NOVEL NEXT Ch. 20
Chapter 20: Note Test – 3
Before I could even answer, people shouted.
“Shut up, you selfish bastard!”
“So now you’re tucking your tail and backing down?”
“If what that man said is true, then you’re definitely disqualified.”
“Ha! Serves you right, you son of a bitch!”
Honestly, I felt refreshed too.
But feeling refreshed aside, I had no choice but to take that hand now.
“Everyone, calm down. Let’s do as he says.”
“What? But—”
“The plan I proposed was a last resort anyway. Matets has already read a mountain of books. Don’t forget—every single book in that pile counts as part of the exam scope.”
“……”
“If we add 200 more books at this point, we’ll only be expanding the range. Sure, Matets would almost certainly fail, but I can’t guarantee your safety.”
Everyone groaned and nodded.
And just like that, the situation settled down to some extent.
I stepped down from the table.
Then, I noticed Armelia looking at me with eyes that shimmered as if they contained the Milky Way.
“What is it, Your Highness?”
“You are truly…”
“…?”
“Ahem. Ah, no. You’ve done well, Mason Gear.”
Unlike the Princess who trailed off mid-sentence, Aina nudged my ribs with her elbow.
“Oooh. That was some clever thinking again. You never stop surprising me.”
“Enough. More importantly, keep an eye on Matets.”
“Huh?”
“He might try to sneakily read while we’re not looking. He’s a total scumbag.”
“Okay, leave that to me.”
Aina grabbed Matets by the collar and dragged him away.
Then she forced him to sit at the central table on the sixth floor.
Since he’d already agreed not to read anymore, this level of physical coercion wouldn’t violate Rule 3.
Matets just kept his head down.
At that moment, Magireta’s voice came from above.
“You’re ruining your big sister’s fun again, little brother.”
Time passed, and the day of the first-week exam arrived.
Armelia had already memorized every single book Matets had read.
Aina and I, conscious of Magireta, also pretended to have memorized them all thoroughly.
“Alright, close your books. Anyone caught peeking after now will be instantly disqualified.”
“Ugh… please, just a little more time!”
“I still have ten books left to read!”
“Sob… just two hours—no, even one hour!”
Their pleas were, of course, ignored.
Snap.
The moment Magireta snapped her fingers, the scenery around us changed.
About two hundred single desks were lined up neatly in rows and columns.
At the very front stood a massive podium.
Magireta sat cross-legged atop it and said,
“Pick any desk you want and sit. If you’re not seated within a minute, I’ll blow your head up.”
Everyone murmured anxiously as they took their seats.
Armelia, Aina, and I sat together near the middle.
“The exam time is two hours, as written on the bulletin board. There are 100 questions total, each worth one point.”
“……”
“You all know the bottom 25% will be eliminated, right? There’s an exam paper on each desk—check it.”
I looked down.
There were five sheets of paper placed face down.
“Now then… begin the test!”
Whoosh.
I hurriedly flipped my exam paper.
At the same time, I gripped the invisible Diary Book with my other hand.
Then I spoke to Armelia and Aina.
[Can you both hear me?]
[As clearly as ever.]
[Are we really okay doing this? What if Magireta notices?]
The Diary Book had staked its existence on assuring me it would be fine… so it should be fine.
No—it had to be fine.
[Your Highness, what’s your first question?]
[It says: “What is the name of the psychologist who divided human basic needs into five levels?”]
[Different from mine. Aina, yours is different too, right?]
[Yeah. Mine says, “In the poem ‘Aelenga,’ what does the violet thread symbolize?”]
[Mine asks, “What percentage of the human body is composed of water?”]
Without even a second’s hesitation, Armelia answered.
[My answer: Markro Wilson. Aina’s answer: Death. Mason, yours: 70 percent.]
[Got it. Question two… okay.]
[On to question three. Thank you.]
[Think nothing of it. Next question.]
That was how we proceeded through the test.
Since every person’s exam paper was different, cheating was pointless from the start.
But because we shared our questions telepathically, we knew this fact.
Others might still think everyone had the same exam.
Which meant that whenever they hit a wall, they’d be tempted to cheat.
Don’t even think about it, everyone.
Tap, tap.
At some point, Magireta began walking around the classroom, holding a massive club behind her back.
Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
She lightly tapped her back with it, almost as if giving herself a massage.
The sound was maddeningly irritating.
Time passed again.
After about thirty minutes, we were already at question 85.
Then it happened.
“I can hear your eyeballs rolling.”
Suddenly, Magireta swung her club.
The man sitting beside her—his head—
Splatt.
Was completely crushed.
“Ugh!”
“Kyaaaah!”
“Sob… sob… please, don’t kill me!”
“Oh? Look at you all. The moment you saw a chance, your eyes started wandering. Fine then—each of you gets a hit.”
Magireta’s club gleamed mercilessly.
Everywhere she swung, blood splattered.
Among them, some surely hadn’t meant to cheat.
They had probably just looked up in shock when blood sprayed nearby, only to accidentally catch sight of another’s exam paper—
And that unlucky moment sealed their fate.
I quickly spoke.
[Everyone, keep your heads down! If you accidentally see someone else’s paper, you’ll die!]
[Haa… got it.]
[Damn it.]
[Focus. We’re on question 86, right? My question is—]
Then—
Slide.
A shadow suddenly fell across my exam.
Every hair on my body stood on end.
It was Magireta.
“My little brother’s already on question 86?”
Gulp.
“Heh. The kid next to you is also on 86.”
“……”
“And the Princess behind you too. How peculiar.”
My heart pounded wildly, ready to burst.
I slowly—really slowly.
As carefully as possible.
I lifted my head and looked at Magireta.
“……!”
I thought my breath would stop.
Because it was the first time I had ever made eye contact with Magireta.
She always kept her hood pulled deep over her face, so it was my first time seeing her expression or her eyes.
“What a curious coincidence. Brother.”
Magireta’s eyes were red.
Inside them existed a depth of madness far beyond what I could ever comprehend.
It felt as though—if hell had an ocean—it would look exactly like her eyes.
‘Red eyes. Snow-white hair and eyebrows. Thin lips. A cruel smile.’
Even in that moment, my brain faithfully stored every detail of Magireta’s appearance.
She stared down at me for a while, then smiled faintly and stepped back.
“You two must be a match made in heaven, huh?”
“……”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt your test.”
Tap, tap. Tap, tap.
Magireta began tapping her back again with the club as she walked away.
Moments later, Aina let out a deep sigh with all her strength.
[Huuuaaaah.]
[You okay?]
[No. Thought I was gonna die of fright. Damn it, I’ve never been this scared before.]
She seemed embarrassed and spoke to Armelia.
[Hey, Princess, you got pretty scared too, right?]
[No.]
[Don’t pretend to be tough.]
[It’s true. I wasn’t particularly nervous.]
Indeed, Armelia’s voice was perfectly calm.
With that same gentle tone, she continued speaking.
[Mason said he wouldn’t get caught.]
[Huh?]
[So why would I need to be nervous?]
[Wow. You trust him that much. That’s just…]
[Call out question eighty-six already.]
For some reason, Armelia abruptly cut her words short.
The first week’s test came to an end.
Magireta slammed the podium hard and said,
“Everyone, put down your pens. If you keep scribbling, you’re disqualified.”
“……”
“Good. The test’s over. Let’s start grading right away.”
Swoosh.
When Magireta waved her hand, the test papers before us floated into the air on their own.
Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, they flew straight into Magireta’s hands and stacked themselves neatly.
She flipped through the collected test papers with a swift motion and smiled faintly.
“Grading’s done. Now, it’s time for the results.”
“……”
“Of course, sharing results with everyone is the best way to motivate your studies, right? Now, everyone—look at the bulletin board.”
In an instant, a massive bulletin board began fluttering into existence out of thin air.
Magireta briskly pressed it against the wall.
We hurriedly ran toward it.
For some reason, watching nearly two hundred people look up at the board with desperate expressions felt strangely sorrowful.
“First place, huh.”
“An expected result, Your Highness.”
“Well, it’s not like I’m the only one in first place.”
Armelia, Aina, and I each received perfect scores of one hundred.
And then—
“T-This can’t be. This can’t be happening.”
Matets had gotten two questions wrong, earning a score of ninety-eight.
Second place.
His body twisted in disbelief, his face frozen in shock.
“M-My memorization method that I perfected over ten years…”
“Matets.”
“This can’t be. Losing again… to that damned talent. It can’t be!”
“Matets. Listen to me carefully.”
Armelia fixed her gaze on him, her eyes terrifyingly cold.
The killing intent emanating from her rivaled even that of Aina when she unleashed hers.
“Once this quest is over, I will kill you.”
“W-What?”
“You’ve endangered countless people out of nothing but your own inferiority complex. If we’d done as Mason first suggested and shared one book between us, those people might have survived.”
Armelia said this and pointed to the lower part of the bulletin board.
Total participants: 214. Six disqualified for cheating.
Of the 208 who remained, twenty-five percent—
Fifty-two names were listed as dropouts.
Those who found their names there began to weep bitterly.
“Uuuhuhuhu…”
“No… please, no…”
“Ahhhh. No! I can’t let you go like this!”
“I don’t want to die! Please, save me!”
“Damn it, damn it all!”
Armelia looked at them with a somber expression, then turned back to Matets.
“You’re responsible for their deaths.”
“Ha. Me? It’s Magireta who’ll kill them.”
“That’s right. And that’s why I’ll kill Magireta too.”
She spoke without hesitation—it seemed she had already declared as much before.
Magireta only listened with a mildly intrigued expression.
Armelia pointed her finger at Matets again and continued,
“But first, you die before her.”
“Khugh…”
Clap, clap.
At that moment, Magireta clapped her hands.
“Alright, that’s enough. You shouldn’t fight among yourselves, contestants.”
“……”
“Well, not that I care what happens if you brawl during the breaks between quests.”
Matets’s complexion turned pale.
Magireta smoothly shifted the topic.
“Anyway, the fifty-two dropouts. You worked hard—it’s unfortunate.”
“Sniff… please…”
“I truly feel sorry for you. But there’s one among you I don’t pity at all—someone I downright despise.”
Magireta glanced to the side.
There stood a somewhat clumsy-looking young man.
“M-Me, ma’am?”
“Yeah. You’re last place. You got two points. You know that?”
“……”
“This was a life-or-death test—why did you study so half-heartedly? And somehow, your luck’s atrocious too. Every guess you made was wrong.”
“……”
“That’s just disgusting. So do me a favor and die in a more unique way.”
The next moment—
The light vanished from the young man’s eyes.
He slowly turned around.
He approached the solid wall.
And then—
“For failing to study! I’m sorry!”
Thud!
He slammed his head into the wall with terrifying force!
“For being stupid! I’m sorry!”
Thud!
“For being unlucky! I’m sorry!”
Thud!
“For being born! I’m sorry!”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Before long, the wall was stained red with the young man’s blood.
A sharp cracking sound came from his skull.
Gathering every ounce of strength left, he struck his head one final time.
Crunch.
Then collapsed to the floor, motionless.
“H-Heuk…”
“Ugh…”
“That’s too cruel…”
I clenched my teeth and glared at Magireta.
She grinned slyly and said,
“Goodbye to the other fifty-one, too.”
Snap.
With a flick of her finger, a storm of blood swept through the classroom in an instant.
Heads burst open, limbs twisted, bodies collapsed to the ground.
Even we were splattered with blood.
About three minutes later—
All that remained were corpses… and people whose faces looked just as lifeless.
Magireta spoke.
“Alright then, shall we go to the seventh floor? We’ve got to study for next week’s exam, right?”