Royal Road
Chapter 239
Chapter 239
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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Chapter 239: The Exam (1)
***
On the day of the annual exam, Damien found himself face-to-face with an unpleasant group of people as he walked through the academy.
Chancellor Altman Bedepullity and others were gathered together and moving somewhere.
“Hmm?”
Altman noticed Damien and raised an eyebrow.
“Mr. Damien, the annual exam is about to start, what are you doing here?”
“I was on my way to a place to stop by for a while.”
The instructors around the Chancellor burst into laughter at Damien’s words.
“Mr. Damien, you seem very relaxed.”
“Or have you already given up?”
“Even though it’s temporary, it’s not right for an instructor to do that.”
Despite the instructors’ taunts, Damien’s eyes turned cold for a moment.
“Mr. Damien, you haven’t forgotten our promise, have you?”
“How could I forget? You said I would leave the academy on my own if Class 13 didn’t do well in the exam.”
“I’m glad you remember. I was worried you might pretend you didn’t know.”
A strange smile appeared on the Chancellor’s face.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of grades Class 13 will get.”
The Chancellor and instructors passed by Damien. As Damien walked away, the instructors spoke to Altman.
“Chancellor, the day has finally come to get rid of that bastard.”
“I was so angry that I was on fire watching that rootless bastard stir up trouble in the academy.”
The instructors were happy as if they had finally gotten rid of a thorn in their side. The Chancellor also smiled.
However, there was one person among the instructors who was not smiling.
It was Delong Muller.
The Chancellor glanced at Delong Muller and said,
“Mr. Muller, why do you look so gloomy?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
“Are you still holding a grudge against your defeat by Mr. Damien? Shake it off. He may have come from a puny kingdom, but he is the winner of the Helian Tournament. He must have some talent.”
Even at the Chancellor’s words, Delong Muller’s expression did not change.
“Chancellor, if Class 13 really does well on the exam…”
“Hahaha!”
The Chancellor burst out laughing without realizing it.
“Don’t worry about it. What kind of place is Class 13? How could that happen?”
“But since Mr. Damien came, Class 13…”
“They’ve been trained thoroughly. But even so, how much can they change in just a week?”
The Chancellor said mockingly.
“And besides, wasn’t all that training forced on them by Mr. Damien? So it’s hard to see the real effect.”
The Chancellor spoke firmly, without a trace of concern.
“Don’t worry about useless things and get ready to see Mr. Damien off.”
***
“I guess I’ll get a taste of some gossip.”
Damien muttered to himself as he watched the backs of the Chancellor and the instructors.
Although they were far away, Damien’s developed senses had picked up all of their conversation.
“If it weren’t for Sla, I’d turn this whole thing upside down.”
He couldn’t cause such a commotion when he was supposed to be looking for Sla. Damien gritted his teeth and quickened his pace.
As the Chancellor said, the annual exam was about to start. He had to finish his preparations before then.
Damien kicked open the door of the training ground and shouted.
“I’m here. Are you all training hard?”
As he went inside, he saw students lying collapsed on the floor.
“Ughhhhh…”
“Groan…”
It wasn’t the first or second time that students had collapsed during training. But today, their condition was much more serious.
They were all exhausted, and their faces were pale as if they were about to faint at any moment.
“Oh, you’re here.”
Blanca greeted Damien with a welcoming face from among the students.
“Weren’t you up all night watching the training?”
“What do you think of me? One night is nothing.”
Damien had been training Class 13 all night without sleep for the two days before the exam. This was to bring the entire class up to the target level.
“Ugh, ughhhh…”
Oliver made a strange noise at Damien’s feet. With dark circles under his eyes, he looked like a zombie.
“You’re overreacting after only two days of hardship.”
Of course, Damien didn’t take the students’ suffering seriously.
“You’re going too far! We’ve been through so much.”
“That’s right!”
Other Class 13 students who couldn’t bear it anymore started to protest to Damien.
Damien silenced everyone with a stern look.
“The exam is about to start. Get ready, everyone.”
The entire Class 13 looked up in surprise. Were they going to take the exam in this state, where they felt like they were going to die from exhaustion?
“I guess I need to help you recover first.”
He grabbed the hilt of Dawn, which was stuck in the center of the training ground.
He used the Authority of Envy to convert his mana into divine power and then poured it into Dawn.
Ziiiiiiing.
Dawn let out a satisfied roar as more divine power was infused than usual.
Dawn, who had absorbed the divine power emitted a dazzling light. As the light spread and fell on the students’ bodies, their staminas were restored in an instant.
“Hoo.”
Blanca exclaimed briefly at the sight.
“It’s amazing no matter how many times I see it. It’s a truly great holy sword.”
This was not the first time Blanca had helped with training.
Thanks to Blanca overseeing and supervising the training, Damien was able to go out and search for Sla’s trail.
“This should be enough to recover the students before the exam.”
“That’s not enough.”
“What else is there?”
Damien shouted at the students.
“Come one by one in front of me from now on.”
The students approached Damien hesitantly.
Damien tapped his fingers all over the body of the student who stood before him.
“Smack!”
“Endure it.”
Immediately, the muscles of his whole body began to twist. There was a gruesome, chilling sound.
“Ugh, ughhh! W-why is my body doing that!”
“S-save me!”
“Mom!”
The Class 13 students screamed in terror at the horrifying sight.
However, the expression of the person in question was relaxed. In fact, he even looked refreshed.
“These cowards.”
Just then, Damien had used the Cotton-Lined Forbidden Needle to inject mana into the student’s body.
The injected mana neatly loosened the muscles that had become clumped and hardened due to training.
“Now, next.”
Damien touched the bodies of all the Class 13 students. And when the treatment was over, all the Class 13 students had a glow on their skin, as if they had just woken up from a good sleep.
“Now you’re all ready for the exam.”
Damien said with satisfaction to the students.
“You all worked hard.”
At Damien’s words, the students made tearful expressions. This was because all the hardships they had been through flashed before their eyes like a movie.
“Thank you for following my training well.”
The Class 13 students couldn’t help but be bewildered by this praise, which they had never heard before. Some even thought Damien was crazy.
“The training you’ve received for a week could be called torture. You deserve to be praised for overcoming that.”
The students were all overwhelmed with emotion. They all held back their tears.
“I don’t have much to say to you.”
Damien said as he looked at each of the Class 13 students.
“Anyone who doesn’t make it into the top 60 overall will die by my hand.”
The Class 13 students all had blank expressions. Why was it different from what we expected?
The students didn’t know, but Damien had just been quite heated after encountering the Chancellor.
What if Class 13’s grades were not good enough and he was expelled from the academy? Just imagining it made his blood boil.
“I repeat, 60th place… If you’re not in the top 60, you’re all dead. Understand?”
Damien’s eyes flashed with killing intent. Cold sweat dripped from their heads as Class 13 only nodded.
***
After that, Class 13 headed to the testing grounds.
Physical endurance, imperial swordsmanship, and duel.
Among the three test categories for the swordsmanship exam, the physical endurance test was the first to be held.
The physical endurance test itself had several tests. The first test that the students faced was the long-distance running test.
It was a simple test where they had to run around the central athletic field ten times. The students who finished faster would receive higher scores.
Although the central athletic field was large, all the first-year students at the academy couldn’t run at the same time.
So, the test was divided into sections. Five students from each class would come out and stand on the track.
Five students from Class 13 stood at the starting line, with students from other classes on either side.
“Hey, Class 13.”
At that moment, a male student from Class 3, who was standing nearby, sneered and said.
“You guys didn’t even show up for the test last year. Do you think you’ve got what it takes this time?”
“Was Damien Haksen your instructor? Did you like that ignorant man’s training.?”
“Weren’t you just running around wildly without any strategy?”
The Class 3 students’ jeers enraged the Class 13 students.
“Ignorant? Watch your mouth.”
“Oh, so you’re defending him just because he’s an instructor your class?”
“That guy isn’t ignorant, he’s just crazy!”
As a Class 13 student shouted back, the Class 3 students looked at them with incredulous expressions.
“That guy is crazy!”
“If you even slightly irritate him, he’ll beat you out with his club!”
“He’s the kind of person who’ll push you to the brink of death!”
The Class 13 students finally expressed their pent-up frustrations. The Class 3 students looked at them with gloomy faces.
“Everyone, get to the starting line!”
At that moment, the instructor shouted to the students. The students stopped talking and got ready to run.
“Start!”
As the instructor shouted, the students all started running at once.
The Class 13 students overtook other students and ran ahead. It meant that the training they had received wasn’t in vain.
However, the Class 13 students couldn’t take the lead. There were students who were running faster than them.
“Damn it.”
The Class 13 students’ faces darkened.
The condition that Damien had set was to rank within the top 60 overall.
If they couldn’t secure a top spot in this group, they wouldn’t be able to rank within the top 60.
“I guess one week wasn’t enough time after all.”
At that moment, the Class 13 students caught sight of Damien. He was standing outside the track, looking at them.
Damien slowly raised his thumb.
The Class 13 students were all impressed by Damien’s action.
“I guess that means we’re the best.”
“Yeah, we worked hard.”
“Even if the result isn’t good, the fact that we tried…”
He then made a throat-cutting gesture with his thumb. The meaning was clear.
-You’re going to die.
In that moment, the Class 13 students felt their hearts sink.
In the midst of their fear of death, they clung to their desire to live. The Class 13 students gritted their teeth.
“Aaaah!”
“Koaaah!”
The Class 13 students gritted their teeth and started running. They stretched out their bodies and overtook the students who were running in the lead.
“What, what are these kids?”
“Why are they suddenly like this?”
The students who were running in the lead shouted in surprise, but the Class 13 students didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to them.
“Get out of the way!”
“We can’t die like this!”
The Class 13 students ran with all their might, foaming at the mouth.
As a result, all five of them crossed the finish line in the top ranks.
***
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]