My goal in life remains unchanged.
To eat well and live well.
Coming to the academy wasn't for the romance of it, either.
I'd been half-pushed into it, if I'm being honest.
My adoptive father, Family Head Servan, had made it clear.
Prove you have what it takes to be Young Lord, he said.
Bring back grades at least on par with your sister's.
'Otherwise, I might just cut off your allowance.'
To live the leisurely noble life I had in mind, I needed Family Head Servan's favor. To win his goodwill, I had to do well on the midterm evaluations.
If I were in his shoes, I'd cut off the allowance of a child I'd spent good money to send to school, only to have them come back with dismal marks.
Beyond that, I had my own personal motivation.
If I was going to be here anyway, I wanted to actually do it right.
'There's still a little time before exams.'
About two weeks.
Enough time if I buckled down and studied hard.
There were plenty of subjects, but I felt fairly confident about a good number of them.
I just had to manage my time well.
The next morning, I went to the library.
With exam season upon us, many lectures had been cancelled.
I used every free hour entirely for studying.
The professors had all announced their exam ranges, so I focused my efforts squarely on those.
Hispanyian had come a long way thanks to my real conversations with Huana.
Sharlan was a bit lacking, but I drilled the exam material day and night.
Then there was the Tactics lecture.
Male nobles were broadly expected to study military science — a long-standing tradition of the Empire.
This was one area where I felt genuinely confident.
In my previous life, I'd pursued this field as a career path, and it was something I personally found fascinating.
'The exam is a war game, they said.'
A simulated battle reconstructed through magical instruments.
The objective was to take command of a historically defeated army and turn the tide to victory.
I'd done plenty of that in my past life.
'The Battle of Kyrhalstadt — where the Imperial Army was annihilated.'
Two hundred years ago, the Imperial forces had been utterly ravaged by the Kingdom of Sharlan in that engagement.
The reason this battle was used for the exam was that it offered the most instructive sequence of events.
The Imperial Army lost because its commander did everything a commander should never do.
The exam's intent was simple: don't make mistakes as a commander, and stick to the fundamentals.
All I had to do was blend in the tactics I'd learned in lecture, to my own taste.
I calmly organized the tactical knowledge I'd absorbed in class.
'A battle between the Imperial Army, strong in infantry, and Sharlan, strong in knights.'
The historical progression of the battle was almost pitifully straightforward.
The Imperial commander, hounded by political pressure, was impatient.
On a foggy day, he advanced without adequate reconnaissance.
The result was catastrophic.
The Sharlan forces were already entrenched and waiting.
The knights punched straight through the center of the Imperial formation, hastily assembled in a panic.
Once the center collapsed, the whole line fell apart.
The battle ended in hollow defeat.
I sketched out a rough tactical plan.
'Thorough reconnaissance. A thick square formation at the center. Absorb the cavalry charge, then encircle from the flanks.'
A textbook solution.
A method that played to the Imperial Army's strength in infantry to grind down the knight forces.
The professor had said something along these lines was close to the model answer.
But it was too straightforward a tactic.
There were plenty of better approaches — did I really need to go with something so dull and pedantic?
'Ah, maybe I'll try that one tactic.'
A more interesting approach came to mind.
*
I held my spot in the library until evening.
Having kept up diligently with classes, it wasn't suffocating — just the slow, steady warmth of a mind being put to work. That heat felt oddly satisfying.
I was packing up to leave when I spotted the Pilrn siblings in a corner of the room.
"Uuuugh……"
Tiana, clutching a theology textbook and quietly despairing.
"Zzzz……"
Taibeon, using a thick tome as a pillow and fast asleep.
"…Sleeping like a log, honestly. Hey, wake up. It's exam season, you know."
And Emily, his childhood friend, gently shaking his shoulder.
"Oh… Maty! Hey."
Tiana straightened up and greeted me.
I walked over.
"Were you studying?"
"It's exam season, so… I was trying. I have absolutely no idea what any of it means, though."
"Theology?"
"Yeah…. Is the scripture always this hard? The Holy Trinity… the Tree of Life… I don't understand any of it."
"You're a saint, though, Tiana."
After that incident, people had taken to calling her one.
"Me, a saint — hardly."
"You have the Sacred Stigmata and everything."
"The Sacred Stigmata doesn't give me the answers, unfortunately…."
Tiana drooped with a sullen look.
A woman hailed as a saint, burying her head in her hands over theology.
The irony of it drew a laugh out of me.
"Did you come to study too, Maty?"
"I'm already done. I was just heading out."
"Already?"
"I came early in the morning."
"Did you practice your swordsmanship too?"
"I've been keeping up with that steadily."
I was in the middle of learning swordsmanship from Professor Vilhelmine.
My swordsmanship level was growing at a staggering pace.
After chatting for a bit and parting ways, I returned my books at the front desk.
That's when a small shadow caught my eye — tucked between the shelves, leaning against the wall, reading a picture book.
Yuri Ayende.
I'd been about to slip past quietly, but those violet eyes drifted up.
I'd meant to leave her to it since she seemed absorbed, but our eyes met.
Out of courtesy, I asked.
"What are you doing here?"
"Reading."
"Aren't you studying?"
"Do I have to?"
A perfectly unbothered question.
Well, not exactly.
It was just curious — everyone else was cramming for exams, and here she was, serenely reading a picture book.
"I can't read hard texts."
Yuri had been conditioned by assassins from childhood.
Instead of learning to read, she'd been taught to kill. It was no wonder she couldn't read.
'That's why the Sword Saint had her read picture books every day.'
Yuri looked up at me.
"Can you read well, Maty?"
"Reasonably well."
"Then teach me."
"To read?"
"To read."
"…Sure. Fine. Let's do that."
I didn't particularly mind.
It was a little sad watching her struggle because she couldn't read, and teaching her to read was no great burden.
"It's a promise."
"A promise."
A few days passed after that.
The exams were closing in fast.
I didn't waste a moment.
I reviewed concepts, asked my sister about things I didn't understand, and increased my Hispanyian conversations with Huana.
"You've improved a lot. Just from your greetings, you'd pass for a full Hispanyian."
Huana said, her red hair swaying.
"You've improved a lot. Just from your greetings, you'd pass for a Hispanyian."
"That much?"
"Don't you trust me?"
"No, it's just — you know, before."
I brought it up carefully.
"That thing you had me say."
"I can't figure out what you mean if you just say 'that thing.'"
"What you had me say in front of Professor Kennedy's lecture hall."
Huana, who had been walking calmly beside me, gave a small flinch.
The other students' reactions at the time had been strange enough that I'd looked it up afterward.
"Turns out it meant something completely different——"
"Fine! So what, I played a little prank!"
Huana suddenly burst out.
"Can't I play a little prank on my fiancé? You're so petty about it!"
"…I didn't say anything?"
"Ugh, anyway, that's that!"
Huana crossed her arms with a haughty air and snapped her head away.
Then she slowly glanced back at me.
"…Have you been studying for the exams?"
"Yeah, I think I've done a decent amount."
"I mean the magic exam. I'm asking whether my sister has been teaching you properly. If it doesn't seem like it, I'll help."
"She's been teaching me well."
"Really?"
"Yeah, she's a good teacher."
"…Fine, then."
She turned away with a needless little grumble.
Between conversations with Huana and one thing and another, the exam period crept up before I knew it.
The first exam was the swordsmanship lecture.
Professor Vilhelmine stood in the wide training grounds.
A mage stood beside her.
But what drew every student's gaze was what stood behind them — magical beasts caged in iron enclosures.
Creatures resembling wolves snarled and glared at the students.
"The exam is simple. Defeat the magical beast using the swordsmanship you have learned."
Woof! Woof!
"W-we have to fight those?"
Joi said, her face already pale with dread.
"Don't worry. We will equip each of you with a barrier artifact. The objective of this exam is to defeat the magical beast without that barrier breaking."
"And if the artifact breaks…?"
"Joi, you do worry a great deal. Don't. If that happens, I will protect you."
"That's a relief!"
Joi beamed.
"Now, here are the artifacts."
The mage distributed the artifacts to the students.
They were bracelet-type artifacts.
I fastened mine around my wrist.
"When you're ready, we'll begin the exam."
Professor Vilhelmine called the students forward one by one.
The called students drew their swords.
The mage, at Professor Vilhelmine's signal, opened the iron cage.
The magical beast padded out slowly, surveying the students.
When its bloodthirsty gaze swept over them, the students flinched.
The first student couldn't swing his sword properly.
"Aaah!"
He panicked at the beast's swiping claw and fell flat on his backside. The beast lunged — and that was that.
The next student was much the same.
The beast's attack broke her stance and she dropped her sword.
A disappointing showing.
'It's not that threatening, really.'
Perhaps it was the perspective of a bystander, but the beast's attacks weren't particularly powerful.
Yet the students were overreacting and leaving themselves wide open.
The fear was excessive.
The unexpected twist came from Tiana.
"Heh heh!"
"Oh… huh…?"
The moment the beast faced Tiana, it wagged its tail with the eager delight of a pet reunited with its owner after a long absence.
Tiana, who had raised her sword with full seriousness, was thrown completely off.
"Um, what should I do?"
"…This is a first."
Professor Vilhelmine seemed equally at a loss.
"Kill the beast and end the exam."
"But it's not attacking me……"
"No kill, no score."
"Then I'll go without the score. I don't want to swing a sword at a creature that means me no harm."
Tiana boldly forfeited her score.
The beast sat down beside her and wagged its tail contentedly.
Next was Joi's turn.
"Waaah. Professor…!"
She fumbled and dropped her sword in a strangely clumsy fashion. Almost immediately after starting.
The beast didn't even attack. If anything, it seemed frightened of Joi, whimpering and cowering.
It was a beast sensitive to killing intent. It must have sensed the killer lurking beneath Joi's surface.
Joi fled straight to Professor Vilhelmine and clung to her.
"Honestly……"
Professor Vilhelmine drew her sword and dispatched the beast in a single stroke.
Before long, it was my turn.
Professor Vilhelmine called my name.
"Matyos Binna Moretti. Step forward."
"Yes."
I took up my sword and stood before the beast.
I could feel Professor Vilhelmine's gaze fixed on me.
'Just like I was taught, just like I was taught……'
The beast was released from its cage.
Freed, it looked around for a moment, then locked onto me.
Drool dripping from its jaws, it crept closer.
Hmmmm……
I roused my mana.
Jet-black heat haze coiled around the blade.
ROAAAAR!
The beast charged.
It opened its jaws wide, intent on biting me.
More predictable than I'd expected.
I read the movement.
And then something else caught me off guard.
'…It's slow?'
The beast's movements looked almost infinitely slow to my eyes.
I shifted out of the receiving stance I'd been preparing.
I raised my sword above my head. An attacking stance.
And with full force, I brought it down onto the charging beast's forehead.
CRACK!
The beast's skull split open.