Kafka Crowbell's plan is to make Lyon and me fight.
"Hoo. Miss Goldenlaw," our teacher was surprised as he saw our director approach us with her usual calm expression and her left eye closed.
"Mr. Crowbell, may I ask what you are doing?"
"Haha. Two of my students seemed to be in high spirits, and what better way to get to know each other than with a good ol' match?"
I noticed Hellen giving him a doubtful look. While Kafka's a crazy perfectionist who looks like an evil person, he remained loyal to Goldenlaw, even during the Academy Rebellion part of the game.
"Have you even talked to your students about how our school works? What they have to do on their first day?" Given the way she looks at him, she probably thinks that he isn't someone to be trusted.
"That information can be given at any time, and I chose to give it in our training arenas. Is there a problem with that?"
"... No... absolutely none." She observed our whole class. "Do you mind if I watch how you tackle your presentation?"
"I'd be delighted to have our esteemed director alongside us." Kafka's voice had the peculiar quirk of sounding like he didn't care about anything.
After following our professor for three minutes, we finally arrived at the training arena. This one had a big 2 on the entrance. Apparently, there are six arenas where students can practice against each other.
"Ahem... students of class S, pardon my late introduction. I'm Kafka Crowbell, your homeroom teacher. I'll be teaching you all the required subjects: language, math, history, geography, and basic magic learning," our teacher finally introduced us to Aurum Academy.
"Apart from my own classes, you're all expected to pick a maximum of six other classes, like alchemy, basic weapons training, beast taming, or any other special class. Since our great director is here with us, she'll give you a paper."
Goldenlaw started to hand a sheet of paper to each student after Kafka said that.
"What you were given is a magical timetable. In it, there should be my five classes already registered. You can pick any class you want to take, and it will automatically arrange them, taking into account my own classes as their maximum priority."
It's kinda like the interface of the game... that's kinda neat...
And with all these classes, I'll need time to think of the ones that would best suit me.
"Of course, not every subject is similar, and some will earn you more points than others."
In-game, the main character chose four subjects in her first year. The fifth and sixth were left for the player to choose...
"I have to remind everyone that not only are you all students of the prestigious Aurum Academy, but you're also part of Class S—the best class among them all. So a lot is expected from you, not only by the academy itself but by your peers..." He was making a pretty nasty grin when saying that... He's probably already thinking of overwhelming us with study and practice until we faint.
"So, Miss Goldenlaw. Anything to add?" Kafka asked with a hidden mocking tone in his voice.
"Nothing to add on my part." She sat with both her arms crossed, closing both eyes. "You can freely proceed with the matches between your students. I hope you don't mind me spectating a couple of them."
"Only for the first match, as that one's going to be the most interesting." He pointed at me and Lyon. "You see, both students Lyon Alva and Alen seemed to be eagerly waiting for a chance to prove themselves in a fight."
I don't.
"So why don't both of you come up on the stage?"
Both Lyon and I positioned ourselves on opposite sides of the ring.
sigh
Thankfully, I wasn't just scratching my butt during all this time he talked—I was actually thinking of a way to achieve the best outcome for me.
"Are we not gonna use weapons?" Lyon asked our teacher.
"You won't need them," Kafka replied to the lion prince with a sadistic grin.
I could hear Lyon groan as he got himself ready.
"Start!"
Now my plan begins.
Lyon starts running toward me.
He begins charging a punch as he runs.
My plan finally starts. As soon as he gets relatively close to me...
I jump backward, exiting the ring.
"I give up."
...
Maybe it's because he wasn't expecting me to do this, but he tripped and fell.
I could hear a collective "Eeeh!?" coming from my classmates.
I looked toward our director, and she had both her eyebrows raised in concern, with her right eye open.
Then I looked toward Kafka, and he had his mouth open. He truly wasn't expecting this outcome.
I lowered my head, bowing to Lyon. "I'm sorry if I said anything that made you upset. Not only is this my first time attending a classroom, but various rumors have been formed about me, so I was really on edge and worried... I truly apologize for acting in a way unfit for our class."
"Haaa!?" He stood up and pointed at me. "What are you talking about!?"
"I understood what Teacher Crowbell wanted to do with us." I stopped bowing my head and looked at my opponent.
I could feel my hand trembling as I truly needed to work out my tongue to escape this situation.
"He said we should 'talk things out,' but with how we were inside our classroom, that would've been impossible."
But I need confidence to achieve success.
"So he deliberately made us walk for three minutes to this arena—the second arena. Why not the first one, which is closer than this one? And he even began explaining our school life, which took around two minutes." I put my hand on my chest, making sure my body language seemed as confident as I could muster.
"He gave us this much time to think about what we did... He was testing us." This is where my whole strategy could fail.
"What!!??" Lyon clearly didn't believe me, but he's not important right now.
"He himself said it: 'A match is a great opportunity to know each other' and 'They won't be needing weapons.' He was using this match as an excuse to put us in a place to talk things out."
Lyon's expression was obviously contorted in confusion from what was coming out of my mouth.
"A lot is expected from Class S. This was a lesson on learning to make amends like two responsible adults." If this doesn't work, I've just dug my own social grave.
"Aurum Academy prepares us to be individuals respected by society—people who'll be in higher positions of work. If we don't learn the lessons our teacher is trying to teach us... how are we supposed to be adults who can be trusted!?"
...
...
This silence is deafening...
...
...
"Is that true, Mr. Crowbell?" I could sense by her tone and expression that Hellen Goldenlaw was currently extremely surprised by what I just said.
...
Come on, you superiority-complex weirdo... stop having that expression and say something. Be useful to me.
"O-oh... ahem... y-yes... mhm. That was indeed my objective... Students from Class S are expected to have this behavior, and student Alen was able to see right through my lesson."
Yes... I've made it.
Lyon couldn't believe what was happening. He looked at me, then at Kafka and Hellen, and back to me.
"...Then I hope you understand the procedure after this outcome, even if it is the first day," the blonde director had a more serious tone in her voice now.
"But of course..." Kafka opened a book and started writing in it. "Student Alen, for understanding the hidden lesson I planned for both of you, you earn points. Sadly, the distance between you and seventeenth place is still noticeable enough to not affect your ranking."
Here it is—the points-based ranking. The better student you are, the more points you get... but...
"On the contrary, student Lyon, not only were you unable to understand what I wanted to teach you two... you clearly had intentions to fight, armed with weapons."
This could be devastating for Lyon.
I could see every single one of my classmates' faces—they all knew what was coming.
"Unlike student Alen, the distance between you and fifth place is smaller. Small enough for you to be demoted to fifth place." He continued writing in his book.
Lyon fell to his knees. "No... th-this can't be." Even though he whispered that, I was close enough to hear it.
"Student Elizabeth Bato, you're hereby promoted to rank four in my class." He closed the book so hard, you could hear it even from afar.
"You're all dismissed." He signaled us with a 'shoo-shoo' motion of his hand. "Go do your duties." He's clearly pissed off... and I caused it.
"I'm glad to see that the S Class is still in the hands of a competent individual." Goldenlaw slowly clapped. I don't know if she's being serious or not.
"Thanks for the compliment, Miss Goldenlaw. I truly do appreciate that my hard work is getting some recognition."
Your hard work? You know what? I don't care.