The annual field day at St. Ying's College was a great event, with a lot of noise and clamor.
The competition for that place on the study trip went extraordinarily well.
A dark horse beyond people's imagination jumped out and brought the bottom of the history department back from the dead, just like the protagonist who saves the world in the story, shocking the whole audience.
Now, there was no telling how many eyes were firmly fixed on that valiant figure.
Her unabashedly hyper-athletic nerves were beginning to drift away from the notion of people as such.
Even Eleazar is afraid that she'll be taken in for an autopsy afterward.
But soon, he had no time to care about it.
The Astronomy Department is storming into second place in terms of points, seeing as Fina is about to go out with someone else!
As for their History Department, even with Luna-senpai as the God of War killing it, the total score of the competition was still hanging narrowly at fifth.
Their men's team was so scrappy it was like they were being held down by someone else.
There was no hope of catching up in first or second place, there were few remaining events left, and the engineering and astronomy departments were well over a dozen points ahead of the other departments.
The battle for third place heats up.
The final two groups competed, starting with a co-ed relay run.
The team competition, in which the role of the individual was drastically cut down, put a smile on the faces of the Art and Chemistry Departments, which placed third and fourth.
And so it was; once again, Luna Scholar was held back by her piggyback teammates, and instead of a good result, they just retained their ranking.
The academic departments to which the third and fourth-place finishers belonged were swapped and the art department was pissed off and wowed.
The last race was the very finale of the endurance run.
Approaching the exit, Eleazar glanced at the scoreboard again and frowned slightly.
First place: Faculty of Engineering, 102 points
Second place: Department of Astronomy, 97 points
Third place: Department of Chemistry, 64 points
Fourth place: Department of Fine Arts, 63 points
Fifth place: Department of History, 62 points
Sixth place: Faculty of Law, 60 points
...
Very subtle score.
All of the academic departments after the fifth place were ashen, as they no longer had any chance.
The rules of the competition were that only the top three places would get points, and if they wanted to win, the history department would not only have to get first place, but they would also have to make the third and fourth place Chemistry Department and the Art Department unable to get a single point.
Eleazar can make sure he gets first place, but at the same time, it's a bit of an imposition to interfere with someone else's progress.
With so many eyes watching, how could he have any chance of getting his hands dirty?
Eleazar was soon surrounded by students from his department.
No matter how obnoxious he was during training, they all gathered around him now, rubbing his shoulders and legs, handing him water, cheering him on constantly, pinning all their hopes on him.
At that moment, a boy with glasses carefully approached with a cup of black tea.
"Eleazar-san, you drink this!"
Is drinking a hot beverage before a workout, so elaborate?
Eleazar casually took it and was about to take a sip, but caught a whiff of something unusual and his arm froze on the spot.
Quickly turning on his senses to take a look, the entire cup was shrouded in the fading colors all around him by the blood light emanating from within.
Eleazar lowered her head and asked in an inexplicable tone, "What kind of tea is this."
The boy with glasses was oblivious as he returned, "Black tea, it's made by Ms. Seebel herself."
Seebel, as he called him, seemed to be some kind of celebrity, and a great deal of envious glances were cast around him.
Eleazar looked up and stared into the boy's eyes for a long moment.
"You... What are you looking at me for?"
Is that why their men's group is being held down by others?
Playing with drugs in front of Witcher?
Eleazar facepalmed and finished his black tea in one gulp.
The taste is sweet, the tea flavor is mellow, and you can't taste anything unusual in it at all.
Smacking his lips together for a moment of realization, Eleazar's face then looks a little surprised again.
The heart rose and fell slightly, beating a fraction of a second faster than it did in its normal state.
The blood of an unknown creature that had been diluted very thinly and processed in many other ways.
Not the expected poison, but instead something like a stimulant.
However, this result is even more frightening...
They can't even get a good ranking with something like this cheating, so you can imagine how much of a loser they are.
Handing the teacup back to the spectacled boy, Eleazar prepares to enter.
At that moment Luna parted the crowd and walked in, standing in front of him and said coolly:
"Are you the runner for the race later?"
"Uh-huh."
"At the start, look straight ahead, don't look from side to side, don't worry about whether others will pass you, keep your eyes on the front, eliminate distractions, don't worry about others..."
When she finished, she raised her arm somewhat clumsily to make a fist.
"I hope these experiences help you."
If Eleazar hadn't known she wasn't a Transcendent, he would have thought she was ready to go help him out with his other competitors.
"Uh, thanks."
Eleazar replied softly, walking slowly towards the runway.
Two emcees are doing pre-match commentary.
"Okay, the contestants are ready to enter the arena, this is destined to be a close match, so let's see what happens."
"The Engineering and Astronomy players are very calm, they don't look nervous at all."
"They are resting high on their scores, even if they fall out of the competition, they are fine, of course, they won't be nervous, let's set our sights on the three contestants in the back who are battling it out the most."
"On track 5 is our chemistry student Bauer, who competed in three races today, all with good scores and excellent fitness, so he looks like he has a good chance of winning this race."
"Warming up on track 7 is our Art student Eddie, a freshman who hasn't competed in a single race today, and it looks like the department has equally high hopes for him." "Now entering the field is Eleazar from the History Department, who..."
The introductions came to an abrupt halt, and the emcee, his eyes shocked, didn't know how to continue.
The other man half crouched and slowly unwrapped the bandage from his calf.
This injury his stems from a taboo that no one in the academy can bring up right now.
Although that tragic event is something everyone is trying to forget, they can never forget how shocking it was to see the figure that carried the two girls out of the fire in a single bond.
So much so that everyone subconsciously all but ignored the fact that anyone who could pull off such a move must also be in amazing physical condition.
And now, the other side's seal is lifted...
Bauer and Eddie's classmates, who hadn't taken each other seriously earlier, were suddenly like enemies.
"Cough cough... So the match has officially begun, let's see what happens."
The emcee quickly skipped over the introductions and announced the start.
The bugler slowly raised his arm.
"Take your places..."
"Bang!"
All the players sprinted out at once, leaving only Eleazar, who was half a second slower to react, to slowly flex.
The history students were suddenly ashen.
Once all the hope pinned on his body had dissipated, Eleazar's half-lidded eyes then slowly opened, staring forward before his entire body powered up.
"Boo!"
"Wow ----"
The crowd's eyes widened again at once.
In the eyes of all the runners in despair, he fell behind and overtook the top, his athletic figure going all the way to the top, leaving everyone far behind.
It was the running of the escape horses that took the strategy of getting to the front of the pack and leaving everyone else far behind before the start of the race.
But he'd thrown it off too far, leading the entire lap before slowing down and hanging on to the bulk of the pack, which was a big lap behind.
The emcee didn't even know how to commentate on the match now and stammered for half a day without being able to say a word.
Luckily, they were no longer needed to set the scene for the electric atmosphere on the field.
The history department trainees had already chased that figure outside the field like crazy, shouting and cheering frantically.
"You've got the wrong person, even if I win first place, it's useless..."
Looking at his classmates who looked like fools, Eleazar sighed slightly.
The point of this game was not at all about him taking first place, but about how to keep the Chemistry and Art players, from getting points.
It would have been hard to make a bad move in the limelight, so we'll just have to see if there's a time for it again.
Eddie, who was running in second place, looked back at him with some sarcasm in his eyes.
The look seemed to say, "You're running that fast for nothing."
Then he got his comeuppance.
With a broken foot, he first performed an extremely impressive flat-footed fall, and then his tumbling body involved several others around him, tripping and falling the entire advance guard into a heap on the runway.
The emcee finally found a chance to yell, "Oh my god, Eddie from the art department fell because he wasn't looking where he was going, and Bauer, a hopeful for the title, tripped and fell while bringing down several people, and now leading the way in second place is Andre from the science department!"
Eleazar raised an eyebrow in some surprise.
Still?
Off the field, Fina blew her hand out in a bit of boredom.