Chapter 108: The Scores

As they were walking over to the scoreboard, Nadia glanced around curiously.

She surveyed the area and eyed every student she saw, looking for someone who matched a specific list of characteristics: A woman with long brown hair, red eyes, and around her height. A woman who constantly smiled while wearing a pair of black latex gloves. A woman...

Who bugged her still, even after the entrance exam.

’... Hilda Hertel...’

Nadia continued to look around frantically with her guard up, waiting for the woman to pop out at any time. But no matter how much or how hard she searched, she couldn’t find the person she was looking for.

By the time she reached the scoreboard, she had given up trying to find the woman.

She sighed in defeat and tried to look over the crowd of heads gathered in front of the scoreboard.

She frowned with a slight grumble. ’There are too many people here...’

With another sigh, she looked up and managed to get a good view of the top three scorers, and wasn’t surprised at who came first.

Combat Entrance Exam Results

Hilda Hertel: 264 Points

Rebbel: 120 Points

Venice Faraway: 60 Points

...

’As expected, she got first place. And by an extremely wide margin, at that...’ Nadia tightly clenched a fist. ’She really did have a monopoly over all the eyes in the end, just like she promised...’

She then wondered, ’But how are the points calculated? There weren’t that many eyes there? At least... maybe close to a 100 pairs?’

Luckily, it didn’t take long for her to find out.

A student approached a staff member standing next to the scoreboard and asked, "Excuse me, how are the points calculated?"

The staff member glanced coldly at him before responding, "The score is calculated based on the number of eyes you’ve handed in. If you handed in a Scoundrel’s eye, that’s 2 points. If you handed in both eyes, that’s 4."

"Oh, okay. Thank you, sir!"

’So, that’s how it’s calculated...’ Nadia stroked her chin, watching as the student thanked the staff. ’If a pair of a Scoundrel’s eyes is worth 4 points, how much would a Soldier’s eyes be calculated at?’

They must’ve been worth a lot to push Hilda that high up.

She then glanced back at the two names below Hilda with a thoughtful expression. ’Rebbel and Venice Faraway... to be given that many points...’

If she assumed that they didn’t encounter a Soldier in their exam, how capable and strong were they to rack up that many points? And did they do it in a group?

As she pondered this, she noticed the crowd began to part suddenly.

Ross, irritated that the path to the scoreboard was blocked, began pushing through with Elias’ help.

"Outta’ the way, you bunch of grain sacks!" Elias shouted with a crooked face. "If you’re done checking out your score, then let those who haven’t through!"

Their action sparked a reaction in the crowd. Those who didn’t recognise them reacted harshly, trying to push back. Those who did recognise them, however, immediately shrank back and gave way.

Unsurprisingly, the staff didn’t react much to the uproar and continued to remain still.

Soon, everyone in their group passed through the parted crowd and reached the scoreboard. And when they did, Nadia began recognising a few people, which she only knew about because she had been following Hilda around.

For some reason, they had strange looks on their faces. Looks that Nadia quickly deduced why.

’They must’ve just seen their score...’ She half-closed her eyes in understanding. ’It’s not an unreasonable reaction.’

She didn’t expect many of the people here to take it well that their score was 0. In fact, she had expected worse, like tears or screams. It was rather surprising to her.

’Everyone’s taking it quite well; maybe they came to accept it...’ Nadia thought before smiling warmly inside. ’Well... after what we went through, this sort of experience is probably easier to stomach.’

She had long accepted that she received a zero on the exam. And because of that, she wasn’t going to check her score, figuring there wasn’t much point in wasting energy when she already knew the answer.

As she waited for her group to finish finding their name and scores, she noticed the exact strange look on Elias’ face; from what it looked like, it appeared he found his name first.

Ross, noticing his strange expression, opened his mouth:

"You look like you’ve seen a ghost. You alright—?"

"O-our points...!"

"Huh?"

Watching as Elias pointed excessively at his name, Ross leaned in to see and what he saw shocked him.

Elias Thorne: 10 Points

Ross’ eyes widened to the extreme. ’How could that be?!’

He then looked for his name as well, this time more hurriedly.

Ross Kestrel: 10 Points

’It’s the same for me as well!’ Ross thought in shock.

He glanced at the others and found them to also have similar expressions. They were given the same number of points as him and Elias!

He then checked the people outside of their small group. The other examinees in their section of the exam had also been given points, but only 4 each.

’What the hell’s going on?’ Both Nadia and Ross thought.

Nadia, seeing everyone react so strangely, had also begun to look at the scores; her eyes wide with shock as well.

She pressed her hand against the board and began to scan intensely.

’It just doesn’t make sense... why does everyone have points? We didn’t hand in any eyes! The only person who should’ve gotten points is Hil—’ Nadia froze.

She immediately looked up at Hilda’s score. ’If every pair of eyes is worth 4 points and there were presumably more than 100 Scoundrels in that city... why does Hilda only have 264 Points? Along with the Soldier’s portion, shouldn’t she at least have 400!?’

Nadia’s lips then parted slightly as she came to a realisation.

’Could it be...’

Could it be that Hilda had distributed her points to everyone?

’From how she distributed it, she must’ve done it with everyone’s value in mind...’

Without considering why Hilda would do this, Nadia swiftly zoomed in to find her name.

’If she really distributed everyone’s points in terms of value, then...!’

Nadia finally found her name. For some reason, it was all the way near the bottom. Figuring it was a mistake and a formatting issue, she crouched down to get a better look at it.

Nadia Crane: 0 Points

"..."

’Huh?’

Seeing the score next to her name, Nadia rubbed her eyes and adjusted her view, believing it was an angle problem.

But when she looked again...

Nadia Crane: 0 Points

... Her score didn’t change.

Nadia leaned back in disbelief. Her eyes were wide with shock, and her parted lips struggled to close because of it.

’How...’

How come her score was zero, unlike everyone else? Why... why hadn’t she been given points as well?

Nadia slowly backed away from the board. Despite accepting that she would get a zero, the shock of finding out this way was... something she hadn’t anticipated.

Could it be Hilda had forgotten to distribute points to her? Or could it be she didn’t think she did enough...?

’No way! There’s no way that could be it!’

Flustered, Nadia stumbled back and accidentally bumped into someone.

Bump.

Sensing her back hit something, Nadia flinched and immediately spun around. She then apologised sincerely:

"S-sorry—"

But the moment she fully turned around...

"Oh my~..."

She was instantly shoved towards the scoreboard, her back hitting the smooth digital screen.

"Ugh...!" Nadia let out a small groan and leaned against the scoreboard. "What are you—"

Before the Heroine could fully process what was going on—

BAM.

—A hand suddenly slammed against the screen, situated just beside her left ear.

What followed next...

Was the sound of a person’s voice. The voice of someone she had been looking for.

"Meine Dame~ I truly have missed you~..."