Surviving as the Hidden Mastermind in an Academy Setting

“What, what is that…?”

“W-What’s the name? Which family is he from?”

“He, he scored over 300 points!”

“300 points?!”

The deeply rooted Crescent Academy had dozens of types of entrance exams.

Among them, the ‘Golem Hit’ selected for this 158th entry test was infamous for its high difficulty compared to other exams.

Asking examinees who presumably had never received proper combat training or education to battle a golem one-on-one made the challenge significantly harder than simple tasks like mana release or hitting targets.

In fact, in previous years, the golem not only defended and dodged but also attacked, but due to safety concerns, the attacking programming was removed years ago and replaced with a simple counterattack programming.

Nevertheless, it was undoubtedly one of the most challenging exams among the numerous entrance tests.

For the young noble’s children, who were like sheltered flowers without real combat experience or were only honing their abilities against targets, scoring over 100 points on this test was already difficult.

The average score from the last time the ‘Golem Hit’ exam was held was evidence of this, with examinees averaging 92 points.

“I’ve never heard that name before? Ryu?”

“Which family?”

“He-he’s a commoner!”

“…”

The supervisors monitoring the exam from the monitoring room were fixated on one screen, concerned that the examinees might be committing fraud.

Examinee number 176, commoner Ryu.

His black hair had briefly caught their attention, but beyond that, there was nothing noteworthy about Ryu, who was exceeding 300 points in the Golem Hit test with his bare hands.

All the supervisors were on high alert, watching to see if the golem malfunctioned or if the examinee was cheating, but no one could sense anything amiss.

The golem’s hit map was definitely registering impacts, and its remotely checkable status was entirely normal.

“Wait, wait. I’m not seeing things—did he just suddenly spring from behind?”

“Uh-oh. It looks like magic… check the mana detector!”

“It looks like magic! We can see mana emanating from the examinee’s body as he moves behind the golem.”

“Is the casting speed for real…?”

The supervisors were completely engrossed, not casting a glance at the other examinees’ screens as they all stared at Ryu’s screen in a daze.

Ryu seemed to dash thoughtlessly toward the golem, only to suddenly pop out from behind it, lifting the golem in the air and delivering an unrelenting flurry of punches.

The way Ryu toyed effortlessly with the golem made the supervisors question if this exam was actually the lowest difficulty level.

“It’s done!”

“That’s… a record?”

“Oh…”

Kane, an instructor from Professor Amilion’s team and responsible for this entrance exam, stared blankly at the screen showing Ryu finishing up the test.

The black-haired boy was dusting his hands off, grinning with the satisfaction of victory, and the score displayed on the screen was 312 points.

While the other supervisors were astonished by Ryu’s recorded score, Kane was even more surprised by Ryu’s appearance after finishing the exam.

The examinee just before him had slumped down right after completing the test, exhausted, while Ryu looked remarkably refreshed.

Without a drop of sweat.

‘What the…?’

The absurdity of the situation left the supervisors completely speechless, none of them willing to inform Ryu that his exam was over. Kane was no exception.

He simply stood there, dazed, watching Ryu scan the exam hall with a bright expression.

‘A monster…’

“Haah.”

“Student Ryu? Are you ready?”

“U-Um, yes.”

How did I end up in this situation?

“You can go up now.”

“Alright.”

Following the worried-looking staff member, I climbed the stairs.

“Well then, let’s hear the thoughts of this year’s top student, Ryu!”

Clap clap clap—

‘Ah, seriously.’

Isn’t it basic etiquette to give at least a day’s notice for these kinds of things?

It hadn’t even been an hour since the exam ended, and they’re immediately moving on to the entrance ceremony where I’m supposed to give my thoughts as the top student.

Honestly, is there a need to express thoughts just because I ranked first?

If I had known this whole “top student entrance” business was part of the plan, I wouldn’t have entertained the idea at all.

I had just breezed through the lively Golem Hit exam and secured first place as expected.

The issue was that while securing first place was nice, it felt a bit over the top.

Without being able to see the performance levels of the other examinees in real time, and with the exam being conducted one-on-one against the golem, I hadn’t let my guard down. To my surprise, my score was way higher than expected.

It wasn’t that difficult, and since the golem didn’t attack the examinees, I assumed everyone else would perform similarly, but that was a gross overestimation on my part.

My score was 312 points, while the second place scored only 177 points.

I had earned my first place with a score that was nearly double that of the second place, so when my score was announced, all eyes immediately turned to me.

‘Oh man. This is really not my style.’

I had been terrible at speaking in front of others since way back.

The only reason I was able to run the Black Shadow Guild was that Eddie would disguise herself as my aide and step in front of the members.

Even just stepping forward in front of the top members of the guild was something I hated, and now I was faced with dozens, if not over a hundred, new academy students all staring at me.

“Uh, um. Hello.”

Silence—

I tried to deliver a greeting as casually as possible, but was met with a sharp silence.

It’s been ages since I felt such a tense silence.

“Um… First of all, I’m glad to be accepted. I didn’t expect to be the top student… um, wasn’t the exam easier than expected?”

Silence—

The sharpness in the air intensified from before.

As my face flushed, my mouth just started spewing nonsense, and my mind felt like it was going blank.

“Uh, anyways, thank you! I look forward to studying with you all!”

In a bid to escape the suffocating silence and my blank mind, I decided to make a swift exit.

Finishing with a polite bow to the assembled students and staff looking at me, I hurriedly left the podium.

“Haah.”

My stage fright just doesn’t seem to get better no matter what I do.

Everything else is fine, but why does my body freeze up when I try to give a ‘speech’ in front of others?

“Phew.”

“Uh…”

“Is it really over now?”

“Y-Yeah, it is…”

The staff member who had been watching me with a worried expression before I stepped on stage was now staring at me in sheer disbelief.

I didn’t think I had fumbled my words to the point of provoking that kind of look.

I barely managed to utter anything beyond ‘Ah, um, er’ when I first attempted a speech in front of the members of the Black Shadow Guild.

Compared to that, my current remarks were downright impressive.

“Phew. You did well.”

I quickly slipped past the staff member who still had wide eyes and an astonished expression.

As I hurried off stage, a familiar message appeared before my eyes.

‘Ah.’

I had cleared the quest.

As the messages rapidly popped up, the ones that caught my attention were undoubtedly the ‘clear rewards’ and the ‘title.’

If it hadn’t been for the system messages diverting my attention, I might have been overwhelmed by the looks I received on my way back to my seat and accidentally fled the scene.

I quickly sat down in my assigned spot, deliberately focusing more on the system messages to calm my nerves.

‘Is there actually a benefit tied to this title…?’

I pressed the title to distract myself, only to find an unexpected message that piqued my genuine interest.

When I received the title of ‘Leader of the Black Shadow Guild,’ there hadn’t been any description like this in my status window, but this time it was different.

Perhaps because this title was granted as a quest reward, pressing it revealed an explanation and the effect it imparted.

‘What? So what about the ‘Leader of the Black Shadow Guild’?’

I pressed the much more impressive-sounding title of ‘Leader of the Black Shadow Guild.’

Leader of the Black Shadow Guild.

‘Is that it?’

I barely contained a laugh.

How does it make any sense that there are no stat boosts for the title of Leader of the Black Shadow Guild?

It was absurd, but I calmly took a look at the bonuses attached to the title of Top Student of the Academy.

If I were to do strength training while holding this title, my strength stats would increase 30% faster than usual.

‘That’s overpowered!’

In a situation where my stats had already reached a certain level, it had become tough to raise a single point, yet this title offered a 30% acceleration in growth.

‘Ugh…’

The ‘Top Student of the Academy’ had overwhelming advantages compared to the utterly useless title of Leader of the Black Shadow Guild.

Romance or performance—what a dilemma.

In the end, I had no choice but to switch titles.

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