Sword, Magic and Academic Society-Chapter 273Vol. 1 - - Freshmen Welcome Event (2)

How could they... Was the allure of enrollment so strong they think it's alright to ignore feelings of their family?!

...Unforgivable!

Call me annoying for sticking my nose, but it's seniors' job to align the path of juniors. Riyad-senpai would've done the same!

I started my two-wheeler mana vehicle, and gave the accelerator a twist. Tch, I brought too much luggage...

The juniors, I am assuming those candidates had cracked the exam, were sprinting in the direction of Chalk White School Building where their seniors sat waiting. Well, I was the one to urge them. Anyway, there was no hesitation in their gait, not even sparing a glance behind.

...Wait a minute. Were they thinking of bringing down their seniors on the first day?! The eagles try to prey on lions? Hate to admit it, but they at least had guts, but their steps were wrong.

I rationalised my frustration with this logic, and craned my neck to scan the situation, and was surprised. The leading group suddenly swerved left just as they'd stepped into a paved path—the paved area was around the size of a soccer field and my classmates were at the other end—and ran deeper into the depth of the academy, seemingly taking a detour around the western school building.

...Academy tour? Haha, who am I kidding. There's no way they would do that. Their order of action was completely overturned... Now, even I was confused.

"Hey! You must have been making scary faces to scar all our juniors away! Can you at least care to say something to them?! You, I am speaking to you. The orientation school building is here. I know you must be excited, but how about you pay your parents a proper— damn you. Can you not sit there like some dumb statues?! Hey... are you even listening. C... What do you think you are doing, eh? Answer back for a goddamn minute!!"

" "Eeek!" "

The logic I had been trying to preserve flew off the window when I saw there was no solution to chaos, and switched into my roughian explorer mode. The juniors at the tail of the running crowd gave me a doubtful glance, and then yelped before bolting away as if scared of something.

"Pfft! Hahahahaha! ...Is, is this your way to serve as entertainment, Allen? Seriously, you have the nerve to say call us here, and then disappear yourself to nowhere."

Fey questioned, a grin tugging on her lips.

"What am I doing? ...I had wanted to teach our juniors the joy of youth... wait a minute. Where in the world did they disappear to? Good grief, they didn't even properly say their greeting to their parents..."

I curtly replied. Kate, the bespectacled Class President, in vibe, rolled her eyes, as if saying 'I can't believe this guy is asking this.'

"Where? Obviously, they're rushing for the lottery event to move into the General Dormitory. You didn't forget it, not after deciding that yourself, eh, our dear new Dorm President? I believe 'Just decided with a lottery in the morning of the new term's first day' were your words."

Lottery? ...Aah, The lottery for empty rooms now that 3rd years have graduated.

After Riyad-senpai passed the mantle of Dorm President to me, I was handing some of the decisions. They'd come to me for suggestions, asking how they could do it. At that time, I just replied casually with whatever came to my mind... I think.

But, what does this have to do with the disaster? The question marks flooded my mind. With chin resting in her hand, pig-tailed Stella had been curiously watching out reaction. After Kate, she lead an explanation by her own accord.

"Haa. First of all, the seniors obviously had advantage in this situation, since they'd wait. Now, that left the freshmen. By deciding to hold the lottery in the morning, you efficiently put the first roadblock. Now, the chances were left only for those who knew this would be happening.

Then, the second hurdle for them is 'can they finish the round trip?' One-way distance is 15 kilometres. In order words, to make it to orientation in time at 11:00 AM, they must cross the distance, pull a lottery, and then head for their classroom in just one hour after the announcement of results. ......Is this not what you're planning? We thought you've purposely put hurdles to test them out..."

What the fudge? Just what kind of temptation did this have that they all went into a frenzy?

"As if, I don't care. I don't remember ever spouting to put a trial or whatever. Honestly, I am more astonished why all of them are so eager to get into a general dormitory of all places? ...If you ask me, Noble's Dormitory is obviously the first choice to live leisurely!"

This time, everyone present rolled their eyes at me. ...Well, they did know that I had planned to live my academy life in the general dormitory.

"......As soon as there is a trial, the expression in enrolling candidates eyes became steep. Their end goal was no longer the successful enrollment, instead they realised it was merely the first step. And quite literally, they ran for the best start. Is this not why you'd gathered here, to show us the untainted, burning passion for their goals? I must say, this is quite effective. We can't be complacent."

Leo spouted some nonsense lines with absolutely serious eyes, a grin sticking to his lips.

Tch, learn about humility for a goddamn minute, you cheat bastard... I mean, could you believe how sad of a story it would be if in the race of rabbit and turtle, rabbit ran at its full speed. That's straight up bullying...... 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Speaking of, what's with your attire, Allen-san? The others are now in confusion, believing that you're here means everyone who didn't already left are late, and perhaps wouldn't be granted entry."

Jue giggled as she pointed at my back.

My stuff, yes. I thought the result announcement day would be a good time to introduce the amazing part of our club activities in one go, and that's why, I brought along wands, which're not in use, measurement tools that geography club invented, and spanker with Serene Wind Co. logo sticking out to my bike like I was some yakuza.

At Jue's words, I turned around, and found out that nearly fifty of our juniors had stopped 30 meters away from us. "Eep" My eyes met with the guy at the forefront, and that caused him to stagger backward, yelping in fright.

And behind them, which I presumed was the crowd of failed candidates, and their guardians, were having strange expressions on their faces, as if they'd witnessed a polar bear in the amazon forest.

"H-heya, everyone."

Once I had a general gist of the situation, I immediately veered my thoughts, and adopted a smile, waving my hands at them. ...However, no one returned the gesture.

"Y-you did well on passing!"

This time, I tried to make my voice sound like the chime of a bell, soothing, and yet again, there was no reply. Maybe I should make my voice more softer—

"H-hey, Allen, stop fanning the situation. The academy's information is almost impossible to be acquired in the countryside, so even if you meant it for a challenge, they don't have an inkling of their circumstances."

"Dan is right. They've not been raised under the rule of 'incessant fortitude' like you. Just because they hadn't immediately decided to follow others after finding out their result, and slowed down in deciphering situations, didn't mean they lacked intelligence. It'd be too cruel for newcomers."

Dan hurriedly held me back, while Bester gave his spectacle a nudge and started preaching.

Perhaps their voice had been heard by them, the junior's head handed in dejection. There were even some whose eyes had been mystified due to tears. It should've been a day to rejoice their celebration, nevertheless an air as depressing as the hell drifted in the surrounding.

"Come now, do not overthink about it, everyone. I know how it feels, because we'd faced the same, caught in his pace. Can you believe, he even said he can't bother himself with us, forcing us to get into the general dormitory. It was frustrating, but as long as you work hard, you will have plenty of chances for a comeback."

Dol displayed an expression of melancholic protagonist, tinged with slight hope, and racked in 'senpai point.' The juniors, deceived by his speech, raised their faces.

Viz followed after him, as merry maker as he was.

"Yeah, and believe it or not, he's quite easily hurt by loneliness! I bet he probably thought if he took this appearance, he might be able to become the idols of his juniors. That's how scatter brained he is. Hahaha! —...Hey, I am just joking, Allen."

With barely controlled gestures, I took off my 'Youth' bandana and held it out beckoning at him. Viz reeled back in a theatrical manner.

◆◆◆

"Good luck, Viz. You will appear lame if you lose!"

From the edge of the window of the new classroom, I raised my voice to cheer Viz.

"Allen, you damned. What did you mean 'Viz, you're going to have bad luck at the beginning of a new term'! You really were planning for god knows how long, didn't you!?"

With the bandana tied to his forehead— I gave him that one—Viz was going through my punishment game at the lawn spread before the school building. Occasionally, I would catch his grumble.

Why was he going along with the punishment game of mine? Well, it was a bet we had during the bike thief event, when we were asked to return back to headquarters by Tim-san and Airu-san at Eclair.

We had a race to the headquarters with our two-wheeler, and the loser had to go along with the punishment. It was quite a risky venture, even if I could've used wind magic on my personal two-wheeler retrieved from thieves, but I won.

The punishment game I had him go through was a twist on tag game. He had to escape from the chase of three juniors with just his two-wheeler. He could only utilise the soccer field size paved area, and the front stair to escape.

The juniors could change members if any of them were tired. The freshmen have been told they can have a room in the general dormitory if they succeed in catching or touching Viz. Frankly, the appeal of general dormitory was still lost in me, but freshmen's eyes were clearly burning with determination.

i

"Hmm...... this place is too big for just three people. It's getting boring. Hey, newcomers, feel free to add in two more chasers from your end!"

"Shut up, Allen! If you love to light fire so much, then come and extinguish yourself!"

Viz immediately complained as I changed the rule to my liking, but unfortunate for him, I was the game master.

The paved, spacious area was visible from the classroom's building. Gradually, a crowd of onlookers appeared, some hooted 'come on, Viz. Don't you dare lose the face of academy in front of juniors!' or some cheered for opponent, 'Go got him, newcomers!'

Midway, one of the seemingly competent freshmen finally returned back after submitting his dorm application form, but perhaps he was too tired from the running, so he lagged behind Viz.

Occasionally, Rias-sensei would check her wrist watch. She was the class teacher of E-2, to which Al and Lil' Dui were a part of. She probably had been waiting for the deadline, and then usher everyone into their respective classes. Five more minutes.