Chapter 181: Class Ascendant
My eyes snapped open, and the first thing I felt was a wave of panic.
The room was bright. Way too bright. The morning sunlight was pouring through the massive windows of my room, painting the marble floors in gold.
Shit. I’m late.
I jumped out of the giant bed, my muscles screaming in pain from the beating Zephyr had given me the night before. My eyes still felt dry and itchy from when the blood vessels had burst during my Flash Instinct overload, but I did not have time to care.
I dragged myself to the fancy bathroom, splashed cold water on my face to wake up, and threw on my black uniform coat. I made sure the heavy platinum Primus badge was pinned over my coat. I did not even try to fix my messy hair.
I rushed into the main lounge, trying to put on my boots while running.
"Young Master, please calm down," a smooth, calm voice spoke up from the dining area.
Lyra was standing there, completely relaxed, holding a plate with a neatly wrapped sandwich and a glass of water.
"Lyra!" I gasped, hopping on one foot to pull my boot on. "Why did you not wake me? I am going to be late on the first day! If I get in trouble because the old man broke my ribs, I am going to—"
"You are not late for classes, Young Master," Lyra interrupted calmly, setting the glass down. "Because standard classes have been temporarily delayed. Vice Principal Helene issued an emergency announcement a short while ago."
I stopped hopping and blinked at her. "An announcement? What do you mean?"
"All two hundred first-year students have been told to gather in the main hall right away," Lyra explained. "It is an important announcement about a big change to this semester’s schedule."
I frowned.
A bad feeling grew in my stomach. An emergency announcement on the very first day? This definitely wasn’t in the original game timeline.
"How much time do I have left before the gathering starts?" I asked quickly, my eyes locking onto the food.
"You have exactly twelve minutes, Young Master," Lyra replied.
"Twelve minutes? Fuck!" I grabbed the sandwich, ate it in two bites, and ran toward the double doors. "I am running!"
"Do not choke, Young Master," her calm voice followed me as the doors slammed shut.
_
Getting to the assembly hall should have been easy.
It would have been, if the academy’s layout didn’t look like a giant, intentional maze designed to make new students lose their minds. After getting lost twice, turning down three wrong corridors, and running at full speed, I finally followed the noise of loud voices and ran through the back doors of the grand hall.
The place was packed. All two hundred first-years were inside. The air was thick with whispers and questions.
"Why are we here?"
"Did something happen?"
"Did something happen with the barriers?"
"Is it a monster outbreak?"
Ignoring the loud chatter, I began to push my way through the crowd. As the Primus, I wasn’t about to stand at the very back like a side character. The top was where I belonged, and that meant getting to the front of the hall.
I elbowed my way past a tall, heavily built noble student.
"What the fuck do you think you’re—" the guy barked, turning around furiously.
But the moment his eyes landed on me, the words died completely in his throat. His gaze dropped straight to the left side of my chest, locking onto the platinum badge glowing heavily over my coat. His face went entirely pale.
"P-Primus..." he said, stepping back fast to clear a path.
I didn’t say a word. I didn’t even look at him. My mind was too busy running through a hundred different theories about what was happening. Did something change in the story again? Is the plot shifting again? Fuck!
I kept walking until I reached the very front row. Standing on the raised platform ahead of us was Vice Principal Helene. But she wasn’t alone. Standing right beside her were two other professors, and the moment I saw their faces, my gaze hardened.
I recognized them instantly from the game.
To her left stood Professor Valerio, a high-ranking noble from the Vampire race. He looked very pale, wearing a fancy blood-red coat, his eyes sharp and cold. To her right stood Professor Eleanor, an Elf noble with long silver hair down her back, giving off a quiet, dangerous feeling.
Both of them were low-rank Grandmasters.
Helene stepped forward, her sharp eyes sweeping across the crowd of two hundred students until the whispers finally died down.
"...I know you are all confused as to why you have been called here before your first official class," Helene’s voice echoed through the hall, magically amplified. "But this is an incredibly important announcement for your entire semester. The academy has decided to implement a completely new program."
I narrowed my eyes. A new program...?
"Traditionally," Helene continued, "the top fifty rankers of the freshman class are automatically placed into the same elite classroom, receiving the highest level of resources, while the lower ranks are separated. However, starting this year, the academy is discarding that system to increase real competition."
The crowd gasped, a sudden wave of Whispers broke out again.
"Silence," Helene said, and the pressure in the room shut everyone up.
"This semester, the students will be split into four classes. It does not matter if you are an Elite or the Primus — every class will have exactly fifty students. We have carefully balanced these classes, mixing the strong with the weak. The class names are Veritas, Fortis, Audax, and Ascendant."
What the fuck? My mind screamed.
"These classes will remain fixed until the end of the semester," Helene explained smoothly.
"Each class will be assigned a homeroom teacher. We are doing this to create direct, fierce competition between classes. In the old system, the top fifty students could just relax at the top and keep all the best resources for themselves. Now, if you want resources, your whole class has to fight for them. The lower ranks now have a real chance to pull the Elites down and take their rewards."
"Now," Helene said. "I have the mana-link watches ready to hand out. When I call your name, step forward, take your watch, and follow your assigned teacher. You will stay in their class for the rest of the term."
She stepped to the front of the stage. "I will personally be in charge of class Veritas. Step forward when called."
She began reading from her list:
Arthur Vale – Rank 3
Amelia Nightshade – Rank 7
Nyra Silverfang – Rank 9
.
.
.
Dame Flint – Rank 64
Lucia Jane – Rank 112
One by one, the students stepped forward, took their watches, and stood behind Helene. Once all fifty names were called, Helene nodded to the other teachers. "Follow me," she said, leading her group out the side doors.
Next, the pale Vampire noble stepped forward, his eyes sweeping over the remaining students. "I am the class teacher of Fortis," he said. "Step forward."
Riven Ashford – Rank 6
Caster Ironwell – Rank 10
Lyssaria Sol-Valis – Rank 15
.
.
.
Marius Valmont – Rank 20
Gideon Grey – Rank 145
Another large chunk of students moved forward, taking their watches and following the Vampire professor out of the hall, leaving the room even emptier.
Finally, the silver-haired Elf noblewoman stepped up, her voice clear and elegant. "I am the teacher for class Audax."
She also started calling names one by one.
Elisabeth von Noctis – Rank 4
Cordelia Valerion – Rank 8
Julia Moss – Rank 18
.
.
.
Thomas Ward – Rank 55
Elena Ross – Rank 120
As Julia walked up to receive her watch, she looked around the room and noticed that my name still hadn’t been called. Realizing I wasn’t going to be in her class, she paused near the front row, looking up at me with a slightly worried look.
"...It looks like we aren’t in the same class, Lord Leo," she murmured softly.
I shrugged. "Don’t worry about it. If any of the professors give you trouble, or if the princess tries to boss you around too much, just come find me."
Julia’s face turned red. She opened her mouth, closed it, then just nodded quickly and hurried off to join the rest of class Audax as they walked out the doors.
...And then, the hall fell completely silent.
_
Exactly fifty students were left standing in the center of the room. The other professors had already departed with their classes, leaving us entirely alone. Since we were the leftovers, it didn’t take a genius to figure out our class name.
We were class Ascendant.
I looked around the small group, and my jaw nearly tightened. There was no teacher standing on the stage. No instructor had stepped forward to claim us. We were just standing there like a bunch of abandoned orphans in a massive, empty hall.
"Where the hell is our teacher...?"
The sharp, annoyed voice cut through the quiet hall.
I turned my head and looked over. Standing a few feet away was Alice, her arms crossed over her chest, her expression completely furious. Her foot tapped against the floor like she was about to start kicking someone.
She noticed me staring and glared right back. "What are you looking at, bastard? Do you know what’s going on?"
I sighed internally. Oh god, here we go. This is the face I have to see every day now? This arrogant, constantly annoyed brat?
Before I could even open my mouth to tell her to shut up, a heavy hand suddenly dropped onto my shoulder.
"Woah, woah, calm down now, everyone. We’re all on the same team here," Roan said with a lazy, easygoing grin, leaning his weight against me like we were old childhood friends.
My eye twitched. This guy too. Another narcissistic bastard with a stupid grin.
"Get off me," I muttered coldly. I reached up, grabbed his wrist, and forcefully peeled his hand off my shoulder, ignoring his grin entirely. My lips twitched in irritation.
Alice let out a frustrated groan. "Ugh, this is already a disaster. Look at us. That bastard Primus, the annoying elf, and me. All stuck in the same room with no teacher. What kind of joke is this?"
I looked at the rest of the fifty students. Every single one of them looked tired, worn out, or had a dangerous, unstable feeling about them. This was not a balanced class. This was a group of the most troublesome, weird students the academy had to offer.
Suddenly, a strange sensation hit at the back of my neck.
The air in the room felt off.
"...Hey," I muttered, my voice cutting through Roan and Alice’s argument. "Don’t you guys feel that?"
Alice stopped mid-sentence, her brow furrowing in irritation. "What are you talking about, Leo? Don’t try to change the—"
She paused, her words cutting off instantly as her eyes widened.
Roan’s lazy smile vanished in a fraction of a second, his posture going completely rigid. "The air..."
"The air pressure is dropping," I muttered, my hand instinctively dropping toward the hilt of my katana.
Before either of them could utter another word, a sharp, terrifying whistling sound split the silence of the hall.
Swif!
A small metal object shot through the air, heading straight for my face from the ceiling. My body moved before I could even think. My hand shot out and caught the object just before it hit my nose. The impact stung my palm, but I didn’t flinch. I slowly opened my hand.
It was a sleek, mana-link watch — the exact same kind the other students had been handed by their teachers.
"Oh? You actually caught it?"
A lazy, amused voice came from the high shadows above us. I looked up. A figure was sitting on a beam, swinging her legs back and forth with a smirk.
"Not bad for a bunch of fresh meat," the voice chuckled, leaning forward. "Looks like you finally found me."
