Halls. The caste system of Silver Flame Academy.

Your hall determined how many resources you’d get, which training areas you’d have access to, your dorm. how many Instructors would be willing to train you, and other crucial stuff.

You could move up and down Halls based on your performance in one of the yearly tournaments. But the gap quickly became too wide to cross, so it was infinitely better to start at a high Hall.

The Entrance Exam; A grueling examination of a student’s abilities in order to place them into a Hall.

No magic, no tricks, just raw talent.

The challenge of the Exam? A scavenger hunt for tokens.

The tokens were actually pretty easy to find, at least the first three were.

Nah, Viran’s real problem were the tryhards.

Only three were needed to qualify for the Remedial Hall, that’s why it’s easy to get them. (Remedial hall was the polite way of saying the place for losers.)

But the Lesser Hall requires seven.

The Greater Hall needs fifteen.

And the Blessed Hall? (the scary ones.)

A whopping thirty.

Finding tokens after the first three was much harder. The most effective way of gathering tokens was to take them from other people.

See the problem yet?

Viran wanted to be as far away from the MC as possible. He had no delusions of being able to qualify for the Greater Hall, so he only needed the three.

All he had to do was get in, get the easy tokens, and to avoid getting mugged until the hunt ends after 4 hours.

Viran thought it’d be easy enough, it had never seemed overly difficult in the show, at least.

----------------------------------------

He had thought wrong.

Everyone took a quick glance at Viran as he entered the waiting area.

Then they took another look because no way in hell this guy was accepted into this prestigious school.

Chubby at best, obese at worst. Glasses. Looking entirely lost. Pajamas.

Viran looked even more pathetic then the most pathetic nerd in the anime.

In comparison, everyone in that room was on a scale of thin to fit. They all had a certain ferocity in their eyes that was completely absent in Viran, a ferocity built from living in a world of man-eating monsters and people who benchpress mountains for some light exercise.

One guy, who looked even more cocky then the others, even began to chuckle to himself.

“The Obvious First Boot.”

No one even bothered hiding the thought from their expression.

Viran’s social anxiety made shame and embarrassment ran like magma underneath his skin.

Viran pretended he hadn’t noticed people staring, which was a skill he had mastered back in high school, and placed himself in an empty chair near the back.

Most of the main players were there. The Love Interest, the Rival, the Best Friend.

Viran avoided looking at them. Who knew how much it took to involve yourself in the main storyline.

Viran tried and failed to spot the MC, which was even more terrifying than being singled out as an easy target.

Oh right, he was late to the exam because he was helping out some old man or whatever, but they still let him in because he’s the main character.

After about 12 minutes of tense waiting and some good old fashioned “delude yourself into thinking that everyone who stares at you secretly has a crush on you to cope with your embarrassment”, someone else entered the room.

Viran was both glad and scared to see it wasn’t Zack. He knew Zack was supposed to be fashionably late, but it was still nerve wracking.

It was the scary guy… Instructor Death.

And… had he always been that hot?

His signature mask was off, probably not willingly judging by the man’s grumpy expression, and his sharp, handsome features were exposed to the world.

The anime had done him so dirty.

He had a black military uniform (Somehow, it only looked a tiny bit emo on him.) that he stretched to its limits with his bulk, allowing his abs to show through the fabric in a way that made Viran’s gay little heart race.

Viran wanted to do horrendous things to that man.

Dear god, the man was built like a brick wall. The size of his fucking arms-

Suddenly Instructor Death’s eyes locked onto Viran and a small, amused smile made it’s way onto his face.

No one else seemed to notice and Viran didn’t dare call attention to it as his cheeks began to turn red.

A moment later the Instructor turned to the entire room with such nonchalance that Viran almost thought he’d imagined the whole experience.

”My name is Instructor Death. That is not my real name, and no, I won’t tell you what my real name is. Names have power when you’re at my level, and I can’t afford to give my real name out to any average joe who thinks he can be the next Sun Emperor. As for the nickname itself, I didn’t come up with it. It’s not exactly charitable, but also not an unfounded allegation. I am very good at my job.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

A bunch of students shifted in their seats as the Instructors deep baritone rumbled through the room. He said his words with such a casualness that even a chump like Viran could feel the danger radiating off this man.

Instructor Death was infamous for his harsh training. The kind that would break the minds and bodies of the unworthy.

It was rumored he killed a whole class with his training methods, hence the name.

”I will be the proctor for your Entrance Exam and if you pass the exam, no matter what Hall you end up in, I will be your mentor for your first quarter. After the first quarter we’ll have another exam that will determine who’ll received individualized training or who’ll move on to another, worse Instructor, but that’s a ways away. Right now, your task is to collect tokens engraved with our school’s symbol.”

The Instructor held up a hand, which erupted with darkness, true to his affinity.

It took everything in Viran not to gasp or break out into some silly dance of excitement.

Magic, this was magic. Some day he could be the one conjuring up the elements and creating abilities and dueling with peers.

No more waiting around for a Hogwarts letter.

Despite his awe, Viran flinched at the inky darkness of Instructor Death’s dark magic.

It looked somehow both fiery and goopy, like it’d burn you one moment and suffocate you the next.

It was intimidating, for sure.

The magic floated up, morphing and twisting into a symbol.

The emblem of Silver Flame Academy.

Surprise Surprise, it’s a flame.

”The amount of tokens you collect determines which Hall you’re placed in.”

Instructor Death goes on the explain the Hall qualifications. Viran blanked out a bit there.

”A reminder, in most cases the ruling is based solely on the tokens, I still have final say on all placements and am allowed to make exceptions. So, don’t be afraid to show off a bit.”

Instructor Death smirked after saying that, as if excited at the prospect of seeing what everyone could do.

”Any questions?”

No one had the courage to speak up as he stared all the students down, making it pretty clear he didn’t want to deal with questions.

“Perfect. Now then.”

Death makes a gesture with his hand, and the door he had stepped through earlier swung open.

Except instead of leading to the front desk, the doorway was a shimmering veil of iridescent light.

”Step through the Gate. Fair warning, if you’re inexperienced with teleportation then you’ll end up very nauseous. I’d say good luck, but if you deserve to be in this academy then luck isn’t required. Oh, and try not to kill each other.”

There was a beat of hesitation before everyone made a mad dash for the door, seeking those little extra seconds of time.

Viran stood up as well, but a strange feeling washed over him.

It felt like strong arms were wrapped around him, locking him in place.

He recognized this as the feeling of soul pressure described in the anime, but this felt far more… restrained… than the overbearing, bring you to your knees, kinda presence that Viran saw.

If it hasn’t been terrifying it would’ve excited Viran. He’d just glimpsed something never done in the anime.

But despite this, a seed of dread formed in his stomach as everyone else left and he was quickly the only student left in the room.

That seed sprouted when he realized that Instructor Death was approaching him with an expression that was half mischievousness and half amusement.

”Sorry to keep you back, but humor me.” Instructor Death apologized unapologetically.

”As you get to where I’m at, body language becomes so easy to spot it’s almost like mind reading. You really need an acting class or two, your face is so expressive I can tell exactly what you’re thinking.”

Instructor Death chastised, eyes glittering as if this was all hilarious to him.

“Frankly, I’m flattered, you don’t know how disappointed I get when I don’t get a single reaction to my physique. It almost makes it feel pointless to keep buying uniforms that are a size too small.”

As the instructor went on, Viran sensed there was a 50/50 chance whether Death was joking, but he was just that good at lying.

Viran suddenly understood what Death meant by body language, he was impossible to read except for the small things. Things he likely purposely let Viran see.

“Alright I should probably get to the point. You probably know by now that you’re seriously unprepared for this exam, yeah?”

Viran nodded as he face burned red.

“Good, I prefer my students self-aware. Y’know, you’re one of the more interesting kids to take this exam, what with your questionable fashion choices.”

Death laughed heartily. It was slightly grating and strained, as if he didn’t laugh much.

Which made sense, Instructor Death was a no-nonsense badass trainer. Death teasing and laughing? That wasn’t supposed to happen, not this soon. Death only acted like this after Zack wore him down into a tsundere teacher.

“I can tell from body language that at least 14 of your peers are going to actively seek you out, 34 would chase you down if they spotted you, while the last 9 would only hunt you if you were already injured or otherwise preoccupied. If I hadn’t stopped you, you would’ve been instantly knocked out by the 4 people who were set to teleport near you. That is to say, you can’t trust a single person in this test.”

‘Yeah, no shit.’

“I know that was obvious, but still, you look like the trusting type. Oh, you have a question?”

Viran was amazed at how good Instructor Death was at seeing body language. Viran had barely thought the thought before Death picked up on it.

“I… this is very useful information and all sir, but… why are you telling me this? I-I mean like… telling just me.”

Viran stammered out his question. He had always been bad at talking, especially when it was with someone he found hot.

“Ah. You’re wondering why I’m giving you preferential treatment. Well… no reason, really, I just don’t like someone being singled out.”

Death explained, his expression a tinge more serious now as he crossed his thick arms over his massive ch-

“Can you at least wait til you pass the exam before objectifying me? Gods, as if I don’t have enough horny perverts running around.”

Death complained, but he didn’t seem to actually mind. In fact, he seemed rather pleased.

That had also never been in the show. Perhaps this was a representation of how the show sexualized him?

Wow, Viran was trying to justify sexualization. He was a dick.

“You’re wasting time, kid, though that’s also kinda my fault. Get on with the Exam. And once you pass, provided you’re a good student, maybe I’ll consider giving you a closer look at these muscles you seem so interested in.”

Death chuckled as Viran’s face went scarlet.

After that, Instructor Death threw Viran through the doorway portal by his shirt. That wasn’t a surprise, Death had always been manhandling the MC and the Rival.

Didn’t stop Viran from being pissed.

“ASSH-”

Viran was cut off by him going through the portal as Instructor Death laughed even harder.

The room is now empty. Death held up both hands and his mana formed 57 screens that were trained on each candidate.

Death sighs, before smiling to himself, unable to keep himself from glancing at the screen representing Viran Cate.

***

“-OLE!”

Viran’s outrage was cut short by him falling on the floor.

”Ow… I bet Zack didn’t… won’t? get hurt by this.”

Viran grumbled to himself as he picked himself up off the grassy floor.

He was in the middle of a large forest.

Well, more like the large forest.

The Forest of the Studious. The site where the Entrance Exam was held.

Viran thought through his conversation with Instructor Death as he picked himself up off the ground with as much grace and dignity as he could muster… not a lot.

1. Viran now possessed a teeny tiny little crush on Death.

2. He’d just gotten the attention of Instructor Death.

3. Instructor Death was a significant link to the plot. That is to say, Viran now had a link to the plot.

4. For some reason, Death seemed confident that Viran would pass the Entrance Exam.

5. Ah…

Viran heard the sounds of fighting nearby. In fact, he heard the fight approaching him at a rapid pace.

5. Viran didn’t share Instructor Death’s confidence.