“Once Team 1 has finished retrieving everything, be ready to withdraw quickly. Next team.”
At Instructor Amelia’s command, the students who had been standing at the firing line stepped back, and Team 2 moved into position.
Two days ago, Instructor Amelia asked me to assist with the midterm evaluation. I refused since I had my own work to do, like preparing and grading the written exams, but she pulled rank as the senior instructor and overruled my refusal.
Honestly, it’s not like being the senior instructor means she does any extra work.
“Instructor Vio, please adjust the targets.”
For this shooting test, the students must choose the weapon they’re more confident with, either a dagger or a bow, and hit the target.
Since the effective range of daggers and bows is different, the targets have to be constantly repositioned.
I get that both are commonly used by rangers, but how much could they have learned so far? They should’ve just standardized it to one weapon.
Instead, they let the students choose and make things harder for me.
They could’ve just designated a couple of lanes exclusively for daggers or archery so we wouldn’t have to keep adjusting the targets every time.
But that inflexible woman insisted on running the test strictly in numerical order, completely ignoring my suggestion, which is why I’m stuck doing all this extra work.
“Instructor Vio?”
“Understood.”
The previous team didn’t have a single dagger, but this team has two.
I adjusted targets 2 and 4 and returned to my position.
Beep—
As Amelia’s whistle signaled the start, the students released their arrows and threw their daggers all at once.
Ten projectiles were launched, but only six sounds followed.
Targets 2, 4, 6, and 8 were missed.
“Yes! A hit.”
“Good thing I aimed a little to the right.”
Some students cheered excitedly, while those who failed lowered their heads and went to retrieve their arrows and daggers.
They’re worse than I expected.
Archery and dagger throwing aren’t things you can master in a short time.
Oh? Are you going easy on them just because they’re your students?
Not a chance.
Whether they’re skilled or not has nothing to do with me.
“Instructor Vio, please adjust the targets again.”
Ugh, couldn’t they just have the students who finished earlier handle this kind of grunt work?
It’s already late September, but it’s still unbearably hot.
There’s a mana-powered temperature control system in the classrooms blasting out cool air, yet here I am stuck in this shooting range under the blazing sun. This is a special kind of hell.
“Hey, you, move it! Hurry up.”
I rushed the students along and sent them off, then readjusted the targets again.
After repeating that five more times, the test finally came to an end.
“Good work, everyone. Clean up and then head to your meal.”
Looks like they’re going to have the students handle the cleanup, thankfully.
I was about to head back to the dorms to grab a shower before eating when Amelia walked up to me.
“Instructor Vio, do you have a moment to talk?”
“What is it?”
After making me run around under the scorching sun all day, what is she trying to nitpick now?
“Now that you’ve seen it yourself, what do you think?”
So she’s not trying to pick a fight?
“What exactly are you asking?”
“At yesterday’s faculty meeting, the headmaster said he plans to send our ranger class students to Belugaria, remember?”
Oh, that.
Belugaria is a traditional festival held to give thanks for the year’s harvest and to pray for another abundant one next year.
It runs from the second Wednesday of November through the weekend. During that time, there are various performances and night markets, so there’s plenty to eat and see. But the highlight of Belugaria is something else.
The Emperor’s martial arts tournament.
The tournament is divided into three categories based on the participants.
Alpheta, which anyone can enter regardless of background.
Berta, which is limited to those in public service, such as members of the Imperial Army or the Mage Tower.
And Grita, which is for academy students across the Empire.
Unlike Alpheta and Berta, where there’s no distinction between mages, swordsmen, or rangers, Grita works a bit differently.
In the end, they all fight without divisions like the other tournaments, but in Grita, competitors first face off within their respective disciplines to determine winners, and then those winners compete against each other.
At yesterday’s instructor meeting, the headmaster announced that students from our Veliyard Academy’s ranger class would also be participating in Grita.
“At the level we saw today, I don’t think anyone would even make it past the preliminaries.”
I didn’t say that just to get under Amelia’s skin. It’s simply the reality.
This is the first year Veliyard Academy has even opened a ranger class, while other academies already have students with one or two years of experience.
Amelia’s expression darkened again.
Even the headmaster who declared their participation didn’t seem to expect much. He basically said winning would be difficult, but at least they could gain some experience.
What, was she expecting me to sugarcoat it?
“You’re being too harsh.”
“It’s not about being harsh. That’s just the reality.”
There’s just not enough time.
There are preliminaries before the main tournament, so while the festival itself is in mid-November, the prelims start on November 1st.
Since it’s already the end of September, that leaves just a little over a month to prepare.
It’s not an extremely short time, but it’s not like students from other academies will just sit around doing nothing during that period either.
“Still, the headmaster asked us to select representatives, so I was hoping to hear your opinion as well…”
“You’re the practical instructor. You know their skill levels better than I do. I’ll leave it to you. I’ll be going now.”
Not wanting to get dragged into the conversation any further, I quickly headed back to the dorms.
After a quick wash and lunch, I went to the faculty office and started grading the written exams.
There are no afternoon classes today, so once this is done, I’m off work.
Wait… what is this?
62, 50, 44, 36?
Since this is a midterm evaluation that goes on record, I made the exam much harder than a simple quiz by adding tricky questions, but the scores are terrible across the board.
Huh? After all those awful scores, finally a perfect…oh, it’s actually a full score.
For a second, I thought I graded it wrong, so I checked again, but it’s really perfect.
The name on the paper is Mei Levy.
She was the one who got a perfect score on the written portion of the entrance exam.
Her brain is definitely exceptional.
Wait, the last question was intentionally set slightly outside the scope so they’d get it wrong, and she still got it right.
Does she preview the material in advance?
So she’s a hardworking genius.
Well, she’s practically the only one who consistently asks me questions during self-study and ends up bothering me, so I guess this result makes sense.
But her practical evaluation earlier was a disaster.
She didn’t just miss the target. She didn’t even come close.
From what I briefly saw on the evaluation sheet earlier, her other practical scores weren’t great either.
She’s the unfortunate type… smart and highly motivated, but lacking the physical ability to back it up. She might be better suited for an administrative role instead.
With that thought, I finished grading.
I was about to head home, but the atmosphere in the faculty office felt oddly restless.
“Huh? Looks like Instructor Karis is in charge of the swordsmanship class this year.”
“Instructor Berman has too much on his plate and had to step out, so I heard Instructor Karis is taking over instead.”
“Really? Instructor Karis is a good choice too. For the magic class, are Instructors Aris and Maria in charge again like last year?”
“I heard there are so many applicants for the magic class that they’re selecting one additional instructor.”
“With so much talent this year, I’m really looking forward to it. By the way, who’s in charge of the ranger class?”
“It’ll probably be Instructor Vio.”
Huh? Me?
“What do you mean I’ll be doing?”
“Oh, you were listening? We were talking about who’ll handle the supplementary training for the students heading to Grita.”
If they win the competition, it’ll boost the school’s reputation as well, so holding extra classes isn’t strange, but why am I the one doing it?
“I’m not doing it.”
“Really? I heard Instructor Vio was.”
“Who said that…?”
“Instructor Amelia mentioned it.”
“I heard the same thing too.”
I went straight to Amelia’s desk to confront her, but she wasn’t there.
With a bad feeling creeping in, I asked a nearby instructor and was told she’d gone to the Headmaster’s office, so I immediately left the faculty room.
This woman is seriously out of line.
She’s dumping this on me without even a word of discussion?
If it gets reported to the Headmaster, it’ll be hard to reverse, so I hurried to the Headmaster’s office, but damn it.
By the time I arrived, the door opened and Headmaster Banks and Amelia walked out together.
Looks like I was a step too late.
“Oh, Instructor Vio, I was just on my way to call for you. Perfect timing.”
“What is it that you need me for…?”
I had a rough idea, but I asked anyway, hoping I’d be wrong.
“Instructor Amelia suggested that you take charge of the supplementary training for the students preparing for Grita.”
This woman, seriously.
“I think it would be much better for Instructor Amelia, a practical instructor, to teach them rather than me, a theory instructor.”
“That’s not true. I may be a practical instructor, but isn’t your skill far superior, Instructor Vio? So it makes sense for you to take it on.”
“That doesn’t mean being skilled makes someone a good teacher—”
“I believe you’ll do more than well enough, Instructor Vio.”
What is wrong with this woman?
She even told me to leave the academy, saying I wasn’t helping the students, and now this? It’s ridiculous.
“I think the same. Our ranger students are already at a disadvantage since their training period is shorter, aren’t they? If someone as capable as you takes charge, the students will appreciate it even more.”
The students will appreciate it?
Yeah, I’m sure they will.
“Well…”
“Is there any reason you can’t take on the supplementary training?”
“It’s not that there’s any particular problem, but…”
“Then let’s have you take charge of the ranger class supplementary lessons.”
…I figured she’d try to pick a fight again, but I didn’t expect her to make things difficult for me in such a pointless way that does nothing to get me fired.
What did I tell you?
I don’t like Ark’s smug tone, but he was right.
I should’ve forced her out back during that fake credentials incident, even if it meant a bit of trouble.
“I’ll be looking forward to it.”
The Headmaster winked, just like during the last duel, and walked off.
The Headmaster is one thing, but that woman Amelia said she was looking forward to it too and left after thoroughly getting under my skin.
Even after the duel, she still doesn’t seem to understand me.
Ah! Or maybe it’s because I was too lenient with her last time, so she thinks I’m easy to deal with.
Serves you right for not listening to me.
Serves me right, my foot.
Back in active duty, even when a fellow agent’s mistake nearly exposed my identity during a spy mission, I still completed the operation and returned safely.
Something like this is laughable.
***
(POV change)
“Hey, did you hear?”
“Hear what?”
“They say the theory instructor is taking charge of the supplementary classes for Grita this time.”
“Instructor Vio? That instructor just makes us do self-study every day.”
“And then he made the midterm exam ridiculously hard.”
“Seriously. I thought it’d be easy like a quiz, but I totally bombed it.”
Was it really that hard?
I didn’t think it was particularly difficult.
“Wait, if Instructor Vio is in charge, won’t the supplementary classes just be self-study again?”
“If it’s Instructor Vio, that wouldn’t be surprising.”
“I was thinking of trying it out for the experience, but I guess I’ll pass.”
Just as I was thinking it was strange that Instructor Vio, who finds everything a hassle, was taking on supplementary classes, the door opened and he walked in.
After greetings, he began calling out the midterm written exam scores in number order, and just like the others had said, everyone’s grades were poor.
Forget 90…there were only a handful who even scored above 70.
So they weren’t exaggerating.
Oh? It’s my turn now.
“Number 17, Mei Levy. Perfect score.”
“Wow.”
“Mei, that’s amazing.”
It was the result I expected, but with everyone cheering and praising me, I felt a little embarrassed.
“Quiet down. Anyone who scored below 50 this time should be careful. If you get the same on the final, you’ll be held back.”
“The exam was way too hard.”
“Yeah. It was nothing like the quizzes. You should’ve told us in advance.”
Huh? The last question was outside the scope, but aside from that, everything was covered in the course materials.
“Quizzes are meant to check what you’ve learned, while midterms assess your academic achievement and whether you can apply it in practical situations. Of course they’re going to be different.”
“Still, it was too hard.”
“If it were truly that difficult, there wouldn’t be a perfect score. Instead of blaming the difficulty of the exam, you should first reflect on whether your effort was lacking.”
At the instructor’s words, the classroom fell silent in an instant.
Some of the others shot glances at me, which felt a bit burdensome, but at the same time, I was pleased.
After all, the usually indifferent instructor had just praised me.
“Those who didn’t do well on this evaluation should make up for it on the final. Now, an announcement. This year, students from the Ranger class will also be participating in Grita.”
Since it was something everyone already knew, there wasn’t much reaction.
“The supplementary classes for Grita preparation will be handled by this instructor. Anyone who wishes to apply should come to the faculty office by lunchtime tomorrow.”
“Um, Instructor…will the Grita prep classes also just be self-study?”
Eddie, who had been complaining earlier about the exam being difficult, raised the question.
“I’ll explain the details separately to those participating in the supplementary classes, but since these sessions are meant to prepare for Grita, they’ll be conducted differently from regular theory classes.”
If it’s a different approach, then it probably won’t just be self-study.
“Are there any restrictions on applying?”
It was Rita, who had just said she might as well give up because it would probably be self-study.
“Any student from the Ranger class may apply.”
No restrictions?
I’d heard that for Grita preparation classes, you either needed a recommendation from an instructor or had to be a top-performing student to apply. Wasn’t that the case?
To be honest, I’m more confident in theory than anyone, but my practical scores are so poor that I’d already given up… Should I give it a try?
Winning a prize in the competition, let alone being selected as the school’s representative, would be difficult, but it’s not completely out of reach.
I should talk to him right after class ends.
I’m actually looking forward to seeing what Instructor Vio’s class will be like if it’s not just self-study…
“One more thing. Just because there are no restrictions doesn’t mean it will be easy. Since the goal is to prepare for the competition, don’t apply with a casual mindset.”
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