I came back but the world is still a fantasy!? – Garesto Academy – Exam Arc: Chapter I – Those Who Take Advantage of the Test – 04-25: Special Exam Start! (2/4)

After seeing her off, Shinichi looked down at the tents below him.

He could feel the breath and presence of the students from the tents.

“I think we can just barely make it?”

There would be no end to it if the uncertain factors kept increasing, but he judged that they could make it in time.

In the first day, there still weren’t any hints of a plot, so he just made them self-aware, and forced them to grow by putting them into an extreme situation.

Originally, Shinichi wanted to use the remaining two days to let them get used to that, but with all the snakes squirming in the back drop, he couldn’t afford to do that.

As such he used the morning of the second day to familiarize them with human combat and being wary of their surroundings.

In the afternoon, he split the three classes into two groups to equalize their strength despite the difference in class levels and years, then had them fight each other.

The first round was a mess with allies and enemies jumbled altogether, so the round was considered void.

In the second round, Shinichi took command of one of the two teams.

In the third round, Shinichi took command of the other team.

In the fourth round, he had the representative of each team lead.

As he repeated that, he had the special class student, Ryou, fight with the teams.

They continued that until 6PM, and by then everyone was as as exhausted as they were in the first day.

They quickly prepared supper and called it a night.

But because of that all the students were able to recover their strength.

They had a small vessel like Shinichi, so they could easily recover their strength just by resting.

“The more I think back to it, the more I realize how badly I poured knowledge down their throat…”

The things he’d taught them weren’t supposed to be covered in just two days.

So he didn’t know how much they would be able to retain.

To be honest, calling what they did ‘training’ was a misnomer. It would be more apt to say that he had made them go through an intense experience to force their body and mind to remember his teachings even if just temporarily.

A hastily-made blade meant to help them overcome the incident that’s about to occur.

But even then, a blade was still a blade, and if one touched it, one would still get cut.

So as long as that blade could remain sharp for today, it was more than enough.

“…”

He’s done what he could. Or at least that should be the case.

So Shinichi shook all the uneasiness away and looked up at the sky as he welcomed the new day.

Before long, the giant red star showed itself, and he greeted it with a blank expression.

There was no need to think of unnecessary things. He just had to do what he needed to.

“It’ll be fine, I’m sure. The way I’m now, this should be a piece of cake.”

He muttered without thinking monotonously, but it was such a stereotypical thing to say that it couldn’t even pass for self-suggestion. Shinichi shrugged his shoulders and forced a laugh.

---

June 3, 7:00AM. In the third floor of the campus, inside the normal class faculty.

The teachers that have been tasked to watch over the campus greeted each other.

A certain female teacher also greeted a fellow teacher.

“Good Morning, Teacher Saland. It’s finally ending, isn’t it? The campus will finally become lively again.”

“Good morning. Yes. It’s such a hectic event every year, but it’s not so bad this year since I can look forward to talking with him again.”

Despite his fierce countenance, his lessons were easy to understand.

That was his reputation, and whenever the topic would take that turn, he would smile broadly like a child.

“It is a pity that my face is so scary, though,” he said with a wry smile as he took his seat.

The Comprehensive Exam held once in the middle of the year was finally coming to an end.

But of course, the teachers not related to the exam were by no means free during its duration.

Rather, because nearly half of the teachers regardless of department were focused on the big exam, the remaining teachers had to take care of the duties that the entire faculty was normally responsible for.

In other words, despite having no classes, they had more work than usual.

Moreover, the grading of the big exam could only be left to the practical skills teachers, so the increase in their workload won’t end until three days later despite classes resuming.

When you include the preparations that they needed to make as well, these three days were a kind of hell for them.

“You really do love conspiracy theories(those kind of stories), don’t you? Can Nakamura-kun keep up?”

That’s why the only entertainment they had were the short moments of idle talk they had before starting their work.

Apparently, the student that regularly visited the faculty was their topic this morning.

“Nakamura might look like that, but he’s quite harsh. I’m fond of even the theories that aren’t so coherent, but he would point out the inconsistencies every time, but new explanations would also come out when he talks, so conversations with him are always such a joy!”

When she saw how happy he was, she realized that she’d failed to change the topic.

He used fastidious(suspicious) words to talk about his many conspiracy theories, as well as that student’s viewpoints, but she could barely understand any of it.

The little that she did understand was that that student would apparently reject his theories, then reveal new conspiracy theories that were happening in the backdrop.

Ever since Shinichi’s transfer and this teacher’s reputation of being a conspiracy theorist became known, she’s taken to protecting her mental wellbeing by just letting his rants go one ear and out the other.

But of course, even then she would still remember some things, and the parts that she did remember pertained to the teacher’s thoughts on Shinichi.

The female teacher could only wryly smile.

“I do wish that analytical ability of his could somehow be reflected on his grades,” the teacher seating opposite her said, finally giving her reprieve from his nonsensical rants, though perhaps he really was just concerned about the student.

That student found it so difficult to keep up with his lessons that he had to frequently visit this faculty.

Of course, his situation made it easy to understand why that was the case.

“He works so hard too. I guess it must be really difficult for him to have been drifted away while in middle school and be unable to come back immediately.”

He didn’t have any of the foundations down, so it was too early for him to advance to high school and he couldn’t keep up with the lessons here either.

But despite that he had a strong desire to learn, so some of the teachers had a favorable impression of him.

“…I wonder if Nakamura-kun is alright. Hopefully he hasn’t been gravely injured,” the female teacher said.

This female teacher was one of those teachers favorable to him and was anxious for his safety.

After all, Shinichi wasn’t just bad in the academic subjects.

Teacher Saland shook his head to reassure her. “It should be fine. Teacher Doneju is there. And if anything bad has happened, we would’ve been informed already.”

“That’s true,” the teacher said as she turned to the empty seat next to her.

Frire Doneju. That was the name of the famed soldier that suddenly resigned from the army and became a teacher.

She kept a low profile despite her achievements, and while she may be strict, she cared a lot for the students, and was a fellow female coworker that could be trusted.

She didn’t talk much, but she sat next to her, so she could tell how hard she worked.

She was a little clumsy and had a tendency to be fruitlessly enthusiastic, however.

“Now then, I suppose it’s about time for us to start the day? Let’s prepare everything so those teachers can get back to their work without a hitch,” the female teacher said.

“Of course. Now, where did we end yesterday…” Teacher Saland said.

“Huh, what? Why is that thing here— What!?” The teacher at the window exclaimed.

Saland was in the process of checking their progress when all of the sudden, the teacher by the window suddenly yelled.

His yells got the other teachers attention, and they went to take a look through the window, but what they saw sent them yelling.

“Isn’t that a guard robot!? Why is that thing here!?”

“What, no way, what is that, why are they— What’s going on!?”

The four-legged white robots that the people living here were used to had filled the school grounds.

Had it been just one or two robots, then perhaps they had simply malfunctioned, but with so many gathered, clearly something else was amiss.

—They appeared one after another.

It was as if the guard robots of the city were gathering.

They lined up and encroached the school grounds.

There were so many of them that the sight below had already turned white.

“What kind of joke is this?”

“W-Why are there so many?”

These white machines that were big enough to span a car lined up like ants as they passed through(・・・・・・・) the school grounds.

Even if they knew the total number of machines here, the sight below them was so unreal that all the faculty teachers had stopped thinking.

They stared blankly as they watched the machines slide through the ground with the rollers under their feet.

“T-Teachers, this isn’t the time for us to be dazing off! Those machines are headed for the fields. We need to contact the Supervisor Headquarters immediately! The security department and the defense department too. And the teachers need to gather as well. Please hurry!”

When Teacher Saland said that, the faculty immediately mobilized.

They contacted various related places and various personnel tried to go out of the faculty, but…

“—Ah, Teacher Doneju, Teacher!? It’s no good. We can’t reach them from here at all, the call just gets cut.”

“Hey, can’t you hear me! Send someone, anyone!! Hey!! Damn it! We can’t make a call from here at all! It’s not connecting anywhere!”

“No way! But I was able to call just awhile ago! The net is down too!”

“Someone lend me a hand! I can’t get the lock off this door!”

“That lock can’t be opened with just human strength!”

“W-Why won’t the window open!?”

When they realized that they couldn’t reach anyone and that the faculty had been locked, the peaceful morning of the teachers was immediately thrown into disarray and they started panicking.

The relatively calm female teacher and Teacher Saland looked at each other in shock.

“Teacher Saland, could this be?” The female teacher asked.

“Yes, there’s no doubt about it. We’re under attack. Ever since I started working here, I knew this day would come, but who would’ve thought, I would be rendered this powerless this easily…” Saland bit his lips as he turned to the fields.

The walls, doors, and windows of the campus were all specially made to resist skills.

No one here could use a skill to break even the glass windows.

This design decision was made out of fear for an external attack and students going on a rampage, but as a side-effect, the teachers were now trapped.

The workplace they were so familiar with had all too quickly been turned into their prison.

Even the ability to contact the outside or get information from outside had been taken away from them.

Their one saving grace was that those in the fields knew that something was amiss.