Hidari crept up to the crack he’d left in the door, slowly poking his head through and peering in.
It took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust from the deep blackness outside to the shining glow within the building, but after that, he could almost feel his heart dropping into his stomach again.
There were thousands of people lined up in the tiered, cushioned seats wrapping around the sides of the circular auditorium. There were at least forty levels of seating, from the shining oak floors to the ceiling, and all were packed with business-suit clad individuals. The bright golden lights shining from the ceiling illuminated the various glints of expensive watches, jewelry sets, and knickknacks speckling these individuals. They blended right in with the lush, velvet seating that Hidari had previously thought was too fancy for a school auditorium, especially with its curving crescent shape that wrapped around every wall in the building save one. That far wall was where an oak stage jutted forth, several golden lights beaming down exclusively on it, with a massive monitor positioned behind it over the entire rest of the wall.
As Hidari glanced at that stage, he saw several of the EON admins standing there, clad in expensive suits of their own, and most of them hovering around three testing desks that had been brought to the back corner of the stage.
Gen was already seated in one, the redhead sitting up straight and formally smiling out at the crowd in the most professional way Hidari had ever seen him express himself. Kenox was being ushered along the side of the auditorium, right before the many eyes of the suited sponsors, towards the side of the oak stage.
With the same confidence he always seemed to exude, whether he was alone with his friends or striding in front of a sea of millionaires, Kenox stepped onto the stage and walked straight towards an oak podium rising from the center of it.
Hidari felt his mouth go dry as he watched the scene, his fingernails digging into his own palms as Kenox readied himself before the podium. Hidari was supposed to do this? Hidari was supposed to do this?!
Kenox cleared his throat, the sound echoing powerfully through the room thanks to a microphone embedded within the podium. He smiled confidently out at everyone, even offering a few waves to specific places in the crowd as though he knew some of the people out there, then straightened up before the podium.
“My name is Kenox Salvosu.” He said firmly, voice powerful and enigmatic. “I am a second-year student of the EON program, on the simulation pathway. I am an enrolled candidate for the EON simulation, and was selected from the ninth seed. My candidate rank is one in my seed and one overall.”
Murmurs shot through the crowds watching Kenox, a few appreciative nods going here and there and a few knowing looks. Hidari hadn’t even seen Kenox’s simulation yet and he was already floored. How could Kenox bring such an impressive presence to such a simple speech?
“Astonishing.” He heard a voice mutter off to the side, one of the viewers in the audience.
“It seems like he’s back again for this exhibition.” Another voice murmured from another direction, the words swirling in Hidari’s ears.
“He’s been at all of the exhibitions I’ve seen so far.” Someone whispered. “He’s the only regular.”
“He deserves that top spot.” A comment echoed down.
The murmurs of praise and general commentary continued for a little while as Kenox simply smiled from the podium, waiting for one of the admins to begin reading off his accomplishments.
Hidari honestly tuned most of them out, just staring at Kenox as he looked out at the crowd like they were on trial instead of him. He was so successful. Anyone could tell that just by looking at him. And he carried himself so well. He really did deserve the number one spot in the program.
…And Hidari considered himself rivals with that?! How had he been fooling himself for so long?!
Hidari shook his head briefly, trying to get himself out of the Kenox-frenzy the rest of the room was in. No, no he wasn’t fooling himself. He had plenty of charisma and influence himself when he spoke. Hidari knew how to sway a room and how to get people on his side. He had an entire seed of first-years hanging off his every word, who would swear ten times over that he was better than Kenox in every way.
Now, that definitely wasn’t true, but the point still stood: Hidari was impressive, too.
Fists clenching in determination, Hidari nodded once, glaring up at Kenox as he stood on that stage, reveling in the praise. Yeah, Hidari was a decent rival for this egotistical success story. He was the only person in the EON program who’d broken one of Kenox’s records. He was the only person Kenox actively competed with for scores. He was the only person Kenox had personally taken note of as his rival.
Hidari would walk up onto that stage and take that golden-eyed mastermind down a peg or two. Just you wait, Kenox. You aren’t the only “astonishing” candidate in the room anymore.
The announcer finally stopped the extensive list of accomplishments for Kenox and gestured towards the testing desks. Kenox bowed to the crowd and spun easily on his heel, striding over to the desk beside Gen.
Gen murmured a greeting to him as he sat down, the two boys sharing a quick fist bump before Kenox was settled in his desk, facing the crowd just as professionally as Gen.
Before Hidari knew it, every head in the crowd turned immediately to face the auditorium doors where he was standing, eyes expectant as they waited for the final performer.
Hidari quickly pulled his head out of the crack between the doors, taking a deep breath as he readied himself.
“You’ve got this, Hidari.” He whispered to himself, closing his eyes as his hand tightened on the door handle. “Stage fright has never affected you before. You’re going to do amazing.”
Even if Migi wasn’t here. Even if Kenox was the one who’d gone just before him. Even if he’d never done this before or been properly trained for it.
He had this in the bag.
Nodding confidently, Hidari flung the door open wide, sending a dazzling smile of his own into the auditorium.
He turned and walked straight for the side of the stage that he’d seen Kenox enter from, his steps graceful and intentionally elegant. He staged every breath, careful to keep it in rhythm with his movements, letting his hands sway smoothly at his sides. His eyes were gentle and relaxed, a serene expression settled across his face as his smile flashed for the crowd.
As he walked towards the oak stage, he could hear the crowd’s new murmurs about him.
“Who is that?”
“Is that the final student?”
“She’s stunning! Is she really just a student here?”
“She must be a princess or a noble.”
“She’s wearing the school uniform. The…male uniform?”
“There’s no way that beautiful girl is male.”
Hidari tuned out the usual comments of confusion about his gender, focusing on the general intake of breath and feeling of awe that had settled over the room.
He reached the side of the stage, gracefully stepping up onto its surface. His footsteps were light, practically floating across the shining oak as he strode to the podium. He spun in place once he reached the podium, settling his hands gently atop the wood and widening his smile the slightest bit as he looked out at the crowd.
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He could see all of their stunned faces now, their enraptured eyes, their gaping mouths, all of it. These were the faces, the expressions, that gave Hidari his power. Kenox may be able to transfix a room with his words and the presence behind them, but Hidari didn’t even need to speak a word to establish his presence.
With a single step into the spotlight, all focus was on him.
“My name is Hidari Vamairre.” He announced, letting the sweetness of his voice seep over the ears of the crowd. He could see some of the crowd members whispering to each other, as though asking if he’d ever exhibited before. He softened his smile slightly, blue eyes sweeping over the faces turned to him. “I am a first-year student of the EON program, on the simulation pathway.”
More shocked whispers started up then, eyes widening all over as the sponsors realized a first-year was performing for them.
Hidari didn’t wait to let the murmurs get too crazy with that announcement, plunging into the next statements he remembered from Kenox’s speech.
“I am an enrolled candidate for the EON simulation,” He continued, still smiling at the crowd. “And was selected from the tenth seed. My candidate rank is one in my seed and fourth overall.”
It was a good thing Hidari had checking his ranking again before coming to this. It had just gone up one place from yesterday in the overall rankings, thanks to the dismissal of one of the older fifth seed candidates that had held the third place in the rankings for a while.
Hidari kept his hands resting lightly on the podium, still looking out at the crowds as the admin announcer began her list of Hidari’s achievements.
“Despite being one of the youngest candidates ever accepted into the EON program,” The announcer began, reading from her tablet prompter. “Hidari has quickly risen through the ranks of simulation pathway candidates. He has proven himself a veritable genius in the economic fields, and has a head for numbers and finances unmatched by any EON candidate.”
Here, the announcer looked pointedly up at the crowd. “Including Kenox Salvosu.” She added.
The sounds of shock were palpable around the room, several of the sponsors leaning back like they couldn’t believe it, or leaning further in as if to get a better look at Hidari.
His lips curled upwards a little more at the edges, his fingers feathering against the podium top in pleasure.
“Hidari is the only candidate to best a record established by Kenox Salvosu, and holds the highest scores in the EON program’s history for structured microeconomics, reformative macroeconomics, and all general economics and finance courses.” The announcer continued, reading the list calmly to the stunned crowd. “He also maintains a high popularity among his seed and has been voted the top candidate by peers five consecutive terms in a row. Hidari is the only candidate in the EON program to have ever been selected for exhibition as a first-year.”
It was a shorter list than Kenox’s, but no less impressive to the open-mouthed sponsors, evidently.
Hidari hid the satisfaction in his smile with a graceful bow to the crowd, spinning on his heel like Kenox had done and walking over to the desks.
He smiled at Gen as he approached, the redhead brushing away an imaginary tear and placing a hand over his heart as he smiled back. Hidari let a soft laugh escape him at Gen’s dramatics, turning his sparkling eyes on Kenox next.
“Funny, I thought it would’ve been more difficult to get people’s attention after you went.” Hidari offered lightly, a hint of smugness dripping into his smile as he cocked his head at Kenox. “Perhaps you’re not as impressive as I thought, hm?”
“And you were so sweet outside just five minutes ago.” Kenox sighed, though his eyes glinted competitively. “We’ll see how long that bravado keeps up once you see my sim run, pretty boy. Substance and skill will beat out those pearly-whites and doe-eyes. Just wait.”
Hidari merely hummed at that, dropping smoothly into his desk and settling himself in to face the crowd.
“Thank you.” He whispered gently, his voice low enough that only Kenox could’ve possibly heard.
Kenox’s head tilted slightly in his direction, and Hidari saw the golden eyes glance at him in his peripheral.
A smirk played over Kenox’s lips, but it didn’t annoy Hidari as much as it usually did.
“Anything for a good rival.” Kenox murmured in response, his head tilting back to face the crowd.
Hidari’s lips quirked up before he could stop them, a warm, fuzzy feeling spreading through his chest as he straightened up in his desk. A good rival. He liked that.
The next few hours passed by, and Hidari was treated with live simulation demonstrations from both Gen and Kenox. He could tilt his head to see the giant screen on the stage beside them, and watch along with all the enraptured sponsors.
Gen went first, and Hidari got a personal look at the cheerful redhead’s fabled military mind in action. Gen was truly as incredible as all his recordings made him look.
He had immediate plans for the situations presented before him, and he adjusted promptly whenever the circumstances changed. He was assertive and levelheaded, professional in a way Hidari had never expected the boy could be. He still managed to maintain his friendly aura, though, drawing in his troops with an air of caring and comradery that almost made Hidari forget Gen was just interacting with a bunch of simulated soldiers instead of people he genuinely shared history with.
Hidari could also finally see why Gen’s simulations usually took so long; he spent time solving not just the simulation problem, but extraneous issues as well.
If soldiers were injured near him, he’d take it upon himself to ensure they were carried to proper medical facilities. When civilians were found on the battlefield, he’d give them rationed supplies and guarded escorts out. If a village was discovered near the line of fire, he’d not only go to the village to discuss the danger at hand, but supply them with resources to fix any problems they’d faced so far because of the war.
Simply put, Gen cared about everyone and everything that happened in his simulations, as much as if it were happening to his own family.
It sometimes stretched him a little thin, and it certainly dragged out the length of the simulation, putting it at an incredible four-hour stretch that pushed the exhibition into 11:30 pm. But he solved everything, and his strategies were solid enough to keep him and all his soldiers afloat. More so than that, they were enough to bring a victory to his army, one that Hidari could certainly agree was well-won.
Incredible.
And even though Hidari’s eyelids were dragging closed, and Gen himself passed out as soon as he thanked the sponsors and was seated back in his desk, Hidari found himself waking up and staying awake through Kenox’s simulation afterwards.
It was a polar opposite experience to watching Gen’s.
Kenox was precise, efficient, and quick-witted in all his decisions. He was rapid-fire in the way his brain worked, sometimes resorting to subtle tricks to speed things along in his plans. He wasn’t conventional in the methods he approached warfare, relying vastly on information about the enemy, in thwarting them from the inside, and in terrorizing their troops through lightning-strike attacks and mind-bending plots.
Hidari lost track of all the miniature schemes Kenox had in the works, each of them unraveling almost beautifully as time ticked by and the battle moved speedily towards its conclusion. They played into each other in ways Hidari couldn’t have predicted, working like dozens of complex cogs in a singular machine. He had no idea if Kenox had arrived in the sim intending for everything to play out as it had, or if luck had been immensely on his side to make it all come together so well, but it was astonishing to watch nonetheless.
Kenox’s sim – in sharp opposition to Gen’s – finished in just thirty minutes.
The clock had barely struck midnight, and Kenox had won a war that had started at 11:30. There were time skips in the live demonstration, of course, the simulation filtering out long periods of inactivity for the viewers while Kenox lived on in the sim, but the time was still stunning.
And then, as Kenox bowed to the sponsors and thanked them for watching, all eyes in the room turned to Hidari.
Hidari glanced over at Gen, the redhead still conked out in his post-sim nap, then at Ms. Liang standing off to the side of the desks. She gave him a simple nod, holding up her wrist as it flashed with a single “start” button.
Kenox returned to the desks and slumped into his own chair beside Hidari, a few beads of sweat on his forehead as he breathed in and out to steady himself.
Apparently, the sim had taken a lot out of him, even if he’d made it look so easy.
Hidari got lost staring at the exhaustion on Kenox’s face for a few minutes, almost feeling like he was seeing something secret or sacred. No one ever saw Kenox tired or worn-out. He was always at the top of his game, no matter what. This was a cherished, private moment.
But it ended quickly when Kenox gave Hidari an annoyed glare, jerking his head at the headset settled on Hidari’s desk.
“Get in there, Doe-Eyes.” He breathed, a smirk managing to manifest itself over the lines of exhaustion on his face. “It’s my turn to watch you squirm, now.”
Hidari glared briefly at the older boy, but grabbed his headset nonetheless, slipping it on gracefully over his blonde hair.
Everything seemed to fall silent for a few moments, his heart pounding loudly in his chest as the headset powered on. The shackles popped out of the desk and chair a few moments later, everything cradling Hidari securely in place just like in class.
The electric whine filled the air, along with the familiar tingling of numbness that Hidari was getting way too used to at this point. And then a blinding flash of white filled his vision, his brain began to shut down, and-
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[WELCOME TO PRACTICAL BATTLE STRATEGY, EXHIBITION PERFORMANCE. YOUR SIMULATION IN THE BATTLEFIELD BETWEEN VOLGARIA AND TUNANDA BEGINS NOW.]