Chapter 104: Finals Finished

Chapter 104: Finals Finished

Per contract stipulations, we’ll be conducting a search for Seven-Snakes and his associates in the eastern wasteland.

We expect the device to be finished as payment when we return with their heads.

- Edwin, Correspondence (3rd Era, 306)

Finals sucked.

The day of the testing started out like normal, filled with unending tension in the dorms about the impending future. Despite this, Erec boldly went into his day knowing that he’d be on to better things after this mess.

His first test—and everyone’s first test—was Physical Conditioning. They ran the students through a purely physical exam. Starting with a seven-mile run. Then Strength exercises like pushups and pull-ups. It should've been easy for someone like Erec with an overabundance of Strength for their year. But it wasn’t. The examiners intentionally made it, so there wasn’t a benchmark to beat. No. Since their next semester would include another round of Physical Conditioning. Therefore, they ran the exam until exhaustion.

After hundreds of pushups, his arms gave out, and he finished the exam.

Only to get a brief window to return to their dorms, shower, and change into formals for the rest of the exams.

Basic Mysticism came next. Erec thought he managed to scrape by—mostly with VAL’s help on the written portions. Thanks to VAL, he could describe and transcribe the glyphs tested, but the practical part of the exam... That was a different story. He’d failed to put in sufficient practice to maintain a glyph in his head and pour mana into it, which showed with three fizzled glyphs.

It was the best he could do.

By lunch, Erec leaned on the cafeteria table and suffered from a massive headache. His friends weren’t much better off. Out of everyone, Colin looked the most annoyed.

“It’s unfair you were seen as fit to leave Courtly Mannerisms,” Colin said. “The instructor told me I’d be taking remedial lessons on top of the next course.”

“How appropriate,” Olivia shook her head. “In my opinion, they made the right decision. Look at your poor betrothed—how many times has she knocked at our dormitory only for you to ignore her, then hide in your room when I invite her in? Yet you believe you’re fit to pass unscathed with that sort of act?”

“I told you, wench. You have no reason to get involved in my personal affairs!”

“Is it still personal when you’ve involved all of your friends in them by the act of cowardice?” Olivia politely asked, folding over her napkin as she let her soup cool off.

Erec buried his head in his arms as the two continued to bicker to try to mute their noise. Their argument, combined with the rest of the loud canteen, was too much. There had to be at least a dozen conversations going on—people gossiping, concerned about their scores, and planning for the next semester. But for him, this semester, next semester. It’d be the same, right? He’d be stuck in this school and pulled a dozen directions by people with their own agendas. This upcoming expedition was only a reprieve from that.

As his paper slid across her desk, Dame Juliana looked as surprised as he was.

She scanned the test before raising her eyebrows and looking at Erec. “All of it seems to be in order,” she tapped a pencil against the paper and frowned. “Don’t think I need to read through this test to know you likely did well. You’ll be taking my advanced class next semester, won’t you?”

“If it’s an option, I’d love to,” Erec said with a measured smile and then rubbed his tired eyes. It’d been a long day, and Garin’d said something earlier about a party of some kind. He glanced back at his friend—who was furiously trying to complete the test. With a bit of a lead, he could hopefully rush back to his bed and pretend to be passed out before Garin finished.

There wasn't a chance he wanted to waste energy on school celebrations with his own feast in a couple of days. Better to conserve energy.

His friend might be able to bounce from social obligation to social obligation—and Erec made damn sure his friend was coming along for this one—but he wasn’t equipped that way.

“It will be. I’ve already made sure of it.” Dame Juliana said and then cleared her throat. “I’ve, uh, heard about your change in responsibilities. You may not be directly under my wing like you are with Master Knight Boldwick, yet I can’t help but feel as if I want to help a student who so clearly has a similar passion for scouting.”

Erec gave her a confused look; Dame Juliana was an excellent instructor, but he had no idea what might be going through her mind.

“Life as a Scout and life as a Noble, if you’re good at either, you’ll find that they become two different lives entirely.” Dame Juliana scratched the back of her head. “...And, the more you’re outside of these walls, the further you go from this kingdom, the more that being inside of it and playing by the rules of it start to make less and less sense.”

“I don’t need to leave the walls to see that.”

“No, but there’s sights out there, things out there, that will make what you think of this place now even less. Things we can’t talk about inside of the Kingdom, for one. Which you’ve already had a taste of. Another is the experience of the freedom of the world. My advice? The more you separate those two parts of yourself, the harder it will be. Living two lives means tearing yourself into two. It’s better to pick one.”

Erec gave her an exasperated look. Of anyone she could say this to—really, she gave this speech to him? His Talent tore him in two; at this point living a double life was second nature. Picking one? What the hell did that even mean?

At least she tried to give advice, as misguided or unspecific as it’d been.

“I appreciate the advice,” Erec lied. “I’m looking forward to your class next semester.” He said, and that he meant.

She ran a good class, and he felt excited to see what else he might learn from them.

Erec gave her a polite salute and pressed his fist to his chest.

With the exams over, he’d have to face his academic consequences later. Yet the true test of his life here was in two days.

Hopefully, with this feast, he’d be able to leave on the expedition with the assurance that everything in his Kingdom life was settled and wrapped up. Only then could he cut loose and be free again.