Final Exams (1)
“Hmm…”
Rosaria was deep in thought.
I don’t really get all the details, but basically Rachel is actually a princess and her life is in danger, right?
Last night, after meeting Rachel with Felix, Rosaria had begun sorting through the tangled mess of information her brain had failed to process all at once.
And we were already in a bind because of that Bjorn or Bayoking guy or whatever… and having Princess Rachel around seems like it might solve that…
Whoosh—
Thwack—
“Guh?!”
Eyes closed, chin propped on her hand, lost in thought—Rosaria casually tilted her head to dodge a wooden practice sword flying at her face, then twisted her waist and swept her leg up, delivering a “light” kick to the gut of the student staring at her in blank shock.
“How do you even dodge with your eyes closed?”
“And you’re just spinning in place—we can’t even touch you!”
The students surrounding her, already coated in dirt and thoroughly battered, gasped for breath as they shouted.
More than half of combat class was devoted to sparring, but none of her classmates could serve as a proper opponent for Rosaria, so she trained by taking on the entire class at once.
The skill gap was so vast that even brushing her clothes was a struggle for them. And here she was fighting with her eyes closed, mind completely elsewhere.
The Imperial Guard really is strong. Last time I let that ambush happen like an idiot—next time, I won’t give them an inch.
Rosaria, who had considered herself fairly strong, reaffirmed her resolve as she recalled the cold edge of the blade pressed against her throat the night before.
“Class dismissed!”
“Hah…! It’s over…!”
“Finally… ugh…!”
The students who’d been getting kicked around by Rosaria for so long collapsed the moment class ended, sprawled on the ground gasping for air.
“What a bunch of weaklings. Why are you all so soft?”
Crazy bitch…
Doesn’t even know she’s a monster…
I could just… no. I’d lose. Damn it.
Still, class is over… time to rest at the dorm…
I’m hungry…
The students heard Rosaria click her tongue as they dropped like autumn leaves, and harsh words rose to their throats—but their rag-doll bodies had no interest in being torn to shreds, so they held it in.
She was saying the exact same things Darian used to say back home—the ones that always left her speechless.
Still, class was over. They breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that was it for the day.
“Alright. Anyone who couldn’t even touch my clothes today—fifty laps around the training grounds.”
“…What?”
“Did she just…?”
“I’ll check with Professor Gerton later, so if you lie and skip out, you’re dead. Later.”
Leaving that bolt-from-the-blue remark as casually as anything, Rosaria walked off. The students watched her retreating back, then looked at each other.
And then—
“You crazy bitch!!!!!”
“Fucking hell!!!”
The students finally hit their limit, howling curses at Rosaria in grief and rage.
But nothing changed.
After grinding their teeth and cursing her for a long while, they staggered to their feet and began weakly circling the training grounds.
“Come to think of it, it’s almost been three months since I came to the Academy.”
Rosaria muttered to herself as she strolled leisurely down the corridor after class.
Students still poured attention on her from all sides, but after she’d punched a few of the ones who charged her two or three times, nobody came at her openly anymore.
A lot had happened since she arrived at the Academy. But she’d adapted somewhat by now. Dorm life, classes—once she got used to them, it almost felt like returning to college after a leave of absence. Not bad.
Classes didn’t require complicated studying either—just moving her body—so that was convenient too.
“Semester’s almost over~ Gonna rest hard when I get home~”
It was already November. The Academy’s semester ended from late November onward, and Rosaria was already full of plans to lounge around and go wild back at the family estate.
Then—
“…Huh? Why’s everyone gathered over there?”
Spotting a crowd of students clustered around a bulletin board in the corridor, Rosaria headed over, curious.
“Excuse me~ Coming through~”
“Hey, who—wait, Young Lady Evergarden?”
“It’s Young Lady Evergarden!”
“Yes, yes, Evergarden here. Make some room.”
Rosaria pushed into the mass of students, casually ignoring those who called out at the sight of her, and looked at the board.
“Let’s see… Second semester final exam schedu—ah. Finals.”
The bulletin board listed the schedule for the final exams to be held before the semester ended.
“Well, finals do come before the end of term. What’s it gonna be this time…?”
Finals before the semester ends was standard, so Rosaria wasn’t particularly surprised. She hadn’t studied at all, but she was confident in anything physical, so she figured it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Let’s see? Notice… Due to the previous incident, this semester’s final exams will be replaced with written… what?”
But it didn’t take long for that confident expression to rot into something else entirely.
“That’s what it said. This exam, combat track or non-combat—everyone’s taking a written test.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean all of a sudden?!”
After checking the finals schedule, Rosaria had gone straight to Felix for confirmation—and now she shot up from her seat, shouting.
“I haven’t studied a single thing here!”
Being told she’d suddenly have to take a written exam was deeply unsettling. She’d never even opened a book since coming to the Academy.
“Proud of that, are you? So what have you been doing?”
“Uh… beating up kids… and… um… what else was there…?”
“You sleep through every non-major class face-down on the desk, don’t you? The basic economics professor asked me—please make your little sister stop snoring through my lectures.”
“Ah… I snored too…?”
“Sigh.”
But Felix already knew everything.
Even combat majors had basic classes. Looking at majors alone—sword grips for various blades, human anatomy (you needed to know how the body worked if you used it), basic tactics—written classes were definitely being held.
And even so, Rosaria would get bored and head to the training grounds to thrash students, then come back and sleep through every written class. Her attitude was thoroughly delinquent.
“Look, honestly—practical is seventy percent, written is thirty. Do I really need the written part? It’s not like I’m trying to be an honor student… right?”
“........”
“Okay, okay, stop looking at me like that!”
Rosaria tried a feeble excuse under Felix’s criticism, but she couldn’t stand his look of pure disappointment and yelled.
“Ah, whatever~ What am I gonna do. Haven’t studied a bit, so what exam? I’ll just bubble in all ones. Semester’s over anyway~”
The sudden exam had thrown her, but with the semester ending soon, Rosaria decided to just not care.
“You didn’t know? If your credits fall short during the semester, even after it ends you have to stay at the Academy for remedial classes.”
“…What?”
But Felix’s next words made Rosaria’s pupils dilate.
“Remedial… classes?”
“Yeah. The Academy’s whole purpose is cultivating talent, so they’re deadly serious about education. You might end up stuck here until the next semester starts—huh? Rosaria? Rosaria?!”
Bang—
Before he’d even finished delivering that casually catastrophic news, Rosaria—staring at him with shaking pupils—shot out of her seat and sprinted from the lab.
“Ugh… I don’t get any of this…”
After fleeing Felix’s lab, she headed to the library.
A place she’d never once visited during her time at the Academy. After asking students for directions, Rosaria piled major textbooks related to her field into a mountain and tried to study—but nothing was going into her head.
“I… took the college entrance exam, got into university, sat through tests… so why did I turn into such an idiot?”
Paper was paper. Words were words.
Rosaria clearly remembered her senior year of high school, taking the entrance exam, attending major lectures and studying—but now, studying simply wasn’t working. Her brain, already hardened from military service, had completely reset its study capacity upon encountering the ultra-special situation of isekai reincarnation.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
“Ah, Lit. I’m studying right now.”
“Studying? What’s studying?”
“Is it food?”
“…Ariel, is food all you ever think about? When did you become such a glutton?”
As she groaned over the books for a long while, two spirits popped into existence and started peeking over her shoulder.
“…Wait. Spirits are invisible to most people, right? Then… I could cheat right out in the open and nobody would know?”
Then, suddenly, Rosaria began hatching a scheme to pass the exam using her spirits.
“Yeah. Way better than a cheat sheet, right? Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”
Realizing that with her spirits she wouldn’t need to study at all, Rosaria’s face lit up with a smile. She closed the book she’d opened and muttered to herself.
A perfect plan by anyone’s standards. She almost wanted to praise her own brain for thinking of it.
“The Academy strictly prohibits any improper conduct related to examinations. That won’t work.”
“Huh? Who—ack?!”
Just then, a voice thoroughly rejected Rosaria’s excited scheme in one stroke. She turned toward it—and her jaw dropped.
“Hello? Senior?”
There stood Rachel, wearing the Academy student uniform, a thick tome held to her chest, looking right at her.