floor. As Eugeo's room was 305 and Kirito's was 306, which meant that Eugeo was 5th among the 120 novice trainees, while Kirito had attained 6th with his scores. The two were successful in being granted connecting rooms half through intention, but the other half was merely good luck. Of course, they had first attempted to dominate the 1st and 2nd place for themselves—but they had no choice but to settle for lower than that, even when they had tried their hardest—Kirito placed 4th in the official match with the instructors, while Eugeo could only get 5th place, which had ended up making them fret over getting separated rooms, but Kirito lost more points in the style performance and sacred arts examination, getting 6th place. As a result, the objective of getting connected rooms was achieved, but worries of a different kind were left behind. After all, in one year... no, there were only ten months left until they had to graduate the academy ranked 1st and 2nd, so as to receive the rights to participate in the Empire Swordsmanship Tournament. Kirito was 7th and Eugeo, 8th, when they had entered, so they had improved, but considering how there were still four others to go, it certainly was no time to be optimistic. But on the other hand, Kirito was calm, acting as though becoming an elite swordsman-in-training was as good as having won already. It wasn't like there was no basis for that confidence; what determined the ranks for swordsmen-in-training would not be the usual examinations that used combined scores, but the «official matches» that occurred four times a year. These matches would not be against instructors but amongst the students instead, so grading criteria and such would be ignored, making victory over their opponent the main goal. And that abnormal-in-various-aspects partner of his had obtained a magnificent victory in a first strike match, when they were still novice trainees a mere two months ago, against the head elite swordsman-in-training back then. In actual fact, it was ruled as a draw by the umpire, but that was unmistakably Kirito's win. Not to mention the opponent he crossed swords with was the heir to a second class noble family that had served as swordsmanship instructors for the Imperial Knight Order for generations, an unbelievable Mighty Sword user. He had been taught the Aincrad-style swordsmanship known only by that Kirito for over two years now, so it wasn't like Eugeo had no faith in his own sword. However, it was another story if you were to ask him if he could be as assured as his partner was. Even on the day before a written examination, he had no intention of skipping out on his daily training. His usual practice partner had retired to his own room to cram for the entire night, so Eugeo exited the room with nothing but his own wooden sword in hand. On the other side of the inner corridor stretching out into a large circle was the atrium that extended from the first floor through to this third floor, with the deep red sunset skies visible through the round skylight above. There wasn't such an indulgent building in the town of Zakkaria, let alone Rulid Village where he was from. Even the floorboards were made from polished, high quality wood and numerous pieces of art were hung along the curved walls, the empire's history as their theme. —No matter how I tell them that I'm living in such a majestic building, even having someone exclusively assigned to aid me, none of my elder brothers back home would believe me, huh. Eugeo's thoughts drifted as he went through the long corridor. We may be elite swordsmen-in-training, but this level of hospitality was already being shown to mere students. If I was a veteran swordsman, frequently displaying good results at the Unity Tournament— or beyond that, one of the integrity knights of the Axiom Church, holding onto more authority than even those from the households of the four emperors, just what sort of luxurious lifestyle would I lead?