[Beginner - Lux]

That was the name of the class I was standing in front of. I was…late, so there was no one around in the hallways. Thus, I could observe everything without any trouble.

Let’s see…no, nope, nothing special. Other than the fact that this place was atop a floating island, nothing was really exceptional. It looked like any other college down there…with the addition of arenas and training rooms.

By the way, I was in the same class as Artoria. Students admitted directly would go into the most prestigious class—Lux, no question asked.

Anyways, I finally decided to push the door open. I came into the class just in time for some shithead to stomp out of the classroom.

“Get the fuck out of the way!”

The shithead roughly pushed me aside and ran into the hallway, crying. She had dirt-blonde hair, brown eyes, and a face that could rival Artoria’s.

‘Erika Vermillion?’

Future infamous Void contractor, Marquis Dave Vermillion’s daughter, as well as Artoria’s number one hater. She was, say it with me, a villainess—a minor one.

Judging by the way she was knocking things over in rage in the hallway, it seemed that the first event had already happened.

‘Looks like Artoria caught the attention of the main villainess…’

Good, the story was going how it should be.

I entered the classroom and looked at the Crystal Orb atop a podium, and then at the person standing before the Orb—Artoria.

She was staring at me, totally shocked. In front of her was a translucent blue screen that said,

[MAX: SSS]

‘Yep, she totally got the attention of the Villainess.’

I then gazed at the person behind the podium—the class’ Professor. She was a woman with fiery red hair and dark eyes. She had a petite build and yeah, she was Savannah.

“Student Astrape Knovski,” Savannah raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re late. Ten minutes late.”

I leaned closer to her and whispered,

“And you haven’t shown up at my Maid cafe yet. Need I remind you how much you salivated at the flyer I gave you?”

Savannah coughed and her face went red in embarrassment. “F-Fine. Go to your seat. A-And don’t utter this to anyone!”

Smirking, I turned my back on her and Artoria and went to find my seat—one that was at the back of the class. Since each table consisted of two students, I turned to the side and greeted my deskmate.

“Hey t—”

But I had to stop upon realizing who she was. Long silvery-white hair, calm blue eyes, fair skin, a face that was possibly even prettier than Artoria’s, a pair of mounds that I had to envy, vertical pupils, and most notably, a white-and-blue scaly tail.

She exuded coldness—both literally and metaphorically. The air around her was chilly cold since she had [Mythic] ranked Ice affinity, and her face was cold and emotionless because of…reasons that even I didn’t know.

Her name?

“Rank 2, Miseria Ecertold, please come up.”

She was my future boss’ daughter.

And, say it with me, she was a villainess—THE Villainess.

Well, a fake-out Villainess. She actually didn’t know that her actions were making Artoria suffer.

Since she would eventually join Artoria’s side, and I was going to join the Royal Knights led by Duke Ecertold in the future, I had to abandon the idea of bullying my deskmate.

‘Not that I can, anyways. She’s scary…’

She was called the ‘Monster of the Ecertold Duchy,’ and I wasn’t too keen on finding out why people called her so first-hand.

Anyways, I watched as Miseria placed both of her hands on the Orb. Coldness literally exploded out of it, and a blue screen appeared.

[MAX: SS+]

-”As expected of Lady Miseria.”

-”But how did that Commoner surpass her in potential!?”

Miseria ignored all the murmurs and stared at Artoria with a fiery gaze—at least, fiery compared to her dull expression.

“Very good,” Savannah suddenly said with a clap of her hands. “Looks like the future of the Empire is in good hands. I hope you will be more lenient toward the Luminous Theocracy in the future.”

Even inside the classroom, that Knight Captain couldn’t stop bringing politics in. Urghhh…

By the way, the seat I was in right now was probably Erika’s since she was the only person who would dare sit next to Miseria. 

Although there was another seat open (and it was next to Raun), I didn’t take it since, well, I didn’t want to disrespect a future Duchess/Heroine like Miseria.

I knew that Miseria wouldn’t care if I did that, but the other Nobles in the class would give me a hard time…

Of course, there were other Heroines/Villanesses besides Miseria.

“Rank 3, Eleanor Silvat.”

Better known as the Imperial Princess, she was the same haughty bitch that was glaring at me for no reason when I had an audience with the Empire. With her silvery-white hair and red eyes, she gracefully made her way toward the Crystal Orb and placed her hands on it. Blinding white Light poured out of her hands.

[MAX: SSS+]

‘Huh…higher than Artoria?’

How do I put this…she was stronger than I remembered. Though, this was probably a good thing. All it meant was that stronger people were protecting my peace for me. Neat.

“Rank 4, Ria Pyrian.”

The daughter of Duke Freywright Pyrian. With red hair that swayed like flames and similarly colored eyes, she was very obviously a Phoenix. 

To me, she was cool despite the heat that radiated from her, and it was because of the black eyepatch that she wore on her left eye.

No, it wasn’t as if her left eye was damaged or anything—to suggest that Phoenixes would sustain any injury after one day was just absurd. Instead, she wore it because it looked cool; and it was indeed cool.

The very cool Phoenix placed her hand on the Orb. As opposed to Miseria, hot Flames exploded from her position.

[MAX: SS]

“YES, HAHAHA!” Ria pointed a finger in my general direction. I thought it was meant for me, but I soon remembered that Miseria was sitting right next to me. “You see that!? I’m almost as good as you!”

‘Oh yeah, they have a kind of rivalry-friendship relationship…’

I leaned back in my seat and sighed, thinking of just how many misunderstandings would arise from this alone…

“Rank 5, Lucy Fertilus.”

The Vampire loli that I saw in the alley stepped up and made her way toward the podium. Each of her steps was filled with energy. 

Oh, there were two lolis in this class now, I just realized. One was sixty, and the other was eighteen. They’d make good friends, I reckon.

[MAX: SS]

Blood poured out from the orb and stained the floor.

‘I’m beginning to see a pattern here…’

Eh, should I really be surprised? The novel covered all of this, after all.

Next were the extras’ turns, skip, skip, and skip. I only paid attention when I heard a familiar name being called.

“Rank 10, Marie Kilvillain.”

That haughty Elf bitch went up and placed her hands on the Orb. Wind blew around. Yay~

[MAX: SS]

“Rank 11, Raun Knovski.”

‘Huh, he’s ranked higher than I thought.’

 Raun placed his hands on the Orb and channeled his Mana into it. Spikes of Earth emerged from his feet.

[MAX: A]

Although this was a really good max potential, everyone in this classroom—even me, were too used to seeing S’s that Raun’s potential wasn’t anything that impressive.

By the way, Amelia was in a class dedicated to Healers, so all of the people of interest have had their turns. Of course, there were more Heroines, but they would gradually show up over the course of the novel.

“Unranked, Astrape Knovski.”

My turn came, and I started to realize something. ‘What is my potential?’ It was definitely something decent, sure, but my Covenant with Lyra might have shaken things up a bit.

(“Lyra…you don’t happen to know my potential, right?”)

|Eh? Of course, yours is CELESTIAL. It was [C] before, but thanks to the great me, y—|

(“Okay, okay, thanks a lot.”) And I meant it. (“But that’s really bad right now…”)

|Why?|

(“I don’t even want to explain the obvious. Now, can you do that thing again when you turned into another person, but to Status?”)

|You mean disguising it?|

(“Exactly. Preferably, I’d like it to display [B]”)

And disguise it she did. As soon as I placed my hand on the Orb, Ashes covered Status and changed the text so fast that not even Savannah realized that I had tricked her. Not that she would, anyways, since she was too busy containing the Red Electricity that was flying wildly around. 

The people sitting at the front of the class were scared shitless.

[MAX: B]

‘If I’m not wrong…weapon selection is next. Then, Savannah will make the class fight… What an annoying first day.’