Ten minutes before the end of the break, the results of the written test were posted.
　The students swarmed around.
　At any rate, the next exam would start after the break. It's the only time you can check the progress of the exam.

Oh, Mr. Lugue. There are two pieces of paper posting the test results.
Stick out the servant quota separately.

A noble can bring up to one servant, and if that servant has magical powers, he or she can be in the same class as the Lord if he or she wishes, and take classes.
　However, there are not ten servants in total who have magic power.
　When dividing the class, each of them have their own quota without including the servants.

''I did it, I did it. In the servant quota, I'm the best!　Also, it says (6th) on the right. What is it?　Huh, I'm relieved that I didn't embarrass Master Lugue.
Sixth place is an overall ranking. That's a great result to be proud of. You can usually have a shot at an S-class.
That's great. I'm pretty good at it, too, but I'm losing, too. I want to see the results, but I can't see them.

The crowd prevents her from approaching the standings, so Dia is jumping up and down trying to get a peek behind her, but it seems to be tough on her short stature.

'Dia, let me give you a shoulder,'
"Yikes!

I shoulder her. Dia made a rare, cute sound.

'Thanks, but it's kind of embarrassing and I'm a big sister. Such a childish thing to do.'
She's my sister now, so she'll be fine.

Yes, Dia is my sister, even though she is a fake household name.
　So, as an older brother, I'll do this much. ...but I love your thighs, by the way. They're so smooth and warm.
　Honestly, it's no good. I never had any ulterior motive.

"How's the pecking order?
Yeah, I see it. Uh, that's Roughridge coming in first. Oh, my God, there are two first-place finishers. That guy, that creepy guy, is number one, too.

.........I see, Neusch wasn't just a man with a big mouth.
　He expected to get a perfect score as long as there were no errors in the material he learned about history itself.
　Then Neusch also got a perfect score, or close to it.

''I'm in third place. Ugh, that's frustrating. I was secretly hoping for first place.''
'No, it's more than enough. The practical skills are magic and body arts. Deer will make a lot of money in magic, and his body arts aren't bad. I can aim for an S class enough.
I'm second to none in witchcraft. Against a rogue, I'm a little skeptical.

Dia's chanting and magic manipulation is an art form.

I can beat you on simple power output, but I don't think I can beat you on fine control.

'Come to think of it, how's your performance, Brave Lord? You can see it from there.''
I don't know his name. I don't know his name.
No, I know. Epona. Epona Rhiannon.

After hearing the information that a brave man had appeared, I did a lot of research.
　And we know that the brave man was not born, but awakened.
　A mere ordinary person was suddenly reborn as a brave man.
　Epona Rhiannon, like Touahade, was born into a baronial family.

It seems that she was also a dropout who was born without magical powers despite being a nobleman, and Baron Riannon's family was having quite a hard time having a child other than Epona, as it was difficult to have a child other than Epona.

In addition, Epona Rhiannon has many strange things going for her.
　Although she is definitely a male on the family register, the more I look into it, the more I suspect that she is a female.
　Thus, when I look at the real thing, I can't tell which one it is.

"Epona, epona. Oh, there she is. Eighth from the bottom.
Thank you. I think I have it all figured out.

Putting down Dia.
　The brave man this time doesn't seem to have any signs of advanced education.
　That means he shouldn't have received any magical training either.
　Basically, it's safe to assume that he's just a brainiac.

''I thought the brave man was an amazing person, but it's not so bad.
In the end, it's what you've built up in your life. It's not enough to be born with substandard abilities. But you are only fourteen years old. You'll grow from here on out.

That's exactly what the school is for.

I'm sure you're not the only one. I have the feeling that people around me have been watching me for a while now.
With these grades, it's no wonder.

The children of famous noblemen are paying attention to us.
　Noish, who is tied for first place with me, is a duke and it's not surprising that he has good grades, but it's strange and abominable that we, the barons, are able to get such good grades.
　In short, I'm not convinced that we've lost to lower nobles because of the education we've received and how smart we are.
　But some of them didn't seem to care about such things.

I thought I had won first place by a landslide, but I didn't expect to be on par with me. I knew you were as good as I thought you were.

Neusch, a beautiful blond boy, hugging his shoulder in a familiar way.

"Let's have a good second half of the year.
Of course. I'm trying to get into the top of the class, you know. There's no such thing as a top seat that's been given away, you know.
I know. I'll do my best, too.

It's not a lie to say I'm giving it my all. It's just as much as you can show, though.
　The bell sounded to signal the end of the break and the instructor came over again, signaling the start of the second half of the game.

◇

The afternoon's practical exam was half over.
　First of all, it's the magic test.
　You have to declare your strongest attribute, chant and invoke the three types of magic you are set up for, and you will be graded.
　The grading criteria are the amount of magic power released, the conversion rate of the released magic power, the chanting speed, and magic accuracy.

I suppressed my magic power and chanted with an extremely excellent level of magic power, which is only within the bounds of common sense.
　The result was second place.

''Hmph, I'm second to none in magic.

First place is scowling next to me.

It's as good as it gets. The chanting was so beautiful, I was in awe of it.
'I'm curious about the magic conversion. No matter how many times I've seen it, I don't know how you can convert it without wasting so much time.

Converting magic into magic without wasting it.
　This is an extremely important technique. Hence, I've been trying it out myself to the point of disgust, but I just can't beat Dia.
　For the average magician, the standard is 70 percent, and for me, it varies around 90 percent. But with Deere, it's always ninety-five percent.

This isn't just a matter of getting better mileage and increasing the power of magic. Accuracy is increased because there are no adverse effects from magic power that couldn't be converted completely.
　Me and Dia's conversion rate is only five minutes different, but those five minutes are huge.

The tart is slumped over his shoulder.
　By the way, above Tart is Noish and the brave Epona.
　Looking at Noish's chanting, I am convinced that he is a hard worker.
　There's no doubt that he has a top-notch master, he has good taste. But that's not enough to use that much magic.
　You need to make a bloody effort.

He's a kooky guy and likes to show off. But behind that, there's a solid effort.
　And, surprisingly, Epona.
　That one's a mess. Her magic conversion efficiency is poor. At best, it's 50-60% below the general level. The chanting is also slow. Accuracy is also poor.
　But the amount of magic power released is too much of a standard, and that alone is enough to overtake Neusch and Tart in the overall score.

Hey, Dia. Can you believe that? How could the basic magic of the fire attribute, the 【Flame Ball】, become like that?
Yeah, I don't want to believe it either. It's such a bullshit, bullshit, bullshit magic. I wonder what would have happened if I'd trained him properly and chanted it at a normal level of proficiency.

[Flaming Ball]. As the name suggests, magic that produces a ball of fire the size of a fist.
　It flies slowly and fluffily, and if it hits you, it's enough to burn your skin.
　But the flaming ball that the brave man fired was different.
　A scorching hot bullet like a compressed sun was shot out at a speed that surpassed even sound, and everything in its path was reduced to ashes and disappeared into the distance.

........This is with elementary magic. Probably not just a simple amount of magic power, but also a skill that enhances magic.
　The thought of fighting that thing makes me shudder.
　At least the saving grace is that the chanting is poor and even beginner level magic takes a few dozen seconds.
　It's also a weakness that will disappear once I learn it in this school.
　Because of the fact that I was shown something like this, I wanted to kill it while it was still alive.

◇

And then, bodywork.
　First, various measurements are taken.
　Muscle strength, instantaneous force, jumping power, endurance, reflexes, etc.
　All of which will be measured.
　The tart shines here.

At first glance, it looks like these measurements are just a competition of physical strength, but for a magician, the technique of strengthening physical abilities using magic is more important.
　Rather than using magic power to strengthen the entire body evenly, it was better to change the strength of each part of the body so that it worked in conjunction with the movements of the body.
　But it's a higher skill and only a few can do it.
　From what I've seen, only me, Tart, and Noish can do that in the examinations.
　Dia is still learning.
　Nevertheless, as if to mock such skills, the heroes showed off their overwhelming performance with poor enhancements and came first in all categories.
　I don't feel like I can win at all. The comparison itself is wrong.
　That's a monster.
　No, even the word "monster" is lukewarm.
　The cronies who left the brave man after scoring pathetic points in the written test have already returned and are cheerfully sticking to Epona.
　However, the only thing that bothers me is that Epona looks like she's having trouble breathing.
　She's making up a smile, but she seems to be in pain.
　She's not very good at socializing with people.
　And that's exactly what she was calculating as an opportunity to become a friend.

◇

Finally, it's time for the final exam.

The final test is a real battle. We look at magic and physical ability and their overall skills.
　Actual active knights come and hand-to-hand with the students.
　The weapons are blade drawers, and even a wizard who specializes in strengthening self-healing power through magic power is standing by, and a doctor is also present.
　........Of course, there's no way you can beat an active knight.
　What's important is not the victory or defeat, but the content of the match, and that's what is evaluated.
　The Knight Academy's arena is large, with six rings lined up in a row.
　Tart, whose turn to fight was early, moved to the waiting room and watched the fight with Dia.

''It looks like there are quite a few amazing people here.
Yeah. It's good to see the power of the synchronization early on.

........Touahade isn't the only one who puts a lot of effort into education.
　A family that has produced knights for generations. A family that built its position solely on military service, such a family thoroughly nurtures their children as battle weapons from an early age.
　Some of them were comparable to active knights.

''Rougu, is the tart okay?''
I think he'll be fine. You know, you're strong as a fiddle.

A tart with a spear is superior to even an active knight.
　Touahade, and trained to do so using his skills and knowledge before his reincarnation.
　That tart appeared on the ring.
　He has already taken out his spear, which is usually hidden in his skirt.

It wasn't a pre-match thank you, but a genuine expression of gratitude.

Tart is confused and rambling. Then, after the knight said something, Tart's face turned red and then he was desperately asking for something.

The audience buzzed as to what was going on.
　However, they started the match without incident, and Tart won.
　All eyes were on Tart, not expecting the servant girl to win.
　Some of them were making a lot of noise about the kettle and being a servant and a woman because of what happened before the match, but those people were insignificant.
　Those that can fight in their own right can tell by the brilliance of Tart's spear that they are competent, and those that don't understand are not worthy of being in view.
　Tart comes back and asks what happened before the match. By the way, Dia headed to the waiting room as his turn approached.

''Um, there was a time when you were gaining real battle experience on the battlefield, right? At that time, you were the one who saved my life, and you thanked me for it.'
...that's when...

When I was in Murteu, I had a problem with the fact that the Tart lacked actual combat experience, so I gave him some actual combat experience on the battlefield for a time.

''Yes. I wasn't expecting to meet the people I fought with back then, so I'm surprised.''
And then you asked me to do something for you, but what was it?
'That's, you know, two names that I'm ashamed of on the battlefield, and he said, you know, that guy, he said I'm going to show off my activities and my two names to the instructors, so he asked me not to do that. I don't want to be called by those, you know, two names that I'm ashamed of.
I'm curious if you say so.
........Master Rougu, you absolutely cannot tell anyone else about this. ....................I would never say this in public.

【Lightning Speed War Maiden】? Indeed, it fits Tarut's fighting style.
　Super speed using advanced physical ability enhancement techniques and acceleration by wind.
　Not only that, her flexible body and excellent reflexes allow her to master her own body without becoming monotonous even at that speed range.
　She is truly a lightning warrior maiden.

........However, she also has a weakness. Tart is still growing, and right now he can wield his skills at that speed just barely, but he's still getting faster.
　At this rate, his kinetic vision will not be able to keep up with his own speed. You may need to give him the eye of Touahade at some point.

''Speaking of which, when is Master Roug's match!　I was looking forward to seeing it.
'Mine is the last one, so we've got time. More importantly, it looks like Dia's fight is about to begin, and I need to cheer her on.
Say it quickly!

Deere began to strike with his sword.
　But he was outnumbered.
　After five minutes or so, it was settled, and although she fought a good fight, she was defeated.
　Although Dia has received a full range of combat training at her parents' house, she's mainly magic. Recently, I started teaching her some serious melee combat, but she's still at the basic stage.

''It was close, wasn't it?''
'It's enough to do that well. I'm sure they'll give me a good score for that one, and with my current ability, I can't ask for much more than that.

Applause. Deere gave it her all.
　Dia leaves the ring. And it was Epona who came to replace her.
　Her opponent was the Knight Commander.
　A man who stands at the top among the knights. It's not just the position, but also the ability. Such a man is fully equipped with full mail.

That armor isn't just any armor. It's made of mithril, a very rare metal. It has a strength and hardness that can't be compared to iron armor.
　It's a good choice. If you're in his class and don't have top-notch equipment, you're at high risk of being killed, even if you're doing blade pulling.

The match begins.
　Epona disappears, and just as she appears in front of the Knight Commander, she freezes in a fist-pumping pose, and even the Knight Commander is gone. Delayed, there is a roaring sound.

A second roar was heard as they searched for the Knight Commander's whereabouts.
　Epona's fist, a knight commander in armor in the audience in a straight line of sight, is buried several meters away.
　A closer look at Epona revealed shards of shattered mithril scattered around her.

...................You say you crushed Mithril with your fist?
　Brave man is bad. I thought I knew that.
　He didn't expect it to go this far.
　Even Touahade's eyes couldn't see any movement.
　In other words, if it was me standing there, I would have ended up the same as the Knight Commander.
　Additionally, the brave man is inexperienced. Hence, he will still be strong.

"You're even worse than Setanta.

I'll admit it. That brave man is not as good as Setanta at the moment.
　But he will be even more of a monster in less than a year.
　I must become stronger, and I doubt I can even assassinate him at my current pace.

I have to make up my mind.
　Then it's my turn to go down to the ring.
　I was going to lose after a safe, reasonably good fight, but I got a little hot.
　Let's see if I can work a little harder to sink this hot flash.