Entrance Exam

The next morning.

Today was the day of the exam. Even I was a little nervous as I went through my morning preparations.

It felt kind of like the day of my university entrance exam. Well, I had been even more nervous that day. I had aimed for a university a little above my level, so it had been a close call whether I'd pass. I had been a nervous wreck on the day the results were announced. I had even teared up when I found my candidate number.

Compared to that, today was like a university student taking an elementary school entrance exam. Thinking of it that way, I figured I'd surely pass.

To avoid getting a stomachache, I ate a little less breakfast than usual and finished getting ready.

Whew... I'll do my best!

I left my room and headed for the entrance hall. The carriage was already waiting, and Lucien arrived soon after I reached it.

"Lucien-sama, good morning."

"Good morning, Leon. Let's both do our best today."

After exchanging a few greetings, we immediately boarded the carriage together. The guards were outside, so it was just the two of us inside. For a little while, at least, we could speak casually.

"Leon, we're alone now!"

"That's true. There's always an attendant with us, so we don't get many chances to talk so casually."

"I wish you'd speak casually with me all the time."

"Hmm... That might be difficult."

It would obviously be strange for a commoner like me to call Lucien by his name without an honorific and speak without using polite language.

Besides, if I started talking casually in front of other people too, I felt I'd inevitably slip up somewhere.

Like calling him by name without an honorific in a situation where I needed to mind my status. I was the kind of person who might make that mistake, so it was easier to keep our casual speech for when we were alone.

Well, Jack-san, Lucien's guard, had told me I could speak casually even when Jack-san was nearby, so I did that.

"Well, I guess you're right... More importantly, I'm looking forward to today's exam."

"You are?"

"Yeah. The last time I met children my age was at the party celebrating Spring Month. We could hardly talk at the party, so I'm looking forward to it."

I see, so the Royal Academy was also a place where noble children learned how to socialize. There were probably things about status, how to interact with people based on their status, and proper conduct that they couldn't truly understand without practicing, no matter how much they studied them.

Noble children apparently stayed in their territories almost until they entered the Royal Academy. I heard they went to the capital once a year, when they attended a party held by the royal family around the end of winter. Apparently, children began attending when they were about five years old.

So that meant they didn't leave their territories otherwise. The only nobles without territories were those with knightly titles, since they couldn't pass their rank on to their children.

"I hope you make lots of friends at the Royal Academy."

"That's true, but there are many nobles it's best not to associate with too closely. We need to be careful around their children. I'm looking forward to meeting the children from our faction! Leon, you're affiliated with the Townsend ducal family too, so you should be careful."

"Y-yeah, you're right. I'll be careful too."

Amazing... In moments like this, he really was a noble's child.

But I really did need to be careful too. For now, I should avoid the children of noble families opposed to the Townsend ducal family.

If I were going to befriend anyone, it should be children from the same faction, or at least from a neutral family. Well, I was a commoner, so I didn't know whether I could become friends with noble children in the first place.

I needed to be especially careful around the children on Richard-sama's watch list.

Last night, I received a list of people to watch through Roger. The names of nobles who might pose a danger to me were listed on it, and there were quite a lot of them. I had been disheartened to see so many. From among them, I would work on memorizing the nobles who were especially important to remember.

While I talked with Lucien a little longer, the carriage started moving. The Royal Academy wasn't far from the ducal residence, so it didn't take very long to get there. I supposed we'd be making this trip every morning from now on.

After a while, the carriage stopped.

"Lucien-sama, Leon-sama, we have arrived at the Royal Academy."

The coachman said so and opened the carriage door. Lucien and I got out, slightly nervous.

We had arrived at a carriage stop on the Royal Academy's grounds. Various carriages, both large and small, were parked around us, and children about my age were getting out of them. If they were arriving by carriage, that meant almost all of them were nobles, right?

I steeled myself anew.

"Once the exam is over, please return to this location. We'll be waiting for you here."

"Understood. I'm off."

"Thank you. I'm off."

"Take care."

The coachman bowed deeply and saw us off, so Lucien and I walked toward the buildings.

The carriage stop we'd just left seemed to be in a space on the left after entering the Royal Academy's main gate. Even from a quick glance, the grounds were enormous, with many buildings spread across them.

The grounds were enclosed by high walls as well. There were knights at the gate, so presumably only authorized personnel were allowed inside.

As we walked toward the buildings, the first thing that caught my eye was the largest building straight ahead. It was about as tall as a three-story building, but it was very wide. Its luxurious appearance gave it an atmosphere like a noble's mansion.

To the right of that building was a smaller, plain-looking building. It also looked older. Of course, it would have seemed quite luxurious if it had been near my house, but compared to the central building, it was several grades less impressive. Maybe the luxurious central building was for high-ranking nobles, while the building on the right was for lower-ranking nobles and commoners? I wondered if they really had distinctions like that.

In this world, that seemed perfectly possible...

To the left of the luxurious central building was another building. It was slightly smaller, but no less luxurious. I wondered what it was used for. Hmm, I couldn't figure it out no matter how much I thought about it.

Farther to the left of that building was a very large one. It looked a little like a school gymnasium. Maybe it was a training ground?

That was all I could see from the front. I wondered if we'd get a tour of the facilities after enrolling. I was looking forward to it!

As I walked along thinking about that, I saw Royal Academy staff members guiding the examinees.

According to them, the nobles were supposed to go to the grand central building, while the commoners were supposed to go to the gymnasium-like building.

"Lucien-sama, I'll head over there. I wish you the best of luck."

"Yes. Do your best too, Leon."

"Thank you."

And so I parted ways with Lucien and headed toward the building where the commoners were gathering.

Desks had been lined up at the building's entrance, and several receptionists were stationed there. I went to an open desk and handed over my admission ticket.

The receptionist checked the roster to confirm that I was registered, then returned my admission ticket.

"We've confirmed your registration, so please enter the examination hall. Show your admission ticket to a staff member inside, and they'll guide you to your seat."

"Thank you."

Once I entered the hall, the atmosphere was similar to an examination venue in Japan. Desks and chairs had been arranged at regular intervals, and about a third of the examinees were already seated. The hall was quite large, though, so the staff must have had their hands full.

As I looked around the hall with a slightly nostalgic feeling, a staff member came over to me.

"May I see your admission ticket?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Thank you. You're Leon-sama, correct? Your seat is a little far away, so I'll show you to it."

After saying that, the staff member walked briskly away, so I hurried after them. My seat was fairly close to the front. The entrance was in the back, so it was quite far away.

"This is your seat. Please sit and wait until the exam begins."

"Yes. Thank you."

I was finally starting to get nervous. Waiting around made time feel so long. I should have brought some study materials, but I had thought I wouldn't need them, so I hadn't brought any.

After waiting restlessly for a while, three staff members came in from the front. It seemed to be time for the exam to begin.

"We will now begin the Royal Academy entrance examination. The exam will last one hour, and leaving before it ends is generally not permitted, so please take note. Talking is strictly prohibited; anyone who violates this rule will fail. Now we will distribute the exam papers."

The exam papers they distributed consisted of two sheets of paper slightly larger than A4, with the questions and answer spaces on the same sheets.

They looked like test papers from an elementary school in Japan.

"You may begin."

I started with the first problem. It seemed to be an arithmetic problem. As expected, it was incredibly easy.

I smoothly finished the arithmetic problems, followed by the reading and writing problems and the history problems.

I was already done? It felt like only ten minutes had passed. This was easy enough that I was sure I'd pass.

I had fifty minutes left. I was bored.

To avoid looking like I was cheating, I casually glanced around. Most of the people around me were dressed quite well for commoners, so they were probably children of merchant families. They all seemed to be racking their brains, and no one else appeared to have finished.

Even among merchant families, the children whose families couldn't spare them much time for studying or spend much money on their education must have found these problems quite difficult. Thinking about it that way, I could understand why so few commoners passed.

As I thought about that, I somehow managed to get through the fifty minutes, and the exam ended.

"The exam is over. We will now collect the exam papers, so please remain seated until all of them have been collected."

The staff went around collecting the exam papers from the back, one after another. There were a lot of candidates, but there were also plenty of staff members, so they finished collecting them quickly.

"Today's exam is now over. The results will be sent to the organization listed on your admission ticket, so check with them."

Whew, it was finally over. I was certain I'd pass. In fact, I probably got every question right. I couldn't have gotten any of them wrong.

I rubbed my sleepy eyes after sitting around with nothing to do, stood up, and headed outside. I wondered if Lucien had finished too.