The Underachiever
After our meeting with Arlan at the training grounds, we each went back to our own routines. Study, sleep, repeat. And so the peaceful days rolled on, one after another.
Ding-dong-dang.
"That's all for today's class, everyone. Make sure you review thoroughly, and I'll see you tomorrow."
The bell rang out and Sylvia brought her lecture to a close. The students filed out of the classroom, bags slung over their shoulders, same as any other day.
"God, I'm beat."
Fatigue crashed over me like waves rolling onto a beach. Once again, after a heroic amount of effort, I had crawled over yet another dreary lecture and dragged myself through to the end of the day.
Thrilling adventures. Formidable enemies. The tale of striking them down, seizing victory, and saving the world. It was the kind of story that set your heart pounding just to hear it — but I had learned, down to my bones, that the road to any grand ending was dry, pedantic, and dull beyond belief.
"You dozed off in class again, didn't you?"
A finger jabbed me in the cheek. I raised my head to find Chloe glaring down at me, her face twisted into a sulky pout.
"Yeah, I slept. Why, you got a problem with that?"
"If the instructor catches you, you get points docked from your attitude score. Watch yourself."
"Then let them dock them. I couldn't care less."
"Good grades aren't everything, you know. Purity Academy weighs talent when it selects its students, but once you're in, it keeps a close eye on your character and your attitude, and—"
And here we go again, this brat.
As always, the moment the lecture ended, Chloe unleashed a fresh litany of nagging. Her favorite target: my conduct in class. Ever since we'd visited the training grounds, it felt like the frequency of her jabs had only gone up, too.
"This is so obviously her nursing a grudge over getting played at the training grounds. Writer, what's your take?"
The Writer balked at answering. That evasiveness alone was all the proof I needed that my prediction was dead-on.
Ugh, petty little brat.
Second-weakest of the heroines, after Arlan herself — and yet her pride was hellishly tough. She couldn't fault my grades, and I out-fought her in a scuffle, so apparently her strategy was to seize on every petty grievance like this one and snipe at me with it. If I'd seen this coming, I would never have let myself get assigned to the same class as Chloe. The regret arrived, late as ever, in a flood.
Would you look at that. Even the Writer had apparently decided she couldn't stomach another second of it, throwing up her chat window in protest. At this point it was less nagging and more strapping a man to a chair and torturing him.
"Solis, are you even listening to a word I'm saying?"
"I can hear you just fine, so quit screaming straight into my ear."
The fact that today felt especially unbearable was, I was certain, not my imagination.
"I know you're wound up because the aptitude assessment is tomorrow, but let's keep some basic courtesy between us. Whining and shrieking at each other isn't going to change a thing."
"Hmph!"
Unbelievable. Nothing to say in her own defense, so she just snorts in my face — all while holding on to that same look of contempt for me. And I'm supposed to score well on the assessment for the sake of a girl like this?
Maybe I'll just score a shade below average instead.
Seventy on the written exam, eighty-five on the practical, and at least two wins out of five duels. Those were the minimum requirements to clear the average on the aptitude assessment. A fact known only to me, who had read the original, and to the Writer, who had written it. If I truly put my mind to it, sabotaging Chloe would have taken no effort at all.
"Relax — I know. I have no intention of letting my feelings botch my exam."
Framing it as an investment in the future made it just barely tolerable. And whenever I pictured the look on her face when she finally realized she'd walked straight into my trap — well, this much I could endure.
"Look, I know you can't stand me. But shouldn't you be worrying about the others instead? They're all teetering right on the edge of the average as it is."
"Urk!"
Chloe bit her lip. She didn't seem angry, exactly — more like my words had struck a nerve. Ah. So that was it.
"Doesn't look like things worked out as smoothly as you'd hoped. The others' scores came in lower than expected, I take it."
"Eva's fine. Her scores were low because she wasn't studying — now that she's being made to, she clears the average without any trouble."
The duels, then. That was probably the real worry. The practical was an individual exam measured by mana readings, but the duels were scored in head-to-head contests against other students. For a girl who bristled at strangers, it was the worst possible format. Then again, lately she'd been visiting the training grounds on her own, made a new friend in Arlan, and shown genuine resolve to overcome her fear of people — she had come a long way.
It was nothing short of a quantum leap. She was growing so fast that even I, who knew the original story, was taken aback.
Which left exactly one person.
"What about Marin?"
"Her? AAAAARGH!"
Whoops. Hit a nerve — a fatal one, apparently. The muscles in Chloe's face, already twitching, cinched tight, and veins bulged at her temples. She smashed her fist down on the desk, and the impact launched my textbook into the air.
"Her practical and her duels are guaranteed perfect marks. Whoever the Academy puts across from her, she'll chew them up and swallow. But..."
"But what?"
"Why is her written exam such a disaster?! Huh?!"
Tongue lolling out, her whole body trembling — she looked for all the world like a corpse in the throes of a seizure. It was an expression so grotesquely contorted that even the most beautiful face in this entire world couldn't cover it. Poor girl. I could see, plain as day, how much she had suffered.
"I sat with her all day long! Walked her through everything step by step, one thing at a time, even made her summary sheets simple enough for a child to follow! And she still — why?! Keeps getting! The same! Things! Wrong!"
"Oh, come on. Everybody flubs a few questions now and then, and scores don't always come out pretty. You can't rake her over the coals for that."
"Ten times, it was ten times! Teach the same problem that many times and getting it right should be the bare minimum — but she can't even get within spitting distance of the correct answer!"
"Maybe she's just slow. Yes, fine, I know that! But even making allowances for it, this is too much!"
"When she can't work it out, I tell her to just memorize it — I hand her the answer outright — and she keeps going 'why, why, why, why, why!'"
"And she's not mocking me, either. She's genuinely, purely curious, so I can't even bring myself to be angry. AAAAH, I can feel the murderous intent rising!"
"Whoa. She's completely lost it."
Chloe was foaming at the mouth. Her eyes had gone bloodshot, gleaming with something close to madness. And here I'd assumed the boar was the only monster ever to breach the Academy. Turns out there was one more, sitting right beside me.
"No matter how many practice tests she takes, she never breaks 40. Ahh... this is a dream. It has to be."
"If she pulls perfect scores on the practical and the duels, she might just barely squeak by."
"Her best is a 40. Normally she scores a 20."
"Give it up, then. The way I see it, it's hopeless."
By the look of it, Marin was going to have a very hard time clearing the average on this assessment. All that was left was to aim for the next opportunity.
"Uuugh, isn't there some way? I really, truly want to see Marin get over that average, I'm telling you."
"Hilarious. You're not just laying the groundwork for your student council presidency, are you?"
Oops. Had my voice been too loud? My inner thoughts had slipped out of my mouth without my noticing.
Fortunately, Chloe just kept muttering I have to make this work under her breath, entirely oblivious to what I'd actually said.
"About Marin, you mean? Hard to say."
The fact that she couldn't study had been mentioned in the original — I'd be lying if I claimed ignorance. I just hadn't known she'd be quite this hopeless. The one blessing in disguise? That for the first aptitude assessment, at least, I was in a position to cover for her.
"Chloe."
"What, you need something?"
"As it happens, I have a means of dragging Marin's score above the average..."
"Wh-wha-WHAT! Seriously!? For real?!"
Chloe's face, which had been shaped like a rain-gray, storm-wracked sky, brightened as though the clouds had parted.
"I'm begging you like this. Help me, please."
Eyes brimming with tears, Chloe seized my hand. I could feel her desperation through our clasped fingers. Coming from a girl who used to shy away from so much as touching me, that said everything — she really was desperate.
"Though I'm not exactly keen on doing this for free."
"Shall I treat you to a top-shelf buffet later? Or dinner at a fancy restaurant, my treat."
"Aw, that's it?"
Ever since enrolling at Purity Academy, my stipend had been rolling in fat and generous. And even without it, the fortune Maten had left behind was still sitting in my pockets.
"So what do you want?"
"Couldn't tell you at the moment. So I figured I'd settle for one wish voucher."
"Hold on — that's going too far!"
"I'm not the one getting shortchanged here. Say no if you'd rather."
"Grrr!"
Clutching her head, Chloe agonized. But I knew her well. A girl who, once she set her mind on something, didn't know the meaning of giving up would never toss away her dream of the student council presidency here.
"Fine. But if she doesn't clear the average, you'll have to answer for it."
"Thank you kindly for the excellent deal."
At Chloe, who had accepted my proposal, I flashed my very best sales smile.
And that was how I gave Marin the gist of the situation over messenger. Chloe had already told me Marin's schedule was wide open, so I moved to put the plan into action right away.
And just like that, I found myself invited to her mansion.