Ch.126126. Final Exam Kidnapping

The academy’s exam period is filled with a peculiar tension.

There’s certainly competition between students, but above all, it’s unavoidable since this is the moment when your performance gets confirmed as a score.

For me, though, it’s just an event that comes with the season. I don’t feel particularly nervous about it.

In fact, the first-year exams are somewhat like a local festival, if I were to make a comparison.

The real national festival begins from second year onward, so I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it either.

Celia seemed to share my lack of tension or anticipation, as she sat beside me with her usual expression.

Well, she doesn’t need to worry about grades either.

However, Lilith was different.

“I really studied a lot. This time will be different from before.”

Lilith appeared as if she’d been holed up somewhere in intense training.

Her dark circles were no joke, probably from staying up all night.

She looks like a sickly beautiful girl character like that.

“What are you looking at? No, forget it. Don’t even answer. I’m dying here.”

Though her behavior wasn’t particularly sickly.

Lilith seemed extremely sensitive, probably from the stress of being so tired.

You might wonder if she can properly take the exam in that state, but fortunately, unlike the midterms, the finals are held over two days.

Today is the written exam, and tomorrow is the practical.

“I’m going straight to bed after today’s exam.”

Lilith probably knows this too, which is why she pulled an all-nighter to focus on today’s written exam.

But looking at her condition now, I’m worried she might fall asleep during the exam… but I decided not to worry about it. She’ll manage somehow.

She’s already messed up once before. It’s not the end of the world if she fails again.

And so the final written exam begins…

“…Celia? The exam’s about to start, so could you move away now?”

“Should we skip the exam and go play instead?”

“What nonsense are you talking after coming all the way here?”

I pushed away Celia, who was talking nonsense, and started the written exam.

The difficulty wasn’t much different from the midterms, but since we’ve learned more material, the scope was considerably wider, making it feel somewhat challenging.

Questions like “When an attack successfully destroys a specific part of a monster, which body part with the third priority does the monster instinctively use?” were considered among the easier ones.

And questions like “When three specific types of monster groups establish a base in the same location, calculate the power of each group as given and explain, based on the characteristics of each monster, which group’s base will collapse first” honestly left me uncertain even after writing the answer.

Come on, I’ve just been memorizing things wholesale and getting by so far, not because I’m smart. Isn’t it unfair to twist questions like this?

What’s the point of such questions anyway? They’re practically designed just to torment us.

What’s certain is that Professor Reina must have gritted her teeth while creating these exam questions.

“Hehe…”

She started laughing like that after glancing at me struggling with the problems.

She’s probably thinking something like, “That’s what you get for dozing off during my lectures.”

But honestly, not dozing off and studying wouldn’t have made me any smarter… so I don’t particularly regret not paying attention to the lectures.

Celia? She probably finished everything ages ago.

Anyway, it’s amazing how she’s determined to torment just me by setting the difficulty like this.

If this is the level for the first semester finals, I’m both curious and scared about what kind of questions she’ll bring next semester.

Still, although the problems were complex, there wasn’t anything I didn’t know, so I managed to solve everything within the time limit.

After the exam ended.

“Are you kidding me?! Why were the questions like that?”

Lilith’s scream echoed.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one; everyone who took the same exam had similar reactions.

“Hey, did you solve question 17?”

“Did you?”

“I couldn’t.”

“Me neither.”

“What about question 13?”

“Did you?”

“I couldn’t solve it.”

“Me neither.”

See, Lilith? You’re not alone.

There might not be much reward for all your studying, but the questions were so brutal that results matter more than process.

It might feel unsettling until the results come out, but what can you do? Just blame Professor Reina for setting such questions.

///

The perk of exam days is definitely getting out earlier than usual.

Although there’s a practical exam tomorrow, everyone seemed to be heading back cautiously, choosing stability over risking injury by overexerting themselves in preparation.

The same was true for me, Celia, and Lilith, so we headed outside without any particular plans.

“It’s early, but shall we go eat?”

“Sounds good. Let’s go on a date afterward.”

“We only ever walk in the park, and you call that a date.”

“Today we’ll go to the Student Council Hall. I’m curious about Alkine’s exam results.”

“I’m glad you two get along so well. But if you’re going to eat, can I join you?”

Lilith, whom I thought would go straight back, slipped in beside us.

Seeing this, Celia asked.

“Didn’t you say you were going straight to bed?”

“Maybe it’s because I’m annoyed, but I’m wide awake now.”

“You still look tired to me.”

“Really? I feel perfectly fine.”

Lilith said that, but honestly, she didn’t look normal to me either.

She might have regained some energy from the shock of facing those ridiculous questions, but her dark circles were still prominent, and her eyes lacked vitality.

“You two are lucky, being good at studying. But honestly, even if I had asked you to teach me, I probably couldn’t have solved today’s problems. Is our professor crazy? How could she set questions like that? Are they even useful?”

And she was talking a lot without focus. Lilith definitely looked tired.

But seeing her energy… she must be in some kind of last burst of energy before collapse.

I wonder if she might suddenly pass out.

Well, if that happens, I’ll ask Celia to take her back.

“I don’t particularly want to clean up after Lilith.”

“Do it anyway.”

“Well, if it’s Ludion’s request, I guess I have no choice.”

“…Did I just doze off? Why can’t I follow what you’re saying?”

I’ve become so accustomed to her naturally catching my thoughts and responding that I can just let it flow like a normal conversation.

The downside is that when there’s someone else with us, like now, they might feel like they’ve missed part of our conversation.

“Wow, I must be tired.”

She seems to think it’s because she’s tired, but there’s no need to correct her, so I let it slide.

“But I still want to eat.”

After that, we finished our meal, and worried that Lilith might collapse on her way back, we accompanied her part of the way.

Watching Celia wave goodbye to Lilith’s retreating figure, I found it fascinating to remember how cold she used to be toward Lilith not too long ago.

“You’re being really nice to Lilith these days?”

When I said that, Celia looked at me and Lilith’s retreating figure with an enigmatic expression before hesitantly answering.

“Well, Ludion has been really nice to me lately too.”

…That means she was mean to Lilith before because I wasn’t being nice to her.

Well… since the reason she was mean was out of jealousy, I can’t say it’s not my fault. But I don’t think I was ever nice to others while not being nice to Celia.

But she might have felt differently, so I decided to hold my tongue.

It also felt like a losing battle for me no matter what I said.

“Well, now that we’ve sent Lilith back, shall we go on our date?”

“I keep telling you, don’t just call anything a date… Fine, let’s go.”

“Good thinking. I wasn’t planning to withdraw the word ‘date’ anyway.”

“I figured as much.”

We headed to the Student Council Hall, where we spent time consoling Alkine, whose mental state was in shambles after bombing the written exam.

Then Celia started helping Alkine study for her next day’s written exam, and I spent the day watching them while spacing out.

The next day arrived.

When I went to the place prepared for the practical exam, I noticed something strange.

Lilith was nowhere to be seen.

I looked at Celia just in case, but she also had no idea.

But true to form, Celia asked me to wait a moment while she manipulated some mana. She seemed to have discovered something.

The problem was… Celia’s expression turned serious after discovering whatever it was.

“What’s wrong?”

“It seems Lilith has been kidnapped.”

“What?”

Suddenly, what kidnapping?

Wasn’t Lilith’s kidnapping an event that only occurred with an extremely low random chance in the saint-centered route if you deliberately chose all the worst options?

And she gets kidnapped while inside the academy, not even while outside?

What kind of development is this?

My disbelief was momentary. That wasn’t what was important right now.

Judging by Celia’s expression, the situation was definitely serious.

“What are you going to do?”

“Obviously, we need to go get her.”

“I thought you’d say that. I’ll follow you right away.”

Pleased with my answer, Celia cheerfully smiled and immediately lifted both of us with her mana.

“Where are you two going?!”

Professor Reina, who noticed this, shouted in confusion, but we didn’t have time for a lengthy explanation.

“Um… well, that’s how it is.”

“That’s right. That’s what happened, so we’ll be back!”

I apologize to Professor Reina who doesn’t understand the situation, but explanations can wait.

Celia and I immediately took to the skies to rescue Lilith.

///

Meanwhile, Lilith was being taken somewhere.

Kidnapped while asleep, she was sleeping in a rather luxurious carriage.

However, Lilith wasn’t insensitive enough to keep sleeping through the rocking, so her eyes soon had to open.

Then she saw the man sitting across from her.

“You’ve awakened, Holy Maiden.”

“…Who are you?”

Lilith determined her manner of speech based on the man’s tone and posture, who addressed her as “Holy Maiden.”

It might seem like a hasty judgment, but quickly drawing conclusions and acting on them was one of Lilith’s strengths.

It wasn’t just a simple guess; it was a judgment based on evidence, so it usually turned out to be correct.

“I apologize for the late introduction. I am Fanatic Zealot, born to assist the Holy Maiden according to God’s will.”

“Fanatic… what?”

“Fanatic Zealot.”

“I’ve never heard that name before. More importantly, where is this?”

“We are moving to Ritten in accordance with God’s will. It will be a rather long journey, but it’s all for the Holy Maiden, so please bear with it.”

Despite trying to ask questions calmly, Lilith was at a loss for words, unable to understand either the current situation or what the man was saying.

She gave up on resisting or escaping.

By now, Lilith could gauge her opponent’s abilities, and the man before her, despite his small frame, was clearly not someone she could handle.

So she quickly came to another conclusion.

“Um… okay. Go wherever you want.”

“I’m relieved. I was worried the Holy Maiden might defy God’s will…”

“No, well, I’ve accepted it… It’s hard to explain, so I’ll save my words. It’ll take a while to reach our destination, right?”

“Yes, the distance to Ritten is quite far.”

“Nothing until we arrive?”

“That’s correct.”

“Then fine.”

For now, she decided to just go along with what the man said.

With that thought, Lilith ended the conversation and leaned back comfortably in the carriage.

She wasn’t without anxiety about the sudden situation.

However, it didn’t seem like an immediate threat to her, and she was confident that her friends, who would have noticed her disappearance, would definitely come for her.

That’s why she could put on this brazen act of lying back down.

But the man, unaware of this, was puzzled by Lilith’s unexpectedly calm and compliant reaction, yet decided to believe it was also God’s will.

This happened just 30 seconds before Ludion and Celia arrived.