The Magician of Sound

"No, they got 1,409 points. You two only barely got half of their score." Sanae said casually.

Katsuragi Takaki and Wada Miyako dropped their jaws.

"Teacher, you must be mistaken. There's no way they scored higher than us. Just look at our screen," Katsuragi Takaki said while pointing at his screen.

S – 0

A – 0

B – 1

C – 7

D – 51

E – 103

F – 257

"I saw it and calculated your score the same way I calculated theirs. You two got 843 points from eliminating the magical beasts and another 100 points from surviving," Shirotsuka Sanae indifferently explained.

There was a hidden meaning behind her explanation. If Ayaka and Kai died, that meant they didn't get that massive surviving points. In other words, they got that score only by killing magical beasts.

Katsuragi Takaki gritted his teeth.

"There's no way they can do that. I need to see how many monsters they killed!" He said with a bit of rage in his tone, demanding Shirotsuka Sanae to disclose their information.

But what he never expected was that Shirotsuka Sanae would suddenly release her killing intent. Wada Miyako immediately got scared by that intense killing intense, and even Katsuragi Takaki got startled by it.

"I'm sure you two have read the rules. I can disclose their score, but not their information. If you don't believe me, you can ask them yourselves. I don't care if you're a Katsuragi, just remember that you are in my class. As long as you are in my class, you need to follow the school rules strictly." She said with a cold tone.

"You-!" Katsuragi Takaki wanted to burst out, but Shirotsuka Sanae ignored him and left to score the others. He gritted his teeth.

He remembered. After that six hours, magical beasts started appearing one by one. They were forced to fight them continuously and exhausted their energy. After killing as many as they could, they died under the swarm. It was at that moment that they managed to boost their points significantly.

But Ayaka and Kai shouldn't have experienced something like that because they died before it could happen. That was the reason why he couldn't believe Ayaka and Kai surpassed his group.

"It must be her! Ayaka was the one who did all of this. There's no way a D-rank like him can do something like that. He just took advantage of her power and got all the glory." He said while gnashing his teeth and left the gym in rage.

Wada Miyako was utterly forgotten by him. After all, Katsuragi Takaki only paired up with her since she was one of the strongest in the class.

…

Ayaka and Kai weren't aware of this at all, as they got 'dragged' by the principal to his office with two other people.

On the way, Ayaka asked Kai, "Why did you say it was me? It's obviously your achievement."

"I just took advantage of your identity," Kai shrugged his shoulder.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Since you're strong, then let others see you as the strong one. I'm only a D-rank and a sound magician, to boot. If they heard that I killed all of those monsters, would they believe me? They'll only doubt me." Kai said casually.

"But, that still can't be a reason to not say it," Ayaka replied.

"Well, If I don't stand out, I'll be able to have more time to research my magic. And it's enough for my sister to get all the exposure. If I start getting it too, it would be dangerous for our family. Unlike your huge Kudo Group, my family is only a small family. We don't have the strength to protect ourselves.

"Me and my sister aside, what if they decide to target my parents? That's why I'm taking advantage of your status to avoid that. So, I'm going to thank you in advance for all the problems it might bring," Kai explained.

"What?" Ayaka was startled when she heard Kai's reasoning. She never thought Kai had thought that much ahead. She was wondering if he was being really careful or just being paranoid… No, it might be because of his carefulness that he could lay low so long without anyone noticing him.

'Maybe what he told me is right? He's relying (taking advantage) on me so he can protect his family?' she thought. She also wanted to get stronger to protect her family, and hearing Kai selflessly deny everything that can prove his strength and make people recognize him to achieve that, she felt that they were alike.

'He must be the same as me,' she involuntarily nodded her head. She said righteously, "Since you're going that far to protect your family, I'll let you rely on my status. But you need to pay me back."

"Pay you back?" Kai looked at her in confusion.

"You need to be my partner in every practice class," she said.

Kai looked at her with even more confusion. Kai said, "But this pairing up thing is fixed for a year. It was explained in the rule book when you partner up with someone. You will partner up with him or her until you advance a grade. In other words, for at least a year."

"Eh?" she froze.

"Did you not read the book?"

She suddenly recalled that something like that was explained in the rule book that she received when she entered the school. She had completely forgotten about that.

She looked away with a flushed face. She said with her eyes averted, "I think I read it somewhere…"

"…" Kai was speechless. He thought she asked him to partner up because she already knew the rule. But it turned out that it was otherwise. He prayed for her recklessness not to rub off on him. 

"We have arrived at my off-!" They had arrived at the principal's office, so the principal opened the door and told them to come in. But he couldn't finish his words when he saw Ayaka freeze like a statue, while Kai was still normally following him.

He didn't know why Ayaka suddenly became like that. He only coughed and said, "Ahem, let's come into my office so we can talk."

Kai looked at Ayaka, who slowly walked toward the room awkwardly. She was too embarrassed.

"Please sit," the principal said while pointing at a nearby sofa.

Kai and Ayaka sat on one sofa and the other pair sat on the other one. Finally, the principal sat in front of them.

"Ahem. Let me introduce you two these two first. These two are a pair that I invited to test a new programmed world that our school designed. They are Adryan Stuart and Nagase Kirika," the principal introduced.

"Ah! You mean the famous couple, that Adryan Stuart and Nagase Kirika?" Ayaka was surprised. She was too focused on Kai this entire time that she didn't have time to observe the pair that came with the principal. Because of thet, she didn't realize that it was them this whole time.

"Nice to meet you," Adryan and Kirika said at the same time.

"It's my pleasure to meet such a famous couple," Ayaka said. Kai only nodded his head.

"I invite them to the new programmed world that resembles the outside world. The place we set was on the foot of Taal Volcano, Philippines. If you manage to come out of the forest, you'll realize that you're surrounded by a lake.

"The objective of this world is to set up a huge base around that place and start clearing the area around it with the lake as the bridge that separates your base and the magical beasts.

"Actually, we're planning to implant this as the graduation exam for the entire grade. We'll send the entire class there with that as the objective. After all, humanity's main goal is to eliminate the magical beasts and repopulate the Earth.

"We want our graduates to become elites amongst elites with this new exam. But because of my mistake, you two experienced that brutal world."

"What do you mean brutal world, Principal? I mean, if I'm not mistaken, our country already made a small base there." Ayaka voiced.

"Just like I said, the place is set on the foot of Taal Volcano in the Philippines. We made that world with the actual data, including the monsters around that place. So, the magical beasts you met in that world and their number is close to the actual place before we made a small base in that place."

Ayaka was surprised. "Is the world that dangerous?"

"I think you need to ask your grandfather or your parents for that. I can't disclose this one. But because of my carelessness, both of you experienced that dangerous world.

"Our original plan was for the students to slowly get used to it starting from an easy place to a dangerous one like that. But you two… Haiz, for that, I truly apologize," the principal stood up and bowed his head.

Ayaka and Kai were surprised. They didn't know about the full concept of the education system in this school. They only knew that they needed to kill magical beasts in the practical class, but they never knew about the backstory.

Because of this incident, the principal had no choice other than explaining it to them. He said, "And please keep this a secret from other students."

Ayaka and Kai understood him. It was indeed not a good thing for them to blabber about something like this. They looked at each other and nodded their heads.

Ayaka thought about asking her grandfather about the outside world. Her grandfather often told her stories about his experience in the outside world, but she never expected it was that dangerous.

What she got from this was not a trauma. In fact, it motivated her to get stronger and stronger. She clenched her fist.

They talked for a little longer before the principal sent them off. The principal wanted to give them a weapon to apologize, but they rejected it. It was normal since Ayaka was a Kudo's heiress and Kai already got his weapon from her.

Before they left, the principal suddenly said something that confused them. "You can ask Teacher Shirotsuka Sanae if you have any questions about the outside world. Her personality aside, she is indeed an elite amongst elites.