Academy’s Undercover Professor-Novel - Chapter 84

ACADEMY’S UNDERCOVER PROFESSOR

[Translator – Alice]

[Proofreader – ilafy]

Chapter 84 – First Exam (3)

Ding dong ding.

The bell marking the end of the examination period rang.

“It’s over. Everyone, drop your pens. If you get caught messing around, I’ll take it as cheating, and you’ll get zero points.”

Ludger’s warning was effective.

—Because all of the students stopped moving their pens.

Because, if it was Ludger, he was someone who would really tear up their exam papers on the spot and give them 0 points.

“Assistant Sedina.”

“Yes?”

When Ludger called her name, Sedina rose from her seat and hurriedly collected the students’ exam papers one by one.

After the exam papers left their hands, the students let out long sighs, as they realized that the exam was over.

“Pheew. I should have studied a little harder.”

“Ah! I know this! Oh, my formula is correct, but I made a mistake, so the answer was wrong!”

“Argh, really. Is this really a formula? Hey, what did you write?”

“Hey, it’s really annoying. I was wrong because I fixed my answer!”

“How can I not understand even after I see the book?”

The students gathered among themselves and briefly discussed their answers, but that did not change the answers they had already written.

After collecting all 80 sheets of exam papers, Sedina neatly organized them and brought them to Ludger.

“You worked hard.”

Ludger picked up the exam papers.

“Everyone, you have worked hard in taking the first exam. There are still two more days left of exams, so don’t overdo it, and moderate yourselves to the best of your abilities.”

Of course, even if he said that, the students who crammed for the exams would still cram anyway.

But still, as a professor, he just needed to give some advice to the students.

Ludger left the classroom after saying that.

“Huwaa.”

It was the first examination since entering Sören.

It was only the first of many, but Lynne felt relieved, as she felt like she had crossed the biggest wall.

‘No. I still have a lot of exams left, right? Let’s not get relaxed already.’

But the reason why she could think that positively was because she thought that she’d done pretty well on the test.

None of the 20 questions had been submitted blank.

It was thanks to how she’d steadily reviewed the lessons every day.

When she’d first seen the test questions, she’d wondered why it was so difficult, but when she’d looked at them carefully, she’d realized that it was not necessarily the case.

As she had gone into a sort of trance while solving the questions and going along with the flow, three hours had passed by.

‘It’s a relief. There wasn’t a question I couldn’t answer due to not having enough time.’

Lynne looked to her side with slight relief.

Lynne was going to ask Elendil if she’d done well on the question.

‘But since she’s a princess and my senior, she must have done better than me, right?’

Unlike her, who’d been initially flustered, Elendil had immediately answered the questions.

Elendil, who was her senior and a member of the royal family, would have solved the test a little easier.

Lynne, who was about to ask Elendil while thinking such thoughts, had no choice but to put off her action for a while.

“Senior…”

“Oh, yeah? Why… why are you like that?”

“ N-no. That… It’s just you look a little flustered.”

“Oh, ooh? Is… is that so?”

It was just as Lynne said.

It seemed like the confidence she’d had before taking the exam had gone elsewhere, Elendil was restless after submitting the exam paper.

Her legs were shaking and she was stuttering.

Her reaction was that of a person who’d done terribly on the test…

‘Hey, of course not. There’s no way that the senior would bomb it, right?’

Lynne spoke while trying to ignore her creeping, negative thoughts.

“Senior. Did you do well on the test? Just as Professor Ludger said, everything that he taught us in his class showed up!”

“Oh… really?”

Why did she say that?

The moment she heard Elendil ask a question back to her, Lynne felt the corners of her mouth twitching unknowingly.

Her uneasy imagination was gradually approaching reality.

“Senior. Well… I don’t know if I can ask you this question.”

“Oh? Yeaah. I don’t mind. Ask me anything you’re curious about.”

“Did you… possibly bomb the test?”

“…”

Elendil, who’d been responding to her confidently, closed her lips tightly.

“…Senior?”

“…”

She even turned her head away, did she avoid Lynne’s gaze?

Her ears visible beneath her glittering blonde air were flushed red.

Elendil was embarrassed.

“Senior, don’t tell me…”

Lynne seemed as if she was daring to insult Elendil beyond her imagination, but she just couldn’t stop herself from asking the next question.

“Did you really bomb the test?”

Stop!

When Lynne asked that, Elendil shook her shoulders.

Ah.

Her definite response made Lynne notice it.

Elendil, the third princess of the empire who was called everyone’s idol…

Had bombed the examination.

“…Really? Eii, no right? You’re like that because you’re not feeling well today, right? Do you have many things to worry about these days? Maybe you’re contemplating the future of the country? It’s because of that, right?”

In fact, she didn’t even look like she was in a bad condition.

Elendil was the one who’d focused on the test when solving the questions more than anyone else.

But Lynne was so confused that she could not believe it.

At least, the princess that she had in her mind was a great person who easily topped the list in any field.

“Hmmm. Well, junior Lynne?”

Elendil, who’d regained her composure by pulling her mind together to some extent, coughed and opened her mouth.

“You know, about human beings… Everyone has their own fields that they’re good at. If someone’s good at something, they’re bound to be bad at the other thing. What I mean by this is… there’s no one who is good at everything. Do you understand?”

“Oh… So it means that you’re not in a bad condition, nor that you’re tired today… You just couldn’t do well on the test?”

“Junior Lynne. What do you mean I can’t do well on the test? Just tell me that I didn’t do as well as usual.”

“…I’m asking this just in case, but what was your ranking last year?”

From what Lynne remembered, there were more than 800 students each year in Sören.

Of course, there were more students who dropped out or left the Academy as they went up to the higher grades, so the number decreased considerably the higher the year.

Every year, an equivalent number of new students enter the Academy.

And Elendil was a sophomore that year.

Then it was no wonder that her grades were compared to at least 800 other students when she was in her first year.

“…Why are you asking about my rank? Junior Lynne. No way, you’re not judging people by their rank or anything like that, are you?

“You’re not in the 500th place, are you?”

“…!”

The moment Lynne saw Elendil’s eyes widen as she looked at her, Lynne was surprised.

She’d just been telling it as a joke!

Elendil, who looked like a model student, was actually really bad at studying theoretical magic!

It was very shocking.

Even the other aristocrats were overwhelmed by her atmosphere and could not approach her carelessly, so the third princess had always gone around alone.

Her outward appearance looked just like the typical model student.

Yet she barely stayed in the middle-low rank of the theory class!

“St-still…! In the case of practical classes, my ranking is high!” Elendil shouted desperately as an excuse.

It was not a lie.

In the case of theoretical writing, she was in the 500th place out of 800 students. She barely managed to get a lower mid-rank, but she was in the top 30 in terms of practical classes.

However, that was because she was born into a good family and had a lot more mana than other students because of her gifted ancestry.

It was only possible for her to excel in the part related to actual battle because she’d been thoroughly educated before even entering Sören.

But Lynne thought that Elendil would burst into tears if she didn’t admit it, so Lynne nodded hastily and responded.

“Oh, hm. That’s possible as well! Besides, these days, there’s a stronger tendency to put more emphasis on practice than on theory, right?”

“Ri-right? Hm, hm. Of course, I admit that I am not good enough in theory and knowledge, but I am also proud of my skills as a wizard.”

Lynne responded to Elendil’s words in a cold sweat.

But inside, she couldn’t help but hollowly laugh a little.

‘As expected, I shouldn’t judge people by their appearance.’

It was not an illusion for her to feel that the noble image of the imperial lady she knew was getting ruined.

***

In the principal’s office on the highest floor of Sören’s main building

There, the principal, Elisa, looked down through the window.

“The first exam has finally begun.”

Wilford nodded at Elisa’s words as he brought a refreshment.

“I hope all of the students get good results.”

“If they’ve worked hard, I’m sure they will.”

“Right?”

There were a total of four exams in a semester.

A year was divided into two semesters, so students had to take as many as eight exams a year.

The professors also became tired because the time periods were quite tight.

Most of all, as it was to raise the elite of wizards, the exams became quite fierce and violent.

Therefore, as they went up in years, there were quite a few dropouts from Sören.

The first exam of the first semester…

Students who were proud to call themselves geniuses compete with the students who were similar to them for the first time.

They realized how they had been living in a narrow well.

As they might have felt vaguely in their class, how students viewed themselves and what appeared as a distinct rank as the result of the exam were often at odds.

In the case of students who were discouraged, they often left Sören after the first test.

“I hope a lot of students can endure this time.”

“That’s why you asked them to take the first exam easy, right?”

“Yes. Of course, even though I did that, students are going to leave anyway.”

Elisa felt that it was a shame.

She didn’t look down on the competition itself. However, it was an honest feeling that she wanted some students to avoid being ruined by the excessive competition.

As Sören’s principal, she wanted to make the students’ talents unfold and have a large number of students receive an excellent education.

“More than that, what about all the new professors this time? This is also their first exam. Wouldn’t they be nervous?”

“Would you like to see the questions?”

Wilford brought the paper he had prepared and handed it to the president.

In the case of exam questions, it was possible for her because the principal had the authority to see them in person.

Among the new professors, those who submitted theoretical exams were Brino of the Golem Studies class and Chris Benimore and Ludger Chelysie, who were responsible for the Spellcasting class.

In particular, the exam was a matter of the two new professors, who were polar opposites and had submitted theoretical tests in the same field, so they could be said to be a matchup that piqued the most interest among Sören’s professors.

“Hmm. In Brino’s case, he submitted questions about the magic circuit that drives the Golem or the structural mechanics of the Golem that is generally easy to drive. The level of difficulty itself is… I think it’s easy.”

“Yes. I think it’s fine because he has a special affection for Golems.”

Elisa, who quickly skimmed through the exam questions made by Brino, nodded with satisfaction.

The exam questions didn’t show anything more than she expected, but it didn’t seem to matter because the questions matched the average.

“The next ones are from Professor Chris Benimore and Professor Ludger Chelysie.”

“Are you going to compare them?”

“To be frank, I can’t help but compare both of them.”

Wilford nodded with a wry smile.

Elisa immediately scanned Chris’s exam questions with her eyes.

“Hmm. Professor Chris is obviously asking questions about Mana Release and Elemental Properties.”

“Yes, and that’s…”

“The same goes for Professor Ludger.”

No matter how different the year they were in charge of was, Chris had obviously declared war on Ludger for giving the exam questions in the same field.

“I guess his pride was hurt a lot because he lost the bet in that battle.”

“Since that day, the Hugo Bourtag faction has been forced to walk around with their heads down for almost a week.”

“Yes. It was a shame to see them close their mouths after everything they said. I feel like I’ve regained my old self-esteem.”

Elisa smirked at Chris’s exam questions.

“I think this exam question is about Chris’s simple revenge. No, was it not simple? Since he seems to have put his heart and soul into it.”

As a result, Chris Benimore’s exam paper was filled with difficult questions that were literally dotted with all kinds of difficult words.

“Really. What kind of test is this? He’s just bragging about his knowledge.”

Elisha shook her head while clicking her tongue.

Chris Benimore’s excessive sense of favor and self-pride had eventually reached the point where he submitted the exam questions at a ridiculous level.

Would the students be able to solve those questions properly?

Even his assessment level had decreased considerably because he had made the questions thoughtlessly difficult.

“I told him to only give them the basics on the first exam, but he’s already playing around like this. This theory, in particular, is only learned in the third year.”

Of course, even if it was a subject learned in the third year, there were a few students who knew it.

The high-class aristocratic students…

—Because they must have been educated before arriving at Sören.

On the contrary, however, the commoners were not like that.

The question itself was discriminating in that only students from a certain class could solve it.

There was favoritism toward aristocratic students.

“Haah. Really…”

Elisa had a headache.

But she couldn’t blame Professor Chris Benimore for that.

First of all, the test itself was at the discretion of the professor, and it wouldn’t be good to see her meddling in it.

Being Sören’s principal didn’t mean she could do anything she desires.

“Well, let’s see how Professor Ludger submitted the questions.”

Judging from his usual appearance, it was more likely for his questions to be better than Chris’s.

Or maybe his exam itself would be boring because of his overly rigid atmosphere?

Elisa looked at Ludger’s test questions with that thought in mind.

“…Oh?”

She widened her eyes as if she was completely surprised.