Chapter 519: Compensation for Junior

Time went on, and just like I expected, the exam played out the way it was meant to.

The freshmen had a solid head start, especially when it came to racking up points early.

Their grouping method gave them an edge—most seniors couldn’t even break into the top twenty of the rankings at first.

It sounds bad, but it made sense.

Even some A-rank second years struggled when facing coordinated groups of B to A-rank freshmen.

A group of five A-ranks isn’t something you can just ignore, no matter how strong you are.

As expected, the S-Class freshmen led the rankings early on.

They were smart, and were powerful enough to actually make up for the lack of teams, some second years even took advantage of the rules.

But those kinds of strategies could only carry them so far.

At the end of the day, we were still their seniors for a reason.

Some second years just brute-forced their way through those groups, overpowering them.

Others got creative—since we couldn’t officially team up, some just made short-term alliances on the spot.

It wasn’t against the rules, after all.

Just because you can’t form a proper group doesn’t mean you can’t work together for a bit.

But everything shifted the moment the top second years were released from their assigned roles.

From that point on, the rankings flipped fast.

They climbed up the leaderboard like it was nothing, and before long, the second years had taken full control of the point rankings.

In the end, the evaluation ended in a clear landslide victory for the second years. It was expected, really.

But it did prove one thing—the first years weren’t pushovers.

They might’ve lost, but they held their ground better than anyone thought they would.

The biggest surprise, though?

Nobody got the hidden reward at the center of the forest.

Not a single one.

I honestly thought someone would’ve grabbed it, especially since no top senior had been guarding it.

Guess either nobody found it… or maybe they decided it wasn’t worth it.

The results came out… surprisingly, actually.

[#1 – KAGAMI KENTO – 89,150 Points]

[#2 – FLAMME – 87,200 Points]

[#3 – REINA HELL – 18,940 Points]

[#4 – SNOW LUVENITIA WHITE GERMONIA LEVEN – 17,900 Points]

[#5 – JANICA MORTELINA – 9,000 Points]

[#6 – URIEL ELORA – 7,780 Points]

[#7 – ANTONY SCHETY – 6,500 Points]

[#8 – SUSAN – 5,490 Points]

…

…

Honestly, most of it was expected.

Flamme getting knocked off the top spot made sense—she practically vanished from the map after securing her lead early on.

Typical Flamme move: go loud, then quiet. Maybe she got bored.

Kagami, on the other hand… yeah, no surprises there.

The guy’s basically built like a walking fortress.

A tank with fists strong enough to wipe out a small team by himself. I figured he’d show up at the top eventually.

He probably steamrolled his way through every obstacle.

Even my beloved Snow made it to the upper ranks.

A proud moment, really.

I’m guessing a group of students wandered too close to her territory and got cleared out in one go.

Either that, or her presence alone was enough to dominate the zone she was in.

But then…

Reina…?

Reina??

Third place?!

How the hell did my little sister climb that high?

I mean—I wasn’t exactly watching the leaderboard the entire time, but I swear, during the last couple of days, she wasn’t even close to the top ten.

Her name didn’t even show up in the top twenty when I last checked.

And now she’s suddenly ranked third? Just behind two monsters like Kagami and Flamme?

What happened?

Did she somehow power up when I wasn’t looking?

Clear out a swarm of monsters or something?

Maybe she found a hidden cluster and farmed them all for points?

No, wait—Reina’s strong, sure, but she doesn’t have the kind of stamina for a long, drawn-out hunt. That doesn’t match her style at all.

She’s not built for endless grinding.

Then again… maybe she took out students?

That would explain the sudden point boost. Hunting students gives way more points than monsters anyway.

Still… knowing Reina, that’s not a route I expected her to take.

She’s not exactly the type to go out of her way to fight others unless pushed. Right?

Unless… something changed.

Well, whatever the reason was, it doesn’t matter right now.

Whether it was strategy, luck, or something else entirely—I guess I just have to be proud of her.

She really did well.

Even if it makes no damn sense.

Speaking of which… Lucas. That guy. Our dear, damn protagonist.

Surprisingly… he got eliminated.

Out of all the things that could’ve happened, that was probably the biggest shock I heard—other than Reina shooting up the rankings, of course.

Like, seriously—Lucas? Who the hell managed to take him down?

I had a few suspects in mind.

A handful of people, at best, could even stand a chance against him in a straight fight.

But knowing Lucas, he probably got caught up in some trap or bait play.

For someone whose fate is basically set in gold, he sure does fumble the bag at the worst times.

His instincts are sharp, but his common sense?

Questionable at best.

Maybe I should’ve paid a bit more attention to the rankings after all.

Then again, I was preoccupied with Rose.

After I took care of both Stacia and Vanessa, I went straight to her side.

And, as expected, she sensed something off—some kind of mana fluctuation—and dashed off to check it out.

But by the time she got there, the strange mana was already gone.

Completely. Like it was never even there to begin with.

“Was that energy dangerous, Riley?”

“No, not really.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“…Alright then. But seriously—don’t lie. And stop trying to take care of everything on your own.”

“…Yeah.”

As expected of a Demon King of his caliber—Asmodeus, the last boss of this Act.

He wasn’t the type to confront his enemies head-on.

That much was obvious.

He preferred to move in the shadows, orchestrating schemes with layers upon layers of deception.

A classic manipulator.

And frankly?

That made things both easier and harder.

At least I now had confirmation that he did exist in this scenario, and more importantly—that he had made his move, or at the very least, started monitoring the current chain of events.

Just his attention alone meant things were progressing faster than anticipated.

To be honest, for all his infamy and power, Asmodeus wasn’t exactly a direct threat to me.

If I truly wanted to, I could probably hunt him down early and eliminate any future complications he might cause. A preemptive strike, clean and quiet.

But… that wasn’t really an option.

Asmodeus was directly tied to Lucas’ final Chapter scenario—his big moment.

The so-called “last trial” in his journey.

If I got rid of the Demon King now, I’d be disrupting not just the story’s rhythm but also cutting off one of the most important growth arcs for Lucas.

And while I had no particular obligation to hold back… well, erasing a major endgame boss this early would bring more trouble than it solved.

Still, his involvement meant one thing for certain—Stacia’s in for more problems down the line.

That clown demon she’s about to be entangled with?

Yeah, it’s drawing its power from Asmodeus.

A puppet of the bigger game.

But judging from Stacia’s current specs and the way she performed last time, I wasn’t too worried.

Unless something drastically shifted, she should be able to handle whatever nonsense that clown throws her way.

On another note, I also managed to confirm that Erebil isn’t secretly plotting anything behind my back.

For now, at least.

Which was a relief.

Out of all the unpredictable variables in the system, Erebil ranks pretty high when it comes to “potential wild card disasters.” But if she’s staying put for now, that buys me some breathing room.

Still… since Asmodeus is already active, checking in on the saintess—Emilia—from time to time is a necessity.

In the original scenario, it took both Lucas and Emilia to defeat him.

That fight was the climax, the final stand that led to the birth of the “Lightbringer” title that echoed throughout the world.

I didn’t really do much during the exam.

Honestly, I just used the time to relax and enjoy the next few days with Rose.

She didn’t seem all that interested in the exam either—no surprise there.

So, instead of treating it like a serious evaluation, we turned the whole thing into a quiet little picnic date.

Nothing too fancy.

Just the two of us ignoring the chaos and pressure around us while pretending we weren’t being watched by a bunch of irritated academy staff.

And yeah, that probably pissed off the principal.

Along with every professor, proctor, and staff member quietly monitoring the exam from the sidelines, hoping to see something dramatic.

But what could they really do about it?

This whole so-called “evaluation exam” was more of a performance review anyway.

It was designed to assess the results of the academy’s month-long training—basically checking how well their top seniors had prepared the new batch of first-years. In other words, a showcase of the academy’s system, not ours.

So I didn’t feel particularly compelled to participate seriously, especially when the results had already been decided before the exam even started.

Stacia’s performance alone had already raised the bar to ridiculous heights.

And as for Rose—well, she’s Rose.

She could sleep through the entire test and still walk away with full marks just because of who she is. Her name carries weight.

So does her power.

The academy practically uses her and Alice as walking billboards—living proof of the school’s supposed “magical excellence.”

As long as they’re around, the academy gets to brag about its prestige, as if all the talent those two have was something they built from scratch.

So no, I wasn’t particularly worried.

They wouldn’t dare do anything that might risk ruining Rose’s image—especially not during an exam they themselves hyped up as an “important milestone.”

They rely too much on her presence. She’s part of the image they sell to the outside world.

And before we even noticed it, the whole exam wrapped up—just like that.

No stress. No drama.

Just another day.

….

Two days had passed since the evaluation exam ended, and as expected, our updated class rankings were already plastered across the academy bulletin.

To commemorate the results, a “special announcement” was scheduled at the academy gymnasium—an event addressing the overall rankings of both the first-years and second-years after the evaluations.

A big deal, apparently.

It was supposed to be one of those noisy, dragged-out gatherings filled with pointless speeches and awkward clapping.

The kind where everyone fakes interest while secretly checking who beat who. Basically, another waste of a perfectly good afternoon.

But I wasn’t there.

I had no intention of sitting through any of that.

“…I want the apples this time, senior.”

The soft voice beside me pulled me back to the present.

My fork gently pierced a freshly cut slice of apple from the plate on my lap, and I brought it to Stacia’s lips.

She accepted it with a faint smile.

We were in the academy’s medical ward.

I was sitting in a stiff white chair, leaning forward to feed my bedridden junior piece by piece from a small tray of fruits.

The window beside us let in a quiet afternoon light.

“Cough…! Cough…!”

I immediately reached for the water and brought it to her lips. “Here…. I also brought some high-grade mana potions…”

She drank slowly, the tremble in her hands just barely noticeable.

After a moment, she gave me that same gentle look again and whispered, “Thank you…”

I didn’t respond.

My eyes dropped to the damp tissue in her hand—the one she’d used to wipe the small trail of blood from the corner of her mouth.

Shit…

She looked fine on the surface.

Still beautiful, still composed.

But I knew better.

Whatever was wrong with her—it was worse than I thought.

That’s right…

I screwed up.

After the exam ended, something had gone wrong—terribly wrong with Stacia….

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