Chapter 77

New Student Placement Test (1)

“Don’t come any closer.”

“what?”

“Don’t come close within this radius.”

A day to supervise new students’ exams.

The winter break was already halfway through. I had become somewhat accustomed to a life where I couldn’t use my magic power, and I was nearing the end of preparing materials to expand my cabin.

In fact, all the major things that need to be done before the start of next semester have been taken care of, so if this exam supervision is completed well, there will be no further problems.

It was at this point that I gave my body strength and went to work at Assistant Professor Claire’s lab with the intention of getting it over with quickly.

Among the bachelor’s scholarship students, I was probably the first to arrive, and the only person who came into view was Anis, who was checking the magic engineering supplies alone in a corner of the lab.

When I tapped her shoulder and said she was happy to meet me, Anise jumped like a grasshopper and stretched the distance to the window behind the professor’s chair beyond the main table in the lab.

Then he takes a deep breath and looks at me intently.

“Why all of a sudden?”

“Um... I smell. I don’t like the smell of sweat. Please don’t come closer.”

It is a school that values appearance so much that a clause on maintaining dignity is written into the school rules. Cleanliness management is thorough. At least I’ve never been criticized for my clothes or appearance.

I smelled my sleeves to see if they had loosened up a bit because of the vacation, but there was nothing special.

“It doesn’t smell.”

“And something about his eyes? his energy? something doesn’t suit me. Anyway, please don’t come closer.”

I was even more dumbfounded by the sudden and visibly wary appearance.

Since he was such a smart guy, I thought there must be a reason for everything, so I roughly shook my head.

Then, I swept up the documents on top to clean up the messed up lab table.

This was because I felt like if I didn’t do some basic organizing before Assistant Professor Claire came, the lab would be in chaos again.

The fact that Anis, who was thorough in everything, didn’t organize these basic things meant that she was too busy to even pay attention to that, so she was determined to help as much as she could.

Most of them were documents to be discarded after the processing deadline. After gathering all kinds of documents and finally picking up the folders lying around in the corner, the amount was quite heavy.

– Boom!

Before I could properly file the documents, the lab door opened and Assistant Professor Claire confidently entered.

“Anyeon-!”

After giving a lively morning greeting in a more lively manner than the students, Assistant Professor Claire put down the snack box from breakfast time on the table.

“Do you want a scone?”

Assistant Professor Claire laid out the snacks on the table and asked Anis for some tea.

Anis was checking the magical engineering supplies for the test. When I slowly held out my hand, Anise faltered and held out the document she was checking. It looks like the person is trying to spread the distance as much as possible, place one hand firmly on the chest, and extend the other arm to pass the document. Anyone who sees it will think that there is a wild beast in front of them.

I roughly accepted the documents. The process itself is already familiar, so there is no need to explain it in detail. It is just a simple inspection task.

“Students Clevius and Onyx are here too! Since all the test administration staff have gathered, I’ll go after organizing it!”

Assistant Professor Claire quickly sat down on the professor’s chair with a snack in her mouth and laid out the final exam plan neatly on the table.

“The exam location is Orun Mountain, as we announced in advance. Since there are four people in our academic management staff, each of the four people can take the pre-assigned directions one by one to the north, south, east, and west and inspect them. If a safety accident occurs or cheating is discovered, immediately go to Jeonseo-gu, which has been provided in advance. You can report it to me. As for the test management rules, you can judge whether or not there is cheating according to the documents provided... Well, I can’t help but wonder how amazing and systematic the new students are at cheating... You should never look at them just because they are cute juniors. !”

After saying that, Assistant Professor Claire started chewing on the scone again.

I am full of energy today. It might be because I went on a long-awaited vacation for a few days after working dozens of hours of hard work.

Normally, I am a person with such high tension, but after staying up all night for a few days, I become a corpse, so my personality seems to reset periodically.

“And a new student you must always be careful of! Saint Clarice! She is not an easy person to meet, so I will brief you in advance on how to look like her. Long silver hair that goes down to your waist, red eyes, and a red bow hairpin on the side of your head. If you happen to run into her, look as much as possible. “You know how to be polite, right?”

Basically, Sylvania is a place that values learning more than noble status.

Any level of status difference tends to be reduced in the name of classmates.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t crazy commoners who treat nobles too much, but at least they can’t expect to be treated as respectfully as in the mainland.

However, there is a clear limit to such unwritten rules.

Anyone whose status exceeds that line must be treated with courtesy, even if they are a lower-class student.

Of course, it was not so easy for someone of such noble status to enter the school, so this unwritten line felt very ambiguous... but it feels like things have become a little clearer with the admission of Princess Fenia last year.

If you are a princess or a saint, you must follow the example of a subject unless you are a senior professor within the academy.

So, please be careful in advance to avoid making any mistakes.

In fact, it is even more difficult to tell the difference. Clarisse, a saint who stands in front of the public, looks more like a saint than anyone else. ... Unfortunately, she is fake.

It is a fact that is not revealed at this time, but the real saint Clarice has been replaced with another student. The girl who goes to school under the guise of Clarice is a double with all kinds of physical disguises and counterfeit magic.

The real saint is a student named Kylie Ekne, who is assigned to first-year class C. Of course, it’s a pseudonym.

“You should take a break and then come up. I’ll be working on the installation first.”

“What what?”

“Everyone has no complaints, right?”

After saying that, I glanced at the two people following me. Senior Onyx and Clevious nodded roughly.

Anise was holding about fifteen magical engineering supplies. I took them one by one and threw one towards Clevius and the other towards Onyx. The two accepted it without any hesitation and placed it in their arms. After checking it, I placed one on my arm.

As we repeated distributing them one by one, Anis soon had nothing in her hands.

“Now wait a minute...! Why didn’t you ask...!”

“I told you to rest.”

I told Anis straight like that. I don’t have the stamina to support it anyway, so forcing myself to do it only becomes a burden.

While fixing the magic engineering supplies, I slipped one hand out and dragged Anise by the shoulder and pressed her down on a nearby rock.

Anise was breathing heavily, looking up at me with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

“Take a break when you need to rest. You’re the only one losing.”

After saying that, I shook my head once and signaled to the others.

In fact, it is almost embarrassing to even call it a mountain. If you climb up for a few more minutes, you will soon reach the summit.

*

“I’ll come back after scattering some magic stones, and the two of you work on installing magic engineering supplies in an appropriate location. They said we’ll arrive after lunch, so we’ll have quite a bit of time.”

Assistant Professor Claire said and smiled.

“Thank you all for your hard work. After the installation work is completed and the section in charge is confirmed, we can begin the supervision work. The operation itself is not difficult, so it will only take about 30 minutes to complete the installation at the pre-planned location.”

Clevious took a deep breath and put down his magic engineering supplies. It was the same for me and Onyx.

The number of magical engineering supplies itself had decreased considerably. This is because several checkpoints along the route were installed in advance.

“Whew... I can’t believe low-level illusion items weigh this much... If it’s a higher grade than this, it’ll feel like carrying a rock.”

Senior Onyx sighed heavily and sat down on a nearby rock to wipe his sweat. Clevius seemed to have not been as tired as he thought, and after drinking some water to quench his thirst, he was twisting his body around.

He has that much stamina and a high level of swordsmanship, but when it comes to actual combat, he gets scared, so just looking at him from the outside makes him a truly strange person.

When you think about your past history of living your whole life as a failure and being treated as a failure by the Nortondale family, the best swordsman on the continent, you should nod your head... Well, that’s the story that Tailley will solve.

I took a break and looked at the view from the top of the mountain.

A majestic altar stands right on the open plain. The huge monument is full of unknown characters. It is so huge that it should be called a pillar rather than a monument.

The end of the monument, which stretches straight into the sky, has been cut off.

This is the ‘Altar of Change’, which is the stage for the final battle of Act 3.

I close my eyes and think back to that time.

A sky full of dark clouds. An archmage called a rare genius is looking up at the clouds.

The eagle-headed apostles of the god Telos flap their huge wings and cover the sky.

The god announces the end of Aken Island, and the magician who is trying to kill the god’s apostle and the party trying to stop the magician finally face each other in front of the altar.

A girl wearing a large witch’s hat speaks softly, with the glowing pillar behind her.

I don’t believe in God.

“Hey! What are you doing there? What! You!”

Suddenly, Senior Onyx shouted and I suddenly came to my senses.

“What is it, Senior Onyx?”

“Oh no... I thought there was someone at the top of the altar just now... hmm... I guess I was looking at it wrong...”

Who could possibly be climbing on the majestic, massive pillar left at the top of this mountain?

Still, I looked around just in case, but I couldn’t see the shadow of anyone of note.

“Ugh... I guess it was really hard to come up here. I’m just seeing all this nonsense.”

Senior Onyx tilted his head and sighed.

“Let’s quickly install the magic equipment and finish the exam. If we finish this, there won’t be anything else to do until the vacation is over.”

It takes a lot of effort for it to be the last job.

Grumbling like that, we got up from our seats.

We had to be busy to welcome new students on time.

“...hey.”

Senior Onyx, who had been gathering a few magical engineering supplies to install them, suddenly straightened his head.

“I think a few of these are broken... aren’t they...?”