The Real Test: Basic Tactics Exam

The academy lecture hall, the largest in the building, was packed from floor to ceiling.

It was no longer just one class. Students from A through G had all gathered here, and the vast room was so full that there was barely room to take a step.

It was common practice to prevent question leaks to hold exams for only one class at a time, but gathering every single class together like this was unusual.

Normally, even when the allotted time was the same, each class was assigned a different room to sit separately.

Rai had gone out of his way to request permission from the other instructors and brought everyone together in one place.

With all the famous students from each class in one room, the students had no time left to prepare for the exam and could only stare in amazement at the crowd.

Violet and Sozeta, who possessed the greatest talent, Diana, who was popular with everyone, the imperial princess Emilia, and the goddess Aria — students who alone could draw crowds with their aura — had all ended up in one room, and the lecture hall buzzed with noise.

“Sit down~!”

Rai entered the hall with a loud voice and called out to the students, striding onto the stage. With so many students crammed together, several academy staff members had come along to help.

As the students took their seats and looked his way, Rai smiled.

“Since we’re all together, it’s lively. To prevent cheating, the staff will assist. This is Brown, who has a knife wound on his belly, and this is Dudley, who has a hole in his head, and this is Tania, who loves Mont Blanc cheesecake…”

The moment Brown and Dudley, who had been sent to rescue the princess, returned, they were assigned to supervise the basic tactics exam.

Brown still stared blankly at the front with sleepy eyes, while Dudley, introduced as the one with the hole in his head, turned his head away in embarrassment.

As Rai introduced each staff member one by one and mentioned their personal quirks, the proud instructors looked away in shame.

“Tania loves teddy bears, so she spends half her salary on…”

“Ahh! If you say that, what am I supposed to do?”

“Eh? You do love them, right?”

“No, I do… but…”

The staff member called Tania turned bright red and lowered her head. Her cute, twin-tailed appearance was so shy that the male students were heartened, boosting her popularity.

While the staff members publicly assigned to execution shifted their gazes to different places, Rai hung a large map on the blackboard.

Dudley and Tania, the diligent staff members, quickly helped and positioned it so every student could see it clearly.

The students stared at the map with rapt attention for the mountainous terrain, which looked ordinary. Since the exam was related to it, they wanted to memorize as much as possible.

Rai clapped his hands together and looked ahead while the staff distributed blank papers to the students.

“The exam time is three hours. The time limit is one hour, but you’ll need all three hours, so remember that.”

While Philia listened to Rai’s words, wondering what he was going to do with the two hours left, she cleared everything off her desk except her writing utensils. The students prepared for the exam, waiting for Rai to reveal what the questions would be.

Rai, wearing a strangely mischievous smile, placed a round plate under the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠map. The plate adhered cleanly to the map, which stood like a wall.

“You are the commanders of the forward unit. A common composition anywhere in the world is fifty knights and one thousand common soldiers. Your skill level is also average.”

The students concentrated so hard that they didn’t miss a single word from Rai.

The conditions he spoke of were written one by one on the blackboard in Brown’s elegant handwriting.

“But the main force of the enemy is said to arrive here. The enemy’s main force is around twenty thousand. We don’t know their troop composition. Our stupid main force will arrive no earlier than four hours from now. We must stop the enemy main force arriving in one hour and secure this hill for the battle to become advantageous.”

Rai pointed to the peak in the center of the map and looked back.

“This exam is a real battle. You must devise a tactic to block the enemy main force arriving in one hour. The exam time is exactly one hour. Anyone who runs out of tactics submits it to me and returns to their original seats to wait.”

Rai pulled out a pocket watch that had stopped at exactly noon, showed it to the students, and wound it up. The second hand began to move, and it seemed the time had returned to normal. The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠students all lifted their writing utensils at once.

Watching the students, who alternately glanced at the map and their papers with fearful eyes, Rai smiled slyly.

“Oh, by the way, you can discuss with each other.”

“… …”

As if time had stopped again, the students all looked up at Rai.

“Why? Because it’s a real battle? Is the commander going to make up a tactic alone without listening to his subordinates? You know you need mutual consent for two sides, right? Copying someone else’s tactic without permission is cheating.”

“… …”

“What are you doing? Tick tock, time is passing.”

Half the students lowered their heads and focused on the exam in response to Rai’s words, but the others eyed each other.

Even if they could discuss with each other, this was an exam. If they wanted to attach themselves to students with good grades, who would join them when they felt they were lacking?

Naturally, the students had already settled into a mood of taking the exam alone, and no one felt like stepping forward first.

“I’ll do it with you. Anyone want to do it with me?”

Diana stood up abruptly, raised her hand, and started recruiting participants.

Her smile was bright, but her eyes, when she sat on the stage eating cake, were meaningful as she looked at Rai. Rai, who had been sitting on the stage eating cake, gave the same smile when their eyes met.

Although Diana, who had good grades and was cheerful, had boldly declared it, many students hesitated, and the lecture hall grew quiet.

They wanted to do it together, but the students were worried about others’ gazes. If they stepped forward casually, they would be criticized for clinging to Diana to raise their grades.

“I’ll do it with you!”

In a tone as if she were joining a holy cause, Cesset stood up abruptly and ran to Diana with her exam paper. Since Cesset was so outspoken, she was actually high-ranking in terms of grades.

Once the two stuck together, the students with lower grades didn’t dare join them, and those with similar grades debated whether to join the group.

“Tick tock, time is passing~”

Aslan stood up and approached Seiban after Rai lit the candle.

“Hey, why are you coming to me?”

“Let’s do it together.”

“What are two idiots going to do?!”

“Still, you’re better than me.”

Delen, who was close to both of them, sat there silently as if he had always been there, making Seiban speechless. He stared at the two of them, ruffled his hair, and started devising tactics together.

As more students gathered, they rose to find reliable people instead of continuing to devise tactics.

The solemn exam atmosphere had turned into a bustling market, and voices asking for people, offering opinions, and disagreeing filled the lecture hall with countless noises.

Dudley, who had come to prevent cheating but now faced a chaotic lecture hall, looked at Rai with a dazed expression. Tania, a newcomer, had been secretly eating cake beside him, and when she suddenly froze in surprise, Dudley had no time to care about her.

“Isn’t this a familiar atmosphere?”

“… …”

Even though the place had become a mess, Rai smiled. According to his words, it was an atmosphere far too familiar for Dudley.

Until he acquired an incurable disability, he had served in the military and attended countless tactical meetings.

Most people mistakenly thought tactical meetings involved generals quietly exchanging opinions over warm tea and coming up with brilliant strategies without any obstacles.

Tactical meetings filled with dreams and hope like that didn’t exist in reality.

The tactical meeting room assumed countless situations and fought against countless opposing opinions. They had to devise tactics to counter them and create dozens of plans that handled situations with zero chance of occurring in the main line.

No one who attended the meetings remained silent, and when the tactics were nearly complete, everyone was tired and dazed, pouring tea into dozens of cups they had used over and over ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠until they were dirty.

Even though their tongues were numb and they couldn’t taste anything, they couldn’t stop if they didn’t drink or eat something.

Tactical meetings were that complicated and painful. A single decision could determine the lives of thousands, or even millions, and the future of the country.

As Rai had said, the lecture hall full of students was similar to a tactical meeting room. Dudley sent Rai a look of respect, wondering if he had anticipated all this, but since there was nothing to do, the good-natured Brown slept leaning against a corner.

Students devising strategies in groups and students silently taking the exam alone were all visible in the lecture hall, and many instructors who had come to watch from outside were also drawn in by the commotion.

Thanks to Rai gathering the students together, the other instructors could rest for three hours.

Some instructors looked disgusted by the abnormal exam atmosphere, while others smiled nostalgically, remembering the old days.

When the vice principal Bright arrived, the instructors who had thought he would get angry simply watched silently and left, tilting their heads in confusion. However, the field-experienced instructors noticed that Bright had let out a small smile.

As Rai’s set time approached the end, students who had filled out their exam papers one by one submitted them to him and returned to their seats.

Rai began reading the exam papers the students had submitted right there and scanned most of them without moving until Dudley told him the exam had ended.

As everyone sat quietly watching, he smiled and said, “Then, the exam is over. To tell you in advance, there is no perfect score.”

“Why is there no perfect score?”

A student who had written a fairly confident tactic asked, and Rai rummaged through the stack of papers and pulled out his exam paper.

“We will use all troops — knights, soldiers, or whatever — to build a temporary fortress while securing the hill. Since time is limited, the type of fortress is… bu-la-bu-la… you used that word a lot.”

“The key point is to build a fortress that will remain a hindrance even if the enemy destroys it. To be precise, it’s not a fortress, it’s a barricade. If we build structures on the terrain I checked, it will block the enemy’s movement path even if it collapses…”

“Enough. Can you finish building it before the enemy main force arrives?”

Rai showed his exam paper and asked. After a moment of hesitation, the student answered in a tone lacking confidence.

“It’s tight, but I think it’s possible.”

It wasn’t certainty, it was hope. The students who had been taught to use near-confident tones when talking tactics thought it was a plan lacking hope.

“Yeah, I’ll assume the Marseille Combat Engineers, specialized in fortification, are the ones building it. Maybe that will work. But… you used fifty-five minutes to complete your tactic, right?”

The submission time was written at the top of the exam paper. Rai pointed there with his finger and said to the student.

“The enemy main force is said to arrive exactly one hour later, right? You used fifty-five minutes to devise the tactic, so the Marseille Combat Engineers have only five minutes left? They can’t even chop down a tree, let alone a pillar.”

“… …”

The students weren’t the only ones shocked by Rai’s sly smile. The others felt chills on their backs too. Since most had submitted with almost no time left, according to Rai’s words, the tactics they had written were all useless.

Rai had told them throughout the exam to think of it as real combat and had continued reminding them of the time passing. The exam time was also one hour, the time the enemy main force would arrive. Everything he said had been calculated with this in mind.

‘He’s cruel.’

Philia frowned slightly and felt dissatisfied. He had given hints, but she had assumed it was an exam and prepared the best answer accordingly.

But with the main force arriving in one hour, they had to prepare not just the tactic but from the preparation time.

Philia felt dissatisfied at the cruel trap, but she couldn’t express it outwardly because his words were correct.

“One or two would have noticed, but that’s a pity, there’s no one. Well, the main force has arrived.”

As Rai spoke, Tania and Hana placed several round plates at the top of the map. The plates marked with enemy troop types formed an elite unit composition.

The number of knights was overwhelming, and the students frowned at the main force composed only of elite troops.

“Isn’t the troop difference too huge?”

“Yeah, I would have run the moment I saw it. That’s why armies without scouts are called a gathering place for idiots. But none of you sent scouts? You were the forward unit, right? You wrote that you didn’t know the enemy troop types, so why didn’t you send scouts?”

The students closed their mouths again in response to Rai’s words.

They had only worried about defending the hill according to the given conditions and hadn’t even thought of sending scouts. It showed how narrow their field of view was, focusing only on the map and exam results.

“I’ll tell you the scores right away. If you have complaints, speak up. Starting with A class. Felix, with this troop strength you’ll be broken through immediately, forty points. Hjearl Delman, ranged disruption with only knights is okay, seventy-five points. Marvin Crayon, you worked with Felix, forty points. Aian…”

Rai called out the scores from where he sat, and the students looked at him in silence.

Hjearl Delman from A class had the highest score. The fact that the highest was only seventy-five points left the students stunned. While some protested with complaints about the scores, they were all completely refuted by Rai’s words.

“Waiting in ambush at the expected movement point for a rear surprise attack. It’s not bad, but with this troop strength, you’ll die the moment you enter the rear. Plus, it’s a mountain march, so once you charge and retreat, you’ll either scatter or all die together.”

“Making scarecrows to inflate your numbers. Even if you think it up and execute immediately, how many can you make in one hour? Is mana exploration like cooking? What kind of tactic is this? In today’s developed world, people use this and only get laughed at.”

“Using the power of the great imperial army to destroy? Do you want to be destroyed by me? Did you even listen to tactics class?”

The students who had taken turns criticizing had no more room to protest, but with so few points, some students complained in sullen voices.

“Eventually we’re just losing with this troop strength. Shouldn’t they have been careful not to ask this as a question?”

“Yeah, we lose. The correct answer is to send scouts, retreat, or complete any tactic, no matter how stupid, within the time limit. Three answers. In real combat, one of those three would have been done naturally. But none of you used it? You couldn’t even do what rural self-defense groups could. Yet you want high scores?”

The students who had submitted issues to the problem also closed their mouths, and now only Rai’s voice speaking the scores remained in the lecture hall.

“Violet… Sozeta too. You two really only know how to wield swords. Violet, you also got fifteen points like Sozeta.”

The two who possessed talent to reach the top but only knew personal strength received the same score. This time, as Rai looked at Diana’s exam paper, he gave her a provocative smile.

“Diana Deschubella, eighty-five points. Aren’t you going to protest?”

“No, I like Rai-kkang, so I won’t.”

Diana shook her head with a bright smile. Eighty-five points was a very low score for Diana, who had received perfect scores in every subject, but it was the highest score in the basic tactics exam.

The students who had secretly hoped Rai would be defeated in the face of his arrogance against all the students were disappointed when Diana accepted the score.

Rai, who had called out all the students’ scores, handed the exam papers to Dudley and smiled brightly at the students.

“I had fun playing with the brats. Let’s do it again next time.”

Rai, who had always only heard his own voice in basic tactics classes, felt refreshed when he saw the students’ miserable expressions.

The brats who didn’t even know the basics of tactics had been telling him how Elliot’s tactics from the book were trash and how he was acting high and mighty. Rai’s accumulated resentment had finally been washed away, leaving him empty inside.

As Rai left the lecture hall with mocking words, the students’ reactions varied.

Some students were angry, some were shocked by their own tactics that hadn’t even been properly kept, and some continued staring blankly at the map still hanging on the blackboard.

Dudley, who had been in charge of cleanup, let out a bitter smile.

It was the first time he had worked with Rai, but he could guess why everyone at the academy talked about him so much.

He only did actions that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could cause controversy. The exam content was beyond imagination, and he had discussed tactics with them face to face. Unless one had immense confidence in their own ability, it was difficult even for an instructor to fight tactics against hundreds of people.

Moreover, it was impossible to understand why he had made the students angry and then left.

But with this one exam, the students had learned a lot. Even after the exam ended, some were still debating tactics with other students, while others scribbled tactics on paper alone.

Rai’s ability to use the exam itself as part of education suited the academy instructor he had admired.

However, no one knew how Bright would react to the students’ miserable scores.

Watching Dudley with a bittersweet yet somehow emotional expression, Brown quietly slipped out of the lecture hall and was caught by Tania, who made him come back.