Chapter 56
Chapter 57
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: A Total Disaster of an Alchemy Exam
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Ceiling scorched by flames.
Measuring tools reduced to a handful of ash.
And...
Examiners in despair over the academy's precious artifacts shattered like glass.
"To think two of them would be smashed in this year's exam..."
That despairing mutter echoed hollowly through the gray smoke.
But—.
Such complaints could only be voiced because the situation was finally settling down.
The exam hall, which had rivaled a disaster zone, was being cleaned up at a rapid pace.
Thanks to Ruena's proactive assistance.
And a few students pitching in as well.
Even Marian, the root cause of all this chaos, belatedly helped with the cleanup.
"I-it's fine, Marian Labelin!"
"Just stay put for now, alright?"
"No. This happened because of me, so of course I have to help!"
Despite the professors' desperate pleas, Marian stubbornly refused.
She rolled up her sleeves, stood from her seat, and gathered mana.
"Marian! What are you trying to do now?!"
"Don't worry! This one's really safe magic!"
The professors tried to stop her again upon seeing this,
but soon halted and began chanting various spells in rapid succession.
It seemed they'd shifted to preemptively blocking any repeat of her earlier magic.
Magic circles of various kinds appeared around the professors and instructors.
Blockhead...,
no, a previously unseen magic circle began forming around Marian too.
'That's... almost like a different person?'
I watched in shock as Marian cast her spell.
Once again, she seemed like an entirely different person in an instant.
Her mana flow was so stable it was hard to believe she'd caused such a disaster moments ago.
Moreover, all traces of her earlier sickly state had vanished.
Her trembling limbs,
her forehead drenched in cold sweat—.
It was as if my memories were an illusion, completely wiped clean.
From an unstable berserker,
she'd transformed in a flash into a mage wielding precise magic.
The change was so drastic it felt utterly unreal.
'...Is she really the same person?'
Marian stretched her hand toward the scorched ceiling with a serious expression.
Orange mana rippled outward, thinly enveloping the burned traces.
A moment later—.
The ceiling, having absorbed her mana, slowly regained its original form.
The soot peeled away,
the chipped paint smoothed over,
and in an instant, it was restored to like-new condition.
An astonishing restoration spell.
Admiring exclamations erupted from here and there.
A few voices mixed with criticism could be heard, but Marian seemed unconcerned.
She was too busy lost in cryptic thoughts like,
"Ugh, using up two initialization stones in one magic exam... At least I racked up some merit points, so that's good... right? ...Right...?"
In any case—.
Despite the unexpected accident, things were quickly sorted, and the exam resumed.
First up was Ruena.
Perhaps because she'd used advanced magic.
Ruena scored much lower than expected.
In magic,
and in the summoning exam that followed.
But no one complained.
On the contrary, many reacted with disappointment akin to their own scores.
She'd stepped up without hesitation to handle the cleanup right before an important exam, so it was only natural.
Noblesse oblige.
What people expected from nobles.
Ruena had embodied it without being told.
Her score was lower than others' expectations,
but her reputation was rising even higher.
It was regrettable she couldn't catch both rabbits,
but if forced to choose between reputation and score, it was obviously reputation.
Scores could be raised anytime,
but reputation was hard to build and all too easy to lose.
Grand Duke Kasian probably thought the same.
Good.
My resignation could be postponed.
'The problem... is over here...'
While waiting in line, I eyed Marian Labelin's scores.
Magic ranking: 78th,
Summons ranking so far: 12th.
Disaster.
Total disaster.
I'd thought her scores would be similar to mine,
but this mana-overflowing monster had shot up the ranks dramatically.
I'd hastily stripped prices to borrow mana from Marian and Ruena, but...
My magic ranking: 180th.
For summons... I truly had no means to borrow.
Marian's price was so depleted I couldn't even read her inner thoughts,
and while Ruena had plenty left, the subjugation exam still loomed.
Draining more would jeopardize her performance.
In the end, I had to handle summons with my own abilities.
The result...
Celen Noir: 682nd
An overwhelmingly abysmal rank that left even the examiners speechless for a moment.
'We're screwed.'
Perhaps because I'd drained every last drop of my mana in magic class.
The score glaring back was far worse than I'd anticipated.
At least—.
I wasn't dead last.
As expected, I'd drawn one summoning circle to perfection.
I let out a hollow chuckle at my top marks solely in the summoning circle score.
Yeah.
That much was fine.
Indeed, murmurs laced with expectations for a "founding house" echoed.
'Though it went dead silent exactly one minute in.'
Attempting a summon with incomplete mana recovery—.
The circle flickered dimly before going dark,
and the unidentified summon vanished after only its head poked out.
The hush that fell over the exam hall lingered in my mind, along with the examiner's nodding as they quietly took notes.
I tallied up my rankings so far.
Written: 7th
Swordsmanship: 152nd
Magic: 180th
Summons: 682nd
Physical: 47th
Alchemy pending.
Even if I took 1st in alchemy, the average would be disastrously low.
'At this rate, it's not C-Class—I'll get booted to D-Class...'
C-Class and D-Class.
Just one letter apart,
but the gap was like heaven and earth, if exaggerated a bit.
Especially... for an aide to House Eliad.
C-Class still held some hope,
while D-Class marked the academy's underachiever group.
I might not just resign—I could get fired.
'What about that guy's scores...'
I checked Marian's scorecard.
Written: 492nd
Swordsmanship: 1st
Magic: 78th
Summons: 12th
Physical: 15th
Alchemy soon to come.
Much higher than mine.
If she scored high in alchemy too, even the same class as her would be out of reach.
'Totally screwed.'
In the end, my plan had gone completely awry.
No matter how well-laid the scheme,
when variables hit this hard, there was no answer.
I realized that anew.
'Seriously, what is she?'
Marian Labelin.
Undeniably the second most unpredictable person in my life after Sis.
No, perhaps even more than Sis.
Sis just pulled off unpredictable antics,
but this one did that plus inscrutable thoughts that made her mana surge and ebb like a monster.
'Look, right after the summoning exam, her mana dipped back to my level.'
Just overflowing a moment ago, now it matched mine.
As if her mana had been sealed away.
Thoughts spiraled.
But the answer was always the same.
'No idea. What the hell is she?'
Amid the confusion, the alchemy exam began.
Marian went before me.
Ruena after.
The line dwindled until it was Marian's turn.
"Ah, ahhh... I-I'm starting...?"
She glanced nervously around.
Instructors and students alike.
The air noticeably shifted as Marian stood at the alchemy table.
Far more wariness than anticipation.
No one said it outright,
but everyone's faces screamed, 'What'll explode this time?'
The instructor was already gesturing to ready a barrier,
and one examiner subtly scooted their chair back.
"Calm down, take it slow."
"Y-yes, yeees..."
A voice trembling like a goat's.
For some reason...
I had a feeling this would go exactly as I'd predicted.
And not even ten seconds in,
an acrid smoke I'd never smelled before began rising.
"Heup?!"
"H-hey! Kill the lamp first, kill it—!"
"No, remove that first! Hurry—!"
Total pandemonium.
The exam hall filled with smoke in seconds.
Boiling reagents burst with a pop, splattering everywhere.
The instructor hastily deployed a barrier,
and students quickly covered their mouths and retreated.
"Marian Labelin! What potion were you trying to make?!"
"I-I don't know! I followed the recipe exactly—!"
In the end, what emerged was a stamina recovery potion.
For a stamina potion,
it was dark and suspiciously sticky-looking, but—.
The testing device detected faint stamina recovery effects, so it must be right.
...Probably.
Whether misfortune or fortune,
Marian's alchemy score was just as I'd predicted.
If I nailed top marks in alchemy, same class was still possible.
Share a class with that blockhead.
Or give her up and aim for C-Class.
I was weighing the options when—.
BOOOOOOM——!
The explosion rocked the hall once more, smoke billowing anew.