End-of-Term Evaluation (3)
The climbing test was nowhere near as difficult as I had anticipated.
In fact, it was so easy that it felt almost disappointing. I had even tested myself by climbing down from the top, but the difficulty remained thoroughly underwhelming. Since it was an evaluation site designed for students, they hadn't replicated the true precipice of Mount Utulum; instead, they had chipped away at the rock face and reclined the slope, making the ascent significantly gentler. Thanks to that, I had been able to thoroughly assess my physical condition, feeling a quiet satisfaction in knowing my grueling training had borne fruit.
Then again... who could have foreseen this predicament?
"Renias. Stretch your left leg out and step there—"
"...H-How am I supposed to reach that far...?"
As you can see, Renias hadn't made an inch of progress.
There hadn't been any explicit time limit announced, but they also hadn't specified when the test would officially end. Which meant, realistically, there had to be some sort of cut-off...
Are we seriously still stuck in the exact same spot after twenty minutes?
Watching her struggle, I realized that if they had actually brought the real cliffs of Mount Utulum here, it would have been an utter catastrophe.
"Hup... Huh? Eek...!"
While Renias was huffing and puffing, simply standing by and watching had left me so restless that I had already scrambled up and down the rock face several times. It had been a full twenty minutes since she had puffed out her cheeks, boldly declaring she would tackle it on her own. Yet her hands and feet remained trapped in the exact same positions.
Even granting that there wasn't an official clock ticking down, this couldn't go on forever. It was time to give her a gentle reality check.
"Hey, Renias. Why don't you climb down for a second?"
"N-No! I've made... so much progress already!"
"...You haven't even climbed two meters."
"Come on, Sunbae, that's mean! You're just teasing me, right? No matter how bad I am at this, there's no way... Huh? W-Wait a second... What are you..."
...Unfortunately, it was the cold, hard truth.
What else was I supposed to do? I had no intention of forcibly dragging her down, but running in place like this couldn't be ignored.
"Can you feel my palm?"
"...Yes."
I reached out and lightly tapped the sole of one of her boots, crouching low so she could gauge where my hand was.
"See? This is where your feet are."
"...Goodness. That can't be true. There's no way... Ah!"
As I kindly demonstrated by bending down, Renias let out a despondent gasp. The tension drained entirely from her quivering legs, and she plopped right down onto her backside.
"Uuu... What do we do now?"
"I told you from the start, you should have just used magic to glide up comfortably."
"If I did that, it would mean you'd have to use magic to climb too, Sunbae!"
Well, she had a point... While her magic could serve as a barrier to block attacks, it wasn't solid matter like a physical shield that I could step on and climb...
"...Ahem. Still, with your help, couldn't we have figured something out? After all, passing it together as a pair is the whole point."
"Ah... That might have worked...? Why was I being so thoughtless..."
She was surprisingly clumsy at times. Was this why people said she had a cute side to her? No, now wasn't the time to be dwelling on that.
"What's done is done. More importantly..."
Before we knew it, there wasn't a soul left in our vicinity. Everyone else had already cleared the first stage's rock-climbing test.
You might wonder why she didn't just cast magic right now, given how late we were falling behind.
"Unless a pair separates, both partners must complete each stage using the exact same method."
That had been the rule stated by a proctor when Renias finally gave up on doing it bare-handed and declared she was going to use magic. So why not just split up then? Renias and I had actually agreed to dissolve our partnership right on the spot. Except...
"The moment Break Time was requested, it was deemed that mutual agreement between both parties had already been established. Therefore, the pair cannot be split unless they forfeit the evaluation entirely."
Of all the hidden clauses they could have buried in the rules, why did it have to be such an absurd one?!
Apparently, Break Time was intended to be a strategic lifeline to coordinate solutions when partners hit an impasse during the evaluation! In other words, the entire rationale behind pairing students was to force them to cooperate and overcome challenges through identical means—and when encountering an obstacle, to invoke Break Time, reach a consensus, and push through together.
Because her partner—me—had already scaled and descended the cliff face using purely physical means, Renias was stuck having to climb it with her bare body alone. If this wasn't a bolt from the blue, I didn't know what was...
Seriously, Professor Muniherr... What kind of demented exam is this...?
The more I dwelt on it, the more that eccentric professor's nagging voice rang in my ears. Feeling a headache creeping in, I shook my head vigorously to dispel the thought.
At any rate, I had accomplished my goal of checking my physical condition, so I held no lingering regrets. Besides, thanks to these hidden exam clauses, we were effectively deadlocked from progressing further anyway. I lightly tapped Renias's knee with the tip of my finger.
"Ouch."
"If your knees keep getting scraped up like this, the scars will carry over even when we exit the simulation."
"That's true..."
For a sheltered noble lady of a ducal house, even this gently graded cliff was far too harsh a hurdle to overcome with physical strength alone. If she kept injuring herself like this, continuing would do far more harm than good. Having already achieved my own objective, I made up my mind to earnestly advise Renias to forfeit.
"If you're fine with it, I wouldn't mind forfeiting and heading out."
"...What?"
"It's not like I had high hopes for this exam anyway. Neither of us knew about the hidden clauses, so it can't be helped."
"..."
I spoke as if I couldn't care less about what became of the test. There was no need for me to strain myself to score points in the End-of-Term Evaluation. Even in the worst-case scenario where I received a failing grade, the Start-of-Semester Evaluation—which included a written exam—was still waiting for me down the road.
However, a tangle of complex emotions churned within the dispirited girl as she hung her head in silence. For this pure-hearted, gentle junior, it was the first time she had ever felt the crushing weight of genuine guilt.
Sunbae is suffering because of me...
Simply because she couldn't conquer an eight-meter rock wall, he would have to forfeit the End-of-Term Evaluation conducted in pairs, throwing away half of the points needed for his class placement. If it were solely her own score at stake, she could simply accept the blame and push herself harder next time; having an innocent party dragged down with her, however, was an entirely different matter.
As Renias was swallowed by her conflicted thoughts, I offered another gentle consolation.
"There's no reason to get so down on yourself just because of one little thing. Everyone has things they excel at and things they struggle with. I have no intention of blaming you for not climbing it, and even if we took the test to the end, I'd probably just end up in Class E again—or Class D at best. As you can tell, I'm not exactly gifted."
His tone carried not the slightest shred of expectation for the exam. To Renias, that apathy struck like a doubled wave of startling shock. Hearing him mention class placement suddenly reminded the heroine of the victory banquet of something she had completely forgotten until now.
"...Sunbae. May I ask you something?"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Why didn't you come to the banquet hall...?"
"Ah, that? I accidentally fell asleep during a lecture."
Suspicion began to prick at her mind. Did he really just fall asleep during class?
Sunbae is in Class E too...
And at the banquet hall, there had definitely been an exchange just like this:
"Excuse me, is there a senior named Junon in Class E?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. That's him. Why do you ask?"
"Hey, Noel. Renias is Junon's partner."
"Aha, right, of course."
Just as the conversation turned in the right direction and Renias seized the chance to ask about Junon's whereabouts, the Class D and E students gathered there had all reacted the same way.
"What? You're saying he attended the final lecture before leaving?"
"Positive. I clearly saw him leave the lecture hall. But after that, we don't really know. We headed straight to the banquet hall ourselves."
It wasn't a lie that he had attended the lecture. However, no one had said he had fallen asleep. Nor had anyone mentioned where he might have gone. The only other detail anyone remembered was how he had effortlessly solved problems in class as easily as breathing. There hadn't been a single scrap of information regarding his whereabouts that evening.
Which meant, unmistakably, someone was lying.
Sunbae is lying to me.
Why? For what possible reason? If anyone should be desperate for good evaluation scores, it was him. Despite suffering discrimination all this time, living an unfair academy life no different from the students barred at the banquet doors...
Wasn't it strange that he claimed to have no regrets whatsoever? And his excuse that he missed the celebration because he dozed off during lecture contradicted the testimony of everyone else.
A lie.
And there could only be one reason for him to tell such a lie.
To spare my feelings...
"What if I end up holding you back in the End-of-Term Evaluation?"
Those had been the words of concern he uttered during their very first meeting, yet for some reason, Renias's chest ached with bitter remorse as she lowered her head.
Who's holding whom back...?
The one holding the other back wasn't the senior who had worried about her from the start—it was herself, unable to scale a single wall of rock. Beneath all those malicious nicknames and labels, what kind of life had he endured at this academy?
Refusing to dwell on the thought any longer, Renias moved before her mind could stop her.
"H-Hey... Whoa! I told you, you don't have to push yourself!"
When Renias scrambled straight back to her feet and grabbed the climbing rope without even bothering to dust the dirt from her rear, I couldn't help but panic.
"Wait, not that way—!"
Her fervor burned brighter than before, but in this world, some hurdles simply could not be overcome by sheer willpower alone.
"Ah...!"
"Renias!"
Though she had climbed slightly higher this time, she slipped and plummeted in a precarious posture. For a frail female body and an unconditioned mage who had never known physical hardship, this rocky incline was an ordeal far too brutal to conquer bare-handed.
Even so, her silver hair fluttered without crashing into the dirt below. Anticipating her fall, I had sprinted across the gap and caught the delicate mage gently in a bridal carry.
Yet from the sheer mortification of being nothing but a burden to her senior—an agonizing, overwhelming vexation—tears welled up in the girl's dark eyes.
"You could have been hurt! Why would you push yourself so—"
"I'm going to climb it... No matter what...!"
The sheer stubborn defiance burning within Renias braced her spirit, steeling her to confront the primal dread she had harbored all along.