Chapter 124. Starling Party (2)

The last remnants of snow had melted and green sprouts started pushing their way out of the ground.

And just like past years, the start of spring signified the start of a new school year at the Hebrion Academy.

Excluding Takiran, all of the Desir party’s members had become sophomores this semester, and were now obligated to take on the role of mentoring.

A mentor’s responsibilities were simple. They had to guide the applicants around the academy, ensure they arrive safely at the exam and understand what is required from them, and finally, they had to give them a tour of the various facilities in the academy if the mentee manages to pass the exam.

The proportion of applicants for the exam had changed drastically in comparison to previous years. Typically, there had always been many more nobles than commoners. For some reason though, this proportion had been reversed in this year’s applicants.

The origins of the students also varied greatly from the usual. Although the prestige of Hebrion Academy attracted a lot of international students in general, this year the proportion of international students was very high.

“Why did you apply for admission to the Hebrion Academy?”

Applicants were surveyed by The Eden Times, a renowned newspaper publishing company that regularly covered the annual entrance ceremony at the academy.

“It’s because of Desir Arman. Who wouldn’t want to go to the same school as a person like him?”

“I’ve always heard it’s a really good academy, however, I was hesitant to join after hearing about the discrimination against commoners. I’m now hearing that this has improved considerably in recent years, so I have no reason to apply to any other school.”

Meanwhile, Desir busied himself checking the list of applicants. After a few hours, he found one that caught his eye:

Ronde Fizzlebang.

Specializing in fire magic, he mainly used precision bombing spells; demonstrating a far higher single target damage than anyone else in his age group.

He was well and truly a first-class talent. This much couldn’t be denied, as long as one only looked at his ability.

He had a major flaw though. ‘This one is rather cheeky.’

Recalling his prior life, Desir remembered how Ronde had problems maintaining human relationships due to his personality. He eventually quit school.

As a nobleman, he was eligible to join the Alpha Class, so Desir could only sigh in helplessness. Ronde should have been able to grow to much greater heights, had he continued attending school.

‘If I lead him from the shadows, he will be able to climb to a tremendous level.’

Desir thought highly of Ronde’s potential. He didn't doubt that Ronde would play a big role in the coming battles, if he could count on him being by his side.

Fortunately, before Ronde’s admission, the walls dividing the two classes of students had already been mostly broken, so Desir was ready and able to recruit him.

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Desir decided to try to get Ronde into his party first.

Mentors rarely chose their mentee directly, but Desir was able to become his mentor by simply expressing his desire to take Ronde.

When Professor Bridgette’s guidance session ended, signaling the start of the pre-exam period where mentor and the mentee met, Desir could easily recognize Ronde from a distance.

He saw a boy with flaming red hair.

Ronde was leaning his back against the wall, hands tucked into his pockets.

With his menacing eyes, he looked rather vicious. Even students already enrolled in the academy chose to steer clear of him.

Desir was familiar with his personality, so he managed to remain calm.

However, the grand stratagems he devised to tempt the boy into joining his party were for naught.

“Desir? Is it true that you’re my mentor? Sir?

The moment Desir approached Ronde, the mental fortitude he had preemptively prepared was completely extinguished.

All he could see in front of him was a boy filled with pure admiration.

Ronde enthusiastically asked Desir to shake hands and all but radiated puppy dog eyes for an autograph.

“I’ve really wanted to meet you! I’ve read a countless number of articles about you, but the most surprising was about how you defeated the great demon in Deltaheim!”

He frenziedly peppered Desir with question after question, barely managing to take short breaths in between.

“How on earth could you arrange magic with such destructive power? Can I learn such magic when I enter here?”

To say Ronde was a big fan of Desir was an understatement.

Desir, in turn, could only wryly respond with a bitter smile.

“You can’t learn magic like that from just entering the Hebrion Academy.” “Is that true? That’s disappointing… ”

“But if you join my party, I can teach you.”

For a moment, his eyes flashed with deep traces of desire.

“Seriously?! Are you really sure? Then, of course, I have to sign up! If I pass the entrance exam, I will definitely join your party!”

After a while, he added.

“Oh, and Sir! Can I address you as a brother? I’ve wanted to be of use to you for the longest of times.”

“… Suit yourself.” “Yes, brother.”

Ronde was practically a different person in comparison to what Desir remembered of the flame wizard in his previous life.

Desir was very embarrassed, but at least he was able to easily achieve his goal.

While Ronde was taking the entrance exam, Desir checked out the other applicants as well. Among the horde of applicants this year, there were plenty of other talented students, but he didn’t approach them or otherwise influence them to join his party.

With the current state of affairs within the Hebrion Academy, they were talented enough to become core members in other parties without Desir’s interference.

Up until last year, the Hebrion Academy was prone to claiming that there was a difference in natural talent between nobles and commoners, based on the fact that the commoners typically lagged behind the nobles. Without affording them even the briefest opportunity at education, this was a foregone result.

However, since the Desir Party, mostly composed of commoners, actually managed to take first place in the Party Competition, things had started to change for the better. This feat was further emphasized by Desir’s party being made entirely out of first years, and beating out the parties mostly filled with second and third year students.

This change was most pronounced after the entrance exam.

Some exceptional commoners had been assigned to the Alpha Class, which had previously unofficially been a nobles-only class.

Desir smiled at his achievement.

It was time for the new students who passed the entrance exam to make the most important decision of their academy life: Which party they would join?

Just as the parties were evaluating the freshmen, the freshmen themselves were busy evaluating the parties. They each had their own criteria and goals, and would not easily join a party that didn’t meet their standards. This was the decision of a lifetime, and they could not afford to take it lightly.

“People said Radoria of the Red Dragon Party is very friendly and the support they provide is significant. I heard that they are sponsored by the top five trade companies.”

“The Blue Moon Party is also good. The number of members and the quality of their top members is the best in the academy, are they not? Above all, they have direct support from the Duke of Nipleka, so it cannot be compared with other parties.”

“We can’t discount the Starling Party either. It’s a party with the famous Desir Arman and it’s clear that it will continue to grow enormously in the near future.”

The Starling Party was the name of the Desir Party. A party that had been nameless up until now.

With the party name being undecided for so long, it ended up getting a default name, matching the dormitory that Desir was currently staying at.

It wasn’t a fancy name, and thinking back to when the name was finally announced left Desir feeling rather embarrassed, but no one objected to it since it didn’t seem too bad.

The parties foremost on the freshmen’s minds were undoubtedly the Blue Moon Party and the Starling Party.

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In the end, the party that had the most student applications was the Blue Moon Party. Even though a lot of talented members had just graduated, the most prominent of which was Argeria, its popularity still seemed to skyrocket.

The Starling Party had dozens of applicants, which was remarkable considering the fact that it was a new party with only one year of prior activity.

‘I can’t afford to waste effort on students who have no drive to improve themselves.’

Desir interviewed the applicants and ended up only selecting students he felt were eager to learn. A total of 19 students joined the Desir Party.

It was clear that the freshmen had some proficiency as they had managed to enter the academy by making it through the fierce competition, but it was still insufficient.

Desir entrusted the training of freshmen to Freechel who had just entered the Second-Circle and Takiran who had also just advanced, now a Knight-Class swordsman.

However, for freshmen such as Ronde who already demonstrated considerable skill, Desir directly took on their training, splitting what remained of his already insufficient time amongst them.

Desir instructed freshmen in the Beta Class to set their goal as joining the Alpha Class and the Alpha Class party members to set their goal as becoming single rankers in the approaching Ranking Exam.

After organizing and communicating the freshman’s tasks, Desir began to prepare for the next major event ahead of the imminent Ranking Exam.

The higher leveled Shadow Worlds would appear soon.

As far as he could remember, only a month remained until the first wave of increased difficulty Shadow Worlds appeared.

‘The difficulty of the Shadow Worlds will increase… ’

The Shadow Worlds began to increase their difficulty around this time. Besides the average difficulty increasing, many high-leveled Shadow Worlds also appeared.

It was a welcome thing for those who thought of the Shadow World as simply a resource to be exploited. If Desir took no action, this mentality would unfortunately lead to catastrophe. ‘There are two Shadow Worlds that must be cleared this time.’

One of them was a Level Five Shadow World.

The reason for prioritizing the clearing of that Shadow World in particular, is that the team that challenged this Shadow World failed in his past life. Not only were the people who participated killed, but the surrounding area was eroded by the Shadow World due to the failure, resulting in hundreds of additional casualties.

‘If I recall correctly, the failure was recorded as being due to the application of incorrect history.’

After investigating exactly how the team failed, historians had concluded that the relevant information was wrong.

Of course, no one else in this time knew the information would be wrong, but as long as Desir knew the situation could be avoided. Relying on faulty information greatly increases the

difficulty of a dungeon, so for a party with foresight like the Starling Party, clearing a Level Five Shadow World shouldn’t be too difficult.

The biggest problem was the other Shadow World that had to be cleared.

It was obvious that clearing two Shadow Worlds would not be easy, so Desir was left somewhat troubled.

‘Once again, I need to prepare thoroughly.’

Desir headed back to the party office to check up on his party members.