007 – Five Types of Test Paper.
With the money I’d found so laboriously in the kidnappers’ shop, I was able to spend a night in a shabby lodging.
Having spent that night, I needed to conceal the pizza stains on my clothes, so.
“Could you lower the price a bit?”
“How much of a discount are you hoping for?”
“Half?”
“…Do you think we’re digging money out of the ground here?”
“This is all the money I have…”
“With this… I can do the outer jacket and pants.”
“Thank you!”
I scraped together the remaining money and changed into new clothes.
“Ah! That felt good!”
Wearing clean clothes made me feel instantly lighter.
“Hmm hmm~.”
Humming softly, I walked towards the academy.
I saw a group of police – or rather, what they called “Mado Investigators” in this world – gathered in front of the jerky shop.
“Hmm…”
Seeing that, I felt a sudden urge to avoid getting involved, so I took a slight detour and headed back towards the academy.
“I guess I don’t feel as guilty as I thought I would.”
It was definitely the first time I’d killed someone with my own hands, but…
Maybe it was because I didn’t see them as human, but I didn’t feel any real guilt.
‘…Could it be I’m surprisingly good at bad things?’
Or maybe… Being in the body of a kidnapper has made me more accustomed to crime.
…
I knew that a lot of people tried to enroll in the academy every year.
But I never imagined *this* many people would be taking the entrance exam.
“Wow… there are so many.”
There had to be well over 400 or 500 people, an absolutely countless number gathered together.
‘I can do this… Alright, fighting!’
I started to feel a little nervous.
To ease the tension, I mentally cheered myself on as I searched for the seat with my name on it.
‘The exam starts in… about 30 minutes.’
In thirty minutes, the entrance exam would begin.
‘Wonder if there are any familiar faces.’
I glanced around, looking to see if any of the named NPCs I’d seen at Arcane Campus were here.
‘Guess not.’
It seemed they were taking the exam in a different classroom. I was a little disappointed not to see anyone I knew.
—
Lillian Isolde (15)
[Espionage] – Active
[Surveillance] – Please designate a target. (Maximum 1 person)
—
Five minutes before the exam started.
I saw Lillian Isolde hurrying into the classroom with small, quick steps.
I even momentarily thought she looked cute.
‘…Wait a minute…’
If I used Surveillance magic on Lillian… wouldn’t I be able to copy her answers as she took the exam?
Isn’t this exactly what Surveillance magic is for?
“Surveillance.”
Even whispering it softly, thankfully, the magic worked.
‘Got it!’
Having confirmed through the Status Window that the Espionage Magic on Lilian was functioning perfectly,
“Alright, everyone, please be seated.”
The supervisor entered, handing out the exam papers. I received mine.
“The exam time is two hours. Cheating is allowed, provided you don’t get caught. If you manage to cheat without our noticing… we’ll acknowledge that as a skill in itself.”
Just before the exam started,
The supervisor’s joke elicited chuckles from the room.
I, too, briefly smiled at the supervisor’s jest, but just then…
“However, if you are caught, you will be escorted out without warning. Alright then… 10, 9, 8.”
The countdown began, and within the suddenly silent, vast domed lecture hall, I…
‘As long as I don’t get caught, right! That’s right! I’m skilled at this!’
I was happily embracing the sanctioned justification for cheating.
“2, 1, Begin!”
With that word, the academy entrance exam began.
Swish, swish, swish, swish…
The sound of countless pens scratching against paper echoed around me.
Following suit, I picked up my pen and began to fill in the answers on my exam sheet.
Of course, I was merely copying Lilian’s answers verbatim, as displayed on the Status Window.
…
‘Ouch… my hand hurts.’
After thirty minutes of continuously transcribing Lilian’s answers, my wrist began to ache.
Fortunately, Lilian had finished all the questions in just thirty minutes, so I felt relieved that I wouldn’t have to write any more… but only for a moment.
‘I need to change the tone of the answers a little.’
I was about to subtly alter the phrasing of the essay questions to avoid raising suspicion of cheating when…
‘…Huh? What?’
An essay question with the answer written as “The precise center of the left rear leg”…
Turned out to be a math problem.
‘…?’
I wondered if Lilian and I had received different exam papers, so I zoomed in on her paper through the Status Window, but…
‘…It’s the same?’
It was clear that her exam and mine were identical, down to every last comma.
Could it be… is this how math works in this world?
Multiplying 17 by 58 gives you the precise center of the left rear leg as the answer…
‘???’
Recognizing the absurdity even as I thought it, I quickly checked the exam paper over and over, but…
‘??????’
I confirmed that every single question, without exception, was a math problem.
And of course…
The answer to every problem was also written out in essay form instead of being a number.
‘????????????’
Before I could even gather the scattered hooks floating around in my mind…
Peering at Lilian once more with Observation Magic…
‘Asleep? Sleeping?? She scribbled the answers like that and then just dozed off??’
Only the image of the genius, resting demurely on her desk, was visible.
‘??????????????????’
Supposedly the greatest genius of the Mage Kingdom?
No… not just supposedly, she IS a genius, but…
My head began to ache, but I immediately began solving the math problems.
‘…Was the exam always like this?’
Strangely, the math problems were too easy, causing me to wonder if the entrance exam for Arcane Campus was only this difficult.
‘…No, definitely not…’
From my perspective as someone who had played Arcane Campus, the content of the exam my daughter took wasn’t composed of such flimsy math problems.
‘…’
I left the question as just a question.
After somehow managing to solve all the math problems, a whole hour remained before the exam ended.
‘…What? What… what’s going on?’
“Alright, half the exam time has now passed. From this point on, those who have finished the exam may turn in their papers.”
As soon as the supervisor finished speaking, a rush of people went forward to submit their tests.
I, too, had finished the exam and wanted to hand it in, but…
‘…’
An unsettling feeling kept me rooted to my seat.
Due to the nature of the Academy entrance exam… once you got up, you couldn’t take the exam any further.
Still seated, I stared intently at the exam paper.
‘…Why?’
There was no way Lilian, the foremost genius of the Mage Kingdom, would fill in the math answer sheet with nonsense like “Pork belly is the best.”
Then…
‘…Could it be?’
The conclusion my brain reached was that there was an undiscovered trick hidden within the exam paper itself.
Rustle… Rustle… Swish… Swish…
Turning it this way and flipping it that way.
I moved the exam paper around as carefully as possible, so as not to attract attention.
I wondered if I could discern the hidden trick through this action.
But when I thought about it, no one else was moving around like me.
It seemed I wouldn’t be able to figure out the trick on the exam paper with such foolishness.
‘…Is this some kind of magic too?’
As far as I knew… there was no magic in this world to discern tricks.
Therefore, Lilian probably didn’t use magic to figure out the trick hidden in the exam paper either.
‘…What if the exam papers look different to everyone?’
What if the exam papers look different to everyone?
If that were really the case, what would be the reason?
What could be a valid reason for that…
“..Ether?”
Perhaps it was determined by the amount of ether each individual possessed.
“I need to confirm.”
I quickly lifted my head and looked around.
There were still those who hadn’t finished the exam.
“..Eavesdropping.”
Very quietly, I used magic as I muttered to myself, beginning to check the answer sheets of others.
…
“Alright, there are 5 minutes left until the exam ends.”
Of the hundred or so people in the lecture hall, roughly ten remained.
Upon hearing the supervisor’s words that there were only five minutes left, I loosened my wrist, which had grown sore from diligently copying down answers.
‘Hoo… about five types, perhaps.’
The level at which people viewed the exam questions would have differed, but broadly speaking, it seemed that a total of five types of questions had been presented here.
‘Barely managed to write it all down.’
To confirm whether my hypothesis was correct, I had copied the answers of others onto my own exam sheet, one by one.
It was almost certain that there were five types of exam questions in total.
‘Feeling pleased…’
The thought that I had spent the two hours fruitfully brought a sense of satisfaction, but only for a moment.
‘Wait… what have I done?’
Realization dawned; I had written down a whopping five answers for each question on the exam sheet.
‘Isn’t this blatantly advertising that I cheated…?’
If I handed in the exam like this…
Even though it was said that cheating was possible, wouldn’t this be openly advertising that I had indeed cheated?
“There is one minute left until the exam ends.”
Hearing the supervisor’s announcement that there was one minute remaining, I looked around.
“…It’s just me left.”
Since I was now the only one left in the exam hall, I had no choice but to pick up my exam paper and walk toward the podium.
“Here you go.”
“Thank you for your efforts. Grading will proceed immediately, and you can check the results in this lecture hall at 8 PM tonight.”
“Thank you… Is it alright if I wait in the lecture hall?”
“Yes, you may.”
With the supervisor’s permission, I went back and sat in the chair where I had taken the exam.
‘It’s cold outside, after all.’
Without any money, what could I even do outside?
I figured this place, with its roof and a seat, was the best, so I took out the beef jerky I had brought and began to contemplate the exam I had just taken once more.
‘Will I… be able to get a scholarship?’
*
“Professor Layton?”
“You can hand over that exam paper to me.”
“Pardon?”
“That one, whether he aced the exam or flopped it, he was a lad I was going to pass regardless.”
“Ah, so he’s one who came recommended by a professor, I presume?”
“Something like that.”
After receiving the exam paper from the assistant professor.
He promptly checked the answers Mihan had written.
“Let’s see, just how much aether is there…”
The academy’s entrance exam comprised five sets of test papers: ‘Lowest Grade, Low Grade, Middle Grade, High Grade, Highest Grade’.
Depending on the amount of aether the examinee possessed, the specific exam questions they could access differed; this was a hidden test within the academy’s entrance exam.
Therefore, unless the examinee’s total amount of aether suddenly increased during the exam itself,
the examinee could only access one of the five test papers, without exception…
“…”
On Mihan’s answer sheet…answers from all five sets were written, each in their respective places.
“…Assistant Professor.”
“Yes, Professor Layton?”
“Send a missive to the Magic Tower, immediately.”
“…Yes?”
“The Tower Lord himself will need to come to grade this exam paper…”
This…was something even the Tower Lord, who created the exam papers, couldn’t do.