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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Exam Results
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“...Can you please stop with the ‘big brother’ this and ‘big brother’ that?”
As I shivered with a look of disgust, a satisfied smile tugged at Axel’s lips.
He had clearly been harping on the ‘big brother’ thing just to see me get annoyed.
“Oh! Did you know?”
“What?”
“Servian’s son is here!”
“Ah.”
Unlike me, who was practically jumping, Axel simply nodded calmly.
“Leonid passed the exam last year. He was six then, setting the record for the youngest to ever pass.”
“Wow. At six?”
I only managed to guess the answers because I had the ‘A Gut Feeling! (Legendary)’ card.
*‘But Leonid actually solved all those ridiculously difficult problems at such a young age.’*
Setting aside his impertinence, he was definitely one incredibly bright kid.
“Is he smart like his dad?”
Servian Call, a spirit summoner and the head researcher of the Imperial Academy, had been the undisputed brains of the Mad Dragon subjugation party.
He was so brilliant that even his strong-willed comrades in the party would listen to any advice he gave.
Of course, the fact that Servian was nineteen at the time, the oldest in the party, also lent weight to his words.
Thinking back now, they were all just kids, but Servian had seemed quite the adult back then.
“They say he’s even better than his brilliant father. The Ivory Tower is in high spirits, saying they’ve finally found a talent capable of deciphering the prophecies.”
“Weally?”
“The youngest scholar at the Ivory Tower right now is Dr. Lucas, and they say Leonid is set to break his record for skipping grades. If so, he’ll have the records for both the youngest admission and the youngest doctorate.”
“Wow. How can someone so smart have such a terrible personali—...”
“Personality?”
Axel asked what I was talking about, and I quickly shook my head.
“Uhm… it’s nothing.”
*‘Snitching on a kid for a few words is just petty.’*
Since he’s Servian’s kid, whom I’ve known since he was born, I’ll let it slide this one time!
Instead, I puffed out my chest, balled my fists, and declared proudly to Axel.
“Besides, I did weally well on the test!”
“Hmm.”
At my words, Axel tilted his head with interest.
“I take it that ‘gut feeling’ of yours worked on the written-answer section, too?”
“Wha…?”
My confident smile crumpled.
“How’d you… how’d you know the test was all written answers…”
I always tried to be careful with my pronunciation around Axel, but I was so surprised that my lisp kept slipping out.
How’d you, how did you, how could you…
After stumbling over the words a few times, I wondered what I was even doing.
*‘Ugh!’*
I’d already made a fool of myself with that bizarre dolphin noise. It wasn’t like pronouncing a few words correctly now would make Axel think any less of me.
I give up, I give up!
I relaxed my tongue and let the words tumble out freely.
“How’d you know?”
“Isn’t it obvious? The Ivory Tower may be independent, but it’s still part of Elpinade territory. There’s no way I wouldn’t know.”
“What! Then why didn’t you tell me!”
As I stomped my foot in betrayal, Axel shrugged with a relaxed smile.
“A fair test. It’s only natural, isn’t it?”
* * *
The next day, Duke Elpinade summoned me to his office.
The results from the Ivory Tower were in.
Normally, it would take a team of people about a week to review the exams.
But since I’d written so little, my results were ready in a day.
“Don’t be disheartened, whatever the result, Young Lady. Just taking the test is an amazing accomplishment.”
Lily encouraged me the entire way to the office, clearly certain that I had failed.
To be fair, it was stranger to think that a four-year-old, who had only ever received etiquette lessons, would pass the prestigious Ivory Tower’s exam.
When I arrived at the Duke’s office holding Lily’s hand, a waiting servant quickly ushered me inside.
Usually, Lily would come in with me, but today, the servant let me in alone.
Lily seemed a bit taken aback, but upon hearing it was the Duke’s order, she bowed and said she would wait for me outside the door.
“I’ll be wight back.”
I waved to Lily and was about to go inside when I paused.
Lily and the servant looked at me, wondering what was wrong, so I spread my arms and spun in place.
“Bawance!”
“Pardon? Balance?”
“Yesh. It has to be bawanced. Mister Duke doesn’t wike it when things are cwooked.”
“Ah. You mean you want me to make sure you look tidy?”
Smiling gently as if proud that I was thinking of such things, Lily straightened my clothes and hair.
I couldn’t see it myself, but with a professional maid’s touch, there shouldn’t be anything out of place.
*‘Alright.’*
Perfectly prepared, I strode confidently into the office.
But that confidence rapidly shriveled the moment I faced the Duke, who sat at his desk exuding the same chilling aura as always.
Duke Elpinade’s face was as fearsome as ever.
*Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.*
My heart pounded in my chest.
I swallowed hard and cautiously walked up to the desk.
The Duke was always busy reading documents, but today, he held only a small envelope in his hand.
As I stared at it, wondering what it was, I felt an intense gaze on me, so sharp it felt like it could split my head open.
*‘Oops!’*
I snapped to my senses and quickly greeted him.
“Hello, Mister Duke. My wibbon isn’t cwooked today. It’s bawanced.”
I presented my head for inspection, and the Duke’s hand holding the envelope twitched.
A cold sweat trickled down my back, worried that I had missed a crooked spot, but thankfully, the Duke made no comment.
“...Take it.”
Instead, with the same stoic face as always, he held out the small envelope.
*‘Phew. I made it through safely!’*
I let out a silent sigh of relief and quickly reached out.
The desk was so high that I had to strain and stand on my tiptoes, huffing and puffing, before I could finally take the envelope.
For some reason, the corners of the Duke’s mouth twitched as he watched me.
He must have been quite frustrated by my slow movements.
Before the Duke’s anger could grow, I swiftly opened the envelope.
To Lady Lesia Elpinade,
You are hereby granted admission to the Ivory Tower.
Inside the envelope was an official letter of acceptance, properly stamped with the Ivory Tower’s seal.
“The scholars who reviewed your answers say you are a genius. They claim that calculating every problem in your head is impossible even for them, who have studied for years.”
“Yesh.”
But that wasn’t true.
*‘Of course, with my memories from a past life, I’m obviously smarter than other kids my age, but…’*
I could never be the kind of genius acknowledged by the scholars of the Ivory Tower.
Besides, I hadn’t taken the exam to be recognized as a genius in the first place.
“But I’m just a swightly smawt four-yeaw-old, not a genius.”
“You aced a perfect exam, yet you’re not a genius?”
“Yesh.”
I nodded quickly.
“Someone just told me the answers, so I wwote them down, and they were all wight.”
“Told you… the answers. Who did?”
The Duke’s eyes flashed sharply.
The already chilling aura intensified several times over, making me shrink back instinctively.
“Did Axel help you?”
“No.”
“The church, then?”
“No.”
“Did you bribe a scholar?”
“No.”
Shaking my head at the Duke’s sharp interrogation, I pointed a short, trembling finger toward the sky.
“Heaven helped me. Because I’m not a fake, I’m a weal Saintess.”
