Chapter 16 - Ordinary People Don't Exist

Chapter 16 - Ordinary People Don't Exist

"Sorry, Louis... it's just a test," Bell said.

"Don't blame me. No hard feelings, okay?"

Bell struck Louis with a wooden sword.

"Ugh!" A brief scream and the sound of the blow echoed.

"Ugh..." Bell continued to hit Louis.

"Thirteenth turn."

"Vel, keep going."

"Louis, don't back down."

Louis struggled to escape the pain, but...

"Hold still."

I clenched my right fist tightly.

"No matter what, I won't change my orders."

"Fourteenth turn."

"Bell, keep pushing."

"Louis! Hold still!"

I gave the command even more firmly.

"Ugh..."

Blood poured from Louis's mouth.

In terms of skill, she couldn't stand up to Bell.

"Uh... Bell, isn't this a bit much?"

"Stop making a fuss. It's just a test," Bell said dismissively.

"Bell, you're hitting her like laundry, huh."

"That's cruel, really cruel."

"It's not cruel; if you lose, you get a zero. You have to risk your life."

Their mutterings continued, but then there was a voice that broke through the noise.

It was Oscar's voice.

"Mago! Stop it now...! It's just a test!"

His neck was flushed with veins.

"Instructor! Please stop this!"

At that moment...

"Mago. Are you still going to continue?"

It was Kinjo's voice.

It felt like he was asking if I had no guilt for what I was doing, like I was beating Louis with my own hands.

Now was my chance to deceive Kinjo.

"No."

It was a chance to appear like I had given up.

"Fifteenth turn."

"I'll open my eyes."

I opened my eyes.

Bell, who had been raising the wooden sword to strike Louis, stopped suddenly.

"Mago, you don't have any more chances to open your eyes."

"I won."

Kinjo smiled.

"It's over. Now Mago can't use the lake."

"Sixteenth turn."

"Bell, charge forward. Capture Mago."

"Oscar, to the right."

Bell casually tossed the wooden sword aside.

She acted like the victory was certain.

Soon, a loud sound echoed.

It was proof that she used her unique magic.

She recklessly charged toward me, aiming for a direct hit.

In the blink of an eye, she was almost upon me.

Even the slightest touch would mean defeat.

So, by tilting my head slightly...

I easily dodged her.

Her fingertips brushed past my hair.

A brief silence lasted about two seconds.

"Ki, Kinjo. Just now, Mago definitely dodged it. He dodged it with his eyes closed!"

"It can't be. The lake should have ended by now..."

"Some miscalculation... huh..."

Bell, as expected, collapsed.

Now, Kinjo couldn't use Bell anymore.

All that was left was Amon.

But Amon had to stop Louis, who was now in front of Kinjo.

"Seventeenth turn."

"Amon, stop Louis!"

As expected, Kinjo's order was just as predicted.

"Oscar! Forward!"

At that moment, I shouted loudly.

"Eighteenth turn."

"Oscar, keep going."

"Wait, how is that possible? Did I mess up from the start?"

"Nineteenth!"

"Oscar, go forward more."

"Could it have been when it rained yesterday...?"

"Twentieth!"

"Oscar."

It was my final command.

"Just one more step."

Oscar took one step forward and then stopped in place.

He stood behind Kinjo.

"Kinjo, you can't see behind you, can you?"

Oscar, who had been moving forward, had already passed Kinjo.

Amon and Bell, both having stepped out of the lake's range, continued on.

Just like I didn't know what actions they would take.

Kinjo couldn't see Oscar.

Unlike me, he couldn't look behind him.

Sensing the end, Kinjo slowly opened his mouth.

"I was confident in my thinking. I thought I had far more options than you. So why..."

"You should've come out when I woke you up yesterday."

I shrugged and smiled slightly.

"So it was last night, huh."

He smiled, as if he had no choice but to laugh.

During the first exam, Oscar had squeezed between Kinjo and me.

It wasn't an exaggeration to say he had barely made it into the rankings.

Using Oscar's own words:

If we were special, he was ordinary.

If we were the plus, he was the minus.

If we compared him to a chess piece, he was a pawn.

That was Oscar Cita.

And now, Oscar was the one who had passed Kinjo.

The pawn, if it made it to the end, could change the game.

A promotion.

Or, what they called "queening."

A pawn reaching the end of the chessboard could be promoted to another piece.

"I thought Oscar ignoring orders and pushing forward was because of internal conflict caused by Louis… But was he aiming for me from the start?"

Kinjo muttered to himself.

Currently, Oscar was the strongest piece.

Nothing could stop him.

The rules about opening and closing one's eyes didn't matter.

He had always been behind.

In chess, the game ends when a player knocks over the king, surrendering.

Maybe that's why Kinjo collapsed on his own.

"I've learned something."

He spread his arms wide and said.

"Damn."

***

Bell Red slammed her head into the noticeboard.

She jabbed it in like a nail.

"I... I'm 41st..."

She muttered with a blank expression, as if it were a chant.

Next to her head, there was a sheet with the mid-rankings.

"I'm the youngest daughter of one of the three great noble families. The Red family..."

Her gloom showed no signs of stopping.

And beside her, another person had his head slammed in.

"Hah... Hah... 14th... Me?"

It was Amon Coster.

"I'm the youngest son of the Coster family..."

He and Vel exuded dark energy.

"Mago, did you know?"

Kinjo asked then.

"They say the three great families of the empire no longer exist. The only noble family left is the Moonlight family. Red and Coster died of shame because of those two."

He was teasing them.

"So what about you? You good?"

"No."

I spoke seriously.

"Actually, I was just nailing it in because there were no empty spots on the board."

Kinjo had dropped from 2nd to 9th.

"There's still one more exam left. If the personal competency evaluation is included, who knows how the rankings might change."

I tried to comfort them.

The three of them turned their heads simultaneously.

They glared at me as if they wanted to kill me.

I had maintained the top rank up to the third round.

"By the way, Mago, where did you learn chess?"

Kinjo asked.

If I hadn't known the rules of chess, I wouldn't have thought about promotion either.

Things would have been looking grim.

"From a woman."

"A woman? You, a woman?"

"What does that even mean? There are girls among our peers. Like Bell and Louis."

"Fine, whatever."

Kinjo waved his hand dismissively.

The person who taught me chess...

The loser would flick their finger and hit the other's forehead.

I remembered how close I came to having a hole in my forehead.

I silently thanked her.

I looked at the noticeboard again.

Louis Murphy, 2nd.

Oscar Sita, 7th.

Only the two noble families were outside the rankings.

It was probably a humiliating situation.

"Mago, I overheard some of the instructors talking. They said you'll keep your top rank even if you only make it halfway through the 4th exam."

Bell said.

"Really?"

"At least pretend to be humble about it."

"Should I?"

"That's the most annoying thing."

In my past life, that position had been Amon's, but the future had changed a lot.

The once unshakable top ranker, Amon Coster, was now 13th.

A score that couldn't even get him into the special forces.

"What are you guys doing here? Slamming your heads into the noticeboard..."

Louis, with a ponytail, approached.

She had a bandage around her shoulder.

"Louis!"

Bell rushed to her and hugged her.

She looked up at Louis with a teary voice.

"Louis! Is your shoulder okay? I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

"It's fine, it's fine. It's just the exam, there was nothing we could do. We won because of it, so it's fine."

"Still, I'm sorry...!"

"It's fine."

"I've sinned!"

"No, Bell. You didn't do anything wrong. If anyone should be blamed, it's Magoh."

Louis turned her head and glared at me.

"Why me...?"

I instinctively raised my hand to defend my cheek.

***

That night.

Amon spoke with a serious expression.

"Tonight, we're doing it."

The male trainees gathered around the campfire. Kinjo, Amon, Oscar, and me. Four of us.

"We can't let this get out. Understand? This is going to the grave with us."

Oscar flicked his gray hair back as he added.

"Tomorrow, how will Louis tie her hair? The 28th round. The basic bet starts with a glass of milk."

Amon recited seriously.

At that moment, Kinjo confidently spoke.

"You guys. You always lose to me just by guessing randomly. I've analyzed Louis' pattern for a month."

He boldly said such a thing, even holding a piece of paper with scribbles.

"Based on my analysis, unless there's a change, tomorrow it'll be a two-part braid. I'm betting five glasses of milk on it."

"Hmm, Kinjo. You're going all in from the start," Amon tapped his forehead.

I knew it.

I knew these guys were sometimes ridiculous, but I never expected them to take such a pointless conversation this seriously.

"Yeah, Kinjo. You've made an important point. Change," Amon started pushing Kinjo.

"That change could completely alter the future. You might've done your analysis, but I saw the change that'll ruin your analysis."

"How did you—"

"Because Louis said to the girls…" Amon mimicked Louis's tone.

"I'm getting tired of changing my hair every day. Maybe I should take a break sometimes."

It was a terrible imitation.

"I heard that too."

I never wanted to hear that voice again.

"So, I'm going all in on straight hair, just like Louis had it today."

"If Louis said that herself… I agree with Amon," Oscar said, leaning towards Amon.

"What do you think, Mago? It's your first time here, say something."

"You guys. Did you come here to mess around?"

The expressions of my classmates froze instantly.

"You've been doing this nonsense twenty-seven times?"

"This nonsense? This guy got us into it…!"

Amon jumped up.

"President Amon! It seems we have a traitor. What should we do?"

Oscar chimed in.

"No question! We should beat him up!"

"Yes!"

"I'm disappointed in you guys. What are you doing with the campfire in the middle of the night? You might as well talk about your first loves, it'd be less embarrassing."

"M-Mago."

In that instant, their faces darkened.

"Why bother with something like this?"

"Mago…! Stop it!"

"Is it really worth getting all worked up over how Louis ties her hair? And you're betting precious milk on it?"

"Mago, please stop…!"

Kinjo looked sideways and signaled.

To the right.

I turned my head, wondering what was going on.

There were red eyes.

Eyes I had seen before.

It was like a snake spotting its prey.

Bell's face was illuminated by the firelight, giving her an eerie look.

Silence followed.

Only the sound of the burning wood filled the space.

At that moment, Kinjo made a move.

"Mago suggested this!"

"What? Bell, no. I came here to stop this."

"Yeah...! The instigator is Mago!"

Amon added.

"No! We are one!"

Oscar was still oblivious.

"Shut up. I've heard everything. What do you think would happen if I tell Louis about this?"

My classmates swallowed hard, their faces tense.

"She'd look at you with contempt."

Bell answered her own question.

"Well, that might be a reward in itself…" Oscar was still clueless.