Date: Final Week of the Entrance Trials
Location: Academy's South Field — Temporary Combat Grounds
We were told there would be no more wilderness. No more monsters. No more pretending.
This was war.
Thirty-one students. Three days. Five-on-five duels. Top-ranked students lead.
I led a team.
Leander, Anna, Riya... and a new addition — Yukari, a spirit summoner from Asahi. Her eyes held something I almost recognized.
Our first match was against Team Avaris. Their leader — a boy obsessed with tactics but lacking scars. I pitied him. Not out of cruelty, but because I knew that pain was the best teacher, and he hadn't bled yet.
I reshaped the battlefield.
Used the slight downhill slope and morning dew. Had Anna scatter illusions across the treeline. Riya buried runes in mud. Yukari whispered — called forth a fox spirit to unsettle their formation. Leander baited them in.
When the fog lifted, only we stood.
Three matches. Three wins.
None of us fell. Not once. Even I didn't have to draw steel.
---
Lily's Match
She was called in as a filler for a failing team of nobles. They strutted, all pride and perfume.
She stood behind them.
They were taken down in seconds. Then she moved.
One strike of her silver-blue light — the ground froze. One breath later, the match was over.
The judge didn't speak.
He just nodded.
They're calling her Moon Flower now. I already knew that name suited her.
---
Gideon's Match
Team Gideon against Team Alice.
His shield didn't shine. It didn't need to.
He endured, and Elric — ever the silent healer — kept him standing even when others would've fallen. The nobles on Alice's team underestimated them. Most people do.
Alice did not.
She fought like ice and fire, her control terrifying. Her team still lost formation — arrogance was their Achilles heel.
Afterward, she bowed to Gideon.
First time I saw her acknowledge someone like that.
---
Final Results
Only three teams had a clean record. Ours was the only one undefeated.
I expected praise.
I received silence.
No announcement. No fanfare. Just the rustling of parchment as teachers revised class lists.
I already knew.
This journal will remember. If no one else speaks of it, I will.
Victory is quiet when it comes from preparation.
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