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It was the morning of the cross-country.

"Mizuhara... you ready?" Kimura was still lethargically pulling himself out of bed.

"I guess."

I was sitting on my bed, finishing the last of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. It was a pretty short novella, so it only took a few days in total, even with all the disruptions. Closing the book one final time, I placed it on my bedside table.

Kimura slowly did his morning routine before joining me at the front door.

"What are you aiming for?" he asked.

"Probably top 50."

"Really? You look pretty athletic to me."

"I guess I don\'t do too much running."

As we made our way down the hall, Kimura whispered something to me.

"...the results of this event are going to be very interesting~"

• ───────────────── •

Everyone gathered near the large banner, which was held up at the starting line. A large area was circled out on the edge of the oval. One of the teachers walked to the front and held out a megaphone.

"You have been assigned a letter based on your Physical Ability Attribute. Please line up in your specific sections."

It seemed that the faster students were lined up closer to the front and the slower ones closer to the back. It was the best method to ensure that the pack spread out at soon as possible. Hundreds of students were moving around, trying to get into their designated areas.

I was in section A.

Starting near the back of section A, alongside mostly students from Class A. The teacher out the front was yelling out various instructions and rules. Then, there was a few seconds of silence as everyone waited for the signal.

Bang.

The sound of footsteps permeated through the school, filling every crevice. Thousands of thumps rained upon the ground. People pushed and shoved for a little while before the pack managed to stabilise.

It was 10km meaning it was quite long. For many students who haven\'t done any running practice in the past, this was a terrifyingly long distance, and they may not even know it yet.

I decided to just keep a relatively slow constant speed and slot myself near the 40th spot. I didn\'t want to be bringing more attention to myself after that chess special exam. Quite a few students passed me in the first little while since they were all filled with energy. Racing each other in such a short distance, many of the students near the front were already beginning to struggle.

Not even 300 metres in, and it was obvious that some students had used all of their energy pushing to the front of the pack. Even with my relatively slow pace, I was beginning to overtake them.

Step after step, I looked around at the background of this track. It was just in our school, but many decorations were put up to make it feel like a forest run. Before long, my area reached the first teacher who was stationed on the track. They were holding up a sign which read, 500 metres - Push on!

At this point, the pack was beginning to disperse, and the true order was beginning to be formed. All of the \'sprinters\' had fallen behind, and the athletic students of this school were beginning to shine through. I was a decent distance away from the front, but I could see Furukawa a few metres ahead of me.

All the year levels ran together, so it was difficult for me to get an accurate grasp of exactly where I was placed. As long as there was a big group of people in front, I assumed that I\'d be fine. Looking around at the trees and vegetation, I steadied my pace and gauged the people around me.

In the end, I really just wanted to enjoy this as much as I could.

Running below your actual speed is somewhat boring, but I didn\'t mind the relative quietness and openness of the track. The number of students around me was dropping as the pack spread even further apart.

Eventually, I was completely alone. The closest student was a few metres behind me.

I saw the next teacher holding up a sign, 1km - Keep Going!

I guess this was going to take a while. As I continued on my way, another student finally appeared in my sight. A few metres ahead, there was a student who hadn\'t paced themselves very well and now found themselves about to be overtaken by me.

I didn\'t want to slow my pace down any, so I slowly gained on the student in front. Noticing me behind them, they sped up, trying to stay in front of me.

Ah, that obviously wasn\'t going to work.

Wasting more of their energy, they continued desperately trying to stay ahead of me. However, the loud panting in their voice was more than enough to prove that they were on their way down. A few seconds later, they lost it and completely stopped in their tracks.

I casually overtook them and kept my pace.

A little while later, I noticed that the person who was behind me before had also overtaken them. I guess they\'d completely given up trying to hold their position then.

I didn\'t really want to change my placement too much since, in this situation, it was impossible to see where I was currently placed. Based on what I saw before, I was between 50th and 30th, depending on how many of the students ahead were second-years. I didn\'t want to let down the class too much, so this position was pretty good.

Without much effort, I continued, and after a few minutes, the student behind me was nowhere to be seen. I guess that they were unable to keep up their pace after all. Before long, I saw another teacher holding up a sign.

2km - you\'re a fifth of the way!

Well, there\'s the next checkpoint. We were still quite a distance away from the finish.