14. Entrance Exam (Revised)
14. Entrance Exam (Revised)
From the rearmost seat in the lecture hall, I rested my chin in my hand and looked over the faces of the examinees.
Even at a glance, some examinees looked over twenty, and some looked around my age.
They say the minimum age to enter the academy is seventeen, but the age range seems higher than I expected.
Seeing this, I figure Eurasia will have an easy time fitting in too. Since Eurasia is two years older than the minimum admission age, I thought she'd end up on the outside.
That's a relief.
Well, knowing Eurasia's personality, I don't think she'd be left out or unable to make friends.
I snickered as I pictured Eurasia, with her vivid emotions and popping reactions.
It's already been five years since Eurasia and I got to know each other.
These days, that side of her has become even more pronounced.
She's gotten awfully cheeky.
At first she didn't know what to do, but lately she keeps playing pranks on me.
The way she almost crosses the line but not quite is what's so annoying.
Well, still, it's fun, like I've gained a cute little sister.
I was mulling over how to tease Eurasia so she'd blow up during our next spar when—
Rumble—
The front door of the lecture hall opened, and a blue-haired woman came in.
It was the Arkand Wizard who had shown me around the academy last time.
"In one minute, the Karelai Academy entrance written exam will begin. Please put everything on your desk except writing instruments into your bag, and place both hands on top of the desk."
The blue-haired woman who had said that.
Her name... what was it again?
Wi, Wi... Wisp?
I do remember it was Arkand.
Anyway, Arkand lowered the exam papers, which had been floating aloft by magic, onto the podium and gave me a nod.
At the same time, the girl seated next to me, who had a navy hood pulled over her head, fixed her gaze on me.
"...Eustetia."
Then she whispered in a voice so quiet only she could hear it.
Though it reached my ears.
Anyway.
Why is she so prickly?
She looks ready to take a swing at me.
It's been a while since I've gotten looks like this, so it feels awkward.
Why is she staring at me?
Does she know me?
I glanced over—still resting my chin in my hand—and turned only my eyes to meet hers. She instantly whipped her gaze away as if she'd never seen me before.
Well, well.
This one's a different kind of brat, and it's kind of cute.
So I kept watching her.
I outright stared right at her.
I moved my lips as if saying something and shifted my body exaggeratedly.
Each time, the girl flinched and trembled.
But she never once looked at me until the exam-start alarm rang.
"I will now distribute the exam papers."
A moment later, Arkand's voice rang out.
At the same time, exam papers flew to all twenty examinees at once.
The moment I saw the exam paper settle onto the desk where my hands rested.
"Begin."
The exam began.
Rustle, rustle—
The sight of every examinee checking their papers was a spectacle.
Some examinees read all the way to the back with fire in their eyes, and others immediately began solving problems.
I, too, immediately began solving problems.
The subject was history.
The questions were all essay-type.
All the better.
Let's see, let's see.
Number one...
The name of the emperor of the Hermann Empire during the Human-Demon War.
Hah, really. This is a test question?
Isn't it too easy?
I gleefully wrote down that bastard's name.
[Malframis Hermann]
Malframis was a complete son of a bitch.
A petty, pathetic bastard.
Judging by how he showed off his power to those of us gathered to subjugate the Demon King and repeatedly bragged about how rock-solid his position was, he was a cowardly bastard too.
If the era had been just a little more romantic, I'd have smacked the back of that bastard's head over and over.
I'd sworn that after the Demon King was subjugated, I'd hit him exactly once, but I never got to fulfill that.
Below that, number two...
To roughly sum it up, it asked us to write the reason and process by which the Hermann Empire and the Pnasensia Holy Kingdom joined hands.
That was when Barahilda Seimon, the pope of Pnasensia at the time, was being a pain in the ass about not sending Luna, so Paulo, Kaloso, and I—three of us in total—went in person and turned the place upside down.
The official justification was to help each other with the Demon King subjugation and with reconstruction after the Human-Demon War ended.
But how should I write the process?
I can't exactly write that the three of us stormed in and smacked the pope across the face.
What was Malframis's speech at that time?
It was definitely...
Scratch, scratch—
Slowly recalling the memories of that time, I answered number two and number three.
The other history questions that followed, too, I wrote out one after another.
There was nothing hard about it.
It's no exaggeration to say I had directly lived through the era the exam was based on and had been at the center of it.
The only annoying part was having to dress it up in somewhat refined language.
Still, maybe because I'd grown up eating and shitting in a ducal household, using an aristocratic tone didn't feel awkward.
After that, Demon history, the birth of the Demon World, the history of the Sacred Relics, and so on.
There were various history-related questions, but I finished them all in no time.
I never thought that pope's spit-spraying rants would come in handy here.
"Nngh."
Just as I stretched after solving all the problems, the alarm signaling the end of the exam rang.
"The exam is over. You have a ten-minute break. Please be seated in time."
At the same time, the exam papers resting on the desks flew up all at once and gathered in front of Arkand.
After collecting the papers like that, she gave me a nod and left the lecture hall.
And so the break arrived.
In the heavy silence that had settled, I rummaged through my pocket.
I used my brain for the first time in a while, so I need some sugar.
The break is ten minutes, so there's plenty of time to eat a piece of candy.
If I were in my Past Life, I'd have smoked, but since I'd gone to the trouble of reincarnating into a new body, I'd decided not to touch cigarettes.
This body's too good for that. The looks are, too.
Though if I end up going to the Demon World, that might change.
Fumble, fumble—
As I rummaged through the pile of candy wrappers in my pocket, the navy-hooded girl glared at me and my pocket.
Did she notice I didn't wash my hands?
Eh, whatever.
Whether she cared or not, I took out a candy, unwrapped it, and popped it into my mouth.
Then I put the wrapper back in my pocket.
I'll give them to Eurasia as a present later.
Suck, suck—
Clack, clack—
The next exam is on the Demon World.
It covers Demons and Monsters.
I'd wondered why black magic was left out, but apparently it's because the academy has lectures on black magic.
The wording describing the lecture was also unbelievable.
Know the enemy and know yourself, and you will win every battle.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you will win a hundred battles out of a hundred.
It's true, but.
Still, letting Black Wizards—those bastards—into the academy is just wrong, isn't it?
There should be plenty of people other than Black Wizards who can lecture on black magic.
Even I, who was the least interested in theory in our party, can name hundreds of black magic spells and how to counter them.
No matter how peaceful the era, putting a Black Wizard in a place full of kids is a seriously fucked-up decision.
Well, they say that for over 200 years now, various Black Wizards have taught without incident, and that one stopped a student who, stewing in insecurity, tried to forcibly use the power of black magic.
I don't believe it was out of goodwill.
Four hundred years. That's a long time.
Even if the world has changed a lot in that time, and Black Wizards have changed too, my thinking hasn't changed.
Those bastards who sold their souls to the Legion Commanders and became puppets in exchange for power have to die.
It would be even better if I could kill them myself.
Crunch, crunch—
I bit down on the candy, which had shrunk as much as it could, shattering it.
Then, rumble—
Right on cue, Arkand came in, and the exam began.
The Demon World exam—
The regional characteristics of the Demon World, 'Ge Vihenum'.
The Monsters and Demons inhabiting each region.
The Monster's strengths and weaknesses, and how to subjugate it.
What to be careful of when facing Demons.
And so on. The questions were what I expected.
My pen never stopped.
For me, who had spent half my life in the Demon World, they were far too easy.
*****
"My lady!!"
"Here, a present."
Lunchtime arrived after all the written exams were over.
To Eurasia, who approached me from far away while waving, I held out a tightly clenched fist.
"Whoa! A present?!"
"Yep."
Giggling, I dropped the candy wrappers into Eurasia's cupped hands in a shower.
There were so many they nearly overflowed from her hands.
Though I still had a few more in my pocket.
"Ugh... My lady, if you eat this much, you'll get cavities."
"I brush my teeth well, so I won't."
"I bet you will."
"So what if I do? I can just get treated by priests."
"Still, no. If the cavity goes deep, the tooth has to be pulled!"
"Then just pull it and—"
I was about to add, get treated, but.
But I remembered that the only way to regrow a missing tooth was Luna's miracle, and shut my mouth.
Because if I'd said it, I'd have to see Eurasia's face as she went, 'Hmm? You didn't know, my lady?' and that would just piss me off.
"Forget it, let's just go eat. I'm hungry."
"Okay! What would you like to eat, my lady?"
"Meat."
"What kind of meat?"
"Any of beef, pork, chicken, or duck? But no fish."
If it were my past-life body, I'd have eaten it all.
The way this body is now, eating everything might kill me.
"Fish? Why not?"
"Picking out the bones is a hassle."
"Shall I pick them out for you?"
"Why bother going to the trouble? It's fine. I don't even like fish that much."
The food at Karelai Academy is rumored to be delicious.
Having heard that rumor, Eurasia chattered about it at least once a day from the day we decided to come to the academy.
Thanks to that, I'm a little excited too.
I used to think meat was all the same, but meat grilled by an outstanding chef is tastier.
Especially the chef of House Eustetia.
That gentleman's skill is truly superb.
He completely changed the palate of someone who used to tear into Monster meat and call it delicious.
Smack, smack— I licked my lips, thinking that even half as good as his cooking would be plenty delicious.
"Ah, right. My lady, you know the second-period Demon World exam?"
"Huh?"
"Do you remember question eight? The one that asked us to write an easy way to subjugate an ogre."
"Ah, that one."
The number of people given in the problem was three.
Two Tier 2 vanguard fighters.
One 3rd Circle Wizard.
The question was to describe how those three people could subjugate an ogre as quickly as possible using ordinary weapons without magical treatment and fire-attribute magic.
It said Martial Artists were excluded, but anyway.
Anyway, I remember.
"What about it?"
"How did you answer it, my lady?"
Ogres basically have thick hides.
Their tendons are thick, too. So they're inevitably strong and fast for their size.
Because of that, ordinary swords won't even pierce them, and if you fire magic, they dodge.
To catch one of those things, you first have to knock it down.
If you wreck its brain and make it lose its sense of balance, then even if it topples over and flails, you can easily kill it one way or another.
Sure, past a certain level, its hide can be crushed like tofu, but that's probably not the point of the problem.
I had answered using the standard method.
"I wrote that you just poke a long sword or spear through its eye and ear hole and scramble its brain, or fire magic concentrated into a single point into its maw."
In fact, this doesn't even need three people.
I don't know how skilled seventeen-year-old brats are these days, but in my day, anyone could do it if they knew the method.
But Eurasia tilted her head as if she didn't understand.
"...Really?"
"Yeah."
After hearing my confident answer, Eurasia muttered to herself and tilted her head.
"...It's definitely fast and simple... no, wait, would that actually work?"
"Why wouldn't it?"
Of course, the book I had read before on Monster subjugation described all sorts of tedious, complicated methods, but—
Those methods are all garbage.
In a situation where supplies are limited and you absolutely have to conserve resources and stamina, using those methods would get you all killed after the ogre is dead.
I don't know what dumb bastard came up with those methods, but my way is right.
Even Eurasia—no, even someone lower-level than Eurasia could easily pull this off.
If they can't even do that, they should just die.
Or just sprawl out and sleep in a warm house.
Real combat is different from theory.
Even if you make all sorts of meticulous plans and are one of the handful of the strongest, a human can drop dead from one wrong hit from a Demon—no, a Monster.
So you have to kill them more reliably and more quickly.
Anyone who says my answer is wrong probably has no real combat experience.
And anyone who has real combat experience but still says it's wrong should be tied up and beaten with a club.
"Ah, then, then, my lady, what about question eleven?"
After that, Eurasia's chatter didn't stop until we arrived at the dining hall.
The dining hall we arrived at had a kiosk.
"My lady, what are you going to eat? They say beef is recommended today!"
Eurasia placed the order for me.
"Ta-da. How's this? I'm great at deboning, right?"
She even picked the bones out of the fish.
"Whoa, this is the tastiest part! Here, say ahh—"
It was delicious.
*****
Meanwhile.
In the dean's office of Karelai Academy, a large number of faculty members sat around a round table, holding a meeting.
"The conclusion was that this answer sheet's content is difficult for the regular faculty to judge, so I've brought it here."
An answer sheet from the written exams held during first and second periods.
In the name field of that answer sheet, a single name was written in absolutely atrocious handwriting.
Eliarnes Eustetia.