Legendary Hero is an Academy Honors Student - Chapter 37

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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37

-Hello everyone! Here we are again this year! The biggest event of the first-year first semester! Welcome to the Summoned Beast Race! I’m your commentator, third-year Summoning Department student Runba Tes!

Waaaaaaah!

The students filling the Summoning Practice Area erupted in cheers.

Selia made a reluctant expression.

“Is this really an exam?”

There had been spectators during the Knight Studies sparring exam too, but the Summoning Studies practical exam was on a different scale.

Not only was there commentary, but proper spectator stands were set up as well.

There was even video magic installed in places where the audience could see clearly.

Ris, sitting next to Selia, burst into laughter.

“The summoned beast race is a tradition of summoning exams, so it’s very popular. Plus, it’s also adopted as an event during exchange competitions with other Hero Military Academies, so there’s a lot of interest.”

“Student Council President! I’m from the Newspaper Club! Is the first-year next to you really your sister, Selia Jerdinger?”

A male student with a video recording magical device around his neck approached with a notebook and pen.

“That’s right.”

“Oh! Could we interview both of you?”

The Newspaper Club student made the request.

“Popcorn available! Cold drinks available!”

“Come on! Choose! Choose! Who will take first place! The current odds are as follows!”

In addition, Merchant Club students had come out to do business and even arrange gambling bets.

‘What kind of exam is this!’

The first-years internally screamed at the complete marketplace atmosphere, so different from the solemn exam atmosphere they’d experienced until now.

Meanwhile, those suffering the most mental damage in all this were the first-year Summoning Department students.

“Why are they all crowding around making noise so we can’t concentrate!”

When Taide grabbed his head and shouted, the surrounding first-years made expressions of agreement.

The endlessly nervous first-years didn’t know what to do when the entire school crowd came to create an enjoyable atmosphere.

Rather, they felt even more pressure because of this atmosphere.

Of course, there were also those who were relaxed.

Representative examples were the Summoning Department’s aces, Eliza and Woreden.

“To treat me, the young lady of the Herginn Family, as mere entertainment is unpleasant.”

Seeing Eliza frown her delicate brow, her followers nodded their heads.

In Woreden’s case, he just stood there with his usual expressionless face.

Eliza glanced at Woreden like that, then looked at Leo who was warming up on one side.

Eliza asked mockingly as Leo stretched, bending and extending his knees.

“You showed outstanding ability in the Knight Studies practical exam, but have you prepared well for the Summoning Studies practical exam too?”

“Of course.”

“As expected, the grade representative is full of confidence.”

Eliza narrowed her eyes.

“But you weren’t seen even once during summoning practical exam practice… I suppose you think lightly of practical exams?”

The beast race originally involves riding the summoned beast you’ve contracted with to compete.

However, among the first-years, there were many students who hadn’t yet contracted with flying beasts.

So Lumern provided flying beasts.

How quickly you could tame those flying beasts could be said to be the key to this exam.

But the Summoning Department had given training time during the exam period, and only Leo had never participated in that practice.

“Hey, Eliza. What are you saying?”

Taide frowned at her barbed words.

However, the surrounding gazes toward Leo were not kind.

“Honestly, it’s true that guy is being careless.”

“Even if he’s famous in Knight Studies and Magic Studies, in Summoning Studies he only has spiritual power. I haven’t seen him contract with spirits or beasts.”

“Isn’t he looking down on Summoning Studies?”

“If you’re planning to be careless, why don’t you drop out?”

Since Summoning Studies had few students, their attachment to the department was also strong.

In such a situation, when Leo, who had never once come to exam practice, showed confidence, they couldn’t help but show antipathy.

The summoned beast race is a competition where you mobilize all summoning techniques to quickly pass through obstacles and cross the finish line.

The obstacles were all formidable, and interference between competitors was allowed.

Getting seriously injured in races was commonplace.

Facing such a dangerous race without ever coming to practice once, Leo didn’t look good in the Summoning Department students’ eyes.

Leo had experienced everything from mountain and sea battles to aerial combat as a summoned beast in his previous life, but naturally no student knew that.

“That’s harsh.”

“Ha! Are you taking his side because he’s your class president?”

When a Class 5 student got angry, a student from another class sneered.

“The atmosphere isn’t good.”

Chen Xia stepped in to mediate.

“I understand everyone’s on edge before the exam. But slander…”

“Chen Xia. You also have good Knight Studies grades, so you don’t need to worry much about Summoning Studies, right?”

A female student spoke sarcastically.

When she became a target, this time Class 10 got angry.

The Summoning Department students glared at each other, creating a menacing atmosphere.

Leo was clicking his tongue watching this when.

“Noisy.”

A low, heavy voice rang out.

Everyone’s gaze focused in one direction.

Woreden, who had been standing with his arms crossed and eyes closed as if uninterested, now had his amber eyes open.

“If you’re going to bark and take sides over just riding beasts a bit more, don’t do it in front of me, do it somewhere else.”

“What? What did you just say, Woreden!”

“I said it’s annoying to listen to you making a fuss as if riding beasts a bit more is something amazing.”

Watching Woreden speak with an expressionless face, Sen Liu, a male student from the eastern continent in the Summoning Department, made an angry expression as a representative.

“Hah? Feeling guilty, are you? You barely came to taming training either, didn’t you?”

Watching the Summoning Department male student curl up the corner of his mouth, Woreden chuckled.

“What? What’s that laugh?”

“Should I tell you why I didn’t come to taming training?”

“What?”

“Because it wasn’t worth training for. I’m not a half-wit fool like you guys who can’t even properly handle a griffin.”

At those words, sparks flew from the eyes of Liu and other students.

“This bastard!”

The male student threw a punch at Woreden.

Thud-!

But just before reaching Woreden, Liu’s fist was caught by Leo’s hand.

“Fighting before an exam won’t end with just getting scolded.”

“Ugh! I don’t want to hear that from you!”

Liu shook off Leo’s hand and went to where the Summoning Department students were.

Watching his retreating figure, Leo sighed ‘Ugh.’ and looked at Woreden.

“How about you choose your words more carefully too?”

“Is stating facts a problem?”

“I don’t know how amazing you are, but I don’t think you have the right to mock others’ efforts, Woreden Taiden.”

Watching Leo look up at Woreden, who was a head taller than him, Woreden gave a cold smile once and walked away to another side.

“The atmosphere is worse than I thought.”

He had just diligently listened to Summoning Studies classes, but the relationships between department students were worse than expected.

At Leo’s words, Taide sighed.

“You wouldn’t have known since you take all the other majors too, but our year’s Summoning Department atmosphere is a bit, well, quite bad right now.”

“Why?”

“The top students in our year’s Summoning Department are you, Xia, Woreden, and Eliza, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Summoning studies is originally a department where there’s a huge ability gap between majors and minors, but since you and Chen Xia have been occupying the top ranks, the second-year seniors from the Summoning Department gathered us together.”

“They gathered you for that? Total old-fashioned jerks.”

“Exactly! And in the middle of all that, Woreden even ignored the seniors when they tried to gather him!”

Thanks to that, the second-years got even angrier and gave the first-years a harder time.

“Anyway, everyone was already upset because of that… and while preparing for this exam, the atmosphere got even worse since you and Woreden barely participated in training.”

“I can understand why the atmosphere would be bad.”

“Right. So please understand their position.”

“Got it.”

After saying that, Leo looked around at the students preparing for the competition.

While they all showed signs of nervousness, he could feel a strange hostility.

‘So this kind of problem arises too.’

Certainly, it could appear negligent in others’ eyes.

‘Of course, I have no intention of half-assing it.’

As long as he was competing, his goal was nothing less than first place.

***

-Ladies and gentlemen! The time has finally come! All contestants are standing at the starting line!

First-year students stood side by side inside the starting line.

Ahead, they could see the fence where the griffins were kept.

At the start, students would tame the griffins in that fence and then take off.

Summoning Department students prepared to start with tense faces.

“You rookies! Don’t be nervous and just do as you practiced! If anyone fails to show their skills because of nerves, I’ll kick your butts after it’s over!”

Yura, the referee, shouted to her students while raising the signal flare.

At her words, laughter erupted among the Summoning Department students.

Thanks to Yura, their tension eased.

“Now then!”

Yura raised the signal flare.

“Three, two, one!”

Bang-!

Kwagagagak-!

At the start, spirit magic poured down around Leo and Woreden.

Leo hesitated at the sudden situation.

-Oh! What is this! The Summoning Department students! As if they had planned it in advance, they’re pouring interference on Leo, the year representative, and Woreden, the southern valedictorian!

The audience murmured at this unprecedented situation.

Class 5’s Summoning Department students also looked flustered.

“Ack! What’s that!”

“That’s dirty! Those Summoning Department bastards!”

“Hey! Don’t you have any shame!”

“Fight fair and square!”

-Haha! Boos are pouring from Class 5’s side!

Students watching from the stands caused an uproar.

“C-Class president!”

“Hey! Leo! Wait! I’ll help you now!”

“Don’t worry about me and go quickly!”

When his classmates didn’t start because they were trying to dispel the spirit magic interfering with Leo, he urgently shouted.

“This is an exam! I’ll handle it myself, so don’t fall behind for nothing! Go!”

“Ugh!”

“Leo! Sorry!”

Class 5 students made frustrated expressions and belatedly started.

The ground turned to mud by water caught Leo’s feet.

Fire and wind circled around, blocking Leo’s path.

Woreden, who received the same interference as Leo, unleashed his spiritual power.

“How pathetic.”

Hwaak-!

Though the Summoning Department students had used spirit magic with determination, Woreden simply dismantled it.

It was impossible without overwhelming capability.

“You look like you’re having trouble. Should I help?”

When Woreden asked with a smirk, Leo chuckled.

“No, I’ll handle it myself.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll go ahead.”

Woreden headed toward Griffin Fence with a leisurely gait.

Meanwhile, other students had finished taming griffins and were taking flight.

Leo, watching this from the starting line, unleashed his spiritual power.

“I thought I was disliked, but I didn’t expect them to interfere as a group like this.”

Yura, who was watching Leo chuckle, clicked her tongue.

‘That’s going to be tough.’

If this weren’t an exam, he could probably break through this level of interference.

But this competition had the restriction that only ‘summoning arts’ could be used.

Moreover, from what Yura had observed, Leo’s main summoning art was beast summoning, not spirit magic.

And now he was facing spirit magic interference from an entire department.

It seemed difficult for Leo, who still appeared inexperienced in actual combat, to overcome this obstacle.

‘The emotional rift among first-years runs deeper than I thought. No matter what, to gang up on someone like this.’

It wasn’t against the rules, but it wasn’t a pleasant sight.

As a professor, she had been looking after her students, but apparently it wasn’t enough.

Just as Yura was blaming herself and thinking she should comfort her department students.

“─!”

At Leo’s voice, Yura felt the hair on her entire body stand on end.

The language with a soft melody like singing was not human language.

“──! ─!”

As the melody continued, the spirits’ power weakened.

Hwaak-!

Eventually, the force that had been interfering with Leo disappeared without a trace.

The spirits that had been following their contractors’ orders laughed cheerfully and danced in circles around Leo before disappearing.

The power to exert influence over spirits contracted with others.

‘Did that crazy bastard just use spirit language? Something that’s taught at minimum in second-year spirit magic classes?’

Yura could only let out a hollow laugh watching Leo make his belated start.

‘He’s really something special! I absolutely must make Leo major in summoning!’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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