First Semester Midterm (1)
The news of the civil war slowly began to spread through the press. At first the papers stuck to restrained phrases—unrest among the beastkin slaves, a minor warlord’s rebellion—but the situation changed in an instant.
All four provinces of the Southern Colony had fallen into rebel hands. On top of that, Duke Lorraine Philip had formally declared an independent nation: the Southern Republic.
Civil War! Where will the blade of Duke Lorraine Philip—backed by an army of thirty thousand—strike next?
Why did Duke Lorraine choose rebellion?
The Imperial Family vows to crush the colonial uprising…
Every newspaper was filled with nothing but stories about the war. In the end the Imperial Knights, acting on the Emperor’s orders, assembled a suppression force and marched out. Roughly twelve hundred knights, supplemented by volunteers, mage mercenaries, and hired merchant guards, brought the total to around two thousand. The rebel army, by contrast, numbered fifty thousand.
Some might call it a laughably small deployment, but that wasn’t the case. The Imperial Knights were evaluated as equal in combat strength to an entire imperial division. Sending them against a rebel force composed mostly of beastkin slaves suggested the Emperor might have over-invested. Then again, it was probably more important to make the uprising look like something a single knight order could handle rather than giving it the appearance of a full-scale civil war. Even if that “single order” was on the large side.
“A-are you all prepared, Mr. Heinkel?”
“Yes. All set. Why do you look so flustered, Miss Emilia?”
“Hehe… I’m a little nervous.”
Today was the elemental magic midterm. Tomorrow would be combat magic. I knew the general format and types of questions, so I had prepared as best I could, but the nerves were unavoidable. There was no telling how the butterfly effect had altered things.
Emilia’s trembling hands kept fussing with my collar. It was already straight.
“That’s enough, Miss Emilia. I should get going.”
“Ah. Yes. But…”
“Yes?”
“Doesn’t it feel too distant? Couldn’t you call me something a bit more… familiar?”
“For example?”
“Like… Emilia.”
“Then can I call you Brother Schlus?”
“…!”
I had only been joking, yet Emilia looked genuinely shaken. Even though she was a spy sent to watch me, it was true that we had grown somewhat close after spending so much time together. Still, I could never forget: at any moment, while I slept, Emilia could drive a blade into my throat.
I turned away and grasped the doorknob.
“Sch-Schlus… Oppa.”
“…?”
Had I misheard?
“N-never mind! Pretend you didn’t hear that!”
“…”
With a frantic clatter of footsteps, Emilia vanished down the hall. Was she adding a clumsy-girl concept now? Or had she simply forgotten her own character and slipped up? Still feeling a touch of confusion, I stepped outside—and immediately felt another wave of dizziness.
“Oh. Hello. What a coincidence.”
“…”
Standing in front of the mansion was Erika. For someone who supposedly “happened to meet me on the way,” she had been leaning against the wall and straightened up rather hurriedly.
“Heading to the exam?”
“That’s right.”
“O-our routes overlap, huh? I wasn’t planning to go together. We just ran into each other. Pure coincidence.”
Erika chattered nonstop while sticking close to my side. Her stride didn’t match mine at all, yet she kept forcing herself to speed up. No matter how you looked at it, this was not a coincidence.
I almost asked what her business was, then stopped. She would only deny it anyway—Hmph? I didn’t come looking for you. We just happened to meet and now I’m walking beside you, that’s all. I had a feeling she would say exactly that, word for word. Maybe I should test her by quoting it back, but I held myself in check. If she had something to say, she would say it without prompting.
“…”
Yet even after a long while, Erika never spoke to me. That said, it clearly wasn’t a genuine coincidence. Even when I deliberately took a longer route to the exam hall, she followed in puzzled silence. And all the while she kept glancing around, which was more than a little suspicious.
What exactly was going on? I began to reason it out using Erika’s character, the setting of the Imperial Academy campus, and the timing of the elemental magic midterm.
Is she going to beg me to let her copy my answers?
That was the first thought that came to mind, but I quickly dismissed it. Erika’s fierce pride would never allow cheating—especially not from a commoner like me. Which left only one other possibility.
“Erika.”
“Huh?”
“Thank you for the escort.”
“W-what? What are you talking about?”
“I don’t think I need to explain.”
“No, tell me what you mean!”
Her attempt to play dumb was painfully clumsy. In short, Erika was guarding me. Although it had lessened lately, the original story often mentioned that commoner students at the Imperial Academy frequently suffered group lynchings. In my case, I had displayed undeniable strength in combat magic from the very first class, so I had been spared. But midterms were a different story.
I had declared that if I failed to take first place in the entrance exam, I would withdraw. There were undoubtedly factions desperate to sabotage me. In fact, they were guaranteed to exist. In the original work, even Hurtlocker had been under constant attack on midterm day.
That was why Erika was protecting me now. Not physically or magically, but as the eldest daughter of one of the three great mage houses, the Lichtenburg family, and as the official heir. Attacking me here would mean provoking the Lichtenburgs. No one wanted to fight a family wealthy enough to pay a staggering request fee in a single lump sum without batting an eye.
“That’s not it! I said it’s not!”
“What exactly isn’t?”
“Whatever you’re thinking right now—it’s all wrong!”
“I see.”
“You understand? That it’s not true?”
“Yes. I understand. Still, thank you.”
“Aaaargh!”
Her face flushed bright red with embarrassment at being found out. Watching her, I couldn’t help but chuckle. This really was the Erika I knew—arrogant, rough, and self-centered on the surface, yet underneath she was kind and simply bad at expressing it. I wondered how many other times she might have helped me without my knowledge.
Or maybe not.
“Huh? Isn’t that Professor Sergei’s assistant?”
“It appears so.”
“Who’s he talking to?”
I turned my head. Sure enough, Sergei’s assistant was conversing with someone. At first I didn’t recognize him, but on closer look it was Alexia’s aide—Yusek, if I remembered the name correctly. I couldn’t recall his surname. It might not have been mentioned in the original work.
The fact that Alexia had left her aide behind suggested she was planning quite a rough journey. After all, she couldn’t sprint at supersonic speeds while carrying a human like Yusek.
We were too far away for normal voices to carry. But when I focused my mana, the words became audible, though somewhat muffled.
“With Director Alexia absent, now is the perfect opportunity. Immediately…”
“I cannot allow it. We must wait for orders…”
I see. So that was what they were plotting.
“Shall we greet them?”
“Do as you like.”
“Never mind… I’m not even taking combat magic. Aren’t you going to say hello?”
“No need.”
“So rude…”
“What did you just say?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
I had no particular desire to interrupt their conversation. The pair were cooking up their own rather terrifying scheme, but since it was something that would happen later, I decided to simply observe for now. Pretending ignorance would also let me predict the exact timing of the incident to match the original story.
Still, while I had known Yusek was the mastermind behind that event, I hadn’t realized Sergei’s assistant was involved too. Even I, the original author, hadn’t known that secret. It was almost funny. Come to think of it, it didn’t break plausibility or feel like a forced addition. The details would probably come out once the incident occurred.
“W-we’re here. I’ll head in first. You come in a little later.”
“Why on earth…”
“Just do it.”
Upon reaching the exam hall, Erika glanced at me and spoke. She had clung to me the entire way, practically advertising our connection, yet she didn’t want us to be seen entering together? What kind of goldfish-brained logic was that? I found Erika’s train of thought nearly impossible to follow.
“Why are you following me?!”
“I never said I’d obey you.”
“You… seriously…!”
I stuck right behind Erika as she entered. Her face turned scarlet and she fumed. In the distance, other students taking the exam were beginning to appear. There was no choice but to go in now. I stayed glued to her back as she walked with her mouth clamped shut, then finally moved up to walk beside her, matching her pace perfectly.
“Ugh…!”
She couldn’t speak, so she simply glared at me. It was adorable how even her anger came across as cute. No wonder she had been so hated in the original work yet still managed to win readers over.
“Huh…?”
The exam hall looked strange. There were no partitions; it was just the usual lecture room. That was when I realized—the midterm was following the original story exactly.
I picked an empty seat near the front and sat down.
“What… what is it?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“…”
Soon Erika took the seat beside me. So she intended to escort me even inside the exam hall. Ludwig would have handled security anyway. What an excessively responsible girl.
“Is it all right to sit right next to you?”
“…?”
The awkward silence had grown so stifling I could barely breathe when Iris, dressed in her nun’s habit, sat down on my other side. She wore her usual benevolent smile. The funny part was Erika’s reaction. Her mouth fell open and refused to close, clearly shocked. She must have assumed we were still at each other’s throats after our last confrontation. In truth we hadn’t fought. I wasn’t even angry. I had simply accepted that it was Iris’s original personality.
“Did the gift I gave you spark any thoughts?”
“Not at all.”
“How disappointing.”
“Why would you be disappointed?”
“…”
Iris pouted, lips pushed out in an exaggerated sulk. But what could I do? I genuinely didn’t understand. The reason I would kill Yulia. If Iris’s provocation and the gift of the cross could avert that future, it would be wonderful. But I really wasn’t angry. Iris had only been trying, in her own way, to prevent a future catastrophe. I held no lingering feelings toward her whatsoever. I’m not the type to hold grudges.
Steady, measured footsteps rang out. As expected, it was Professor Ludwig. With his usual expressionless face, he swept his gaze over the students as though they were garbage, then took his place at the podium.
“Everyone appears to be present. Any student not in the exam hall at this time will be disqualified.”
A little chilling. Without Erika’s escort, I might have been attacked by masked assailants and unable to even take the test.
“Welcome to the elemental magic midterm examination.”
“…?”
Ludwig smiled faintly. It was rare to see him smile. When he did, it was only when he was about to torment his students.
“The exam will last forty-eight hours.”
“What?!”
“You will be given a test consisting of ten questions in total.”
Paying no heed to the students’ commotion, Ludwig continued speaking. In the end the students had no choice but to quiet down and listen.
“Every question requires the creation of a specific magic formula. Inscribe the formula with mana and submit it in a form I can read. Naturally, if the formula fails to maintain its shape while I am grading, you will be penalized.”
In other words, infuse the formula with enough mana to keep it stable for a long time. Without using Selection and Concentration on my mana, this would be quite a difficult test for me.
“Professor! May we leave the room during the exam?”
“Of course.”
“Um… what about taking the test paper outside?”
“Permitted.”
“What about talking with other students during the exam…?”
“Do you plan to live as a mute for three days? Yes, that is also permitted. I will impose no further rules or restrictions. However, I advise you to remember that the midterm is a competitive evaluation.”
Ludwig wore a demonic smile as he spoke. Just as I remembered. He had clearly stated there would be no additional rules or restrictions beyond what he had explained. And he had never once mentioned cheating or sharing answers. In short, anything was allowed. The test-takers could copy one another without consequence.
“Then, as of this moment, the examination begins. Answers will be accepted until nine o’clock two days from now.”
At Ludwig’s gesture, test papers fluttered out and landed in front of each student. It had begun. The utterly lawless midterm exam.