According to Sakika's memories, first-year high school students at this academy typically ranged from C to D rank in their guild rankings. But here he was, a scholarship student at E rank. That basically screamed "loser," so the other students' reactions were totally expected.
But he had seen this coming and deliberately lied about being E rank.
His real rank was EX. Obviously, he couldn't go around announcing he held the only EX rank in existence. If anyone found out who he really was, all hell would break loose. So yeah, he had to fake his rank.
If he'd claimed to be A, B, C, or even D rank, his new classmates would've gotten curious about his abilities and challenged him to fights.
This was the S-Class, after all. A class packed with ambitious students who had serious pride. If he'd pretended to be one of the rare A ranks, or a similar B or C rank, or even D rank—which might make people think they could catch up to him pretty quickly—they'd definitely challenge him to test his skills.
He wanted to avoid getting challenged for one simple reason: sharp-eyed students or really skilled ones might figure out he was holding back.
He couldn't get out of mock combat training during classes—that was unavoidable. But anything he could dodge, he wanted to dodge.
If everyone thought he was weak, nobody would bother challenging him. Claiming to be E rank was basically his strategy to keep his true identity under wraps.
Just as expected, Sakika calmly watched their reactions. This should've killed most of their interest in him.
But suddenly, the murmuring died. The cause was Gaia—he'd let his bloodlust slip out.
He was probably trying to keep it together too. His killing intent wasn't aimed at the students but scattered around the area. Maybe the more focused you made it, the more intense it became? He was deliberately keeping it unfocused to weaken the bloodlust hitting the students.
"Gaia."
When Sakika warned him, Gaia clicked his tongue quietly and turned to glare out the window with obvious irritation. At the same time, the bloodlust vanished.
Probably hardly anyone realized that had been killing intent. The strongest things these students had ever faced were mid-level monsters at best. They'd never been hit with bloodlust so intense it could freeze you in place.
Once the killing intent disappeared, everyone let out relieved breaths. Even without knowing what it was, they'd definitely sensed mortal danger from that crushing bloodlust.
"...Ah, right. Foras, you know Gaia, don't you?"
Rau must've told Eve about Sakika and Gaia's relationship.
"Yes. And please just call me Sakika."
Being called by his fake last name felt weird. Right after someone said it, he'd get confused because he couldn't immediately recognize they were talking to him.
"Got it... Sakika, then. The seat next to Gaia happens to be open. Want to sit there?"
That was an awesome suggestion. Getting to take classes next to Gaia was unexpectedly great news.
"Yes, I'd like that."
He gladly took up the offer and sat down next to Gaia. Once Sakika was seated, Eve spoke up.
"Now that everyone's here, let's start class. Today we're measuring mana capacity, mana quality, and attributes. We can measure mana capacity and attributes with this sphere—the mana measurement device—and mana quality with this cube, the quality measurement device."
Mana capacity was exactly what it sounded like—the amount of mana you had.
Everyone had different amounts of mana. The more you had, the more magic you could use. Mana recovered over time, but it wasn't fast.
It varied by person, but if you used mana until you were running on empty, full recovery took anywhere from four days to a week. That was just the average—some people took up to two weeks to fully recover.
Individual differences aside, recovery took time. Having more mana was definitely better.
Mana quality was basically mana density, and the higher it was, the more powerful your magic became.
Mana quality was ranked, with S at the top, followed by A, B, C, and so on down to G at the bottom. You could improve it through effort, but no matter how hard most people worked, they'd only reach around B rank. Anyone above that was usually born with naturally high-quality mana.
While mana capacity increased daily during your growth period and quality could improve somewhat with training, everyone should already know their attributes from elementary school testing. So why test them again?
Actually, it was because the tools used to measure mana—like the mana measurement device they were about to use—could usually check attributes too. It didn't really mean anything special.
Well, maybe it did have some meaning. There was always the slim chance someone had developed the ability to use derivative or evolved attributes.
These attributes could apparently manifest suddenly if you could use the base attribute—like if you could use water attribute, you might suddenly develop ice attribute, which was a derivative. Usually, though, it took bloody, grueling effort to master them.
Sakika found himself thinking: How am I going to fake this?
Even with his power sealed, His mana capacity was on par with A rank. There was no way an E rank would have that much mana. And normally, people only had one or two attributes.
He could fake attributes and mana capacity by being careful when channeling mana. He could force all the mana of certain attributes back into his mana storage organs and adjust his mana capacity the same way. That mana measurement device should calculate total mana capacity based on the mana circulating through the body.
But mana quality was a different story. He'd never needed to lower his mana quality before, so he had no clue how to make it seem worse. Plus no matter how much he tried to fake it, his mana quality was ridiculously dense—way too much to hide.
He thought it over but couldn't come up with a good plan. Should I just tell Eve who I really was? That would make things easier, but he still couldn't tell if Eve was trustworthy.
No choice. I have to fake it after the measurement. Having reached his conclusion, Sakika pulled his attention back to the present.
"I'll call names and you'll come up here. Let's start with Andrew."
The boy Eve called walked up to the front desk. Brown hair parted seven-to-three and slicked down with pomade, brown eyes too. He looked every inch the noble's son, and his uniform had white and gold trim—a scholarship student.
On the desk sat a transparent sphere and a light blue transparent cube. The former was the mana measurement device, the latter the quality measurement device.
"First, channel mana into the mana measurement device."
Andrew lightly touched the mana measurement device. Being sensitive to mana, Sakika felt him channel his power.
According to Sakika's memories, the mana measurement device displayed numbers and colors when you channeled mana into it.
The numbers showed mana capacity, while colors showed attributes: red for fire, blue for water, green for wind, yellow for lightning, brown for earth, white for light, and black for dark. Evolved or derivative attributes were usually displayed in colors close to their base attributes.
Andrew was blocking the view, so Sakika couldn't see the results. But he could tell the students sitting up front were getting excited.
"...Lightning attribute, mana capacity of eighty thousand. As expected of the Vilson family—one of the Five Great Noble Houses."
Murmurs rippled through the classroom like waves. Sakika was surprised.
The Five Great Noble Houses were incredibly famous. They had influence second only to royalty and the emperors, and had been producing powerful knights and mages for generations.
Their strength was maintained through natural talent and hard work, and Andrew was probably no exception. He'd likely been building on his naturally superior abilities through effort since childhood.
"Next, channel mana into the quality measurement device. Just a little this time."
Andrew touched the quality measurement device. Before he deliberately channeled mana, the device reacted to the mana unconsciously overflowing from his body and started glowing—Sakika could see it faintly through the gap between Andrew's body and arm.
"C rank. Impressive as well."
While Eve recorded the results, Andrew turned around with a proud smile playing at his lips. He was obviously happy to be called impressive.
Getting called "impressive" was basically the same as Eve acknowledging he had abilities worthy of the Five Great Noble Houses. If he'd been working hard all this time, there was no way those words wouldn't make him happy.
"Next—"
Student names kept getting called. None had particularly outstanding mana, but overall everyone had high capacity and quality. So this was the skill level of the top class at the nation's premier academy.
"Next, Yulia."
The moment the name was called and she stood up, Sakika's heart started pounding for no reason. And he couldn't look away from her.
Her uniform had white and gold trim—another scholarship student.
Murmurs spread through the room again. Probably because of the girl's appearance.