Hard Work Will Never Betray Me - CH 156

“Now please begin the exam.”

At the examiner’s signal, everyone in the large auditorium picks up a pen at once and begins to answer the questions. It had been a while since I had felt the atmosphere peculiar to an examination room, where only the sound of pens tapping on desks echoed in the quiet room, and I suddenly recalled memories of my previous life’s practice examinations and high school entrance examinations.

It was a winter day in my third year of junior high school. The air of the exam I took at the public high school of my top choice was also like this. Young people dressed in school uniforms and sailor uniforms were solving the questions in silence. Depending on how you look at it, it may seem like an abnormal scene, but it was a survival competition in a different shape. The only difference was that the competition had changed from nature to the classroom.

And I lost that race for survival.

About three years later, at the beginning of winter, just before the university entrance exam, I was literally beaten in the race for survival, and as a result of losing my life and being reborn, for whatever reason, I am here now.

“(This time, I won’t lose.)”

I will put everything I have into this paper. That’s all. I have 18 years of hard work plus 14 years of experience.

✳︎︎

” Please put down your writing utensils and remain where you are until the examiner comes to collect them.”

The written exam for the liberal arts course was over. It was natural, but it was still difficult. However, I was glad that there were almost no questions that I couldn’t answer because I didn’t know the answer at all. It was worth it that I asked my sister to help me study for the exam.

“Ah, it’s over.’

‘I’m dead. ”

“I feel like I did great!”

“I think I’ m in trouble. ……”

Our goal is to get into the Academy with a higher ranking, not to be accepted. This is not a goal, but a fixed future, a default. It’s a dangerous attitude that could send students crying and stabbing themselves in the back if they heard it, but it’s the result of hard work. No one has the right to stab me!

“I’m going to do practical training this afternoon, . Shall we all have lunch together, including Meir?”

“I’m thinking so. She’ s just one floor above us, I think.”

As soon as I left the large auditorium, talking about Mei, I bumped into her.

“Hey,””how you doing? Did you make it?”

I asked her, since the exam questions themselves are the same for both the Department of Magic and the Department of Magical Research. However, it was a wrong question to ask Mei.

“I was just too busy to think about it.”

“Ugh.”

We were all feeling the sting of Mei’s dangerous comment, which could have naturally made enemies. Damn it, she’s getting carried away just because she has magnificent armored breasts!　When I get home, I’m going to rub them until I can’t stand on my legs and feet anymore.

It’s ……, but in the afternoon I have a practical exam, which is my specialtyI am quite confident in both the amount of magic and the manipulation of magic, and in the test of my strong magic, the disadvantage of not being able to use attribute magic if I use non-attribute magic is not a minus factor. Aim for a perfect score.

‘More than that, I’m in danger of losing the combat test . I can see a future where I can’t do anything and fail the exam as soon as it starts.

Well, Mei is extremely focused on her talent in engineering magic and her brain specs. To put it bluntly, her athleticism is devastating. In addition, she is limited by her short figure , which is unique to the Dwarves, so there is a significant reach difference in close-range combat. Although she has an aptitude for earth magic, it is doubtful that she can use it in battle.

However, she is able to handle her own inventions, such as vehicles and firearms, regardless of her athleticism, so there is a high possibility that she will score high in the combat test if she can refine weapons from materials available in the test during the exam. She must really be an inventor at heart, since she can use her own inventions decently even though her motor skills are not good.

‘It’s crowded in the cafeteria …….”

“Shall we find an empty place in the courtyard?”

“I suppose so.”

Fortunately, we have a large amount of freshly prepared meals lying in our inventory. If it were true, I was going to eat in the cafeteria, but I don’t intend to fail the exam, so I’ll just go back there to eat after I enroll.

‘It looks warm in the sun, and ut’s good here .”

“Thank goodness there’s not a lot of wind.”

After the answer sheets were collected, the large auditorium was filled with a buzz of excitement. Some were mourning, some were rejoicing, some were despairing, and some seemed to be opening up. As for my lovely fiancée, Lily, I saw her walking toward me with a question sheet in her hand. She’s so cute.

“Lily, did you get it?”

, “Well, I managed. But the philosophy was the hardest part. What was that, “Refutation and Rebuttal of the Ancient Conceptualism from the Standpoint of Modern Magical Existentialism”?　How am I supposed to know that?”

“That was a dump question, wasn’t it? …… I could have written a 400-word essay on what I know, but if I wanted to do it properly, I could have written a whole paper on it. Well, I’m sure it’s not the level of an entrance exam for an institute. I’m sure it’s not at the level of the entrance exam of the institute. ……The geometry was even worse than that. How did you solve the verification questions there?”

“You just had to use Nikostratos’ theorem.{

“What’s that?”

“Hal, ……, what did you learn from your sister?”

“Geometry’s not my thing.　That’s okay, I can do philosophy and history. ……”

‘I could do arithmetic and geometry.”

It seems that Lily is a science and math person. She’s a reikejo, reikejo. I’m a liberal arts student.

“I guess I’ll feel a little better next time because it’s magic.”

“Well, you’ve had a lot of classes with the master, haven’t you?”

‘It was pretty hard, but now I realize how much that learning experience helped me. ……”

Marie always used to say, “You can’t use magic without fully understanding its theory,” when she taught us the theory of magic.

Magic is not something that depends solely on magical manipulation techniques or a sense of feeling. It is something that has to be used after completely understanding the principle of its activation by reading the magic formula that contains the information on the structure of the magic. Otherwise, it will end up discharging a mass of energy that cannot even be called halfway decent magic because its power and efficiency are not good enough.

That’s why Marie-san put so much effort into teaching us about magic theory in general, including the magic formulas that each of us would use. Thanks to this, all of us who came out of the Demon Forest Training Program have a certain level of knowledge of magic, whether we are good at it or not.

“Anyone who has studied at the Demon Forest will definitely be able to pass the entrance exam.’

“What about Werner?”

“That guy, he looks like that, but he’s going to keep it on the edge, so ……. I think he’ll be admitted, maybe, just possibly …….”

“. ……. Emilia is definitely not going to make it.”

‘The Schneider siblings are a different matter. They’re not technically mages, they’re swordsmen’.

Johann and Emilia are not very good at study, and when we were discussing the theory of magic, they were sitting next to me with their eyes wide open and they were snoring. It would be a bit harsh to ask them to go through the gate of the four postgrad schools.

Besides, they were fine with it. Their specialty is in swordsmanship, not the study of magical theory. Wemages can do the hard work.

“I don’t have much time left, so I’m going to go pick some pheasant kijiji’.

Oh, I’m going to pick some flowers at …….

“You’re the Fat”

“Idiot!　Don’t you know the word sensitive?’

A man with a red maple leaf pattern on his cheek may or may not have appeared in the exam hall of the Magic Academy that day. ……

✳︎︎

‘Stop. Put the pen down and do not write anything on the answer sheet after this.”

The second departmental, magical liberal arts exam was over. This time, I think I did better than in the liberal arts. Unlike the liberal arts, there was not a single problem on this one that I didn’t understand at all.

“Lily, good job.”

This time, I turned to Lily and found her calmly organizing her stuff.

‘I was just like, “Well, this is how it’s going to be, ”

‘That’s a winner’s statement. ……’

‘I’m sure you’ve solved as much as I have Hal, and I’m sure it’s about the same for both of us.

“Well, when you’re not worrying about falling off, that’s true, too.”

I’ve also developed a device that creates a pseudo-windless condition by hitting the wind in the opposite direction, but is it usable?　”I think it would be quicker to create a normal boundary”.

“I think it would be faster to put up ordinary boundaries. If it gets cold, just put up wards.”

“Then let’s have it right now!　I’m about to collapse from hunger!”

“Of course, after 13 hours of sleep and skipping breakfast, you must be starving!’

“Ha-ha-ha!”

“How could you focus on the exam with that?’

The meal is laid out on a mat in the courtyard, where there are few people. We enjoyed a brief rest in the sunlight, which was warm even for winter.

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