The person who entered the classroom was a middle-aged man with a neat haircut and wearing glasses. The students stopped their activities and returned to their seats. They were silent and made the atmosphere quiet.
The middle-aged man pushed his glasses and looked at the students in front of him. He briefly stopped his gaze at some students, but it was so fast that no one noticed except for Tenku. He could tell because he was one of those students. After a long silence, the middle-aged man opened his mouth.
"Good afternoon. I am your homeroom teacher. My name is Hayate Yoshioka." Hayate tapped on a large screen behind him, and his name appeared.
Education systems worldwide have developed rapidly; nowadays, conventional whiteboards are no longer used in teaching and learning activities in the classroom.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Yoshioka!" The students greeted Hayate in unison.
"Before I start my class, I want to take your attendance first." Hayate sat in his chair and looked at the tablet in his hand. Then he started calling out the names of the students in class C alphabetically.
"Asami Suzuki..."
"Present!" a female student answered.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Hayate's absence continued until it was Takaya and Tenku's turn.
"Takaya Kitamura..."
"Present!" Takaya answered excitedly.
"Tenku Okuihara..."
"Present." Tenku answered in a weak voice.
But this time, Hayate only glanced at him briefly and shook his head. Then he looked at his tablet again and continued attending to the class's students.
After finishing his attendance, Hayate stood up from his chair and looked at the students. After that, his face turned serious.
"High schools in this era are different from those in the past. Some of you must already know that there have been major changes in education systems worldwide after the Space Collapse." Hayate said and looked at the students in front of him. Some of them nodded, and others shook their heads. After getting an answer from them, Hayate continued his explanation.
"The curriculum in schools has changed except in elementary school. In middle school, the curriculum is 50% general lessons, and the remaining 50% is about Realizers. Whereas in high school, you will only get 10% lessons in general, 20% about Realizer, and the largest portion with a percentage value of 70% is real combat practice." Hayate stopped his explanation and saw the response from the students.
The students nodded because Hayate's words were true. They get such a curriculum while in elementary and middle school. But then, some of them were shocked because of the drastic curriculum change in high school, and their main concern was that 70% of it was real combat training. This made some students in the class feel worried.
"You should be able to understand my explanation. With a percentage value of 70%, you will do more physical exercise and combat. Although intelligence is needed, the most important thing for a Realizer is strength. Your abilities will show your worth. Are you a gifted student with an unlimited future or just a useless loser? This will be proven once you have obtained your Phantasmal Object." Hayate said nonchalantly.
"Are you saying we will be awakening our Phantasmal Object today?" A student raised his hand and asked. The students in the class became noisy. Some of them felt excited, and others felt nervous.
"You are right. Today you will awaken your Phantasmal Objects. But before that, let me explain a bit about this. Humans had two methods to manifest their Phantasmal Objects. The first is natural awakening, and the second is altar-assisted awakening." Hayate explained, and the students listened seriously.
"The first method was rare, and only Realizers in the early period of space collapse could do it because they only used the potential of humans without using the help of any objects. Therefore, we will use the second, easier method. You will be assisted by the altar to awaken your Phantasmal Object, and the requirement is that you must be at least fifteen years of age to do so. But for students who have naturally awakened their Phantasmal Objects, you can tell me because the school will give you special training, and you will get preferential treatment." Hayate looked around and hoped that one of the students in the class would stand up.
Tenku just kept quiet and looked at Hayate lazily. He would never say that he had awakened his Phantasmal Object because the gains would not be commensurate with the dangers that would come to him
After a long wait, Hayate was disappointed that none of his students had his Phantasmal Object awakened naturally.
"Okay. You all come with me. We will go to where you will awaken your Phantasmal Object." Hayate walked out of the classroom. The students stood up from their seats and followed closely behind.
Hayate and the students used the elevator to go down to the basement of the school building. The students were shocked and amazed when they stepped out of the elevator and saw a vast hall with a giant altar in the center.
Tenku looked around the area and found new students from other classes. They would also be awakening their Phantasmal Objects today. If one class numbered forty people, the number of students in the hall was more than two hundred. Tenku also saw Akina and Asuka among them.
Akina was chatting with the female students and snorted when she saw Tenku. On the other hand, Asuka didn't notice her presence because she was chatting with a male student. Tenku feels he has seen him somewhere. While Tenku was trying to remember, a voice suddenly sounded next to him.
"Isn't that girl the one you have lunch with under the big tree? And that guy is the new student representative, right?" a student from class C said.
Tenku turned his head to the side and saw the student speaking to him. That person wasn't Takaya because he was chatting with another student. He was a boy of a rather fat build and short black hair.
"You are…" Tenku was sure he had never met the boy, and he was confused because the other party suddenly talked to him.
"Ah! I apologize. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Noboru Hagiwara, and you can call me Noboru. We will be classmates in the future. So please take good care of me." Noboru smiled widely and offered a handshake to Tenku.
"I am Tenku Okuihara. You can call me Tenku." Tenku nodded and accepted his handshake.
"Isn't that girl your lover? He seems close to the new student representative." Noboru repeated his previous question.
"No. We were close only because we attended the same elementary and middle school. You could say that we were childhood friends." Tenku replied calmly.
"I'm sorry that I guessed it wrong. You are lucky to have a childhood friend as beautiful as her. But, it's more fun if you can be a popular man like him. He was the girl's dream boy with a very handsome face and athletic body." Noboru looked envious when he saw the new student representative flanked by Asuka and another girl.
"Is that so?" Tenku doesn't care about that. He had been watching the huge altar in front of him ever since.
Tenku was worried that the Phantasmal Object that would be awakened on the altar was his scythe. The principal immediately recognized that his weapon was not the newly awakened Phantasmal object. He was confident in his current strength, and sure he could beat the homeroom teachers but not the principal.
"Don't you care about that? In this era where polygamy is allowed, shouldn't we enjoy life better? Wouldn't it be great to hang out with pretty girls!?" Noboru said excitedly while looking at the beautiful girls around him.
Tenku frowned because Noboru's nature was similar to Takaya's, except that the first one looked more extreme. But he felt that the two could get along well. When he was about to reply to Noboru's words, an old man with white hair entered the hall accompanied by six people behind him, one of whom was Hayate.
The white-haired old man was the one who also gave his welcoming remarks during the new student admissions ceremony. That person was the principal of Suisei High School, and the six people behind him were the homeroom teachers of the first-year class.
(As I thought, he's strong, and I'm not currently his opponent)
Tenku narrowed his eyes at the white-haired old man.
The principal stopped at the podium, and the six homeroom teachers stood behind him. He smiled warmly when he saw the hundreds of students in front of him.
"If you attended the admissions ceremony, you would already know who I am. But I will introduce myself again to you. My name is Benjiro Araki, and I am the principal of Suisei High School." Benjiro paused for a moment and then continued.
"I won't waste your time with unnecessary explanations. I gathered all of you in this place to awaken your Phantasmal Object and officially become a Realizer. I have heard from your homeroom teacher that neither of you has naturally awakened it." Benjiro sighed heavily and looked disappointed, but his expression quickly returned to normal.
"The giant circular slab in front of you is called the Phantasm Altar and is an artifact that humankind has researched for years. Once the device is activated, you must stand in the center and concentrate on awakening your Phantasmal Object. a large screen beside it will show the rank and name of the weapon you manifested."
"S-rank was the highest and most powerful while F-rank was the lowest and least useful when fighting monsters. I pray that all of you can manifest a Phantasmal Object with a good rank. Then, we can start the awakening ceremony." Benjiro stopped his explanation. He placed his palm on a square box, and the Phantasm Altar emitted a dazzling light.