“E—Eric?!”

The boy holding the staff turned around too late. What he saw was his decapitated partner vanishing in a shroud of light.

Terror seized his face. He raised his staff, but his hands were trembling violently. Casting magic required concentration, and fear was eating away at his.

Flokiro seized the opening.

THUD!

He leaped up and grabbed the boy’s staff. Then he drove his claws into the boy’s chest.

“Aaa—...”

As the boy started to scream, Yuto swung the sword.

SLICE!

The boy died with his head cut off before he could finish screaming.

“I thought this would be better than burning him.”

Flokiro muttered, opening and closing his hand. He had chosen this approach because burning someone to death would hurt too much, but killing someone instantly without causing pain was not easy.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. You did well, actually.”

Yuto stroked the dejected Flokiro’s head and looked back.

“Calipha. You can come out.”

Calipha hesitantly emerged from behind the tree. Her face was deathly pale.

“Th-that was so fast...”

“How are you feeling? You’ve never seen someone die before, have you?”

Yuto’s question was not devoid of feeling. He seemed concerned for her, yet he was also watching for her reaction.

‘He’s testing me.’

Calipha understood immediately. Yuto was checking whether his companion could stomach killing. If she cried or screamed and demanded, “How could you do that?” he would see her as a burden.

But acting completely unbothered would be unnatural, too. A fifteen-year-old noble girl could not remain perfectly calm after watching two people die before her eyes. Calipha tightened her trembling hands around her staff and bit her lip.

“I... I was scared...”

She acknowledged an honest emotion, but did not stop there.

“But like you said, Yuto... we have to survive... A-and they didn’t really die, either... Right?”

Calipha looked up at him. Her eyes were frightened, but said she would not run away. She accepted the situation while weakly seeking refuge in the notion that it was not “real.” Her expression was frail, yet resolved.

Yuto studied her for a moment, then nodded.

“I’ve confirmed your detection is accurate. They were exactly where you said.”

“Heh... hehehe...”

And to top it off, the innocence to be openly delighted by praise. Calipha laughed foolishly and scratched the back of her head.

“Your detection is useful. I’ll be relying on you.”

With that, Yuto turned away.

“We’re heading west now.”

* * *

‘You pass.’

Calipha murmured inwardly as she followed behind Yuto. He had rushed in without a sword, seized an opponent’s weapon, and killed two people in less than ten seconds. He had even dispatched the first so cleanly that the boy would not have felt any pain.

‘Impressive.’

Calipha’s admiration was no act. In over a century of life, she had seen countless fighters: swordsmen, knights, mages, assassins, battlefield heroes, and back-alley killers. Compared with any of them, Yuto’s movements just now had been something alien.

That was not strength a fifteen-year-old boy’s body should have been capable of producing. No, it was not just strength. There was his technique and judgment: the angle at which he caught the wrist, the timing with which he stole the sword, the path of the blade across the neck. Every movement achieved the greatest possible effect with the least possible effort.

This could not be dismissed as mere talent. It was technique honed through tens of thousands of real battles.

‘That level of technique at fifteen? Impossible.’

Calipha narrowed her eyes. He could not possibly have experienced that much combat at his age, so ultimately it had to come down to talent.

Overwhelming talent. Not “mere” talent, but genius. She felt she understood why Lord Shiro had taken an interest in Yuto. The boy was abnormal. This went beyond having lived a life nobles knew nothing about.

Calipha stared at Yuto’s back. Just what lay beneath that boy’s skin? Lord Shiro must have wondered the same thing. There was no way he could fail to sense what she did.

‘What is inside you?’

Along with that question, Calipha admitted something to herself. Watching Yuto kill those two students had sent goose bumps down her spine. Her body had trembled not with fear, but excitement.

‘If you decided I was unnecessary, that I was getting in your way, you’d kill me without hesitation.’

Silently, in a single stroke, without giving her time to feel pain. Her grip tightened around her staff. The corners of her mouth twitched.

‘What a delicious shiver...’

It felt good. She was observing that fucking brat she wanted to kill on the spot because Shiro had ordered it. But now she was genuinely interested in observing Yuto for its own sake. What excited her most was that the boy did not simply trust her. He remained suspicious and on his guard.

If her act was exposed, or he decided she was useless or an obstacle, Yuto would kill her at any moment. Of course, he could not kill the “real” Calipha, but if he tried to kill her here—she would not resist. That was the character she was playing, after all.

But Yuto did not know that. The Calipha he knew was a weak mage with little aether. As far as he was concerned, killing her would be easy.

‘That tightrope is fun.’

Keeping the face of a meek girl, Calipha walked behind Yuto.

‘Lord Shiro, are you watching? You’ve given me such an entertaining toy.’

She smiled, feeling the heat inside her.

* * *

The group headed west.

While they crossed the forest, Yuto ordered two more detection scans. Calipha cast as instructed and passed along a selection of information.

“Two hundred meters north... there are three people. I think two of them are chasing the third.”

“Which direction?”

“Not toward us. They’re moving farther north.”

Yuto nodded without changing course. He had decided not to get involved in the battle to the north.

‘So he isn’t going around killing everyone.’

Calipha took note of his criteria. He would kill an opponent whose retreat was cut off without hesitation, but he would not go out of his way to hunt anyone down. He only dealt with enemies in his path. An efficient judgment.

‘Cruel, but not wasteful. He isn’t a psycho. He doesn’t hunt more than necessary.’

She made that distinction. Yuto did not enjoy killing; he simply did not hesitate when killing was necessary. There was a vast difference.

The forest began to thin. As the trees grew sparser, the view opened up, and they heard the burble of water.

A river came into view.

It was only about ten meters wide. Not broad, but fast-flowing. Water struck the rocks and churned into white foam. Rocks of all sizes dotted the bank, with patches of reeds growing here and there.

Across the river lay gently rolling hills. With only a scattering of trees, they offered a clear, open view.

Yuto walked slowly along the bank, surveying the terrain.

“Flokiro. Check upstream. I’ll look downstream.”

“Got it.”

Flokiro ran upstream.

Yuto wandered through the reeds along the downstream bank. One rock was a good size to rest his back against, and behind it was a space screened from sight by reeds.

Calipha looked around as well. Of course, she had no need to survey the terrain. Her detection had already mapped every rock and every stalk of reed on this riverbank.

‘The river water fifty meters upstream from here restores aether.’

Keeping that information to herself, Calipha innocently dipped her hand into the river.

“Wow... It’s cold.”

“Think it’s drinkable?”

“Probably... It does look clean. A-actually, I don’t really know. Wouldn’t you know more about this sort of thing, Yuto...?”

Yuto gave a small chuckle at her question. After examining the water briefly, he scooped up a handful and drank. A moment later, he nodded.

“It’s fine. Have some.”

Calipha pretended to drink while watching to see whether Yuto sensed subtle changes in the aether. The water here had no restorative effect. That was fifty meters upstream.

‘Your aether was overwhelming when I saw it in the auditorium. You’ll probably never run out.’

That meant she could not use this information to help him directly. But demonstrating that she could uncover the secrets of objects would help establish her usefulness.

Soon Flokiro returned.

“There’s a shallow ford upstream. I think we can cross there.”

“The exact opposite of this end, then. Downstream, the current gets stronger and the water gets deeper. So anyone crossing will have to go upstream.”

Yuto pointed toward the reeds.

“We won’t cross. Instead, we’ll make a temporary base there and watch how things develop. If we see students crossing the ford upstream, we’ll hunt them depending on the circumstances.”

Conversely, the ford could also serve as their escape route. Calipha nodded at his words and cautiously offered a suggestion.

“Yuto. If you’ll allow it... may I analyze the river?”

“Why?”

“Th-this isn’t reality. Everything here is a virtual space made of magic. That... includes the river water. There might be some special secret hidden in it...”

“Didn’t you say analysis takes a long time and uses a lot of aether?”

Yuto was also asking whether there was any need to bother. Calipha nodded without flustering.

“S-since we’ve made this our temporary base... I think we need to know more about... the surrounding area...”

“All right. Try your analysis magic.”

Her reason was enough to convince him. Calipha raised her staff and concentrated. More precisely, she pretended to concentrate. After several minutes of this, sweating coldly, she let out a great breath and spoke.

“Y-Yuto, there’s a secret to this river water. P-please follow me.”

Calipha staggered upstream to a spot where a large rock sat in the river. She pointed toward it.

“The water flowing near that rock is like a kind of aether recovery potion... I-it won’t be much use to you, though...”

At that, Yuto immediately leaped. The current was slow and the water was not very deep, but the river was still fairly wide. Calipha had naturally assumed he would wade in, yet he reached the rock in a single bound.

‘His physical abilities are absurd.’

She had sensed it during his earlier attack, but seeing it in action brought it home all over again.

“It’s true.”

Yuto murmured as he scooped up water atop the rock. The aether mixed into it was concentrated enough to rival an intermediate aether potion. Cupping river water in both hands, he leaped back to Calipha.

“Drink.”

“P-pardon?”

“You used up aether, didn’t you? Drink.”

Putting on a deeply moved expression, Calipha lowered her lips to his cupped hands and drank the river water.

“Your analysis magic is excellent. Can you analyze that crystal, too?”

Yuto raised a finger to point at the crystal. Calipha pretended to startle and stammered a reply.

“I-I can try, but I’m not confident...”

“Try it. We have a way to replenish your aether right here, so there’s nothing to lose.”

So this was how he intended to put her to use. Calipha nodded.

‘Rational and cold, yet merciful. He’s taking care not to let me run out of aether.’

Under Yuto’s gaze, Calipha began her analysis magic again. Her target was the crystal in the sky. Once again, it was only an act. She had analyzed that crystal long ago and already knew what events would unfold in this space.

“The c-crystal... has information... about us inside.”

Calipha spoke with cold sweat pouring off her.

“The number of... eliminated students... is currently thirteen.”

Thirteen out of five hundred. Several dozen minutes had passed since the exam began, but that was fewer than expected.

‘It’s still only the first day. They must all be terrified, unable to adjust to the situation. But give it a day and that will change. After all, this isn’t reality. It’s a virtual world...’

Calipha hid her smile as she thought.

Death here was not real death. After a day, quite a few students would grow accustomed to that fact. And that would erode their morals.

Calipha believed madness and violence lay at the very bottom of human nature. And the students in here were noble brats drunk on their own self-importance.

Until now, these noble brats had amused themselves trampling insignificant commoners and slum dwellers. Here, however, they would engage in death matches against students of equal status. How would that destroy their morals? What kind of madness would it breed? Calipha trembled at the thought.

‘I hate the constellations, but I do love the way they toy with humans. Especially at times like this.’

How many would die today alone? Not as many as one might expect. At least, there would be few death matches between the students. But the “event” coming soon would teach them that someone else’s death meant their own gain.

They would also learn that the rare opportunity to kill someone without guilt was a source of immense, cruel delight.

Calipha steadied her breathing before it could quicken and continued.

“Students who... eliminate other students... are awarded points. Currently... your score is ten, Yuto.”

“Looks like five points per person.”

“Yes...”

“Why have points? All we need to do is make it into the final hundred.”

Did they intend to select new students by criteria other than survival, too? As Yuto pondered that, Calipha flinched and stammered.

“Y-Yuto. In five minutes... something is going to happen in this world.”