Chapter 382: Final Exam
The day of the final exam arrived.
In the great hall, the witches sat in neat rows and waited for Teacher Scroll to distribute the papers. Andrea was elegantly trimming her nails with a clipper and thinking about dinner. According to His Highness, the first semester would conclude the moment the exam ended. To celebrate, every student would receive a roll of ice cream bread.
This meant Andrea would receive considerably more than one.
In recent days she had spent her free hours playing Fight the Landlord with Ashes and Shavi. The game appealed to her the way beast chess used to appeal to upper-class nobility — it rewarded the exploitation of advantage, the concealment of weakness, deep planning. She had told Lady Tilly, and then Ashes, that she had never lost a hand, which was the simple truth. She currently held IOUs for six rolls of ice cream bread — four from Ashes, two from Shavi — which meant that whenever His Highness arranged the dessert, both of them owed her their portions.
Tonight would be a bumper harvest. Three rolls, finally enough to satisfy the craving properly.
She was equally confident about the exam.
As soon as she’d heard an exam was coming, she’d borrowed the previous test from Sylvie and worked through the questions herself. The conclusion was reassuring: the content was essentially equivalent to basic noble education. Word recognition, simple profit-and-loss arithmetic, not even as demanding as a proper accounting problem, let alone family finance. She had been managing her family’s account books since age fifteen. The true way of the nobility was to do everything to one’s best.
Scroll distributed the papers.
Andrea scanned hers quickly and lifted her head. Three question sheets: “Kingdom Language,” “Basic Arithmetic,” “Elementary Nature.” She grinned and opened the first.
Fifteen minutes later she was finished. The vocabulary range was broader than the previous exam and there were unfamiliar segments — reading comprehension, fill-in-the-blank — but the logic was simple enough. Read, understand, answer. Nothing to worry about.
She turned to “Basic Arithmetic.”
The opening questions were familiar: profit and loss, straightforward. Then her progress slowed.
“Use an equation to describe two intersecting lines with a few dots above them.”
Her chest tightened. She knew each word separately. Together they produced something that felt like a locked door. This was exactly the sensation that had crept over her while reading Natural Science Theoretical Foundation — the words visible, the meaning absent.
The questions that followed produced the same effect, one after another.
Andrea began to sweat.
She steadied herself with a breath and turned to look at Nightingale, seated in the back row. Nightingale was another noble — perhaps she could offer some small hint?
But Nightingale’s expression stopped her cold.
Nightingale was staring at her paper with the goose quill held loosely in her mouth. She had not moved in some time.
Andrea looked around. Lady Tilly was absent. The legendarily gifted Miss Anna was nowhere to be seen. Most of the witches were still working through the first sheet. Then, after another quarter-hour, everyone turned to the second sheet — and here something odd happened: they barely stopped. Even Maggie was writing furiously, though her grip on the pen looked more like a claw than a hold.
Maggie, Andrea thought with a kind of hollow astonishment, can answer these?
She turned to “Elementary Nature,” which had numbers and symbols she couldn’t parse, and the bottom dropped out of her certainty entirely.
The only consolation: Ashes had stopped writing a long time ago. Clearly she was equally lost.
But what joy, Andrea thought bleakly, is there in beating a meathead?
Teacher Scroll called time. Andrea slumped in her chair and watched the papers disappear. The three rolls of ice cream bread, gleaming in her imagination all morning, no longer seemed particularly sweet.
“Your Highness, all the papers.” Scroll set the stack on Roland’s office table. “Are you certain you want to mark them yourself?”
“I am.” He smiled. “Reading exam papers is a form of leisure.”
Bizarre answers. The faint signatures of anguish readable between the lines. Spiritual food.
“Shall I collate the scores?”
“Please.” He nodded, then raised his voice. “Nightingale — no peeking.”
From the couch, Nightingale materialized with a sheepish smile. “You knew.” She settled more visibly into the cushions. “Why doesn’t Anna have to take the exam? It’s the end of the semester. All members of the Witch Union should—”
Roland laughed. “Because Teacher Scroll and Anna wrote the test together.”
Silence.
“What about your sister?”
“Lady Tilly? She reviewed the paper beforehand to check for errors.” He spread his hands. “Full marks, by the way.”
Nightingale’s shadow appeared to deepen.
Roland shook his head and picked up the first paper.
When the scoring was finished, he stretched the stiffness from his back and reviewed the results.
The Sleeping Island witches had improved significantly. Candle, Evelyn, and Sylvie had all passed, and Evelyn had improved the most — from 5 marks on the previous exam to 62 this time. The number was unmistakable: this was what sustained effort looked like, page by page, evening by evening, borrowing someone else’s room and their patience.
The three combat witches who had arrived more recently scored low — none above 50 — which was understandable given how little time they’d spent in the classroom. Their Kingdom Language scores carried a lower weight accordingly.
Nightingale fared worst of all. She had attended every class. Her total score was lower than her previous exam’s. Roland stared at the number for a moment, caught somewhere between laughter and sympathy. Learning ability is a natural endowment. Some things can’t be forced.
The surprise was Maggie.
She hadn’t solved more than a handful of the calculation problems in the arithmetic and nature sections. But she had correctly answered almost every multiple-choice and true-or-false question and finished with 63 marks — a point above Evelyn, which Roland found genuinely baffling.
He turned the paper over in his hands.
How did she manage it?
He couldn’t think of a reason.
Chapter 382: Final Exam
Translator: Meh Editor: – –
The day of the final exam soon arrived.
In the hall, the witches sat in neat rows as they waited for Teacher Scroll to distribute the test papers.
Meanwhile, Andrea was elegantly trimming her nails with a clipper. She was already thinking about dinner—according to His Highness Roland, the first semester of school would conclude as soon as the exam was over. To celebrate, every student would receive a roll of ice cream bread for dinner.
This meant that Andrea would receive much more than one roll.
In recent days, she would play “Fight the Landlord” with Ashes and Shavi whenever she was free. This game of tactics and technique was somewhat similar to beasts chess, which used to be popular among the upper-class nobility. In both games, the key was to make use of one’s advantages and hide one’s weaknesses, and deep planning was required. She would often brag about never having lost a game of “Fight the Landlord” to Lady Tilly and, even more so, Ashes, and she was indeed telling the truth. At the moment, she was owed six rolls of ice cream bread, of which four were from Ashes and two were from Shavi. In other words, whenever His Highness arranged this delicacy as dessert, the two of them would have to give their portions to Andrea.
It was going to be a “bumper harvest” for Andrea. She would be able to enjoy three rolls of ice cream bread for dinner, which would be finally enough to satiate her craving.
Naturally, she was also confident about the exam.
As soon as she heard that there would be an exam, she asked Sylvie about the previous test and even attempted the questions on her own. She realized that the test was very simple and was basically equivalent to the basic education for nobility. The test paper was mainly about recognizing words and phrases, and there were also a few simple arithmetic calculations of profit and loss, which were not as difficult as accounting problems, let alone family finance calculations. She was widely known as her family’s prodigy in this area, and at the age of 15, she was already able to check her family’s account books.
The true way of the nobility was to do everything to one’s best.
The test papers were soon distributed.
Andrea took a quick look through the paper and raised her head. The test consisted of three question sheets, which were each labeled separately as “Kingdom Language”, “Basic Arithmetic”, and “Elementary Nature”.
Great, exactly the same as last time.
She grinned uncontrollably as she opened the “Kingdom Language” question sheet and began writing with her goose quill pen immediately.
Within 15 minutes, she completed the questions on the first sheet. Although the range of vocabulary was greater than that of the previous time, and there were a few unexpected segments such as “reading comprehension” and “filling in the blanks”, the test remained easy for her. “Well, it’s just answering the questions after comprehending the passage and completing the sentences. It only looks confusing, but it’s quite simple.”
The next sheet was “Basic Arithmetic”.
The front segment comprised of simple calculations of profit and loss, but gradually, Andrea’s progress slowed down.
“What does ‘Use an equation to describe two intersecting lines with a few dots above them.’ mean?”
Her heart suddenly clenched. She began to have the feeling she got when she read Natural Science Theoretical Foundation. “Why is it that I can understand the words separately, but not when they’re connected?”
This was also the case for the subsequent questions.
Andrea started to sweat profusely.
She took a deep breath and held it in her chest. Then, she turned towards Nightingale, who was seated in the back row. “As a fellow noble, can she give me some hints?”
But Nightingale’s facial expression shocked Andrea.
Nightingale was staring dully at her test paper while holding her goose quill pen in her mouth. She did not shift her gaze for a long time.
Are the questions also difficult for her?
Lady Tilly did not attend the exam, while the legendarily gifted Miss Anna was also nowhere to be seen. Andrea saw that most of the witches were still stuck on the first page and unable to answer the questions.
After another 15 minutes, everyone flipped to the second question sheet. Even though they were much slower than Andrea for the first sheet, they did not stop writing even for a brief moment on the second sheet, and even Maggie was writing furiously. “Oh dear, Maggie doesn’t even hold the pen properly and looks as though she’s clawing the pen in her fist, yet she’s able to answer the questions?”
Andrea felt entirely helpless. Pretending that she had completed the “Basic Arithmetic” sheet, she flipped to the final sheet, “Elementary Nature”.
Compared to the previous test’s straightforward question-and-answer format, there were numbers and incomprehensible symbols this time. “Wait… this requires calculation as well?”
She suddenly began to feel that things were not going according to what she had anticipated.
The only relief was that Ashes had stopped writing a long time ago, apparently because she was equally stumped by the questions.
“But… what the heck,” she thought, “what joy is there in beating a meathead?”
Amidst her anxiety, she heard Teacher Scroll announce the end of the exam. Slumping back in her chair, she watched as the teacher took her test paper away, and she felt that her three rolls of ice cream bread for dinner were no longer that sweet.
“Your Highness, here are all of the test papers.” Scroll placed a stack of paper on Roland’s office table. “Are you sure that you want to mark them yourself?”
“Indeed.” Roland smiled. “Sometimes, reading test papers is a form of pleasure.”
For example, he could read their bizarre answers, or discover the test takers’ anguish and suffering by reading between the lines. These served as spiritual food during his leisure time.
“Shall I collate the scores for you?”
“Yes, sorry to trouble you.” Roland nodded, and then he shouted, “Nightingale, no peeping.”
“You knew.” From the couch, Nightingale revealed her form and smiled. “Why doesn’t Anna have to attend the exam? Isn’t it the end of the semester? All sisters of the Witch Union should have to take the test.”
Roland burst into laughter uncontrollably. “Because this test was formulated by Teacher Scroll and her.”
Nightingale kept silent for a long while before she asked, “How about your younger sister?”
“Lady Tilly? She helped review the test paper and took the exam beforehand in order to check for errors.” The prince spread his arms. “By the way, she got full marks.”
Nightingale’s shadow appeared to grow heavier.
Roland shook his head and started to mark the papers.
…
After all of the scores had been collated, Roland stretched his sluggish body. The Sleeping Island witches showed considerable improvement this time. Candle, Evelyn and Sylvie all passed the exam, and among them, it was Evelyn who improved the most. Although she had the lowest score among the trio in the previous exam, she improved from 5 to 62 marks this time, undoubtedly because she had put in a great amount of effort.
Conversely, the three combat witches who had recently arrived attained low scores, none of which went above 50 marks. This was understandable because they had spent a much shorter time in the classroom and their scores for “Kingdom Language” were assigned a relatively low weight.
However, it was Nightingale who fared the most terribly. Although she had attended class with everyone else, her total score was less than her last test’s. Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry. “It appears that learning ability is indeed a natural gift that can’t be forced.”
The only one who surprised him was Maggie.
Although she was not able to solve more than a handful of calculation problems in the “Basic Arithmetic” and “Elementary Nature” sections, she correctly answered most of the multiple-choice and true-or-false questions and ultimately scored 63 marks, which Roland found rather unbelievable.
“How did she manage it?”
Roland could not think of a reason.