I Possessed a Character in an Academy Without a Protagonist – Chapter 83

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

 
The controversial midterms from the original work had finally begun.

The given time was 2 days.

There were 10 exam questions.

Except for the submission deadline, there were no separate rules for the exam…

“I will be here for the next 48 hours. You may come and submit it anytime before then.”

Conversations between students were okay.

Taking the exam paper out was okay.

Almost all actions prohibited in other exams were allowed in this one.

However, what we needed to be cautious about was the evaluation method of the midterms.

If there were too many students with the same score exceeding the allocated number for a grade, that grade would be left empty and everyone’s grade would be downgraded.

For example, suppose everyone got the same score.

Then instead of all of them being 1st grade, they would all fall to the lowest grade together.

So this exam required not only understanding of the class but also cooperation or deception between classmates.

The best case was to get answers to questions I didn’t know from other students and raise my score.

Conversely, the worst case was having many students with the same score, causing everyones grades to drop.

“Hey, let’s gather around first.”

“Do you understand this question?”

“I think this is…”

At first, students were solving problems quietly as in a normal exam, but they gradually started talking.

Yet Ludwig made no attempt to stop them.

He didn’t even seem to care.

Seeing this, some students even started grouping together to cooperate.

Those guys were the ones who had been badmouthing me behind my back.

It seemed they were trying to use collective intelligence to overwhelm me.

But that wouldn’t be easy.

They needed to raise only an appropriate number of people to the maximum score, but which fool among them would generously give away answers and accept a lower grade?

There was bound to be a betrayer in such a structure.

In the original work, the lower nobles who were forced to be at the bottom eventually caused a rebellion, breaking their relationships of trust.

I looked forward to seeing what kind of scene they would show this time.

‘The difficulty is… Hmm. Have they gone mad?’

I tried to solve it at least once.

I tried.

Questions 1 and 2 were really giveaways.

Anyone who hadn’t been sleeping in class could solve them.

But I started to get stuck from question 3.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t solve it, but the real challenges were concentrated after question 5.

As the questions progressed, the length of the text got shorter, but the difficulty increased exponentially.

“Wh-what are you looking at?”

“…”

When I glanced slightly at Erica, she raised her exam paper so I couldn’t see it.

It was pointless since I couldn’t see the formula engraved in the mana of the exam paper with my eyes anyway.

She should have spent that time securing her formula properly.

It was time to use the tricks Ludwig had allowed.

In fact, I was planning to use them even if he hadn’t allowed it.

‘She’s giving away all of the answers.’

Erica’s formula security was indeed a mess.

With a little effort, it was possible to extract all of the contents quickly.

Since Erica was an idiot when it came to psychological warfare, the probability of this being a fake to deliberately deceive me converged to zero.

If this turned out to be wrong, I’d consider it divine punishment for trying to get a free ride.

Anyway, thanks to Erica, I quickly found the answers up to question 5.

The problem was that I didn’t have enough magical power to write the answers on the exam paper…

This was actually an advantage.

If I didn’t write on the exam paper in the first place, I wouldn’t have to worry about someone stealing the answers.

“Hmm. What’s wrong?”

“…It’s nothing.”

I tried to steal Iris’s answers as well for cross-verification, but I was quickly blocked.

She had achieved ironclad security by pouring in enormous magical power.

I could have broken through if I used Selection and Concentration, but I decided to give up.

I couldn’t waste my precious ability just to cross-verify Erica’s answers.

It seemed Iris hadn’t solved from question 6 onwards either.

It seemed more helpful to use Selection and Concentration to solve the problems myself.

‘Can I solve them all?’

I had 48 hours left.

I could use ‘Selection and Concentration’ for 5 seconds each over three days, totaling 15 seconds.

Of course, since there was a high probability of me having to use the ability in tomorrow’s Battle Magic exam, I might not have even 1 second left tomorrow.

With 5 seconds, I could solve most problems, so 3 questions were almost certainly in the bag.

The key was whether I could solve the remaining 2 questions or not…

I wondered how many perfect scores there would be.

I remembered that in the original work, Hertlocker got a perfect score and took first place, but I couldn’t remember what the average score was.

Or maybe I just didn’t describe it.

Of course, the probability of perfect scores was extremely low, but I couldn’t rule out the possibility of that group that had banded together to overthrow me causing trouble.

For now, I was aiming for a perfect score.

Even with a perfect score, the result could be close.

If I failed and lost both questions, well…

I’d have to drop out then.

‘Let’s give it a try.’

Whether I stole the answers or solved them myself, let’s give it a try.

With that determination, I properly concentrated and-

‘Hmm. This won’t work.’

After an hour, I felt like my head was about to explode.

I couldn’t even figure out a clue to solve it.

It seemed to be the same for the others.

When I secretly peeked at their exam papers, no one had even touched question 6 onwards.

“I’ll leave now.”

“Me too.”

“You don’t need to announce it one by one.”

Judging that it wouldn’t be settled today, people started leaving in droves.

Erica was still clutching her head trying to solve them, but she hadn’t solved question 6 yet…

As for Iris… huh?

She solved all 10 questions?

“Fufu. Are you surprised?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t pretend not to know. I’ve already solved everything.”

“Wh-what! Really? You’ve already solved everything?!”

I had to frown at Erica’s shout.

That was probably just boasting.

She must have just scribbled some random formulas and made it so others couldn’t see.

“If you’ve solved everything, why don’t you submit it? Then there would be no risk of someone copying.”

“Huh? C-copying?”

“…”

Only then did Erica start concentrating intensely on her exam paper.

Was she finally strengthening the security of her formula…

“No, it’s fine. I want to review a bit more before submitting it.”

“You must be confident it won’t be cracked.”

“Why don’t you try? Well then, I’ll head home first.”

Iris rolled up her exam paper, gave a slight smile, and left the exam hall.

No matter how excellent a magician Iris was, her skill itself fell slightly short of Erica’s.

She probably only solved up to question 5 like Erica.

There was no need to waste my ability to check an empty answer sheet.

By the way, when was Erica planning to leave?

“…”

“…”

As the remaining students left one by one, soon only the two of us were left in the exam hall.

Just the two of us stuck together in this spacious exam hall…

I considered moving seats thinking it was a waste of space, but decided against it.

There was no reason for me to move, I thought Erica would soon leave saying,

“Ugh! What? Why are you sitting next to me when it’s so spacious?”

But that was my miscalculation.

Even after 1 hour, 2 hours passed, Erica continued to stay next to me.

When I deliberately leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes, not focusing on the exam paper, Erica kept glancing at me.

I can see everything even with my eyes closed, you fool.

“You can go first, Erica.”

“Huh! What are you saying? Do you think I’m waiting for you?”

“Weren’t you?”

“I’m not! Your delusions… really… there’s a limit. I’m speechless.”

“Then how much longer do you plan to stay?”

“Um… about an hour?”

“I see. I’ll be going first then.”

“Huh?”

I put the exam paper in my bag and stood up abruptly.

It was cute how she looked up at me with confused eyes, unable to stand up.

Her face seemed to be saying, “Are you really going?”

“Is there a problem?”

“N-no… Just…”

As she hung her head, I held back a smile that was about to escape and left the exam hall.

Soon I heard a clattering sound and footsteps running up to me from behind.

“Haa… Haa…”

“Weren’t you going to stay for another hour?”

“I just remembered I had an evening appointment! I completely forgot about it!”

“Let’s go with that then.”

“What do you mean ‘let’s go with that’! It’s true, I’m telling you!”

Her pride, really.

It seemed this tsundere noble young lady was graciously intending to escort me all the way home.

‘Wow. They’re really here.’

When I focused my senses, I could feel several suspicious outsiders lurking around.

They weren’t visible in the morning.

Was it just that I hadn’t sensed them?

I headed straight for the mansion in a very tense state.

Fortunately, there was no attack, probably thanks to Erica sticking right next to me.

“Thank you.”

“I don’t know what you’re thanking me for…”

“Shall I escort you all the way to your home too?”

“Are you an idiot? Then how will you get back without me… Oh.”

Only then realizing she had admitted it, Erica covered her mouth.

Soon her face turned bright red, and she ran away without a word.

I benefited from you, thank you, you brat.

“Welcome back. The exam took a long time, didn’t it?”

“Haha. Well…”

When I opened the door, Emilia greeted me with a bright face.

Even knowing it was an act, seeing her cheerful appearance still made me feel good.

I didn’t particularly intend to ramble on, but before I knew it, I was explaining everything about what kind of exam it was.

Ah. Is this how Emilia extracts information?

To fall for it even knowing about it.

She was truly formidable.

“Wow… That’s a big deal. You have the Battle Magic exam tomorrow too, right?”

“Yes. Somehow the exams overlapped.”

“Isn’t this too disadvantageous? Shouldn’t you ask to postpone the Battle Magic exam?”

“Haha. I’ll just have to deal with it.”

“Did you choose to double major knowing all of this, Mr. Hainkel…?”

“No. It was a mistake. When I submitted my application, I accidentally checked both majors without realizing.”

“So even Mr. Hainkel makes mistakes.”

“Of course I do.”

Emilia chuckled, finding something very amusing.

That was enough small talk, I needed to concentrate now.

“I’m going to go solve the exam now.”

“Yes. Shall I come to let you know when it’s time to sleep?”

“No. I’ll sleep on my own.”

“You’re going to stay up all night again…”

“Don’t worry.”

Leaving Emilia puffing her cheeks behind, I headed for the underground training room.

I planned to stay in this training room all day except when taking the Battle Magic exam tomorrow.

Even if a meteor spell fell on the mansion, at least this training room would remain intact.

The safest option would be to stay holed up in here for the entire exam period.

Of course, that was assuming I could solve all of the problems on my own…

I hoped I wouldn’t have to go out to spy on Iris or Erica’s answers.

Maybe I should try to get some help from Trie or Ainz tomorrow.

Unlike Erica and Iris, they had formed a fairly trusting relationship with me, so I wouldn’t have to worry about them lying to drag me down.

Trie wouldn’t be of any help, but Ainz was called an eccentric prodigy when it came to magic, so I might get unexpected ideas from him.

“Let’s try solving question 6 on my own first…”

I had my own pride aswell.

Shouldn’t I solve at least one question without using my ability or friends’ help?

I started concentrating desperately, clutching my head.

…Of course, I made no progress for 3 hours.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“Hmm.”

It was a letter from Jin the Crow.

Lady Lichtenburg read the letter with a slightly interested expression.

In short, it was asking if she wanted to place a request to ruin Schlus Hainkel’s exam.

Like locking Schlus Hainkel up somewhere during the exam period and releasing him, or disqualifying him by damaging his exam paper.

Jin’s proposed methods were quite varied.

“Schlus Hainkel…”

That damn guy.

Last time he had charged her an absurd request fee.

Jin had clearly made this proposal knowing she held a grudge against him.

“I won’t do it.”

However, Lady Lichtenburg tore up the letter without a moment’s hesitation and threw it into the fireplace.

It wasn’t because she feared retaliation from Schlus Hainkel.

If it was Jin, not someone like Henderson who treated client information protection like dirt, it would never be discovered.

It was because of Julia.

Although Schlus was truly hateful and detestable…

When she thought of Julia, she could no longer try to kill him.

Because that man was the reason Julia had been having nightmares every day recently, suffering and suddenly bursting into tears.

She felt he might even know why Julia’s face resembled that of the young lady from Iceburg who was said to have died long ago.

“I can’t kill him yet…”

At least until she learned that secret, she couldn’t kill him.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇