Chapter 539: Episode 539
Standing before Team 10’s empty altar, Hector was speechless. His teammates caught up, panting.
"Hector! Did you find it?"
"What? It’s gone!"
Seeing Hector’s thunderous expression, they quickly grasped the situation and looked around frantically.
"Are they allowed to do that? It’s against the rules for them to move their own red relic!"
Hector was lost in thought. That was true. You could steal another team’s red relic, but you couldn’t move the one from your own altar. Which meant...
"Those bastards!" Hector’s eyes blazed with fury.
---
’One hour ago.’
The students were on a thirty-minute break. Teams huddled together, studying the rules and formulating strategies. Team 4, also in the first match, was doing the same.
"Man, the department rep is intense," a male student from Team 4 remarked with a shrug. Pierre Buckler had just delivered Hector’s message, and it was brutally clear.
—"Don’t interfere."
Hector’s Team 1 was going after Simon’s Team 10, period.
"But isn’t this a good thing for us?" a female student on the team asked, pulling her knees to her chest. "Honestly, the worst-case scenario was Team 1 and Team 10 coming after us and Team 13. But now the giants are going to fight each other. We can just stay out of their way and collect relics."
"Exactly. We’ll at least avoid last place, and we won’t get on the department rep’s bad side."
A consensus was forming, but the leader of Team 4 remained silent, his arms crossed and eyes closed.
"Leader, you don’t look happy," the first student noted, narrowing his eyes. "You’re not actually aiming for first place, are you?"
The leader didn’t deny it. He lifted his head. "Is there something wrong with a Kizen student aiming for first place?"
"N-No, of course not! But let’s be realistic. We got super unlucky and ended up in a match with the Student Council President and the department rep! How are we supposed to beat them?"
The leader of Team 4 didn’t have an answer. He just hated having to accept defeat from the start, to resign himself to fighting for second or third place.
’Anyone can rise to the top at this school.’
He had witnessed a miracle firsthand: his own classmate had started in the 900s in the entrance rankings and had risen to the top by their second year. It had inspired him. He had sworn to be different this year. But now, in the very first major evaluation, he was supposed to give up on that vow just because of a bad draw?
"Hello, hello."
Just then, a girl with orange hair came bouncing over to them. The female student from Team 4 recognized her and waved.
"Oh, hi, Eshe! What brings you here?"
"Her," the male student muttered, his expression hardening. "She’s from Simon’s Team 10."
The other members of Team 4 immediately went on guard. Eshe, unfazed, neatly folded her skirt and squatted down in the middle of them, grinning brightly.
"What do you want?" the annoyed leader of Team 4 demanded.
"Hector’s team was just here! I came to see if I could find out what they said!"
"In your dreams." ’The nerve of her to ask so openly.’ The leader turned his head away sharply. Eshe pouted. Then, a sly smile touched her lips.
"Should I guess? Can I? ’We’re going to attack Simon’s team, so you guys stay out of it!’ Something like that, right?"
The members of Team 4 flinched. Eshe chuckled. "Actually, I’m here to deliver a message from our ’Student Council President’!"
"Cut it out!" the leader of Team 4 roared, startling his teammates. "Are you two the only teams in this test? Huh? Just because you have some power in this school, you treat us like we don’t matter and just give us orders. It’s pissing me off! Fuck! Aren’t we Kizen students, too?"
"L-Leader!"
"What’s with the sudden outburst!"
His teammates tried to calm him down. Eshe’s eyes widened. "I think there’s been a misunderstanding. We’re not here to give ’orders.’ We’re here to make a ’proposal’."
"A proposal?"
"Hear me out before you get angry. I’ll tell you exactly what the Student Council President said, word for word." She clapped her hands together. "I’m about to make you an offer you can’t refuse."
Simon’s proposal was shocking. After hearing it, the leader of Team 4 muttered in a daze, "You’re just going to give us your team’s red relic?"
Eshe nodded vigorously.
"Eshe. Look me in the eye and tell me," the female student said, her eyes blazing. "No strings attached?"
"Nope!"
"Just for free?"
"Yup, yup!"
"Why?"
"I wasn’t told the reason. I’m just here to deliver the president’s message."
The leader of Team 4 rubbed his eyes, his expression troubled. ’Simon knows Hector will attack. Rather than let his rival get the relic, is he planning to give it to us to screw Hector over?’
Just then, Eshe added, "Oh, and he also said this: Our altar will be empty, so if you run there as soon as the match starts, you can grab the red relic before Hector gets there."
’Just as I thought.’
The fifteen-point red relic was a game-changer. Holding two of them would secure at least second place and dramatically increase their chances of winning. Simon’s motive was clear: use a third party to keep fifteen points out of Hector’s hands. For Team 4, it was an incredibly tempting offer.
"Well, I’ve said my piece, so I’m off!"
As soon as Eshe left, Team 4 huddled together.
"It’s a trap!" the male student insisted. "He’s using the relic as bait to lure us into an ambush and wipe out our ghouls!"
"What if he’s actually working with Hector?" the female student countered. "Maybe they’ve secretly teamed up to take out one team each and split the relics."
"No." The sleepy-eyed student who had been quiet the whole time finally spoke up with a yawn. "That’s not it."
The leader of Team 4 looked at him. "You’re in Class A, right? What are Simon and Hector really like?"
"Hector Moore will go after Simon. No matter what. And," he smacked his lips, "Simon Polentia is not the type to lie."
That settled it. The leader stood up. "I’ll go to Team 10’s side alone with one ghoul. If anything seems off, I’ll pull back immediately."
Even if it was a trap and he lost a ghoul or two, he decided it was a risk worth taking.
---
’Present Day.’
"Hah! Hah!"
The leader of Team 4 sprinted through the darkness, a ghoul running alongside him. Inside its body was Team 10’s red relic.
’I did it! I did it! I did it!’
It was just as Simon had said. The altar was empty, and the sounds of battle up ahead suggested a clash between Hector’s and Simon’s teams. He had his ghoul swallow the red relic and was now racing back to his own base.
’I... Our Team 4...!’ His lips trembled with exhilaration. ’We’re going to surpass Simon and Hector and take first place!’
He ran harder, and finally, Team 4’s altar came into view. He couldn’t wait to share the news. He pushed through the jet-black energy, about to accelerate—
’SHIIIIING!’
A sharp claw shot out from the darkness, grazing his ghoul. Startled, he commanded the ghoul back.
"Hold it! Hold it right there! We’ll be conducting a spot inspection."
At the sudden voice, the leader looked up. Three pairs of eyes glinted in the darkness.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
"Krrrrr!" At the same time, ghouls emerged from the shadows, prowling. A total of nine ghouls. He was completely surrounded.
’Thump.’
A male student dropped from a tree, smirking and holding up a finger. "Your ghoul looks quite plump. Mind if I cut its belly open and see what’s inside?"
’Those bastards from Team 13! They must have sniffed it out!’
The leader of Team 4 quickly summoned two more ghouls, but it was still three against nine. The disadvantage was clear.
"Alright, smash them all!" The nine ghouls controlled by Team 13 swarmed forward.
"There he is! We found him!"
"Protect the leader!"
But this time, voices came from ahead. The rest of Team 4 had arrived, their six ghouls charging at full speed.
"Well now, you’re fast! But it doesn’t matter! Kill them all!"
Golden lines appeared on several ghouls as ’Dirge’ was activated. They surged forward, trailing black energy like capes.
"Not a chance!" The leader of Team 4 cast Dirge on his own ghoul and met the charge head-on. It was an all-out war from the very start.
---
Simon hadn’t only approached Team 4. While Eshe was talking to them, he had sent Toto to Team 13, who were strategizing behind the restrooms.
—"You’re going to give your red relic to Team 4?"
He offered the red relic to Team 4, then intentionally leaked that information to Team 13. The members of Team 13 also debated if it was a trap, but it was information they couldn’t ignore. They, too, had been frustrated by the terrible draw and were about to enter the test simply trying to avoid last place. But suddenly, an unexpected opportunity had appeared. What if Simon was telling the truth? Team 4 would get first place.
And from Team 13’s perspective, Team 4 was beatable. Of course, they had to consider Simon’s intentions, but...
—"There’s no way in hell I’m letting Team 4 take first place."
This was a game where they were destined for a boring fight for third or fourth place. If there was even a sliver of a chance to win, they were willing to bet on it.
So, when the test began, the leader of Team 13 led three teammates to lie in ambush on the path between Team 10 and Team 4. Just as Simon had predicted, the leader of Team 4 passed by alone. Soon, a muddy, desperate battle erupted between the two teams vying for the top spot.
’Ooh-hoo-hoo! Our Student Council President has a brilliant mind!’ Eshe was amazed. His understanding of Hector, his grasp of the other teams’ situations—he had to have it all figured out to devise such a strategy.
While everyone else was fighting, Eshe headed for Team 13’s base.
"W-Who’s there!"
Team 13 had gone to attack Team 4, leaving only one member to guard the altar. Seeing him jump in alarm, Eshe waved cheerfully. "Hi! It’s the friendly neighborhood empty-house thief!"
Eshe had her criteria. Two or more defenders, she’d pass. A defender from Group A or B, she’d pass. But luckily, a single student from the weakest D group was guarding it. This, she could win.
"You’re from Team 10!" he sputtered, pointing at her with an enraged expression. "You tricked us!"
"Huh? I really, truly didn’t trick you." Eshe tilted her head. "We just gave you information about Team 4. No coercion, no requests. Whether you used that information or ignored it was your decision."
She thrust her arms forward. "And so, your red relic! We’ll be taking it!"
Behind her, a ghoul covered in orange paint began to run. For some reason, it even had lipstick smeared on its mouth.
"You have terrible taste!"
The student from Team 13 controlled three ghouls. It was a three-on-one fight. Eshe’s lipstick-wearing ghoul was quickly pinned to the ground.
"Ha! You were so confident, but you only brought one?"
As the student taunted her, the subdued ghoul’s mouth opened.
’Activate!’
A change occurred in her ghoul’s summoning circle. The operational values of its formulas and shapes shifted, and an adjacent magic circle lit up. Eshe instantly constructed a reverse-engineered structure, reassembling the components into a curse.
—Test takers may only use techniques applicable to ghouls.
A curse doll, created purely from the ghoul’s summoning magic and thus not violating the rules, slipped into the mouths of the opponent’s ghouls.
"Ghoul Dirge. My success rate with this in a real fight is pretty low," she said, raising her arms like a pianist. "But I’m an expert at messing things up!"
The curse doll’s magic penetrated the opponent’s summoning circles. Eshe instantly drew Reno’s Golden Line in reverse.
’Gush!’
The student’s ghouls howled in pain, vomiting streams of jet-black energy.
"Wh-What is this? What did you do?!"
Eshe laughed, touching a fingertip to her tongue. "Everyone only thinks about casting Dirge on their own ghouls. They never think of casting it on their opponent’s."
’Thud! Thump!’
All three of the student’s ghouls collapsed. Eshe summoned a new ghoul from her subspace and had it casually retrieve the red relic. The student from Team 13 could only watch helplessly.
"You—!"
"Bye! It’s just a test, so don’t hate me too much!" she giggled, fleeing with her prize.
’I think I’ve joined a fun team!’
With this, Team 10 had secured two relics, taking a huge step toward victory. Team 13 could hardly retaliate; they would have to bet everything on their fight against Team 4, who now also possessed two relics. The only remaining problem was Hector, who had been thoroughly outplayed by Simon. And he certainly wouldn’t back down easily.
’I wonder what Hector will do now?’