Chapter 12. Departmental Exam (5)
Benjamin felt rather pleased, yet at the same time, he could not help realizing just how much time had passed.
Three days had gone by since the exam began.
The final cadet had just emerged after clearing the dungeon.
Many cadets had failed to complete it, but the number who succeeded was by no means small.
And that was not all.
More than anything else, the reason Benjamin felt both pleased and keenly aware of the passing years was because of the three cadets at the top of the rankings.
The first, needless to say, was Clayton R. Shane.
He had cleared the dungeon at such an astonishing speed that the entire Academy was already buzzing about him.
That alone would have been remarkable enough, but this year, two more cadets had also broken Benjamin’s dungeon-clearing record, which had stood unchallenged for twenty years.
The first was Bernstein Auston.
The cadet who had been shunned by his family for being Mana-Impaired had cleared the dungeon four hours after Shane.
Astonishingly, his method of clearing the dungeon bore an almost chilling resemblance to Shane’s.
The only real difference was that Auston had not used the Luminous Moss.
Auston had likewise taken the anesthetic obtained from the goblins and placed it inside the Fume Vents, successfully anesthetizing the Curse Goblins en masse and eliminating them with ease.
However, unlike Shane, he had been unable to shorten his time by using the Luminous Moss, resulting in a clear time four hours slower.
When it came purely to command, however, Auston had displayed a level of experience that bordered on precognition, clearing the dungeon with exceptionally refined control.
The remaining cadet cleared it three hours after Auston.
Although only a few hours separated her time from Benjamin’s record from the past, she had still cleared the dungeon faster than he had.
Lintberg J. Aneis.
Unlike Shane and Auston, she had not made extensive use of the dungeon’s terrain or environment.
Instead, she had broken through the dungeon with outstanding command ability.
What stood out most was how quickly she analyzed the capabilities of the golems under her command and then issued orders based on that assessment without the slightest margin for error.
Beyond that, when it came to sheer charisma as a commander, she was the finest of all the cadets.
Shane had reduced the number of battles he needed to fight to the absolute minimum.
Auston had devised his strategies in advance through his extraordinary predictive ability.
Aneis, on the other hand, was the type who read the battlefield in real time and issued the appropriate orders at every moment.
As far as her overall awareness of the battlefield was concerned, it was evidence that she had already surpassed the Benjamin of twenty years ago.
“The Academy President was right.”
With a pool of talent like this, the current Department of Command truly was experiencing a golden age unlike anything in its history.
And it was not limited to the Department of Command.
Across the other departments as well, cadets of unprecedented ability were beginning to distinguish themselves.
Looking at it that way made the passage of time feel somewhat bitter.
Yet being able to serve as their teacher in an era like this could also be considered the greatest fortune a Professor could ask for.
“They are talents who could bring peace to the continent.”
“Oh my. If they are that talented, even I find myself interested, Knight Commander Benjamin.”
“……When did you arrive?”
Benjamin slowly turned toward the platinum-blond girl who had entered through the door and asked with a quiet sigh.
It was not as though he had failed to notice her approaching.
He simply had not paid much attention.
Or perhaps he had simply been unwilling to pull himself away from his thoughts.
After all, there was no way Benjamin could fail to recognize footsteps carrying that much elegance and dignity.
“Oh, come now. Since I went through the trouble of coming all this way, shouldn’t you offer me tea before asking questions like that?”
The bright smile on her face was beautiful enough to make almost anyone blush.
It was a smile like a freshly blossomed flower, one that somehow seemed capable of soothing the hearts of those who saw it.
Benjamin’s heart, however, remained as hard and barren as a dry plateau.
“I did not expect Your Highness to come personally to the Academy.”
“Tch. You are just as cold here as you were at the Imperial Palace. I heard you were finally a free man, so I thought you might have softened a little.”
Naturally, Benjamin could only treat an Imperial Princess so casually because he was Benjamin.
In their current circumstances, there was nothing he needed from her.
“It seems my younger sibling is still all you think about.”
“As someone who served in an Imperial Knight Order, I have no intention of offering political support to either of you.”
“Isn’t that why you came to the Academy? To find talented people and send them to my younger sibling? You underestimate me far too much.”
“…….”
The Two Flowers of the Empire.
Jepher di Arsha Olicia continued smiling innocently even as she pierced directly to the heart of the matter.
Benjamin had said nothing about it.
Yet he quietly closed his mouth.
“Haah, the world can be terribly unfair. My younger sibling is surrounded by talented people like you, so why am I stuck with nothing but jackals?”
“I could not say.”
“Hmph. In other words, you simply have no desire to help me.”
As though she had lost interest, she puffed out her cheeks and abruptly turned her head away.
Benjamin knew perfectly well that every gesture like that tugged at a man’s emotions—or, more broadly, at the protective instincts of anyone who saw her.
Was it simply because she knew how to charm people?
No.
She instinctively drew favorable emotions from others, then exploited the openings those emotions created.
It was her most powerful weapon.
Benjamin had never encountered anyone with a more innate talent for reading the human mind.
“Still, tell me this much. I saw two interesting people on my way here.”
“I have not been at the Academy for very long myself.”
“Oh, honestly. Just hear me out. They looked like your students.”
“…….”
Benjamin wanted to point out that he was no longer a commander, but he decided against it.
By this point, he simply found it tiresome.
“I saw the brothers from House Clayton. Just as the rumors said, both of them were remarkably handsome.”
“Is that so?”
“But in particular…… the black-haired one. Shane, the older brother. What sort of person is he?”
At that question, Benjamin found himself curious as well.
How had that boy with his emotionless expression appeared in the eyes of an Imperial Princess capable of seeing through the essence of others?
Benjamin answered quietly.
“I do not know much about him myself. But I can say that he is not a cadet who should be judged by rumors alone.”
“Oh? If even you say that, then I suppose his talent must be considerable.”
Ever since his days as a commander serving the Imperial Family, Benjamin had been renowned for his ability to judge talent accurately.
Knowing that, Olicia’s eyes gleamed as she recalled the man she had encountered in the corridor.
It was not that she took particular pride in her appearance.
But she knew very well how to wield that innocent beauty of hers.
There had never been a man who failed to feel at least some degree of fondness toward her appearance, even if it did not develop into romantic attraction.
At least not upon first meeting her.
There should have been some minute change, at the very least.
Yet that man had shown nothing.
It had literally felt like speaking to a wall.
His eyes did not look at a person as though they were a person, and their unfathomable depth had been enough to make Olicia’s heart tremble.
It was not simply a matter of being ruthless or coldly rational.
There was something beyond that.
He did not look at people as people.
Yet neither did he regard them as objects.
Even someone who treated people like objects showed minute emotional changes when evaluating the worth of those objects.
Olicia possessed eyes sharp enough to notice even such subtleties.
Yet that man……
Just what kind of eyes did he use to look at the world?
That question had sparked her curiosity.
“Hmm. In any case, I understand. Now that I know why you came to the Academy, that is enough. I suppose I do not need to worry much about my younger sibling?”
Benjamin felt a faint sense of relief at those words.
Olicia did not miss even that tiny emotion.
Olicia was always smiling with her innocent beauty, charming everyone around her.
But at this moment, she found herself somewhat envious of her younger sibling.
‘Since I am already here, perhaps I should start paying more attention to the Academy.’
She had originally come because of Benjamin, but the Imperial Princess was already beginning to find the Academy itself more interesting than him.
Normally, she would have considered its cadets too young and inexperienced to bother watching yet, mere fledglings who had not even entered the political world.
‘But if there are people like the man I saw earlier, that changes things.’
What would happen if she placed that incomprehensible man within the treacherous labyrinth of Imperial politics?
The thought alone was already beginning to intrigue her.
‘Still, I should move carefully. My greedy elder brother will try to devour anything he can get his hands on.’
With that thought, Olicia deliberately suppressed her growing interest.
—
The week passed quickly, and before long, the day of the Written Exam arrived.
“B-Brother. Are you all right?”
“Did I not tell you before? There is no need to concern yourself with their reactions. The people capable of recognizing the truth will do so soon enough.”
A week was more than enough time for the news of Shane’s new record, which had initially spread quietly among the Assistants, to circulate throughout the entire Academy.
Not only cadets, but even some Professors dismissed the story as nothing more than a ridiculous rumor.
The most widespread rumor of all was—
“Do you really think he did it with his own ability?”
“You actually believe that? We are talking about Shane. How could someone consumed by an inferiority complex set the best record in the Department of Command exam? Does that sound possible to you?”
“Even so, could he really bribe the Academy Professors with money……?”
“Is there anything money cannot buy?”
Rumors like these had begun to circulate.
Shane, however, paid them little attention.
“Once the Written Exam is over and the scores are made public, they will no longer be able to say such things.”
The Written Exam was not created by a single Professor.
Instead, dozens of experts arrived on the day of the exam carrying potential questions.
Only a handful of those questions were then selected on the spot.
Money might be capable of buying people, but there was no way to bribe experts whose identities were known to only a handful of people within the Academy and who revealed their questions to no one beforehand.
Even the Department Head did not know every source from which the questions came.
The structure made cheating impossible, no matter what method one attempted.
“At the very least, when it comes to using my head, I lose to no one.”
“……I apologize. I was interfering unnecessarily.”
“There is no need to apologize for that.”
Shane and Klein entered the examination hall together.
The number of cadets had already been reduced to fifty, all of whom were seated inside.
“Is everyone here? If so, take your seats.”
Benjamin entered the examination hall looking somewhat more haggard than when they had first met, and silence descended over the room.
“As all of you know, this exam will take place over the course of one week.”
An entire week had been allotted to the Written Exam.
Just how difficult could the questions possibly be to require that much time?
Unlike the previous year, even the Practical Exam had already been hellishly difficult, so the cadets who had survived it gradually grew tense.
At first glance, it might have seemed as though the practical portion was the more important part of the examination.
In reality, however, far more cadets were eliminated by the Written Exam than by the Practical Exam.
The reason was……
“There are five questions on this examination paper. During the exam period, you may not leave the library or your designated examination room. Keep that in mind and conduct yourselves accordingly. And do not forget that showing unnecessary interest in others may invite suspicion.”
Only five questions.
Yet they required an entire week because each individual answer demanded something approaching the scope of a small research paper.
The examination papers were distributed, and the exam began.
Sitting at the desk in his assigned examination room, Shane slowly read through the questions.
And from the very beginning, he encountered an unexpected difficulty.
‘This is…….’
The difficulty of the questions presented Shane with an entirely different kind of dilemma.
