Versus the B-class! [1]

'So, that's the B-class.'

Standing out in one of the many open fields in the Stellar Forest, we were currently face to face with the students of the B-class and their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Harper.

And now that I was looking at them, I only had one thought.

'I don't remember any of them...'

Just like us, there were twelve students in the B-class, with an even spread between men and women. However, even though some of them looked quite impressive, like a man with purple hair on one half of his head while the other side was cleanly shaven, or the dark-haired girl with glasses whose curves looked like they were about to burst out from her uniform, I still didn't have any memories of them.

Kind of. Now that I saw them, I could remember seeing some of them on campus, as well as passing a few of them at the dorm.

To be completely honest, I was still not even sure what the purpose behind the B-class had been in the novel, other than to act as a way for the hero and his classmates to grow stronger bonds.

But right now, I wasn't sure about that. Because now they were real people, all standing in the large fields with us, all wearing different kinds of expressions. But there was one feeling that almost all of their faces showed. And that was conviction.

They weren't here to serve as background characters for George and his party, they were here with their own dreams and ambitions. And I was the same. Not that I had any particular dreams in this world, but I absolutely had my own ambitions.

"Listen up! I will now announce the rankings of all of you freshmen, starting with the lowest to the highest!"

Just like Mrs. Harper had come due to being the homeroom teacher of the B-class, our teacher was also here just as motivated as always when he spoke. At the same time, Mrs. Harper just smiled gently while also listening to him speak.

"Henrik Wail, rank 24!"

Thanks to all of his classmates looking at him, it wasn't hard to determine that Henrik was the almost sickly-looking man on the far right side of their line. With sunken cheeks and a body that was even thinner than mine, I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for him.

And like this, he continued on, naming each and every one of them and stating their current ranks. It wasn't until the end of the B-class that some more impressive people were named.

"Emanuel Steep, rank 15!"

Emanuel was the purple-haired man with a half-shaven head and he was the third highest-ranked student in the B-class. With a somewhat similar build to George, he was most likely a melee combatant, but I honestly couldn't say anything other than that.

"Jessica Parl, rank 14!"

The black-haired, glasses-wearing girl with extreme curves where even higher ranked than Emanuel, but even when her name was called out, she kept her gaze straight forward, and it wasn't until now that I realized that she had been staring at one specific person for this entire time. And that person was Eva.

'Is she also a mage then? Does she see Eva as her rival or something?'

Unfortunately for her, our ice queen didn't seem to care at all, just standing in the line with her face as expressionless as ever.

'Then, the highest rank must be him, right? Because he is the only one left.'

"Finally for the B-class, we have Andrew Lamon, rank 13!"

The last student, as well as the highest-ranked out of the B-class students, was a very ordinary-looking man, except for the fact that he was completely bald. But he wasn't particularly handsome, and his build looked completely average.

'But I guess that doesn't say anything about his actual abilities.'

"Now for the A-class!"

Our teacher turned around and looked at us, and I somehow instantly knew who was the lowest ranked out of all of us.

"Alex Winter, rank 12!"

Even if I wasn't exactly sure how the rankings worked, I still had a small hope that maybe Robert would be the one to hold the lowest ranking of us, but it still wasn't that surprising. Because even Robert probably had a field that he excelled in, or at least, he was able to show off what he was good at.

"Robert Piper, rank 11!"

Not to the point where he would be ranked that much higher than me, but it was still impressive that a non-combatant was even put in the A-class in the first place.

'Come to think of it, doesn't that mean that Robert is likely some sort of genius?'

Inspecting the small man with chubby cheeks who looked like he was just about to start trembling due to stress, it was pretty strange that he was even here in the first place. Even if the academy was also famous for producing a few very amazing scholars, it wasn't as if that was all too prioritized.

Ultimately, the Stellar Academy was made to foster the most elite mages and warriors in the world, who would then later become pillars of the Estarian kingdom, with some even becoming more than that.

In my head, it made a lot more sense that people with a lot of knowledge should be the ones to rule, but that wasn't part of the unwritten laws of this world. In this world, power ruled all, and all were ruled by power.

"Suzan Doyle, Rank 10!"

Our teacher didn't care much about my inner thoughts as he kept tallying up everyone's rankings.

"Fred Fredder, Rank 9!"

The very extra-looking extra with a slightly big build didn't react much to his ranking, likely quite well aware that he wasn't able to compete with the ones above him. But now that I knew about the B-class, it had to be said that he was probably still a pretty impressive individual even despite his very vague existence.

The rest were pretty unsurprising, with the exception of George having a lower rank than I thought he would and Thomas was higher than I expected.

Julia was rank 8, Stephen was rank 7, George was rank 6, Lya was rank 5, Mike was rank 4, Samantha was rank 3, Thomas was rank 2 and Eva was the rank 1.

To be fair, most of these seemed quite up in the air, with the exception that Eva was probably well deserving of being the rank 1 student. The rest could probably change in a moment's time, and it just so happened that I knew that they would.

Because in the end, the highest-ranked students would naturally be George and the students who would later follow him on his journey around the world.

'And I might have to become one of those students...'

It was a difficult thing to process, thinking about how I was supposed to navigate my life in this world. Because, on the one hand, I knew that I would at some point be forced to get closer to George and the others, as I doubted that the God who sent me here would allow things to be any other way. On the other, though, it would be suicidal to jump into that kind of situation right now.

'One step at a time.'

First of all, I had to make sure that I could complete the mission that still hovered beside me, reminding me of what I would have to do during this competition.

"Now that you all know your rankings, me and Mrs. Harper will introduce how the simulated combat exercise will go down! Mrs. Harper, do you mind?"

"Of course."

The old woman took a step forward and reached out into the air with her arms. Then, out of nowhere, some sort of huge display emerged in the air, showing us a map of the environment around us.

On that map, there were two large crosses, one red and one blue, both quite a distance away from each other.

"Your captains and co-captains are already aware of what we are going to do, but as they were forbidden from saying anything to everyone else, I am now going to explain it to all of you."

Pointing at the map floating in the air, Mr. Froid spoke with clarity in his voice.

"These crosses will be your bases, red for the A-class and blue for the B-class. Here, you will find a flag. The rest is simple. The team that manages to capture the other one's flag wins. You won't have to worry about injuring each other, as there will be teachers all around the forest watching you in secret."

Very straightforward, but it was also a game that held a lot of room for strategy and tactics. The most obvious way to go about it would be to form smaller groups, some of which defended the flag and some of which went on the offensive, but I had no way of knowing exactly what kind of plans that Mike and Robert had come up with.

Except for one. But that plan didn't have much to do with winning this competition. That plan was solely for Mike to put a certain commoner in his place.

"You will now have 30 to get to your base and plan out how you want to go about things. Good luck!"