Hard Work Will Never Betray Me (WN) - Chapter 154

“Did you bring your examination papers?　Have you forgotten your pen case?　Is your ink clean?　Do you have enough magic power?”

“Don’t worry. You’ re a worrier, aren’t you, Alice?’

You can never worry too much about an important exam that could affect your life, Master Hal!

“Hal is a bit of a devil, isn’t he? He might fail the exam by writing down the wrong examination number or something.”

“Hey, hey, Mei. Don’t say anything ridiculous”

　It’s a winter morning when it’s chilly even inside the room. The Fahrenheit family was being checked repeatedly by Alice, their personal maid, in the living room of the residence of the capital.

　Alice was dressed in elegant, yet not overly glamorous clothes, like an aristocrat, and she was circling around me, checking to see if there was anything even slightly out of place. She is taking care of me on her own nowadays, without any final checks by the head maid or head butler Hendrik.

　It has been two years since I came to the capital. She has also grown up quite well.

　One year has passed since I finished my training with Marie.

　Since then, I have returned to my parents’ house to relax, gone on dates with Lily around town, created a magical invention, created a magical opart with Mei, practiced magic with my father and mother, trained my younger brothers and sisters, learned from my sister so that I would not be caught off guard, and was called by Jet to the Imperial Capital to learn about magic. Iris was called to the Imperial Capital by Jet and successfully became a student at the Mage Academy (- apparently, in her case, she was transferred from the Special Division). Iris was transferred from the Special Magic Division to the Academy of Magic, a revolutionary experiment aimed at career development and human resource development for the members of the division. I was engaged in a top-secret mission for the Special Division, and while I was spending busy but fulfilling days, a year passed in the blink of an eye.

　By the way, my older sister Noel, whom I was to learn from, had somehow managed to pass the Imperial Academy of Literature and Science, the most difficult academy in the empire, at the top of her class while I was under Marie’s guidance.

　She had always shown glimpses of being a very capable person, but her growth over the past few years was said to be one of the highest rates of growth in history. Mom says, “I wonder if she thought it would affect her reputation as a big sister since Hal was getting more and more achievements. She worked so hard behind the scenes! So it seems.”

　She is now in the great position of student council president. If she is the student council president of Bunri Gakuin, which is rumored to be a gateway to the world of empire politics, she will be a bureaucrat, a minister, or a doctor in the future, but I am sure that she will have her pick of any position she wants to hold. She would be a career woman that would surprise even the U.S. ambassador to Japan of yesteryear.

　And so, today was the day I finally took the entrance exam for the Imperial Academy of Magic. My academics have been in the passing range for a few years now, and I’m now in a safe zone, not to mention my practical magic skills.

　The only problem is the use of attribute magic, but unless the content of the exam has suddenly changed this year, I should be able to pass the exam with non-attribute magic without any problems. If I don’t make any ordinary mistakes and get all the answer sheets wrong one by one, or if I get lost and am late for the exam, I should be able to pass the exam. Or rather, if I can’t pass the test, there would be almost no one in the world, let alone the empire, who could pass the test. So there is no problem. I am assured of a future of happy academy life!

　By the way, Mei, who is standing next to me, is Meir Arendahl, the head of the R&D department of Arendahl Workshop and a remarkable inventor, who, like me, is also a candidate for the entrance examination to the Academy of Magic. However, she is not taking the exam for battle-oriented skills like me, Lily, and Iris. What she excels at is engineering magic.

　She has already received a recommendation from the academy thanks to her many works of paradigm shifting that would have advanced civilization by several hundred years by herself. Of course, if she did that, she would be admitted at the bottom of the class, and Mei, who is a very serious person, would never do that, but this is just a hypothetical. In short, there is no way that Mei would fail.

　As for Lily, although she declined the recommendation, she has the ability to pass the entrance examination almost without fail, so there is no need to worry about her. In fact, she is even competing with me to see who has the better score. She currently commutes to class from the Duchess of Bernstein’s residence in the imperial capital, so she is not here at the moment.

“I’m worried. What if something goes wrong?”

She is fine. There is a good precedent that even a person with a broken personality can get the recommendation necessary for entrance as long as he is capable.

　As we all know, Christophe is a rebel. However, thanks to his extravagance, a long and lengthy personal interview and a mental investigation using the latest magical skills are required in order to get a recommendation. The booing of the generation below us was such that it could have been enough to bring down a count’s house.

　The scope of one’s career would change dramatically depending on whether or not one had graduated from one of the four graduate courses. That would make them desperate to get a recommendation.

　Well, it is common practice for people like Eleonora and me, who come from prestigious military noble families and take pride in their military prowess, to pass the entrance exam on our own merits, so it is not really a matter of concern for me. Lily, who is not a military noble but also from a prestigious noble family, also turned down the recommendation.

　”So, she had also been offered a recommendation from the academy. she just turned it down. I’m not lying!”

“Well, I’m off.”

“Bye , you two !　Meir, please do your best!”

“Yes, I’ll do my best to make it to the top of the class for now.”

　I’m sure it will be quite difficult to get to the top of the class since there are young talented people like Lily, Mei, and Eleonora who are taking the exam in the same group. Well, it’s not a bad idea to aim for . But, more ever I can’t afford to lose to the top student at the Bunri Academy.

“So, Mei, let’s go.”

“Yes, let’s go”

　The winter solstice had long since passed, but it was still far from spring, and under a clear blue sky in the early morning of midwinter, we set off for the Academy of Magic, to the venue for the examinations.