Sword, Magic and Academic Society

On the morning of the exam, I woke up at 5 o'clock as usual. Alas, it was unfortunately raining.

The exam was held between 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. so I just needed to arrive there at that time. Due to the multitude of crowds, examiners were given quite the freedom from a time perspective.

I changed from my pajamas and put on my rain gear.

"Be careful. Are you going to run today as well?"

Mother came to see me off at the entrance.

"Well, yeah. Running is my daily warm-up, and it's an important day. So I'm thinking of just acting as usual."

"Fufufu. Look at you, you've really matured. Take care, I'll have breakfast prepared."

◆

Rainy days are usually dangerous, so it's necessary to be more cautious than usual. It's quite easy to slip and injure yourself during this time, after all. Why was I stating the obvious? Well, of course, it was due to the presence of Body-Strengthening magic in this world.

A single mishap in controlling the power could lead to a slip, so even a simple running exercise could result in a major injury.

The boots I was wearing were made from monster leather, which had good grip and water-repellant properties that reduced the chance of slipping. Compared to the sneakers from my previous life, these far surpassed them. But then again, one couldn't be too cautious on a rainy day.

Another way was of course to reduce the intensity of magic to prevent injury. Doing that would further reduce the chance of slipping.

But if I wanted to keep up my current speed and momentum, I needed to carefully assess the ground's condition and adjust the mana intensity based on the slight sensation transmitted from my feet, stepping with just enough force. It was a simple yet profound process that required constant adjustments.

Skills that didn't require much thinking and were learned through experience were the forte of 'Allen' since the old days.

Overall, I enjoyed training on rainy days.

◆

After finishing my practice swings and returning home, I sat down for breakfast.

Since spring break was over and schools were going to open today, my elder sister was also awake. Unlike her sloppy appearance from the day before yesterday, she was wearing a fresh green dress adorned with a ribbon.

Her long hair was neatly braided, alternating with a somewhat plain dark brown scarf. It was a gift I got for her when I had her give me a tour of the Royal Capital.

Originally, I planned to rest my body the day before the exam after training time basically to prepare myself.

I was feeling a bit guilty in the end so I asked her to accompany me on a tour of the Royal Capital all day yesterday and gave her a cheap scarf as a thank-you gift.

When I offered the gift, she was deeply moved and started crying... Well, let's not talk about that.

I had faintly sensed that the color of the gift she chose kind of matched my hair, but I pretended not to notice… Nevertheless, I never imagined that there was a technique to braid a scarf into one's hair like this.

To be honest, I was a bit appalled. I really wished she could stop giving me mental damage on the exam day...

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

My mother served breakfast at the table.

Though we were just a bit better than the bottom-rung countryside nobles, we weren't rolling in the money enough to hire a cook at our secondary residence, so our meals were prepared by her.

There was the usual salad, bread, cheese, ham, scrambled eggs, and surprisingly, the portable emergency food in plain flavor!

My eyes unconsciously lit up like an elementary schooler being served hamburgers, dumbfounding my mother a bit who uttered 'You're still a child'. While my sister continued with her 'Allen-kun, cute~'.

Ugh... Well, whatever. At least, my sister had regained her cheerfulness as well.

I managed to recover from my damaged mental state from seeing her hairstyle by eating emergency rations.

◆

"Well then, I will see you off until the entrance, as you said. Good luck on your exam."

Usually, it was normal for nobles to be accompanied by their father, butler, or private tutor until the entrance to the Academy where the exam would be held when coming to take the exam for the Royal Academy.

However, just imagining being accompanied by parents made my skin crawl from embarrassment so during dinner last night, I told them they didn't need to accompany me.

"With your current conduct, I can now understand why that person allowed you to come to the Royal Capital alone."

Oh, you scored some brownie points, Father!

With one more worry weighing down my heart being resolved, my mood was lighter than ever.

"Then I'm going!"

Rain was drizzling down.

◆

With a leisurely pace, while compressing the mana that I had used in morning training and filling it back to the pool, I walked toward my destination.

I reached the academy just barely in time when the hand of the clock was still 10 minutes away from ticking 10 a.m. Fortunately — or should I say as expected — the venue wasn't jam-packed yet.

As for my at-the-last-moment arrival, there really wasn't any deep meaning behind it. Since there was usually a crowd present at the earliest time for pre-examination orientation, it was advisable to arrive a bit late. Well, it was the fairly common 'We can't let any incident happen, so let's leave early' scenario.

I would have left home with more time to spare as well if the Academy hadn't been within walking distance.

I zigzagged through the crowd of examinees who were being encouraged by their parents or private tutors, crossed the main gate, and reached the reception under one of the countless tents running parallel to the cobblestone path.

There, they measured my mana capacity with their specialized magic tool.

"A value of 2488, that's impressive! You can proceed straight along the cobblestone path and then follow the instructions to the practical exam venue."

The receptionist said so with a smile.

I looked ahead of the cobblestone path, and there, in a stupidly huge lawn, I saw a vast number of examiners waiting anxiously.

......Oh, was that the waiting area for the preliminary mana capacity cut-off that I had heard rumors about?

The Academy tallied the mana capacity after 10 a.m., and those who weren't able to make it to the first 3000 names were eliminated, not even given a chance to take the other exams— a cold-blooded system.

Well, not that I didn't understand why they were doing this as just conducting practical exams of all 10,000 examinees would take a complete day until nightfall to finish. And those who clearly surpassed a certain threshold were asked to head straight through without needing to wait on the lawn.

I walked on the path while receiving the envious gaze of nearly 9000 people. Ugh, this is riling up my nerves... One person advancing meant there would be one more person going back among them.

I arrived in front of the white building where the guides were waiting.

Those aspiring mages-to-be, go right, while those with other specializations go left— were the instructions.

I was quite curious about the situation on the right, but I trudged along to the left. From behind, I heard a roar of cheers and cries, like the rumbling of the earth...... Uh-oh, I gotta hurry up or I'd be embroidered in the remaining 2000 people rush......

◆

The practical field for the knight course was yet another stupidly huge place layered with black soil. It had become a bit muddy due to the morning rain, but the strange feeling of the soft earth under my feet was more of a concern.

It was a completely unfamiliar sensation.

One step, then another, I approached the reception while mentally refining the image of my mana manipulation. Arriving at the reception, my eyes were dominated by a multitude of wooden swords of various sizes propped up everywhere.

Choose any of the weapons you prefer and head to any of the examiners you see standing in the training ground— the receptionist told me when I conveyed my name.

"So anyone is fine?"

"Yes, it's the same whoever you go against. The confrontation will be between the examinees themselves."

The amicable-looking receptionist, a young man, answered.

Were 3rd years going to help out in this? I chose a suitable wooden sword for myself and once again shifted my gaze to the examination venue… As far as I could tell, there was just far too much imbalance between each examiner and the number of examinees they were handling.

Well yeah, even if the battle was with fellow examinees, it was still a human endeavor. There would definitely be some sort of favoritism in play. I couldn't see the whole grounds, but as far as I could see, there were already over a hundred examinees flocking around the amicable-looking examiners. On the other hand, the examiner just near the reception, which was built closer to the central area of the training ground, was...... a middle-aged man with an unkempt beard. His face looked scrunched up with obvious discontent.

He wasn't even giving the examinees in his area a proper look… He definitely seemed like a landmine. There were barely ten examinees around him.

He obviously had a hangover. He was giving the exact same vibes that my boss in my previous life used to exude when he was drunk and irked.

"Ugh, just stop your pathetic display, you lot. You don't have talent, go back."

'Shoo-Shoo', he motioned an examinee to leave.

An intense look of despair appeared on the examinee's face as they received the verdict.

It was unfortunate, but honestly, there was no one to blame but the examinees themselves for charging in mindlessly. They could have gotten a clue from the examiner's face which was obvious enough.

The god of exams is really weeding out those who aren't up to par in every world, huh?

Just like the mana capacity test, this practical test also had a cut-off.

From the 3000 students, about 2000 who clearly haven't met the standards would be screened out by the examiners until they narrowed down the numbers to 1000 examinees who would be taking the theoretical exam. While the actual details of the practical exam were modified to some degree depending on the year, if there was anything absolute, then it was that success in the practical exam depended on the discretion of the examinees.

How much they grasped about the practical exam and how specific their plan was as they confronted the exam determined their success.

I thanked the 700 years of bitter history of my family in my mind and straight up ignored the unkept beardo.

......And just then, I seemed to have been called.

Editor's note - The exam finally starts. 10 chapters of build-up, let's see where it goes.