No matter how far they walked, the stone corridor remained the exact same width.
Sconces lined the walls on both sides. The pillars were seamless, and when he looked up, the ceiling melted into the shadows. Flanked in front and behind by spear-wielding soldiers, the line of students was forced forward. No one spoke a word. Only the sound of footsteps echoed back, ripple by ripple, from front to back.
It had not taken long to leave that great hall. People carrying stretchers had swarmed the tilted bus, carrying away the immobile students one by one. As far as he could count, there were four of them. Every single stretcher had been taken in the opposite direction of their line. The rest, starting with those who could stand, were led outside and formed into ranks. Everyone obeyed meekly—undoubtedly because no one knew whom they were supposed to resist.
The sconces along the walls were all identical in design. Brass-colored supports held up shallow dishes, and upon those dishes rested light. Though it was not fire, warmth brushed against his face whenever he passed beside them.
Eiji was fourth from the back of the line. Yuna walked directly ahead of him. Every few steps, she glanced back over her shoulder. Each time, Eiji gestured forward with his chin, and she obediently turned back around.
(...Just how far are they planning to make us walk?)
Eventually, a set of double doors was pushed open by the soldiers, and the line filed into an expansive chamber.
In the back stood a raised dais, upon which a throne was set. Seated there was an elderly man with a white beard hanging down to his chest. Beside him stood a slender figure in a high-collared, gold-trimmed robe.
The students were made to form a single horizontal line below the dais. Kaito stood in the center, with the others spreading out to his left and right. Eiji and Yuna were positioned toward the left. To Eiji's left, three more students were lined up.
The slender man stepped forward, clasping his hands in front of his chest.
"I am the prime minister, Seifert."
After introducing himself, Seifert scrutinized the students' faces from one end of the line to the other, his gaze calculating, as if taking inventory.
"You have all been summoned as hero candidates to stand against the Demon King's army."
Seifert shifted half a step aside, gesturing with an open palm toward a large tapestry hanging on the wall. It appeared to be a map. The continent was rendered in detailed embroidery, its eastern expanse completely blacked out with dark thread.
"Twenty years ago, our eastern border was breached. Ever since, our kingdom has been continuously pushed back. By human hands alone, we can no longer repel the tide."
Toward the right side of the line, a girl spoke up without raising her hand.
"U-Um! More importantly... can we go home? Us, I mean."
"...A method has not yet been discovered."
Seifert did not unclasped his hands.
Someone gasped; someone else sank to their knees on the stone floor. A single person's quiet sobbing broke out, and from there, the crying spread.
Before it could devolve into full-blown panic, Kaito stepped forward.
"Calm down. If we put our heads together, there's definitely a way."
Kaito rested a reassuring hand on the shoulder of a crying classmate. The reach of his voice instantly became his domain.
He looked along the line from left to right, pausing as if carefully weighing his words.
"It looks like... we've run into that 'otherworld transportation' trope from manga."
A murmur ran through the class. Not a single person laughed. Even so, simply having a name attached to their reality helped several students on the floor find the strength to look up.
Kaito turned back to Seifert.
"In stories like this, you get to go home once you beat the Demon King, right?"
"So the legends say."
Seifert's reply ended there. Even when waiting for him to elaborate, nothing more followed. Atop the throne, the old man merely stroked the tip of his beard.
(...Is that really true?)
A tug came at Eiji's sleeve.
"Eiji..."
Yuna was clutching the hem of his sleeve, looking anxious. It was the exact same grip she had used on the bus. In fact, it had always been like that. Whenever fear took hold of her, she instinctively caught his sleeve just like this.
"It's all right."
Eiji gently loosened her grip, taking her hand into his own instead. Yuna's fingers were ice-cold. After a moment, warmth slowly returned to her fingertips.
Kaito caught the exchange out of the corner of his eye.
A man wearing a gray cloak stepped forward from the side of the dais. Seifert introduced him as the appraiser.
Behind him, two soldiers hauled over a heavy pedestal between them. Standing atop it was a crystal pillar roughly the thickness of an arm. Having likely seen centuries of use, countless fine scratches ran across its surface.
Several of those gouges showed signs of repair. The same material had been melted down, poured in, and shaved smooth. The craftsmanship was meticulous, yet the color of the filler subtly stood out. It seemed whoever had mended it was unable to source the exact same crystal.
"You will touch the pillar one by one. Your class and innate skills will be read aloud."
With the appraiser's announcement, the evaluations began from the right end of the line.
When the first boy placed his hand on the crystal, its core flared white.
"‘Sword Saint.’"
A stir rippled through the room. At the sheer sound of the title, the boy puffed out his chest. The students on either side nudged him with their elbows, cheering in excitement.
A "Bow Saint" followed, then a "Barrier Master." Whenever someone froze in confusion, the appraiser offered a brief explanation of their role, each revelation drawing further applause.
The girl who had coordinated the photo-taking order on the bus—Kumiko Saeki, if he remembered correctly—was appraised as a "Healer." Pausing on her way back to the line, she gave a small wave in their direction. When Eiji acknowledged her with a subtle nod, she returned to the ranks looking satisfied.
The next girl was an "Archmage," and the one after that a "Sage." With every reading, the cheers swelled, and the heavy atmosphere in the room shifted. Dread evaporated, replaced by an electric, festive restlessness. As their turns drew near, students adjusted their sleeves and smoothed down their hair.
(People really are fickle.)
Eiji watched the spectacle from the far left. Yuna still had not let go of his hand.
Eventually, it was Kaito's turn in the center. The moment his hand touched the stone, the crystal's light surged straight to the top of the pillar. The appraiser took two steps back and bowed low.
"Lord Kaito Dojima....‘Hero.’"
The hall erupted.
"Are you serious, Dojima?! Of course it's you!"
"Man, give me a break. That's way too much pressure for me."
Gakuto slapped Kaito on the back, and while Kaito put on a self-deprecating grimace, he did not shrug off the praise.
Next, Gakuto placed his hand on the crystal and was declared a "Holy Knight." He pumped both fists into the air with a roar. Atop the dais, the old king straightened in his seat.
When it was Miu's turn, the light rose only halfway up the pillar.
"‘Spirit Mage,’ huh? Well, I guess that'll do."
Tucking her hair behind her ear, Miu stepped back into line and traded a high five with the girl beside her. As she did, her gaze drifted toward the far left.
(Is she looking at... Yuna?)
There was an edge to her expression, almost like hostility.
Perhaps Miu and Yuna didn't get along as well as they seemed to.
The line moved along. After two more students finished, it was Yuna's turn.
Yuna let go of Eiji's hand and stepped up to the pedestal. She smoothed down the front of her skirt with both hands before resting her right palm against the crystal.
The light violently pierced through the top.
A brilliant white beam shot from the pillar's apex, piercing into the shadowed vaults of the ceiling. The soldiers along the walls lowered their spears in awe. The old king leaned forward, white-knuckling the armrests of his throne. The appraiser stood frozen, unable to pull his hands away from the pedestal.
"Lady Yuna Shirakawa....‘Saint.’ Healing, purification, curse-breaking, barriers. In all aspects, the absolute highest rank."
"Heavens. A Saint... Has it not been a full century?!"
Seifert's voice cracked. His clasped hands fell apart as he took one eager step, then another toward Yuna. Even his posture had changed; the haughty expression he had worn when addressing the class had vanished entirely.
For the first time, the old man on the throne spoke.
"You have blessed us with your presence....Those sacred hands of yours shall surely deliver this kingdom from ruin."
Until the king finished speaking, complete silence hung over the hall.
Kaito crossed over from the center and stepped up beside Yuna.
"That's incredible, Shirakawa. With you around, none of us are gonna die."
Kaito placed a hand on her shoulder. Beneath his palm, Yuna subtly turned away.
"What about... Eiji?"
Amidst the roaring cheers, only Yuna looked back. Her eyes searched the end of the line, where the final few awaited their turn.
Standing at the front of that remaining group was Eiji.
Eiji walked up to the pedestal and placed his hand on the crystal.
The light sputtered out in the lower third of the pillar. Rather than a radiant white, it lingered as a dull, motionless yellow.
The appraiser knitted his brows, squinting into the crystal. He parted his lips to speak, then closed them again. He instructed Eiji to take his hand off, wiped the crystal's surface with the sleeve of his cloak, and motioned for him to try once more.
Eiji placed his hand down as told. The light halted at the exact same height.
The appraiser moved around to the opposite side of the pillar, examined it again, and finally found his voice.
"Lord Eiji Kuze. Class... ‘Scavenger.’"
The noise in the hall dropped noticeably.
Leaning in close to the stone, the appraiser read the rest aloud.
"Offensive aptitude: None. Mana capacity: Low. Unique Skill: Relicta Inspectio. Functions only on broken or discarded objects."
Someone let out a scoff through their nose. Then Gakuto's voice carried over from across the room.
"What's that, junk collection? He's basically a garbage picker."
"Gakuto, stop."
"It's a total dud, no matter how you look at it."
"You're taking it too far."
Miu scolded Gakuto, but Kaito said nothing.
"...I see."
Eiji lifted his hand from the crystal and stepped back from the pedestal. Breaking through the ranks, Yuna rushed over to him.
"Eiji..."
Her voice was so quiet it was nearly swallowed by the surrounding chatter. Looking up at him, her brows knit together in deep concern.
Up on the dais, Seifert and the appraiser were still fixated entirely on the "Saint." Only the two or three students standing nearby heard Yuna's voice.
"Haha, man, am I glad I got a real class!"
"A Scavenger... honestly, I'd cry."
A few scattered chuckles arose, only to fade just as quickly. What silenced them was not a sudden burst of conscience, but the call for the next student.
The boy who had been standing to Eiji's left stepped forward in his place. When his hand met the crystal, the light surged past the halfway mark. He was declared a "Shieldbearer," and the hall erupted into cheers once more. The remaining two were evaluated in short order, bringing an end to the line.
The appraiser signaled the guards, and the pedestal was hauled off to the side of the dais. Seifert clapped his hands, beginning an explanation of tomorrow's schedule and their room assignments. The students turned their attention back to him.
Once the briefing concluded, the crowd fragmented into circles.
One circle surrounded Kaito, with Gakuto near its center. Another formed around Yuna, comprising Miu and a retinue of maids brought in by Seifert. Both groups lingered near the dais. As a maid gently tugged at her sleeve, Yuna looked back in Eiji's direction twice, seemingly trying to tell him something, before being ushered away by the attendants.
(She's the Saint, after all. She probably has a lot on her plate.)
Eiji drifted away from the crowds toward an empty corner of the hall.
Since his class was apparently useless to everyone, no one bothered approaching him.
Propped against the wall stood a single sconce. It shared the same design as those mounted throughout the corridor, but its central shaft was snapped midway up. The jagged break was blackened and blanketed in a thick layer of dust. Though the stone floor showed signs of regular sweeping, this fixture had been left entirely untouched. It had likely sat here for decades.
(...Why would they just leave something like this here?)
Eiji crouched down and touched the fractured edge with his fingertip.
When he did, an unfamiliar phrase surfaced in his mind.
(Relicta Inspectio...? What is this?)
The moment he echoed the words in his thoughts, lines of information blossomed in his head.
"Brass. Damaged twenty years ago. Required material for repair: two finger-widths of matching brass."
Up to that point, it read like a set of repair instructions, but the final entry diverged.
"Warped in an incident three hundred years ago."
Apparently, the sconce had suffered structural distortion during an event that occurred in this castle three centuries ago.
Eiji pulled his finger away and touched the metal again. The exact same details flowed into his mind in the exact same sequence. It had not been a fluke.
It seemed this was the Scavenger's skill.
Evidently, it allowed him to analyze a target's material, structure, damage, past state, and latent potential.
(Wait, didn't it break twenty years ago?)
It snapped twenty years ago, but warped three hundred years ago. The timeline didn't align. Leaving the contradiction unresolved, the appraisal offered nothing further and went quiet.
(Well, whatever.)
Eiji stood up and dusted the grime from his fingertips.
A Scavenger's ability works only on broken things... That was what the appraiser had said, and it was certainly true.
However, this world seemed to be overflowing with broken things.
Looking back, even the corridor they had walked through had a cracked wall crudely patched with plaster. A staircase where only a single step had been replaced. An iron band hurriedly bound around the base of a seamless pillar. All of them had been mended, yet none of them had been restored properly.
The filled-in scratches on the appraisal crystal were the exact same story.
(Could it be... that my power might actually be useful in quite a few situations?)
Beginning to see the hidden potential in his ability, he looked around and began lightly touching various worn fixtures in the hall.
Yuna had been taken away somewhere anyway.
With nothing else to do, he was content to kill time right here.
After about ten minutes had passed, the sharp click of shoes against stone echoed from behind him.
"Kuze. Got a minute?"
Eiji turned around to find Kaito standing two paces away. Without him noticing, the surrounding crowds had already dispersed.
After casting a quick glance over his shoulder, Kaito lowered his voice.
"...I figured for something like this, it'd be best coming from me."