Midterm Exam (4)
After the exam ended, Roseline and her group had gathered off in the distance, clustered into a lively little circle of their own.
"Hey, what did you put for this one?"
"Three."
"Ugh, I'm dead. I put two."
"It's fine. I put two as well."
"Then we're both dead."
Chloe clutched her results sheet and moaned over it, while Marien — ostensibly comforting her — was quietly double-checking her own answers.
Roseline, meanwhile, was smiling faintly in their midst.
Whether she had opened the envelope I sent, I couldn't say. She may well have held onto her pride and refused to look until the very end — or she may have finally torn it open late at night, alone at her desk.
But judging by the way she was smiling—
"I wonder if she looked."
At the murmur that slipped out of me, Isabel asked quietly from beside me.
"What do you mean, my lady?"
"The materials I sent her."
"Given Lady Roseline's character, it is more likely she did not."
"Who knows."
I looked toward Roseline and smiled.
"With a face that relaxed, maybe she did open it after all."
Of course, I couldn't be certain — but it didn't matter. If she had looked, it meant she had swallowed her disgust and accepted them anyway for the sake of results. If she hadn't, it meant she had endured without them.
Just then, the professor opened the lecture hall's front door and stepped inside.
"Come now, everyone, take your seats. I have an important announcement."
Once the commotion settled, the professor laid a few documents on the lectern and continued.
"The schedules for the tactical evaluation and the dungeon practicum have been swapped. As time is short, be advised that the teams have been assigned at random."
The lecture hall erupted at once.
"Out of nowhere?"
"Wasn't the tactical evaluation supposed to come first?"
"Random teams, you say?"
The professor waved a hand as though the whole thing were a bother.
"Grievances will be heard later. The team assignments are already finalized, and I have no intention of changing them. Go outside and check the posted lists."
As the students streamed out, I went out as well and looked over the roster.
— Team Assignment —
Roseline Veloa
Chloe Hartwell
Marien Ruth
Theodore Graham
"Ha."
So now they're acting as if I don't even exist?
It seemed that the moment I behaved like someone who had stepped out of the main storyline, a replacement had been propped up in my place.
Theodore Graham.
A name so infamous that the faces of the students around him crumpled at the mere sight of it. Not the eldest son of Viscount Graham — the second.
Family standing vaguely elevated, personal ability vaguely lacking, pride uselessly enormous — a man brimming over with a sense of entitlement. Openly sneering at commoner students was merely the baseline with him. He ordered lesser noble students about like errand boys, and at every practicum he shoved his own mistakes onto someone else's back. In swordsmanship class, he had once deliberately knocked down a struggling student and sneered, "You'd be dead if this were a real fight" — earning himself a formal warning from the instructor.
And yet he was never expelled.
House Graham had been pouring a respectable sum of sponsorship money into the Academy every year, and the man knew exactly how deep to bow his head in front of the professors.
Strong only against the weak; all smiles before the strong.
And that man had been placed on Roseline's team.
"Lady Serena."
Isabel spoke.
"Lady Veloa and Lord Graham are on the same team."
"Yeah. I saw. I can't say I'm thrilled."
That spot should have been mine.
Meanwhile, it seemed the Roseline group had checked their own roster as well — Chloe's face had contorted, and Marien swallowed a small sigh.
"Of all people, him?"
"Chloe."
Roseline cautioned her in a low voice, but Chloe's mouth did not close so easily.
"What? I'm right, aren't I? I heard that in the last practicum he put a commoner boy out front like a shield and hid in the back himself."
Marien added carefully.
"He told the professor he had been assigned to the rear as a matter of tactics."
"Tactics, my foot."
Chloe ground her teeth.
"Being stuck on a team with that guy is the absolute worst."
Just then, Theodore came over.
"Hmph. Having to act alongside commoners."
Chloe's eyebrow twitched.
"What was that?"
Theodore didn't so much as pretend to have heard. His gaze was fixed on Roseline.
"See that you don't hold anyone back."
"You watch yourself. You look like the type to scream first."
"What did you say?"
"Roseline, let's go."
Chloe turned her head as if he weren't worth another word, and Roseline glanced once between the two of them before speaking quietly.
"We should inspect our equipment first. However thoroughly we have already checked, this is still a dungeon."
"Right. Let's go over the protective gear from the top."
Marien opened the equipment bag at once.
Theodore snorted.
"Spare me. That is the business of the fearful."
"Lord Graham."
Roseline called to him in a low voice.
"This is not a matter of fear. If equipment fails during the practicum, the entire team is endangered."
"Then you lot go check yours with great diligence. I'm going in ahead."
Theodore walked off toward the entrance without hearing Roseline out to the end.
Chloe said, incredulous.
"Is he actually out of his mind?"
"Chloe. Mind your words."
"What? I'm right, aren't I?"
Roseline, instead of answering, pulled the laces of her glove tight once more. Her expression was calm, but the strength that had crept into her fingertips was greater than usual.
My own team, meanwhile... a collection of extras whose names I've never even heard.
I scanned the roster, but nothing rang a bell. None of them had played any significant part in the original story, and in Serena's memories, too, they were no one of any particular note.
"Everyone, focus!"
The professor raised his voice.
"The practicum dungeon evaluation will proceed with two or three teams entering at a time. The first team to retrieve the core and carry it out wins."
A fresh stir rippled through the students.
"The core, sir?"
"You mean the dungeon core?"
"Not a true dungeon core — a practice replica. It is placed in the central chamber of the dungeon. Once you have retrieved it and returned to the entrance, the evaluation is over."
The professor indicated a simplified map of the practicum dungeon with the tip of his staff.
"That said, merely bringing back the core will not earn you a good score. Your route of movement, the protection of your teammates, your handling of monsters, your use of equipment, even your judgment on when to retreat — all of it will be evaluated. If you charge out recklessly and put your entire team in danger, points will be deducted."
At those words, I looked toward Theodore.
He stood with his arms crossed, listening about as much as not. He probably didn't think any of it applied to him.
"Each team will designate a leader before entering. The leader is responsible for route selection and for the decision to retrieve the core. The leader's judgment will weigh heavily on the team's overall evaluation."
The moment those words ended, Theodore opened his mouth first.
"I'll be taking the leader position."
Chloe's face contorted on the spot.
"I'm sorry — what?"
"Do you have an objection?"
"Of course I do. Why should you be leader?"
Theodore snorted.
"As a son of Viscount Graham, I am well accustomed to this sort of field evaluation. Better suited to it than commoners or fallen nobles, at the very least."
"Hey—"
Chloe started to step forward, but Roseline held her back with a hand.
"Lord Graham. If you would take the leader's position, you must also bear the responsibility that comes with it. Retrieving the core first is not the sole criterion of this evaluation."
"So your counsel is to tremble and turn back?"
"I am saying that we should confirm our retreat route and move only after finishing our equipment checks."
"Dawdle like that, and another team will take the core first."
Theodore gave the map a careless once-over and pointed at the central corridor.
"We go through the center. It is the fastest."
Marien spoke up cautiously.
"The central corridor is marked as having a high likelihood of monster encounters."
"And?"
"If we take the bypass route, even if it costs us some time—"
"Winning an evaluation means accepting risk. Do you take this dungeon for a picnic?"
Chloe ground her teeth.
"That bastard, seriously."
Roseline held her silence for a moment.
If they quarreled any further here, the team would fracture before they even set foot inside. And Theodore, even knowing it, would not have cared in the slightest.
In the end, Roseline spoke as though conceding.
"Very well. In exchange, confirming the retreat route and checking our equipment immediately after entry are non-negotiable."
"Fine. That is the business of the fearful, anyway."
Theodore cut Roseline off mid-sentence and walked toward the entrance.
"Fall in line with my orders. And don't get in my way."
Chloe swallowed a small curse.
"Roseline, we can't just let that slide, can we?"
"We need to go in now."
"But—"
"Leaving him to go in alone is far too dangerous."
I watched the scene unfold from a distance.
That spot had originally belonged to Serena.
Serena had persecuted Roseline, Chloe, and Marien, and poisoned the atmosphere for the entirety of the practicum. Theodore's role had been to bluster and posture in a different team, and then be murdered by the Abyss.
But it was different now.
Theodore had slid into the space I had vacated, and under the title of team leader he was binding Roseline's hands and feet.
It wasn't bad.
No — perhaps it was even better.
Roseline cannot take command of her own accord. Instead, beneath an arrogant man's command, she will have to clean up his misjudgments. And at the end of those misjudgments, she will reach out her hand.
Toward a place that seems almost within reach — and never is.
"This was an unforeseen development, but it may not turn out so badly after all. Isabel. You may head back now as well."
"Yes, my lady."
Roseline's team passed inside the mana barrier.
Theodore held the very front, the point position, with Chloe and Marien following behind. And Roseline entered last of all.
Just before the entrance sealed shut, Roseline glanced once between the dungeon's interior and the world outside.
Our eyes met — for only an instant.
Go on, then.
Show me just how noble you are.
And learn that even that nobility of yours cannot hold onto ground that is already collapsing beneath you.