Chapter 26
“……Hmm.”
A question suddenly occurred to me. A very important one at that.
I closed the mock exam paper Teacher Justina had specially prepared for me, set down my quill, and turned around.
“Already finished?”
Ria, who had been rolling around on the bed, immediately lifted her head.
I silently shook my head and opened my mouth.
“Ria.”
“What?”
“What would you think if I left for a single room?”
“All of a sudden?”
Ria hummed, sinking into thought.
Before long, she sat up and gave a slight shrug.
“I’d obviously be sad. Being alone is lonely.”
Then she got up and approached me.
“Why all of a sudden? Did you happen to score extremely well on the mock exam?”
“It’s not exactly that….”
“Then?”
“The thing is….”
The question I had just felt was this: ‘Would it really be all right for me to take the first-year written exam with all I’ve got?’
To put it more precisely, I felt a little uneasy about bumping down the ranking of the tenth-place student who should have gotten the single room, simply because I might score highly.
I thought for a moment, then stared at Ria’s face.
“I scored so highly on the treasure hunt, you know. So even if I only do average on this written exam, I might be able to place around tenth overall.”
“No way. Do you know how high the barrier to tenth place is?”
Ria snickered and sat on the edge of my bed beside the desk.
“No matter how well you did on the treasure hunt, you’d need an average of 65 points to have a shot, right? Everyone in the top ten will score 90 or higher.”
“Then don’t you have a chance too, Ria?”
“……? What are you talking about?”
“Even so, an average of 65 is way too low. I could get that much even by guessing with my eyes closed.”
My average score on my third-year midterms had been 94. I had gotten perfect scores in every subject except History of Magic and Herbology.
Ria stared at me for a moment, then let out a hollow laugh and got up from the bed.
“I see meeting Mr. Friesna has sent your confidence through the roof.”
Then Ria gave my cheek a long pinch and tug.
This ill-mannered brat…. I scowled and glared at her. Ria quickly let go of my cheek and cleared her throat.
“In that case, Miss Rene, would you bestow upon this lowly wretch a secret method for raising my average score by forty points in a short period?”
“Forty points?”
“Don’t play dumb. You remember how, on the day we first met, you said, ‘Let’s get along from now on, fellow thirty-point comrades’?”
“What?”
Thirty points… comrades?
‘……Is she human?’
I was honestly starting to wonder. How could anyone get thirty points on a test?
While I was thinking, ‘It’s multiple-choice, so wouldn’t you get 25 points even if you just guessed?’, Ria snickered and continued.
“Well, anyway, if you really make it into the top ten, I’ll sincerely congratulate you. Though after that, I’ll probably bawl my eyes out.”
“Ha, you’d think you were being separated from your lover forever.”
“What?! Was I the only one who thought we were dating?”
Ria shouted, “That’s so mean!” and lunged at me to hug me.
As always, I nimbly dodged her hands and said,
“You could make it into the top ten too. Then even if we couldn’t use the same room, we could use rooms right next to each other.”
“No thanks. Unlike a certain someone, I don’t know any secret method for raising my score by forty points in a short period.”
Ria returned to her bed and plopped down.
“Seeing how confident you are, I guess you scored over 70 on the mock exam? Is that bastard Kairos actually a good tutor?”
“Ugh… Why is that bastard’s name coming up here?”
“What other reason could there be for your skills suddenly improving?”
Ria answered as though it were obvious.
Well, compared with the idea that Rene’s soul had suddenly changed, Kairos being an amazing tutor was certainly more realistic.
I sighed without meaning to and shook my head.
“I didn’t learn even a speck from that perverted bastard.”
In the first place, he was the sort who would erase Rene’s memories with ‘Mantis Nihil’ whenever he got bored. There was no way someone like that had given her proper tutoring.
“Don’t tell me you’re still sulking over what happened this morning? I told you, even if I were Kairos, I’d have looked at your socks first.”
“Shut up. You can say that so easily because you’ve never had to endure that bastard’s perverted gaze yourself.”
Although Kairos had pretended otherwise on the surface, there had unquestionably been strange lust in his eyes.
It had been a desire mingling thirst and obsession—like someone finding an oasis in the desert, or an herbalist discovering a rare herb atop a rugged mountain….
“Anyway, Ria, you don’t want me to leave, right?”
I didn’t want to talk about that bastard anymore, so I quickly steered the conversation back to its original topic.
“Well, honestly, I do, yeah?”
Ria nodded.
I nodded as well and got to my feet.
“All right. Then I won’t go.”
It wasn’t solely because of Ria. I realized that, as a third-year, taking a first-year’s spot would be no different from the despicable thing Kairos had done to me.
“Huh…? Really, because of me?”
But Ria, unaware of my circumstances, looked at me with widened eyes, seemingly surprised.
Well, there was no reason to spoil the mood. I continued with a small laugh.
“Yeah. I like being with you, too.”
This much, at least, was sincere. Aside from her fatal flaw of loving physical affection far too much, she was an ideal roommate who looked after every aspect of Rene’s life with a mother’s attentiveness.
“Ah….”
Ria looked up at me as though genuinely moved. Perhaps the late hour had made her more sentimental, because her cheeks had also turned slightly red.
I waved my hand as if to say she didn’t need to be so moved and sprawled out on my bed.
Not long afterward, Ria’s voice followed.
“I’m really glad you were born a girl, Rene.”
“……”
That was an odd thing to say. I merely turned my head slightly to look at Ria.
She met my gaze straight on and smiled brightly.
“Then let’s keep getting along from now on! My precious partner!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Come to think of it, the fact that Ria was so moved meant she really believed that a poor student like Rene could score over 70.
‘……People really are kind.’
I thought, if only a little, that having her as my roommate was fortunate.
※※
“I told you not to come see me unless you had a reason.”
“This time, I have a proper reason.”
On my way back from checking the exam rankings posted on the bulletin board in the first-floor corridor, Kairos suddenly blocked my path with a serious expression.
There was a teacher nearby, making it impossible to rain abuse on him, and too many students watching for me to pretend I hadn’t noticed him and walk past.
As I silently glared into his eyes, Kairos glanced around and said quietly,
“There are too many eyes here, so let’s go somewhere quiet and talk.”
Then he reached out as if to grab my wrist.
“What the hell do you want?”
I slapped his hand away and snapped. Kairos’s hand, which had cut through the air, clenched into a tight fist.
“It’s about the exam.”
“The exam? Ah… Is this about your buddy?”
Only then did I remember that my exam score was tied to the scholarship Kairos received as my buddy.
I smirked and shrugged.
“What a shame. Since your buddy didn’t make the top twenty, the bonus points for the highest grade are out of reach.”
My score on this exam was an average of 60 (of course, I’d deliberately hit exactly 60). I ranked 21st in the entire school.
I hadn’t specifically aimed for it, but I kept smiling because it felt like I had finally landed a proper blow on that bastard for the first time.
“Who told you to snatch away the wyvern I’d already caught? Take it as divine punishment, and don’t do that again~”
I gave a casual wave and started walking away.
“That’s not what this is about.”
But Kairos didn’t back down. This time, he grabbed my wrist for real.
I frowned at his grip, which was far stronger than I’d expected, and turned to look at him. Kairos continued with an utterly serious expression.
“Just come with me for a moment. It’s important.”
Apparently, he had no intention of backing off quietly.
……
“So what exactly is it you want to say?”
As soon as we reached a secluded corner of the herb garden, I roughly shook off his hand. Kairos continued without any sign of fluster.
“Rene, why didn’t you take the exam seriously?”
“……What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Don’t play dumb. Rene, your true ability isn’t that low.”
Kairos’s expression was utterly serious, as though he could see through everything.
It was an unpleasant feeling, as if I were once again being toyed with in the palm of his hand. But this time, I didn’t let it show and met his gaze head-on.
“I did take it seriously. Just look at my ranking—I rose by more than 200 places.”
“You could have risen farther.”
“No. I genuinely did my best, and this is the best result I could achieve.”
For a while, a suffocating silence hung between us as we glared into each other’s eyes.
Feeling that this would never end, I sighed first and said,
“I’m sorry I didn’t make the top twenty. I really am. But just because I didn’t make the top twenty, that can’t prove I didn’t do my best, can it?”
For some reason, the lies rolled off my tongue. Maybe because it was Kairos.
“Rene… I’m asking because I genuinely want to know, and I’m being completely serious. Why on earth didn’t you take the exam properly?”
Even Kairos himself seemed helpless against my shamelessness. To my surprise, he backed down first and took a step back.
“That’s why I’m giving you a serious answer.”
That was my second victory over him. I felt much lighter.
“This exam reflected my true ability. Twenty-first place. That’s exactly what I’m capable of.”
I gave him that firm answer and walked straight past him.
Whether he had given up or simply run out of things to say, Kairos fortunately didn’t stop me again.
‘What? He’s more underwhelming than I thought.’
If my two recent victories had taught me anything, it was that he, too, was ultimately just an ordinary human being.
“Hmm-hmm.”
Before I knew it, I was humming. I walked briskly out of the herb garden and into the building, heading toward the dining hall for lunch.
But then… at that moment.
“Hm?”
A shadow suddenly blocked my path.
I looked up, and three female students I’d never seen before were glaring at me with furious expressions.
“……What?”
I returned their irritated expressions in kind.
The girl standing in the middle, apparently the leader, had flashy golden-blond hair styled in drill curls. She clenched a fist in disbelief and raised her voice.
“You! I hear you had the audacity to accept Lord Kairos’s confession?”
“……What?”
It was the most absurd bullshit imaginable.