Became a Childhood Friend of an Academy Genius

17 – Mock Test

Before tomorrow’s mock test, today was the final skill test.

It was last year’s mock test that Marie asked for from a second-year student she knew, but it was quite difficult.

“Whoa….”

Somehow I succeeded in filling out the answer form, and as I leaned against the backrest, an involuntary sigh came out of my mouth.

“Are you done? Take it?”

“Yes.”

Marie took the test paper I had finished solving and gave her a score.

The guy looked at me with a sullen face and nodded as if the scoring was over before long.

“Huh…. Well, this is pretty good for class E.”

“That’s a relief.”

His way of speaking got used to it over the course of four days.

Thanks to that, I could easily figure out that the meaning behind the words meant that this was enough to get a higher rank.

With this, did you enter the realm of stability?

With that thought, her tension loosened and she leaned against the backrest as if collapsing.

It seems Marie didn’t want to see me at ease like this even for a moment.

She immediately opened her mouth as if admonishing her, raising her index finger and squinting her eyes.

“It’s too early to be relieved. You never know what problems will arise tomorrow.”

“People say that they will at best find peace of mind, so do we have to be so hard on ourselves?”

“Hmph.”

Anyway, he’s not a cute guy.

I’m grateful though he taught me diligently for four days.

‘I need to reevaluate.’

I had to re-establish her assessment of Marie inwardly.

I thought it was Ping-Chang with a bad personality, but I thought it was just Ping-Chang with a dirty personality.

Certainly, unlike Elisha, tick-tick sometimes annoys me, but other than that, it was close to perfect in terms of teaching.

Even that Elisha used to go through the textbook again when explaining the theoretical part in the middle.

Or there were times when the person himself was confused and found out about that part again and explained it to me the next day.

But Marie had none of that.

She answered my questions straight away, as if it were an encyclopedia, and she didn’t particularly look through her textbooks or books.

At this level, wouldn’t even a class A cadet with a decent level of theory be unable to even give out a business card?

“Anyway, thank you for the four days. Number of animals.”

While her past teachings passed by like a kaleidoscope.

I reached out to her, suddenly feeling the need to thank her.

She, of course, may have done something wrong and worked hard in the sense of reflecting on it.

But that’s it, and thanks to that, I thought I deserved to express my gratitude for the fact that I got help and got one step closer to my goal.

However, the guy made a fuss by pressing his body close to the edge of the chair, as if he was embarrassed by this behavior.

“Ah, what’s wrong with you all of a sudden? I feel bad.”

Oh, this is real.

At least on the last day, we shouldn’t part with each other laughing.

This bastard’s Ping-Chang is like a thorn in his mouth when my words end.

Or is it that you have a constitution where you can’t get out without hearing a single voice?

“Dude, are you crazy about people expressing their gratitude?”

“If you’re going to do that, say thank you when you ran errands for bread!”

“That is the natural thing to do as an errand boy.”

“Wu, that sucks!”

In the end, it seems like today, as always, we broke up with each other blushing.

Rather, I wonder if this suits the two of us.

I shamelessly scratched my cheek and put the writing utensil back into the pencil case.

I’ll have to get rid of it before I make you feel any worse.

We often parted for four days without saying goodbye.

So today, without fail, I sneakily grabbed my bag and was about to get up.

“Hey, wait!”

“Hmm?”

Marie grabbed me in a rather urgent tone.

Her

Looking back at her standing up from her seat. The guy looking up at me with her hesitant eyes.

Looking at it, he seemed to be holding something between his hands and trying to hide it.

Could it be that I bought bread in advance because I was afraid I would be hungry?

If it’s something like that, I can’t help but praise it.

“Hey…. This.”

“What is this?”

What Marie carefully held out was a pen.

Quite a luxurious appearance with gold decorations on the black exterior.

It feels like it will be dozens of times more expensive than the E course at the cafeteria I bought for lunch today.

Perhaps a nobleman would like to brag about using such an expensive pen?

I was dazed and only blinked my eyes as if asking what to do.

Then, with his cheeks blushing, the guy forcibly put the pen on my hand as if touting it.

“Bar, take it! What are you doing embarrassing people!”

“Ugh…. Okay. But what kind of pen is this all of a sudden?”

He opened the pen piece by piece and asked why he had given it.

Marie looked at me with sullen eyes as if she didn’t know that and sighed.

“Since the pen you used is so worn out, I am giving it to you as a present because it is pathetic. And in the sense of doing well in the exam tomorrow.”

“It’s a big deal. I never thought the day would come when I would receive a present from you.”

“If you’re going to say that, give me the road! I took good care of it… !”

She ran away avoiding Marie who was about to reach out to her in anger.

‘To take back what was given somewhere.’

Besides, it’s my first time using such an expensive-looking pen, so I’m looking forward to it.

I heard that the nib and writing feel of this type of pen are excellent.

“Anyway, I’ll write well. Thanks. Number of animals.”

“Go, thank you, so go ahead. And if I don’t get to the top of the table tomorrow, I’ll die.”

I must be the one who is gloomy because I didn’t get to the top of the table, but why is it such a mess?

Since you taught me diligently for four days, do you think you are expecting my own test results?

It might be a message of encouragement to play well otherwise.

Well, if you received such enthusiastic support, you should work hard.

“Yes. Good luck and I’ll report the results. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“… ….”

Somehow Marie didn’t even look this way and turned her head to the window where her sunset was setting.

Anyway, he’s a guy who sticks around until the end.

Thanks to that, I think my tension has eased a bit.

“… Put.”

As she tried to put the pen Marie had given her into her pencil case, she smiled and ran out of the library holding it in her hand.

I’ll be surprised if you let Elisha hear it.

* * * *

Two days later.

The results of the mock exam consisting of a total of five subjects that I took the day before finally came out.

After hearing that the score sheet had been released in the hallway, Elisha left the classroom and headed to the place where people were gathered.

It doesn’t mean much, but isn’t it human nature to be curious about the score after the original test is over?

It wasn’t much different for her either.

【Mock Test Results for Class A】

1St place. Elisha Crozel 488 points.

Second place. Nedric Artemia 475 points.

Third place. Casyan Rudric 471 points.

…

…

Unlike the formal test, each class was assigned a rank, so the results of the other classes could not be confirmed.

Among them, Class A’s first place is Elisha.

In some ways, this may be a natural result.

Regardless of her major, she was an honor student who had mastered both the combat department and the sorcery department.

On the other hand, other cadets are exposed to the slightest deficiency in certain subjects.

“As expected, Elisha-nim must be number one….”

“She was great in practice, but she was also number one in theory….”

“I feel something strange. Right?”

I could feel the buzz around the people who checked the scorecard, but Elisha tried to ignore it and moved on.

Because the goal she aspires for is too high to be happy and happy with the results of a mock test like this.

‘What happened to Marie?’

There was no sign of happiness, nor sign of dissatisfaction.

With her grave expression, she set out to find her friend first.

Eventually, as we arrived in front of Class B’s classroom, all eyes gathered around us.

Elisha was a well-known cadet because of her family, except for the fact that she belonged to Class A.

Of course, there is nothing to say about her beauty.

“Excuse me, but could you step aside for a moment?”

“Ah, yes…. Sorry.”

A young student who had been staring at Elisha belatedly came to his senses when he heard her voice and opened her way.

The moment she stepped out of the crowd that split like the Red Sea.

“Elisha!”

At the end of her hallway, her pink hair slicked, and her Marie jumped in welcome.

“Ah, Marie. How did the test go?”

“It’s me, of course I’m number one! What about Elisha?”

“I’m also number one.”

The two proudly placed first in Class A and Class B, respectively, and smiled at each other.

Even if it’s a mock test that doesn’t mean much, it felt good to win first place anyway.

“Oops. That guy is also number one, did you know?”

“That guy…. Who are you talking about?”

Elisha tilted her head as there were few cadets the two of them could have known in common.

Then she hesitated for a moment, but eventually put the name of the person in her mouth.

“Bel Denauer. That guy!”

“Oh, did Dinaur also take first place? Incredible.”

Elisha opened her eyes wide at the fairly unexpected news.

She wasn’t particularly underestimating Bell, it was because she thought it would be difficult for her to rank high in this mock exam.

The biggest reason why cadets from commoners have difficulty adapting to the academy is the theoretical part.

Cadets from aristocrats usually have access to all kinds of books from their families, but commoners have a hard time even buying a single book.

Therefore, although there are occasional cases where talented commoners stand out in practice, it takes quite a bit of time to achieve excellent grades in theory.

Looking at it from that point of view, even though he was ranked No. 1 In Amman’s E class, Bell’s grades deserve high praise.

While Elisha was thinking of sending her congratulations to Belle later. She

She suddenly realized a fact and opened her mouth with a mischievous smile.

“She must have been quite interested in the results of Dinauer’s exam, by the way. Number of animals.”

“Huh? Wh, what do you mean?”

Marie kept her eyes open wide.

But she couldn’t escape Elisha’s eyes.

She understood the reason why she was breathing heavily just a moment ago.

“Well, in order to know the contents of the announcement so quickly, you have no choice but to go to class E as soon as the results come out, right?”

“What? Oh no! I just… !”

What is she?

The problem is that she came after looking at the score sheet and reported it to Elisha as if she were excited about it.

It would have been fine if she had at least put some time away and said she found out later.

She was Marie rolling her head to find an excuse for her somehow, but there was one thing she didn’t know.

The fact that Elisha had another card in her hand.

“Come to think of it, I also briefly met Dinauer this morning, and I heard that Marie gave her a nice present the day before the exam?”

“Wait, a gift?”

As Elisha pointedly pointed at her, Marie’s body jumped out of place.

“Yes. From what I’ve heard, it’s a very nice pen. He even cheered me on to cheer up, right?”

“Oh no! What is cheering! I just gave you a pen…. Ah.”

She was surprised and protested, but as she spit out her words, she belatedly realized that she had fallen into Elisha’s trap.

Marie’s trembling eyes met Elisha’s turquoise eyes.

Within a moment, Elisha’s mouth and eyes drew an arc and a deep eye smile was engraved.

“Huh, it seems that it is true that he gave me a pen as a gift.”

“Sir…. That idiot is real!”

She’s embarrassing, so she told me not to go anywhere and tell her she gave it to me as a gift.

Marie poured out her anger at the disgusting man who broke it in two days.

“It looks like the two of you have become very close. What a relief.”

“Getting closer! Um, if that’s the case, why did Elisha even willingly take care of his studies!?”

“Oh. She’s cornered herself, so it’s not good for her to try to back her opponent. Number of animals.”

She thought it was a good counterattack and let out her anger, but unfortunately it didn’t work on Elisha.

Although she can’t even tell others what she is in the first place.

‘It’s a bit of a waste.’

Looking at Marie, who had become friendly with Bell, Elisha calmed her down.

If possible, I wanted to get closer to him while taking care of his studies and find out if he really had anything to do with the sword castle.

Of course, her hard work is so admirable that she helped me a lot, though.

Meanwhile, Elisha suddenly came up with a question.

‘Come to think of it, why did Dinaur put so much effort into the mock exam?’

At most, the top-ranked seats are a tour ticket.

I don’t know if that’s such a valuable perk, though.

Maybe she had a reason to get it.

At the moment, there is nothing to point out.

‘I’ll find out later.’

Even if that wasn’t the case, she decided to appease her friend, who was still screaming, thinking that there would be an opportunity to ask later.