Evil Avalon - Volume 2 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Kaoru Hayase - Part 1

Kaoru Hayase

Fear gripped me when I saw how much more skilled Kariya was than Yuuma, and the ridicule from Class D stung my heart. I had to close my eyes when Kariya’s longsword struck Yuuma’s side.

With every passing second, another fragment of my faith chipped away, and no matter how I tried to mend the damage, it continued to fragment and crumble away to nothing. The class had cheered him on when he’d gone out to fight, sure of his victory, but now he’d lost in the most demeaning way possible.

Maybe they were right to call us Class E students losers. Maybe that was why even the long hours of grueling training hadn’t made a difference and let Yuuma win. Maybe all our dreams about this school had been unattainable nonsense from the very beginning.

***

I struggled to pay attention in class the days after the duel. Nights were impossible to sleep through, and I’d stopped my daily routine of morning runs and evening dungeon raids.

Once class ended, I heaved a deep sigh. As I tidied up my desk to leave for the day, Naoto whispered over to me.

“We need to talk,” he said, with more urgency than his calm demeanor usually allowed. It had to be important.

He led me out into the hallway so the Class D students in our classroom wouldn’t overhear. The sky outside was a sullen gray, ready to weep—just like me.

“Kaoru, we can’t give up,” said Naoto.

“Give up on what?” I almost said, instinctively trying to avoid what I knew was coming. But his compelling, kind look directed at my eyes cut off my escape.

“We have to keep going,” he urged. “For the rest of the class and ourselves, most of all.”

For myself, I thought. How could we overcome the other classes that had three years of experience? I recalled the skilled way Kariya had fought. Yuuma might reach that level of expertise, but how long would it take me? I wasn’t sure I could any longer.

“That’s what they want you to think,” spat Naoto.

I knew how much they despised us; they had made it clear at the club fair. None of their clubs attempted recruiting Class E students, and those who signed up anyway weren’t welcomed.

“Ask yourself this. Why did they single out Yuuma for a duel on our very first day here?” inquired Naoto.

From his perspective, Class D’s intrusion on our first day had been a meticulous plan.

Yuuma had joined the school as the external student with the best grades, and had become the face of Class E. He was the charismatic figure everyone else followed. Kariya and his Class D bullies had come along and picked a fight with him for no good reason.

Class D hadn’t been twiddling their thumbs for three years of middle school. No, they’d been just as desperate as everyone else to level up and become powerful nation assets. And they’d singled out Yuuma, a student with no dungeon experience, to challenge to a fight.

When I thought about it, Class D’s instigation seemed planned.

“We’re up against a bigger enemy than we thought,” stated Naoto. “That doesn’t mean we should roll over and let them have their way. We must keep going, or we’ll never improve.”

Naoto animatedly made his case. Our enemies were likely much more powerful than we’d imagined, both the ones who’d planned this and those who backed them. As such, he wouldn’t give up on his dreams without a fight.

I’d worked so hard to get where I was. Years before I joined the school, I’d swung my wooden sword, jogged, and studied late into the night; after joining, I’d added a daily dungeon raid to the list. And now I’d stopped, even only for the last few days. I couldn’t summon the energy to try—or rather, I didn’t want to face reality.

“Kaoru. What was your dream? What did you strive for?” he asked.

My dream... I mused. I’d always longed to be like the adventurers in the stories my mother had told me as a child. Brave heroes who could achieve the impossible with their swords, who had mastered the profound magical arts, fought against hordes of terrifying monsters, and ventured into new, unexplored dungeon floors. Every night, I begged my mother to tell me those stories.

Thinking of it now, I could remember talking about these heroes with Souta. One day, he had promised to take me with him to find an undiscovered world. I’d believed him, and his words had caused my heart to skip a beat.

But now I knew that heroes like that only existed in fairy tales. No adventurer had mastered both swordcraft and magic, and nobody could raid an entire floor alone.

Still, Assault Clans existed and fought on the front lines to fulfill their dreams as adventurers who would risk their lives challenging mighty floor bosses to gain access to the unexplored floors beyond. I’d practiced kendo, hoping I might fight alongside them one day. That was the dream that I’d held when I’d joined Adventurers’ High.

“It’s only been a month since we started here,” added Naoto. “Are you going to let their irrational malice break you and give up on your dream? I don’t want that. I will not give up.”

I don’t want that either, I thought. But...

“So... Will you help me?” asked Naoto, bowing his head low. “So that we can both achieve our dreams.”

I wasn’t able to help Yuuma. At that moment, I was a coward who’d run away and let her friend get beaten and bullied. I had no right to stand by his side. Even so...

“I’m...” I began. “I’m weak... Will I really be able to help you...?”

***

Rain began to fall from the bleak silver sky.

“For the Battle of the Classes, I see,” I said.

“We don’t have much time,” said Naoto. “Everything depends on how far we can get in the next month.”

The Battle of the Classes would happen in June. Every first-year class would participate in the exam, and it was the first in a series of exams that would grade us as a class and serve as a measure of our progress.

“I’ve looked up what happened in last year’s Battle.” Naoto handed me a printout.

I had to admire his organization. He’d already carried out some research and summarized his findings.

“Hmm,” I intoned, reading the document he’d given me. “Seems like we’ll have to decide how to split our class into groups.”

Moreover, the Battle of the Classes would occur inside the dungeon for a week. Last year’s first-year students received grades based on five criteria: the specified point they had reached, slaying a certain monster, the deepest floor they’d made it into, a specified quest’s completion, and the number of magic gems they’d gathered. These were likely part of the same criteria judges would assess this year.

My initial impression was that most of the criteria favored higher-level students. For example, students with stealth skills could complete more tasks by avoiding needless fights with monsters. Class E would have a tough time since we all had low levels, and most hadn’t changed jobs yet.

How would we split ourselves into groups to accomplish the five tasks? Would it be better to keep the most advanced students like Naoto and me in one group or spread us out among the others?

“Whatever we decide on for the groups, the first thing we should do is raise the fighting skill of the stragglers in the class,” said Naoto.

Naoto was inspecting the school’s database on his terminal. He explained that a straggler would slow down their entire group, but at the same time, even low-level students could see the quickest results from leveling up and training. Plus, he thought our most productive use of time would be to focus on training the worst-performing students.

I looked at my terminal to check on the current levels of our classmates and saw most of them had reached level 3 over the last month. About ten were level 4, and only five students were level 5 or higher—Naoto, Yuuma, Sakurako, Majima, and me. In other words, only five of us had changed jobs so far.

At level 5, a Newbie would have a job level of 7. You could then learn Basic Appraisal, and nothing would stop you from changing jobs. So, I could tell whether someone had changed jobs by checking if they’d reached level 5.

I hope that a few more of us can change jobs before the exam. “The student with the lowest level is...” I murmured, scanning the list of data showing the registered levels of everyone in the class. “Kuga, level 2.”

She was the only level 2, so I clicked on her name to expand the details. Her record indicated that she was Kotone Kuga, who wielded a shortsword and a bow, wanting to become an Archer.

I tried to remember what I knew about this girl, who had a short bob and sat in the back of the classroom. She was always alone and I rarely saw her talking to anybody. Quiet and forgettable. Maybe she was still level 2 because she had found no one to raid the dungeon with her?

Then, I searched for Souta’s entry to check. He’d reached level 3, meaning he was taking raiding somewhat seriously... Or maybe Oomiya was doing the work for him.

Kuga and Souta. They’re the two we need to focus on, I thought. Both were the most likely to hold the rest of the class back. What should we do about them?

“We could gather the weakest students and power level them,” noted Naoto. “But that’s a crutch, and we’re in for trouble if they begin to rely on it. In my opinion, we should hold a training session to strengthen their abilities.”

Power leveling was an easy way to level up, but it would have long-term effects if you depended on it. The best way forward was to help them out just enough that they could battle through raids and level up on their own. We’d share what we knew about the dungeon and teach each other swordcraft, magic, tactics, and anything that would make raids simpler for everyone.

Unfortunately, the best way to learn swordcraft and magic was at a club. They had better equipment and knew more about their disciplines than Naoto or me. However, the fight with Class D forbade us from participating in clubs. Did Naoto have a solution to this?

“What about clubs?” I asked.

“That’s a difficult one,” replied Naoto, rubbing his forehead as he tried to solve the endless stream of problems we’d need to overcome. “Unless we can sort things out, we’d best join the club the higher-year Class E students set up.”

“But then Class D will come down on us even harder...”

Following the duel, Kariya pressured us into staying out of the Class E club. If we were to join anyway, there would be reprisals from Class D.

“They will,” said Naoto. “Oomiya has asked for a meeting with the student council about clubs. She might get nowhere, but we can hear her opinion on what to do after she’s heard back.”

Oomiya was a cheerful petite girl that always bounced around. She took action, yet I doubted the student council would do anything to help. They hadn’t lifted a finger to help us so far. We didn’t have many avenues open, so it was worth waiting for her, regardless of the small chances of success.

“What else should we do before the Battle of the Classes?” I asked.

“Coming up with defenses against attacks from other classes, for one...” he said. “Like what to do if they threaten us to hand over our magic gems.”

Based on the Battle of the Classes’s rules, students could trade in magic gems for food, sanitary products, and essentials. So they’d literally be our lifeline in the dungeon. I didn’t know what rate we would trade items at, but this would force us to withdraw from the Battle if the other classes took our magic gems.

The rules technically prohibited students from physically stealing from others. Still, the school wouldn’t be able to monitor every single student inside the dungeon. We’d need to come up with a countermeasure, like dividing the gems between ourselves or hiding them somewhere safe.

“Good point,” remarked Naoto after I suggested this. “But I’d like to wait until we’ve had more time to digest last year’s Battle before coming up with specific countermeasures. Anyway, I’ll draw up a list of people I’d like to attend our study session.”

“Have you already told Sakurako and Yuuma?” I asked.

The duel had sapped their enthusiasm. I hoped they were still the trustworthy companions I’d come to know.

“No, not yet,” replied Naoto. “Will you help me tell them?”

“Yes, of course!”

Thus, I was going to think carefully about what I... No, about what we could do to get ourselves to a better place. And I’d have to help save them like Naoto saved me today. Before, I’d felt like I was sinking into an ice-cold swamp with a broken spirit.

I noticed the rain had stopped, and sunlight pierced through the dense clouds. The world was telling me that no rain lasted forever. For the first time in several days, I smiled.