WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 3: Mask. Smiling.

──────

One month after Viktor possessed this body.

Greatest achievement.

Stopped at the academy entrance.

“Has Grandia Academy fallen this far? To think someone this unqualified would dare apply...”

The teaching assistant sighed loudly, as though making sure Viktor heard.

A boy stood awkwardly before them.

Applicant No. 3720. Real name, Viktor.

The teaching assistant clicked their tongue in displeasure.

‘Tch... He looks strange, too.’

Was it because of the mask covering his face?

A clown mask with a wide, beaming smile.

If it was meant as fashion, it showed truly bizarre taste.

The teaching assistant couldn’t shake their unease.

‘What a mess. An absolute mess.’

They looked over the results.

A glowing crystal ball.

[Viktor]

Theory: A+

Stamina: E

Strength: E

Agility: E

Divine Power: E

Curse Resistance: E

Mana Sensitivity: E

He had set the day’s lowest score in every category except theory.

How had someone like this even thought to challenge the entrance exam?

With stats like those, he’d be locked in the duel of the century against a goblin.

Put bluntly, he was at the level of a trash mob.

‘What a funny guy.’

There were always people like that.

People blinded by dreams, chasing goals they had no chance of reaching.

The teaching assistant hated that kind of trash more than anything.

Even as they clicked their tongue, the clown before them kept acting smug.

“Oh? Are my results that bad?”

“If you have eyes, look for yourself. Your overall grade is E.”

“Doesn’t E stand for Excellent?”

“Then what does A stand for?”

“Asshole? Idiot?”

“Do you think that makes any sense?”

The boy reacted so ridiculously, as though he truly hadn’t known.

Strangely enough, it suited the clown mask.

The teaching assistant ignored him and explained the final stage of the exam.

“This is the last stage. You’ll spar with the assigned teaching assistant.”

“A sparring match.”

“You could get hurt. Every year, quite a few people are injured. You should withdraw now. With your ability, you won’t just fail. You’ll get something broken and be carried out.”

“You’re being rather harsh. I came all this way, so of course I should take the exam to the end. Besides, the result hasn’t been decided yet.”

The clown answered leisurely.

The teaching assistant could only snort.

“Ha.”

It hadn’t been decided yet, huh?

It wasn’t entirely wrong.

Theoretically, at least.

It would be different if every score were the lowest, but at least he had earned full marks in theory.

If he got full marks in the final practical, he could barely pass.

‘He might scrape into the last seat.’

The lowest-ranked class, probably the last seat in Class E.

But that was only if he earned full marks in the practical.

‘That makes no sense.’

Lowest marks in every category except theory.

Stamina, strength, magical power... There wasn’t a single area where he stood out.

No, he stood out because he was terrible at everything.

And he wanted full marks in the practical?

In a one-on-one spar with a teaching assistant?

“Are you being stubborn, or do you really not know your place...”

Still, they couldn’t turn away someone who insisted on taking the test.

The teaching assistant decided to hold back as much as possible so Viktor wouldn’t get hurt.

“The practical is simple. Within ten minutes of the spar beginning, you must land three hits.”

“Three times.”

“Any method is fine. You don’t even need to strike me. A brief touch will count.”

“So I only need to brush against you. Three times within ten minutes, too. Isn’t that too easy?”

“...”

Did he really think so?

That was the look the teaching assistant gave the clown.

The boy scratched his head awkwardly.

“Um... Let’s give it a try.”

“Try not to get hurt.”

The condition the teaching assistant had set for passing was a task top Academy students could complete without trouble.

Even middle-ranking students found it difficult, and anyone below that struggled to so much as graze a teaching assistant once, never mind three times.

The teaching assistants didn’t stand still like training dummies.

By the time lower-ranking students might land one hit, the teaching assistant’s fist would have struck them five times over.

“Tch.”

Teaching assistant positions were usually filled by graduates who had finished with excellent grades.

To inexperienced applicants, they were an insurmountable wall.

“Do we start right away?”

“Come at me when you’re ready.”

The clown wasn’t even carrying a weapon.

Only an old-fashioned robe and that grotesque mask.

The teaching assistant let out another sigh.

‘He really has no intention of giving up.’

In the end, they took a stance.

Their fists clenched tight.

The clown, meanwhile, pulled a branch from inside his robe.

The teaching assistant wondered whether it was a spellcasting wand or a magic tool, but it was neither.

It was just an ordinary branch, the kind anyone could pick up from the roadside, with no mechanism or enchantment on it.

“Hehe.”

The boy fiddled with the branch.

For some reason, he kept alternating hands, repeatedly gripping it and letting go.

‘Is he trying to stall for time?’

Just as the teaching assistant tilted their head in confusion, they noticed something strange.

It was faint, but the air around the branch rippled like heat haze.

Their vision began to warp unnaturally.

“...?”

“Then, I’ll begin.”

Before they could react, the clown leaped forward.

The boy charged in a perfectly straight line.

Crack, crackle!

Leaves trembled amid a sound like shattering glass.

As though driven by a violent gust, black cracks appeared in the air.

“What...?!”

The teaching assistant panicked.

It was a sight they had never expected.

Their fist shot out on instinct.

Whoosh!

A clean straight punch.

‘Got him.’

They had predicted his path.

They were certain it was a perfect hit.

But...

“...?!”

Betraying that certainty, their fist struck nothing.

There was no feeling of impact, only the sensation that they had missed badly.

Whoosh!

The teaching assistant stumbled with the momentum.

The clown had vanished from sight.

His silhouette seemed to flicker, then scattered away.

‘He disappeared...?’

In the brief moment they faltered.

Tap.

Someone touched their shoulder from behind.

“That’s one.”

“...?!”

The teaching assistant spun around in alarm and found the grinning clown standing there.

The mask’s eye slits and mouth corners looked torn wider than before.

They shook off his arm and stepped back.

Yet the boy had vanished from before their eyes once again.

Tap.

The branch touched their shoulder a second time.

“That’s two.”

“What...!”

Swish!

They swung an arm wildly, but the clown wasn’t there.

He stood directly ahead, far away.

As though he had never moved from that spot in the first place.

He simply stood there, blankly tilting his head at a steady rhythm.

“...”

Were they seeing things?

Could he be an illusionist?

That couldn’t be.

The boy’s mana sensitivity had clearly been E-grade.

He shouldn’t even have been able to sense mana, much less cast magic.

“Teaching Assistant?”

“...”

“Are you all right? There’s still one left.”

Then...

How could this situation be explained?

Movements they couldn’t follow, a position that changed every moment.

‘What is he doing to me?’

The eyes visible beyond the mask.

For a moment, they seemed to flash bright red.

No.

Had that really been an illusion?

The clown mask’s grin split wide open.

Inside the gaping maw, bloody tears dripped down.

Dozens of sticky tentacles writhed where its tongue should have been.

A chill ran down their spine.

“Gasp, gasp...!”

It was a hallucination.

They blinked once, and everything was normal.

There was no red glow, no bloody tears, no tentacles on the mask.

It was only smiling ominously, just as before.

‘A hallucination? A curse? A dream? Or...’

None of those.

This was...

“I’m coming again.”

“...!”

He stepped forward from over there again.

The teaching assistant opened their eyes wide, determined not to lose sight of his movements.

Tap, tap-tap.

His approaching footwork was oddly jaunty.

He seemed to take a few steps forward, then retreat, then even turn gracefully in a full circle.

‘What... What is that?!’

They couldn’t understand the intention behind those steps at all.

They had never seen movements so clumsy in their life.

The teaching assistant clenched their fist.

“Hup...!”

After predicting his path, they loaded magic into their fingertips.

They abandoned the thought of subduing him without hurting him.

This was an unpredictable opponent.

Even if it hurt a little, they would make sure to subdue him.

A white arrow drew taut, as though nocked on a bowstring.

-Lightning Magic, Third Form-

‘Thunder Arrow’

Crackle!

Flashes and electric current shot in every direction.

This time, they were certain they had him.

But...

Flicker.

He vanished.

His feet flickered, and the blur spread across his entire body.

When the teaching assistant opened their eyes again, the clown was gone...

“That makes three.”

Tap.

As always, he appeared behind them.

The branch rested lightly on their shoulder.

A cold sensation brushed past the back of their neck.

The teaching assistant didn’t even turn around. They could only stand there in a daze.

‘This...’

No.

It wasn’t that their eyes had failed to keep up.

This wasn’t something that simple.

They had sensed no power at all.

No trace of sorcery, mana, or Divine Power.

“How...”

The teaching assistant murmured vacantly.

“How did you...?”

Every stat was E-grade.

Those movements were impossible at that level.

Step. Step.

Footsteps rang out with unusual clarity.

The clown slowly approached and leaned his head forward in front of the teaching assistant.

“Oh?”

The mask.

Smiling.

“Is something wrong?”

The teaching assistant swallowed.

Footnotes:

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