After the buffe- Ahem—after the mission was over, Knox returned to Kizen in a thoroughly satisfied mood.
With the mission period now over, life at Kizen gradually returned to its usual rhythm, and with it came the beginning of another stretch of academy life.
When Knox stepped into the classroom again after being away for several days, he immediately noticed that the atmosphere was far livelier than usual.
Laughter came from every corner of the room, overlapping with the constant hum of excited conversations. Everyone seemed busy exchanging stories from their respective missions, comparing experiences, boasting about achievements, or complaining about things that had gone wrong. At this rate, it didn't seem like they would run out of things to talk about anytime soon.
Knox blinked once as he took in the mood.
"Hmm?" he murmured, tilting his head slightly. "Why does the atmosphere here feel kind of... sweet? Like cake or something?"
His gaze drifted across the classroom as he looked for a seat, only to catch sight of several familiar faces gathered together.
Cindy, Claudia, Merida, Meilyn, and Jamie.
The moment he spotted them, a smile naturally formed on his lips.
"Cindy, Claudia, Merida, Jamie, and Meilyn~ Good morning."
A few students nearby glanced in his direction, and more than one girl visibly froze for a second after seeing him smile like that. For reasons known only to themselves, the strange determination some of the girls in the class had been building up only seemed to grow stronger.
Meanwhile, the group he had called out to reacted in their own ways.
Cindy immediately smiled and waved back at him without hesitation. Claudia and Meilyn, who had been chatting just a second earlier, both stiffened slightly before hurriedly hiding something behind their backs. Merida only glanced at him once before looking away as if none of this particularly concerned her.
"Even though it's only been a few days," Knox said as he walked over, "should I still say long time no see~?"
As he drew closer, Meilyn flinched and instinctively took half a step back before stopping herself. Claudia, after a brief effort to compose her expression, greeted him with a soft smile together with Cindy, while Jamie adjusted her glasses and returned his greeting with a gentler smile than usual. Merida, meanwhile, simply raised a hand a little and muttered a casual, "Sup."
"Ohohoho! Knox, you have to hear about my achievement later!" Cindy declared proudly, already looking like she had been waiting for the chance to say that.
That made Claudia, Jamie, and even Merida let out small laughs.
Meilyn shot Knox a narrow look, then cleared her throat as if trying to recover her composure.
"You really are a little shameless, aren't you?" she said.
"Huh?" Knox tilted his head again, looking genuinely puzzled.
Claudia let out a small breath before smiling at him properly this time. "Knox, welcome back."
"Hello, hello, Claudia," Knox replied easily. "How did your mission go?"
"I finished it safely," Claudia said. Then her expression shifted into something more complicated, somewhere between disbelief and resignation. "As for you... well, this is actually what I wanted to say earlier, but honestly, Knox, what you did at the Dresden royal palace has already spread through the Dark Alliance."
Knox blinked. "Ohhh?"
Before Claudia could continue, Jamie stepped in, pushing her glasses up as she looked at him with bright, barely restrained excitement.
"She's right, Knox! But first of all, I also heard that you performed another amazing song in the royal capital of Dresden. I really wanted to hear it myself..." she said, only to quickly shake her head and refocus. "But putting that aside, you were incredible. To think you defeated the entire Fourth Knight Order of the Kingdom of Dresden..."
Merida, still looking half-asleep as always, lifted her gaze and added in her usual flat tone, "...Knox, I think you got another nickname. Or maybe a title."
Then Cindy placed a fist lightly against her mouth and said in a deliberately dramatic voice, "Ahem, where are my manners? Isn't this the famous Divine Blade of Kizen~?"
Knox stopped.
For the first time since walking over, he looked honestly thrown off.
"Hah?" he said. "Divine Blade? Where did that even come from?"
On the surface, he sounded more baffled than anything else, but inwardly, his thoughts had already skipped somewhere else entirely.
Damn. Divine Blade? Is that a coincidence?
I did use Eight Leaves One Blade... and even Shizuna's version of it at that. So how did I end up with a title that sounds way too familiar to that whole line of swordsmanship...?
That was not exactly the kind of overlap he had been expecting to run into here.
For a brief moment, Knox wasn't even sure whether to laugh, sigh, or feel mildly offended on behalf of a completely different world.
Cindy, of course, took his confusion as the perfect opportunity to continue.
"Oh, don't give us that reaction now," she said, grinning. "You're already famous, you know? By the time you were on your way back, people were already talking."
"Mm," Jamie added with a small nod. "The title spread surprisingly fast."
Meilyn folded her arms and looked at him with a mixture of exasperation and reluctant admiration.
"You do realize your actions are never exactly subtle, right?"
Knox placed a hand on his chest. "I'm wounded," he said with mock sincerity. "I'm a very modest and low-profile person."
That earned him several immediate reactions.
Cindy laughed out loud. Jamie tried and failed to hold back a smile. Claudia covered her mouth as her shoulders trembled slightly, and even Merida looked more awake for half a second, if only because the statement had been ridiculous enough to pierce through her usual sleepiness.
Meilyn stared at him in disbelief. "Low-profile?" she repeated.
"Yes."
"Modest?"
"Also yes."
"Knox," she said flatly, "you defeated an entire knight order."
He hummed as though considering that point with great seriousness.
"Indeed."
That made even Claudia laugh properly this time.
Knox, clearly pleased with himself, let his gaze sweep over the group again before it briefly flicked toward the things Claudia and Meilyn had hidden behind their backs earlier. The motion was subtle, but not subtle enough to escape notice.
His eyes narrowed just a little with curiosity.
"By the way," he said lightly, "what are you two hiding?"
The effect was immediate.
Claudia stiffened.
Meilyn's expression changed so quickly it was almost impressive.
And just like that, Knox became even more suspicious.
Claudia and Meilyn reacted so quickly that, to Knox, it was practically a confession by itself.
Claudia instinctively pulled her hands further behind her back, while Meilyn immediately turned her face away as though the wall beside her had suddenly become the most interesting thing in the classroom.
Knox's eyes narrowed a little.
"Oh?"
Cindy, who had already caught on several seconds ago, looked like she was having the time of her life.
Jamie adjusted her glasses, clearly trying very hard to remain polite and not smile too much, while Merida watched the entire thing with the detached expression of someone who had just found unexpectedly decent entertainment.
Knox took one step closer.
Then another.
Claudia visibly tensed.
Meilyn, sensing danger for reasons she could not have logically explained, immediately spoke first.
"Claudia should go first," she said.
Claudia turned to her at once, startled.
"M-Me?"
Meilyn folded her arms, though the faint color on her face made the gesture far less convincing than she probably wanted.
"Yes, you," she said, trying to sound firm. "You were the one holding it properly earlier."
Claudia blinked, still flustered.
"But you also—"
"That's different."
"How is it different?"
"It just is."
Cindy had to press a hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing too loudly.
Jamie lowered her head for a second, shoulders trembling ever so slightly, and even Merida looked more awake now, if only because the situation had become impossible to ignore.
Knox, meanwhile, looked between the two of them with growing curiosity, his expression becoming just a little more innocent than before in a way that usually meant he was absolutely aware of what he was doing.
Slowly, he leaned a bit closer to Claudia.
"Claudia~"
That one word, delivered in a soft, faintly pleading tone, was devastatingly unfair.
Claudia froze on the spot. Her face warmed almost instantly, and for a brief second she looked as though her thoughts had simply stopped functioning.
Meilyn's eyes widened in disbelief.
He's using that tone now? Seriously?
Cindy nearly lost the battle against her laughter right there.
Knox tilted his head slightly, the picture of harmless confusion.
"What are you hiding?"
"I-It's not..." Claudia began, only to falter halfway through.
Knox remained right there, looking at her with the same gentle, shamelessly expectant expression.
"Is it something bad?"
"N-No."
"Then is it something good?"
Claudia's lips parted, then closed again.
Meilyn clicked her tongue softly and looked away.
Coward, she thought, although whether she meant Claudia or herself was becoming harder and harder to tell.
Claudia hesitated for another second before glancing nervously at Meilyn, clearly hoping to receive some kind of support.
Instead, Meilyn immediately said, "You were the one who wanted to give it first."
Claudia stared at her in disbelief.
"You're the one who said you had to do yours first, or mine would look plain!"
"I did not say it like that!"
"You basically did!"
"That is absolutely not what happened!"
Knox blinked once. Then twice.
"...Yours?"
The moment that word left his mouth, both girls went still.
Cindy was now very openly enjoying herself.
Jamie pushed her glasses up again, though this time it looked more like she was doing it just to hide the smile in her eyes.
Merida, in a rare display of interest, muttered, "Checkmate."
Claudia looked down in defeat for all of two seconds before finally, very slowly, bringing her hands forward from behind her back.
What she had been hiding was a small box, neatly wrapped and carefully decorated. It was not flashy, but it was obviously prepared with care, from the ribbon tied around it to the way she held it as though even now she was worried about presenting it wrong.
At the sight of it, Knox blinked again, this time in genuine surprise.
"A cake?"
Claudia gave the smallest nod, her face still faintly red.
"Yes... Today is Cake Day, after all."
Ah.
So that was why the atmosphere felt like dessert.
That explained it.
Knox's gaze flicked briefly around the classroom again, and now that he thought about it, the unusual sweetness in the air, the strange excitement, and the subtle reactions from several of the girls suddenly made much more sense.
He looked back at Claudia, then at the box in her hands, and his expression softened into something warmer.
"For me?"
Claudia nodded again, somehow managing to look both happy and mortified at the same time.
"Yes. I was going to give it to you earlier, but..."
Her voice grew quieter near the end, and she stole one tiny glance at Meilyn before looking away again.
Meilyn immediately stiffened when Knox's gaze shifted toward her next.
There was a very short silence.
Then Knox smiled.
"Meilyn~"
This time, the effect was immediate in a completely different way.
Meilyn frowned at him almost on reflex. "Don't 'Meilyn~' me like that!"
"But you have one too, don't you?"
"I do not."
"You do."
"I don't."
Knox's eyes dropped meaningfully toward the thing she was still very obviously hiding behind her back.
Meilyn followed his gaze, realized the problem instantly, and looked annoyed at herself for approximately half a second.
Cindy finally gave up and laughed.
"Hahahaha! Meilyn, it's over. You've already been found out."
Jamie coughed lightly into her hand, though it did absolutely nothing to hide the smile on her face.
Merida added, in the flattest voice possible, "You're bad at this."
Meilyn looked like she wanted the floor to open up and swallow the entire classroom.
Instead, after a long and deeply reluctant pause, she pulled out her own box and thrust it forward with more force than necessary.
"Fine," she said. "Here."
Unlike Claudia's, Meilyn's packaging was simpler, cleaner, and slightly sharper in style.
Knox looked between the two boxes in front of him, then back at the two girls holding them.
For once, he seemed genuinely caught off guard.
"Well," he said, the smile on his face turning softer and more openly pleased, "this is a nice surprise."
Claudia looked relieved just hearing that.
Meilyn, meanwhile, folded her arms right after handing hers over, as if that would somehow let her reclaim even a shred of dignity.
"It's just Cake Day," she muttered. "Don't make it weird."
Knox accepted both boxes carefully, like they were something more fragile than they looked.
"I wasn't going to," he said.
Then, after a tiny pause, his smile turned just a little more playful.
"But now that I think about it, does this mean I'm popular?"
"Absolutely not," Meilyn said immediately.
Cindy burst out laughing again, Claudia looked like she was trying very hard not to smile too much, and even Jamie let out a small laugh at how fast that answer had come.
Jamie, who had been watching the exchange with quiet amusement from the side, finally stepped forward as well.
Unlike Claudia and Meilyn, she looked far more composed, though the gentle brightness in her eyes made it clear that she had been waiting for her turn.
In her hands was a neatly prepared box, elegant and understated in the same way she usually carried herself.
"Knox," she called softly.
He turned toward her at once, still holding the other two boxes.
"Hm?"
Jamie asked with a small smile, "Cheese, vanilla, or cinnamon... which one do you like?"
Knox fell silent for a moment, as though he were seriously considering one of life's greatest dilemmas.
Then he smiled.
"Hmm, only kids choose," he said. "Adults take them all! Sooo... can I have all of them? Hehe."
Jamie let out a laugh, warm and unguarded.
"No can do," she replied, still smiling. "All right, then. Here, I'll give you the most sought-after one—vanilla flavor."
She held out the box toward him, her expression softening just a little.
"I look forward to working with you next semester, Knox."
Knox accepted it carefully, the amused curve on his lips settling into something gentler.
"Hehe, me as well."
By now, he was holding enough cake boxes to look suspiciously close to opening a small dessert shop.
Naturally, that only made Cindy and Merida finally move in as well.
Cindy approached first, as energetic as ever, practically announcing herself before she even spoke.
"Of course I have one too!" she said, placing a hand on her hip before dramatically presenting a brightly wrapped box with the other. "Did you really think I'd let everyone else do this and just stand there?"
Knowing Cindy, that would have been less likely than the sun rising in the west.
Knox looked at the box, then at her grin.
"Now I'm curious. What kind of cake did you bring?"
Cindy lifted her chin proudly.
"Strawberry."
That fit her so perfectly that Knox almost laughed on the spot.
Bright, cheerful, sweet, and impossible to miss.
"Very Cindy-like," he said.
"Oi, what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I could guess the flavor before opening the box."
Cindy narrowed her eyes for half a second, then ended up laughing anyway.
"Hmph. Fine, I'll take that as praise."
She pushed the box into his hands with a pleased smile.
"Make sure you appreciate it properly, okay?"
Knox nodded with exaggerated solemnity.
"Of course. I shall treasure this strawberry masterpiece."
Cindy looked delighted by that answer, even if she tried not to show it too openly.
Then Merida stepped forward.
Compared to Cindy, her approach was far less dramatic. She simply moved up beside them, holding out her own box with her usual sleepy expression, as though handing someone a Cake Day gift required no more energy than passing over lecture notes.
"This is mine," she said.
Knox blinked.
"That's it?"
Merida gave a slow nod.
"Yes."
He looked down at the box in her hand. Unlike Cindy's bright wrapping or Jamie's elegant presentation, Merida's was simple and plain, with no extra decoration at all. It was neat, though, and somehow that made it feel even more like her.
"What flavor?" he asked.
"Coffee."
Knox paused, then looked back at her.
"That is also very Merida-like."
"Yeah."
"That's not even a denial."
"I wasn't trying to deny it."
That made him laugh quietly.
He accepted the box from her as well, now very much committed to balancing an increasingly absurd number of cakes in his arms.
"Thank you."
Merida gave a small shrug.
Knox stared at her for a second before letting out another laugh.
Cindy glanced at the growing stack in Knox's arms and whistled.
"Wow. You really are popular."
Merida, meanwhile, glanced at the cakes in Knox's arms and added in her usual flat tone, "At this point, even if you say no, the evidence is pretty bad."
Knox looked down at the collection he was now holding—Claudia's, Meilyn's, Jamie's, Cindy's, and Merida's—then lifted his head again with a grin that was equal parts amused and pleased.
At that moment, two more girls from Class A approached him.
"Hey, Knox!"
"Here! Cookie cake!"
"And mine's matcha cake. Thanks again for helping me with my Magical Combat stance last time!"
Before he could even respond properly, the two of them had already added their boxes to the growing stack in his arms, balancing them on top of the others with surprising confidence. Knox looked briefly caught off guard by the sudden increase, but it did not take long for a bright smile to spread across his face again.
"Thanks, girls. I'm glad I could help~"
"...Ah."
That soft, easy smile landed harder than either of them had apparently expected.
Both girls immediately turned a little pink.
Knox, completely unbothered, adjusted the stack in his arms and added, "I'll enjoy them properly, hehe."
"Y-Yeah!"
"Please do!"
The atmosphere that followed turned a little awkward, though not in a bad way. If anything, it was strangely sweet in a way that made the whole exchange feel even more obvious to everyone watching. After a few more flustered words, the girls hurried off with quick goodbyes, clearly deciding that staying any longer would only make things worse for themselves.
Meilyn, who had been watching the entire thing with her arms crossed, clicked her tongue under her breath.
"...Idiot," she muttered.
A second later, she frowned and added a little too quickly, "But those were just thank-you gifts, right? Including mine."
Her tone was nowhere near as calm as she probably wanted it to be.
Nearby, Claudia's eyes followed the two departing girls for a moment with a quiet, thoughtful look, as though she had already committed their faces to memory for reasons she herself might not have wanted to explain out loud. Then she turned back to Knox and let out a small laugh.
"Knox, you really are popular."
"Hmm?" Knox tilted his head. "I believe we already established that this is slander."
Cindy immediately snorted.
"That pile in your arms says otherwise."
After that brief commotion, Knox finally made his way to his seat and sat down together with the others from Group 8—Claudia, Cindy, and Merida—while Group 7, made up of Simon, Meilyn, Cami, and Rick, settled nearby as well.
Once seated, Knox carefully began arranging the cakes he had received across his desk with the kind of attention one would usually reserve for handling either important documents or unstable artifacts.
For a very short while, it looked like things might calm down.
But....they did not.
One girl came over.
Then another.
Then two more.
Some approached shyly, some with awkward confidence, and some clearly using "thank you for the other day" as a pretext so transparent that even Merida, in all her usual sleepiness, looked mildly impressed by the attempt. One after another, more cake boxes were placed onto Knox's desk until the neatly arranged collection turned into a steadily growing tower.
Cookie cakes.
Fruit cakes.
Chocolate cakes.
Small cakes, large cakes, expensive-looking cakes, and one cake that looked slightly lopsided but had clearly been made with intense sincerity.
By the time the latest wave finally retreated, Knox's desk no longer looked like a student desk at all.
It looked like a dessert counter under siege.
He stared at the mountain of cake in front of him for a long second.
Then, very slowly, he looked up.
"...I'm not going to get diabetes from this, right?"
Cindy burst out laughing immediately.
Jamie had to turn away and cover her mouth.
Claudia lowered her head, shoulders shaking softly as she tried not to laugh too much, while even Meilyn's expression cracked for a second despite herself.
Merida, after giving the absurd mountain on Knox's desk a long and very serious look, replied in her usual flat voice, "At this point, I think you should start worrying."
That only made the laughter around him spread even further.
From the far corner of the classroom, another familiar figure finally caught Knox's eye.
Hector.
He was sitting with his legs spread wide and his arms folded, looking thoroughly irritated with life in general, which would have been intimidating if not for one very unfortunate detail.
There was a ridiculous party hat sitting squarely on his head.
To make the scene even better, the desk in front of him was piled high with cake boxes, stacked so absurdly high that it looked less like a student desk and more like the aftermath of a bakery raid.
Knox stared for half a second.
Then he broke.
"Pfft—hahaha!"
The laugh escaped him so suddenly that several heads turned at once.
Knox pointed shamelessly in Hector's direction, looking far too delighted by what he was seeing.
"Hector," he said between laughs, "I'm pretty sure I've seen hats like that at children's birthday parties."
The effect was immediate.
Laughter broke out here and there across the classroom, with Cindy being the loudest offender by far. Jamie lowered her head at once, shoulders trembling, while Claudia pressed a hand over her mouth in a losing battle to stay composed.
Even some of Hector's own friends looked like they were on the verge of collapse from holding their laughter in.
Hector's face twitched. For one brief moment, it looked like he genuinely wanted to yell something back.
Unfortunately for him, the absurdity of his current situation had robbed him of most of his authority, and before he could decide whether to snap at Knox or rip the hat off his own head, the classroom door opened.
Jane entered together with the assistant professors.
That alone was enough to bring the room under control almost instantly.
The lingering laughter died down, though Cindy was still visibly suffering from aftershocks.
Jane made her way to the front of the room with her usual composed stride, expression calm and unreadable. Since the first lecture of the day was Elementary Black Magic, nobody was foolish enough to remain careless for long.
Once she reached the podium, Jane looked across the classroom before speaking.
"I have received confirmation that every member of Class A has returned to Kizen safely. As your supervising professor, I am pleased to hear it."
A subtle shift passed through the room. Even if the students did not say it out loud, there was a faint sense of relief in hearing those words acknowledged directly.
Jane's gaze swept over them once more.
"First, there is an important announcement."
One of the assistants stepped forward and handed her a document. Jane took it without pause, glanced over the contents, then continued.
"Starting this week, the duel evaluations will begin."
The reaction came almost instantly.
A low wave of uneasy groans and muttering spread through the classroom, and the cheerful atmosphere left behind by Cake Day chilled almost at once.
Knox, meanwhile, only rested his cheek lightly against one hand and listened.
Jane continued as if none of the complaints mattered in the slightest.
"The duel evaluations will continue throughout the semester. The rules are simple. Each of you will participate in one-on-one battles against other first-year students of Kizen. Your opponents will not be limited to Class A. You may face students from any class, from A to N. All fourteen classes are part of the same competitive structure."
She turned, picked up a piece of chalk, and drew a simple tier diagram on the board.
"The winner moves up to a higher squad. The loser moves down."
Then she wrote the divisions beneath it in neat, precise strokes.
Top Squad: 30%
Middle Squad: 30%
Lower Squad: 30%
Bottom Squad: 10%
"Squads will be updated every week," Jane said, setting the chalk down. "And for those who remain in the bottom squad by the end of the semester..."
She turned back toward the class. Her eyes were cold.
"All of them will be expelled."
This time, the silence that followed was complete.
Even Cindy stopped moving.
The word expelled settled over the classroom like a blade pressed against everyone's throat. The earlier excitement, the Cake Day sweetness, the laughter over Hector's hat, all of it seemed to disappear in an instant beneath the weight of that one consequence.
Claudia sat a little straighter, while even Merida looked slightly more awake than before.
Knox, however, remained quiet, his gaze still on Jane as though calmly sorting through the information without much concern.
————————————
Character Voicelines · Knox: About Matcha Cake
Knox: By the way, Merida… why did you give me coffee flavor? Not matcha… or mint?
Merida: Why would I give you those flavors…?
Knox (looking at Merida's hair): ...(¬‿¬ )
Merida: ...(⇀‸↼‶)
Knox: Huo Huo, your hair is basically screaming "mint" or "matcha."
Merida: (￣д￣)ノ