Entrance Exam — Conclusion
After somehow managing to finish the bombing—or rather, the Magic Department entrance exam—with Mana Blast…
I hurried out of the exam grounds, which now bore something like three enormous craters, and made my way back to the academy's central plaza, where Ethan was waiting for me at our appointed spot.
"Maid, how did the exam go?"
…How exactly was I supposed to answer that one.
Well, in the end it seemed I'd been spared the fate of outright failure, so I gave a suitably moderate reply to keep him from worrying over nothing.
"Yes, well. I'd say it went more or less smoothly."
"More or less…? Was the exam difficult for you, Lilith?"
"No, not especially. It wasn't that hard."
It was just that I'd charged in as Lilith with zero preparation and nearly floundered completely because of it.
Thankfully, the closing Mana Blast had smoothed things over—that much I could count as a blessing.
In total, I had destroyed six targets.
The sturdiest target, and the one standing beside it.
One of the moving targets, and its neighbor.
And then the farthest target, plus one more that I'd hit by pure accident while raining down mana arrows everywhere.
More than half of all targets—including the three highest-scoring ones—reduced to rubble, six in all. By any reasonable measure, the operation itself had been a success.
…Honestly speaking, there was something genuinely hilarious about the fact that unleashing spells on that scale had netted me only six kills.
But whatever. As long as I'd cleared the passing threshold, that was all that mattered.
As for how to improve my accuracy—in other words, how to raise my luck—that was a problem I'd simply have to solve after enrolling at the academy. Fortunately, there were a few courses among the academy's curriculum dedicated to boosting 'Luck.'
"If you're wondering whether I passed, there's no need to worry. I'm confident I'll pass without difficulty."
"Good."
"Yes. Though since the subject matter was an area I lack confidence in, I doubt I managed a particularly high score."
"W-well, that can't be helped. Everyone has things they're good at and things they're not. I know what a splendid mage you are, Maid, so it's fine."
"Thank you for saying so."
"Oh, that reminds me—I thought I heard an explosion coming from the exam grounds earlier. A sound I've heard somewhere before, strangely enough. You wouldn't happen to have been the one who…"
"…Isn't today the day your own Swordsmanship Department results are posted, Young Master? Did you perhaps check them while I was sitting my exam?"
"Ah, not yet. I wanted to check them together with you, if I could."
"How convenient, then. There's still plenty of time before lunch—shall we go confirm them now, Young Master?"
"Yes, let's do that."
And so the two of us walked together toward the bulletin board in front of the academy's main building to check Ethan's admission results.
Though truthfully, what I was really curious about wasn't Ethan at all, but whether a certain someone else had made it into the Swordsmanship Department.
Had the protagonist enrolled in the Swordsmanship Department exactly as the story dictated, or had he chosen differently? This was my chance to find out.
Finding Ethan's name on the bulletin board before the academy's main building was no difficult task.
When the academy posted lists of successful candidates, it made no distinction between nobles and commoners. Naturally, it made no distinction of rank among nobles, either.
Names were simply arranged in ascending alphabetical order, noble and commoner mingled together—this was the way of Luminor Academy. It was the fairest method, after all, and the least open to complaint.
And as I've said repeatedly, Luminor Academy had been a domestic Korean game, which meant that arranging names in alphabetical order meant arranging them in hangul order.
I was scanning roughly through the listings under the 'ㅇ' section when, before long, I spotted Ethan's name.
…
Arc Rilkenia
Ethan Richard Blackwood
Emma Lightsword
"Maid, found it?"
"Yes. You passed splendidly, Young Master."
"S-splendidly…?"
"Congratulations. At the very least, you won't be hearing the Master's wrath at the dinner table."
"…Right. Thank you. It's all thanks to you, Maid."
"You are merely receiving the rewards of your own hard work, Young Master."
…Well, I'll admit I didn't do absolutely nothing.
Had I never spurred him on, Ethan would never have built this level of swordsmanship, and his duel with Caraham would have been far from a guaranteed victory.
But at the end of the day, the most important thing was that Ethan had achieved these results because he had worked for them. All I'd done was supply a modest amount of motivation.
Incidentally, I'd also taken a rough look at whether the other key figures had passed—just those whose presence would shape the game's main storyline, like Nathalie and Caraham.
It had briefly occurred to me that Caraham's loss in his duel with Ethan might affect his admission, but judging by the list, the story so far seemed to be flowing without any major deviation from the original.
…Not that Ethan or Caraham were the important ones. The real question was whether the protagonist had entered the Swordsmanship Department.
'But how am I supposed to find the protagonist's name in this enormous list…?'
However many thousands of hours I'd sunk into Luminor Academy in my past life, memorizing the name of every single academy student was obviously impossible. What kind of lunatic walks around with the names of every random mob NPC—not even proper extras—committed to memory?
Still, it didn't matter. Even for a protagonist whose name I didn't know, there was always a way to find him.
Specifically: in Luminor Academy, the protagonist had a fixed surname.
It might seem strange that players could freely customize his given name while his family name was locked in, but for the sake of the game's story, that 'last name' had to remain constant.
Which meant that all I had to do on this list of students was find the surname 'Volt.' Wherever that name appeared, there stood the protagonist.
Volt… Volt, where are you, Volt…
"Maid?"
"…Yes."
"What are you staring at so intently? Looking for someone in particular?"
"…No. I merely thought I ought to memorize a few names, since some of these students may end up attending the same classes as you, Young Master."
"You really are diligent, aren't you."
The truth was that I was searching for someone in particular, which was exactly why I was combing through the board's listings.
But it seemed likely that if I kept staring for too long, Ethan's suspicions would be aroused, so I decided to check just a few lines near the top and be done with it.
The thought did flicker through my mind that I couldn't even be certain the protagonist had taken the Swordsmanship Department entrance exam at all, and that I might be wasting time on a wild goose chase.
But the moment I turned to leave after skimming past the names near the top of the list, I found it—a name that no one on earth could look at and conclude was anything other than a player's creation.
And the instant I confirmed that name—a name whose meaning I could more or less reverse-engineer—I sank, just like that, into a deep, deep despair.
"Ah… aah…"
"…What's wrong, Maid?"
"N-nothing at all! It's nothing, Young Master."
"…You don't exactly look like it's nothing. Your face is grave as a funeral."
"Th-there's no reason for that to be the case. I—I am perfectly fine, Y-young Master."
"…Let's head back to the inn and rest for now. You seem worn out from the entrance exam yourself."
"Y-yes, yes, of course…"
Merely confirming the protagonist's name had been enough to scatter my thoughts into a chaotic storm of tangled emotions.
And at the same time, it was the moment I began to seriously wonder whether this world itself could possibly survive.
Because no matter how I turned it over in my mind, I simply could not imagine a Hero of this world bearing that name making any earnest effort to slay the Demon King.
Roughly an hour after Ethan and Lilith had left the academy's bulletin board.
A pair—a man and a woman with appearances and attire more than striking enough to draw every eye around them—stepped up to the academy's departmental postings.
A tall, handsome white-haired man with a two-handed greatsword slung at his hip.
And a woman with pastel-pink hair draped in robes of purest white.
The collection of large and small scars across the man's body and armor spoke quietly of battles already weathered, and the star-and-crescent motifs on her white vestments proclaimed her a Saintess of the Aurelia Church.
"How did it go, Hero?"
"Hmm…"
With a grave expression, the Hero of the Aurelia Church scanned the academy's posted list from top to bottom, searching for his own name.
His gaze came quietly to a halt at one corner of the board.
Having confirmed the name written there, he let out a slightly troubled sigh before answering the woman.
"It seems I've passed, thankfully, Saintess."
"I-I knew you would pass, Hero! The 'destiny' I sensed in you said as much all along!"
"…Yes. Thank you for your faith in me, Saintess Serista."
Serista, the pink-haired girl, favored the Hero with a radiant smile—but he paid the warm expression hardly any mind, quietly sweeping his eyes over the academy's board once more.
"Nathalie, Caraham, Ethan…. So is the original storyline proceeding properly or not?"
"……"
"Then who was that woman I saw at Silverwood…? No matter how I look at it, she was identical to Aeria. But the brothel-keeper of Silverwood was definitely supposed to be a petite woman with pink hair…"
"Um… Hero?"
"Is it just randomized for no particular reason? But everything else is still exactly as it should be…"
"H-Hero…! H-how much longer do you intend to keep standing in front of this board…?"
"…My apologies, Saintess Serista."
The Hero, who had been lost in murmured soliloquy, quietly stepped back at Serista's urging, and the space he vacated was swiftly filled by other examinees eager to confirm their own results.
"Again with this talk of 'originals' and 'randomization' that I can't make heads or tails of. What is it this time?"
"…Forgive me. It's something I cannot explain even to you, Saintess Serista."
"…I understand. If it is something you cannot speak of, Hero, then surely there is a reason."
"Thank you for understanding."
"Well, now that you've passed into the academy, Hero, let's visit the church today and report your results. I must speak with the High Priest as well and begin preparing to enroll myself next year."
"As you command, Saintess."
He remained a man whose thoughts were impossible to read, but as Serista walked beside him and studied his face, she found this very moment—walking at his side—deeply pleasant.
She had already weathered hardship after hardship at the Hero's side, and by now he occupied a considerable corner of her heart.
And the knowledge that for the next four years she would live as a fellow student of the academy with him was a fact that made her genuinely happy.
"From next year on, Hero, we'll both be students of Luminor Academy together!"
"…Yes. So we will."
"It's been true up until now, but I'll be in your care going forward as well! …Hero Gehwa-joses-gigwat!"
"……"
The instant his name left Serista's lips, Gehwa-joses-gigwat Volt's expression froze solid.
And the moment she saw that face, she realized her blunder and hurriedly bowed her head, searching for a read on his mood.
"I-I'm sorry, Hero! I-I was just so happy, it slipped out…!"
"It's quite all right. …Still, I would prefer it if you called me by my surname next time, rather than my name. I've mentioned this before, but I'm not particularly fond of my own name…"
"I-I'll bear it in mind…!"
And so, each carrying complicated feelings of a very different flavor, the two of them made their way toward the Aurelia Church Academy Branch.
Such were the figures of the Hero of Luminor Academy, Gehwa-joses-gigwat Volt—and Serista, the false Saintess of the Aurelia Church.