Translator: Cialaxis

Editor: Havion
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After getting a good night’s sleep on the Nimbus Cloud, I welcomed the morning of the exam feeling refreshed .

Eating a bento takeout for breakfast, I head towards the gates of Elite Academy .  

I gave the recommendation letter from Carmel-sama at the reception and received a reference number and a school guidebook in return .

As the cla.s.sroom as well as the seat for the written examination is decided based on the reference number, I went to look for my seat guided by the school guidebook .
[Let’s see…it’s the third cla.s.sroom from the staircase so…it’s this one . ] (Varius)

Without getting lost, I have arrived at my seat

After that, I took [Don’t Give Up Your First Choice][1] out using storage magic and placed it on the desk .

It’s not because I plan to go over it again .

This is something that Carmel-sama said, apparently [Don’t Give Up Your First Choice] is a famous work with limited copies in print .

In other words, to most of the examinees, those who have studied [Don’t Give Up Your First Choice] is a threat .

Just placing the book on the desk is enough to intimidate the others .

Then, with a calm att.i.tude…relax!

Giving off the impression of a strong one would make the other examinees go weak in the knees, displaying my superiority in this manner is important .

While I was doing so…a book the examinee next to me was reading so intensely suddenly caught my attention .

The book’s t.i.tle is [When Will You Do It? Today!][2] huh . If I remember correctly, I heard from somewhere that it is the only other book that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with  [Don’t Give Up Your First Choice] .

Taking a good look, the examinee is wearing the badge with the same logo design as the one on the [When Will You Do It? Today!] book on his chest .

…That’s nice . [Don’t Give Up Your First Choice] doesn’t have something like that .

Feeling somewhat envious, I decided that I would not lose to this examinee no matter what .

After about 40 minutes, the distribution of the question papers began . I speedily read through the instructions on the cover page .

…All right, both the number of questions as well as the time limit are the same as the previous years’ . This would mean that it would be fine for me to solve this paper at the pace  I used to solve the past year questions .

While thinking about such a thing, I didn’t forget to keep an eye out for the important points of the questions…the examiner then gave the signal for the exam to begin .

Now then, laugh or cry, a once-in-lifetime challenge, start .

I first looked through all the exam questions .

Yep, excluding the 6 main questions, the other questions don’t seem to pose much of a difficulty .

Then, it should be fine for me to solve this paper in sequence .

For questions 1 to 5, due to them having similar patterns to those from some of the past years’ questions, I solved them without much difficulty .

For the time being, I have solved the number of questions needed to obtain a pa.s.sing grade, so I’ll review the paper for now .

Confirming that there weren’t any mistakes, I began working on question 6 .

After that… . . my hand never got the chance to stop moving, not even for a minute .

That’s because a [Disposable Question][3] with a never-before-seen pattern has come out .

On top of that, the question is only one line long . In other words, a fiendish question without any guidance whatsoever . Now that it’s come to this, there’s no way I can hold back .  

Honestly, if one one asks if there’s any issues in not solving these questions, the answer is there’s none . It’s safe to a.s.sume that the majority of the examinees would not be able to solve these super-hard level questions . After all, even if it is the hardest-to-get-into academy, it has already been decided that the minimum score required to pa.s.s would be 50 .

Even if question 6 was left blank, it would pretty much not affect one’s chances of pa.s.sing the exam .

Even so, I feel annoyed at the thought of doing nothing .

At any rate, since I solved questions 1 to 5 in one go, I still had more than half the allocated exam time .

I wanted to at least leave my mark on this question .

……Should I use the Tamer specialized magic, [Unify Senses][4] in an attempt to cheat by using Caucasus?

For a moment, an evil thought popped into my mind .

But I immediately crossed it off as a bad idea .

In the first place, what I am facing now is a question that has never appeared in the past .

Consequently, this would mean pretty much all the examinees are completely unprepared for this .

Even if I had Caucasus fly around, eight or nine times out of ten I would be given a completely wrong answer .

Plus…it’s fine if I got the right answer, but if my wrong answer bears a resemblance to another examinee’s, the chances of me being suspected of having cheated would increase dramatically .

It is a lose-lose situation .

It can be said that handing in a blank answer for question 6 would be better .

That is why I brushed the thought off and decided to face the question fair and square .

Ten minutes pa.s.sed in that manner…and my concentration began to wane .

I can’t do this anymore .

I thought, so I decided to review questions 1 to 5 again as a change of pace .

… . . That was the turning point .

Miraculously, I noticed that the third sub-question of question 1 also serves as a hint for question 6 .

Because of this, I reclaimed the concentration that I had lost earlier, and started formulating the answer while looking through the hint .

There’s not much time left .

I started scribbling furiously .

Then…

(I……I made ittttt!) (Varius)

I had managed to fill up the answer section the moment the signal for the end of the exam was given .

I made a small guts pose deep inside my heart .

I had answered the [Disposable Question] . There’s no doubt that I had put a wide gap between me and the other examinees .

In high spirits, I started towards the venue of the next exam — The practical combat examination .

The combat examination is to be held in the academy’s largest building .

Upon entering the building, five arenlike facilities can be seen, each with five people wearing the academy’s uniform standing in them .

It seems like the test is set up in a way where [The current students of the academy will fight the examinees in a mock battle, and the examiners would then score them] .

Which would make these people in uniform our opponents .

Having five people in each arena…it’s for the sake of having a rotation huh .

Well, definitely, if they don’t do that, the students would exhaust themselves which would in turn give the examinees an advantage . This is only fair .

Since I was fine with any of the arena lined up, I simply picked the one with the least number of examinees .

After waiting for about 10 minutes, my turn came .

I took the Ruyi Staff out using Storage Magic .

Normally, one would use swords and the like for these kind of tests but…the Ruyi Staff possesses and overwhelming advantage over close combat opponents due to its seemingly infinite reach .

It can be said that there are no better alternatives besides this as long as it isn’t prohibited .

That was what I thought,  however, it seems the student who is my opponent doesn’t share my opinion .

[Haa? You gonna fight me with a stick? Are you an idiot?] [Girl]

My opponent, a red haired girl — A Hero — suddenly shouted .

……The Ruyi Staff isn’t something well known in this world yet . It would be reasonable to expect such a response .

[Listen carefully . I am the first seat of the second years of Elite Academy, Cadie Diai[5] . In the face of my magic sword and swordsmanship, there isn’t a single examinee who has lasted even 3 seconds . If you are going to fight in such a half-hearted manner…I’ll send you to the infirmary!!] (Cadey Diai)

Even if you say that, I…yeah .

It seems that I have touched upon a sensitive point .

Hero… . . Cadie Diai……Hero by KDDI…… . A magical communication company in my past life… . [6]

No, I can’t, it’s better to leave this as it is .

As I was suppressing my laughter, I turned my attention to the girl’s chest .

It was then that I saw something that I shouldn’t have seen .

This b.i.t.c.h……she’s wearing the extra edition of the [When will you do it? Today!] badge!

Towards an examinee, are you really showing off something like that?

This, this is not something I can overlook .

I swore to end the fight in an instant .

[—Then, Begin!] (Examiner)

Just as the examiner’s voice sounded out……I extended the staff at a high speed, and stopped the staff just before Cadie’s face .

Following that…the shockwave created due to the extension of the Ruyi Staff which exceeded the speed of sound blew Cadie right out of the arena .

[1]: After some discussions, we decided to rename [Your first choice, Non-negotiable] to [Don’t Give Up Your First Choice]
[2]: The raw text was 「いつやるか？ 今でしょ！」(Itsu yaru ka? Imadesho!) written by a prep school lecturer Osamu Hayashi . Here’s a video of him saying his catchphrase .
[3]: The raw text was [捨て問] (Sutemon) which means questions that are too hard to solve, so people generally just skip it .
[4]: Raw text was 「五感連動」which literally means linking the five senses
[5]: Her name in the raws are [ケイディ＝ディーアイ]
[6]: Reference to KDDI Corporation