Under the gaze of his entire class, Kenmei Isayama made his statement. Ignoring the resentful look from the chubby boy in the back row, he continued:
"I will give my all in the next exam to correct my mistakes."
"Please keep an eye on me in the coming days. If I do anything wrong, please let me know immediately."
"That is all."
Clap, clap.
Asagi-nee, their homeroom teacher, was the first to applaud. Then the class rep, Eru Chitanda, joined in, and soon the applause spread through the whole room. Even the chubby boy, though he looked like he wanted to cry, had no choice but to clap for Kenmei.
Kenmei saw the look Asagi-nee gave him, nodded, and stepped down from the podium.
He had no choice. If he hadn't set an example like this... well, back in the car, Asagi-nee looked so disappointed and angry that he thought she might actually bite his head off.
So, Kenmei made this promise to turn over a new leaf in front of the whole class.
Only then did Asagi-nee reluctantly let him off the hook, warning him not to play games with her. If he didn't rank in the top 50 in the next exam, he'd face the consequences.
Honestly, top 50 was a pretty lenient condition. There were only about 120 students in the grade, so top 50 was just slightly above average. With a little effort and grit, he could catch up.
Before stepping off the podium, Kenmei glanced up and saw Eru Chitanda staring at him with wide, curious eyes.
But the moment Kenmei locked eyes with those clear, violet pupils, she reacted like a startled deer. A lovely blush spread across her face, and she quickly lowered her head.
Chitanda's reaction was textbook "caught staring and embarrassed enough to bury her head in the sand."
It didn't seem fake; it looked like her natural personality.
Surprisingly innocent.
Kenmei found it amusing, but his suspicions deepened.
The more innocent Chitanda acted, the more curious he became about her connection to the girl in the pure white miko robes he had seen in his vision.
Why did a mere glimpse of her past cause such intense mental pollution? And what was the deal with that almost tangible black aura constantly swirling around her?
As Kenmei focused his gaze, endless blood-red mist began to radiate from her again. Cursed Energy, pitch-black like ink and born from the deepest resentment, swirled around the girl.
Kenmei immediately looked away, and the anomaly around Chitanda slowly faded.
If a Cursed Spirit attack broke out in the school, Kenmei's guilt would be immeasurable. Aside from him, no one here had the power to fight back.
Aoyama Academy was a school for normal people. Students with weak Cursed Energy fluctuations were everywhere.
Even Asagi-nee had zero Cursed Energy. However, Kenmei noticed she was carrying several items with decent spiritual auras that had a purifying effect on Curses. Her family must have given her protective charms. With those, Curses below Grade 3 wouldn't dare approach her.
It was peaceful.
For a moment, Kenmei had let his guard down. Who the hell would have thought that among his classmates, there would be such a terrifying existence?
Just looking directly at her triggered unknown changes that terrified even him.
If the Cursed Energy level of his sister, Sakura, in her Curse form was a 10, then the overflow of Cursed Energy Kenmei saw on Chitanda was at least a 300—and possibly way higher.
Because that was just her unconscious fluctuation, not even fully mobilized power. The gap was immense. The quantity and quality were in different leagues.
If he tried to put that Collar of Khorne—currently around Sakura's neck—on Chitanda, its durability would probably hit zero and snap instantly.
Back in his seat, Kenmei was still shaken, especially by the last words the girl said before the memory faded.
"Soon... I will come to find you."
Kenmei knew this wasn't a joke. Because right now, on his arm, a blood-red cherry blossom petal symbol had appeared, accompanied by a searing burning sensation.
This was definitely not good news...
Given her situation—being eaten by a tree—that girl was definitely not alive anymore. If she specifically carved a mark to find him, would she come as a human?
Unlikely. She would surely come as an entity similar to that terrifying cherry tree of unknown horror level.
It was laughable. The strongest monster Kenmei had faced so far was a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit, and even that had been enough to shake his "fragile" heart at the time.
But compared to that cherry tree, which embodied both holiness and evil... the way it effortlessly tore the ground open to reveal an ocean of rolling, terrifying Cursed Energy beneath its roots...
That Grade 2 Curse was a joke. Like a chick in front of a T-Rex. A hundred of them wouldn't even be a snack. It couldn't make a splash if it tried.
It was no exaggeration to say that the tree was the strongest monster Kenmei had ever seen. Being targeted by such a terrifying existence made his scalp tingle.
Damn it, is this school cursed for me or something? First day back, he looks at a pretty classmate a couple of times, gets branded by an unknown entity, and told it's coming for him.
How unjust is that? Look at someone once, and suddenly you've committed a crime.
Kenmei felt like a total idiot. Why the hell did he use his psychic powers to look at Chitanda?
And this mark... Kenmei tried to erase it with psychic energy, but it wouldn't budge. He burned 40 Mana trying, but the color didn't even fade.
Adding the 20 points from the earlier [Calming Mantra], Kenmei was down to just 30 Mana.
Rounding down, he was basically empty again. His "range anxiety" kicked in. Sigh. He stopped using his powers immediately. If he kept testing it and ran into real danger later, he wouldn't even have enough juice for an attack.
Danger also meant opportunity. If Kenmei could absorb all that abyssal Cursed Energy from the cherry tree... how many simulations could he run?
But that was just a daydream.
Better focus on studying.
Seeing Asagi-nee looking at him with an unfriendly gaze, Kenmei had no choice but to pull out the textbook he hadn't touched since he packed his bag and start self-studying.
Even though he hadn't studied in ages, the benefit of Intelligence: 9 showed immediately. Kenmei was never a bad student, and before becoming a [Psyker], the system rated his Intelligence at 6 (Psyker class change added +2).
Asagi-nee was teaching the hardest math section. Kenmei caught up to her lesson in fifteen minutes of self-study. He pulled out a pen, looked at the example problem on the board, and solved it in a few strokes.
When she announced the answer, Kenmei checked his work. Correct.
But solving one example problem didn't prove much. He pulled out his test paper from the last exam—the one that was blank except for his name. With his original foundation, there was no way he would be last in the grade otherwise; he had passed the school's own entrance exam to get here, after all.
An exam meant for an hour and a half took Kenmei fifteen minutes. Except for the very last question, the fill-in-the-blanks were solved at a glance. For the short answers and big problems, he skipped steps and wrote down the solutions in seconds.
He secretly pulled out his phone, checked the answers posted in the class group chat after the last exam, and shoved the paper back into his desk.
All of this was witnessed by the chubby kid sitting behind him.