Over the course of the next three days, Leo would spend all of his time trying to memorize the ancient magic as well as train his magic by using Divine Flame Fortification on himself every minute.
<You have completed a Quest>
[+5,000 Magic Points]
<You have a new Quest>
[Quest: Use 250,000,000]
[Reward: 5,000 Magic Points]
[Completed: 1/3]
During the day of the training course ranking announcement, Leo woke up early and headed to the Headmistress’ office as planned.
“Here is your Fruit of Awakening. You remember what to do, right?” Eve asked him as she handed him the box.
“Yes, I remember.” He nodded.
“Once again, let me ask you— are you prepared to do this? You don’t have to give me an answer because you have until the result announcement to change your mind.” Eve said to him.ᴘᴀ ɴ ᴅᴀ n ᴏ ᴠᴇʟ
Leo silently nodded. Of course, he was resolved to consume the fake Fruit of Awakening.
“Here are your Mana Suppression Pills. Consume them now. I will give you the antidote after the whole ordeal.” Eve handed him the two pills next.
Leo took a deep breath and swallowed them.
The moment he swallowed the pills, he could feel his body getting weaker and his mana ‘disappearing’ from his body. Of course, his mana was still there. It was just being suppressed by the pills.
“Let’s test your magic affinities too just in case.” Eve said before turning to look at Camille.
Camille took out the device used to detect one’s magic affinity and used it on Leo.
A few moments later—
“W-What?! A-Rank fire magic affinity?!” Eve cried out loud after seeing the results.
She turned to look at Leo and frowned, “You said it was only Rank E!”
Leo chuckled and said, “I wanted to surprise you, so I lied.” pᴀɴda nᴏvel
“…” Camille narrowed her eyes at Leo, suspecting that it had something to do with the Magic System, but she kept quiet.
“You dare to tease me?! I’ll make you regret it during training!” Eve snorted.
Leo could only smile bitterly at her words.
Sometime later, after confirming that everything was working as intended, Eve dismissed Leo.
“Wait! Forgot to tell you something!” Eve suddenly stopped him right as his hand touched the doorknob.
“What is it?”
“It’s about Nina,” she said.
“Nina? What about her?”
Eve retrieved an envelope and handed it to him.
“Nina has asked me to give this to you before she left the academy.”
“What?!” Leo’s eyes widened with shock after hearing this.
“Nina left the academy?! When did this happen?!”
“Shortly after you all returned to the academy.”
“She’s been gone for almost two weeks…? She could’ve at least told me before she left… I thought we were friends…” Leo muttered in a dazed voice.
“I think she was having second thoughts about leaving, hence why she purposefully avoided seeing you, as it would’ve made it harder for her to leave.” Camille said.
Leo sighed. “Thank you for letting me know. If you’ll excuse me now…”
He left the office shortly after.
After leaving the office, Leo found an empty bench nearby and took a seat before opening the envelope.
Inside the envelope was a piece of paper was a letter from Nina.
“I’m sorry for leaving the academy without telling you, Leo. Please don’t misunderstand my intentions. Every time I see your face, my desire to leave the academy— your side weakens, so I was left with no choice but to leave without seeing you.”
“By the time you read this, I will probably be hundreds if not thousands of miles away from Stellar City. If I am unlucky, I might even be dead. I told you that my new goal was to hunt all of the monsters in the world, right? Well, I have a new goal now. I want to become strong enough to fight by your side without feeling like a burden. After spending a month with you in the Wilderness, I realized how much I enjoyed being with you, but at the same time, I realized how weak I truly was. Hopefully, I will be strong enough to fight A-Rank monsters like the Fiend Warrior when we see each other again.”
“I actually have a lot that I want to say to you— tell you, but I will save it for our next meeting when I am worthy enough. Until then, Leo.”
The letter ended with Nina’s signature.
“That silly girl…” Leo sighed after reading Nina’s letter, his heart experiencing many emotions at once, as this was his first time receiving a letter like this.
“I must say, to become a full-time Adventurer and leave the city by herself at her young age, that Nina girl is really bold and resolute. She’ll definitely become a powerful Adventurer if she doesn’t die an early death.” Lilith said.
“Let’s not jinx it…” Leo shook his head at her.
ραꪒⅆα ꪒꪫꪥꫀꪶ “You have her phone number, right? Why don’t you call her now?” Lilith suddenly suggested.
“I have a feeling that she won’t pick up even if I call her. Also, I will respect her decision and trust in her abilities. I will wait until our next meeting.”
Sometime later, Leo stored Nina’s letter inside his spatial ring and made his way to the auditorium to get the ranking results.
When he arrived, Leo sat in the same location as he did a month and half ago.
However, there were noticeably fewer students gathered there, especially on the normal students’ side. They had three to four times more empty seats than the magic students’ side.
“Are you wondering why there are so many empty seats compared to before?” Almost as though she read his mind, Lilith suddenly asked him.
“Kind of.” He nodded.
“It’s simple. They’re dead.”
“…” Leo wasn’t surprised when he heard her words, as he had a feeling that was the case.
“You don’t seem surprised.” Lilith noticed this.
“The teachers did warn us that some of us will die before the training course even started. Though, this is more than I’d anticipated. I just counted 123 empty seats. Even if a few of them are late and not actually dead, that is still a lot of deaths.” Leo sighed.
“What about their families? Do they receive anything from the academy for their sons and daughters’ death?” Leo then asked.
“Unfortunately, they don’t, and before you complain, this is common practice in our world. All of the students here willingly attended this academy even though they know that they will be risking their lives to do so.”
“I wasn’t going to complain.” He quickly denied.
In his world, the death of a single student would send shockwaves throughout the school and the community, so it felt really weird to him that nobody seemed to be grieving for these dead students.
Sometime later, the teachers showed up with Headmistress Eve showing up last.
“Before I announce the top 10 teams for this year’s Wilderness Training Course, I would like to applaud all of you for your effort, especially the teachers. Without you out there in the Wilderness with the students, the casualties would’ve been a lot higher. Now, a minute of silence for those that have perished while trying to achieve greatness.”
And the auditorium became completely silent.
