"You two look like zombies."
Susan nodded to show support for Lilith"s comment.
As one of the two said zombies, I ignored her and went to the bulletin board.
It was showing a hologram about the exam"s schedule.
Till now no one knew which exam will be first and in what order.
Watching Lilith and Susan"s relaxed att.i.tude, I knew they hadn"t seen the schedule.
Looking forward to their shocked faces, I pointed to the schedule.
Lilith looked up with a questioning gaze at the bulletin board.
"What is this?!"
Susan didn"t shout like her, but the shock on her face gave me similar satisfaction.
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I could feel my fatigue being washed away.
"hehehe..feel the despair like us."
"We only have a 1-hour gap between each exam?!"
To clarify, everyone, irrespective of their chosen subjects, has 8 subjects in total. The exam for each subject was 2 hours long.
This meant we will have one exam, then a 1-hour break, then again an exam, and repeat.
We will be spending 24 hours giving our exams!
Professor Sean, who was Katana-cla.s.s" invigilator for the first exam, came to Lilith. It seems he heard her shouting.
"Is there any problem with the exam schedule, cadet?"
"Problem? The complete schedule is a problem. With Ward"s standard, the written exams are already hard to complete within 2hours. We are supposed to continue this for 24 hours? I don"t think many cadets have this level of mental power to hold their concentration for so long."
Lilith spoke to the professor fiercely.
From where she got such confidence, I did not know.
"No, wait I do. She is the daughter of Vice Headmaster."
Professor Sean stared at Lilith and spoke.
"Are you saying because of continuous exams, students can"t maintain their top condition for the exams? So, we need to show a little leniency?"
"Yes, professor."
Professor Sean suddenly smiled.
"There is a famous story about frontlines."
He started speaking loudly. Now everyone was focusing on him.
"A young talented awakener was drafted to Elven frontlines. With his great talent, everyone had great expectations of him. True to his talent, he gained merit fast and, with his connections, climbed ranks faster."
A semi-circle was formed, with Professor Sean as the center.
"After becoming a Captain he treated everyone in his squad kindly. Making sure they sleep well, eat good food, and have an enjoyable time. Do you know the current status of their squad?"
Lilith shook her head.
"Dead. They missed a spy replacing their teammate, which led to all of them being killed by the same spy."
Sean broke eye contact with Lilith and looked at everyone gathered.
"On frontlines, you will have to go on for many days without sleep. With the continuous enemy attacks, you will have to be at your best performance every moment you are awake. One mistake can get you and your entire cohort dead.
If you think getting comfortable is the answer. Then you are dead wrong. Think of this exam as preparing you people for it."
Gulp-
Someone gulped when Professor Sean went silent.
A few seconds later, Profesor Sean went inside, but the silence remained.
"Come inside. The first exam is about to begin!"
As we were going inside, I tapped Leon"s back and pa.s.sed him a vial.
"Drink it."
Glup- Glup-
I brought another vial out and drank it.
Immediately, all the fatigue from the week-long sleepless nights vanished.
Colour returned to our faces, and our dark circles vanished.
"Why are you wasting Elix-"
Pow-!
I punched him reflexively before he spoke the word "Elixir".
Even though no one will believe him that we were drinking Elixir to remove our fatigue, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Then I went inside and sat at my desk.
Professor Sean began distributing the papers, and the trial began.
"I t..think I did good!"
Leon spoke half-certain, half-anxious. He had a bright smile on his face as we meet during the break.
We discussed a few topics before going back in.
As I was going back in, I saw that a seat in the front was empty.
"Someone is skipping the exam?"
But it had nothing to do with me, so I ignored it.
Susan, Lilith, Leon, Cadmus, and I met whenever an exam was completed.
Must I say how great of a help Leon was? Looking at him kept me entertained.
Every time we met, his expression changed. He went from a bright smile to a dull smile in three exams.
The smile turned into a neutral expression by the 5th exam.
Currently, minutes before the last exam, he has a carefree smile on his face and his eyes have lost their radiance.
(Looks like he completely gave up)
"B..but Sir please let me do a re-test. I am late because I was in the Dungeon of Trials."
Inside the cla.s.s, a girl was pleading to Professor Sean with her viridian eyes.
Broken twigs were laced in her black hair. Her clothes had been cut in many places, proving her earlier statement true.
She was pleading to let her take the tests she has missed.
"Cadet Anna, all the cadets have been informed about the exam a month ago. There was even an inbuilt remainder in everyone"s devices that should have rung a week ago. Your missing the exams is not the responsibility of Ward and solely your own."
Anna had no choice but to sit and give the last exam with a crestfallen expression.
I turned and sat at my own desk.
"I hope my last exam will go a little better than the ones before."
(Don"t ignore it!)
(What happened to Anna? Wasn"t she supposed to take first place in the written examination?)
"Why do you think I know the answer? Besides, she can still pa.s.s if she gets a high score in practicals. There won"t be much change to the story if doesn"t get first place."
I could feel Eth"s frustration, shock, and anger as I paid no heed to Anna"s subject.
"I know what you want me to do and yes, I"ll deal with her issue. It"s just… just that I don"t want to deal with anything for now."
I was being irresponsible. But I was a human too.
"Just let me take a short break where I don"t need to worry about anything."
"You can start writing!"
Scratch- Scratch-
Despite the fact that technology was advanced, we were writing answers in paperback.
Immersed in writing, I didn"t even realize when 2 hours were up.
"Time up. Stop writing."
After submitting my answers, I went back to my dorm.
On my way, I saw Lilith, Leon, and Cadmus trying to cheer up a depressed Anna.
Meow~
"It"s you. Where you"ve been?"
I picked up the black cat on my way to the dorms.
"(It"s weird)"
As I was caressing it, both Eth and I spoke at once.
"You go first."
(The cat is weird. It never came to me, nor did it let me touch it when I was in control.)
That"s certainly weird.
(What were you saying?)
"Doesn"t it look more…"
(More?)
"I don"t know. More catlike?"
(…do you know how stupid you are sounding right now?)
(Of course, a cat will be cat-like)
I nodded my head.
But I still couldn"t remove the doubt about this cat.
It was too smart for a beast.
To clear my thoughts, I used appraisal on it.
"[Appraisal]"
======
Name: Kitty
Rank: Meta
Level: 3
Stars: 0-star
Species: Shadow black cat
Status: Healthy/Hungry/Lazy
[Likes your petting]
======
"Looks like it is a normal cat."
With this, all my doubts about this cat"s ident.i.ty were gone.
While I was checking the cat, I finally reached in front of my room.
-TRING
I rang my doorbell before entering the room.
-CLICK
"Did I leave the lights off?"
As far as I remember I have a habit of leaving the lights on.
"I was the one to do that."
My body froze when I got an answer.
Flip-
Sound of flipping pages entered my ears.
Flip-
Sitting on the table was a young, pet.i.te boy. He was going through a blue diary and his back was turned to me.
The boy rotated the chair and turned to me.
His eyes were closed, yet it felt like he could see.
"How did he even get inside without raising alarms? No, before that…"
I looked at the blue diary in his hands.
"I wrote everything in that diary in my world"s native language. If he can read that, is he…"
Flip-
"You are quite calm, despite my sudden intrusion."
The body spoke while flipping the pages.
I shook my head at his words.
"No, I"m plenty shocked myself. You see, I have a habit of ringing my doorbell before entering. This can surprise people who are hiding inside and maybe they will make a mistake. But you didn"t get surprised in the least."
"…I don"t think that trick will ever work."
"Yeah, it never worked."
This trick didn"t work once, even in my past life. But what can I do? Old habits die hard.
"I didn"t get surprised because of another reason though."
"Because you sensed me coming with your stigma [Echo-Location]?"
The pet.i.te boy nodded his head.
Finally, he raised his head.
"Looking at your plans for the future that you made by a.n.a.lyzing the novel, I want to ask one thing."
Turning to me, Lark pointed his other hand at my diary.
"Did we even read the same novel?"
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