The first perfect score on the short-answer exam in history, and over ninety percent overall. And the person who had pulled it off was none other than me....I genuinely could not wrap my head around what was happening.
"A perfect score...? How on earth did you...?"
"Hey, that's my line!"
"Ehh?!"
"Bauer, take a look at this."
Hermann, standing behind us, held out a sheet covered in rows of numbers. It seemed to be a detailed breakdown of the passing candidates' scores.
"This is officially published information. It includes the breakdown of the total scores, too."
"Huh..."
"First, the young lady's results. 187 on the short-answer exam, and on the essay exam, 96 for content and 135 for structure, making 231 points total. Mind you, 187 on the short-answer exam is normally an unbelievable score in its own right."
"Content? Structure?"
"The essay exam allocates 150 points to 'Content' and 150 points to 'Structure.' The former is self-explanatory, while the latter grades whether you followed proper academic essay formatting."
The content discussed, and the format used. So the quality of each determined your final mark.
"The average scores among passing candidates this time were 137.0 on the short-answer exam, 61.2 on content, and 118.3 on structure. The average total score was 316.6."
"Huh? Both content and structure are worth 150 points each, right?"
"Right, but convincing the examiners with content alone is nearly impossible. Raking in points on structure, which is easy to prepare for, is our bread and butter as preparatory school students."
"I see..."
Considering the graders were court mages—in other words, foremost experts in magic—an amateur candidate's answers were never going to blow them away, no matter how much they studied. In exchange, as long as you got the formatting right, you were guaranteed structure points.
"So, what was the cutoff?"
"You needed 118 points to avoid the cutoff on the short-answer exam. The overall minimum passing score for the first stage exam, essay included, was 296 points."
"That's not even sixty percent..."
"Did you expect it to be higher? By the way, in the event of a tie, the candidate with the higher essay exam score takes precedence. If they're still tied, the lower examinee number wins."
"Huh, is that so."
As I nodded along, one detail suddenly clicked. I had wondered why nobody else had applied at the very last minute like I did, but they were all gunning for lower examinee numbers to give themselves an edge. That made sense.
"Now then, on to the main point. Bauer, your results were utterly astounding."
"Astounding how?"
"First, your score for essay structure was 121 points. That's the only area where the young lady beat you."
Right around the average for passing candidates, then. I had read scholarly treatises before, but I'd rarely had occasion to write anything like one. If anything, getting that many points was more than generous.
"And then you got a full 200 points on the short-answer exam. That's incredible."
"To be honest, there were several questions I didn't know. Some parts of the magical theory were totally unfamiliar to me."
"Then how did you solve them?"
"I reasoned them out by analogy, and the rest was pure intuition."
"I see. At your level, even luck is on your side... Ah, but I'm getting sidetracked."
Hermann cleared his throat with a light cough.
"The most incredible part is your content score. Aside from you, Bauer, the highest score this year was the young lady's 96—which is already remarkably high."
"Yeah."
"...You scored an unbelievable 147 out of 150. That's practically a perfect mark."
...147 points? Meaning I only lost three points overall?
"How in the world did you manage a score like that?!"
"I-I have no idea, I swear!"
"Ahaha! See, young lady, farm-raised preparatory school students just can't compete with the wild-caught variety!"
"Don't talk about us like we're fish!"
As the two of them bickered back and forth, I could only stand there in a daze. The only reference material I had in the barn were ancient grimoires, so I never imagined that writing an essay based on them would yield such a high score. Magic was used everywhere in the royal capital, so I had assumed its theoretical understanding would be far more advanced, but...
"—Now, now, calm down, young lady. Anyway, Bauer, next up is the second exam."
"Ah..."
"You were spouting nonsense earlier about going home, but... you're obviously taking it, right?"
I never in my wildest dreams thought... I would actually advance to the second exam... Elena and Hermann seemed to take it for granted that I would stick around. N-No, wait a minute. Just because my results on the first stage exam were good didn't guarantee anything for the next stage.
"Um... it's a bit awkward to say, but..."
"What is it?"
"...I don't have any money."
Money!?
Both of them stared at me with wide eyes and dropped jaws. Well, fair enough. If our positions were reversed, I'd be dumbfounded too. If the guy who just snatched the top spot away from you suddenly announced he was packing his bags, anyone would be shocked.
"Yeah. I came from outside Ulm, and I can't afford to pay for my inn anymore."
"H-Huh?! Didn't your parents give you money to—"
"My parents just sent me off saying, 'Go see the sights in the royal capital'... They probably never dreamed I'd actually pass the exam..."
"So the mage examination was just an afterthought?!"
"Well, put that way, I suppose it was."
"Ahahaha! It's no use, young lady! Our common sense doesn't apply to Bauer!"
Hermann really was a jolly guy. Still, money was money; laughing wouldn't solve it. My parents had casually said, "We'll scrounge up enough for your travel expenses," but I later found out they had actually sold off part of our farmland to fund my trip....The last thing I wanted was for my family's homestead to be auctioned away just for a good-for-nothing like me.
"Aaargh, honestly! What an impossible guy!"
"Huh?"
"Keegan Bauer! You're coming with me right now!"
"Wait, whoa, what?"
"Just shut up and come on!"
Grabbing me by the hand, Elena dragged me toward the cathedral office. Come to think of it, earlier a nun had been shouting through the hall, "Passing candidates, please proceed to the office." But even if I went through the registration, that wouldn't magically put coins in my pocket...
"Excuse us!"
Stepping into the office, we found dozens of nuns working busily behind the long counter. Sophie was nowhere to be seen. It seemed her handling my application before had really just been a stroke of chance.
"Oh, Miss Arendt. You've already..."
"Not for me! Please process this person's passing registration!"
"Ehh?! Wait, I told you, I don't have the money..."
"Enough out of you! Hurry up and register!"
Elena shoved me toward the counter. A nearby nun flipped through a ledger, checking off details.
"Let's see, your examination voucher... Ah, here you are. Could you please extend your left arm?"
"Huh?"
"We are reissuing examinee numbers. By engraving it onto your body with magic, it will serve as your replacement voucher."
"Why go to all that trouble...?"
"To prevent foul play. There are always disgruntled applicants who try to shred passing candidates' vouchers out of spite."
Ah, that made sense. Paper vouchers could be lost or stolen, so engraving them directly onto the examinee's left arm was much safer. Doing that for every single applicant would take forever, which was why they only used this method from the second exam onward... That had to be it.
"Now then, if you will."
The nun produced a stamp-like instrument, and I offered my left wrist. I could feel a faint pulse of mana from it; that was what made the brand. Still... seeing a nun casually use magic was quite a novel sight.
"Pardon me."
She pressed the stamp down firmly, and the numeral "1" was seared onto the skin of my left wrist. So this was my new examination voucher.
"This mark is temporary. It will fade naturally once you pass the final exam or if you are eliminated along the way."
"Ah, understood."
"That concludes the procedure. The second exam will take place in one week, so please return to the cathedral then."
Even if she told me it was in one week, my financial situation hadn't changed—
"Sister, this applicant is number '1.'"
"Oh! Forgive me, of course!"
"Huh?"
At Elena's interjection, the nun gasped and hurried into the back. Before I could figure out what was happening, she exchanged a few hushed words with an older nun who appeared to be her superior... and returned carrying a small slip of paper.
"Thank you for waiting. Lord Keegan Bauer, here is your royal grant from the imperial court."
"Huh?"
"The candidate who clears the first stage exam in first place receives a grant directly from His Majesty the King. It is bestowed with high expectations for a promising future court mage candidate."
"Um..."
What she placed into my hands was a document resembling an official bank draft. Receiving a royal grant from the king so casually was baffling enough, but—
"...T-Ten million belg?"
...Above all, the sheer amount left me speechless. Ten million belg was enough for my entire family to live comfortably for two whole years. To receive a sum like that from His Majesty himself—
"Now you get it, don't you? You can't go home anymore."
"Huh?"
"I mean, surely—"
Apparently, I was no longer allowed to be a simple country bumpkin. Here in the royal capital, I had no choice but to push forward into the brutal battlefield known as the Court Mage Selection Exam. Yes, for one very simple reason:
"You wouldn't dare run off with ten million belg of His Majesty's money, would you?"
I had been saddled with the heavy shackles known as royal expectations.