The Academy’s Hard-Headed Swordmaster

Immediately after the written exam, Kyle and Yuri left the Academy and discussed various aspects of the test.

While the specific questions had vanished from their memories, the feeling of having taken the exam, the emotions experienced during it, remained.

This gave them a rough sense of how well they had performed.

Of course, Kyle remembered everything, including every single question.

“The exam was easy, right?”

“Ahahaha! It was easy.”

“I think I can get a perfect score.”

“Oh, that’s amazing.”

Yuri was the one who usually initiated the conversations.

He was, after all, the officially recognized fiancée of the Duke.

Yuri had a lot of questions for her fiancé. A whole lot.

Having accumulated a decade’s worth of curiosity, even her typically stiff and icy personality couldn’t contain the mountain of questions she had.

“If I do well in the practicals, I think I can even be the top student.”

“That would be truly amazing.”

“How about you, Kyle?”

“Top student? Of course, it’s mine.”

If a Master didn’t claim the top spot, who else could? Kyle was confident.

He was confident he could get a perfect score on the practical exam, no, a 140 out of 100.

Upon hearing this, Yuri expressed her admiration.

“Did you do well on the written exam, too?”

“Huh?”

“The top student is determined by combining both written and practical scores.”

“Hmm, I don’t think I can get a perfect score on the written exam.”

“Then it might be difficult. There’s a widespread rumor that the Academy’s written exam is designed to be easy enough for commoners to pass.”

“…What?”

Kyle groaned, looking at Yuri as if asking what she meant.

Yuri tilted her head and explained the situation at the Academy.

Dairus Academy was established to gather talented individuals.

Naturally, talented individuals weren’t limited to the nobility.

There were bound to be talented commoners, and it was known that even an illiterate commoner could avoid failing the Academy’s written exam after a week of study.

Since the exam was so easy, educated nobles could basically get a perfect score.

Of course, that was just a rumor.

“…What if I fail?”

“It’s unlikely, but… if you fail the written exam, you won’t pass even with a perfect score on the practical.”

“Oh.”

Kyle sighed.

He couldn’t pass even with a perfect score on the practical?

What kind of ridiculous rule was that?

Determined to pass, even if it meant revealing he was a Master, Kyle began preparing for the practical exam.

* * *

The day of the practical exam arrived.

“I clearly told you all to attack me at once.”

Gawain, the practical exam instructor for the Academy’s Knight Department, stepped over the dozens of fallen examinees at his feet and approached the remaining students who were still standing, staring at him.

“Are you defying my orders?”

“N-No, sir!”

“Oh, really? Then you’re cowards who can’t follow orders.”

“……Hiyaah—!”

Several examinees, confused by Gawain’s words, rushed forward.

While they possessed good qualities as soldiers, they lacked the qualities of a knight.

Gawain swiftly knocked them unconscious and then looked at the three examinees who were still standing there, staring blankly at him.

“What gives you the guts to still be standing?”

“—Instructor, even if you are an instructor, you’ll regret underestimating me.”

At those words, the examinee next to me cautiously spoke.

Drawing his sword from his waist, he approached the instructor with a confident expression.

Sensing the Aura emanating from his sword, I understood the reason for his confidence.

‘…An Expert?’

“Hmm, you have the skills to back up your guts.”

As a fellow Master, there was no way Gawain wouldn’t sense what I had sensed.

He grinned and stared intently at the nameless examinee.

“Your name?”

“Hundred.”

“Good. Hundred. Come.”

In the next instant, Hundred charged forward, his entire body enveloped in Aura.

However, I knew exactly what would happen next, having experienced it myself.

Just as Chantalka had done to me, Gawain effortlessly deflected Hundred’s sword and struck his chin with the hilt.

Leaving Hundred, who had been defeated without even understanding how, Gawain looked at the two remaining examinees.

“Do you two have anything to show me?”

“Uh, no…”

“—Nothing special, but…”

Only after everyone else had fallen did I cautiously step forward.

I didn’t bother paying attention to the trembling examinee beside me; he was going to fail anyway.

Stepping forward, I circulated a bit of Aura within my body to loosen my muscles and pointed my sword at Gawain.

Slowly, so slowly that it was almost imperceptible, my sword reached out and stuck to Gawain’s.

Gawain, belatedly realizing that my sword had clashed with his, tried to pull his sword back in surprise, but my Aura flowed into his sword even faster.

“Something like this?”

“…You, what is this…?”

Gawain stared at me with disbelief. I lightly detached my sword and sheathed it.

Though I hadn’t directly revealed myself as an Aura Master, he must have realized the truth.

It was a secret I was supposed to keep, but it couldn’t be helped.

‘How can I hide being a Master from a Master?’

If I didn’t deliberately lose, he would immediately know I was a Master after a single exchange.

I didn’t want to intentionally lose to hide my secret.

More importantly, there was a reason why I couldn’t afford to lose.

If I messed up both the written and practical exams, I might actually fail to get in…

If Hundred hadn’t shown up, I would have tried to pretend to be an Expert, but since an Expert had already appeared, I wouldn’t attract any attention unless I was at least a Master.

“I’ll be going now, old man.”

“Your name?”

“Kyle Meyer.”

“The Imperial Guardian Sword. I see. The Empire’s future is bright.”

After receiving Gawain’s praise, I shrugged and left the examination hall.

As I walked away, I heard Gawain yelling at the examinee who hadn’t made a single move.

Leaving his shouts behind, I was filled with an unfounded confidence that I would pass.

Surely, unless the Academy had gone mad, they wouldn’t fail a Master, would they?

* * *

“Now, we will select the Academy’s incoming students.”

After all the exams were finished, the professors gathered to select the students who would be admitted to the Academy. The selection process was simple.

Combine the written and practical exam scores, then determine whether the student is suitable for the Academy.

Of course, there were a few individuals who were guaranteed admission regardless of their scores: royalty and clergy sent from the Holy Kingdom.

Excluding them, acceptance into the Academy depended entirely on these scores.

Since it involved filtering through a large number of applicants, the process was long and tedious, and it was customary for only younger professors to participate.

However, today, Master Gawain, a senior professor, was unusually present.

Thanks to this, the other professors were even more dedicated to the evaluation.

They couldn’t afford to appear lax in front of Gawain.

“Ahem, don’t mind me too much.”

“No, how could we… Sir Gawain is the Empire’s hero.”

“Just how many years ago are you talking about?”

Gawain chuckled like a gracefully aging elder.

He rummaged through the documents, searching for someone’s application.

Seeing this, the other professors asked if he was looking for someone, but Gawain shook his head and said it was nothing.

“May, fail. Rejected…”

“Kingswin. Failed practical, rejected.”

“Hytel, fail. Rejected…?”

As the evaluation continued, the professors noticed that an unusually high number of examinees had failed this year.

Normally, the number of failing examinees would be less than half of this, and there was no reason for the quality of the examinees to have declined this year.

It was common sense to consider the acceptance rate in case the quality of the examinees for that year was lower. H

owever, a strangely large number of examinees were failing, and after cross-checking them all, it turned out they were all from the Knight Department.

Moreover, all the examinees who had been overseen by Sir Gawain had failed.

“Excuse me, Sir Gawain…? Could you please explain this?”

“Explain what?”

“About the fact that you failed all the examinees you supervised.”

“Failed them all! That’s preposterous!”

Gawain roared, protesting that it was absurd.

“There must be someone I passed!”

“No… there isn’t?”

“That’s impossible!”

At the other professors’ words, Gawain rummaged through the examinees’ applications in disbelief. As he fervently searched, one of the professors cautiously spoke.

“…Um, Sir Gawain? I hate to say this, but… this child, May Bell, is a highly talented swordsman. She has a record of winning several swordsmanship competitions.”

“That’s not important!”

“What do you mean, it’s not important! We’re talking about biased exam results!”

The room fell silent after the professor’s outburst.

Gawain, who had been searching through the applications, looked up and stared intently at the professor who had yelled at him.

A fellow professor from the Knight Department.

A genius who had reached the Expert level at a young age and secured a professorship at the Academy.

However, he was no match for Gawain, the living hero of the Empire and a Master.

“May Bell… Come to think of it, you share the same last name?”

“Ah, w-well, that’s… She’s my relative…”

“So, because she’s a relative, she should pass even if she lacks the skills?”

“That’s not what I meant! She truly possesses outstanding skills…”

“From what I saw, she didn’t. Are you saying you have a better eye than me?”

At Gawain’s words, the professor closed his mouth. Countless knights throughout the Empire had been trained by Gawain.

Saying that the judgment of Sir Gawain, who had nurtured so many knights, was wrong was tantamount to insulting all those knights he had trained.

Unable to make enemies of the knights, the professor remained silent.

Gawain clicked his tongue and, with the help of the other professors, began searching for a particular application.

“Find the application for an examinee named Kyle Meyer.”

As soon as Gawain spoke, the others began frantically searching through the applications as if they were graduate students following their professor’s orders.

With their help, they soon found Kyle Meyer’s application hidden amongst the mountain of paperwork.

“100 points…?”

The professor who saw the practical exam score muttered in disbelief. Who was Gawain?

The stubborn, old-fashioned professor who hadn’t given a perfect score even to the genius examinee who had challenged the Academy entrance exam two years ago at the Ori Expert level.

And he had given a perfect score? Considering that he had given 0 points to everyone else, it couldn’t be said that this exam was particularly easy.

“No, what is this…?”

“100 points? Sir Gawain, how did this happen…?”

As the professors stared at Kyle Meyer’s application in disbelief, one of them realized why it hadn’t been found until now.

“Um, Sir Gawain?”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“This examinee failed.”

“—What nonsense!”

Startled by the news that Kyle Meyer had failed, Gawain immediately snatched the application and checked Kyle Meyer’s score.

Practical 100/100 Pass

Written 10/100 Fail

Final Result: Fail

Seeing his written score, Gawain’s hand trembled as he stared at the application.

However, no matter how many times he looked, the word “Fail” didn’t change to “Pass.”

“Bring me this examinee’s exam paper! Now!”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

The professor, wondering what Gawain was planning, obediently retrieved Kyle Meyer’s exam paper, thinking it was better to comply than to provoke the Master.

Kyle’s exam paper was even worse than expected.

The professor who brought it realized that Kyle Meyer shouldn’t be admitted even if his practical score was 200 instead of 100.

“Here it is…”

“Hmm.”

Gawain, receiving the exam paper, frowned at the first question.

A question asking for the name of the Empire’s first Emperor. He got this wrong?

However, seeing the answer written below, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Who graded this?”

“Well? Probably the grader…”

“They need to be fired immediately. Why is this marked as incorrect?”

Gawain began changing the incorrect marks to correct ones with the pen on his desk.

“He can’t bear to utter the Emperor’s name? What incredible loyalty! Correct!”

“The courage to admit not knowing the answer! Correct!”

“Bah! What use does a knight have for mathematics? This is correct too!”

As Gawain continued to increase Kyle’s score with nonsensical reasoning, he paused at question 17, the tactics question. A subjective question asking for the tactics required to annihilate 5,000 soldiers with 300.

Kyle had written, “Surround and annihilate the 5,000 with 300.”

Logically, it was absurd.

“Sir Gawain, honestly, this is ridiculous… How can 300 men…”

“Hmph, why is it ridiculous? The person who actually achieved it is right in front of you.”

However, Gawain had personally accomplished this absurd feat.

The incident that made him the Empire’s hero.

The historic event where he personally led 50 knights of the Black Lion Knight Order and subdued a rebel army of 5,000.

“If I can do it, it must be theoretically possible, right?”

Of course, realistically, it was impossible for an ordinary knight to defeat 5,000 soldiers with 300.

It was preposterous. If anyone else had scribbled down such an answer, Gawain would have scoffed.

But if the one who wrote it was Kyle Meyer himself, he could think like this:

‘He can actually do it.’

He simply wrote down what he could do.

So, how could it be marked as incorrect?

“So, this is also correct. With this…”

Gawain looked down at Kyle’s exam paper. Including all the questions he had marked as correct, the score was 30 points.

It wasn’t a great score, but it narrowly avoided failing.

“Proceed with this, no—Make him pass!”

The professors, who had reluctantly allowed Kyle to pass, managed to prevent the examinee who had received 10 points from failing.

Thus, an examinee who had received the lowest scores in history, was enrolled in the Knight Department.