Jia Xiu was starting to understand.
The so-called Grand Five-Academy Tournament was a competition for the other four schools. Saint Dero treated it like a summer camp.
Though a few people at the school were hoping to achieve good results—him, for example—most were just there for fun.
It was a must-do activity after getting registered caster status.
A school-funded trip, plus a chance to see the different spellcasting styles of several major academies. It would be a waste not to go.
Even if you weren't going yourself, you had to secretly sign up your friends.
And so, a strange phenomenon appeared at the academy.
If you didn't secretly sign up your friend, they might sign you up first. What a disaster.
So the most common approach was not to think about it: sign up first, and whoever was slower got unlucky.
Saint Dero's "Dark Forest."
That way, as long as everyone went to compete and made fools of themselves, no one would be the only one who did.
Saint Dero's "Theory of Relativity."
Everyone was so relaxed about it mainly because Saint Dero was the most academically oriented of the five schools.
They simply weren't good at this sort of thing.
Although they tried to add more practical combat content to the entrance exam every year to change that trend, they weren't expecting the new students to become great fighters. They just wanted a balance between "brains and brawn." Unfortunately, it had little effect.
Still, given their overwhelming lead in top-journal publications, the situation wasn't entirely unacceptable.
Besides, Saint Dero didn't recruit "athletic scholarship" casters.
That meant they didn't accept people with extensive combat experience who had made exceptional contributions in adventuring parties or the military and had been recommended to the academy for further training.
Margaret had only said