The Academy Entrance Exam (1)
Five months had passed since the day I offered my chest to Ethan for the second time.
The seasons had turned, and February—the last gasp of winter—was already breathing down our necks.
Which meant that the day Ethan and I would enter the Academy was fast approaching.
Of course, our admission to the Academy wasn't a settled matter yet.
By rule, whether noble or commoner, anyone hoping to enter Luminor Academy had to sit for the entrance examination.
Even Lizzie of the Margrave Auguste family had failed it once—a testament to just how little room the Academy's admissions rules left for exceptions.
…Though admittedly, there was no helping the fact that the exams themselves were of different difficulty for nobles and commoners.
'Well, the Academy does have to keep its lights on, after all.'
It was common knowledge that Luminor Academy's tuition was exorbitantly expensive, but the truth was, compared to the Academy's actual operating costs, it was laughably cheap.
The infrastructure was so rich you could genuinely learn any body of knowledge you set your heart on.
The curriculum was taught properly by veteran professors with ten to twenty years of dedicated educational experience.
And on top of that, the current headmaster's insane connections even brought in retired sages of the Magic Tower, the Emperor's former Captain of the Knights, and even one-time members of the old Hero's party as guest lecturers.
Factor all that in, and the reality was that Luminor Academy couldn't avoid running a deficit every single year, even charging a whole gold coin per semester.
In fact, it was an institution whose shortfalls were quietly patched over with funds from the imperial treasury.
And what helped subsidize at least a sliver of those operating costs was the entrance exam that was conveniently easier for nobles.
Among the high nobility who normally entered Luminor Academy, there existed a kind of unspoken custom of paying enormous donations to the Academy on top of tuition.
So while it paid lip service to offering equal educational opportunity to commoners and nobles alike, the unvarnished truth was that Luminor Academy's student body was overwhelmingly dominated by the aristocracy.
Nobles who'd received private tutoring since childhood were naturally superior to commoners on average to begin with—and with the exam difficulty itself skewed in their favor, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.
That said, things were meant to change slowly, starting this very year.
As I'd mentioned once before, beginning with next year's incoming class, the Academy's enrollment capacity would triple.
Because the broad strokes of the original story were still unfolding exactly as they had in the game.
Spooked by the imperial palace attack, the Emperor had announced a slate of measures to strengthen national defense—one of which was expanding the Academy's enrollment.
But no matter how easy the entrance exam was made for nobles, the absolute number of nobles in existence was finite.
'Heck, back in this era there was so much spare enrollment capacity that even characters like that degenerate squad from the game could get in.'
Which meant that even after admitting every noble who existed, the leftover seats would inevitably be filled by commoner students.
Starting this year, the Academy's culture would gradually shift from aristocracy toward egalitarianism.
That said, however relaxed the admission standards became, the entrance exam itself still had to be taken—so Ethan and I both had to travel to Luminor Academy on the appointed day.
Which was why today, Ethan and I were scheduled to ride a carriage to the Isle of Knowledge to sit for that very exam.
"Safe travels, Young Master Ethan."
"Right, I'm off."
"And should you blunder your entrance exam and fail, you had best prepare yourself for the consequences."
"…I'll keep that in mind."
Ethan nodded along to Harold's words, his voice carrying a slight nervous edge.
Well, at Ethan's level, he'd pass without incident not just by noble standards but even on the commoner exam, so there was really nothing to worry about there.
If anything was actually a problem, it was… the magic exam that I would be taking.
"L-Lilith! You'll do well on the entrance exam, right?"
"Yeah, I'll do fine, so don't you worry."
"G-good luck, Lady Lilith…!"
"Thanks for the cheer, Katharina."
One of the biggest perks of acquiring noble status was that nobody found it strange anymore when Katharina called me "Lady Lilith."
Though once I enrolled at the Academy, I probably wouldn't be hearing her call me "Lady" all that often anyway.
Carrying a small knot of worry about the entrance exam somewhere in my heart, I finished preparing to depart for the Isle of Knowledge under Isabel and Katharina's warm send-off.
A satchel of clothes and towels for three days, along with all manner of other essentials, gathered in both hands.
Incidentally, the reason I was hauling three days' worth of clothes and towels was that we'd be staying at an inn near the Academy for the next three days.
If we were only taking a single exam, we could lodge one night and head home, and a load like this would hardly be necessary—but alas, Ethan and I each had two exams to sit: one for the Swordsmanship Department and one for the Magic Department.
Between the Swordsmanship Department exam on the first day of the entrance period and the Magic Department exam on the third day, we'd need somewhere to stay for the whole span.
Considering the sheer number and variety of students entering the Academy, it was simply impossible to run everyone's entrance exams in a single day.
Some departments even scheduled entirely separate exam dates for nobles and commoners, so a naturally stretched-out exam week was simply unavoidable.
If we'd been in the imperial capital, the distance was short enough to manage by carriage in half a day round trip, and there would've been no need to book a room at all—but the Isle of Knowledge, where the Academy stood, was nearly half a day's carriage ride from Blackwood.
So padding the trip to three full days against any unexpected mishaps was the safest approach by every measure.
Travel time from Blackwood Territory to the Isle of Knowledge: one to two days.
Securing lodging on the Isle, washing the laundry that had piled up during the journey, sitting our exams—a stay of about three days there.
And then another one to two days back to Blackwood Territory.
The dizzying itinerary—five days at the shortest, a full week at the longest—did make my head swim a little, but even so, this much was perfectly tolerable.
For the sake of entering the Academy, I could put up with this much hardship a hundred times over.
And so, the moment I loaded my luggage for a journey of up to a week into the carriage's cargo hold and moved to follow Ethan into the passenger compartment, Harold abruptly stopped me in my tracks and began to speak, his expression grave.
"Lilith."
"Yes?"
"Even in the event that you fail the Academy's entrance examination, do not forget that the contract remains valid."
"……."
"The contract by which you will continue to serve as Ethan's exclusive maid for the four years he attends the Academy."
…Ah.
So that's what this was about.
Come to think of it, when Harold had originally demanded I take the position of Ethan's exclusive maid, my own admission to the Academy was hardly a crucial point in the matter.
If anything, from Harold's perspective, there might even have been a part of him hoping I'd fail to get in.
After all, for the role of exclusive maid to his own son, a woman without the title of Academy student was far more dependable, one might argue.
Not that I had the slightest intention of failing the entrance exam, of course.
And even if I did somehow fail, I had zero intention of giving up a honey of a job paying forty gold coins a year, either.
So I simply bowed my head to Harold and offered the customary formal reply.
"There's no need to fret, Master. Whether or not I enter the Academy will never give me cause to neglect my duties as your son's exclusive maid."
"Yes, I should expect not. Then have a safe trip."
"I shall return safely with the Young Master in tow."
With that final farewell to Harold exchanged, I boarded the carriage, and with the crack of the coachman's whip, the two-seater began to roll toward the Isle of Knowledge.
It was the moment we finally set off for the main stage of Luminor Academy.
About two hours had passed since the carriage carrying Ethan and me cleared the city walls of Blackwood Territory.
Inside the carriage, where only the occasional jingle of the driver's reins drifted back to us, a silence had reigned for quite some time since our departure from Blackwood Mansion.
"……."
"……."
It wasn't that we had nothing to say to each other. Quite the opposite—there was more than enough that needed saying.
There was talk to be had about Luminor Academy and the Isle of Knowledge we were currently bound for, or about what life would look like once we actually enrolled.
Or at the very least, we could have done nothing but encourage each other not to fumble the entrance exam in a few days' time—there was plenty to talk about.
It was just that meeting Ethan's eyes right now felt oddly awkward, and I didn't want to talk.
And for good reason—the moment our eyes met, I just knew last night's events in his room would come flooding right back.
It had been five months now since Ethan began seriously training in dual-wield swordsmanship.
Having committed himself fully to the dual-sword style on my advice, Ethan had displayed staggering talent in the techniques he'd learned these past few months.
Lately, I was feeling with my entire body just how far he'd grown—far beyond even his past self, who'd faced Harold in single-blade sparring.
…Truly, feeling it with his entire body.
'Haah…. What an utter idiot I am….'
Recalling in my head how Ethan had been taking a match off Harold in their sparring sessions roughly once every two weeks, I silently cursed my past, hasty self over and over again.
Seriously—how on earth did it come to this…?