At nine in the morning, the opening ceremony was held in the school auditorium as scheduled.
There were three grades in total, about six to seven hundred students altogether, each grade with just over two hundred students, and each grade divided into roughly ten classes.
Nothing much had changed.
It was just the usual old clichés—things like the student council president, "Raikiri" Toudou Touka, explaining this year's changes in school regulations.
During this, Harumura Makoto nearly dozed off.
But at the very beginning, he did perk up a little.
After all, this student council president happened to match his taste quite a bit. Out of simple appreciation for beauty, he looked at her a few more times.
Still, such tedious explanations didn't last very long. After about an hour, they were dismissed back to their assigned classrooms.
Class 1-3!
Harumura Makoto had just stepped through the doorway when a figure blocked his way.
"Harumura-kun!"
An excited voice called out.
It was a short-haired blonde girl with a very youthful, cute face, round-framed glasses perched on her nose. She came up to him with great enthusiasm.
"Hello, Harumura-kun. I'm Kusakabe Kagami. I'm a reporter for the news club. Could I interview you for an article?"
Kagami giggled, her hands tucked behind her back as she leaned forward slightly, deliberately accentuating her impressive figure.
"I think I remember you. Yesterday, weren't you the one recording my match with Stella?"
Makoto frowned, instinctively taking a step back, but then recalled indeed having seen her in the stands yesterday.
"That's me! Thanks to me, you're already a hot topic among the girls in this school."
Kagami leaned in closer, then pulled out her phone from her pocket.
She quickly pulled up a video and pointed at the view count before gesturing toward the girls inside the classroom.
"Three thousand views?"
Makoto glanced at it and couldn't help but react.
The entire school only had around seven hundred people. Even if you added the staff, that was barely eight hundred.
Which meant that this video had been watched two to three times per person on average.
Some people had clearly watched it many more times.
"Look at the reactions from your classmates. I think I'm the one who's going to get cornered after class and beaten up."
Kagami put on a fake look of fear as she stepped aside, making room for him.
Just a moment ago, she had been blocking the doorway, so he hadn't been able to see inside.
Now he could see clearly.
The boys were glaring at him with mostly hostile expressions, though a few looked indifferent.
The girls, on the other hand, looked at him with mostly burning gazes, though some were simply curious or intrigued.
"What the hell is this?"
Was this what it felt like to be greeted with such a scene for the first time?
It left Makoto a bit at a loss.
"I told you, everyone's curious about you! See? Stella may be an A-Rank knight and also draws attention, but it's nothing unusual. Everyone already knew long beforehand that she was coming to the academy. But you, Harumura-kun—you're different."
Kusakabe Kagami's voice was brimming with excitement again.
"An A-Rank knight suddenly appears out of nowhere, someone no one knew anything about before. And then you fought Princess Stella to a standstill—no, you even defeated her. Don't you think that alone would cause a sensation?"
"Alright, fine!" Makoto was completely out of words. "In that case, could you give me some time tomorrow for an interview?"
"Everyone really wants to know more about you, Harumura-kun."
Seeing she had established some rapport, Kagami tried to press her advantage.
"Alright everyone, back to your seats now, homeroom is about to begin."
Just when Makoto was starting to get fed up with her persistent requests, a weary-sounding voice came from outside.
"That's enough for now. You can talk about interviews later. For now, listen to homeroom."
Taking the hand of the sulking Stella beside him, Harumura Makoto led her over to sit by the only familiar face he had met earlier that morning—Kurogane Ikki.
"You don't seem very comfortable with all this."
The one speaking to him was naturally Kurogane Ikki.
In this classroom, Kurogane Ikki looked almost like an outcast.
The long, shared benches were meant to seat several students in a row, but Ikki sat alone, having the entire row to himself.
Naturally, Makoto led Stella there to sit as well.
"Yeah, I'm really not used to it. I've never experienced this kind of thing before."
Slumping into his seat beside Ikki, Makoto sighed helplessly.
Honestly, the looks from earlier weren't just curiosity. In those girls' eyes, he could clearly feel desire.
The kind of desire that wanted to play a certain "basketball" with him.
Given this, it probably wouldn't take more than a wink after class before several of those girls would happily follow him to start a very lively "game of shooting balls."
This was adoration!
Of course, it wasn't as though he had never been looked at this way before.
After all, the girls in his own organization, Leo, often looked at him with similar eyes.
But this was different. The girls in his group had spent a long time with him, or had been genuinely touched by his personality.
These classmates, however, were different.
They had never spoken to him, never interacted. They only knew him from watching a single video.
What did this feel like?
It was like those flashy idols in his previous life—doing nothing much but showing off a little charm, yet drawing countless girls to throw themselves at him, willing to give him everything.
So this is the gap that power creates.
Harumura Makoto immediately understood the reason things had shifted like this.
It was strength.
His face hadn't changed at all—it was still the same as before, handsome enough but not to the point of making strangers worship him on sight.
Otherwise, back in Academy City, it would have already been like this.
The only difference now was power.
"Sounds tough."
Ikki was perfectly calm about it, showing not the slightest hint of jealousy despite the kind of situation that would normally make any man envious.
"Was what you said really true?"
At some point, Stella had leaned close, her blazing gaze fixed on his face.
"What was true?"
Her question was so vague that even Makoto couldn't guess what she meant.
"That thing you said, about not being used to this…"
When he asked back, Stella quickly sat upright again, her face flushed red as she fiddled nervously with her fingers.
"It's true. I've never been through something like this before."
Makoto spread his hands helplessly.
And now he understood. What she really meant was: she was wary of the girls trying to get close to him.
Which could only mean one thing—Stella liked him.
"So, are you planning to accept her interview?" Stella narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him, searching his face.
"No. It'd just be a waste of time. I'd rather spend that time sparring with Ikki."
"I'd like that as well. Harumura-kun's physical abilities are excellent. I look forward to crossing swords with you."
Although Ikki was hopelessly weak in terms of raw power, he had honed an extraordinary eye through years of training.
That was why, even this morning, he had been unable to resist offering Makoto advice.
Watching Makoto's fight against Stella the night before, Ikki had felt regret—so many of Makoto's movements were unrefined, lacking efficiency.
If refined further, this man would be terrifyingly strong.
But even with just his natural reflexes, he was already a worthy opponent.
All swordsmen were troublemakers. The fastest way to grow was always through crossing blades.
Naturally, Ikki was no exception.
"Same here."
"Ahem—Everyone quiet down, homeroom is starting now."
The teacher entering was a very young woman, with long wavy black hair cascading down to her waist, a white blouse tucked into a tight black skirt.
Her figure was excellent—curves in all the right places.
But her complexion was terrible.
Hollow eyes, pale face, and a weak voice no louder than a mosquito's—it looked as if she might collapse at any moment, gravely ill.
"I'm your homeroom teacher, Yuuri Oreki. From now on, please call me 'Yuuri-chan.'"
"'Chan'?"
"What a weird teacher."
"Seriously, can she even teach like this? She looks like she's about to drop dead."
Muttered complaints drifted up from the students.
"Since it's the first day, there won't be class. Instead, I'll explain about the selection matches for the Seven Stars Sword Dance Festival."
She wrote the words on the blackboard, and instantly, Makoto, Ikki, and Stella stopped talking and listened attentively.
This was directly tied to them.
Makoto needed the Seven Stars Sword Dance Festival to fulfill his promise—and attempt to change the world.
Stella needed victory in order to grow stronger.
As for Ikki, he needed the title of Seven Stars Sword King in order to graduate and obtain his license as a Mage-Knight.
So all three listened seriously.
"Fights will be in 'Materialized Form'? The principal's really going all out this year."
Rubbing his chin, Makoto muttered thoughtfully.
Summoned devices had two modes.
In Illusory Form, even a fatal-looking strike would at most knock someone unconscious.
In Materialized Form, however, the battle was real—blades could cut, bones could break, and lives could be lost.
Even with referees, it was nearly impossible to stop tragedy in such life-and-death duels.
"But the format isn't great."
Makoto sighed.
With random matchups and no losers' bracket, it would be difficult to guarantee that the seven strongest would actually emerge.
After all, weaklings could face weaklings, while the strongest might eliminate each other early.
"Whatever. It doesn't matter to me anyway."
He muttered half-heartedly.
If his goal was to take the strongest throne, then luck didn't matter. Only by defeating every opponent could one truly be called the strongest.
"Then, everyone, let's work hard this year together. Let's give it our all!"
"Yeah! Let's go!"
But before she could finish, Yuuri Oreki suddenly went pale, coughed violently, and spat out blood, staining the floor red.
"Whoa, are you alright, Sensei?"
"I'm fine, just frail and sickly…"
The classroom erupted in chaos, students crowding to express concern for their sickly teacher.
"Leave it to me."
Ikki immediately dashed forward, scooping her up in his arms and running toward the infirmary.
"Looks like Ikki-kun knows this teacher well."
With the teacher gone, lessons clearly couldn't continue, so Stella and Makoto got up to leave.
"Not sure, but probably. So what about your spar with Ikki? Looks like it'll have to wait."
At her question, Makoto just raised his student handbook.
"We've already exchanged contact info. And we're classmates. We can spar anytime."
"I see." Stella nodded, then suddenly brightened, her face breaking into a radiant smile. "In that case, you're free for the evening, right?"
"Should be. That legal loli has something else today, so no training for me."
Makoto thought about it for a moment, then snapped his fingers as if remembering something.
"Why don't we decide dinner instead? How about a trip to the supermarket?"