58. Midterm exam (3)

“I’m going to ignore Reef’s party and break through straight to the boss area.”

At my words, the two of them stared at me. A Dungeon with tens of times more monsters than usual.

And the center of that Dungeon was even more filled with monsters, comparable to the Vernige Plains.

Naturally, the closer you got to that area, the denser the pressure and curse of demonic energy became. Meaning it was extremely dangerous.

The expressions on their faces hardened.

‘Expected reaction.’

In other words, my statement just now was practically a suicide charge order. Maria, adjusting her glasses with her fingertip, asked me again.

“The Count-nim is the party leader, so I don’t want to argue, but I don’t quite understand. Are you confident in your swordsmanship, Count-nim? That even if the other students die, you alone can survive? Is that the confidence you have?”

As she said that, she glanced at Eric. Unlike Maria, who seemed slightly flustered, Eric looked genuinely exhausted right now.

He had regained his confidence thanks to my instructions and encouragement, but he had pushed himself quite hard to perform so well.

“Eric is already tired. If I order him to stand at the front lines and break through like this, he’ll die quickly. Of course, this Dungeon isn’t a real Dungeon, but still.”

“No!! Lord-nim! I can do it! I will open the path for you at the front lines…”

“No. I will stand at the front lines. Eric in the middle, and Maria will take the rear.”

At my words, Maria nodded as if she understood.

“I see. Either way, only our party and Reef’s party have made it this far. One of those two parties will be in first place, so there are two choices. Either make the other party retire, or arrive at the boss area first.”

“You understand well.”

“So you’ve chosen the monsters over a head-on fight with that party? That’s unexpected. It would be easier to directly attack Reef’s party than deal with those monsters.”

Maria was right. It would be easier to face three humans than that large number of monsters.

Since only Reef’s party and ours had made it this far, eliminating Reef would make our group number one.

‘But even if I don’t, Eric will definitely retire during the battle.’

And Maria wouldn’t show any more skill than she had already decided to, so she would retire if she thought it was too much.

Then, even if I survived, my party members would be annihilated. Unless Reef’s party was stupid, they would target those two before me.

‘Then, as the party leader, I’d get a penalty.’

So, I couldn’t fight Reef’s party right now. And I was planning two things at the same time.

To annihilate Reef’s party and have our party enter the boss area alive. In other words, I was planning to receive the highest possible score in this evaluation.

‘There was definitely a perfect score bonus reward in this evaluation for Demon King Slaying.’

Instructor Darren hadn’t announced it beforehand, but there was a special reward for the first-place party in this test.

The Imperial Capital Guard. The core of that guard, the Imperial Knights. Along with the White Night and Sentiac Knights, they were the three major knight orders representing the Empire.

If I recorded a score that satisfied Darren in this evaluation, he would use his connections to arrange meetings with the executives of the Imperial Knights.

‘He’ll present an award in the name of the Imperial Knights and arrange a short dinner.’

At first glance, it didn’t seem like much of a reward, but most of the Pantheon students wanted to graduate and join the Imperial Knights the most.

Getting your face known by the executives of the Imperial Knights in advance meant that a path to success for the future would be opened.

Darren was strict, but he had a great affection for the students, so he had planned such a special reward.

However, I was the heir to the Lion Grand Duke, who would own the White Night Knights in the future. So even that great reward seemed like nothing much at first glance.

That reward was surprisingly important to me as well.

Although the factions of the Emperor and Grieus had split and their power had weakened, the Imperial Knights were still powerful.

Naturally, Instructor Darren’s connections were with the executives of the Emperor’s faction. I had no intention of missing the opportunity to naturally come into contact with those executives.

‘To suppress the Grieus Cardinal’s faction and prevent the chaos that the Assassination Squad will cause in the future, it’s something I must do.’

And also for my fiancée, Princess Lilia. Their loyalty to the royal family was beyond doubt, so it was a good opportunity in many ways.

Of course, the immediate task was the priority. I explained the true meaning of the charge I had just ordered to Maria, who was misunderstanding my plan.

“My instructions must be bewildering. But there’s no need to worry. I’m not some pervert who would blindly choose suicide.”

And at my next words, Maria’s expression changed with interest.

“I’m planning to lure Reef’s party.”

---

Maria was once again surprised by Yulian.

His swordsmanship skills and the ability of a commander to boost the morale of his party members. She had witnessed those two facts and evaluated him quite highly.

But at the end of the evaluation, the plan he had devised was something she had never expected.

‘He’s much more cunning than I thought.’

That’s right. Right now, the three of them were mindlessly charging towards the boss area. A place that could be called the most dangerous living hell in this Dungeon.

So, it might seem like they were blinded by the evaluation score, lost their reason, and were making a crazy charge, but in reality, it was the Count’s cunning deception tactic.

At the front lines, Count Yulian was creating a path with his absurd swordsmanship skills.

And the other two people, Eric and Maria, were simply following behind him without doing anything.

No, strictly speaking, the two of them were recovering through Eric’s divine power. And instead of the monster-filled front, the two of them were watching the rear.

‘To think he would use Reef’s psychology.’

The heir to the Lion Grand Duke. A person with such a high status, but he knew the feelings of Reef, who was just a commoner, even though he was the student representative.

Reef, who was popular as the student representative because of his good skills and personality.

But because of Count Yulian’s return and Lucia’s rapidly improving skills, his mind couldn’t help but be complicated.

‘He’s been pushed down to 3rd place, not even 2nd in the entire school.’

And since Reef was also skilled, he would already know the gap between him and those two. That he had no chance of winning with just a simple 1:1 duel.

But this evaluation was not a personal duel, but an evaluation through a party. So, it was a good opportunity for Reef to regain the honor of being the student representative.

Count Yulian cleverly used Reef’s anxious feelings.

“Lord-nim… you’re amazing. How did you predict that when I was observing Reef’s party… they would find us too?”

Eric said to Maria casually. Since Yulian was clearing the path, the two of them had the余裕to talk.

Maria listened to Eric’s words and continued to think.

‘That’s obvious. Reef can use as much divine power as Eric.’

If Eric could detect Reef’s party, then naturally, the opposite case would be much easier. The moment Eric watched Reef’s party, Reef could also find this side.

But that was also Yulian’s intention. He deliberately exposed the party’s location. Then, he recklessly charged, as if to provoke Reef’s party.

‘And it went as the Count said.’

Instead of creating another path to the boss area, Reef’s party immediately began to chase Yulian’s party.

‘It’s only natural. They’re waiting for our group to run out of energy and then ambush us.’

The competitors in front of them were blinded by the ranking and started charging towards the boss area. Then, Reef’s party would also be anxious and rush to the boss area, but…

A better way was to take the easy way out. Ambush Yulian’s party, who had run out of energy clearing the path.

Then, the last remaining party would be Reef’s party. Yulian’s party had even cleared the path to the boss area, so that was a more rational choice. It was quite cowardly, though.

‘If it were Reef normally, he would have tried to compete with a head-on approach instead of an ambush, but the Count read his psychology well.’

It was a rare opportunity to save face as the student representative. Besides, the Count was currently dealing with a large number of monsters at the front lines.

Soon, Reef’s party, the three of them, approached the group.

“Target Count Yulian first!!”

As expected, they targeted Yulian first. He was in a state where it was difficult to deal with the ambush because he was dealing with monsters. And his stamina must have been sufficiently depleted.

It would be impossible to withstand the combined attack of three people.

But Count Yulian knew that he would be attacked in a combined assault.

At that moment, Eric shouted.

“Maria! Let’s take down Reef together!”

And Eric and Maria, who had already finished recovering their stamina. The two of them worked together to defeat Reef.

“Damn it! Reef is down!”

Of course, the attack from Reef’s party didn’t even graze Yulian. And looking back at the remaining two people from Reef’s party, Count Yulian grinned.

“Eric. Maria. Our party is in first place.”

---

The combat school’s evaluation was over.

My group and I easily dealt with Reef’s party. We quickly arrived at the end of the Dungeon, the boss area.

‘We were the only party among those who took the evaluation together.’

Moreover, all three party members survived.

And the magic power recording stones that each of us had brought at the start of the evaluation. The achievements of each party member would all be recorded on those stones.

The results hadn’t come out yet, but I intuitively knew that I would be the top student in this evaluation the moment I left the Dungeon.

‘I’ve overcome one of the big hurdles of this midterm exam.’

I didn’t know who my party members would be, so there were many variables in this evaluation.

But thanks to meeting Eric and Maria, who were pretty good party members, I smoothly achieved the result I was aiming for.

‘Maria, huh…’

And when the evaluation was all over, she readily confessed her identity.

‘I am Princess Lilia-nim’s maid and a Royal Guard.’

As expected, she wasn’t hiding her skills for no reason.

Royal Guard. A loyal bodyguard who protects the safety of the royal family. Their skills were enough to rival the knights of the three major knight orders. It was only natural that I felt a sense of incongruity with her.

Of course, when I told Maria about the incongruity I felt, she was momentarily surprised.

‘It was supposed to be a perfect disguise. As expected, the people of the Reinhardt family are different.’

And soon, she regained her composure and told me the reason why she had revealed her identity to me.

‘Princess Lilia is very worried about you these days, Count-nim. So, there’s something I want to say to you, Count-nim…’

She said something I didn’t expect.

‘If Princess Lilia is avoiding intimacy, there’s a reason for it. I hope you know that it’s not because she dislikes you, Count-nim.’

With those words, Maria left the place. It was such a stealthy movement that Eric didn’t even notice when she disappeared.

‘The reason Lilia is avoiding intimacy, huh.’

Maria was right. Lilia had avoided intimacy with me at the Royal Library.

I couldn’t have direct intimacy with her.

So, I tried to have anal intimacy with her as usual, but that day, unlike usual, Lilia didn’t want to do it with me.

Of course, Lilia had covered me first and given me a PIIZ and a blowjob, so it wasn’t like she had suddenly started disliking me.

‘I thought that maybe Lilia felt a sense of rejection that day because it was anal… but there’s another reason?’

The reason didn’t come to mind easily.

Maria said that there was no need to worry, but I was still concerned about Lilia’s changed attitude, so I sent a separate letter to Lilia.

‘We decided to study together from tonight.’

Wednesday, a day after the combat school’s evaluation. The midterm exams were slowly coming to an end. Now, all that was left for me was the alchemy school’s theory evaluation and practical exam.

I had studied alchemy quite a bit, but I hadn’t had time to review recently because I was busy with work. Since it was the last exam anyway, I was planning to stay up all night studying.

‘So, I invited Lilia to the atelier.’

The Royal Library wasn’t bad either, but there was no place like my atelier to stay up all night. Since it was just the two of us today, I sent Aylin back to the mansion in advance.

As I spent time alone in the atelier, it soon became evening. And finally, the entrance door to the atelier opened.

‘Lilia has arrived.’

I got up from my seat to greet her.

“Welcome. Princess Lilia…?”

But the person who opened the door and came in wasn’t Lilia. It was Chloe, the silver-haired, red-eyed young lady.