Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Final Exam (3)
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“What’s your name?”
“...My name?”
“Yes. It’s not fair if only I tell you mine.”
On the beachfront, two people sat side by side.
It was Roel’s suggestion to have a sincere conversation.
“Helen. Helen Forest.”
It was a vaguely familiar name.
She couldn’t recall the details, but it felt like something she’d heard in passing...
Well, that was that.
“...”
“What? Why are you staring like that?”
Roel just silently stared at Helen.
As if there was still something left to do.
“W-Why are you looking at me like that?!”
“Good question...”
Helen turned her head away from that burdensome gaze, desperately racking her brain for what the problem could be.
‘...Could it be because of the polite speech?’
That’s what happened earlier.
She’d been told to use polite language.
“...”
Helen’s lips twitched.
She forced open the mouth that refused to part.
In a crawling voice, she spat out the “polite words” syllable by syllable.
“H-Helen Forest...”
“There we go. Good job.”
Roel patted her shoulder.
It was a humiliation unlike any she’d ever felt.
She was the only daughter of a countess, yet some idiot from an unknown family was...
“Well, shall we get going? We need to check what’s around here.”
“Y-Yes.”
Roel took the lead, and Helen followed behind.
...This wasn’t submission.
She was using that woman.
She’d exploit her as she pleased and discard her later.
She hadn’t lost.
Helen burned with determination.
She diligently crafted betrayal plans in her head for the perfect moment.
Even as they left the beach, pushed through the forest, and reached a rocky area, Helen’s delusions didn’t stop.
Just as she thought a perfect plan had formed...
“Ah, a monster.”
A terrain covered entirely in rocks.
Uneven enough that walking was tough, and now a monster?
Helen hurriedly prepared her magic.
“Wh-where...?”
But no monster was visible.
Up above, down below—nothing but large stones.
This place looked perfectly safe no matter how she scanned it.
“There’s no monster or anything.”
“Tsk.”
“...There’s no monster or anything.”
“There is. Right under our feet.”
What?
Helen looked down.
Just a rock. Nothing that looked like a monster...
“...Huh?”
Rumble.
The stone Helen was standing on moved.
Not because she stepped on it. It shook on its own.
A instinctive unease surged up.
She knew. She had to get away from this spot somehow.
“D-Dodge!!”
She activated a protective spell. A dense barrier enveloped Helen from all sides.
Rumble...
Dust stirred from the ground.
As her ominous premonition suggested, something buried underground was slowly rising.
“No way...”
It was just first-year.
The first semester final exam for first-years.
Who the hell put a ‘golem’ in here?!
A stone mass at least five times the size of a person stood tall on two legs.
Small stone fragments rained down.
Its massive body blocked out the sun.
Under that heavy pressure, Helen’s legs froze solid.
“Th-this is a high-grade monster...”
Chills ran through her entire body.
A high-grade monster that even skilled fighters struggled to take down alone.
Such a being stood there in the flesh.
She couldn’t win.
No matter what she tried, not with just the two of them.
The exam rules were ‘survival’ anyway. No need to clear the island’s monsters.
Helen moved her legs.
Running was the wisest choice here.
“What are you doing?! Run, quick!”
She yelled at Roel, who stood there blankly.
Even hearing that, Roel didn’t move.
Helen figured she was just scared.
“Hey, you idiot!!”
This island was dangerous.
As dangerous as it was, the professors wouldn’t take their eyes off the cadets for a second.
If a truly life-threatening situation arose, they’d intervene.
It was an obvious ‘safety measure’ anyone could see with a bit of thought, but it didn’t mean complete immunity from death.
After all, if killed in one hit, there’d be no time to get help.
“No...!”
Helen’s blessing was useless right now.
It didn’t shorten casting time or boost spell power.
Even so, she tried to save her.
As a hero candidate cadet, she couldn’t just stand by.
She dismantled the barrier around herself.
The finely split barrier fragments moved in perfect unison to envelop Roel.
It wouldn’t block the golem’s fist.
But it might buy a slight opening.
She could only hope Roel snapped out of it and ran in that gap.
Krunch!
As expected, the barrier tore like paper.
Roel, still standing in place, silently clenched her fist.
Helen squeezed her eyes shut.
Krunch!
A sound similar yet different from before rang out.
At first, Helen thought Roel had been crushed.
She couldn’t imagine a human enduring that massive rocky fist.
Imagining the gruesome scene, Helen opened her eyes.
“...No way.”
The golem was shattered.
As if struck by a giant hammer, it lay scattered in irregular chunks across the ground.
Roel stood before it.
“It really is tough! If it’d been a bit stronger, I might not have ended it in one hit.”
It wasn’t boasting.
A nonchalant reaction, as if something completely natural had occurred.
She’d thought their levels were different.
She hadn’t realized it was this different.
Roel approached with a bright smile.
“More than that, I didn’t expect you to help me. I figured you’d just run off on your own for sure.”
“Th-that’s...”
Why had she done that?
Helen bowed her head.
She hadn’t planned to save the ‘knight’ specifically.
She could’ve just left her to die or live.
“Looks like you’re not such a bad person after all, Helen?”
“...”
“I’ll let the ‘idiot’ comment slide. Oh, and the casual speech too.”
Roel started walking again.
Those steps heading deeper into the island no longer felt so worrisome.
Helen scrambled to her feet.
She picked up her staff—somehow dropped without her noticing—and followed Roel.
Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap.
Clapping.
Who? Me.
“Now that’s the protagonist...”
It was truly moving.
Just the other day, she couldn’t do anything without me, and now she was smashing golems solo.
And what was that scene just now?
A narrative of a knight redeeming a mage who despised them—it was so protagonist-like that tears welled up.
“Good job, my girl.”
Roel would handle this brilliantly.
She’d claim a top spot with pride, and recover some of the self-esteem she’d lost because of me.
This was Roel’s stage.
Having achieved the steepest growth of anyone, only Roel could fully enjoy this exam.
“Well, I can’t just spectate forever.”
I couldn’t get so caught up in the joy that I forgot my role.
Events like finals weren’t common.
I couldn’t squander the opportunity, so I had to create at least one trial.
I gazed beyond the screen.
It was getting dark, so Roel and Helen were searching for a campsite.
[“How about going back to that beach from earlier?”]
[“Won’t that be too visible?”]
[“Polite speech.”]
[“Won’t it?”]
[“Still, seems better than in the woods. Not sure if we can even sleep, though. There are more monsters here than I thought...”]
Finding a decent spot on an island like this was tough.
Monsters everywhere, and the weather changed on a whim.
[“Oh no, it’s raining.”]
[“Let’s find shelter first.”]
Right on cue, rain poured down.
Just moments ago, the sun had been blazing—this climate shift was impossible to adapt to.
[“Let’s head to the cave!”]
[“Might be a dungeon?”]
[“What’s wrong with that? Better than getting soaked.”]
[“...Isn’t it usually the opposite?”]
Roel headed straight into the cave without hesitation.
Thankfully, it wasn’t a dungeon.
A perfectly ordinary cave, ideal for avoiding the rain.
Except it had ‘prior guests.’
[“...Helen? What are you doing there?”]
Five mages.
They’d built a fire with decent firewood and were resting.
[“Y-you all...”]
[“You teamed up with a knight?”]
That’s when the thorny remarks poured out.
[“Nah, no way. She’s probably just using her.”]
[“Yeah, professors said knights are meat shields anyway.”]
She’d wondered why the mages’ personalities were like this—turns out it was the professors’ influence.
What kind of bastard professor ruined all the cadets like this?
I’d have to pay a visit later.
[“Everyone.”]
Unable to endure it, Helen stepped forward.
Clearly, her heart had changed from the earlier incident.
[“Don’t you know who this is?!”]
[“This person?”]
[“Yes! This one! Mess with her wrong, and we’re all dead!”]
...
A change of heart, right?
[“Ah! I think I know her!”]
A particularly short mage spoke up.
[“Isn’t she that one? The girl who passed out with her friend during midterms.”]
[“Huh? Oh~ yeah! Wow, first time seeing her up close.”]
[“Pretty good for a knight.”]
Instantly, an evaluation session began.
Voices freely judging Roel nonstop.
[“Roel, right?”]
A mage who’d been silent until now spoke up.
A brown-haired guy seated farthest back.
[“Wanna travel with us?”]
At those words, the surrounding mages started protesting.
Why decide on your own, we don’t agree, etc.
All opinions boiling down to why accept a knight.
The guy smiled and said,
[“Just... had a good idea.”]
I thought it was perfect timing.
After all, I’d just had a good idea myself.