Ch.157157. Final Evaluation

The students of Demeia Academy may not have wanted it, but the day of the final evaluation had arrived. According to academy rules, it was forbidden to mention what tasks would be given until the day of the exam, so everyone sat in their seats with tense expressions.

For the theoretical evaluation, there was nothing to be nervous about since it would cover what they had learned so far, but what they were concerned about was the practical evaluation. Given the nature of the academy’s final evaluation, which presented different tasks each year, information obtained from senior students was of little help.

They plunged into the written exam, burdened with anxiety about the upcoming practical evaluation.

Of course, not everyone felt this way. There were a few who took the exam with calm expressions, and Gilbert was among them. The final evaluation was an event he experienced repeatedly while playing Tactical Combat. The fact that unspecified tasks would be given remained unchanged, but that didn’t mean patterns didn’t exist.

Although different tasks were given in each playthrough, if you played long enough, it was possible to experience all patterns. Such people were usually called “veterans,” and Gilbert was indeed a veteran who had repeated countless playthroughs.

Since the game had become reality, there was a possibility that he might face a task pattern he hadn’t experienced before, but he wasn’t worried about that. It wasn’t out of arrogance or complacency. It was a conclusion drawn from objective analysis.

Looking at his achievements and abilities, he had grown faster than in any other playthrough. This meant he had already far surpassed the level of an academy student.

He wasn’t sure how the final evaluation would be measured, but he was confident he could pass unless they asked him to face a giant soldier barehanded. If he couldn’t handle even that much, the title of “veteran” wouldn’t suit him.

He could solve the written exam entirely with knowledge gained from countless game playthroughs. Although he had essentially memorized the answers, from the perspective that everything was covered in the course materials, it was no different from having studied diligently.

Besides, he wasn’t particularly unintelligent to begin with. While he might not be as knowledgeable in theory as Angelina, he still had a mind capable of aiming for high scores.

After the long theoretical evaluation ended, the students left the examination hall with groans. This theoretical evaluation must have been quite difficult, as the expressions of the students leaving weren’t particularly good.

“Is this even a reasonable difficulty level?”

“It felt like they wanted us to memorize the entire textbook…”

Most of them walked like zombies, staggering along. Judging by everyone’s negative comments about the theoretical evaluation, they hadn’t performed as well as they had hoped.

“The exam was too difficult…”

Hans, who was weak when it came to theory, sighed deeply with a dejected posture. Ilen also seemed to be in the same situation as Hans, her expression more rigid than usual.

“I suppose those from noble families with private tutors have an advantage.”

It was Angelina’s sharp observation. No matter how equal the education was supposed to be, there were inevitable differences between noble families and common families.

Noble children, educated by all sorts of private tutors from a young age for their future, often received superior grades in theoretical evaluations.

Considering that even Camilla, who only pursued her interests, ranked in the upper tier for theoretical performance, such imbalance was unavoidable.

“Still, it’s fortunate we didn’t completely fail, isn’t it?”

Hans, with his inherently optimistic personality, brightened the mood with his words. Having received much help from Gilbert’s group, he was definitely showing stronger theoretical skills compared to before enrollment.

All of this was possible because of Angelina, who was thorough in theoretical matters. She was the one who had helped the commoners Hans and Ilen with their studies.

“I’m more suited for practical skills than theory.”

However, Brynhild’s expression remained poor, suggesting she hadn’t performed well on the exam. Having been on battlefields from a young age, she showed some weakness in theoretical areas.

Specifically, she struggled with the Empire’s history, culture, and etiquette, which was understandable considering she was a great warrior of the Sigurd clan.

“But you tried hard. There will be good results.”

Lily comforted Brynhild, but her expression didn’t brighten. As someone with a strong competitive spirit, it seemed to be something she found difficult to accept.

Gilbert was secretly smiling at this rare peaceful daily life. After enrolling in Demeia Academy, he had experienced many hardships dealing with the main scenario, so such peaceful moments felt incredibly precious.

The fact that there would be no life-threatening main scenarios until the heir competition began also allowed him to feel at ease.

While the academy’s final evaluation wasn’t without risks, it was still much safer than the main scenario, so there was no…

[Main Scenario: The Enemy Within begins.]

What?

Gilbert’s peaceful expression contorted severely.

***

The Enemy Within.

This was a new scenario that even Gilbert, who had repeated countless playthroughs, had never experienced.

Tactical Combat, with its high degree of freedom, had numerous main scenarios. While some main scenarios like the Academy Raid or the Sigurd Invasion would inevitably occur, others would only trigger when entering specific routes.

Gilbert had played through these numerous main scenarios dozens, even hundreds of times to achieve all accomplishments.

While he might not have memorized all scenario names, he could immediately recognize what a scenario was about just by seeing its name.

Among all those scenarios, there was definitely no scenario called “The Enemy Within.”

Perhaps something like rebellion or treason, but not this.

Even those would only appear stealthily after the heir competition ended, so it was normal for no main scenarios to be in progress during the final evaluation.

But unless the system was lying, the main scenario called “The Enemy Within” had begun.

Even if he hadn’t seen it during the Tactical Combat era, it was meaningless speculation and assumption since he had already saved Briana.

Come to think of it, while the overall flow followed Tactical Combat, looking at the details, the situation had already diverged significantly.

Briana being alive, the change in the Resistance’s chairperson, and Leila’s eyes being normal were all different from the original Tactical Combat storyline.

Above all, if he opened the mission window right now, there would be a sub-scenario he’d never seen before called “Seekers of Twisted Possession” prominently displayed at the top.

Given that an unknown sub-scenario had already appeared, he should have anticipated that an unknown main scenario might emerge as well.

Quickly organizing his mind, which had been filled with irritation and bewilderment, Gilbert walked toward the outdoor classroom to receive the final evaluation task, deep in thought.

First, he needed to understand what the main scenario “The Enemy Within” was about. Unlike previous situations, he couldn’t know the content of the main scenario, but he could infer it from the name.

Typically, main scenario names encapsulated the essence of the scenario. There was no better way to explain the theme of the main scenario to first-time players.

If one could infer what the scenario was about just by looking at the title, it made for a clean narrative.

Gilbert also focused on the scenario name “The Enemy Within,” pondering the theme of this main scenario.

Looking at the meaning of “The Enemy Within” itself, it suggested there was some kind of traitor, but he wondered if there was a reason for a traitor to emerge in the current situation.

It was a widely known fact that spies were dispatched to each country for information gathering or operations, so it was strange for a main scenario to occur like this now.

Of course, if those spies suddenly caused a terrorist attack, that would be a different story, but that only happened when following the spy route, which seemed unrelated to the current situation.

Wait, terrorism?

Gilbert felt his mind spark at the word “terrorism.”

There was no better combination than “The Enemy Within” and terrorism. In many genre literature, there were instances where enemies were planted internally to carry out terrorist attacks.

If so, this main scenario would likely focus on identifying the internal enemy and preventing the terrorist attack they would cause.

This raised the question: where was the internal enemy, and where would the terrorism occur?

Gilbert twisted one corner of his mouth as if there was nothing to consider.

A place that had been repeatedly attacked recently.

A place that allowed attacks despite having thick barriers.

Demeia Academy.

This place had a high possibility of being the attack site.

Gilbert didn’t definitively conclude this was correct, but he was almost certain. He had already deeply considered whether there might be a Resistance informant in the academy.

Naturally, he had conveyed this to Seraphina, but public opinion was too unfavorable to stir up Demeia Academy. Since some professors were nobles with high pride, conducting an investigation was practically difficult.

But now that it was revealed as a main scenario, he couldn’t help but be certain.

That there was an internal enemy within Demeia Academy who was in league with the Resistance.

“Gilbert?”

Camilla called out to Gilbert, who had a grave expression, but he didn’t respond. He simply stared silently at the notification that the main scenario was beginning.