I Became a Mythical-Tier Tamer Due To A System Error Chapter 80
“Ugh…….”
Karin let out a groan as she stepped out of the exam room.
In her hand was a slightly crumpled test paper.
She pulled out the key card stuck in the door and headed toward the teaching assistant waiting in the hallway.
“I’ll submit it.”
When she handed over the test paper and key card, the assistant accepted them and placed them in an envelope.
“Good work.”
“Thank you…….”
Karin bowed her head politely, then dragged her weary steps out of the exam hall.
“Ughhh……”
The relief of finishing the exam was overshadowed.
Fatigue weighed heavily on her, and groans kept slipping out.
Perhaps she had poured in even more effort than when she crafted a totem out of top-class materials.
Her head throbbed from the intense concentration she had forced to avoid failing.
Her stomach growled…… it felt like she was running low on sugar……
‘Let’s just go to the cafeteria first…….’
As she walked down the hallway toward the elevator.
Exam Room 377 caught her eye.
But she noticed there was no key card stuck in the door.
‘……He already left?’
Villed had long since left the room.
‘Was I too slow? No, that can’t be.’
Other rooms were still in the middle of testing.
In fact, Karin had even managed to pass questions that were way too advanced for her level to attempt.
‘Villed must’ve been like me too.’
Imagining Villed giving up after struggling with a difficult question and submitting his paper made her chuckle for some reason.
Karin rode the elevator down to the first floor.
‘No one’s here.’
Thanks to the other cadets still testing, there wasn’t a single soul in sight around the school.
It was deathly quiet.
‘Ah.’
As she exited the main building, she spotted Villed sitting relaxed on a bench.
He hadn’t noticed her yet, his gaze fixed in a single direction.
Karin approached the bench and opened her mouth.
“What are you looking at?”
She followed Villed’s gaze.
In the distance, a group of four knights in armor were walking alongside someone.
That was all.
Villed stared there for a while before asking her.
“Finished?”
“Yeah, my brain’s fried, I’m starving…….”
“……”
Villed looked at her with the same pity one would give a hungry puppy.
Then he pulled something out of his pocket and held it out.
Karin’s eyes lit up when she saw it.
‘A sandwich!’
It was stuffed with fresh vegetables.
Even wrapped neatly in plastic—had Villed made it himself?
“I’m not hungry, so don’t refuse, take it.”
“Th-then I’ll gladly take it.”
Karin sat beside him and took a bite of the sandwich.
Crisp vegetables, thin ham, and soft bread.
A heavenly harmony danced in her mouth.
‘It’s so good……!’
Karin’s eyes sparkled with delight.
Her hunger only made it taste sweeter.
After eating about half, she turned her head toward Villed.
“By the way, you came out so early, how many questions did you solve?”
At her question, Villed hesitated for a moment.
Then he finally spoke.
“They were hard.”
“……Ah.”
Karin slowly nodded.
She understood he was indirectly admitting he hadn’t solved even a single question.
He really hadn’t studied “Understanding Basic Magic” at all.
So he had just given up……
“……Y-yeah. They were tough.”
Karin clenched her fist and quickly added.
“But you’re good at history and geography, right? You’ll avoid failing. Plus, you’ll get extra points for your thesis!”
Before she realized it, Karin had shifted into a role of cheering him on.
As time passed, cadets started filing out of the main building one by one.
Before long, the area swarmed with students.
Thus, the first-year final exams came to an end.
……And the next day.
The grades for the first-years were posted on the outer wall of the main building’s first floor.
「Understanding Basic Magic – Results
Joint 1st – 100 points, Heidel
Joint 1st – 100 points, Keirin
Joint 1st – 100 points, Elined」
……
The three top students who always scored perfect marks unsurprisingly etched their names at the top.
But was it just an illusion, or were there more first-place names than usual?
Amid the dazzling brilliance of those joint 1st scorers, there was another name.
「Joint 1st – 100 points, Villed」
The delinquent who had recorded zero points in the midterms.
His name was now written among them.
---
On a hot summer day, the last day of the semester.
The first lecture hall, packed with all the first-years, buzzed constantly with chatter.
Even since the morning commute, I had felt the burning stares directed at me.
……Karin, sitting right next to me, was no exception.
“You said it was hard.”
“……”
I couldn’t answer her words.
“You said it was hard, but you solved everything? In that short amount of time? How?”
“……Well.”
I couldn’t give an answer.
Even for me, it was absurd.
I hadn’t solved a single question, yet I was thrown into the bizarre situation of receiving a perfect score.
‘……Belzrover tampered with my grade.’
I couldn’t understand it.
‘No, but why give me 100 points when I deliberately didn’t provide any answers……?’
All I did was connect to him with mana communication.
I never once told him that 1+1 equals 2.
All I had said was for Belzrover to turn himself in.
But Belzrover reported himself while confirming to the teaching assistant that I had solved Question 20.
‘All the effort I put into submitting a thesis and scraping points just to avoid failing ended up being pointless…….’
I was already aware that scoring 100 points would draw dangerous attention like this.
That’s why, even in the history and geography exams, I had deliberately matched my answers to barely avoid failing, keeping them at an average score.
‘……My grades being good won’t change the main storyline, right?’
I believed that something as trivial as exam scores wouldn’t affect the main flow of events.
……At least, I hoped so.
“Hey, did you hear that story?”
I caught the voices around me.
Aside from the gossip about me scoring 100, there was another rumor spreading through the lecture hall.
“I heard Professor Belzrover is quitting next semester.”
“Shouldn’t we at least throw him a farewell party?”
“Eh, no need for that, right? They say he’ll come back someday. Besides, it’s not like he was close with any students, so who’d bother?”
“Yeah, that makes sense……”
There was plenty of talk about Belzrover.
Some students were puzzled by the sudden news that Belzrover, who had worked as a professor for around ten years, was leaving without any prior notice.
‘The story’s shifted a little from the original…….’
Since Belzrover confessed, the position of Dark Attribute professor for the next semester would now be vacant.
‘……This should have preserved the main story.’
The ‘she’ who was supposed to arrive next semester would take over as professor of the Dark Attribute.
With that, the story should continue its proper course.
‘Belzrover was an accomplice, but at the same time, he was also a victim.’
Since he even confessed, he would only receive a light punishment.
Eventually, he would restore his honor and someday return to Yggdrasil.
As I tuned in more carefully, I finally overheard another piece of news I had been waiting for.
“They say there’s a sea on the east side of the grounds, want to go check it out?”
“The owner of the sea showed up, so professors warned us not to go for now.”
“They’ve already declared it a restricted area, you can’t even enter.”
“They’ll subjugate it in about two months, but by then summer will be over, so what’s the point of going to the sea?”
As expected.
Even rumors about the sub-quest were surfacing.
‘Now I can finally relax.’
Perfect.
I had confirmed to the very end that the main storyline up to the close of the first year was intact.
Step, step……
Professor Ruber, the first-year adviser, entered the lecture hall.
The closing ceremony message he delivered wasn’t anything grand.
He simply reminded us that the vacation would last two months, not to neglect our training, and not to enter dangerous dungeons.
With that, the first semester episode of Yggdrasil Academy came to a safe conclusion.
---
The first morning of vacation.
With the closing ceremony over, the two-month-long summer break had begun.
Most cadets packed their belongings and headed back to their hometowns.
‘The school feels completely deserted.’
The livestock shed area had always been quiet, so I didn’t feel much difference there.
But walking near the usually bustling main building, it was eerily silent.
That’s when I realized the cadets had truly left.
‘……I don’t have anywhere to go anyway.’
Of course, there was still the grand castle built in Dedenkman Territory.
But I had no intention of returning there.
Though it wasn’t outright exile, the financial support had been cut off.
‘What would I even do if I went back?’
At best, I’d have to cater to the eldest son and the family head, and in the worst case, I could even be forced to abandon my studies.
The disadvantages far outweighed the benefits, so I decided to remain at the academy.
……Besides, there was no one else to look after the livestock shed.
‘I’ll spend this summer break tending the shed and focusing on my own growth…….’
With that in mind, I dressed lightly.
From early morning, I retrieved farming tools from the storage room to take care of the shed.
– Zzz……
Lapin was fast asleep in a pile of straw in the corner of the storage, and next to her lay Karin’s totem bag.
Even though summer break had just started today, those two were still staying at the academy.
Lapin had entered Yggdrasil in an attempt to escape, so she had no reason to go outside.
Like me, she would likely stay at the academy during vacation.
‘Now that classes are over, she’s sticking around on weekdays too, not just weekends.’
I glanced at Karin’s totem bag resting in the corner.
Karin had said she planned to return to her hometown to check something with the core item, the ‘Branch of Life.’
But because she had to consult with a professor about her thesis, she decided to stay in the dormitory for two more days.
‘It’s my fault her thesis got delayed, so I feel bad. I should at least buy her a nice dinner tonight.’
With that thought, I began tending to the shed.
By the time I finished, hours had passed and it was already noon, the hottest part of the day.
My shirt had long since been soaked through with sweat.
‘Must be summer already, it’s scorching hot.’
Even after pulling chilled water from subspace and drinking it, the heat didn’t fade.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and moved my feet.
‘Let’s head to the Pond Farm.’
Though it was for farm management, I also thought dipping my legs in the cool pond water might be a good way to escape the heat.
……The pond wasn’t far, so I arrived quickly.
– Beep!
As I reached the pond, the sea otter chirped a greeting.
“Mind if I borrow the pond for a bit?”
– Beep! Beep!
I rolled up my pants halfway and dipped my feet into the water.
It was only shallow enough to soak my legs.
They say cooling your feet in cold water lowers your body temperature and refreshes you.
‘……But it’s not as cool as I hoped.’
It didn’t quite live up to my expectation of blowing the heat away.
‘What a shame, it’d be great if I could just go to the sea.’
There was, indeed, a sea at the far edge of Yggdrasil’s grounds.
But I never thought of actually going there.
‘It’s too far.’
It was a distance that required a carriage ride.
The round trip would take a long time, so there was no reason to go out of my way to the sea.
‘Forget the sea, I’ll just stockpile ice in subspace and drink ice water instead.’
As I was thinking of alternate ways to beat the heat.
Farm unlocked!
A new message appeared.
‘……What got unlocked?’
Just as I wondered, another message followed.
Sea Farm
Create an Animal Farm under the sea!