The Practical Exam Begins
The written exams at Galimar Academy were infamous for their vicious difficulty. For one thing, the scope was absurdly vast. They started with all sorts of ancient documents, moved on to extreme magic formulas, circuit deconstruction and reconstruction… and in the worst cases, even included the latest theses from the Magic Tower. The sheer volume of information they crammed in made you wonder if this was even allowed. And that wasn’t all. The level of the questions was enough to make curses fly out of your mouth on their own. They demanded such high-dimensional thinking and creativity that most students couldn’t even fill half the answer sheet. Every single line of ink carried the professors’ malice. A few students eventually broke down and burst into tears right in the middle of the exam. It was literal hell.
In an exam like that, scoring well enough to take second place… well, that deserved applause. After all, she had beaten out countless students to claim the runner-up spot. I was fully prepared to congratulate her in style.
“Lady Vanity.”
“······.”
“Lady Vanity.”
“······.”
“Second place is still an excellent result.”
“I told you not to say that. If you do it one more time, I’m really going to get angry······.”
“Second place is still an excellent result.”
“······.”
That is, if the other person hadn’t been Emilia.
“······I told you to stop teasing me.”
The villainess trembled with a face flushed with rage. It seemed her repeated teabagging had clouded her reason; even her refined speech patterns were crumbling. She must have been genuinely furious. Even so, the way she kept glancing at me, unable to raise her voice, was rather pitiful.
I looked at the girl and smiled brightly.
This is fun in its own way.
This was dopamine. I had been holding back lately, but my chaos-stirring instincts were kicking in as usual. Her unique reactions were just too delicious. There was something about them I simply couldn’t resist.
“I had no idea you hated it that much, Lady Vanity. My apologies.”
“······It’s fine. Whatever.”
“I had no idea you hated it that much, Lady Vanity. My apologies.”
“Just how long do you plan on doing this?”
The girl asked through gritted teeth. Honestly, wasn’t this Emilia’s own fault? Showing reactions this tasty was basically begging to be teased. If she hated it so much, she should have taken first place.
A long-missed feeling of happy satisfaction washed over me. With the innocent smile of a child, I continued my victory dance over the defeated for quite some time.
The world was still beautiful. I could keep living a little longer.
“Is this really that fun for you…?”
“It is delightful.”
“······”
“It is delightful.”
“I get it, so please just stop…!”
Emilia huffed, trying to swallow her anger. As she displayed such a passionate dance, a pink creature who had been watching from the side poked its head into view. It was Legia.
“Um, uhm.”
She hesitated for a moment, then seemed to make up her mind and opened her mouth. Her green eyes trembled faintly.
“Um… L-Lady Vanity.”
“What do you want?”
“Hiiik…!”
“Are you trying to mock me too? Even though you’re nothing but a commoner underachiever?”
“N-no! I just······.”
Perhaps it was because of the prickly response. The girl’s shoulders flinched. Her voice sounded on the verge of tears, but Legia still stammered out what she wanted to say.
“I-I just… thought you were really cool, Lady Vanity… so······.”
“······Pardon?”
“Th-the written exam… it was way too hard for me, but you got s-second place.”
What the girl was saying was pure praise.
“You seemed so, so amazing that I wanted to tell you how cool you were… I-I’m sorry if I was being presumptuous!”
“······.”
The villainess froze at the heartfelt compliment. Emilia stiffened for a moment, then the corners of her mouth twitched.
“Ahem.”
She tried to play it cool with a fake cough, but she couldn’t hide the way her cheeks were rising. The girl muttered softly.
“I-is that so?”
“Yes! I knew you really were Lady Vanity after all…!”
“H-hmm… I thought you were just some hopeless person, but you have pretty good eyes, don’t you?”
“I admire you!”
“Ahem!”
Her smile kept breaking through. The venomous atmosphere from moments ago had vanished completely, replaced by a much softer expression. The strangely smug look on her face was quite striking.
She’s such a pushover.
Maybe it was because she was so starved for affection. She crumbled helplessly under praise attacks. Receiving recognition from someone she had been wary of must have made the satisfaction even greater. At this rate, it looked like the protagonist would capture her heart in no time.
It would’ve been nice if she was like this in the original story too.
That kind of situation could never have happened in the original. Because of the trauma Emilia had suffered, Legia always avoided the villainess. Even when they crossed paths, she only ever got bullied.
This is much nicer to watch.
Yes, this was the kind of story I liked. Rather than tormenting, being jealous, feeling sad, or hating each other… I much preferred seeing them smile like this.
A tender smile spread across my lips. Setting aside the calm, I spoke up.
“Lady Vanity.”
“What do you want now?”
“You seem to be in a much better mood.”
“That’s because of you.”
“My my~ I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“······You’re so annoying.”
“Thank you.”
“······.”
In the end, the girl clenched her fists tightly. Her eyes looked like she was seriously debating whether to punch me. I quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway… you all know that this is just the beginning, right?”
I was talking about the midterms. While the written exam was important, the practical portion made up the largest percentage of the final grade. The real test was only just beginning.
“Our group has three of the top-ranking students… so the difficulty of the exam we’re assigned will probably be extreme as well.”
“W-what should we do? C-can we really pull this off by ourselves?”
“Hmph. That kind of exam is nothing.”
“It’s not good to be too complacent, Lady Vanity.”
This exam was going to be especially difficult. Since it served as the stepping stone to the main episode, it was wise to approach it with caution. I encouraged my teammates.
“Shall we all do our best together?”
“The practical is already tomorrow… Just don’t drag me down, any of you.”
“I-I’ll do my best!”
“Hehe, I will also give it my all.”
Each of us spoke in our own way. Thinking about the exam that would come the next day, we all went our separate ways.
That night, Legia tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
“······.”
Even though she had spent the whole day in a daze because of the written exam, strangely enough, sleepiness refused to come. Perhaps it was the tension that had turned her mind completely white. The girl quietly placed her hand over her chest.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump—!
Her heart was beating unusually violently. With each shallow breath, her heavy chest rose and fell. Her long pink hair glowed softly under the night lights. The girl murmured to herself.
“······Can I really do this?”
A question she asked herself. Her voice was thick with distrust.
“Even if I can’t help… I don’t want to become a burden.”
The powerful summons she commanded had a critical weakness: even the slightest emotional disturbance could cause the summoning to fail completely. Just like what happened during the class placement test last time. Legia was worried. Worried that she would cause trouble. Worried that she wouldn’t be able to repay the trust that had been given to her. The girl bit her lip hard.
Young Master Snakers.
The only person who called her a friend. Even this time, he had readily extended his hand and suggested they form a team together. Her heavy heart churned with complicated emotions.
“······Why someone as useless as me.”
It had clearly been exposed during the last exam. She was an amateur who couldn’t even properly summon her creatures. He had seen her in such a pathetic state, yet the boy still trusted her this time as well.
—That’s because… I believe in you, Miss Legia.
When she had asked why he chose her as a teammate, the young master had answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“I don’t understand.”
It didn’t make sense. Why would you trust someone like me so readily when even I can’t trust myself? That excessive faith felt burdensome at times.
“Still… I don’t want to disappoint you.”
A quiet monologue. She forced her eyelids shut. Unaware of the terrible things that would come tomorrow, the girl simply tried to sleep. It was a night when deep darkness had settled.
And so the next day arrived. The long-awaited day of the practical exam had come. We had gathered early in the morning at the designated area to listen to the explanation before taking the test. It was the teleportation zone where the magic circles had been prepared.
“The exam will proceed exactly as previously announced.”
Before the three of us—Snake, Controller, and Vain—a decadent beauty with purple hair stood. It was Selena, who was supervising this midterm exam. The woman stared at us with indifferent eyes. Fatigue was visible in her red pupils. After standing there silently for a moment, Selena took a swig from the liquor bottle she was holding before continuing her explanation. She really was a terrible alcoholic.
“The test content is monster subjugation.”
There is a magic circle laid out before you. It is a formation that combines spatial, illusion, and dimensional formulas. The moment you step on it, it will transport you to a specific location. In that location, monsters appropriate for each team’s level have been prepared. Once you cleanly clear the given area, the exam will end.
“You may rest assured regarding safety.”
Safety personnel are on standby in the vicinity. If a situation arises where serious injury is a concern, the exam will be immediately terminated and you will be returned. Additionally, we will not inform you of what kind of terrain awaits you. It will be randomly selected from numerous environments such as ruins, forests, seas, caves… so please adapt quickly and break through.
That is all for the exam explanation.
“Any questions, students?”
Selena asked lightly. Since we had already thoroughly memorized the contents beforehand, we quietly shook our heads. The woman then opened the booklet in her hand.
“Then we will begin immediately.”
The voice signaling the start. I took a calm step forward. Beneath my feet lay a softly glowing magic circle. Amid the intensely surging flow of mana, I spoke to the girls standing beside me. With a meaningful smile.
“Miss Legia. Lady Vanity.”
“Y-yes?”
“What is it?”
“There’s one thing I’d like to tell you.”
It was a bit of worry on my part. I didn’t want them to be too shocked by what was about to happen.
“No matter what you see, please don’t be too surprised.”
An abrupt piece of advice. The two stared at me with puzzled faces, but I paid them no mind and took the final step. We stood at the exact center of the magic circle. Then—
Rumble—!
The mana that had filled the surroundings began to surge violently. The stored magic activated, and blue sparks flew in every direction. It was a brilliantly flashing scene. The moment the bodies of the three of us neared the point of blinking away—
Crackle—!
An alien noise brushed past. The static that had flickered like sparks repeated several times before growing uncontrollably louder. The magic circle, which had originally been blue, turned a vivid blood-red.
“······?!”
“······!!”
Crackle—!!
Dark red fragments exploded in all directions. The violently rampaging remnants of mana swirled like a storm, disturbing the air around us. We stood at its center.
“The magic circle is…?!”
“W-wait, what is this…!”
“Kyaa! Y-Young Master…!”
“Hehe.”
While Selena, Emilia, and Legia were all struck with shock, I was laughing leisurely. It was beginning.
“Shall we go?”
With those last words, my vision went dark. We were hurled toward an unknown location. To a place where a horrifying monster awaited.