It didn't take long to navigate through the complex buildings and find my first class. Even though I was in the middle classes during the past iteration, I was familiar with all of them since we shared most of the facilities with other classes and year groups. I arrived at the door of the classroom, and the lively sound of students chattering reached me from outside. As I opened it, the loudness of the voices assaulted my ears, followed by a pause and complete silence.

I walked into the classroom while all the students turned to face me, scrutinizing my every move. I acted oblivious to the gazes as I walked up the sloped stairs and went to the back.

"Isn't he the green-eyed guy?"

"Yeah, the student that beat the Scarlet Arsenal."

"He's got messy hair; it's gotta be him."

I could hear whispers around me, but really, they were just talking normally so their voices reached everyone in the classroom. The previous noise suddenly returned, but I could tell most of them were talking about me as they threw glances at me.

As I reached the back seats, I spotted a familiar face and approached them.

"Hey."

I greeted them as I sat next to them. The student turned around with squinted eyes, and his crimson eyes analyzed my face. He suddenly opened his mouth in surprise and spoke up,

"Ah. You are that kid that almost died!"

I was glad someone could tell exactly what happened, but still, he didn't need to say it like that. Thankfully the other students didn't seem to have heard him, but they were bound to find out sooner or later, so I wasn't bothered.

"Right. I'm Ian, just Ian."

I reached out my hand and faced him with a smile. He didn’t hesitate as he reached out to grab my hand and responded,

"Oh, so you are also a commoner. Haha. I'm Roran, nice to meet you."

I gave a wry smile as I nodded. His blunt way of speaking was a bit unsettling. Normally, being called a commoner was very disrespectful, so it's not something you can go around saying to people.

The only people that said that type of stuff were people with actual power.

I looked around the students in the classroom. Since the back seats were more elevated, I could see everyone without the need to turn my head too much. A lot of them were from influential families within the empire and even those from other kingdoms. All this in just one classroom.

The higher classes were divided into three, namely Higher-class A, B, and C. The middle and lower classes were divided in a similar way. According to the academy, the division wasn't based on any factors, so it was meant to be completely random.

In the next moment, the classroom suddenly turned silent, and a professor finally entered the classroom. Everyone watched her enter with envious looks as they began to mutter,

"Wow, it’s the Scarlet Arsenal."

"Yeah, the one that lost to that student."

"Maybe she’s not that strong?"

Eliana’s face was all smiles until the comments reached her ears, and the corner of her mouth started to twitch. But because she was at fault during the selection exams, she couldn’t say anything back and simply ignored them.

"Um. Good morning everyone, I’m Eliana Bloodthorn and I will be in charge of this class for—"

She suddenly paused, and her eyes widened in surprise. I was also a bit surprised, but it seemed it was a much bigger blow on her side. She was currently looking at me at the back of the classroom as if she was seeing a ghost.

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"Why’d she stop?"

"Huh."

The other students began to turn their heads around in confusion, but as if suddenly realizing this, Eliana spoke up in a more serious tone, grabbing everyone's attention,

"R-right. I will be in charge of this class, so I look forward to working with you."

Oblivious to her distress, the students all let out sounds of joy at the thought of working with the so-called strongest rookie for the next three years. Knowing the headmaster, he probably chose her to be in charge of this specific class because of the incident that happened.

I will have to make her stronger somehow.

"Oh, right. Since it’s only the first day, the classes will be a bit short, so think of them as just introductions to the professors. I will be in charge of teaching magic theory, by the way."

She glanced toward me as if gauging my reaction and immediately flinched when I returned her gaze. But after a few moments, her face gained color again as if she had suddenly thought of something, and her confidence returned,

"Right, since it’s only an introduction, let me make a small lecture." She turned around and grabbed a digital pen from the whiteboard behind her. She then started to jot something down with neat handwriting as if she were writing inside a notebook.

Authority

Special Skill

Unique Skill

"I’m sure most of you know what this means by now, but I will explain it anyway. Think of your authority as a law in magic that only you can break, and although some may have similar authorities, no two authorities are the same."

She’s surprisingly good at this.

I never had the privilege of being taught by her even though I was in the middle class, so this was my first time seeing her in action.

"...This brings us to unique skills. These skills stem directly from your authority as either an extension of said authority or as a way to assist you in utilizing it. It’s called unique because you are the only one who can use it."

Roran on my side was scribbling down notes as fast as she was speaking while nodding to himself in understanding—or not. If I remember right, he had the worst scores when it came to written tests, so I felt a bit sad for him.

"...Then as for special skills, well. These are mostly rewards from dungeons, so you can even buy them on the market from clans and stuff. A common one everyone knows is the mass-produced skill, [status]."

When a child in the empire turns five years old, they are legally required to learn this skill no matter their circumstance, whether it’s a kid living on the streets or the kid of some rich noble. Because of this skill, the learning process of magic became that much easier.

It didn’t seem like Eliana was done with her presentation as she gave me a few glances before continuing,

"Y-you see, there are special individuals whose authority can directly protect them from dying."

"Mmh? Is it like auto-casting?"

"Probably..."

This was now new territory to the students, so they began to ask questions in confusion. Eliana seemed happy as she answered with a bright smile,

"That’s right. Auto-casting is one of the ways your authority can protect you, but some are more offensive than that," she looked up at me as if this entire lesson was directed toward me and took a deep breath.

I see where this is going...

"You see, I also have one that activates whenever I get injured. S-so I can hardly even control myself sometimes..."

Is she really trying to justify almost killing me?

"Wow, as expected of the Scarlet Arsenal."

"Damn, does that mean she can’t be ambushed while sleeping?"

"Yeah, but dude, why the hell do you look so disappointed!?"

I shook my head as a small sigh escaped my mouth. At this point, an apology would have been more than enough to soothe my anger, but she seemed to think she was above that. I guess since I was technically related to Lily, maybe she didn’t want to destroy the image of her clan by bowing down to a nobody like me. [Purple] was a very prideful clan after all.

Meanwhile, Roran on my side seemed to be rereading what he had already written down and even started mumbling to himself. But as if something suddenly clicked, he raised his hand and asked in a blunt tone,

"Oh, is that why you almost killed Ian!?"

"Huh?"

Most of the students seemed taken aback as they looked at him with disgust in their eyes, but the oblivious Roran only looked at Eliana, who seemed shaken up and didn’t even know what to say,

"I-I didn’t... T-that’s not what. I wasn’t going to kill him."

"Oh, really? Hahaha, could have fooled me. As expected of the Scarlet Arsenal."

Roran’s reply might have seemed sarcastic to the others, but he was probably honestly surprised. The other students growled at him as the class filled with bloodlust, all aimed toward him.

"R-right..."

Eliana replied meekly to his cheery voice while trying not to face me. She was probably thinking that her plan had flopped because of Roran, but unfortunately, I wasn’t even mad anymore. She continued to talk about authorities and skills, but since they were all things I already knew about, I wasn’t even listening.

Her time finally finished, but before she could leave, she left us a message.

"Ah, right, by the way, you should form teams of four before the end of the week. Make sure it’s a well-balanced team since you will be working with them the whole semester. You should also decide on a class leader by the end of the month."

She disappeared into the hallway, and the students immediately started talking with their friends to presumably form teams.

So it finally begins.