Today is the day the academy exam begins. Steven prepared himself and wore the green earring.
Steven restricted his rank to F and lowered his talent to B.
This earring restricts the rank of its wearer and prevents them from using their power, so it would be dangerous to wear it at all times.
Steven became like any ordinary student of average strength, although he still felt slightly uncomfortable.
Steven is intelligent and knew that if his rank were too low, he would be vulnerable to bullying at the academy, and if his rank were high, he would become famous, which would be very annoying.
So Steven decided that his rank should be average like most students and that he should remain unnoticed because he had read novels about heroes who wanted to hide their true power but did not know how difficult the exam was or the strength level of an ordinary student, leading them to imitate it,
or they wanted to appear very weak in the eyes of others, making them vulnerable to bullying and neglect, and they would have no choice but to reveal their power.
Steven planned to keep his strength and performance, both practical and written, at an average level to stay out of sight.
Steven mentioned in the novel that this year's exam difficulty had increased,
so that only 1,500 students passed the exam this year,
while in previous years, the number of students who passed ranged from 4,000 to 5,000.
Steven never worried about the written exam because he is very intelligent. His academic level in his previous life was very high; he was always ranked first.
He had also read some books a few days before the exam began.
Steven entered the Academy of Hope to take the written exam.
The academy was very large, equivalent to an entire city, because it contained many places to entertain students since they stay there for six years and do not leave during their time there.
They could only leave for three months a year during winter.
The written exam begins at 7 AM, while the practical exam starts in the afternoon.
Steven registered his name among the students taking the exam and received a circular card with the number 1219.
Steven pinned the card to his clothes and entered the exam hall.
After sitting in the hall for a few minutes, several teachers entered.
One teacher nodded to another, then stepped in front of the podium and spoke:
"Hello students, I introduce myself. My name is Herbert Bird.
I am awakened with a +B rank."
"I will hand you the exam questions. Please answer them within the next four hours."
He then spoke in a serious and imposing tone:
"No one can cheat on the exam. There is magic that detects cheaters."
He looked at the students and warned:
"Those caught cheating will be permanently banned from entering the academy again."
"Do you understand?"
The students replied with some fear and respect:
"Yes, we understand."
Herbert smiled gently and said:
"That's good. I wish you success on the exam."
The students responded:
"Thank you, professor."
Herbert then gave the exam questions to the students and left the hall.
Steven looked at the exam questions. There were 50 questions, all of which he could easily answer, but he only answered enough to score 60 out of 100,
and deliberately answered the rest incorrectly.
Most of the students had given up, submitting blank answer sheets and leaving the hall sadly.
It seems they hoped to perform very well in the practical exam,
because the practical exam accounts for 70% of the final grade,
while the written exam accounts for 30% of the final grade.
Steven then handed his answer sheet to the proctor standing at the podium and left the hall.
There were still a few hours before the practical exam began, so Steven decided to walk around the academy a bit.
Steven walked inside the academy, and several eyes shyly glanced at him, whispering among themselves.
Steven paid no attention to these looks because he was used to being watched when he was Black Crow.
Then one of the girls who had been looking at him approached and stopped him from walking.
She asked him with some shyness and hesitation:
"Hello, what is your name? Are you taking the exam too?"
Steven frowned and thought:
'Isn't this obvious? Why would I come here if I didn't want to take the exam? Is she stupid? I'm even wearing the exam card.'
He nodded and continued walking.
When the girl saw that Steven kept moving, she quickly grabbed his hand, fearing he might leave.
Steven slapped the girl's hand and looked at her with a deadly gaze, saying threateningly:
"Don't touch me again."
The girl trembled with fear and ran away.
Steven went to a quiet place. He had gone to a garden behind the academy, sat on a bench, and looked at the beautiful flowers in the garden.
He thought with annoyance:
'Damn, that girl was really annoying, but did she have to touch me?'
He closed his eyes briefly to ease his annoyance. After a while, he heard a slight movement.
He opened his eyes and looked toward the source of the movement.
He found a 14-year-old boy with silver hair covering half of his face, sitting alone and crying, with a red musical instrument called a guitar beside him.
Steven looked at the boy, and the writer skill activated, displaying the boy's status screen:
Name: Max
Type: Half Vampire
Age: 14
Status: Awake
Talent: S
Rank: +F
Magic: B
Mana: F
Strength: F
Intelligence: B
Skills:
* (Sound, medium) Level 6: Rank S
The user can control sound vibrations and attack with them.
* (Claw, medium) Level 3: Rank B
The user's claws can grow sharp and be used for attack.
Steven frowned upon seeing the status window:
'This boy… I read about him in the novel.'
Steven knew the boy, and his story in the novel was tragic.
Max was born to a human mother and a vampire father. His mother died during childbirth, and his father despised him.
He was rejected by the vampire society because he was born to a human mother, despite having a rare talent for vampires: sound.
Vampires preferred to kill him rather than allow him to have their rare skill, but Max was the son of a powerful vampire, so they did not dare attempt to kill him.
Despite a peace treaty between humans and vampires, both sides despised each other.
Max was six years old when he was expelled from vampire society.
This is when assassination attempts began. Max miraculously survived but was severely injured.
An elderly human, who was blind and lived alone, found him and took care of him.
The old man had a grandson Max's age, who was very weak and died young from a fever.
So the old man treated Max kindly. Max had never experienced kindness in his life, so he opened his heart to the old man.
The old man had few savings. When Max told him about awakening and his sound talent, the old man was shocked.
After a while, the old man went somewhere and returned with a red guitar he had bought from his savings.
Max was very happy but also sad because he caused the old man to spend his savings.
He decided he would work hard in the future to repay the old man's kindness.
However, he did not know that after a while, assassins were sent to kill him, which caused the old man's death.
Max survived miraculously and took the guitar with him.
He cried a lot because the old man died because of him.
Max wanted revenge against the vampires who caused the old man's death.
So he wanted to enter the largest academy to become stronger.
Although Max is kind and good,
he would often sit alone and cry because he believed the old man died because of him.
When he entered the academy, the children bullied him and hated him because he was a vampire.
Max always covered his red eyes with his silver hair.
Max was in the same class as Kai. Kai did not like the bullying toward his classmates, so he dealt with the bullies targeting Max.
But due to an unfortunate incident, Max died in the academy before he could achieve his revenge.
Steven's eyes darkened as he thought:
'What a miserable life. Humans and vampires both hated him. Everyone hated him, and he couldn't complete his revenge either.'
Steven remembered his previous life where the whole world hated him.
'He is like me, but I never experienced love in my previous life. Yet he met someone who gave him love.'
'It's unfortunate that the old man died.'
Steven waited until Max finished crying.
Max wiped his tears with his hands and then noticed Steven watching him.
He flinched and quickly lowered his hair to cover his eyes.
Steven's expression remained cold, but he thought:
'Does he think I couldn't see his eyes because he covered them?'
Max noticed that Steven did not speak or show any disdainful expression, so he felt slightly relieved and thought:
'Does he know I'm a vampire?'
He shook his head:
'No, I don't think he saw my red eyes, or he would have looked at me with contempt too.'
Max tried to start a conversation with Steven:
"Um… h-hello, my name is Max… did you do well on the exam?"
Steven replied calmly:
"Good."
Max noticed he didn't speak more, so he asked again:
"Um, what's your name?"
Steven answered patiently because he felt some pity for Max's life and because he wrote this novel:
"Steven."
Max did not know how to talk to Steven, so he gave up trying and just sat near him, looking at the flowers.
Max felt a little comfortable sitting with Steven because Steven did not look at him with hatred or disdain and also did not speak to or drive him away.
But Max believed that if Steven knew he was a vampire, he would feel disgusted.