The Purpose of Our Duel

Kafka Crowbell's plan is to make Lyon and me fight.

"Hoo. Miss Goldenlaw" our teacher was surprised as he saw our director approach us with her usual "calm" expression and her left eye closed.

"Mr. Crowbell, may I ask what are you doing?"

"Haha. Two of my students seemed to be on high spirits, and what better way to get to know eachother than with a good ol' match"

I notice Hellen giving him a doubtful look. While Kafka's a crazy perfectionist that looks like an evil person. He remained loyal to Goldenlaw, even in the Academy rebellion part of the game.

"Have you even talked to your students about how our school works? What they have to do as their first day?" So she was already suspicious...

"That information can be given at anytime, and I chose to give them on our training arenas. Is there a problem with that?"

"... No... absolutely none" she observed our whole class "Do you mind if I watch how you tackle your presentation?"

"I'd be delighted to have our esteemed director alongside us" I don't know if he's being sarcastic or not.

After following our professor for three minutes, we finally arrive at the training arena. This one had a big two, apparently there are six arenas were students can practice between them.

"Ahem... students of class S, pardon my late introduction. I'm Kafka Crowbell your homeroom teacher, I'll be teaching you all the required subjects: language, math, history, geography, and basic magic learning" it doesn't matter what he's talking about, he sounds like he doesn't care about anything.

"Aside from my own classes, you're all expected to pick a maximum of six other classes, like alchemy, basic weapons training, beast taming or any other special class. Since our great director is here with us, she'll give you a paper" Goldenlaw starts giving us a sheet of paper.

"What you were given is a magical timetable. In it there should be my five classes already registered. You can pick any class you want to take on and it'll automatically arrange them taking into account my own classes as their maximum priority"

It's kinda like the interface of the game... that's kinda neat...

And all this classes, I'll need time to think of the classes that would best suit me.

"Of course, not every subject is similar and some will earn you more points than others"

In-game, the main character chose four subjects on her first year. And the fifth and sixth were left for the player to choose...

"I have to remind everyone that, not only are you all students of the prestigious Aurum Academy. You're all part of the S class, the best class among them all, so a lot is expected from you, not only by the academy itself, but by your peers..." he's making a weird face... he's probably already thinking on overwhelming us with study and practice until we faint.

"So, miss Goldenlaw. Anything to add?" Is he mockimg her or what?

"Nothing to add on my part" she sat with both her arms crossed, closing both eyes "You can freely proceed with the matches between your students. I hope you don't mind me spectating a couple of them"

"Only for the first match, as that one's going to be the most intresting" he pointed at me and Lyon "You see. Both student Lyon Alva and Alen seemed to be eagerly waiting for a chance to prove themselves on a fight"

I don't.

"So why don't both of you come up on the stage?"

Both Lyon and me positioned ourselves on opposite sides of the ring.

*sigh*

Thankfully, I wasn't just scratching my butt during all this time, as I was actually thinking of a way to achieve the best outcome for me.

"Are we not gonna use weapons?" Lyon asked our teacher.

"You won't need them" that evil grin, he's truly enjoying this.

I can hear how Lyon just groaned while getting himself ready.

"Start!"

Now my plan begins.

Lyon starts running against me.

He begins charging a punch as he runs.

My plan finally starts. As soon as he gets relatively close to me...

I jump backwards, exiting the ring "I give up"

...

Maybe it's because he wasn't expecting me to do this, but he tripped and fell.

I can hear a collective "Eeeh!?" Coming from my classmates.

I look towards our director and she had both her eyebrows raised in concern, with her right eye open.

Then I look towards Kafka and he has his mouth open, he truly wasn't expecting this outcome.

I lower my head, bowing to Lyon "I'm sorry if I said anything that made you upset. Not only is this my first time attending a classroom, but various rumors were formed about me, so I was really on edge and worried... I truly apologize for acting on a way unfit for our class"

"Haaa!?" He stood up and pointed at me "What are you talking about!?"

"I understood what teacher Crowbell wanted to do with us" I stop bowing my head, thus whole situtation is making me feel really nervius "He said we should "talk things out" but with how angruly we were inside our classroom, that would've been impossible" but I need confidence to achieve success.

Please work, please work, please work.

"So he deliberately made us walk for three minutes to this arena, the second arena.why not the first one that's closer than this one? And he even began explaining us about our school life, which took around two minutes" I put my hand on my chest.

"He gave us this much time to think about what we did... he was testing us" this is where my whole strategy could fail.

"What!!??" Lyon clearly didn't believe me, but he's not important right now.

"He himself said it. "A match is a great opportunity to know each other" and "they won't be needing weapons" he was using this match as an excuse to put us on a place to talk things out" Lyon's expression was obviously contorted out of confusion

"A lot is expected from class S, this was a lesson on learning to make amends like two responsible adults" if this doesn't work, i've just dug up my social grave.

"Aurum Academy prepares us to be individuals respected by society, someone that'll be on higher positons of work. If we don't learn about these lessons our teacher's trying to teach us... how are we supposed to be adults that can be trusted!!"

...

...

This silence is deafening...

...

...

"Is that true Mr. Crowbell?" I can sense by her tone and expression that Hellen Goldenlaw is currently dumbfounded.

...

Come on, you superiority complex weirdo... stop having that expression and say something, be useful to me.

"O-oh... ahem... y-yes... mhm" yes... I've won "That was indeed my objective... students from class S are expected to have this behaviour, and student Alen was able to see right through my lesson"

Lyon couldn't believe what was happening. He looked at me, then to Kafka and Hellen, and back to me.

"... Then I hope that you understand the procedure after this outcome, even if it is the first day" the blonde director had a more serious tone on her voice now.

"But of course..." Kafka opened a book and started writing on it "Student Alen, for understanding the hidden task I gave both of you, you earn points. Sadly, the distance between you and seventeenth place is still noticable eoungh to not affect your ranking"

Here it is, the points based ranking. The better student you are, the more points you get... but...

"On the contrary, student Lyon, not only were you unable to understand what I wanted to teach you two... you clearly had intentions to fight armed with weapons" this could be devastating for Lyon

I could see every single one of my classmates faces, they all knew what was coming.

"Unlike student Alen, the distance between you and fifth place is smaller. Small enough for you to be demoted to fifth place" he continued writting on his book.

Lyon fell to his knees "No... th-this can't be" even though he whispered that, I was close enough to hear it.

"Student Elizabeth Bato, you're hereby promoted to rank four on my class" he closed the book so strong, you could hear it even from afar.

"You're all dismissed" he signaled us with a "Shoo-shoo" motion of his hand "Go do your duties" he's clearly pissed off... and I caused it.

"I'm glad to see that class S is still on hands of a competent individual" Goldenlaw slowly clapped, I don't know if she's being serious or not.

"Thanks for the compliment miss Goldenlaw. I truly do appreciate it that my hard-work is getting some recognition"

Your hard work? You know what? I don't care

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