In the end, Cynthia still rejected Lilica’s invitation. Perhaps because there had been a bit too many things happening lately, she looked extremely exhausted and didn’t even agree to the suggestion to just go get something to eat.
Lilica felt quite regretful, but she didn’t try to persuade her any further because she belatedly remembered that her room only had one bed. If she really slept with Cynthia, her cover would be completely blown.
The evaluation for the Head Student of the Magic Department arrived very quickly. Because there was a practical combat segment, the evaluation venue was once again chosen to be the training grounds. However, unlike previous years, only Cynthia and Betty had signed up this time, and the other students in the Magic Department did not participate.
In the past, participating in evaluations was a way to build a presence in front of Cynthia, a high-ranking noble, in hopes of catching her eye and soaring to success overnight. But this time, the Saintess herself was running. While Cynthia dared to compete against the Saintess, they certainly did not.
Although these students didn’t dare to participate, they were more than enthusiastic about spectating. There were so many chairs brought out for the onlookers that it made one wonder if every single chair in the entire academy had been moved here. The hardcore supporters of both sides occupied opposing sides of the venue, leaving only a few neutral parties sitting in the middle to endure the side-eyes and sneers from both factions.
Ray, who had previously dueled with Cynthia, also arrived at the scene. His friends naturally began walking toward the Saintess’s supporters’ side, but Ray stopped midway.
Facing his friends’ puzzled looks, Ray said with a hint of embarrassment: “I think Cynthia is pretty good too.”
One of his friends angrily questioned: “Are you switching sides?!”
Cynthia’s supporters wouldn’t stand for that: “What do you mean by that? Did you actually turn Cynthia into an enemy of the kingdom?!”
Fortunately, the academy management had likely anticipated this and deployed plenty of order-maintenance personnel to the scene, preventing any outbreak of fighting among the audience before the evaluation officially began.
When Cynthia arrived accompanied by Antcana and Lilica, the emotions of the audience had already calmed down. Only Ray sat in the neutral camp, not even daring to raise his head.
Betty was escorted over by a foul-faced Mita, accompanied by a thoroughly exhausted Carlo on the side.
The two sides met at the entrance of the training grounds. After a brief greeting, they took their respective seats, and the evaluation began.
The first part of the evaluation was a theoretical knowledge Q&A. The two participants took turns answering questions posed by the professors, who then graded them.
During the first few rounds of questions, Cynthia didn’t feel anything was amiss. However, starting from the fifth round, the questions given to the two individuals were completely out of alignment in terms of difficulty.
Although the professors meticulously phrased the questions to appear extremely complex and difficult, the questions Betty faced were simple enough to appear on an entrance exam, whereas the content Cynthia needed to answer required searching for answers in the advanced magic theory section of the library.
Because the evaluation venue was entirely open to the public, Cynthia’s supporters in the stands soon began shouting loudly about unfairness and dark inner dealings.
Lilica didn’t understand how large the gap in difficulty was; she only knew that the thinking time Cynthia needed to answer the questions was getting longer and longer, and the words she used to explain were increasing, while Betty still maintained the relaxed demeanor she had at the start.
“Antcana,” Lilica asked nervously, “will Sister Cynthia lose?”
Antcana’s expression was extremely ugly: “If Cynthia loses, I am going to go pull out all of Mita’s hair later.”
Meanwhile, Mita, completely unaware that his hair was in imminent danger, smugly said to Carlo: “It should be like this! The academy is evaluating learning attitude, so evaluations naturally need to be based on the length of enrollment time. Thanks to me putting in a lot of effort to reason with Professor Andrew.”
Carlo couldn’t stand such idiotic remarks and couldn’t help saying: “But this is far too unfair to Cynthia!”
“It’s fair to Betty,” Mita said dismissively. “Besides, she is the Saintess!”
“Good grief, Mita, listen to yourself,” Carlo said, nearly angry enough to stand up and walk away. “You are cheating, and you’re making it obvious to everyone. Just listen to what those people over there are shouting!”
“None of that matters,” Mita said, lifting his chin high with haughty arrogance. “This is a decision made by the royal family.”
Carlo rolled his eyes in exasperation, leaned back heavily against his seat, and stopped talking.
As the Q&A reached its final round, Cynthia listened to the question, suddenly smiled, and looked at the questioning professor: “I truly do not know the answer to this question, so please enlighten me, Professor.”
Professor George, who had posed the question, hadn’t expected that Cynthia, who had been answering peacefully the whole time, would suddenly attack him. Since he couldn’t answer the question himself, he instinctively looked over toward Professor Andrew sitting at the head.
Cynthia spoke again: “Please respect my thirst for knowledge, Professor George. Don’t look at others, answer my question.”
Professor George had mediocre scholarship and relied on unorthodox methods to teach at the academy. His mouth opened and closed before he could only say: “This, this question is a bit complex, we can slowly understand it later.”
“I understand,” Cynthia nodded with a smile. “So the professors prepared some questions that even you cannot answer immediately to test me? May I ask if I am currently undergoing a Royal Academy professorial rank evaluation?”
The audience instantly exploded. Some cursed the professors, some cursed Cynthia, and others cursed the Saintess Betty.
Amidst the uproar, Professor Andrew, who was in charge of magic education matters, finally spoke up.
He was tall, with handsome features that did not lose to Mita’s, and long gray hair draped smoothly over his shoulders. Wearing an exquisite monocle and the unified uniform of a professor, he looked gentle and scholarly.
“I believe this is a misunderstanding, Student Cotton,” Professor Andrew answered mildly. “We simply prepared questions according to the requirements of the academy and the royal family, well, to put it in their words, questions more suited to both of you.”
Everyone present cast their gazes toward Mita, who was sitting in the Saintess’s faction.
Mita hadn’t expected Andrew to abandon all pretense and sell him out immediately, so he immediately said with dissatisfaction: “Professor, please mind your words.”
Antcana sneered: “What a disgrace of a person.”
Andrew smiled good-naturedly: “Alright, let’s end the first part of the evaluation here. Through on-site verification, the comprehensive difficulty of this batch of questions was indeed severely unbalanced. Therefore, I have decided to add five points to Student Cynthia’s Q&A score to show encouragement.”
With those words from him, Cynthia’s previously lagging score immediately caught up, almost tying with Betty.
The atmosphere at the scene instantly improved greatly. No one was screaming about dark professorial operations, no one was screaming about the Saintess being a poor loser, and no one was screaming about Cynthia embarrassing the professors.
Everyone reached a consensus, feeling that their beloved Prince had handled this matter quite improperly.
Any other opinions? None. Students who wanted to have other opinions just had to think of the academy’s name, and they wouldn’t dare.
Following the theoretical segment came the practical combat segment.
Yet no one expected that this segment would encounter severe problems right from the beginning.
Normally speaking, battles between mages or swordsmen followed a basic one-on-one principle regardless of the reason behind them.
Only healing professions and mechanics, which had stronger supporting natures, would look for a partner as muscle after both parties confirmed it, or rather, to fight together.
Because Betty’s personal contract signed after her descent as the Saintess included acting as a primary combat force to fight the Demon Realm army, she entered the academy to study under the identity of a mage.
In her past life, Cynthia’s battle with her also followed the rules of mages, one-on-one.
Although unequal rules were added on top, at least the surface-level courtesy was still maintained.
However, this time, Professor Andrew, who was hosting the evaluation, announced that because the Saintess’s combat support nature was relatively strong, it had been decided to arrange a combat partner option for both sides in this segment, allowing them to choose themselves whether or not to bring a partner.
As soon as Andrew finished speaking, Mita stood up smugly from the audience area: “I will be the Saintess’s combat partner.”
Everyone else: “(…)”
Good heavens, who would dare beat up His Highness the Prince?
Besides, aren’t you Cynthia’s fiancé? Why are you helping someone else beat her up?
Someone did volunteer, however. Ray from the audience actively spoke up: “I am willing to become Cynthia’s partner.”
The audience didn’t know how big a trap Cynthia had dug for Mita, but Cynthia herself knew clearly.
She thought for a moment, deciding she shouldn’t trap her future subordinate, and smiled as she rejected Ray.
Then she looked at the only person in the entire venue, aside from herself, who dared to lay hands on Mita according to her understanding: “Carlo, are you willing to be my partner?”
Before Carlo could speak, Mita pressed down on his shoulders, forcing him firmly into his chair: “He is not willing.”
Cynthia looked at Carlo.
Mita glared at Carlo.
The entire audience was paying attention to Carlo, especially Lilica, whose eyes were practically breathing fire.
Carlo felt that if he nodded, Mita would deal with him right now, and if he didn’t nod, Lilica would deal with him later. His situation was truly difficult.
He maintained a strong smile: “Pardon me for not being able to accept Cynthia’s invitation. My health has been somewhat unwell recently.”
Before Cynthia’s supporters could erupt, he quickly added: “However, I have an exceptional candidate to recommend.”
Lilica ground her teeth, waiting to see what nonsense Carlo could spout.
“It’s just that he might need some time to arrive.” Carlo raised both hands in a gesture of surrender.
Professor Andrew asked: “About how long will it take?”
“Half an hour or so.” Carlo looked at Lilica, giving her a hint with his eyes: “This person is Lilica’s cousin, named Kelly Doyle.”
Lilica, however, looked completely blank. She didn’t seem to have a relative by that name.