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On the second day of the new term, the results of the academic proficiency test were announced, and many students had crowded into the auditorium from early morning. Since the classes competed in total scores—and the rankings would greatly affect the third term’s lessons—Vannabelle had apparently dashed out of the cafeteria nearly an hour earlier than usual and arrived at the auditorium first. Her rabbit ears twitched restlessly as she waited, and the moment the teachers solemnly carried in the panels listing the rankings, she leapt forward to read them before anyone else.

“…! Yessss!!”

Vannabelle’s triumphant shout rang throughout the auditorium, followed by a wave of murmurs. From the way she was celebrating, it was obvious how Class F had ranked.

“Leafa! Look! You’re first! The bonus question got an insane amount of extra points!”

Panting with excitement, Vannabelle rushed over to me.

“That much?”

Good grief. I thought I’d held back, but it seemed I’d still been too thorough. I shrugged as if surprised, and Vannabelle grabbed my hand, pushing through the crowd.

“You’re way ahead of everyone! I knew you were the best!”

On the score sheet she pointed to, my result was listed as 450 points out of a possible 300. The 150 bonus points were, as Vannabelle said, overwhelmingly high—more than fifty points above Alfe, who had the next highest score.

“Leafa, that’s amazing! I studied really hard too, but I couldn’t even come close.”
“Second place is still incredible, Alfe. You did great too, Hom.”
“Thank you, Master.”

Hom had placed fifth, slightly below Alfe. That was probably because shared memories were not the same as one’s own knowledge and experience. Even for me, the memories of my past life required proper study before I could explain them to others—or, like this time, put them into words on a test.

Hom shared my memories of experiencing the Human-Demon War, but perhaps she could only recognize demons as “things I had seen,” nothing more. Maybe I should have pushed her to prepare a bit more beforehand. Still, they would be properly covered in upcoming lessons, and with Hom’s ability to absorb knowledge, there was no real cause for concern.

“Sigh… I studied like crazy, and I’m still in the twenties…”
“But each class only has around thirty students~ and since Class F took a lot of the top spots, that’s why we got first overall~ So being around twentieth is still impressive, Belle~”

Numelin gently tried to cheer up the dejected Vannabelle.

“Hm? Now that you mention it, you’re right!”

Hearing that, Vannabelle’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“Nyaha! That face says you didn’t even realize it until Numelin pointed it out, huh?”

Farah laughed cheerfully, her tail swishing from side to side. She had placed eighth—respectable enough.

““Lili-Lulu are fifteenth. The F Alliance’s victory is obvious.””

At some point they had come up beside us, and Lili-Lulu spoke in perfect unison. When I looked at the ranking board, their names were indeed listed in a tie for fifteenth. It was interesting that their scores were exactly the same again this time. They had probably missed the very same questions too.

“Man, with this, Class F has widened the gap again! Reinforce won the Zersteller too. Next year’s gonna be full of changes, I bet!”

It was certainly good news that Class F had taken first in total score—but would things really change that quickly? When matters turned for the worse, it happened fast. When they turned for the better, it usually took time.

As I thought that far, Estea came to mind.

“…How did the second years do?”

Perhaps she understood what I was getting at—or perhaps Hom had also been thinking about Estea—but she gestured with her eyes toward Estea, who was standing a short distance away.

“Estea placed first. It seems her class did as well.”
“Looks like it.”

Judging by the reactions around her, there was no doubt she had secured the top spot. Even amid the noisy commotion, Hom’s sharp hearing picked out the necessary information without fail.

And yet, the faint cloudiness in Estea’s smile caught my attention.

Even after putting in this much effort, she was probably bracing herself for a tough battle in the student council election. Since I had promised to help, I needed to come up with some kind of breakthrough—and soon.