Entrance Exam (1)

Episode 11: Entrance Exam (1)
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“You don’t have to keep pretending, you know.”
“…What are you talking about?”
Oh, like she doesn’t know what I mean.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
“Well, apologies if I’m wrong. It’s just—you reek of reptile. Thought I’d check.”
Snap!
A sharp sting grazed my left cheek before I even had time to flinch.
When I touched my face, there was blood on my fingertips from a shallow cut.
Yikes. That was intense.
“…How about watching your mouth a little?”
Her eyes, which had seemed gentle just moments ago, were now narrowed and cutting, the entire mood turning icy.
I wiped the blood off my cheek without taking my eyes off her.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t recognize the headmistress of Sancternim Academy?”
“Hmph. So you’ve got some sense. I was planning to drag you inside and interrogate you.”
What an overbearing tone.
“With all due respect, I don’t think someone who’s been tailing me since the mountains gets to talk.”
“You noticed that too? Hm… Well, whatever. If you already know who I am, this’ll go faster.”
She tilted her head slightly in annoyance.
“The Dark Empire’s put out a warrant for you, did you know? They’re looking for you everywhere.”
She slowly lifted her head, eyes locked on mine.
“Crossing the border was one thing. But masking your face with a curse and trying to sneak into the very academy I run? You are mad, aren’t you? Because no sane bastard would try something this insane.”
Her eyes were no longer human. They’d morphed—narrow, vertical slits typical of a reptile.
“Isn’t that right, Aaron Bayonel?”
The “Curse of the Mask” is a mid-tier black magic spell.
Combined with my level of proficiency in dark arts, it’s good enough to fool most people.
But not the Dragon’s Eye—a power that pierces the very essence of mana.
And this woman—no, this creature—had been hiding in a polymorphed form.
‘Leviya.’
The Blue Dragon hatchling and headmistress of Sancternim Academy.
She’d seen through my disguise effortlessly.
“Come.”
She turned and gestured with her chin for me to follow.
She looked completely unguarded, even though she knew I was Aaron Bayonel.
But a dragon, even a hatchling, is still a dragon.
And this one had turned Sancternim’s territory into a neutral zone strong enough to keep even the Empires at bay.
‘I don’t exactly have a spare life lying around.’
I’d been aware I was being followed, but I hadn’t sensed her presence.
Going against a being of her caliber? Not happening.
Besides, from the moment I decided to return to Sancternim, I’d planned to leverage her position—not resist it.
I followed behind her, and she led me into a dim alley, far from the sunlit streets.
“All right. Let’s hear it.”
She leaned against one wall, crossing her arms, and two pale blue horns sprouted from her head.
“What were you thinking, crossing into Sancternim’s borders?”
“To enroll in the Academy and receive protection from the great Leviya herself.”
“Just call me Leviya. Keep it short.”
“Then, Lady Leviya, it is.”
Still insisting on the nickname, huh?
“And you want protection while applying with your face hidden by a curse? Without even considering how I’d react?”
“If my identity were revealed now, it’d become… complicated.”
“Complicated, huh… Well, I suppose with a bounty on your head, yeah. Had you applied under your real name, the Dark Empire would’ve demanded I hand you over. That’d have been a headache.”
She didn’t interrupt, letting me finish.
Which, frankly, said a lot. If she hadn’t cared, she would’ve crushed me the moment she sensed I crossed the border.
But she hadn’t. She was engaging me in conversation, trying to understand my motives.
Not because she cared.
“Still, I am curious. Why did you flee the Dark Empire? As rotten as your personality is, you’re still one of the Four Great Houses. They wouldn’t have treated you poorly.”
She was simply intrigued.
That’s how dragons are. They act on instinct and curiosity, not politics or ideology.
And I was confident that, now, I was interesting enough to catch a dragon’s attention.
Top of the class at Necropia.
Escaped before graduation.
Fled across the border.
Currently wanted across the continent.
And now, forged documents too.
…Looking at it all together, I really do look like a full-on criminal. Let’s just not dwell on the details.
“Even if we set your application aside—why should I let someone like you, who infiltrated my academy, off the hook?”
Ouch. Harsh.
Let’s see how she feels after this.
“Because you’ll want me.”
“…What?”
Before she could respond, I removed the leather glove from my right hand and activated my magic circle—only on that hand.
Leviya glanced lazily at the red-tinted lines crawling up my hand.
Flash!
“…What the—?”
When my hand began to glow with a radiant light, she sat upright with a start, eyes wide.
“H-Holy power? No… that’s a Stigma!”
Leviya stared between my face and my glowing hand, stunned.
“You’re a dark mage! How can you have a Stigma engraved on your body?”
“Beats me.”
“…You little—!”
“It just… happened. If you don’t believe me, feel free to investigate. I’m going nuts trying to figure it out myself.”
I didn’t tell her the truth.
Not even a dragon might understand reincarnation. And even if she did, knowing this would completely derail future events in this timeline.
And I couldn’t let that happen.
“…So you didn’t run—you had to run.”
Her expression softened, thoughtful.
“Who else knows about your Stigma?”
“I can’t say for sure… but aside from you and me? Probably no one. I didn’t even tell my father.”
“That why you’re hiding your face too?”
If either Empire found out a dark mage bore a Stigma, they’d go to any lengths to capture—or kill—me.
Leviya knew this all too well.
“…Fine. At least until the entrance exam is over, try to keep your identity hidden. Neither Empire will dare touch a student of mine.”
A better outcome than I expected.
“I’m also surprised you can use the Curse of the Mask so stably, especially at your age.”
Leviya might appear arrogant and cold, but at her core, she wasn’t an evil dragon.
She founded the Academy out of a desire to foster human growth—out of curiosity, yes, but also a strange affection for mortals.
“No way you’ll fail the exam, right?”
“Of course not.”
That’s exactly why I chose to come here—because I knew her.
I knew enough about Leviya, headmistress of Sancternim.
From her desire to help those suffering under demons and monsters, to the fact that—due to that very kindness—she would eventually die at their hands.
“Can I ask you one thing?”
Just then, a question I hadn’t dared ask in my past life slipped out.
“What is it?”
“You created this Academy to eliminate demons and monsters. Why don’t you fight them yourself?”
“…You ask too much.”
She scratched the back of her neck, visibly irritated.
“Because I choose not to. And that’s not something a kid who hasn’t even enrolled yet gets to question.”
“…I see.”
“Just worry about passing the exam.”
Pop!
And just like that, Leviya used high-level teleportation magic and vanished.
I stared for a few seconds at the wall she’d leaned against.
“…Unbelievable.”
I turned away with a sigh.
In my past life, I’d always wondered:
Why did Leviya, the one who built the Academy to fight monsters, never fight them herself?
A contradiction, many said.
And every time someone asked, she’d give the same answer as today:
“It’s none of your business.”
People assumed she just liked playing her little game—watching humans struggle and grow, for her own amusement.
It made no sense… unless you remembered that she wasn’t human.
And in the end, the mystery vanished with her death.
She knew she might die soon.
That’s why she founded the Academy, why she made this land neutral ground—to raise talents who could face demons even after she was gone.
Because she believed in humanity’s potential more than anyone.
‘She failed in the end… but it doesn’t matter.’
Leviya’s dream didn’t die.
Because I’ve returned, and now I can grasp a new future.
‘It all changes from here on out, Headmistress Leviya.’
A faint smirk crept onto my lips.
________________________________________
A week later, the day of the entrance exam arrived.
Leaving the dormitory where I’d spent the past week, I made my way toward the grounds of Sancternim Academy. As I drew closer, more and more examinees began to gather until the place was completely packed.
Even though I was taking the entrance exam under a false identity, with my face changed and status hidden, there were no major issues during registration.
That was thanks to Head Mistress Leviya’s educational philosophy.
“As long as you can kill monsters well, you’re welcome here.”
When the person in charge says stuff that brutal, who cares about a candidate’s background?
All you had to do was write your name on the sheet the registration desk handed you.
“Damon David, you’re registered. Please write your desired department here.”
I scrawled the name I’d made up and was about to leave when I heard murmurs ripple through the crowd.
Turning toward the source, I spotted a familiar figure approaching the registration desk.
‘So you came, Lloyd.’
A tall man with long blond hair and blue eyes.
With that face, even the way he walked exuded nobility.
“Isn’t that guy from House Desmond?”
“Looks like it. Whoa, even one of the Four Houses of the Dark Empire came?”
That guy had been delayed last time too—convincing his family, who were opposed to it, before finally applying.
Seems like that hasn’t changed this time around.
What has changed is that, in the previous timeline, I’d come to register with Lloyd.
Unlike Lloyd, who had voluntarily entered Sancternim, I’d been forcibly shoved in by my family, a fact that drew a tearful line between us.
Last time, I’d thrown a tantrum, refusing to go. In response, my father had cursed and chained me up, dragging me here in literal bindings. If I recall correctly.
The headache-inducing memories of that timeline made me instinctively rub my forehead.
Good riddance, my dark past. It was hell while it lasted, let’s never meet again.
Soon, the examinees who’d been watching Lloyd started whispering nearby.
“One of the Four Houses… come to think of it, didn’t someone from the Four Houses of the Dark Empire go missing? Same age as Lloyd.”
“Wasn’t the name Aaron?”
“Yeah. I heard he ran away just before graduation at Necropia. Supposedly he was top of his class.”
“Top of his class and ran away? What the hell for? The Bayonel family is just as prestigious as the Desmonds.”
“No one really knows. They even issued a bounty, but there’s still no word.”
The Dark Empire issued a continent-wide bounty to capture me, but they never disclosed the reason I ran.
They believe I formed a contract with a high-ranking demon.
A contractor of that level is basically a ticking time bomb—you never know when the demon will take over.
So when a living bomb like that escapes from Necropia and no one even knows where he is? Of course the Empire buried the truth. They’d have no excuse when other nations demanded answers.
Every nation wants to cover up its own failures.
That alone might not be enough to fully justify why I ran, but…
“I heard he was crazy proud.”
“Yeah, they called him the Mad Dog. With that kind of personality, I guess he could’ve snapped and bolted.”
Here, my past self’s disastrous personality added weight to the speculation.
If it was Mad Dog Aaron, well, it wouldn’t be that surprising.
Fed up with my own reputation, I looked up at the ceiling.
“Damn karma…”
I’ve changed now, okay?
Why are you guys spreading my infamy like it’s free publicity?