Wolf of the Blood Moon - Book 1 - Chapter 103 - Closing the Event Part I (Patreon)

                                                                        Scarlet

“Now then,” the vice-headmaster says before tapping his cane that magically appears in his hand on the ground and making a wave of mist blast out from him. And the moment it reaches me, I find myself moving places, somehow magically standing up on stage with the mist vanishing an instant late. But it’s not just me, as what must be a hundred people are here alongside me. “Time to introduce you all to the top one hundred ranks amongst you.”

I look around, a startled expression on my face that actually isn’t mirrored on anyone else here. As if everyone but me in the top one hundred already expected this.

All of us are arrayed out in five large arcs, with each arc having more than the one in front of it, and the very front arc having ten students. Meanwhile, I recognize the girl with the katana directly in the center of the front row.

“Of course, this isn’t counting the five slotted positions for Top class students, and only includes the top one hundred ranking individuals,” he adds as if as an afterthought before tapping his cane again, prompting the girl with the katana to step forward. “This is the top ranked student in the entire university for this year. Given the title by the people of Rift thanks to her use of a rare magic that is also called Rift, let me introduce to you, Carolyne Winters. Daughter of Astra, and a graduate student of the university on her last year here before she moves out to the front lines next year.”

A round of applause echoes from the audience, but some people don’t seem as enthusiastic. Likely not happy at the idea of sitting through one hundred different introductions.

“Don’t worry, I am only introducing the ones who made an important achievement during this tournament, along with what their achievement was,” the vice-headmaster says, understanding their reaction. And this immediately has the applause increasing drastically in volume. Enough that it has my ears twitching slightly from pain.

After letting the applause continue for several seconds, the vice-headmaster taps his cane on the ground again, and Carolyne steps back into the group. Then a wave of mist suddenly envelops another student – one standing at the edge of the first row – before they appear next to the old man.

“Up next we have the top ranking Class II student in the school, who also managed to make it into the top ten students despite still being Class II,” Alfred says, his voice sweeping out over the applause, cutting it off rather abruptly. “Known by many as Chrono, Ryan Johnson is one of the very few time magic users in the world, and the pure power of that magic can be shown in his ability to pass several Class IIIs in the rankings as a Class II!”

As soon as he finishes, the applause returns with a vengeance. Although there isn’t as much applause as there was for Carolyne, most likely because she rift is a type of spatial magic, which can be used to destroy gates – the term used to refer to the gateways that Fractures turn into after their core remains on Earth without being destroyed for too long, making them stable in the process. Stable enough for both demons and humans to pass through from both sides of the gate. And stable enough that the only way to destroy the gateways is for a spatial magic skill to be used on it. Probably one of the reasons she’s heading to the front lines in the first place.

After the applause goes away, he taps his cane again, really making me wonder if that’s necessary for him to do or if he’s just doing it for dramatics. The student next to him then vanishes in mist before appearing again in the line of students.

“Now, the third student I’ll be introducing to you is a little special,” he starts, making me frown slightly from my place in the back row of students on stage. “Not only are they just a first year Class I student-” my eyes widen as I understand who’s next “-but she also uses blood magic and has only been contracted for a little bit over a single week!”

This gets a wave of murmured conversations to run throughout the auditorium, and I already see a lot of eyes from the students on stage directed towards me – or rather, at my ears, which are my most identifiable feature now. But the students in the auditorium can’t see me as clearly as the others. Especially since I’m one of the shortest ones of the group, and the ordering of where we’re standing is clearly by rank and not height.

“But that’s not all. This exceptional student has reached rank seventy-nine as a Class I student! Something only one person has ever done before, with that being the current headmaster of our wonderful university, White! One of the five Knights!” he continues, but this doesn’t have as much of an effect on the students since they had already seen that in the rankings earlier. “And last, but certainly not least. Scarlet Asger-” he pauses to hit his cane against the floor again, teleporting me out in the open, in front of the other students “-has the highest recorded capabilities in all of human history, even breaking past the proposed theoretical limit!”

Now that gets a reaction out of the students, many of whom shoot out of their seats. Although I notice that none of the professors seem surprised, even if I do see quite a few predatory looks from them that sends shivers down my spine.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have done so well in the tournament after all.

“Gee, are you just realizing this?” Tar says before continuing with as much sarcasm as possible, “You hate attention. So why did you go so far to get it?”

I blink in surprise at that.

Because of the rewards it’ll get me? And because Allen told me to do as well as I could? To go all out.

“And the real reason?” Tar asks, almost making me frown, but I hold back on account of the thousands of people staring at me in shock and the massive amount of noise beating away at my head from them.

Uh.

Because not giving it my all would wound my pride?

“Exactly,” Tar says before sighing. “I guess you’ll probably have better luck just trying to grow stronger as fast as you can than fighting your instincts at this point.” He pauses then adds, “They are called demonic instincts after all, but I just kind of thought you’d be able to fight them thanks to you being part human.”

I blink in surprise at that, confused as to what he means, but the vice-headmaster begins speaking, taking my attention away for now.

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