Ch.25Chapter 25. First Exam (2)

Emily loved magic.

This was an undeniable fact that no one could dispute.

It was natural that Emily’s interests gravitated toward magic since she had been exposed to it from a young age, and befitting her lineage as a mage, she had talent for it.

However, Emily was somewhat different from most mages living in this era.

Simply put, Emily preferred to lock herself in a laboratory and conduct research rather than focus on combat magic that was profitable and useful.

When her older sister received praise from their family for freezing two trolls with a single spell, Emily was shut away in her room, absorbed in various experiments, freezing different liquids instead of trolls.

People around her would say such activities were completely useless and that she should spend her time building up her physical strength through exercise instead, but Emily stubbornly pursued what she wanted to do.

As a result, there were too many events to explain in just a few sentences, but Emily was satisfied with her current situation.

After all, she could do what she wanted and spend her time as she pleased.

‘This one is quite twisted.’

Swish- Swish-

Emily felt a sense of achievement and exhilaration with each problem she solved, becoming more and more immersed in solving them.

If the problem she had just solved was twisted twice, the current one was twisted three times.

In situations like this, it was better to solve problems one by one, starting from the most obvious one, even if it took more time.

Trying to solve multiple problems simultaneously to save time could lead to everything getting tangled, forcing her to start over from the beginning.

Swish-

Emily continued solving the problem with the utmost caution.

‘Still, it’s easier than the problems my aunt used to give me.’

Emily recalled the problems her aunt occasionally gave her to solve when they lived together.

They seemed simple at first glance, but the problem structure was such that if you didn’t discover the hidden trap, you would inevitably arrive at the wrong answer.

Compared to those problems, the ones given by the Academy were much easier because they openly revealed where the traps were.

‘Here, I should substitute this instead of that…!’

“That’s it!”

It took longer than any other problem she had solved so far, but Emily confidently entered the answer in the answer field.

Flash-

She was right, of course.

The bulletin board lit up brightly, indicating that the answer she had derived was correct, and Emily’s lips curled upward with joy.

‘Will the next one be even harder?!’

Flash-

“Huh…?”

“Oh?!”

She was waiting for the next problem with anticipation, but unfortunately, no new problem appeared on the bulletin board.

Instead, the message displayed prominently on the board snapped Emily back to reality.

It was like suddenly breaking out of her complete immersion and returning to reality.

<First Test Completed>

“Wow, it’s over!”

“Al-already over?”

Emily unconsciously muttered to herself in a disappointed voice.

She had been fully immersed with her concentration at its peak, and now it was suddenly over.

But Emily’s disappointment didn’t last long.

Grab-

“Hey! Are you crazy? What the heck!”

“Wh-whoa!”

Startled by the sudden feeling of someone hugging her from the side, Emily looked over to find Ryuyeong, who had somehow approached her, putting his arm around her shoulder and smiling brightly.

With a face that looked genuinely happy.

Emily felt an indescribable emotion seeing Ryuyeong’s bright smile of happiness more than his sudden physical contact with the arm around her shoulder.

She hadn’t displayed any flashy or powerful magic, just solved a few problems, yet he was genuinely this happy for her.

“Wow, I expected you’d be good at this, but you exceeded my expectations! I was a bit scared in the middle though!”

“Uh, umm… hehe.”

“Great job! That was amazing!”

“Wow. You’re really smart.”

Not just Ryuyeong, but Elaine Sinclair and Cynthia Surplus, who had been watching from behind, joined in, making Emily feel her face growing hotter as she didn’t know how to react.

This feeling, it had been so long.

Having someone genuinely surprised, happy, and praising her for doing something she enjoyed.

“C-could you… let go…”

“Huh? Oh. Sorry.”

‘Sigh…’

Any disappointment about the problems ending so soon had already flown far away with her teammates’ reactions.

Emily let out a small sigh as she freed herself from Ryuyeong’s arm around her.

Though she felt awkward, Emily couldn’t help but feel an irrepressible sense of pride and joy seeing her teammates so happy.

So much so that she was unconsciously grinning.

“Anyway! Great job! Emily, you’ve earned our respect now.”

Nod nod-

Seeing Elaine and Cynthia nodding along with Ryuyeong’s words, Emily couldn’t hold back her smile.

“He-hehehe…”

Emily was laughing somewhat foolishly, but she wasn’t aware of it herself.

<Moving to the second test location soon>

Until they moved to the second test location, the smile never left Emily’s face.

**

“Did they say the first test had a total of 20 problems?”

“Yes, Vice Chancellor.”

Most of the professors working at the Academy were gathered in one space, engaged in various conversations while watching a large screen displayed on one wall.

It was a video waiting for the broadcast of the inter-grade competition.

The video showed the location of the second test, which was scheduled for official broadcast.

Befitting the inter-grade competition in which all grades from first to third year participated, there were no classes at the Academy today.

The students were probably gathered in their respective lecture halls, watching the broadcast of the inter-grade competition together.

‘Why is the Vice Chancellor here?’

Amillion glanced at Vice Chancellor Landgar, who was looking at the wall while drinking coffee, then turned her gaze back to the video.

About 30 minutes had passed since the first written test began, but no team had yet been warped to the second test site.

“Twenty problems, the third-years should be finishing up about now, right?”

“Yes. That’s probably the case. However, since there are so few participants in this competition, it might take a bit longer.”

“Hmm. I see. Well, only four students are participating from the first year.”

Amillion felt a sting as if the Vice Chancellor’s words were directed at her, but she pretended not to notice and kept her eyes on the video.

Although she couldn’t directly check the difficulty of the written test problems, Amillion had fully anticipated that this test would not be easy.

‘Sigh, I don’t even know anymore.’

Amillion inwardly sighed as she watched the video showing no changes, in a state of semi-resignation.

Not only had they moved up the schedule for the inter-grade competition, but they had also divided it into three tests. Amillion had thought she’d discovered remarkable talent in the 158th class valedictorian, Ryu, but that had been her misconception.

Amillion had been startled when she saw movement faster than mana, but her surprise had dulled with each passing day.

From Amillion’s perspective, Ryu had no talent in magic other than “teleportation.”

Amillion felt endlessly embarrassed at herself for making such a fuss not long ago about hidden bloodlines of the first emperor and whatnot.

“Oh!”

“Someone seems to have finished the first test!”

Everyone’s attention turned to the video displayed on the wall at someone’s exclamation.

Judging by the light beginning to shine at the starting point, it seemed a warp spell had been activated.

What appeared in the light were two students.

Third-years, Gareth Iskea brushing up his bangs and Verthe Bernstein looking around expressionlessly.

“Hmph.”

Along with the appearance of the third-years, the satisfied laugh of their homeroom teacher, Kassis Sinclair, particularly grated on Amillion’s ears.

It was irritating for no reason.

“Now it finally begins.”

“The third-year valedictorian and salutatorian. Good combination. A knight and a mage, good balance too.”

‘I just hope the first-years can finish the first test before the second and third-years move on to the third test.’

Amillion thought as she watched the third-years calmly surveying their surroundings and moving forward immediately after being warped.

She didn’t have high expectations to begin with, but since they were her students, she still hoped they would somehow keep up.

Flash-

“Oh! The next team right away!”

“To finish at almost the same speed as the third-years. This year’s second-years are quite skilled too.”

The professors naturally assumed that the second-years would be the next to finish the test and move on after the third-years, as they watched another rising light in the video.

Amillion thought the same.

‘Ugh, if the gap is this small… wait?’

She had thought the second-years finished the first test too quickly and that this might cause real trouble.

“Hmm?”

“Huh?”

Murmur murmur-

Whispers spread rapidly.

The figures that appeared from the light in the video weren’t three but four people.

Four first-years.

“F-first-years?!”

“H-how did first-years finish so quickly!”

“Whaaaaat?!”

The most surprised was Amillion, the homeroom professor of the first-year representatives.

Amillion was so shocked that she suddenly stood up, widened her eyes, and expressed her disbelief.

She wondered if she had seen wrong, but the black hair clearly visible in the video was unmistakably Ryu’s hair color.

Murmur murmur-

The fact that it was the first-years, not the second-years, who finished the first test and appeared at the second test site right after the third-years—essentially at almost the same time—caused a significant stir.

The Vice Chancellor was watching the video with an intrigued expression, and when the first-years appeared in second place after completing the first test, Kassis’s expression momentarily hardened.

The other professors were all simply amazed.

‘Was this… even possible…?’

Gulp-

Amillion stared at her disciples as if she wanted to enter the video, her eyes wide open.

She never imagined they would finish the first test so quickly.

“G-good job…”

The words slipped out of Amillion’s mouth.

She was so surprised that the words came out unfiltered.