Scarlet

The students begin whispering amongst themselves, seemingly excited at the prospect of becoming an Advanced student. But the old man just taps his cane on the ground again, silencing everyone as he says, “Before I move onto the Top class students, I would like to make one thing clear.” His eyes begin faintly glowing again while at the same time narrowing. “Discrimination based on class is not tolerated on our campus. After you’re a student, you are all equal. No matter what class you are in. And anyone can overtake another person’s spot in the ranking simply by partaking in the next ranking tournament held after the midterms for the first semester and earning a higher ranking.”

He slowly moves his gaze across the audience before focusing on us all as a whole again and saying, “Any violation seen by a professor or member of the staff here, or reported by a witness and backed up with proof will be transferred to another university.” His eyes return to normal, and a faint grin replaces the dark look he had. “And we have plenty of prospective students from other universities that are always trying to transfer here, now don’t we?”

Yeah, I’ve definitely heard that the schools themselves don’t like the hierarchy system. Just that they have to use it because the government is the one paying for the bonuses the higher classes in the hierarchy get.

Also, I get the feeling his finishing statement is addressing some of those students who transferred here already from other universities.

Which are a lot, considering the fact that only around thirty or so new Guardians are contracted a year in the capital, whereas there are hundreds of thousands of cities spread across the world that also get Guardians contracted at the same time during their own Demonic Assaults. Even if most of them don’t end up with as many Guardians.

Although I think I read that there were millions of cities before the Demonic Assaults came around, with a little over 75% of them being devastated, leaving the remaining cities with a rather poor supply of resources which they ended up just deciding to focus on the capitals of each nation, along with various other important cities. The cities now known as Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities respectively.

“It’s a little depressing to see how far Earth has fallen since this all began,” Tar says in response to my thoughts.

Yeah, it is. And the fiasco with the changelings that happened soon after Satan took control of old world Japan only made things a lot worse.

“Wait, I remember my previous contractor going through that very event,” Tar says, a slightly melancholy tone in his usually robotic voice. “Satan sent changelings who took the form of orphan refugees and spread themselves across all of old world China and then the entire world before many of them began secretly hunting humans in his attempt to lower the human population.”

Yeah… and it’s the main reason everyone hates orphans nowadays. Because they can’t tell for sure if we’re not a changeling, thanks to the demon’s inherent skill that blocks all identification making it practically impossible to identify them.

Doesn't help that the changelings only ever go after orphans because going after the child of a family would be way too difficult with the security measures in place around the cities to prevent that. Especially around Tier 1 and 2 cities, since the orphan areas of Tier 3 cities aren't anywhere near as well guarded as the rest of the city.

Then there's the fact that changelings are just as smart as humans if not smarter, so why would they go after a much harder target to replace? A target they'd have to act just like in order to fool the target's family and friends when they can instead just replace a random orphan that no one knows, has no register more often than not, and no one really cares about?

“And since changelings can grow into adult forms of their target over time, the orphans aren’t cleared of the speculation even after they become adults themselves…” Tar mutters, but our conversation is interrupted by the vice headmaster – Alfred Raynsford – raising his voice again after what had become a rather long pause. Most likely to let the warning settle in or something.

“Top class students have access to everything on campus grounds excluding the faculty only areas, along with personal dorms without any roommates to bother them should they wish it, and most importantly,” he pauses here, the smirk on his face stretching ever so slightly wider, “Top class students are allowed to compete for the chance to join our school’s primary team for the Interschool Tournaments!”

I raise an eyebrow as the entire auditorium bursts into cheers at that.

Right. The primary team.

Every Guardians University student is allowed and often urged to participate in the Interschool Tournaments, but in the end, the most important part of the tournaments are the primaries. The team and solo tournaments between the primary teams of every Guardians University in the world, which generally numbers up to about three hundred or so universities.

While every tournament in the Interschool Tournaments earns points for the universities from the government that they can use to increase the university’s funding and resources, the main source of points and the position of each Guardians University in the overall university rankings is the primaries. Which means they're extremely important to every university.

And the students who are competing in the primaries basically get fame and fortune for the rest of their lives.

“Lastly, the top ranked student at the time of the Interschool Tournaments gets the choice to compete in the solo primaries for their Class,” he continues, his grin still growing as he sees and hears all the cheers in the school. And, most likely to take advantage of the current hype, the man taps his cane once more, making fifty people suddenly appear on the stage around them, each of them using a different means through magic, and each of them recognizable to everyone who immediately grows even louder in their cheering. “I am the vice-headmaster of this university, Alfred Raynsford, and behind me are most of our wonderful professors, each of whom are at the very least Class IV Guardians. You will soon find that everything in this university’s campus is automated by either magic, magitech robots, or pure magi-tech buildings afforded to us through Silver Works itself and maintained by the government. Leaving the campus grounds without a single non-Guardian so as to give you students absolute privacy here. Something you will struggle to find at any other place on Earth.”

This – even if it’s already public knowledge – sends the students into a frenzy, many of them getting up from their seats amidst the cheers. Because who doesn’t want privacy? Especially when the government doesn’t exactly protect the privacy of its own Guardians.

The vice-headmaster just raises his voice again, each of the professors standing behind him straightening up in the process as the man speaks, still with the two lions on either side of him, “As members of the prestigious Lion’s Heart GU, represent us with pride! Do so, and you will be treated like kings and queens! Fight for glory, for wealth, or for humanity as a whole, but do it knowing that you have the Lion’s Heart name on your back!” His words echo throughout the auditorium, pausing for a second as he taps his cane again, making both lions stand up before he raises his cane to the sky and concludes the speech, raising his voice to a near shout above the roaring of the students, “Once again, I am this GU’s vice-headmaster, currently standing in for Headmaster White of the five Knights of Humanity, and I call this Opening Ceremony concluded! Now change into your gear as we’re about to begin the ranking tournaments!”

I have to cover my ears due to the pain caused by the sheer volume of the crowd, the noise being much worse than anything I’ve ever heard before. But despite this, even I can’t help but feel my heart racing from the excitement.

Excitement of having new prey to hunt in a magical reality.