This is nothing!

'Is this really the class I am supposed to attend...?'

Standing underneath the gazing sun, I was having a really, really hard time understanding what the meaning behind my being here was. Because I had somehow gotten dragged into attending a lecture that was not even close to being related to my class.

Feeling the ground underneath my feet, now covered by a pair of cheap sneakers, I could only listen with despair when Mr. Froid began the lesson.

"Seems like you are all here, good! Then we will now begin the very first physical education lecture of the year!"

Yes, I was now, together with most of my classmates, standing in front of a large running track, surrounding a large dirt field, making it a perfect location for physical training. But that still didn't mean that I could comprehend why I was supposed to take this class!

'Aren't I a mage?!'

It had to be said that although most of the freshmen were all here, there was no sign of Eva, Robert, or Suzan. This made a lot of sense as there was no particular need for them, or me for that matter, to go attend this course as that wasn't in line with our abilities.

"Then, we shall begin with a light warm-up! Let's start with 30 laps around the track!"

Before I even had the chance to come to terms with the situation, his words acted as the cue for everyone to start running without even the slightest hesitation. So, knowing that I didn't have much of a choice unless I wanted to become the victim of our teacher's fury, I also began to move my legs.

Then again, Mr. Froid getting angry at me was just one of the reasons why I forced myself to join in on the running. The other reason? Well...

==========

[Act 1, chapter 2: The duty of a student!]

New mission:

- Attend and complete the first physical education lesson!

Penalty:

- Death

[Map]

==========

Whoever was giving me these missions, which I assumed was the author who actually was some kind of higher being or something, had now decided to go back to death as the penalty.

This mission was also the reason why I knew that this was the course that 'I' had picked before the semester started. A thought that in itself was also a side of the coin that was extremely fascinating, and a bit scary, to think about.

This new body of mine, had it been a normal man, simply living his life when I suddenly took his place? Had there been another Alex Winter until I arrived here?

The only other explanation was that some higher being had somehow waved his hand and made things be like this. And by a higher being, I was obviously talking about the one that I knew to be just some random author who happened to have written a very successful novel.

Honestly, from everything that I had learned so far, this felt like the most plausible explanation. An explanation that I would have to wait until later to think about more, as I was currently busy running.

Surprisingly, it didn't actually feel bad at all to move my body like this, running around the tracks and feeling some slight sweat emerge underneath the black hoodie I was wearing.

'Isn't this quite pleasant? This body, maybe it isn't as bad as I thought it was? Ha! 30 laps? That's nothing!'

Sadly, it wasn't nothing.

"Huff... huff...huff..."

'I'm gonna die...'

My lungs were burning, and I had stopped being able to feel my legs since the 12th lap around the track. On top of that, I could barely see where I was going as the sweat stung my eyes enough to make it hard to keep them open.

Almost as if to spite me, the small mission panel was still hovering next to me, following me around the track while reminding me that if I stopped, I would die.

"Are you alright?"

Through my tears, which were absolutely only present due to the pain of sweat in my eyes, I saw the pink hair of the princess coming up next to me. Honestly, it only made me feel even worse as she was just casually running next to me without even the faintest sign of fatigue.

"Huff... I'm fine...Huff..."

"Are you sure? You look pretty pale. Shouldn't you lay down or something?"

"No, really, huff... I'm completely... fine..."

Samantha didn't buy it, but she was at the very least courteous enough to stop pestering me about it.

"Alright..."

Picking up the pace again, as she had only slowed down to make sure I was fine (which I absolutely wasn't) she quickly created distance between us as she carried on with the exercise.

It was a nice gesture, it truly was, but it was also not what I needed right now. Right now I needed some higher being to bless me with power, or something that triggered me to the point where...

"Pfft! Commoners..."

Right at that moment, an incredibly smug-looking Mike and Fred ran past me, as Mike made sure to leave a very snarky comment about me in the process. Looking at the backs of them, I felt my body slowly filling up with emotions.

'You...! No, I can't do it...'

No matter how hard I tried to use his insult as fuel, I just couldn't do it. There was no way for me to even pretend as if I cared about it. My old soul was too tempered for that kind of insult to rile me up even in the slightest.

In the end, it did nothing for me except for making me aware that I had slowed down. A lot.

In fact, I was running so slowly that it couldn't even be said to be a jog. It was more akin to that of a slightly more athletic power walk.

'But I can't stop! I would rather die than... die?'

At some point, I could see my classmates line themselves up in front of our teacher again, all the while I forced myself to keep going, terrified of what might happen if I stopped.

****

[Samantha's Pov]

'Why does he force himself to continue like this...?'

All the rest of us were already standing in front of Mr. Froid, waiting for the only student who hadn't finished his laps around the track yet. And it hurt. It hurt to see the skinny Alex try so hard, as his body was obviously not suited to something like this.

We could all see that he had already long passed all of his physical limits, yet he continued to run, despite now being slower than even a young child.

'Why did he even pick this lecture in the first place?'

I just couldn't understand.

Why didn't he choose something else, like Suzan, Eva, and Robert had done if he was this weak? How could he possibly have thought of it to be a good idea to pick the physical education course when it was clear as day that he hadn't received any prior training?

Even though me and Mike were also magical arts students, there was a clear difference between us and Alex.

I had received physical training ever since I was young, as that was expected of royalty, and I had a feeling that Mike was in a similar position as he was the heir to the Rose family, the son of Duke Thorn whose territory covered a large part of the southern Estaria.

Also, we had the added benefit of having private tutors who could teach us the ways of magic outside of the lectures that the academy provided, which was the reason we could afford to take this class. It was merely an easy way for us to uphold our physical strength without much to lose.

Something I heavily doubted Alex had.

As far as I could tell, he was a commoner, and a commoner wouldn't have access to those kinds of resources.

Regardless of that, he had picked this class, even though he was struggling to just run a couple of laps around the track. Weirdly enough, as much as I thought of him as an idiot, I also couldn't stop myself from thinking that he was quite impressive. A thought that I didn't think a lot of my classmates shared as they looked at him with eyes full of pity.

And that was also why I couldn't help but smile a bit as he now slowly made his way to us, about to finish the last lap around the track.

'He did it!'

With a weary smile, Alex had finally finished the warm-up, to which our teacher finally opened his mouth again, having waited patiently for the straggler to finish.

"Good. Now that we have finished our warm-up, we can finally..."

*Thud!*

Alex had fainted, with his face now facing the rubber-like track beneath our feet. Surprisingly enough, there was one person among us who instantly shot out like a bullet to check on him.

"... he is fine. He is just sleeping."

George Bright, the other commoner in our class had reacted even faster than our teacher and was now holding up Alex's head with one hand, making sure to check his breathing with the other.

"... would you mind bringing him to the infirmary, George?"

"Alright."