“Anyway, it’s been a while, Charlotte. I heard you placed third in the rookie tournament.”
“It was practically a win by default. Honestly, it was kind of embarrassing.”
Having finished his task, Joshua struck up a friendly conversation with us.
“And you must be…”
“I’m Eriol Valencia.”
“Ah, so you’re Eriol. That makes sense.”
“You know my name?”
“Top scorer on the entrance exam. Champion of the rookie tournament. The top student—your reputation has already spread to the second years.”
Joshua smiled as he spoke.
“So, what’s the relationship between you two? Are you really dating?”
“No, we’re not!”
“Not at all.”
“Haha, got it.”
Maybe he was just joking from the start, because Joshua didn’t bring it up again.
“So Charlotte, what brings you here today? You’re not the type to come see me without a reason.”
“Well…”
“Haha. You don’t have to say it—I already know. You’re here for past exam questions, right?”
Joshua saw right through us.
“I remember running around trying to get my hands on past exams around this time too.”
“You did, senior?”
“Of course. It’s harder than you’d think. People don’t share them easily. Plus, different seniors have different sets of past questions.”
Even if they’re called past exam questions, it’s not like they’re the actual tests.
Most of them are reconstructed from memory, so while some seniors might have nearly complete versions, others only have fragments.
“It’d be nice if there were a culture of sharing high-quality past exams among all students.”
“It’s hard, since everyone’s competing… I think it’s kind of inevitable.”
“True. Grades affect your future, after all.”
Nodding, Joshua opened the drawer beside him.
“Anyway, thanks to all that hard work… I managed to gather the past three years’ worth of exams. I even have last year’s, so I can give you four years’ worth in total.”
“Four years’ worth…”
I thought we might be able to get only last year’s, but four years? That should be more than enough to prepare.
“But I can’t just give them away for nothing.”
Pulling out a thick stack of papers, Joshua smiled.
“There’s a condition.”
“A condition?”
“Could you do me a favour?”
“Uh… Sorry, but we’ve got midterms coming up…”
“I know. It’s something you can do after midterms, so no worries.”
What on earth is he going to ask?
“Charlotte, Eriol. Are you planning to join the Raid Tournament?”
“The Raid Tournament…?”
“The dungeon competition that even first-years can participate in.”
“Oh, that one.”
Sounded like the same competition Helios had mentioned.
Now that I thought about it… the display case did have several trophies from that tournament.
“Our club has a long tradition of placing well in that tournament.”
“Senior, don’t tell me this club is…”
“Ah, didn’t realize it was hard to tell without a nameplate?”
Joshua gave a wry smile and pointed toward the trophy shelf.
“Rangers, the Maze Exploration Society. A long-standing dungeon raiding club with decades of history.”
Rangers.
Even though it was just a student club, I had already heard of it long ago.
Because…
“Professor Kaisel Valencia was also a member during his student days. He’s the only freshman ever to win the tournament.”
As he said this, Joshua pointed to the trophy from the 47th tournament I had noticed earlier.
According to Joshua, the Rangers had completely lost their former prestige.
After Kaisel and others who had led its golden age graduated, the club gradually declined as it lost out to rival clubs.
“Until last year, things were manageable… but something bad happened.”
“What happened?”
“Sorry, I’d rather not talk about it. I’ll skip that part.”
Joshua looked bitter as he said this.
“Anyway, after what happened last year, the club fell apart. I’m the only member left now.”
“I see…”
“But I haven’t given up yet. That’s why I want to achieve results in the upcoming Raid Tournament and restore the Rangers.”
“Senior Joshua, then…”
“Yeah. I’d like you two to join the competition under the Rangers’ name.”
Joshua’s condition was for us to participate in the tournament and bring recognition back to the Rangers.
“I’d love to do it all on my own… but honestly, I’m not much of a field mage. I’m more into research.”
“Then why are you in a dungeon-raiding club?”
“I’m really into relics found in dungeons. And… I owed something to a senior who used to run this club.”
Joshua scratched his head with an embarrassed smile.
“You don’t need to be an official Ranger to join the tournament. Which means you two can join too.”
“I know. But if we’re going under the Rangers’ name… are you asking us to officially join the club?”
“You just need to let me add your names to the member list. I’m not going to pressure you to be active in the club.”
Joshua’s voice was earnest.
“Senior, there’s something I’d like to ask.”
“What is it?”
“If you’re that desperate, why ask freshmen like us? If it’s just about putting names on the list, couldn’t you ask other upperclassmen?”
“There’s a reason.”
Joshua let out a sigh at my question.
“There’s another club called ‘Deep Maze.’ They’ve been actively trying to sabotage us. Because of them, no one else dares to help the Rangers.”
“Do they have a grudge or something?”
“Seems they were humiliated by Rangers in the past. That was during the time Professor Kaisel was here.”
Uncle Kaisel… just what did you do?
“And… I can’t say much, but last year’s incident didn’t help either.”
“…”
What exactly happened last year?
“Anyway, Eriol. If you, the nephew of Professor Kaisel, perform well in the tournament, it’ll be incredible publicity.”
“…”
“Charlotte also placed third in the rookie tournament. You’re both top-tier talents for first-years. I truly believe you can get great results.”
Joshua bowed his head to us.
“I’ll provide you with all the knowledge and strategies handed down by past seniors. So… please, help me.”
After leaving the clubroom,
I headed toward the eastern section of the academy with Charlotte.
“Are you sure about this?”
“About what?”
“Joshua-senior’s request.”
Charlotte didn’t look very pleased.
“You accepted it way too quickly.”
“But we got the past exam papers, didn’t we?”
Right now, both Charlotte and I were holding thick envelopes in our hands.
They contained four years’ worth of past exam papers that Joshua had collected.
He had even given me permission to share them with my friends.
“I was planning to enter that tournament anyway.”
I had already told Helios that I’d be participating in the tournament.
The only difference now was that I’d be entering under the name of Rangers.
“Besides, Joshua-senior said he’d share all the know-how accumulated by previous members.”
Things like how the dungeon in the tournament is typically set up, what kinds of strategies lead to high scores… He promised to tell us all of that.
“That’s basically the same as getting past questions for the tournament.”
“Oh…”
Exactly.
Just like we get past papers to prepare for exams, we’re getting veteran knowledge to prepare for the strategy tournament.
“If we’re doing this, we might as well aim for a good result.”
“Eriol Valencia, don’t tell me…”
Charlotte gave me a suspicious look.
“You’re not thinking of winning, are you?”
“Well, who knows?”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Charlotte shook her head in disbelief.
“You think a freshman’s going to win?”
“It’s not impossible.”
There was already a precedent—Kaisel had done it.
Proof that it wasn’t a pipe dream.
“Anyway.”
“What now?”
“Does this mean we have to enter as partners?”
“Partners? What do you mean?”
“You seriously don’t know?”
“The rules say it’s a two-person team.”
“…”
Charlotte’s expression stiffened.
“So we have to team up? It’s not an individual competition?”
“That’s right.”
“Nope. No way.”
“What?”
“I can’t do that. People will misunderstand.”
For some reason, Charlotte blushed as she spoke.
“We already have to be careful around others… If people see us entering the tournament together, they’ll totally jump to conclusions.”
“Conclusions?”
“I mean…”
What is she even talking about?
“I-I mean…”
“What? What’s the big deal?”
“They’ll think we’re a… a…”
“A what?”
“A couple!”
Charlotte suddenly shouted.
“That’s why! I’m not entering with you!”
“Hold on. What about the promise we made with Joshua-senior?”
“Then you enter with someone else! Form a party—or couple—with another person! I’ll find someone else too. Problem solved, right?”
“Are you sure that’s okay?”
“Anyway!”
With her face still red, Charlotte turned her back to me.
“Ask one of your friends. I’ll team up with one of mine. Got it?”
“Hey, but…”
“We got the past papers, so we’re done here, right? I’m going now!”
After shouting that, Charlotte spun around and bolted off.
Watching her quickly disappear into the distance, I muttered blankly,
“You don’t even have any friends…”
…Was she going to be alright?
I was starting to worry.
“I got the past exam papers.”
When I stepped into Room 801 holding the exam papers, everyone cheered.
“Whoa! Amazing!”
“I knew you could do it!”
“Mm, that’s our Eriol.”
“Can’t believe you actually pulled it off.”
Cain, Senia, Charis, and Milia gathered around me, impressed.
“It’s four years’ worth—should be more than enough.”
“Eriol, you’re seriously… incredible.”
“But don’t think having these is all it takes to get a good grade. I skimmed through them on the way here, and if you don’t understand the lectures properly, they won’t help much.”
Past exam papers are just a tool to get familiar with the question style.
Just memorizing the answers won’t guarantee a good score.
“By the way, Eriol, how did you get these? You said you didn’t know any seniors.”
“I met someone through someone else.”
I decided not to go into detail about the condition I had to accept.
It probably wouldn’t be in Joshua-senior’s best interest for that to get around.
Still… I do need a partner.
If Charlotte really ends up finding someone else, then I’ll have to find a partner too.
That means asking someone here.
Cain or Senia, maybe?
Both Cain and Senia are top-tier martial artists.
Kaisel once said that if I’d faced either of them during the rookie tournament, I would’ve lost.
Teaming up with one of them would definitely be a big help.
Helios already said he wouldn’t partner with me.
But I’ll decide who to ask after midterms.
There’s always the chance Charlotte won’t manage to find a partner in the end.
Alright, for now…
I took a deep breath as I sat down.
Pushing aside all other thoughts, I started focusing.
Time to study for the midterms first.
My goal was to be top of the class.
Before conquering the dungeon tournament, I had to conquer the midterms.
Elemental Studies Department building, located in the northern part of the academy.
There, Inies and the other professors and TAs were hard at work creating the midterm exam for the first-years.
“How’s it coming along?”
“Ah, Department Head!”
When Horizon, the head of the Elemental Department, entered, everyone stood up and bowed.
“Hm, is this the draft?”
Horizon picked up a draft of the exam and skimmed through it.
“Inies.”
“Yes, Department Head?”
“This is too easy. Redo it.”
“…?!”
Inies and the rest of the faculty froze, swallowing hard.
“B-but sir, the difficulty seems on par with last year’s…”
“And that’s the problem. Because we keep making the tests the same every year, it’s getting harder to tell students apart.”
Everyone fell silent at Horizon’s criticism.
Because they all knew he was right.
“Past exam papers are spreading among students. They know exactly the kind of questions we ask.”
“…”
“It’s not against the rules, and there’s nothing wrong with studying from past papers… but making an exam with no ability to distinguish strong from weak? That’s a failure on our part as test creators.”
Facing the tense crowd of professors and TAs, Horizon spoke in a calm but cold voice.
“For this midterm, raise the difficulty level. High. I want the ones who just memorized the past papers without understanding the content to cry.”
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