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Chapter:45
“The weather’s nice.”
Just like yesterday, the sky was clear today as well.
“Shall I call for a carriage?”
“Let’s walk. It’ll help with digestion.”
Yesterday, we had taken a shortcut to submit the application, but today I deliberately chose the main road instead.
This way’s better for sightseeing.
“Wow! It’s really beautiful!”
Watching Bell react with childlike delight, I smiled faintly as we walked—and before long, we arrived at the Central Academy.
A glance at the clock told me it was about time to go inside and prepare.
“Then I’ll go in and take the exam. You two can rest at the inn or look around—do whatever you like.”
At my words, Bell nodded obediently, but Hans stared at me as if he’d been struck by lightning.
“Y-You’re taking an exam? You mean the Central Academy entrance exam?”
Good grief.
It was such an obvious reaction that I didn’t even know how to respond.
I gestured for Bell to explain in my place and headed inside.
From behind me, I heard voices like,
“Th-The Central Academy… Lady Silvia?!”
“I get how you feel, but how could you speak like that in front of the young lady…!”
Since there was no good way to respond, I pretended not to hear and headed toward the exam location written on my admission slip.
Inside, a massive hall filled with tightly packed desks came into view. Examinees who had already arrived were sitting in small groups, chatting animatedly.
“Ahh, what if the questions are easier this year…!”
“I know, right? But no matter how easy it is, we’re not solving the last question anyway.”
“Obviously! If you could solve that, you’d be taking the graduation exam, not the entrance exam!”
Listening to the noisy chatter, I found my seat using my exam number and sat down.
Maybe I should’ve brought something with me.
Everyone around me had spread out books or notebooks and was studying intensely.
Some frowned deeply, muttering to themselves as they struggled to memorize things.
Meanwhile, I had come to take the exam practically empty-handed, leaving me with nothing to do but open and close my eyes idly.
Still, it wasn’t boring.
[That human over there has written something on his hand. Can humans even read such tiny letters? His eyesight must be excellent.]
…That’s cheating.
I wanted to reply to Sylphid’s muttering, but talking to myself here would only earn me strange looks, so I kept my mouth shut.
Instead, I rolled my eyes toward the person Sylphid was pointing out.
A man who looked to be about twenty was leaning toward the wall, staring intently at his own palm.
He’s being way too obvious. He’ll get caught any second.
After watching him for a moment, I lost interest.
The proctor will deal with it. He’s not exactly subtle.
Judging by the sideways glances others were giving him, they seemed to think the same.
No one said anything directly to him, after all.
Causing trouble right before the exam would only be a loss.
There was no need to create unnecessary bad blood.
Just as I was about to turn my head away—
“What do you think you’re doing right now?”
Hm?
Someone had spoken to the cheating man.
It was a silver-haired man I’d never seen before.
That sounded less like a question and more like picking a fight.
His voice was calm and even. If you only listened to the tone, it could’ve passed for casual conversation.
But—
“Is the Academy really so important to you that you’d resort to cheating to get in?”
The tranquility his voice created shattered instantly due to the clear accusation in his words.
“What?”
The would-be cheater snapped back, his face flushed with anger.
“What the hell are you talking about, huh?”
“I asked whether you’re so desperate to enter the Academy that you’d commit such dishonest acts.”
“…Ha!”
The cheating man let out a hollow laugh as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
But judging by his pale face and darting eyes—
Looks like it hit a nerve.
And of course it did.
Even before the silver-haired man spoke up, it had been obvious to everyone that he was cheating.
As the saying goes, the guilty bark the loudest.
The cheating man glared viciously at the silver-haired man and shouted,
“What kind of bullshit are you spouting?! Were you paid to do this? Trying to ruin my exam?!”
The only one talking nonsense here is you…
Accusing him of being bribed to sabotage the exam—what a leap.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one dumbfounded; the silver-haired man frowned as well.
“Is that really all you can think of? How pitiful.”
“What—”
“With that kind of mindset, even if you entered the Academy, you wouldn’t learn anything worthwhile. You should give up now. How could someone who entered through dishonest means gain knowledge in a sacred place of learning?”
He’s calmly beating the guy to a pulp with words.
Not just hitting the surface—he was striking bone.
Even I, just watching, felt my tongue click in awe at the sharpness of his attack. The man on the receiving end was clearly worse off.
“Y-You—!”
The cheating man couldn’t even form a sentence and could only point a shaking finger at the silver-haired man.
“Why are you calling me? Speak.”
“AAAAAH—!”
That must have been the last straw.
Letting out a wild scream, the man charged at the silver-haired man.
Arguments turning into physical fights weren’t all that unusual.
The problem was—
He’s aiming for the eye with a pen?! Is he insane?
The cheating man was trying to stab the silver-haired man’s eye with the pen in his hand.
People nearby gasped sharply as they anticipated the impending disaster.
Biting my lip, I grabbed the pen I had brought with me.
I infused it with mana and hurled it straight at the cheating man’s hand.
—Whoosh!
Amazingly, my pen flew without the slightest wobble and struck its target cleanly.
“Aaagh!”
The cheating man collapsed, clutching the hand pierced by the pen.
The pen he’d been holding—aimed at the silver-haired man—fell to the floor.
Clatter—
Silence fell over the exam hall.
All that could be heard was the pen rolling across the floor and—
“AAAH! I-It hurts!”
—the man’s agonized screams.
Then—
“What is going on here?”
A stern-looking man opened the front door and entered.
Judging by the Academy crest on his clothes, he was a proctor.
The proctor scanned the room with a scowl, then—
“…!”
—froze when he spotted the cheating man kneeling in front of the silver-haired man.
“What in the world—!”
The proctor exclaimed in shock.
The silver-haired man calmly explained the situation.
“I discovered this man attempting to cheat and asked him about it. Instead of admitting his wrongdoing or showing remorse, he lunged at me and attempted to stab my eye with that pen.”
He pointed to the pen lying on the floor.
“…Then why is there a pen stuck in that examinee’s hand?”
“It seems someone who witnessed the scene intervened to help me.”
The proctor’s eyebrow twitched as he asked,
“Do you know who it was?”
Gulp.
Perhaps because of my nerves, the sound of me swallowing felt absurdly loud.
I rolled my eyes toward the silver-haired man, watching his lips move.
“…I didn’t see them. But is that really the important issue here?”
“Well, since an injury has occurred, of course—”
“If there’s a problem, I’ll take responsibility. The action was taken to protect me. But before that, I believe this man should be punished first.”
“Th-That… haah.”
Rubbing his temple as if dealing with a headache, the proctor finally spoke in a resigned tone.
“For now, follow me. You as well.”
The silver-haired man followed gracefully behind the proctor, while the cheating man limped out of the exam hall with a face that looked like he was headed to his execution.
His hand’s injured—so why is he limping?
Was he trying to act pitiful on purpose?
The more I thought about it, the more that seemed like the only explanation.
Why else would he limp on an uninjured leg?
What a piece of work.
Thinking that, I looked again at the pen still lying on the floor.
Will this become a problem?
I’d acted out of desperation, but the situation had grown bigger than expected.
I aimed for the pen in his hand, not his hand itself…
My aim must’ve been off.
That was what I tried to tell myself, but—
[Are you satisfied?]
…?
[My contractor is always so small-minded. If you were going to aim anyway, you should’ve aimed for his head. Much quicker and more efficient.]
What kind of horrifying thing is that—wait.
I looked at Sylphid with suspicion.
Don’t tell me the pen ending up in his hand instead of knocking the other pen away was your doing?
It seemed very likely.
[Hm-hm. I did lend a bit of my power for my contractor’s sake, but there’s no need to be so grateful—]
I hurriedly sent Sylphid back to the spirit realm before it could ramble on.
I can’t believe you’d cause this kind of incident.
There was no bigger troublemaker than that spirit.
Phew… what do I do now?
What if it turned out I was responsible and I got expelled before I could even take the exam?
There were other academies, sure—but compared to the Central Academy, they all fell short in one way or another.
After a short wait, the front door opened, and the proctor returned with the silver-haired man.
