Chapter 81 - Academy's Representative Team Complete (2)

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]

Chapter 81 - Academy's Representative Team Complete (2)

The intelligence evaluation began.

Despite being suddenly thrust into the evaluation, Merilda accepted the test paper with a calm expression.

During our earlier conversation in the headmaster's office, she mentioned that while she hadn't studied much about intelligence, she was eager to give it a try.

"It's like solving puzzles."

Merilda said with a positive look when she learned what intelligence work entailed. She enjoyed puzzles and believed she was good at them.

"Well, it is somewhat similar to puzzles. Let's see how you do. I need to gauge your level to tailor your education accordingly."

"By the way, Dian."

Kirrin suggested after hearing.

"How about pairing Merilda with Knightley for personal tutoring?"

"Personal tutoring?"

"Yes. I heard that you two have a past connection. And both are special students, after all."

Kirrin wasn't wrong, and adding another student to the personal tutoring sessions wouldn't be too difficult.

The issue was Knightley.

Would she accept sharing her personal tutoring sessions with someone new?

But then again, her approval isn't my concern. I never promised to tutor her alone.

Besides, I've been considering bringing Hindrasta into the personal tutoring sessions as well.

Other professors have noted that Hindrasta's academic behavior is far from ideal.

She often skips classes, spending her time in her dormitory or at dessert cafes.

Her participation in classes is poor, but there's one positive aspect: her social relationships.

Lower-ranked students adore Hindrasta, likely because when she first joined the academy as a special student, she beat up some upper-class bullies, sending them all to the infirmary.

To the lower-ranked students, Hindrasta is a savior who appeared out of nowhere to rescue them.

However, that doesn’t mean she sees them as equals.

While the other professors only see the surface, I know the truth.

Hindrasta doesn't care about the lower-ranked students who cling to her.

To them, she might be an idol, but to her, they are insignificant humans.

This is typical of dragons, who generally look down on other races.Điscover new chapters at novelhall.com

Moreover, Hindrasta is quite ignorant of social customs and etiquette.

I saw her eat with her hands at Linus’s house the other day.

Having spent her life as a ruler in the mountains before being exiled and joining the Leblanc Mercenary Corps, all she knows is fighting.

It's unlikely she learned proper manners or common sense among those brutish and unrefined mercenaries.

If she is to eventually join the Imperial Security Office, I need to start teaching her proper behavior now.

Given that her polymorph form won’t wear off for a thousand years—a brief time for a dragon, but an eternity for a human—she needs to learn how to live among humans during that time.

So my current plan was to personally teach the top student and Duke’s daughter, Knightley, and the special student dragon, Hindrasta.

The paper was filled with what looked like scribbles, indicating that she had spent considerable time thinking.

"This student—is she the new special student who joined just before the evaluation?"

"Yes. Is there a problem? Considering she’s from a public academy, it wouldn’t be surprising if her score is low..."

"That's not it!"

Even with the test paper in hand, I couldn’t make sense of it.

Seeing my puzzled expression, the intelligence professor snatched the paper back and exclaimed.

"She scored an impressive 40 points! That's the second-highest score in this evaluation!"

The highest score, unsurprisingly, belonged to Knightley, who scored 41 out of 50. Only a one-point difference.

But considering Merilda knew nothing about intelligence, the real gap is likely more than just one point.

"Student Merilda clearly has a natural talent for this field!"

Is that really the case? Did she not just guess correctly?

Or could she have copied Hindrasta’s answers?

But Hindrasta only scored 5 points. What an absurd dragon...

I decided to call Merilda in to explain her reasoning.

Professor Ismera joined us as well.

With a special student performing exceptionally well in a theoretical subject, it made sense for the Head Theoretical Professor to be present.

When Merilda arrived, summoned by an assistant, she looked slightly flustered but smiled as she noticed the group waiting for her.

"Is there a problem with my answers?"

"Student Merilda, could you explain your thought process for this problem?"

Ismera asked, presenting one of the questions from today’s test paper.

The task was to decode a secret document obtained from the enemy. The encryption method was a complex multi-substitution cipher in the imperial common language.

The content read: VOBBR MMNNO NKKUYU TS JIPOO NZLY

"Oh, this one."

Merilda replied calmly.

"It seemed like each letter was substituted with the letter five places ahead, so I shifted everything back by five places to restore the original text."

Using the pencil Ismera handed her, Merilda wrote out the decoded letters on the paper.

"But the resulting words didn’t make sense, so I tried reversing the order. However, it still didn’t form coherent words."

"And then?"

"So I decided to swap the consonants and vowels, and finally, it made sense."

The sentence Merilda wrote was "Infiltration begins at midnight". The correct answer.

But this wasn’t the standard method. Normally, this type of cipher requires knowledge of a codebook and related techniques to solve. How did she figure it out?

This multi-substitution cipher is a high-level encryption method that completely stumps anyone encountering it for the first time.

Back when Linus and I first encountered it, we couldn’t solve it either, so we resorted to throwing the demon commanders off a cliff one by one until one confessed. But Merilda... how did she manage this...?

Could it be... she’s just exceptionally intelligent?

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]