Chapter 4: Class Placement Exam Part 3

A shock I had never felt before surged through the hand gripping my sword.

In an instant, it felt like the skin on my palm had been scraped away.

A stinging pain.

And then, recoil.

The strain on my arm vanished in a flash, and the remaining force shot forward with inertia.

Did I just awaken out of nowhere and parry Dietrich’s sword?

What if I accidentally counterattacked him because I couldn’t control my strength?

For a brief moment, I entertained such a ridiculous thought—

But I quickly came to my senses.

Clang!

A heavy metallic sound pierced my ears a moment too late—

Dietrich’s sword, infused with mana and glowing blue, had snapped mine in half.

As my sword broke in two, countless thoughts raced through my mind.

Did he really have to go this far?

What did I even do to this guy?

That sword was expensive…. what now?

No, more than anything else…

“Wait—why the hell isn’t this bastard stopping?!”

You really have a death wish, don’t you…?!

Do you actually want to see someone die here?!

“Hey! You crazy bas—!”

CRACK!

***

“Huh?”

My life flashed before my eyes.

No, that crazy bastard suddenly started pouring out sword energy like crazy and went straight for the kill.

That guy’s a damn homicidal maniac.

“..…?”

Come to think of it, where am I?

I was definitely watching Dietrich’s sword come at me, and now I’m lying down staring up at the ceiling.

Ah, so I got hit after all?

A ceiling that other students at the Cradle might find familiar, but to me, it was unfamiliar.

It was a hospital room.

The Cradle had originally been closer to a military facility, so rather than just a simple infirmary, it had an entire ward built into it.

Well, with students beating each other to a pulp every day, it made sense that they needed more than just an infirmary.

“Ugh…”

Now that I was aware of it, a burning pain spread through my chest as if I’d been burned.

That maniac Dietrich!

He actually sliced through my flesh!

What the hell did I ever do to deserve this?!

“Gah!”

…Still, maybe it was for the best.

It seemed I’d passed out before I even had time to feel the pain of being cut.

Wow, guess I got lucky there.

“Oh dear, you’re awake student?”

“Yes, doctor. I’ve come to my senses.”

“Then could you move out of the bed?”

“Huh?”

Sure, I said I was awake, but I never said I was fully recovered.

“Doctor, I’m pretty sure I got slashed by a sword. I still feel this burning pain in my chest.”

“You’re right, you were cut. Of course it hurts. But look over there, see that?”

The doctor who looked noticeably pale pointed to an area where there weren’t any beds…. just students standing around.

“Ha! That bastard hit like a truck…”

“Man, I lost by a hair’s breadth. If I’d pushed just a little harder, I could’ve won.”

“Yeah, and your head would’ve flown off.”

“As if he’d actually kill me.”

There was a student with a large wound on his neck.

And another with a gaping injury across his chest.

Even with emergency bandages wrapped around him, blood was visibly seeping through. A wound that, at a glance, looked anything but minor.

I lowered my gaze, looked at the area where I had been wounded, and squeezed my eyes shut.

A snow-white bandage was wrapped around it.

Wow, that was some flawless treatment. I guess this was what sets apart a doctor who’s resolved 22 terrorist incidents in a year, huh?

“…No, Doctor, I’m not faking it.”

Well, I guess compared to the others it might look that way, but it wasn’t like my injury was light either, you know?

“I know. They’re the weird ones. But you can still move, right? Then get up so we can lay down the ones in more critical condition. Don’t take it too personally.”

“Yes…”

Jeez, these damn killing machines.

It was just an exam. Why were they fighting like their lives were on the line?

Shouldn’t these guys be getting counseling before education?

“The world’s gone mad.”

“Exactly. But seeing someone who hasn’t lost it almost feels out of place now. Maybe it’s not just the world that’s gone crazy.”

A line full of regret from the doctor. Come to think of it, this one probably had it even rougher than the protagonist.

“At the beginning of last semester, it wasn’t like this…”

Even considering they were freshmen, there were still plenty of delicate green flowers who’d faint at the sight of blood.

It’s really a shame.

“Take this with you. That’s a painkiller; this one’s an ointment. I’ll give you some bandages too, so make sure to change them regularly, okay? You know how, right?”

“How would I know that?”

“Everyone else seems to. They all wrapped their own bandages.”

“……”

“If you don’t know, ask a friend. Wait—no, you’re a noble, so just get your attendant to do it. I’m busy, so off you go.”

I couldn’t bring myself to say I didn’t have any friends. Saying that would’ve made me feel too pathetic.

Honestly, shouldn’t he have asked if I even had an attendant in the first place…?

Haaah.

Whatever.

Can’t really make the doctor who was already living through hell on earth any more tired than he is. So I shut my mouth and was more or less pushed out of the infirmary.

“Did you do well on the exam, Oracle?”

I ran into the Grim Reaper waiting for me.

No, wait—on closer look, it was Lobelia.

I owe the Grim Reaper an apology.

Judging by the mood, she must’ve been waiting for me to come out…

“I’m not the Oracle.”

“I know. Just felt like saying it.”

“……”

Ugh, this whole misunderstanding trope again. How do I even get out of this?

This was such a pain.

And if I let this pain drag on, I might literally die from it.

“If you’re asking about the exam, I failed.”

“I hope we end up in the same class.”

“I said I failed.”

“And what does that have to do with anything? I said I hope we end up in the same class.”

“…Huh?”

She wasn’t saying she was going to use her power to push me into Class S, was she?

Normally I’d just brush it off, but it was seriously creepy when it was the princess saying that.

“Just a joke. I was curious how you’d react, and I must say, I like the reaction.”

“……”

“That’s just my personal wish. There’s a different reason I’m here.”

“A different reason? I don’t really have anything to talk about with Your Highness…”

“The headmistress asked me to call you.”

“Why would you be the one to tell me that?”

“You don’t seem to have any friends.”

“Oh.”

That’s the reason?

I get it. Perfectly.

“I was going to ask one of your friends, but no one volunteered, so I stepped in. You should be grateful. I spared you the humiliation of having it publicly revealed that you have no friends.”

“…Truly grateful, Your Highness.”

This is the worst.

She really gathered everyone just to ask if anyone was close to me?

This was actually the worst.

“Aren’t you going to ask why she called you?”

“Well, I have a pretty good guess.”

It was probably about the survival exam.

Honestly, even when I was doing it, I wondered if I was going too far. It did seem a little reckless, even to me.

But I didn’t break any rules, so it should be fine.

At worst, I’ll just get a bit of a scolding.

“Well then, see you next time. Oracle.”

“See you nex—wait, no.”

“Slip of the tongue. See you next time, Johan Damus.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

She kept doing that.

At this point, she was definitely doing it on purpose.

From now on, I decided I just wouldn’t react anymore.

***

By the time I somehow managed to drag my aching body to the Headmistress’s office,

Headmistress Olga Hermod greeted me with a kind smile and said,

“Choose one. Class S or Class F.”

“…Huh?”

It was a death-choice dilemma.

“Hmm… This isn’t really something to talk about while standing. Would you like something to drink? Coffee? Or perhaps tea?”

“I’ll just have whatever you’re offering.”

“Then just have some cold water.”

The Headmistress gave me plain water with absolutely nothing in it!

Why bother staying alive at this point!

…Though of course, there were still plenty of reasons to live. The problem was that the two options the Headmistress had given me were, for all intents and purposes, no different from telling me not to live at all.

She was basically telling me to die.

“Isn’t there any middle ground? Like Class A, or well, even Class E would be fine…”

“Do you truly not understand why I gave you only two choices?”

“I do not.”

Well, to be precise, I could guess what the root of all this was.

It was probably because of the survival exam.

I hadn’t broken any rules, but that didn’t necessarily mean what I did was right.

It was that murky gray zone.

So I didn’t think she’d go as far as to fail me outright.

“Is this because I offended someone important?”

“I included Class S as one of the options. How could this possibly be about offense?”

“Ah.”

Come to think of it, it wasn’t that I was being forced into Class F. It was that I had to choose between F and S, wasn’t it?

Now that I thought about it, from my perspective it might seem like punishment, but from someone else’s perspective, it was actually an incredibly honorable situation.

“To be honest, I had no idea how to evaluate what you did. Who would expect someone to act like an examiner in that situation? I’m not crazy, after all.”

“……”

It really did seem like I was being punished from her tone. One thing was certain: the Headmistress clearly didn’t like me.

“After considering everything, I came to two possible conclusions. The result was an extreme one: either Class S or Class F.”

“But if I wasn’t disqualified from the survival exam, I should’ve gotten at least an E, shouldn’t I? My written score was an A, so how…?”

“An A on the written exam? Who told you that? Johan, your written exam score was a C.”

“…Are you saying I didn’t get an A?”

The moment my certainty crumbled.

Wait, I didn’t get an A on the written exam? While everyone else was busy dealing with terror attacks, I had done nothing but study!

“I understand. You did pretty well. But the second-years had overall high averages. So your score ended up being right in the middle.”

When the hell did these lunatics study while swinging swords and spears around all day?

They must’ve spent more time fighting or lying around than actually studying!

How did this make any sense?

“They probably had access to old test papers. Apparently, things were chaotic last year, so the professors likely couldn’t come up with entirely new questions.”

“Old test papers…”

To someone like me, who had no friends, that was a mythical object I could never get my hands on.

Those cowardly bastards. Just study properly and earn your grades fair and square!

“As for the duel, well, there’s not much to say; you were the absolute bottom. Among the second-years who fought first-years, you were the only one who lost.”

“…….”

That was just an obvious result.

No matter how strong the fresh-faced first-years were, how could they possibly hold up against human killing machines hardened by 22 large-scale terrorist attacks over the past year?

From the beginning, I had expected to get the lowest possible score in the dueling category.

“Under those circumstances, if the survival exam score was calculated as the lowest possible score aside from survival itself, you end up in Class F.”

“…….”

“I’m glad to see you seem to understand.”

Olga Hermod nodded as she looked at my face, twisted like I had swallowed a bug.

The problem hadn’t been the survival exam. It was those damn old test papers. Because of them, my written exam score had become the real issue.

Only when I was faced with this situation did I realize the existence of the leaked exam papers, so I could honestly say I never even suspected it.

“But you could also look at it this way. The survival exam is a comprehensive evaluation. It evaluates not only individual fighting power but also situational judgment and tactics.”

“…….”

“In that situation, how should we evaluate you, who was disguised as an examiner? That’s the tricky part.”

Olga Hermod said this as she stirred her teacup with a teaspoon.

Contrary to her strict-looking appearance, it seemed her taste leaned toward adding everything…milk, honey, and more.

She stared blankly at the thick and murky black tea, then pointed her teaspoon toward my water glass.

“If we evaluate you based on provoking all the second-years, that would be an S. With just your tongue, you could be said to have taken out a third of the second-years.”

“Isn’t it fine though, since that was the whole point of the exam anyway?”

“Even so, you had faster judgment than anyone else, and you chose the best course of action to achieve the greatest results with the least damage.”

“No, the way you say it makes it sound like I did something amazing or…”

“You did do something amazing. It means you were thinking above the heads of the professors who made the rules, including me. I believe, based on that point, you deserve a score more exceptional than anyone else.”

“……It was just a coincidence.”

“But that was the result. That’s why we’ve decided to give you a choice. Student Johan, how do you think we should judge your actions?”

If I enter Class S, I’ll get to enjoy constant fan meetings with assassins.

If I go into Class F, I might get caught up in the rebellion the rest of Class F would be planning.

Class F would probably get wiped out with a mass expulsion, but if a noble like me was involved, it would be a whole different story.

The commoners might get away with expulsion, but I’d be on the fast train to the guillotine for rebellion against the system.

Either way, it ends in death.

In that case…

“I’ve made my decision.”