The afternoon lessons drifted by in a haze of chalk dust and monotonous lectures, but the heavy academic atmosphere was shattered just before the final bell.
The low, resonant hum of a spatial amplification artifact echoed through the hallways, silencing every classroom instantly. A sharp, melodic chime rang out, followed by the crisp, authoritative voice of Headmaster Vane echoing through the magically enhanced speaker crystals embedded in the stone walls.
"Attention, students of North Gate Academy. This is Headmaster Vane. Next week, the academy will host its annual Inter-Grade Survival Exercise. The venue will be the isolated wilderness of Raven's Isle—a sealed domain teeming with untamed mana anomalies and regional beasts. The format is a Three-Person Free-For-All Team Battle. Survival, strategic dominance, and territorial control will dictate your scores. Prepare yourselves."
The moment the announcement ceased, the classroom erupted into absolute chaos.
Chairs scraped violently against the stone floor as students began talking over one another, panic and excitement warring in their voices. Across the room, several first-year students paled visibly, huddled together in nervous clusters.
"Raven's Isle?" Kaelen muttered, his face draining of color as he turned back toward Hiruko's desk. "Are they insane? That's an actual restricted zone! And it's open to upperclassmen too? Third-years with mastery over advanced tier spells are going to be hunting us down for easy points!"
"He's right," Kevin added, nervously pushing his glasses up his nose, his hands trembling slightly. "We're first-years. Against second and third-years who already possess solidified elemental cores... we won't even stand a chance. We'll be wiped out in the first hour."
The general consensus among their peers was a heavy, suffocating dread. To the average student, mixing grades in a free-for-all survival trial on a dangerous, isolated island sounded less like a school exercise and more like a slaughterhouse.
Yet, amidst the rising tide of anxiety, Hiruko sat entirely still.
A slow, deliberate smile crept across his face—not a nervous grin, but the expression of a strategist who had just been handed the exact tool he needed.
His heart pounded with a thrilling rhythm. A wild, untamed island surrounded by water, packed with real pressure, terrain variations, and genuine combat. It was the absolute best laboratory he could have ever asked for.
If I'm isolated on Raven's Isle, surrounded by natural moisture and body after body of water, Hiruko thought, his eyes gleaming, I can push my water magic far past basic theory. And under true combat strain, I can finally force my overflowing Tross mana to balance between water and my Ignis spell.
While Kaelen was sweating bullets and Kevin was rapidly calculating their dismal odds of survival, Hiruko abruptly pushed his chair back with a loud screech against the flagstones.
"Lukas? Where are you going?" Kaelen squeaked, watching his friend walk straight out of the chaotic classroom.
Hiruko didn't answer. He strode down the wide, vaulted corridors of North Gate Academy, his footsteps echoing against the ancient stone walls. He headed straight toward the administrative spire, arriving just as Headmaster Vane stepped out of his private study, flanked by two senior faculty members dressed in formal obsidian-and-gold robes.
The headmaster, a tall man with sharp, hawkish eyes and silvering hair, paused as the young Tross noble stepped directly into his path. The surrounding teachers frowned at the audacity, but Vane merely raised an eyebrow.
"Lukas Tross," Headmaster Vane spoke, his voice dry like parchment. "The announcement was clear. You should be organizing your squad, not loitering outside my study."
Hiruko gave a polite, measured bow—a habit from his past life as an office worker, though he carried himself with an underlying, unbreakable posture. He looked the headmaster straight in the eye, zero hesitation in his gaze.
"Pardon the interruption, Headmaster," Hiruko said, his voice crisp and confident enough to make the two senior teachers blink in surprise. "The rules of the survival trial are clear, but the stakes were left vague. High risk demands clear incentives. What is the reward for taking first place on Raven's Isle?"
Headmaster Vane's hawkish eyes narrowed slightly, a subtle wave of interest rippling beneath his stern expression. Usually, first-years came to him begging for exemptions or crying about the unfair advantage upperclassmen held. Yet here was the notoriously weak Lukas Tross, standing before him with absolute calm, asking about the prize.
"A fair question," Vane murmured. He raised a hand, calling upon his magical voice amplification once more. His voice instantly reverberated across every corridor, courtyard, and classroom in the entire academy, halting all frantic discussions in their tracks.
"A supplementary decree regarding the Inter-Grade Survival Exercise!" Vane's voice resounded through the speaker crystals. "The exercise is fundamentally a Grade-versus-Grade domain battle. The overall score of your respective year will heavily dictate your grade's final academic evaluation for the semester. Work together, or fall together."
The students listening throughout the school gasped. The pressure on the entire student body had just tripled. But Vane wasn't finished.
"Furthermore," Vane continued, his gaze locked onto Hiruko's steady face, "for the individual three-person team that secures the absolute highest score across the entire academy... the victory reward will be a sealed Tier 1 Elemental Grimoire of their choosing."
Silence.
For three agonizing seconds, absolute, stunned silence washed over North Gate Academy. Then, the entire school practically exploded into uproar.
"A Tier 1 spell?!" a student yelled from down the hall.
"Are you out of your mind?!" another voice screamed from a courtyard window.
In the magical hierarchy of this world, Tier 1 spells were not common academic tools; they were devastating, high-level ancestral arts usually hoarded by high nobility, royal archives, or top-tier military factions. For a modestly funded, middle-tier institution like North Gate Academy, offering a genuine Tier 1 Grimoire was practically unheard of. It was worth a small fortune and decades of military standing.
How could a school like this even afford such a prize?
Down the corridor, several upperclassmen ran to the balconies, their faces flushed with raw greed and shock. Even Mina Rosewalt, who was walking down the hallway searching for Lukas, stopped dead in her tracks, her crimson eyes widening in disbelief.
Unfazed by the absolute madness erupting around them, Hiruko simply stood before the headmaster. A slow, satisfied smile spread across his face.
A Tier 1 spell... and a whole island of water to practice on.
Hiruko bowed once more to Headmaster Vane. "Thank you for the clarification, Headmaster. That is more than enough motivation."
As Hiruko turned on his heel to head back to his terrified squadmates, Headmaster Vane watched his retreating back with a silent, calculating glint in his eyes.
"That boy," one of the senior teachers whispered beside Vane, still recovering from the shock. "Is he truly the same Lukas Tross who was humiliated in the duel against young kevin yesterday?"
"No," Headmaster Vane murmured softly, a rare smile touching his lips. "That is not a boy waiting to be hunted. That is a man preparing for a war."
Leaving the headmaster's spire behind, Hiruko walked down the echoing stone corridor. The academy around them was still buzzing like a kicked hornet's nest, with students arguing over team compositions and shouting in disbelief over the prize.
Just around the marble turn of the hallway, he ran right into Mina. The usually fiercely confident, sharp-tongued heiress stood frozen against a pillar, her crimson eyes wide and her lips slightly parted in sheer astonishment.
Hiruko couldn't help a quiet chuckle at her expression. "Calm down, Mina," he said, stepping up to her with an easy, relaxed posture. "Can you tell me how they even got access to that kind of spell? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Mina blinked, snapping out of her trance, though her usual regal composure was still thoroughly shaken. She ran a hand through her fiery red hair and let out a long breath.
"I... I am in shock myself, Lukas," Mina admitted, her voice lower than usual, devoid of her typical condescending edge. "That tier of spell is not a laughing matter to give away—or even to have. High-ranking noble houses go to war over Tier 1 Grimoires. For an academy like North Gate to put one up as a tournament prize..."
She paused, her sharp mind quickly piecing together fragments of history she had read in the Rosewalt archives.
"I heard rumors that Headmaster Vane's lineage—the House of Vane—was once a legendary grand-duchy in the ancient era before their bloodline declined," she murmured, looking toward the administrative tower. "It's likely an ancestral treasure passed down through his family. He must be desperate to raise the prestige of this school if he's willing to part with something so sacred."
Mina turned her gaze back to Hiruko. The shock in her eyes gradually gave way to a deep, heavy line of concern between her brows. She took a step closer, scanning his face for any sign of bravado or hidden panic.
"But Lukas..." she asked softly, her eyes locked onto his, "will you really be okay? A prize like that changes everything. The upperclassmen aren't just going to play to win anymore—they're going to fight with intent to maim. The third-years will hunt down any team they see as an obstacle. It's going to be a bloodbath."
"I don't want anything else," Hiruko replied softly, a faint, resolute smile touching his lips. He looked past her, toward the arched stained-glass windows overlooking the main dueling court. "And besides... this is the perfect chance to get back for that embarrassing loss I suffered recently."
Mina's expression tightened, her crimson eyes searching his face with an intense, restless concern. Because she attended a different academy altogether, she couldn't step into that arena to stand beside him. She was an outsider to this trial, forced to watch from the sidelines while he threw himself into a lion's den of ruthless upperclassmen.
"Then you know..." Mina started, her voice faltering slightly, a rare sight for the usually proud prodigy. She clenched her fists at her sides, the velvet fabric of her sleeves crinkling under the pressure. "You know I won't be able to protect you in there. You'll be entirely on your own, Lukas."
Her shoulders trembled just a fraction, the weight of her genuine fear for his safety practically radiating off her.
Before she could spiral any further into her worry, Hiruko took a step forward and closed the distance between them. Without a second thought, he pulled her into a warm, firm hug.
A collective, audible gasp echoed through the crowded corridor.
Dozens of students froze in their tracks. The chatter about the survival trial vanished instantly, replaced by a suffocating, wide-eyed shock. Male students in the hallway stared in utter disbelief, their jaws practically hitting the polished stone floor.
"Is... is he out of his mind?!" one student hissed, clutching his head in horror.
"That's Mina Rosewalt! How does he get to hold her like that?!" another muttered, his face turning red with burning jealousy.
Standing near the classroom doorway, Kaelen and Kevin watched the scene unfold with bug-eyed amazement. Kaelen threw his hands up, shaking his head with a mix of awe and pure envy. "That lucky bastard..." he grumbled under his breath.
Mina froze completely in Hiruko's arms, her body going stiff as a board. The sharp scent of rain and sweet embers clung to his clothes, washing over her senses and making her brain go entirely blank.
"You've done a lot for me, Mina," Hiruko whispered close to her ear, his tone deeply gentle and sincere. "Thank you. And don't worry... I'll handle this."
He slowly pulled back, letting his hands fall to his sides.
Mina stood rooted to the spot for three agonizing seconds, her entire face flushing a deep, radiant crimson that rivaled her fiery hair. Her heart pounded furiously against her ribs, completely shattering her usual ice-cold composure.
"W-Who... who said I was worrying about you?!" she stammered out, her voice pitching up in a flustered squeak. "You absolute idiot!"
Unable to meet his gaze for a single second longer, she spun on her heel, her silk cloak whipping through the air, and bolted down the grand staircase as fast as her legs could carry her.
Hiruko watched her retreating figure vanish around the corner, a genuine, soft laugh escaping him.
Once the corridor's ambient noise returned to a low, envious murmur, Hiruko raised his right palm in front of his face. He took a deep, steadying breath, channeling his mana not as an erratic surge, but as a quiet, controlled current flowing through his veins.
Ignis...
With a subtle spark, a sphere of vibrant, blazing orange fire ignited directly over his palm. It didn't flicker. It didn't wobble. It hovered there with absolute stability—a perfectly spherical, concentrated ember radiating a intense, disciplined heat.
Hiruko gazed at the reflection of the dancing flame in his own dark eyes, the memory of his past breakdown under the cold rain dissolving into nothingness.
He closed his hand into a tight fist, snuffing out the flame with a quiet hiss of smoke.
"Lukas..." Hiruko whispered to the quiet hall, his eyes gleaming with an unbroken, fierce determination. "It's time to take your life back."