Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

User:Shrysha

2014-12-30T20:42:24Z

Shrysha:

User:Shrysha

2014-12-30T20:41:23Z

Shrysha: /* Prologue: A Memory From Eight Years Prior */

===Prologue: A Memory From Eight Years Prior===

“Strong…”

Having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, these were the only words the pale white-haired youth could mutter. Despite lying collapsed on the ground covered with filth, sweat, and blood, the child’s eyes did not betray even a single trace of fear.

Before the child’s sight was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a pitch-black cloak shrouding his entire body, it was difficult to determine if he was even human. And it wouldn’t be surprising if he were in fact a demon. He carried the overwhelming scent of darkness and death, and he could very well be mistaken for the grim reaper or angel of death himself.

Such a title would be rather justified. After all, this death bringer was the being responsible for single-handedly having dyed this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of monsters of various races. Instead of a battle, it would perhaps be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre or a mass execution.

Here, this reaper was the sole judge, jury, and executioner.

Right now, this location was a part of the world where human rules had no jurisdiction. At this very moment, the only truth here was that power was the only law. And as a testament to this indisputable fact, there was no one alive left to oppose him.

Well, that was not entirely correct. After all, the youth was also alive as well, albeit just barely. Despite what had just transpired, the child still did not fear this reaper. Rather his eyes only held the greatest respect and admiration for this savior who had rescued him from certain death.

Done with his task, the reaper was prepared to leave to his next destination when he suddenly felt a small tug from the hem of his cloak. Perhaps having had his interest piqued, or whether he thought it would serve as some small amusement, he turned his head around slightly and waited on the child who had slowly crawled and reached towards him. To this child who was on the steps of death’s door. To this child whose life was in the hands of this “god” ruling over death itself.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to crawl onto his knees to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly oppressively rose, completely overwhelming the child’s senses. The child suddenly collapsed back to the ground, seemingly crushed by an immense unknown pressure. But the child who had nothing left to lose, and nothing left to fear, only stared unwaveringly back.

To stare at death with such resolution at such a young age… the reaper was impressed.

Perhaps at merely just a whim… Suddenly the crushing pressure immediately ceased, and the child started to cough, realizing that he had earlier been holding his breath the entire time. The <God of Death> turned around and fully faced the child.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to steadily gaze at him, showing his firm resolve. It may have been just a trick of the mind, but the child thought he felt this angel of death smile for just a moment.

(But power is something I can grant you. But as with all things, there is a heavy price. What can you offer me?)

Without hesitation and with a single breath, to pay for the contract with this demon:

“My soul.”

===Chapter 1:===

(It has been quite some time since I last recalled this memory. Is it some sort of premonition, or am I just severely lacking in sleep?)

Business had run very late into the early morning, and Ashe had not yet had had the time nor leisure to rest. There was still sometime before sunrise, and everything was still shrouded by the darkness of night. And with his destination in sight, he looked forward to taking a long much needed rest.

This was going to be his first time entering the school campus, entirely located on an artificial island connected to the mainland by only a single bridge. Founded only just five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a mysterious yet wealthy backer, the International Military Academy was outside the jurisdiction from any and all international powers. Many nations have tried to contest its independence and have tried to take over and acquire the school, but the power of the school’s headmaster alone was enough to not just repel, but utterly crush and destroy any attempts.

With a combination of the International Military Academy’s talented and top-quality teaching staff, its strict international neutrality, and protection by the powerful headmaster, nations worldwide sent many of their promising and talented students there to be raised and cultivated. Thus despite all initial doubts, this school had since then become the most famous and prestigious institution for producing the strongest and most powerful knights and magicians.

Although Ashe was currently at the age where he could be attending here as a student, he had come here strictly for business. This business, however, was not actually officially recognized by the school, and thus he could not just openly enter through the academy’s front entrance. The entrance was not only manned by skilled guards, it was also closely monitored by high-speed security cameras and powerful detection magic. With the school’s top notch security, it would be difficult to infiltrate the grounds undetected. That is, if it were any other person.

Upon approaching the far-side of the bridge connecting the International Military Academy to the mainland, Ashe suddenly disappeared from sight and any traces of mana from his body were abruptly cut off. Light refracting magic was a basic ability that most light element magicians were first taught when learning light elemental spells. However, eliminating all evidence of mana from himself while continuously casting a spell required the highest skills and absolute control of internal mana manipulation. Such high-level stealth and infiltration abilities were acquired out of necessity when Ashe was carrying out his various past jobs and missions.

With his abnormal physical abilities, Ashe was easily able to traverse the two-kilometer length of the bridge and enter through the academy’s entrance past the armed guards completely undetected, all within the span of a minute.

Having researched the layout of the school earlier, he was able to quickly determine the direction to the administrative buildings, which was where the headmaster’s office was also located. The school campus consisted of the entirety of the hexagonal man-made island, with the path from each corner to the center of the campus being five kilometers in length. Due to the size of the island, there was a rather extensive monorail system in place to transport students within the campus to even to the mainland across the bridge, which Ashe could not use as he did not have a student identification badge.

Since it was still the crack of dawn, this intruder expected for the rest of his journey to be relatively quiet and uneventful. At this time, both students and staff members would still be asleep, and even if awake would still be far away at the edge of campus, where the dormitories were situated. Only the headmaster and the top school officials had the privilege of residing in the administrative buildings, right in the center of campus.

As he neared his destination, his attention was suddenly drawn elsewhere and he stopped in his tracks.

(What is this mana?)

To a certain degree, Ashe was surprised to suddenly sense strong waves of mana clashing nearby. It was rather strange for there to be fighting, presumably between students, this close to the campus center, especially at time of day. This would be more easily explainable should it just be early morning practice, and thus these students should be commended for their diligence.

The mana quantity or strength being emitted was admittedly quite impressive, but still nothing particularly special. However, the quality and purity of the mana was on a completely different level than anything he had felt, with only a single exception. With his curiosity outweighing his sense of urgency for his current task, he decided to make a short detour. His business with the headmaster could wait.

Following the direction of the source of mana, Ashe found himself at the edge of an open practice field made of artificial turf. He could just barely make out three female figures, presumably students, standing in the center of the 100-meter length of the field. Two of them seemed to be sparring with their weapons respectively, while the third was watching them on the sideline. Given the elegance of their moves, it seemed more of a beautiful dance of blades between two performers. As each attack with their weapons were supplemented with each wielder’s respective elemental magic, the clash of the fire magic’s red-colored mana of water and wind magic’s green-tinted mana seemed to create mini-fireworks that were quite the sight to behold.

Having seen them spar for a short while, Ashe judged them to be very skilled for their young age. And moreso their talent was unrivaled, given the quality and purity of mana the two displayed. Having had his curiosity sated for now, he planned to quietly leave. But more often than not, plans do not always turn out as expected.

“Halt. Who are you?”

Ashe, who had started moving away from the open practice field, had his path suddenly cut off by a sharp gust of wind, cutting a sharp line into a ground. At these words, the two students sparring suddenly halted their movements and looked at the direction of their third companion. Ashe turned back to see one of the sparring students, the wind-element user, start walking to his direction with an elegantly designed spear in her hand. She had quite the beautiful appearance, with graceful facial features curtained by her long raven-colored hair. However, her sharp silver-colored eyes seemed to pierce straight through Ashe, despite the fact that he was still casting his light refraction magic and erasing his mana traces. Needless to say, he was mildly impressed that there was a high school level student who was apparently able to see through his invisibility.

Having been discovered and having had his escape route shut down, there was no reason for him to keep this façade.

“I’m impressed. How did you discover me?”

“All the wind here is under my command. Even if I cannot see you, I can still sense your presence.”

As if to verify this point, the spear-holding student held out her left hand, palm faced upwards, and watched as wind, colored green by her mana, seemed to lightly swirl onto her palm.

(How careless of me.)

Ordinarily Ashe thought that a distance of fifty or so meters would be enough to remain undetected against unguarded magicians, even those proficient in the earth or wind elements whom were particularly gifted in the detection arts. It seems that she was much more talented than he thought. In light of what he had observed in this brief time and his read on their mana signatures, each of the three students could be considered prodigies born once in several generations.

“Also, please do not make me ask the same question twice.”

“I’m sorry. I am a visitor on my way to the administrative building, but it looks like I lost my way.”

He hoped that this reason would suffice. Unfortunately he had no such luck. The female student responded by thrusting her left hand at his direction. With this seemingly simple motion, she summoned a violent vortex of winds tightly surrounding Ashe from every direction. Usually complex magic casted with this speed would be deficient in at least one way or form. Unfortunately for him, this was a non-issue; it seemed that this caster had the highest levels of magic precision and abilities. Any attempt to escape from this invisible spherical prison would result in being instantly shredded to pieces. This spell was definitely a level well beyond what was taught in the high school curriculum.

“This looks a little bit dangerous. Haha, how scary.”

“I have no mercy to show for someone who continues to hide his appearances and lies so easily. Besides, visitors are not allowed past the academy’s front gates until the morning at nine.”

(No wonder I was so easily seen through. However, what I said wasn’t exactly untrue…)

“So speak truthfully, unless you wish to die. Oh, and no need to worry. Our school infirmary is ranked as one of the best medical institutions worldwide.”

Such an elegant smile was completely at odds with her current actions. Also her words were very little consolation. After all, even the best doctors could do little for someone who was dead.

“Sorry, but I think I will have to keep my silence.”

“Then take your silence to the grave. Ah, I’m sorry not to have introduced myself earlier. My name is Sylvia Windsinger, pleased to meet your acquaintance. Hopefully you will remember my name for the next time we meet.”

“Hah, that’s assuming if I do manage to make it out in one piece.”

With one swift, fluid motion, Sylvia leaped towards and thrust her spear at Ashe, who was still trapped by her cage of wind. With her spear imbued with powerful wind-element magics, even a light scratch would cause severe injuries.

(There’s nowhere to dodge, and it looks that it’ll be painful to get hit. I guess there’s little choice…”

At the last instant, as the spear was about to pierce and rip the trapped person’s body to shreds, a flash of light suddenly parried it off course from its intended destination.

In the instant Sylvia was about to pierce Ashe, the wind prison had ceased to exist. And with the opening caused by his surprise counter, this should have been enough to give him a small opening to escape. As he turned to flee, his hope was completely crushed by a giant barrier of ice. And standing in his path was the fire-element student who had been sparring with Sylvia earlier. In her hand held a beautifully crafted flame-covered longsword. To her side was the caster of the high-level ice barrier.

For just a moment, Ashe was stunned at the appearance of the two before him. One had unruly pink-red hair and fiery-red eyes, befitting with her wild beauty. The other had an attractiveness that was in complete contrast, as her blue-white hair and deep blue eyes gave her a much softer impression. Being surrounded by beautiful girls would ordinarily be welcomed with open arms, but the reality was not so pleasant.

(To my front is both fire and ice, and to rear are violent winds. I guess no one here is merciful enough to let me simply escape with that small opening. How troublesome…)

As there was now little point in remaining hidden when everyone here could sense his presence, Ashe released his light magic and revealed his appearance. His clothing was actually quite casual, consisting of a sleeveless dark grey hoodie and a pair of thin jeans with inexpensive sneakers. Although obscured by the longer left-side bangs of his unnatural silver-white hair, an eyepatch covering his left eye was still somewhat visible. His right held a military-standard combat survival knife, with the blade wrapped thinly with light magic. His left arm, with its entire length wrapped in bandages, remained dangling by his side.

Ashe had prepared to fight a battle of attrition. Given his current predicament, instead of trying to continue to uselessly hide, it would be best to redirecting and focusing his mana to his knife.

But the tension that had been quickly building up suddenly defused with a blunt statement by the fire user.

“Huh? How young.”

“Young? I can’t be a year older than any one of you.”

It was not just the water caster that was surprised; even the fire swordswoman and Sylvia could not disguise their surprise. Ashe couldn’t help but wryly smile at their reactions. Despite his rather rough unnatural appearance, his age remained largely undisguised. He had turned seventeen this past year, and assessed the three surrounding students to be about the same age judging by their outward appearances and, more importantly, their mana signatures.

“Well this is annoying, I’m no longer in the mood to fight.”

“Scarlet?”

As Scarlet extinguished the flames on her longsword, the Sylvia questioned her, with a tinge of slight confusion on her face.

“He’s about our age and it’s now three versus one. Right now it looks like we’re just bullying him.”

“Well I suppose it would be a disgrace for us to claim victory in this fashion. Will you also stand down Azura?”

“I have no complaints,” nodded the water caster in agreement.

“Mister Intruder, neither of my colleagues will interfere in our duel as long as you make no attempts to escape.”

(Duel? I do not recall ever agreeing to this.)

“And please do not say something as obtuse as ‘this was not something you agreed to.’ As soon as you had stepped into the school grounds without the proper procedures, your rights have been forfeited.”

(Ugh, so she can read minds now?)

“And no, I am not reading your mind. Stop with those stupid-looking expressions.”

With a sigh, he had no choice but to hold up his blade and to acknowledge this duel. Seeing this resolve, Sylvia smiled briefly.

“Let me introduce myself again, this time in full. My name is Sylvia Windsinger, a Fourth Year representative of the International Military Academy. B+ Rank Wind Magician.”

Giving one’s first name, last name, year, institution, elements and element proficiency was standard duel introduction. As naïve as such an introduction would seem to be, all the players’ cards were essentially already revealed to the table anyways.

Unless one was to wear head or eye-gear to obscure the eyes, it was easy to identify one’s primary elemental affinity, as it was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with green eyes, like Sylvia, was someone who excelled with wind magic. Likewise, a person with red eyes was talented with the spire element whereas a person with blue eyes was skilled with water and ice manipulation.

A person’s magical talent can be ranked via a rather simple letter system. While an F Rank represented a person with no proficiency whatsoever, an A Rank implied that the magic user could majorly influence a major battle between nations. In regards to revealing one’s magic proficiency, just sensing and observing the opponent’s mana was enough to determine the general level. Thus there was truly no point in hiding one’s abilities, except in exceptional cases.

“You can call me Ashe Greysword, independent affiliation from any organization or institution. C+ Rank Wood and C Rank Light Magician.”

“Hmm? Duel magic concentrations?” muttered Sylvia involuntarily.

To be fair, duel magic concentrations were not altogether that rare, especially if one of the concentrations were either light or dark magics. It was much more difficult to be proficient in any two of the seven core elements. But secondary concentrations were usually developed after the mastery of a single element, and usually not before a person was at least in their mid-twenties, when their mana levels have completely matured.

“You already having achieved B+ Rank at sixteen, or seventeen, years of age is already scary enough. Haha, I might seriously be in trouble.”

(At her rank, no wonder she was able to cast that complex wind prison spell so easily and flawlessly.)

Given her growth rate, it wouldn’t be surprising for her to achieve S Rank once fully matured. Although there was quite the vAshetion in power between magicians within the S Ranks, they each had the ability to greatly influence a war between nations. According to the International Ranking Administration, there were only thirteen S Rank magicians at this point in time.

“That should be enough with the pleasantries. Ashe Greysword, prepare yourself!”

Despite her words, Sylvia immediately charged at Ashe with her spear thrust forward, mana heavily concentrated at the weapon’s tip. As a response to her attack, Ashe leaped backwards while quickly flicking his wrist, throwing his knife at Sylvia’s head. As the projectile traveled forward, it started to take form of a sparrow made of light, as it had been completely infused with Ashe’s light magic. Before the light sparrow could even approach close to its intended target, it was completely warded off by a barrier of wind. The knife dropped uselessly to the ground whereas the sparrow separated from it and continued to fly and disappear speedily into the night

“The perfect offense and the perfect defense. To make Sylvia your opponent… you just have no luck.” Scarlet looked somewhat disappointed, as if she had expected a better counterattack from Ashe.

Apparently against Sylvia’s invisible shield, any halfhearted attack would be completely deflected. And Ashe, having thrown away his only weapon, continued to dodge her attacks. After Sylvia’s sixteenth thrust, Ashe was able to retreat far enough to catch a breath and speak.

“You’re kidding me. Are you really a high school student?”

“You’re not too bad yourself. You are apparently quite talented at running away.”

Sylvia seemed to allow this brief pause as she readjusted her offensive stance and ready her next strike.

“Well they do say that those who run fast also live long. But I was talking in regards to your killing intent. It is definitely far beyond the level of a high school student. What kind of past did you have to…”

Before Ashe could finish his inquiry, Sylvia’s killing intent increased dramatically, causing Scarlet and Azura on the sidelines to slightly shiver. As if to match this phenomenon, her mana levels continued to rise in intensity and output as well.

“You talk too much for someone who does not belong at this academy.”

(Her mana level, isn’t this breaching the A- Rank?)

“Hey wait, can we please talk this over peacefully?”

“I think it’s about time to wrap this duel up. Please die now.”

Although there was a smile on her face, it could not be said to be the same for her eyes.

“Huh, isn’t this your <Demon Winds>? Aren’t you going too far with this?”

“Wait Sylvia, you might actually kill him!”

Despite Scarlet and Azura’s best efforts, it didn’t seem that their words reached her ears. The wind surrounding the entire vicinity grew increasingly violent, and the gray tinge of the winds, colored from her mana, grew increasingly darker. Without warning, swirling vortex of air quickly formed spherically around Ashe started to close in on him. Unlike the wind prison cast earlier, this cage was intended to completely crush and annihilate its contents.

Earlier Sylvia had been using her spear to fight in close range, which was more fitting of her notion of the spirit of dueling. All pretenses have now been dropped.

There was nowhere for Ashe to escape.

“About time. It took you long enough.”

In a single instant, all the wind in the vicinity dispersed and everything was calm once again.

Standing next to Ashe, with a hand on his shoulder, stood the very headmaster of this school.

===Chapter 1:===

(It has been quite some time since I last recalled this memory. Is it some sort of premonition, or am I just severely lacking in sleep?)

Business had run very late into the early morning, and Ashe had not yet had had the time nor leisure to rest. There was still sometime before sunrise, and everything was still shrouded by the darkness of night. And with his destination in sight, he looked forward to taking a long much needed rest.

This was going to be his first time entering the school campus, entirely located on an artificial island connected to the mainland by only a single bridge. Founded only just five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a mysterious yet wealthy backer, the International Military Academy was outside the jurisdiction from any and all international powers. Many nations have tried to contest its independence and have tried to take over and acquire the school, but the power of the school’s headmaster alone was enough to not just repel, but utterly crush and destroy any attempts.

With a combination of the International Military Academy’s talented and top-quality teaching staff, its strict international neutrality, and protection by the powerful headmaster, nations worldwide sent many of their promising and talented students there to be raised and cultivated. Thus despite all initial doubts, this school had since then become the most famous and prestigious institution for producing the strongest and most powerful knights and magicians.

Although Ashe was currently at the age where he could be attending here as a student, he had come here strictly for business. This business, however, was not actually officially recognized by the school, and thus he could not just openly enter through the academy’s front entrance. The entrance was not only manned by skilled guards, it was also closely monitored by high-speed security cameras and powerful detection magic. With the school’s top notch security, it would be difficult to infiltrate the grounds undetected. That is, if it were any other person.

Upon approaching the far-side of the bridge connecting the International Military Academy to the mainland, Ashe suddenly disappeared from sight and any traces of mana from his body were abruptly cut off. Light refracting magic was a basic ability that most light element magicians were first taught when learning light elemental spells. However, eliminating all evidence of mana from himself while continuously casting a spell required the highest skills and absolute control of internal mana manipulation. Such high-level stealth and infiltration abilities were acquired out of necessity when Ashe was carrying out his various past jobs and missions.

With his abnormal physical abilities, Ashe was easily able to traverse the two-kilometer length of the bridge and enter through the academy’s entrance past the armed guards completely undetected, all within the span of a minute.

Having researched the layout of the school earlier, he was able to quickly determine the direction to the administrative buildings, which was where the headmaster’s office was also located. The school campus consisted of the entirety of the hexagonal man-made island, with the path from each corner to the center of the campus being five kilometers in length. Due to the size of the island, there was a rather extensive monorail system in place to transport students within the campus to even to the mainland across the bridge, which Ashe could not use as he did not have a student identification badge.

Since it was still the crack of dawn, this intruder expected for the rest of his journey to be relatively quiet and uneventful. At this time, both students and staff members would still be asleep, and even if awake would still be far away at the edge of campus, where the dormitories were situated. Only the headmaster and the top school officials had the privilege of residing in the administrative buildings, right in the center of campus.

As he neared his destination, his attention was suddenly drawn elsewhere and he stopped in his tracks.

(What is this mana?)

To a certain degree, Ashe was surprised to suddenly sense strong waves of mana clashing nearby. It was rather strange for there to be fighting, presumably between students, this close to the campus center, especially at time of day. This would be more easily explainable should it just be early morning practice, and thus these students should be commended for their diligence.

The mana quantity or strength being emitted was admittedly quite impressive, but still nothing particularly special. However, the quality and purity of the mana was on a completely different level than anything he had felt, with only a single exception. With his curiosity outweighing his sense of urgency for his current task, he decided to make a short detour. His business with the headmaster could wait.

Following the direction of the source of mana, Ashe found himself at the edge of an open practice field made of artificial turf. He could just barely make out three female figures, presumably students, standing in the center of the 100-meter length of the field. Two of them seemed to be sparring with their weapons respectively, while the third was watching them on the sideline. Given the elegance of their moves, it seemed more of a beautiful dance of blades between two performers. As each attack with their weapons were supplemented with each wielder’s respective elemental magic, the clash of the fire magic’s red-colored mana of water and wind magic’s green-tinted mana seemed to create mini-fireworks that were quite the sight to behold.

Having seen them spar for a short while, Ashe judged them to be very skilled for their young age. And moreso their talent was unrivaled, given the quality and purity of mana the two displayed. Having had his curiosity sated for now, he planned to quietly leave. But more often than not, plans do not always turn out as expected.

“Halt. Who are you?”

Ashe, who had started moving away from the open practice field, had his path suddenly cut off by a sharp gust of wind, cutting a sharp line into a ground. At these words, the two students sparring suddenly halted their movements and looked at the direction of their third companion. Ashe turned back to see one of the sparring students, the wind-element user, start walking to his direction with an elegantly designed spear in her hand. She had quite the beautiful appearance, with graceful facial features curtained by her long raven-colored hair. However, her sharp silver-colored eyes seemed to pierce straight through Ashe, despite the fact that he was still casting his light refraction magic and erasing his mana traces. Needless to say, he was mildly impressed that there was a high school level student who was apparently able to see through his invisibility.

Having been discovered and having had his escape route shut down, there was no reason for him to keep this façade.

“I’m impressed. How did you discover me?”

“All the wind here is under my command. Even if I cannot see you, I can still sense your presence.”

As if to verify this point, the spear-holding student held out her left hand, palm faced upwards, and watched as wind, colored green by her mana, seemed to lightly swirl onto her palm.

(How careless of me.)

Ordinarily Ashe thought that a distance of fifty or so meters would be enough to remain undetected against unguarded magicians, even those proficient in the earth or wind elements whom were particularly gifted in the detection arts. It seems that she was much more talented than he thought. In light of what he had observed in this brief time and his read on their mana signatures, each of the three students could be considered prodigies born once in several generations.

“Also, please do not make me ask the same question twice.”

“I’m sorry. I am a visitor on my way to the administrative building, but it looks like I lost my way.”

He hoped that this reason would suffice. Unfortunately he had no such luck. The female student responded by thrusting her left hand at his direction. With this seemingly simple motion, she summoned a violent vortex of winds tightly surrounding Ashe from every direction. Usually complex magic casted with this speed would be deficient in at least one way or form. Unfortunately for him, this was a non-issue; it seemed that this caster had the highest levels of magic precision and abilities. Any attempt to escape from this invisible spherical prison would result in being instantly shredded to pieces. This spell was definitely a level well beyond what was taught in the high school curriculum.

“This looks a little bit dangerous. Haha, how scary.”

“I have no mercy to show for someone who continues to hide his appearances and lies so easily. Besides, visitors are not allowed past the academy’s front gates until the morning at nine.”

(No wonder I was so easily seen through. However, what I said wasn’t exactly untrue…)

“So speak truthfully, unless you wish to die. Oh, and no need to worry. Our school infirmary is ranked as one of the best medical institutions worldwide.”

Such an elegant smile was completely at odds with her current actions. Also her words were very little consolation. After all, even the best doctors could do little for someone who was dead.

“Sorry, but I think I will have to keep my silence.”

“Then take your silence to the grave. Ah, I’m sorry not to have introduced myself earlier. My name is Sylvia Windsinger, pleased to meet your acquaintance. Hopefully you will remember my name for the next time we meet.”

“Hah, that’s assuming if I do manage to make it out in one piece.”

With one swift, fluid motion, Sylvia leaped towards and thrust her spear at Ashe, who was still trapped by her cage of wind. With her spear imbued with powerful wind-element magics, even a light scratch would cause severe injuries.

(There’s nowhere to dodge, and it looks that it’ll be painful to get hit. I guess there’s little choice…”

At the last instant, as the spear was about to pierce and rip the trapped person’s body to shreds, a flash of light suddenly parried it off course from its intended destination.

In the instant Sylvia was about to pierce Ashe, the wind prison had ceased to exist. And with the opening caused by his surprise counter, this should have been enough to give him a small opening to escape. As he turned to flee, his hope was completely crushed by a giant barrier of ice. And standing in his path was the fire-element student who had been sparring with Sylvia earlier. In her hand held a beautifully crafted flame-covered longsword. To her side was the caster of the high-level ice barrier.

For just a moment, Ashe was stunned at the appearance of the two before him. One had unruly pink-red hair and fiery-red eyes, befitting with her wild beauty. The other had an attractiveness that was in complete contrast, as her blue-white hair and deep blue eyes gave her a much softer impression. Being surrounded by beautiful girls would ordinarily be welcomed with open arms, but the reality was not so pleasant.

(To my front is both fire and ice, and to rear are violent winds. I guess no one here is merciful enough to let me simply escape with that small opening. How troublesome…)

As there was now little point in remaining hidden when everyone here could sense his presence, Ashe released his light magic and revealed his appearance. His clothing was actually quite casual, consisting of a sleeveless dark grey hoodie and a pair of thin jeans with inexpensive sneakers. Although obscured by the longer left-side bangs of his unnatural silver-white hair, an eyepatch covering his left eye was still somewhat visible. His right held a military-standard combat survival knife, with the blade wrapped thinly with light magic. His left arm, with its entire length wrapped in bandages, remained dangling by his side.

Ashe had prepared to fight a battle of attrition. Given his current predicament, instead of trying to continue to uselessly hide, it would be best to redirecting and focusing his mana to his knife.

But the tension that had been quickly building up suddenly defused with a blunt statement by the fire user.

“Huh? How young.”

“Young? I can’t be a year older than any one of you.”

It was not just the water caster that was surprised; even the fire swordswoman and Sylvia could not disguise their surprise. Ashe couldn’t help but wryly smile at their reactions. Despite his rather rough unnatural appearance, his age remained largely undisguised. He had turned seventeen this past year, and assessed the three surrounding students to be about the same age judging by their outward appearances and, more importantly, their mana signatures.

“Well this is annoying, I’m no longer in the mood to fight.”

“Scarlet?”

As Scarlet extinguished the flames on her longsword, the Sylvia questioned her, with a tinge of slight confusion on her face.

“He’s about our age and it’s now three versus one. Right now it looks like we’re just bullying him.”

“Well I suppose it would be a disgrace for us to claim victory in this fashion. Will you also stand down Azura?”

“I have no complaints,” nodded the water caster in agreement.

“Mister Intruder, neither of my colleagues will interfere in our duel as long as you make no attempts to escape.”

(Duel? I do not recall ever agreeing to this.)

“And please do not say something as obtuse as ‘this was not something you agreed to.’ As soon as you had stepped into the school grounds without the proper procedures, your rights have been forfeited.”

(Ugh, so she can read minds now?)

“And no, I am not reading your mind. Stop with those stupid-looking expressions.”

With a sigh, he had no choice but to hold up his blade and to acknowledge this duel. Seeing this resolve, Sylvia smiled briefly.

“Let me introduce myself again, this time in full. My name is Sylvia Windsinger, a Fourth Year representative of the International Military Academy. B+ Rank Wind Magician.”

Giving one’s first name, last name, year, institution, elements and element proficiency was standard duel introduction. As naïve as such an introduction would seem to be, all the players’ cards were essentially already revealed to the table anyways.

Unless one was to wear head or eye-gear to obscure the eyes, it was easy to identify one’s primary elemental affinity, as it was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with green eyes, like Sylvia, was someone who excelled with wind magic. Likewise, a person with red eyes was talented with the spire element whereas a person with blue eyes was skilled with water and ice manipulation.

A person’s magical talent can be ranked via a rather simple letter system. While an F Rank represented a person with no proficiency whatsoever, an A Rank implied that the magic user could majorly influence a major battle between nations. In regards to revealing one’s magic proficiency, just sensing and observing the opponent’s mana was enough to determine the general level. Thus there was truly no point in hiding one’s abilities, except in exceptional cases.

“You can call me Ashe Greysword, independent affiliation from any organization or institution. C+ Rank Wood and C Rank Light Magician.”

“Hmm? Duel magic concentrations?” muttered Sylvia involuntarily.

To be fair, duel magic concentrations were not altogether that rare, especially if one of the concentrations were either light or dark magics. It was much more difficult to be proficient in any two of the seven core elements. But secondary concentrations were usually developed after the mastery of a single element, and usually not before a person was at least in their mid-twenties, when their mana levels have completely matured.

“You already having achieved B+ Rank at sixteen, or seventeen, years of age is already scary enough. Haha, I might seriously be in trouble.”

(At her rank, no wonder she was able to cast that complex wind prison spell so easily and flawlessly.)

Given her growth rate, it wouldn’t be surprising for her to achieve S Rank once fully matured. Although there was quite the vAshetion in power between magicians within the S Ranks, they each had the ability to greatly influence a war between nations. According to the International Ranking Administration, there were only thirteen S Rank magicians at this point in time.

“That should be enough with the pleasantries. Ashe Greysword, prepare yourself!”

Despite her words, Sylvia immediately charged at Ashe with her spear thrust forward, mana heavily concentrated at the weapon’s tip. As a response to her attack, Ashe leaped backwards while quickly flicking his wrist, throwing his knife at Sylvia’s head. As the projectile traveled forward, it started to take form of a sparrow made of light, as it had been completely infused with Ashe’s light magic. Before the light sparrow could even approach close to its intended target, it was completely warded off by a barrier of wind. The knife dropped uselessly to the ground whereas the sparrow separated from it and continued to fly and disappear speedily into the night

“The perfect offense and the perfect defense. To make Sylvia your opponent… you just have no luck.” Scarlet looked somewhat disappointed, as if she had expected a better counterattack from Ashe.

Apparently against Sylvia’s invisible shield, any halfhearted attack would be completely deflected. And Ashe, having thrown away his only weapon, continued to dodge her attacks. After Sylvia’s sixteenth thrust, Ashe was able to retreat far enough to catch a breath and speak.

“You’re kidding me. Are you really a high school student?”

“You’re not too bad yourself. You are apparently quite talented at running away.”

Sylvia seemed to allow this brief pause as she readjusted her offensive stance and ready her next strike.

“Well they do say that those who run fast also live long. But I was talking in regards to your killing intent. It is definitely far beyond the level of a high school student. What kind of past did you have to…”

Before Ashe could finish his inquiry, Sylvia’s killing intent increased dramatically, causing Scarlet and Azura on the sidelines to slightly shiver. As if to match this phenomenon, her mana levels continued to rise in intensity and output as well.

“You talk too much for someone who does not belong at this academy.”

(Her mana level, isn’t this breaching the A- Rank?)

“Hey wait, can we please talk this over peacefully?”

“I think it’s about time to wrap this duel up. Please die now.”

Although there was a smile on her face, it could not be said to be the same for her eyes.

“Huh, isn’t this your <Demon Winds>? Aren’t you going too far with this?”

“Wait Sylvia, you might actually kill him!”

Despite Scarlet and Azura’s best efforts, it didn’t seem that their words reached her ears. The wind surrounding the entire vicinity grew increasingly violent, and the gray tinge of the winds, colored from her mana, grew increasingly darker. Without warning, swirling vortex of air quickly formed spherically around Ashe started to close in on him. Unlike the wind prison casted earlier, this cage was intended to completely crush and annihilate its contents.

Earlier Sylvia had been using her spear to fight in close range, which was more fitting of her notion of the spirit of dueling. All pretenses have now been dropped.

There was nowhere for Ashe to escape.

“About time. It took you long enough.”

In a single instant, all the wind in the vicinity dispersed and everything was calm once again.

Standing next to Ashe, with a hand on his shoulder, stood the very headmaster of this school.

===Chapter 1:===

(It has been quite some time since I last recalled this memory. Is it some sort of premonition, or am I just severely lacking in sleep?)

Business had run very late into the early morning, and Ashe had not yet had had the time nor leisure to rest. There was still sometime before sunrise, and everything was still shrouded by the darkness of night. And with his destination in sight, he looked forward to taking a long much needed rest.

This was going to be his first time entering the school campus, entirely located on an artificial island connected to the mainland by only a single bridge. Founded only just five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a mysterious yet wealthy backer, the International Military Academy was outside the jurisdiction from any and all international powers. Many nations have tried to contest its independence and have tried to take over and acquire the school, but the power of the school’s headmaster alone was enough to not just repel, but utterly crush and destroy any attempts.

With a combination of the International Military Academy’s talented and top-quality teaching staff, its strict international neutrality, and protection by the powerful headmaster, nations worldwide sent many of their promising and talented students there to be raised and cultivated. Thus despite all initial doubts, this school had since then become the most famous and prestigious institution for producing the strongest and most powerful knights and magicians.

Although Ashe was currently at the age where he could be attending here as a student, he had come here strictly for business. This business, however, was not actually officially recognized by the school, and thus he could not just openly enter through the academy’s front entrance. The entrance was not only manned by skilled guards, it was also closely monitored by high-speed security cameras and powerful detection magic. With the school’s top notch security, it would be difficult to infiltrate the grounds undetected. That is, if it were any other person.

Upon approaching the far-side of the bridge connecting the International Military Academy to the mainland, Ashe suddenly disappeared from sight and any traces of mana from his body were abruptly cut off. Light refracting magic was a basic ability that most light element magicians were first taught when learning light elemental spells. However, eliminating all evidence of mana from himself while continuously casting a spell required the highest skills and absolute control of internal mana manipulation. Such high-level stealth and infiltration abilities were acquired out of necessity when Ashe was carrying out his various past jobs and missions.

With his abnormal physical abilities, Ashe was easily able to traverse the two-kilometer length of the bridge and enter through the academy’s entrance past the armed guards completely undetected, all within the span of a minute.

Having researched the layout of the school earlier, he was able to quickly determine the direction to the administrative buildings, which was where the headmaster’s office was also located. The school campus consisted of the entirety of the hexagonal man-made island, with the path from each corner to the center of the campus being five kilometers in length. Due to the size of the island, there was a rather extensive monorail system in place to transport students within the campus to even to the mainland across the bridge, which Ashe could not use as he did not have a student identification badge.

Since it was still the crack of dawn, this intruder expected for the rest of his journey to be relatively quiet and uneventful. At this time, both students and staff members would still be asleep, and even if awake would still be far away at the edge of campus, where the dormitories were situated. Only the headmaster and the top school officials had the privilege of residing in the administrative buildings, right in the center of campus.

As he neared his destination, his attention was suddenly drawn elsewhere and he stopped in his tracks.

(What is this mana?)

To a certain degree, Ashe was surprised to suddenly sense strong waves of mana clashing nearby. It was rather strange for there to be fighting, presumably between students, this close to the campus center, especially at time of day. This would be more easily explainable should it just be early morning practice, and thus these students should be commended for their diligence.

The mana quantity or strength being emitted was admittedly quite impressive, but still nothing particularly special. However, the quality and purity of the mana was on a completely different level than anything he had felt, with only a single exception. With his curiosity outweighing his sense of urgency for his current task, he decided to make a short detour. His business with the headmaster could wait.

Following the direction of the source of mana, Ashe found himself at the edge of an open practice field made of artificial turf. He could just barely make out three female figures, presumably students, standing in the center of the 100-meter length of the field. Two of them seemed to be sparring with their weapons respectively, while the third was watching them on the sideline. Given the elegance of their moves, it seemed more of a beautiful dance of blades between two performers. As each attack with their weapons were supplemented with each wielder’s respective elemental magic, the clash of the fire magic’s red-colored mana of water and wind magic’s green-tinted mana seemed to create mini-fireworks that were quite the sight to behold.

Having seen them spar for a short while, Ashe judged them to be very skilled for their young age. And moreso their talent was unrivaled, given the quality and purity of mana the two displayed. Having had his curiosity sated for now, he planned to quietly leave. But more often than not, plans do not always turn out as expected.

“Halt. Who are you?”

Ashe, who had started moving away from the open practice field, had his path suddenly cut off by a sharp gust of wind, cutting a sharp line into a ground. At these words, the two students sparring suddenly halted their movements and looked at the direction of their third companion. Ashe turned back to see one of the sparring students, the wind-element user, start walking to his direction with an elegantly designed spear in her hand. She had quite the beautiful appearance, with graceful facial features curtained by her long raven-colored hair. However, her sharp silver-colored eyes seemed to pierce straight through Ashe, despite the fact that he was still casting his light refraction magic and erasing his mana traces. Needless to say, he was mildly impressed that there was a high school level student who was apparently able to see through his invisibility.

Having been discovered and having had his escape route shut down, there was no reason for him to keep this façade.

“I’m impressed. How did you discover me?”

“All the wind here is under my command. Even if I cannot see you, I can still sense your presence.”

As if to verify this point, the spear-holding student held out her left hand, palm faced upwards, and watched as wind, colored green by her mana, seemed to lightly swirl onto her palm.

(How careless of me.)

Ordinarily Ashe thought that a distance of fifty or so meters would be enough to remain undetected against unguarded magicians, even those proficient in the earth or wind elements whom were particularly gifted in the detection arts. It seems that she was much more talented than he thought. In light of what he had observed in this brief time and his read on their mana signatures, each of the three students could be considered prodigies born once in several generations.

“Also, please do not make me ask the same question twice.”

“I’m sorry. I am a visitor on my way to the administrative building, but it looks like I lost my way.”

He hoped that this reason would suffice. Unfortunately he had no such luck. The female student responded by thrusting her left hand at his direction. With this seemingly simple motion, she summoned a violent vortex of winds tightly surrounding Ashe from every direction. Usually complex magic casted with this speed would be deficient in at least one way or form. Unfortunately for him, this was a non-issue; it seemed that this caster had the highest levels of magic precision and abilities. Any attempt to escape from this invisible spherical prison would result in being instantly shredded to pieces. This spell was definitely a level well beyond what was taught in the high school curriculum.

“This looks a little bit dangerous. Haha, how scary.”

“I have no mercy to show for someone who continues to hide his appearances and lies so easily. Besides, visitors are not allowed past the academy’s front gates until the morning at nine.”

(No wonder I was so easily seen through. However, what I said wasn’t exactly untrue…)

“So speak truthfully, unless you wish to die. Oh, and no need to worry. Our school infirmary is ranked as one of the best medical institutions worldwide.”

Such an elegant smile was completely at odds with her current actions. Also her words were very little consolation. After all, even the best doctors could do little for someone who was dead.

“Sorry, but I think I will have to keep my silence.”

“Then take your silence to the grave. Ah, I’m sorry not to have introduced myself earlier. My name is Sylvia Windsinger, pleased to meet your acquaintance. Hopefully you will remember my name for the next time we meet.”

“Hah, that’s assuming if I do manage to make it out in one piece.”

With one swift, fluid motion, Sylvia leaped towards and thrust her spear at Ashe, who was still trapped by her cage of wind. With her spear imbued with powerful wind-element magics, even a light scratch would cause severe injuries.

(There’s nowhere to dodge, and it looks that it’ll be painful to get hit. I guess there’s little choice…”

At the last instant, as the spear was about to pierce and rip the trapped person’s body to shreds, a flash of light suddenly parried it off course from its intended destination.

In the instant Sylvia was about to pierce Ashe, the wind prison had ceased to exist. And with the opening caused by his surprise counter, this should have been enough to give him a small opening to escape. As he turned to flee, his hope was completely crushed by a giant barrier of ice. And standing in his path was the fire-element student who had been sparring with Sylvia earlier. In her hand held a beautifully crafted flame-covered longsword. To her side was the caster of the high-level ice barrier.

For just a moment, Ashe was stunned at the appearance of the two before him. One had unruly pink-red hair and fiery-red eyes, befitting with her wild beauty. The other had an attractiveness that was in complete contrast, as her blue-white hair and deep blue eyes gave her a much softer impression. Being surrounded by beautiful girls would ordinarily be welcomed with open arms, but the reality was not so pleasant.

(To my front is both fire and ice, and to rear are violent winds. I guess no one here is merciful enough to let me simply escape with that small opening. How troublesome…)

As there was now little point in remaining hidden when everyone here could sense his presence, Ashe released his light magic and revealed his appearance. His clothing was actually quite casual, consisting of a sleeveless dark grey hoodie and a pair of thin jeans with inexpensive sneakers. Although obscured by the longer left-side bangs of his unnatural silver-white hair, an eyepatch covering his left eye was still somewhat visible. His right held a military-standard combat survival knife, with the blade wrapped thinly with light magic. His left arm, with its entire length wrapped in bandages, remained dangling by his side.

Ashe had prepared to fight a battle of attrition. Given his current predicament, instead of trying to continue to uselessly hide, it would be best to redirecting and focusing his mana to his knife.

But the tension that had been quickly building up suddenly defused with a blunt statement by the fire user.

“Huh? How young.”

“Young? I can’t be a year older than any one of you.”

It was not just the water caster that was surprised; even the fire swordswoman and Sylvia could not disguise their surprise. Ashe couldn’t help but wryly smile at their reactions. Despite his rather rough unnatural appearance, his age remained largely undisguised. He had turned seventeen this past year, and assessed the three surrounding students to be about the same age judging by their outward appearances and, more importantly, their mana signatures.

“Well this is annoying, I’m no longer in the mood to fight.”

“Scarlet?”

As Scarlet extinguished the flames on her longsword, the Sylvia questioned her, with a tinge of slight confusion on her face.

“He’s about our age and it’s now three versus one. Right now it looks like we’re just bullying him.”

“Well I suppose it would be a disgrace for us to claim victory in this fashion. Will you also stand down Azura?”

“I have no complaints,” nodded the water caster in agreement.

“Mister Intruder, neither of my colleagues will interfere in our duel as long as you make no attempts to escape.”

(Duel? I do not recall ever agreeing to this.)

“And please do not say something as obtuse as ‘this was not something you agreed to.’ As soon as you had stepped into the school grounds without the proper procedures, your rights have been forfeited.”

(Ugh, so she can read minds now?)

“And no, I am not reading your mind. Stop with those stupid-looking expressions.”

With a sigh, he had no choice but to hold up his blade and to acknowledge this duel. Seeing this resolve, Sylvia smiled briefly.

“Let me introduce myself again, this time in full. My name is Sylvia Windsinger, a Fourth Year representative of the International Military Academy. B+ Rank Wind Magician.”

Giving one’s first name, last name, year, institution, elements and element proficiency was standard duel introduction. As naïve as such an introduction would seem to be, all the players’ cards were essentially already revealed to the table anyways.

Unless one was to wear head or eye-gear to obscure the eyes, it was easy to identify one’s primary elemental affinity, as it was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with green eyes, like Sylvia, was someone who excelled with wind magic. Likewise, a person with red eyes was talented with the spire element whereas a person with blue eyes was skilled with water and ice manipulation.

A person’s magical talent can be ranked via a rather simple letter system. While an F Rank represented a person with no proficiency whatsoever, an A Rank implied that the magic user could majorly influence a major battle between nations. In regards to revealing one’s magic proficiency, just sensing and observing the opponent’s mana was enough to determine the general level. Thus there was truly no point in hiding one’s abilities, except in exceptional cases.

“You can call me Ashe Greysword, independent affiliation from any organization or institution. C+ Rank Wood and C Rank Light Magician.”

“Hmm? Duel magic concentrations?” muttered Sylvia involuntarily.

To be fair, duel magic concentrations were not altogether that rare, especially if one of the concentrations were either light or dark magics. It was much more difficult to be proficient in any two of the seven core elements. But secondary concentrations were usually developed after the mastery of a single element, and usually not before a person was at least in their mid-twenties, when their mana levels have completely matured.

“You already having achieved B+ Rank at sixteen, or seventeen, years of age is already scary enough. Haha, I might seriously be in trouble.”

(At her rank, no wonder she was able to cast that complex wind prison spell so easily and flawlessly.)

Given her growth rate, it wouldn’t be surprising for her to achieve S Rank once fully matured. Although there was quite the variation in power between magicians within the S Ranks, they each had the ability to greatly influence a war between nations. According to the International Ranking Administration, there were only thirteen S Rank magicians at this point in time.

“That should be enough with the pleasantries. Ashe Greysword, prepare yourself!”

Despite her words, Sylvia immediately charged at Ashe with her spear thrust forward, mana heavily concentrated at the weapon’s tip. As a response to her attack, Ashe leaped backwards while quickly flicking his wrist, throwing his knife at Sylvia’s head. As the projectile traveled forward, it started to take form of a sparrow made of light, as it had been completely infused with Ashe’s light magic. Before the light sparrow could even approach close to its intended target, it was completely warded off by a barrier of wind. The knife dropped uselessly to the ground whereas the sparrow separated from it and continued to fly and disappear speedily into the night

“The perfect offense and the perfect defense. To make Sylvia your opponent… you just have no luck.” Scarlet looked somewhat disappointed, as if she had expected a better counterattack from Ashe.

Apparently against Sylvia’s invisible shield, any halfhearted attack would be completely deflected. And Ashe, having thrown away his only weapon, continued to dodge her attacks. After Sylvia’s sixteenth thrust, Ashe was able to retreat far enough to catch a breath and speak.

“You’re kidding me. Are you really a high school student?”

“You’re not too bad yourself. You are apparently quite talented at running away.”

Sylvia seemed to allow this brief pause as she readjusted her offensive stance and ready her next strike.

“Well they do say that those who run fast also live long. But I was talking in regards to your killing intent. It is definitely far beyond the level of a high school student. What kind of past did you have to…”

Before Ashe could finish his inquiry, Sylvia’s killing intent increased dramatically, causing Scarlet and Azura on the sidelines to slightly shiver. As if to match this phenomenon, her mana levels continued to rise in intensity and output as well.

“You talk too much for someone who does not belong at this academy.”

(Her mana level, isn’t this breaching the A- Rank?)

“Hey wait, can we please talk this over peacefully?”

“I think it’s about time to wrap this duel up. Please die now.”

Although there was a smile on her face, it could not be said to be the same for her eyes.

“Huh, isn’t this your <Demon Winds>? Aren’t you going too far with this?”

“Wait Sylvia, you might actually kill him!”

Despite Scarlet and Azura’s best efforts, it didn’t seem that their words reached her ears. The wind surrounding the entire vicinity grew increasingly violent, and the gray tinge of the winds, colored from her mana, grew increasingly darker. Without warning, swirling vortex of air quickly formed spherically around Aria started to close in on him. Unlike the wind prison casted earlier, this cage was intended to completely crush and annihilate its contents.

Earlier Sylvia had been using her spear to fight in close range, which was more fitting of her notion of the spirit of dueling. All pretenses have now been dropped.

There was nowhere for Aria to escape.

“About time. It took you long enough.”

In a single instant, all the wind in the vicinity dispersed and everything was calm once again.

Standing next to Aria, with a hand on his shoulder, stood the very headmaster of this school.

User:Shrysha

2014-12-30T20:38:28Z

Shrysha: /* Prologue: A Memory From Eight Years Prior */

User:Shrysha

2014-12-30T20:37:22Z

Shrysha: OLN: Prologue + Chapter 1

User:Shrysha

2014-11-12T19:30:43Z

Shrysha: temporary deletion

User:Shrysha

2014-09-15T20:45:27Z

Shrysha: Chapter 3 - Completed

==The Seven Princess Knights and the Dark Lord Hero (Original Light Novel Attempt)==

===Foreword:===

This is a story about the knight rescuing the princess from the bad guys.

This seems to be a traditional plotline chock-full of overused clichés and tropes.

Except that the knight wasn’t one of those typical knights in shining armor. Perhaps he could be considered one of those bad guys. Maybe a villain. Wait, could he even be called a knight at this point? I think if I asked him, he would probably reject the “knight” designation.

And this story didn’t just have one princess. Actually there are seven. And did they even need rescuing?

Well there has to be bad guys in the story, right? Well, I’m not even sure if the bad guys could even be called bad guys. I mean, their intentions were good. Probably better than those of Mr. Knight. I suppose it is just a matter of perspective.

So, this is a story about the knight who wasn’t really a knight rescuing the princesses who didn’t need to be rescued from the bad guys who weren’t really bad guys.

I think I did a decent job with my summary.

Enjoy!

===Prologue:===

“Strong…”

These were the only words that the frail young white-haired slave child could mutter. Or rather a former slave. Despite lying collapsed on the ground and with skin covered with filth and body malnourished, and despite having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, there was no fear in this child’s eyes.

Before the child was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a midnight-black hooded cloak concealing his entire body and a similarly colored long curved sword, he gave a very intimidating dark presence. Carrying the scent of blood and death around him, he could very well be mistaken for the grim reaper or angel of death himself. And those would be rather accurate guesses, as he was widely known to the rest of the world by the name <God of Death>, and not just for his physical appearance alone.

After all, he was the one responsible for having single-handedly staining this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of men.

Hundreds killed with only a single swing of his blade.

Perhaps instead of a battle, it would be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre, or perhaps a mass execution. The reaper was the judge, jury, and executioner.

But at the moment, he was the only truth in this part of the world where power was the only law, with no one left alive to oppose him.

Despite the <God of Death>’s actions, the child still did not fear him. To the child, this reaper was a savior, having killed the now former slave merchant owners and their bodyguards.

Perhaps this was too much of a biased view; it was truly a matter of perspective.

Contrary to his expectations, the child slowly crawled and reached for the hem of his cloak.

Perhaps having had his interest piqued, he patiently waited for the child’s next actions. This child who was on the steps of death’s door. This child whose life was in the hands of this “god” ruling over death itself.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly rose to an oppressive level, completely overwhelming the child’s senses. The child suddenly collapsed back to the ground, seemingly crushed by an immense unknown pressure. But the child who had nothing left to lose, and nothing left to fear, only stared unwaveringly back.

Suddenly the pressure ceased, and the child could suddenly breathe gain. The <God of Death> turned around and full faced the child.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to glare back, showing his firm resolve. It may have been just a trick of the mind, but the child thought he felt the <God of Death> smile for just a moment. The voice continued.

(But power is something I can offer you. And the price…)

Without hesitation, with a single breath:

“My soul.”

===Interlude 1:===

Such a clichéd development.

A child’s soul offered to the devil in exchange for power.

But an unexpected response, like “It had already been paid for” or something anti-climatic like that, had been the immediate response. It left the child a bit speechless, which was to be expected.

To be prepared to sacrifice everything, not that it was much, and at the climax only to be told that someone else already paid the bill.

This was an eight-year-old memory that he hadn’t remembered for quite some time.

Perhaps even a fated reunion could occur.

Could this be what people commonly called a premonition?

===Chapter 1:===

====Chapter 1: Part 1:====

Today was supposed to be a normal day, link any other.

What kind of ridiculous development was this?

“Uhmm, Shryza, are you alright?”

A cute high-pitched voice interrupted him from his thoughts.

Trying to sort out his thoughts, Shryza had absent-mindedly brought his right hand to hold his temples underneath his messy head of silver-white hair, which was quite the unusual color for an eighteen year-old student.

His school uniform was ordinary enough: a white blazer, shirt and pants with the school insignia on each. Although Shryza felt uncomfortable wearing it, let alone it was a bit too flashy for his taste, it couldn’t be helped; as one of the most prestigious academic institutions worldwide, it was expected there would be an excess of unnecessary rules and regulations to maintain its lofty image to the rest of the world.

Asides from the standard-issue uniform, Shryza’s appearance was altogether rather unnatural.

His left eye was covered with an eyepatch, mostly obscured by the longer left-side bangs of his unnaturally white hair. And when combined with the pair of rectangular glasses on his face, the eyepatch was almost unnoticeable, especially from further distances. He also had wrapped the entire length of his left arm in bandages as well, most of which was hidden unearth the sleeve of his uniform.

Overall, Shryza’s appearance seemed to be one of a particularly unlucky accident-prone teenager.

If he had claimed to have been involved in a horrific accident that had injured most of his left side, and that this injury was the cause for his late enrollment to the school, most people would unquestionably believe him.

“I apologize. I’m just a little tired this morning, thanks.”

Shryza in response to the question in regards to his well-being settled for a simple apology, which he thought would suffice.

Standing facing Shryza was Professor Ruegger a comically petite teacher wearing an oversized white laboratory coat over her simple teaching attire, which only seemed to reinforce her rather child-like appearance. Contrary to how she looked, most students would unequivocally agree that she was an extremely knowledgeable well-liked teacher, always putting forth her best efforts for the sake of her students. Professor Reugger was looking up sternly at Shryza with her large orange-hued eyes, but it was rather difficult for him to take her seriously when she had the face of an innocent child pouting. If asked to guess her age, which was one of the greatest mysteries within this academy, Shryza would decline to comment.

Professor Ruegger smiled and, as expected, quickly accepted this apology. She turned back around and stated cheerfully, “Now please introduce yourself to the class.”

That’s right.

Shryza and Professor Ruegger were now standing at the front of a small lecture hall, or rather what looked like a mini-theatre, in front of twenty or so seated students. Although it wasn’t particularly necessary, she thought it a good idea for Shryza to take the opportunity to introduce himself as a new transfer student. There was quite a bit of whispering and murmuring in the classroom, which quieted down as Professor Ruegger took a step forward towards her students.

“So if you could, please introduce yourself.”

As Professor Reugger turned her head at back at Shryza, he could feel the curious stares of the students being redirected at him.

As he thought earlier, this was a ridiculous scenario, being forced to attend school.

There could only be one culprit.

And that someone would definitely later on receive a punch to the face.

With no other choice for now, Shryza decided to just go with the flow for now and accept his fate.

“My name is Shryza Doe. Nice to meet everyone.”

With a glance at the teacher, Shryza gave her a looking that said he was done with his introduction.
Apparently she, nor the rest of the class, was satisfied with such a short, information-lacking introduction.

Shryza sighed before stating, “I’m sorry but I’m quite terrible at this introduction thing. If anyone has any questions…”

Ms. Ru’s face suddenly paled. This was certainly the wrong approach for someone trying to maintain order within the classroom, not that Shryza actually cared though.

As to be expected, the class erupted with noise and he was bombarded with questions and comments from all directions, without any opening for him to answer.

“Hey hey, where did you come from?”

“Why did you transfer? Did you get into an accident?”

“What was your former school?”

“You look pretty cute, do you have a girlfriend?”

“Say something about your hobbies or favorite activities!”

“Why did you transfer into our class? I thought that you couldn’t become an A-rank without ranking up.”

“Are the rumors true? Is it true you got top scores on the transfer exam?”

“Apparently he completely aced the written portion.”

“No way, that’s impossible!”

“How were his practical results?”

“Wait, I heard you beat an exam-proctor in a fight. Is that true?”

“Seriously?”

“Unless he’s at the level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters…”

“Yeah, he doesn’t look that strong at all.”

“Did you get into an accident?”

It was complete chaos.

Shryza made zero attempts to answer any of the questions or rumors being wildly thrown around. Not that he had the chance to. On the other hand, there was one person in the class valiantly trying to rein in this disorder.

“Enough, everyone! Can everyone please quiet down!”

Professor Ruegger tried to tame the growing ruckus, but to no avail. It seemed that she had very little control over her own students. Even though she was a very well-liked teacher, her competence in being able to direct her class was in question. Many teachers were brought in by this school primarily for magical research whereas others were hired for their outstanding combat abilities; teaching students, although still a core focus of any academic institution, seemed to have a backseat role here.

“Sniff…”

As Professor Ruegger started tearing up and looked like she was going to cry, the students stopped their questioning session and started to reprimand each other.

“Everyone quiet down!” a student called out to the rest of the class

“Stop bullying Ms. Ru guys!”

“Hey! Ms. Ru, don’t cry!”

“We’re sorry! We’ll promise to stop!”

Shryza could only observe this strange phenomenon with silence. It seemed that the class didn’t see Professor Ruegger, or rather Ms. Ru, as a teacher but rather as a young child. But it was somewhat sadistic of the students to initially force her to the brink of tears before consoling her.

Well, it looked like Ms. Ru did the ability to control and direct her class, but not via traditional methods.

“H-Hmph. A-As long as you understand, then I’ll forgive you. I’m also your teacher! Please call my name properly!”

Ms. Ru stuttered a little as she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. Looking around the classroom, it didn’t look like her request would be easily fulfilled.

“So again, let’s do this properly. If anyone has any questions, please raise your hand…”

“Hey, transfer student. I heard you are strong.”

With those words, the rest of the classroom continued to remain silent.

Shryza turned his gaze to the student standing up, who had earlier been sitting in the back of the classroom. Admittedly she had quite the dazzling appearance. Ignoring her rather pretty face and nice figure, she had bright crimson-colored shoulder-length hair and similarly-colored eyes, which were very hard to ignore. Despite the uniform requirement at this school, it seemed that students were still able to be quite liberal with their physical appearance. This student in particular wore her uniform very informally; her blazer was taken off and placed on her desk, her shirt was untucked with rolled-up shirt sleeves, and her skirt length was too short for what Shryza expected from such a traditional-style school.

This student would be considered a very attractive lady, if it weren’t so difficult to picture her as anything other than a school delinquent or gangster.

Without question, this person had the most imposing presence in the classroom.

“Uhmm, Ms. Himika…”

Ms. Ru tried to interject, but the delinquent was focused solely on Shryza and ignored her.

“To be transferred into our class immediately, your transfer exam scores must have been pretty good. I also heard that you beat the examiner during the practical test as well, is that true?”

For someone who looked and acted like a gangster, Shryza found her to be quite eloquent.

Shryza hesitated about how to answer before settling for a vague response.

“Who knows?”

“Haha, that’s a nice response!”

The delinquent laughed as she ran her hand through her hair before grinning widely at him.

“My name is Himika Cou, and I am the strongest in this room at Rank Three! And with my rank on the line, I challenge you to a duel!”

What a lame line. It sounded like some kid was trying to challenge him to a children’s card game, or something similar to that. But if what she said was true, at rank three, she was the third strongest student at this school amongst several thousands. And Himika’s surname “Cou” was one that belonged to the three great families. Given her innate talent, it was very likely she was one of the daughters of the Wei house. To engage in battle with one of the scions of the three great families was quite the interesting offer.

But in the end, it sounded too troublesome for his liking.

“I refuse.”

It wasn’t really in his personality to accept such a troublesome proposal.

Unfortunately for Shryza, Himika was not deterred at all by this rejection.

“Make no mistake, transfer student. I’m not giving you a choice.”

Shryza sighed softly at this reply.

“I thought I was allowed to decline.”

“I see, so you don’t know the rules yet. Normally you’d be able to avoid this fight, but I have special privileges as a single digit ranker.”

How… annoying? Despite her delinquent appearance, it seemed that Himika was actually rule-abiding. Her forceful personality and ability to exploit the rules were completely separate matters.

There were few feasible options that Shryza could choose to respond with.

He could run. But where to?

He could try again to suspend the duel. But it looked like it would be too difficult to convince her.

He could choose to lose on purpose. But if he was found out, she looked to be the type of person that wouldn’t let him off easily.

He could just accept the duel and win. But that would draw too much attention towards him.

Whatever choice he made, it would be a lose-lose situation for him.

Resigned to his fate, Shryza thought it better to just win and get this matter done with. As long as it looks as if he just barely won, then he could avoid the worst possible outcomes at the very least.

“Where and when?”

“Someone who doesn’t mince words, that’s great. Are you prepared? And how does here and now sound?”

This delinquent was surprisingly considerate as well, showing the most basic of etiquettes of giving Shryza time to find a weapon or determine an alternative time or place to have the duel. Ms. Ru looked like she wanted to make an objection to the fight taking place in the middle of a classroom, but both of them seemed to have completely relegated her to a background character at this time.

Shryza raise both hands to show that he didn’t have, or need, any weapons.

“I accept, whenever you’re ready.”

At these words, the two badges pinned on each of the students’ shirts quickly flashed with light, which signified the school’s acknowledgement of the legitimacy of this duel.

“Great! Don’t go disappointing me!”

With only a single step, Himika warning leapt from her seat over the heads of his fellow students. To traverse the classroom in one step was actually quite the considerable feat.

Screams could be heard… only from Ms. Ru.

In this school, it was not uncommon to see fights, or rather these “duels”, breaking out randomly across the campus. Thus the rest of the class was already quite accustomed to this type of scene. However, most students would agree that Himika’s act of interrupting Ms. Ru’s class with a duel without asking permission first was quite rude.

On the contrary, Ms. Ru, no matter how many times she witnessed these duels, could never get used to them. She was never a big proponent of fighting and violence.

While in midair, Himika led with her left knee while drawing back her right fist, presumably in preparation for a preemptive attack.

Despite the lack of warnings, Shryza predicted this kind of development to a certain extent. With the vast amount of accumulated experience he had gained fighting on innumerable battlefields, to him an attack coming directly from the front was not much of a surprise, and dealing with it was mere child’s play.

Despite landing a meter away from Shryza, with the left foot she landed on, she used it to quickly propel herself in Shryza’s direction and punched forward with her right arm. Shryza in response slightly tilted his body to sidestep the attack, but only just barely enough that he could still feel the air pressure caused by her arm barely passing by where his head was only moments earlier. Upon missing her initial punch, she quickly leaned forward onto her right foot and pivoted her body, sending her left foot flying upwards at Shryza from behind. This beautiful follow-up roundhouse kick was met and easily deflected with the back of Shryza’s right hand.

However, Himika’s attack was not finished.

Upon having this kick repelled, she used her left foot to bring down Shryza’s right arm towards the ground, leaving an opening in his defense. With her free right knee, she attempted to viciously knee her opponent in the groin. However this crisis was averted by him taking a step back and moving out of range. Himika’s then used that knee to step forward and raised up her other leg in preparations for a drop kick. And in one fluid movement, she brought it down, as if swinging down a heavy battleaxe onto Shryza’s head, but only to have it blocked once more by the palm of his right hand.

Four fluid attacks in one movement. She was extremely skilled and well-trained for unarmed close quarters combat.

And even though none of her attacks connected, it seemed that she was enjoying this fight too much.

“Isn’t your skirt too short? You should be more concerned that people will see what’s underneath.”

Shryza wanted to interrupt the current pace of the battle and slow it down. He thought that this question might cause Himika to be more self-conscious and slightly throw off her composure. Contrary to his expectations, she was completely unmoved by this inquiry and easily brushed it aside.

“If you have time to be so worried for me, let’s see how you handle this!”

Unfortunately for him, it had the reverse effect.

Her left leg unexpectedly ignited with bright red flames, prompting Shryza to let it go immediately and retreat two or three meters away from her.

The flames seemed to emit intense heat and pressure, but Himika was completely unaffected.

Despite the duel taking place in the front of the classroom away from where the students were seated, there was no barrier or protection in place to prevent collateral damage from the fight should it come their way. But most of the students were quite unconcerned; most were quite happy to skip a boring class lecture to watch this high-level fight between this classroom’s strongest and the mysterious transfer student.

Although the fight had just barely started, there was a question that Shryza still had in regards to her Himika’s motives.

If what he recalled was right, a student’s rank was the most important possession amongst students in this school.

“Your rank. Why are you willing to put that on the line for something like this pointless duel?”

“Rank, something uninteresting like that? I’m more than willing to give it up, but that’s only if you can entertain and defeat me!”

She responded as if this explanation was the most natural thing in the world.

Himika then quickly charged, with her flaming left leg forward, again closing the distance between the two combatants.

===Chapter 2:===

As the two students continued to clash with each other, Ms. Ru could only scrunch into a ball and pout. She was now sitting in the front row of her classroom, after having been brought over by some of her students. A few of the female students were still by her side actively comfort the poor teacher. Although her skills and knowledge as a professor were real, she had neither authority nor respect in her own classroom. Rather than being looked up to as an older mentor, she was instead treated as an adorable younger sister to be teased and played with.

Unfortunately for Ms. Ru, with the exception of the authority from higher up, until the conclusion of the duel, no one was permitted to interrupt it once underway. Not even the teacher of her two students was allowed to interfere, which was why she had made multiple earlier, yet futile, attempts to stop the duel from starting.

Duels in this institution had three fundamental conditions.

First, there must be mutual consent, implicit or explicit, between the two dueling parties. Consent did not refer just to the duel itself, but also extended to the details and conditions attached to it as well. Forced duels and duels instigated by single digit rankers were the only exception.

Second, duels will only be recognized on the academy grounds. The badges given to each student upon enrollment allowed the academy to track and monitor each duel participant. This was especially important to resolve possible conflicts regarding the two parties should a dispute arise in regards to the duel’s conclusion.

Lastly, a duel is won once the opposing party has conceded defeat or is left unconscious. Killing the other party, however, is considered forbidden and is harshly punished, with very few outliers.

Asides from those three rules, everything was essentially unrestricted or fair game.

Power is the only truth.

With duels capable of deciding and resolving almost every matter in the school, power was indeed the absolute truth of this academy, or the International Combat Academy.

Despite the school’s name, this was a privately-run institution located on an exclusive island not belonging to any nation, independent from all international pressures. This academy was founded just only five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a mysterious yet very wealthy backer. Despite all initial doubts, it had since then become the most famous and prestigious institution for producing the strongest warriors, magicians, and combatants.

As a result, and largely in part due to its strict international neutrality, nations worldwide sent many of their promising talents there to be raised and cultivated. And naturally those who achieved a high rank in the school system would be placed highly in the International Ranking System as well.

There are two types ranking systems at this school.

The first type of rank, and most important rank as a professional in the industry, was the international Ranking System.

With combat talent and abilities highly valued worldwide, there was a growing necessity to be able to rank people objectively and holistically on an international basis. The International Ranking Commission, comprised by a committee of professors and other highly qualified professionals, was set up to fulfill that informational requirement.

The vast majority of the students at the International Combat Academy were not ranked under the international system, and they would not be expected to have been assigned a rank until after graduation.

The second type of rank, and far more relevant rank as a student, was the interschool ranking system.

The interschool ranking was the method how students at this academy were assessed, which are similar to grades from a more traditional institution. Exemplary written and practical exams results were indeed important to achieving a higher rank. But ranking duels were the much more influential method of determining school-wide ranks. With ranking duels, one could fight another higher-ranking student and, if victorious, swap for their higher ranks.

Normally higher ranked students would not allow lower rankers to challenge them due to risks of accidentally losing and having their rank drop significantly, but there are a few exceptions.

The first and most common exception is that there exists an academy rule permitting those with lower ranks to “force” a duel from a slightly higher ranked, the methodology not stated here, with the purpose of encouraging more school-wide competition, thus the “forced duel” rule.

A second common scenario where a higher ranker will voluntarily accept a duel from a lower-ranked student is when another “prize” or condition is offered by the lower ranker as an additional compensation for the risk the higher ranker assumes.

There was also a rare third scenario. There are people in this academy who have enrolled for no other purpose other than to fight other powerful students, without care for his or her ranking. Ranks were just a means to an end. Such students in the academy were very few in number, and such a person was the high-ranked delinquent-looking student currently in front of Shryza.

Having been on the receiving end of a few attacks, Shryza had that Himika was an extremely skilled fighter. Her current Rank Three was well merited. However, even that level strength was not enough to concern Shryza. At any point of time during the fight, he could have chosen to end it immediately with a well-timed counterattack. But suddenly winning a fair one-on-one duel against the third strongest person in the school might cause future problems for him.

After having dashed at towards him with her leg ablaze, Shryza had thought that she would use that same leg to land an attack. To his surprise, she dove downwards and turned her body to use her other leg, her right leg, in an attempt at a leg sweep. Taking another step back to avoid it, he was now met again with her left leg wearing a boot made of flames. Where did she find the time to rotate her body and fire off another kick? With no time to dodge, Shryza quickly gathered mana onto the palm of his right hand and bare-handedly caught her flame-clad foot.

Himika did not expect such a response to her attack, and she started laughing in enjoyment again.

“It doesn’t seem that you tree-lovers burn as easily as I thought!”

Shryza stared directly back at Himika with his only visible violet-colored eye and smiled back wryly, understanding the deeper meaning of his words.

Each person born with a certain level of talent for magic also had affinity to at least one of the seven core elements or two sub elements that exist in this world. And a person’s primary elemental affinity was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with red eyes, like Himika, was someone who excelled with fire magic. Likewise, a person with purple eyes was more skilled with wood and plant manipulation.

Additionally, certain elements were more “effective” than other elements in certain confrontations. In this case, to fight fire, wood was the absolute worst element to use.

In theory by just comparing their elemental affinities, Himika should have had a significant advantage in this matchup.

But by concentrating mana into his right hand, Shryza was able to easily withstand Himika’s flame-infused kick. Mana, the source of power used by all magic and spells, in its natural state was neutral, or void of any elemental attributes.

“Oh? Your hand is still fine, but are you sure you’re fine with only using one?”

Himika had quickly glanced down at Shryza’s bandaged left hand, which had largely remained motionless since the beginning of the fight. This could have been seen as a considerate gesture, had she not ignited flames in her other arm and thrown an elbow to side of his head. This action prompted Shryza to quickly release Himika’s fist and sidestep the attack.

Shryza was actually reasonably impressed with the quality and durability of the academy-issue combat-ready uniforms, as Himika’s clothing were largely unaffected by her flames. However, the uniform is no substitute battle-armor: its defensive properties were actually quite minimal. The material of the uniform was made to let magical and elemental attacks go through the cloth unobstructed rather than to block them, but that did little to stop sharp objects from easily cutting through them.

“One arm should be more than enough. No need to go easy on me.”

“Haha, that’s a great response!”

Along with her answer, Himika also ignited her other leg and two arms with flames as well. Each of them had the same heat and intensity as the one originally enveloping her left leg.

Shryza could only sigh. This was a development he should have seen coming.

For several moments, Shryza and Himika continued to trade blows, providing a mesmerizing lightshow to the student spectators. Or rather, it was Himika throwing an increasingly complex yet constantly fluid combination of attacks whereas Shryza was continually on the defensive.

From the outsiders’ perspective, it seemed that Shryza was continued being pressed back. It seemed logical that only being able to use one arm should be a crippling disadvantage to Shryza in close quarters combat. It looked like only a matter of time before Shryza’s impressive defense would reveal an opening, and for Himika to land a decisive attack to end the fight.

But this was not the same view that Himika held. Himika prided herself in her strength, and rightfully so as the third strongest student in the school. But she was quick to acknowledge and assess the strength of others with almost a beast-like instinct. Being able to ward off every single one of her attacks, she was made immediately aware that her opponent was skilled. His mana levels were nothing incredibly special and neither were his physical speed in strength; in fact it can be said that his stats were almost too average. However this one armed opponent was actually able to easily maneuver around Himika’s aggression with only the most basic of techniques or movements, which required an incredible amount of real combat experience and knowledge.

With each attack that was deflected or dodged, Himika’s estimation of Shryza’s strength only rose. Where the seemingly increasing gap in power may have overwhelmed other students and cause them to be distraught, this only fueled Himika’s fighting appetite; she genuinely enjoyed fighting against this caliber of opponent.

However, she was still not completely satisfied. Although there was no proof that this was the case, she felt that Shryza was holding back his full strength against her, even to the point of just testing her.

“How annoying. So you’re one of those guys who won’t hit a girl?”

Himika, clearly displeasured that Shryza refused to go on the offensive, continued to assault Shryza with a flaming elbow, which was neatly dodged. The fact that she had yet to land a solid attack on him did little to help to improve her mood.

“I’m busy enough just trying not to get hit.”

“You’re such a terrible liar. I know you’re stronger than you’re letting on. It’s just annoying that I can’t make you fight seriously unless I do so first.”

And with these words, Himika suddenly disengaged from close quarters combat by stepping back away from Shryza and completely ceased the raging flames wrapping around each of her four limbs.

For just a moment, Shryza was caught off guard at Himika’s words. He thought that he had put a reasonable amount of effort to hide this very fact. But during his limited exchange of blows and words, he realized that Himika was not only just powerful and talented, but she was also quite the intelligent fighter. Actually he could go further and say that many of her attacks were quite sly and sneaky. Regardless, she was much sharper than everyone gave her credit for, and this hot-headed idiot personality was perhaps merely a calculated façade to lower the enemy’s guard.

Whatever was the case, Shryza mentally upgraded his evaluation of the opponent before him.
Even though it looked that Himika still had a few trump cards up her sleeve.

Holding her right hand open with her palm facing upwards, she slowly closed her eyes.

“Dragon flames, ignite.”

Suddenly she released an enormous wave of pressure and heat, blowing away the air in her vicinity, before gathering onto her palm a small ball of raging red-white flames. These flames were on a much greater intensity than the smaller ones used when he was using them to enhance her attacks earlier.

Although he didn’t verbalize it, Shryza was quite impressed at the level of Himika’s abilities, as she was still only of teen age. Even though he had fought numerous high-ranked fire-elementalists in the past, he could count those who could use higher-level flames on only one hand.

Dragon flames were considered amongst the hottest of all flames in existence, flames rumored to continue to burn until its target was completely disintegrated. This was a very fitting name.

Himika then closed her right hand into a fist, completely squashing that ball of flames. This caused the flames to shoot out from one side of her fist, which then gathered and condensed into the form of a blazing two-meter long sword.

Although the sprinkler system was activated, it did absolutely nothing to mitigate the potency of these flames. This did awaken the student spectators from their trance-like state, having been bewitched just by watching this high level fight.

With this much higher level of fire magic being contained in such a relatively small classroom, the spectators started murmur with worry, and some even were on the verge of panicking. The potential collateral damage that could possibly result from the seemingly inevitable clash was on a level that could no longer be overlooked. It was extremely rare that such a fight between such high-ranked students should occur so informally inside a classroom. Usually they were schedule beforehand and fought in an appropriately-sized spectator-filled stadium, as it was very likely that larger scaled magic abilities were going to be used. Only relatively low power attacks had been used so far in the fight, but it looked like that would soon quickly change.

As a side note, Ms. Ru admirably tried to go forward to make a few last ditch attempts to interfere with and stop the fight. But as expected she was quickly stopped and carried off by her own students to safety.

Additionally in response to Himika’s dragon flames, a powerful water barrier was casted over the students to prevent damage from reaching to them. The caster of this magic, presumably named Yuki, was a pale blue-white haired student who was now standing with an arm outstretched. Her attractiveness was on the same scale as Himika’s, but she had a calm graceful elegance juxtaposed against Himika’s wild unrestrained beauty. But more importantly, Shryza judged her to be just as powerful as Himika as well, most likely another single ranker.

He couldn’t help but think that there was quite the number of talented people in this classroom.

“Thanks Yuki!”

She responded to Himika with only a nod.

No longer worried about her flames reaching her fellow classmates, Himika again refocused her undivided attention backed to Shryza. But he returned with a rather interesting remark.

“I’m surprised that you’re actually a pretty considerate person, taking the time to worry about your classmates.”

“Why would I be? It would just be annoying if they interfered in our fight. Enough of the small talk, it’s time to finish this!”

As if to confirm this statement, she pointed her flaming sword in Shryza’s direction. Despite Himika’s fierce words, she was not very convincing in trying to hide her embarrassment.

First looks impressions were indeed quite a bit deceiving.

“Dragon flames… That sword looks a bit dangerous.”

“And yet you don’t look the least bit concerned. How strong are you really?”

“Who knows? And aren’t you going to draw your real weapon?”

Shryza tilted towards Himika’s seat in the back corner of the classroom, where a rather long, bulky package wrapped in bandages lay against the wall. Judging by the shape of the wrapped weapon and the current magic Himika was using, it should probably be a sword of similar proportions to the current one she was holding made of flames. By wielding that weapon and channeling magic through it directly instead of fighting with her conjured flame sword, Shryza estimated that Himika’s battle potential could easily increase at least two or three-fold, if not more.

As expected, his suggestion was readily turned down.

“That wouldn’t be fun. After all, you’re unarmed as well.”

“I see. Then brace yourself.”

With little effort, Shryza rapidly concentrated his mana to the tips of his fingers. Noticing that Shryza was preparing to go on the offensive for the first time this battle, Himika, who had raised her flame sword slightly above her head and was about to launch headlong into an all-out attack, suddenly stopped.

Dangerous.

Her instincts, which have rarely failed her and have helped her win fights time and time again, were loudly screaming to her that Shryza was extremely dangerous. She felt as if the blade of a knife was being held to her throat. What kind of heavy killing intent was this?

If she made just even the slightest mistake, she felt that she that a single strike might be enough to even kill her. She was afraid to even take a step forward. Wait, she was feeling fear? Himika wanted to convince herself that this sensation was only an illusion, but to no avail.

Himika had fought her fair share of opponents, and only a handful had alerted her instincts as powerfully as Shryza had. None of them had been around her age, until now.

“Damn, just who exactly are you?”

In sharp contrast to Himika’s animal-like grin, Shryza only responded with a light smile.

Both combatants, with just a few meters separating each other, waited for the other to make an opening. Or rather, it was Shryza that waited for Himika to make the first move. Although Shryza felt that his opponent had too many openings that he could exploit and that the fight was all but decided, he felt lenient enough to let the fight end on Himika’s terms.

Wild flames on one side on the classroom. Zen-like calmness on the other.

Everyone in the classroom was silent, holding their breaths. The tension created by this standoff could be said to be thick enough to drown in.

Himika cautiously moved her foot slightly forward. Shryza did the same.

Inching ever closer, the two opponents…

…were rudely interrupted.

====Chapter 1: Part 3:====

“This duel is declared null and void!”

The classroom door was loudly slammed wide open, completely disrupting the fight.

The tension in the room was killed immediately.

Reluctantly, Himika instantly extinguished her flames and dematerialized her sword. Similarly Shryza dispersed the mana concentrated in his right arm along with his killing intent.

At the door of the entrance were two female students. Apparently they were either very popular or well known within the student body, or very likely both, as suddenly the classroom once again erupted into chatter and noise. It was also to be noted that they were also beauties of a very high level, similar yet different to those of Yuki and Himika.

Shryza hadn’t expect so many people with model-like appearances to have attended this combat-oriented school, let alone be in the same classroom at once. He also hadn’t expected there to be so many talented students in the academy; the two female students who had just interrupted the duel looked to be rather skilled.

Also he made a mental note to himself that this classroom was really a chatterbox. Is this what a normal classroom was supposed to be like?

The first female student, presumably the one who had interrupted their fight, ignored the noise coming from the student spectators and confidently walked forward within inches to Himika, glaring at her accusingly. Like Himika and Yuki, she easily stood out from the rest of her students with her platinum silver hair matching her similarly colored eyes. And with a pauldron on her left shoulder and a sheathed longsword by her waste, she looked very much like a female knight. Although it was quite common to see students carry weapons within the school grounds, Shryza felt that she was prepared to unsheathe and use it anytime at a moment’s notice. It was just a feeling, but Shryza assessed that she was, if not only just slightly, stronger than Himika.

And if Shryza had to make a first impression guess, he didn’t think this female knight and Himika got along well.

Unfortunately it seemed like Shryza guessed correctly.

“As expected of you, Himika. Only you would cause this much trouble in the classroom.”

“Huh?”

Himika aggressively stared back, of course with a fearless smile. It seemed that they shared some history together given their current familiarity, although the relationship was probably not particularly amicable. These two female students had the compatibility of oil and water.

“I’ve done nothing. Aren’t you in the wrong for interrupting this duel?”

“Of course I have the proper authority. But to choose to fight in the middle of class? Especially in the middle of Ms. Ru, I mean Professor Ruegger’s lecture.”

This verbal slip didn’t escape Shryza. Although

“That’s allowed, right? Tell me, where did I break the rules?”

Apparently Ariana, with her aura of authority seemed to have held quite a fair amount of political power within the school. This was particularly surprising as she did not look to be a student at the university level yet.

“It’s not just rules. Etiquette is also important…”

“Etiquette. Oh please shut it, how can you be so stuck up?”

Shryza turned his head away from the two female students. He wanted absolutely no part in this squabble.

While Ariana and Himika continued to verbally berate each other, two other female students approached Shryza. The first was Yuki, who had earlier erected the high-level water barrier. The second was the other student who had entered the classroom with Ariana. The second of the two was the first to speak.

“My name is Ivy, Vice President of the Student Council. Shryza, was it? It’s my pleasure to meet you.”

“And my name is Yuki. I must apologize for Himi’s rather rude behavior. It’s very nice to meet you.”

Himi was very likely Yuki’s personal nickname for Himiko, and it seemed that the two were on very good terms with each other. Whether “Himi” liked being called by that nickname was a different matter.

With a pretty peach-shaped face with waste-length raven-black hair outlining her rather curvy body, Ivy had quite the alluring appearance. With her charming smile and seductive violet eyes, and with her ability to easily manipulate men, she had all the traits of a dangerous femme fatale. And with her ability to rise to a particularly high role within the student government, she was someone he should be cautious around.

Yuki on the other hand seemed to have quite the traditional, graceful appearance, which seemed to match her rather reserved and shy personality. However, she gave Shryza a rather strange yet curious stare, one he chose to ignore at this time.

“Yes that is correct. It is a pleasure meeting you two.”

Any other male student would have been entranced by talking to these two beauties, but Shryza was immune to their charms. At least that is what he tried to convince himself with. But more-so than their appearances, he was even more interested in the power of these four female students: Himiko, Yuki, Ariana, and Ivy. They were extremely skilled, and to a much larger extent than every other student in the classroom, if not the entire school.

This was without a doubt a question he would have to bring up later.

“Ivy, may I ask why was it that you and Ariana, correct me if I’m wrong, came to interrupt our duel?”

Ivy showed a little surprise at being addressed in such a forthright manner with no hesitation. She probably wasn’t used to men being completely unmoved by her charms.

“Ah, I’m sorry to not have introduced Ariana earlier; she is the current Vice-Chairwoman of the Disciplinary Committee. Both of us came under the direct orders of the headmaster, and thus have his authority to end this duel.”

Shryza couldn’t help but groan at this explanation.

“Raylz…”

“You are acquainted with Headmaster Raylz, I presume.”

Ivy gave him an inquisitive look, which he responded to with only a slight nod.

“He instructed the two of us to pass you, the new transfer student, a message.”

====Chapter 2: Part 2:====

“You look pretty terrible, Shryza. It seems like you had a nightmare last night, or did you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

The source of this deep yet gentle voice came from a rather handsome elderly man. His age was, however, betrayed by the wrinkles on his face and his grown out white hair and similarly colored goatee. Regardless, this man still had quite the imposing presence. Not only was he taller than the average man, he was also very physically fit and well-built, with his well-toned body still easily discernible underneath his hooded cloak. Behind the pair of round glasses, his soft grey-hued eyes seemed to kindly wait for a response.

Shryza, with a lone violet-colored eye hidden behind the bangs of his white hair, sharply gazed back. While bringing his hand to his forehead as if he had a headache, he closed his eye and sighed.

“Wouldn’t you the cause?”

The elderly man smiled and showed an innocent-looking face that said he hadn’t the faintest idea what Shryza was talking about.

That was of course a lie.

Backtracking a few moments earlier, Shryza had received the following message earlier from the Vice President of the Student Council.

(I trust that you didn’t run into too much trouble this morning. Now that you’ve had time to get to know your classmates, please come by my office when you get the chance.)

From an outsider’s perspective, this message had little meaning. It seemed to just instruct the recipient of the message to stop by the headmaster’s office, presumably for a warm welcome.

But to Shryza, it was just another annoyance.

“You know how badly I want to hit you in the face right now?

“Hey, hey. You know what they say about violence and it not solving anything!”

“But it’d be extremely satisfying at the moment.”

“I’m sure it would be.”

Despite Shryza’s threat, Raylz was not disturbed at the slightest.

Shryza found it difficult to stay cross with this smiling old man for long. After all, this man had a sincere light-hearted fun-loving personality that easily attracted people and brought them to his pace. Of the various people Shryza encountered in his line of business, the old man’s presence was rather refreshing.

“Before we get started, I’m surprised that it already has been eight years. You’ve changed quite a bit since the last time I last saw you.”

“And you are surprised, because?”

“Ah, I wasn’t talking about your appearance. Although now that you mention it, it’s true you have grown taller. I mean you were only ten at the time, and now you’re almost as tall as me now.”

“Wouldn’t that be the thing most people would comment on first?”

“That might be true. I was actually quite surprised that your flow of mana feels quite different now. I almost couldn’t recognize you.”

Each individual was born with a certain talent in using and manipulating mana. Although it was common for a person to increase the amount and power of mana he or she was able to handle, it was almost unheard of, or rather considered impossible, for someone to change the composition of their mana.

Although being able to recognize a person by just sensing or feeling someone’s mana was considered a very high-level ability, this was child’s play to the two people sitting in the room. And having known Raylz for a very long time, Shryza felt no need to hide this from now.

“So how does my mana feel now?”

“Hmm… It’s a bit difficult for me to verbalize it. Although it is weaker than before, it feels much more complex. I’d be very interested to hear about what you did these past years to change it.”

Shryza again was made fully aware of the old man’s abilities to sense mana, as the number of people in the world who could had senses as good as his could be counted with a person’s two hands. Raylz smiled kindly at Shryza, who could only nod back. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable at this unusually warm atmosphere, Shryza quickly returned with his own remarks.

“I see you haven’t lost any of your sharpness since becoming headmaster. I thought you were supposed to grow more senile with age.”

Speaking of which, this room was rather bare and simple for a headmaster’s room. Asides from bookshelves full of thick ancient-looking books, plain wooden desk, a few chairs, and the large windows behind him, there was not much else in this room to speak of. Likewise, Raylz was a rather simple man, unconcerned with such extravagance and grandeur this school was supposed to reflect.

However, he was also of the belief that the headmaster should be the strongest in the school. Otherwise, in his own words, how can he be qualified to lead the next generation? Not just mentally, but Raylz’s physical and magical strength seemed to be as impressive as they were in the past.

Before Raylz could continue on his nostalgia trip, Shryza decided to cut it short. He wasn’t against continuing this talk and catching up with an old acquaintance, but this wasn’t the purpose of his trip here.

“We will have to save catching up for another time. Now getting down to business, please tell me why you’ve called me here.”

The old man was completely unfazed by this change of pace, and he smiled while leaning forward bringing his hands together on top of his desk.

“I have a request to make of you.”

“A request?”

Suddenly Shryza’s interest in the old man’s words increased considerably.

It wasn’t very often that Raly made a request from anyone. Normally he was the independent type of man that would never involve other people in his own troubles, and was also the sort of benevolent person who would accept other people’s requests without asking anything in return. So this request must involve a problem that must’ve been too difficult for Raylz to overcome alone, is what Shryza surmised.

Shryza’s conclusion was correct, but only to a certain extent.

“Yes. I apologize to have to ask this of you, but I want you to enroll at my academy.”

There was a brief moment of silence followed by a sigh. Shryza felt that he’d been sighing too much lately.

“It’s not like you gave me a choice. But wouldn’t it be easier if you had explained yourself before?”

“Is it that strange?”

“Of course it is, to be told to come to your office just only to find a teacher standing outside telling me follow her. Wouldn’t it be more proper for you to have talked with me earlier?”

“But that wouldn’t be as much fun, now would it?”

There was another moment of silence. Shryza felt another strong urge to clock the grinning old man in the face.

“About this entrance test requirement, I don’t recall ever having taken it.”

If he recalled correctly, some students in the class mentioned he had extraordinary high transfer exam results. Not that they weren’t difficult to achieve at all, but…

“Forged.”

A third moment of silence.

“For the headmaster to forge a student’s documents, wouldn’t that be quite the scandal if you were to be found out.”

“You think I’d ever be caught?”

Well let the old man have his fun. Shryza, already prepared to carry out this request, decided to stop asking his tangential questions.

“Back to the main subject of my enrollment, I’m fairly certain that there is something more to this.”

“I just thought it would be great if you could somehow settle down and finally live the life of an ordinary student… is what I would like to say. But unfortunately things are a little bit more complicated.”

Raylz slowly got out of his chair and turned around, looking out the office windows. Outside was quite the grand view of the academy’s main campus. With his back facing Shryza, Raylz continued where he left off.

“Shryza. You are aware of the ranking system of this school?”

“It essentially mirrors that of the International Ranking System, correct?”

“Correct. With our approximately ten thousand students on the island across both our high school and university systems, this ranking system is a convenient compare and measure everyone’s combat prowess. Naturally those in higher grades, and hence the older students, are more mature and have had more time to learn and develop their abilities. Thus as you move up in grade, your rank will increase along as well.”

“So where are you getting at with this explanation.”

“Haha, forgive this old man for being so wordy.”

Raylz then turned back around and, while still standing, again faced Shryza.

“As this ranking system only judges an individual by their ability alone, sometimes there are outliers where some young prodigies will be strong enough to surpass their upperclassmen’s ranks.”

“I see. In the class I went to, there was a student around my age who was highly ranked. Himika Cou was her name, if I recall.”

“I know.”

Because I sent you there purposely, is what Raylz’s mischievous eyes seem to say.

“How was she?”

“She was stronger than what I expected.”

“I meant as a potential girlfriend.”

A fourth moment of silence.

“Anyways…”

The headmaster decided to cut his joke short, as he felt that he would have been in imminent danger should he have continued.

“There are six more students like her who were gifted with immense powers, and each with a unique element. All of them are now in their final year of the high school curriculum, the same year as you, but they have recently completely monopolized the top seven ranks, surpassing every student at the university level.”

Raylz picked up the pre-prepared tablet from the side of his desk and handed it to Shryza. Before him was a public listing of the top ranking students at the academy.

Rank 1 | Leoi, Venus <Wind Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Wind

Rank 2 | Syun, Ariana <Steel Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Metal

Rank 3 | Cou, Himika <Flame Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Fire

Rank 4 | Smith, Yuki <Ice Dragon Valkyrie | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Water

Rank 5 | Lau, Ivy <Rose Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Wood

Rank 6 | Evant, Emile <Lightning Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Electric

Rank 7 | Stariva, Selena <Earth Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Earth

Four of these names were familiar to Shryza. These seven comprised the seven Dragon Valkyrie sisters, the term he had briefly heard from his classmates earlier. They had quite the grandiose nicknames, but admittedly they did have the power to back up their titles.

And along with Himika Cou, he also was able to pinpoint two other surnames belonging to the other two great families: Ariana Syun and Ivy Lau of the Wu and Shu houses respectively. As all three were blessed with incredible talents far surpassing their peers, it was likely that all three would succeed as the heads of their respective houses.

“Seven prodigies of similar age and the seven core elements, it shouldn’t be a coincidence…”

“As you and I have already surmised, this was most likely a result of Heaven’s Fall. Having taken place eighteen years ago, it is also the same year all of you were born.”

“So what does this have to do with your request?”

“I want you to protect them.”

A request to protect seven beautiful girls. What was with this unlikely harem-type setting? Shryza felt a mounting headache just listening to this request, and he had yet to carry these requests out.

“These girls are prodigies only seen once every few generations. And there are many international organizations and governments that would strongly desire to obtain their power, even if they had to take more forceful measures. The war-potential that each of these girls would add to any of these groups is not insignificant, especially as their talents mature. Additionally, a number of these girls are heiresses to well-established houses and families, and thus they have their fair share of enemies as well. However at the end of the day, they are still students of my school. And I have an obligation to protect them, at least until they graduate from the academy’s university. And as hired bodyguards are not permitted in the academy or academy-related events, it would be ideal if you could protect these girls behind the scenes as an undercover student.”

Shryza had to admit that Raylz’s rationale was quite reasonable.

“Shouldn’t they already be strong enough to fend for themselves? And even then, no one should be strong or foolish enough to enter the <Silver Demonic Tiger>’s Den, right?”

Having fought one of the <Dragon Valkyries>, Shryza estimated them to be on the level of a three-digit ranker in the International Ranking System. In other words, there were less than a thousand people in this world who could contest the <Dragon Valkyries> in a fair one-on-one fight.

But even in the event that someone stronger than them was to enter the campus grounds uninvited, they would have to somehow bypass the old man standing before Shryza. This old man was the infamous <Silver Demonic Tiger>, whose name top rankers spoke in reverence and the one used to scare children during bedtime stories, was currently the fifth highest ranked person in the world.

The fifth strongest was not a title to be taken lightly.

“Typically I would agree with you, Shryza. However, I cannot be everywhere at once. There will be times when our students will accept missions and assignments outside the academy grounds. And of course during these times, they will be outside the reach of my protection. And I want you to appropriately deal with anything that the <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters can’t handle.”

“Wait, there is something I want to clarify. Why now?”

Having been students at the academy for at least a year, the issue of protecting the <Dragon Valkyries> should have been addressed earlier.

“According to school policy, while the academic year is in session, students are not permitted to receive assignments requiring them to leave campus…”

And with some reluctance, Raylz slowly opened his mouth to finish his statement.

“…that is, until they reach their senior year of high school.”

Seeing where the conversation was going, Shryza had pushed himself out of his chair and started to head out the door. It was true that he felt indebted to Raylz for having taken care of him in the past. But this extended bodyguard request was not something he anticipated, nor nothing he wanted to take part of.

“So this is not a one-time deal?”

“Please, Shryza. There’s no one else I can ask.”

“Raylz, I honestly would like to help you. But you also know that I have no inclination to babysit them until they graduate from this academy’s university. Please find someone else.”

“This arrangement is also beneficial to you as well. Amongst the organizations and people targeting the <Dragon Valkyries>, <Nine Dragons God> is without a doubt one of them.”

Just as Shryza touched the handle of one of the double doors, the mention of the name of that person caused him to stop his movements. Shryza turned around and met Raylz’s eyes, which were unwavering and resolute. There were no lies behind his earnest words. Having been lured with that person’s name and with the obligation to at least hear him out, Shryza walked back to the desk and stood face-to-face with Raylz.

“Fine, I’m listening.”

“One of the <Dragon Valkyries> is the only blood-related daughter of <Nine Dragons God>. So in time, as long as you are with them, that person will come and find you.”

There was too much information this story was lacking, and thus Shryza continued to press forward with more inquiries.

“If that is the case, then why haven’t they reunited earlier?”

“That is because those two don’t know it, yet. One thought the daughter passed away at childbirth and the other thought she was abandoned as a baby. I was requested to keep the daughter’s lineage hidden away from her, but I cannot hide this fact forever and that person will definitely find out the truth.”

Although Raylz was a fun-loving old man who loved to joke around, he would never lie whenever he was serious. But this seemed to be a ridiculously improbable, if not impossible, situation that I’ve only read or heard about in fictional stories.

“In truth this theory sounds incredibly absurd. What’s your justification for it?””

“I have none.”

This is exactly as Shryza thought; he found it very strange that Raylz should hold this much information and yet the two concerned parties had none. However, he did not expect Raylz’s follow-up response.

“But what if I told you that the information came directly from <Black-Flame Phoenix>?”

<Black-Flame Phoenix>. A mutual acquaintance whose information and intelligence Shryza had never found to be wrong. It was person whose abilities Shryza had absolute trust in.

“Okay Raylz, have it your way. You’ve convinced me to babysit these girls.”

Although Shryza expected Raylz to break out in a relieved smile, his face remained unnaturally stoic.

“There’s one more thing I want you to look into.”

“Is this related to your current request? Or is this another one entirely?”

“I wouldn’t call this a request, but this is an issue that you will not ignore. Have you heard the recent rumors spreading around the underground.”

“You’re aware that I’ve been out of the country until just this morning, right?”

“I know, which is why I’ve taken the time to bring this topic up. Although both of know that this person… should have been dead for many years already, apparently he has somehow managed to come back from death’s doors.”

In regards to this subject matter, Raylz’s was uncharacteristically grave. All traces of his usual smile were completely erased.

“It’s been reported that he has recently been appointed as one of Revolutionary Army’s thirteen leaders.”

The Revolutionary Army was the largest organization seeking to overthrow the current empire. Their cause and efforts were widely supported by the vast majority of people disillusioned by the empire’s darkness and corruption. This army was a rather significant force that the empire could not afford to ignore, as they were supported by numerous two and three-digit rankers. It was also a well established fact that this organization was one of the major recruiters of the International Combat Academy’s students as well.

Despite the empire’s objections to this, they had no jurisdiction over this neutral island academy.

“And what of it? Are you implying I should be cautious of this imposter?”

“Perhaps. Well imposter or not, no one has yet had the power to step forth and contest his identity.”

“His name then?”

“It should be one you’re very familiar with. He’s returned…”

Shryza was suddenly overcome with and overwhelming sense of foreboding. And at Raylz’s following words, Shryza’s violet-colored eye widened for just an instant.

“…The <God of Death>.”

===Interlude 2:===

<Nine Dragons God>

A person he had been hunting down for years.

The one being responsible for killing his master.

<God of Death>

A person who had long since been dead.

The one existence who was closest to him.

The seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters.

Students he was entrusted to protect.

The seven girls who had the potential to change the world.

Three troublesome issues.

Three sources for his headaches.

And what a stupid premonition the dream turned out to be.

===Chapter 3:===

====Chapter 3: Part 1:====

“Thanks for waiting, Student Council Vice President.”

As soon as Shryza had left Raylz’s, or rather the headmaster’s, office, he was greeted outside by Ivy, the same person who had initially brought him here. Despite her behavior, she was actually quite the diligent Student Council officer, having waited patiently for him during the duration of his talk with Raylz. Apparently she was also entrusted with the duty to serve as his guide around the academy’s campus grounds.

“It was no trouble at all. Also, there’s no need to be so formal, you can just call me by my given name. After all we are in the same grade and class.”

“Is that so? That’s a bit surprising.”

“Both the Student Council and Disciplinary members have joint-morning meetings once a week, one of which was today.”

And that was why she was not present when Shryza first arrived to our classroom, is what she seemed to imply.

“By the way, Shryza, you’re not affected?”

“Affected?”

Shryza slowly asked back, trying to determine what Ivy was referring to. Although he ended up shaking his head at her inquiry, Ivy for some reason only smiled brightly back.

“If you haven’t noticed, then don’t mind it. So I have been assigned to be your personal guide for the rest of this morning. Is there anywhere on campus you want me to take you? Or is there anything you I can do for you?”

With these words, the beautiful Student Council Vice President grabbed Shryza’s right arm and lightly pulled it her way. At the same time, she tilted her head upwards at him with an alluringly smile. Whether her actions were subconscious or purposely calculated, even though this was already his second interaction with her, he thought she was acting a little too close. However, this could work to his advantage, as there was other information he wanted to ascertain from her.

“There is something I wanted to ask. What would be the fastest way to increase my rank?”

During Shryza’s meeting with Raylz, he was informed that assignments and missions were given to pre-assigned groups of students, and these groupings were primarily based on their inter-school ranks. To ensure that he would be grouped with the other seven girls to more easily protect them, should the need arise, it was highly suggested for him to first raise his rank to the same single-digit level.

Thanks to the headmaster’s influence and the forged and nearly flawless transfer exam results, Shryza was initially placed at Rank 994, which, although barely a triple-digit rank, was already considered extraordinarily high for a student in the high school level.

Raylz had given him a two week timeframe for Shryza to raise his rank to the same level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters.

“Let’s see…”

Tilting her head upwards with a finger lightly pressed on her chin, she briefly hesitated to think before responding.

“The fastest way would be to win duels against high-ranked students. But most of them won’t accept unless you use the forced duel rule.”

According to the forced duel rule, as a triple-digit ranked student, Raylz could fight now force a duel from a student within ten percent of his rank, rounded down, or within 99 ranks of his current Rank 994. As a double-digit ranker, that percentage would increase to twenty-five percent. And as a single-digit ranker, a student could only force a duel within two ranks of his or her own rank.

Assuming he could somehow pinpoint the exact students he wanted to force a duel with, the fastest and most efficient way he could achieve a single-digit rank was as follows:

Rank 994 -> Rank 895 -> Rank 806 -> Rank 726 -> Rank 654 -> Rank 589 -> Rank 531 -> Rank 478 -> Rank 431 -> Rank 388 -> Rank 350 -> Rank 315 -> Rank 284 -> Rank 256 -> Rank 231 -> Rank 208 -> Rank 188 -> Rank 170 -> Rank 153 -> Rank 138 -> Rank 125 -> Rank 113 -> Rank 102 -> Rank 92 -> Rank 69 -> Rank 52 -> Rank 39 -> Rank 30 -> Rank 23 -> Rank 18 -> Rank 14 -> Rank 11 -> Rank 9

To save the effort of counting:

32 duels. Minimum.

To accomplish this feat his two week deadline looked to be a huge pain.

Two weeks was when the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters would be assigned their first assignment outside of the campus grounds.

Having done these calculations mentally, Shryza couldn’t help but groan internally.

There was a shortcut he had considered, and had discussed this plan briefly with Raylz. He thought it incredibly amusing, and Shryza less so. Although he wanted to avoid drawing the entire academy’s attention to him, it couldn’t be avoided. Normally Shryza would not attempt to take such a reckless gambit, as he preferred to keep his actions hidden in the shadows. But it would probably be easier to quickly get this task done and over with in one sitting, with the alternative being to spread the pain across two weeks by having to fight and win at least 32 duels.

Well, it couldn’t be helped.

And at least it would kill two birds with one stone.

“Although this seems like a somewhat unrelated question, what time does the joint-meeting end?”

“Sorry, but can you repeat yourself?”

Ivy heard the question the first time around quite clearly, but she was busy determining the relevance of Shryza’s question.

“The joint-meeting between the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee, at what time does it end?”

“Usually we can finish our discussions before noon.”

“I see. It looks like there is still about an hour left.”

She couldn’t help but tilt her head in confusion at Shryza’s murmuring.

“Ivy, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“If it’s something I can help with.”

“Would it be too much trouble to attend whatever is left of this meeting?”

Walking from the administrative building, where the headmaster’s office was housed, to the meeting location took only a few minutes. While en route to their destination, Shryza couldn’t help but notice again how truly big this academy was, taking up the entire of this island. To house both the high school and university level students, there were many classrooms and dormitories in this academy to accommodate them and more. However, there was an abundance of recreational facilities and other rather irrelevant buildings as well. It was said that walking from one side of the campus to the other could take a good hour or so. In those situations, students just used the available interschool transit.

This meeting room was actually one of the larger boardroom made available by the academy that students could reserve to hold meetings or work together on group projects. Normally the Student Council and Disciplinary Committee had their own personal rooms they could use for these types of meetings, but both groups thought it best to hold their joint-meetings at a neutral site. After all, despite the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee working hand-in-hand, they were at least to maintain the appearance of acting independently.

Having reached the designated meeting room, Ivy knocked the door lightly with the back of her hand before reaching for the handle and opening it. As she had texted the Student Council President prior to coming in order to get approval, both her and Shryza’s presence were already expected.

The meeting room consisted of a rather long rectangular table with twenty seats: nine chairs on each of the table’s sides and two chairs sharing the end, opposite to where the large meeting room screen was placed. This meeting room was only half filled: what Shryza presumed to be the top five members from each organization were present.

At the end of the table seated the Student Council President and Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman, the two students holding the most political power within the academy. Sitting in the four seats following from each side of the table were their respective underlings. However the side chair closest to the Student Council President was empty; that was where Student Council Vice President Ivy was typically seated. And on the chair on the opposite side of the table, the side chair closest to the Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman, was where Vice Chairwoman Ariana sat cross-armed, staring at Ivy and Shryza’s direction. Her face had the expression of asking why Shryza was currently here.

At Ivy and Shryza’s entrance, the entire table went silent as both the President and Chairwoman opened their mouths to greet the new transfer student.

“Welcome to the International Combat Academy. My name is Eliza Mari, and I am the current President of the Student Council. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”

“And I am Bara Obarna, Chairwoman of the Disciplinary Committee. I heard what happened this morning from my underclassman and I hope that this incident didn’t cause too much trouble for you.”

It was incredibly troublesome, Shryza wanted to retort. However he settled for the expected response.

“Thanks to your intervention, it wasn’t much trouble at all.”

Having been elected in their second year of university and completely uncontested in their reelections as third year students, both of the women who had greeted Shryza were incredibly popular. And it was not difficult to see why.

President Eliza seemed to speak very softly yet politely, maintaining a certain aura of elegance around her. Her long curly blond hair complemented her slim and petite doll-like figure. Despite her frail physical appearance, she was not to be underestimated as she held claim to being the ninth highest ranked student at the academy.

In contrast, Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman seemed to portray a rougher image. Although she was a very charismatic speaker and had a friendly atmosphere around her, if needed to she wouldn’t hesitate to resort to using force. She had short cropped hair and had a more muscular yet slim athletic figure. And just like she looked, she was unquestionably powerful at Rank Eight in the academy.

Although not to the extent of the seven monsters given the collective nickname <Dragon Valkyries>, both women were incredibly beautiful and talented. If the seven sisters had never attended this academy, the President and the Chairwoman

Speaking of which, Shryza was still somewhat baffled at how the school had such a large concentration of powerful, talented women at the top of the interschool rankings. Not that he was in a position to complain about this harem-like setting.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Also after hearing from my Ariana, my assistant, I heard you are quite strong. Would you like to join the Disciplinary Committee?”

Chairwoman Bara seemed to imply that strength was the only prerequisite to joining her committee. President Eliza in response also provided an offer.

“Or perhaps would the Student Council be a better fit for you? It seems that you are quite capable.”

To have these two powerful students acknowledge him wasn’t a bad feeling. However, he had no intentions of joining either organization. The first reason was that he did not have time to spare doing work for either group, as he already assumed the duty to babysit seven girls. The second reason was that he would be certain they would rescind their offers. After all, he was just about to antagonize them, both.

“Actually I have something else to discuss. You may call it a request for you two.”

“A request?”

“Interesting… At the very least, we can hear it out.”

At Shryza’s subtle change in tone, Eliza and Bara both changed their expressions. How sharp, Shryza thought of the two of them.

Now for the moment of truth.

“I would like to challenge you both to a duel.”

The whole room was stunned into silence. The President was the first to regain her composure.

“Shryza. Unfortunately, I will have to decline. After all, you have not provided the necessary collateral and there is nothing for me to gain.”

“As Prez said, there’s too much risk and no reward. However I like your guts, kid. My offer for you to join my Disciplinary Committee still stands.”

As expected, both of the two top-ranked university students would turn down this challenge. The risk of such a large potential drop in rank, from single-digit to triple-digit, was too high, and there was no reward to be gained. And as the ranks were too far apart, Shryza was unable to use the forced-duel rule.

It was time for him to pull his trump card, the one he had Rayl prepare for him beforehand. From his pocket, he pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper and held it up.

“Actually I do have something to offer. And I hope it is something you cannot easily refuse.”

While speaking, he walked up to both leaders and handed the paper to them. The President warily took it from him and unfolded it, while still keeping eye contact with him. Finally she turned down her eyes and quickly read the paper’s contents.

“This is…!”

To have surprised the Student Council President, the message must have quite unexpected. The Chairwoman leaned towards the President to also read the letter, and even she was shocked.

“This can’t be real, can it?”

Going back several minutes after Raylz had just mentioned <God of Death>’s name, Shryza had agreed to his request. However Shryza had quickly realized that in order to achieve a single-digit rank to better monitor the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters, he would have to fight a rather large number of duels. He then proposed to just fight whoever was Rank Eight or Nine in order to quickly finish this task in one go. Raylz, upon hearing this shortcut, he knew that these two students were the Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman and the Student Council President, and he thought this quite the interesting proposal. But to get them to agree to this duel with no merit to them, he offered to personally provide the incentive.

And after all, regardless of the wager he had to provide, he had absolute confidence that Shryza would not lose.

“I can assure you that this was approved by the headmaster. His seal at the bottom of the letter is real enough.”

“I see. This is something I cannot just ignore. For the headmaster to make this personal offer…”

“In any case, this might be worth the risk. So which one of us would you like to challenge?”

Both the President and the Chairwoman were convinced that they could not lose to a high school student that was not one of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters. However Shryza could still feel some hesitation coming from the both of them. After all Shryza was a student that was able to hold his own against Himika, Rank Three, despite her being unarmed and not having used her full power.

Although this was not quite in the original plan, perhaps they just needed a little bit more confidence. If he was to make the leap to a single-digit rank with a single duel, he would already draw quite the amount of attention towards himself. A little more wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Shaking his head while smiling, Shryza gave them the final push.

And again caused the whole room to freeze in silence.

“I never said it had to be a one-on-one duel. Both of you are welcome to come at me together.”

====Chapter 3: Part 2:====

“For you to challenge our pride, not just as upperclassmen but as leaders of this academy, is unforgivable.”

“Don’t regret it when you lose, underclassman.”

There were two armed students standing twenty meters away in front of Shryza.

Right now the time was almost 2:00pm. The location was on a flat grassy field, roughly 100 meters by 50 meters in size. Surrounding the four sides of the field were stadium seats, capable of seating 20,000 or so students, twice the student population of the academy. This was actually only the second largest of the academy’s stadiums, which left Shry amazed at the academy’s unnecessary expenditures.

President Eliza stood to Shry’s front and left, wielding an elegant rapier by her side. Despite the fragile-looking decorations on the guard and the thin appearance of the blade, it was without a doubt very well crafted as it had won numerous battles for her. She wore only a simple Academy-issued battle suit, which was made of light-weight magic-permeable materials, similar to that of the uniforms. Despite the close-fitting suit accentuating the curves of her body, it allowed for her movements to be completely unobstructed.

To the right, Chairwoman Bara stood with the imposing image of the modern-age paladin. Except her head, which was left helmet-less, every inch of her body was clad in form-fitting dense metal armor. She also carried on her shoulder, with ease, a giant double-sided battle-axe with a two-meter long handle. To be able to carry that weapon, let alone wear the heavy armor, required an immense physical strength.

Putting their ranks on the line for this duel, both university students were prepared to fight with their full force.

This duel had turned into a full-blown event. During the meeting, it had been suggested that the duel be scheduled to the afternoon, in the academy’s second stadium. After all, it would take time to book the stadium and have the request approved. Additionally it would allow around two hours for both parties to make preparations for the fight. Somehow despite the meeting taking place behind closed doors, word of the duel had spread throughout campus like wildfire: that the new transfer student had challenged both the academy’s leaders to a one-on-two duel.

It was a rather uncommon occurrence for both leaders to be fighting in a duel, especially in a non-tournament setting. To see both of them fight was something most of the university students did not wish to miss.

Having generated a fair amount of publicity by having fought on par with the academy’s third ranked Himika Cou on his first morning in class, quite a number of the academy’s students started calling him the eighth prodigy. It was natural for both university and high school students would be curious about his potential strength to rival the school’s top seven.

Both parties had agreed to Vice President Ivy as the referee of the duel, which only increased the number of her fans coming to watch the duel as well. It was sad to say that she probably had as much, if not even more, popularity as President Eliza.

Combining the above three rationales, about a fifth of the stadium seats, which equated to about four thousand students or forty percent of the academy’s students, have come to the stadium stands to spectate the duel. This was a much higher turnout than anyone could have expected.

Whether there was one observer or thousands of spectators made little difference to Shry, as he looked down at his own weapon. He held only a combat survival knife, well-maintained but very battle-worn. However, the length of the blade was less the 30 centimeters, which meant that he his effective attack range was very short. And as he was not issued a battle suit, he wore only his uniform. With minimal protection and a simple knife for a weapon, it seemed that Shry was not only very underdressed and underprepared for this duel, but also seemingly outmatched and outnumbered with a one-to-two man disadvantaged.

“Hey Shry, are you looking down at us? To suggest this two-versus-one duel, you must be severely underestimating us.”

“For you to bring only a combat knife, I’m certain you could have found other weapons to borrow for this duel.”

While President Eliza remained as polite as ever, Chairwoman Bara was truer to her aggressive personality. Shry shook his head at the Chairwoman’s question and at the President’s follow-up comment.

“It would be best if you didn’t hold back.”

“I see. How arrogant.”

Chairwoman Bara released an incredible wave of fighting intent, which greatly intimidated the spectators. Shry was not impressed; Himika’s fighting spirit earlier this morning had been more intense.

“Vice President Ivy, if you could kindly start the match?”

“I apologize for the delay, President.”

As Ivy stepped forward between both sides, the audience in the stands suddenly went silent.

“My name is Vice President Ivy Lau and I have been given permission by both parties to oversee this duel. The challenged party, President Ivy and Chairwoman Bara, do both of you agree to the conditions of this match?”

These formalities were generally unnecessary for interschool duels. But as both the President and Chairwoman were involved in this match and there was quite an audience observing, this politeness from Ivy was understandable. Also due to the circumstances of there being a large audience observing the duel, Ivy also held a microphone in her left hand to project her voice to the crowd.

“I, President Eliza Mari, fully accept the conditions of this duel.”

“And I, Chairwoman Bara Obarna, also agree to this match.”

Having heard both of their approvals, Ivy then turned to Shry.

“And the challenger, Shryza, do you also agree to the conditions of this match?”

“I, Shryza Doe, likewise agree to this duel.”

“Now are both dueling parties ready?”

Ivy had turned her vision to the middle of the field again while holding her right hand high above her head. Neither of the dueling parties said a word, where in this scenario silence was assumed acceptance.

President Eliza had brought her rapier parallel to her side and parallel to the ground and Chairwoman Bara lifted her battleaxe over her head, both staring at their opponent intently while preparing to strike immediately.

Shryza loosely held the combat knife in his right hand, in a backwards grip. However he appeared to be in no stance of any sort, giving him the appearance of him having multiple openings. However, Ivy, as well as the six other <Dragon Valkyries> who were attending the match were not fooled; only they could noticed that his defense was pretty much impregnable.

Due to vast increase in the audience as well as the much higher stakes between the dueling parties, the tension in the air was incomparably heavier than that in the fight between Shryza and Himika.

All was silent.

Then.

Ivy swung down her right arm.

“Duel start!”

Suddenly the Chairwoman dashed forward with her battleaxe still held high while the President followed closely behind her. Shry was a bit impressed by Chairwoman Bara’s swiftness considering how heavy her armor and weapon looked.

Unexpectedly it was the President who made the first move. While still dashing behind the Chairwoman, she rose her rapier high above her, gathering mana to its tip. Suddenly from that source of mana, torrents of water spread towards every direction, enclosing the three students on the field.

“Crystal Castle!”

Suddenly all the water on the field solidified into ice. The water that was the in the process of splashing froze into spiked walls while the stream of water and frozen into pillars of ice connecting from the ground to a dome at the middle. Rather than say castle, as it barely resembled one, it was more accurate to simply call it an ice cage to trap Shry in and cut off his escape routes.

Less than a meter separating him from Bara, he tried to lift his legs in an attempt to sidestep or dodge. However, he realized too late that his legs became partially frozen in President Eliza’s ice spell, something he shouldn’t have overlooked, and was now stuck to his current position. It looked like he had no choice but to withstand the full brunt of the incoming attack.

“Pentagon Strike!”

While roaring, she brought down her battle-axe violently yet swiftly, not just once but four times in succession. With each of her swings from her mana-infused axe, she caused an enormous earth spike to emerge from the ground. As each spike was created, a huge cloud of dirt and shattered ice was also scattered about as in the process. Then she lifted her axe once more, with her orange-colored eyes staring into her creation. Then with her final strike, the most powerful of her five, she again brought her battle-axe down with a ridiculous force and brought a final earth spike, the largest of the five she created, erupting from the ground.

The end result of the President and Chairwoman’s combination attack was a five-pointed star of earth that had bloomed from the ground, breaking the side of the ice cage in the process.

But the barrage of attacks was not over.

Chairwoman Bara then stepped aside as President Eliza stepped forward.

“Ocean’s Thrust!”

As implied by her attack name, she gathered a torrent of mana along the entire length of her blade and thrust it forward in Shry’s direction, assuming he was still in one piece. As the rapier stopped, as the president’s arm was fully extended, a single torrent of water had completely pierced through earth and ice, reaching to one of the ends of the field. With a giant hole drilling through the middle of the earth flower, it caused the structure to inwardly collapse into a pile of rubble. This prompted both opponents to back off a few meters to observe the situation.

A weaker opponent would have been absolutely skewered and crushed by these high-level attacks.

“Damn, did we overdo it?”

Killing an opponent was one of the forbidden acts in a duel. Both the Chairwoman and the President had expected him to be around, or slightly lower than, the level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters. Seeing as there was almost no resistance from their opponent, they were having second thoughts about going all-out from the start.

But voice of the one who responded to the Chairwoman was not that of her partner.

“No, it wasn’t enough.”

Sitting on the pile of the pile of earth and ice sat Shry. Although he was somewhat dirtied by dirt and wet with water, he was completely unscathed.

And seeing that the transfer high school student had survived the onslaught of his two opponents, the crowd erupted in noise.

“Impossible! How did you stop my Pentagon Strike?”

“And to deflect my Ocean’s Thrust after-”

Suddenly at about the same time, both the President and the Chairwoman collapsed onto their knees before going down head first. They both struggled to tilt their heads in Shry’s direction.

“Huh? I can’t seem to move at all!”

“What the hell did you do to my body?

“Isn’t it obvious?”

After having dusted himself off, he walked towards to within inches of them before crouching down onto one knee. He then purposely looked at both of them in the eyes.

The President made the realization first after having looked at his single violet-colored eye.

“Wood Element… No, it can’t be… poison was it?”

“Huh? Just when did you poison us, you coward?!”

To someone like the Chairwoman who fought in fights straightforwardly with pride, a victory by incapacitating her opponent with poison was dirty and weak.

“Coward? Yes I suppose you could call me a coward. And as for how you were poisoned…”

Shry, who still held his combat knife, stuck out his index finger and pointed to the small scratch on President Elisa’s sword hand before pointing it at the small red line drawn across Chairwoman Bara’s left cheek.

“You two have far too many openings.”

Earlier during the fight, Chairwoman Bara had used her Pentagon Strike attack after Shry was locked in place. On each of her first four strikes, Shry had only slightly deflected the trajectory of the battle-axe to cause it to barely miss him. Having the dust and ice arise as well as the eruption of the pillars only obstructed her vision, thus causing her not to know whether any of the five strikes had landed. As Shry, from the called-out attack name, had correctly predicted a total of five strikes, he chose to counter on the fifth and last strike. While the battle-axe swung down for its final strike, in one motion he deflected it as normal but continued his swing to just barely carve a small line onto the Chairwoman’s face. Distracted by the adrenaline rush, or probably thinking it was one of the shards of earth or ice that had hit her, she did not notice that the knife did indeed land an attack on her.

On President Ariana’s final attack, he assumed it was a forward thrust, having gleaned that much information from the attack name “Ocean’s Thrust.” In response, he was able to block and deflect the rapier from the side and bypassed the blade’s guard, clipping her sword hand in the process.

Granted, Shry could have easily countered both his opponents regardless of whether they called out their attack names. They just made his job easier.

Shry didn’t feel like explaining the details: they could figure it out themselves if they thought about it long enough. Instead, he gave them just a small word of wisdom.

“As a few last words of advice, calling out the names of your attacks is completely idiotic.”

Having finished what he needed to say to his opponents, or rather former opponents, Shry stood up and glanced up at Ivy, who understood his look.

“It seems that both President Ivy and Chairwoman Cara are unable to fight. I present to you the winner, the transfer student, Shryza Doe!”

Although the audience cheered and shouted loudly at this announcement, most students were very shocked at this development. A high school student had defeated two top-ranked university students in a fair one-to-two duel in the span of less than two minutes.

Or was it even a minute?

It was ultimately a very one-sided victory for Shryza.

On the very afternoon of his transfer to the academy, Shryza had unceremoniously risen to Rank Eight in the academy. For another high school student outside of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters to achieve a single-digit interschool ranking was unprecedented in the academy’s history. And the method he used to achieve such a rank was rather flashy as well.

For the next few weeks, Shry would inevitably be the hot topic to talk about throughout the academy.

Despite the air of surprise and confusion amongst the spectators, seven of them felt something different. These seven felt something akin to anticipation, or perhaps premonition. But something was definitely changing.

And the seven understood that Shry could be the catalyst to that change.

Having finished with this troublesome duel, Shry started moving to the side of the field while the school paramedics rushed towards the President and Chairwoman. One of the paramedics had stopped to see whether he needed any assistance, but his help was rejected and he was waved off. Although the poison would wear off in another few minutes, he didn’t feel the need to reveal this.

“Wait!”

Stopped by the President’s voice, Shry stopped momentarily and tilted his head to the side.

“Just… who, no what are you?”

“Who knows? Aren’t I just a troublesome high school transfer student?”

===Chapter 4:===

====Chapter 4: Part 1:====

(In Progress)

User:Shrysha

2014-09-15T15:41:01Z

Shrysha: Minor edits

==The Seven Princess Knights and the Dark Lord Hero (Original Light Novel Attempt)==

===Foreword:===

This is a story about the knight rescuing the princess from the bad guys.

This seems to be a traditional plotline chock-full of overused clichés and tropes.

Except that the knight wasn’t one of those typical knights in shining armor. Perhaps he could be considered one of those bad guys. Maybe a villain. Wait, could he even be called a knight at this point? I think if I asked him, he would probably reject the “knight” designation.

And this story didn’t just have one princess. Actually there are seven. And did they even need rescuing?

Well there has to be bad guys in the story, right? Well, I’m not even sure if the bad guys could even be called bad guys. I mean, their intentions were good. Probably better than those of Mr. Knight. I suppose it is just a matter of perspective.

So, this is a story about the knight who wasn’t really a knight rescuing the princesses who didn’t need to be rescued from the bad guys who weren’t really bad guys.

I think I did a decent job with my summary.

Enjoy!

===Prologue:===

“Strong…”

These were the only words that the frail young white-haired slave child could mutter. Or rather a former slave. Despite lying collapsed on the ground and with skin covered with filth and body malnourished, and despite having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, there was no fear in this child’s eyes.

Before the child was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a midnight-black hooded cloak concealing his entire body and a similarly colored long curved sword, he gave a very intimidating dark presence. Carrying the scent of blood and death around him, he could very well be mistaken for the grim reaper or angel of death himself. And those would be rather accurate guesses, as he was widely known to the rest of the world by the name <God of Death>, and not just for his physical appearance alone.

After all, he was the one responsible for having single-handedly staining this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of men.

Hundreds killed with only a single swing of his blade.

Perhaps instead of a battle, it would be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre, or perhaps a mass execution. The reaper was the judge, jury, and executioner.

But at the moment, he was the only truth in this part of the world where power was the only law, with no one left alive to oppose him.

Despite the <God of Death>’s actions, the child still did not fear him. To the child, this reaper was a savior, having killed the now former slave merchant owners and their bodyguards.

Perhaps this was too much of a biased view; it was truly a matter of perspective.

Contrary to his expectations, the child slowly crawled and reached for the hem of his cloak.

Perhaps having had his interest piqued, he patiently waited for the child’s next actions. This child who was on the steps of death’s door. This child whose life was in the hands of this “god” ruling over death itself.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly rose to an oppressive level, completely overwhelming the child’s senses. The child suddenly collapsed back to the ground, seemingly crushed by an immense unknown pressure. But the child who had nothing left to lose, and nothing left to fear, only stared unwaveringly back.

Suddenly the pressure ceased, and the child could suddenly breathe gain. The <God of Death> turned around and full faced the child.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to glare back, showing his firm resolve. It may have been just a trick of the mind, but the child thought he felt the <God of Death> smile for just a moment. The voice continued.

(But power is something I can offer you. And the price…)

Without hesitation, with a single breath:

“My soul.”

===Interlude 1:===

Such a clichéd development.

A child’s soul offered to the devil in exchange for power.

But an unexpected response, like “It had already been paid for” or something anti-climatic like that, had been the immediate response. It left the child a bit speechless, which was to be expected.

To be prepared to sacrifice everything, not that it was much, and at the climax only to be told that someone else already paid the bill.

This was an eight-year-old memory that he hadn’t remembered for quite some time.

Perhaps even a fated reunion could occur.

Could this be what people commonly called a premonition?

===Chapter 1:===

====Chapter 1: Part 1:====

Today was supposed to be a normal day, link any other.

What kind of ridiculous development was this?

“Uhmm, Shryza, are you alright?”

A cute high-pitched voice interrupted him from his thoughts.

Trying to sort out his thoughts, Shryza had absent-mindedly brought his right hand to hold his temples underneath his messy head of silver-white hair, which was quite the unusual color for an eighteen year-old student.

His school uniform was ordinary enough: a white blazer, shirt and pants with the school insignia on each. Although Shryza felt uncomfortable wearing it, let alone it was a bit too flashy for his taste, it couldn’t be helped; as one of the most prestigious academic institutions worldwide, it was expected there would be an excess of unnecessary rules and regulations to maintain its lofty image to the rest of the world.

Asides from the standard-issue uniform, Shryza’s appearance was altogether rather unnatural.

His left eye was covered with an eyepatch, mostly obscured by the longer left-side bangs of his unnaturally white hair. And when combined with the pair of rectangular glasses on his face, the eyepatch was almost unnoticeable, especially from further distances. He also had wrapped the entire length of his left arm in bandages as well, most of which was hidden unearth the sleeve of his uniform.

Overall, Shryza’s appearance seemed to be one of a particularly unlucky accident-prone teenager.

If he had claimed to have been involved in a horrific accident that had injured most of his left side, and that this injury was the cause for his late enrollment to the school, most people would unquestionably believe him.

“I apologize. I’m just a little tired this morning, thanks.”

Shryza in response to the question in regards to his well-being settled for a simple apology, which he thought would suffice.

Standing facing Shryza was Professor Ruegger a comically petite teacher wearing an oversized white laboratory coat over her simple teaching attire, which only seemed to reinforce her rather child-like appearance. Contrary to how she looked, most students would unequivocally agree that she was an extremely knowledgeable well-liked teacher, always putting forth her best efforts for the sake of her students. Professor Reugger was looking up sternly at Shryza with her large orange-hued eyes, but it was rather difficult for him to take her seriously when she had the face of an innocent child pouting. If asked to guess her age, which was one of the greatest mysteries within this academy, Shryza would decline to comment.

Professor Ruegger smiled and, as expected, quickly accepted this apology. She turned back around and stated cheerfully, “Now please introduce yourself to the class.”

That’s right.

Shryza and Professor Ruegger were now standing at the front of a small lecture hall, or rather what looked like a mini-theatre, in front of twenty or so seated students. Although it wasn’t particularly necessary, she thought it a good idea for Shryza to take the opportunity to introduce himself as a new transfer student. There was quite a bit of whispering and murmuring in the classroom, which quieted down as Professor Ruegger took a step forward towards her students.

“So if you could, please introduce yourself.”

As Professor Reugger turned her head at back at Shryza, he could feel the curious stares of the students being redirected at him.

As he thought earlier, this was a ridiculous scenario, being forced to attend school.

There could only be one culprit.

And that someone would definitely later on receive a punch to the face.

With no other choice for now, Shryza decided to just go with the flow for now and accept his fate.

“My name is Shryza Doe. Nice to meet everyone.”

With a glance at the teacher, Shryza gave her a looking that said he was done with his introduction.
Apparently she, nor the rest of the class, was satisfied with such a short, information-lacking introduction.

Shryza sighed before stating, “I’m sorry but I’m quite terrible at this introduction thing. If anyone has any questions…”

Ms. Ru’s face suddenly paled. This was certainly the wrong approach for someone trying to maintain order within the classroom, not that Shryza actually cared though.

As to be expected, the class erupted with noise and he was bombarded with questions and comments from all directions, without any opening for him to answer.

“Hey hey, where did you come from?”

“Why did you transfer? Did you get into an accident?”

“What was your former school?”

“You look pretty cute, do you have a girlfriend?”

“Say something about your hobbies or favorite activities!”

“Why did you transfer into our class? I thought that you couldn’t become an A-rank without ranking up.”

“Are the rumors true? Is it true you got top scores on the transfer exam?”

“Apparently he completely aced the written portion.”

“No way, that’s impossible!”

“How were his practical results?”

“Wait, I heard you beat an exam-proctor in a fight. Is that true?”

“Seriously?”

“Unless he’s at the level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters…”

“Yeah, he doesn’t look that strong at all.”

“Did you get into an accident?”

It was complete chaos.

Shryza made zero attempts to answer any of the questions or rumors being wildly thrown around. Not that he had the chance to. On the other hand, there was one person in the class valiantly trying to rein in this disorder.

“Enough, everyone! Can everyone please quiet down!”

Professor Ruegger tried to tame the growing ruckus, but to no avail. It seemed that she had very little control over her own students. Even though she was a very well-liked teacher, her competence in being able to direct her class was in question. Many teachers were brought in by this school primarily for magical research whereas others were hired for their outstanding combat abilities; teaching students, although still a core focus of any academic institution, seemed to have a backseat role here.

“Sniff…”

As Professor Ruegger started tearing up and looked like she was going to cry, the students stopped their questioning session and started to reprimand each other.

“Everyone quiet down!” a student called out to the rest of the class

“Stop bullying Ms. Ru guys!”

“Hey! Ms. Ru, don’t cry!”

“We’re sorry! We’ll promise to stop!”

Shryza could only observe this strange phenomenon with silence. It seemed that the class didn’t see Professor Ruegger, or rather Ms. Ru, as a teacher but rather as a young child. But it was somewhat sadistic of the students to initially force her to the brink of tears before consoling her.

Well, it looked like Ms. Ru did the ability to control and direct her class, but not via traditional methods.

“H-Hmph. A-As long as you understand, then I’ll forgive you. I’m also your teacher! Please call my name properly!”

Ms. Ru stuttered a little as she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. Looking around the classroom, it didn’t look like her request would be easily fulfilled.

“So again, let’s do this properly. If anyone has any questions, please raise your hand…”

“Hey, transfer student. I heard you are strong.”

With those words, the rest of the classroom continued to remain silent.

Shryza turned his gaze to the student standing up, who had earlier been sitting in the back of the classroom. Admittedly she had quite the dazzling appearance. Ignoring her rather pretty face and nice figure, she had bright crimson-colored shoulder-length hair and similarly-colored eyes, which were very hard to ignore. Despite the uniform requirement at this school, it seemed that students were still able to be quite liberal with their physical appearance. This student in particular wore her uniform very informally; her blazer was taken off and placed on her desk, her shirt was untucked with rolled-up shirt sleeves, and her skirt length was too short for what Shryza expected from such a traditional-style school.

This student would be considered a very attractive lady, if it weren’t so difficult to picture her as anything other than a school delinquent or gangster.

Without question, this person had the most imposing presence in the classroom.

“Uhmm, Ms. Himika…”

Ms. Ru tried to interject, but the delinquent was focused solely on Shryza and ignored her.

“To be transferred into our class immediately, your transfer exam scores must have been pretty good. I also heard that you beat the examiner during the practical test as well, is that true?”

For someone who looked and acted like a gangster, Shryza found her to be quite eloquent.

Shryza hesitated about how to answer before settling for a vague response.

“Who knows.”

“Haha, that’s a nice response!”

The delinquent laughed as she ran her hand through her hair before grinning widely at him.

“My name is Himika Cou, and I am the strongest in this room at Rank Three! And with my rank on the line, I challenge you to a duel!”

What a lame line. It sounded like some kid was trying to challenge him to a children’s card game, or something similar to that. But if what she said was true, at rank three, she was the third strongest student at this school amongst several thousands. And Himika’s surname “Cou” was one that belonged to the three great families. Given her innate talent, it was very likely she was one of the daughters of the Wei house. To engage in battle with one of the scions of the three great families was quite the interesting offer.

But in the end, it sounded too troublesome for his liking.

“I refuse.”

It wasn’t really in his personality to accept such a troublesome proposal.

Unfortunately for Shryza, Himika was not deterred at all by this rejection.

“Make no mistake, transfer student. I’m not giving you a choice.”

Shryza sighed softly at this reply.

“I thought I was allowed to decline.”

“I see, so you don’t know the rules yet. Normally you’d be able to avoid this fight, but I have special privileges as a single digit ranker.”

How… annoying? Despite her delinquent appearance, it seemed that Himika was actually rule-abiding. Her forceful personality and ability to exploit the rules were completely separate matters.

There were few feasible options that Shryza could choose to respond with.

He could run. But where to?

He could try again to suspend the duel. But it looked like it would be too difficult to convince her.

He could choose to lose on purpose. But if he was found out, she looked to be the type of person that wouldn’t let him off easily.

He could just accept the duel and win. But that would draw too much attention towards him.

Whatever choice he made, it would be a lose-lose situation for him.

Resigned to his fate, Shryza thought it better to just win and get this matter done with. As long as it looks as if he just barely won, then he could avoid the worst possible outcomes at the very least.

“Where and when?”

“Someone who doesn’t mince words, that’s great. Are you prepared? And how does here and now sound?”

This delinquent was surprisingly considerate as well, showing the most basic of etiquettes of giving Shryza time to find a weapon or determine an alternative time or place to have the duel. Ms. Ru looked like she wanted to make an objection to the fight taking place in the middle of a classroom, but both of them seemed to have completely relegated her to a background character at this time.

Shryza raise both hands to show that he didn’t have, or need, any weapons.

“I accept, whenever you’re ready.”

At these words, the two badges pinned on each of the students’ shirts quickly flashed with light, which signified the school’s acknowledgement of the legitimacy of this duel.

“Great! Don’t go disappointing me!”

With only a single step, Himika warning leapt from her seat over the heads of his fellow students. To traverse the classroom in one step was actually quite the considerable feat.

Screams could be heard… only from Ms. Ru.

In this school, it was not uncommon to see fights, or rather these “duels”, breaking out randomly across the campus. Thus the rest of the class was already quite accustomed to this type of scene. However, most students would agree that Himika’s act of interrupting Ms. Ru’s class with a duel without asking permission first was quite rude.

On the contrary, Ms. Ru, no matter how many times she witnessed these duels, could never get used to them. She was never a big proponent of fighting and violence.

While in midair, Himika led with her left knee while drawing back her right fist, presumably in preparation for a preemptive attack.

Despite the lack of warnings, Shryza predicted this kind of development to a certain extent. With the vast amount of accumulated experience he had gained fighting on innumerable battlefields, to him an attack coming directly from the front was not much of a surprise, and dealing with it was mere child’s play.

Despite landing a meter away from Shryza, with the left foot she landed on, she used it to quickly propel herself in Shryza’s direction and punched forward with her right arm. Shryza in response slightly tilted his body to sidestep the attack, but only just barely enough that he could still feel the air pressure caused by her arm barely passing by where his head was only moments earlier. Upon missing her initial punch, she quickly leaned forward onto her right foot and pivoted her body, sending her left foot flying upwards at Shryza from behind. This beautiful follow-up roundhouse kick was met and easily deflected with the back of Shryza’s right hand.

However, Himika’s attack was not finished.

Upon having this kick repelled, she used her left foot to bring down Shryza’s right arm towards the ground, leaving an opening in his defense. With her free right knee, she attempted to viciously knee her opponent in the groin. However this crisis was averted by him taking a step back and moving out of range. Himika’s then used that knee to step forward and raised up her other leg in preparations for a drop kick. And in one fluid movement, she brought it down, as if swinging down a heavy battleaxe onto Shryza’s head, but only to have it blocked once more by the palm of his right hand.

Four fluid attacks in one movement. She was extremely skilled and well-trained for unarmed close quarters combat.

And even though none of her attacks connected, it seemed that she was enjoying this fight too much.

“Isn’t your skirt too short? You should be more concerned that people will see what’s underneath.”

Shryza wanted to interrupt the current pace of the battle and slow it down. He thought that this question might cause Himika to be more self-conscious and slightly throw off her composure. Contrary to his expectations, she was completely unmoved by this inquiry and easily brushed it aside.

“If you have time to be so worried for me, let’s see how you handle this!”

Unfortunately for him, it had the reverse effect.

Her left leg unexpectedly ignited with bright red flames, prompting Shryza to let it go immediately and retreat two or three meters away from her.

The flames seemed to emit intense heat and pressure, but Himika was completely unaffected.

Despite the duel taking place in the front of the classroom away from where the students were seated, there was no barrier or protection in place to prevent collateral damage from the fight should it come their way. But most of the students were quite unconcerned; most were quite happy to skip a boring class lecture to watch this high-level fight between this classroom’s strongest and the mysterious transfer student.

Although the fight had just barely started, there was a question that Shryza still had in regards to her Himika’s motives.

If what he recalled was right, a student’s rank was the most important possession amongst students in this school.

“Your rank. Why are you willing to put that on the line for something like this pointless duel?”

“Rank, something uninteresting like that? I’m more than willing to give it up, but that’s only if you can entertain and defeat me!”

She responded as if this explanation was the most natural thing in the world.

Himika then quickly charged, with her flaming left leg forward, again closing the distance between the two combatants.

===Chapter 2:===

As the two students continued to clash with each other, Ms. Ru could only scrunch into a ball and pout. She was now sitting in the front row of her classroom, after having been brought over by some of her students. A few of the female students were still by her side actively comfort the poor teacher. Although her skills and knowledge as a professor were real, she had neither authority nor respect in her own classroom. Rather than being looked up to as an older mentor, she was instead treated as an adorable younger sister to be teased and played with.

Unfortunately for Ms. Ru, with the exception of the authority from higher up, until the conclusion of the duel, no one was permitted to interrupt it once underway. Not even the teacher of her two students was allowed to interfere, which was why she had made multiple earlier, yet futile, attempts to stop the duel from starting.

Duels in this institution had three fundamental conditions.

First, there must be mutual consent, implicit or explicit, between the two dueling parties. Consent did not refer just to the duel itself, but also extended to the details and conditions attached to it as well. Forced duels and duels instigated by single digit rankers were the only exception.

Second, duels will only be recognized on the academy grounds. The badges given to each student upon enrollment allowed the academy to track and monitor each duel participant. This was especially important to resolve possible conflicts regarding the two parties should a dispute arise in regards to the duel’s conclusion.

Lastly, a duel is won once the opposing party has conceded defeat or is left unconscious. Killing the other party, however, is considered forbidden and is harshly punished, with very few outliers.

Asides from those three rules, everything was essentially unrestricted or fair game.

Power is the only truth.

With duels capable of deciding and resolving almost every matter in the school, power was indeed the absolute truth of this academy, or the International Combat Academy.

Despite the school’s name, this was a privately-run institution located on an exclusive island not belonging to any nation, independent from all international pressures. This academy was founded just only five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a mysterious yet very wealthy backer. Despite all initial doubts, it had since then become the most famous and prestigious institution for producing the strongest warriors, magicians, and combatants.

As a result, and largely in part due to its strict international neutrality, nations worldwide sent many of their promising talents there to be raised and cultivated. And naturally those who achieved a high rank in the school system would be placed highly in the International Ranking System as well.

There are two types ranking systems at this school.

The first type of rank, and most important rank as a professional in the industry, was the international Ranking System.

With combat talent and abilities highly valued worldwide, there was a growing necessity to be able to rank people objectively and holistically on an international basis. The International Ranking Commission, comprised by a committee of professors and other highly qualified professionals, was set up to fulfill that informational requirement.

The vast majority of the students at the International Combat Academy were not ranked under the international system, and they would not be expected to have been assigned a rank until after graduation.

The second type of rank, and far more relevant rank as a student, was the interschool ranking system.

The interschool ranking was the method how students at this academy were assessed, which are similar to grades from a more traditional institution. Exemplary written and practical exams results were indeed important to achieving a higher rank. But ranking duels were the much more influential method of determining school-wide ranks. With ranking duels, one could fight another higher-ranking student and, if victorious, swap for their higher ranks.

Normally higher ranked students would not allow lower rankers to challenge them due to risks of accidentally losing and having their rank drop significantly, but there are a few exceptions.

The first and most common exception is that there exists an academy rule permitting those with lower ranks to “force” a duel from a slightly higher ranked, the methodology not stated here, with the purpose of encouraging more school-wide competition, thus the “forced duel” rule.

A second common scenario where a higher ranker will voluntarily accept a duel from a lower-ranked student is when another “prize” or condition is offered by the lower ranker as an additional compensation for the risk the higher ranker assumes.

There was also a rare third scenario. There are people in this academy who have enrolled for no other purpose other than to fight other powerful students, without care for his or her ranking. Ranks were just a means to an end. Such students in the academy were very few in number, and such a person was the high-ranked delinquent-looking student currently in front of Shryza.

Having been on the receiving end of a few attacks, Shryza had that Himika was an extremely skilled fighter. Her current Rank Three was well merited. However, even that level strength was not enough to concern Shryza. At any point of time during the fight, he could have chosen to end it immediately with a well-timed counterattack. But suddenly winning a fair one-on-one duel against the third strongest person in the school might cause future problems for him.

After having dashed at towards him with her leg ablaze, Shryza had thought that she would use that same leg to land an attack. To his surprise, she dove downwards and turned her body to use her other leg, her right leg, in an attempt at a leg sweep. Taking another step back to avoid it, he was now met again with her left leg wearing a boot made of flames. Where did she find the time to rotate her body and fire off another kick? With no time to dodge, Shryza quickly gathered mana onto the palm of his right hand and bare-handedly caught her flame-clad foot.

Himika did not expect such a response to her attack, and she started laughing in enjoyment again.

“It doesn’t seem that you tree-lovers burn as easily as I thought!”

Shryza stared directly back at Himika with his only visible violet-colored eye and smiled back wryly, understanding the deeper meaning of his words.

Each person born with a certain level of talent for magic also had affinity to at least one of the seven core elements or two sub elements that exist in this world. And a person’s primary elemental affinity was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with red eyes, like Himika, was someone who excelled with fire magic. Likewise, a person with purple eyes was more skilled with wood and plant manipulation.

Additionally, certain elements were more “effective” than other elements in certain confrontations. In this case, to fight fire, wood was the absolute worst element to use.

In theory by just comparing their elemental affinities, Himika should have had a significant advantage in this matchup.

But by concentrating mana into his right hand, Shryza was able to easily withstand Himika’s flame-infused kick. Mana, the source of power used by all magic and spells, in its natural state was neutral, or void of any elemental attributes.

“Oh? Your hand is still fine, but are you sure you’re fine with only using one?”

Himika had quickly glanced down at Shryza’s bandaged left hand, which had largely remained motionless since the beginning of the fight. This could have been seen as a considerate gesture, had she not ignited flames in her other arm and thrown an elbow to side of his head. This action prompted Shryza to quickly release Himika’s fist and sidestep the attack.

Shryza was actually reasonably impressed with the quality and durability of the academy-issue combat-ready uniforms, as Himika’s clothing were largely unaffected by her flames. However, the uniform is no substitute battle-armor: its defensive properties were actually quite minimal. The material of the uniform was made to let magical and elemental attacks go through the cloth unobstructed rather than to block them, but that did little to stop sharp objects from easily cutting through them.

“One arm should be more than enough. No need to go easy on me.”

“Haha, that’s a great response!”

Along with her answer, Himika also ignited her other leg and two arms with flames as well. Each of them had the same heat and intensity as the one originally enveloping her left leg.

Shryza could only sigh. This was a development he should have seen coming.

For several moments, Shryza and Himika continued to trade blows, providing a mesmerizing lightshow to the student spectators. Or rather, it was Himika throwing an increasingly complex yet constantly fluid combination of attacks whereas Shryza was continually on the defensive.

From the outsiders’ perspective, it seemed that Shryza was continued being pressed back. It seemed logical that only being able to use one arm should be a crippling disadvantage to Shryza in close quarters combat. It looked like only a matter of time before Shryza’s impressive defense would reveal an opening, and for Himika to land a decisive attack to end the fight.

But this was not the same view that Himika held. Himika prided herself in her strength, and rightfully so as the third strongest student in the school. But she was quick to acknowledge and assess the strength of others with almost a beast-like instinct. Being able to ward off every single one of her attacks, she was made immediately aware that her opponent was skilled. His mana levels were nothing incredibly special and neither were his physical speed in strength; in fact it can be said that his stats were almost too average. However this one armed opponent was actually able to easily maneuver around Himika’s aggression with only the most basic of techniques or movements, which required an incredible amount of real combat experience and knowledge.

With each attack that was deflected or dodged, Himika’s estimation of Shryza’s strength only rose. Where the seemingly increasing gap in power may have overwhelmed other students and cause them to be distraught, this only fueled Himika’s fighting appetite; she genuinely enjoyed fighting against this caliber of opponent.

However, she was still not completely satisfied. Although there was no proof that this was the case, she felt that Shryza was holding back his full strength against her, even to the point of just testing her.

“How annoying. So you’re one of those guys who won’t hit a girl?”

Himika, clearly displeasured that Shryza refused to go on the offensive, continued to assault Shryza with a flaming elbow, which was neatly dodged. The fact that she had yet to land a solid attack on him did little to help to improve her mood.

“I’m busy enough just trying not to get hit.”

“You’re such a terrible liar. I know you’re stronger than you’re letting on. It’s just annoying that I can’t make you fight seriously unless I do so first.”

And with these words, Himika suddenly disengaged from close quarters combat by stepping back away from Shryza and completely ceased the raging flames wrapping around each of her four limbs.

For just a moment, Shryza was caught off guard at Himika’s words. He thought that he had put a reasonable amount of effort to hide this very fact. But during his limited exchange of blows and words, he realized that Himika was not only just powerful and talented, but she was also quite the intelligent fighter. Actually he could go further and say that many of her attacks were quite sly and sneaky. Regardless, she was much sharper than everyone gave her credit for, and this hot-headed idiot personality was perhaps merely a calculated façade to lower the enemy’s guard.

Whatever was the case, Shryza mentally upgraded his evaluation of the opponent before him.
Even though it looked that Himika still had a few trump cards up her sleeve.

Holding her right hand open with her palm facing upwards, she slowly closed her eyes.

“Dragon flames, ignite.”

Suddenly she released an enormous wave of pressure and heat, blowing away the air in her vicinity, before gathering onto her palm a small ball of raging red-white flames. These flames were on a much greater intensity than the smaller ones used when he was using them to enhance her attacks earlier.

Although he didn’t verbalize it, Shryza was quite impressed at the level of Himika’s abilities, as she was still only of teen age. Even though he had fought numerous high-ranked fire-elementalists in the past, he could count those who could use higher-level flames on only one hand.

Himika then closed her right hand into a fist, completely squashing that ball of flames. This caused the flames to shoot out from one side of her fist, which then gathered and condensed into the form of a blazing two-meter long sword.

Although the sprinkler system was activated, it did absolutely nothing to mitigate the potency of these flames. This did awaken the student spectators from their trance-like state, having been bewitched just by watching this high level fight.

With this much higher level of fire magic being contained in such a relatively small classroom, the spectators started murmur with worry, and some even were on the verge of panicking. The potential collateral damage that could possibly result from the seemingly inevitable clash was on a level that could no longer be overlooked. It was extremely rare that such a fight between such high-ranked students should occur so informally inside a classroom. Usually they were schedule beforehand and fought in an appropriately-sized spectator-filled stadium, as it was very likely that larger scaled magic abilities were going to be used. Only relatively low power attacks had been used so far in the fight, but it looked like that would soon quickly change.

As a side note, Ms. Ru admirably tried to go forward to make a few last ditch attempts to interfere with and stop the fight. But as expected she was quickly stopped and carried off by her own students to safety.

Additionally in response to Himika’s dragon flames, a powerful water barrier was casted over the students to prevent damage from reaching to them. The caster of this magic, presumably named Yuki, was a pale blue-white haired student who was now standing with an arm outstretched. Her attractiveness was on the same scale as Himika’s, but she had a calm graceful elegance juxtaposed against Himika’s wild unrestrained beauty. But more importantly, Shryza judged her to be just as powerful as Himika as well, most likely another single ranker.

He couldn’t help but think that there was quite the number of talented people in this classroom.

“Thanks Yuki!”

She responded to Himika with only a nod.

No longer worried about her flames reaching her fellow classmates, Himika again refocused her undivided attention backed to Shryza. But he returned with a rather interesting remark.

“I’m surprised that you’re actually a pretty considerate person, taking the time to worry about your classmates.”

“Why would I be? It would just be annoying if they interfered in our fight. Enough of the small talk, it’s time to finish this!”

As if to confirm this statement, she pointed her flaming sword in Shryza’s direction. Despite Himika’s fierce words, she was not very convincing in trying to hide her embarrassment.

First looks impressions were indeed quite a bit deceiving.

“Dragon flames… That sword looks a bit dangerous.”

“And yet you don’t look the least bit concerned. How strong are you really?”

“Who knows? And aren’t you going to draw your real weapon?”

Shryza tilted towards Himika’s seat in the back corner of the classroom, where a rather long, bulky package wrapped in bandages lay against the wall. Judging by the shape of the wrapped weapon and the current magic Himika was using, it should probably be a sword of similar proportions to the current one she was holding made of flames. By wielding that weapon and channeling magic through it directly instead of fighting with her conjured flame sword, Shryza estimated that Himika’s battle potential could easily increase at least two or three-fold, if not more.

As expected, his suggestion was readily turned down.

“That wouldn’t be fun. After all, you’re unarmed as well.”

“I see. Then brace yourself.”

With little effort, Shryza rapidly concentrated his mana to the tips of his fingers. Noticing that Shryza was preparing to go on the offensive for the first time this battle, Himika, who had raised her flame sword slightly above her head and was about to launch headlong into an all-out attack, suddenly stopped.

Dangerous.

Her instincts, which have rarely failed her and have helped her win fights time and time again, were loudly screaming to her that Shryza was extremely dangerous. She felt as if the blade of a knife was being held to her throat. What kind of heavy killing intent was this?

If she made just even the slightest mistake, she felt that she that a single strike might be enough to even kill her. She was afraid to even take a step forward. Wait, she was feeling fear? Himika wanted to convince herself that this sensation was only an illusion, but to no avail.

Himika had fought her fair share of opponents, and only a handful had alerted her instincts as powerfully as Shryza had. None of them had been around her age, until now.

“Damn, just who exactly are you?”

In sharp contrast to Himika’s animal-like grin, Shryza only responded with a light smile.

Both combatants, with just a few meters separating each other, waited for the other to make an opening. Or rather, it was Shryza that waited for Himika to make the first move. Although Shryza felt that his opponent had too many openings that he could exploit and that the fight was all but decided, he felt lenient enough to let the fight end on Himika’s terms.

Wild flames on one side on the classroom. Zen-like calmness on the other.

Everyone in the classroom was silent, holding their breaths. The tension created by this standoff could be said to be thick enough to drown in.

Himika cautiously moved her foot slightly forward. Shryza did the same.

Inching ever closer, the two opponents…

…were rudely interrupted.

====Chapter 1: Part 3:====

“This duel is declared null and void!”

The classroom door was loudly slammed wide open, completely disrupting the fight.

The tension in the room was killed immediately.

Reluctantly, Himika instantly extinguished her flames and dematerialized her sword. Similarly Shryza dispersed the mana concentrated in his right arm along with his killing intent.

At the door of the entrance were two female students. Apparently they were either very popular or well known within the student body, or very likely both, as suddenly the classroom once again erupted into chatter and noise. It was also to be noted that they were also beauties of a very high level, similar yet different to those of Yuki and Himika.

Shryza hadn’t expect so many people with model-like appearances to have attended this combat-oriented school, let alone be in the same classroom at once. He also hadn’t expected there to be so many talented students in the academy; the two female students who had just interrupted the duel looked to be rather skilled.

Also he made a mental note to himself that this classroom was really a chatterbox. Is this what a normal classroom was supposed to be like?

The first female student, presumably the one who had interrupted their fight, ignored the noise coming from the student spectators and confidently walked forward within inches to Himika, glaring at her accusingly. Like Himika and Yuki, she easily stood out from the rest of her students with her platinum silver hair matching her similarly colored eyes. And with a pauldron on her left shoulder and a sheathed longsword by her waste, she looked very much like a female knight. Although it was quite common to see students carry weapons within the school grounds, Shryza felt that she was prepared to unsheathe and use it anytime at a moment’s notice. It was just a feeling, but Shryza assessed that she was, if not only just slightly, stronger than Himika.

And if Shryza had to make a first impression guess, he didn’t think this female knight and Himika got along well.

Unfortunately it seemed like Shryza guessed correctly.

“As expected of you, Himika. Only you would cause this much trouble in the classroom.”

“Huh?”

Himika aggressively stared back, of course with a fearless smile. It seemed that they shared some history together given their current familiarity, although the relationship was probably not particularly amicable. These two female students had the compatibility of oil and water.

“I’ve done nothing. Aren’t you in the wrong for interrupting this duel?”

“Of course I have the proper authority. But to choose to fight in the middle of class? Especially in the middle of Ms. Ru, I mean Professor Ruegger’s lecture.”

This verbal slip didn’t escape Shryza. Although

“That’s allowed, right? Tell me, where did I break the rules?”

Apparently Ariana, with her aura of authority seemed to have held quite a fair amount of political power within the school. This was particularly surprising as she did not look to be a student at the university level yet.

“It’s not just rules. Etiquette is also important…”

“Etiquette. Oh please shut it, how can you be so stuck up?”

Shryza turned his head away from the two female students. He wanted absolutely no part in this squabble.

While Ariana and Himika continued to verbally berate each other, two other female students approached Shryza. The first was Yuki, who had earlier erected the high-level water barrier. The second was the other student who had entered the classroom with Ariana. The second of the two was the first to speak.

“My name is Ivy, Vice President of the Student Council. Shryza, was it? It’s my pleasure to meet you.”

“And my name is Yuki. I must apologize for Himi’s rather rude behavior. It’s very nice to meet you.”

Himi was very likely Yuki’s personal nickname for Himiko, and it seemed that the two were on very good terms with each other. Whether “Himi” liked being called by that nickname was a different matter.

With a pretty peach-shaped face with waste-length raven-black hair outlining her rather curvy body, Ivy had quite the alluring appearance. With her charming smile and seductive violet eyes, and with her ability to easily manipulate men, she had all the traits of a dangerous femme fatale. And with her ability to rise to a particularly high role within the student government, she was someone he should be cautious around.

Yuki on the other hand seemed to have quite the traditional, graceful appearance, which seemed to match her rather reserved and shy personality. However, she gave Shryza a rather strange yet curious stare, one he chose to ignore at this time.

“Yes that is correct. It is a pleasure meeting you two.”

Any other male student would have been entranced by talking to these two beauties, but Shryza was immune to their charms. At least that is what he tried to convince himself with. But more-so than their appearances, he was even more interested in the power of these four female students: Himiko, Yuki, Ariana, and Ivy. They were extremely skilled, and to a much larger extent than every other student in the classroom, if not the entire school.

This was without a doubt a question he would have to bring up later.

“Ivy, may I ask why was it that you and Ariana, correct me if I’m wrong, came to interrupt our duel?”

Ivy showed a little surprise at being addressed in such a forthright manner with no hesitation. She probably wasn’t used to men being completely unmoved by her charms.

“Ah, I’m sorry to not have introduced Ariana earlier; she is the current Vice-Chairwoman of the Disciplinary Committee. Both of us came under the direct orders of the headmaster, and thus have his authority to end this duel.”

Shryza couldn’t help but groan at this explanation.

“Raylz…”

“You are acquainted with Headmaster Raylz, I presume.”

Ivy gave him an inquisitive look, which he responded to with only a slight nod.

“He instructed the two of us to pass you, the new transfer student, a message.”

====Chapter 2: Part 2:====

“You look pretty terrible, Shryza. It seems like you had a nightmare last night, or did you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

The source of this deep yet gentle voice came from a rather handsome elderly man. His age was, however, betrayed by the wrinkles on his face and his grown out white hair and similarly colored goatee. Regardless, this man still had quite the imposing presence. Not only was he taller than the average man, he was also very physically fit and well-built, with his well-toned body still easily discernible underneath his hooded cloak. Behind the pair of round glasses, his soft grey-hued eyes seemed to kindly wait for a response.

Shryza, with a lone violet-colored eye hidden behind the bangs of his white hair, sharply gazed back. While bringing his hand to his forehead as if he had a headache, he closed his eye and sighed.

“Wouldn’t you the cause?”

The elderly man smiled and showed an innocent-looking face that said he hadn’t the faintest idea what Shryza was talking about.

That was of course a lie.

Backtracking a few moments earlier, Shryza had received the following message earlier from the Vice President of the Student Council.

(I trust that you didn’t run into too much trouble this morning. Now that you’ve had time to get to know your classmates, please come by my office when you get the chance.)

From an outsider’s perspective, this message had little meaning. It seemed to just instruct the recipient of the message to stop by the headmaster’s office, presumably for a warm welcome.

But to Shryza, it was just another annoyance.

“You know how badly I want to hit you in the face right now?

“Hey, hey. You know what they say about violence and it not solving anything!”

“But it’d be extremely satisfying at the moment.”

“I’m sure it would be.”

Despite Shryza’s threat, Raylz was not disturbed at the slightest.

Shryza found it difficult to stay cross with this smiling old man for long. After all, this man had a sincere light-hearted fun-loving personality that easily attracted people and brought them to his pace. Of the various people Shryza encountered in his line of business, the old man’s presence was rather refreshing.

“Before we get started, I’m surprised that it already has been eight years. You’ve changed quite a bit since the last time I last saw you.”

“And you are surprised, because?”

“Ah, I wasn’t talking about your appearance. Although now that you mention it, it’s true you have grown taller. I mean you were only ten at the time, and now you’re almost as tall as me now.”

“Wouldn’t that be the thing most people would comment on first?”

“That might be true. I was actually quite surprised that your flow of mana feels quite different now. I almost couldn’t recognize you.”

Each individual was born with a certain talent in using and manipulating mana. Although it was common for a person to increase the amount and power of mana he or she was able to handle, it was almost unheard of, or rather considered impossible, for someone to change the composition of their mana.

Although being able to recognize a person by just sensing or feeling someone’s mana was considered a very high-level ability, this was child’s play to the two people sitting in the room. And having known Raylz for a very long time, Shryza felt no need to hide this from now.

“So how does my mana feel now?”

“Hmm… It’s a bit difficult for me to verbalize it. Although it is weaker than before, it feels much more complex. I’d be very interested to hear about what you did these past years to change it.”

Shryza again was made fully aware of the old man’s abilities to sense mana, as the number of people in the world who could had senses as good as his could be counted with a person’s two hands. Raylz smiled kindly at Shryza, who could only nod back. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable at this unusually warm atmosphere, Shryza quickly returned with his own remarks.

“I see you haven’t lost any of your sharpness since becoming headmaster. I thought you were supposed to grow more senile with age.”

Speaking of which, this room was rather bare and simple for a headmaster’s room. Asides from bookshelves full of thick ancient-looking books, plain wooden desk, a few chairs, and the large windows behind him, there was not much else in this room to speak of. Likewise, Raylz was a rather simple man, unconcerned with such extravagance and grandeur this school was supposed to reflect.

However, he was also of the belief that the headmaster should be the strongest in the school. Otherwise, in his own words, how can he be qualified to lead the next generation? Not just mentally, but Raylz’s physical and magical strength seemed to be as impressive as they were in the past.

Before Raylz could continue on his nostalgia trip, Shryza decided to cut it short. He wasn’t against continuing this talk and catching up with an old acquaintance, but this wasn’t the purpose of his trip here.

“We will have to save catching up for another time. Now getting down to business, please tell me why you’ve called me here.”

The old man was completely unfazed by this change of pace, and he smiled while leaning forward bringing his hands together on top of his desk.

“I have a request to make of you.”

“A request?”

Suddenly Shryza’s interest in the old man’s words increased considerably.

It wasn’t very often that Raly made a request from anyone. Normally he was the independent type of man that would never involve other people in his own troubles, and was also the sort of benevolent person who would accept other people’s requests without asking anything in return. So this request must involve a problem that must’ve been too difficult for Raylz to overcome alone, is what Shryza surmised.

Shryza’s conclusion was correct, but only to a certain extent.

“Yes. I apologize to have to ask this of you, but I want you to enroll at my academy.”

There was a brief moment of silence followed by a sigh. Shryza felt that he’d been sighing too much lately.

“It’s not like you gave me a choice. But wouldn’t it be easier if you had explained yourself before?”

“Is it that strange?”

“Of course it is, to be told to come to your office just only to find a teacher standing outside telling me follow her. Wouldn’t it be more proper for you to have talked with me earlier?”

“But that wouldn’t be as much fun, now would it?”

There was another moment of silence. Shryza felt another strong urge to clock the grinning old man in the face.

“About this entrance test requirement, I don’t recall ever having taken it.”

If he recalled correctly, some students in the class mentioned he had extraordinary high transfer exam results. Not that they weren’t difficult to achieve at all, but…

“Forged.”

A third moment of silence.

“For the headmaster to forge a student’s documents, wouldn’t that be quite the scandal if you were to be found out.”

“You think I’d ever be caught?”

Well let the old man have his fun. Shryza, already prepared to carry out this request, decided to stop asking his tangential questions.

“Back to the main subject of my enrollment, I’m fairly certain that there is something more to this.”

“I just thought it would be great if you could somehow settle down and finally live the life of an ordinary student… is what I would like to say. But unfortunately things are a little bit more complicated.”

Raylz slowly got out of his chair and turned around, looking out the office windows. Outside was quite the grand view of the academy’s main campus. With his back facing Shryza, Raylz continued where he left off.

“Shryza. You are aware of the ranking system of this school?”

“It essentially mirrors that of the International Ranking System, correct?”

“Correct. With our approximately ten thousand students on the island across both our high school and university systems, this ranking system is a convenient compare and measure everyone’s combat prowess. Naturally those in higher grades, and hence the older students, are more mature and have had more time to learn and develop their abilities. Thus as you move up in grade, your rank will increase along as well.”

“So where are you getting at with this explanation.”

“Haha, forgive this old man for being so wordy.”

Raylz then turned back around and, while still standing, again faced Shryza.

“As this ranking system only judges an individual by their ability alone, sometimes there are outliers where some young prodigies will be strong enough to surpass their upperclassmen’s ranks.”

“I see. In the class I went to, there was a student around my age who was highly ranked. Himika Cou was her name, if I recall.”

“I know.”

Because I sent you there purposely, is what Raylz’s mischievous eyes seem to say.

“How was she?”

“She was stronger than what I expected.”

“I meant as a potential girlfriend.”

A fourth moment of silence.

“Anyways…”

The headmaster decided to cut his joke short, as he felt that he would have been in imminent danger should he have continued.

“There are six more students like her who were gifted with immense powers, and each with a unique element. All of them are now in their final year of the high school curriculum, the same year as you, but they have recently completely monopolized the top seven ranks, surpassing every student at the university level.”

Raylz picked up the pre-prepared tablet from the side of his desk and handed it to Shryza. Before him was a public listing of the top ranking students at the academy.

Rank 1 | Leoi, Venus <Wind Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Wind

Rank 2 | Syun, Ariana <Steel Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Metal

Rank 3 | Cou, Himika <Flame Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Fire

Rank 4 | Smith, Yuki <Ice Dragon Valkyrie | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Water

Rank 5 | Lau, Ivy <Rose Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Wood

Rank 6 | Evant, Emile <Lightning Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Electric

Rank 7 | Stariva, Selena <Earth Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Earth

Four of these names were familiar to Shryza. These seven comprised the seven Dragon Valkyrie sisters, the term he had briefly heard from his classmates earlier. They had quite the grandiose nicknames, but admittedly they did have the power to back up their titles.

And along with Himika Cou, he also was able to pinpoint two other surnames belonging to the other two great families: Ariana Syun and Ivy Lau of the Wu and Shu houses respectively. As all three were blessed with incredible talents far surpassing their peers, it was likely that all three would succeed as the heads of their respective houses.

“Seven prodigies of similar age and the seven core elements, it shouldn’t be a coincidence…”

“As you and I have already surmised, this was most likely a result of Heaven’s Fall. Having taken place eighteen years ago, it is also the same year all of you were born.”

“So what does this have to do with your request?”

“I want you to protect them.”

A request to protect seven beautiful girls. What was with this unlikely harem-type setting? Shryza felt a mounting headache just listening to this request, and he had yet to carry these requests out.

“These girls are prodigies only seen once every few generations. And there are many international organizations and governments that would strongly desire to obtain their power, even if they had to take more forceful measures. The war-potential that each of these girls would add to any of these groups is not insignificant, especially as their talents mature. Additionally, a number of these girls are heiresses to well-established houses and families, and thus they have their fair share of enemies as well. However at the end of the day, they are still students of my school. And I have an obligation to protect them, at least until they graduate from the academy’s university. And as hired bodyguards are not permitted in the academy or academy-related events, it would be ideal if you could protect these girls behind the scenes as an undercover student.”

Shryza had to admit that Raylz’s rationale was quite reasonable.

“Shouldn’t they already be strong enough to fend for themselves? And even then, no one should be strong or foolish enough to enter the <Silver Demonic Tiger>’s Den, right?”

Having fought one of the <Dragon Valkyries>, Shryza estimated them to be on the level of a three-digit ranker in the International Ranking System. In other words, there were less than a thousand people in this world who could contest the <Dragon Valkyries> in a fair one-on-one fight.

But even in the event that someone stronger than them was to enter the campus grounds uninvited, they would have to somehow bypass the old man standing before Shryza. This old man was the infamous <Silver Demonic Tiger>, whose name top rankers spoke in reverence and the one used to scare children during bedtime stories, was currently the fifth highest ranked person in the world.

The fifth strongest was not a title to be taken lightly.

“Typically I would agree with you, Shryza. However, I cannot be everywhere at once. There will be times when our students will accept missions and assignments outside the academy grounds. And of course during these times, they will be outside the reach of my protection. And I want you to appropriately deal with anything that the <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters can’t handle.”

“Wait, there is something I want to clarify. Why now?”

Having been students at the academy for at least a year, the issue of protecting the <Dragon Valkyries> should have been addressed earlier.

“According to school policy, while the academic year is in session, students are not permitted to receive assignments requiring them to leave campus…”

And with some reluctance, Raylz slowly opened his mouth to finish his statement.

“…that is, until they reach their senior year of high school.”

Seeing where the conversation was going, Shryza had pushed himself out of his chair and started to head out the door. It was true that he felt indebted to Raylz for having taken care of him in the past. But this extended bodyguard request was not something he anticipated, nor nothing he wanted to take part of.

“So this is not a one-time deal?”

“Please, Shryza. There’s no one else I can ask.”

“Raylz, I honestly would like to help you. But you also know that I have no inclination to babysit them until they graduate from this academy’s university. Please find someone else.”

“This arrangement is also beneficial to you as well. Amongst the organizations and people targeting the <Dragon Valkyries>, <Nine Dragons God> is without a doubt one of them.”

Just as Shryza touched the handle of one of the double doors, the mention of the name of that person caused him to stop his movements. Shryza turned around and met Raylz’s eyes, which were unwavering and resolute. There were no lies behind his earnest words. Having been lured with that person’s name and with the obligation to at least hear him out, Shryza walked back to the desk and stood face-to-face with Raylz.

“Fine, I’m listening.”

“One of the <Dragon Valkyries> is the only blood-related daughter of <Nine Dragons God>. So in time, as long as you are with them, that person will come and find you.”

There was too much information this story was lacking, and thus Shryza continued to press forward with more inquiries.

“If that is the case, then why haven’t they reunited earlier?”

“That is because those two don’t know it, yet. One thought the daughter passed away at childbirth and the other thought she was abandoned as a baby. I was requested to keep the daughter’s lineage hidden away from her, but I cannot hide this fact forever and that person will definitely find out the truth.”

Although Raylz was a fun-loving old man who loved to joke around, he would never lie whenever he was serious. But this seemed to be a ridiculously improbable, if not impossible, situation that I’ve only read or heard about in fictional stories.

“In truth this theory sounds incredibly absurd. What’s your justification for it?””

“I have none.”

This is exactly as Shryza thought; he found it very strange that Raylz should hold this much information and yet the two concerned parties had none. However, he did not expect Raylz’s follow-up response.

“But what if I told you that the information came directly from <Black-Flame Phoenix>?”

<Black-Flame Phoenix>. A mutual acquaintance whose information and intelligence Shryza had never found to be wrong. It was person whose abilities Shryza had absolute trust in.

“Okay Raylz, have it your way. You’ve convinced me to babysit these girls.”

Although Shryza expected Raylz to break out in a relieved smile, his face remained unnaturally stoic.

“There’s one more thing I want you to look into.”

“Is this related to your current request? Or is this another one entirely?”

“I wouldn’t call this a request, but this is an issue that you will not ignore. Have you heard the recent rumors spreading around the underground.”

“You’re aware that I’ve been out of the country until just this morning, right?”

“I know, which is why I’ve taken the time to bring this topic up. Although both of know that this person… should have been dead for many years already, apparently he has somehow managed to come back from death’s doors.”

In regards to this subject matter, Raylz’s was uncharacteristically grave. All traces of his usual smile were completely erased.

“It’s been reported that he has recently been appointed as one of Revolutionary Army’s thirteen leaders.”

The Revolutionary Army was the largest organization seeking to overthrow the current empire. Their cause and efforts were widely supported by the vast majority of people disillusioned by the empire’s darkness and corruption. This army was a rather significant force that the empire could not afford to ignore, as they were supported by numerous two and three-digit rankers. It was also a well established fact that this organization was one of the major recruiters of the International Combat Academy’s students as well.

Despite the empire’s objections to this, they had no jurisdiction over this neutral island academy.

“And what of it? Are you implying I should be cautious of this imposter?”

“Perhaps. Well imposter or not, no one has yet had the power to step forth and contest his identity.”

“His name then?”

“It should be one you’re very familiar with. He’s returned…”

Shryza was suddenly overcome with and overwhelming sense of foreboding. And at Raylz’s following words, Shryza’s violet-colored eye widened for just an instant.

“…The <God of Death>.”

===Interlude 2:===

<Nine Dragons God>

A person he had been hunting down for years.

The one being responsible for killing his master.

<God of Death>

A person who had long since been dead.

The one existence who was closest to him.

The seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters.

Students he was entrusted to protect.

The seven girls who had the potential to change the world.

Three troublesome issues.

Three sources for his headaches.

And what a stupid premonition the dream turned out to be.

===Chapter 3:===

====Chapter 3: Part 1:====

“Thanks for waiting, Student Council Vice President.”

As soon as Shryza had left Raylz’s, or rather the headmaster’s, office, he was greeted outside by Ivy, the same person who had initially brought him here. Despite her behavior, she was actually quite the diligent Student Council officer, having waited patiently for him during the duration of his talk with Raylz. Apparently she was also entrusted with the duty to serve as his guide around the academy’s campus grounds.

“It was no trouble at all. Also, there’s no need to be so formal, you can just call me by my given name. After all we are in the same grade and class.”

“Is that so? That’s a bit surprising.”

“Both the Student Council and Disciplinary members have joint-morning meetings once a week, one of which was today.”

And that was why she was not present when Shryza first arrived to our classroom, is what she seemed to imply.

“By the way, Shryza, you’re not affected?”

“Affected?”

Shryza slowly asked back, trying to determine what Ivy was referring to. Although he ended up shaking his head at her inquiry, Ivy for some reason only smiled brightly back.

“If you haven’t noticed, then don’t mind it. So I have been assigned to be your personal guide for the rest of this morning. Is there anywhere on campus you want me to take you? Or is there anything you I can do for you?”

With these words, the beautiful Student Council Vice President grabbed Shryza’s right arm and lightly pulled it her way. At the same time, she tilted her head upwards at him with an alluringly smile. Whether her actions were subconscious or purposely calculated, even though this was already his second interaction with her, he thought she was acting a little too close. However, this could work to his advantage, as there was other information he wanted to ascertain from her.

“There is something I wanted to ask. What would be the fastest way to increase my rank?”

During Shryza’s meeting with Raylz, he was informed that assignments and missions were given to pre-assigned groups of students, and these groupings were primarily based on their inter-school ranks. To ensure that he would be grouped with the other seven girls to more easily protect them, should the need arise, it was highly suggested for him to first raise his rank to the same single-digit level.

Thanks to the headmaster’s influence and the forged and nearly flawless transfer exam results, Shryza was initially placed at Rank 994, which, although barely a triple-digit rank, was already considered extraordinarily high for a student in the high school level.

Raylz had given him a two week timeframe for Shryza to raise his rank to the same level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters.

“Let’s see…”

Tilting her head upwards with a finger lightly pressed on her chin, she briefly hesitated to think before responding.

“The fastest way would be to win duels against high-ranked students. But most of them won’t accept unless you use the forced duel rule.”

According to the forced duel rule, as a triple-digit ranked student, Raylz could fight now force a duel from a student within ten percent of his rank, rounded down, or within 99 ranks of his current Rank 994. As a double-digit ranker, that percentage would increase to twenty-five percent. And as a single-digit ranker, a student could only force a duel within two ranks of his or her own rank.

Assuming he could somehow pinpoint the exact students he wanted to force a duel with, the fastest and most efficient way he could achieve a single-digit rank was as follows:

Rank 994 -> Rank 895 -> Rank 806 -> Rank 726 -> Rank 654 -> Rank 589 -> Rank 531 -> Rank 478 -> Rank 431 -> Rank 388 -> Rank 350 -> Rank 315 -> Rank 284 -> Rank 256 -> Rank 231 -> Rank 208 -> Rank 188 -> Rank 170 -> Rank 153 -> Rank 138 -> Rank 125 -> Rank 113 -> Rank 102 -> Rank 92 -> Rank 69 -> Rank 52 -> Rank 39 -> Rank 30 -> Rank 23 -> Rank 18 -> Rank 14 -> Rank 11 -> Rank 9

To save the effort of counting:

32 duels. Minimum.

To accomplish this feat his two week deadline looked to be a huge pain.

Two weeks was when the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters would be assigned their first assignment outside of the campus grounds.

Having done these calculations mentally, Shryza couldn’t help but groan internally.

There was a shortcut he had considered, and had discussed this plan briefly with Raylz. He thought it incredibly amusing, and Shryza less so. Although he wanted to avoid drawing the entire academy’s attention to him, it couldn’t be avoided. Normally Shryza would not attempt to take such a reckless gambit, as he preferred to keep his actions hidden in the shadows. But it would probably be easier to quickly get this task done and over with in one sitting, with the alternative being to spread the pain across two weeks by having to fight and win at least 32 duels.

Well, it couldn’t be helped.

And at least it would kill two birds with one stone.

“Although this seems like a somewhat unrelated question, what time does the joint-meeting end?”

“Sorry, but can you repeat yourself?”

Ivy heard the question the first time around quite clearly, but she was busy determining the relevance of Shryza’s question.

“The joint-meeting between the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee, at what time does it end?”

“Usually we can finish our discussions before noon.”

“I see. It looks like there is still about an hour left.”

She couldn’t help but tilt her head in confusion at Shryza’s murmuring.

“Ivy, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“If it’s something I can help with.”

“Would it be too much trouble to attend whatever is left of this meeting?”

Walking from the administrative building, where the headmaster’s office was housed, to the meeting location took only a few minutes. While en route to their destination, Shryza couldn’t help but notice again how truly big this academy was, taking up the entire of this island. To house both the high school and university level students, there were many classrooms and dormitories in this academy to accommodate them and more. However, there was an abundance of recreational facilities and other rather irrelevant buildings as well. It was said that walking from one side of the campus to the other could take a good hour or so. In those situations, students just used the available interschool transit.

This meeting room was actually one of the larger boardroom made available by the academy that students could reserve to hold meetings or work together on group projects. Normally the Student Council and Disciplinary Committee had their own personal rooms they could use for these types of meetings, but both groups thought it best to hold their joint-meetings at a neutral site. After all, despite the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee working hand-in-hand, they were at least to maintain the appearance of acting independently.

Having reached the designated meeting room, Ivy knocked the door lightly with the back of her hand before reaching for the handle and opening it. As she had texted the Student Council President prior to coming in order to get approval, both her and Shryza’s presence were already expected.

The meeting room consisted of a rather long rectangular table with twenty seats: nine chairs on each of the table’s sides and two chairs sharing the end, opposite to where the large meeting room screen was placed. This meeting room was only half filled: what Shryza presumed to be the top five members from each organization were present.

At the end of the table seated the Student Council President and Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman, the two students holding the most political power within the academy. Sitting in the four seats following from each side of the table were their respective underlings. However the side chair closest to the Student Council President was empty; that was where Student Council Vice President Ivy was typically seated. And on the chair on the opposite side of the table, the side chair closest to the Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman, was where Vice Chairwoman Ariana sat cross-armed, staring at Ivy and Shryza’s direction. Her face had the expression of asking why Shryza was currently here.

At Ivy and Shryza’s entrance, the entire table went silent as both the President and Chairwoman opened their mouths to greet the new transfer student.

“Welcome to the International Combat Academy. My name is Eliza Mari, and I am the current President of the Student Council. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”

“And I am Cara Kamabo, Chairwoman of the Disciplinary Committee. I heard what happened this morning from my underclassman and I hope that this incident didn’t cause too much trouble for you.”

It was incredibly troublesome, Shryza wanted to retort. However he settled for the expected response.

“Thanks to your intervention, it wasn’t much trouble at all.”

Having been elected in their second year of university and completely uncontested in their reelections as third year students, both of the women who had greeted Shryza were incredibly popular. And it was not difficult to see why.

President Eliza seemed to speak very softly yet politely, maintaining a certain aura of elegance around her. Her long curly blond hair complemented her slim and petite doll-like figure. Despite her frail physical appearance, she was not to be underestimated as she held claim to being the ninth highest ranked student at the academy.

In contrast, Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman seemed to portray a rougher image. Although she was a very charismatic speaker and had a friendly atmosphere around her, if needed to she wouldn’t hesitate to resort to using force. She had short cropped hair and had a more muscular yet slim athletic figure. And just like she looked, she was unquestionably powerful at Rank Eight in the academy.

Although not to the extent of the seven monsters given the collective nickname <Dragon Valkyries>, both women were incredibly beautiful and talented. If the seven sisters had never attended this academy, the president and the chairwoman

Speaking of which, Shryza was still somewhat baffled at how the school had such a large concentration of powerful, talented women at the top of the interschool rankings. Not that he was in a position to complain about this harem-like setting.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Also after hearing from my Ariana, my assistant, I heard you are quite strong. Would you like to join the Disciplinary Committee?”

Chairwoman Cara seemed to imply that strength was the only prerequisite to joining her committee. President Eliza in response also provided an offer.

“Or perhaps would the Student Council be a better fit for you? It seems that you are quite capable.”

To have these two powerful students acknowledge him wasn’t a bad feeling. However, he had no intentions of joining either organization. The first reason was that he did not have time to spare doing work for either group, as he already assumed the duty to babysit seven girls. The second reason was that he would be certain they would rescind their offers. After all, he was just about to antagonize them, both.

“Actually I have something else to discuss. You may call it a request for you two.”

“A request?”

“Interesting… At the very least, we can hear it out.”

At Shryza’s subtle change in tone, Eliza and Cara both changed their expressions. How sharp, Shryza thought of the two of them.

Now for the moment of truth.

“I would like to challenge you both to a duel.”

The whole room was stunned into silence. The president was the first to regain her composure.

“Shryza. Unfortunately, I will have to decline. After all, you have not provided the necessary collateral and there is nothing for me to gain.”

“As Prez said, there’s too much risk and no reward. However I like your guts, kid. My offer for you to join my Disciplinary Committee still stands.”

As expected, both of the two top-ranked university students would turn down this challenge. The risk of such a large potential drop in rank, from single-digit to triple-digit, was too high, and there was no reward to be gained. And as the ranks were too far apart, Shryza was unable to use the forced-duel rule.

It was time for him to pull his trump card, the one he had Rayl prepare for him beforehand. From his pocket, he pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper and held it up.

“Actually I do have something to offer. And I hope it is something you cannot easily refuse.”

While speaking, he walked up to both leaders and handed the paper to them. The president warily took it from him and unfolded it, while still keeping eye contact with him. Finally she turned down her eyes and quickly read the paper’s contents.

“This is…!”

To have surprised the Student Council President, the message must have quite unexpected. The chairwoman leaned towards the president to also read the letter, and even she was shocked.

“This can’t be real, can it?”

Going back several minutes after Raylz had just mentioned <God of Death>’s name, Shryza had agreed to his request. However Shryza had quickly realized that in order to achieve a single-digit rank to better monitor the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters, he would have to fight a rather large number of duels. He then proposed to just fight whoever was Rank Eight or Nine in order to quickly finish this task in one go. Raylz, upon hearing this shortcut, he knew that these two students were the Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman and the Student Council President, and he thought this quite the interesting proposal. But to get them to agree to this duel with no merit to them, he offered to personally provide the incentive.

And after all, regardless of the wager he had to provide, he had absolute confidence that Shryza would not lose.

“I can assure you that this was approved by the headmaster. His seal at the bottom of the letter is real enough.”

“I see. This is something I cannot just ignore. For the headmaster to make this personal offer…”

“In any case, this might be worth the risk. So which one of us would you like to challenge?”

Both the president and the chairwoman were convinced that they could not lose to an underclassman that was not one of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters. However Shryza could still feel some hesitation coming from the both of them. After all Shryza was a student that was able to hold his own against Himika, Rank Three, despite her being unarmed and not having used her full power.

Although this was not quite in the original plan, perhaps they just needed a little bit more confidence. If he was to make the leap to a single-digit rank with a single duel, he would already draw quite the amount of attention towards himself. A little more wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Shaking his head while smiling, Shryza gave them the final push.

And again caused the whole room to freeze in silence.

“I never said it had to be a one-on-one duel. Both of you are welcome to come at me together.”

====Chapter 3: Part 2:====

(In Progress)

User talk:Shrysha

2014-09-15T15:19:06Z

Shrysha: edit: formatting

==Author's Note==

Please feel free to leave any critiques, opinions, comments, etc. of my light novel attempt, thanks.

==Comments Section==

Did you already consult on either Ping Or Onizuka?
Btw, quite interested to your OLN, will reading further

== OLN on Personal Username page ==

Dear Shrysha,

Thank you for contacting me, your personal username page (i.e. user:shryha), can be used for personal content so long as it does not include expanded username pages (i.e. User:Shrysha/Projects )or other created wiki pages and that it does not violate the Baka-Tsuki readers agreement:
[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Baka-Tsuki:Reader_Agreement Readers Agreement].

The only exception for acceptable expanded username pages (i.e. User:Shrysha/Projects ) is material relating to existing Baka-Tsuki approved & categorised projects or in facilitating materials to your activities related to Baka-Tsuki projects.

In essence you may post you OLN on your username page, (which you have done so far) as long as it is kept on that one page.
If you were to create username expansion pages or links to other created pages within this wiki for your Original Light Novel then this will be considered an Original Light Novel project in all but name and will be treated as such, where unapproved and/or uncategorised projects can be deleted without notice.

Therefore it is recommended that if you wish to publish your Original Light Novel on the wiki, you must follow the current policy regarding Original Light Novels (2007).
Which in summary, requires that you must go through a peer review process on the Baka-Tsuki Forum, by posting your OLN within the Creative Works sub-forum.
You can find the forum here:
[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewforum.php?f=24 Creative Works Forum]

This process is to ensure the content of your novel does not contain fan fiction of existing novels or of a poronographic nature and of course to ensure you receive constructive feedback on your material.

For more details please refer to this page:
[[Baka-Tsuki:New_Project_Startup_Guidelines|Project Startup Guidelines]]

As for acceptance of your Original Light Novel, the uncodified definition of a acceptance to be published on the wiki, is that you will need a sufficient amount of chapters that can defined as one "volume" and meet the minimum standards that we use to approve of all light novel project.

I hope this answers your question and if you have any more, please do not hesitate to ask.

Best Regards,

Onizuka-GTO 21:22, 27 August 2014 (CDT)

User:Shrysha

2014-09-15T15:15:04Z

Shrysha: Added Chapter 3: Part 2

==The Seven Princess Knights and the Dark Lord Hero (Original Light Novel Attempt)==

===Foreword:===

This is a story about the knight rescuing the princess from the bad guys.

This seems to be a traditional plotline chock-full of overused clichés and tropes.

Except that the knight wasn’t one of those typical knights in shining armor. Perhaps he could be considered one of those bad guys. Maybe a villain. Wait, could he even be called a knight at this point? I think if I asked him, he would probably reject the “knight” designation.

And this story didn’t just have one princess. Actually there are seven. And did they even need rescuing?

Well there has to be bad guys in the story, right? Well, I’m not even sure if the bad guys could even be called bad guys. I mean, their intentions were good. Probably better than those of Mr. Knight. I suppose it is just a matter of perspective.

So, this is a story about the knight who wasn’t really a knight rescuing the princesses who didn’t need to be rescued from the bad guys who weren’t really bad guys.

I think I did a decent job with my summary.

Enjoy!

===Prologue:===

“Strong…”

These were the only words that the frail young white-haired slave child could mutter. Or rather a former slave. Despite lying collapsed on the ground and with skin covered with filth and body malnourished, and despite having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, there was no fear in this child’s eyes.

Before the child was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a midnight-black hooded cloak concealing his entire body and a similarly colored long curved sword, he gave a very intimidating dark presence. Carrying the scent of blood and death around him, he could very well be mistaken for the grim reaper or angel of death himself. And those would be rather accurate guesses, as he was widely known to the rest of the world by the name <God of Death>, and not just for his physical appearance alone.

After all, he was the one responsible for having single-handedly staining this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of men.

Hundreds killed with only a single swing of his blade.

Perhaps instead of a battle, it would be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre, or perhaps a mass execution. The reaper was the judge, jury, and executioner.

But at the moment, he was the only truth in this part of the world where power was the only law, with no one left alive to oppose him.

Despite the <God of Death>’s actions, the child still did not fear him. To the child, this reaper was a savior, having killed the now former slave merchant owners and their bodyguards.

Perhaps this was too much of a biased view; it was truly a matter of perspective.

Contrary to his expectations, the child slowly crawled and reached for the hem of his cloak.

Perhaps having had his interest piqued, he patiently waited for the child’s next actions. This child who was on the steps of death’s door. This child whose life was in the hands of this “god” ruling over death itself.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly rose to an oppressive level, completely overwhelming the child’s senses. The child suddenly collapsed back to the ground, seemingly crushed by an immense unknown pressure. But the child who had nothing left to lose, and nothing left to fear, only stared unwaveringly back.

Suddenly the pressure ceased, and the child could suddenly breathe gain. The <God of Death> turned around and full faced the child.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to glare back, showing his firm resolve. It may have been just a trick of the mind, but the child thought he felt the <God of Death> smile for just a moment. The voice continued.

(But power is something I can offer you. And the price…)

Without hesitation, with a single breath:

“My soul.”

===Interlude 1:===

Such a clichéd development.

A child’s soul offered to the devil in exchange for power.

But an unexpected response, like “It had already been paid for” or something anti-climatic like that, had been the immediate response. It left the child a bit speechless, which was to be expected.

To be prepared to sacrifice everything, not that it was much, and at the climax only to be told that someone else already paid the bill.

This was an eight-year-old memory that he hadn’t remembered for quite some time.

Perhaps even a fated reunion could occur.

Could this be what people commonly called a premonition?

===Chapter 1:===

====Chapter 1: Part 1:====

Today was supposed to be a normal day, link any other.

What kind of ridiculous development was this?

“Uhmm, Shryza, are you alright?”

A cute high-pitched voice interrupted him from his thoughts.

Trying to sort out his thoughts, Shryza had absent-mindedly brought his right hand to hold his temples underneath his messy head of silver-white hair, which was quite the unusual color for an eighteen year-old student.

His school uniform was ordinary enough: a white blazer, shirt and pants with the school insignia on each. Although Shryza felt uncomfortable wearing it, let alone it was a bit too flashy for his taste, it couldn’t be helped; as one of the most prestigious academic institutions worldwide, it was expected there would be an excess of unnecessary rules and regulations to maintain its lofty image to the rest of the world.

Asides from the standard-issue uniform, Shryza’s appearance was altogether rather unnatural.

His left eye was covered with an eyepatch, mostly obscured by the longer left-side bangs of his unnaturally white hair. And when combined with the pair of rectangular glasses on his face, the eyepatch was almost unnoticeable, especially from further distances. He also had wrapped the entire length of his left arm in bandages as well, most of which was hidden unearth the sleeve of his uniform.

Overall, Shryza’s appearance seemed to be one of a particularly unlucky accident-prone teenager.

If he had claimed to have been involved in a horrific accident that had injured most of his left side, and that this injury was the cause for his late enrollment to the school, most people would unquestionably believe him.

“I apologize. I’m just a little tired this morning, thanks.”

Shryza in response to the question in regards to his well-being settled for a simple apology, which he thought would suffice.

Standing facing Shryza was Professor Ruegger a comically petite teacher wearing an oversized white laboratory coat over her simple teaching attire, which only seemed to reinforce her rather child-like appearance. Contrary to how she looked, most students would unequivocally agree that she was an extremely knowledgeable well-liked teacher, always putting forth her best efforts for the sake of her students. Professor Reugger was looking up sternly at Shryza with her large orange-hued eyes, but it was rather difficult for him to take her seriously when she had the face of an innocent child pouting. If asked to guess her age, which was one of the greatest mysteries within this academy, Shryza would decline to comment.

Professor Ruegger smiled and, as expected, quickly accepted this apology. She turned back around and stated cheerfully, “Now please introduce yourself to the class.”

That’s right.

Shryza and Professor Ruegger were now standing at the front of a small lecture hall, or rather what looked like a mini-theatre, in front of twenty or so seated students. Although it wasn’t particularly necessary, she thought it a good idea for Shryza to take the opportunity to introduce himself as a new transfer student. There was quite a bit of whispering and murmuring in the classroom, which quieted down as Professor Ruegger took a step forward towards her students.

“So if you could, please introduce yourself.”

As Professor Reugger turned her head at back at Shryza, he could feel the curious stares of the students being redirected at him.

As he thought earlier, this was a ridiculous scenario, being forced to attend school.

There could only be one culprit.

And that someone would definitely later on receive a punch to the face.

With no other choice for now, Shryza decided to just go with the flow for now and accept his fate.

“My name is Shryza Doe. Nice to meet everyone.”

With a glance at the teacher, Shryza gave her a looking that said he was done with his introduction.
Apparently she, nor the rest of the class, was satisfied with such a short, information-lacking introduction.

Shryza sighed before stating, “I’m sorry but I’m quite terrible at this introduction thing. If anyone has any questions…”

Ms. Ru’s face suddenly paled. This was certainly the wrong approach for someone trying to maintain order within the classroom, not that Shryza actually cared though.

As to be expected, the class erupted with noise and he was bombarded with questions and comments from all directions, without any opening for him to answer.

“Hey hey, where did you come from?”

“Why did you transfer? Did you get into an accident?”

“What was your former school?”

“You look pretty cute, do you have a girlfriend?”

“Say something about your hobbies or favorite activities!”

“Why did you transfer into our class? I thought that you couldn’t become an A-rank without ranking up.”

“Are the rumors true? Is it true you got top scores on the transfer exam?”

“Apparently he completely aced the written portion.”

“No way, that’s impossible!”

“How were his practical results?”

“Wait, I heard you beat an exam-proctor in a fight. Is that true?”

“Seriously?”

“Unless he’s at the level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters…”

“Yeah, he doesn’t look that strong at all.”

“Did you get into an accident?”

It was complete chaos.

Shryza made zero attempts to answer any of the questions or rumors being wildly thrown around. Not that he had the chance to. On the other hand, there was one person in the class valiantly trying to rein in this disorder.

“Enough, everyone! Can everyone please quiet down!”

Professor Ruegger tried to tame the growing ruckus, but to no avail. It seemed that she had very little control over her own students. Even though she was a very well-liked teacher, her competence in being able to direct her class was in question. Many teachers were brought in by this school primarily for magical research whereas others were hired for their outstanding combat abilities; teaching students, although still a core focus of any academic institution, seemed to have a backseat role here.

“Sniff…”

As Professor Ruegger started tearing up and looked like she was going to cry, the students stopped their questioning session and started to reprimand each other.

“Everyone quiet down!” a student called out to the rest of the class

“Stop bullying Ms. Ru guys!”

“Hey! Ms. Ru, don’t cry!”

“We’re sorry! We’ll promise to stop!”

Shryza could only observe this strange phenomenon with silence. It seemed that the class didn’t see Professor Ruegger, or rather Ms. Ru, as a teacher but rather as a young child. But it was somewhat sadistic of the students to initially force her to the brink of tears before consoling her.

Well, it looked like Ms. Ru did the ability to control and direct her class, but not via traditional methods.

“H-Hmph. A-As long as you understand, then I’ll forgive you. I’m also your teacher! Please call my name properly!”

Ms. Ru stuttered a little as she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. Looking around the classroom, it didn’t look like her request would be easily fulfilled.

“So again, let’s do this properly. If anyone has any questions, please raise your hand…”

“Hey, transfer student. I heard you are strong.”

With those words, the rest of the classroom continued to remain silent.

Shryza turned his gaze to the student standing up, who had earlier been sitting in the back of the classroom. Admittedly she had quite the dazzling appearance. Ignoring her rather pretty face and nice figure, she had bright crimson-colored shoulder-length hair and similarly-colored eyes, which were very hard to ignore. Despite the uniform requirement at this school, it seemed that students were still able to be quite liberal with their physical appearance. This student in particular wore her uniform very informally; her blazer was taken off and placed on her desk, her shirt was untucked with rolled-up shirt sleeves, and her skirt length was too short for what Shryza expected from such a traditional-style school.

This student would be considered a very attractive lady, if it weren’t so difficult to picture her as anything other than a school delinquent or gangster.

Without question, this person had the most imposing presence in the classroom.

“Uhmm, Ms. Himika…”

Ms. Ru tried to interject, but the delinquent was focused solely on Shryza and ignored her.

“To be transferred into our class immediately, your transfer exam scores must have been pretty good. I also heard that you beat the examiner during the practical test as well, is that true?”

For someone who looked and acted like a gangster, Shryza found her to be quite eloquent.

Shryza hesitated about how to answer before settling for a vague response.

“Who knows.”

“Haha, that’s a nice response!”

The delinquent laughed as she ran her hand through her hair before grinning widely at him.

“My name is Himika Cou, and I am the strongest in this room at Rank Three! And with my rank on the line, I challenge you to a duel!”

What a lame line. It sounded like some kid was trying to challenge him to a children’s card game, or something similar to that. But if what she said was true, at rank three, she was the third strongest student at this school amongst several thousands. And Himika’s surname “Cou” was one that belonged to the three great families. Given her innate talent, it was very likely she was one of the daughters of the Wei house. To engage in battle with one of the scions of the three great families was quite the interesting offer.

But in the end, it sounded too troublesome for his liking.

“I refuse.”

It wasn’t really in his personality to accept such a troublesome proposal.

Unfortunately for Shryza, Himika was not deterred at all by this rejection.

“Make no mistake, transfer student. I’m not giving you a choice.”

Shryza sighed softly at this reply.

“I thought I was allowed to decline.”

“I see, so you don’t know the rules yet. Normally you’d be able to avoid this fight, but I have special privileges as a single digit ranker.”

How… annoying? Despite her delinquent appearance, it seemed that Himika was actually rule-abiding. Her forceful personality and ability to exploit the rules were completely separate matters.

There were few feasible options that Shryza could choose to respond with.

He could run. But where to?

He could try again to suspend the duel. But it looked like it would be too difficult to convince her.

He could choose to lose on purpose. But if he was found out, she looked to be the type of person that wouldn’t let him off easily.

He could just accept the duel and win. But that would draw too much attention towards him.

Whatever choice he made, it would be a lose-lose situation for him.

Resigned to his fate, Shryza thought it better to just win and get this matter done with. As long as it looks as if he just barely won, then he could avoid the worst possible outcomes at the very least.

“Where and when?”

“Someone who doesn’t mince words, that’s great. Are you prepared? And how does here and now sound?”

This delinquent was surprisingly considerate as well, showing the most basic of etiquettes of giving Shryza time to find a weapon or determine an alternative time or place to have the duel. Ms. Ru looked like she wanted to make an objection to the fight taking place in the middle of a classroom, but both of them seemed to have completely relegated her to a background character at this time.

Shryza raise both hands to show that he didn’t have, or need, any weapons.

“I accept, whenever you’re ready.”

At these words, the two badges pinned on each of the students’ shirts quickly flashed with light, which signified the school’s acknowledgement of the legitimacy of this duel.

“Great! Don’t go disappointing me!”

With only a single step, Himika warning leapt from her seat over the heads of his fellow students. To traverse the classroom in one step was actually quite the considerable feat.

Screams could be heard… only from Ms. Ru.

In this school, it was not uncommon to see fights, or rather these “duels”, breaking out randomly across the campus. Thus the rest of the class was already quite accustomed to this type of scene. However, most students would agree that Himika’s act of interrupting Ms. Ru’s class with a duel without asking permission first was quite rude.

On the contrary, Ms. Ru, no matter how many times she witnessed these duels, could never get used to them. She was never a big proponent of fighting and violence.

While in midair, Himika led with her left knee while drawing back her right fist, presumably in preparation for a preemptive attack.

Despite the lack of warnings, Shryza predicted this kind of development to a certain extent. With the vast amount of accumulated experience he had gained fighting on innumerable battlefields, to him an attack coming directly from the front was not much of a surprise, and dealing with it was mere child’s play.

Despite landing a meter away from Shryza, with the left foot she landed on, she used it to quickly propel herself in Shryza’s direction and punched forward with her right arm. Shryza in response slightly tilted his body to sidestep the attack, but only just barely enough that he could still feel the air pressure caused by her arm barely passing by where his head was only moments earlier. Upon missing her initial punch, she quickly leaned forward onto her right foot and pivoted her body, sending her left foot flying upwards at Shryza from behind. This beautiful follow-up roundhouse kick was met and easily deflected with the back of Shryza’s right hand.

However, Himika’s attack was not finished.

Upon having this kick repelled, she used her left foot to bring down Shryza’s right arm towards the ground, leaving an opening in his defense. With her free right knee, she attempted to viciously knee her opponent in the groin. However this crisis was averted by him taking a step back and moving out of range. Himika’s then used that knee to step forward and raised up her other leg in preparations for a drop kick. And in one fluid movement, she brought it down, as if swinging down a heavy battleaxe onto Shryza’s head, but only to have it blocked once more by the palm of his right hand.

Four fluid attacks in one movement. She was extremely skilled and well-trained for unarmed close quarters combat.

And even though none of her attacks connected, it seemed that she was enjoying this fight too much.

“Isn’t your skirt too short? You should be more concerned that people will see what’s underneath.”

Shryza wanted to interrupt the current pace of the battle and slow it down. He thought that this question might cause Himika to be more self-conscious and slightly throw off her composure. Contrary to his expectations, she was completely unmoved by this inquiry and easily brushed it aside.

“If you have time to be so worried for me, let’s see how you handle this!”

Unfortunately for him, it had the reverse effect.

Her left leg unexpectedly ignited with bright red flames, prompting Shryza to let it go immediately and retreat two or three meters away from her.

The flames seemed to emit intense heat and pressure, but Himika was completely unaffected.

Despite the duel taking place in the front of the classroom away from where the students were seated, there was no barrier or protection in place to prevent collateral damage from the fight should it come their way. But most of the students were quite unconcerned; most were quite happy to skip a boring class lecture to watch this high-level fight between this classroom’s strongest and the mysterious transfer student.

Although the fight had just barely started, there was a question that Shryza still had in regards to her Himika’s motives.

If what he recalled was right, a student’s rank was the most important possession amongst students in this school.

“Your rank. Why are you willing to put that on the line for something like this pointless duel?”

“Rank, something uninteresting like that? I’m more than willing to give it up, but that’s only if you can entertain and defeat me!”

She responded as if this explanation was the most natural thing in the world.

Himika then quickly charged, with her flaming left leg forward, again closing the distance between the two combatants.

===Chapter 2:===

As the two students continued to clash with each other, Ms. Ru could only scrunch into a ball and pout. She was now sitting in the front row of her classroom, after having been brought over by some of her students. A few of the female students were still by her side actively comfort the poor teacher. Although her skills and knowledge as a professor were real, she had neither authority nor respect in her own classroom. Rather than being looked up to as an older mentor, she was instead treated as an adorable younger sister to be teased and played with.

Unfortunately for Ms. Ru, with the exception of the authority from higher up, until the conclusion of the duel, no one was permitted to interrupt it once underway. Not even the teacher of her two students was allowed to interfere, which was why she had made multiple earlier, yet futile, attempts to stop the duel from starting.

Duels in this institution had three fundamental conditions.

First, there must be mutual consent, implicit or explicit, between the two dueling parties. Consent did not refer just to the duel itself, but also extended to the details and conditions attached to it as well. Forced duels and duels instigated by single digit rankers were the only exception.

Second, duels will only be recognized on the academy grounds. The badges given to each student upon enrollment allowed the academy to track and monitor each duel participant. This was especially important to resolve possible conflicts regarding the two parties should a dispute arise in regards to the duel’s conclusion.

Lastly, a duel is won once the opposing party has conceded defeat or is left unconscious. Killing the other party, however, is considered forbidden and is harshly punished, with very few outliers.

Asides from those three rules, everything was essentially unrestricted or fair game.

Power is the only truth.

With duels capable of deciding and resolving almost every matter in the school, power was indeed the absolute truth of this academy, or the International Combat Academy.

Despite the school’s name, this was a privately-run institution located on an exclusive island not belonging to any nation, independent from all international pressures. This academy was founded just only five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a mysterious yet very wealthy backer. Despite all initial doubts, it had since then become the most famous and prestigious institution for producing the strongest warriors, magicians, and combatants.

As a result, and largely in part due to its strict international neutrality, nations worldwide sent many of their promising talents there to be raised and cultivated. And naturally those who achieved a high rank in the school system would be placed highly in the International Ranking System as well.

There are two types ranking systems at this school.

The first type of rank, and most important rank as a professional in the industry, was the international Ranking System.

With combat talent and abilities highly valued worldwide, there was a growing necessity to be able to rank people objectively and holistically on an international basis. The International Ranking Commission, comprised by a committee of professors and other highly qualified professionals, was set up to fulfill that informational requirement.

The vast majority of the students at the International Combat Academy were not ranked under the international system, and they would not be expected to have been assigned a rank until after graduation.

The second type of rank, and far more relevant rank as a student, was the interschool ranking system.

The interschool ranking was the method how students at this academy were assessed, which are similar to grades from a more traditional institution. Exemplary written and practical exams results were indeed important to achieving a higher rank. But ranking duels were the much more influential method of determining school-wide ranks. With ranking duels, one could fight another higher-ranking student and, if victorious, swap for their higher ranks.

Normally higher ranked students would not allow lower rankers to challenge them due to risks of accidentally losing and having their rank drop significantly, but there are a few exceptions.

The first and most common exception is that there exists an academy rule permitting those with lower ranks to “force” a duel from a slightly higher ranked, the methodology not stated here, with the purpose of encouraging more school-wide competition, thus the “forced duel” rule.

A second common scenario where a higher ranker will voluntarily accept a duel from a lower-ranked student is when another “prize” or condition is offered by the lower ranker as an additional compensation for the risk the higher ranker assumes.

There was also a rare third scenario. There are people in this academy who have enrolled for no other purpose other than to fight other powerful students, without care for his or her ranking. Ranks were just a means to an end. Such students in the academy were very few in number, and such a person was the high-ranked delinquent-looking student currently in front of Shryza.

Having been on the receiving end of a few attacks, Shryza had that Himika was an extremely skilled fighter. Her current Rank Three was well merited. However, even that level strength was not enough to concern Shryza. At any point of time during the fight, he could have chosen to end it immediately with a well-timed counterattack. But suddenly winning a fair one-on-one duel against the third strongest person in the school might cause future problems for him.

After having dashed at towards him with her leg ablaze, Shryza had thought that she would use that same leg to land an attack. To his surprise, she dove downwards and turned her body to use her other leg, her right leg, in an attempt at a leg sweep. Taking another step back to avoid it, he was now met again with her left leg wearing a boot made of flames. Where did she find the time to rotate her body and fire off another kick? With no time to dodge, Shryza quickly gathered mana onto the palm of his right hand and bare-handedly caught her flame-clad foot.

Himika did not expect such a response to her attack, and she started laughing in enjoyment again.

“It doesn’t seem that you tree-lovers burn as easily as I thought!”

Shryza stared directly back at Himika with his only visible violet-colored eye and smiled back wryly, understanding the deeper meaning of his words.

Each person born with a certain level of talent for magic also had affinity to at least one of the seven core elements or two sub elements that exist in this world. And a person’s primary elemental affinity was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with red eyes, like Himika, was someone who excelled with fire magic. Likewise, a person with purple eyes was more skilled with wood and plant manipulation.

Additionally, certain elements were more “effective” than other elements in certain confrontations. In this case, to fight fire, wood was the absolute worst element to use.

In theory by just comparing their elemental affinities, Himika should have had a significant advantage in this matchup.

But by concentrating mana into his right hand, Shryza was able to easily withstand Himika’s flame-infused kick. Mana, the source of power used by all magic and spells, in its natural state was neutral, or void of any elemental attributes.

“Oh? Your hand is still fine, but are you sure you’re fine with only using one?”

Himika had quickly glanced down at Shryza’s bandaged left hand, which had largely remained motionless since the beginning of the fight. This could have been seen as a considerate gesture, had she not ignited flames in her other arm and thrown an elbow to side of his head. This action prompted Shryza to quickly release Himika’s fist and sidestep the attack.

Shryza was actually reasonably impressed with the quality and durability of the academy-issue combat-ready uniforms, as Himika’s clothing were largely unaffected by her flames. However, the uniform is no substitute battle-armor: its defensive properties were actually quite minimal. The material of the uniform was made to let magical and elemental attacks go through the cloth unobstructed rather than to block them, but that did little to stop sharp objects from easily cutting through them.

“One arm should be more than enough. No need to go easy on me.”

“Haha, that’s a great response!”

Along with her answer, Himika also ignited her other leg and two arms with flames as well. Each of them had the same heat and intensity as the one originally enveloping her left leg.

Shryza could only sigh. This was a development he should have seen coming.

For several moments, Shryza and Himika continued to trade blows, providing a mesmerizing lightshow to the student spectators. Or rather, it was Himika throwing an increasingly complex yet constantly fluid combination of attacks whereas Shryza was continually on the defensive.

From the outsiders’ perspective, it seemed that Shryza was continued being pressed back. It seemed logical that only being able to use one arm should be a crippling disadvantage to Shryza in close quarters combat. It looked like only a matter of time before Shryza’s impressive defense would reveal an opening, and for Himika to land a decisive attack to end the fight.

But this was not the same view that Himika held. Himika prided herself in her strength, and rightfully so as the third strongest student in the school. But she was quick to acknowledge and assess the strength of others with almost a beast-like instinct. Being able to ward off every single one of her attacks, she was made immediately aware that her opponent was skilled. His mana levels were nothing incredibly special and neither were his physical speed in strength; in fact it can be said that his stats were almost too average. However this one armed opponent was actually able to easily maneuver around Himika’s aggression with only the most basic of techniques or movements, which required an incredible amount of real combat experience and knowledge.

With each attack that was deflected or dodged, Himika’s estimation of Shryza’s strength only rose. Where the seemingly increasing gap in power may have overwhelmed other students and cause them to be distraught, this only fueled Himika’s fighting appetite; she genuinely enjoyed fighting against this caliber of opponent.

However, she was still not completely satisfied. Although there was no proof that this was the case, she felt that Shryza was holding back his full strength against her, even to the point of just testing her.

“How annoying. So you’re one of those guys who won’t hit a girl?”

Himika, clearly displeasured that Shryza refused to go on the offensive, continued to assault Shryza with a flaming elbow, which was neatly dodged. The fact that she had yet to land a solid attack on him did little to help to improve her mood.

“I’m busy enough just trying not to get hit.”

“You’re such a terrible liar. I know you’re stronger than you’re letting on. It’s just annoying that I can’t make you fight seriously unless I do so first.”

And with these words, Himika suddenly disengaged from close quarters combat by stepping back away from Shryza and completely ceased the raging flames wrapping around each of her four limbs.

For just a moment, Shryza was caught off guard at Himika’s words. He thought that he had put a reasonable amount of effort to hide this very fact. But during his limited exchange of blows and words, he realized that Himika was not only just powerful and talented, but she was also quite the intelligent fighter. Actually he could go further and say that many of her attacks were quite sly and sneaky. Regardless, she was much sharper than everyone gave her credit for, and this hot-headed idiot personality was perhaps merely a calculated façade to lower the enemy’s guard.

Whatever was the case, Shryza mentally upgraded his evaluation of the opponent before him.
Even though it looked that Himika still had a few trump cards up her sleeve.

Holding her right hand open with her palm facing upwards, she slowly closed her eyes.

“Dragon flames, ignite.”

Suddenly she released an enormous wave of pressure and heat, blowing away the air in her vicinity, before gathering onto her palm a small ball of raging red-white flames. These flames were on a much greater intensity than the smaller ones used when he was using them to enhance her attacks earlier.

Although he didn’t verbalize it, Shryza was quite impressed at the level of Himika’s abilities, as she was still only of teen age. Even though he had fought numerous high-ranked fire-elementalists in the past, he could count those who could use higher-level flames on only one hand.

Himika then closed her right hand into a fist, completely squashing that ball of flames. This caused the flames to shoot out from one side of her fist, which then gathered and condensed into the form of a blazing two-meter long sword.

Although the sprinkler system was activated, it did absolutely nothing to mitigate the potency of these flames. This did awaken the student spectators from their trance-like state, having been bewitched just by watching this high level fight.

With this much higher level of fire magic being contained in such a relatively small classroom, the spectators started murmur with worry, and some even were on the verge of panicking. The potential collateral damage that could possibly result from the seemingly inevitable clash was on a level that could no longer be overlooked. It was extremely rare that such a fight between such high-ranked students should occur so informally inside a classroom. Usually they were schedule beforehand and fought in an appropriately-sized spectator-filled stadium, as it was very likely that larger scaled magic abilities were going to be used. Only relatively low power attacks had been used so far in the fight, but it looked like that would soon quickly change.

As a side note, Ms. Ru admirably tried to go forward to make a few last ditch attempts to interfere with and stop the fight. But as expected she was quickly stopped and carried off by her own students to safety.

Additionally in response to Himika’s dragon flames, a powerful water barrier was casted over the students to prevent damage from reaching to them. The caster of this magic, presumably named Yuki, was a pale blue-white haired student who was now standing with an arm outstretched. Her attractiveness was on the same scale as Himika’s, but she had a calm graceful elegance juxtaposed against Himika’s wild unrestrained beauty. But more importantly, Shryza judged her to be just as powerful as Himika as well, most likely another single ranker.

He couldn’t help but think that there was quite the number of talented people in this classroom.

“Thanks Yuki!”

She responded to Himika with only a nod.

No longer worried about her flames reaching her fellow classmates, Himika again refocused her undivided attention backed to Shryza. But he returned with a rather interesting remark.

“I’m surprised that you’re actually a pretty considerate person, taking the time to worry about your classmates.”

“Why would I be? It would just be annoying if they interfered in our fight. Enough of the small talk, it’s time to finish this!”

As if to confirm this statement, she pointed her flaming sword in Shryza’s direction. Despite Himika’s fierce words, she was not very convincing in trying to hide her embarrassment.

First looks impressions were indeed quite a bit deceiving.

“Dragon flames… That sword looks a bit dangerous.”

“And yet you don’t look the least bit concerned. How strong are you really?”

“Who knows? And aren’t you going to draw your real weapon?”

Shryza tilted towards Himika’s seat in the back corner of the classroom, where a rather long, bulky package wrapped in bandages lay against the wall. Judging by the shape of the wrapped weapon and the current magic Himika was using, it should probably be a sword of similar proportions to the current one she was holding made of flames. By wielding that weapon and channeling magic through it directly instead of fighting with her conjured flame sword, Shryza estimated that Himika’s battle potential could easily increase at least two or three-fold, if not more.

As expected, his suggestion was readily turned down.

“That wouldn’t be fun. After all, you’re unarmed as well.”

“I see. Then brace yourself.”

With little effort, Shryza rapidly concentrated his mana to the tips of his fingers. Noticing that Shryza was preparing to go on the offensive for the first time this battle, Himika, who had raised her flame sword slightly above her head and was about to launch headlong into an all-out attack, suddenly stopped.

Dangerous.

Her instincts, which have rarely failed her and have helped her win fights time and time again, were loudly screaming to her that Shryza was extremely dangerous. She felt as if the blade of a knife was being held to her throat. What kind of heavy killing intent was this?

If she made just even the slightest mistake, she felt that she that a single strike might be enough to even kill her. She was afraid to even take a step forward. Wait, she was feeling fear? Himika wanted to convince herself that this sensation was only an illusion, but to no avail.

Himika had fought her fair share of opponents, and only a handful had alerted her instincts as powerfully as Shryza had. None of them had been around her age, until now.

“Damn, just who exactly are you?”

In sharp contrast to Himika’s animal-like grin, Shryza only responded with a light smile.

Both combatants, with just a few meters separating each other, waited for the other to make an opening. Or rather, it was Shryza that waited for Himika to make the first move. Although Shryza felt that his opponent had too many openings that he could exploit and that the fight was all but decided, he felt lenient enough to let the fight end on Himika’s terms.

Wild flames on one side on the classroom. Zen-like calmness on the other.

Everyone in the classroom was silent, holding their breaths. The tension created by this standoff could be said to be thick enough to drown in.

Himika cautiously moved her foot slightly forward. Shryza did the same.

Inching ever closer, the two opponents…

…were rudely interrupted.

====Chapter 1: Part 3:====

“This duel is declared null and void!”

The classroom door was loudly slammed wide open, completely disrupting the fight.

The tension in the room was killed immediately.

Reluctantly, Himika instantly extinguished her flames and dematerialized her sword. Similarly Shryza dispersed the mana concentrated in his right arm along with his killing intent.

At the door of the entrance were two female students. Apparently they were either very popular or well known within the student body, or very likely both, as suddenly the classroom once again erupted into chatter and noise. It was also to be noted that they were also beauties of a very high level, similar yet different to those of Yuki and Himika.

Shryza hadn’t expect so many people with model-like appearances to have attended this combat-oriented school, let alone be in the same classroom at once. He also hadn’t expected there to be so many talented students in the academy; the two female students who had just interrupted the duel looked to be rather skilled.

Also he made a mental note to himself that this classroom was really a chatterbox. Is this what a normal classroom was supposed to be like?

The first female student, presumably the one who had interrupted their fight, ignored the noise coming from the student spectators and confidently walked forward within inches to Himika, glaring at her accusingly. Like Himika and Yuki, she easily stood out from the rest of her students with her platinum silver hair matching her similarly colored eyes. And with a pauldron on her left shoulder and a sheathed longsword by her waste, she looked very much like a female knight. Although it was quite common to see students carry weapons within the school grounds, Shryza felt that she was prepared to unsheathe and use it anytime at a moment’s notice. It was just a feeling, but Shryza assessed that she was, if not only just slightly, stronger than Himika.

And if Shryza had to make a first impression guess, he didn’t think this female knight and Himika got along well.

Unfortunately it seemed like Shryza guessed correctly.

“As expected of you, Himika. Only you would cause this much trouble in the classroom.”

“Huh?”

Himika aggressively stared back, of course with a fearless smile. It seemed that they shared some history together given their current familiarity, although the relationship was probably not particularly amicable. These two female students had the compatibility of oil and water.

“I’ve done nothing. Aren’t you in the wrong for interrupting this duel?”

“Of course I have the proper authority. But to choose to fight in the middle of class? Especially in the middle of Ms. Ru, I mean Professor Ruegger’s lecture.”

This verbal slip didn’t escape Shryza. Although

“That’s allowed, right? Tell me, where did I break the rules?”

Apparently Ariana, with her aura of authority seemed to have held quite a fair amount of political power within the school. This was particularly surprising as she did not look to be a student at the university level yet.

“It’s not just rules. Etiquette is also important…”

“Etiquette. Oh please shut it, how can you be so stuck up?”

Shryza turned his head away from the two female students. He wanted absolutely no part in this squabble.

While Ariana and Himika continued to verbally berate each other, two other female students approached Shryza. The first was Yuki, who had earlier erected the high-level water barrier. The second was the other student who had entered the classroom with Ariana. The second of the two was the first to speak.

“My name is Ivy, Vice President of the Student Council. Shryza, was it? It’s my pleasure to meet you.”

“And my name is Yuki. I must apologize for Himi’s rather rude behavior. It’s very nice to meet you.”

Himi was very likely Yuki’s personal nickname for Himiko, and it seemed that the two were on very good terms with each other. Whether “Himi” liked being called by that nickname was a different matter.

With a pretty peach-shaped face with waste-length raven-black hair outlining her rather curvy body, Ivy had quite the alluring appearance. With her charming smile and seductive violet eyes, and with her ability to easily manipulate men, she had all the traits of a dangerous femme fatale. And with her ability to rise to a particularly high role within the student government, she was someone he should be cautious around.

Yuki on the other hand seemed to have quite the traditional, graceful appearance, which seemed to match her rather reserved and shy personality. However, she gave Shryza a rather strange yet curious stare, one he chose to ignore at this time.

“Yes that is correct. It is a pleasure meeting you two.”

Any other male student would have been entranced by talking to these two beauties, but Shryza was immune to their charms. At least that is what he tried to convince himself with. But more-so than their appearances, he was even more interested in the power of these four female students: Himiko, Yuki, Ariana, and Ivy. They were extremely skilled, and to a much larger extent than every other student in the classroom, if not the entire school.

This was without a doubt a question he would have to bring up later.

“Ivy, may I ask why was it that you and Ariana, correct me if I’m wrong, came to interrupt our duel?”

Ivy showed a little surprise at being addressed in such a forthright manner with no hesitation. She probably wasn’t used to men being completely unmoved by her charms.

“Ah, I’m sorry to not have introduced Ariana earlier; she is the current Vice-Chairwoman of the Disciplinary Committee. Both of us came under the direct orders of the headmaster, and thus have his authority to end this duel.”

Shryza couldn’t help but groan at this explanation.

“Raylz…”

“You are acquainted with Headmaster Raylz, I presume.”

Ivy gave him an inquisitive look, which he responded to with only a slight nod.

“He instructed the two of us to pass you, the new transfer student, a message.”

====Chapter 2: Part 2:====

“You look pretty terrible, Shryza. It seems like you had a nightmare last night, or did you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?”

The source of this deep yet gentle voice came from a rather handsome elderly man. His age was, however, betrayed by the wrinkles on his face and his grown out white hair and similarly colored goatee. Regardless, this man still had quite the imposing presence. Not only was he taller than the average man, he was also very physically fit and well-built, with his well-toned body still easily discernible underneath his hooded cloak. Behind the pair of round glasses, his soft grey-hued eyes seemed to kindly wait for a response.

Shryza, with a lone violet-colored eye hidden behind the bangs of his white hair, sharply gazed back. While bringing his hand to his forehead as if he had a headache, he closed his eye and sighed.

“Wouldn’t you the cause?”

The elderly man smiled and showed an innocent-looking face that said he hadn’t the faintest idea what Shryza was talking about.

That was of course a lie.

Backtracking a few moments earlier, Shryza had received the following message earlier from the Vice President of the Student Council.

(I trust that you didn’t run into too much trouble this morning. Now that you’ve had time to get to know your classmates, please come by my office when you get the chance.)

From an outsider’s perspective, this message had little meaning. It seemed to just instruct the recipient of the message to stop by the headmaster’s office, presumably for a warm welcome.

But to Shryza, it was just another annoyance.

“You know how badly I want to hit you in the face right now?

“Hey, hey. You know what they say about violence and it not solving anything!”

“But it’d be extremely satisfying at the moment.”

“I’m sure it would be.”

Despite Shryza’s threat, Raylz was not disturbed at the slightest.

Shryza found it difficult to stay cross with this smiling old man for long. After all, this man had a sincere light-hearted fun-loving personality that easily attracted people and brought them to his pace. Of the various people Shryza encountered in his line of business, the old man’s presence was rather refreshing.

“Before we get started, I’m surprised that it already has been eight years. You’ve changed quite a bit since the last time I last saw you.”

“And you are surprised, because?”

“Ah, I wasn’t talking about your appearance. Although now that you mention it, it’s true you have grown taller. I mean you were only ten at the time, and now you’re almost as tall as me now.”

“Wouldn’t that be the thing most people would comment on first?”

“That might be true. I was actually quite surprised that your flow of mana feels quite different now. I almost couldn’t recognize you.”

Each individual was born with a certain talent in using and manipulating mana. Although it was common for a person to increase the amount and power of mana he or she was able to handle, it was almost unheard of, or rather considered impossible, for someone to change the composition of their mana.

Although being able to recognize a person by just sensing or feeling someone’s mana was considered a very high-level ability, this was child’s play to the two people sitting in the room. And having known Raylz for a very long time, Shryza felt no need to hide this from now.

“So how does my mana feel now?”

“Hmm… It’s a bit difficult for me to verbalize it. Although it is weaker than before, it feels much more complex. I’d be very interested to hear about what you did these past years to change it.”

Shryza again was made fully aware of the old man’s abilities to sense mana, as the number of people in the world who could had senses as good as his could be counted with a person’s two hands. Raylz smiled kindly at Shryza, who could only nod back. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable at this unusually warm atmosphere, Shryza quickly returned with his own remarks.

“I see you haven’t lost any of your sharpness since becoming headmaster. I thought you were supposed to grow more senile with age.”

Speaking of which, this room was rather bare and simple for a headmaster’s room. Asides from bookshelves full of thick ancient-looking books, plain wooden desk, a few chairs, and the large windows behind him, there was not much else in this room to speak of. Likewise, Raylz was a rather simple man, unconcerned with such extravagance and grandeur this school was supposed to reflect.

However, he was also of the belief that the headmaster should be the strongest in the school. Otherwise, in his own words, how can he be qualified to lead the next generation? Not just mentally, but Raylz’s physical and magical strength seemed to be as impressive as they were in the past.

Before Raylz could continue on his nostalgia trip, Shryza decided to cut it short. He wasn’t against continuing this talk and catching up with an old acquaintance, but this wasn’t the purpose of his trip here.

“We will have to save catching up for another time. Now getting down to business, please tell me why you’ve called me here.”

The old man was completely unfazed by this change of pace, and he smiled while leaning forward bringing his hands together on top of his desk.

“I have a request to make of you.”

“A request?”

Suddenly Shryza’s interest in the old man’s words increased considerably.

It wasn’t very often that Raly made a request from anyone. Normally he was the independent type of man that would never involve other people in his own troubles, and was also the sort of benevolent person who would accept other people’s requests without asking anything in return. So this request must involve a problem that must’ve been too difficult for Raylz to overcome alone, is what Shryza surmised.

Shryza’s conclusion was correct, but only to a certain extent.

“Yes. I apologize to have to ask this of you, but I want you to enroll at my academy.”

There was a brief moment of silence followed by a sigh. Shryza felt that he’d been sighing too much lately.

“It’s not like you gave me a choice. But wouldn’t it be easier if you had explained yourself before?”

“Is it that strange?”

“Of course it is, to be told to come to your office just only to find a teacher standing outside telling me follow her. Wouldn’t it be more proper for you to have talked with me earlier?”

“But that wouldn’t be as much fun, now would it?”

There was another moment of silence. Shryza felt another strong urge to clock the grinning old man in the face.

“About this entrance test requirement, I don’t recall ever having taken it.”

If he recalled correctly, some students in the class mentioned he had extraordinary high transfer exam results. Not that they weren’t difficult to achieve at all, but…

“Forged.”

A third moment of silence.

“For the headmaster to forge a student’s documents, wouldn’t that be quite the scandal if you were to be found out.”

“You think I’d ever be caught?”

Well let the old man have his fun. Shryza, already prepared to carry out this request, decided to stop asking his tangential questions.

“Back to the main subject of my enrollment, I’m fairly certain that there is something more to this.”

“I just thought it would be great if you could somehow settle down and finally live the life of an ordinary student… is what I would like to say. But unfortunately things are a little bit more complicated.”

Raylz slowly got out of his chair and turned around, looking out the office windows. Outside was quite the grand view of the academy’s main campus. With his back facing Shryza, Raylz continued where he left off.

“Shryza. You are aware of the ranking system of this school?”

“It essentially mirrors that of the International Ranking System, correct?”

“Correct. With our approximately ten thousand students on the island across both our high school and university systems, this ranking system is a convenient compare and measure everyone’s combat prowess. Naturally those in higher grades, and hence the older students, are more mature and have had more time to learn and develop their abilities. Thus as you move up in grade, your rank will increase along as well.”

“So where are you getting at with this explanation.”

“Haha, forgive this old man for being so wordy.”

Raylz then turned back around and, while still standing, again faced Shryza.

“As this ranking system only judges an individual by their ability alone, sometimes there are outliers where some young prodigies will be strong enough to surpass their upperclassmen’s ranks.”

“I see. In the class I went to, there was a student around my age who was highly ranked. Himika Cou was her name, if I recall.”

“I know.”

Because I sent you there purposely, is what Raylz’s mischievous eyes seem to say.

“How was she?”

“She was stronger than what I expected.”

“I meant as a potential girlfriend.”

A fourth moment of silence.

“Anyways…”

The headmaster decided to cut his joke short, as he felt that he would have been in imminent danger should he have continued.

“There are six more students like her who were gifted with immense powers, and each with a unique element. All of them are now in their final year of the high school curriculum, the same year as you, but they have recently completely monopolized the top seven ranks, surpassing every student at the university level.”

Raylz picked up the pre-prepared tablet from the side of his desk and handed it to Shryza. Before him was a public listing of the top ranking students at the academy.

Rank 1 | Leoi, Venus <Wind Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Wind

Rank 2 | Syun, Ariana <Steel Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Metal

Rank 3 | Cou, Himika <Flame Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Fire

Rank 4 | Smith, Yuki <Ice Dragon Valkyrie | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Water

Rank 5 | Lau, Ivy <Rose Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Wood

Rank 6 | Evant, Emile <Lightning Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Electric

Rank 7 | Stariva, Selena <Earth Dragon Valkyrie> | Grade: 12 | Gender: F | Element(s): Earth

Four of these names were familiar to Shryza. These seven comprised the seven Dragon Valkyrie sisters, the term he had briefly heard from his classmates earlier. They had quite the grandiose nicknames, but admittedly they did have the power to back up their titles.

And along with Himika Cou, he also was able to pinpoint two other surnames belonging to the other two great families: Ariana Syun and Ivy Lau of the Wu and Shu houses respectively. As all three were blessed with incredible talents far surpassing their peers, it was likely that all three would succeed as the heads of their respective houses.

“Seven prodigies of similar age and the seven core elements, it shouldn’t be a coincidence…”

“As you and I have already surmised, this was most likely a result of Heaven’s Fall. Having taken place eighteen years ago, it is also the same year all of you were born.”

“So what does this have to do with your request?”

“I want you to protect them.”

A request to protect seven beautiful girls. What was with this unlikely harem-type setting? Shryza felt a mounting headache just listening to this request, and he had yet to carry these requests out.

“These girls are prodigies only seen once every few generations. And there are many international organizations and governments that would strongly desire to obtain their power, even if they had to take more forceful measures. The war-potential that each of these girls would add to any of these groups is not insignificant, especially as their talents mature. Additionally, a number of these girls are heiresses to well-established houses and families, and thus they have their fair share of enemies as well. However at the end of the day, they are still students of my school. And I have an obligation to protect them, at least until they graduate from the academy’s university. And as hired bodyguards are not permitted in the academy or academy-related events, it would be ideal if you could protect these girls behind the scenes as an undercover student.”

Shryza had to admit that Raylz’s rationale was quite reasonable.

“Shouldn’t they already be strong enough to fend for themselves? And even then, no one should be strong or foolish enough to enter the <Silver Demonic Tiger>’s Den, right?”

Having fought one of the <Dragon Valkyries>, Shryza estimated them to be on the level of a three-digit ranker in the International Ranking System. In other words, there were less than a thousand people in this world who could contest the <Dragon Valkyries> in a fair one-on-one fight.

But even in the event that someone stronger than them was to enter the campus grounds uninvited, they would have to somehow bypass the old man standing before Shryza. This old man was the infamous <Silver Demonic Tiger>, whose name top rankers spoke in reverence and the one used to scare children during bedtime stories, was currently the fifth highest ranked person in the world.

The fifth strongest was not a title to be taken lightly.

“Typically I would agree with you, Shryza. However, I cannot be everywhere at once. There will be times when our students will accept missions and assignments outside the academy grounds. And of course during these times, they will be outside the reach of my protection. And I want you to appropriately deal with anything that the <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters can’t handle.”

“Wait, there is something I want to clarify. Why now?”

Having been students at the academy for at least a year, the issue of protecting the <Dragon Valkyries> should have been addressed earlier.

“According to school policy, while the academic year is in session, students are not permitted to receive assignments requiring them to leave campus…”

And with some reluctance, Raylz slowly opened his mouth to finish his statement.

“…that is, until they reach their senior year of high school.”

Seeing where the conversation was going, Shryza had pushed himself out of his chair and started to head out the door. It was true that he felt indebted to Raylz for having taken care of him in the past. But this extended bodyguard request was not something he anticipated, nor nothing he wanted to take part of.

“So this is not a one-time deal?”

“Please, Shryza. There’s no one else I can ask.”

“Raylz, I honestly would like to help you. But you also know that I have no inclination to babysit them until they graduate from this academy’s university. Please find someone else.”

“This arrangement is also beneficial to you as well. Amongst the organizations and people targeting the <Dragon Valkyries>, <Nine Dragons God> is without a doubt one of them.”

Just as Shryza touched the handle of one of the double doors, the mention of the name of that person caused him to stop his movements. Shryza turned around and met Raylz’s eyes, which were unwavering and resolute. There were no lies behind his earnest words. Having been lured with that person’s name and with the obligation to at least hear him out, Shryza walked back to the desk and stood face-to-face with Raylz.

“Fine, I’m listening.”

“One of the <Dragon Valkyries> is the only blood-related daughter of <Nine Dragons God>. So in time, as long as you are with them, that person will come and find you.”

There was too much information this story was lacking, and thus Shryza continued to press forward with more inquiries.

“If that is the case, then why haven’t they reunited earlier?”

“That is because those two don’t know it, yet. One thought the daughter passed away at childbirth and the other thought she was abandoned as a baby. I was requested to keep the daughter’s lineage hidden away from her, but I cannot hide this fact forever and that person will definitely find out the truth.”

Although Raylz was a fun-loving old man who loved to joke around, he would never lie whenever he was serious. But this seemed to be a ridiculously improbable, if not impossible, situation that I’ve only read or heard about in fictional stories.

“In truth this theory sounds incredibly absurd. What’s your justification for it?””

“I have none.”

This is exactly as Shryza thought; he found it very strange that Raylz should hold this much information and yet the two concerned parties had none. However, he did not expect Raylz’s follow-up response.

“But what if I told you that the information came directly from <Black-Flame Phoenix>?”

<Black-Flame Phoenix>. A mutual acquaintance whose information and intelligence Shryza had never found to be wrong. It was person whose abilities Shryza had absolute trust in.

“Okay Raylz, have it your way. You’ve convinced me to babysit these girls.”

Although Shryza expected Raylz to break out in a relieved smile, his face remained unnaturally stoic.

“There’s one more thing I want you to look into.”

“Is this related to your current request? Or is this another one entirely?”

“I wouldn’t call this a request, but this is an issue that you will not ignore. Have you heard the recent rumors spreading around the underground.”

“You’re aware that I’ve been out of the country until just this morning, right?”

“I know, which is why I’ve taken the time to bring this topic up. Although both of know that this person… should have been dead for many years already, apparently he has somehow managed to come back from death’s doors.”

In regards to this subject matter, Raylz’s was uncharacteristically grave. All traces of his usual smile were completely erased.

“It’s been reported that he has recently been appointed as one of Revolutionary Army’s thirteen leaders.”

The Revolutionary Army was the largest organization seeking to overthrow the current empire. Their cause and efforts were widely supported by the vast majority of people disillusioned by the empire’s darkness and corruption. This army was a rather significant force that the empire could not afford to ignore, as they were supported by numerous two and three-digit rankers. It was also a well established fact that this organization was one of the major recruiters of the International Combat Academy’s students as well.

Despite the empire’s objections to this, they had no jurisdiction over this neutral island academy.

“And what of it? Are you implying I should be cautious of this imposter?”

“Perhaps. Well imposter or not, no one has yet had the power to step forth and contest his identity.”

“His name then?”

“It should be one you’re very familiar with. He’s returned…”

Shryza was suddenly overcome with and overwhelming sense of foreboding. And at Raylz’s following words, Shryza’s violet-colored eye widened for just an instant.

“…The <God of Death>.”

===Interlude 2:===

<Nine Dragons God>

A person he had been hunting down for years.

The one being responsible for killing his master.

<God of Death>

A person who had long since been dead.

The one existence who was closest to him.

The seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters.

Students he was entrusted to protect.

The seven girls who had the potential to change the world.

Three troublesome issues.

Three sources for his headaches.

And what a stupid premonition the dream turned out to be.

===Chapter 3:===

====Chapter 3: Part 1:====

“Thanks for waiting, Student Council Vice President.”

As soon as Shryza had left Raylz’s, or rather the headmaster’s, office, he was greeted outside by Ivy, the same person who had initially brought him here. Despite her behavior, she was actually quite the diligent Student Council officer, having waited patiently for him during the duration of his talk with Raylz. Apparently she was also entrusted with the duty to serve as his guide around the academy’s campus grounds.

“It was no trouble at all. Also, there’s no need to be so formal, you can just call me by my given name. After all we are in the same grade and class.”

“Is that so? That’s a bit surprising.”

“Both the Student Council and Disciplinary members have joint-morning meetings once a week, one of which was today.”

And that was why she was not present when Shryza first arrived to our classroom, is what she seemed to imply.

“By the way, Shryza, you’re not affected?”

“Affected?”

Shryza slowly asked back, trying to determine what Ivy was referring to. Although he ended up shaking his head at her inquiry, Ivy for some reason only smiled brightly back.

“If you haven’t noticed, then don’t mind it. So I have been assigned to be your personal guide for the rest of this morning. Is there anywhere on campus you want me to take you? Or is there anything you I can do for you?”

With these words, the beautiful Student Council Vice President grabbed Shryza’s right arm and lightly pulled it her way. At the same time, she tilted her head upwards at him with an alluringly smile. Whether her actions were subconscious or purposely calculated, even though this was already his second interaction with her, he thought she was acting a little too close. However, this could work to his advantage, as there was other information he wanted to ascertain from her.

“There is something I wanted to ask. What would be the fastest way to increase my rank?”

During Shryza’s meeting with Raylz, he was informed that assignments and missions were given to pre-assigned groups of students, and these groupings were primarily based on their inter-school ranks. To ensure that he would be grouped with the other seven girls to more easily protect them, should the need arise, it was highly suggested for him to first raise his rank to the same single-digit level.

Thanks to the headmaster’s influence and the forged and nearly flawless transfer exam results, Shryza was initially placed at Rank 994, which, although barely a triple-digit rank, was already considered extraordinarily high for a student in the high school level.

Raylz had given him a two week timeframe for Shryza to raise his rank to the same level of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters.

“Let’s see…”

Tilting her head upwards with a finger lightly pressed on her chin, she briefly hesitated to think before responding.

“The fastest way would be to win duels against high-ranked students. But most of them won’t accept unless you use the forced duel rule.”

According to the forced duel rule, as a triple-digit ranked student, Raylz could fight now force a duel from a student within ten percent of his rank, rounded down, or within 99 ranks of his current Rank 994. As a double-digit ranker, that percentage would increase to twenty-five percent. And as a single-digit ranker, a student could only force a duel within two ranks of his or her own rank.

Assuming he could somehow pinpoint the exact students he wanted to force a duel with, the fastest and most efficient way he could achieve a single-digit rank was as follows:

Rank 994 -> Rank 895 -> Rank 806 -> Rank 726 -> Rank 654 -> Rank 589 -> Rank 531 -> Rank 478 -> Rank 431 -> Rank 388 -> Rank 350 -> Rank 315 -> Rank 284 -> Rank 256 -> Rank 231 -> Rank 208 -> Rank 188 -> Rank 170 -> Rank 153 -> Rank 138 -> Rank 125 -> Rank 113 -> Rank 102 -> Rank 92 -> Rank 69 -> Rank 52 -> Rank 39 -> Rank 30 -> Rank 23 -> Rank 18 -> Rank 14 -> Rank 11 -> Rank 9

To save the effort of counting:

32 duels. Minimum.

To accomplish this feat his two week deadline looked to be a huge pain.

Two weeks was when the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters would be assigned their first assignment outside of the campus grounds.

Having done these calculations mentally, Shryza couldn’t help but groan internally.

There was a shortcut he had considered, and had discussed this plan briefly with Raylz. He thought it incredibly amusing, and Shryza less so. Although he wanted to avoid drawing the entire academy’s attention to him, it couldn’t be avoided. Normally Shryza would not attempt to take such a reckless gambit, as he preferred to keep his actions hidden in the shadows. But it would probably be easier to quickly get this task done and over with in one sitting, with the alternative being to spread the pain across two weeks by having to fight and win at least 32 duels.

Well, it couldn’t be helped.

And at least it would kill two birds with one stone.

“Although this seems like a somewhat unrelated question, what time does the joint-meeting end?”

“Sorry, but can you repeat yourself?”

Ivy heard the question the first time around quite clearly, but she was busy determining the relevance of Shryza’s question.

“The joint-meeting between the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee, at what time does it end?”

“Usually we can finish our discussions before noon.”

“I see. It looks like there is still about an hour left.”

She couldn’t help but tilt her head in confusion at Shryza’s murmuring.

“Ivy, I have a favor to ask of you.”

“If it’s something I can help with.”

“Would it be too much trouble to attend whatever is left of this meeting?”

Walking from the administrative building, where the headmaster’s office was housed, to the meeting location took only a few minutes. While en route to their destination, Shryza couldn’t help but notice again how truly big this academy was, taking up the entire of this island. To house both the high school and university level students, there were many classrooms and dormitories in this academy to accommodate them and more. However, there was an abundance of recreational facilities and other rather irrelevant buildings as well. It was said that walking from one side of the campus to the other could take a good hour or so. In those situations, students just used the available interschool transit.

This meeting room was actually one of the larger boardroom made available by the academy that students could reserve to hold meetings or work together on group projects. Normally the Student Council and Disciplinary Committee had their own personal rooms they could use for these types of meetings, but both groups thought it best to hold their joint-meetings at a neutral site. After all, despite the Student Council and the Disciplinary Committee working hand-in-hand, they were at least to maintain the appearance of acting independently.

Having reached the designated meeting room, Ivy knocked the door lightly with the back of her hand before reaching for the handle and opening it. As she had texted the Student Council President prior to coming in order to get approval, both her and Shryza’s presence were already expected.

The meeting room consisted of a rather long rectangular table with twenty seats: nine chairs on each of the table’s sides and two chairs sharing the end, opposite to where the large meeting room screen was placed. This meeting room was only half filled: what Shryza presumed to be the top five members from each organization were present.

At the end of the table seated the Student Council President and Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman, the two students holding the most political power within the academy. Sitting in the four seats following from each side of the table were their respective underlings. However the side chair closest to the Student Council President was empty; that was where Student Council Vice President Ivy was typically seated. And on the chair on the opposite side of the table, the side chair closest to the Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman, was where Vice Chairwoman Ariana sat cross-armed, staring at Ivy and Shryza’s direction. Her face had the expression of asking why Shryza was currently here.

At Ivy and Shryza’s entrance, the entire table went silent as both the President and Chairwoman opened their mouths to greet the new transfer student.

“Welcome to the International Combat Academy. My name is Eliza Mari, and I am the current President of the Student Council. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”

“And I am Cara Kamabo, Chairwoman of the Disciplinary Committee. I heard what happened this morning from my underclassman and I hope that this incident didn’t cause too much trouble for you.”

It was incredibly troublesome, Shryza wanted to retort. However he settled for the expected response.

“Thanks to your intervention, it wasn’t much trouble at all.”

Having been elected in their second year of university and completely uncontested in their reelections as third year students, both of the women who had greeted Shryza were incredibly popular. And it was not difficult to see why.

President Eliza seemed to speak very softly yet politely, maintaining a certain aura of elegance around her. Her long curly blond hair complemented her slim and petite doll-like figure. Despite her frail physical appearance, she was not to be underestimated as she held claim to being the ninth highest ranked student at the academy.

In contrast, Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman seemed to portray a rougher image. Although she was a very charismatic speaker and had a friendly atmosphere around her, if needed to she wouldn’t hesitate to resort to using force. She had short cropped hair and had a more muscular yet slim athletic figure. And just like she looked, she was unquestionably powerful at Rank Eight in the academy.

Although not to the extent of the seven monsters given the collective nickname <Dragon Valkyries>, both women were incredibly beautiful and talented. If the seven sisters had never attended this academy, the president and the chairwoman

Speaking of which, Shryza was still somewhat baffled at how the school had such a large concentration of powerful, talented women at the top of the interschool rankings. Not that he was in a position to complain about this harem-like setting.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Also after hearing from my Ariana, my assistant, I heard you are quite strong. Would you like to join the Disciplinary Committee?”

Chairwoman Cara seemed to imply that strength was the only prerequisite to joining her committee. President Eliza in response also provided an offer.

“Or perhaps would the Student Council be a better fit for you? It seems that you are quite capable.”

To have these two powerful students acknowledge him wasn’t a bad feeling. However, he had no intentions of joining either organization. The first reason was that he did not have time to spare doing work for either group, as he already assumed the duty to babysit seven girls. The second reason was that he would be certain they would rescind their offers. After all, he was just about to antagonize them, both.

“Actually I have something else to discuss. You may call it a request for you two.”

“A request?”

“Interesting… At the very least, we can hear it out.”

At Shryza’s subtle change in tone, Eliza and Cara both changed their expressions. How sharp, Shryza thought of the two of them.

Now for the moment of truth.

“I would like to challenge you both to a duel.”

The whole room was stunned into silence. The president was the first to regain her composure.

“Shryza. Unfortunately, I will have to decline. After all, you have not provided the necessary collateral and there is nothing for me to gain.”

“As Prez said, there’s too much risk and no reward. However I like your guts, kid. My offer for you to join my Disciplinary Committee still stands.”

As expected. It was time for him to pull his trump card, the one he had Rayl prepare for him beforehand. From his pocket, he pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper and held it up.

“Actually I do have something to offer. And I hope it is something you cannot easily refuse.”

While speaking, he walked up to both leaders and handed the paper to them. The president warily took it from him and unfolded it, while still keeping eye contact with him. Finally she turned down her eyes and quickly read the paper’s contents.

“This is…!”

To have surprised the Student Council President, the message must have quite unexpected. The chairwoman leaned towards the president to also read the letter, and even she was shocked.

“This can’t be real, can it?”

Going back several minutes after Raylz had just mentioned <God of Death>’s name, Shryza had agreed to his request. However Shryza had quickly realized that in order to achieve a single-digit rank to better monitor the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters, he would have to fight a rather large number of duels. He then proposed to just fight whoever was Rank Eight or Nine in order to quickly finish this task in one go. Raylz, upon hearing this shortcut, he knew that these two students were the Disciplinary Committee Chairwoman and the Student Council President, and he thought this quite the interesting proposal. But to get them to agree to this duel with no merit to them, he offered to personally provide the incentive.

And after all, regardless of the wager he had to provide, he had absolute confidence that Shryza would not lose.

“I can assure you that this was approved by the headmaster. His seal at the bottom of the letter is real enough.”

“I see. This is something I cannot just ignore. For the headmaster to offer a three times increased budget…”

“In any case, this might be worth the risk. So which one of us would you like to challenge?”

Both the president and the chairwoman were convinced that they could not lose to an underclassman that was not one of the seven <Dragon Valkyrie> sisters. However Shryza could still feel some hesitation coming from the both of them. After all Shryza was a student that was able to hold his own against Himika, Rank Three, despite her being unarmed and not having used her full power.

Although this was not quite in the original plan, perhaps they just needed a little bit more confidence. If he was to make the leap to a single-digit rank with a single duel, he would already draw quite the amount of attention towards himself. A little more wouldn’t make much of a difference.

Shaking his head while smiling, Shryza gave them the final push.

And again caused the whole room to freeze in silence.

“I never said it had to be a one-on-one duel. Both of you are welcome to come at me together.”

====Chapter 3: Part 2:====

(In Progress)

User:Shrysha

2014-09-11T21:06:51Z

Shrysha: Chapter 5.1 Added + Other Edits

User:Shrysha

2014-09-10T22:20:18Z

Shrysha: Chapter 4 Added

User:Shrysha

2014-08-29T16:59:43Z

Shrysha: Chapter 1, Part 1 & 2 Additions

==Original Light Novel: Attempt 1==

===Foreword:===

An excerpt appearing at the start of my novel is a bit silly.

But I suppose that now, rather than later, is a good time to talk about the contents of it. Just to let you know what you should expect.

This is a story about the knight rescuing the princess from the bad guys.

This seems to be a traditional plot chock-full of overused clichés and tropes.

Except that the knight wasn’t one of those typical knights in shining armor. Perhaps he could be considered one of those bad guys. Maybe a villain. Wait, could he even be called a knight at this point? I think if I asked him, he would probably reject the “knight” designation.

And this story didn’t just have one princess. Actually there are seven. And did they even need rescuing?

Well there has to be bad guys in the story, right? Well, I’m not even sure if the bad guys could even be called bad guys. I mean, their intentions were good. Probably better than those of Mr. Knight. I suppose it is just a matter of perspective.

So, this is a story about the knight who wasn’t really a knight rescuing the princesses who didn’t need to be rescued from the bad guys who weren’t really bad guys.

I think I did a decent job with my summary.

Enjoy!

===Prologue:===

“Strong…”

These were the only words that the frail young white-haired slave child could mutter. Or rather a former slave. Despite lying collapsed on the ground and with skin covered with filth and body malnourished, and despite having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, there was no fear in this child’s eyes.

Before the child was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a midnight-black cloak concealing his entire body and a similarly colored long curved sword, he looked like the grim reaper himself. This would seem to be a rather fitting name, as he was the one responsible for having single-handedly stained this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of men.

Hundreds killed with only a single swing of his blade.

Perhaps instead of a battle, it would be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre, or perhaps a mass execution. The reaper was the sole judge, jury, and executioner.

But at the moment, he was the only truth in this part of the world where power was the only law.

Despite the reaper’s imposing presence, the child still did not fear him. To the child, this reaper was a savior, having killed his now former slave merchant owners and their bodyguards.

Perhaps this was too much of a biased view; it was truly a matter of perspective.

Contrary to the reaper’s expectations, the child slowly crawled and reached for the hem of his cloak.

Perhaps having had his interest piqued, the reaper unexpectedly patiently waited for the child’s next actions.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly rose, and the reaper’s presence suddenly seemed to quickly expand, seemingly swallowing up the existence of the surroundings. But the child who was no longer a stranger to death’s doors only stared unwaveringly back.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to glare back. The voice continued.

(But power is indeed something I can offer you. And the price…)

Without hesitation:

“My soul.”

===Chapter 1:===

====Chapter 1: Part 1:====

Such a clichéd development.

A child’s soul offered to the devil in exchange for power.

But an unexpected response like, “It had already been paid forward,” or something anti-climatic like that had been the immediate response. It left the child a bit speechless, which was to be expected.

To be prepared to sacrifice everything, not that it was much, only to be told that someone else already paid the bill.

This was an eight-year-old memory that he hadn’t remembered for quite some time. Could this be what people commonly called a premonition?

Perhaps a destined reunion was near…

“Uhmm Shry, are you alright?”

A cute high-pitched voice interrupted him from his thoughts.

When was the last time he had a dream? Having been shown resurfaced memories during last night’s sleep, Shry had been distracted the entire morning making attempts to decipher its meaning, assuming there was any.

While buying time to find a suitable excuse, Shry absent-mindedly used his hands to scratch the back of his head, messing up his already messy head of white hair, an unusual color for an eighteen year-old student.

Actually, his entire appearance was actually rather uncommon.

His standard-issue school uniform was ordinary enough: a white blazer, shirt and pants with the school insignia on each. Although Shry felt uncomfortable wearing it, let alone it was a bit too flashy for his taste, it couldn’t be helped; as one of the most prestigious academic institutions worldwide, it was expected there would be an excess of unnecessary rules and regulations to maintain its lofty image to the rest of the world.

It couldn’t hurt to also keep its alumnus happy as well.

Asides from the uniform, Shry also had wrapped an elastic bandage around the entire length of his left arm, most of which was hidden underneath the sleeve of his uniform. His left eye was covered with an eyepatch, mostly obscured by the bangs of his hair, which were grown purposely on the left side. And when combined with the pair of rectangular glasses on his face, the eyepatch was almost unnoticeable without taking a closer look. Overall, Shry’s appearance seemed to be one of a particularly unlucky accident-prone or bullied student. If he had claimed to have been involved in a horrific vehicle accident, most people would unquestionably believe him.

Standing facing Shry was Professor Ruegger a comically petite teacher wearing an oversized white laboratory coat over her simple teaching attire, which only seemed to reinforce her rather child-like appearance. Contrary to how she looked, most students would unequivocally agree that she was an extremely knowledgeable well-liked teacher, always putting forth her best efforts for the sake of her students. Professor Reugger was looking up sternly at Shry with her large orange-hued eyes, but it was rather difficult for him to take her seriously when she had the face of an innocent child pouting. If asked to guess her age, which was one of the greatest mysteries within this academy, Shry would decline to comment.

In the end Shry just settled for a simple apology, which he thought would suffice.

“I apologize. I’m just a little tired this morning, thanks.”

Professor Ruegger smiled and, as expected, quickly accepted this apology. She turned back around and stated cheerfully, “Now please introduce yourself to the class.”

That’s right.

Shry and Professor Ruegger were now standing at the front of a small lecture hall, or rather what looked like a mini-theatre, in front of twenty or so seated students. Although it wasn’t particularly necessary, she thought it a good idea for Shry to take the opportunity to introduce himself as a new transfer student. There was quite a bit of whispering and murmuring in the classroom, which quieted down as Professor Ruegger took a step forward towards her students.

“So if you could, please introduce yourself.”

As Professor Reugger turned her head at back at Shry, he could feel the curious stares of the students being redirected at him.

“My name is Shry Zei. Nice to meet everyone.”

With a glance at the teacher, Shry gave her a looking that said he was done with his introduction.
Apparently she, nor the rest of the class, was satisfied with such a short, information-lacking introduction.

Shry sighed before stating, “I’m sorry but I’m quite terrible at this introduction thing. If anyone has any questions…”

Ms. Ru’s face suddenly paled. This was certainly the wrong approach for someone trying to maintain order within the classroom, not that Shry actually cared though.

As to be expected, the class erupted with noise and he was bombarded with questions and comments from all directions, without any opening for him to answer.

“Hey hey, where did you come from?”

“Why did you transfer? Did you get into an accident?”

“What was your former school?”

“You look pretty cute, do you have a girlfriend?”

“Say something about your hobbies or favorite activities!”

“Why did you transfer into our class? I thought that you couldn’t become an A-rank without ranking up.”

“Are the rumors true? Is it true you got top scores on the transfer exam?”

“Apparently he completely aced the written portion.”

“No way, that’s impossible!”

“How were his practical results?”

“Wait, I heard you beat an exam-proctor in a fight. Is that true?”

“Seriously?”

“Unless he’s at the level of the valkyrie sisters…”

“Yeah, he doesn’t look that strong at all.”

“Did you get into an accident?”

It was complete chaos.

Shry made zero attempts to answer any of the questions or rumors being wildly thrown around. Not that he had the chance to. On the other hand, there was one person in the class valiantly trying to rein in this disorder.

“Enough, everyone! Can everyone please quiet down!”

Professor Ruegger tried to tame the growing ruckus, but to no avail. It seemed that she had very little control over her own students. Even though she was a very well-liked teacher, her competence in being able to direct her class was in question. Many teachers were brought in by this school primarily for magical research whereas others were hired for their outstanding combat abilities; teaching students, although still a core focus of any academic institution, seemed to have a backseat role here.

“Sniff…”

As Professor Ruegger started tearing up and looked like she was going to cry, the students stopped their questioning session and started to reprimand each other.

“Everyone quiet down!” a student called out to the rest of the class

“Stop bullying Ms. Ru guys!”

“Hey! Ms. Ru, don’t cry!”

“We’re sorry! We’ll promise to stop!”

Shry could only observe this strange phenomenon with silence. It seemed that the class didn’t see Professor Ruegger, or rather Ms. Ru, as a teacher but rather as a young child. But it was somewhat sadistic of the students to initially force her to the brink of tears before consoling her. Well, it looked like Ms. Ru did the ability to control and direct her class, but not via traditional methods.

“H-Hmph. A-As long as you understand, then I’ll forgive you,” Ms. Ru stuttered a little as she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. She then glanced in Shry’s direction. “So again, let’s do this properly. If anyone has any questions, please raise your hand…”

“Yo, transfer student. So I heard you are strong.”

Shry turned his gaze to the student standing up, who had earlier been sitting in the back of the classroom. Despite the uniform requirement at this school, it seemed that students were free to do what they wanted with their physical appearance. This spiky blond-haired student had a particularly noticeable appearance with the multiple piercings in both ears as well as a few facial tattoos on the side of his eyes. He wore his uniform very informally, with blazer taken off and placed on his desk, his shirt untucked, and sleeves rolled-up; it was difficult to picture him as anything other than a school delinquent or gangster. Without question, this person had the most imposing presence in the classroom.

“Uhmm…”

Ms. Ru tried to interject, but the delinquent was focused solely on Shry and ignored her.

“To get to our class, your transfer exam scores must have been pretty good. I also heard that you beat the examiner during the practical test as well, is that right?”

For someone who looked and acted like a gangster, Shry found him to be pretty eloquent.

Shry hesitated about how to answer before simply replying, “I was lucky.”

“Hahahaha!”

The delinquent laughed as he ran his hand through his hair before grinning widely at him.

“Name is Zyoi, and I am the strongest in this room at Rank 14! And with my rank on the line, I challenge you to a duel!”

What a lame line. To Shry, it sounded like some kid challenging to a children’s card game, or something similar. It wasn’t really in his personality to accept such a troublesome duel proposal. But such opportunities, like the one presented now before him, didn’t come very often. There could only be one response.

“Where and when?”

“Someone who doesn’t mince words, that’s great. Are you prepared? How does here and now sound?”

This delinquent was surprisingly considerate as well, showing the most basic of etiquettes of giving Shry time to find a weapon or determine an alternative time or place to have the duel. Ms. Ru looked like she wanted to make an objection to the fight taking place in the middle of a classroom, but both of them seemed to have completely ignored her presence at this time.

Shry raise both hands to show that he didn’t have, or need, any weapons.

“I accept, whenever you’re ready.”

At these words, the two badges pinned on each of the students’ shirts quickly flashed with light, which signified the school’s acknowledgement of the legitimacy of this duel.

“Haha! Don’t go disappointing me!”

Without warning, Zyoi with a single motion threw aside the small bag tied around his waist-side and leapt from his seat over the heads of his fellow students. To traverse the classroom in one step without magic assistance while also launching a heavy punch was actually quite the considerable physical feat.

Screams could be heard… only from Ms. Ru.

In this school, it was not uncommon to see fights, or rather these “duels”, breaking out randomly across the campus. Thus the rest of the class was already quite accustomed to this type of scene. However, most students would agree that Zyoi’s choice of interrupting Ms. Ru’s class with a duel without asking permission first was quite rude.

But Ms. Ru, no matter how many times she witnessed these duels, was never a big proponent of fighting and violence.

Despite this powerful preemptive attack, Shry foresaw this kind of development to a certain extent. With the vast amount of accumulated experience he had gained fighting on multiple battlefields, to him an attack coming from the front was not much of a surprise, and dealing with it was mere child’s play.

Upon sidestepping the first attack, Shry was immediately met with another attack: a roundhouse kick to the face. This beautiful follow-up was met and easily deflected with Shry’s right hand.

Zyoi brought his leg down and grinned ferociously as Shry retreated by jumped back a meter or two.

“So you are the real deal! Let’s see how you handle this!”

His right arm was suddenly ignited with bright red flames. Some of the classroom’s students show a little more wariness. Despite the duel taking place in the front of the classroom away from where the students were seated, there was no barrier or alternative protection in place to prevent the collateral damage from the fight should it come their way. But most of them were quite entertained at skipping a class lecture, and instead were treated to watching this relatively high-level fight between this classroom’s strongest and the mysterious transfer student.

Shry probably wasn’t aware of it, but there was the corners of his mouth were slightly curled upwards into a small smile. This stint of being a high school student was a little more interesting than he first originally thought.

“Are you prepared to give up your rank?”

“Rank, something uninteresting like that? I’m more than willing to give it up, but that’s only if you can entertain and defeat me!”

Zyoi then quickly charged, again closing the gap between the two combatants.

====Chapter 1: Part 2:====

As the two students continued to clash with each other, Ms. Ru could only scrunch into a ball and pout. She was now sitting in the front row of her classroom, after having been brought over by some of her students. A few of the female students were still by her side actively comfort the poor teacher. Although her skills and knowledge as a professor were real, she had neither authority nor respect in her own classroom. Rather than being looked up to as an older mentor, she was instead treated as an adorable younger sister to be teased and played with.

Unfortunately for Ms. Ru, with the exception of the authority from higher up, unless there was mutual consent between the two dueling parties, no one was permitted to stop a duel once underway. Not even the teacher of her two students was allowed to interfere, which was why she had made multiple earlier, yet futile, attempts to stop the duel from starting.

Shry vaguely remembered seeing the duel rules in his online handbook as part of his cursory research prior to entering the school. He recalled that a duel had three fundamental conditions.

First, there must be mutual consent, implicit or explicit, between the two dueling parties. Consent did not refer just to the duel itself, but also extended to the details and conditions attached to it as well. Forced duels were the only exception.

Second, duels will only be recognized on the academy grounds. The badges given to each student upon enrollment allowed the academy to track and monitor each duel participant. This was especially important to resolve possible conflicts regarding the two parties should the duel’s conclusion be unclear.

Lastly, a duel is won once the opposing party has conceded defeat or is left unconscious. Killing the other party, however, is considered forbidden and is harshly punished, with very few outliers.

Asides from those three rules, everything was essentially unrestricted or fair game.

Power is the only truth.

With duels capable of deciding and resolving almost every matter in the school, power was indeed the absolute truth of this academy, or the International Combat Academy.

Despite the school’s name, this was a privately-run institution located on an exclusive island not belonging to any nation, independent from all international pressures. This academy was founded just only five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a mysterious yet very wealthy backer. Despite all initial doubts, it had since then become the most famous and prestigious institution for producing the strongest warriors, magicians, and combatants.

As a result, and largely in part due to its strict international neutrality, nations worldwide sent many of their promising talents there to be raised and cultivated.

There are two types ranking systems at this school.

The first type of rank, and most important rank as a professional in the industry, was the worldwide ranking system.

With combat talent and abilities highly valued worldwide, there was a growing necessity to be able to rank people objectively and holistically on an international basis. The International Ranking Commission, comprised by a committee of professors and other highly qualified professionals, was set up to fulfill that informational requirement.

The vast majority of the students at the International Combat Academy were not ranked under the international system, and they would not be expected to have been assigned a rank until after graduation.

The second type of rank, and far more relevant rank as a student, was the in-school ranking system.

The in-school ranking was the method how students at this academy were assessed, which are similar to grades from a more traditional institution. Exemplary written and practical exams results were indeed important to achieving a higher rank. But ranking duels were the much more influential method of determining school-wide ranks. With ranking duels, one could fight another higher-ranking student and, if victorious, swap for their higher ranks.

Normally higher ranked students would not allow lower rankers to challenge them due to risks of accidentally losing and having their rank drop significantly, but there are a few exceptions.

The first and most common exception is that there exists an academy rule permitting those with lower ranks to “force” a duel from a slightly higher ranked, the methodology not stated here, with the purpose of encouraging more school-wide competition, thus the “forced duel” rule.

A second common scenario where a higher ranker will voluntarily accept a duel from a lower-ranked student is when another “prize” or condition is offered by the lower ranker as an additional compensation for the risk the higher ranker assumes.

There was also a rare third scenario. There are people in this academy who have enrolled for no other purpose other than to fight other powerful students, without care for his or her ranking. Ranks were just a means to an end. Such students in the academy were very few in number, and such a person was currently in front of Shry.

Having been on the receiving end of a few attacks, Shry had assessed Zyoi to be one of the strongest students in the academy, which was in line with his current rank. According to the ranking system, Zyoi should be the 14th strongest student in this academy. However, that strength was not enough.

Shry had earlier dodged Zyoi’s initial punch and blocked his following kick. As Zyoi dashed in with a flame-filled fist, Shry this time around decided to take this attack head on. Zyoi did not expect such a response, and his blood-red eyes widened in surprise as his fist was caught with a single bare hand.

He started laughing in enjoyment again.

“It doesn’t seem that you tree-lovers burn as easily as I thought!”

Shry stared back at Zyoi with his only visible violet-colored eye and smiled back wryly, understanding the deeper meaning of his words.

Each person born with a certain level of talent for magic also had affinity to at least one of the seven elements that exist in this world. And a person’s primary elemental affinity was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with red eyes, like Zyoi, was someone who excelled with fire magic. Likewise, a person with purple eyes was more skilled with wood and plant manipulation.

Additionally, certain elements were more “effective” than other elements in certain confrontations. In this case, to fight fire, wood was the absolute worst element to use.

In theory by just comparing their elemental affinities, Zyoi should have had a significant advantage in this matchup.

But by concentrating mana into his right arm, Shry was able to easily withstand Zyoi’s flame-infused punch. Mana, the source of power used by all magic and spells, in its natural state was neutral, or void of any elemental attributes.

“Oh? Your hand is still fine, but are you sure you’re fine with only using one?”

Zyoi had quickly glanced down at Shry’s bandaged left hand, which had largely remained motionless since the beginning of the fight. This could have been seen as a considerate gesture had he not ignited flames in his other hand and threw another punch. This action prompted Shry to quickly release Zyoi’s fist and sidestep the attack.

“One arm should be more than enough. No need to go easy on me.”

“Haha, that’s a great response!”

For several moments, Shry and Zyoi continued to trade blows. Or rather, it was Zyoi throwing an increasingly complex combination of punches and kicks whereas Shry was continually on the defensive, forced to dodge or deflect incoming attacks.

From the surrounding student spectators’ perspective, it seemed that Shry was continued being pressed back, and only being able to use one arm was a crippling disadvantage to Shry in close quarters combat. It looked like only a matter of time before Shry’s impressive defense would show an opening and Zyoi would land a decisive blow to end the fight.

But this was not the same view that Zyoi held. Zyoi prided himself in his strength, but he was quick to acknowledge and assess the strength of others with almost a beast-like instinct. After Shry effortlessly dodged his first punch at the start of the fight, he was made immediately aware that Shry’s was pretty skilled. His mana levels were nothing incredibly special, and neither were his physical speed in strength; in fact it can be said that his stats were almost too average. However this one armed opponent was actually able to easily maneuver around Zyoi’s aggression with only the most basic of attacks or movements, which required an almost ridiculous amount of real combat experience and knowledge.

With each attack that was deflected or dodged, Zyoi’s belief in his estimation of Shry’s strength only rose. Where the seemingly increasing gap in power may have deterred other students, this only fueled Zyoi’s fighting appetite, as it wasn’t very often that he could battle against this caliber of opponent. However, he felt that Shry was only testing him and his strength to get a general feel of the combat strength of this academy’s students.

“So it’s more than just luck! Haha, how annoying!”

It wasn’t just luck that Shry was able to beat his transfer exam proctor was what Zyoi was referring to

“What is?”

“I know you’re stronger than you’re letting on. It’s just annoying that I can’t make you fight seriously unless I do so first.”

For just a moment, Shry was caught off guard at Zyoi’s words. During his limited exchange of blows and words, he had expected Zyoi to be an all-brawn-no-brains type of character, as many of the student spectators had. But Zyoi was much sharper than everyone gave him credit for, and his hot-headed idiot personality was perhaps merely a calculated façade to lower the enemy’s guard. Whatever was the case, Shry mentally upgraded his evaluation of the opponent before him.

With a huge grin, Zyoi suddenly stepped back away from Shry and released an enormous wave of pressure and heat, blowing away the air in his vicinity before enveloping his entire body in raging red flames. These flames were on a much higher level than the smaller ones used when he was using them to enhance his punches earlier.

Although the sprinkler system was activated, it did absolutely nothing to mitigate the intensity of these flames. However this did awaken the student spectators from their trance-like state, having been bewitched just by watching this high level fight.

With this much higher level of fire magic being contained in such a relatively small classroom, the spectators started murmur with worry, and some even were on the verge of panicking. A few of the more prepared students cast makeshift magic barriers to minimize the collateral damage that could possibly result from the seemingly inevitable clash. It was extremely rare that such a fight between such high-ranked students should occur so informally inside a classroom. Usually they were schedule beforehand and fought in an appropriately-sized spectator-filled stadium, as it was very likely that larger scaled magic abilities were going to be used. Only low level attacks had been used so far in Zyoi and Shry’s, but it looked like that would soon quickly change.

As a side note, Ms. Ru admirably tried to go forward to make a few last ditch attempts to interfere with and stop the fight. But as expected she was quickly stopped and carried off by her own students to safety.

Shry was actually reasonably impressed with the quality and durability of the academy-issue combat-ready uniforms, as Zyoi’s clothing were largely unaffected by his flames. However, the uniform is no substitute battle-armor: its defensive properties were actually quite minimal. The material of the uniform was made to let magical and elemental attacks go through the cloth unobstructed rather than to block them, and sharp objects could easily cut through it as well.

On another note, Shry was somewhat disappointed at the level of Zyoi’s flames. Although it was without a doubt far beyond the average strength of the average magic user, this academy was supposed to boast the strongest and most talented students in the world. He had expected to see something a little more powerful. In all fairness, as he had fought countless fights against even more powerful enemies, his expectations could be considered unreasonably high from an objective point of view.

There was nothing much more to be learned from this fight and it was about time to end it. These were the thoughts of Shry as he inwardly sighed. Well he had more fun than he expected, of course while it lasted. Shry returned his right hand to his side and started to gather mana.

Noticing that Shry was preparing to go on the offensive for the first time this battle, Zyoi, who was about to launch headlong into an all-out attack, suddenly stopped.

Dangerous.

His instincts, which have rarely failed him and have helped him win fights time and time again, were loudly screaming at him that Shry was indeed extremely dangerous. If he made just a single mistake, the fight could be completely over in one strike.

Zyoi had fought his fair share of opponents, and only a handful had alerted his instincts as powefully as Shry had. And none of them had been around his age, until now.

“Damn, just who exactly are you?”

In sharp contrast to Zyoi’s animal-like grin, Shry only responded with a light smile.

Both combatants, with just a few meters separating each other, waited for the other to make an opening. Or rather, it was Shry that waited for Zyoi to make the first move. Although Shry felt that his opponent had many openings that he could exploit and that the fight was all but decided, he felt lenient enough to let the fight end on Zyoi’s terms.

Wild flames on one side on the classroom. Zen-like calmness on the other.

Everyone in the classroom was silent. The tension created by not only the combatants, but also by the student spectators, could be said to be thick enough to cut with a knife.

Inching ever closer, the two opponents…

…were rudely interrupted.

====Chapter 1: Part 3:====

“What is the meaning of this?!”

The classroom door was loudly slammed wide open, completely disrupting the fight.

Zyoi instantly extinguished his flames. Similarly Shry dispersed the mana concentrated in his right arm.

At the door of the entrance were two female students. Apparently they were either very popular or well known within the student body, or very likely both, as suddenly the classroom once again erupted into chatter and noise. It was highly likely that they held a position of authority, whether either part of the student council or disciplinary committee, given their current confidence. Shry also couldn’t help but mentally note that this classroom really was a chatterbox.

The first girl, presumably the one who had interrupted their fight, ignored the noise coming from the student spectators and confidently walked forward within inches to Zyoi. She quickly turned back and glanced first at Shry before returning her accusing glare at Zyoi. With fiery red hair matching her similarly colored eyes, it would be terribly stereotypical if she had a similarly fiery personality as well.

And unfortunately it seemed like Shry guessed correctly.

“As expected of you Zyoi, of course it would be your doing!”

“Huh?”

Zyoi aggressively stared back, of course with a fearless smile. I seemed that they shared some history together given their current familiarity, although the relationship was probably not particularly amicable. Rather, as an ironic comparison since they were both fire element users, Zyoi and this female student had the compatibility of oil and water.

“I’ve done nothing. Aren’t you in the wrong interrupting this duel?”

She put a hand up to her head as if she was having a headache.

“I have many things to say about your lack of duel etiquette, especially in the middle of Ms. Ru, I mean Professor Ruegger’s class.”

“Yeah, it’s allowed, right? And he had no problems with any of the duel conditions.”

Zyoi glanced in Shry’s direction and got a shrug in response. Shry apparently didn’t care much for details of the duel, such as the time, place, or any other conditions in regards to the duel.

“I wasn’t talking about that!”

“Then?”

“So you don’t know what you have done wrong?”

“Nope, so speak up!”

“Who thought it was a good idea to set off the sprinklers?”

Ah.

Zyoi raised his head at the sprinklers, which were still raining water down in the classroom. He had not noticed it going off while the fight was breaking out, which was somewhat reasonable since the water immediately evaporated upon touching his flames and there was no traditional fire alarm system in the school to alert him.

Stopping the sprinkler system and cleaning the classroom was a trivial issue. However, it was quite an annoying addition to the student council and the disciplinary committee’s work, whose members had to assess and deal with the issue personally. Although not required, the proper etiquette in declaring a duel is to choose a location where it would cause minimal trouble for the school and its students. Using higher-level fire magic inside a classroom apparently didn’t qualify.

With nothing else to say in his defense, Zyoi quickly pleaded with his eyes at Shry to see if he could somehow help him out to mitigate the situation.

Apparently this red-haired girl was pretty scary to reduce such a prideful man to such a state.

Shry couldn’t do anything but shrug helplessly once more in response.

“Okay, okay, it’s my fault. So what now?”

Resigned to his fate, Zyoi held both his hands in the air as a sign of surrender. Although normally rude and intimidating, he made no attempts of making an excuse and was willing to take the blame. Surprisingly Zyoi was quite the well-behaved student. Well if one were to overlook his external appearance and his bad habit in always eagerly seeking for fights. Looks and first impressions are indeed quite a bit deceiving.

While Zyoi was receiving a stern lecture from Ms. Red-hair, the other student who had entered quietly walked up to me and spoke.

“My name is Sylvia, Vice Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee. You are Zyoi, I presume?”

With a pretty peach-shaped face with waste-length raven-black hair tied behind her rather slim body in a single ponytail, this girl had quite the delicate appearance for someone who spoke with such with such confidence and authority. It didn’t seem like she was particularly quiet for the reason of being shy, but rather she was quiet because she felt it wasn’t necessary to waste words when only a few, if not silence, would do.

Straight and to the point. And her steel-colored eyes sharp like a blade.

Speaking of blades, Shry couldn’t help but be somewhat cautious of her sheathed one-handed longsword tied to a belt on her waist. Although it was quite common to see students carry weapons within the school grounds, Shry felt that she was prepared to unsheathe and use it anytime at a moment’s notice. It was just a feeling, but Shry assessed that she was undoubtedly stronger than Zyoi.

“Yes, nice to meet you.”

Sylvia nodded satisfactorily at this rather common response.

It looks like she’ll be introducing you to the school and the rules.

Wasn’t the teacher supposed to do so?

I can’t force everything on to Ms. R- I mean Professor Ruegger.

User:Shrysha

2014-08-28T21:04:54Z

Shrysha: Chapter 1 Part 3.1 added

==Original Light Novel: Attempt 1==

===Foreword:===

An excerpt appearing at the start of my novel is a bit silly.

But I suppose that now, rather than later, is a good time to talk about the contents of it. Just to let you know what you should expect.

This is a story about the knight rescuing the princess from the bad guys.

This seems to be a traditional plot chock-full of overused clichés and tropes.

Except that the knight wasn’t one of those typical knights in shining armor. Perhaps he could be considered one of those bad guys. Maybe a villain. Wait, could he even be called a knight at this point? I think if I asked him, he would probably reject the “knight” designation.

And this story didn’t just have one princess. Actually there are seven. And did they even need rescuing?

Well there has to be bad guys in the story, right? Well, I’m not even sure if the bad guys could even be called bad guys. I mean, their intentions were good. Probably better than those of Mr. Knight. I suppose it is just a matter of perspective.

So, this is a story about the knight who wasn’t really a knight rescuing the princesses who didn’t need to be rescued from the bad guys who weren’t really bad guys.

I think I did a decent job with my summary.

Enjoy!

===Prologue:===

“Strong…”

These were the only words that the frail young white-haired slave child could mutter. Or rather a former slave. Despite lying collapsed on the ground and with skin covered with filth and body malnourished, and despite having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, there was no fear in this child’s eyes.

Before the child was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a midnight-black cloak concealing his entire body and a similarly colored long curved sword, he looked like the grim reaper himself. This would seem to be a rather fitting name, as he was the one responsible for having single-handedly stained this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of men.

Hundreds killed with only a single swing of his blade.

Perhaps instead of a battle, it would be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre, or perhaps a mass execution. The reaper was the sole judge, jury, and executioner.

But at the moment, he was the only truth in this part of the world where power was the only law.

Despite the reaper’s imposing presence, the child still did not fear him. To the child, this reaper was a savior, having killed his now former slave merchant owners and their bodyguards.

Perhaps this was too much of a biased view; it was truly a matter of perspective.

Contrary to the reaper’s expectations, the child slowly crawled and reached for the hem of his cloak.

Perhaps having had his interest piqued, the reaper unexpectedly patiently waited for the child’s next actions.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly rose, and the reaper’s presence suddenly seemed to quickly expand, seemingly swallowing up the existence of the surroundings. But the child who was no longer a stranger to death’s doors only stared unwaveringly back.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to glare back. The voice continued.

(But power is indeed something I can offer you. And the price…)

Without hesitation:

“My soul.”

===Chapter 1:===

====Chapter 1: Part 1:====

Such a clichéd line.

A child’s soul offered to the devil in exchange for power.

But an unexpected response like, “It had already been paid forward,” or something anti-climatic like that had been the immediate response. It left the child a bit speechless, which was to be expected.

To be prepared to sacrifice everything, not that it was much, only to be told that someone else already paid the bill.

Anyways, for such a memory to have resurfaced after eight years, could this be what people commonly called a premonition?

Perhaps a destined meeting was near…

“Wake up!”

A tight roll of paper lightly tapped his head, prompting him to wake up from his daydream. Shry absent-mindedly used his hands to lightly rub where he was hit, messing up his already messy head of white hair, which was unusual for a eighteen year-old student.

Actually, his entire appearance was actually rather uncommon.

His standard-issue school uniform was ordinary enough: white blazer, shirt and pants with the school insignia on each. Although Shry felt it was uncomfortable wearing it, let alone too flashy, it couldn’t be helped; it was expected that such a prestigious institution should have an excess of unnecessary regulations to maintain and enforce its image to the rest of the world. And to keep its alumnus happy.

However, his left arm was bandaged completely and his left eye was covered with an eye patch. These strange accessories were partially covered up by the sleeve of his uniform and the bangs of his hair, which were grown on the left side to almost completely cover that eye. And with the glasses on his face, it would seem to give him the appearance of some unlucky accident-prone or bullied student.

Standing in front of and in stark contrast to Shry was Professor Ruegger a petite teacher wearing an oversized white laboratory coat, which only seemed to reinforce her rather child-like appearance. Although she was looking sharply hat Shry, it was difficult for him to take her seriously as she had the face of an innocent child pouting. If asked to guess her age, Shry would decline to comment.

“I apologize. I am still a little tired this morning.”

Professor Ruegger smiled and quickly accepted this apology. She turned back around and stated cheerfully, “Now please introduce yourself to the class.”

“Ah.”

That’s right.

Shry and Ms. Ruegger were now standing in front of a small lecture hall, or rather a mini-theatre, introducing himself as a transfer student. And as the Professor Ruegger was making preliminary introductions, he managed to somehow doze off. After a small moment of silence, there were a few laughs and snickers heard amongst the twenty or so students before him, as well as a buzz of whispers and murmurs that he was still able to overhear.

“Are you sure he’s the transfer student.”

“Why our class? I thought that you couldn’t become an A-rank without ranking up.”

“Didn’t you hear he got top scores on the transfer exam? His practical exam results were really good as well.”

“I also heard his practical results were good as well.”

“He beat an exam-proctor in a fight, right?”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Unless he’s on the level of the valkyries…”

“Yeah, he doesn’t look that strong at all.”

“Enough, everyone! Quiet down!”

Shry smiled wryly while Professor Ruegger tried to control the growing ruckus, but to no avail. It seemed that she had very little control over the classroom. Was she even a good teacher? After all, many teachers brought in by this school primarily for research; teaching students, although still important, was of secondary importance.

As Professor Ruegger sniffed and looked like she was going to cry, the students stopped their chatter and brought their attentions to the front.

“Hey, hey everyone stop!” a student called out to the rest of the class

“Stop bullying Ms. Ru guys!”

“Ah, Ms. Ru, don’t cry!”

“We’re sorry! We promise to stop!”

Shry could only observe this strange phenomenon with silence. It seemed that the class didn’t see Professor Ruegger, or rather Ms. Ru, as a teacher but rather a young child. But how sadistic of them to force her to the brink of tears before consoling them.

“H-Hmph. A-As long as you understand, then I’ll f-forgive you,” Ms. Ru stuttered has she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. She then glanced in Shry’s direction. “So again, please introduce…”

“My name is Shry Zei. Nice to meet everyone.”

With a glance at Ms. Ru, Shry gave her a looking that said he was done with his introductions. Apparently she, nor the rest of the class, were satisfied with such a short, information-less introduction.
Shry sighed before stating, “I’m sorry but I’m quite terrible at this introduction thing. If anyone has any questions…”

Ms. Ru’s face suddenly paled. This was certainly the wrong approach, not that Shry actually cared enough.

As expected, the classroom once again burst into noise, and Shry was bombarded with many types of questions: likes, dislikes, former school, activities, girlfriends, etc. Ms. Ru attempts to quiet the class and regain order were admirable, but completely futile.

Before Shry could even open his mouth to begin an attempt to start answering, a loud bang could be heard, silencing the rest of the class.

“Yo. So I heard you are strong.”

Shry turned his gaze to the student sitting in the back of the classroom who was had slowly stood up after having hit the wall with his hand. With wild spiky blonde hair and multiple piercings in his left ear as well as the informal way he wore his uniform, blazer off with his shirt untucked and sleeves rolled-up, it was difficult to picture him as anything other than a delinquent or gangster. Without question, this person had the most imposing presence in the classroom.

“Uhmm…”

However, the delinquent was focused solely on Shry, and completely ignored Ms. Ru.

“So you beat the examiner during the transfer exam?”

Shry hesitated how to answer before simply replying, “I was lucky.”

“Hahahaha!” The delinquent laughed as he ran his hand through his hair before grinning widely at him. “Name is Zyoi, and I am the strongest in this room at Rank 11! I challenge you to a duel!”

What a lame line. To Shry, it sounded like some kid challenging to a children’s card game, or something similar. It wasn’t really in his personality to accept such a troublesome duel proposal.

But with such an opportunity before him, there could only be one response.

“I accept. Where and when-“

“Here and now! Don’t go disappointing me!”

Without warning, Zyoi with one step leapt from his seat towards Shry and sent a heavy punch directed at him.

Screams could… only be heard from Ms. Ru. It seemed that the other students were already accustomed to this type of scene. After all, this academy’s purpose was to raise and produce the country’s strongest fighters, and such “duels” were very commonplace. However, most students would agree that Zyoi’s duel etiquette of attacking first and asking questions later was a bit lacking.

Shry, however, foresaw this kind of development to a certain extent and dodged Zyoi’s preemptive attack. However, he was immediately met with Zyoi’s roundhouse kick to the face, which was blocked with Shry’s right hand. With his vast amount of accumulated experience gained on the battlefield, this kind of attack was too easy for him deal with.

Zyoi brought his leg down and grinned ferociously as Shry retreated by jumped back a meter or two.

“So you are the real deal! Let’s see how you handle this!”

His right arm suddenly began to be explosively wrapped with bright red flames. Some of the classroom’s students looked on with a bit more wariness, but most of them were quite entertained at watching this relatively high-level fight between this classroom’s strongest and the mysterious transfer student.

Shry probably wasn’t aware of it, but there was also a small grin in his face. This stint of being a high school student was more interesting than he first originally thought.

“I assume you are ready to give up my rank?”

“Rank, something uninteresting like that? That’s a small price to pay, but only if you can defeat me!”

Zyoi then quickly charged, again closing the distance between the two combatants.

====Chapter 1: Part 2:====

As the two students continued to clash with each other, Ms. Ru could only scrunch into a ball and pout. Some of the other students in the class came over by her side to comfort the poor teacher. Her skills and knowledge as a professor were real. However, she had neither authority nor respect in her own classroom, and instead was treated as an adorable younger sister to tease and play with.

Unfortunately for Ms. Ru, with the exception of the student council’s or the disciplinary committee’s authority, unless there was mutual consent between the two dueling parties, no one was permitted to stop a duel once underway. Not even the teacher of the two students.

Shry vaguely remembered seeing the duel rules in his online handbook as part of his cursory research prior to entering the school. He recalled that a duel had three fundamental conditions. First, there must be consent, implicit or explicit, between the two dueling parties, with exceptions of forced duels. Second, duels can only be taken place in academy grounds so that each participant can be tracked and monitored by the academy. Lastly, a duel is won once the opposing party has conceded defeat or is left unconscious. Killing the other party, however, is considered forbidden and is harshly punished, with very few exceptions. Other than that, everything was essentially fair game.

Power.

That was the primary emphasis placed by this academy, or the International Combat Academy. Despite the school’s name, this was a privately-run institution located on an independent island not belonging to any nation. This academy was founded just only five years ago by a group of the most powerful people in the world and funded by a wealthy mysterious backer, but has since then become famous for producing the strongest warriors and combatants worldwide. As a result, many countries sent many of their promising talents there to be raised and cultivated.

There are two types of relevant ranks at this school.

The first type of rank was the worldwide ranking system.

With combat talent and abilities highly valued throughout the world, there was a growing necessity to be able to rank people objectively and holistically on an international basis. The International Ranking Commission was set up to fulfill that need.

Second, there is the in-school ranking, which was how students at this academy were assessed. Similar to grades from a more traditional institution, ranks were the benchmark that national government armies and corporations used when hiring from the academy. Exemplary written and practical exams results, as in any traditional school, were indeed important to achieving higher ranks. But this school had a unique feature; perhaps even more influential on ranks were the so-called ranking duels. With ranking duels, one could fight another higher-ranking student and, if victorious, trade for their higher ranks.

Normally higher ranked students would not allow lower rankers to challenge them, but there are a few exceptions. The first and most common exception is that there exists an academy rule permitting those with lower ranks to “force” a duel from a slightly higher ranked with the purpose of encouraging more school-wide competition, thus the “forced duel” rule. A second common scenario where a higher ranker will voluntarily accept a duel another is when “prize” is offered by the lower ranker as compensation.

There was also a rare third scenario. There were people in this academy who enrolled just to enjoy fighting other powerful students, without care for his or her ranking. Ranks were just a means to an end. Such students in the academy were very few in number. And such a person was in front of Shry.

Having been on the receiving end of a few attacks, he quickly assessed Zyoi to be one of the strongest students in the academy. However, that was not enough.

This time he did not dodge Zyoi’s subsequent dash attack and instead took his attack head on, catching his flame fist directly. Zyoi did not expect such a response, and his blood-red eyes widened in surprise for an instant. Afterwards, they returned to normal and he started laughing wildly again.

“It doesn’t seem that you tree-lovers burn as easily as I thought!”

Shry stared back at Zyoi with his only visible violet-colored eye and wryly smiled, understanding the deeper meaning of his words.

Each person born with a certain level of talent for magic also had affinity to at least one of the seven elements that exist in this world. And a person’s primary elemental affinity was directly correlated with the color of his or her eyes. A person with red eyes, like Zyoi, was someone who excelled with fire magic. Likewise, a person with purple eyes was more skilled with wood and plant manipulation.

Additionally, there certain elements were more “effective” than other elements in certain matchups. In this case, to fight fire, wood was the absolute worst element to use.

But by concentrating mana into his right arm, Shry was able to easily withstand Zyoi’s flame-infused punch.

“Oh? Your hand is still fine, but are you sure you’re fine with only using one?”

Zyoi had quickly glanced down at Shry’s bandaged left hand, which had largely remained motionless since the beginning of the fight, before igniting flames in his other hand and throwing another punch. This action prompted Shry to let go of Zyoi’s fist and sidestep the attack.

“One arm should be more than enough. No need to go easy on me.”

“Haha, that’s a great response!”

For several moments, Shry and Zyoi continued to trade blows. Or rather, it was Zyoi throwing an increasingly complex combination of punches and kicks whereas Shry was continually on the defensive, forced to dodge or deflect incoming attacks.

From the surrounding spectators’ perspective, it seemed that Shry was continued being pressed back, and only being able to use one arm was a crippling disadvantage to Shry in Close Quarters Combat. It was only a matter of time before Shry’s impressive defense would show an opening and Zyoi would land a decisive blow to end the fight.

But this was not the same view that Zyoi held. Zyoi prided himself in his strength, but he was quick to acknowledge and assess the strength of others with almost a beast-like instinct. After Shry effortlessly dodged his first punch at the start of the fight, he was made immediately aware that Shry’s was pretty skilled. His mana levels were nothing incredibly special, and neither were his physical speed in strength; in fact it can be said that his stats were almost too average. However this one armed opponent was actually able to easily maneuver around Zyoi’s aggression with only the most basic of attacks or movements, which required an almost ridiculous amount of real combat experience and knowledge.

With each attack that was deflected or dodged, Zyoi’s belief in his estimation of Shry’s strength only rose. Where the seemingly increasing gap in power may have deterred other students, this only fueled Zyoi’s fighting appetite, as it wasn’t very often that he could battle against this caliber of opponent. However, he felt that Shry was only testing him and his strength to get a general feel of the combat strength of this academy’s students.

“So it’s more than just luck! Haha, how annoying!”

It wasn’t just luck that Shry was able to beat his transfer exam proctor was what Zyoi was referring to

“What is?”

“I know you’re stronger than you’re letting on. It’s just annoying that I can’t make you fight seriously unless I do so first.”

For just a moment, Shry was caught off guard at Zyoi’s words. During his limited exchange of blows and words, he had expected Zyoi to be an all-brawn-no-brains type of character, as many of the student spectators had. But Zyoi was much sharper than everyone gave him credit for, and his hot-headed idiot personality was perhaps merely a calculated façade to lower the enemy’s guard. Whatever was the case, Shry mentally upgraded his evaluation of the opponent before him.

With a huge grin, Zyoi suddenly stepped back away from Shry and released an enormous wave of pressure and heat, blowing away the air in his vicinity before enveloping his entire body in raging red flames. These flames were on a much higher level than the smaller ones used when he was using them to enhance his punches earlier.

Although the sprinkler system was activated, it did absolutely nothing to mitigate the intensity of these flames. However this did awaken the student spectators from their trance-like state, having been bewitched just by watching this high level fight.

With this much higher level of fire magic being contained in such a relatively small classroom, the spectators started murmur with worry, and some even were on the verge of panicking. A few of the more prepared students cast makeshift magic barriers to minimize the collateral damage that could possibly result from the seemingly inevitable clash. It was extremely rare that such a fight between such high-ranked students should occur so informally inside a classroom. Usually they were schedule beforehand and fought in an appropriately-sized spectator-filled stadium, as it was very likely that larger scaled magic abilities were going to be used. Only low level attacks had been used so far in Zyoi and Shry’s, but it looked like that would soon quickly change.

As a side note, Ms. Ru admirably tried to go forward to make a few last ditch attempts to interfere with and stop the fight. But as expected she was quickly stopped and carried off by her own students to safety.

Shry was actually reasonably impressed with the quality and durability of the academy-issue combat-ready uniforms, as Zyoi’s clothing were largely unaffected by his flames. However, the uniform is no substitute battle-armor: its defensive properties were actually quite minimal. The material of the uniform was made to let magical and elemental attacks go through the cloth unobstructed rather than to block them, and sharp objects could easily cut through it as well.

On another note, Shry was somewhat disappointed at the level of Zyoi’s flames. Although it was without a doubt far beyond the average strength of the average magic user, this academy was supposed to boast the strongest and most talented students in the world. He had expected to see something a little more powerful. In all fairness, as he had fought countless fights against even more powerful enemies, his expectations could be considered unreasonably high from an objective point of view.

There was nothing much more to be learned from this fight and it was about time to end it. These were the thoughts of Shry as he inwardly sighed. Well he had more fun than he expected, of course while it lasted. Shry returned his right hand to his side and started to gather mana.

Noticing that Shry was preparing to go on the offensive for the first time this battle, Zyoi, who was about to launch headlong into an all-out attack, suddenly stopped.

Dangerous.

His instincts, which have rarely failed him and have helped him win fights time and time again, were loudly screaming at him that Shry was indeed extremely dangerous. If he made just a single mistake, the fight could be completely over in one strike.

Zyoi had fought his fair share of opponents, and only a handful had alerted his instincts as powefully as Shry had. And none of them had been around his age, until now.

“Damn, just who exactly are you?”

In sharp contrast to Zyoi’s animal-like grin, Shry only responded with a light smile.

Both combatants, with just a few meters separating each other, waited for the other to make an opening. Or rather, it was Shry that waited for Zyoi to make the first move. Although Shry felt that his opponent had many openings that he could exploit and that the fight was all but decided, he felt lenient enough to let the fight end on Zyoi’s terms.

Wild flames on one side on the classroom. Zen-like calmness on the other.

Everyone in the classroom was silent. The tension created by not only the combatants, but also by the student spectators, could be said to be thick enough to cut with a knife.

Inching ever closer, the two opponents…

…were rudely interrupted.

====Chapter 1: Part 3:====

“What is the meaning of this?!”

The classroom door was slammed wide open with a bang, completely disrupting the fight.

Zyoi instantly extinguished his flames. Similarly Shry dispersed the mana concentrated in his right arm.

At the door of the entrance were two female students. Apparently they were either very popular or well known within the student body, or very likely both, as suddenly the classroom once again erupted into chatter and noise. It was highly likely that they held a position of authority, whether either part of the student council or disciplinary committee, given their current confidence. Shry also couldn’t help but mentally note that this classroom really was a chatterbox.

The first girl, presumably the one who had interrupted their fight, ignored the noise coming from the student spectators and confidently walked forward within inches to Zyoi. She quickly turned back and glanced first at Shry before returning her accusing glare at Zyoi. With fiery red hair matching her similarly colored eyes, it would be terribly stereotypical if she had a similarly fiery personality as well.

And unfortunately it seemed like Shry guessed correctly.

“As expected of you Zyoi, of course it would be your fault!”

“What fault?”

Zyoi aggressively stared back, of course with a fearless smile. I seemed that they shared some history together given their current familiarity, although the relationship was probably not particularly amicable. Rather, as an ironic comparison since they were both fire element users, Zyoi and this girl had the compatibility of oil and water.

“I’ve done nothing. Aren’t you in the wrong interrupting this duel?”

“What do you mean duel? Right in the middle of Ms. Ru, I mean Professor Ruegger’s class?”

“Yeah, it’s allowed, right? And he had no problems with any of the duel conditions.”

Zyoi glanced in Shry’s direction and got a shrug in response. Shry apparently didn’t care much for details of the duel, such as the time, place, or any other conditions in regards to the duel.

“I wasn’t talking about that!”

“Then?”

“So you don’t know what you have done wrong?”

“What? Speak up!”

“Who thought it was a good idea to set off the sprinklers?”

Ah.

Zyoi raised his head at the sprinklers, which were still raining water down in the classroom. He had not noticed it going off while the fight was breaking out, which was somewhat reasonable since the water immediately evaporated upon touching his flames and there was no traditional fire alarm system in the school to alert him.

Stopping the sprinkler system and cleaning the classroom was a trivial issue. However, it was quite an annoying addition to the student council and the disciplinary committee’s work, whose members had to assess and deal with the issue personally. Although not required, the proper etiquette in declaring a duel is to choose a location where it would cause minimal trouble for the school and its students. Using higher-level fire magic inside a classroom apparently didn’t qualify.

With nothing else to say in his defense, Zyoi quickly pleaded with his eyes at Shry to see if he could somehow help him out to mitigate the situation.

Apparently this red-haired girl was pretty scary to reduce such a prideful man to such a state.

Shry couldn’t do anything but shrug helplessly once more in response.

“Okay, okay, it’s my fault. So what now?”

Resigned to his fate, Zyoi held both his hands in the air as a sign of surrender. Although normally rude and intimidating, he made no attempts of making an excuse and was willing to take the blame. Surprisingly Zyoi was quite the well-behaved student. Well if one were to overlook his external appearance and his bad habit in always eagerly seeking for fights. Looks and first impressions are indeed quite a bit deceiving.

While Zyoi was receiving a stern lecture from Ms. Red-hair, the other student who had entered quietly walked up to me and spoke.

“My name is Sylvia, Vice Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee. You are Zyoi, I presume?”

With a pretty peach-shaped face with waste-length raven-black hair tied behind her rather slim body in a single ponytail, this girl had quite the delicate appearance for someone who spoke with such with such confidence and authority. It didn’t seem like she was particularly quiet for the reason of being shy, but rather she was quiet because she felt it wasn’t necessary to waste words when only a few, if not silence, would do.

Straight and to the point. And her steel-colored eyes sharp like a blade.

Speaking of blades, Shry couldn’t help but be somewhat cautious of her sheathed one-handed longsword tied to a belt on her waist. Although it was quite common to see students carry weapons within the school grounds, Shry felt that she was prepared to unsheathe and use it anytime at a moment’s notice. It was just a feeling, but Shry assessed that she was undoubtedly stronger than Zyoi.

User:Shrysha

2014-08-28T19:02:32Z

Shrysha:

User:Shrysha

2014-08-28T18:30:59Z

Shrysha: Chapter 1 Part 2 added

User talk:Onizuka-gto

2014-08-27T20:12:15Z

Shrysha:

==ZnT translator==
Hi, I'm new and would like to register as a translator for the project "Zero No Tsukaima". Is there anything I should take note of before proceeding?
--[[User:Shadowys|Shadowys]] ([[User talk:Shadowys|talk]]) 04:05, 2 January 2013 (CST)

== Changing Nickname ==
Hi, i'm italian and new on bakatsuki, im translatin SAO into my language. I am changing nickname from "Negiamerica" to "K i r i t o" in every site i frequent. Can you change my nick, like wikipedia does? Indipendently on your answer, i thanks ya.

== Hi Onizuka-gto. ==

I've been trying to raise a suggestion regarding the English translation of Volume 4 but since the "system" never recognised any change log if all I simply edited was the comment in the summary box at the bottom, my suggestion never went through.

Anyhow, the title of volume 4 currently stands as the '''The Vanishing of Suzumiya Haruhi''' and the first thing that has always come to my mind in the past is that it just doesn't read well.
To check out the translation of the Japanese word, I looked up 消失 (which is pronounced something along the lines of "shiyoushitsu" I think) and what it accurately translates to is 'disappearance".
This translation of the kanji is ideal as not only it is accurate (disappear is synonymous with vanish) and the substitution of "vanishing" with "disappearance" is grammatically correct.

Hence I would suggest the title of Volume 4 be changed to: '''The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi'''.

Regards,

--[[User:Da~Mike|Da~Mike]] 22:32, 6 May 2006 (GMT)

== Hi again. ==

I've read your message. Oh and thanks for the advice.
So yes, I shall proceed to raise this point in the format/style guideline tomorrow.

Cheers.

--[[User:Da~Mike|Da~Mike]] 05:15, 7 May 2006 (GMT) [why the heck am I still awake?...]

== New Images ==

Yeah, these images are definitely from the novels. Personally, I'd like to see someone come up with a better scan of volume 8.

-- [[User:Velocity7|velocity7]], 8 May 2006, 12:13 EDT

== New editor? ==

I just sent you a reply in a PM on the forums. Sorry about the surpise! Anyway, time for me to watch Ep 9 (and actually understand the dialogue)!

--[[User:BlckKnght|BlckKnght]] 15:45, 30 May 2006 (PDT)

== Regarding recent IP ==

''The original Japanese word is "バッタ(batta)", so "grasshopper" or "locust" is correct. Because "locust" is confused with "cicada" in USA, I think "grasshopper" is appropriate.''

So was his comment. I also think the erasure was a mistake?

[[User:Velocity7|velocity7]], Jul 17 2006 18:52 EDT

Should you take back the Yellow then?

[[User:Velocity7|velocity7]], Jul 18 2006 12:37 EDT

I just realized... there is a good possibility that they intended the edit but something screwed up their connection and they lost it for 18 seconds, and the wiki database might have accidentally picked up the incomplete send or something? During that time, the person might have changed IPs (dynamic IP).

[[User:Velocity7|velocity7]], Jul 19 2006 19:07 EDT

== Yellow? ==

You forgot about 64.93.73.62. Anyways, if you're not around am I able to issue Yellows?

[[User:Velocity7|velocity7]], Jul 20 2006 13:33 EDT

==IP spamming : a solution ==
Hello there

well, sorry to read you hate cats :)

Down to the point, I've seen quite more and more spam by bots theses last few weeks, so I think you'll be interested in this ; Well, I'm not too sure you're the one having server access, so if I'm wrong please forward to the right person.

The [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SpamBlacklist_extension mediawiki spamBlackList extension] prevents any save containing known spam adresses. All explanations about installing it should be on [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SpamBlacklist_Documentation there].

I also suggest using the current [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Spam_blacklist wikimedia spam list] here for starting, since that should cover most spams.

[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 11:08, 24 July 2006 (PDT)
:meow =_=
:seeing that the extension has been installed, I did some minor edits to simplify it (a few more badwords, less url) some hours ago, but it seems to has gone mad -- filter blocking edit on the spamlist page itself, and blocking badwords even outside url on the wiki... (althought, I'm not sure whereas it was already doing that before my edit or not)
:I tried to blank the page so I could restore the original list afterward, but... it's still bocking at saving : internal list seems not to have been refreshed with the page content, althought in should do so [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SpamBlacklist_Documentation#Obtaining_or_making_blacklistsevery 10/15 minutes], and it's been almost hald an hour now.
:So, well, sorry for the mess ; I don't know exactly what kind of bug is currently happening
:Could you please try to restore the old version ([http://project.baka-tsuki.net/index.php?title=Spam_blacklist&action=edit&oldid=5070]) to see if it correct the problem ? If that don't work, someone on IRC/#wikimedia-tech also suggested to delete completly the page and restore it a few moment later with the right version.
:I'll continue asking on the mediawiki tech chan for now, hopefully someone will wake up andknow exactly what the problem is :)
:[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 04:21, 30 July 2006 (PDT)
::I somehow managed to restore it ^^, I just had to remove a few word so it accept saving the pageagain (s.tikipad, p.hentermine, a.dipex -- still active so I can't type them directly right now)
::I'll do some more tests to try to re-add them again (when the setting are auto-refreshed from the page) and not break anything ^^;
::[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 06:05, 30 July 2006 (PDT)
:Hmmm, it seems that the changes made in the page are never refreshed to the actual script list (at least, even after 5 days)... I wonder why ^^;
:[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 04:07, 4 August 2006 (PDT)

You can ban [[User:Testuser]]'s IP as well. Browse through his edits, compare them to the spam added afterwards, make your decision.
Though that is not going to be a great help most likely.
[[User:Earwin|Earwin]]([[User_Talk:Earwin|talk]])

==wiki, ZnT==
Meow :)

about the ZnT editorial team, it's unlikely : english is not my native language (I'm french), so apart from a few typo I can't correct anything :/ But once it's moved on wiki, I think I can do most maintenance related things (navigation bar, etc.)

I'm not sure it's possible to read-protect mediaWiki pages (more if it's only some pages and not all pages), but I'll search about it and come back to you in a few moments/hours, hopefully with an answer :)

[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 09:08, 12 August 2006 (PDT)
:Well actually, when I say I'm experimented of wikis, it's from an "user" point of view : I'm sysop/bureaucrat on the [http://fr.wikipedia.org french wikipedia], but I've never installed a wiki myself :)
:I'm not sure what the last guardian tried, but I found that :
:Well, preventing access for every page of wiki is not the goal so the "simple" access right by group won't do... but if you create [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Custom_namespaces Custom namespaces] (the namespace is what's before the ":", like in "'''User talk:'''Onizuka-gto"), you can [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/NamespacePermissions_Extension affect special permissions] to each namespace independantly.
:In our case, the namespace '''Zero_no_tsukaima:''' (and ''Zero_no_tsukaima talk:'') could be created for this project, with "no permission for anything" by default , the people participing in it would be added to the special project group, and only that group would have access to the page.
:I've no local wiki to test it myself, but apart from the installation, the settings should be something like :
<pre>
//creation of the 2 custom namespaces
//the first custom namespace start at 100 on every wikipedia, there must be a good reason so please do the same :)
$wgExtraNamespaces = array( 100 => "Zero_no_tsukaima:", 101 => "Zero_no_tsukaima_talk:");

//if the permissions are "false" by default, don't mind theses following lines
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['ns100_read'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['ns100_edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['ns100_create'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['ns100_move'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['ns100_read'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['ns100_edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['ns100_create'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['user']['ns100_move'] = false;

</pre>
:At least, according to the help pages
:and the ZeroProject user should be added to the ''"NamespacePermissions Extension"''-created ''"nsZero_no_tsukaimaRW"'' and ''"nsZero_no_tsukaima_talkRW"'' groups

:Voila, hope I helped :)
:[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 10:52, 12 August 2006 (PDT)
::hmmm²
::after further search, I found http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Preventing_Access#Setting_permissions_for_a_Group_on_a_whole_new_Namespace that should explain things better than I did ^^;
::[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 11:01, 12 August 2006 (PDT)
:I guess it won't hurt to warn about this : don't create ''zero_no_tsukaima:smth'' (or other futures custom namespaces) page before the namespace is software-ly created, or it may cause problems
:For that extension, the pages indicated "1.5 or higher" so there should be no problems... I hope ^^;
:About the communist thing, I don't really agree : it IS implemented that you can prevent non-identified people from reading a wiki... the problem that is, basically, it's either for all pages or none. But well, maybe the "access-by-namespace" feature we're needing will be fully integrated in the 1.8 version, we can hope :).
:[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 15:55, 12 August 2006 (PDT)

''Er..."Software-ly" created?'' : about this, I meant creating it forehand with the administration thing (I read it can be added directly here with the 1.7 version), so it appears in the namespace list [http://project.baka-tsuki.net/index.php?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=&namespace=0 here]. The main problem to add pages with a "fake namespace" before the creation, is it'll be counted as being in the "main" namespace instead of the real one (like ''Zero no Tsukaima:teaser'' is currently) -- well maybe there are other problemes, but I never heard about them :)

I don't really like the idea of putting an email on a public wiki (spam bot collecting adresses and all), mail send doesn't work on this wiki >_<

[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 04:14, 13 August 2006 (PDT)

==Navigation template==
Meow :)

First, I had some problem with my mails, you could you please confirm wether you received the one I sent you a few days ago ?

to the main topic, I'm working on a template to replace the current "navigation bar" code at the bottom of each chapter.

''(here was some code)''

There is one little flaw : the parameter is the same for the adress and for the display (that's explains why "Chapter1" is displayed instead of "Chapter 1")

We can either rename the pages so there is a space, or add 2 separate parameters for the display (which IMO, complicate it quite a bit compared to the simplicity the template is supposed to offer)

Which one would you (or big boss) prefer ?

[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 13:50, 15 August 2006 (PDT)

NB: please note that I won't have access to internet starting friday evening until the end of august

== Nav-same ==
:Meow :)
:About the template, [http://project.baka-tsuki.net/index.php?title=Suzumiya_Haruhi%3AVolume4_Chapter2&diff=5517&oldid=5510 this diff comment] gave me the idea, and also, I saw an (aborted) attempt of doing so in the [http://project.baka-tsuki.net/index.php?title=Special%3AAllpages&from=&namespace=10 templates pages]
:The 2 box are the same, it's on purpose :) The advantage of having a template, well, it's just taht the day you wants to change the navigation appareance, you just change the template and not all the page... but appart from that, you're right about the fact it doesn't hold much interest (plus there is not that many pages to change)
: 
:About the search bar, the one currently appearing is broken : I suppose theLastGuardian changed the link directly in the code or something (but [[Special:Search]] is still available if typed directly).
:Also, I wondered for some times why the spamlist didn't update, but I surprisedly had an edit blocked yesterday because the page contained "display:none;".. I didn't quite understand ^^; could you please ask him about this ? (you'll need that code to make the search bar disappear anyway)
:[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 16:05, 16 August 2006 (PDT)

==Fixed==

You have to add your account to the nszeroNTRW group.

Anyway I added you for you now. It should work now.

--[[User:Thelastguardian|Thelastguardian]] 21:57, 16 August 2006 (PDT)

==Zero no tsukaima==
I happend to have the 8 volumes of the novel scanned (found hazardously on the net, I thought it was the manga <_<), including the illustrations.

May that be of any use ?

[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 08:25, 2 September 2006 (PDT)

==editor==
Thanks for your trust ^^ I'll put these new "tools" at good use.

[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 18:00, 19 November 2006 (PST)

:Hello
:Since we're beginning to have vandalism issue, I was wondering if I could be given the block and protect rights too, in order to counter it... no later than yesterday, I was reverting on [[Suzumiya Haruhi:Timeline]]‎ but could not do anything to stop the vandal, that's very frustrating :/ and nobody on the IRC chan that was awake at that late hour could help me on that either (well actuelly, only bakafish was awake ^^;)
:[[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 20:25, 11 December 2006 (PST)

== Bracket Comments ==

Er Oni, just read your message, but isn't it supposed to be for BaKaFiSh? I've never used brackets before O.o And I didn't do chapter 2 @.@

--[[User:HolyCow|HolyCow]] 02:17, 12 January 2007 (PST)

== Clannad CSS ==

Hey Onizuka-GTO,

Darkoneko's given the okay for the CSS, looks good. Could you load it into the Monobook.css? Thanks.

P.S. The amount of definitions made has substantially reduced.

--[[User:Velocity7|velocity7]], 29 January 2007 12:06 PM EST

== Kara no Kyoukai ==

Can Kara no kyoukai be included in the list of current projects? Its currently not linked from the main page or anywhere, making it impossible to get to the project page unless one is given a direct link or knows what to search for. -- Question

== Yuki wiki? ==

[[User_talk:Darkoneko#yuki_wiki.3F|answered here]]. [[User:Darkoneko|DarkoNeko]] [[User_Talk:Darkoneko|talk]] 09:01, 25 June 2007 (PDT)

== Fate/stay night rename proposal ==

...is located [http://www.baka-tsuki.net/project/index.php?title=Talk:Fate-Stay_Night here]. I've prepared everything to be moved from "Fate-Stay Night*" to "Fate/stay night*" (original name), and (if no complaints are received) I'd like old pages to be deleted. Thanks beforehand.

Upd.: ...and yes, index page is now duplicated under new name [[Fate/stay night]] as well. Feel free to proceed with deletion of old pages - there's nothing valuable left that wasn't copied to new pages. - [[User:Const2k|Const2k]] 15:47, 4 May 2008 (PDT)

Okay, now almost everything is as I wanted it to be. Thanks, oni. Just a couple of actions more, to finish this matter:

[[Судьба-Ночь Схватки:Пролог День3]] is still online, though it is copied byte-to-byte to [[Судьба/Ночь схватки:Пролог День3]]

[[Main Page|Main page]] still has '[[Fate/stay night|Fate/Stay Night]]' in 'Interactive/Visual Novels' subsection of 'Active Projects'. Shouldn't it be '[[Fate/stay night]]' instead?

Talk page of now defunct article [[Fate-Stay Night]] is still online: [[Talk:Fate-Stay Night]] - [[User:Const2k|Const2k]] 22:44, 4 May 2008 (PDT)

== Spice and Wolf (Indonesian) ==

Hi Onizuka-sensei

Can I translate the Spice and Wolf into Indonesian?

11-Oct-2008 12.37 am

Onizuka-sensei, I already done with my prologue.
After that, what I need to do again?

== sorry, I'm a noob! ==

straight to the point: I read PuiPui manga at onemnaga.com and the first chapter had credits from baka-tsuki (if you dont believe me, go check for yourself), but I can't find it on baka-tsuki! please tell me how to!
please mail me 'bout it.

haidbz

:Dear Haidbz, for information about puipui manga, please visit the pupipui novel forum here: http://www.baka-tsuki.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=56 which should have some information about the manga translation. best regards,[[User:Onizuka-gto|Onizuka-GTO]] 02:20, 19 January 2009 (UTC)

== Permission for my post ==

--[[User:Midishero|Midishero]] 10:21, 6 August 2009 (UTC) I come from vnsharing.net
and I want to post vietnamese CLANNAD page. May I have your permission?
'Nanaya' of F/Z Project introduced you to me.

--[[User:Midishero|Midishero]] 12:58, 6 August 2009 (UTC) Thank you very much. But I have to tell you the truth, I translate CLANNAD from partial English Patch of CLANNAD project of Velocity7 and I translated some SEEN files. You try to see rate of progress [http://vnsharing.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2373848&postcount=1]. By the way, I've already contact Velocity7.

== Bakemonogatari ==

Hey, get on IRC! Also, I thought I was a supervisor too, so I think I can decide whether to approve my own project? :p --[[User:Velocity7|Velocity7]] 13:46, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

== SHnY and other Vietnamese PJs ==

I noticed that you've added Chapter 1 Vol.2 for SHnY and created temp. links for the Vietnamese PJs.
I'm sure it's a great help since recently I have some problems when connecting to B-T by my PC, the link will stupidly change to ''http://project/XxX'' with no reason ~.~
About SHnY and ZnT PJ, their leaders still editing some typing & grammatical mistakes (to tell the truth there's a lot of them :p) , so maybe it would take some more time to post the translation here, especially when I'm the only one who can update the wiki page for them T_T
--[[User:Nanaya|Nanaya]] 04:06, 13 August 2009 (UTC)

== Asking permission for Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Vietnamese ==

Hi,
I came across the light novel named Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu after Suzumiya Haruhi was down. I find Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu really interesting. I would like to translate it into Vietnamese using the translation on baka-tsuki. Would you mind if I use it as source? Since I intend to post it on vnsharing.net, I'll update my translation on baka-tsuki too.

Thank you for reading

ps: I have completed 2 chapters already. It will take sometime before I can get acquainted with posting translation on baka-tsuki. Sorry in advanced if the translation is not on-date.

== Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Vietnamese ==

Sorry for the late reply and thank you for your attention.

I've been working on chapter 9 of volume 1 which has 10 chapters in total. Ironically, it seems that the english BTS project hasn't been updated for months. I wonder if the translators were doing fine or they've posted it somewhere else? I would like to continue this project, but by the time I finish volume 1 and there is no new update (*sob)(*crying), I guess I'll switch to another project like Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria.

I'm very, very appreciate all you guys' work.

ps: by the way, I don't know how to deal with posting my translation on baka-tsuki. Really.

== thx for the info ==

thx for the info. now, i'm re-update the vietnamese index of baka to test to shoukanjuu

== favor: ==

Onizuka, could you possibly undelete the pages of shakugan that were translated before the project was abandoned? (excluding volumes 1-4)? it would save translators alot of work, and help attract readers to the project: currently it doesn't have even a teaser :( Thank You! --[[User:Saganatsu|Saganatsu]] 20:39, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Edit: Kira uploaded saved copies, so we don't it's probably not needed, but if if things get missed feel free to undelete --[[User:Saganatsu|Saganatsu]] 22:28, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Hell, posting this at 4:20 in the morning, but clad you're back Oni. I forgot to ask: Can the tsukuru link on the main page be replaced? I heard that it doesn't work anymore. [[User:Kira0802|Kira]] ([[User_talk:Kira0802|Talk]]) 03:22, 15 August 2012 (CDT)

Edit: Oh, and can the "pending status" be removed from Sayonara Piano Sonata's page, since it is kinda like a hosted project, but put links to the website instead? Also, there are some sidebar redirects when you click on a project, so is it possible to fix them? [[User:Kira0802|Kira]] ([[User_talk:Kira0802|Talk]]) 03:35, 15 August 2012 (CDT)

== CSR registration page ==

um, you deleted the registration page for the english version of Chrome Shelled Regios. I think you meant to get the polish version. could we get it back, please... --[[User:Saganatsu|Saganatsu]] 17:00, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

==Alternate language categories==

Dont you think too that the special language categories should get a different introduction as the generic [[:Category:Alternative Languages]] since its not true for the specific language category (since there are only their language projects listend and not all language projects) --[[User:Darklor|Darklor]] 21:49, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

==''Toshokan Sensou'' Novel Translation==

Hey, this is Melithiel from LiveJournal. You messaged me about sharing my translation of ''Toshokan Sensou'' on Baka-Tsuki. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner--I tried the Hotmail address on your profile, but the mail bounced back to me, and this was the only way I could think of to contact you. I'm definitely interested, but I'm not sure what form this sharing should take. Were you thinking of just posting links to my translation, or copying the whole thing into the wiki format you have on B-T?

:Dear Meth, I think i'm in exactly the same situation that you mentioned, I still haven't figured out how to send messages on livejournal! So i apologise if you receive this message twice from....two different places. Also i'm confused that my link didn't work, but i have a solution! We have a Baka-Tsuki Forum: [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/ Baka-Tsuki Forums]. Specifically there is a topic regarding this matter here:[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4238 Toshokan Sensou Topic]

:My personal email is: onizuka.gto.uk (at) gmail (dot) com

:Hopefully we can have a more detailed conversation with some solid contact, but to answer your question briefly, the solution we usually pursue is the latter method that you mentioned on my Wiki Talk Page. That is, I would like to take a copy of your script on Livejournal and "reconstruct" the pages together into clear divided Chapters as it was intended to. It will be quite a task i imagine, but if you have a copy of your previous script in one text file, that would be very helpful. Usually at Baka-Tsuki.org we allow scripts to be edited by volunteers, to catch out the little grammar & Spelling mistakes, however as the single translator to the project we can lock the scripts as well for your peace of mind> Hopefully you will receive this message and we can somewhat be able to communicate on one single method. :P

:Best regards,

[[User:Onizuka-gto|Onizuka-GTO]] 01:08, 14 March 2011 (EDT)

== Alt. Project ==

Since I didn't got replies in the BT forum, I thought that I could post a message here. I just wanted to say that I started a Hidan no Aria French translation, and already finished the prologue. I would like to ask if I need another chapter to make this good as an alt. language project. If so, than I'll probably start the translation now. If not, than I'd like to know if I have the green light. [[User:Kira0802|Kira0802]] 01:10, 5 May 2011 (UCT)

I just finished the chapter 1. Is it fine? Also, I need an administrator and a supervisor, if it is.[[User:Kira0802|Kira]] 03:09, 25 June 2011 (UCT)

==Golden Time==
Isnt it time that this project gets its entry into the sidebar? --[[User:Darklor|Darklor]] 16:00, 14 June 2011 (UCT)

== Collapsibility Upgrade ==

Umm. If it's not too much trouble could you take a look at [[MediaWiki_talk:Common.js|this]]. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 18:06, 29 June 2011 (UCT)

=== Nav Templates ===
If there are any projects that you would like nav templates for please tell me. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 04:47, 25 August 2011 (CDT)

== Zero no Tsukaima (Spanish) ==

Hi, i'm from Peru and i have the chapter 1 & 2 from de vol 11 already translated 4 me :D, but i have no idea how to upload here (ops, 1st of all, it's such a great work all of u r making with this webside!!!), so if you can talk to the editors of the spanish version of what i made (cause i have no answer fron they), it would be great to help and be part of this work. My user is [[user:CagedEmperor|CagedEmperor]].

== Forgot Password in Forum ==

Dear Onizuka-GTO, I just forgot my password in the forum and then I use the forgot password features but the new password has not been sent in my email, could you help me about this? my email is shadow_react@yahoo.co.id --[[User:LiTTleDRAgo|LiTTleDRAgo]] 10:41, 17 September 2011 (CDT)

Likewise, I have been having the same problem. Is there perhaps a bug in the system or something? -[[User:Hiro Hayase|Hiro Hayase]] 18:41, 17 September 2011 (CDT)

***
Thanks, now I can login to the forum ^^ --[[User:LiTTleDRAgo|LiTTleDRAgo]] 09:15, 28 September 2011 (CDT)
***

I have also been having the same issue for the past month and even today i have done the forgot password and still no email addy is > #####
[[User:Wolfpup|Wolfpup]] 22:35, 28 September 2011 (CDT)
Thank you, now i have a lot of reading in the forum to catch up on! but at least now i can get back in there. [[User:Wolfpup|Wolfpup]] 11:28, 29 September 2011 (CDT)

1. I believe it was mid-July when I noticed the problem, I rarely use the forums except in special cases.
2. Yes, I believe so.
3. Actually I used a gmail account to register.
4. Nope not yet, I remember clicking on lost password...and receiving a message that they will send it to my email.
-Sorry for the late reply.
[[User:Hiro Hayase|Hiro Hayase]] 02:54, 30 September 2011 (CDT)

== Asking for permission to contribute ==

Hi there, I want to contribute to SAO Indonesian translation. I read in the 1st page that i need to ask permission from the supervisor and register which part i want to translate but i don`t know how (kinda noob here XD), can you wxplain to me the steps, please? Thanks --Bleu

:Dear Bleu, it's very simple, please register on the wiki, it's free.
Now simple edit the registration page to add your registered wiki username to the corresponding chapters you wish to help. From there you can begin translating! Just create a new wiki page and remember to link it to the index page of the project.
If are having difficulty using Baka-Tsuki wiki format, please read the [[Format_guideline|project presentation]] page.
If you require more help, you can visit our [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/ official forum here] for additional help. Regards, [[User:Onizuka-gto|Onizuka-GTO]] 06:27, 31 October 2011 (CDT)

Hi, I read in the first page that I need to email all admins if I wanted to start translating a new project. I have started and I believed all steps are fulfilled except the emailing admins part. I am a new member so how do I inform all the admins? from here or forum? Do I have to send you the prologue to check my translation? Sorry for bombing you with question but I am really new to all this. Thanks. Cheers~ --[[User:Kanziel|Kanziel]] ([[User talk:Kanziel|talk]]) 10:16, 2 October 2012 (CDT)

== Problem with confirmation email ==

I don't know who to ask, but when I try to send a confirmation email so that I can post on the forum and get my preferences updated, i keep on getting this message:

Baka-Tsuki could not send your confirmation mail. Please check your e-mail address for invalid characters.
Mailer returned: authentication failure [SMTP: Invalid response code received from server (code: 535, response: 5.7.1 Username and Password not accepted. Learn more at 5.7.1 http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=14257 v5sm23771828anf.3)]

(kyo_asakura_apc@yahoo.com; katiek9160@gmail.com)

I tried it with all my different email addresses from yahoo to gmail as well as a couple of friends' school email addresses to see if it the problem was my just email address, but it still gives me the same error.
Is there anything I need/can do to fix this?

Thank you,

MeltyBagel

== Pui Pui ==
This may be quite late... very late, since I have been adding things since yesterday, I want to report to you, supervisor, that I'll try to resume Pui Pui, starting v2c2.
--[[User:Superduperelectromagnetictops|Superduperelectromagnetictops]] 23:02, 17 November 2011 (CST)

=== Language Question ===

Totally unrelated to Pui Pui: is there a way to disable non-english language from listing in recent changes? swimming through all those changes is tough enough-
Anyone who can answer, aside from Oniz, may do so. Thanks.
--[[User:Superduperelectromagnetictops|Superduperelectromagnetictops]] 05:52, 4 December 2011 (CST)

== Request for translator right ==

Hello. I want to ask you give me the translator right. I am the leader of [[Clannad VN]] groups, this right is essential for my work.

In addition, to demonstrate my personality, I am admin of Wikipedia (see [http://vi.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%C4%90%E1%BA%B7c_bi%E1%BB%87t:Danh_s%C3%A1ch_th%C3%A0nh_vi%C3%AAn&limit=1&username=Tr%E1%BA%A7n+Nguy%E1%BB%85n+Minh+Huy], minhhuywiki = Trần Nguyễn Minh Huy‏). Thanks. --[[User:minhhuywiki|'''minhhuy''']] ([[User talk:Trần Nguyễn Minh Huy|talk]]) 07:01, 31 December 2011 (CST)

== Amendment to Japanese sentence in main page ==

Hi Oni, long-time-no-see. Hope you are doing well. By the way, I noticed the Japanese message you posted on the main page which seems (suspiciously) like a sentence from google translate? I don't claim to be an expert at Japanese, but I think that sentence can be improved. How about something along this line: 仲間の皆さん及び始めて御覧になる方、ありがとうございました、そして明けましておめでとうございます。 ( [To] my fellow members and first time visitors, thank you and happy new year.)

--[[User:Zyzzyva165|Zyzzyva165]] 15:39, 7 January 2012 (CST)

:* No worres Oni ^^ So you did know about it haha! Since that sentence is in our first page, I thought it's rather embarrassing, espcially if the reader knows some Japanese. By the way u missed out the "仲間の皆" part of the sentence. I've been studying Japanese quite intensely, might drop by again as a translator if there are any projects which interest me.

--[[User:Zyzzyva165|Zyzzyva165]] 14:22, 9 January 2012 (CST)

== Iris on Rainy Days ==

Hello, Oni. Please, move Iris from teasers to active projects since it's already completed translation. --[[User:Rock96|Rock96]] 05:20, 14 January 2012 (CST)

Seconded. Please do asap. --[[User:Novium|Novium]] 18:47, 14 January 2012 (CST)

== Monogatari Series sidebar ==

Bakemonogatari got regrouped under the Monogatari series. However, the sidebar carries the old link to the old page which is a redirect. This makes Monogatari series not in correct alphabetical order on the sidebar, which can be a little strange. :D --[[User:Larethian|larethian]] 10:06, 20 January 2012 (CST)

== New alt. language project ==

hello. you didn't respond on the forum, so i'm writing here. i created a russian page for Haganai and will be translating it.(25% of one ch. uploaded)
it's written in the guidelines that i should contact someone from the administration,
so here i am...)) if i'm correct, all i have to do now is finish TL'ing one chapter...if there happens to be anything else, just name it. 
hеre is the link to the project http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Boku_wa_Tomodachi_ga_Sukunai_%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9
--[[User:Idiffer|Idiffer]] 07:31, 22 January 2012 (CST)

So i can remove the "pending authorization" thingy off the project page?--[[User:Idiffer|Idiffer]] 10:00, 28 January 2012 (CST)

== Asura cryin' ==

Saw that you moved the project to active a while back. Mind giving that a second thought?
We as a community haven't translated any of the chapters, it lacks translators and a project supervisor.

I hoped someone would pick it up, but the grace period seems to have passed. Toss it back into the pit I say.

Cheers --[[User:Novium|Novium]] 20:17, 30 January 2012 (CST)

Don't, there is no reason for that - its a hosted project. If it doesnt have any translation activity in the next 6 to 12 month it'll just get the stalled tag. --[[User:Darklor|Darklor]] 01:11, 31 January 2012 (CST)

== Welcome to N.H.K! ~Lithuanian~ ==

Hello, I'm Soryusu, currently translator of Haruhi in Lithuanian. The thing is, I'm a bit tired of this project (I'm mean, it's Haruhi, the girl sometimes gets on your nerves) and want to try out something new. So I got an idea about "Welcome to NHK!" light novel but since it's already been released in English, Baka-Tsuki has no project for it. I know people here try not to piss off copyright inquisitors, especially nowadays, but nevertheless is there any way for such project to exist? It's more like a hypothetical question though, because I have entrance exams coming up and wouldn't be working on the project now anyway (sucks to be me), however I would still like to upload 9 or so pages I've already done (that's like prologue + one and a half chapter).

Anyway, please let me know what you think.

Chenquieh, --[[User:Soryusu|Soryusu]] 12:03, 2 February 2012 (CST)

Well, I'm more or less done:

[[Welcome_to_the_N.H.K!]] I looks kinda short, but I don't know what else I should put.

[[Welcome_to_the_N.H.K!_~Lithuanian~]]

[[Welcome_to_the_N.H.K!_~Lithuanian~:Registracijos_puslapis]]

Anyway, I have some stuff to ask. As I mentioned before, I will be having entrance exams soon, and most likely won't be active. So I need an administrator to look after the project. This applies to my Haruhi project too, because it doesn't have one either. I never really had a chance to know people here, so could you be one? If yes, please put your name by the "Projekto Administratorius". I would really appreciate that.

Also, I've been lurking a bit and found that in the Spanish category there is this sole Golden Time prologue without any actual project for it. So I would like to ask is it OK to upload chapters like that? Before I decided to start NHK project I translated some other stuff (prologues of Tomodachi, Spice and Wolf, Shana), and I kinda think it would be a waste not to put them here (aside from satisfying my massive vanity) but don't really want to create separate projects for each of them, because they would be very much dead like that.

--[[User:Soryusu|Soryusu]] 15:14, 4 February 2012 (CST)

Okay, I put the chapter list you asked, you can do your magic.

Regarding supervising, I think you know yourself that it's hard finding volunteers. After all, even most of the English projects are struggling with that, not to talk about languages witch have like one or two projects here. A person with all that dark and mysterious administrator power of doom will surely do for now.

Teaser tags sounds good. Actually, I don't really want to mess around with other people projects much. Also, everything could be found on the alt. language list in the Main Page or Teaser Projects list on the left, so no problem.

Anyway, thank you for your help.

--[[User:Soryusu|Soryusu]] 06:26, 5 February 2012 (CST)

== Forums new sub-group ==

As Hikari pointed out, the "has" in the description of the new BT Forums completed section should be "have". [[User:Kira0802|Kira]] ([[User_talk:Kira0802|Talk]]) 12:42, 4 February 2012 (CST)

== Forum PM ==
Is your PM inbox again to full? Or didnt you visit the forum too? --[[User:Darklor|Darklor]] 02:52, 17 February 2012 (CST)

== Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai! ==

Is it alright if I create a project specific guidelines page for Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai!? Sooner or later, we might have to create one for names and terms as more volumes are translated. -[[User:Hiro Hayase|Hiro Hayase]] 17:44, 22 February 2012 (CST)

==Legend of the sun knight ~ Russian==
so i created the russian page [[Legend of the sun knight Русский| here]]
it has 3 uploaded chapter already.
do i need to create an English page? if so, how much info should there be on it?
--[[User:Idiffer|Idiffer]] 08:21, 27 February 2012 (CST)

*what did u mean by index page? only the list of volumes and chapters? i'll do this later, don't have much time lately + LoSK is effectively stalled... but: there is a project that can be approved right away - [[Sayonara piano sonata ~Русский| Sayonara piano sonata ~Русский]]. that pending athourization banner has been there too long)))--[[User:Idiffer|Idiffer]] 04:02, 15 May 2012 (CDT)

i did leave a signature though ^^. thanks for approving the projects, i'll get to creating the english page for Legend of the sun knight as soon as i can...--[[User:Idiffer|Idiffer]] ([[User talk:Idiffer|talk]]) 12:35, 27 August 2012 (CDT)

== Zero No Tsukaima PDF ==

hey i wanted to ask if you could suggest the ZNT - Team to make a PDF? :D
That would be really usefull.
Thank you very much :D

== STNBD ==
Hi Onizuka-senpai! Can you please protect [[Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance Indonesia|this page]]? Thx a lot - [[User:SATRIA|SATRIA]] 20 July 2012

==Maru-MA==

Hi, thank you for approving Maru-MA project :) but now it isn't on the teaser project's page nor in the sidebar :/ [[User:ClavelSangrante|ClavelSangrante]] ([[User talk:ClavelSangrante|talk]]) 21:09, 15 August 2012 (CDT)

==[[Sayonara Piano Sonata]]==

Uhm, why did you add the ATP tag to this teaser project? - Its only a teaser project - without a own translator so it wont even need a registration page or a staff section... and I fear that it will remain only as a teaser as long as we dont get a own translator for this series... --[[User:Darklor|Darklor]] ([[User talk:Darklor|talk]]) 03:58, 17 August 2012 (CDT)

==Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (Russian)==

Hello! The second question has been [[Baka_to_Test_to_Shoukanjuu_(Russian):Volume1_The_Second_Question|translated]]. I suppose, it's enough for the project to be approved?
[[User:Gamer|Gamer]] ([[User talk:Gamer|talk]]) 16:22, 19 August 2012 (CDT)

P.S. Hello! Thank you for approving! [[User:Gamer|Gamer]] ([[User talk:Gamer|talk]]) 06:35, 28 August 2012 (CDT)

== Sword Art Online Saling Tagalog ==

[[Sword Art Online:Tomo 1 Prologo|Sword Art Online Saling Tagalog: Tomo 1 Prologue]]

is that okay for the requirement?

thanks :D

[[User:Rukito|Rukito]]

here's another

[[Sword Art Online:Tomo 1 Kabanata 1|Sword Art Online Saling Tagalog Kabanata 1]]

[[User:Rukito|Rukito~~]]

== Maburaho ==

Requesting permission for Maburaho project, albeit a very slow work tho, since this is me doing this.
--[[User:Superduperelectromagnetictops|Superduperelectro]] ([[User talk:Superduperelectromagnetictops|talk]]) 15:58, 4 September 2012 (CDT)

PS: It's impossible to finish the long chapter 1 in 1 week, so please throw this in the teaser projects, if possible. --[[User:Superduperelectromagnetictops|Superduperelectro]] ([[User talk:Superduperelectromagnetictops|talk]]) 07:49, 5 September 2012 (CDT)

== Hidan No Aria ==

Hello~..

I want request permission for hidan no aria project, since i am new so i dont know much how translation project work,
I think my english is B grade, and my japanese is C grade. so i want to participate.

could you pick which chapter i must work?? for start i think 1 chapter is enough.

Regard

Fronttide

- Hello, I was wondering if I would be able to register as a translator? I would like to start trying to translate the Hidan no Aria volumes that no one has decided to work on yet. I have 2 years of Japanese in school, 5 months of living there on exchange, and god only knows how many hours of anime.

Thanks,

0Starkiller0

== Campione- german language ==
Hi i would like to translate Campione into the german language. i would be happy if i could get a response :)

[[User:Kyoukou|Kyoukou]] 14:44, 20 September 2012

== Wrong translation ? ==

Hey, my name's julio, im brazilian.
after read vol 5 chapter 4, i saw this line "Sim vamos meninas isca. (Aah. I'll treat you very well, cute ojou-chans.)"
the thing is, "sim vamos meninas iscas" dont translate to "i'll treat you very well, cute..." ... idk if this is what you wanted or was wrong translated, but "sim vamos meninas isca", translate like "lets go, bait girls", well that didnt made sense. "isca" means "bait" so im just tring to help.

PS. Sry my bad English.

== Private message ==

I sent a private message to you a few days ago. Have you received it yet? [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 10:00, 2 November 2012 (CDT)

== Please Delete This Account ==

I had a previous account that I was using, but I made this one instead. So could you please delete this one? The nick that I had (and will be using from now on) is Junnynam. Sorry for the trouble--[[User:Monkeii12|Monkeii12]] ([[User talk:Monkeii12|talk]]) 21:07, 4 January 2013 (CST)

== To Aru Majutsu No Index for Filipino (tagalog) translation ==

Hello. I want to translate Toaru majutsu mo index in FIlipin (tagalog). I'm very hyped about this. Please allow me. Thank you. :)

== New translator for Muv Luv Alternative: Schwarzesmarken ==

Hi, I will be taking over from MisterV since he has told me he is too busy with real life issues for the foreseeable future, and will be working with the translator who is doing the Russian version to translate the chapters. Can I request access to the page to upload the first few pages of the second chapter? --[[User:Gabgrave|Gabgrave]] ([[User talk:Gabgrave|talk]]) 23:02, 25 April 2013 (CDT)

== translating an existing English project to an alternative language ==

I'm not sure I contacted the right person...*don't get mad at me*.
I would like to translate an existing English project to Hebrew. I want to translate Fate/Zero or Baccano! I have perfect understanding of the two languages. please approve it ^_^
thank you
I've also already translated the "8 years ago prologue" of Fate/Zero, and the whole "1930: The Rolling Bootlegs" of Baccano!, I just don't know how to attach a file here so you can approve it...

== Yahari Ore~Brazilian Portuguese~ ==

Onizuka-Dono

I'm very sorry because my english is very poor(I can at least translate to portuguese), but as you can see this page has the title with BRASILIAN ( [[Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabu Kome wa Matigateiru ~Brasilian Portuguese~|Yahari Ore ~Português Brasileiro~]] ), I made this mistake, and I dont know how to correct it o/ so I made a new page, with Brazilian Portuguese. I'm very sorry for this, but I'd like to exclude this page, and if you understand my problem I would be happy.

== fake new users outbreak ==

can't we do something about it...? other than just block everytime it appear..? --[[User:Tony Yon|Tony Yon]] ([[User talk:Tony Yon|talk]]) 23:07, 16 May 2013 (CDT)

...Actually, it's kind of a yearly thing that happens every year at this time or so...--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 23:11, 16 May 2013 (CDT)

eh..really..? Eww..i never know XD [[User:Tony Yon|Tony Yon]] ([[User talk:Tony Yon|talk]]) 23:49, 16 May 2013 (CDT)

Forgive me for butting in, but I was kinda wondering why this wiki didn't have the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Abusefilter Abusefilter] extension installed which, while it certainly won't stop every fake account, can at least stop the obvious ones. -[[User:AKAAkira|Akira]] ([[User talk:AKAAkira|talk]]) 22:54, 22 May 2013 (CDT)

Excuse me and I'm sorry for disturbing/bothering. I don't know if this is related to the current topic(fake new users outbreak). Well, I have asked [[User talk:Arczyx|Arczyx-san]] about this before, and [[User talk:Arczyx|Arczyx-san]] suggested that I should ask Onizuka-gto-san instead. I was just wondering about how long for a project(writings) able to be edited by unregistered people(anonymous editor?). Is there a fixed amount of time before the writings being protected? And about userpage, is it not possible that the only one able to edit it besides admins are the ones who own the account?--[[User:Mada|Mada]] ([[User talk:Mada|talk]]) 10:01, 8 June 2013 (CDT) Thanks so much for the guidance.--[[User:Mada|Mada]] ([[User talk:Mada|talk]]) 01:52, 14 June 2013 (CDT)

== PapaKiki LN Translation Continuation ==

Just wondering, is the translation for this LN is still continued? Since the last update I saw is on Sept 2012, and no further updates done ever since. I don't mean to push anyone to continue translating, but I just hope that the rest volumes is translated soon, since I loved this series (I loved Miu more, actually).

[[User:Pygmalion|Pygmalion]] ([[User talk:Pygmalion|talk]]) 14:11, 11 July 2013 (CDT)

== Hello, nice to meet you! ==

Hi I am JACK, I have been reading from this website for quite a long time and I wish to translate hidan no aria light novels because to me it is one of the best series, please give me a chance and allow me join
--[[User:JACK ShadowHunter|JACK ShadowHunter]] ([[User talk:JACK ShadowHunter|talk]]) 16:59, 30 July 2013 (CDT)

==Date A Live Vietnamese==
Please add Date A Live Vietnamese to the category.
[[User:My2ndAngelic|I'm a Mapler, an Otaku & a Student.]] ([[User talk:My2ndAngelic|talk]]) 23:20, 16 August 2013 (CDT)

== Changing Series' name on Main Page Index ==

Hi Oni, can you please change the series name 'Altina the Sword Princess' to 'Haken no Kouki Altina'‎ on the Main Page Index? --[[User:Chancs|Chancs]] ([[User talk:Chancs|talk]]) 00:32, 24 August 2013 (CDT)

== WHY??? ==

Why is Hidan no Aria abandoned??? It is such a great story

Okay, taking the space to answer here, you should want to take a look a [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=6042 this] topic at forum, it should be explained why the project was taged as abandoned(It's because license of course) --[[User:Nura rihan|Nura rihan]] ([[User talk:Nura rihan|talk]]) 20:44, 5 September 2013 (CDT)

== Moving a section ==

Hi. I made a mistake when making a page. Could you please move [[Maou na Ore to Fushihime no Yubiwa:Volume 2 Author%27s notes]] to [[Maou na Ore to Fushihime no Yubiwa:Volume 2 Author Notes]]? Thanks--[[User:Kemm|Kemm]] ([[User talk:Kemm|talk]]) 12:31, 23 December 2013 (CST)

== Permission for "Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (French)" ==

Like it's said in the title, I made a post to know if I can make the French translated page of this Light novel. Well, I have to confesse that I've read the rules only after doing the main page, so I think i did it without permission. That's why I'm asking now, with the hope that my project will be kept ><
The page I made is here http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Utsuro_no_Hako_to_Zero_no_Maria_%28French%29

==Mondaiji Italian version ==
Hello! I found an ATP warning on the registration page, not on the project. So I would like to know better what it means.
The majior points it's "Special Circumstances that require direct Authorisation from an Administrator", can you tell me more?
And also can I have more time to translate? I only have 2 free hours to do houseworks and translation, other than that I'm working and sleeping (and also eating XD).
I've already finished the first part and half-way at the second part.
--[[User:NiwaKonzen|NiwaKonzen]] 10 February 2014 22.22 UTC

== Wiki Help Page Creation ==

Hello Oni~! I've been setting a lot of things on fire lately... *sniff* q___q Anyways, could I ask you to take a look at the new under-construction Help Pages that are being made on the Wiki? You can reach them by clicking on [[Baka-Tsuki:About]]. Here is the forum thread, also: [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=8726 click here].

In particular, I wanted to invite you to this discussion about '''New Project Startup Guidelines''': [[Help_talk:New_Project_Startup_Guidelines]]. Take a look at the Wiki page summary, and your opinion would be very much appreciated! Thanks! --[[User:Cloudii|Cloudii]] ([[User talk:Cloudii|talk]]) 00:10, 12 February 2014 (CST)

== Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha ==

One of the pages for the Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha series is a bit off,
it's put as:
'''Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 2 Chapter1'''
when it should be:
'''Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 2 Chapter 1'''

basically, whoever did that page, forgot to put a space between '''"Chapter"''' & '''"1"''' & it's not even with the other pages
that's all, could you please fix it?--Deathmailrock 00:17, 3 March 2014 (CST)

== Several New Projects to be Approved (and added to sidebar) ==

Hi Oni, could you approve these projects and add them to the sidebar? [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9370&p=226797 linklink] --[[User:Cloudii|Cloudii]] ([[User talk:Cloudii|talk]]) 01:59, 4 March 2014 (CST)

== The Order of Supervisor! To Serve & Protect the illiterate and smite the Vandals ==

Hi Oni, not sure if you can fix it, but ever since the server upgrade, the supervisor group's power to edit and protect pages has been reduced. Specifically, we are only able to protect pages from anonymous edits (for example, we've currently lost the ability to do "admin level page locking") and we can no longer edit the content or change the protection levels for supervisor/admin locked pages. Please look into the issue when you have time so that we can be empowered once more. Thanks! --[[User:Zzhk|Zzhk]] ([[User talk:Zzhk|talk]]) 00:20, 13 March 2014 (CDT)

== Strike The Blood ==

Hello Oni, can you kindly change the project status to active? Will be doing translation works on STB. Thanks。 [[User:JinXiang|JinXiang]] ([[User talk:JinXiang|talk]]) 08:40, 28 June 2014 (CDT)

== Project Guidelines Convention / Android Compatibility ==
Hello Oni. I did some work to fit Daybreak's project page to the guidelines standards per your recommendation. Don't have the means to check it out though... does it work right now? Thanks [[User:Aorii|Aorii]] ([[User talk:Aorii|talk]]) 09:59, 14 July 2014 (CDT)

==Mother of Learning==
Moved note... I thought of a better place for it... [[User:Starwarscards|Starwarscards]] ([[User talk:Starwarscards|talk]]) 19:03, 14 July 2014 (CDT)

I will e-mail you the changes after I am done with the chapter for the day. By the way all the things I am not sure about I am putting in the discussion section of each chapter. [[User:Starwarscards|Starwarscards]] ([[User talk:Starwarscards|talk]]) 21:38, 15 July 2014 (CDT)

== Mushoku Tensei==

Please view the website. There seems to be a troll on the site. :( --[[User:Tasear|Tasear]] ([[User talk:Tasear|talk]]) 23:40, 29 July 2014 (CDT)

I to wanted to tell you that some trolls are doing whatever they want with mushoku tensei chapters, specially in volume 12, from what i can see in the history there are at least 3 troll users putting comments on chapters names like "google translate is a god"(maybe its the same user with differents accounts), since they arent part of the bakatsuki staff, they are not part of the translators nor editors team. Also 2 new translators seemed to have added themselfs without asking. [[User:Trejon|Trejon]] ([[User talk:Trejon|talk]]) 2:05, 30 July 2014 (CDT)

Hi Oni, the question i asked before i already found the answer =P so i removed what i asked. Now about putting differents sections, is it possible to remove the show/hide in the original web novel? or im being selfish?. [[User:Trejon|Trejon]] ([[User talk:Trejon|talk]]) 11:34, 27 July 2014 (CDT)

==== Editor Request ====

Hi Oni, would like to register as a editor for the project don't speak Japanese but speak fluent English. Thanks! --[[User:Striderman34|Striderman34]] ([[User talk:Striderman34|talk]]) 5:52, 08 July 24 (CDT)

Hi Oni, I recently joined the site after reading Mushoku Tensei and want to help. My question is would I be able to register as an editor for the project? I see Volume 7 is in need of editors. Although I don't speak Japanese, I know English and recently graduated from a university. Thanks, I appreciate it! --[[User:John Woodward|John Woodward]] ([[User talk:John Woodward|talk]]) 3:23, 23 July, 2014 (EST)

Hi Oni, I would also like to register as an editor for Mushoku Tensei. Thanks! [[User:DaiZzed|DaiZzed]] ([[User talk:DaiZzed|talk]]) 16:40, 25 July 2014 (CDT)

Hey Oni. I've been editing a few of the chapters lately and got really interested in doing it. Do you mind adding me as another editor for this series? Thanks!
--[[User:Sarnik|Sarnik]] ([[User talk:Sarnik|talk]]) 16:19, 27 July 2014 (CDT)

Hi Oni, recently i have taken a real liking to this novel and i have been helping out here and there fixing erros i find, so i did like to register as an editor for this novel. Also i want to tell you that some user called COTHER, uploaded the complete volume 9 done with a machine translation without previously registering. Per the rules i believe that his edition should be undo since vanant and dark kaito are working on it. [[User:Trejon|Trejon]] ([[User talk:Trejon|talk]]) 20:06, 27 July 2014

Hi Oni,
Thanks for registering me previously- I appreciate it. Today I noticed I was removed from the list. What happened?
Best regards
[[User:John Woodward|John Woodward]] ([[User talk:John Woodward|talk]])

Hello. I am currently working to keep the names and terminology between different translators consistent. I'm not sure if what i do merits being on the editor list, but i think that i should let you know.
--[[User:Trev lite|Trev lite]] ([[User talk:Trev lite|talk]]) 01:13, 3 August 2014 (CDT)

Hello, I would like register for this project. I way into this story so I would love to officially commit to it. --[[User:Tasear|Tasear]] ([[User talk:Tasear|talk]]) 22:54, 3 August 2014 (CDT)

Um, since my edits for the first 7 chapters of Mushoku Tensei hasn't been rolled back, is it safe to assume that I can add myself as an editor for the project? Thanks~--[[User:Sarnik|Sarnik]] ([[User talk:Sarnik|talk]]) 21:39, 4 August 2014 (CDT)

Hey Oni, I'd like to officially ask for permission to do some TLC on select chapters. I'm mainly going through the JP→CN→EN translations and checking the EN against the JP. Aiming to improve readability or slightly change the sentence to match more with the original JP meaning.
I'd also like to separately ask for permission to upload external TLs from another person for chapters that do not have a registered TL. He has given everyone permission to upload his TLs.
[[User:Deadgye|Deadgye]] ([[User talk:Deadgye|talk]]) 19 August 2014

==== Translators Request ====

Hi! Would it be okay if I joined Mushoku Tensei as an editor? [[User:Vanant|Vanant]] ([[User talk:Vanant|talk]]) 09:44, 9 July 2014 (CDT)

Just to clarify, silentwolfie's TL notes are occasionally his little comments to the readers, and not do to with trouble translating or trouble for editors. In that case should I use the ref tag or the hide tag?
[[User:Vanant|Vanant]] ([[User talk:Vanant|talk]]) 10:18, 9 July 2014 (CDT)

Hiiii, this is a bit awkward. Various circumstances have changed, and because Kaito has agreed to TLC for me, I was wondering if I could register for translating v8 of Mushoku Tensei. I had originally signed up as an editor because I was translating the same chapters as Kaito independently and could help look for mistakes he had made (or alternate ways of translating stuff he had problem wording), but that's no longer the case so... [[User:Vanant|Vanant]] ([[User talk:Vanant|talk]]) 07:02, 19 July 2014 (CDT)

Hello Onizuka-gto, I'd like to register as a Translator for the Mushoku Tensei project if there's still available room. Thanks! [[User:skuizaan|skuizaan]] ([[User talk:skuizaan|talk]])
Hi there,
My friend and I (we function as one translator though ^^) would like to contribute to the light novel Mushoku Tensei,

we have a lot of free time on our hands now and can finish about 3 ~~ 4 chapters a week.

Unfortunately we have already done a chapter or two which were claimed by other active translators, (we didn't really know anything about the BT guidelines)

But we'll contact other active translators and see if we can work something out.

I thought it would be a good idea to drop here first and ask if you could list us as active translators.

Do you think that there is anything else we should know?

Sincerly,
[[user:Tensaizz|Tensaizz]]

Hi Oni, I would like to help in translating for the Mushoku Tensei project. Thanks! --[[User:Ren|Ren]] ([[User talk:Ren|talk]])

Hi! Would it be okay if I joined Mushoku Tensei as a translator? I'll be using Google Translate But I'll do a lot more than just editing that. [though I am sorry for registering chapter 94 before posting here] [[User:Kazeboy|Kazeboy]] ([[User talk:Kazeboy|talk]]) 15:00, 27 July 2014 (GMT)

hi feel free to do what seem correct to you im not traying to cause trouble for any registered translators and i thanks them for the hard work i will tri to not get in the way →[[User:COTHER|COTHER]] ([[User talk:COTHER|talk]]) 21:11, 27 July 2014 (CDT)

hi Onizuka, i will take Mushoku Tensei volume 11 ch 1 to ch 6 as in the rule .I have no porobleme for anyone how remplace,edite or delet my script so no hard feeling feel free to give me advice to amprouve my translating skil or chould i call it editing a machine translation and im not using google traduction alone but 6 diferent machine translation comparing and finaly editing i cant read japan yet→[[User:COTHER|COTHER]] ([[User talk:COTHER|talk]]) 21:32, 27 July 2014 (CDT)

Hi , It's me , I did finished the chapter I resisted http://pastebin.com/kcd3BptJ but as I see it the preview page is protected and I can't put my script there , was wondering if you can help me with that. [[User:Kazeboy|Kazeboy]] ([[User talk:Kazeboy|talk]]) 28 July 2014 16:00 (GMT)

Hi Onizuka, i would like to register as a Translator for Mushoku Tensei.
Can i register for Volume 14 chapter 2? [[User:Phiseca|Phiseca]] ([[User talk:Phiseca|talk]]) 17:23, 15 August 2014 (CDT)

====Project Growth====

Onizuka-gto, thanks for taking the time to supervise this project which doesn't have a manager, amid the incredible growth it's experienced in the past month and all the confusion that's arisen from that.

I know that preview translations are allowed (I've read what you wrote at http://www.baka-tsuki.org:8080/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1705). But is it possible to limit them in some way? It feels like the presence of machine translations encourages readers to lose their patience, and therefore might discourage active translators because they feel like readers don't care that they put in the extra effort to be accurate.

What if you did this? Suppose that all machine translations need to follow two of your guidelines:

<pre>2) Script need to be consulted with a Human translator who can conduct a general proofing with the original raws used for it. (in the same language used, if possible )
3) All machine script need an approve by a Baka-Tsuki Staff before publishing on the wiki.</pre>

Basically, all previews would have to be proofread before posting--to make sure sentences are distinct (capitalized at start, punctuated at end) and above all that they don't really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like.

To enforce this, you might have to pull some of the current previews and leave notes on the translators' pages about the policy. But I think that could be an efficient and fair way to apply existing policies and address the problems some editors have dealing with the large number of unproofed previews.

I know you're the one who comes up with policies for Baka-Tsuki, so just decide whatever you think is best. This is just an idea I came up with.

--[[User:Myopius|Myopius]] ([[User talk:Myopius|talk]]) 04:53, 30 July 2014 (CDT)

Thanks a lot for the thoughtful response, and wow, I had no idea Baka-Tsuki had a change like that this year. I'll be sure to keep an eye on the forum in case there's some way that I can contribute to the discussion. --[[User:Myopius|Myopius]] ([[User talk:Myopius|talk]]) 23:02, 30 July 2014 (CDT)

== Hi Onizuka-gto-san ==

sorry about my english as you could see the probleme is not about how to read or Write but how i did learn english in the first palace using a self study (movies and some books) i did not have a teatcher so that was the only way a did have but i will take care of orthography probleme next time sorry it caused you probleme →[[User:COTHER|COTHER]] ([[User talk:COTHER|talk]]) 05:37, 29 July 2014 (CDT)

== audio reading sign up ==

Hello Onizuka-gto I was wondering how I sign up for the audio book readings, this is my first time on a wiki and I don't know what to do. Thank you very much for reading.
[[User:Cromo|Cromo]] ([[User talk:Cromo|talk]]) 19:45, 29 July 2014 (CDT)

==cother NEED HELP==
WERE I CAN LEARN JAPEN EASLY using the net mean 'self study' if you have anybook that can help please advice
it to me i dont whant to rely on machine translation but my one reading of the story even i want to do some proper translation--[[User:COTHER|COTHER]] ([[User talk:COTHER|talk]]) 18:23, 30 July 2014 (CDT)

==cother's first real TL ==
need some advice just if the [Web Novel 155] Chapter 1: Diary - First Part (PREVIEW) is word using in official translation page and thanks for the translation advice it was very handy (^_^)--[[User:COTHER|COTHER]] ([[User talk:COTHER|talk]]) 06:20, 1 August 2014 (CDT)

Had to change the title- it was driving me crazy --[[User:DaiZzed|DaiZzed]] ([[User talk:DaiZzed|talk]]) 01:41, 2 August 2014 (CDT)

== Mushoku Tensei ==

Hi , I'd like to join the Mushoku Tensei project as editor\translator , though i will be translating from the chinese version( the accuracy might be lower ).
I know that there are already a lot of translators which are far better than me , that's why i was planning to re-translate/edit just the machine translated chapters.
AS for which chapter to translate i will ask the current translators and of course i won't translate\edit anything without their permission.
I don't know how well i will do since english is not my first language(I'm chinese), but will do my best to help.
giorgio wu

- Dear Giorgio Wu,

Thank you for your interest in Mushoku Tensei, the first step is to register on the Baka-Tsuki Wiki, which is free and painless, from there you can head to the the Mushoku Tensei Registration page here:
[[Mushoku_Tensei:Registration_Page|Mushoku Tensei Translators Registration]]

You are welcome to join, however i was not aware that there was a chinese translation of Mushoku Tensei.

Is it possible if you can send me a link to have a look?
my Chinese is wholefully poor but i would just like to see how far the chinese translation have gone.

Best Regards,

Onizuka-GTO 21:32, 1 August 2014 (CDT)

Link of the Chinese version :
http://q.dmzj.com/1602/index.shtml

Hi Onizuka-GTO,
Thanks for your help. I'm curious about a chapter Vanato translated and I edited. When I was going to edit again as Vanato was stressed out about it, it was deleted. What happened?

I copy and pasted what I saw:
12:21, August 17, 2014 Onizuka-gto (Talk | contribs) deleted page Mushoku Tensei:Web Chapter 132.5 (content before blanking was: "==Side Story - Is the Mad Dog's Sword Heavy, or Sharpʔ== ===Part 1=== The western edge of the Northern Lands. The Holy Land of Swords. This land had seen battle. This place, that was presently the headquarters of...")

Warm regards,
[[User:John Woodward|John Woodward]] ([[User talk:John Woodward|talk]]) 02:13, 18 August 2014 (CDT)

----------

Thanks, Onizuka-GTO for letting me know. I was just curious.

I came across an anonymous translation for V15 Chapter 146 from /a/. As no one was registered for it, it seems fortunate, but as an editor I have no experience uploading chapters and the customs. Is there a precedent for this? Would it be possible for someone to upload the translation as a preview, given its anonymous translation? Or, as a main one?

Anyways, here is the link: http://pastebin.com/fNAzbNZg

Warm Regards,
[[User:John Woodward|John Woodward]] ([[User talk:John Woodward|talk]]) 16:13, 21 August 2014 (CDT)

== Oni oni-chan o/ ==

Hi, I'm new and would like to register as a chinese translator for the project Mushoku no Tensei"

Hello anonymous,

Thank you for your interest in Mushoku Tensei, in order to register as a translator you will have to register on the Baka-Tsuki wiki, please follow the advice above and where to register.

I would also like to ask if you can give me a link to where this surprising chinese translated version of Mushoku Tensei, i am now very curious.

It would be interesting to see how it differs from the Japanese Web Novel version.

Best Regards,

Onizuka-GTO 21:37, 1 August 2014 (CDT)

Hi Onii p/

the link Giorgio Wu is showing you is the same link i am getting raws from.
but i also have raws for volume 14 which is not currently up yet.

Regards
Banisher
==cother need of advice==
up to now is my translation Mushoku Tensei web novel ch 155 good or hopeless ?----[[User:COTHER|COTHER]] ([[User talk:COTHER|talk]]) 19:49, 2 August 2014 (CDT)
Hi COTHER
it should be alright. But I hope you can rephrase the sentences properly for better understanding of the story.
Regards
[[Banisher]]

== Mushoku Tensei Translation ==

Hi Onizuka,

I don't know if I would be allowed to or if there is room, but I am considering helping translating Mushoku Tensei. However, I am not very good at kanji so I will be relying heavily on rikaichan and jisho.org for the kanji and vocabulary. This would help me further my studies in Japanese and contribute to the community simultaneously. I don't know how good my translations would be or my Japanese skills, so I am hesitant to even consider translating.

Thanks,

[[User:Doomr|Doomr]] ([[User talk:Doomr|talk]]) 03:24, 3 August 2014 (CDT)

==Registration==
Hi, I'm Replay or rather named Replay can i register as a translator in Mushoku Tensei gonna try one chapter. please?
--[[User:Replay|Replay]] ([[User talk:Replay|talk]]) 07:09, 3 august 2014 (CST)

To Onizuka,

I want to tell you that I like to '''Attempting''' to Translate Mushoku Tensei Vol 16 Chapter 10,this chapter will be a novice translation/first attempted translating. - try to register in registration pages as anoymous but has been block from it so i post it here (Already has an account but will only reveal my name if the chapter complete, if not.. anyone can pick it)- [[Special:Contributions/203.106.148.182|203.106.148.182]] 21:27, 3 August 2014 (CDT)

Dear Anonymous,
I think if you wish to attempt to translate a chapter, then there is no benefit to stay anonymous, "there is no try....only do or do not" as one wise green alien master once said.

So, if you are committed then i suggest you login and register for that chapter.
However, i am aware how much pressure there might be and that all new learner are so what afraid of the peer-review nature of Baka-Tsuki, that is, the judgement from your fellow translators and editors.

So perhaps there is a compromise? As you can see, we have "Previews" for some chapters. They are a method for new learners to take a chance and translate.
Not only will you be announcing to readers and your fellow translators and editors that you are new but to also understand that you are still learning.

Although i cannot say this will stop you from being criticised from both readers and peers, but on the other hand, there is less pressure on you, or until you feel you have the confidence to be able to produce a translated script.
There is also no honour lost, as we will still give you credit as a preview author for your effort.

So what do you say? No pain, no gained.
We can give you the opportunity but in return all we ask is your willingness to put your name where you mouth is (or fingers type?).

whatever you decided, i thank you for the interest in Mushoku Tensei and i look forward to seeing more contribution from you.

Best Regards,

Onizuka-GTO 21:43, 3 August 2014 (CDT)

== Mushoku Tensei Translator ==

Hey there Onizuka, Fighter747 registering as a regular (not machine) translator for Mushoku Tensei.

== Mushoku Tensei Editor ==

Hey there. Laclongquan would like to be an editor for MT.
As Vanant and Kaito can attest, I can be a pest in regarding to context and obscure jokes that MT author like to indulge himself.

==Mushoku Tensei Web Novel Chapters 128/129==
Permission was given by the translator to upload the translations. Previously registered translator had registered multiple chapters, which is against the guidelines, and still had yet to upload previous chapters. Request a reverse of the wipes. (Am I using this talk thing correctly?)
--[[User:Deadgye|Deadgye]] ([[User talk:Deadgye|talk]]) 11:33PM, 18 August 2014 (EST)

It is not against the rules to register multiple chapters, it is suggested that you don't register more than half a volume but it doesn't mean you are not allowed to. Dark Kaito and Vanant are treated as a group called Kanant Vaito, Skuizaan is also working on volume 13 which means that the chapter already has a max number of 2 translators. According to the registration page, Vanant has already completed his previously registered chapters, so I can't see which previously registered chapters he hasn't uploaded yet. Lastly chapters are registered by 'First Come, First Serve', at the very least you should ask if you can upload a chapter that has already been registered by someone else. [[User:SilentNumber|SilentNumber]] ([[User talk:SilentNumber|talk]]) 22:57, 18 August 2014 (CDT)

Finally found the rules in the registration page: "Maximum number of volumes you may be active on is one". Vanant was registered as active on both v13 and v14. There were already three active translators registered for v13, one over the supposed "max" of 2. Regardless, Vanant has removed his name from the registration for 128/129. If he wants to put his name back on them and put his translations there, I doubt anyone would object. But at this point in time I believe all the criteria should be met for those chapters to be listed there. Correct me if I'm wrong. --[[User:Deadgye|Deadgye]] ([[User talk:Deadgye|talk]]) 12:53AM, 19 August 2014 (EST)

---

This is the translator and source of 128/129 script you deleted, and I'll also like to request the wipes be reversed. Vanant has dropped the chapters, and his replacement as well. Now that the chapters are open, and I have identified myself, I see no administrative reasons to keep those two chapters deleted.

While I'm here, I want to apologize for the drama on BT that I may have caused. I feel remorsed that my translation caused strife between MT translators on BT. That was not my intention. Although I feel that I have been unreasonably targeted by BT and my translations unfairly stigmatized, I understand the trigger of events was mine. I'm sorry.

I consider my work for 4chan, but I hope we can make amends. Everyone are working towards a singular goal - fully translate MT. While I won't post any of my scripts on BT myself, again I offer blanket permission to anyone to copy, edit, and post any script of mine for all locations, including BT.

As proof of my identity, here's [http://pastebin.com/ZZJ40sHV MT chapter 150] that I have yet to post on 4chan. Furthermore, 151 will be posted on 4chan by tonight. - [[User:Onii Sama|Onii Sama]] ([[User talk:Onii Sama|talk]]) 17:32, 23 August 2014 (CDT)

== ALderamin of the sky ==

Hi I'm(jsmi47) new here and i'd like to join the existing project as a translator for the light novel series, Alderamin of the sky. Is there anything i should take note before i get the go sign? thanks

PS. Ive already got a translated chapter for "Usotsuki Mi-kun to Kowareta Ma-chan" that i did for a mate. However, there is no existing project for this. Please advise me on starting a new project. :)

== Tsurugi no Joou to Rakuin no Ko ==
Hey GTO , there has been no translation for this , and no project supervisor , so thought I'd ask you whether it's okay if I work on this or not , it's one of my favorite and I bough the Jap light novel already :) [[User:Kazeboy|Kazeboy]] ([[User talk:Kazeboy|talk]]) 08:18, 14 August 2014 (CDT)

== Monogatari Series Editor ==

Hi Onizuka-gto,
I was wondering if I could join the Monogatari series team as an editor. I am willing to contribute daily and have advanced English skills.
Thanks!
[[User:mikawa|mikawa]]

== New series ==

Hi again Onizuka^^ I've decided that I would like to upload my translation of Mi-kun and Ma-chan. I was hoping to receive the go signal. However, this has no existing project and so I'd like to start one a new. I was told to make a registration page and a project page? Ive looked at the new project startup guideline but im not sure how I could do that. Please advise.

== Deleting content under other people's user namespace ==

Is that allowed? --[[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] ([[User_talk:KuroiHikari|Talk]] | ) 21:45, 25 August 2014 (CDT)

User:User_page/User_subpage

The slash after the username denotes a subpage placed hierarchically under the user page. Several users have been using this subpage system to manage their stuff. Just to let you know. --[[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] ([[User_talk:KuroiHikari|Talk]] | ) 01:23, 26 August 2014 (CDT)

== Mushoku Tensei vol 19-18 ==

Dear Onizuka

Could you please change Zmunjali's translations into previews just like kazeboys?
Since those translation are obviously machine translated and leaving them like actual translation might make other translators lose the motivation to translate them.
Regards
Giorgio Wu

== Transration Biber ==

Oni, I'm starting to get headaches when I see you touch things.

'not teaser, not light novel, not full project, nor part of any approved project and finally not marked for pending.', that's why it's under the users profile. If there was a tag linking to a category, remove the goddamn tag and not the whole thing.

I'm talking about :[[User:Hayashi s/Transration Biber]]

To hell with regards, {{User:Simon/Signature}}

==Original Light Novels - Inquiry==

I was redirected here to consult whether it is possible for me to write a light novel on my user page:
http://baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=User:Shrysha

Please let me know if this is something I can do, or what steps I might need to take in order to get this approved, thanks!

-[[User:Shrysha|Shrysha]]

Teh Ping Talk:Miscellaneous

2014-08-27T19:49:50Z

Shrysha: OLN Inquiry

==Any Final Questions?==

Alright, there's one month left before I'll be gone, so I'll entertain questions for the time being. Just follow the rules below and post your questions on this document.

::*No discussion on very debatable stuff like political and religious issues.
::*No sexual related stuff here.
::*No translation requests.

To those of you who may be interested in becoming LN translators, now will be a good time to ask me any questions you might have, for...to put it this way, Unicorns will appear if you see me back again. I don't plan to give any farewell speeches (just doesn't feel right for me), so this Q&A will be the final interaction here.

'''Q. Did you take any Japanese classes or did you teach yourself?'''

A: I didn't actually take Japanese classes. When I started out translating, I didn't understand a single word of Japanese. All I had was my pretty 'excellent' coverage of kanji characters which I could guess the meaning from. So yeah, I kind of taught myself Japanese while translating (during the time when I first started on Index). It's more of picking out the grammar nuances, learning the charts and working my way up. It's not easy (and I'm still learning), but I am still around.

'''Q: Who will continue Baka To Test Translation Project?'''

A: Depends. I haven't found a successor yet.

'''Q: I've seen one in SAO before, so did you have other novels that you payed more of your time researching than translating?'''

A: About researching, that's a very fun aspect in this hobby...I would say that Gundam Unicorn would be the one series where I spent 10% translating and 90% researching. I would say that I first started researching on the stories when I started working on Baka Test because of all the questions that were tested. I think Unicorn's the only series in this regards, though the madness that was SAO volume 10 chapter 2 reached the 20-80 ratio. I would also recommend translators to do research, not for the sake of the readers, but to gain some form of knowledge (Baka Test's research can mentally scar me though)

'''Q: What drives you into this..job? translating I mean. Could you say your motivations for this job, also for the wannabe translators.'''

A: Ehh...if I have to put it, it's kind of like a hobby to me. Part of the answer is here: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/blog/?p=513 and, another part of the reason is because I lack a sense of self-worth, the shameless in trying something new (for this profession anyway). I can't say that this is a 'job' that will attract many people because of the time dedication required. If I have to say, you're not going to be very well-known under this Baka-Tsuki community of translating unless you have shown an outstanding amount of contribution, especially for series that have developed massive fanbases (looking at you, Index, Infinite Stratos, SAO). Of course, I feel you got to have a large sense of responsibility in order to be able to keep going, or else you will keep procrastinating (leaders of tomorrow). I can't say to anyone straight that there is any motivation, because there isn't actually one. It comes down basically to one thing, what is/are the reason(s) for translating.

'''Q: As one of the trolls on B-T... What do you think about people who are flaming and complain about translations ?'''

A: If I have to say it bluntly, there is no excuse for translators to get dejected just because other people critique their work and stuff. I honestly...can't take people seriously if they only talk and don't do anything of any contributions, or just type behind the computer and not do anything to try and remedy situations when the people being critiqued are contributing more than them atm. (It's probably because of this that I took up more of an admin role this year, and it's kinda tough to balance it out.) I'm a firm believer in backing up words, and for people complaining about speeds and such, I do try to put the effort in telling them to be patient and such. The results are still bleak, but I'm still optimistic (even idealistic about this).

'''Q: Do you enjoy translating all those chapters or is there a time when you feel it's too late to back out of a certain chapter/novel and feel that you must finish it no matter what?'''

A: While I do try to view all the chapters I work on as my kids, there are a few 'emotional' chapters I had to literally force myself to keep translating. Unicorn has quite a few of them (especially with the parts that weren't adapted into the anime), Mother Rosario, Index Volume 16 (after the first chapter), Baka Test Minami and Shouko's backstory (there's another touching one in 10.5 involving Akihisa and Mizuki when they were kids, now if I can force myself to work on that) and especially Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Some do make me cringe when I translate, like...Infinite Stratos volume 7...the Railgun story written by Ryougo Narita-shi...Baka Test volume 4 (the reason why I preferred not to work on that volume), so I had to force myself to be professional when translating them. Normally, the ideal situation is to read through the stories, know what I'm going to expect, and have a mental preparation of going through what's going to happen (especially if it's your favorite series), but because of my workstyle and RL, I don't even have the time to read through the stories beforehand, which I admit does affect the quality of the overall work. Either way, I can't say that I enjoy a lot of the stories I work on, but I do force myself to work through them.

'''Q: And yeah, why are you leaving?'''

A: I'm tired. Yes, I'm tired of translating. At the same time, i want to finish off what I have left so that I don't 'owe' anything to anyone here. At the same time, I am pursuing a double degree right now, and once the next semester starts, I will be saddled with quite a lot of responsibilities both academically and non-academically. I know many of you are asking me to stay as an admin or senior advisor, but I do believe that you guys have to get used to life without me here, and also, I do prefer to be the finisher (the translator) than the quarterback (the admin), which is weird since I get more of QB roles than finisher roles.

'''Q: When are you coming back?'''

A: When Unicorns appear.

'''Q: Ping, when are unicorns gonna appear?'''

A: When you fulfill that request I asked of you. =P I will be back in some way on 22nd March 2013.

'''Q: What do you think of machine translations on BT? Could it help projects progress?'''

A: Well, the general consensus is that machine translations are very bad because they don't translate the grammatical terms well. Sure, they will often get one or two-word terms correct, so it is a good for short phrases, but entire translations on machine translations, to me, is not really the way to go because of the grammatical issues when translating. It is improving with people giving translation recommendations, but I don't expect machine translation to be the way to go for another 10 years at least.

'''Q: Ping, what will happen to SAO translations in the future?'''

A: Right now, there's still Tap around to translate. I'll let him have free reign to do what he wants with the project, but the thing is that I don't see more translators being willing to take up this project because of the stress level involved in this project. It caused me to fake a ragequit, do an April Fools' Joke as a take that to the people complaining about the lack of progress on Volume 5 Chapter 6...and increased the size of my forehead by 3 inches...but jokes aside, whoever who has this project has to be mentally prepared for high demands on this series (unless you can shut your mind from it), so to Tap and anyone else working on it, good luck. It's not going to be easy, so I'll be there with you in spirit =P.

'''Q: What projects have you actually wanted to work on?'''

A: 'When Hikaru was on the Earth' is one series that I was most hoping to work on, since I do like Nomura-shi's works. Accel World is another if I didn't have SAO...and for basketball reasons, Ro-Kyu-Bu!

'''Q: Any LNs you like to read once you retire?'''

A: It's not an LN per say, but [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Biblia_Koshodou_no_Jiken_Techou Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou] is one series I look forward to catching up. I am getting sick and tired of all the harem stories and such, and I'm looking forward to working on more serious stories per say...Maybe I can check out Another or Sugar Dark. I am looking forward to picking up more obscure stories when I head to the bookstore after my retirement. (and work as a literature club member writing stories everyday, oh who am I kidding...)

'''Q: Is there a series you will like to work on if it wasn't licensed?'''

A: First Choice: Spice and Wolf. Second Choice: Bungaku Shoujo. Third Choice: The Twelve Kingdoms.

'''Q: Are you going to be gone for good?'''

A: Check one of the questions above.

'''Q: Any plans to retake Infinite Stratos?'''

A: Nope. I'll like to ask Life4Kaoru to help take over if IS does come out since they offered quite a lot of support to the project, but it's their choice.

'''Q: What regrets do you have over here?'''

A: Not being able to finish the Shana translations.

'''Q: What are your thoughts of having people competing with each other while doing the same story?'''

A: I would say, redundant, because when two people are doing the same volume, it's like doing a double translation. However, it does have the benefit of making sure that the translators try to keep up their standards. It's the same issue with having kids. Once you have two or more children, each child will want to work harder to impress their parents (at least when they're young), especially the older one who's been getting the attention up till this point. Ultimately, it comes down to the translators' decision, but I'll just state my view here.

'''Q: Any concerns about BT?'''

A: If I have to say, it's that those who post their translations here should be prepared to get their work edited. If they don't accept that they don't have absolute control, this really isn't the place for them. This isn't a particular dig at anyone, but a lamentation on my part since I don't really put that much control over my work when I post here, since I do expect careless typos and mistranslations on my part (I'm fine with my translations being shared, but only if no profits are made, and that credit is given due). Of course, the easy way out is to control everything on my own, but I prefer to be the finisher (translator) than be the all-rounder who has to do everything. I just have to rely on the readers and hope that they make the right edits. This is also the main reason why I don't want to create a blog for my translations, because I don't want to end up doing everything. I just want to 'arrive, post, leave'. This is a culture of BT in itself, and honestly, it isn't for everyone because of how open it is.

'''Q: How do you respond to those who complain about the quality of the work?'''

Speaking of which, I remember one of the posts on a certain place where I was called out specifically, telling me to 'clean up the mess'. The thing is, you can't turn Carbon into gold directly (and when I say directly, I mean that it's possible to do so indirectly by selling carbon and buying gold, but this is just to cover all bases). The style of LN translations is that we do try to keep the meaning and diction as close as possible. Most of the sentences are either dialogue or short paragraphs of 2, 3 lines that eschew adverbs as much as possible. Most of the stories are action and dialogue driven (or in fact, all of them are), and they aren't the best of literary greatness in the first place. And when it reaches the second stage (us), this literary sense is diminished further because of the different grammar styles. We're basically trying to fit jigsaws when we translate. There are some lines that require further elaboration because they just don't work out in English. There are some lines that can be simply translated from long sentences into 1, 2 words. Honestly, you have to read the originals in order to understand this well.

==Singapore AFA 2012 ! ==

Hey there Teh_Ping ~ It's me again XD. Anyways, you going to the festival next week on saturday or sunday? Just wanted to know [[User:Vermiculo|Vermiculo]] ([[User talk:Vermiculo|talk]]) 00:34, 2 November 2012 (CDT)

I'm going on both Saturday and Sunday. Won't be at the concert though. Most likely in the afternoon on Sat, def on Sunday.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 00:55, 2 November 2012 (CDT)

==Teh Ping Talk:Miscellaneous==

Hey, when you get promoted/if you're promoted already, could you bump up unbreakable machine doll from teaser to full project status? Thanks alot. --[[User:Hayashi s|Hayashi s]] 08:36, 11 June 2012 (CDT)

Duly noted.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 05:47, 12 June 2012 (CDT)

Hai - Vermiliongrey

I don't understand your editing in the kokoro connect Spanish page, we can't work things out if you don't communicate directly. Please, to avoid confusion. --[[User:BakaSenpai|BakaSenpai]] ([[User talk:BakaSenpai|talk]]) 23:28, 18 October 2012 (CDT)

Ah~ Sorry for the confusion and thanks for the correction but I believe there will be more errors coming on the way since I'm new on this page and I'm still learning how to adjust the project without conflicts but thanks for your concerns and if anything you believe it's not proper please feel free to edit it. By all means, are you a translator? --[[User:BakaSenpai|BakaSenpai]] ([[User talk:BakaSenpai|talk]]) 23:42, 18 October 2012 (CDT)

I was going to ask you if you were a English translator since they are very short in translator in the English version since one is retired for now until midterms are over and there's only one working very hard on it. I don't know if you take "pending projects" but it's a fantastic novel. In my opinion from what I read and the themes that are included: Romance, drama, comedy ( light hearted ), psychology and super natural. They're more update with the Chinese Version so I don't know if you speak or read it. But you should really read it when you have the time and it's really good. I can tell more info about it but that would be spoilers...However if you help on it, it'll please many fans out there. I don't mean to pry but the project is a few months old so that explain the lack of help --[[User:BakaSenpai|BakaSenpai]] ([[User talk:BakaSenpai|talk]]) 23:55, 18 October 2012 (CDT)

A "possible" vandal registered using "Teh PING" -a normal person wouldn't do something like this.
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=User:Teh_PING&action=edit&redlink=1
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Special:Log/newusers
--[[User:Superduperelectromagnetictops|Superduperelectro]] ([[User talk:Superduperelectromagnetictops|talk]]) 22:35, 14 February 2013 (CST)

Most of the accounts created are from bots, I guess. That's not me though. I prefer to have everything accountable to me. If there is any case of vandalism from that user, I'll shut it down.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 23:06, 14 February 2013 (CST)

Happy Birthday --[[User:Drowzycow|Drowzycow]] ([[User talk:Drowzycow|talk]]) 13:31, 12 March 2013 (CDT)

Heh, thanks for the backup there Ping. --[[User:Bilagaana|Bilagaana]] ([[User talk:Bilagaana|talk]]) 11:40, 28 March 2013 (CDT)

Um, hello, I'm interested in becoming a translator here, and I was told to ask here for help upgrading my status to translator? Thank you so much! --[[User:Mistspinner|Mistspinner]] ([[User talk:Mistspinner|talk]]) 19:00, 6 October 2013 (CST)

Not having the status will not prevent you from contributing. The only difference would be the ability to delete pages. --[[User:KuroiHikari|KuroiHikari]] ([[User_talk:KuroiHikari|Talk]] | ) 22:08, 6 October 2013 (CDT)

== Good luck in the Army ==

It'll problaly drain a lot of your energy, but I think once you get pass it, you feel a little bit better about yourself too.

Thanks for your hard work. I'll hope to see update sometime.

Good luck! --[[User:Hypernova|Hypernova]] 19:23, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Congratulations on the promotion ! --[[User:Saganatsu|Saganatsu]] 16:28, 2 July 2011 (UCT)

Lance Corporal? Congrats! [[User:Kira0802|Kira]] 16:48, 2 July 2011 (UCT)

==Shinrei Tantei Yakumo==
As I understand it, Angelanime is not the translator. --[[User:Darklor|Darklor]] 08:14, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Well, that means we have to ask Angelanime who the translator is--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 11:06, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

== To Teh Ping ==

Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I wanted to thank you for all of the translating that you have been doing so far. Reading these light novels have been a real treat and I just wanted to let you know that your work is appreciated.

Thanks for passing the message. [[User:Zephyrus|Zephyrus]] 03:24, 6 March 2012 (CST)

Yo man, I hope your wrist is getting better! Get well soon!! [[User:M.A.D|M.A.D]] - [[User_talk:M.A.D|Talk]] 17:32, 10 August 2012 (CDT)

This is late, but I just read your blog interview from last year, I couldn't believe you started out translating with a hiragana chart...I started last year with that and finally a year later felt confident enough to be a Nwb, Power to you! You mentioned in your blog training any nwb translators out there, I started Papakiki around 2 weeks ago, so if you have any lesson's/advice/whatever, let me know, I only know around 300 kanji by sight, so your advice about taking it slow was extremely helpful, (and the part about not comparing your speed to others, I was just starting to do that). Anyhow, thanks again. [[user:黒曜石ペガサス|黒曜石ペガサス]]

Someone's happy today huh. お誕生日おめでとうございます！[[User:SkyZenith|SkyZenith]] ([[User talk:SkyZenith|talk]]) 01:14, 12 March 2014 (CDT)

== Punctuation ==

The types of punctuation used formally were: ...''"" (You might need to see in editing mode to get the difference). I used the characters ... and ' and " to replace them. The thing is, that every type of character has an id set to it in the form of a combination of bits (01010101). This is done because bits, bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, etc, is how data is stored. In other words " does not equal " or " in the storing language. However in English they would mean the same thing. " occurs earlier in the storage character table than " or " therefore it has a smaller id. Thus space can be saved by using it. My advice is to either stop using MSWord and use WordPad or TextPad editor. OR... first write in MSWord then take it to TextPad and then use the find and replace functions to switch the above characters. You can also use FoxReplace addon if you are using Firefox but that's just a little more complex in initializing the settings but the result is that the replacement process becomes fully automated (It's a major pain if you make a mistake though, if you don't exclude pages you need to, then the replacement could affect something you did not wish it to). The final way is to use this site's own search and replace function. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] 15:41, 29 May 2011 (UCT)

One more thing. I've noticed that stuttering words have been separated by commas. Example: "Do, don't think I was doing it for you okay?" The thing is that normally in English writing stuttering words are separated by the use of hyphens(-) lets take the example above. It should have been: "Do-Don't think I was doing it for you okay?" See the difference in the Don't(s). Just thought I should let you know. Was I helpful? [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] 15:41, 29 May 2011 (UCT)

...Well, I guess it would be troublesome. I'm using MSWord right now to eliminate as many typos as I can, and I have no idea how much space does this website have. Will keep this in mind, definitely, but I don't know if I can get myself to work that extra bit though.

As for stuttering, I just followed how it's normally given instead of just following how the English do it. Thanks for your input.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 02:16, 30 May 2011 (UCT)

Either hyphens(-) for short(quick) stutters or three dots(...) for long pause between stutters is what I learned. If there is anything else just let me know. I'll be willing to help. Personally, my method is the FoxReplace one. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 15:58, 3 June 2011 (UCT)

Umm. I've added some info on the FoxReplace method on my talk page. If you feel like it please check it out. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:42, 6 July 2011 (UCT)

I would like you to support me [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4564 here], if you are willing. Thank you. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 13:35, 13 September 2011 (CDT)

===Stuttering===
Careful. Stuttering is denoted differently in Japanese and English. In Japanese stuttering is denoted by '''comma''' or three dots. Whereas in English stuttering is denoted by '''hyphen''' or three dots. The reason is to ensure that the <big>'''I'''</big> in stuttering words like <big>'''I-I'''t</big> aren't mistaken with the self reference word <big>'''I'''</big>. There are other similar instances as well. Since '''commas''' would allow for such mistakes to happen thus '''hyphens''' are used instead. Such conflicts do not occur in Japanese (due to watashi, boku, etc instead of in English where <big>'''I'''</big> can be confused since most stutterings are of words that start with <big>'''I'''</big> or similar curcumsatnces, <big>'''A'''</big> is another one). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stutter#Primary_behaviors See here.] Take care. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 12:41, 9 February 2012 (CST)

== Narrative Tense? (Toaru Majutsu no Index) ==

The poll on this conundrum is leaning heavily towards past tense. Should we edit the project-specific guidelines to reflect that consensus? --[[User:Tactician J|Tact]] 11:00, 6 June 2011 (UCT)

As much as I hate to agree with that, go ahead, we should--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 14:06, 6 June 2011 (UCT)

== Collapsibility Upgrade ==

Umm. If it's not too much trouble could you take a look at [[MediaWiki_talk:Common.js|this]]. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 18:06, 29 June 2011 (UCT)

== Questions... ==
How long does a chapter take???

As long as it needs. --[[User:Saganatsu|Saganatsu]] 04:42, 6 August 2011 (UCT)

== Request ==

Since your user page mentioned you're leaving one space open I figured I might as well leave a request. I'd be really glad if you could help with Oreimo, since its translation has pretty much stalled (though I haven't confirmed the status of the translators, from what I gathered they all have it queued). Anyway, if you do pick it up, I'd be more than willing to be an active (personal, if it suits you) editor for the series.-[[User:Ppaaccoojrf|ppaaccoojrf]] 01:13, 26 August 2011 (CDT)

Well, it's a 'maybe', no guarantees though.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 02:54, 26 August 2011 (CDT)

Good enough, let me know if you do pick it up. Thanks for minding the request.--[[User:Ppaaccoojrf|ppaaccoojrf]] 15:15, 26 August 2011 (CDT)

== to Teh_Ping ==

please give Sword art online a piece of your time.thank you.

[[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]] 22:57, 16 May 2012 (CDT) I don't know if I'm doing this right I'm a complete noob to baka-tsuki. I'm replying to your message you sent me earlier; it's an original fiction that I created myself, I'm just looking to share it with others and I was wondering if that was a possibility?

Hi I got your message, I'm trying to post it on a forum right now and make a poll (which I don't really know how to do just yetx0.) Also, I'm encountering another problem at the moment, even when I press the preview button it says 'The username you entered is already in use, please select an alternative.' Any suggestions?? [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]] 22:32, 18 May 2012 (CDT)

Haha alright mission accomplished. One problem, by accident I posted two threads. The first one I wrote said it didn't go through so I re-did it. Would you mind deleting one of them?? [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]] 00:53, 19 May 2012 (CDT)

[[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]] Hey Teh_Ping long time no talk. I just wanted to let you know that I got a hold of TLG and he gave me permission to continue posting my story on the wiki. I didn't want you to see those pages and be like 'whaa??' lol. I just finished re-editing the ones I already have on the wiki and am about to start posting again. Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Hello I would like to translate Fate aprocrypha as the Chinese version is out. Can I be approved to edit the page?

== Archiving advice ==

It seems that your talk page is getting more cluttered up. You know, you can always archive your talkpage when it reaches a certain limit. Simply create a new page named '''User talk:Teh Ping/Archive #''', where # is the archive number, and copy all the discussions that you consider too old to keep on your talk page but too valuable to delete. Create a link to the archive on top of your talk page by writing <nowiki>[[/Archive #]]</nowiki>. You won't need to create a link ''back'' to the talk page from the archive. It seems subpage settings are active on user pages. [[User talk:Zero2001/Archive 1|I've already made one.]] [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 21:18, 15 September 2011 (CDT)

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'll be sorting them according to the series.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 21:38, 15 September 2011 (CDT)

=== Subpages <- Archives ===

Umm, I think you named them wrongly. Shall I rename them for you? A backlink will automatically be generated that way. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 15:32, 16 September 2011 (CDT)

^^ [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 00:20, 20 September 2011 (CDT)

Name wrongly? No, I'm just following the wikipedia versions. Baka Test needs to be changed (and Index), but I haven't told told Oni that. Also, there's quite a lot of references out there on Volume 3 Author Notes and Volume 4 chapter 2 that I haven't added in.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 00:34, 20 September 2011 (CDT)

Umm. I mean the names of the subpages you made (assuming this page and the other similar ones were made as a result of the post in the parent section of this section). They were supposed to be named '''User Talk:Teh Peng/*''' not '''Teh Ping Talk:*''' where * is Miscellaneous, etc. A user's page, talk page and '''subpages''' are a users personal space. The way you named them put them in the main page namespace. It could lead to people challenging the pages for deletion. Best if you renamed these Teh Peng Talk pages before that happens. Plus you get an automatically generated backlink to your talk page. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 01:59, 20 September 2011 (CDT)

What Teh Peng? Should be Teh Ping lol. Need to switch around later then.

Anyway, I don't know how to respond to this: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4553--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 03:48, 20 September 2011 (CD

Hey Teh Ping. I think it's about time you moved your talk pages to under your userspace. Mainspace should be mainly be for project, volume and chapter pages. Others have started to copy you and it's gonna end up making searches more problematic. Everything would be resolved if every user kept subpages rather than make personal pages in the mainspace. If you don't know how, I can move them for you. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 11:53, 3 September 2012 (CDT)

==Registering as an Editor==

How can I register as one (specifically on IS)? I mean in a way that my forum status also gets updated. I feel that those who don't know me can't take me seriously when I post as simply a Reader. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 15:27, 27 September 2011 (CDT)

You just log in on the forum, go to the user control panel, select the "Usergroups" tab, click in the radiobutton beside "Project Editors", scroll down, and hit submit. (I believe you have to get approved, so it will take a few days, but you'll become and editor eventually.) [[User:Hobogunner|Hobogunner]] 15:43, 27 September 2011 (CDT)

==Moving talk pages==

Are you able to track new messages? [[User:Kira0802|Kira]] ([[User_talk:Kira0802|Talk]]) 19:19, 10 October 2011 (CDT)

I just need to set it as 'watch page', so yeah, I can track them.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 00:27, 11 October 2011 (CDT)

==[[Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai:Volume1 Past]]==
Uh, that was a surprise, that you translated that. Will you also translate more of this series? --[[User:Darklor|Darklor]] 16:23, 24 November 2011 (CST)

Not really. I still have my other series to work on...--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 17:57, 24 November 2011 (CST)

==Thanks==
High praise to "Teh Ping <The Godly>" *bows*. [[User:All Nighter94|All Night]] ([[User talk:All Nighter94|talk]])

I'm really sorry you had to fix up [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Kino_no_Tabi:Volume5_Chapter4&direction=prev&oldid=146986 this page....] I swear I didn't save it.... I was planning to just submit it later after I had a bit of sleep. So I was shocked to find it there all neat and tidy this morning...

Anyway, thank you very much!

[[User:Ella.servantes|Ella.servantes]] 22:13, 5 April 2012 (CDT)

Ping,
You are pretty awesome. I really don't know how you have dealt with translating and wiping out those douche bag fake names and random junk the past week. Seems as if you and the staff are main lining caffeine. Those random people are a severe problem when I'm just checking for updates. I have a Rosetta Stone thing for Japanese, but have done some research that says I should look into other sources while learning. Also wondering how to learn the written portion. I used to rent from a Chinese woman that has a grand child. Maybe I can start from there on learning the written portion of Chinese.Vonuss 01:33, 18 May 2013 (CDT). I should also take steps to learn how the wiki editing works. My land lord(the Chinese lady) took my English bulldog for walks to the beach and back. I'ma call her and ask.

==Asking for a favor==

Hi Teh Ping, do you know how to contact Js06? I want to translate one of his project into Vietnamese so I asked for permission in the forum, and no one answer. Then I posted in Js06 talk page (since he is the only one translating it) and no answer. Finally I posted in the PJ talk page and still got no answer. So if you happen to know how to contact him, please told him to answer me. Thank you [[User:Gingi|Gingi]] 11:40, 21 April 2012 (CDT)

Is it about Heavy Object, Oreimo or Monogatari? I can help you ask him if you want, but I need to know what series you're interested in.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 11:52, 21 April 2012 (CDT)

Oh yeah, sorry, my bad. It's Heavy Object [[User:Gingi|Gingi]] 11:57, 21 April 2012 (CDT)

Yes, you're allowed to.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 01:25, 22 April 2012 (CDT)

Thanks man. [[User:Gingi|Gingi]] 06:17, 22 April 2012 (CDT)

Hi there. This is regarding the Fan Fiction project by [[User:Deck of cards|Deck of cards]]. Sorry since I was the one who advised him to directly post the series on the Wiki without understanding the rules first. Based on your advise I think he posted it on the forum but in Future Project Suggestions. Can you help on moving it to the Fan Fiction project? I don't know how to do it or I don't have the power to do it.

==Group Membership==
Hey, I'm an Indonesian translator, so can you upgrade my group membership to translator? Thanks. --[[User:Gwilthyunman|Gwilthyunman]] 19:49, 11 June 2012 (CDT)

me too... Is it possible..? [[User:Tony Yon|Tony Yon]] 06:26, 12 June 2012 (CDT)

Please upgrade mine too. Is it still possible? Thanks [[User:Arczyx|Arczyx]] 08:49, 12 June 2012 (CDT)

Do note that I can only promote people to only translator or editor at this point.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 09:12, 12 June 2012 (CDT)

Oh venerable dark lord, Teh_Ping-sama. May I ask an upgrade for my account to translator? May you give thy grace to thou benevolent worshiper. -[[User:Lan013|Lan013]] - [[User_talk:Lan013|Talk]] 09:06, 19 July 2012 (CDT)

i'm a TL, but what do u get if you have this group membership?-[[User:idiffer| idiffer]]

You get a level up, of course, with some nifty skills like deleting pages, quick re-rolling edits and patrolling edits. --[[User:Rock96|Rock96]] 09:46, 19 July 2012 (CDT)

thanks, rock. then i'm in. i need some pages deleted... can you pls upgrade me, teh ping?-[[User:idiffer| idiffer]]

hi, can I get an upgrade to translator and editor? [[User:Hayashi s|Hayashi s]] 11:37, 24 July 2012 (CDT)

Hi Ping, can you upgrade me to translator? :) [[User:Stellarroze|Stellarroze]] ([[User talk:Stellarroze|talk]]) 07:33, 15 August 2012 (CDT)

Hi Ping, can I get an upgrade to be an editor too? There are some people doing vandalism that I want to block. Thanks. [[User:Arczyx|Arczyx]] ([[User talk:Arczyx|talk]]) 00:35, 8 January 2013 (CST)

==About Indowebster==

I'm very sorry about one of our member (in indowebster) for making such profit from printed PDF

although I had long in IDWS, this is my first time I heard something like this (I haven't looked in shopping corner section until now) 
I am also one of the translator in BT, so I understand, and also objected to make profit from PDF 

for now I have talked to oelil (the one who selling the pdf) and some of our moderators and super moderators to prevent something like this happened again) 
and oelil also has closed his thread voluntarily 

I'm as the representative from Indowebster, sincerely apologize to Baka-Tsuki and all of the translators for our rude behaviour

PS : please forgive me if my english is bad since it's not my primary language

-- [[User:LiTTleDRAgo|LiTTleDRAgo]] ([[User_talk:LiTTleDRAgo|Talk]]) 11:43, 2 August 2012 (CDT)

Just like he said, LiTTleDRAgo already talk with the moderators there and the problem is cleared.

I also sincerely apologize on behalf of my fellow Indonesians, so please restore the SAO pages again, for the sake of the honor of my country (Indonesia have bad people just like any other country, and I don't want my country to be bullied by BT members because of them).

So, please...

Also, the main page too...

[[User:Arczyx|Arczyx]] - [[User_talk:Arczyx|Talk]] 12:24, 2 August 2012 (CDT)

I edited the main page to remove any implications of Indonesia since it seems that there was only one person, but I am not going to restore volume 9.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 12:38, 2 August 2012 (CDT)

Thank you very much for the main page. Regarding volume 9, you really mean to ban it for 3 days? Well, if you see this as a fitting shock therapy, then I won't object. I suggest you also put up a warning on SAO page saying "Don't profiting from our hard work" or something so people gonna know why volume 9 got deleted and no one from any country will do something like this ever again (just don't mention Indonesia in there though). [[User:Arczyx|Arczyx]] - [[User_talk:Arczyx|Talk]] 16:31, 2 August 2012 (CDT)

I understand, it's unfortunate things have turned like this, 
if this will really soothe your anger, then I shall speak no more about this -- [[User:LiTTleDRAgo|LiTTleDRAgo]] ([[User_talk:LiTTleDRAgo|Talk]]) 18:41, 2 August 2012 (CDT)

==Changing Default Signature for all member users==

Hey Teh Ping, I have a favor to ask. You know how annoying it is to go through the user page to get to a user's talk page via the default signature; especially when you're in a hurry. Well I found a way to fix that. But I need a supervisor or above to do it for me. Can you copy the source code of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Signature this page] to [[MediaWiki:Signature]]? It would be a great help if you did. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 13:16, 4 August 2012 (CDT)

I need TLG's permission for that though.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] 21:05, 4 August 2012 (CDT)

I've already asked Onizuka and Thelastguardian. Let's see how it goes. Although it wouldn't hurt if you gave a little support. Honestly, I don't think you'd really need permission because even wikipedia edited it's default signature to include a direct link to the user's talk page (See the external link above). Plus, it's a less time consuming method than going out of our way to get to a user's talk page. Or to ''ask users'' and ''explain to users how'' to manually edit their signature. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 22:16, 4 August 2012 (CDT)

== Spam ==
Hi, could you IP-ban this guy - http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=User:Blackdiamond . He's been spamming. Thanks.
(Is this international Spam B-T weekend???)
[[User:Stellarroze|Stellarroze]] ([[User talk:Stellarroze|talk]]) 19:31, 18 August 2012 (CDT)

Hi, I don't know if this is supposed to go in this particular thread....but anyways, I've been having a particularly large problem with a user by the name of Krytyk. I am a freelance editor who likes to roam and do edits on the fly. In particular interest here is the Antimagic Academy 35th TP Light Novel where Krytyk is the translator/dictator. I am to understand that baka-tsuki invites edits that change text for the better, yet he keeps undoing my changes because they don't fit in with his style; which is unfortunately unreadable for anyone below a high-school reading level. The grammar is jarbled, the words don't fit right, etc. His reasoning for undoing 1.5 hours of changes (in three parts) was that i hypenated the instances of Anti-Magic. All the grammar changes, sentence construction mistakes, undone because of hyphens. Dictatorial. Please help with this. Thanks so much,
--[[User:Mosswind|Mosswind]] ([[User talk:Mosswind|talk]]) 21:34, 30 January 2014 (CST)

== Password change? ==

Everytime I click onto the forum it takes me to a password change page, but I didn't receive any prior notice for this. This isn't BT being hacked or anything is it? --[[User:M.A.D|M.A.D]] - [[User_talk:M.A.D|Talk]] 14:03, 22 August 2012 (CDT)

Yeah, onizuka-gto is hacking the forum ^^ [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] ([[User talk:Vaelis|talk]]) 14:10, 22 August 2012 (CDT)

Ah, got it. I wonder if I should report him to himself :P --[[User:M.A.D|M.A.D]] - [[User_talk:M.A.D|Talk]] 15:07, 22 August 2012 (CDT)

== Hi (translations tips)==

Hi, Teh Ping, do you have any interest in taking an apprentice? :D [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 10:07, 25 November 2012 (CST)

I can see from your profile that you don't know Japanese...do you know Chinese or Korean? I can take apprentices, but do know that I have only 1 month left. (I'll disappear from here after that).--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 10:57, 25 November 2012 (CST)

I don't know korean, but I do know chinese. [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 18:04, 25 November 2012 (CST)

Okay...just a test of your grammar. Try translating this: http://www.wenku8.cn/novel/0/467/25227.htm (May have some pop-ups, so be careful). (For hints, 友少 will mean Haganai, 平坂读 will mean Hirasaka Yomi, いたち means itachi, ブリキ means Buriki, and put all the 老师 as -san instead of -sensei (teacher))

Also, you might want to get started with memorizing these charts: http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/lesson01.cfm http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/lesson02.cfm

Erm, what does "可替换书衣" mean? [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 04:04, 26 November 2012 (CST)

Changeable book cover--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 04:19, 26 November 2012 (CST)

And "幼女" would be..? [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 04:29, 26 November 2012 (CST)

Little girl. BTW, do you have access to a dictionary? It is a bit... unorthodox to ask for definitions here. If you are going to try translate, I don't think you should bother a translator on their page, and you should get a good dictionary. There ARE forums to ask those kind of questions too, and I'm sure the people there will be happy to help you. --[[User:Pryun|Pryun]] - [[User_talk:Pryun|Talk]] 06:10, 26 November 2012 (CST)

Erm, I checked the dictionary already, but I thought it would be weird if the 'exchangeable book cover' has a picture of a little girl. Since it was weird, I thought I'd ask just in case... [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 06:52, 26 November 2012 (CST)

Anyway, I'm done with the translation from chinese to english already, I put 幼女 as Maria already, since she is the cover for volume 4, but what do I do now? [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 07:33, 26 November 2012 (CST)

Just post what you have translated here. (I'm very sure it's an author's joke to encourage lolicons to keep the book cover as there's Maria on it...)

Pryun, I'll allow him to check his translations with me. I don't have much time, so I want to hurry up and train as many prospects as I can. There are other tasks I want MH to do. But first, I want to see his grammar level and also to memorize the charts.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 09:46, 26 November 2012 (CST)

Erm, alright, so here goes...

…… The only thing that I am certain of is that, the me who writes stories about idiots is definitely not a normal. Due to facing my calculator '''computer''' at home every day, I have nothing to write for the afterword, hence I can only use such a barefaced method to write out four pages. But now that I think about it, I have already used the ‘idiots cannot see’ joke in my previous works. This is really bad…

But, never mind.

It’s been a long time, I am the man with few friends, whom is struggling every day to live through my lonely life, Hirasaka Yomi.

The fourth volume of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai has finally been published.

If everyone had fun reading it, I will be pleased.

Though I said that, I don’t really have any interesting stories to write in this afterword, so I’d better do some publicity work.

The first volume of the manga drawn by itachi-san, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, will be published together with this fourth volume on the 23rd of July. Those of you, who are reading this in the book shop, please run along to the manga corner to check it out!

In the manga version of Haganai, Yozora and Sena are really vivid, with those rich facial expressions while doing absurd actions of all sorts, it really is very interesting! The weird faces of Yozora and Sena is really destructive, those really aren’t expressions that beauties should have…… While thinking “with this, even the light novel would have to concede defeat”, I enjoyed the series purely as a reader. Everyone, be sure to check it out!

Other than that, as the manga series of Haganai is receiving praises, the September issue of the Comic Alive to be sold on the 27th of July, inclusive is an exchangeable book cover drawn by buriki-san, as well as a side story novel. Especially the exchangeable book cover, you must see it, it’s Maria! As the original author of the manga, the editing department has mailed me a copy of the Comic Alive, however, I still intend to buy another 2 copies, one for keeping, and another for reading. Although some may think that ‘anyway the side story novel will be added into the collection of the light novel’, however, due to the absurdity of the author himself, who has written a story that makes it difficult to add the side story into the novel, so I expect that the side story most probably won’t be added into the light novels. Therefore, I ask everyone to make sure to buy the September’s issue of Comic Alive. It’s Maria!

This time, too, the script was handed up just in the nick of time, for giving trouble to Buriki-san as well as the other editors, I am very apologetic. For the me with few friends, it is because of all these colleagues in the making of the light novels as well as all you readers, that I was able to make it throught. My, isn’t this just like a normal? Although I only have a few friends…… Anyway, I will still be in your care from now on!

June 2010 Hirasaka Yomi

[[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 10:22, 26 November 2012 (CST)

I will do crosschecking and submit them here the next day, but my first impression on the translation is that it is very rigid (I do admit that I have some issues with this as well, but I feel the sentence flow is something a translator should keep working on). Pause whenever you need to.

Some other notes I have:

::*If unsure, use a machine translator for phrases, or maybe a dictionary, or check out some other sources. Remember, even if we're translators, we are not walking dictionaries. Machine translators may not be as accurate as one would like, but they're quite good for short phrases.
::*(I used to have the same mistake as you here) You don't have to make sure that the translated sentence must have the same punctuations and must be at the same place all the time. If you feel that you need to take liberties with a comma or a full stop, just go ahead. Also, some of your conjunctions are used in weird places, like the although...however in the same sentence. Do not try to use that many conjunctions. Rearrange the order of the words if you have to. The most important part is to convey the meaning of the sentence correctly. Feel free to break up any sentences and synthesize them whenever you want to, as long as it doesn't compromise the content.

...Some people complain about not getting Japanese to English translations, but I don't see many of them working on LN translations anyway...so yeah, I'll encourage you to learn Japanese to help in the long run, but you must first get seasoned as a translator. I will give you more feedback and corrections regarding your translations later on (ASAP if I can) before I let you practise further.

EXTRA: You need to memorize the charts if you want to proceed with the Japanese translations. (and also, try learning some Japanese, whether by taking courses or actually self-learning, like this website which helped me quite a lot, http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/about but I don't watch anime. I ended up reading the Japanese raws every single day, see the terms, take notes and stuff, but mostly focused on grammar.) Also, with the recent (Chinese) licensing of Sword Art Online and Accel World, I don't think you will be able to get them in Chinese unless you buy them from a bookshop that sells them, like Kinokuniya (in Singapore, it's in Takashimaya)

--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 11:20, 26 November 2012 (CST)

Huh? Do you mean that you can get Sword Art Online and Accel World in Chinese from bookstores, and not just from fan translations on the internet? [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 22:41, 26 November 2012 (CST)

You can. In fact, these two series can only be obtained because of licenses.

Here's the corrected version.

…… The only thing that I am certain of is that the me who writes stories about idiots is definitely not a normal. I face my computer at home every day, so I have nothing to write for the afterword and can only use such a barefaced method to write out four pages. But now that I think about it, I have already used the ‘idiots cannot see’ joke in my previous works's afterword. This move is really bad…

But never mind.

It’s been a long time, I am the man with few friends, struggling every day to live through my lonely life, Hirasaka Yomi.

The fourth volume of Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai has finally been published.

If everyone had fun reading it, I will be pleased.

Though I said that, I don’t really have any interesting stories to write in this afterword, so I’d better do some publicity work.

The first volume of the manga drawn by itachi-san, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, will be published together with this fourth volume on the 23rd of July. Those of you who are reading this in the book shop, please run along to the manga corner to check it out!

Yozora and Sena are really lively in the manga version of Haganai with those rich facial expressions while doing absurd actions of all sorts; it really is very interesting! The weird faces of Yozora and Sena is really destructive, those really aren’t expressions that beauties should have…… While thinking “even the light novel would have to concede defeat with regards to this”, I enjoyed the series purely as a reader. Everyone, be sure to check it out!

Also, as the manga series of Haganai is receiving praises, the September issue of the Comic Alive to be sold on the 27th of July, inclusive is an exchangeable book cover drawn by buriki-san, as well as a side story novel. Especially the exchangeable book cover, you must see it, it’s a young girl on it! As the original author of the manga, the editing department mailed me a copy of the Comic Alive. However, I still intend to buy another 2 copies, one for keeping, and another for reading. Some may think that ‘anyway the side story novel will be added into the collection of the light novel’, but this absurd author himself has written a story that makes it difficult to add the side story into the novel, so I expect that the side story most probably won’t be added into the light novels. Therefore, I ask everyone to make sure to buy the September’s issue of Comic Alive. There's a young girl on it!

The script was handed up in the nick of time this time, and I am very sorry for giving trouble to Buriki-san as well as the other editors. It is because of all these colleagues who helped produced the light novels as well as all you readers that I, the one with few friends, was able to make it through. My, am I being normal here? Even though I have few friends…… Anyway, I will still be in your care from now on!

Late June 2010 Hirasaka Yomi

A guideline on what to do once you're registered: (Use this for reference: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Format_guideline)

1. First, go to the volume that you want to upload.

2. Do you see the edit button on the top right hand corner? Click it.

3. Look at the 'Internal link' section, that is how you're going to add hyperlinks. (You can look at the other volumes for reference)

4. If you did it right, the words should be in red, (you can edit the titles according to how you see fit, but try to keep it uniform) click on it.

5. Now, you should be in a new page. Click on the 'create' button at the top.

6. Upload the text that you have already translated. (Make sure to press 'enter' once after every paragraph so that it's easier to read.)

7. Next, the headings. At the wiki editing tips page, look at the 'headings' section (well, duh).

8. If you see the format used on all B-T texts, you'll probably get an idea of how to do it. (Just copy what they do.)

9. For pictures, it's under 'thumbnail image', the 'picture' would be from the illustrations of the volume that's available here. If I want a picture from say 'Volume 1 page 031', the format would be <nowiki>[[Image:Index_v01_031.jpg|thumb]]</nowiki>

10. For a footer, just go to any completed chapter here, copy the scripts for the footer, and make the necessary edits.

To add illustrations, go onto the wiki, go to the bottom left corner, and click on 'upload file'. Browse the file from your computer, change the destination filename appropriately (jpg for jpg file format, and so on). Then, just follow what is done on the volume 1 illustrations.

Also, why don't you try out with translating Baka Test? I can use some help for 6.5. Try working on the afterwords first. Just practice more with it, and make sure your text does not have too much of transliteration. Some of your translations are quite literal with the wording. I don't actually have much to teach you at this point, since everything is pretty much mental at this point. Oh, and you can upload your work.

--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 02:54, 30 November 2012 (CST)

Ah, I see... Then, can I help out with the afterword for 6.5? [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 07:51, 1 December 2012 (CST)

Go ahead with it. Just remember not to be too literal with the translations.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 08:21, 1 December 2012 (CST)

Also, you can pretty much choose whatever series you want to do except for Haganai as Vexed wants to take the entire project (I honestly applaud him for that). You can take Baka Test 6.5 if you want, the first story if you like, since I'll be on holiday for the next 5 days, but if you are wondering what series to chose, here are the fansubs for some series.

http://www.wenku8.cn/novel/0/471/index.htm (Amazingly, SAO isn't taken down.)
http://www.wenku8.cn/novel/0/351/index.htm (Aria)
http://www.wenku8.cn/novel/0/381/index.htm (AW)
http://www.wenku8.cn/novel/0/47/index.htm (Oreimo)

Chinese>English translators willing to take on these series, take note.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 08:35, 1 December 2012 (CST)

I've just registered for the 6.5 afterword, though I'm not sure if it's done correctly... Just a question though, do you usually translate from Japanese or Chinese? [[User:MADh0n0r|MADh0n0r]] ([[User talk:MADh0n0r|talk]]) 11:20, 1 December 2012 (CST)

First point, done right. Second, Japanese, for 70% of the time. (If we talk about my career up till this point)--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 12:38, 1 December 2012 (CST)

Hi, I was working on AW V11 when this name turned up: 小幸. Raw test is chinese. Is this a nickname for Utai, maybe? If not, then who? [[User:Tusjecht|[tusjecht]]] ([[User talk:Tusjecht|talk]]) 23:11, 8 February 2013 (CST)

Note, when there is a '小' in front, thre's most likely a -chan behind. In this case, I guess it's Sky Raker calling Kuroyukihime Sa-chan.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 23:15, 8 February 2013 (CST)

Okay then. Then, what would be the translation for this: 学姊. Is it maybe referring to KYH-senpai? [[User:Tusjecht|[tusjecht]]] ([[User talk:Tusjecht|talk]]) 00:06, 9 February 2013 (CST)

Senpai, or sempai. Personally, I'll take sempai. Then again, there are people complaining about the use of honorifics here and there. Just do whatever you want with that.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 00:17, 9 February 2013 (CST)

So it is! Alright thanks, I'll go with senpai for consistency. (: [[User:Tusjecht|[tusjecht]]] ([[User talk:Tusjecht|talk]]) 00:18, 9 February 2013 (CST)

== Problem IPs ==

A round of vandalism in the old Clannad template page:

88.119.128.204

80.242.214.149

213.144.132.98

95.48.133.82
--[[User:Skies|Skies]] ([[User talk:Skies|talk]]) 10:50, 26 December 2012 (CST)

== Oreimo ==

Hello, i know this is likely the wrong place to ask this question so i apologize in advance but i was wondering about two things. First off if Oreimo volume 4 and 5 are indeed fully translated and if so how does one add the full text feature?

==[[Hikaru ga Chikyuu ni Itakoro......]]==
What do you mean with NTR? --[[User:Darklor|Darklor]] ([[User talk:Darklor|talk]]) 04:54, 13 February 2013 (CST)

...The title of each volume is a female character from the 'Tale of Genji'. Google 'Utsusemi'...--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 10:46, 13 February 2013 (CST)

==Lock certain novel pages from anonymous edits==
Hi, I noticed that both Kokoro Connect and Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo are currently open to anonymous editing. Can you modify the page as well as their subpages so that they are protected from anonymous editing? Thanks ^_^ --[[User:MCsq2|MCsq2]] ([[User talk:MCsq2|Talk]]) 03:43, 15 April 2013 (CST)

==Russian supervisor==

Hello, Rock96 said you are looking for russian supervisor. I agree to became one of them. What must supervisor do? [[User:Sharkrahs|Sharkrahs]] ([[User talk:Sharkrahs|talk]]) 07:36, 21 May 2013 (CDT)

http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=5859&p=185081#p185081 To make it fair to all applicants.--[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 07:50, 21 May 2013 (CDT)
==Infinite Stratos translation project==

Is it possible that I can heip to translate the Infinite Stratos light novel? [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=User:Fengyi fengyi]

==Spammers/Bots==

Hello, Teh Ping. I've noticed a lot of spammers and bots being blocked lately, sometimes 20 in a row. While I don't dispute blocking them, I'd just like to ask the reason one would bot or spam on B-T. As far as I can see there are no advantages to doing so except "for the lulz".

-- [[User:神|神]] ([[User talk:神|talk]]) 02:45, 12 July 2013 (CDT)

They're bots. They search for public wikis and create accounts/edit user pages for free advertising. Would be nice if BT had a captcha on the registration page, or something. I'm pretty sure there's a wikimedia plugin for it. [[User:LivingHumanoidInterface|LivingHumanoidInterface]] ([[User talk:LivingHumanoidInterface|talk]])

I completely get how stopping bots is necessary, but I (and I assume at least a few others) seem to have been caught in the cross-fire. My account "Darwen G'wein" has insta-blocked, and after a few not-thought-out-at-all attempts to fix it, the wiki and forums seem determined to label me and every email address I own as spam. I can easily see how some less patient folks might give up on the idea of contributing altogether. Definitely seconding the captcha idea, or a similar alternative.
[[Special:Contributions/116.251.223.102|116.251.223.102]] 17:15, 8 March 2014 (CST)

Hello Darwen. I've unblocked you. To answer the questions above:
:*The bots post link spam in order to increase the page rankings of their respective affiliated websites. The more inbound links to a webpage there are over the internet, the higher that page will rank on Google search. These spam bots post links to increase their own page ranking score.
:*We used to have captcha, but after we upgraded the server, it's apparently not working. We are trying our best to resolve the issue through all means we currently can. Temporarily, we'll have to rely on manual blocking. Sorry for the inconvenience.
--[[User:Cloudii|Cloudii]] ([[User talk:Cloudii|talk]]) 20:37, 8 March 2014 (CST)

==Accel World==
You said that you would be taking the project down with the release of the 1st volume, but Yen Press has it marked as a [http://www.yenpress.com/accel-world-novel/ July release] and you are taking it down already.--[[User:Kemm|Kemm]] ([[User talk:Kemm|talk]]) 06:01, 16 May 2014 (CDT)

Note the notice. I said '''BY''' the release of the 1st volume, not '''with'''. For further information, please take note of [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10386 this] --[[User:Teh Ping|Teh Ping]] ([[User talk:Teh Ping|talk]]) 06:04, 16 May 2014 (CDT)

Oh, I see, point 5. I wonder how did I miss it when I read them before. Thanks. Let's hope Yen Press releases the books at a good pace so that I can get my hands as soon as possible on a volume 6 copy.--[[User:Kemm|Kemm]] ([[User talk:Kemm|talk]]) 06:38, 16 May 2014 (CDT)

@Kemm you can always try Tusjecht's wordpress, http://tusjecht.wordpress.com, he's translating them until they're caught up (he's currently doing Vol. 6) . [[User:Wraiyf|Wraiyf]] ([[User talk:Wraiyf|talk]]) 09:54, 16 May 2014 (CDT)

==Sidebar Change==
Thank you for that recent change. It was getting unbearable after the number of series went over 100.--[[User:OH&S|OH&S]] ([[User talk:OH&S|talk]]) 02:12, 13 June 2014 (CDT)

==SAO:Progressive Licensed==
Announced yesterday by Yen Press.
http://www.yenpress.com/category/news/
EDIT: I see Kira has already dealt with the Progressive main page. I only mentioned it since you still have a note on the SAO page (http://baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Sword_Art_Online) saying that the Progressive project will be reinstated soon, since it's a protected page I can't remove the note --[[User:Drowzycow|Drowzycow]] ([[User talk:Drowzycow|talk]]) 20:57, 14 June 2014 (CDT)

==Regarding Mushoku==

Sure, though I don't have an account on the forums here(can't make one due to ISP block and don't intend on it either so no point in unlocking that for me). You'll have to PM me on DeviantArt or through the AnimeSuki forums. Or maybe some other communication platform?

http://darksilencer.deviantart.com/ or http://forums.animesuki.com/member.php?u=68115

Sorry if it's a bit inconvenient on your end, I don't use irc and other such things either...

If it's about translation/transliteration quality, a couple months ago I posted a rough example here: http://darksilencer.deviantart.com/journal/Mushoku-Tensei-Special-Chapter-World-Map-Examp-465638929

I have a few more notes I could make on that as well, but for the bulk it's like that. --[[User:Dark Kaito|Dark Kaito]] ([[User talk:Dark Kaito|talk]]) 10:26, 25 August 2014 (CDT)

==Original Light Novels - Inquiry==

I was redirected here to consult whether it is possible for me to write a light novel on my user page: http://baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=User:Shrysha

Please let me know if this is something I can do, or what steps I might need to take in order to get this approved, thanks!

-Shrysha

User:Shrysha

2014-08-27T18:46:20Z

Shrysha: /* Chapter 1: */

== Original Light Novel: Attempt - Part 1 ==

==== Foreword: ====

An excerpt appearing at the start of my novel is a bit silly.

But I suppose that now, rather than later, is a good time to talk about the contents of it. Just to let you know what you should expect.

This is a story about the knight rescuing the princess from the bad guys.

This seems to be a traditional plot chock-full of overused clichés and tropes.

Except that the knight wasn’t one of those typical knights in shining armor. Perhaps he could be considered one of those bad guys. Maybe a villain. Wait, could he even be called a knight at this point? I think if I asked him, he would probably reject the “knight” designation.

And this story didn’t just have one princess. Actually there are seven. And did they even need rescuing?

Well there has to be bad guys in the story, right? Well, I’m not even sure if the bad guys could even be called bad guys. I mean, their intentions were good. Probably better than those of Mr. Knight. I suppose it is just a matter of perspective.

So, this is a story about the knight who wasn’t really a knight rescuing the princesses who didn’t need to be rescued from the bad guys who weren’t really bad guys.

I think I did a decent job with my summary.

Enjoy!

==== Prologue: ====

“Strong…”

These were the only words that the frail young white-haired slave child could mutter. Or rather a former slave. Despite lying collapsed on the ground and with skin covered with filth and body malnourished, and despite having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, there was no fear in this child’s eyes.

Before the child was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a midnight-black cloak concealing his entire body and a similarly colored long curved sword, he looked like the grim reaper himself. This would seem to be a rather fitting name, as he was the one responsible for having single-handedly stained this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of men.

Hundreds killed with only a single swing of his blade.

Perhaps instead of a battle, it would be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre, or perhaps a mass execution. The reaper was the only judge, jury, and executioner.

But at the moment, he was the only truth in this part of the world where power was the only law.

Despite the reaper’s imposing presence, the child still did not fear him. To the child, the reaper was a savior, having killed the heartless slave merchants.

Perhaps this was too much of a biased view; it was truly a matter of perspective.

Contrary to the reaper’s expectations, the child slowly crawled and reached for the hem of his cloak.

Perhaps having had his interest piqued, the reaper unexpectedly patiently waited for the child’s next actions.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly rose, and the reaper’s presence suddenly seemed to quickly expand, seemingly swallowing up the existence of the surroundings. But the child who was no longer a stranger to death’s doors only stared unwaveringly back.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to glare back. The voice continued.

(But power is indeed something I can offer you. And the price…)

“My soul.”

==== Chapter 1: Part 1 ====

Such a clichéd line.

A child’s soul offered to the devil in exchange for power.

But an unexpected response like ‘it had already been paid forward’ or something mood-killing had been the immediate response. It left the child a bit speechless, which was to be expected.

To be prepared to sacrifice everything, not that it was much, only to be told that someone else already paid the bill.

Anyways, for such a memory to have resurfaced after eight years, could this be what people commonly called a premonition?

Perhaps a destined meeting was near…

…

“Wake up!”

A tight roll of paper lightly tapped his head, prompting him to wake up from his daydream. Shrysha absent-mindedly used his hands to lightly rub where he was hit, messing up his already messy head of white hair, which was unusual for a eighteen year-old student.

Actually, his entire appearance was actually rather uncommon.

His standard-issue school uniform was ordinary enough: white blazer, shirt and pants with the school insignia on each. Although Shrysha felt it was uncomfortable wearing it, let alone too flashy, it couldn’t be helped; it was expected that such a prestigious institution should have an excess of unnecessary regulations to maintain and enforce its image to the rest of the world. And to keep its alumnus happy.

However, his left arm was bandaged completely and his left eye was covered with an eye patch. These strange accessories were partially covered up by the sleeve of his uniform and the bangs of his hair, which were grown on the left side to almost completely cover that eye. And with the glasses on his face, it would seem to give him the appearance of some unlucky accident-prone or bullied student.

Standing in front of and in stark contrast to Shrysha was Professor Ruegger a petite teacher wearing an oversized white laboratory coat. Although she was looking sharply hat Shrysha, it was difficult for him to take her seriously as she had the face of an innocent child pouting. If asked to guess her age, Shrysha would decline to comment.

“I apologize. I am still a little tired this morning.”

Professor Reugger smiled and quickly accepted this apology. She turned back around and stated cheerfully, “Now please introduce yourself to the class.”

“Ah.”

That’s right.

Shrysha was now standing in front of a small lecture hall, or rather small theatre, introducing himself as a transfer student. And as the Professor Ruegger was making preliminary introductions, he managed to somehow doze off. After a small moment of silence, there were a few laughs and snickers heard amongst the twenty or so students before him, as well as a buzz of whispers and murmurs that he was still able to overhear.

“Are you sure he’s the transfer student.”

“Why our class? I thought that you couldn’t become an A-rank without ranking up.”

“Didn’t you hear he got top scores on the transfer exam? His practical exam results were really good as well.”

“I also heard his practical results were good as well.”

“He beat an exam-proctor in a fight, right?”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Unless he’s on the level of the valkyries…”

“Yeah, he doesn’t look that strong at all.”

“Enough, everyone! Quiet down!”

Shrysha smiled wryly while Professor Reugger tried to control the growing ruckus, but to no avail. It seemed that she had very little control over the classroom. Was she even a good teacher? After all, many teachers brought in by this school primarily for research; teaching students, although still important, was of secondary importance.

As Professor Reugger sniffed and looked like she was going to cry, the students stopped their chatter and brought their attentions to the front.

“Hey, hey everyone stop!” a student called out to the rest of the class

“Stop bullying Ms. Ru guys!”

“Ah, Ms. Ru, don’t cry!”

“We’re sorry! We promise to stop!”

Shrysha could only observe this strange phenomenon with silence. It seemed that the class didn’t see Professor Reugger, or rather Ms. Ru, as a teacher but rather a young child. But how sadistic of them to force her to the brink of tears before consoling them.

“H-Hmph. A-As long as you understand, then I’ll f-forgive you,” Ms. Ru stuttered has she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. She then glanced in Shrysha’s direction. “So again, please introduce…”

“My name is Shrysha Zei. Nice to meet everyone.”

With a glance at Ms. Ru, Shrysha gave her a looking that said he was done with his introductions. Apparently she, nor the rest of the class, were satisfied with such a short, information-less introduction.
Shrysha sighed before stating, “I’m sorry but I’m quite terrible at this introduction thing. If anyone has any questions…”

Ms. Ru’s face suddenly paled. This was certainly the wrong approach, not that Shrysha actually cared enough.

Suddenly the classroom grew loud again, and he was bombarded with many types of questions: likes, dislikes, former school, activities, girlfriends, etc. Ms. Ru could only stare in silence before trying to regain order within the classroom, with no luck. Before Shrysha could even open his mouth to begin an attempt to start answering, a loud stomping noise could be heard, silencing the rest of the class.

“Yo. So I heard you are strong.”

Shrysha turned his gaze to the student in the back of the classroom slowly stood up. With wild spiky blonde hair and multiple piercings in his left hair as well as the informal way he wore his uniform, it was difficult to picture him as anything other than a delinquent or gangster.

“Uhmm…” However, the delinquent was focused solely on Shrysha, and completely ignored Ms. Ru.

“So you beat the proctor during the transfer exam?”

Shrysha hesitated how to answer before simply replying, “I was lucky.”

“Hahahaha!” The delinquent laughed as he ran his hand through his hair before grinning widely at him. “Name is Zyo, and I am the strongest in this room at Rank 11! Now don’t go disappointing me!”

Without warning, Zyo, jumped at Shrysha and sent a heavy punch flying at him.

Screams could… only be heard from Ms. Ru. It seemed that the other students were already used to this type of scene. After all, this academy’s purpose was to raise and produce the country’s strong fighters, and such “duels” were very commonplace. However, most students would agree that Zyo’s duel etiquette of attacking first and asking permission later was quite lacking.

Shrysha, however, foresaw this kind of development to a certain extent and dodged Zyo’s preemptive attack. But Zyo, upon landing, immediately threw a roundhouse kick to the face, which was blocked with Shrysha’s right hand. With much experience gained on the battlefield, this kind of attack was easy for him deal with.

Zyo brought his leg down and grinned ferociously as Shrysha jumped back and retreated. “So you are the real deal! This time I won’t hold back!” Suddenly his right arm began to be wrapped with bright red flames. Although a few of the classroom’s students looked a bit wary and afraid, most of them were quite entertained at watching this fight between the classroom’s strongest and the mysterious transfer student.

Shrysha probably wasn’t aware of it, but there was also a small grin in his face. This stint of being a high school student was more interesting than he first thought.

“Will you give me your rank if I win?”

“Something like that? Sure! That’s the right of the victor and the law of the strongest, but that only holds if you can defeat me!”

Zyo then also ignited his other arm with flames and quickly charged, again closing the distance between the two combatants.

User talk:Shrysha

2014-08-27T18:44:35Z

Shrysha: Created page with "I feel a bit sorry for the poor wanderers lost enough to stumble on my page and and read my terrible attempts at writing a novel. Please feel free to leave any critiques and ..."

I feel a bit sorry for the poor wanderers lost enough to stumble on my page and and read my terrible attempts at writing a novel. Please feel free to leave any critiques and opinions of my personal project, thanks.

User:Shrysha

2014-08-27T18:41:40Z

Shrysha: Original Light Novel: Attempt - Part 1

== Original Light Novel: Attempt - Part 1 ==

==== Foreword: ====

An excerpt appearing at the start of my novel is a bit silly.

But I suppose that now, rather than later, is a good time to talk about the contents of it. Just to let you know what you should expect.

This is a story about the knight rescuing the princess from the bad guys.

This seems to be a traditional plot chock-full of overused clichés and tropes.

Except that the knight wasn’t one of those typical knights in shining armor. Perhaps he could be considered one of those bad guys. Maybe a villain. Wait, could he even be called a knight at this point? I think if I asked him, he would probably reject the “knight” designation.

And this story didn’t just have one princess. Actually there are seven. And did they even need rescuing?

Well there has to be bad guys in the story, right? Well, I’m not even sure if the bad guys could even be called bad guys. I mean, their intentions were good. Probably better than those of Mr. Knight. I suppose it is just a matter of perspective.

So, this is a story about the knight who wasn’t really a knight rescuing the princesses who didn’t need to be rescued from the bad guys who weren’t really bad guys.

I think I did a decent job with my summary.

Enjoy!

==== Prologue: ====

“Strong…”

These were the only words that the frail young white-haired slave child could mutter. Or rather a former slave. Despite lying collapsed on the ground and with skin covered with filth and body malnourished, and despite having watched the scene of carnage unfold before him, there was no fear in this child’s eyes.

Before the child was the back of a lone dark figure standing on crimson field. With a midnight-black cloak concealing his entire body and a similarly colored long curved sword, he looked like the grim reaper himself. This would seem to be a rather fitting name, as he was the one responsible for having single-handedly stained this battlefield with the blood of hundreds of men.

Hundreds killed with only a single swing of his blade.

Perhaps instead of a battle, it would be better to have described what had transpired as a massacre, or perhaps a mass execution. The reaper was the only judge, jury, and executioner.

But at the moment, he was the only truth in this part of the world where power was the only law.

Despite the reaper’s imposing presence, the child still did not fear him. To the child, the reaper was a savior, having killed the heartless slave merchants.

Perhaps this was too much of a biased view; it was truly a matter of perspective.

Contrary to the reaper’s expectations, the child slowly crawled and reached for the hem of his cloak.

Perhaps having had his interest piqued, the reaper unexpectedly patiently waited for the child’s next actions.

“… Stronger.”

The child continued to speak while struggling to stand up.

“Please make me stronger!”

(Are you not scared?)

Suddenly a voice reverberated inside the child’s head. The intensity of the atmosphere suddenly rose, and the reaper’s presence suddenly seemed to quickly expand, seemingly swallowing up the existence of the surroundings. But the child who was no longer a stranger to death’s doors only stared unwaveringly back.

(Those are good eyes. How amusing… however I cannot save you.)

The child was not deterred and continued to glare back. The voice continued.

(But power is indeed something I can offer you. And the price…)

“My soul.”

==== Chapter 1: ====

Such a clichéd line.

A child’s soul offered to the devil in exchange for power.

But an unexpected response like ‘it had already been paid forward’ or something mood-killing had been the immediate response. It left the child a bit speechless, which was to be expected.

To be prepared to sacrifice everything, not that it was much, only to be told that someone else already paid the bill.

Anyways, for such a memory to have resurfaced after eight years, could this be what people commonly called a premonition?

Perhaps a destined meeting was near…

…

“Wake up!”

A tight roll of paper lightly tapped his head, prompting him to wake up from his daydream. Shrysha absent-mindedly used his hands to lightly rub where he was hit, messing up his already messy head of white hair, which was unusual for a eighteen year-old student.

Actually, his entire appearance was actually rather uncommon.

His standard-issue school uniform was ordinary enough: white blazer, shirt and pants with the school insignia on each. Although Shrysha felt it was uncomfortable wearing it, let alone too flashy, it couldn’t be helped; it was expected that such a prestigious institution should have an excess of unnecessary regulations to maintain and enforce its image to the rest of the world. And to keep its alumnus happy.

However, his left arm was bandaged completely and his left eye was covered with an eye patch. These strange accessories were partially covered up by the sleeve of his uniform and the bangs of his hair, which were grown on the left side to almost completely cover that eye. And with the glasses on his face, it would seem to give him the appearance of some unlucky accident-prone or bullied student.

Standing in front of and in stark contrast to Shrysha was Professor Ruegger a petite teacher wearing an oversized white laboratory coat. Although she was looking sharply hat Shrysha, it was difficult for him to take her seriously as she had the face of an innocent child pouting. If asked to guess her age, Shrysha would decline to comment.

“I apologize. I am still a little tired this morning.”

Professor Reugger smiled and quickly accepted this apology. She turned back around and stated cheerfully, “Now please introduce yourself to the class.”

“Ah.”

That’s right.

Shrysha was now standing in front of a small lecture hall, or rather small theatre, introducing himself as a transfer student. And as the Professor Ruegger was making preliminary introductions, he managed to somehow doze off. After a small moment of silence, there were a few laughs and snickers heard amongst the twenty or so students before him, as well as a buzz of whispers and murmurs that he was still able to overhear.

“Are you sure he’s the transfer student.”

“Why our class? I thought that you couldn’t become an A-rank without ranking up.”

“Didn’t you hear he got top scores on the transfer exam? His practical exam results were really good as well.”

“I also heard his practical results were good as well.”

“He beat an exam-proctor in a fight, right?”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Unless he’s on the level of the valkyries…”

“Yeah, he doesn’t look that strong at all.”

“Enough, everyone! Quiet down!”

Shrysha smiled wryly while Professor Reugger tried to control the growing ruckus, but to no avail. It seemed that she had very little control over the classroom. Was she even a good teacher? After all, many teachers brought in by this school primarily for research; teaching students, although still important, was of secondary importance.

As Professor Reugger sniffed and looked like she was going to cry, the students stopped their chatter and brought their attentions to the front.

“Hey, hey everyone stop!” a student called out to the rest of the class

“Stop bullying Ms. Ru guys!”

“Ah, Ms. Ru, don’t cry!”

“We’re sorry! We promise to stop!”

Shrysha could only observe this strange phenomenon with silence. It seemed that the class didn’t see Professor Reugger, or rather Ms. Ru, as a teacher but rather a young child. But how sadistic of them to force her to the brink of tears before consoling them.

“H-Hmph. A-As long as you understand, then I’ll f-forgive you,” Ms. Ru stuttered has she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. She then glanced in Shrysha’s direction. “So again, please introduce…”

“My name is Shrysha Zei. Nice to meet everyone.”

With a glance at Ms. Ru, Shrysha gave her a looking that said he was done with his introductions. Apparently she, nor the rest of the class, were satisfied with such a short, information-less introduction.
Shrysha sighed before stating, “I’m sorry but I’m quite terrible at this introduction thing. If anyone has any questions…”

Ms. Ru’s face suddenly paled. This was certainly the wrong approach, not that Shrysha actually cared enough.

Suddenly the classroom grew loud again, and he was bombarded with many types of questions: likes, dislikes, former school, activities, girlfriends, etc. Ms. Ru could only stare in silence before trying to regain order within the classroom, with no luck. Before Shrysha could even open his mouth to begin an attempt to start answering, a loud stomping noise could be heard, silencing the rest of the class.

“Yo. So I heard you are strong.”

Shrysha turned his gaze to the student in the back of the classroom slowly stood up. With wild spiky blonde hair and multiple piercings in his left hair as well as the informal way he wore his uniform, it was difficult to picture him as anything other than a delinquent or gangster.

“Uhmm…” However, the delinquent was focused solely on Shrysha, and completely ignored Ms. Ru.

“So you beat the proctor during the transfer exam?”

Shrysha hesitated how to answer before simply replying, “I was lucky.”

“Hahahaha!” The delinquent laughed as he ran his hand through his hair before grinning widely at him. “Name is Zyo, and I am the strongest in this room at Rank 11! Now don’t go disappointing me!”

Without warning, Zyo, jumped at Shrysha and sent a heavy punch flying at him.

Screams could… only be heard from Ms. Ru. It seemed that the other students were already used to this type of scene. After all, this academy’s purpose was to raise and produce the country’s strong fighters, and such “duels” were very commonplace. However, most students would agree that Zyo’s duel etiquette of attacking first and asking permission later was quite lacking.

Shrysha, however, foresaw this kind of development to a certain extent and dodged Zyo’s preemptive attack. But Zyo, upon landing, immediately threw a roundhouse kick to the face, which was blocked with Shrysha’s right hand. With much experience gained on the battlefield, this kind of attack was easy for him deal with.

Zyo brought his leg down and grinned ferociously as Shrysha jumped back and retreated. “So you are the real deal! This time I won’t hold back!” Suddenly his right arm began to be wrapped with bright red flames. Although a few of the classroom’s students looked a bit wary and afraid, most of them were quite entertained at watching this fight between the classroom’s strongest and the mysterious transfer student.

Shrysha probably wasn’t aware of it, but there was also a small grin in his face. This stint of being a high school student was more interesting than he first thought.

“Will you give me your rank if I win?”

“Something like that? Sure! That’s the right of the victor and the law of the strongest, but that only holds if you can defeat me!”

Zyo then also ignited his other arm with flames and quickly charged, again closing the distance between the two combatants.