Hiron woke up a short while later. He flew up from the couch and looked around frantically while getting his bearings.

“Finally awake, are we?”

Hiron turned and looked at him. The headmaster...

“What happened? I just remember... leaving those guys. I was really tired or something, and then I wake up here.”

“Hmm. I suppose it’d be better to tell you. You had a breakdown. I found you sobbing in the toilets.”

“Huh?! Me?! Break down? I get that you’re the headmaster here sir, but with all respect I think you’re overstepping your bounds here.”

“Hiron. Come now, be honest with yourself.”

“... Please sir... I can’t risk-”

Rodrick raised a hand. “It’s fine. I’m sorry for that. You should deal with your problems at your own pace.”

“Th... thank you sir. Am I late for my evaluation?”

Rodrick shook his head. “You’ve still got about an hour until your time slot. How are you feeling now? You ready?”

Hiron’s relief was clearly plastered all over his face. He sat back down and allowed himself to sink into the couch.

“I’m... kinda tired.”

“Well, that makes sense, given the circumstances.”

“Sir...”

“Yes?”

Hiron looked at his hands for a moment, then back at the headmaster.

“Please don’t tell anyone about this. My problems are mine to solve. I don’t want anyone else butting in.”

“... I see. Of course. However you deal with your problems is for you to think about. I wouldn’t mention it to anyone regardless.”

“Thank you sir.”

“Any time. Feel free to use my office if you need a space away from all of the noise.”

“I’ll... keep it in mind.”

Rodrick returned to his paperwork as Hiron rested on the couch before his evaluation. He smiled to himself. They’re all growing up. This is it. This is why I became a teacher.

Rai sneezed and shivered at the same time.

“You alright?” Sin asked him.

Rai was bewildered. What the fuck was that? Feels like someone was thinking about me...

“Yeah... I just felt a weird shiver and sneezed at the same time. It felt so strange.”

Sin grabbed his hand and held it gently. Her smile quickly transformed into a devious grin.

“It’s karma for making fun of my murdered grilled cheese.”

“What’s this I hear about someone murdering a grilled cheese?!” Tullian yelled from Rai’s other side.

“Sin did it! I would never!” Rai said.

Tullian blinked. As much as he would sacrifice his life to defend the honour of the grilled cheese, this was a fight he would rather not take to the death. Instead, he opted to scold Sindyl by wagging his finger at her.

“Bad Sindyl! Grilled cheeses are as sacred as people, you cannot murder them!”

“The Princess can’t cook a simple meal to save her life! Bahaha!” Maya broke down into a fit of giggled. Lina and Amy did the same.

Sin was defeated.

“Even I can make a grilled cheese. What are you, a fish with no hands? Even a fish with hands could make a grilled cheese.” Surprisingly, Feris was the one to add the cherry on top.

Rai wildly shook his head as he tried to digest Feris’s words, but no matter what he did they just didn’t make sense.

Sin blew up. “FUCK IT! I’LL SHOW YOU ALL WHO’S THE BEST AT MAKING GRILLED CHEESES!”

Rai raised his hand and stared at her deadpan.

“It’s me.” He said.

“Yeah. yeah, right now it’s you. 100%. BUT! IT WILL BE ME! ONE DAY!” Sin declared as she raised her fist triumphantly in the air.

“Could you keep it down up there?”

Sin looked over the railing to see an analyst looking up at them. Her hand had never met her mouth as fast as it just did. “SORRY!”

Pfft.

Rai couldn’t stop laughing.

Sin pouted at him, which made him giggle even more.

Amy pointed down at the testing ground.

“Look! It’s Zoe!”

“Her? Fuck, of course it’s her.” Sin said.

Rai was reminded of when Zoe wouldn’t stop pestering him when he came to school with Sin a couple days ago. Since Amy knows her, I’m guessing Zoe’s pretty popular.

Sin rested her elbow on the mirror chair’s armrest, then nested her head in her palm. She watched Zoe closely.

“Let’s see how she does.”

If Sin was interested in someone’s performance, then it was probably worth paying attention to them. Everyone watched quietly.

Some people in the auditorium seats noticed their presence just prior.

“Hey, those guys who made their own seats... that’s the daughter of deception right?” One boy mentioned to his friend.

“Yeah! The one next to her is Rai, and the one next to him is Tullian. On her other side are a few people I don’t know, but they’re all supposed to be really strong.” She replied.

“Huh? How do you know? I think I’m really powerful, so why can’t I sit there?”

“No, dumbass. They just sat there because there were no other seats available.”

“Oh...”

“Besides. We know they’re strong because they’re the last ones to take the evaluation. You remember the list of timeslots right? In every evaluation before this one, the last people to take it have always been the best and ended up topping the ranking board.”

“Huh... I didn’t notice. Which one of them is the strongest?”

“I’m... not sure. There’s a rumour going around that three of them are the headmaster’s mentees. I’d wager that one of those three is the strongest.”

“Woah! Then I can’t wait for their evaluations!”

“It’ll be really special! Hopefully they don’t do them in secret like some people are doing.”

“By the way, didn’t they ignore like everyone else’s evaluation?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Uh... look at them.”

She did. They were all focusing on the person going down to the testing area. After looking at them, she realised why her friend mentioned it.

“They’re focusing on this one? All of them?”

“I think there might be something to look out for here.”

“Wait... is that Zoe? She’s hosting a party after the evaluation tonight! Are those guys thinking about going? I’d love to meet them!”

“I really want to meet them too after what you told me. It would be great if they went, but...” He looked back over at them, “They don’t seem like the partying type.”

“Yeah... you’re probably right. Still... I really want to get a chance to talk to Rai. He’s so cute.”

Her friend looked at her funny, but let it slide since he thought the same thing about the daughter of Deception.

It turns out that the position Rai and his friends chose to sit in was clearly visible from all of the seats in the auditorium. When their attention went to the centre of the testing ground, many of the students in the audience noticed it.

They all, more or less, followed suit.

Zoe took a deep breath.

For some reason, she felt a weird focus from the crowd for her evaluation. I know I’ve invited half of them to the party, but I didn’t expect them all to care this much about my evaluation...

The examiner from the association called her over as she walked down the stairs into the middle of the area. She had a clipboard with paper in hand, and a portable ink quill.

“Zoe of the Felan family?” She looked up from the clipboard at Zoe.

“That’s me!”

“Do you want to take the evaluation in a pocket dimension or out here?”

Zoe thought about it for a few moments. I don’t want to have all that attention on me while I do the evaluation, so I should probably take it in the pocket dimension. She nodded to herself after making a decision.

“I’ll do it in the pocket dimension please.”

The examiner nodded and wrote it down on the clipboard. She gestured for Zoe to follow her.

They walked into a portal near the analysts. The analysts followed them into the pocket dimension for analysis.

“I thought she’d take the evaluation out here.” Rai said.

Sin looked around at the students who were clearly more focused on this evaluation than others.

“I think she just didn’t want to deal with the attention.”

“Surely you’d want to show off here?” Maya mentioned.

“For some people it makes sense to hide your techniques, or they could get exploited.”

“Oh... You’ve got a good point.”

Rai thought about it for a second. If we all show off our techniques, won’t that ruin the tournament?

“We should all take our evaluations in secret.”

They all turned and looked at him with confused faces.

“Explain.” Sin said.

“If we show off our techniques to each other, won’t that ruin the tournament tomorrow? I think we should keep them all hidden. It won’t change where we end up on the ranking board, so I think that’s the best way to do it.”

His friends listened to his words and allowed themselves time to digest his meaning. Generally, they agreed. It would be better if they could hide their techniques from each other to make the tournament more interesting.

“Honestly... that makes a lot of sense. Alright. I’m in.” Sin said with a raised hand.

Tullian raised his hand second. “Me too.”

Then Maya. “Me three.”

Amy raised hers soon after, followed shortly by Feris and Lina doing the same.

“Then that’s what we’ll do! Our names will end up on the ranking board anyway, so we’ll see how we all did by the end.”

During the few minutes of downtime while Zoe was in the pocket dimension, Rai spent some time deciphering the ranking board. So, the ranks go from one to fifty, and there are different colours that the names can show up as. What’s that star next to everyone’s name with a number?

“Do any of you know what that star is on the ranking board?” Rai pointed at it.

Sin shook her head and looked at everyone else.

“They’re... the number of techniques you have at your highest tier.” Lina answered.

Amy took over. “Let’s say you have three epic techniques, then you’ll have a number three next to your star, and your name will be written in purple letters.”

Rai nodded as he happily accepted the new knowledge. There was still something he didn’t know though.

“What colours are the tiers?”

“We only know the rare and epic colours right now. So far, the ranking board has been filled up with bright blue names for rare and bright purple names for epic.”

Woah... that’s awesome! Rai felt fired up at Amy’s explanation.

“We’ll get the unseen colours then!”

His friends shared his enthusiasm.

Even Feris was riled up by Rai’s declaration.

Just shortly after, Zoe left the pocket dimension. Everyone’s attention returned to the centre of the testing ground.

She bowed and thanked the examiner.

The examiner smiled at her, “You’ll receive personalised advice based on your techniques for your future jobs or your aspirations once you graduate, so please come and see us with your alumni ID when that time comes.”

Zoe grew a wide smile and thoroughly thanked the examiner.

“Thank you so much!”

“Not at all. You should watch the board to see where you end up!”

Zoe turned her attention to the ranking board. Her name started at the bottom as the examiners inputted the data. It quickly rose through the ranks, passing names as more of her techniques got written into the system.

Eventually, it landed at its rightful place.

Second place.

Zoe’s name was purple, and she had the number 4 next to the star beside her name.

She squealed and jumped for joy as she savoured the moment. Her friends cheered for her from the crowd once her name solidified itself on the board. It wasn’t easy to get in the top 10 of the ranking board in the first place, so Zoe finding herself there was amazing.

Rai and Sin smiled at each other.

They were both determined to rank higher than one another as the technique evaluation continued.