“Hey, Johan? Where’s the flag?”
“You didn’t seriously think I’d just tell you if you asked, did you?”
“Hmm…”
After realizing that the base I built was fake, he started wandering around the area and eventually began asking me where the real one was.
If this were a real situation, he might’ve gone as far as torture. But it was just an exam.
He had no choice but to find the hidden flag on his own.
That’s what a scout is supposed to do, after all.
“Ugh!”
In the end, he left me alone and went off to search for the flag I hid.
Some time passed like that—
Fweee—boom!
A flare went up, signaling the end of the exam. Our team had won.
Well, of course we did.
If you’re forced to defend your base without even having a proper one built, you end up defending the base itself, not using it for defense.
When forces were evenly matched, defending something was always harder than attacking.
“Ah, we lost. Johan! Where the heck did you hide the flag?”
“Over there.”
I pointed out the spot for the guy who came back looking completely worn out.
“Over there…?”
“Yeah, I buried it underground.”
There were no rules saying you couldn’t bury the flag.
What’s the point of a “base” anyway? In the end, you just need to protect the flag to win.
And there was no more foolproof way to hide something than to bury it.
Of course, since there could always be some lunatic who might predict even that, I had deliberately stacked an unnaturally arranged pile of rocks on top of the spot where I hid the flag.
On top of that, I added an illusion spell in the shape of a flag, so the opponent wouldn’t even think to dig beneath the pile of rocks.
They had already been led to believe the rocks were merely a decoy. After all, the darkest place is always right under the lamp.
“Wow, you guys are seriously… shameless.”
“There’s no such thing as fairness in war.”
“Shouldn’t there at least be some in an exam?”
“Well, who knows? The rules never said we couldn’t do it.”
It was like walking the thin edge of a gray zone.
In any case, I had dug a trench and planted the flag deep inside.
Later on, due to an unfortunate accident, the trench collapsed and the flag was buried alive beneath the earth.
So I had nothing to feel guilty about.
***
Johan may have had nothing to feel guilty about, but the teachers who had been observing the test for evaluation purposes had a very different opinion.
“That little bastard?”
That punk had shown his true colors ever since the placement test, and now he was pulling this crap during the midterm too.
What made it even more infuriating was the fact that, just as Johan said, there really wasn’t any rule against burying the flag underground.
In fact, that was to be expected. Digging a trench and using differences in elevation to hide the flag was considered basic tactics.
But instead, he had collapsed the entire trench to make the flag completely unfindable.
“Professor Georg, what are your thoughts on the current situation?”
“…Why are you asking me? I don’t know that brat.”
“Don’t try to weasel out of this. We all know Johan is practically your star student!”
“I swear I’m innocent!”
Georg, who had come under fire from the other teachers, felt wronged.
If Johan had actually been his student, he might’ve just taken the scolding and moved on. But Johan was more like a parasite who only came to the workshop to leech off whatever he needed.
The teachers pressed their foreheads in frustration.
“Haah… We can’t even disqualify him for this. If he claims the trench collapsed by accident, what are we supposed to do?”
Johan had barely stayed within the bounds of the rules, skimming past the edge of the gray zone.
Despite already having been burned once during the placement exam, they had failed to clearly define the rules. So the fault was mostly theirs.
“We have no choice this time. Let’s just let it go.”
In the end, the commotion among the teachers reached the point where Headmistress Olga Hermod herself had to step in to calm things down.
Johan hadn’t broken any rules. That much was certain.
So…
“Instead, let’s add a new rule. From now on, the flag will be treated as if it were a person. Trenches can still be used, but excessive concealment of the flag won’t be allowed.”
“Understood. We’ll notify the students once this exam is over.”
And just like that, a new rule was added.
***
After the first round of the exam ended, I clicked my tongue as I read the new announcement.
It was an obvious jab at me.
But honestly, I deserved it. It was my fault.
“Johan, what are we going to do now?”
“Everyone figured we’d get targeted sooner or later, right? We’ll just go with Plan B for the next exam.”
“Okay!”
For reference, the exam would be held in three rounds.
Ugh, how was anyone supposed to fight and clash three times in a row?
I’d never been in the military, so I wasn’t sure, but was this what they called guerrilla training?
How was I supposed to survive being exhausted for three days straight…
They said it was to give students who couldn’t show their true skills a fair chance, but I wished they’d consider how drained we felt.
“Our previous strategy was hard to use more than once anyway, so let’s go with something more conventional this time.”
And so, with the second exam approaching, we decided to come up with a new plan.
***
The second mock war exam for Johan’s team began.
“Is that brat doing this on purpose?”
Once again, Johan had barely made any effort to build a base. In fact, it was even worse than during the first exam.
He stuck the flag into a single wooden stick and declared,
“We’ve built a base. And if the flag is treated like a person now, then it should be allowed to move, right?”
It was the conclusion of Johan’s version of a mobile fortress.
And so, Johan’s team carried the wooden stick with the flag and roamed the forest with all five members.
The two scouts sent ahead by the opposing team to check Johan’s base were swiftly overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
At that point, Johan casually tossed the flag aside and used their five-to-three numerical advantage to completely crush the enemy team.
“Well, it was better than the first exam, at least. There were ways to deal with that strategy, but the scouts approached too carelessly. The moment they realized they were outnumbered, they should have retreated somehow.”
“Still, doesn’t that go against the purpose of this exam? Weren’t we supposed to evaluate how teams handled offense and defense? That was ridiculous.”
“They do say offense is the best defense, so it’s not entirely out of line.”
The teachers were once again busy arguing over Johan’s strategy, which had barely managed to stay within the rules.
In the end, after a staff meeting, the rules were changed once more.
This time, it was mostly out of spite.
***
“Getting targeted two times in a row feels a bit much. I mean, we actually played fair this time, didn’t we? And this is what they say the problem is?”
A new rule was added. The flag could not be moved more than 50 meters from its original location.
“Johan, what do we do now?”
“Let’s just go with the standard approach for the last one. We’ve already won twice. Do we really need to win all three?”
“That’s true. And just because we play it by the book doesn’t mean we’re going to lose, right?”
“Exactly, exactly.”
That kind of confidence… only you guys seem to have it.
I was already mentally and physically drained from the first two battles.
At this point, I just wanted to go home and rest.
It’s not like I hadn’t trained, but I definitely wasn’t on the same level as these guys.
Ugh, I’m exhausted…
And so, the third exam for our team began.
We built a base properly.
“That’s gotta be a decoy! I saw what those guys did in yesterday’s exam!”
We sent scouts properly.
“Don’t follow them! I bet they’ve dug traps and are lying in wait!”
We used proper, textbook tactics.
“There’s definitely something more going on! Don’t act rashly. Hold your defensive positions!”
And with that… we just won.
“What even was that?”
Maybe it was because of all the sneaky tricks we’d pulled before, but the opposing team ended up second-guessing themselves and making a bunch of dumb mistakes.
Perception really is everything.
That said, because we used fairly standard tactics and strategies this time, the exam ended up taking quite a bit longer.
“Yaawn…”
By the time the practical exam wrapped up, the sun was already setting.
We had been running, fighting, and scrambling around from morning till dusk.
And now they wanted us to take the written exam starting tomorrow? Had they lost their minds? Seriously?
Things weren’t this bad in our first year….has everything really changed this much in just a year?
I had thought that once Olga Hermod became Headmistress, a comfortable and peaceful school life would finally begin.
I had thought that once I solved Ariel’s problem, I would have time to spare.
I was wrong about all of it.
This damned academy had been like this from the start.
Maybe I just wasn’t meant to be happy.
“Good job, Johan!”
“I knew you’d pull it off!”
“Yeah, you guys worked hard too.”
I meant it.
Even someone as dirty and despicable as me had teammates who treated me without prejudice….and that was why we were able to win.
At this point, I felt like I was starting to develop a sense of camaraderie too.
“Come to think of it, what were your names again?”
It was a little embarrassing, but I still hadn’t memorized these guys’ names.
We were on the same team, and I’d even led them. But to be fair, we barely spent any time together.
Most of the time, they moved as a group while I lagged behind on my own.
What could I do? That was the plan.
“Aw, come on. That’s not like you.”
“Yeah, seriously. Johan would never ask something like our names.”
“Don’t ruin the image we have of you, okay?”
“……”
What the hell was with these guys?
What did they think of me?
Was me asking their names really so shocking?
The same teammates who had always responded positively to anything I said were suddenly so firm that I was left speechless.
“What were they again…”
I muttered to myself as I watched their backs, each of them walking away in a different direction.
Seriously, what was that? What kind of image did they even have of me? More importantly, was I even the kind of person someone could have an image of?
“Right… it’s not like I’m anyone’s friend…”
We came from completely different worlds in the first place.
I figured I’d just be a loner all the way until I graduated from this crazy cradle.
Not that I felt particularly lonely.
After all, I did have one person I could call a friend.
“Hey Yuna, want to grab a coffee or something?”
I called out to Yuna, who was basically my stalker at this point. As always, she’d show up with that silly little laugh of hers.
“Yuna?”
I looked around.
“Where’d she run off to this time?”
But Yuna didn’t show up.
I felt lonely.
***
Just like Johan thought of Yuna as a friend, Yuna also thought of Johan as a friend.
Watching him was entertaining, and the way he thought about things often resonated with her own, so they had good conversations.
Even without saying much, they could usually tell what the other was thinking.
Of course, even if they understood each other’s thoughts, that didn’t mean they always agreed.
Johan and Yuna were different.
If you had to pick the biggest difference, it would definitely be their views on killing.
“Wonder if the exam’s over by now?”
Johan had a strong aversion to killing. That was a good thing.
Unlike Yuna, who had been forced to kill from a young age, it meant Johan had grown up in a better environment.
Her parents had been murdered by nobles. There hadn’t been any grand reason.
They were killed simply because they happened to make eye contact while walking down the street.
So Yuna took revenge.
Fortunately, she had a talent for that kind of thing.
But not everyone does.
Most people didn’t have the power to take revenge like she did.
They had no talent. All they could do was accept reality, bow their heads, and live miserably.
That’s how most people lived.
So Yuna took their place.
She accepted a single flower from a child who had lost their parents, just like she had. And then slit the throat of the thug who had killed them.
That was how she lived.
Though she and Johan had their differences, Yuna never thought of those differences as annoying or upsetting.
The truth was, she envied him.
Because his way of life was exactly what she had lost.
That was why she helped him so willingly.
Following the faint traces of a dream she once had.
“Aah…!”
Yuna let out a deep sigh.
Being with Johan was fun. So she had been hanging around with him nonstop.
Which meant…
“Did I stay too long?”
She smiled as she looked at the thick fog beginning to settle around her.
She had done far too many things that could get her caught.
Originally, she had only planned to stop by the Cradle briefly to look for her disciple.
But without any real plan, she ended up spending far too much time there.
Even though she knew exactly who had claimed this place as their territory, she had let her guard down.
Tap!
The sound of a cane striking the ground pierced Yuna’s ears.
Her vision wavered.
The thick fog completely threw off her sense of balance.
The sky now lay beneath her feet, and the ground boxed her in like walls from every direction.
Then… what was above her head?
Yuna struggled to lift her head, and then let out a bitter smile.
“So, I’ve been found.”
Up there stood the archmage—
Olga Hermod.
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