When about a month had passed since Althea and the others entered the school, a notice for the "Explorale Exploration Tournament" was posted on the bulletin board inside the academy.
The "Explorale Exploration Tournament" is a treasure hunting game where students from the first to third years are divided into several groups to gather various information and bring back treasures from where they gathered, somewhat like a treasure hunt game.
Each hidden treasure is assigned points, and the group with the highest points wins. This event, a kind of freshman welcome and social gathering, is held annually around this time.
The way teams are formed starts with selecting a student representative, then the second and third-year students are individually assigned to teams through a lottery.
Only first-year students, not yet accustomed, are allowed to enter in groups. After entering, they are assigned to groups by lottery and then merge with the second and third-year teams. Thus, each team is composed of 8 to 12 members and divided into 30 groups.
By the way, it's the teachers who draw the lots.
Student representatives like Siegfried and Regalus have been busy since the entrance ceremony preparing for the Explorale Exploration Tournament.
The duties of student representatives for this event include selecting locations and areas, deciding on treasures, allocating points to them, and compiling them into a list. Once that's done, they work on creating notices for each grade and coordinating with teachers and senior students in the magic department, and finally, they conduct the lottery for team allocation.
To ensure that student representatives can also participate in the Explorale Exploration Tournament, tasks such as venue setup and problem creation after the preparation by student representatives are carried out by teachers and 4th to 6th-year students in the magic department.
Of course, the details of the information provided, such as the precise location of the treasure and how to find it, are kept secret.
What the student representatives know is only the roughly defined area of the venue and the points allocated to the treasures, but student representatives with inherently high abilities never end up on the same team.
The day after the notice for the Explorale Exploration Tournament was posted, in the meeting room for student representatives in the central building, the teachers were conducting a lottery for team allocation.
First, the "representatives" selected were assigned team colors.
Teams are divided into colors such as "gold, silver, white, red, black, green, blue, purple, yellow, peach, brown, orange, reddish-brown, reddish-purple, light purple, yellow-green, dark green, light blue, ultramarine, water, sky, ash, ochre, madder, vermilion, light crimson, gold-brown, white indigo, navy blue, deep blue."
By the way, the selection method for representatives is that 10 student representatives and top performers from the second and third years are chosen.
Top performers are selected from those with high exam results and comprehensive combat abilities including magic.
As a result of the allocation, Siegfried was assigned to the gold team, Regalus to the silver team, and Cartris to the white team... up to the peach team, the colors were filled with the 10 student representatives.
Next, the students who became representatives for the second and third years had their team colors determined, and after that, with 30 teams ready, the lottery by the teachers was about to begin.
The members of the teams truly rely on "luck".
Especially since the abilities of first-year students are not known, if a group of capable individuals ends up in a team together, that team might win even if the representative is not that great. Two years ago is a good example.
"Now then, do we have any students among this year's first-years who can match or even surpass Prince Siegfreid and Lord Regalus in abilities? I always look forward to this lottery every year."
Saying so, the school head reached into the urn containing the group numbers for the first-year students. Although not usually called upon, the school head somehow always joins in during the lottery.
"Let's see... first is the gold team... (Rustle, rustle...) Ah, here it is!"
Checking the drawn number, it read "A-5".
"Hmm, A-5, A-5... found it... Huh?"
Lily Gresha, who was checking the list of first-year groups, exclaimed in surprise.
"What's wrong, Lily?"
Kaito Suoro asked, peering into the list together with Soire Suoro.
"Oh! It's Lord Regalus's little sister!!"
At that voice, Siegfried and Regalus stood up.
"Why is it Althea and Sieg...? I wanted her to be in my team..., " Regalus grumbled, while in contrast, Siegfried remained standing silently.
"My sister, Kaera, is also there... That's nice..."
Amara Uryan added. It's ambiguous where "That's nice..." applies to...
"Sieg, if Althea gets hurt, I won't forgive you."
"Of course. I won't let her get hurt. But, Althea doesn't seem like she'd get hurt."
Siegfried, who had been frozen until a moment ago, returned to his usual self and retorted to Regalus.
The school head, watching such exchanges with narrowed eyes, commented.
"It's all fate and luck... Well then, shall we draw the next one?"
Saying so, the lottery continued, and in the end, all the first-year lots were drawn by the school head.
"Now then... next up, the second-year students—"
As the school head tried to proceed to the next round, the other teachers finally stopped him.
"Um... Headmaster. We'll handle the second and third years, so please watch over us... Or rather, let us draw too, please!!"
The exchange between the teachers and the school head continued until the allocation to each team was completed.
The teams were decided, and the next day, the allocation of each team was announced on the bulletin board.
There's only one more week until the Explorale Exploration Tournament.
Under the direction of their representatives, each team was meeting here and there, holding strategy meetings.
Of course, even the Gold Team, where Althea and the others were assigned, was no exception. Immediately after the announcement, they were summoned. The meeting place was the 5th floor of the Central Building.
Althea was surprised by the meeting place, but after school that day, she, along with Laila, Kaera, and Julia, headed towards the Central Building.
