The next day, the mont the group stepped into their classroom, they were greeted by a chorus of weary sighs.
"Ah... another exam. It hasn't even been that long since the last one. Just thinking about it gives a headache..."
It seed that no matter where one went, the re ntion of exams was enough to cast a pall over the student body. Even within the relatively relaxed system of St. Freya Academy, there were still those who dreaded the ordeal.
Seeing Kiana practically bouncing with energy, the other students couldn't help but feel a little perplexed.
"Kiana, aren't you guys worried?" one of her classmates asked. "You just transferred here, and there's already an exam."
Hearing the question, Kiana planted her hands firmly on her hips, her chest puffed out with unshakeable confidence.
"Worried? I'm a genius! With my talent, passing this kind of exam is absolutely no problem at all!"
Just then, Fu Hua glided over to them, her movents precise and silent. She pushed up her glasses, the lenses catching the light as she offered a word of caution.
"Classmate Kiana, having confidence is a good thing, but please do not underestimate the exam. As the old saying goes: 'A conceited army is bound to lose.'"
"I know that one!" Rovel chid in with a grin. "A victorious army is bound to be conceited, a conceited army is bound to lose, a defeated army is bound to be sorrowful, and a sorrowful army is bound to win!"
"..." Fu Hua turned her head slowly, fixing him with a look one might reserve for a particularly baffling, simple-minded creature.
"Huh?" Kiana's mouth fell open, the sudden string of idioms causing her brain to sputter and stall like a faulty engine.
"Although you possess extraordinary natural talent," Fu Hua continued, her gaze returning to Kiana, "you must not be impatient for success. Be careful, for haste makes waste."
"Hmph, I know that, of course!" A self-satisfied smile curled at the corner of Kiana's mouth, though it was clear the aning had flown right over her head.
"Is that so? Then I have misspoken." Fu Hua closed her eyes, offered a slight nod, and turned to leave the classroom.
Only after her serene figure had vanished from the doorway did Kiana scratch her head, a hint of uncertainty finally creeping into her expression.
"Um..." she asked the others. "Was she just insulting ?"
"Uh... the Class Monitor was just telling you to take the exam seriously, Kiana," i explained gently.
"Idiot," Bronya comnted flatly.
"Kiana, if you've got so free ti, you could learn so Classical Chinese with . That way you'll understand what Fu Hua is saying," Rovel suggested with a helpful smile.
"Really?" Kiana's interest was imdiately piqued. "Then teach a sentence first!"
"Ahem." Rovel cleared his throat, his expression becoming a touch more serious. "Suppose you are in a dangerous situation. As a leader, you could shout this phrase to boost morale." He took a dramatic breath.
"Hear my command, all three armies: slit your throats and return to the heavens!"
"Ooh! That sounds so imposing!" Kiana's eyes lit up, tiny stars of admiration practically sparkling within them.
"Two idiots," Bronya comnted once more, her tone unchanged.
The exams concluded after two grueling days, and a crowd of anxious students had already sward the results board posted in the main hall.
"Great, I passed!"
"My combat test score was better than I expected~"
"Yes! My ranking went up!"
For most, the air was filled with long sighs of relief and the quiet murmurs of satisfaction.
"Third and fourth place are actually Bronya and i! That's amazing!" an exclamation of surprise cut through the chatter.
"Wait, second place is the Class Monitor? Then who is first?" soone else suddenly noticed the glaring omission at the top.
"That would definitely be this young lady!" Kiana declared from the back of the crowd. Though she was too short to see over everyone, her confidence remained unshaken. First place was hers, obviously.
"First place is Classmate Ruo Bai! Classmate Ruo Bai actually surpassed Class Monitor Fu Hua!"
A wave of gasps rippled through the crowd.
"What? It's not ?" Kiana was utterly floored.
"Kiana, you're over here," Rovel said, pointing to a separate, much smaller display board posted on a nearby pillar.
Kiana rushed over, muttering to herself as she went.
"My grades must be so good that I'm being given a special comndation!"
However, the bold title printed at the top of that board read 'FAILURES,'and beneath it, only a single na was written:'Kiana Kaslana.'
"What?! How is this possible!" Kiana shrieked, tearing the offending notice from the pillar and ripping it to shreds in a fit of rage.
At that mont, a male teacher with a perpetually listless expression ambled over.
"It's because you failed every single one of your written exams," Welt Yang said with a tired sigh. "How could we possibly let you pass?"
Old Yang then pulled out a stack of papers, holding up Kiana's history exam.
"Look, you even got a zero in History."
Kiana's exam paper was filled to the brim with answers, but a bright red, glaring zero was scrawled across the top, exceptionally offensive to the eye. In a sense, managing to get a zero while filling out the entire paper was a unique kind of talent, especially since the history exam consisted of multiple-choice and true-or-false questions. Even guessing randomly had a low probability of yielding such a perfect failure.
"Ah! Don't look!" Kiana yelped, snatching the exam paper from his hand and staring at the mocking number in disbelief.
"Besides that," Old Yang continued, dealing another crushing blow, "Biology, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, and Math—the other five subjects add up to a grand total of 31 points. Your correct answers were all concentrated in the multiple-choice and true-or-false sections."
Kiana's knees buckled, and she collapsed to the floor in a pose of utter, soul-crushing defeat.
'Eh? For real?'she thought, the world turning gray around her.'Shouldn't I be a genius? Why... why did I fail?!'
"How should I put this? I saw this coming," Rovel remarked with a casual shrug.
"Why did Rovel get first place?" Kiana mumbled, looking up from the floor while figuratively biting a handkerchief in frustration. They had entered the school together, so why was he so ridiculously outstanding?
"Because I'm a genius," Rovel said, flashing a peace sign. "I have a photographic mory for everything taught in class."
Rovel was, in fact, the only one to achieve a perfect score on both the theoretical and combat exams. Fu Hua had likely lost a single point on a comprehension question in the theoretical portion but had aced the combat test. Bronya, conversely, had lost two points in the combat exam but had a perfect score in theory.
In a sense, the top three were all monsters.
i had lost four points in combat and ten in theory, but the points she lost were for coursework she hadn't caught up on yet; she wouldn't make the sa mistakes next ti.
And while Kiana had earned a perfect score in combat, her theoretical exam... well, the less said, the better.
"Honestly, there's a limit to being an idiot... You're practically all brawn and no brains!" Hiko sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she stared down at Kiana's abysmal exam papers.
With that single comnt, Kiana felt as though not only her intelligence had been attacked, but her figure had been insulted as well. Although she wasn't exactly flat for her age, she was still quite a bit behind the well-endowed Major Hiko.
"Prepare for the make-up exam in a week," Hiko announced with another soft sigh.
"Even with a week's ti, it will be hard to raise this idiot to the level of passing, right?" Bronya complained, ever the pragmatist.
This ti, Kiana didn't even have the energy to argue. Her results were laid bare for all to see; no amount of blustering could talk her way out of this.
"So..." Hiko said, crossing her arms and adopting a serious expression. "We're going to put Kiana through special training!"
"Special training?"
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