Chapter 73 Volume II – Chapter 39: Award Ceremony

The lecture hall was a ‘gigantic’ version of the normal school lecture halls. That’s why it had its own ‘building’ directly on the campus, which was the only place where reporters could be present without permission, except directly from the students and their parents.

It was also the only part of the academy that opened to the outside, apart from the entrance gates. This way, no reporter could enter the academy and disturb anyone.

Therefore, as soon as we entered the building, we clearly understood what was going on inside.

While the academy side of the building was peaceful and quiet, the moment I entered, I realized how big an event I was actually in. What I had done in the preliminary had brought me to the forefront more than I thought.

We were surrounded by reporters who were taking us on live TV and pointing their cameras at us. I could hear a few of them chanting my name, ‘Aiden’.

It was actually… a bit scary. Fortunately, the security guards were keeping them away from us. No one was allowed to approach us except for one person who would be assigned to each of us individually after the ceremony.

The academy handles reporters really well.

As we approached the interior of the building, toward the area where the ceremony was going to take place, instead of letting us into the normal audience, they pulled us to the back of the stage.

We passed employees running from one place to another. Some of them were in such a hurry that they didn’t even notice us. Nevertheless, as we got closer to the stage, the chaos diminished and a voice slowly came to the fore.

We could hear the echoing, excited voice of a man.

Apparently, the ceremony had already started… It was just not our turn.

“Listen to me carefully…”

I wasn’t focusing on my surroundings and I was startled to hear a woman talking. I turned slowly toward her.

There was a very serious person in front of us. She was telling us how the ceremony was going to take place. I think we were short on time because she was as urgent and excited as she was serious.

“When your name is called, you will go up on stage, you will line up side by side, and then the rector of the academy will personally present you with a medal. Then the crown prince will personally present you with an award from the kingdom and after that, you will separate and give interviews to reporters. Then you will come back here and you can go to your rooms. Any questions?”

Everyone nodded at her without moving a muscle.

“Good, now focus on the host’s voice and wait for your name to be called.”

The woman quickly walked away from us, a little relieved. So we all focused on the host and I realized that I could easily understand what he was saying.

“What happened in this competition was a direct mistake on the part of our academy… However, we are now devoting a great deal of our resources to investigating this matter!”

Hearing those words made me giggle involuntarily.

You’re the one who planned it, and you’re investigating it?

That’s pretty cool.

“Nevertheless, in this sad event where some of our students unfortunately lost their lives; we have a few students who prevented us from having much greater losses, and they are the stars of this ceremony!”

Okay, here we go.

“Without them, instead of nineteen, we would have had many, many more casualties… Allow me to invite them to the stage for the ceremony. First of all, Adrian Caleo, who made a great contribution to the direct confrontation with the creatures and who was ranked first in the academy!”

There was a round of applause from the back of the stage.

When I turned my gaze to Adrian, I saw that he was a little hesitant and sighed. I put my hand on his back and pushed him toward the entrance of the stage.

He reflexively turned to me after I did that.

“You might be excited, but don’t rub it in your face or the reporters might give you a hard time.”

I said these words with a sarcastic expression on my face, but Adrian looked at me the same way.

“I know.”

With that, he took a deep breath, turned around, and narrowed his eyes.

He braced himself and made his way to the stage.

When Adrian stepped out of our line of sight, the applause was even louder than before.

After the host had said a few more words about Adrian and congratulated him, Lucia, Julian, Celine, and Alice were called to the stage with exaggerated comments.

So much so that even I couldn’t help feeling embarrassed. I kept thinking that he should say something nice about me and finally, it was my turn.

“Finally, there is one person who played a really big role in organizing the students, bringing them together and almost minimizing our casualties… This person also made sure that two of the ‘D’ grade creatures took really heavy blows; Aiden Tenebra!”

Well, that wasn’t so bad, I guess…

I took a deep breath, straightened my outfit, and walked toward the stage, even transferring some mana to the Absolute Mind just in case.

The applause got louder as I walked on stage, just like the others, but I couldn’t help but be surprised when I saw the crowd in front of me, even though I managed brilliantly not to get anything in my face thanks to Absolute Mind.

Were there this many people when I was playing the game?

Although… I guess it might be because far fewer students died compared to then.

In the game, at best, sixty-six students died, at worst one hundred and twenty-seven, but since my involvement, there have only been nineteen casualties. So the number of mourners may be small.

After taking my seat, right next to Alice, I clasped my hands behind my back and glanced at the crowd in front of me.

When my eyes caught a camera pointed directly at me, I focused on it for a moment, but then I squinted as a thought occurred to me.

I wonder… Is Clara watching this?

She still hates me, doesn’t she? She’s probably disgusted by the fact that I’ve taken her brother’s place.

Immediately after these thoughts, I felt my mind refreshing and I took my eyes off the camera and sighed deeply.

Whatever…

“I now invite our esteemed academy rector Melany Quie to the stage for the medallion presentation!”

There was another round of applause from the building. Then, from the other side of the stage, Melany Quie, whom I had met just two days before, came on stage, followed by another woman carrying a tray with six medallions on it.

Melany was wearing a navy blue suit. Her blonde hair and blue eyes matched her outfit. In short, she looked exactly what I think of when I think of a businesswoman. She was just a little more beautiful than she should have been.

Melany slowly approached Adrian, who was first in line, and stood in front of him. Then she took a medallion from the tray next to her and put it around Adrian’s neck.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Adrian, for your help in this incident.”

There was another round of applause from the crowd, and then Melany gave each of us a medallion in turn. When it was finally my turn, she followed the same procedure without changing her expression in the slightest.

When the medallion was placed around my neck, I couldn’t help but feel awkward.

In my past life, although I was quite talented, I didn’t use this talent much, so I never received anything like a medallion.

Now, to have achieved something and to be rewarded for it, I had an involuntary strange feeling.

It’s actually a good feeling in a way, should I do things like this more often?

A wall full of medallions came to my mind’s eye. Then I quickly erased this thought from my mind.

What am I thinking…

“Thank you all again, and keep moving forward with pride, thinking of the lives you have saved. I am sure you will all achieve great heights in the future.”

Melany said this with her usual smile and after a small round of applause, she retreated to a corner of the stage. After that, the host started to say something again, but I didn’t pay much attention to him.

Now we had moved on to the next stage of the ceremony. The prince of the Cevilian Kingdom, in which we live, was going to hand out the awards himself.

The academy, being the most advanced academy in the kingdom, is very close to the royalty. So it’s not uncommon for the royal family to be directly involved in things like this, but he is a prince after all.

“I invite Lucas Cevilian, crown prince of our kingdom, to the stage to represent the royal family and present the awards!”

This time the applause was even louder than before.

At this moment, a figure stepped onto the stage from the other corner of the stage.

He was dressed in what I would expect from a modern aristocrat, a suit-like outfit with a prominent white color.

I say suit-like because the gold jewelry and jewels are so prominent that it gives the outfit a strange look.

Apart from that, the prince had coal-black hair, just like mine, and very bright green eyes. His body made him look like he was in his early twenties.

At least by the standards of my old world.

“On behalf of the royal family directly, I would like to thank you for what you have accomplished.”

His voice was soft. It didn’t have the authoritarian quality one would expect from someone bearing the title of the crown prince, but I knew quite well that he could make it sound that way if he wanted to.

I just wondered why he was here when he was supposed to be practicing his recently acquired skill. I know the heir always comes to represent the kingdom, but right now he’s supposed to be in some kind of closed-door training.

I had wondered about this in the game, but I never knew the answer, so now, with the prince in front of me, I began to study him with all my focus.

“After a little discussion between us, I think we have chosen a rather nice reward for you all.”

The prince waited with a smile on his face, and then someone from the sides of the stage handed out identical pieces of paper and a pen to each of us.

Of course, I was still watching the prince, but I didn’t notice anything abnormal about him.

“You can choose any of the things mentioned on these papers.”

When I took my eyes off the prince for a moment and read what was on the papers, I couldn’t help raising my eyebrows.

Because the awards were exactly the same as in the game.

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