The Vice-Headmaster

After the little story behind Bael's Analyzer skill, they all just got back to gambling with cards. Of course not actual gambling, as they had no money on them, even while saying things like 'I bet all my money that I'll win this time!' 'You're poor.' 'Oh yeah!'

After a small bout of silence, Adam started a conversation.

"So I heard that we have to go to the auditorium, right?" Adam asked, looking at Bael.

"I wasn't conscious when they told us that information, I think." Bael puts down two cards, winning the blackjack game.

Yoshi sighs.

"Well looks like my luck ran out, but they said they were going to put an announcement over the speakers to let us know when," Yoshi explained, sighing once again.

"Do we have a map of sorts to find out where to go?" Bael asked as the academy was big, a bit more than half the size of this huge island.

"They put four smartwatches in the room, the last one is on your bed. It should be in the drawer right there. It should have a holographic map of sorts... which is super cool, glad I got lucky enough to come here." Yoshi said while shuffling the cards. Adam gave him a look, now thinking about how Yoshi got accepted. By luck?

Bael got up and got his watch, closing the drawer. He started to look around the room, noticing the space with their beds in it was the only compartment of the whole dorm. There was one door leading to a kitchen that was also connected to a wide space. The adjacent door from the kitchen leads to a bathroom with a separate bath and shower.

He also noticed a trap door that was well hidden under one of the bottom bunks, probably for emergency situations.

"This room is much more interesting than I thought," Bael muttered out loud.

"I thought it was boring, it had no pre-main story secrets when I checked," Umbra spoke up suddenly, getting a laugh out of Adam.

"Pfft, so when does the main story start then?" Adam looked at Umbra, who smiled in response.

"Right now." As Umbra said this, a screeching sound reverberated through the building, and what that sound was, happened to be a voice.

"---Ah, sorry about that, I'm still quite the rookie with sound transmission magic! This is my first time as the new Vice-Headmaster, so please bear with me." The voice said, and Bael gained a new insight from this small introduction.

Sound transmission magic within a wide area isn't something you can just do, even greatly talented people have to at least try twice or thrice to get it right! With there being no reason that the Vice-Headmaster had to lie, he decided to believe his words with a grain of salt.

"At this time, as informed to you by the instructors- and nurses, you should access your smartwatches and come orderly to the assembly room where we will be introducing our grand academy and informing you on the many things that are offered and have happened! Currently, our headmaster isn't here, so I'll be taking over this year! This is of course strictly for the freshmen." The announcement ended there, and hundreds of steps were heard outside their door.

"... So how exactly did you know when they would start the announcement?" Adam asked.

"I was confident that the game would start its main story in a cliche way after a side character asked about it. Well, now it's time for the thirty-minute unskippable scene!" Adam took a blow to the heart, being called a side character hurt him greatly. Yoshi pat him on the back, hoping one day Adam would become cool like him and Bael.

They all got up and opened the door, to see packs of students following the same path to the assembly. Bael decided to just follow behind, not bothering to look at his watch and follow the horde of students to the assembly.

"So what do you think they're going to talk about the assembly?" Yoshi asked, looking at Bael.

"One of the things is probably about the scoring from the unknown system used on the cruise battle. And... I've noticed there was more than one cruise right? Although the cruise was big, every freshman in the academy would have had it packed, and it wasn't packed." Bael answered and explained, waiting for a reply.

"Yeah they explained this after we left the cruise, there were two cruise ships and one of them took two groups of students. It was to give a bigger playing field, and make it more equal for everyone to gain a chance to show their skills." Bael nodded and kept walking in silence listening to every conversation between each student.

***

"As almost every freshman student is here, I'll start with some basic introductions and announcements... as we plan to celebrate the heroes that came from the pain of the Dimensional Collapse, three decades ago! As some of their children and grandchildren, we've decided that this would be nice for those students on a personal level, and to others on a social level!" The man shrowded in shadow had said.

"Ah! And yes, I am the Vice-Headmaster, don't worry about the mysterious shroud around me, we'll all get to know each other soon! I am currently on a mission, and this is a product of my magic. If you want to know more, after this assembly you may ask your homeroom teachers for any information about me!" After saying this, the shadow started tapping its feet, waiting for something.

It was at this time conversation erupted amongst students, either about the assembly or some random other things. And one thing that he heard... was his name.

"Bael? Fufu, who would have thought I would be sitting right behind you?" Bael didn't even notice her stare, which he usually did like any other competent system user.

"... You obviously say behind me on purpose." Ophelia laughed at his comment, looking at the people sitting around me.

And two of those she looked at, were shocked.

"Bael... you know you should tell your close friends when you're close with a girl right?" Yoshi said, menacingly.

"Yoshi is right for once... you need to introduce us to any other ones, for our sake." Adam donned a serious face, a rarity for people to see.

"I see, another important character." Umbra nodded and went back to being silent, looking at the shadow figure. He seemed to be trying to do something.

Ophelia smiled, holding back a laugh. Bael felt quite embarrassed because of his roommates at this moment.

"You have interesting friends, Bael."

"That is a big understatement. How about you, though? Where are your roommates?" When Bael said this, Ophelia looked to her side, staring at three incoming girls.

And not so surprisingly, they seemed to be very pretty and such in their own ways. Even friends of friends would make those two jealous, Bael thought. And he was right, he felt the stares getting heavier.

But before a new conversation could be started, all the lights turned off, with the spotlight being on the shadowy figure.

"Ah ehm! I'm going to need your attention for the rankings that we'll be announcing!" All the students, even though most kept talking, could not hear any noise come out. Seemed to be more sound magic.

"Now first and foremost... the overall cruise battle rankings! By looking at the footage, and giving basic scoring, the overall top three for every cruise battle have been tallied, with the whopping and overwhelming first place going to the famous brothers... Se-Jin and Se-Jun!" The Vice-Headmaster announced, different emotions erupted from the crowd of students.

Some of them scoffed in jealousy, discontent, or as if the outcome were obvious. Others erupted in cheers or whistles, many of them being of the crowd's female population.

"Of course it was them, this was a partner battle, there are no other two people that have greater teamwork than them... and even their strengths alone are wildly high. My luck probably wouldn't save me from their wrath." Yoshi sweat-dropped, thinking about the two semi-celebrities, the most talented in all of Korea's history.

With the uncommon mixture of light and dark magic making a team, as if it were yin and yang, they perfectly balanced each other out all while being trained strenuously by masters at magic and fighting from a young age. It wouldn't be surprising if someone said they were just the main characters and the world as their stage.

But Bael knew that even they could meet their match, as their strengths only bled out heavily when together. Although he couldn't beat either of them one on one, he could guess about a few other people who could.

"Now now, settle down! Although they were first, I may have exaggerated the 'overwhelming' win. Of course, their teamwork and flawless execution of taking watches were to be expected from such talented individuals, but there was another who did such a thing with almost as much perfection!" The students were once again silenced by the unknown magic, as the shadow of the Vice-Master's magic seemingly smiled.

"Second place goes to the never before seen duo... and probably never expected duo... of Kim-Siwoo and Valentine Coldbow!" Another Korean name was announced. This person probably feeling overshadowed by the last two...

But what made these two an unexpected duo, was their history of being on bad terms. As Elves still did arranged marriages, and Kim-Siwoo came from an old-fashioned family, this half-elf and human duo were pushed into the arranged marriage. Publicly they were never on good terms, and both families were publicly distressed because of their attitudes towards each other at points...

But after Bael saw one second of anything between them, as many people were recording when they squabbled in front of a dungeon, Bael analyzed them to be faking their immense dislike for each other. Deducting that they just wanted out of an arranged marriage and were actually close friends under closed doors.

More cheers than scoffs or other discontent emotions were heard, with some surprise enveloping more than just one student.

"Weren't they on, you know, really bad terms?" Adam seemed extremely confused.

"It's a simple cliche used in any story, often used in old RPGs... it seems that this world is an RPG and she acts like a tsundere princess? No that's not it..." Umbra mumbled off and started thinking about these two roles in his delusional game world.

'What place are you two in? You didn't do too bad after all! If you don't get anywhere in the top ten then I think we'll have to up your training by a few times...' Astram did his best to sound scary, but it didn't affect Bael, who genuinely could not expect what was to come.