Recruitment

With my worries resolved and after getting plenty of sleep and feeling better, I immediately began carrying out my plan to drag Claris over to the dark side.

I fed her by treating her to the luxurious school cafeteria meals, then made her read dark fantasy novels so influential that people who read them ended up wearing eyepatches, wrapping themselves in bandages, and developing pasts involving cursed arms, thereby brainwashing and training her.

Claris’s voice trembled as she said, “I had no idea a world like this existed…!”

She was absolutely delighted when I lent her the next volume.

On the way home in the rain, she said, “Please look, Onee-sama,” and then opened her umbrella while shouting, “Kugelschreiber!”—the name of a cool finishing move from the story.

(Huh, that’s so cool… Is this girl a genius…?)

I might have discovered an absolutely extraordinary talent.

Standing side by side, the two of us did “Kugelschreiber!” together.

Our umbrellas snapped open and droplets flew everywhere.

It was fun.

Our bodies got damp from the light rain, but I did not care.

“For goodness’ sake, you two…”

Kate said with an exasperated smile.

We jumped over puddles.

Our shadows were reflected in the mirror-like surface of the water.

“By the way, are you two preparing for the special practical exam?”

At Kate’s words, I tilted my head.

“What’s that?”

“I do not know what that is either.”

Claris also wore a blank expression.

“I see. It’s your first special practical exam since transferring in.”

Kate explained the special practical exam to us.

It was one of the exams used to measure the students’ practical magical ability, and at Arcadia Magic Academy it was considered even more important than test results.

Based on the results of this exam, all students were ranked.

If your rank exceeded the standard, you would be promoted to a higher class; if it did not meet the standard, you would be demoted and dropped to a lower class.

“What they look at is your performance over the past two months. A single result could just be a fluke, after all. Mythia, you’re in 40th place, dead last in S-Class, so this is bad. One wrong step and you’ll be demoted immediately.”

“What happens if you get demoted?”

“You’d drop to A-Class. Depending on the results, you could even fall to B-Class or C-Class. And then people would talk behind your back about how you’ve fallen from grace.”

“How nasty…”

“That’s the kind of place this is. That’s why everyone cares so much about rank and class hierarchy. The academy’s ranking system is famous, so it affects their family’s honor too. Some people even pay bribes and buy off teachers—for the record, my papa told me that in secret, so I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”

I thought it was absurd to go that far over something as trivial as school rankings, but for nobles who cared about appearances, it was probably that important.

In fact, I had a terrible father who was willing to act as though his own child did not exist over nothing more than magical aptitude, so I could understand that there were people who thought that way.

“By the way, what rank were you last month, Kate?”

“I was 39th.”

“…You’re kind of an idiot too, huh.”

“There are nearly three hundred people in the entire grade, so that still makes me one of the better ones! To begin with, my father messed up and people around me started drifting away, so I wound up with nothing to do except study, and that’s how I got promoted from A-Class.”

I saw. So that was the situation.

It seemed the three of us were standing right on the brink of demotion in this special practical exam.

“What rank were you last month, Claris?”

“I was 296th.”

“…………”

Right, because this girl was in F-Class.

I leaned over and whispered quietly to Kate.

“Hey, how many people are there in the whole grade?”

“I think there were 297 after Mythia joined.”

“Dead last… such an incredible idiot…!”

“I’m not an idiot! They said my magic is unusual, so they can’t measure it. And besides, I’m a commoner with no backing, so they put me at the bottom!”

Seeing Claris raise her voice in protest gave me a look from her I had never seen before, and it made me strangely happy, as though I had glimpsed something precious.

Even if she was dead last, that was only at an S-rank school, and everyone here was probably amazingly talented in reality.

Even so, the fact that we ranked near the bottom within the narrow world of this school cast a shadow over us as an unpleasant feeling that could not simply be wiped away.

“As the Dead-Last Alliance, let’s all do our best together.”

“N-not right now, I’m not dead last anymore since Mythia joined.”

“I’m sure my grades should really be better too.”

It seemed nobody liked being treated as dead last.

Personally, I thought it was better than being mediocre, because it gave you character.

Talent that was not recognized by school felt more heretical, and that made it seem cooler.

When I said that, Claris scratched her cheek and said, “D-does that make me cool?”

This girl might be the type to get flattered into buying an outrageously expensive vase.

I would have to watch out for her.

“I’d rather be evaluated well at school. Being normal instead of heretical makes me feel like I’m the same as everyone else, and that’s reassuring.”

Kate seemed to have a stability-oriented mindset that was the complete opposite of mine.

Certainly, I felt like I could understand that too.

Even for someone like me, who wanted to be different from others, there was an undeniable appeal in the comfort and pleasantness of facing the same direction as everyone else.

Even so, I still wanted to be myself—someone different from other people.

The details of the special practical exam were announced the day after that conversation.

Apparently the content changed every month; the month before last had been an inter-class team match, last month had been one-on-one individual magical combat, and this month would be team survival in a training labyrinth.

“You will form teams of three. By next week, please write down the members you will team up with on the form and submit it. The preliminaries will be held in blocks of thirty-three teams, ninety-nine people each, and the top thirty teams overall will proceed to the finals. The team that survives to the end will be honored as the winning team and awarded the highest evaluation for this exam.”

It seemed that fighting in teams was the format of this exam.

As soon as homeroom ended, everyone immediately started calling out to one another and forming teams.

The most popular choice was Prince Felix.

Everyone rushed to approach him first, swarming around him like ants gathering around candy.

(As expected of the student ranked first in the grade.)

Not only was he of excellent birth, but his abilities were also high, so everyone was clearly trying to back the winning horse.

In addition, the presence of Roy-kun—the silent, cool-type boy ranked second in the grade, who stayed at his side like an attendant—also seemed significant.

Those two would definitely be on the same team, and if that happened, they would unquestionably be the strongest contenders for victory.

Even if you yourself were useless, there was a high chance you could survive on the strength of those two.

Meanwhile, no one approached me.

(So this is what it means to be dead last in S-Class…)

As I gazed out the window with distant eyes, the person who suddenly spoke to me was a female student.

“Mythia-san, would you like to team up with me?”

She was a girl with glasses who gave an intellectual impression.

If I remembered correctly, her name was Camila.

“With me? Why?”

“You’re only dead last because you just transferred in, Mythia-san. You weren’t evaluated based on past results. You astonished the teachers, got admitted under special circumstances, and in the earlier exercise you placed second in the class. Even if you don’t have a record yet, I judged you to be more than worthwhile.”

I saw.

I thought that was one way of looking at it.

Expectation born precisely because my true ability had not yet been seen.

(What is this girl going to do when she finds out I can only use household magic…?)

She looked incredibly smart, and the thought that she might discard me at the speed of sound filled me with dread.

(Well, once we form a team, we won’t be able to change it, so it should be fine.)

I appreciated that she had reached out to me, and just as I was about to accept, I caught sight of Kate sitting in the seat diagonally in front of me.

No one had approached Kate either, and she was resting her cheek on her hand and staring out the window.

She was the friend I was closest to, and ever since the format of the tournament had been announced, I had hoped we could team up together.

“I have one request—would it be okay if I invited my friend Kate too?”

At my suggestion, the girl with glasses furrowed her brow.

“I was ranked fifth last month. My average cumulative performance across all results so far is sixth. I’ve already secured another friend as a partner whose average is ninth. Our magic is also well suited to each other, so aside from Prince Felix’s team, there’s no question we’d be one of the strongest teams. I want you to properly understand what it means for me to say that I want to add you to a team like that.”

She apparently wanted to say that this was an enormous advantage for me.

She seemed to view it as someone at the top specially reaching down to offer a spot to me, the dead-last student who still had potential.

“I see. Thank you for choosing me. I’m honored.”

“Then let’s do a simple interview now, and if you, Mythia-san, can earn a passing score, we’ll make it official and submit the form.”

“You’re going to interview me?”

“Yes. After all, I’m the one with the ability to be among the strongest, and I’m choosing you, the dead-last student. It should be obvious that I’d do at least that much.”

The girl with glasses said,

“Do you understand now that you’re in no position to ask me to include someone who’s dead last in ability and isolated in class as well?”

“I understand. Let’s begin the interview right away.”

I narrowed my eyes and said,

“First, minus ten points for your narrow-mindedness in talking about something as trivial as school rankings as though it were honor. Next, minus ten points for the small-hearted values that make you think it’s only natural to look down on me for being dead last. And finally, minus seventy-eight points for your arrogant attitude in trampling on my friend as though it were the most natural thing in the world.”

“Hah? What are you talking ab—”

“We’re equal classmates. If you have the right to interview me, then I have the right to interview you too, don’t I?”

I smiled brightly and said,

“Congratulations, you got two points. An excellent score, just as your record would suggest.”

“…In the real match, your team will be the first one I crush. You’d better be ready.”

“Yes. I’m looking forward to it.”

It seemed I had made her angry, but she had crossed my ‘line that cannot be forgiven’ first, so it could not be helped.

(Having no mercy toward anyone who hurts those close to me is the creed of I, the splendid villainess.)

After shrugging my shoulders, I walked up to Kate’s desk diagonally in front of me and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Let’s team up together.”

Kate turned around and looked at me.

Then her gaze slipped away.

“…Sorry, but I…”

My heart skipped at those unexpected words, and then someone spoke from diagonally behind me.

“I want you to form a team with me.”

I turned around.

The strongest in the grade, ranked first—the one everyone wanted to team up with.

Third Prince Felix was standing there.