Scarlet

“The first human in history to have eight Tier B capabilities,” the crowd grows noticeably louder in volume, “two Tier A capabilities,” they grow even louder now, and the looks I see in some of their eyes is rather interesting. As if the students are looking at a monster or something. “And not a single capability below Tier C! All with blood magic to tie it together!”

I really wish he wasn’t playing this up so much, but I understand that he just wants to show me off to the school.

Then the vice-headmaster does something surprising.

He walks up to me, grabs my forearm, which makes me feel uncomfortable, then raises it into the air and says, “And the Knight, our headmaster, and the most renowned alumni to ever graduate from this university, White, has chosen her to participate in the Class I Primary Solo Competition for this year!”

My mouth drops open in shock, while at the same time, the crowd of students go completely silent. Even the professors show visible surprise before hiding it, showing that they didn’t even know about this bit of news.

No one says anything for several seconds before I hear clapping echoing from one corner of the auditorium, bringing my eyes to Belle and the rest of my team. Then more clapping from the other corner, where I see Necro smirking at me with that annoying smirk of his. And as if a bomb was set off, the clapping quickly spreads throughout the auditorium and turns into loud applause.

The vice-headmaster lets go of my arm and actually whispers, “My apologies, young miss,” too quietly for anyone else to hear over the applause. In fact, it was so quiet I don’t think even I’d be able to hear it if it weren’t for my ears. And I suspect he knows that and is why he did it.

I frown in confusion at that term of address before he steps back to his original spot and taps his cane on the stage again, sending a wave of mist to envelop me and send me back to the other students on stage, where I was before. And I almost immediately notice the gazes towards me are filled with both fear and respect from the other top one hundred students.

Although I can’t help but notice that the vice-headmaster completely skipped over the fact that I killed a weakened Class III student to swipe his points. Even if it wasn’t really considered kill stealing when they themselves even said they wouldn’t be able to kill him in the time remaining. After all, if no one was gonna be able to kill him in the time left, then why would it be considered kill stealing?

More like using their hard work and finishing him off myself.

“And you think that makes it better?” Tar asks seemingly rhetorically.

Of course it does.

Anyways, the vice-headmaster moves on to the next student who has some sort of accomplishment, but this one was just purely about him killing the Class III demon in the magical reality. And then the next one was for the student who got the most Class III student kills and the one that got the most Class II student kills.

They skip whoever got the most Class I student kills because I’m the only Class I student up here, and normally they don’t have Class I students in the top 100 rankings. Meaning none of the Class IIs or IIIs should be able to kill Class Is in the first place. Not without a penalty. Unless the Class Is attacked them that is, but who would be stupid enough to do that?

“You did,” Tar mutters, but I ignore him.

Because I did it with a plan. There’s a difference.

A very good plan.

He snorts.

After a few more achievement students, the vice-headmaster taps his cane on the ground, sending a large surge of mist all around the stadium before floating into the air as the mist stays at our feet. He then spreads his arms out, cane in one hand and declares, “Congratulations to every last one of you in here! Whether you made it to the Advanced class, the Top class, or just the Regular class, you are all students of the top school in the world! And you should take pride in that!”

The students begin cheering at that, and the professors simply clap.

“Classes will start tomorrow, and they will all be core classes that are mandatory for the students to take,” the vice-headmaster continues before various professors start appearing in the air around him, “these are the first year professors for this year. Remember them, first years, as you will be seeing them on a regular basis for the duration of your time as first years.” The professors then vanish to reappear in their corners as he continues, “The rest of you should already know your professors, and if you don’t then you will when you take their classes. You will have two mandatory core classes tomorrow, along with another mandatory class on Tuesday, and you may pick up to three elective classes to take throughout the rest of the week. But remember that the deadline for registering for these classes is tomorrow night, at midnight.”

No one says a word in response, kept silent by the eerie mist filling the room.

“If you have any questions at all, you may ask your advisor, whom you may find through our university’s website,” he says something that just feels so normal in contrary to the sinister feeling his magic is giving me as the blackish-green mist just snakes across the room.

His voice raises with an heir of authority to fill the entire hall, noticeably causing everyone – including myself – to flinch in the process, “This event is now over!” Then he just vanishes along with all of the mist and the professors.

Silence fills the auditorium for who knows how long before chatter starts to replace it. And despite a lot of people looking towards me from the auditorium proper, almost no one actually tries to climb the stage to get to me, instead simply heading towards the exit.

For good reason too, considering that I’m still awkwardly surrounded by Class II and III senior students.

Many of whom are looking my way right now.

This isn’t going to be fun.