“Gramps, why do we need an hour for lunch? Do you think I have the time to be leisurely strolling to the dining room? The liberty to sit back in my chair and savor some hot soup? If the cook prepares some sandwiches or a packed lunch in advance, we can get it over and done with in fifteen minutes without even leaving the classroom!”
“Sandwiches? A packed lunch? That kind of cold food is hardly suitable for the son of a noble family—”
“Remember what purpose all this studying is for, Gramps. If I can’t get into the Royal Academy, eventually, I’ll be living around here as a simple commoner—no title, no lands, and no true responsibilities. Living as an aristocrat just to keep up appearances is meaningless at this crucial moment.”
I thought it was a sound argument. Soldo disagreed.
“True as that may be, Young Master, I worry if we do not allow for proper rest periods, your disposition—”
I cut the old man off again. “When you take an exam, you either pass or you fail. No matter how much effort I put in, if I don’t pass, it’ll all have been meaningless. The objective here isn’t to do ‘as much as Allen can handle.’ It’s to do ‘as much as it takes to pass.’ I’m not competing against myself—I’m competing against the other examinees. If I’m not willing to do as much as it takes, there’s no point doing anything. It’d be nothing but a waste of time. If I follow a ‘sensible’ study plan...there’s no way I’m gonna pass,” I declared with calm confidence.
At least ten thousand hopefuls who’d passed the threshold requirements for mana and academic results would present themselves on the day of the entrance exams. Of those ten thousand, only one hundred would prevail. If one also included the potential applicants who had failed to meet those thresholds, the ratio of applicants to successful candidates was even more astronomical. Even an applicant blessed with great physical abilities wouldn’t stand a chance against that mob of people—not with a half-hearted approach to their studies, that was.
I already knew the ruthlessness of the God of Entrance Examinations. It was ingrained in my very core.
“But, Young Master—”
God, he’s obstinate!
Soldo clearly had no intention of accepting the revisions I’d requested of him. The Allen he knew had spent too many years running away from his studies; I was now just reaping what he had sown. At the same time, I was at my limit with all this circular talk. I had so many things I wanted to try in this promising new world; I wasn’t planning to waste any of my precious time on leisurely dining.
“I’m fed up with this, Gramps. Let’s say I end up joining the Royal Order. I’d be sent out on monster eradication missions, camping in the field. Do you think I’d have the luxury of sitting around eating warm, comforting food when I could be attacked at any second? Getting into the Royal Academy isn’t the finish line here—it’s just a checkpoint. If I don’t think about it from the perspective of my life after graduation, I’ll never even get admitted!”
This was my guiding truth. If my past life had proven anything, it was that studying without a vision in mind was worth less than nothing. And sure, it wasn’t a bad thing to enjoy a nice meal every once in a while, but the kind of satisfaction I was after right now didn’t come from food.
Soldo looked at me with a stunned expression on his face that said, Who is this child? I took advantage of the silence to further press my case.
“This is your last chance, Gramps. Enough with the half-assed adjustments. We’ve been cornered on the battlefield, alone and helpless. Our enemy is the entrance exams, and against them we are feeble. But if we do not defeat them, we have no hope of returning alive. And they’re drawing ever closer.” I paused. “In life, you need to leave yourself a bit of elbow room. Do you know why? Because when all hope is lost, and the enemy is at the gate, that’s when you wring out your last reserves of hidden strength! At what point should we brace ourselves for the coming battle? When do we refuse to give in? That time is now! I’ve already made up my mind, Gramps. Forget the sandwiches—starting tomorrow, I’ll be eating field rations for lunch, got it? I’ll eat here while preparing for the afternoon lessons. And I don’t want to hear another word about it!”
Soldo’s eyes, previously still tinged with confusion, instantly filled with fighting spirit.
Mwa ha ha. I knew that would get him. I’d intentionally aimed to leverage Soldo’s predisposition toward clichéd, impassioned speeches like that, taking inspiration from a particularly hot-blooded cram school teacher from my past life. Judging from his expression, it appeared I had been successful.
“From eight in the morning until seven in the evening...no breaks between lessons...and fifteen minutes for lunch... Are you quite sure, Young Master? Considering that up until yesterday, you were interrupting your lessons at every given opportunity to use the latrine...will your chronically overactive bladder not trouble you?” His lips had curved into a slight smile, but the old man’s eyes were not smiling at all.
“How indecent! As the exclusive private tutor of the great House Rovene, you should know when to hold your tongue!”
The moment those words left my mouth, all humor vanished from Soldo’s face. Crap. The words had slipped out reflexively in response to his pointing out my past childish behavior. Soldo held great pride in having guided numerous Rovene children, and ever since my potential in magic had been discovered, he had hoped more than anyone for my acceptance into the Royal Academy. And now I’d gone and made a fool of him.
Some lines were not meant to be crossed.
✦ ✦ ✦
And that was how I had succeeded in securing my proposed schedule. But it turned out that running my mouth had resulted in a few unintended side effects...
“Gramps, there’s no reason for you to eat field rations too, you know? You could ask the cook to make you a sandwich or something, at least.”
“There is no need. This is a battlefield, Young Master. Do you have the luxury to be showing such compassion?” His eyes were glazed with quiet anger.
“I’ll continue to work on the questions on my own, so please, take a short rest—surely you must need a bathroom break at the very least?”
“Again, there is no need. I have come wearing a diaper, so rest assured that there will be no issues even if something were to occur.”
This guy is terrifying.