Chapter 279
Chapter 279
{Dick Baker? His parents must have hated their son.} – The princess frowned when she saw the ridiculous name of the competitor sharing first place with her. Didn’t everyone scream bloody hell because of him, driving her up the wall?
She squinted to find the bearer of the annoying name and cringed, recognizing the freak, the worst eyesore ever. His parents must be relieved to get their nightmarish child off their back. Apparently, they had to pay a tidy sum for his admission, or he would never have scored more than five points. No doubt about that. His pathetic cultivation physique and development were a case in point. Kara also noticed the bodyguard representing his master at the last test. How could this blatant, outrageous scam work? How much did it cost? Vlada Grand had ordered the principal not to inflate her daughter’s points, and the Bakers had pulled such a stunt!
Kara’s beautiful eyes gleamed spitefully. She really didn’t relish the idea of sharing the first place with this miserable scum. And what would happen if he got a hundred points at the written exam, beating her by 1-2 points! She would die of shame and humiliation. No way in hell she was letting it happen!
The princess entered the head office of the examination building, went up to the senior examiner and banged her fist angrily on his table. – «Why does the school where I study enroll such rubbish as Dick Baker?»
The examiner shifted nervously in his chair. – «Your Highness… He… I mean, his parents paid a great deal of money, and nine-tenths of the sum went to the royal treasury. We remember our duty…» – Kara’s stern, penetrating gaze made him turn pale. – «Please, do not judge our choice. You entered Cernos the same way in your time…»
«Shut up! If this bastard gets undeserved points, I will accuse you of corruption. You will lose your job in the best case. Got it?»
«Yes, Your Highness…» – The senior examiner swallowed nervously.
Kara grinned smugly and walked out of the office with confidence and poise. She could breathe a little easier now. They wouldn’t dare to give him more points than he deserved, and the fat freak was highly unlikely to get much on his own. His dull, expressionless gaze spoke of his mediocre intelligence.
Half an hour later, the senior examiner came onto the assembly hall platform and gave the written exam instructions. The exam would last two hours, the test results would be displayed an hour later. Everyone who had passed should proceed to the Formacy department…
After his speech, one thousand five hundred test-takers went to a spacious hall equipped with desks. They found two pens and a stack of assignment sheets on each of them. An observer monitored the test at every 5th row.
The examinees took their places. Some of them were already mumbling the material they had learned by heart. No one could stay calm in the arduous atmosphere because all the test-takers were determined to fight for every point. Only five points above the minimum entrance admission would allow them to live on a higher floor for a whole year, with a different environment and ambiфnce where they could establish connections with powerful, talented roommates. After all, the students in Cernos were not divided by rank like in other schools, but by the floor and room number.
Alex Grand looked at the person sitting at the next desk and winced: {Is it him again?!} – He tried to ignore the existence of the hated bastard, but his weird sweeping movements drew his attention. Alex looked closer and froze in mute shock. – «Holy shit! Just look at this moron!»
Half of the audience looked at Dick, the sweeping movements of his pen, and his focused look, characteristic of great artists.
«He is drawing dicks on the test sheet! The exam has not started yet, but he has all the answers! Of course, he’s a damned genius! Dick! That’s the answer to all questions!» – Alex sarcastically exclaimed. – «What a blockhead!»
The test takers laughed loudly, despite the tense atmosphere. The fat freak had found a new subbasement after he hit rock bottom.
Even Princess Kara snorted with disdain.
«Quiet please!» – The senior examiner boomed loudly. – «I announce the beginning of the written exam! Two hours and counting!» – He turned over the large two-hour hourglass, and all the examinees got engrossed in their tasks.
The assignment sheets consisted of open-ended questions that provided the freedom for the test-takers to demonstrate their knowledge. Each correct answer would get them half a point. They had to answer a hundred questions, but students like Marina, who had applied for theoretical research, had twice as many questions, and they were more advanced. The subjects varied from the basics of alchemy and formacy to mathematics and linguistics.
There was a tense silence in the room. Everybody was trying to do their best.
Kara glanced at the questions on her assignment sheet and clenched her teeth in rage: – {You haven’t only made me retake this humiliating entrance exam, you have also given me advanced tasks? Mother… I hate you.}
Five minutes after the exam started, Dick Baker got up from his desk, walked up to the senior examiner, turned in his assignment and left the room. Only a few examinees paid him any attention, and they weren’t amused. Everyone focused on their tasks that turned out to be much more difficult than they had thought.
Two hours passed quickly. For Kyon. For the rest, they dragged on for eternity.
One and a half thousand test-takers left the room. About five hundred of them trudged outside with glum looks on their faces. They knew very well what we were facing. The others paced up and down the hall, waiting for the results.
«Where are you going? Don’t leave! Let’s wait for the final results!» – Sam said.
«I know that I’ve failed… I didn’t know the answers to some questions! Just a few! If I hadn’t lost four points, if I hadn’t stopped at the track, if I hadn’t been fighting with that massive thug, I would have passed! It’s all because of the fucking fat freak!!» – Alex Grand glared with hatred at the ugly guy chomping on a donut nearby. He had a strong urge to attack the freak and clobber him, whap him, gouge his blinkers out…
Sam tried hard to convince his friend to wait for the results.
In fact, Alex stayed because he cherished the illusion that he would get to Cernos. His father had promised to help him but didn’t get into specifics.
Kara didn’t want to wait for the exam results together with the low-life scum. The princess was about to leave when she caught sight of the ugly guy, overconfident in his success. She could feel her primordially demonic sadistic instincts well up deep inside her. She was eager to see his disappointment when he got his pathetic 0 points.
An hour later, Kara returned to the assembly hall, just at the moment when the new list of 301 names flashed on the screen.
“1st place – 100 points, Dick Baker”;
“2ns place – 99 points, Marina Smirnov”;
“3d place – 95 points, Franz Smirnov”;
“4th place – 94 points, Kara Grand”;
“15th place – 86 points, Sam Grand”;
“301 place – 75 points, Alex Grand”.
The leaderboard was a bolt from the blue.
«I did it? I’ve entered Cernos! Ha ha ha ha! Yeah!» – Alex was the happiest person in the world. He realized that his father had bribed the examiner at the written exam. It made sense. Why should he arrange the battle if his son was good at fighting?
«Congratulations, Alex! You’re going to live in the basement! Ha ha!» – Sam’s sarcastic remark brought Alex down to earth.
The smile died on his lips. Alex trembled as if he were standing in the cold, biting wind. He took 301st place, the lowest in rank and importance! The residence place determined the student’s status in Cernos, which meant he would be accommodated in the bowels of the dorm along with the rest of scum. And he could have lived on the 4th floor! He was doomed to insignificance for a whole year!
Alex looked at the leaderboard with the hated name at the top of the list, and all hell broke loose. – «A hundred points? The stupid moron got a hundred points for drawing dicks? WHAT THE… FUCK? His place is in the cesspool! Why is he going to study for free and live on the elite floor next to the prince? Where’s the justice? WHERE THE FUCK IS THE JUSTICE?» – Alex roared at the top of his lungs, ignoring his own hypocrisy.
But when he looked at the leaderboard again, he thought he was going off his rocker! – «WHY?! How come that the stupid freak got one hundred points, and the great and brilliant princess only ninety-four?» – Alex had faced an injustice level god. His brain was strained to the limit, his eyes bloodshot. He could feel the rush of adrenaline as his whole body started shaking.
Suddenly, a cold shiver ran down his spine as if someone was walking over his grave. Kara’s killing intent felt like falling into the ocean full of magma. He instantly realized his mistake and fell with his face to the ground before Her Highness, begging her to forgive him his hasty words…
All the test-takers were shocked to see Her Highness get 4th place, while the first three places were taken by Dick, a piece of trash, and two strangers. They couldn’t understand what had happened there? A couple of years ago, Kara got 100 points at the entrance exam. Now she scored only 94! It made no sense!
Kara was burning with white-hot anger, her heart a seething, molten mass of hatred, mostly for her mother. It was all her fault. She didn’t only make her retake the damned entrance exam but made it ten times more difficult! If the tasks had been easier, she would have had 100 points! Then her punishment wouldn’t mean a thing. It was a matter of a week’s preparation. Instead, she had made a complete fool of herself! Everyone thought she was setting an example of passing the exam, and she screwed it up. Tomorrow everyone in Cernos would hear this absurd news and wonder how could the princess turn suddenly dumb…
Kara needed to let her rage out, ideally to tear apart a couple of jerks she hated, for example, Alex Grand, or Dick Baker, who had bribed test examiners to get first place and who was good for nothing but shoveling shit, which he would mess up anyway. She would smash his head at once if there weren’t the pretty powerful bodyguards standing next to him. She hadn’t lost her mind to arrange a massacre here. It would only confirm her humiliation and make her mother even angrier… In the end, Kara thought of the way to release her fury.
The princess glared at Dick and left the assembly hall with firm quick steps. She went upstairs, entered the head office and instantly appeared at the dumbfounded senior examiner, hanging him by the neck. ��� «I said that you would lose your job if the bastard got the undeserved point. Well, it wasn’t quite true. You will die!» – Her mocking voice and demonic gaze pierced the poor man’s soul.
The examiner turned pale and hissed plaintively, on the verge of pissing his pants:
«Your Highness… I didn’t inflate his points! I wouldn’t dare! He didn’t make a single mistake! Every detail on his assignment sheet was impeccable! You can see for yourself, I beg you!» – He pointed to a stack of papers on the table.
Kara threw the examiner away, looked through the sheets and quickly found the one she needed. It was written in beautiful handwriting, precise and clear, with competent, correct answers… The assignment was really impeccable. She wouldn’t have done better. As for scribbled dicks, they were nowhere to be seen.
The princess frowned, clearly annoyed. No doubt the fat bastard had somehow tricked the system! Someone had given him the test with the correct answers beforehand! How else could he have done it in five minutes? And how did his pieces of art disappear? She was really fucked up! There was no way to undo the mess she got herself into, and she would never stoop so low as to find out how the freak had done, who he had bribed, and who else was involved. It wasn’t her level. To hell with him! The princess smashed the examiner’s table, kicked the door open and left the building. A mixture of anger and rage was boiling within her.