The Entrance Exam
"Wow, that's really long."
Caron gazed at that endless line not with a sigh, but with wonder. A crowd of that size was a sight she, having spent her entire life in the countryside, had never witnessed.
"Want to take the exam too?" I asked her.
"What?!"
Caron startled, though a flicker of genuine consideration crossed her face. If a commoner—not even a noble—entered the Academy and graduated, a clear road would open before them. They could become a bureaucrat. They could even earn a chance at nobility through distinguished service. I wasn't joking. I meant it. If Caron wanted to take the exam, I would give her the chance.
Her answer, however, was firm.
"I wish to serve House Briten, and you, Young Master—just as I always have."
"If that's what you want."
Right. She was a maid. A maid who wanted to serve us for the rest of her life. If that was what she wanted, then so be it, Caron.
She left first to secure lodging. Registering for the exam was something you had to do yourself; there was no need to keep her at my side.
Compared to the commoners, the line the nobles had to stand in was fairly short. Nobles attended the Academy as a matter of course, but for commoners it was the only path to advancement—and so the number of commoners hoping to enroll was considerable.
"Ugh... how long do we have to wait?"
"These old fossils won't even let us register by proxy. So damn annoying."
The nobles, by contrast, complained endlessly about waiting in a line that wasn't even a quarter as long. Some of them were serious about the Academy curriculum, but plenty weren't. If you could live like a king inside your own territory, why would you want to stay at an Academy where every student was treated as an equal?
Regardless, a little time passed and my turn arrived. The clerk called out.
"Next!"
I sat down, and the clerk asked,
"What's your name?"
"Argal Briten."
"As a noble, you may automatically pass the exam. However, if you take the test and achieve a high score, you can enter the Combined Class. Would you like to do so?"
Nobles were required to attend the Academy, so they automatically passed even if they failed the exam. Those nobles typically entered what was called the Noble Class—a class composed exclusively of their own kind. But the Combined Class was different. It was the class that included everyone who passed the exam, whether noble, priest, or commoner. Even for a noble, you weren't considered to have properly completed the Academy curriculum unless you entered and graduated from the Combined Class.
"I'll enter the Combined Class."
"Next—will you take the practical exam? Please be aware that this practical may result in injuries, or even fatalities."
The crown jewel of the Academy entrance exam. And, at the same time, the exam that stirred up controversy every single year. It was a practical test in which you actually fought and killed monsters.
"I will."
Without this, you could never enter Class 1. Class 1 valued martial prowess above all else. It was traditionally the class the Hero entered, and where the Hero's companions gathered, so in a sense combat ability was the top priority. That was why they held all manner of practicals. The entrance exam practical was little more than a warm-up. As such, they gathered only the very highest ranks—and then threw nobles and royalty in on top of that.
An entrance exam number ticket was placed in my hand. I folded the paper, slipped it into my pocket, and was about to go find Caron, who had probably secured lodging and come back by now.
"You little bitch!"
In a voice seething with rage, a noble clamped down hard on the shoulder of the person in front of him.
"A nobody like you, cutting in front of me?"
It had started as an argument, but now it looked like it was boiling over into a fight. Since this was a space filled only with nobles, the people around them seemed rather inclined to just stand there and watch. I was about to slip outside regardless—but that face looked familiar.
"A nobody, you say."
A girl whose expression didn't change in the slightest, even with her shoulder being crushed in that grip. A bluntness that bordered on emotionless. And yet, beneath it, an unshakable certainty. Poisonous violet hair and gloomy black eyes. An impression anyone would find dark and withdrawn.
One of the Hero's companions. The Spear Star.
I wasn't sure why the Spear Star was over there doing that, but she explained herself methodically.
"I only left the line briefly because I had urgent business. You know perfectly well I was standing in front of you."
"If you leave the line, you go back to the end!"
"Do you not even have the slightest flexibility? If stepping out briefly for urgent business means starting over from the beginning, am I supposed to just hold it forever?"
Both of them had a point, so the nobles didn't particularly take either side. If anything, they were watching eagerly, grateful that some entertainment had finally appeared in this tedious wait.
...That said, Spear Star, for you of all people to bring up flexibility.Weren't you the one with absolutely none?
Meanwhile, the noble who had first hurled the insult waved his hand. He didn't seem to want to fight over something like this anymore. The administrators on site also started approaching, worried the situation would escalate.
"Enough. What's the point of talking any further with the likes of you."
"Where do you think you're backing out?"
"What?"
The Spear Star moved her hand, and a long spear materialized as naturally as breathing. The Spear Star's relic. A fine artifact that solved the spear's inherent drawback of being a pain to carry around. She had been carrying, even as a girl, the spear she would keep until the day she died.
And the Spear Star was not the type to tolerate being insulted. Family insults or insults to her friends she could endure or ignore. In other words, she was just a hardheaded pain in the ass.
"You insulted me, so you'll pay the price."
"Ha. You?"
The noble who had taken the Spear Star's bait immediately drew his sword. A duel between nobles, started out of nowhere. Many eyes turned toward this fascinating spectacle.
The Spear Star was famous for her thoroughly bizarre personality. If someone was strong, she would throw herself at them like a moth to a flame, delighted. And if a weakling stood before her?
The spear moved once, and the noble's sword went flying with a sharp clang.
"Huh...?"
Then the spear shaft cracked against the noble's skull at a speed too fast to see.
"Guh!"
He crumpled. A duel that ended in just two swings. The Spear Star was the Spear Star, after all. The talent that would one day send the heads of Demon King executives flying was already shining through. Even if her opponent was barely at the level of a knight, beating someone down in two exchanges was proof of skill that surpassed a knight. Only people like that could enter Class 1.
Meanwhile, with her turn approaching, the Spear Star strolled up to the reception desk and stated her name as if nothing had happened.
"Um... what's your name?"
"Asel Montrose."
A name I hadn't heard in a long time. Once you received a star title, you were almost never called by your actual name—only as the Spear Star.
"Young Master."
"Ah, right."
Had I been watching for too long? Caron had secured lodging and come back.
"I found a decent inn. Places were running out with all the people flooding in, but I managed to find one."
"Good work."
There was no reason to linger here any longer, so I turned around. Witnessing the Spear Star from the exam registration itself. A decent haul.
"Is everything ready?"
The rare handsome young man was receiving a report. A bizarre being with one broken horn spoke.
"Indeed so, Crown Prince."
"Is there really a need to smash the Academy to this extent? I truly don't understand."
"Because it is where our greatest enemies grow. It cannot be helped."
"Then you only need to kill the Hero."
"The Hero cannot be killed at this time."
"...That, too, I find even harder to understand."
The Crown Prince shook his head, as if he didn't want to think about it any further.
"Ambrosia's collapse has cost us quite a bit, so I ask that you handle it."
"It will be calculated automatically by the Demon King's Scales."
"...Those Scales really are all-powerful."
The Scales. The unique ability of this generation's Demon King, and the absolute standard of exchange. Whatever you gave, you paid a price matching its value. It was also why the current Demon King was called the Demon King of Fairness.
"And there's a bishop digging into Ambrosia's affairs. His name is Bishop Revega. Even after the royal family personally intervened, he's quite bold."
"We shall handle that as well. I offer two options: fast but noisy, or slow but clean."
"Slow but clean. Stirring up the Church would be like kicking a hornet's nest."
The strange being with one broken horn nodded. Then he vanished from the spot, as if he had never been there at all.
The Crown Prince muttered to himself.
"More than half the Academy's personnel..."
What the Demon King's army had requested was simple. They would wreck the Academy to the point of near annihilation, so the royal family should just stay out of it. The price they paid was enormous, and so the royal family gladly accepted. And yet they wouldn't kill the Hero, the greatest threat of all. The Demon King's army's judgment was bizarre.
"No need to get hung up on a promising talent who may or may not bring some future."
After all, the royal family would bask in infinite glory from the blessing of immortality that Ambrosia would bring. The Crown Prince was certain of that as he turned away.
The royal family was rotting away beneath the transactions of the Scales.
The exam started soon enough. Having gone through all sorts of incidents, I had arrived near the end of the registration period.
In truth, strictly speaking, students who applied for the practical didn't need to be particularly passionate about the written exam. This was a process for filtering talent who would become bureaucrats, officers, mages, and magic researchers. Those in various combat professions like knights just needed to stake their lives on the practical. Even Class 1 was the same. You needed top scores in everything to belong there, but if you were overwhelming in the practical, they would drag you into Class 1 anyway.
"I should take it easy."
And so the written exam began. I examined the proctors—who were filled with the will to behead anyone who committed even the slightest cheating—and received the exam papers they handed out.
The basic subjects like history, society, mathematics, and foreign languages were boring, and honestly, I didn't know them well. This part was an exam solely for bureaucrats. Those who didn't want to go in that direction just closed the booklet entirely and went to sleep. I scribbled something down halfheartedly. It wasn't the important part anyway.
Meanwhile, a muttering voice drifted from behind me.
"Hehehe, this is so easy. Really."
A girl's voice. How confident did you have to be to say something like that? I glanced back and saw a beautiful girl wearing a large pointed hat, with the classic look of a witch. A round face, sharp-tipped eyes. Her irises were a faint yellow, and her hair was a short black bob. Somewhat striking, but not anyone I specifically remembered. Normally, that meant they had either died early or were nobody of consequence.
The girl behind me checked off every answer on the exam paper in less than ten minutes. Then a thought occurred to me.
...If that girl is getting every answer right, maybe I should borrow a few.
Among black magic, there were spells of extreme stealth. Of course, since they used Magi, most of them got detected—but that was only at a certain level.
I used black magic. Magi secretly flowing from the dagger at my breast, tuned to the ultimate realm, created another eyeball that no one could see. That eye linked with my vision, and everything came into view. Even as the eyeball floated through the air of the exam hall, not a single proctor noticed.
If a black mage who had once approached transcendence cheated in earnest, was there any way to stop him? That was something you could know without seeing the results—and the actual results were the same. I took every exam answer from that girl. She was writing answers overflowing with confidence at every moment, and even to my eyes, those answers were reasonable.
And then the final stretch of the exam. The one that was most important to some people.
The Magic Studies exam. The highest difficulty—an exam of such extreme viciousness that no one in Academy history had ever scored a perfect mark.
I was going to cheat again this time, but the moment I received the Magic Studies exam paper, I changed my mind.
...I think I can solve all of this myself.