“How many layers of barriers do you want me to set up?”
“I just thought it’d be best to be as safe as possible.”
A delicate spell was cast, and the barrier unfolded. Before long, the vast barrier completely enveloped the Chairwoman’s residence.
That makes it the third layer.
“Are you trying to make me expend my energy on purpose so I can’t take the exam or what?”
“That’s part of it. Thanks, Erica.”
“What?!”
I had to assume the worst-case scenario. The possibility that Hertlocker, with his crazed eyes, would barging in to kill me, was one such scenario.
While I knew I was holding my little sister’s life in the balance, if he realized that was a lie, he would genuinely want to kill me.
In that case, it would be tough to subdue Hertlocker with only my sensing abilities and physical strength.
I’d have to buy time inside the barrier and hope Sergey would come to subdue him.
*Sigh…*
“What’s wrong? Why the sigh?”
“My situation is just too dire.”
“Huh…?”
I never expected Emilia to run away without hearing me out.
But if the Intelligence Agency felt threatened, it might be wise to make a run for it.
From Emilia’s perspective, she was likely feeling the urgency that the country could collapse if she didn’t act quickly.
Anyway, thanks to that, I now found myself at a crossroads.
I could either cooperate with the Intelligence Agency to face off against the Asylum, or completely sever ties with them.
But somehow, it felt like my steps were leaning towards the latter.
I had to contact the Intelligence Agency to clear up any misunderstandings, but the problem was that approaching them recklessly carried a high risk of getting attacked.
I had to devise a way to handle this, but the midterms were looming too.
Whatever happened, I needed to take the exam today, so I ended up wasting the whole previous day without any response.
Wait a minute. Oh no.
‘Am I really an idiot?’
A day was plenty for the Intelligence Agency to pull out and vanish from the system.
I hadn’t even considered the possibility they might completely abandon the system and flee.
In my worry about Hertlocker potentially charging in, I must have gone stir-crazy studying for the exam at the same time.
I had run out of alternatives.
I just had to hope that in their rage, Hertlocker wouldn’t kill me when he found me.
Whether I fought or whatever, I had to meet him first to persuade him.
“But what about your attendant?”
“Emilia? I gave her a little vacation.”
Vacation. In a way, it was like a holiday.
While Emilia was away, I had to prepare my own meals and do laundry, and I hadn’t realized how hard and time-consuming that would be.
When Emilia comes back, I should hire another maid to ease the workload a bit.
I’ll even ensure she gets a solid monthly salary.
So please come back, Emilia.
I can’t live without you.
“Hey? Isn’t that Professor Relic over there?”
“Looks like it.”
As I was seeing Erica off outside the main gate, I noticed Professor Relic suddenly pointing at something and rushing off somewhere.
Being such a prominent figure, everything he did seemed suspicious.
“Seems he’s in a hurry. Should I take off now? See you at the exam.”
“Sure.”
After sending Erica off, I kept an eye on Relic’s back.
That reluctant, chubby professor was running to the point of sweating.
If he were just late for class or a seminar, he’d probably just leisurely walk in and face the consequences.
This was a sign that something urgent was going on.
“Erwin.”
I quickly cast a thin Recognition Interference Barrier around and sent a Communication Magic.
At the same time, I linked Erwin’s sight and hearing.
“Hey, wait! Not now!”
“Sorry.”
It was an inappropriate time.
I immediately turned off the link, waited a moment, and then linked it back up.
I instantly saw Erwin’s flushed face reflected in the bathroom mirror.
“Did you see it?”
“That’s not what matters right now!”
“Did you see or not?!”
“Do you think he’d believe me if I said I didn’t?”
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
A loud scream erupted.
I truly hadn’t seen anything, but saying that wouldn’t convince Erwin.
So I just went with saying I saw something.
“You bastard…”
“Erwin. Has the Asylum called you at all yesterday or today?”
“I have not.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“The executives got called, but I wasn’t included.”
“Then you should have reported it right away!”
Damn it.
Having such a scatterbrained subordinate was more than just a headache.
Even if it didn’t pertain to him, he should have reported everything regarding the Asylum.
“Ugh… Do you only know about the executives being called? What about everything else?”
“I was just passed the same info as usual. Oh, but there was one more thing. They said to avoid being outside as much as possible today and stay low.”
“…..?”
What on earth does that mean?
I hadn’t heard anything about a nationwide blood test being scheduled.
So why would even the low-tier believers of the Asylum need to lay low today?
I couldn’t think of any reasons.
“Stay at the Chairwoman’s residence today.”
“What? Why?”
“You were told to stay low. That means something dangerous is about to happen. So you should stay in a safe place.”
“C-Can I really do that?”
“Yeah. I’ll hide the key under the flowerpot at the front gate.”
Intelligence agents had to be protected carefully.
They were valuable assets that would become key players in tracking down the Asylum in the future.
I cut off the Communication Magic there.
‘I really don’t know what’s going on.’
Warnings and calls from within the Asylum, along with the Intelligence Agency’s matters mixing in, made my head spin.
I clutched my throbbing head as I left the front gate.
First and foremost, taking the exam was my priority.
If I were to get expelled from the Imperial University, everything would be meaningless.
I hurriedly adjusted my school uniform and headed for the exam hall.
“Schlus.”
At the exam hall door, Iris turned slightly and welcomed me with the usual smile.
It was almost time for the exam, but why was she loitering around?
“What’s going on?”
“Schlus. Just solve the last problem on this exam.”
“Why’s that?”
“It’s urgent. It’d be better to finish the exam quickly and get out.”
Iris smiled and opened the door, disappearing inside without giving me a chance to ask what she meant.
Was something urgent happening that required every second?
Based on the situation, it felt like she was telling me to only submit the last problem…
Was she signaling me to sabotage my own exam?
“Take a seat.”
“Yes.”
As I slid the exam hall door open, Ludwig quietly instructed me.
All the other students were already present.
I exchanged quiet greetings with Erica and found a vacant seat.
However, this time there was something that looked like a slab at every desk.
Just as I was about to head to Iris to ask her more about what she had said earlier, the bell rang.
“It’s time, so I’ll explain the exam. There should be a tablet on all of your desks. It’s an artifact that displays a specific screen using mana. You will solve the questions presented on that screen in order.”
From the initial part of the explanation, I already felt like I understood what kind of exam this would be.
As expected, when it came to examinations, it never strayed too far from the original work.
Still, just in case there was some difference from the original rules, I decided to listen attentively.
“Questions will be presented one by one. You may choose to solve them or skip them, though be aware that once skipped, those questions cannot be solved again. The total available score is 99 points. That concludes the explanation. Any actions involving sharing answers or peeking at others’ artifacts will result in cancellation of your exam.”
The students began to buzz.
Given this was an exam using artifacts, they must have felt like there would be some unique rules, but it turned out it was nothing special.
Aside from the fact that once you skip a question, you can’t solve it again, it looked entirely like an ordinary exam.
However, one secret was hidden within this exam.
“Now we will commence the examination. The time limit is one hour.”
With Ludwig’s signal, the artifact’s lights turned on.
The first question, worth 4 points.
The difficulty level was…
‘What the heck is this?’
Just skimming through it already made my head spin.
Without hesitation, I pressed the skip button.
A warning popped up, but after pressing again, I moved on to the second question.
The second question was worth 5 points.
However, its difficulty was lower than the first.
If I focused, I could probably solve it within ten minutes.
The secret of this exam was that as the questions progressed, while the points increased, the difficulties decreased.
Normally, when told that questions cannot be skipped, students would hesitate to skip even a single question, clinging to each one foolishly.
However, if one were to decide boldly not to solve the most difficult first question and skip it instead, they would soon catch on to this pattern.
After that, the ability to judge how many questions to skip and solve for maximum score within the one-hour limit became crucial.
Ludwig aimed to assess that ability and courage.
‘You want me to skip all the way to the end? Why is that?’
Thinking about the original exam made Iris’s words even more puzzling.
When she referred to the last question, it should mean the 11th question, which would carry 14 points.
Could it really be that even scoring just 14 points could let someone come first?
No, that couldn’t be right.
Even though the first and second problems were quite challenging, someone as brilliant as Erica should be able to solve them all within the time allotted.
In fact, in the original story, both Hertlocker and Erica solved every problem without skipping.
So what on earth…
‘Whatever, I’ll just roll with it.’
It would be foolish to doubt Iris’s words.
If what she said was true, then something urgent was happening outside, and I couldn’t waste time just pondering this all alone.
So I ignored all the warning messages and kept skipping questions.
-Question 6. Worth 9 points.
-Question 7. Worth 10 points.
I had already exceeded a total of 49 points.
And then it came to the next question.
-Final question. Question 8, worth 50 points.
‘Huh?’
I froze in shock for a moment.
One question worth 50 points. That’s more than the total of the previous questions which scored 49 points.
Moreover, that question was…
-“Dismantle this spell.”
It boasted an absurd level of difficulty.
I was supposed to break down a spell that was tangled up in a convoluted manner.
Normally, even using the entirety of the one-hour exam time probably wouldn’t suffice.
But to me, it was easier than any other question.
‘Selection and Concentration. Using 1 second of computational power.’
I used my ability without hesitation.
Now that I think about it, it had been a while since I used ‘Selection and Concentration’ for my computational power.
There wasn’t often a need for computational power higher than my stat of 48.
In an instant, my stats increased, bringing my computational power stat up to 147.
The time limit was 1 second, but that was more than enough.
So I raised my hand, and the display’s spell had already become undone and disappeared.
*Click… click…*
The minute hand of the pocket watch had just passed the 20-second mark.
Ludwig looked around the exam hall, which had turned into a tense atmosphere.
The expressions of the students varied.
Some, with pained expressions, seemed to be focused on solving the first question, while others appeared startled, possibly realizing the rules of this exam.
Surveying their faces, Ludwig was struggling to suppress a smile.
He felt a burst of joy just thinking about how soon they would all be wearing expressions of shock.
‘This was a slight twist from the originally planned exam.’
If the rule was that a point was added for each question, then the total score for the questions leading up to the 11th would be 99 points.
But at no point had Ludwig mentioned that there were 11 questions or that a specific rule existed for the points.
In other words, it was not strange for question 8 to be declared as the last question, suddenly worth 50 points.
This was a trap designed for those who caredlessly skipped the earlier questions.
Following that ‘rule,’ if one skipped all the way until question 7, they would ensure an easy 50 points from question 8.
But when faced with the unexpectedly challenging last question at number 8, what expressions would they have?
Those who sought an easy 50 points would crash and end up with a score of 0.
Ludwig already felt excited about that scenario.
‘That guy…’
While lost in thought, Ludwig’s eyes caught sight of Schlus.
With a look of complete indifference, he was tapping away at the slab.
It seemed he was very likely to experience that despair soon.
Then Schlus’s fingers stopped as he froze for a moment.
It appeared he had finally reached the last question.
‘How boring.’
Wasn’t he at least supposed to look somewhat shocked?
Yet, feeling a sense of joy knowing he’d be scored a 0, Ludwig-
“…?!”
Schlus rose from his seat, and Ludwig stared wide-eyed.
Maintaining the same expressionless face, Schlus was coming down the stairs holding up the artifact.
When Schlus reached right in front of Ludwig, he presented the artifact, which displayed this:
-Total Score 50/99
“I’ll be taking my leave now.”
“….”
Schlus Hainkel turned and began to walk away.
Ludwig was left in a daze, staring at the artifact for quite some time.
The moment he heard the door slam shut, he finally snapped back to reality and lowered the artifact.
He had made the blunder of forgetting the orders that had come down from above.
Ludwig hurriedly climbed the stairs and opened the classroom door.
Just then, he spotted Schlus’s back as he was leaving the building.
“Schlus Hainkel. Return.”
“I have already submitted the artifact used for the exam.”
“I know. But return now.”
“May I ask why?”
“I refuse to answer.”
“You refuse…?”
That order was to ensure that Schlus Hainkel did not leave the Imperial University.
When he tried to hold Schlus back, Schlus’s gaze finally turned toward Ludwig.
In those hollow eyes, Ludwig felt an unsettling chill creep down his spine.
At this moment, Schlus was clearly showing hostility.
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