『Now everybody! Attention! Attention please!』
In contrast to the boisterously excited audience, knowing my actions beforehand and being present during the rehearsal, Sharl calmly called for the audiences’ attention.
By the way, Sharl is a former class D and now a class B mage. Her family is of the purple peerage and is a member of the neutral faction. As visible here, her voice is highly audible, she’s considerably carefree and uplifting for a noble-born, and she’s so flexible that she immediately gave an okay when we asked her to be the host of this event.
With Sharl as the main host, she wears an outfit I prepared, unlike the other students I invited for the event management, and she’s completely on display on the midair monitors. As the live host, she’s wearing a ladies’ tuxedo kind of thing. Naturally, one showing a lot of skin… is what I’d like to say, but being both a student and a noble, I went with a modest one.
Even so, Sharl’s breasts are about Urania size and she’s also relatively tall1, so the tinge of eros seems to have caught the male students’ attention.
『The event stage is now ready, so I will now proceed to the explanation of the first event, the Death Bridge Run! As you can see, this is the Death Bridge, running roughly 700 meters long from one end of the venue to another! The participants will be running through this construct!』
Half of the floating monitors in the air are displaying Sharl while the remaining others show a sweeping shot of the bridge from end to end. Here and there are suspicious holes and boxes but, yeah, that’s how it is. Incidentally, I only thought of half of these while the remaining half are by the min-…… no, the earth attribute students2.
『Naturally, this bridge wouldn’t be named the Death Bridge if it was merely an ordinary bridge! As you may observe, this bridge has a variety of traps laid out and each participant will have to overcome them using their own wit and strength!』
A new monitor appeared behind Sharl, displaying super deformed participants and the bridge. The chibi participants attempt to run past the bridge but a variety of traps block their way and only the one pink-haired chibi model manages to break the finish line. Wait? Is that supposed to be me? On closer inspection, the first one to retire looks similar to Glen…… It’s prettily made…… 『Having said that, I’m sure it’s still difficult to understand the rules with this simple explanation. Which is why I would like to show a demonstration! Give your applause to these three brave mages challenging this Death Bridge that is yet to be challenged by sorcerers!!』 「「「Whoaaah!!!」」」
Engulfed in cheers, three students line up at the start of the Death Bridge. They’re wearing a mage-ish looking robe…… or rather aren’t, what they’re wearing is the tracksuit I prepared. To fend against serious injuries, I used magic to put monster leather on the joints and chest for protection. Bloomers? Too bad, I’m in the tracksuit faction!3
『Well then, as it seems like our three challengers are well prepared, let us start immediately! Death Bridge demonstration match! Ready? Go!!』 「「「Uwoooo!!!」」」Oh her signal, the three simultaneously broke into a run. Naturally, since we’re going out of the way to demo, I also prepared prizes for them. For every obstacle they overcome, they get one magical tool, and in the unlikely chance that they reach the goal, they will receive the privilege to join the hot spring trip with the winning team. Obviously, I’m shouldering the expenses. There’s no prize better than this. And perhaps thanks to that, they’re tackling this with all they have.
The midair monitors display the camera shots that are tracking them from behind. Due to that, we’ll also be able to see the obstacles impeding their path and now in front of them is a large towering wall.
『Behold the first obstacle! The Wall Climb is now in sight! As you can see, the goal can’t be reached without overcoming this towering wall! Now, everyone! Please climb over it!』
As Sharl exclaimed, this tall wall is the first obstacle. I don’t remember ever giving it a name, but since it’s hyping up the audience, I’ll allow it. This vertical tall wall does have some bouldering-like protrusions, so as long as you have the stamina, it is actually possible to overcome this even without magic or magecraft.
Well, obviously these magecraft inclined children of nobility wouldn’t really have that kind of stamina, so each of them challenged this obstacle with magecraft. One of them used wind magecraft to levitate herself while another one used earth sorcery to raise his own scaffolding. The last one, oh, is using ice to increase his footholds but that’s a bad move, isn’t it?
While I did say that this can be climbed over normally since there are protrusions, I don’t remember saying that there aren’t any traps among them. Elevating the ground itself below you with earth magecraft and levitating with wind magecraft is good since they don’t touch anything, but increasing the surface area of the protrusions for a better foothold would still end up activating the trap that makes the protrusion itself fall off.
Losing his foothold near the summit of the wall, a challenger fell down raising a pitiful shriek. RIP. While praying for him in my mind, I make sure that he’s not actually dead. Yup, got a broken bone, but that’s it. With this, there shouldn’t be any problem as long as I “Heal” him before leaving him to the relief team.
As I was looking after the student that retired at the first obstacle, then I heard an ear-splitting shriek from the audience seats. I quickly looked at the monitor and saw the wind attribute mage getting caught in the second obstacle’s trap. 『Annnd! Our challenger was swallowed by the second obstacle, the Needle Fang! Now that looks painful! However, worry not! Lady Lily is also responsible for the relief aid, so even if you lose an arm or three, you’ll still be healed in a blink of an eye! Oh, but don’t ever let your guard down!! After all, a terrifying trap will be activated soon! Look, see!』
Sharl’s commentary is filled with her rising energy, but I really don’t think that there are people with three arms, you know? Well, that aside, the trap that is the reason this bridge is called the Death Bridge has now been activated. This time it was activated three minutes after this start which is quite some time but on the event proper, it’s set to activate after one minute.
At the starting area, a large jaw appeared out of the floor. This time it’s only half the width of the bridge but this too is set to be a lot bigger on the event proper. This jaw chomps in place three or so times before suddenly gnawing on the bridge with insane speed. A speed that’s difficult for our noble mages to shake off.
『It’s the ruler of the Death Bridge! Our dear Bigmouth! You’ll get eaten if it ever catches up to you, so please run away quickly!』In contrast to Sharl’s cheerful commentary, the remaining earth attribute mage began running away in desperation. Which is completely understandable, there’s no way he wouldn’t be scared after seeing a giant jaw gnaw a hole and eat through the tall wall and the maw-like needle obstacle that he just passed through.
『hGhGhGhG』 「Hi-hiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!」
The giant jaw chomps on the floor while slowly catching up. The mage frantically dashes onward but naturally, there are still more obstacles right before him and upon failing to create a magecraft scaffolding on the collapsing floor zone on time, he falls from the bridge. Ah, I’m glad that I installed a fall-catching net just in case.
『With this, the demonstration is now finished! Whooh boy, it’s quite loaded with difficult traps, isn’t it! Our mages couldn’t pass through the third obstacle, but how far will our sorcerer friends be able to go!? Don’t miss it now!』
Hearing Sharl’s commentary, the deathly silent audience once again burst into excitement. This course was originally meant to be for sorcerer use, so it’s only natural that mages would have difficulty reaching the goal. Still, it seems that the audiences were rendered speechless by the deviousness of the course. At that rate, it would have dampened the mood of the audience and made this event feel desolate and miserable, so there’s no question that we really were correct to scout Sharl to be the host.4
Nonetheless, every single obstacle is pretty shrewd, aren’t they? Moreover, Bigmouth is there to add a time limit too. As I thought, making things with the late night high is really dangerous. Well, sorcerers should be able to clear the course, so there shouldn’t be any issues.
Now then, as I was occupied with those thoughts, it appears that the participants for the event proper are now ready. Among them, as I expected, is Urania as well. With this being a school event, betting is absolutely forbidden, but if it wasn’t, there’s no doubt that I would’ve bet my every asset and being on Urania. Still, most of the other students might do the same though.5
『Now then, it’s time for the real deal! Event No. 1, the Death Bridge!! Ready? Go!!!』
On Sharl’s signal, the participants all ran at once.Lyly: It’s Lady Dimitrescu all over again!Lyly; Now, I don’t know if this is supposed to be the alchemy students or if most of the alchemy students are also earth attribute students, but this is how it was.Lyly: Kek Bloomers v Tracksuit: Which faction are you? Silva: Bloomers, obviously! You’re not a man of culture if you choose tracksuit! Fire: Both are good, just at different scenes and timing… hehLyly: Some guy just almost got eaten by a giant mouth, of course they’d be scared speechless, lolLyly: Her normal physical abilities plus her focus on using magic to augment her physical abilities really makes this an easy pick.