Chapter 68

You have received a new email.

From. Maria

“Ah, it’s here.”

I was delighted once again to see Maria’s email arriving on time today, and I opened it. Attached was a simple workbook that she had made herself.

‘Thank you, Miss Maria.’

I looked toward the direction of the office where she would be and gave a silent word of thanks, then downloaded the attachment.

This was after the Ashita-kyo incident.

Perhaps still feeling guilty about making me cry back then, Maria had offered to grant me any request I wanted.

Without much thought, I had asked, ‘Studying for the exam is really difficult. Is there anything you could do about it?’ and she had said she understood.

Since then, Maria had been emailing me a custom-made written exam practice workbook every day, complete with brief explanations.

‘Seriously, what kind of person is Miss Maria……?’

Even now I still thought the same, but when I first received it, I was completely floored.

Just handling the duties of the Stingray Foundation’s chief secretary had to be a massive workload on its own, and I had heard that Aaron had recently given her even more tasks, making her busier than ever.

And yet, she somehow found the time to make a private tutoring workbook for me. That workload was something no ordinary stamina and mental strength could withstand.

And they weren’t hastily thrown together problems, either.

Each question was perfectly tailored to my level, and the explanations were so easy to understand that they went straight into my head.

Even for the essay-type questions, she would provide detailed corrections to my answers and include them in her next email.

Perhaps this was the level of capability required to be the right-hand woman of a man called the Crown Prince at such a young age. I truly respected her every time I thought about it.

‘Although honestly, what I meant was to use the Stingray Foundation’s influence to pass the exam for me…….’

But that was impossible.

Even though Trinity Academy had devolved into a private soldier training ground for corporations, not even the corporations could interfere with the results of an official exam.

More precisely, it wasn’t that they couldn’t, but that they wouldn’t.

If, for example, one of the megacorps tampered with the results to increase the value of their scholarship students…

From that moment on, other corporations would start doing the same, and the credibility of the Academy’s official exams would plummet.

That would mean they’d have to come up with a whole new method to rigorously screen talent outside of the official exams, and that would only increase pointless expenses.

In the end, manipulating exam results would be nothing but a loss for the corporations, making it an absolute taboo.

—So don’t expect me to do anything about it. If you fail to meet my expectations… well, you can look forward to what comes next.

Three meals a day of synthetic protein soup.

Just imagining that awful, disgusting taste made me feel like throwing up.

Back in the Fallen Sector, I often couldn’t even get that, but now that my tastes had grown more refined, I would rather die than eat it again.

‘Besides, with how much Miss Maria is doing for me, I’d feel bad not to study…….’

With that thought in mind, I had been doing my best to prepare for the midterms, and today I opened the workbook file Maria had sent for studying.

However—

“Huh?”

The document was corrupted.

Normally, it should have been filled with questions perfectly matched to my level, but this time, it was all replaced with indecipherable strings of text.

‘File error?’

Thinking something must have gone wrong during the download, I checked again, but nothing changed.

Could Maria have sent the wrong file by mistake?

That crossed my mind for a moment, but I quickly shook my head. Tomorrow was my first written exam, the most important time of all. Maria wasn’t the kind of person to make such a mistake at a time like this.

I thought it was a little strange, but there wasn’t much I could do. She was already busy, and I felt bad about calling her over something like this.

‘Well, I’ve learned enough so far, so I can manage on my own.’

Thinking it was nothing serious, I continued studying late into the night.

* * *

And then, the next day.

Trinity Academy Midterms.

When the first exam day arrived, the atmosphere in the classroom became even more tense.

Even students who were usually close started quietly keeping each other in check, and some had already been caught cheating before the exam even began.

Everyone paid special attention to what they ate and wore, and they were extra careful in their behavior so as not to attract unnecessary attention or jealousy.

“Hoo……”

It was stifling.

In the dry, heavy air that I could never quite get used to, I exhaled deeply and calmed my mind.

‘Focus. Stay focused.’

It was time for the real thing.

In this exam, the only one I could rely on was myself.

No matter how much my sponsor cared for her students, she wouldn’t keep investing in someone who produced no results.

‘I refuse to eat protein porridge three times a day…’

Taking one last moment to review with Maria’s handmade workbook—

At this point, I’d looked at it so much that it almost wouldn’t go into my head anymore.

Black shapes were words, white was background.

I had probably read more characters during this exam prep than I had in my entire 20 years of life.

Even though I had worked hard, cramming so much information into my brain in such a short time left me feeling dazed, like the black letters were swirling and colliding in my mind.

Would I really be able to do well like this?

I had my doubts, but it was true that I had worked harder than ever before in my life.

‘I’ve done everything I could.’

I steeled my resolve.

Soon, the first exam began.

[Trinity Academy Tactical Combat Department, Mystic Studies Introduction Midterm will now begin. Students, please connect the exam tablet cable at your seat.]

Each desk had a machine fixed to it shaped like a box, with a long wire extending from the top, ending in a plug for the socket hub.

I pulled it over and plugged it into the socket at the back of my neck, and a new window popped up before my eyes.

[Mystic Studies Introduction Midterm]

The exam will begin shortly. 1:58

Exam precautions

Do not disconnect the cable during the exam. If the connection is severed, it may be treated as cheating.

If there is an error in a question, please press the report button at the bottom right.

How to use the exam AR box

For the question you wish to answer…

So this is how it goes.

I read through the exam instructions carefully until the timer ran out, making sure I understood exactly how the test would be conducted.

—The exam will begin shortly. 0:05

Countdown.

I steadied my mind once more.

‘Focus. Let’s focus and do this.’

And then—

The exam began.

“How are the results?”

“According to the preliminary scoring data obtained by our scout, student Iri Elisbell ranked 55th out of all 368 students in the Tactical Combat Department.”

“……!?”

“Chairman? Is something wrong?”

“……No, nothing.”

My face froze in surprise for a moment. The rank was far higher than I had expected.

‘I honestly wasn’t expecting this…!’

In the original story, I remembered Iri’s first-year first-semester midterm results as being slightly below average. She had scored near the top in the practical exams—except for marksmanship—but her written exams had been such a disaster that “complete wipeout” would’ve been an understatement.

But this time, it was the opposite.

These were only the written exam results, but she was already ranked 55th. She hadn’t even completed the basic curriculum, so it should have been natural for her to fall behind the other students—yet somehow she had produced results well above average.

‘What’s going on?’

Even if she was smarter than she appeared, it wasn’t easy to achieve such results in such a short time.

I hadn’t arranged any personal tutoring for her, nor tampered with the exam results. So how did this happen?

‘What changed from the original?’

After thinking for a moment, I found my answer.

‘Ah, it must be because of Miyu.’

Compared to the original, Iri had been spending much more time with Miyu.

In the past, the main character Shade Wells had been the bridge between the two, but now they interacted directly far more often.

I suspected that spending time with Miyu, who had all her stat points poured into knowledge, had rubbed off on Iri to a significant degree—and that had shown in this exam.

“……Not bad.”

I acted calm, but inside I was thrilled. Who wouldn’t be happy to see their kid (not actually) doing well?

Of course, this was still only preliminary scoring, and there were plenty of exams left to take, so I couldn’t just relax. But still, I was happy.

And that wasn’t all.

[Event: First-Year First-Semester Midterms]

Help students achieve high scores. Rewards will vary depending on your contribution level and their grades.

[Contribution]

Iri Elisbell (??th place): 98%

Miyu (??th place): 95%

Silence (??th place): 0%

The Midterm Event.

Naturally, since I was the sponsor of two main characters, my contribution was the highest. The more influence I exerted to help them achieve great scores, the greater my rewards would be.

‘Iri’s already doing better than expected, Miyu will be in the top ranks as usual… Silence is the only one that’s a bit disappointing.’

Silence, a third-year, was still receiving treatment for the effects of the Junk Chip.

Normally, regardless of the circumstances, failing to take the exam would mean being out, but I had smoothed it over with the Stingray Foundation’s influence.

Well, the main story would resume once Silence woke up, so it was better for me if he stayed asleep until he was ready.

‘Preferably after the midterms are over.’

Before I turned into the villain, I planned to claim all my points and use them up. If I—now fully Aaron Stingray—were to freely use my Transmigrator perks on top of that, I’d be quite a handful to deal with.

‘I should prepare a reward.’

What should I give them?

Something that wouldn’t affect the story too much but would still make them happy… Ideally, something that would encourage them to keep growing quickly.

‘……Well, maybe it’s still too soon.’

I stopped thinking about it.

The exam results weren’t even out yet—no point in getting ahead of myself. I could give them their rewards after the midterms ended.

‘For all I know, Iri could bomb the other exams.’

…Or so I thought.

But the results completely exceeded my expectations.

“She’s 33rd in the Tactical Combat Department? That girl?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Huh…”

With only the last exam left, I let out a dry laugh at how far things had gone against my predictions. It wasn’t often I was caught off guard like this, but I was genuinely surprised.

‘Why is this kid improving so fast?’

In the original, she didn’t truly buckle down and even start conquering academics until at least her second year.

It would be simple to just say, ‘She’s improving faster because I intervened,’ but something still felt off.

‘Before entering the Academy, she had nothing to do with studying—so how…?’

Studying required momentum.

In the early stages, without basic knowledge, it was even harder to see results. Even factoring in the practical exams, these grades were far too good for Iri’s current abilities.

‘Could another transmigrator have intervened?’

But if that were the case, my contribution rate toward Iri should have changed—yet it had actually gone up by about 1%.

‘I’ll have to check.’

There was still some time before the last test, the Comprehensive Tactical Test. If I took a short break, I could see how she was preparing.

I headed straight for the comprehensive training ground where she was.

Following the Stingray-affiliated scouts’ guidance, I made sure to watch her from a distance so she wouldn’t notice.

She was in the corner of the training ground, practicing coordination with the teammates she would take the last exam with.

The moment I saw her, I let out a sigh.

‘Ah… I was mistaken.’

I could tell just from her expression.

This time, she had definitely prepared through her own effort. Iri only wore that kind of confident expression when she truly believed in herself.

“Let’s go back.”

“Shall we return to the office?”

“Yes… wait a moment.”

I stopped just as I was about to turn around.

I had a strange feeling.

There was one more thing I wanted to check.

“We’re going to the dormitory.”

I led my staff to Iri’s room. I ordered the female staff to clear away anything that might be sensitive, and after the cleaning was done, I stepped inside.

Sure enough.

As I had expected, the traces left in the room showed that Iri had been studying intensely during the exam period. Signs of her persistent effort were scattered everywhere.

While I was looking around, one of the staff checked the computer in Iri’s room and called me over.

“Chairman.”

He pointed at the screen.

It seemed that Maria, despite her busy schedule, had taken the time to help Iri study. Emails exchanged between her and Iri containing the workbooks were still there.

I had the staff go through all the emails exchanged between Iri and Maria, and soon found out that the attachment in the last email had been a “corrupted document.”

Just like the report I had received today.

‘Ah… so that’s what it was.’

No wonder it felt strange.

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