A Demon Lives in the Academy. (5)
The final week of the semester had begun.
Students raced toward the lecture hall, one and all, while I followed behind them, cradling an armful of exam papers.
The stack I was carrying had a fair bit of weight to it. If I told you that I held it in both arms to the point where it slightly blocked my view, that should give you some idea.
[Sigh... I can already hear the students wailing.]
Niger let out a sigh at the sight of all those exam papers.
"Well... it's all for their own good, so I'm sure it'll be fine."
[What you said isn't wrong — that's exactly what makes it so infuriating, do you realize that?]
I ignored the words Niger muttered yet again and opened the door to the lecture hall. Then I stepped inside.
"Huh...?"
"No. That can't be right...!"
"I am so fucked. I am so fucked. I am so fucked. I am so fucked. I am so fucked. I am so fucked..."
The students' muttering drilled straight into my ears, but there was nothing to be done — it was already too late. I set the exam papers down on the lectern with a resounding thunk and, as always, put on my kindly smile.
"Good to see you, brothers and sisters. At long last, the final exam you've all been waiting for is here."
"““...””"
To the students who had gone utterly silent, I spoke once more.
"As I mentioned before, the final exam is a written test. The midterm was a practical, so I imagine you all had a rough time of it."
A written test meant your body wouldn't suffer, after all. Of course, at those words the students' faces merely twisted in despair.
"The exam period is five days. I'm handing these out today, Monday, so you'll have until lecture time this Friday — five days from now — to submit your answer sheets."
Nothing passed back and forth across the room but silence. The students stole glances at one another, playing dead, while only Bellatrix looked at me with desperate, pleading eyes.
"The exam consists of ten questions in total. And of course, rest assured — I only included the ten problems I walked you through during our lectures."
These were questions Niger had ordered me to cover at least once each, so I had. You could call them advanced applications of what the students had been taught, but the difficulty was more than manageable. That was the whole reason I'd given them five days in the first place.
[Oh, sure it is.]
What was that supposed to mean?
"And finally — while you may call this an open-book exam, it is strictly an individual one. I will not permit you to work through the problems together with your fellow brothers and sisters. If any circumstance or evidence of shared answers comes to light, you will be disqualified. I advise you to keep that in mind."
If they shared answers thinking they could get away with it, I would find out — one way or another — and show them exactly what a priest of the Elohim Order was made of. With that thought, I called the students forward.
"Now then, I'll be distributing the exam and answer sheets. Please come up one at a time, starting from the front row. Once you've received your exam, there's no need to remain — you're free to leave."
The students — Bellatrix first and foremost — stepped forward and reached out their hands for the papers, and I leaned in and whispered quietly to her.
"Sister Bellatrix, good luck on your exam. Ah — this encouragement is for you and you alone."
"Professor, I don't think a professor ought to be encouraging just one student... Well. My thanks, regardless."
Bellatrix accepted her exam paper from me, smiling with a somewhat dazed air. She tried to smile as though she had everything under control, but she couldn't quite hide the dark circles blooming beneath her eyes.
So I quietly intoned a spell.
A warm radiance seeped into her, dissolving the weight of exhaustion from her body and mind.
"This one's a gift."
"Ah, oh... Professor, that was a better gift than the encouragement."
"..."
What a bitter thing to say...
After Bellatrix passed, the other students came up one by one to collect their papers. Naturally, I didn't forget to cast Fatigue Recovery on each and every one of them. The encouragement, as I'd told Bellatrix, I offered to her alone.
The final week had arrived at last.
Monday morning began before I'd even finished studying, and I sat down at my desk cursing the Divine Studies lecture — of course it had to be the very first class of the day.
And yet.
And yet I'd studied enough to hold on to my seat as the top-ranked student, so it would be fine. It would be at a level worthy of my position as the Ducal Princess — enough that I wouldn't smear mud on the Feltner name.
There was a time when I truly believed that.
Right up until the professor opened the lecture hall door and walked in.
"Huh...?"
"No. That can't be right...!"
"I am so fucked. I am so fucked. I am so fucked. I am so fucked. I am so fucked. I am so fucked..."
The students' voices rang out. Every one of them had whispered it quietly, yet the sound gathered and gathered until it filled the entire lecture hall.
Thunk—
A sound no one could have mistaken for anything but exam papers hitting the lectern spread through the room, followed by the professor's voice, paired as always with that smile that was only kind on the surface.
"Good to see you, brothers and sisters. At long last, the final exam you've all been waiting for is here."
It was the smile of a demon.
The explanation of the exam followed. We had until Friday to submit; all ten questions had been covered in lecture, so there was nothing to worry about; it was open-book, so don't panic. That was how we were lulled into complacency.
And so, my heart briefly settled, I went up to receive my exam paper.
"Sister Bellatrix, good luck on your exam. Ah — this encouragement is for you and you alone."
The sight of the professor slipping in that remark with a sly little smile drew a laugh out of me as well.
"Professor, I don't think a professor ought to be encouraging just one student... Well. My thanks, regardless."
For a moment, I genuinely wondered whether the exam might not actually be that difficult.
Warm light washed over me, and my weariness melted away.
"This one's a gift."
A gift, he'd said — and that spell on the heels of it was more than enough to fuel the illusion.
So I thanked him, gathered up my exam paper, and returned to my room. Ten questions in all, I figured — I might as well knock out one or two of them right now. I turned my eyes to the first question.
This circuit is the circuit of Recovery, a fundamental divine spell. The Recovery circuit is one that has existed since antiquity — since Elohim first descended upon this land — and it may be called the foundation of all divine spells.
The outer skeletal circuit, which forms the outermost portion of the design, contains a total of 58 divine glyphs and prayers, while the divine reinforcement circuits, natural healing circuits, amplification, diffusion, dispersal, and wide-area circuits woven throughout are connected by a total of 320 divine glyphs and prayers.
Given the above: if one wished to convert the provided circuit into a circuit solely for the purpose of Fatigue Recovery, which circuits must be removed and which must be added? Describe your answer together with your reasoning.
"...?"
What is this.
With a creeping sense of unease, I read the rest of the question. Strange. He'd said he would only test us on what he'd taught.
I blankly stared at the problem, then turned my eyes to question two. It was worth a try, I told myself.
This circuit is the circuit of the basic protective spell. However, as it stands, the barrier will not activate from the circuit shown; it can only function properly once a total of eight errors and flaws have been identified and corrected. Accordingly, find the eight errors and flaws, and describe each one together with its type and cause.
Furthermore, applying the corrected basic protective spell, create four additional protective spells of your own design, and describe for each: the types of circuits used, the effect of the spell, and the necessity of such a spell.
Ah. Well, question two is at least a little reasona—
Ah...
No way. It can't be. Surely they weren't all like this.
This circuit is the circuit of a spell for physical reinforcement. The provided circuit is the most fundamental of circuits for reinforcing the body as a whole; within it, select a single aspect of the body to reinforce, concentrating and compressing the circuit accordingly. (For example: eyesight.) Describe why you chose the aspect you reinforced, along with the purpose and necessity of the reinforcement. Then, using this same method, create two additional reinforcement spells for other parts of the body.
No. No, no, no.
This is, this...
"Th-this, you..."
This son of a bitch.
I swallowed a curse and thought it through. Fine — yes, it had undeniably been covered. The professor had explained it directly two weeks ago, and the Recovery spell was the circuit he'd emphasized more than any other, so nothing he'd said was technically a lie.
Moreover, these were questions that would genuinely help us. They took the most basic of foundations and pushed them toward application, guiding us toward a dozen different ways to use what we'd learned. Of course they would be useful.
But.
"I mean, really."
Was it right to call this an exam and hand it to students to solve now? Was it right to make students in a foundations course in Divine Studies do this?
"You insane professor!!"
So that's why that smile had seemed so kind.
Fooled again, Bellatrix Feltner. After falling for that smile this many times, how could I fall for it yet again?
With that thought, I let out a scream. And as it happened, screams were rising from the neighboring room as well — and from down the corridor. It seemed everyone had checked their Divine Studies final exams.
Time passed, and at last the exams were over.
Only one story made the rounds through the Academy.
A demon wearing the mask of a priest lives in the Academy.
That was the rumor sweeping through the halls. Elia gave me an awkward smile when she saw me. Scarlett Brahe looked at me as though I were some fascinating new species of creature. And Bellatrix, upon submitting her answer sheet on Friday, kicked me in the shin with every ounce of strength she had.
I crumpled to my knees, writhing in pain, and the other students — where on earth did they get it? — produced a straw mat and rolled me up in it. Wrapped tight in that mat, I absorbed the full weight of their pent-up fury.
"Hey, stomp him!!"
"““AAAAAARGH!!””"
With that howling rage ringing in my ears, I couldn't bring myself to tell them to stop — I simply took the beating.
[That's what I said, wasn't it... Sigh. Never mind.]
What the hell was that supposed to mean?
Hang in there, Professor.
After the students' straw-mat lynching was finished, I was summoned before the Headmaster and, for the first time in a while, made to write a formal letter of apology. The Headmaster's hair went flying once more.
And so the vacation began.
I mean, seriously, though.
I graded them generously, didn't I...?