Midterm Evaluation (2)
Midterm Evaluation (2)
"Sigh..."
Ellia, who was sitting next to me, let out a heavy sigh—a rare sound from her.
Then she slumped right over the table.
Her warm-toned blonde hair fanned out, and another uncharacteristic sigh escaped her as her generous chest pressed flush against the tabletop.
An expression thick with exhaustion.
It was a reaction you almost never saw from the usually upbeat Ellia.
I took a sip of cocoa—still not used to the price—and tuned in to the sounds around me.
- Ugh, I'm gonna...
- No but seriously, is this right? The average got destroyed.
- Did anyone solve Dungeon Raid question 39, the one on wave proofs...?
In a café that should have had a pleasant atmosphere, with soft sunset light filtering through the windows, a gloomy chorus of lamentations was in full swing.
"It's too hard..."
Seemingly indifferent to the discomfort of her own chest being flattened, Ellia let out another sigh and grumbled.
"This exam was definitely difficult overall. Even I ran out of time and had to rush through it."
The one who answered Ellia's complaint was Baek A-rin, seated across the table and sipping her coffee.
Even Baek A-rin, who had secured the Top Seat during the entrance exam, called it difficult.
...Though, if I recalled the original story correctly, Baek A-rin would keep the Top Seat this time too, with perfect scores on both the written and practical portions.
"Not just 'overall'—the whole thing was insane. A few of them, I couldn't even figure out where to start."
"Well, if you had studied regularly, Yeon-hwa... Never mind."
"What, why. What about me? No, you basically said it all and now you're trailing off? What's that?"
Hong Yeon-hwa, who was sitting next to her, also had her head planted on the table.
The moment the first day of midterms had ended.
We had gathered at this café a short while ago to check the tournament preliminary bracket together, which was due to be announced soon.
"Basic Magic, Formula Analysis, Dungeon Dynamics, Dungeon Raid... not a single one of them was easy..."
Hong Yeon-hwa mumbled into the table, scrubbing her cheek against it.
I nodded inwardly at her complaint-filled words.
The notoriety of Siyoram's evaluations was well known.
Just as the standard of education was high, many of the regular lectures were hard to keep up with, and the periodic exams were immensely difficult.
The midterm written exam was especially infamous.
The practical was manageable—most cadets had talent plus nearly a lifetime of effort behind them, so it wasn't impossibly hard... but the written portion was notably brutal.
No multiple choice whatsoever.
Mostly essay-type questions, the vast majority demanding complex procedures.
The time pressure was so severe that if you hesitated and thought too long, you would run out of time for the later questions.
You had to put answers down the moment you thought of them just to barely beat the clock.
Grading supposedly takes quite a while for the same reason.
So much so that even with countless slaves—I mean, administrative staff and teaching assistants—plus magic thrown at it, it still takes time. Counting the correction period, the timeline stretched even further.
Because of that, professors were said to be so busy during midterms they didn't even have time to dry their hair.
Professor Liana was no exception; while teaching me and Ellia spirit arts, she once confessed how exhausted she was trying to juggle public lectures and midterm prep.
And the written exam wasn't even over yet.
We had finished more than half of today's schedule, but there were still subjects left to take.
Also...
"No, this one was especially hard..."
This written exam had been exceptionally difficult.
I knew this firsthand—I had desperately scrambled to catch up on the material after being discharged from the hospital, steadily working through past exams and curated question banks.
The overall difficulty felt like it had jumped an entire level.
"They seem to have raised the difficulty, considering the level of this year's first-years."
"Huh?"
"You know... it's well known that Siyoram sets its exams according to the cohort's level. But I heard that since this year's first-years are considered high-level, the evaluation difficulty was raised along with it."
"That's so crazy. Why would they raise it and make a fuss... My head's already killing me..."
Hong Yeon-hwa let out a massive sigh at Baek A-rin's answer and resumed rubbing her head against the table.
Hong Yeon-hwa was the classic practical-type who abandoned the written and bet everything on the practical.
More precisely, her mind was sharp—she just chose not to use it.
So while she grumbled about bombing the exam like that, her actual test scores would likely be fairly high once they came out.
If her written scores truly scraped the bottom, she could never have taken the runner-up seat in the first place.
In a way that almost seemed like humblebragging, Hong Yeon-hwa kept her head planted on the table and shook it side to side.
Her ruby hair disheveled this way and that with the motion.
She didn't seem to care at all.
Neither did Ellia, resting her head across from her, nor Baek A-rin, who was tapping at her smartwatch and focusing on something.
"......"
But I minded.
As I observed her with the Observation Authority, my fingers twitched involuntarily.
That disheveled hair bothered me quite a bit. On the uncomfortable side, if I had to be precise.
Of course Hong Yeon-hwa's hair was beautiful even in its tousled state, but it would look even nicer neat... it just felt slightly unpleasant seeing it tangled, that was all.
After a moment's hesitation, I quietly reached out and smoothed her disarranged hair back into place.
In the process, a soft sensation wound around my fingers, and I inwardly marveled.
Was this what the hair of ancient nobility was said to feel like after being treated with perfumed oils?
Though I supposedly kept my perception restrained, the heightened sensitivity of my touch made the softness register all the more vividly.
But now that I thought about it, Hong Yeon-hwa herself was practically high nobility already—one of the preeminent aristocratic families, no less.
Did Hong Yeon-hwa maintain her hair through various methods as well?
Given the time and hassle involved, it seemed like the kind of troublesome task her personality would make her detest.
"......!"
Hong Yeon-hwa, who had been blankly rubbing her cheek against the table, gave a sudden start. Her body trembled faintly as if an earthquake had struck, and then she turned her head slightly.
Glistening red eyes stared at me. The bewilderment written in them made me realize my slip.
[Ah]
[I'm sorry if that made you uncomfortable]
"No! No... I'm fine. Not uncomfortable at all."
Just as I apologized and tried to pull my hand back.
Hong Yeon-hwa, blinking dazedly, shook her head quickly, her cheek still pressed to the table as if to say it was absolutely not the case.
Relieved a little, I finished smoothing her hair back along its natural flow.
[It's incredibly soft]
"...Th, thank you."
Rubbing her now-neat hair between her fingertips, Hong Yeon-hwa straightened her upper body.
A small sense of satisfaction welled up at seeing her hair tidier than usual... or perhaps even more so than usual.
It would be even better if I tidied it with the portable comb I always carry, but pulling that out felt a bit... extra.
"....."
"?"
A strange emotion flickered in Hong Yeon-hwa's red eyes. It was different from the bewilderment just now.
How to describe it? It was the kind of feeling you would get from forcing down some impulse.
As I tilted my head in curiosity, an image suddenly surfaced in my mind—something like a predator poised just before lunging at its prey.
It was an inexplicable mental picture. I couldn't understand why that image came to me.
- Diring
- Diring, diring, diring!
Just as Hong Yeon-hwa was wrapped in that odd air, an alert rang out simultaneously from the smartwatches of all the cadets seated in the café.
"Ah, looks like the brackets are already assigned."
Ellia, blinking her half-lidded eyes, sat up with a jolt.
In the process, her chest, which had been squashed flat, regained its original dimensions—an almost wondrous glimpse into human biology.
With that, Ellia, along with Baek A-rin and Hong Yeon-hwa, all started tapping at their smartwatches to check the tournament preliminary bracket.
- Diring
The hologram projector I carried also chimed.
I fiddled with the projector hanging around my neck, and a hologram floated up.
'Who am I up against...'
There was still the practical evaluation from the afternoon of Day 3 to the morning of Day 4, but as long as it proceeded as pre-announced, I would probably manage a fairly easy win.
Of course, I wasn't going to let my guard down because of that, but I couldn't help wanting to concentrate my energy on the tournament.
This tournament in particular had a relentlessly tight schedule.
On the afternoon of Day 4, the preliminary matches would be held to immediately determine who advanced to the main round.
Day 5 would proceed without stopping except for brief rest intervals between matches, crowning the winner that very day.
A brutally compressed schedule. The rest periods were so short that if you poured all your energy into one match, it could cause trouble for the next.
But there was no protest from the cadets. This tournament structure had been a tradition since Siyoram's founding.
In real combat, you rarely get a rest break exactly when you want one, for as long as you want.
Because the monsters swarming you, and the enemies and environment, have no reason to accommodate your convenience.
Reflecting that, the explanation given was that the tournament deliberately limits rest between matches to push cadets to place importance on managing their own stamina.
'If I draw an easy opponent the match will be comfortable, but I probably won't gain much from it...'
Honestly, I didn't think I could win the entire tournament, but I still had the ambition to place as high as possible.
The tournament's main-round matches were broadcast externally.
The match content would spread far and wide over the network constructed by the Authority of Harmonization.
And stakeholders from various factions and clans would probably be watching the matches in person too.
There was a little pressure because of that.
A small worry about what would happen if I advanced to the main round and then lost disgracefully.
Of course, I didn't really have much pride to speak of, and I didn't care that much about my reputation...
What concerned me was my master, who was teaching me.
She had overcome the wound of losing a disciple in the past and still accepted someone as lacking as me as her pupil.
And since that day, she had been training me with tremendous devotion.
If her disciple lost in a shameful display amid all that, it certainly wouldn't be a pleasant feeling for her.
It wasn't about my own pride or reputation—only her feelings worried me.
In other words, for my master's sake, I had no intention of settling for a half-baked result.
Whatever happened, I would advance to the main round. And there, I had to show a good performance so she wouldn't be disappointed.
With that resolution, I opened the bracket file once it finished loading.
[Tournament Preliminary Bracket (Group ㉲)]
⑴ Emily Ramos │ Daria Rostanova
⑵ Ha Yeon-jae │ Haruka Fujiwara
...
⑹ Lee Ha-yul │ Aiden Reynolds
'Hmm...'
After confirming my first opponent, I let out an inward hum.
Aiden Reynolds.
In many ways, someone I kept running into.
The person who challenged me to a spar when I was still clumsy during swordsmanship class.
Also the person I was grouped with in Dungeon Practice and attended public lectures with, since we were both in the Ipchun Class.
I held no particular ill will. He had said that back during the spar, he hadn't started trouble out of malice either.
In the dungeon, he had even dropped formal speech toward me.
I harbored no particular malice either.
[Revenge?]
...No malice.
It is just that I slightly remembered how he unsettled my heart in Dungeon Practice, apologizing for something I hadn't even let bother me.
* * *
At a certain café.
Aiden, who still hadn't recovered from the aftermath of bombing the first day of writtens, flinched when he saw his first tournament opponent in the notification.
[Tournament Preliminary Bracket (Group ㉲)]
...
⑹ Lee Ha-yul │ Aiden Reynolds
...
Lee Ha-yul.
At the sight of those three syllables, Aiden's eyes wavered unsteadily. The coffee cup in his hand trembled along with them.
- Trudge trudge
"The bracket's out already. Who'd you get?"
Attila, who had set down a slice of cake from the counter, approached from behind Aiden and casually peeked at the bracket.
And there, he spotted the name Lee Ha-yul.
Along with the name 'Aiden Reynolds' engraved right beside it.
"......"
Sharp, cat-like eyes blinked.
Attila, about to say something, shut her mouth to collect her thoughts for a moment.
The brief collection was over.
Having sorted her thoughts, Attila opened her mouth.
"Good luck."
No matter how he thought about it, he really had nothing else to say.