77. final exam (1)

Meanwhile, in the back alley of the Academy Shopping Center.

In a pub in a back alley where an unidentified liquid puddles and the stench naturally frowns your eyes.

Cherald and the others were drinking.

“this… Fuck!”

“Sherald, hey. Wake”

A wooden beer mug tumbled to the floor along with a harsh curse.

Sherald stares at the beer mug with half-closed eyes.

His face was so disfigured that it was difficult to see him as a ‘student’ anymore.

“Calm down… Do you guys see me as a dick too? ok?!”

“It’s not like that… Phew, at least get some fresh air.”

“Where are the orders, you bastard…ぅ… I need to smoke… ”

Sherald staggered out of the bar.

The bloody atmosphere, as if something was about to happen at any moment, softened a little.

Excluding Sherald, the other three party members sighed at the same time, regardless of who said it first.

“Whoa… Why is that crazy bastard so broken?”

“I know yeah. what kind of powder is that? I guess I’ll have to lose weight soon.”

“You have to stop doing such stupid things. I made a lot of money too.”

Sherald, a C-class mercenary from a fallen aristocracy, who uses force to promote himself in the lower class.

The three party members believed in Sherald’s halo and entered his party.

I thought that if I stayed by his side, something would fall off.

However, Sherald was completely ruined within the first semester.

The trigger for that was, I’m sure, a ‘strange request’.

“Do you guys use that powder often too?”

“Ugh, how did Sherald end up like that? I just sold it without a hitch.”

“… Fuck, even if I try to quit, I can’t… And the powder seems to be getting weirder.”

“Smeart, my God.”

Unlike the two people who had shied away from powder earlier, the man called Smeert was a little disfigured.

“Hurry up, you crazy bastard! Can’t you see what happened to Cherald?”

“Yeah, that’s true, but I keep thinking about it… Anyway, it seems to be getting weirder. I lost my mind as soon as I used the powder in the dormitory the other day.”

“… dormitory? Maybe at the academy?”

“You can’t go anywhere! however… When I woke up, there were two beds.”

“… ”

The other two fell silent at Smeart’s words.

Unless you were an idiot, you could see that the condition of the ‘powder’ given to them was getting worse and worse.

As evidence of that, Cherald has already turned into a degenerate.

“They already think of us as outcasts. damn… Let’s just do this and shake our hands right away.”

“Yeah, that would be nice… Did you say this was the last time you did it?”

“Uh, yes, that’s right. This request… ”

Smeart opened his mouth.

“I disguised it as an accident, and the princess named Arlot and the butler… It was to get rid of it.”

“… ”

A request that went far beyond cheating in a test.

But now the eyes of those gangsters who wanted to get their hands dirty were glistening with madness.

Tension rose between them in silence.

* * *

“Stop, good job.”

“Whoa… Thank you for your effort.”

At the same time as Ryan’s words, he stopped the mental method and scattered the flames.

I stretched out on the gym floor and caught my breath.

I felt as if I was going to die, but I couldn’t stop smiling even though I had no strength in my limbs.

‘I’ve grown so much.’

After obtaining the ‘imprint of flame’, he had little intention of using it in earnest.

There is no one to teach you, and it was brought here to cure Arlott’s illness in the first place.

However, thanks to Ryan, he was able to use ‘Imprint of Flame’ with little energy.

“Tomorrow is the test. If this is enough, you can go to the intermediate class.”

“Thanks to the professor’s teachings.”

It was Ryan, who crossed his arms and smiled.

A true teacher of this era who did not hesitate to provide the mental method he devised himself.

You won’t see it in the intermediate class, so you should be polite.

Thinking so, I forcibly moved my creaking joints and knelt down.

“… What?”

“Even if I go to the intermediate class, I will not forget it. Thank you so much.”

He spoke with sincerity and bowed so deeply that his forehead touched the ground.

If I hadn’t met her in the lower class, I wouldn’t have grown like this.

Even though from her point of view, I, who was always skimping in class, didn’t look good…

She wholeheartedly helped me without turning away when I asked for help.

“Do you want to go back?”

“Yeah?”

… Are you still mad at me for doing other things in class?

I was startled when I looked up and saw Ryan’s face.

The expression was clearly smiling, but it was a strange look with thread veins on the face.

“I tried my best to teach you as a disciple, but you’re trying to run away.”

“… no that’s not-”

“If you’re not running away, you’re staying by my side even after I’m in the intermediate class, right?”

“… ”

I was already sweaty, but somehow I could clearly feel a drop of sweat dripping down my forehead.

If you go up to the intermediate class, your homeroom professor will change, so I just said thanks to you in order to repay the kindness you taught me.

Why is this being interpreted this way?

“answer.”

“… I need to ask permission from Princess Arlot… ”

“answer.”

Ryan put his hand on my shoulder.

For a moment, I thought my knees were doing a vertical drop motion through the floor of the arena.

A shrunken sensation as if your shoulders were sucking on a rag.

Why does the saying that the fist is closer than the law come to mind now?

“… Yeah.”

“Ha ha, yes. It will be sooner rather than later.”

Ryan grinned as the pressure from earlier disappeared like a lie.

My mind was hazy because I quickly went back and forth between the hot and cold baths.

Seeing that the shoulder part of the school uniform shirt, which is always ironed, had changed like the eye of a typhoon, it seemed like it was not a dream.

“Today ends here. It’s before final exams, so get some rest.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

“I’ll see you here after school the next day after the final exams are over.”

“… Yeah.”

Leaving behind my strangely specific next appointment, I left.

Right before I left, I glanced back and saw Ryan standing there as if nailed to the spot, staring at me.

… Somehow, there seems to be a bit of madness in those eyes, but it must be because of my mood.

‘Maybe it’s because he just came to the academy.’

As a novice professor, he has a great passion for education, so he pays a lot of attention to me.

… With that in mind, I left the gymnasium.

It was because I felt like I couldn’t turn back if I thought about it deeply.

* * *

“As you all know, today we have a practical exam for the final exam.”

A coliseum-type arena that has been around for a long time since the entrance exam.

Where the lower class sat in the audience seats, Ryan stood on the podium.

Her dignified voice echoed throughout the arena.

“As announced, it will be a 4v4 party team match. The specific rules follow the ‘Imperial Official Duel Rules’ learned in class. I will reveal the bracket.”

The competition was held in a tournament style.

Since there are only 16 members in the lower class, theoretically they could not have met Sherald’s team right away.

You’d better not join right away to see how strong and tactical Sherald’s team is.

“The first game is the leader Sherald’s team, and… This is leader Schmitz’s team.”

As with the midterm exam, it seems that the sky is not on our side.

She exchanged glances with Sherald, who still gave him a hostile look.

During the entrance exam, I felt like a healthy old man, even though his face was thin.

Now it was the face of a man in his mid-40s who was completely plump.

‘The powder or something must be quite poisonous.’

Seeing the guy’s face, he smiled and looked away.

If possible, I wanted to accuse doping with powder, but there is no doping test in this era.

Since you know roughly the efficacy of the powder, it shouldn’t be difficult to deal with it.

I quietly rolled my eyes and looked around the ceiling of the Colosseum.

A sense of incongruity so subtle that an ordinary person would not even notice it.

Looking at the surrounding area, I could immediately identify the identity.

Ailee, clinging to the ceiling, was there.

‘It looks like he used magic, so he won’t be found out.’

It’s also magic that I’ve seen often, and I knew she existed, so I noticed it right away,

Even a professor like Ryan would have a hard time recognizing Ailee.

What kind of crazy guy would think that he was secretly hiding in the ceiling on the day of the high school final exam.

With Ailee, I wouldn’t be able to do anything really stupid.

There is also an ‘item’ that Sebas gave me to use if necessary.

At least with this, Arlott won’t be in danger.

“-Now then, I will start the practical exam for the final exam from now on. Let’s prepare right away, starting with the first team.”

At the same time as Ryan’s declaration, I looked back at the party members.

“Finally, it’s the final exam. Let’s win.”

“Of course you don’t have to win. You can’t lose to bad students!”

“Yeah, let’s show you what you saw this time.”

“… ”

An atmosphere full of fighting spirit more than ever.

I headed to the Colosseum with the party members who were burning their will.