episode_0082

Time flew by in an instant after finishing the mission at Baron Ashro’s estate, and the midterm exam was already tomorrow.

Nothing particularly special happened during that time.

Every morning, no, at a time closer to dawn, I trained my stamina and illusions at the training grounds, and Johanna watched from the side.

And if I was too exhausted to even move a finger, I would lie on Johanna’s lap.

After returning from the Freya Duchy, Johanna asked me to take off my mask when I lay on her lap, and I readily agreed.

After finishing the morning training, I started my student council activities with Johanna.

Johanna and I mainly patrolled the outer areas of the academy.

‘Though it was called patrolling, it was basically just walking around chatting.’

While patrolling with Johanna, we went to see the child who had been sold to Mordor; it seemed like there were still lingering after-effects, so she would have to stay at the temple a bit longer.

And when academy classes began, all the special class students attacked Professor Alicia.

After all classes ended, I went back to the dorms to rest, and then talked on the phone with Yerika until I fell asleep.

‘Now that I think about it, it was full of special things.’

I thought time passed uneventfully without anything special, but it seemed every day was so special that I hadn’t thought of them as special.

“Tomorrow we’ll have the midterm written exam, and the practical exam will be the day after tomorrow. If anyone has questions, raise your hand.”

All academy classes had ended, and it was homeroom.

Professor Alicia spoke, and I raised my hand.

“What do you want to know?”

“What happens if someone cheats?”

Professor Alicia sighed at my question and rubbed her forehead with her hand, and the students stared at me.

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

“No, it’s just that if it’s you, it feels like you’d actually cheat.”

“That hurts! Of course it was a joke.”

The students heard my conversation with Lucas and chuckled.

“Silence.”

The laughter that spread through the classroom vanished at Professor Alicia’s single word.

“If you want to cheat, you can, as long as you’re confident you won’t get caught.”

“What happens if I get caught?”

At my question, Professor Alicia grinned and opened her mouth.

“If you’re curious, you can try it once. I’m curious what will happen too.”

Goosebumps rose all over my body.

“No, I’m not really curious.”

“Haa… If you have any more questions, raise your hand. I’ll answer them, as long as they’re not foolish questions like just now.”

I raised my hand high once again.

“…Is there no one else to ask a question besides Loki?”

Professor Alicia looked around the classroom once and spoke. I was the only student with my hand raised.

“Haa… Speak.”

“I don’t understand why the question I just asked was foolish!”

“Oh~ Are you really that curious why it’s a foolish question?”

Professor Alicia raised the corner of her lips, loosening her hands, and slowly walked towards me.

“No no, that was a joke! I’m curious about the practical exam!”

“Haa… As I said before, the practical exam will be the day after tomorrow, and I cannot tell you about the exam content because it’s a secret.”

“That’s a pity.”

“If anyone else has questions, raise your hand.”

Not only Professor Alicia but all the students stared at me.

As if there was no one else but me to ask.

“Professor Alicia has kindly told me everything I was curious about, so I have no more questions.”

“…Alright, tomorrow is the exam, so everyone, don’t be late and come to the classroom on time.”

After Professor Alicia finished speaking, the students left the classroom.

Just as I was about to go outside, someone tapped my shoulder.

I turned my head to see who called me.

“Loki, the written exam is tomorrow, are you confident?”

The person who called me was Lucas.

A written exam, huh…

“Of course I’m confident. I’ve already thought about how to solve it.”

“Hmm… Do people usually think about how to solve it beforehand?”

Lucas seemed confused, as if he didn’t understand my words.

“Lucas, did you study hard?”

“Well, I certainly studied hard. See you tomorrow, then.”

“See you tomorrow. Don’t be late, okay?”

Lucas heard my sincere advice and laughed.

That’s unfair.

“Hahaha, unlike some people, I don’t come late.”

“I’m really curious who that is.”

“Indeed, who could it be?”

* * *

Since I had already thought about how to solve the written exam, I lay on my dorm bed and thought about the practical exam.

It wasn’t that the written exam wasn’t important, but the practical exam held much more weight and importance.

Professor Alicia said the practical exam was a secret, but of course I knew what the practical exam was.

‘A survival game for all first-year students.’

All students would have their eyes covered with blindfolds, and the professors would remove their blindfolds at random locations in the forest, starting the exam.

The exam would end when the time limit was reached or when only one student remained.

Unlike the written exam, the practical exam would likely have many variables I didn’t know about.

As I was planning what to do for the practical exam, I checked the time.

‘I should probably call Yerika soon.’

To call Yerika, I took out a communication orb from my sub-space.

-Ring-ring.

Just before I was about to make a call, the communication orb rang, and of course, the person calling me was Yerika.

What perfect timing.

“I was just about to call you first.”

[I was one step faster, wasn’t I?]

Yerika seemed pleased by my words and covered her mouth with her hand, laughing.

Since the last mission, Yerika always called via video call.

“Tomorrow, I’ll call you first.”

[Hehe, I don’t mind much, as long as it’s not like someone who doesn’t answer calls for four hours without a word, you know?]

“Ahaha, I don’t know who that is, but they sound like a very mean person.”

[Exactly. They’re truly a mean person, aren’t they?]

Yerika narrowed her eyes, with the corners of her lips turned up, and stared intently at me.

[By the way, the exam is tomorrow, don’t you need to study? Lucas Oppa seems to be studying hard.]

“I don’t need to study separately or anything.”

[Hmm. It seems you’re confident you’ll do well?]

“I’ve thought about how to solve it.”

[Do people usually think about things like that?]

“And honestly, talking on the phone with Yerika is much more important than studying for the midterm exam.”

[……….]

“Yerika?”

Yerika covered her face with both hands.

[Wai, wait a moment. I’ll call you back right away!]

. . .

“As I said yesterday, if you’re confident you can cheat, you can do it. But I’ll leave it to your imagination what will happen if you get caught.”

“Professor-nim? But why are you saying that while looking at me?”

“It’s your imagination.”

“””Hahahaha.”””

The students’ laughter disappeared when the written exam began.

Only the quiet sound of students writing their answers flowed through the classroom.

However, the faint sound of writing answers was not heard by the students who were concentrating on solving the problems.

Lucas’s seat was at the very back.

Therefore, if he raised his head, he couldn’t see the answers the students wrote, but he could tell to some extent what they were doing.

While most students were reading the questions, deliberating, and writing their answers, Loki was an anomaly.

Loki’s hand showed no sign of stopping even once.

As if he already knew the correct answers, he kept writing down the answers.

He thought it might just be wild guessing at that point.

‘That can’t be.’

Lucas had taken classes with Loki a few times.

When other students were sleepy and napping after lunch, Loki never slept and listened diligently.

‘I should ignore it and focus on my own.’

. . .

All exams were over, and it was lunchtime.

“The exam scores are out!!!!!!!!!”

At one student’s shout that the scores were out, all the students rushed to the bulletin board where the scores were posted.

A large paper with scores and rankings was prominently displayed on the bulletin board.

Clara Adelien – [100 points]

Lucas Leonhart – [90 points]

“As expected of Clara-nim. A perfect score! Isn’t a perfect score a first in the academy’s exams?”

“Even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince got 90 points. This exam must have been particularly difficult.”

Lucas checked his score and was satisfied.

Although there was a 10-point difference from Clara, who was first place, considering the difficulty of the academy’s exams, 90 points was an excellent score.

The third-place score below him was 73 points.

For multiple-choice questions, there was a clear answer among the five options, but essay questions were different.

Academy professors were known for being particularly strict when grading essay questions.

Honestly, it was amazing that Clara got everything right.

‘No matter how many times he checked, there was nothing wrong with the essay answers.’

The reason it wasn’t 100 points was probably because he needed to write in more detail.

Lucas, who had checked his own score, lowered his gaze to check the scores of other special class students.

“Hmm?”

However, no matter how far down he looked, Loki’s name wasn’t visible.

“Was there an error?”

Even if the professor did it themselves, professors were still human and made mistakes sometimes.

Lucas, who was about to go to the faculty office to report a mistake, paused.

“…….Huh?”

A dumbfounded sound escaped Lucas’s lips.

Why is that name there?

Loki – [0 points]

Loki’s name was at the very bottom.

While other students were also checking Loki’s score and staring at him, Loki checked his score and muttered to himself.

“Ah, I should have just picked all ‘A’s.”