The Librarian Exam
The Attelina Academy library paid decent hourly wages for a five-day workweek. Maybe the ducal house was treating me better than a discarded pawn after all. Lily, who was currently cozying up to the Crown Prince, had lived as a commoner until now. Perhaps the Duke wanted Olivia—who had lived in luxury yet lost all value as a noble lady—to prove her social adaptability through commoner life. Whatever the case, the fact remained that I needed to become independent from House Ashtar. At this rate, I wouldn’t be inheriting the Duke’s position. It was better to leave on my own before they kicked me out.
To become a library librarian, I needed the supervising professor’s approval, so I visited the faculty office again.
“You want to become a librarian?”
“Yes.”
“You’re saying that even after seeing your grades from last year?”
The grades were whatever, but the one who’d completely bombed them was the original owner, not me. In any case, I had my own knowledge base.
“Is there any reason I couldn’t?”
“Hey, the mage archive is in there. You need to be at least a mage-level to qualify. Minimum third-year. Second-years only get in if they skip grades.”
Oh, the mage archive? That sounded familiar. No surprise—the entire imperial magic education system had been built thanks to me.
“Anyway, there’s no strict qualification limit, right?”
“Uh, well… yeah. I’ll give you permission, but the test content is confidential. I don’t even know it myself.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
If he told me, he’d be disqualified as a teacher. And if he did, I’d have reported him straight to the imperial mage tower. Besides, when it came to magic, I didn’t need any professor’s help anyway.
The librarian exam is today.
I headed straight for the small exam room behind the library. Looks like my luck was decent today. I was the first to arrive, so I sat down and started reading a book. Then I sensed someone approaching.
“Um, is this the exam room for the Attelina Academy central library librarian position?”
It was a girl with a gentle face. The kind that looked fun to bully.
“Yes. Hello.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Plene, second-year Class C.”
“Hello. I’m Olivia, second-year Class A.”
We exchanged simple introductions. But then the innocent-looking girl’s face filled with confusion.
“??”
“??”
Ah, that reaction again. What the hell did I do wrong this time?
“W-wait… are you, by any chance, the Ashtar young lady?”
“Yes.”
What exactly had Olivia done to this girl? It couldn’t have been anything good. The way her face drained of color told me everything. Look at that terrified rabbit expression. This was definitely the original owner’s doing.
“Y-you’re that legendary villainess! The one who slaps commoners who get too close, hits people with her fan if they speak to you, and stomps on them if they don’t obey! I didn’t recognize you because your hair color changed, but it really is you!”
“Is that so?”
Damn. No matter where I went, I was apparently famous. Fixing this villainess image was going to take a while.
“I-I’ve experienced it myself! You slapped me on the cheek before! Why would someone like you want to be a librarian?! Don’t tell me you’re planning to threaten the supervising professor too?!”
Even this innocent girl had been hit. What more was there to say? So Olivia really had slapped Plene’s cheek. She’d gone as far as physical violence. Sigh.
“Why would I do that? And did I really slap you?”
“D-don’t play dumb! Ugh, even if you use your family’s power, this is too much!”
She was a bit loud. Couldn’t be helped. If I was going to live as Olivia, I needed to properly apologize for the things the original owner had done. Maybe that was why the villainess had handed her body over to me. Karma, I suppose.
“Ah, I’m sorry, but I’ve been cut off from the family now.”
“Pardon?”
Did this innocent girl not know? The rumors had already spread like wildfire among the nobility.
“It’s already an open secret among nobles, but I was disowned and my tuition support has been cut off. If I ever assaulted you unfairly, I sincerely apologize.”
I bowed deeply, abandoning noble etiquette entirely. Living in this body was better than dying. Cleaning up the mess the original owner left behind wasn’t that hard.
“R-really?”
“Yes. So I won’t commit violence again, nor will I harass commoners unfairly. I was truly in the wrong.”
“Uh, well… if that’s the case…”
Plene looked flustered. Maybe this was for the best.
“I’m not asking to be friends or anything. I just wanted to apologize sincerely.”
If I kept a few commoners close, I could at least shed the villainess label in their eyes. According to the diary, the original owner hadn’t had much contact with commoners. Or maybe she just hadn’t bothered writing about it. She’d filled pages with her noble lady antics but skipped over commoners. This girl had probably just gotten unlucky and crossed paths with her once.
“Wow… this is less like you got kicked out and came to your senses, and more like you’ve become a completely different person.”
“Mm. You’re not wrong.”
Well, the original owner is gone anyway.
“Huh?”
“People can change completely after a major shock. When your future looks pitch black, you can’t keep acting spoiled while waving your family name around.”
In truth, it was the opposite. Throughout history, countless people had been disowned, buried by noble society, and expelled from their houses just like the original owner. I’d seen plenty of them. Foolish young lords and ladies who, after being disowned, still believed their families would protect them and kept throwing around their names. Most of them ended up receiving my brand of justice.
“Ah, yes. I see.”
“By the way, are you applying for the librarian position to earn tuition as well, Miss Plene?”
“Yes.”
“I see. Let’s both do our best.”
“Y-yes.”
Someone who worked hard was never a bad thing. After traveling with the hero, even students doing the bare minimum seemed like saints.
A few more students trickled into the exam room after that. Since they didn’t introduce themselves, none of them seemed to know who I was. Once everyone had gathered, a man who appeared to be the examiner entered.
“Hmm, twelve people today. Even two would’ve been surprising. Nobles wouldn’t bother, and the cutoff for commoners is high too. Let’s see the list… Huh? Olivia Lapa Ashtar?”
Olivia’s name came up again. He looked genuinely surprised as he scanned the roster.
“Yes, Professor.”
“Miss Ashtar? You’re really Miss Ashtar?”
“Yes.”
Was this guy the same?
“Well, I heard about your situation, but applying for librarian… Miss Ashtar—no, to all of you—the librarian exam here is no joke. It will demand knowledge far beyond what the academy teaches.”
He wasn’t wearing colored glasses, but he was clearly singling me out.
“Some might ask why the test for a mere librarian is so difficult. But the books in this library are treasures of knowledge that can rival the imperial archives. Naturally, only those with matching knowledge deserve to become librarians here.”
In short, this library was filled with premium goods, so they couldn’t just let anyone in. And since nobles weren’t desperate for money and rarely applied, they’d opened it to commoners as well.
“Then I’ll hand out the test papers now.”
I slowly examined the test the professor had distributed. As expected, the questions themselves weren’t that hard. They covered imperial history and magic—specifically, the imperial court magic studies compiled together with the imperial court mages. Completely different from ordinary magic.
1. Write the title of an ancient magic document estimated to be from the Mythic Era.
Hmm. This was something I’d rambled about to the court mages. It wasn’t a lie. The Land of Destruction where I once lived was literally the Land of Godslayers. The land of those who killed gods. A mythic civilization had supposedly existed there, ruled by the gods themselves. The documents left from that era. It was a common trope in novels, but I had actually discovered those texts while living in the Land of Destruction. Thanks to that, the Mythic Era was proven to have existed, and the existence of gods was confirmed. The problem was that the documents were written in characters from that time, which no longer existed. The title itself was in those characters, so in this era where no one knew them, you had to “draw” the title.
“This librarian test really is difficult.”
Why include something like this? It definitely wasn’t at the level taught to first- or second-years. I’d roughly written the records myself and handed them over to the imperial court mages. That was why this question existed. Well, one could learn it through self-study. If you dug through the imperial library, you might find information on mythic-era documents. But most people wouldn’t think that far. Rumors said the test questions changed every time, so it was always impossible to predict the scope.
I absolutely had to pass this test. The question was whether this exam was even meant to be solved. The difficulty was far too high for recruiting academy librarians. Unless someone had a serious interest in ancient history, solving this would be tough.
“What’s wrong, Miss Ashtar? Giving up already?”
“No.”
Out of the twelve of us, only two would be selected as librarians. The competition was fierce, but from what I could see, most of these green kids wouldn’t make it. The questions weren’t in the range a commoner could study for, and the other test-takers were all frowning. There had to be a hidden meaning.
To regular students, this question was the same as asking them to write down the lies the empire had spread for a long time instead of the information I’d given them. There were plenty of past documents floating around in novels and imperial lore. This probably wasn’t asking for one of those. Anyone who wrote a fake would definitely be rejected.
Why? This was a test to select librarians. The first question was meant to prove that anyone who couldn’t distinguish truth from falsehood had no qualifications. If you didn’t know, it was better not to write anything. Writing the title of a false document circulating in the world meant instant failure.
I’d taken many tests like this while traveling with that pathetic hero. I caught on immediately.
“Heh heh.”
It had been a while since I’d had an interesting thought as a “mage.” What if I drew the real thing here?
With that in mind, I honestly drew the answer on the paper.
The second question was about imperial history.
2. Write the name of the posthumously honored emperor of Elfric von Armenia, the founder of the Armenia Empire who ended the Warring States Period.
This was something anyone who studied history would know. I answered it without issue.
The third question was more interesting.
3. Noah, a member of the hero party, possesses exceptional skill in swordsmanship, divine magic, and archery. Even the hero himself admitted that Noah is not someone to be made an enemy of. What are his three professions and titles? Write all three.
Ah, fuck. Fuck. Ah, fuck. Swearing just slipped out. What the hell was I supposed to do with this? Sword Saint, Divine Archer, High Priest. There was no trick here. After all, I never received the title of Archmage. There was a very high chance they’d accept “mage,” but even in the empire I was never classified as one.
“Wow~ Even as a hobby, your magic is stronger than ours.”
“Seriously. At this rate, won’t we lose at magic too?”
The imperial court mages had never believed I was a mage until the very end. It hadn’t been that long since I died, so they wouldn’t suddenly glorify me. Besides, I wasn’t even an imperial citizen. There was no need for the empire to make a question about me.
In the end, to become a librarian, I had to write the three titles excluding mage. Sword Saint, Divine Archer, High Priest. Couldn’t be helped. Noah was already dead anyway. From now on, I just had to live as a mage in Olivia’s body without earning titles like Sword Saint or High Priest.
Yeah. Farewell, Noah. You were a splendid Sword Saint, a Divine Archer, and a High Priest!
In the end, holding back tears, I wrote down the three titles.
After answering all five questions, I stood up first. All that remained was the test results.
Out of 12 applicants: 10 failed, 1 pending, 1 passed.
📍 Passed: Plene
📍 Pending: Olivia Lapa Ashtar
The results came out on the spot. The examiner scanned each paper one by one, made a strange face, then announced the outcome.
“Ten out of twelve failed. One is pending, one passed. I’ll keep only the successful candidate and the pending one. Everyone except Olivia Lapa Ashtar and Plene, please leave.”
“Um, am I the pending one?”
The anxious Plene asked. It was probably me, not her.
“No, you passed. Your answers were sincere. Here’s your librarian access pass and the library safety rules. Check them and come at the designated time starting tomorrow.”
“Yes!”
The professor then looked at me and pulled out my test paper.
“And what is this answer?”
He asked abruptly.
“Pardon?”
“No, this right here. How do you know this?”
Because this body is a mage, that’s how. I really wanted to brag. The person standing before you is Noah of the hero party, the one who made even the empire’s archmages cry!
Of course, that hero party wasn’t anything to brag about.
“I simply answered the question properly. Wouldn’t any noble with an interest in magic be able to find out?”
“That’s exactly what’s surprising, Olivia Lapa Ashtar.”
It seemed this school still revolved around nobles. That was why they’d made a test that screwed over both commoners and nobles alike. In short, this exam was designed to fuck over everyone.
“There’s no way I could have known the librarian test questions in advance.”
“That’s true, but I never expected you to be interested in magic.”
I could guess how famous Olivia had been for her romance with the Crown Prince. He was probably attending classes with Lily starting today.
“I’ve been kicked out of House Ashtar. I have to try everything I can. I get the intention, but isn’t knowing about ancient documents a good thing?”
The professor nodded as if he had nothing to say. Anyway, I’d broken through the trick. The first question had probably been the biggest hurdle he’d prepared.
“Understood. I’ll mark you as passed. Come starting tomorrow.”
“Oh, unexpected?”
From his reaction, it hadn’t seemed like he’d accept me even if I got the answers right.
“Is that how you speak to a professor? I don’t know what changed your attitude, but I’ll be watching you closely from now on.”
“Who are you again, Professor?”
“Are you seriously messing with me?”
A vein bulged on the professor’s forehead. After listening to his long scolding, I finally left the room with my librarian registration card.
Did that professor know Olivia too? I really had no idea. The original owner should’ve at least left profiles on the academy professors. It was hard to pretend to be Olivia when I didn’t know her connections. Should I make the slum thugs look into it?
I contacted the slum thugs using the magic messenger bird they possessed.
“Hey, you there?”
They answered right away. Pretty sharp. Their situational awareness had improved.
“Do you know anything about Olivia Lapa Ashtar’s personal connections? Even relationships where they hate each other like dogs is fine. I want everything about her relationships at the academy. Leave nothing out.”
There was a moment of silence from the thugs in the slums. Of course there was. Asking someone else about your own relationships. They were probably thinking, What the hell is wrong with this crazy bitch?
“I have amnesia. There was an accident. So what are you going to do about it?”
Good. When the big sis says jump, you jump.