The peaceful school days passed quickly, and Shuchiin Academy's monthly exam arrived as scheduled. As one of the academies with the highest average deviation score in the country, its internal competition was all the more arduous.
Three days before the exam, the Classic Literature Club announced an early end to its activities, and Yukinoshita Yukino shot a provocative glance at Uchiha Ryo.
"I remember your goal is first place. It would be hilarious if you can't even beat me."
"Please rest assured, Yukinoshita-san. It is inevitable that I will be above you."
Because in this exam, he would be going all out. With the memories of his previous life and the ability of eidetic memory, Uchiha Ryo was confident that there was no one who could surpass him in academics.
Shinomiya Kaguya couldn't, and the future Shirogane Miyuki couldn't either! With the power of the Sharingan, victory was a matter of course!
Shuchiin's principal, Adolphe Pescarolo, stood by his office window. The first monthly exam for new students usually consisted of some simple questions as an encouragement for them as they became high school students.
But!
This year, Principal Adolphe Pescarolo made an inhumane decision: the overall difficulty of this first monthly exam for new students would be increased by 50%!
"I hope this year's students are more resilient."
On the final day before the exam, the entire Shuchiin Academy entered an extremely peculiar atmosphere.
They were indeed new students in Shuchiin's high school division, but most of them were internal students who had been at Shuchiin since they were young!
The exam was a war that had already begun before a single pen was picked up!
In this academy with one of the top deviation scores in the nation, there were no students who didn't care about their grades. It wasn't just them, but also the families and corporations behind them. This was not merely a battle of intellect! It also involved the use of information, connections, financial power, and... psychological warfare.
"I didn't review at all. You know me, I've been playing games recently."
That was a lie! The person who just spoke had been in the library for the past few days looking up practice problems.
"Did you hear? The scope of this exam isn't large. It seems to be the same as the entrance exam."
That was a lie! The person who just spoke had not received any news at all and was simply spreading rumors to disrupt public morale.
But in the midst of this storm, Uchiha Ryo and Shirogane Miyuki, the two external students, remained unmoved.
Shirogane Miyuki studied desperately every day, because compared to those geniuses who had a different starting point, hard work was the only thing he had to offer.
Uchiha Ryo calmed his mind. He had already learned all the in-class knowledge for the high school level in advance. It was just an exam, not a big problem.
The exam lasted for two days. After it was over, the atmosphere at Shuchiin changed once again.
In the Class 1-B classroom, as soon as Uchiha Ryo walked in, he saw classmates lying around as if they were corpses.
"What happened?"
A boy named Tanuma Tsubasa, sitting nearby, was lying on his desk. He let out a long sigh and said.
"I originally thought my composite score could rank as a B, but I estimate that once the scores come out at noon, it'll be a C. That's the bottom half of the year..."
The situation with the others was more or less the same. However, there were still a few students in the classroom who were not affected by the exam.
There was Shijo Maki drinking juice, Chitanda Eru reading a book, and Shirogane Miyuki with a somewhat excited look on his face.
"Shirogane, judging by your expression, did you do well on the exam?"
→
"Well... how should I put it? Maybe it was good luck. When I was organizing my notes before the exam, I happened to see this section. It's knowledge that you'd normally learn a little of in the upper years. I didn't expect it to appear in the first year. As expected of Shuchiin!"
Uchiha Ryo nodded. "Is that so? That really is good luck."
"Mhm. Did you not do well, Uchiha?"
"Well, I made a small mistake, but it's not a problem. After all, only something that is imperfect can give people a glimmer of hope."
Shirogane Miyuki indicated that he didn't quite understand, but Uchiha Ryo didn't elaborate.
During the morning classes, Yokoshima-sensei seemed to be in a very happy mood. Perhaps as a teacher, she already knew the specific scores.
When the lunch bell rang, whether they were so-called top students or those in the middle and lower ranks, everyone got up and headed to the first floor of the school building to check their scores.
Uchiha Ryo walked down unhurriedly and saw the crowd already gathered in front of the large ranking board.
Three people stood beside Shinomiya Kaguya. Two of them were looking at Kaguya with concern, while the other was searching for someone in the crowd.
Yukinoshita Yukino couldn't believe it. He... he actually did it.
Crushing the second place by a margin of thirty points, the new number one of the first year... Uchiha Ryo!
Second place in the first year, Shinomiya Kaguya.
"Kaguya, are you okay?"
A pink-haired girl with a black bow standing next to Kaguya was a little worried about her friend.
The blonde gyaru on the other side, Hayasaka Ai, also chimed in. "Shinomiya-san, it's just one mistake. Just work hard and get it back next time!"
Below the first and second places, Shijo Maki, unsurprisingly, took third place right after Kaguya. Yukinoshita Yukino was still fourth, but fifth place was taken by Shirogane Miyuki. Sixth was Chitanda Eru.
With this, Class 1-B occupied the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th spots, while Class A only had the 2nd and 4th. In terms of the class average, Class B was the final victor.
"Oh my, I'm first place. Not bad, not bad. I'll reward myself with an extra chicken leg for lunch."
Uchiha Ryo suddenly appeared, strolling past the ranking board in front of everyone, and then leisurely walked towards the Shuchiin cafeteria.
"Eh, so this is the number one who surpassed Kaguya?"
[System has detected a capturable target]
[Capturable Target's Name: Fujiwara Chika]
[Current Fujiwara Chika Affinity: 4]
Hmm? There are still more capture targets in the school! He took a closer look. There was one on each side of Shinomiya Kaguya. Wait, Shinomiya Kaguya is looking over here.
Uchiha Ryo smiled, then turned and left.
Shinomiya Kaguya, still expressionless, also turned and left.
"Kaguya, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm heading back first." Shinomiya Kaguya first dismissed her friend of several years, Fujiwara Chika, then went to an empty classroom by herself.
"Lady Kaguya... the difficulty of this exam was at least 50% higher than expected. It's normal for your score to be slightly lower."
Hayasaka Ai's tone changed as she pushed open the door. In private, she was just Shinomiya Kaguya's personal maid and attendant.
"What about him? Even if I got my entrance exam score, I would still be a few points lower than him."
"...."
"Hayasaka, investigate this person for me. If he has ability, he can be recruited as a retainer for the Shinomiya family."