The Struggle of a Weak Aristocrat in a Different World Our Domain is Surrounded by Large Aristocrats, and It’s a Big Problem! - CH 36

“This day has finally come.”

It was early in the morning and I was standing in front of a large iron gate that looked like a spider’s web. A board on the gate read “Entrance Examination.”

Around me, I could see a few noblemen’s sons and daughters who were probably taking the entrance exam. All of them entered the gate with a nervous look on their faces, for they had been sent here as political tools to get close to the powerful nobles in this turbulent world, and they were under the pressure of their parents. It was obvious to anyone who looked at them that they were in pain.

Of course, I’m not an exception. In fact, there is no doubt that I am the one who needs to be admitted first. What I need to do now, however, is not to enter the exam room early and take the exam in perfect condition, but to look for someone who is relatively cheerful while everyone else is looking down.

It is said that since ancient times, there has been a lot of cheating in the examinations of this school.

There are two types of cheating. The first is cheating in grading. This applies to the children of large noble families, and the school would not be able to do something so foolhardy as to fail the children of large noble families.

The other is the leaking of examination questions, which are sometimes given to upper class nobles if they have enough money to pay for them.

The reason for this roundabout way of doing things has to do with a system set by the first headmaster of the school, in which the questions and answers of the entrance examinations are made public and the students’ answers are returned to them, so that if the returned answers have a high score, it becomes a status of nobility.

So while everyone else is looking glum at the entrance exam, the ones who are looking relatively cheerful are the ones who are cheating. Among the relatively cheerful faces, the ones who need to prepare early for the entrance exam are the ones who have access to the exam questions.

I’m looking for people who have the exam questions, because the seating order for the entrance exam is determined by the order in which people arrive at the venue, so if you want to cheat, you have to be seated near someone who can cheat.

In all honesty, I’ve studied hard to death, so if it’s a normal question, I can answer it without a hitch, but I have to play it safe……. I walked into the exam room where the long desks were arranged in a staircase pattern, and sure enough, I was placed in the seat next to a guy.

The other students around me were studying hard, pulling out their study tools until the last minute, but the man next to me was only cleaning his writing utensils, not pulling out any study tools other than his notebook, and I was convinced that the man next to me had access to the exam questions.

Good, I’m a little relieved now. After that, students came in one after another and sat in the seats behind me, and as soon as the seats were full, the examiner came in.

The examiner checked the examination voucher one by one and started handing out the examination questions. However, when the examiner checked my exam slip, his eyes widened and then his mouth twisted into a grin as he rummaged around and handed out the exam questions.

What’s……?

I had a bad feeling about the unusual behavior of the examiner.

After handing out the test questions to everyone, the examiner announced the start of the test. As soon as the signal was given, I heard the sound of papers being turned over. I rolled up the exam questions and looked through the exam questions.

What’s this?

The exam questions were too easy. It’s not that I studied too hard, right? It was too easy compared to past questions. For a moment, I thought that it was a consideration to allow most of the nobles to enter the school in order to get involved, but looking at the students around me, I saw that many of them had grim expressions on their faces.

Huh. So does that mean I’m the only one with different questions……?

The three families that had decided to become enemies would not approve of me enrolling in the academy and making connections with the other nobles. But this was fortuitous, if they were able to tamper with the exam questions, it meant that they couldn’t tamper with the grading.

But the worst thing is that the questions are so easy. They made the questions easy so that people wouldn’t cheat and find out that the questions were different. Well, I guess I’m lucky to know that I can’t prevent people from cheating unless I do something like this. I’m really glad I played it safe.

I scribbled down the answers smoothly, and switched the question paper with the guy next to me who stopped answering just before the end of the exam. From there, with little time left, I hurriedly reviewed and corrected what was wrong and finished the exam.

When I walked out of the exam room, a short, overweight man was waiting for me. He approached me with an air of accidental recognition, smiled a sickening grin, and opened his mouth.

“Hello, Viscount Dreschord!”

“So it’s Alfred Orrard.”

I looked at the uniform that Alfred was wearing and saw that it belonged to the second year of the high school here. The reason why he came to school and wore the uniform on the day of the exam was probably to show off. If he is talking to me at this time, then he must have tampered with the exam questions. He’s a real jerk.

“By the way, how did you do on your exam?”

“It was very easy and I was able to solve it without any trouble!”

“I’m sorry I left so abruptly the other day, but we’ll get to know each other when you are admitted!”

Alfred burst into laughter.

There were so many other ways to keep me out of the school, but I knew that he had probably altered the test questions just to make fun of me.