CH 54

“Now then, you may begin!”

The sound of Ray-sensei’s beautiful alto voice was followed by the sound of quills moving in unison.

It was now the day after the entrance ceremony. I was taking my first class…rather, I was taking a kind of entrance exam.

There were about 40 students in the room–these were the new students from the Aurum Ward. There were a few faces here and there that I remembered seeing at the tea party.

Ray-sensei was in charge of the Twilight Dormitory Aurum Ward. The Diamante and Platina Wards, and the Moonlight Dormitory and Venus Dormitory had different people in charge, and were taking the test in different rooms.

As an aristocrat, one should be educated to lead their people.

That’s how everyone had been educated, and they had been more or less prepped for what we would be learning in school.

Nevertheless, the level of preparation varied in a thousand and one ways depending on the title, the family’s wealth, and the customs of the family. Therefore, there was an academic exam given when entering the school. That was the exam I was currently taking right now.

Hmm….Hmmm, some of the questions are tougher than others, but…there’s nothing that I can’t solve.

I was going to get in the groove and solve the problems.

However, from the perspective of an adult woman, there were definitely some problems that I was surprised to see for mere first years. Was this content really for little kids?

It sure is difficult to be an aristocrat in this world…

By the way, Sister Thulite and Brother Will almost never used a textbook, rather, they used materials that had been handed down in their respective families.

I was going to use a textbook at first, but it was definitely more interesting to read and understand the introductory and technical books rather than a broad and shallow textbook, because my concentration ability was far different.

I had quite a bias in my knowledge, but after I managed to do the bare minimum in all subjects, they basically let me do whatever I wanted to do.

For that reason, I knew almost nothing about the differences in class content between grades. There was going to be an explanation after the test, so I was really looking forward to it.

While I was processing the many sheets of paper, I was reminded of the explanation about the department and classes I was just given.

“The ones who succeed the families are in the noble magician department. The ones who help and protect them are in the proud knights department. And those who help the superiors will be placed in the liberal arts department, which specializes in assisting the higher-ups. This is pretty much decided before you arrive. Needless to say, it’s decided, and the lessons will be different for each subject…But what we’re going to be doing now is testing you on the five major subjects that are common to all departments. This can change the classes you can take, so students in all departments should be prepared for this!”

Well, I was terrified to hear that. It seems that there were some classes that you could take and some classes that you couldn’t, depending on your grades.

Was there a popular class that required a limit on the number of students? Or perhaps there was a class that had a lot of flunkers if you didn’t adjust to a certain level of understanding…Whatever it was, I couldn’t afford to crush even one bud of my exciting magical life here.

“Wha–this is?!”

I was moving my quill furiously with my eyes glazed over, and didn’t even notice that the sound of quills had all stopped except for mine, nor did I notice that Ray-sensei, who had wondered about the situation, read the exam papers and exclaimed out loud in astonishment.

Scritch, scritch, squiggle, scritch, scritch

“………”

Scritch, scratch……

“Erm…Archelaus?”

“………Huh?”

I stopped my quill in surprise when Ray-sensei came in front of me before I realized it.

He looked at me with eyes that were somehow unbelieving, and I turned my head as he stared at me. I suddenly looked around and saw him looking at me quizzically for some reason.

“Yes, sir. What can I do for you?”

Huh. Maybe I passed the test time limit or something? I guess I was too focused on it to notice…

Oh no, can it be that I’m in an embarrassing situation, then!?

I could blush inside and be upset, but I shouldn’t show it in public. I tried my best to be cool.

“Um…you, can you show me a little?”

Ray-sensei pointed to my test paper with a long finger and I offered it to him to go ahead.

What is it? I wonder if I’ve messed something up…

As I waited with trepidation, Ray-sensei covered his face with one hand.

What can it be?!