Chapter 95: Through the Teachers’ Eyes I

( A few hours earlier - Inside the orientation hall )

Professor Darius had expected Alash Vortex to leave the infirmary.

He had been quite certain of it.

Not because he believed the boy was cruel.

Everything in Vortex’s records suggested the opposite, particularly when someone was genuinely in danger.

But there were one hundred and twenty-three wounded constructs inside that building, and the examination had given Class Five eight hours, an unknown distance to the Citadel, limited medical supplies, no personal artifacts, and thirty-six classmates whose performance now depended at least partially on their leader’s judgment.

Leaving was the sensible choice.

Treat the students.

Take whatever medicine could be carried.

Find the Guardian Seal.

Move.

Instead, Alash Vortex was kneeling beside a critically wounded soldier with both hands glowing.

Darius crossed his arms.

"He’s wasting mana."

Professor Selene did not look away from the observation screen.

"He’s stabilizing him."

"The distinction changes nothing."

"It changes quite a lot to the man bleeding to death."

"The man isn’t real."

Selene finally turned toward him.

"Does Vortex know that?"

Darius opened his mouth, paused, and then frowned.

"No."

"Then perhaps that’s the point."

Around them, nearly two hundred smaller observation screens covered the front of Zenith’s orientation hall, each following one student’s perspective inside the shared illusion.

The physical hall itself remained almost unnaturally quiet.

One hundred and eighty-seven first-year students sat motionless in their seats, their breathing slow and steady while their consciousnesses moved through the Mirage Hermit’s constructed world.

Five larger screens dominated the others.

Elizabeth Aurelius.

James Vellaroux.

Sophie Trohan.

Daphne Spinster.

Alash Vortex.

The five class leaders.

The Mirage Hermit stood near the center of the hall with his hands hidden inside the sleeves of his plain grey robe.

He had barely moved since the examination began.

Headmaster Theoran Vale stood several steps behind him.

"Was this deliberate?"

The Hermit glanced sideways.

"What?"

"The infirmary."

"Obviously."

"You knew Vortex was a healer."

"Yes."

"You knew about his previous medical training."

"Yes."

"And his experience at the border."

The Hermit’s pale eyes returned to Alash’s screen.

"Yes."

Darius frowned.

"Then you aren’t testing his healing."

"No."

Several professors looked over.

Selene folded her arms.

"What are you testing?"

The Hermit lifted one hand and pointed toward the screen.

Cedric was arguing with Alash.

The Force user had already reached what Darius considered the obvious conclusion.

They’re illusions.

Alash continued healing.

Do you know they’re fake?

Cedric hesitated.

No, but...

Then I’m not gambling someone’s life on a guess.

The faculty section became noticeably quieter.

The Hermit lowered his hand.

"That."

Darius’s expression changed slightly.

Theoran watched Alash carefully.

Something had crossed the boy’s face immediately after he spoke.

Pain.

Brief enough that most people would have missed it.

Controlled enough that none of his classmates seemed to notice.

Theoran did.

He knew enough of the classified reports to understand why.

Three escorts.

Three deaths.

Three people who had stood between Alash Vortex and something stronger than him, knowing what it would cost.

A boy who had once treated responsibility as something best avoided had learned rather violently what it meant when other people chose to risk their lives for his.

"He wasn’t always like this," Theoran said quietly.

The Hermit looked toward him.

"No?"

"Not according to the older reports."

Theoran remembered them clearly.

Talented.

Lazy.

Detached.

Intelligent enough to avoid effort rather than seek responsibility.

There had always been signs of empathy, but responsibility had been considerably less reliable.

The Hermit’s gaze returned to the screen.

"People change."

"That is generally why we educate them."

"Academies mostly teach children to pass examinations."

Darius sighed.

"You are currently giving an examination."

"Yes."

"At an Academy."

"Tragic."

Selene ignored them both.

Her attention had moved toward Penelope Declair.

The B-potential girl had already begun organizing students while Alash continued healing.

Patients were being counted.

Search groups were forming.

Lena had been sent toward the medical storage areas.

Several students were moving stretchers.

"Interesting," Selene murmured.

Darius glanced over.

"What?"

"Declair."

"Vortex’s fiancée?"

"Class Five’s administrator, apparently."

They watched Alash give Penelope four categories.

Those capable of walking.

Minor injuries.

Serious but transportable.

Critical.

Penelope took the broad medical categories and turned them into an actual organizational system almost immediately.

Students were assigned.

Patients moved.

Responsibilities separated.

The entire infirmary became less chaotic within minutes.

"He’s delegating," Selene said.

"Not consciously."

"Does that matter?"

"It might."

The Hermit’s mouth curved faintly.

"It matters a great deal."

On the screen, Alash watched Penelope begin issuing instructions based on his categories.

His expression slowly became horrified.

The professors could not hear whatever thoughts were passing through the boy’s mind.

They could, however, hear what he muttered.

"Disgusting."

Selene stared.

Darius laughed.

Theoran briefly closed his eyes.

"I assume he is referring to leadership."

"Probably," Selene said. "At least he’s consistent."

The Hermit was still faintly amused.

"He doesn’t want people following him."

Darius shrugged.

"Then Vale selected the wrong leader."

"No."

The Hermit looked toward him.

"That’s exactly why he might be useful."

Darius frowned.

"Explain."

The Hermit’s attention moved between the five primary screens.

"A child who wants authority will naturally learn how to acquire more."

His gaze stopped briefly on Elizabeth.

"A child who wants victory learns how to become stronger."

James.

"A child who wants everyone comfortable learns how to listen."

Sophie.

"A child who trusts herself learns how to rely on herself."

Daphne.

Then his eyes returned to Alash.

"But a child who wants none of the burden has to discover what would make him accept it anyway."

Theoran said nothing.

That was considerably closer to his own reasoning when he had selected the five leaders than he had expected the Hermit to understand this quickly.

Darius glanced toward another screen.

James Vellaroux was currently cutting through a monster several times his size.

Light flashed.

Space folded.

The monster died before most of Class Two had properly reacted.

Darius smiled.

"Vellaroux is doing better."

The Hermit glanced toward him.

"Is he?"

"No casualties."

"Wait."

Darius looked at him.

That answer was concerning.

On another screen, Sophie Trohan had asked three different classmates which direction they believed was correct.

They were now arguing.

Daphne Spinster was levitating an increasingly unreasonable quantity of mana crystals through an underground temple.

Elizabeth Aurelius had already organized half a ruined district.

And Alash...

...was assigning Cedric to carry stretchers.

Darius laughed again.

"That one was punishment."

Selene shook her head.

"Force Attribute."

Darius paused.

Then looked more closely.

"...He remembered."

Theoran nodded.

Penelope had forced Alash to speak with several classmates earlier that morning.

The boy had apparently complained throughout most of the process.

Now he was assigning tasks according to what he had learned.

Cedric possessed Force.

Roland was suited to defensive work.

Elise had basic Healing.

Marcus knew battlefield medicine.

Lena had Apothecary training.

Information Alash had considered socially unnecessary several hours earlier had become operationally useful.

The Hermit noticed too.

"Good."

Darius glanced toward him.

"Because he remembered an Attribute?"

"Because something he considered pointless became useful."

The Hermit’s gaze swept across the students.

"That is generally how children learn."

A distant impact suddenly shook Class Five’s infirmary.

Mira Ellowen went pale.

Monsters were approaching.

Every professor watching the screen became more attentive.

Alash looked toward the windows.

Then toward his classmates.

Then toward the wounded.

The calculation was visible even without hearing his thoughts.

Time.

Mana.

Risk.

One hundred and twenty-three people.

Darius expected hesitation.

Instead, "Search the entire building."

Class Five moved.

No speech.

No declaration about saving everyone.

No attempt to persuade the class that they were doing the morally correct thing.

Just an order.

"Maps, medicine, food, weapons, anything useful. Find it."

Darius’s eyebrows rose.

"No speech."

Selene smiled faintly.

"He doesn’t seem like the speech type."

The Hermit watched Alash immediately return to another patient.

"No."

His voice became quieter.

"He leads as though he’s hoping nobody notices."

***

Class Five discovered the medical storage first.

Lena returned with medicine, supplies, and twelve mana recovery potions.

A map followed.

Then the basement.

Several students descended while the rest continued preparing the wounded for evacuation.

Theoran leaned closer when golden light appeared beneath the infirmary.

"There."

At the center of the underground room floated the first Guardian Seal.

Darius frowned.

"Already?"

Alash looked almost equally suspicious of how easily they had found it.

Golden light spread through the chamber.

---

CLASS FIVE GUARDIAN SEAL ACQUIRED

Guardian Seals: 1/5

---

Darius stared at the message.

"Class Five is first?"

"Apparently," Selene said.

"The class carrying more than a hundred patients?"

"Yes."

"I don’t like that."

The Hermit looked toward him.

"Why?"

"It makes Vortex’s decision look correct."

"It wasn’t correct."

Darius turned.

"It wasn’t?"

"It was a decision."

The Hermit looked toward the other screens.

"Another leader could have abandoned half the patients for reasons they could justify and still demonstrated excellent judgment afterward. The examination is not asking them to discover my preferred answer."

Darius considered that.

"Then what is it asking?"

"Who they are when there isn’t one."

Theoran looked toward Alash’s screen.

One wounded soldier had already died before the evacuation could begin.

One hundred and twenty-two remained.

Yet all thirty-seven members of Class Five were still present.

No student eliminations.

Not yet.

"They’re making the examination significantly harder for themselves," Darius said.

"Yes."

"And that interests you."

The Hermit nodded slightly.

"It does."

Then another impact shook the infirmary.

The monster group had arrived.

Class Five started moving.

---

James Vellaroux’s situation deteriorated considerably faster.

At first, Darius continued insisting the boy was performing well.

James killed almost everything that reached him.

That was the problem.

He crossed the fortress using Space every time another defensive position came under pressure.

Northern wall.

East gate.

Armory.

Southern breach.

Wherever Class Two encountered resistance, James appeared.

And because James always appeared, his classmates began waiting for him to appear.

The first student was eliminated near the armory.

The second followed at the gate.

The third disappeared shortly after.

Darius’s earlier confidence vanished.

"Three."

Theoran nodded.

"Thirty-five remaining."

On-screen, Tristan Rhael confronted James directly.

The SS-potential Spear and Lightning user had apparently decided subtlety was unnecessary.

You’re killing everything.

That’s the point.

No.

Darius leaned forward.

"Careful."

James’s expression hardened.

For several seconds, it looked as though the conversation might turn into an argument between two exceptionally powerful fifteen-year-olds while monsters continued attacking around them.

Then Tristan pointed toward the gaps James had created without realizing it.

Students waiting for orders.

Students expecting rescue.

A healer nearly depleted.

An abandoned defensive sector.

No reserve.

No reliable signals.

And finally, the three students who were gone.

James stopped.

The Hermit smiled faintly.

"There."

Darius glanced toward him.

"What?"

"First useful injury."

"They aren’t injured."

"Not physically."

James looked around the fortress.

Really looked.

Not at the monsters.

At his classmates.

The change afterward was immediate.

Ammunition assignments.

Rotations.

Healer reserves.

Signals.

Fallback positions.

Tristan given command over a sector.

John put in charge of weapon distribution.

Darius slowly nodded.

"Good."

The Hermit looked toward him.

"One."

"One what?"

"Compliment."

"I’m not doing this."

James eventually climbed the tower rather than personally answering another distant attack.

Inside, he found the fortress map.

Then the Guardian Seal.

His hand closed around it.

---

CLASS TWO GUARDIAN SEAL ACQUIRED

Guardian Seals: 2/5

---

Darius smiled again.

"Second."

Theoran glanced at him.

"You sound relieved."

"I predicted him first."

"He was not first."

"Second is close."

"That is not how numbers work."

James returned to the courtyard.

Another roar sounded somewhere beyond the walls.

His first instinct was obvious.

Move.

Attack.

Instead, he waited.

Then someone called the signal.

Only then did he go.

The Hermit nodded once.

"Better."

***

Class Three had spent considerably more time walking.

Frequently in the wrong direction.

The fog surrounding Sophie’s forest was not ordinary.

It distorted distance.

Sound.

Direction.

Even Sophie’s enhanced senses could not completely trust what they were receiving.

Unfortunately, Sophie trusted people.

A great deal.

Which meant that whenever one classmate believed the left path felt safer and another believed the northern ridge looked clearer, she listened to both.

Then someone else offered a third possibility.

Then a fourth.

Darius watched another discussion begin.

"She’s going to ask everyone again."

"Probably," Selene said.

"Why?"

"Because she doesn’t want someone ignored."

"That’s admirable until dawn arrives while they’re still voting."

The Hermit spoke without turning.

"Her problem isn’t kindness."

Selene looked toward him.

"Then what is it?"

"Permission."

On the screen, Sophie was trying to make a decision that everyone could accept.

Theoran understood immediately.

"A leader who requires universal approval stops leading the moment disagreement becomes serious."

"Exactly."

The cost appeared several minutes later.

Their formation stretched while Sophie hesitated over another route.

A monster struck.

One B-potential student was eliminated before the others could close the gap.

Sophie froze.

Only for a moment.

Then the expression on her face changed.

She did not become cold.

She did not stop listening.

She simply stopped treating disagreement as proof that she needed more opinions.

When another student suggested investigating a stream, Sophie listened briefly and then shook her head.

"No. We continue north."

"But if the stream leads..."

"We’ve already spent too much time investigating possibilities. We have enough information."

She hesitated.

Then made herself finish.

"North."

Class Three moved.

Darius leaned forward slightly.

"There."

Theoran nodded.

The Hermit’s expression barely shifted.

"Better."

Several minutes later, Sophie found the observation tower.

Maps covered one wall.

Signal equipment filled another.

Enchanted lenses pointed toward several regions of the shared illusion.

Theoran’s gaze sharpened.

"Information."

"Exactly," the Hermit said.

Class Three searched the structure.

Near the upper level, hidden behind an observation chamber, they found their Guardian Seal.

Sophie stared at it.

Then claimed it.

---

CLASS THREE GUARDIAN SEAL ACQUIRED

Guardian Seals: 3/5

---