Virelle entered the room with an arrogant smile. Just yesterday she had defeated the teacher of Class S, so she had already assumed the position. Introducing herself to the students, she took off her coat and stretched, preparing to deliver a message from the principal.
"Very well, students, now that I've introduced myself, I'd like to announce that the principal's training session will be rescheduled for next week."
"What?"
Everyone began to argue. Raising her hand, they stopped and looked at her. She noticed that Enrico, Yumeha, and the rank 1 were missing, and that surprised her—except for that girl who had been called by her family. Enrico wasn't one to be late, of course, but she had arrived ten minutes early; unless he was training, he would normally arrive very early.
"The reason it won't happen is simple: five students will be chosen at random for a test mission. In this mission, you will recover a low-level core that was stolen from a shop."
Seeing the doubt in their eyes, she explained that it was a payment from a shopkeeper, and lately there had been thefts of low-level cores, so they decided to take the opportunity to test some students. Valença raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"Why randomly?"
"Because besides wanting to test even the weaker students, we want a fair decision, so no one chooses and everyone has a chance."
The owner of the core offered a lot of money to those who recovered it before the hired teams, so they would earn money, recognition, and maybe even strength from this mission. Before leaving to fetch the mini circular barrier that Principal Hao had taken, she gave one last warning.
"And one more thing—since it's not only the academy that he hired, the other two teams are from the second-largest academy on the continent and the mercenary guild, who will use this mission to select rookies they'll hire for important missions in the future. So be careful."
"And that's what happened, my Ketsumei."
The one who explained this to Enrico was Rina, who was the first to jump in to explain it properly. Virelle returned carrying a sphere that began spinning with several names on slips of paper inside it. She waved at Enrico as a good morning gesture and placed the sphere on the table.
"Sit down, I'll draw the first name."
When everyone sat down, Enrico began to pray to be chosen. Since he hadn't dealt the final blow to Elowyn, he hadn't completed the mission, and it could only be completed that way—or if she admitted defeat, which she hadn't. So he wanted to have some kind of ace up his sleeve for the next fight.
This arc had the problem of being random, and he didn't know if the same characters would be chosen—especially since it was three months earlier and had new characters present.
'I hope I'm chosen, because this arc has a dungeon, so I can add a second fake dungeon for training, and it's a good-level training too.'
[Of course that's your first thought.]
'And it always will be.'
The first name drawn was Kai, who pumped his fist excitedly. Of course he would be chosen, so he wasn't surprised. Still, this protagonist's luck always attracted new enemies and allies when he joined missions.
"Second name is Valença."
"Yes, professor."
Valença was also in the original mission, so so far things were the same as in the original story. He needed that to change since Enrico had been gone for a long time. Valença, sitting beside him, messed with his hair without caring about the name being called, while Serenya behind them looked annoyed.
"Next, Maevon Calendir."
"Yes, professor."
He was the rank 8 of the class, and that was good—since Maevon didn't participate in the mission originally, it meant he had a chance to now. The next name was Elaris, the Student Council President, who gave a polite thanks. It had been a while since he'd seen her, so he gave her a second look, which Elaris noticed before nodding back.
"The last one…"
'Let it be me, let it be me…'
"Elowyn."
'Damn it.'
Slamming his fists on the table, he startled the students around him. Realizing what he had done, he apologized, then grew irritated upon seeing a smile on Elowyn's face. It seemed she had noticed he wanted to participate and was mocking him.
[I'm sure it wasn't just her who realized you wanted to join.]
Yes, he was right—everyone had noticed. And now the only thing he could do was curse his luck and plan another way to join the mission.
"We'll leave Friday afternoon after classes, so the chosen students should prepare well to travel. The location will be between the territories of Sano and Tianlong, which is where the second-best academy is."
"Right."
The five responded quickly and prepared to begin class. Enrico couldn't join as a member of another academy, so his only plan was to become a rookie mercenary and pass the first test to join the mission. The only problem was that he couldn't reveal his identity—because besides being an insult to the academy, it would be considered an affront. Not that joining another academy was an affront, but still.
Many people wouldn't like it, and if they saw his potential, they might try to recruit him somehow. He only wanted to use the mercenary cloak for missions anyway.
'I'll have to use another identity and…'
"Enrico, let me tell you how this mission is going to be, so don't worry."
Kai approached, starting to talk and imagine how the mission would go.
"It's a shame you won't be able to participate."
"Yeah…"
But he would participate—just not as Enrico, but with another identity.