NOVEL NEXT Chapter 57
EP.57 Can I Solve It? (4)
“What is this?”
Everyone stares blankly and blinks.
The students looking at the bulletin board are young. Young, but they are also mages. When faced with an unknown challenge, it is a mage’s duty to comprehend it.
The students calmly assess the situation. As mages, they start to organize their thoughts.
“What is before my eyes?”
It’s an exam paper. The midterm exam paper for next week, no less.
“Then why is this stuck here?”
They ask themselves again and again, but no answers emerge.
“I don’t know.”
Even after pondering deeply, it was impossible to deduce the reason for the exam paper being stuck on the bulletin board.
“·····.”
They blink. Silence hangs between the students.
Ziiip.
Then, someone reached out.
They ripped off one exam paper. The other students, who were watching, soon reached out to tear off their own papers.
The exam paper is enchanted so that each person can take only one sheet. Soon, the students glanced at the papers they held.
“·····.”
Upon closer inspection, not all questions are public. Out of a total of eight questions, only three are visible.
Questions 6, 7, and 8.
The three questions derive from a single circuit.
The first thing that catches their eye is the circuit that fills one side completely. The moment they see it, their words escape them. The questions they’d been pondering until now vanish without a trace.
It’s beautiful.
They’ve never seen such an intricate circuit before.
It’s different from the circuits they usually draw.
“This isn’t a circuit drawn by setting a general form.”
While the circuits they’ve drawn are like a tower sculpted from a large block, this is a tower that has been carefully built from tiny bricks.
The difference starts from that elegance.
The completed circuit, without missing a single detail, looks like a work of art. Students fall silent before its beauty derived from perfection.
However, the silence lasts only a moment.
“Uh?”
Someone raises a voice filled with doubt. They read the question written on the back of the exam paper aloud.
“···Find the error in this circuit?”
At that single phrase, everyone stiffens.
The students flip the paper over to read the problem, then look back at the circuit.
“Find an error in this?”
What lies before them is a circuit that touches the realm of art. No matter how much they blink and look again, they can’t find even a small flaw in the circuit.
Yet, there is an error here?
That finding it is the exam question?
The students stare blankly at the exam paper. Just staring doesn’t yield an answer, yet everyone does just that.
Thud, thud.
At that moment, someone’s footsteps are heard.
The sound of shoes echoing against the corridor floor resonates loudly in the silence.
“·····.”
On the regular footfall, the students turn around. They meet the gaze of the owner of the footsteps.
Swish.
Ashen hair flows gently.
Thin, blue eyes gaze at the students.
Rania van Trias.
She is a professor known as the new nightmare of Apuria.
Like always, she is dressed in formal attire, but today she lacks the cape draped over her shoulders. Is it because the weather is starting to warm? She has removed the cape and rolled up her sleeves.
“Hmm?”
She tilts her head upon seeing the gathered students. Her ashen hair flows with the motion.
“What are you all doing here?”
At her words, the students naturally direct their gazes to the papers they hold.
“Ah.”
Rania nods as if she roughly understands.
“Were you looking at the academic notice?”
The students also nod in agreement.
One of them speaks up.
“Uh, Professor Rania, this is···.”
“Yes, it’s part of the midterm exam. These are the three questions with the highest weight.”
“Then why was this included in the academic notice···?”
Rania lets out a light laugh.
“It seems there were many discussions about whether this would be difficult for you all, so I decided to reveal it in advance.”
Wait, wouldn’t they change the questions in such a case?
That question arose in their throats, but the students silently listened to the professor.
“Ah, while it would be good for you to try solving it on your own··· I’m thinking of covering it in more detail during the next class. If I explain the solving methods, wouldn’t it make it a bit easier to tackle on exam day?”
“···Yes?”
“The reason I handed out the exam paper in advance was in the hope that you’d take a look and come to class prepared.”
Then she grins slightly.
“Wouldn’t that be helpful for you all?”
The students fall silent at her smile.
What on earth does this mean? Not only handing it out in advance but also saying she’d explain it?
“Is it typical to go that far?”
While they were sincerely grateful, the words echoed in their ears in a somewhat different tone.
Why reveal the exam questions early?
Why would she explain the solving method?
It’s because she believes that even so, the questions will have enough difficulty to discern the students’ capabilities. In other words, it’s a sign that the problems are mind-bogglingly difficult.
“······.”
The students silently stare at the exam paper.
The confusion they’d felt moments ago is gone.
The letters written on the exam paper start to appear to them in a different context.
– I will kill you.
It seemed that is exactly what the paper said.
“Well then, let’s cover it in the next class.”
With those final words, Professor Rania elegantly departs. Her steps echo steadily, as her ashen hair dances in the wind.
The students watch her departure.
Someone clapped their forehead and said,
“This is an assignment, right?”
What kind of professor would assign midterms as homework?
Surprisingly, there was one. Right here.
2.
“I want to climb a mountain.”
Lac, hailing from the north, loves training above all else.
Though he entered the Magic Academy due to his talent in magic, he has trained his body without fail every single day.
– Muscles will never betray you, young master.
– Strong muscles! Thick arms! A grip strong enough to crush a troll’s skull! For warriors, muscles are the first and oldest friend.
That’s what he learned from warriors.
He may not look brutish on the outside, but Lac’s arms were as solid as iron.
Lac felt joy in this.
Having a strong body meant he could withstand more potent body-enhancing magic.
For Lac, training is joy.
When energy flows through his body, he feels fulfilled.
“I want to, climb, a mountain.”
At that moment, Lac is currently.
“Climbing a mountain···.”
“Please shut up, Lac.”
Sitting in the cafe, he was blankly staring at the ceiling.
It’s been a week since he last trained. His body is itching for exercise.
The reason he hasn’t been able to train was simple.
That reason sits right in front of him.
“·····.”
Lac gazes at the mountain of papers piled on the table. All of it is homework that needs to be completed within this week.
“···Belnoa.”
Lac calls out his rival seated across from him.
“Why?”
“I think I’ve studied hard.”
“So?”
“I did my best. I studied until I went to bed···! I did my homework. Then why doesn’t the homework decrease···?!”
His voice was filled with sorrow.
Belnoa calmly replied.
“Because you are foolish.”
“That’s harsh.”
“It’s the truth.”
“That’s going too far, Belnoa···.”
Sighing, Lac watched as Belnoa shook his head.
‘Why did I come to the cafe with him again?’
Despite being in the same class and frequently crossing paths as the master’s disciple, it led to overlapping homework assignments, hence their meetup at the cafe… but now…
“Uugh…”
The slumped figure of that barbarian warrior at the table didn’t seem particularly helpful.
‘What on earth kind of assignment could be causing this?’
Lac glanced at the papers he had been hitting his head against. Then, the subject written at the top caught his eye.
Mana Trading Studies (Fundamentals).
‘…That makes sense.’
Belnoa silently nodded in agreement.
Then she took a sip from the coffee she had ordered. With caffeine in her system, at least her brain felt like it was working a bit.
“…Black water.”
Lac, who had been watching her with dazed eyes, grabbed the coffee cup beside him.
Gulp gulp.
He downed it in one go. Then, chewing on the residue settled at the bottom of the cup, Lac mumbled,
“Black water is sweet… even without syrup, it’s sweet… why can’t I understand this…”
Have I become an intellectual?
That powerless voice echoed in the cafe.
3.
The Fourth Princess, Ayla.
She felt fatigue wash over her as she looked straight ahead. Her gaze was directed at the professor standing at the podium.
Rania van Trias.
Her outfit caught her eye first.
It was a formal dress designed with considerable care alongside royal designers.
‘It’s nice to see her wearing it well, but…’
Recently, she didn’t find Rania to be very welcoming. A lot of that was due to the professor’s insane assignments.
‘How many hours did I sleep last night?’
Suddenly, that question crossed her mind.
Ayla spread her fingers to calculate that time. Watching the hours count on one hand, she couldn’t help but chuckle to herself.
Like most students, Ayla was spending her days weeping over assignments.
‘To think I’d experience sleepless nights in Apuria when I never felt it in the royal family…’
Even amidst fierce power struggles, Ayla had slept soundly. Sometimes she thinks living in Apuria is more hectic than the royal family.
Should she laugh or cry at this thought?
While pondering, Ayla sneaked a glance to the side.
“·····.”
Recently, a few professors had entered the lecture, causing some seats to become scarce. Because of that, an unusual student sat beside Ayla.
‘Resti Elenoa.’
That was certainly her name.
The Ashen Master in line for the tower.
Scratch scratch.
She is silently taking notes. Ayla glanced at the notes, then widened her eyes.
It was a solution.
An explanation for the exam paper handed down by Apuria’s nightmare. It looked so complicated one couldn’t understand it, yet she could tell it was a solution.
“…Resti?”
“Y-Yes?”
At the call, Resti turned to look at Ayla.
“Did you solve that all?”
“…Are you referring to this?”
“Oh, yes. That one. The exam questions handed out this time.”
Resti shook her head.
“I couldn’t solve it all. I barely managed to solve one question.”
“…You solved one? That one?”
Lac had not solvable questions for three days straight! Ayla gazed at Resti in surprise, but Resti herself didn’t seem satisfied.
“I had plenty of time, so it’s a bit regrettable I couldn’t solve more. I was planning to try solving it once before listening to the explanation…”
It seemed she genuinely thought that way, rather than being humble.
‘Speaking of which, I am the second in class… and Resti is the top student…?’
Is this the difference between first and second place?
There was no need to look far. The talent Ayla sought for her future was right before her eyes.
Ayla’s mouth curled into a smile.
“Resti.”
“…Yes?”
“Let’s be friends.”
It was just when Resti, tilting her head at the suddenly extended hand, was about to respond.
Ding, ding.
The bell signaling the start of the lesson rang. Then, Rania, standing at the podium, began to speak.
“Let us begin the class.”
*
Professor Rania kept her promise.
In the last class before the midterm exams, she indeed conducted a lecture about the exam.
“If you do this here…”
The blackboard was filled to the brim with solutions. The students blinked blankly.
They heard something. They understood something.
The explanations were neat, and the solutions were straightforward. Watching the professor smoothly solving the problems made them feel as if they could actually do it.
But that feeling is short-lived.
They turn their gaze from the solutions to the exam paper. Just as they try to mimic what the professor taught…
‘…How did we do this again?’
They quickly hit a wall.
The students feel a sense of powerlessness.
If the problems were outright difficult.
Truly impossible problems.
Absurd problems.
If that were the case, at least they’d feel a sense of powerlessness.
However, after listening to Professor Rania’s explanations, they realized they knew everything. The methods she taught didn’t include anything they hadn’t learned.
“That’s all for today.”
As they sat there blankly, the class ends. The students stare at the exam paper.
There are solutions densely filled throughout the paper.
While they felt camaraderie during the lesson, now they felt a sense of isolation as if thrown onto a deserted island.
“How do you all feel?”
Professor Rania addresses the students. She lightly pats the heavily marked blackboard.
“It’s quite a challenging problem.”
She looks quite pleased.
“Professor Rosel also said it’s a good problem. Solving it once will surely be a great benefit to you all.”
Then, she beautifully smiles.
That smile is lovely. Paired with her graceful appearance, it’s a serene smile that blossoms like a flower.
There is no malice in that smile.
It feels like a purely beautiful heart wanting to help the students.
Yet, as always.
It’s difficult for goodwill to be accepted solely as goodwill. To students, that smile appears in a drastically different light.
“If you can solve it, please do.”
– If you can, then go ahead and try.
Students feel fear in that smile.