Midterm Exams of the First Semester (3)
The ground squelched beneath her feet as shallow puddles rippled outward. “Haa. Finally here!” Alexia exclaimed with delight.
“Seriously, no matter how many times I visit, this place always feels disgusting!”
A swamp. A land that remained dark, damp, and muggy three hundred and sixty-five days a year. At least the western desert became tolerable if you avoided the sunlight. Without a doubt, this swamp had to be the most inhospitable place in the empire—no, on the entire continent.
“Hehe. I can see the settlement soon!”
In a place that seemed to harbor no life aside from insects, crocodiles, and giant snakes, people surprisingly lived here. Their numbers were never large, but they were enough to form a village. The one Alexia had come to visit was the very person who had built that village—a Main known as the Madman.
“Alright! We’re almost there, everyone! Shall we pick up the pace?”
“······.”
“Looking lively! Then let’s go!”
“······.”
Amid the ceaseless buzzing of insects, Alexia walked alone toward the settlement, cheerfully calling out as if to companions who weren’t there. In her imagination, reliable allies had been walking beside her throughout these several unpleasant days of trekking through the swamp.
Soon, she came face to face with a man standing with a spear in hand.
“Halt! This is Lord Madman’s domain! Turn back at once!”
“I’m a friend of that Madman! It should be fine for me to enter, right?”
“Don’t say such terrifying things. You might end up torn to pieces until no one can even recognize your corpse. I’ve warned you, so it would be best if you—”
“What? Who’s going to tear who apart?”
Alexia’s brows furrowed deeply. She was already irritated to death from the long journey. Having finally reached the end of that trek only to step into this godforsaken land and feel utterly disgusted, having her pride provoked by such ridiculous nonsense pushed her to the brink of explosion.
If it had been any other day, she might have held back a little. But right now, she felt like smashing this bastard’s skull immediately.
“Hehe. It seems our friend has been giving his fledglings the wrong education? Since I’ve come all this way after so long, I suppose I can give you all a present by using your necks instead.”
“Excuse me, miss. Stop with the nonsense and—”
“Hey, you fucking bastards! Get out of the way right now!”
“L-Lord Madman?!”
The guards spun around in shock. A man with wildly disheveled hair and loosely draped clothes stood there, bellowing at them. It was the Madman—one of the Mains who caused problems more often than any other, the one responsible for seventy percent of Tilpitz’s stress.
“You’ve built quite the splendid country here? Are you the king of this place?”
“Country my ass. These bastards arbitrarily built a village right next to where I live and settled down. It’s so damn noisy I could die. Anyway, come inside and let’s talk.”
After patting the trembling guards—who were bowed at ninety degrees—on their heads a couple of times, Alexia stepped inside. Sure enough, something resembling a grand palace awaited within. Given the Madman’s abysmal artistic sense, he couldn’t possibly have built it himself. He must have made the humans construct it.
“Did Tilpitz send you? I haven’t killed a single human in the last thirty years. Really. If it were my old personality, I would have razed this entire village. These days I just occasionally throw them some work.”
“Hehehe. I know. I didn’t come to punish you.”
“Then what is it? For you to come in person, it can’t be anything ordinary. And since no meeting has been called, it doesn’t seem all that serious either.”
“I just have a few questions!”
“What do you want to ask?”
The Madman’s expression grew strange. She had come all the way here just to ask a simple question? Tilpitz might do something like that, but Alexia, who found everything bothersome? Something felt off.
“Have you left this place recently by any chance?!”
“Recently? I visited Monarch about ten years ago.”
“More recently than that! Within the last month!”
“The last month? I haven’t left here for at least three years.”
“Hmmm······!”
The Madman took a slight step back, finding Alexia’s suspicious gaze burdensome. No matter how playful her attitude and speech might be, she was the Main who boasted the strongest combat power among them. The fact that such a person was suspecting him made the Madman unable to help feeling tense.
“Hmm! As expected, Q&A is boring!”
“You······ Hup!”
Boom!
The moment he blinked. In what was literally an instant, Alexia—who had clearly been far away—had closed the distance right in front of him. Before he could even react, her palm covered his face and slammed the back of his head into the ground.
“What the hell are you—!”
“Shh. Let’s focus a bit.”
He couldn’t even resist. Even though they were both Mains, this overwhelming gap in power couldn’t be bridged. If he struggled, he could probably break Alexia’s arm with ease, but······ Alexia’s hand pressed down on his skull like a warning. With just a little more strength, she could burst his head and leave him half-crippled. The Madman could only stay still, fuming.
“There! All done! You’ve been behaving nicely, haven’t you!”
“Alexia! You show up after so long and this is what you do?!”
“I was just checking for a moment. Whether you had given away any of a Main’s Authority to a human.”
“······!”
Alexia smiled as she casually wiped her hand on her clothes. The Madman still possessed one hundred percent of a Main’s Authority. Not even the slightest portion had been shared with a human.
“Why would I give away my Authority! To begin with, doing something like that would······!”
“Yes. It would shave away your life force.”
“Why would I ever do something like that?”
The Madman answered with a deeply displeased expression. Mains essentially lived eternally. They possessed eternal life without any reduction in lifespan or aging. But the moment they detached even a sliver of their Authority, from that point on their body would possess a finite lifespan just like any other living being.
“I understand. I’ve confirmed it, so we’re good.”
“Hey! At least explain what the hell this is all about!”
The Madman was completely lost. The last madman to hand out Authority to humans had been that ‘Courier’ bastard. It had already been a hundred years since they captured and executed him, so he couldn’t understand why this was happening now.
“Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand anyway! You just live here playing king!”
“Hey, even so, I hear about the big news. Those human bastards here chatter so much it’s impossible not to.”
“Really? Then what’s the latest news?”
“They signed a truce, apparently? Freya and Trude.”
“Haa······.”
That was news from over two years ago······. As expected, there was no way this Madman—who lived in such a remote village and had no interest in the world—would know about Schluss Heinkel. Alexia shook her head and turned away.
“Just remember that an unusual human has appeared!”
“How unusual are we talking? Gawain level?”
“Enough to make it impossible for you to peacefully play king here.”
“What······.”
What kind of human could affect even a Main? If it were Tilpitz—who went on about peace and love and took great interest in humans—maybe, but there was almost nothing that could affect the Madman, who lived quietly in the remote wilderness. A person of that caliber could literally shake the entire continent.
“You’re joking.”
“You can think of it as a joke! Well then, everyone! Let’s be on our way!”
“Everyone······?”
Alexia was speaking into empty air as if conversing with someone. The Madman watched her retreating figure with pity as she chattered away nonstop. He couldn’t help thinking that the title of Madman suited Alexia far more than it did him.
“Ainz.”
“Huh?”
“Do you believe a two-dimensional single formula combining the core elements of the fire and cold systems could exist?”
“Umm······?”
At Schluss’s serious question, Ainz tilted his head and tried to sketch the formula in his mind for a moment. But the shape of the formula refused to come to him.
“Um······ doesn’t that not exist?”
“It was a question from the Elemental Magic Theory exam. I don’t think they would give a question with no answer just to confuse people.”
“It was an exam question? Then you shouldn’t be asking me!”
“There were no such restrictions.”
“What?”
“It means consultation, cooperation, deception, asking for advice, peeking—everything is permitted on this exam.”
“What the hell is that······.”
Ainz was so dumbfounded he couldn’t even close his mouth. That was supposed to be an exam? He couldn’t even begin to guess what kind of ability they were trying to evaluate.
“A two-dimensional single formula combining the core elements of the fire and cold systems. Drawing that was one of the problems.”
“And you still haven’t solved it?”
“Correct. That’s why I’m seeking your advice.”
“Hmm. Just a moment.”
Even someone like Schluss, whom he looked up to like an older brother, hadn’t solved it yet? If he could solve it first and be of help, there would be no greater source of pride. Since it didn’t seem all that complicated, Ainz thought a little consideration would quickly yield the answer······.
“Ugh. Hey. My head hurts too much. This isn’t working.”
“······.”
He gave up in less than five minutes. Simply combining two completely opposite elemental systems was already no easy task, and they wanted it expressed not in three dimensions but two······. He began to doubt whether it was even possible.
“Thanks for all the help. Appreciate it.”
“Hey? Schluss! Wait! Just give me a little more time!”
Ainz clung to Schluss, who was leaving without a shred of lingering attachment. Now that he looked at it again, it felt like the answer would come if he thought about it just a little longer. Really, just a little more.
“Trie.”
“Oh, Professor! You were already here?”
“Yes. Master.”
“Aah, seriously! I told you not to call me that······.”
“This is what they call mirror therapy.”
“······Tsk.”
Her name was Trie, wasn’t it? The daughter of a mercenary family, and she seemed particularly close to Schluss. But what help could a woman whose skull was probably filled entirely with muscle provide?
“Do you believe a two-dimensional single formula combining the core elements of the fire and cold systems could exist?”
“Hmm?”
“Does anything come to mind?”
“It was possible to combine the core elements of two systems?”
“······.”
As expected. At her innocent reply, both Ainz and Schluss let out deep sighs.
“Haa. Never mind. I shouldn’t have asked you.”
“Why! Whyyy! What is it?”
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“C-Could you say it again? I think I might know.”
“Hahaha! You’re all already here! What diligent fellows!”
A booming voice echoed through the lecture hall. As expected, it was Sergei. With his arms crossed, Sergei looked to be in an especially good mood today.
“The exam time is already three minutes past······”
“First, I must give you guidance regarding the midterm exam! This semester, you learned how to operate your Internal Circuits to strengthen your bodies during combat! And the most efficient way to use External Circuits—that is, magic formulas! Last night, I came up with a brilliant exam that will evaluate both of these at once!”
“······.”
He came up with the midterm exam the day before—no, just ten hours before······? The students were all so dumbfounded they almost let out hollow laughs. The only one who remained expressionless, as if he had expected this all along, was Schluss.
‘Does this guy take sedatives every day or something?’
Ainz seriously entertained that question.
“Professor······. May I ask what exactly this exam is?”
“Excellent question! It is a tournament!”
“Pardon?”
Unable to understand, Trie tilted her head.
“Is it the tournament I’m thinking of?”
“Correct! Fortunately, your numbers come to exactly thirty-two! The perfect number for a tournament without byes! I shall now reveal the bracket!”
“······.”
Trie was so stunned she lost her words. Instead of evaluating their educational level, this professor had decided to hold a martial tournament.