Admission Ceremony (2) - 21

"Room 221, room 221, room 221, ah, here it is."

Room 221 was going to be my temporary dwelling for the next week, up until the admission ceremony.

"Ding!"

I opened the room by placing my mask in front of the sensor, which I had to jump to as again, I was probably the shortest student in the whole school by a long shot.

Setting my kusarigama and the rectangular weapon on my back onto the table, I immediately left the room again.

'Let's start implementing the plan.'

'Well, time to almost die!'

...

One Week Later:

We were all seated in chairs on the Class 1 training area down in the lobby.

'Wow, even though this place is a combat practice area, how the hell is the grass still so green?'

We were seated in the order of our examinee number, with the first 200 or so being the examinees that received a letter, whilst the latter 800 or so of us behind them were all walk-ins.

And, while there was only 2-3 people missing from the 200 that received admissions letters, having failed the test, there were more than 2200 of us walk-ins that had failed.

I was actually in the last seat, being the largest number that made it in.

At this moment, we were wearing our old cloth masks again, so that the administration could reveal us one by one.

In the original story, this was supposed to build up the hype for the main character, so that when they called for the rank 1 examinee, the main character would cause an uproar as, unlike the usual, he wasn't a noble.

Of course, I was going to steal his spotlight now.

As the sun started setting, a middle-aged man in a top hat walked up to the podium.

"I welcome this year's Class 1 into the L!"

Clapping, applauding, blah, blah, blah.

He waited for the commotion to die down before he continued.

"I am your principal, Mr. Sherriden, and these fine men and women behind me are your new teachers."

He introduced each one of them to us before continuing.

"As a tradition at the university, we will call you up in ascending order, until we reach rank one. Once you come up here, seven cards will be placed in front of you. As you inject your spiritual energy into the apparatus under the cards, one of them will flip over and you will be sorted into that house!"

'Hmm, I wonder if the author of "My Side of Midnight" ever got sued for that?'

Unlike the popular global mainstream children/young adult book series, the seven houses were based off of seven of the twenty-two tarot cards.

1. Magician's House: Students that specialize in magic will be sorted here.

2. Hierophant's House: Students that specialize in healing and support will be sorted here.

3. Wheel of Fortune's House: Students that are especially lucky are sorted here.

4. Strength/Justice's House: Students who are strong physically and have a strong sense of justice are sorted here.

5. Devil's House: Students who are often in the gray area are sorted here.

6. Tower's House: Students who have been forced to persevere and climb to where they are now are sorted here.

7. World's House: Students who are good at everything (like the protagonist) are sorted here.

"Rank number 968, please step up to the podium."

"Rank number 967, please step up to the podium."

"Rank number 966, please step up to the podium."

...

"Rank number 12, please step up to the podium."

'Finally, I get to see one of the main characters!'

I watched as a girl with green hair walked up to the podium.

'Class 1, Rank 12, Adelaide Lark, a long distance fighter who is a genius at using a bow.'

"Sorted into the Hierophant's House!"

...

"Rank number 9, please step up to the podium."

I guy that exuded a noble aura, dressed in a red and blue magician's robe walked up to the podium.

'Class 1, Rank 9, Wilhelm Cinder, arrogant at first, later becomes close friends with the protagonist and specializes in pyromancy and cryomancy.'

"Sorted into the Magician's House!"

...

"Rank number 8, please step up to the podium."

'Oh, it's this guy.'

I watched as the first brown person I had seen in this book walked up to the podium.

His most noticeable feature were his eyes, which were colored yellow, like lightning.

'Class 1, Rank 8, Rohan Kunchala, a close combat fighter that mainly uses a pair of daggers, is exceptional in speed. When up against a person of the same rank, it's almost like he's teleporting.'

"Sorted into the Tower's House!"

...

"Rank number 7, please step up to the podium."

I watched as a lean, freckled, fidgety girl walked up to the podium.

'Class 1, Rank 7, Octavia Schaffer, a noble who is exceptionally adept whilst using machines, the group's main hacker and the future commander of robots, the Laramillian's attempt to combat the necromancers.'

"Sorted into the Wheel of Fortune's House!"

...

"Rank number 5, please step up to the podium."

I watched as an extremely familiar person walked up onto the podium.

Unlike the last time I saw her, there was a large third degree burn stretching from under her mask down to her neck.

'Oh, so that's what happened to her because Akimitsu wasn't around, but how did that loser lose his life due to that in the original novel?'

'Class 1, Rank 5, Elvira Astor, currently using an alias, is the princess and soon to be empress. Specializes in support using her overpowered life and space magic.'

"Sorted into the Hierophant's House!"

...

"Rank number 3, please step up to the podium."

I watched as a girl wearing a witch's hat, her purple hair flowing out from underneath, walked up to the podium.

'So my favorite character got rank 3 instead of rank 5 this time.'

I was now almost certain that the original Akimitsu somehow died whilst protecting Elvira, allowing her to get rank 3 back in the novel, but because I didn't do that, it changed the rankings around a lot actually.

'Class 1, Rank 3, Primrose Allegra, coming from a poor family, she studied her whole life to get here and will become the future archmage.'

"Sorted into the Magician's House!"

...

"Rank number 2, please step up to the podium."

I watched as the most handsome guy I had ever seen in my life walked up to the podium. His sharp features, short, shining black hair, and his alluring purple eyes drew in everybody's gazes.

'That's the protagonist for yah.'

'Class 1, Rank 2, Ryker Constantine, I won't bother explaining his backstory right now, but he will become the greatest magic swordsman ever.'

"Sorted into the World's House!"

...

"Finally, Rank number 1, please step up to the podium."

Everybody looked around for a second, all trying to catch a glimpse of the number 1 student in their class.

In the back, I stood up.