Noah sat quietly in the corner of the hallway, looking down at his student watch as it buzzed with a notification. His eyes flicked down to the small glowing screen.
[1st Year Students Placement Exams Results...]
[Results are now posted on the Notice Board in Amaryllis Hall]
Noah stared at the message for a moment, his mind blanking before he blinked. He had known this day was coming, but seeing the results notification made everything suddenly real.
His breath caught for a second. He hadn't thought much about his placement before, but now... now, with the results actually here, a knot started to form in his stomach.
"Alright," he muttered to himself. "I should head over."
His steps quickened as he made his way through the corridors of the academy toward Amaryllis Hall.
The sound of his shoes echoing off the polished stone floor almost felt like a countdown, each step bringing him closer to the board that held his fate.
His thoughts began to spin as he walked, playing out different scenarios in his head.
What if I didn't make it? What if the gap from being in a coma ruined my chances?
Despite himself, Noah felt his palms growing clammy. He knew he had done well in the exams—well enough, at least—but was it enough to rank him anywhere notable? He wasn't aiming for the S-class, that was for sure.
That was the domain of the elites, the cream of the crop, and people like him—someone who had been unconscious for months and tangled in a mess of demonic corruption—probably didn't make the cut for that.
Still, being placed in one of the lower classes would be humiliating. He couldn't afford to lose more ground after what had happened.
As he approached Amaryllis Hall, he could already hear the noise of students gathering around the notice board. The hum of voices filled the air, a mixture of excitement, disappointment, and everything in between.
He stepped inside the hall, and the sight before him was exactly what he expected: a crowd of students huddled around the notice board, some looking overjoyed, others... not so much.
"YES! I made it to A-class!" one student shouted, jumping up and down while their friends clapped them on the back.
"Middle class, huh? Could be worse," muttered another student who was clearly relieved.
Over by the far corner of the room, Noah spotted two boys bawling their eyes out, tears streaming down their faces.
"I'm gonna be a goddamn peasant after I graduate!" one of them wailed dramatically, his face buried in his hands.
"I can't believe this is happening! I'm gonna end up working in a barn somewhere shoveling dirt!"
His friend next to him groaned, rubbing his temples.
"We'll never live this down... My dad's gonna kill me. I can already hear him now:
'A member of the Mireille family, placed in D-class? Unforgivable!'"
"What are they talking about?" she muttered under her breath.
Curious, she glanced down to the A-class list, and her eyes widened when she saw it.
"... Noah Ashbourne." She stared at the name for a long moment, her lips twitching slightly.
"How...?"
Meanwhile, Noah made his way through the crowd, oblivious to Amy's reaction. He approached the board and scanned through the lists.
First, he checked the D-class list. His name wasn't there.
"Good, I didn't fail that badly," he thought, exhaling in relief.
Next, he looked at the C-class. Still nothing.
"...Wait, what?"
His brows furrowed slightly as he moved up to the B-class list.
Surely, he was there. After all, he hadn't expected to do 'great' after missing so much time.
But his name wasn't in B-class either.
"...This is bad," Noah muttered to himself, feeling a small pit form in his stomach.
"If I'm not even in B-class, does that mean I failed so badly that I didn't even make the list? Am I... screwed?"
He sighed deeply, deciding to look at the S-class list just for the heck of it.
As expected, Amy was at the top, followed by Xander, Ariana, and Rylan, along with ten other students who clearly belonged there.
Noah's name was nowhere in sight, which didn't surprise him.
"Of course, I wasn't expecting to be in S-class. That'd be ridiculous."
He was about to turn away when something caught his eye—something lower down, in A-class.
His name.
[Noah Ashbourne]
"...Eh?"
Noah blinked, staring at his name in disbelief. "What's my name doing in A-class?"