“Alright! Let's start from the first row on the left.” Eliana's amplified voice reached us, and a heavy silence floated in the air. Many of the students were startled, but everyone watched her with sparkling eyes.

‘Just how talented is she?’ they seemed to be thinking. I, for one, wasn’t all that impressed; what she had just used was a simple Special skill, which meant you could purchase it for a hefty price on the market.

The first student dragged his feet and stood face-to-face with Eliana. However, because the distance between the stage and the audience was a bit too large, the students couldn’t hear anything from the two and anxiously waited for the fight to begin. Still, the fact that Eliana smiled throughout the whole process indicated that the conversation wasn’t too pressing. A few seconds passed, and their expressions suddenly changed to more serious ones. Everyone knew that in the next moment, the fight would begin.

As if to prove us right, the boy’s mana flared as a yellow hue of light surrounded his body. It seemed he had chosen the best solution—to put everything into a single attack and showcase his power. However, from the mana he emitted, I could tell his magic stat wasn’t that high. He concentrated hard, and in the next moment, two huge balls of fire hovered above his hands. They were roughly the size of an adult human head and glowed like raging flames. The moment Eliana saw this, she didn’t use her authority; instead, she decided to show off.

She copied the same pose as the boy, and two fireballs appeared in her hands. Though they were much smaller than the boy’s, hers seemed to have an orange glow to them, as if mimicking the sun itself. This was probably another special skill she bought, yet she brandished it as if it were her own authority.

People with high mana capacity like to be wasteful.

Boom~! In the next moment, the boy threw the two fireballs toward Eliana, and she did the same a few seconds later. As if calculated, the two forces collided right in the middle as torrents of warm winds blew across the audience. The students watched in awe as the fight ended.

Eliana smiled and said a few more words to the boy before handing him a red piece of paper. The student left and went back to his seat. Red meant he was placed in the middle class. Black was the lower class, and white was the higher class.

The previous interaction repeated for hours as more and more students went up to the stage and were given one of the colored tickets. It went without saying that only a few of them received the white paper, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. Instead, what seemed to frustrate everyone more was the fact that the Scarlet Arsenal had yet to use her authority, not even once. She just overpowered everyone with pure magic power and special skills, but even after battling each student for the past two hours, she didn’t seem fatigued at all.

How is this even fair?

A few more students went through until a familiar student made an appearance. Even with full knowledge of what would happen, I couldn't help but get excited as I saw him walking toward the stage.

Roran. A boy with short hair and piercing red eyes reached the center stage. Eliana still smiled and engaged him in conversation before signaling to start. A lot of the students here didn't use any sword, despite it being considered the most effective in battle. It was generally believed that a person with a good enough authority didn't really need to use it. This was evident as only one of the four S-rankers actually used any weapons. To put it bluntly, they were very reliant on their authority.

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Roran reached for the sword at his hip and pulled it out slowly. With the reassurance that Eliana wouldn't attack him first, he had all the time in the world to formulate a plan of action. His calm face studied Eliana’s every movement. A few students in the coliseum felt the sudden change in the atmosphere and were intently staring in anticipation. Though it wasn’t notable, Roran slowly moved his feet forward while analyzing Eliana’s reactions.

This wasn’t the demeanor of someone demonstrating his authority — he was going for the kill!

Swoosh~! Roran completely disappeared from our sight as the sound of air being sliced reverberated throughout the whole coliseum. The scene unfolding in front of us had everyone captivated. The blade he had drawn just moments ago was coldly placed just an inch away from Eliana’s neck, but the Scarlet Arsenal wasn’t your regular customer. Around Roran, four swords that seemed to have materialized from thin air were menacingly pointed toward him as they emitted a red, threatening aura.

The first one pointed to the top of his head, the second to his throat, the third to the back of his neck, and the final blade, as if the three weren’t enough, pointed to his heart. All this happened in the blink of an eye. Not even the current Eliana should have been able to follow his speed, but because of her absurd gift, an automatic defense mechanism was triggered. If Roran’s attack had contained even the slightest bloodlust, he would be dead by now.

“H-he… he almost won!?”

“He’s quick! Did you see what happened!?”

“Who’s that guy?”

The students finally voiced their thoughts as they cheered for Roran, who was the first to push Eliana to this point. For the first time since the exam started, she had finally used her authority, not even to attack but to defend herself from death — it was an incredible display of power that would become the talk of the school for some time.

The two in question looked at each other for a while, but Roran was the first to give in as he withdrew his sword and placed it back into its sheath. It was only then that Eliana let out a smile and handed a white paper to Roran, who swiftly walked away right afterward.

Between individuals in a realm of their own, no advice could be given to either side.

Ten years into the future, Roran would become the fastest in the world. During battles, his speed alone would transcend even above S-rank due to his broken-like authority. The match ended, but all the matches after such a sight were nothing but pointless entertainment. As the last few students were about done, it was finally my turn to fight.

The long hours watching Eliana fight had given me some time to think about my future. To become stronger, I would inadvertently need to compete with the higher-ranked students, but at the same time, showing off the extent of my powers would put me in the spotlight of very dangerous individuals worldwide.

But — I am Lily’s big brother.

I could use my privilege as her blood family to gain some indirect protection through the Dragnok family. With that, I would be able to work in the shadows to direct the world to a better tomorrow.

As I went down the stairs, the students around were still occupied with what had just happened with Roran and were still talking among themselves. Ignoring this, I swiftly walked to the stage and faced Eliana. The moment I saw her, a painful memory surfaced in my mind as the sight of the Scarlet Arsenal being beheaded by the Evil God reached my thoughts. I closed my eyes and cleared the memory as I approached her.

“Hey, you must be the last one. Ian, right?” She gave a cheerful smile as she asked me. To someone who didn’t know her, they might have thought she was faking it, but this person here really enjoyed guiding every single student and was really passionate about it. As she called out my name, I acted surprised and asked,

“You know me?”

“Ah, that’s right, the word hasn’t spread much, huh? You are Lily’s big brother, right?” She gave a wink as if to say it was safe for me to admit it, but I simply shrugged and nodded my head. Instead, I was more concerned about the five swords floating above her head as if they had a mind of their own. After the ‘incident’ with Roran, she had kept five swords hovering above her just in case something unexpected happened.

I was glad she was actively learning from her mistakes even in an environment where she was meant to be the teacher. From time to time, she would also be the one to initiate attacks to test the student’s battle senses. When she did this to me in my past life, I almost got brutally injured because she was so bad at holding back when using her authority.

“Now, show me what you got, Ian.”