible for organizing the so-called send off ceremony got the event started on ti, and everything proceeded according to plan.
Even if Tatsuya stood onstage, there would be no stones or magic hurtled his way
that was a given.
However, for him, this was a very foreign location.
The participants and engineers assembled into two lines. Among the technician team, only Tatsuya was an underclassman. All the others were upperclassn, which naturally lent the feeling that he was the odd man out.
Thanks to Tatsuya's performance during the selection eting, he was spared the outright hostile or contemptuous gazes on stage.
That being said, it wasn't like the gazes were friendly. Favorable evaluation does not equate to a favorable impression.
Regardless of how they looked at it, his acceptance onto the team was an unprecedented elevation and special treatnt.
To top it all off, Tatsuya was presently garbed in the jacket with the coveted eight petal flower emblem embroidered on it.
Surely soone must consider this offensive, which inevitably led to further backlash that he could do nothing about. Beneath the luminous lights, Tatsuya calmly thought about this as if he wasn't the principal.
During this ti, they were introducing each contestant in turn on stage.
Mayumi was the master of ceremonies.
Upon being called, each participant would receive a special dal that concealed the ID crystal needed to enter the competition arena.
To improve the presentation, Miyuki was responsible for presenting the dal to each individual.
Just the contestants alone numbered 40 people (excluding Miyuki and Mayumi there were 38), so this was a very ti-consuming process, but probably owing to her excellent upbringing, Miyuki maintained a sweet smile throughout as she smoothly pinned the dals onto each individual.
In such an extre proximity that they could feel her breath, no male student was immune to Miyuki's smile as they desperately tried to fight their blushing and shaky expressions.
If that was the case, this scene would undoubtedly rouse the ire of the entire female student body, but even the female students that received the dals had succumbed to flushed faces or faltering gazes, so no one in the audience (especially the upperclassn) was irked and instead smiled in agreent.
The dals were not just presented to the participants, but to the auxiliary team as well.
After the tactical advisory team was introduced, it was finally the technical support team's turn.
"Sohow I feel a little nervous."
Soone next to him suddenly spoke to him, causing Tatsuya to slightly turn his head.
The male student to his flank also turned his head slightly, catching Tatsuya's gaze directly.
The level of Tatsuya's sight was slightly higher.
If he recalled correctly, this was the Year 2 student nad Isori Kei. Of course, he was a Course 1 student (and Tatsuya was the only Course 2 student onstage anyways).
"Yeah."
He was one of the very few that were openly friendly to Tatsuya.
This handso youth possessed a mild temperant and, coupled with his slender figure, if he exchanged the pants for a dress, would perfectly fit the description of a "tall female student". However, he was also First Place in Magic Theory for the Year 2 class as well as one of the foremost Magicians with technical skills.
As Tatsuya re-examined his "beauty" at close range, he got the distinct impression that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
They were still on stage, so the conversation ended there.
However, even for a slower individual like Tatsuya, to be able to find one shining light of friendliness in this murky ocean of negativity was enough to lessen the gloomy emotions welling up in his heart.
As he felt his depression lighten, he had the excess energy to survey the audience.
Since there wasn't any assigned seating in the audience, the student body naturally split into two, with the Course 1 students in front and the Course 2 students in the rear.
That being said, a few outsiders had managed to infiltrate the front half.
They probably detected Tatsuya's gaze.
Erika vigorously waved at him from her seat in the third row from the front, which was close enough to be called front row seating.
Tatsuya was thoroughly astounded by this.
Taking a closer look, Mizuki sat next to Erika, with Leo on her other side and Mikihiko occupying Leo's other flank. Even the faces behind them were all familiar.
In sheer defiance of the disapproving looks sent their way by the surrounding Course 1 students, First Year Class E stord the front of seating and claid a section for themselves.
As Tatsuya was drawn to their courageous actions, Miyuki arrived in front of him with a small cart before her.
Of the 40 contestants, 4 tactical advisors, 8 technicians and removing the master of ceremonies and assistant, there were a total of 50 people on stage. Forty-nine of them had already received their dals.
Last, but not least, it was finally the 50th person's turn. In other words, Tatsuya was up next.
Mayumi loudly proclaid his na.
Was Tatsuya over thinking too much, or did she place extra emphasis on his na?
Tatsuya stepped forward to acknowledge the announcent.
Miyuki revealed a brilliant, lting smile
enough to cause Tatsuya to be worried about his sister's ntal status
and stood before Tatsuya.
Miyuki clipped the dal onto Tatsuya's jacket. At the sa ti, thunderous applause broke forth. There was no need for any visual confirmation.
It was Erika and Leo leading the rest of his classmates in applause.
To Mayumi and Miyuki, who were responsible for directing the ceremony, this was an unplanned for ruckus.
However, just as the First Year Course 1 students were about to hush the clapping......
Mayumi and Miyuki seized the initiative to start clapping from the wings of the stage.
After introducing the last representative, the entire assembly started applauding.
This perfectly coincided with the applause for the entire team, which spread throughout the auditorium.
After the conclusion of the colors ceremony, the entire campus was completely focused on preparing for the Nine Schools Competition.
With the events they would be participating in settled, Miyuki spent every day practicing with Shizuka and Honoka until the last second before the campus closed.
Tatsuya needed to perform CAD maintenance at the sa ti he was assisting Miyuki with her tasks, so he was also occupied until late in the day.
Both Erika and Leo were affiliated with athletic clubs, so they were also drafted to help deal with the myriad tasks that needed doing.
Mizuki was the only one in the literary clubs, so this week she usually waited by herself for everyone else to finish.
Last week's colors ceremony filled her with anxiety.
Even though there was no assigned seating, it still took a lot of courage to disregard that unspoken rule.
There was no way she could do that alone, though the situation was more like if Erika hadn't been there, none of their classmates would've taken the plunge either.
Mizuki acknowledged her own introverted and cowering personality, so she was doubly impressed by and envious of her friend.
(But why was Erika striving so hard like that......?)
Mizuki was forcibly dragged along by Erika into participating.
Of course, she wanted to support Tatsuya as well, but reflecting on the situation, she would be more than satisfied with applauding from the rear.
Erika was inclined towards reckless behavior, so her ulterior motive may also be to taunt the Course 1 students.
At the sa ti, Erika was a flighty individual that usually didn't think things through.
In Mizuki's eyes, she was soone who loved to get in on the action, but rarely was the source of any troubleso business. This could be easily explained if it only involved her best friends like Mizuki, but to be motivated enough to involve all of their classmates, this didn't seem to fit a practical joker's state of mind.
(So Erika is really like that towards Tatsuya......
Right......
?)
From Mizuki's perspective, the male who hit it off the best with Erika was Leo.
Erika also had an extensive back story with Mikihiko, who took Third Place in the Theoretical portion of their exams.
But Mizuki felt that Erika held sothing special for Tatsuya that weighed far differently than the others.
For so reason, Mizuki refused to assign this feeling Erika had a specific definition in her mind.
She arrived at the school entrance less than 5 minutes ago.
The ti was too short for her to claim that she was tired of waiting. However, this was more than enough ti to jolt her thinking.
Without any conscious effort, an assortnt of things flowed through Mizuki's mind.
This situation would perfectly fit the criteria for being distracted.
And so, with her sense unfocused towards any single point, she spread her senses outward and detected a foreign wavelength.
Mizuki pondered this for exactly one second. Then she made up her mind to remove her glasses. Instantly, a tidal wave of flowing colors ca rushing in.
Her vision was filled with colorful lights from a myriad shades.
Mizuki temporarily sustained the pain in her eyes brought on by the excess stimulation.
For her, the act of removing her glasses was like walking from pitch darkness into the sun's radiant rays.
The things she usually avoided looking at suddenly beca visible.
The surplus data gave her a rudderless feeling as her ocular nerves and brain were overloaded by processing all this information.
If this happened to the average person, they might've been knocked unconscious by this information deluge, but for her, this was "another world" that had been by her side since birth.
Even people that were suddenly exposed before the powerful rays of the sun swiftly adapted after a short period of ti.
For people with dark pupils suitable for intense light, this ti would be even shorter.
All Mizuki had to do was blink two or three tis and her eyes adjusted to be able to see a psion light several dozen tis stronger than what the average Magician perceives as well as the pushion light that average Magicians couldn't even identify.
Mizuki cautiously replaced her glasses into the carrying case, then directed her gaze towards the odd vibration from earlier.
She swiftly found the frequency that allowed her to penetrate the anti- spirit light lens.
The pushion signal that possessed a wavering but regular beat like breathing.
Now, even the source of the light could be easily seen.
Mizuki advanced towards the Technical Skills Building where the vibration originated from as if drawn to it.
The closer she got to the Technical Skills Building, the more she felt the seeping cold air in the surrounding environnt.
This was the middle of sumr, and even if the setting sun was partially blocked by the neighboring hills and cut a horizon that was not altogether "curved
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