History Literature / TheWitchOfKnightcharm

* EscortQuest: Lauren turns Emily's last run of the orientation course into this by putting Janet Yawkly, who is very weak and is sure to be targeted by others, into Emily's heat. Emily will thus feel obligated to protect Yawkly while also completing the course herself.

* BatmanGambit: Just before the final orientation course run, Emily works out from Lauren's hints that her enemies have rigged the race matchups and arranged for her to get stuck in a heat full of rivals who will work together to kill her. Emily thus volunteers to run in the first heat instead of whichever heat she'd been assigned. Nobody expected that because going first is a massive disadvantage (if students in early heats finish the course, those in later heats will know what times they need to beat and may be able to slow down and run difficult sections of the course more safely without worrying about losing; if enough students in early heats die, then later students can take the course at a snail's pace and know that literally any successful completion will earn them a pass), so her enemies weren't ready for it. Their only way to block this would be for them all to volunteer to go first as well, but Emily correctly predicts that her enemies won't want to showcase weakness by indicating that they're afraid to fight her fairly, so only one of them volunteers to run with her. [[SubvertedTrope And then Emily's TricksterMentor throws a wrench into things by also reassigning a very weak student whom Emily would feel obligated to protect into Emily's heat, thus making her life hard again. But since that's still not as bad as being in an entire heat full of people trying to kill her, Emily's okay with it.]]

** Just before orientation, Lauren's shirt depicts a gory swimming pool and asks people to come to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Greenteeth Jenny Greenteeth's swim camp.]]

* SchmuckBait: Several older Scholomance students suddenly leave phones out in places where the rookies could steal them, even though every other aspect of the school is extremely security-conscientious. [[spoiler:The phones are hexxed with curses that will explode and kill anyone who tries to use them to call for help. The older students only left them out as a way of identifying and eliminating any rookies who were thinking about running away.]]

Emily is dismissive of the offer... until, upon returning to Knightcharm, she learns that she's been permanently barred from combat missions on account of her failure, meaning her classmates will have to take on her missions and risk their lives doing her work while she's safe in a classroom crafting charms. Ashamed of her loss and [[Main/RedemptionQuest desperate for redemption]], Emily decides on a dangerous plan: to pretend to accept the warloga's offer for more training while secretly aiming to infiltrate her coven and undermine it from within. But Emily soon learns that the 'coven' she's trying to infiltrate is actually the infamous academy known as Myth/TheScholomance, a WizardSchool where students are put through a brutal curriculum in order to teach them Main/TheDarkArts. By the time she realizes the depths of the school's evil, she's already there, and she quickly learns that [[ResignationsNotAccepted quitting early is not permitted]].

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Amira attempts to cheat during an orientation practice run by trying to kill Megumi in order to help Lucille, who is running in the same heat. Emily interferes and prevents the cheating, but the elites then reveal they were watching the whole time and would have killed Amira (thus getting rid of one of the major evil witches in the class) had Amira actually pulled off her cheating attempt. However, they also indicate that they wouldn't have saved Megumi (on the grounds that anyone weak enough to be killed by Amira deserved to die anyways), so Emily is still glad she helped.

* ElementalBaggage: Both used and subverted. Some witches seem able to summon certain elements; Imogene, for instance, is able to just create fire with a spell. Others, however, need to carry the element with them to use it in magical fights. Amira Chadid is an example of the latter; she specializes in water magic and carries water with her in large canteens so she has some when needed.

* TargetedToHurtTheHero: Emily soon realizes that one of the 'features' of the Scholomance is that this applies to the elite students. All of the elites are too strong to attack directly, but each elite also handpicked two students for the incoming class, and if the handpicked students die or do poorly, that undermines the position of her respective elite. On one hand, this means Emily can target the psychopathic Morgan by going after her surviving handpicked student Alejandra. On the other, it means that everyone who hates Emily's mentor Lauren, who seems like she may be less evil than the others or even an UnscrupulousHero herself, knows that the best way to do so is to take a shot at Emily.

* FascistsBedTime: The Scholomance has a strict curfew system, and violates can be executed.

** When they meet again in the club, Lauren's T-shirt depicts people being trapped on a burning horizontal column and reads, "Vote for [[Literature/FengshenYanyi Daji]]."

* CompanyTown: The Scholomance functions as this. The school itself is the students' only source of supplies such as food, clothing, medicine, magical equipment, and so on. This means that the students have to follow the orders of the Scholomance elite in order to get 'passes' like an infirmary pass, a school store pass, etc., which function as the local currency. While some of the students like Lily are implied to be extremely rich outside of the school, their money is no good; Scholomance passes are the only way to get supplies

* TrainingFromHell: It's quickly made apparent that Scholomance training is brutal. Students are put through deadly tests, they can only advanced in rank by fighting each other, and failing students aren't even allowed into the infirmary and thus have to struggle on with their wounds until they either learn how to heal themselves or find a way to pass their tests while still injured.