With all five quota slots finally filled, I submitted my team roster to the system, where it was promptly approved. Lady Selia clapped her hands in congratulations. "As a beginner, you are restricted to a maximum of five students. Once you become a master instructor, you will be expected to maintain a minimum of five students for each year level."
"Which means next year, you will need to recruit another set of students to train, continuing the cycle indefinitely," Lady Selia explained further. "Now then, Sesil, I hope you and Instructor Klausmann get along well."
"Yes, Aunt Selia," Sesil replied calmly.
"I hope you do not find it strange that my entire team consists exclusively of female students, Lady Selia," I remarked, voicing the slight concern I had harboured regarding the regulations I read last night.
"Not at all. The male students were likely intimidated by the prospect of competition. If anything, it works in your favour—you will not have to deal with romantic drama stirring up trouble among your team members." Lady Selia chuckled softly.
"Intimidated by what?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"You should take a look in the mirror sometime," Lady Selia replied with a light smile.
Was I particularly handsome? I honestly had no idea. No member of Viper 6 had ever commented on my appearance. Besides, I assumed everyone who served in the military ended up looking more or less the same—a buzz cut, a sturdy and slightly muscular build, and clean-shaven with neither a moustache nor a beard.
Shortly after, Lady Selia and Sesil took their leave. I headed straight back to my quarters to draft their training schedules, intending to complete the task before the end of the day. Additionally, I needed to set up a team group chat for them.
I felt no exhaustion whatsoever. After all, my military training was designed to continuously push past normal human limits. I opened the door leading out to my room's balcony, leaving it slightly ajar to let the fresh breeze circulate through the room.
Leaning back against the sofa in my living area, which offered a view toward the balcony, I brought up my device. "Numbers for Princess Thelma, the Tsukinose sisters, Dellila, and Sesil. Add contacts and create a group chat."
[Group chat successfully created.]
Tsukinose Shia is typing... "Nice to meet everyone! I'm Shia!"
Next was Sesil typing a message. "I look forward to working with you all, Instructor Klausmann, fellow teammates."
Shortly after, Dellila and Chia sent their messages almost simultaneously. "Pleased to meet you all, I'm Dellila." "Good evening, I'm Chia."
Princess Thelma typed briefly, but ultimately settled on sending a sticker that read Hello.
"Nice to meet you all. This group chat will serve as our primary line of communication for training matters. See you next week."
"Understood!" Various affirmative responses flooded the chat.
Afterwards, I opened my laptop to review the magic tournament category listings. To my surprise, the list of categories was quite extensive. It was broadly divided into the Open Class and Elemental Classes. The Open Class was self-explanatory—open to all competitors regardless of gender, utilising either elemental magic or abnormal magic like mine. On the other hand, Elemental Class tournaments were separated by gender, with participants competing strictly within their designated elemental attribute. Water magic users fought water magic users, fire magic users fought fire magic users, and so forth.
"Pre-Debut students are required to complete at least six months of training before participating in their debut matches. That means Sesil is the only one eligible to compete in the near future, right?"
I checked the Maiden designation listed under her status profile. Maiden status applied to students who had failed their initial debut matches; it would be revoked once they secured a single victory in a Maiden match before advancing to their second year.
"Sesil's upcoming Maiden Tournament takes place this March. Registration closes at the end of February. Wind Elemental Division. Female bracket. A total of 80 participants registered."
I opened Sesil's combat data profile.
[Sesil I. Ernburg, Wind Elemental]
STR: D-
INT: C-
AGL: B-
WIS: C+
[Match Record]
Female Wind Elemental Debut Tournament: 3rd–4th
Female Wind Elemental Debut Tournament: 5th–6th
Female Wind Elemental Debut Tournament: 2nd
Female Wind Elemental Debut Tournament: 35th
Her record was rather peculiar. She reached the semifinals on her very first attempt, followed by a 5th–6th place finish, meaning she was eliminated right before the semifinals. Then, she advanced all the way to the grand final in her third debut attempt, though she failed to claim victory. Oddly enough, her final attempt dropped drastically to 35th place, failing to clear the group stage playoffs entirely.
I searched through the instructor database for all recorded footage of her debut matches. There was a vast amount of recorded data available, including the name of Sesil's former instructor. Will I have to review all of this?
I jotted down the phone number of Sesil's former instructor, intending to contact them tomorrow to inquire about the root cause of her failed debut attempts. For now, I needed to review the data for the rest of my students.
Next, I opened Princess Thelma's file.
[Thelma Clara von Saxoburg, Abnormal Magic]
STR: E-
INT: S+
AGL: E-
WIS: E+
Good heavens...
At the very least, her attributes were not sitting at the absolute rock-bottom G rank. Aside from her exceptionally high INT attribute, everything else was dismal. It seemed it would take a considerable amount of time before she was ready to compete in a debut match. However, this aligned perfectly with the characteristic traits of abnormal magic users—our intelligence far surpassed that of standard elemental magic users.
I reasoned that her routine would heavily focus on physical conditioning and meditation, interspersed with visits to the library to read alongside me as a form of recreation.
Next was Tsukinose Chia...
[Tsukinose Chia, Water Elemental]
STR: F-
INT: F+
AGL: F-
WIS: C+
I was left speechless. It made sense, considering these were likely the remaining candidates left behind after the initial tryout rounds. The top-tier talent had undoubtedly been secured during the earlier matches.
Next was her younger sister, Tsukinose Shia...
[Tsukinose Shia, Fire Elemental]
STR: D-
INT: G
AGL: F-
WIS: E+
Thank goodness, it was not completely hopeless. The younger sister's stats were slightly better than her elder sister's.
Finally, I checked Dellila Marcus's profile...
[Dellila Marcus, Water Elemental]
STR: C+
INT: C+
AGL: C+
WIS: C+
Her stats were decently balanced across the board; she should not have struggled so much. Why did it take her five tryout attempts just to qualify? It appeared I had assembled a rather unique team of complete underdogs. I resolved to investigate the cause of Dellila's repeated tryout failures at a later time.
I drafted their training routines based on the deficiencies identified in their stat profiles. Aside from Sesil and Dellila, I planned to have the others focus on physical training and meditation first, or accompany them through training inside dungeons. As for Sesil, her main issue seemed to be a mental block.
Ultimately, I decided to look deeper into Sesil's history. During her very first debut tournament, the media had hyped her up extensively due to her lineage as a member of the Ernburg family—a distinguished house renowned for producing elite mages.
However, following her initial defeat in a fiercely contested 4–3 match against a student from another academy, several media outlets began running stories labelling Sesil as overrated.
By her second debut tournament, media expectations remained high. But after finishing in 5th–6th place, public criticism intensified. Comparisons were drawn pointing out that she lacked Lady Selia's impressive winning streak—which had earned her an early military draft—nor did she match her older brother's achievement of securing a double crown in the Open Class tournament.
Her third debut run proceeded smoothly all the way to the grand final. There, she was defeated 5–0 in a clean sweep by a prodigy mage from St. Icarus Academy. Following that defeat, her instructor reported a drastic decline in her training performance.
The underlying cause remained unidentified, ultimately leading to her total failure in her final debut attempt.
If my hypothesis is correct, was Sesil crushed under the weight of high public expectations? She allowed herself to be overly affected by the news coverage surrounding her.
I re-examined her psychological evaluation data; system analysis confirmed that her mental condition remained in a downward trend. It was likely a lingering side effect of her third tournament—a smooth run that ended tragically in an absolute defeat.
It must have felt similar to deploying on a mission where everything went smoothly, only to be forced into a retreat because another unit failed their objective.
Having concluded my preliminary investigation into Sesil's situation, I decided to turn in, as it was getting late. I shut and locked the windows, turned on the air conditioning, and went straight to sleep.
The next morning, while out for my regular jog, I encountered the Tsukinose sisters along the path adjacent to the female dormitories.
"Come on, Sister! We've only done one lap, and you're already exhausted?" Shia slowed her pace to help support her sister.
"Good morning," I greeted them both.
"Good morning!" Shia replied, looking entirely unfazed by the run.
"M-morning..." Chia managed to reply, gently massaging her leg.
A glance suggested her running shoes were ill-fitted. I knelt to examine her foot. "May I take a look at your foot?"
"Y-yes." Chia winced in pain as I carefully removed her shoe.
Her foot showed signs of chafing, and her ankle appeared slightly swollen.
"This looks concerning. You sprained your ankle and kept running on it?" I asked, bewildered.
"Big Sister fell earlier," Shia explained. "But she insisted she was fine, so we kept running. Honestly, Big Sister, if it hurts, you need to say something! You don't have to force yourself to keep up with me."
"I was just so happy that we could finally run together, and that I managed to keep pace with you," Chia pouted, her lips swelling in annoyance. "Besides, Instructor, thank you for yesterday's advice. Thanks to your suggestion, I was able to run at Shia's speed."
"That may be true, but pushing yourself too far is counterproductive. Official training hasn't even begun, and you've already injured yourself." I knelt back down, placed my hand gently over her swollen ankle, and cast a basic first-aid healing spell.
Chia winced slightly as the magic took effect, gradually reducing the swelling along her skin.
"We should head to the academy infirmary now."
I accompanied her to the academy infirmary for further treatment. Even though I was not responsible for her injury, the attending doctor and nurse lectured me on the importance of not overworking my students.
"Well... somehow this became my fault..." I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.
Shia giggled at the sight of me being chided by the medical staff. "It's understandable they thought you were forcing Big Sister to run beyond her limits, Instructor."
"I'm sorry for causing you trouble, Instructor," Chia said apologetically.
"I'll be heading back to finish my run now, Sister," Shia announced, taking her leave. "You can ask the instructor to carry you back to the dorm."
"Hey!"
Before I could finish speaking, Shia had already sprinted off.
"Is your sister always like that?" I asked Chia, who was leaning lightly against me.
"Y-yes... Instructor, would you mind helping me back to the dormitory?" Chia asked, looking at me expectantly.
"Alright."
I carried her back to the female dormitory, stopping at the main lobby entrance. I made sure not to step past the lobby toward her room—the last thing I needed was to ignite a scandal or go viral over an instructor entering the female residential quarters. Fortunately, the dormitory staff on duty spotted us in the lobby and took over, assisting Chia back to her room.
"Time to get back to my morning run."