Level 1 Strongest Sage 1

Familia, our clan, decided that we’ll participate in the Ultimate Clan Championship.

“The rules of the tournament are also written there, so read it well.”

Irina’s reminder drew my gaze back to the application form that she gave me.

“Oh, so there’s a preliminary qualifying tournament within the kingdom first. It’s set on… next month, huh.”

The Ultimate Clan Championship will have its first round of preliminaries in each kingdom this coming 8th month. If a clan ranks in the top five in their kingdom, they get to move on to the second round, which will take place in the host kingdom of the championship. By the way, this year’s host country is none other than Glendale, meaning we’re gonna have the tournament right here.

There’s about a hundred nations in this world, both big and small, and around 500 clans make it through the first round of the preliminaries. They will then gather in Glendale for the second round, and they’ll have to compete until only the top 10 remain. The final battle will be the deciding factor to determine which among them are truly the strongest, and both royalty and other influential nobles from all over the world will come together to watch that battle.

The clans who made it through the second round and managed to advance to the finals wouldn’t have to worry about running out of commissions apparently, because the mere fact that they accomplished that was enough to prove their strength.

“The finals are in the 9th month, right? Glad it doesn’t overlap with our graduation exams.”@@novelbin@@

“Yup, and lucky the prelims are scheduled on the 8th month, there aren’t many school events during that time either.”

The Ifrus Academy of Magic –which is our school – hold graduation exams and ceremonies on the 10th month. We’re currently Year 7 students, so we’re supposed to graduate this year, but… this Academy has a reputation of expelling underperforming students with bad grades, so graduating isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Around 10% of students don’t make it each year.

“But I’m a bit worried that we won’t have enough time to study for the grad exams-meow.”

“No worries, Merdie. I’ll help you. Let’s study together!”

“Aw, Luna, thanks-meow!” “Uh, can I also join you guys?”

Ryuushin and Merdie seemed worried about the written exams, but Luna, the top scorer of ever single final exam since our first year at the academy, had already offered to help, I believe they’ll be fine.

By the way, Merdie and Ryuushin were anxious, it really isn’t a big deal. The thing is, everyone in our class has exceptionally good grades, so their scores only seem low in comparison.

Luna ranked first in the entire academy in last year’s final exams. I placed second, Luke third, Mai and Mei tied for fourth, Leaffa came in seventh, Ryuka was eighth –just two points behind Leaffa– and Youko was tenth. Merdie ranked 30th while Ryuushin was 53rd.

For perspective, let me put it this way – there’s around 2000 students enrolled in Ifrus Academy, with 300 or so students per year level. Ranking 30 and 53 isn’t bad at all.

Ah, but since they’re trying so hard to study, so no need to mention that, of course.

“Well then, I’ll be off now. Halt, I know it’s tough balancing school and everything, but keep up the good work with running the clan too. Since your new clan is right in front of the Adventurer’s Guild, it’s bound to attract attention and commissions.”

“Yes! I’ll do my best!”

“Irina, thanks a lot for everything. We’re in your care from now on.”

“Y-Yes! No, I’m the one who is grateful for everything, thank you very much.”

Irina headed back to the Adventurer’s Guild while repeatedly waving at Tina.

　──＊＊＊── It’s been a week since the Familia’s clan house was finished.

All the furniture that we ordered through H&T trading company arrived, so we can carry out our activities in the clan house. Even so, it’s not like we’re currently in full swing with every member receiving quests from the Adventurer’s Guild. Most of us were still students, with our main focus being on our studies.

Lilia, Sally, Keith and Aria aren’t students of Ifrus Academy of Magic, so they’re currently doing quests. Spirit King Sylph and Divine Beast Shiro were also with them as their chaperones, with the former accompanying Keith and Aria, while the latter is with Lilia and Sally.

Shiro, who used to just sleep in the mansion all day while we were in class, wasn’t too thrilled at first when he had to start going on quests every day. But since no one really relied on him much at the Ernol family, being needed by Lilia and Sally seems to have sparked something in him. Now, he’s the one enthusiastically rounding up the pair to head out on quests.

Sylph, Keith and Aria seemed to be doing just fine too. The other day, they easily handled a commission to take down 30 B-rank Maho Gnomes and returned home without a scratch. When Lilia's group and the others are out on quests, the Slime Girls handle any requests that come into the clan. They usually appear as semi-transparent little girls, but they can transform into adult women by using more mana. Since staying in their adult form for too long wears them out, they take turns working as receptionists.

I told the Slime Girls that they can accept any commission as long as it’s not too suspicious. Our plan is to let Lilia, Sally, Keith and Aria handle the quests that were accepted, then the rest of us will split up and take on any leftover commissions after classes, or on our days off.

One evening, I stopped by the clan house after finishing my classes at the academy.

I was surprised to see that there was a line at the commission counter, and even all four of the consultation rooms reserved for high-difficulty, high-reward commissions were occupied.

“..Looks like things are going well.”

It was quite a busy scene, especially for a fledgling clan like ours. Usually, new clans don’t have a track record, so in order to get commissions, they had to personally go to the Adventurer’s Guild to pick up quests.

"This success is a result of your hard work, Halt-sama. You’ve helped a lot of people across different countries and also built cooperative relationships. It was bound to happen," Tina said from behind me.

"Tina, you finished with the class cleanup already? That was fast."

"I heard a lot of requests coming in and someone was squealing in delight, so I wanted to work hard too."

It seemed Tina had picked up on the SOS signals from the Slime Girls, who were working as receptionists.

"Alright, let’s tackle as many quests as we can today."

"Yes. After finishing one or two, I’ll head back to the mansion to make dinner."

"Got it. I’ll aim to complete… ten quests."

"Yes. Just don’t take on any quests that’ll keep you out too late, please. Dinner tonight is curry." "Really? I’ll get this done as quickly as possible then!"

That gave me a solid reason to hurry home. I’ll use a clone to finish the quests fast.