CH 87

“Nice to meet you. I’m Zeros Adolfo, and I’ll be your leader this year. I’m good at both martial arts and magic, it’s nice working with you.”

I didn’t even stop by the classroom, but when I got to the practice field, all the members were already there, so I decided to introduce myself to everyone. Everyone followed my lead and introduced themselves. When everyone had finished introducing themselves, the headmaster arrived.

He said, “For the next five days, we will be working on understanding each other’s abilities and confirming our combinations. With the leader and the deputy leader as the center, do whatever you want.”

That was all he said, and then he left the practice field. I wondered if they thought it would be better for the team if it was just me and Sophie rather than someone else leading the team. Or were the teachers simply busy with their classes?

“Sophie, what do we do?”

All the other members’ eyes were focused on me, but Sophie knew better than I did what to do in this situation.

“First of all, let’s split up into groups of three, three, and four so that we have a good balance of martial arts and magic. If anyone wants to team up, please let me know.”

Having said that, a few voices came up. I knew that they would want to form a group with people they knew. I’d like to team up with Sophie and Shana too, but they haven’t said anything, and I think it’s better to have a balanced split, so I’m not sure what to do…

“Well then, let’s divide into groups.”

And while I was struggling, Sophie created a group. The three groups that were created looked like this.

《1st group》

Markel Dawkins (magic)

Tucker (martial arts)

Riesel (martial arts)

Amy Estil (magic)

《Second group》

Watts Colekin (martial arts)

Jumper Carrero (martial arts)

Salona Venus (magic)

《Third group》

Zeros Adolfo (martial arts & magic)

Sophia Adolfo (magic)

Shana Ringaria (martial arts)

“I don’t want to say much because it’s pathetic, but isn’t there a huge gap in ability between us and the third group?”

The leader of the first group said so. By the way, the first person in the group is the leader, and the words in parentheses, i.e. () are their specialties. In other words, the leader of the third group is me, and my specialties are martial arts and magic.

“I decided that it would be better to combine people of equal ability to some extent.”

I feel like I’m not being very clear. I’ll ask Sophie about her reasons when it’s just us.

“So let’s have a mock battle with this group.”

The first and second groups were doing well, but the mock battle against us wasn’t going so well.

“We’ll be dealing with your groups one by one from now on. If there are any areas for improvement, we’ll let you know.”

I said we were going to fight three versus one or four versus one, but there was no counterargument at all. Maybe we deliberately had a mock battle for each group to show the difference in ability?

And the rest of the day was spent fighting mock battles then it was over. Tomorrow, we’re going to have a strategy meeting for the survival battle. The only thing is that there are no detailed rules, so we just have to come up with some sort of strategy. I’m starting to think that Sophie should be the leader of the group if she’s so capable of taking charge.

“So Sophie, what’s the real story behind the not-so-subtle grouping?”

When Sophie, Shana, and I were leaving, I asked her what was bothering me.

“First of all, being in the same group as us would just hold us back. We’ll have to cover for them unnecessarily, so they’ll get in the way. It would be easier if they weren’t here.”

“Oh!”

I’m glad I explained the way I had. If I hadn’t, a lot of people would have been hurt.

“If that’s the case, why did you go to the trouble of separating us into groups?”

“I’m just guessing, but from what I’ve heard, no matter how much effort they put in from now on, it would be nice if all seven of them could challenge one foreign student. If that’s the case, it would be better to split them into two from the beginning and have them set up a perfect environment for us to give our all and fight the foreign students.”

“But that’s a pretty important role, isn’t it?”

“That’s why we’re training hard now.”

This means that Sophie is saying that all but the foreign students will have to be dealt with by the other seven. This is a pretty tough job.

“By the way, what’s your survival strategy?”

“You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.”

If she says so, I’ll look forward to tomorrow then.