Chapter 22 – Put to the Test (8)

“Since the level of recent successful candidates has dropped, leading to a decline in professional trust in magic engineers, we would appreciate it if you would consider this as an unavoidable and reasonable measure.”

Bexel’s voice was even more grim than the chilly atmosphere. The way he naturally modulated his strength on specific words made it feel as if he were trying to suppress complaints with the authority and reputation of the first Ember.

“Even for those of you who will become magic engineers after today, the increased difficulty of the exam will guarantee a much more advantageous position in the future, so although it may be bewildering, I hope you will accept it as a positive change.”

Look at this. He had been speaking politely in honorifics since a moment ago, but in the end, it was nothing but a notification.

But who in this place could stand up to Bexel? The only place that administered the Magic Engineer Qualification Exam was this Immortal Ember, and the examinees were those who had staked their lives on this exam.

‘This is completely a dominant and subordinate relationship.’

To open one’s mouth, one had to be prepared to give up their life, but if they kept their mouth shut, it would end with only a slight loss. In such a situation, there was no way that those who had come this far by dedicating their lives could rebel any longer.

“…”

Thus, while the examinees hoped someone else would step forward, they themselves did not. This was the ugly human nature of being reluctant to take the lead.

Whether this was Bexel’s intention or that of someone higher up, even I could not help but say, “They really play politics well.”

However, Bexel’s subsequent statement completely reversed the responsibility for the emergency announcement.

“However, let me make this one thing clear. The Immortal Ember cannot apologize to you. No, there is no reason to. The cause of the change in the exam format lies entirely with you.”

It was a statement that the cause of the entire situation lay with the examinees, who should have felt the unfairness. At this point, the examinees, who had endured and endured, had no choice but to protest violently.

“Just what do you mean by that? The cause lies with us?”

“It’s not even a day before, and it is unfair enough to hear about the changes right before the exam. Isn’t turning it back on us too harsh, even if you are the first Ember?”

“That’s right! What did we do wrong to receive such treatment!”

Even amidst the shouting here and there, I remained silent. It was not because this situation was amusing to me, whose level was already far higher, but solely from a political perspective.

In other words, I realized that the power dynamic between the first Ember and the remaining Embers was completely broken, given that Bexel could speak like that to an unspecified crowd.

‘This has gone beyond the level of arrogance. It is sheer hubris.’

The first Ember, the second Ember, the third Ember…

If you line them up, first, second, and third are decided side by side. However, one must not mistake that just because second place stands next to first place, it means their levels are necessarily similar.

Cold, severe cold, extreme cold.

Even I, who was ranked first in , had a massive gap with the second place. I was in the final chapter of extreme cold, while he was only in the middle chapter of severe cold.

Therefore, it was reasonable to assume that an insurmountable gap existed between the first and second Embers.

Regardless of the difference in strength, Bexel’s words were rational enough to end the commotion.

“It is a security issue.”

“A security… issue?”

“We have gathered circumstantial evidence that exam questions are being leaked externally. Considering the severity of the situation, our Ember is conducting a thorough investigation by mobilizing the direct intelligence unit under the leadership, not the police force.”

“…!”

He raised the leakage of exam questions as an issue. To the examinees who staked their lives on the exam, there could be no bigger problem than this.

However, there was no way to verify whether it was truth or falsehood. But the first Ember said so. That was enough. Such was the power created by authority.

‘His speech skills are incredible…’

From initially bringing up professional trust, to the sweet conciliation that this change would work to the advantage of us aspiring magic engineers, to the cunningness of pointing at all the examinees as suspects and shifting responsibility in the end.

His technique of misdirecting the essence of the problem was considerable, more so than any of the powerful figures I had fought against in .

‘There is someone with outstanding eloquence and political power behind him.’

It was an eloquence that made one confused whether he was a magic engineer or a politician. It could never have come from Bexel’s head. For this was not magic engineering, but the realm of politics.

Indeed, the examinees forgot all the injustice they had felt at first and were cursing whoever had leaked the exam questions, without considering whether such an event had occurred or if that someone actually existed.

“We will now begin the exam. For enhanced security, the nine crystal balls embedded in the ceiling are monitoring you for cheating, so please refrain from any suspicious behavior. Good luck, then.”

I saw a faint smile grace Bexel’s lips as he stepped back behind the podium after saying that. However, because I had neither the power nor the reason to step forward now, I simply raised my vigilance against the Immortal Ember.

‘Let’s just focus on the exam. To me, it is not a qualification exam, but a bet with the boy.’

When the exam papers and answer sheets were all distributed, the exam finally began. The exam paper had a total of two pages, front and back, with fifty questions.

‘I’m tired. I should get some more sleep now…’

Having finished solving the questions and filling out the answer sheet in twenty minutes, I immediately lay down and fell asleep. I chuckled later when I heard that the boy fell asleep at thirty minutes because he made a mistake in marking.

* * *

Intermediate Magic Engineer Bexel Mitro. Although intermediate-level engineers were dime a dozen in the Immortal Ember, he was a promising figure who was at the entry level of intermediate at the age of fifty.

Bexel had even been selected as one of the five elite researchers in the Department of Mechanical Magic Engineering headed by Herman Melville, and was recently solidifying a firm position as a magic engineer by developing the Core Battery.

That someone like him took on the role of a mere exam proctor was likely because the event was important for discovering talent, but also…

‘Just how steep is the growth rate of the other Embers through their alliance?’

His real purpose in being dispatched was to keep the other Embers in check. This was confidential, an instruction given only to the leaders of the leadership and the top-tier magic engineers who had sworn loyalty to the Immortal Ember.

‘Controlling the number of successful candidates to put the brakes on the growth rate… What a crazy idea.’

The principle of this plan was to slow down the speed of development by not issuing licenses even if they had the skills, thereby preventing them from practicing as magic engineers.

That was also the reason why descriptive questions were added this time. While multiple-choice questions with clear answers left no room for quibbling, descriptive questions allowed them to create deduction points for anything. To implement the instruction, they used various excuses as shields to create a plausible justification.

This was possible because only the certificates issued by the Immortal Ember were recognized with public credibility across all Embers.

‘Canelo, I have no choice but to acknowledge that man’s political power.’

The strategist Canelo Behrman, one of Odin’s closest aides. All of these schemes came from his head.

Although Bexel was second to none in terms of intelligence, he could not help but marvel at the man’s cunning.

However, this did not mean the qualification exam itself was entirely tainted by the impure intention of braking growth. The brilliant halo cast upon the Immortal Ember was due to the excellent political power of Odin Arcadius and the leadership, but also thanks to Herman Melville, the greatest magic engineer in history.

In short, for the Immortal Ember to remain eternal in the future, it was important to nurture and secure a permanent supply of high-quality magic engineers.

They could not afford to lose the essence of the exam.

“Do not look around starting from this moment. It will be regarded as cheating, and you will be escorted out.”

Bexel, who felt somewhat unpleasant about the qualification exam being intertwined with politics, erased Canelo from his head and began to focus on his role as a proctor.

‘Although Herman Melville said they must be at least of this level and had them set the questions this way, the questions are indeed difficult for a beginner to solve.’

Bexel was the party who set the questions at Herman Melville’s direction. Even in his eyes, the questions were difficult, but setting aside political reasons, he had no choice but to set them this way in accordance with Melville’s belief regarding the capabilities of future talents.

‘At this rate, I wonder if even those with potential will be frustrated early on…’

However, he was worried. While the buds of talent would be clearly divided according to the abnormal rise in difficulty, there would also be side effects of unblossomed talents fading away in the process. Indeed, now that the first exam was in progress.

“Sigh…”

“Groan…!”

Groans from almost all the examinees filling the room were bursting out here and there, were they not? The difficulty, which had become even harder compared to last year, was strangling their necks.

“This is truly crazy…”

However, was not this entire phenomenon flowing exactly as Canelo intended? Bexel felt goosebumps at the man’s resourcefulness and muttered to himself without realizing it.

While Bexel was walking around the examinees with concerned eyes,

“…”

The boy who entered just in time before the exam started caught his eye. He did not pay much attention. There were occasionally those who took the exam first for a status reversal.

Moreover, as a so-called yellow-hair wearing a yellow armband, he might have passed the second checkpoint by luck, but his skills probably would not be enough to pass the actual exam.

However.

Scratch, scratch, scratch…

The boy was marking the answer sheet. Changing the sheet perhaps because he marked it wrong, and marking it carefully while cross-checking with the exam paper, it did not look at all like he was guessing, but…

‘He finished solving it already?’

The real problem was that only thirty minutes had passed since the exam began. Feeling suspicious, Bexel looked at the questions in the thirties where the boy was marking. The answers indicated on the exam paper from questions 35 to 39 were nothing short of shocking.

‘All of them are correct. What nonsense is this…!’

Not a single one of the five questions was wrong; they were all correct. Furthermore, considering the structure where it became progressively harder toward the back, if there were no mistakes, the front questions could also be assumed to be all correct.

Unless he completely ruined the descriptive section, the boy was already passing with this alone.

‘No, if he is a genius, that might be possible.’

Bexel suppressed his racing heart. It was only hard for beginners; if one had reached the intermediate level, this kind of solving speed was not so surprising. In fact, when researchers who were intermediate or close to intermediate solved it to evaluate the exam difficulty, had it not been similar, though slightly slower?

That was the reason why the exam time was set to one hour.

However, most of the researchers were people who had lived for over sixty years. The boy was literally a boy. But there was something else that was truly shocking.

‘Just what is with the solution steps…’

Although there were solution steps for each question on the exam paper, they were unbelievably brief. It was a level that a beginner could never show.

It meant he did mental arithmetic, which was like a technique difficult even for geniuses who had reached the intermediate level. Yet, he achieved this level of accuracy while solving it only in his head.

‘Such a monster is wearing an armband? Just how incompetent is their leader to have such a guy and still not even reach the level of a small city!’

The boy was indeed a monster. A monster beyond monsters who stood on a completely different plane even from those called geniuses.

Bexel quickly memorized the boy’s name. Although he would find out the boy’s name anyway as it would hang at the very top of the report card.

‘I wonder what the Chief Engineer will say when he sees this.’

With such excitement and anticipation, he passed the boy. Behind him was the young man who had entered together.

“Zzz…”

The young man was sleeping soundly, resting on his arm. Seeing a very clean exam paper sticking out from under his arm, the young man seemed to be a mere guardian accompanying the boy.

Still, seeing that the answer sheet was completely marked, he seemed to have some shred of courtesy toward the exam.

‘Ailen Vail…’

Since there were already so many physical workers, he was a rather useless existence to the Immortal Ember, but if the boy wished, they would have to accept this man into the Ember as well.

Thus, it was Melville who glanced at the young man’s answer sheet and passed by.

Thinking that the answer sheet being similar to the boy’s was probably his own illusion. Thinking that the exam paper was clean because he did not solve the questions…