Ren Kuroda ultimately gave in. There was no helping it—the temptation of powerful onmyōji techniques was simply too great to resist.
During the negotiations, Ren even tried to push his luck, boldly suggesting that he'd also like to learn some higher-level methods for cultivating spiritual power. Unfortunately, Kurahashi Tomoko didn't take the bait at all. No matter how eloquently Ren argued his case, her stance never wavered. Teaching onmyōji techniques was one thing, she said—but methods for cultivating spiritual power were the very foundation upon which an onmyōji family stood.
Even if she personally wanted to teach him, the family behind her would never agree.
And so, just like that, Ren became an instructor for close-combat courses, primarily responsible for teaching hand-to-hand techniques and practical combat experience.
By now, nearly half of the students at the Onmyō Academy were ordinary civilians.
The reason for this situation was, at its core, a product of the times.
It wasn't just the Onmyō Academy. As had been mentioned before, with yokai incidents occurring with increasing frequency, "Exorcist High Schools" had sprung up all across the country.
In the past, what students learned was how to make the nation more prosperous and powerful. But given the current state of the world, clinging to the old ways was clearly no longer viable.
After all, humanity could barely even guarantee a safe place to live anymore—talk of anything beyond that was meaningless.
Once upon a time, people dreamed of becoming CEOs, marrying rich and beautiful partners, and living flashy, enviable lives.
But now, the most coveted profession—without a doubt—was that of an exorcist.
It was the hottest career on the market, and also the one with the brightest future.
Whether for money or power, as long as the threat posed by yokai hadn't been completely eliminated, exorcists would remain the most sought-after profession of the future.
These days, it didn't matter whether they were major corporations or obscenely wealthy tycoons—everyone was offering sky-high salaries to hire exorcists as personal bodyguards.
There was no helping it. The social environment had changed. The wealthier and more influential someone was, the more terrified they were of dying.
The world was no longer what it used to be. Danger could strike at any moment, anywhere.
For the rich, money had long since become nothing more than a string of numbers. Their own lives were what truly mattered.
As a result, exorcists had become incredibly popular within elite circles.
And yet, even though wealthy elites were more than willing to pay exorbitant salaries, the market still suffered from a severe shortage.
The reason was simple: exorcists with genuine skill were rarely short on money themselves.
Moreover, to many of them, money simply wasn't all that tempting, which was why they naturally looked down on so-called "high-paying offers."
Of course, there were exceptions—freelance exorcists without particularly strong abilities or family backing would usually choose to take on such relatively low-risk jobs.
After the advent of the yokai age, the purchasing power of money had noticeably declined. Still, for these unaffiliated exorcists with neither strength nor connections, money was absolutely essential if they wanted to buy materials and tools for exorcism.
To put it bluntly, in today's upper-class social gatherings, having an exorcist bodyguard by your side was an unmistakable symbol of influence and connections.
Even these grassroots exorcists were treated with such respect.
Which made it easy to imagine how highly regarded the elite students graduating from Exorcist High Schools, and especially the Onmyō Academy, would be in the future.
Young people weren't stupid. As long as they could get into an Exorcist High School and graduate successfully, stepping into society afterward meant becoming a winner in life almost by default.
Who cared about becoming a CEO? Graduates from these schools would be welcomed as honored guests by major financial conglomerates. That was what true success looked like.
And among all Exorcist High Schools, the Onmyō Academy was unquestionably the highest temple of learning for exorcists.
That was exactly why the ordinary students Ren had encountered earlier on the road had been unable to hide the joy on their faces.
Those boys and girls were, without a doubt, among the luckiest people alive.
Under normal circumstances, admission to the Onmyō Academy followed a strict process. Students would first be evaluated at ordinary schools across the country. The top performers would be transferred to newly established Exorcist High Schools.
From there, only the absolute best—just a few dozen students—would earn the right to study at the Onmyō Academy.
However, because these policies had only just been implemented and the situation was urgent, this first batch of students skipped the assessment phase entirely. Instead, based solely on their spiritual aptitude, they were randomly assigned to Exorcist High Schools and the Onmyō Academy.
Compared to the hastily constructed Exorcist High Schools elsewhere, the Onmyō Academy was both the most orthodox and the most historically established institution. Naturally, those randomly assigned here were overjoyed.
It was like a student who had been preparing for entrance exams opening their desk drawer one day—only to find an acceptance letter from the nation's most prestigious university inside.
According to current market rates, even an ordinary exorcist earned a monthly salary starting in the tens of millions of yen.
As for exorcists listed on the official Exorcist Rankings, it was rumored that their monthly earnings started at several hundred million yen.
The ordinary students who entered the Onmyō Academy didn't dare dream of becoming one of those ranked exorcists—that list represented the top thousand exorcists in the entire country, after all.
But even being an ordinary exorcist with a monthly salary in the tens of millions was something they'd never even dared to imagine before.
Unfortunately, just as these boys and girls were busy envisioning their bright futures, their first disaster arrived.
In the past, the scions of exorcist families studying at the Onmyō Academy looked down even on the special personnel sent by the Paranormal Countermeasures Division to train there. Compared to that, these ordinary civilian students didn't stand a chance.
Previously, the few Countermeasures Division members admitted each year were already treated as nuisances—constantly harassed and picked on. And that was only because of official pressure; otherwise, things would've been even worse.
Now, however, the Onmyō Academy had suddenly enrolled nearly twice as many students, and all of them were clueless amateurs who didn't know the first thing about exorcism.
How could those family-born elites—who had always believed themselves superior by birth—possibly tolerate this?
On top of that, the balance of power among the exorcist families had shifted. Their families' positions were no longer what they once were, which only made these students bolder. They openly demanded that the ordinary students get out.
Faced with the arrogance and overwhelming strength of the academy's upperclassmen, the newly transferred civilian students could only swallow their anger in silence.
Some of the more prideful newcomers even considered leaving altogether, unwilling to continue enduring such humiliation—but the opportunity was too precious to give up so easily.
As a result, at the Onmyō Academy today, new students kept their heads down and practically ran whenever they encountered older students.
There was no other choice. When it came to fighting, kids from ordinary families stood no chance against these veterans.
Reporting the matter to instructors didn't help either. At most, the teachers would offer a token reprimand, with no real punishment.
Some instructors even told the newcomers to behave themselves and stop provoking the older students, believing that the academy had been far less chaotic before these new students arrived.
Most instructors at the Onmyō Academy also hailed from exorcist families themselves, so favoring family-born students was only natural.
After all, these ancient lineages were bound together by generations of tangled interests.
In a small wooded area on campus, several students from exorcist families once again blocked the path of a few ordinary freshmen who were trying to leave with their heads down.
"What exactly do you want from us? We already stepped aside and let you go first—why are you still pushing things this far?"
Among the cornered freshmen were both boys and girls. In terms of numbers alone, they actually had the advantage.
But in situations like this, numbers meant nothing. They'd only been enrolled for a few weeks, their spiritual power barely awakened. With what they'd learned so far, there was no way they could compete with these upperclassmen.
"So what if we're pushing things? You're a bunch of mediocre trash wasting academy resources. I only invited you to dinner because I thought you were worth something—didn't expect you to be so ungrateful."
The upperclassman sneered, his temper clearly flaring.
"I'm already in a bad mood today. Might as well use you to test out the new curse I just learned."
The cause of the conflict was painfully simple.
One student from an exorcist family had taken a liking to one of the freshman girls. He'd invited her out, only to be mercilessly rejected.
Now, humiliated and furious, he was deliberately picking a fight with her group.
It was a cliché, almost laughably so—but among hormone-fueled teenagers, it hardly felt strange.
"We know Senior Hinano! Even if reporting this to the instructors is useless, we'll go find Senior Hinano!"
Kujō Hinano—the current idol of the Onmyō Academy's new generation.
It was said that she hadn't enrolled much earlier than they had, and she too came from a civilian background.
They called her "senior" not because of how long she'd been enrolled, but because Hinano had already passed the academy's grade-skipping assessment thanks to her exceptional spiritual talent and astonishing learning speed.
Even instructors who usually held strong prejudices against civilian exorcists had been forced to acknowledge her talent.
Before entering the Onmyō Academy, Kujō Hinano had been a completely ordinary girl who knew nothing at all.
But in just a few short months—while Ren Kuroda was busy handling the Futakuchi-onna incident and rushing from one rescue mission to another—Hinano had grown at an astonishing pace.
When her spiritual power first awakened, she'd already reached D-rank. After catching a lucky break by entering a spiritual energy vortex, she'd advanced even faster. Now, her spiritual power had reached the level of C-minus.
And when it came to onmyōji techniques, the girl seemed to possess a natural gift, effortlessly surpassing even family-born students in progress. Completing her grade-skip made her a well-known figure across campus.
Among the ordinary freshmen who had just transferred in, Hinano was practically the only person who treated them kindly.
Because she too came from a civilian background, she'd become the figure they admired and idolized the most.