This world has a special existence called "Blazer".
They manifest their souls into Device and use magic power to manipulate special abilities; they are rare talents that only appear in one out of thousands of people.
In other words, this is a world of special abilities.
These Blazers, who are born with special abilities, might not even be able to defeat weapons like firearms and artillery. For this reason, the world has specially established an organization to manage these Blazers, even gathering them together for unified education.
Only by graduating from a designated academy and obtaining the corresponding certification can one become a legal "Magic Knight". And those who squander their power without permission naturally become criminals.
And in the island nation of the Far East, there are a total of seven academies used to train Magic Knights, and Hagun Academy is exactly one of them.
Hagun Academy, inside an office.
"The situation is not optimistic..."
Watching the academy's ranking slide year by year, even being at the bottom for several years, the charming black-haired beauty could only sigh helplessly.
Shinguji Kurono is the Director of Hagun Academy, responsible for all sorts of matters inside and outside Hagun Academy.
However, she just took office this year.
Hagun Academy was originally supposed to be one of the top-ranked among the seven academies, but due to some problems that have emerged in recent years, student performance has declined year by year, even affecting the academy's ranking.
In order to revitalize this academy that is about to decline, the former third-ranked in the world, "World Clock" Shinguji Kurono, decided to take on this heavy responsibility.
It's just that, different from what she imagined, after seeing the reality of Hagun Academy at this moment, the newly appointed Director couldn't think of an effective way to solve the problem for the time being.
Admittedly, Hagun Academy is very excellent, and most of the students inside are also very excellent, but there is no one who is "top-tier".
As everyone knows, there is a high wall between "excellent" and "top-tier," just like between being unarmed and being armed.
If 60 out of 100 points were defined as 'excellent', over 95% of the students at Hagun Academy basically met this standard, with many other academies not even having as many students who reached the benchmark as Hagun Academy.
But unfortunately, the standard for 'top-tier' was above 95 points!
Many at Hagun Academy had reached the 60-point passing mark, but most had only just scraped by. There were also students above 90 points, but those who achieved the 'top-tier' score of 95 were few and far between.
In contrast, while other academies had lower passing rates than Hagun Academy, they far surpassed Hagun Academy in terms of 'top-tier' students.
Some might ask, with such a high passing rate, shouldn't it be the top-ranked academy?
In a normal, non-magical world's academy, that might be the case. However, in this country, academy rankings are based on the 'Seven Star Sword Dance Festival'—a one-on-one competition among top-tier students!
So no matter how many students passed, Hagun Academy's performance continued to decline year after year, simply because its highest combat strength wasn't enough.
"Even if we invite some outstanding children from abroad to join Hagun, it can only alleviate immediate problems. To cultivate excellent talent for the long term, it will take considerable time... The Director's work is a heavy and long-term responsibility!"
"Sigh!"
*Click—!*
"Kokonoe, Kokonoe! I came to see you!"
"Huh? Why are you sighing all of a sudden?"
Just as Director Kokonoe was sighing while looking at the academy's internal list, the door to the Director's office was suddenly pushed open. A petite girl in a kimono, with no regard for decorum, barged in, completely treating Director Shinguji Kurono like family.
"I'm worried about this academy's future!"
"By the way, what brings you here, Nene?"
The visitor was a girl even smaller than a high school student. From her appearance, she seemed like just a middle school girl, about the same height as the Empress Cerydra.
But in reality, this petite girl was none other than the current world's third-ranked 'Yasha Princess' Saikyō Neine, who was also Director Shinguji Kurono's rival and close friend from their student days—they were from the same generation.
Strangely, Shinguji Kurono was clearly a married woman, exuding the charm of a professional career woman. Yet her friend looked exceptionally young... Perhaps there was a reason for this?
"What else? I came to see our esteemed Director! After all, not long ago, I passed the provisional qualification exam and became an excellent teacher at this academy!"
Although she said this, Kokonoe knew very well that Saikyō Neine's teaching qualification definitely wasn't earned through her own efforts!
Based on decades of knowing her, Kokonoe was certain that Nene had used her status as the 'Yasha Princess' to forcibly obtain a teaching position at Hagun Academy after learning Kokonoe had become the Director.
If this girl were to take on the role of a teacher, who knows what trouble she'd cause... No, perhaps it's more accurate to say she would definitely cause some trouble?
After all, Saikyō Neine was exactly the kind of person who couldn't hold back her impulses.
"Forget it, it doesn't make much difference."
Regardless of how she obtained her teaching qualification, Hagun Academy's current situation was far from optimistic. And in such unconventional times, unconventional people had to be used!
"Since you've become a provisional teacher, you should naturally fall under my jurisdiction as the Director, right?"
Looking down at the petite girl before her, Kokonoe curled her lips in a joking manner.
"If you cause any trouble, don't blame me for docking your pay!"
"Huh?! Kokonoe, how could you? Aren't we best friends? Now that you're the Director, can't you just handle things for me!"
"You know I'm not someone who takes things lightly... And I can't always clean up after you, can I?"
Ever since the two had met, Nene had been the one to cause most of the trouble, while Kokonoe was often the one to resolve things afterward.
Because of her 'World Clock' ability, which could rewind time for broken objects to some extent, Kokonoe could repair most things Nene broke.
However, just as the two long-separated friends were catching up, the scenery outside the window suddenly darkened...
It was clearly morning, and just seconds ago, sunlight had been shining on the earth.
But now, the sun had vanished, replaced by a shattered sky and some indescribable purplish-black objects... as if something was observing the world from behind those fragments!
*Boom, boom, boom—!*
The intense shaking of the ground was caused by a massive ice-blue meteorite plummeting from the shattered space at incredible speed...
And its trajectory was headed straight for Hagun Academy!
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