471 Chapter 471: Theoretical exams and results (2/2)

Ji Yan appeared to have noticed the subtle derision in her friend's voice as well, and she frowned. However, she did well to conceal her irritation.

”What?”

A second friend came alongside her, this time a girl with long brown hair. Raising her hands, she sighed and shook her head in resignation.

”Looks like you've been stuck in second place ever since we've enrolled in Saint Teresa Academy. But that's not all. This time, there's a new transfer student who has also managed to achieve first place along with Zhao Yan.”

For a moment I wondered if they were referring to Kureha Franklin, but she wasn't a transfer.

Putting Zhao Yan aside, who had always monopolized the very top rank of theoretical test scores, I wasn't aware that there was a new transfer student. Adrian came to mind, but obviously they couldn't be referring to him because he had transferred to the middle school section, not the high school one.

By the way, while Kureha Franklin, Kufa Van Peer and the others were all ranked at the top when it came to combat aptitude, their academic scores were a little less impressive. Nonetheless, Kureha, Kufa and Miura La Noir were within the top ten, while Eliza Franklin was twenty-seventh and Rossetti Picket was a respectable sixty-eighth. As for Lute Dragoon…let's just say he was in the bottom three and leave it at that.

So I had no idea who this new transfer student was. Fortunately, the girls were on hand to provide me the much-needed information of their own accord.

”That good-looking transfer student, right?”

”Yeah! That's right! I heard that his name is Xu Wu Cheng!”

Uh huh. So why was he able to achieve so much (it's a Chinese pun joke here, because Wu Cheng is homophonic with no achievements) and score first place? His parents must be twisted to name him as such, or were geniuses who thought that such a terrible name would motivate him to work harder than everyone else to prove fate wrong.

”He's really handsome.”

The two friends were gushing happily while Ji Yan sulked to one side, evidently sore and bitter over losing out to her sister and a newcomer. Was she serious? She was number two, you know? She was ranked above almost five hundred other students in her cohort, which was already quite the amazing achievement. Hell, she outscored me by a huge margin and I wasn't complaining about being utterly defeated!

Neither of us had a chance to whine because Ji Yan's bob-haired friend chose that moment to squeal excitedly.

”Look! He's coming!”

The girls all crooned and swooned in lovesickness as an incredibly handsome guy with red hair confidently strode across the marble path and toward the main campus building. The white and maroon uniform, as much as I hated to admit it, matched his flaming hair perfectly. Adjusting his tie, Xu Wu Cheng smiled smugly and looked up at the electronic bulletin board, his eyes immediately flitting to the top as if already expecting his name to be there.

Ugh…as much as it was vexing to admit it, his overwhelming arrogance was well-deserved.

”Wow! How handsome!”

The crowd of girls, on the other hand, were all drooling over Xu Wu Cheng's presence, their eyes transforming into hearts. The guys, like me, glared at the handsome playboy in bitter envy. How could the heavens be so unfair? Giving everything to this guy, granting him great looks, an intelligent mind capable of acing exams, an athletic body that was the stuff of every girl's dreams, and if rumors were to be believed (because I could overhear the girls whispering right now), coming from an extremely wealthy family suspected to be nobles. There was no way any of us could compare with a guy like him, with the exception of Lute Dragoon. If this was a fanfiction, I would instantly write him off as a Mary Sue character.

How could someone so perfect and flawless exist in real life?

Fortunately, it seemed that not all the girls were so smitten with Xu Wu Cheng. Never mind Kureha, Eliza, Rossetti and Miura, who had better things to do than to ogle at a handsome guy. Ji Yan, already in a bad mood, completely ignored him and turned away to pout. The girl was probably more jealous that he was hogging the limelight than being infatuated with him, or she knew something about him that the rest of us didn't. In any case, she huffed as she stomped off.

”Hmph! I'm not in the mood for this sort of thing…”

So if you were in the mood, you would be falling all over Xu Wu Cheng? How shallow.

In any event, I also wasn't in the mood to be glaring daggers at a total stranger and getting all jealous of him. I had more important matters to attend to, particularly my teaching duties. The practical exam was tomorrow, if I wasn't mistaken, so I had to make preparations so that I could watch my charges perform. Both Adrian and Melina had predictably formed a team, and I wanted to watch them compete against others of their cohort in the arena. So if I could arrange for my own exam to take place earlier in the day, I should be able to make it in time to rush over to watch them.

So absorbed was I in my thoughts that I almost ran into Ji Yan when I stepped into the campus building, where all the lockers were. Fortunately, she was too engrossed in carrying out her vendetta against her sister to notice me. I could hear her muttering under her breath.

”Why is Zhao Yan always better than me?”

Um…because you suck?

”I thought I could surpass her in this exam, but I can't believe she outscored me again! How is this possible?! She and I have the same genes! So this can't be possible…how frustrating!”

Hey, I can hear you, you know. Okay, so maybe you don't know because you're too obsessed with hating on your sister to notice my presence. Not that I cared.

I was tempted to advise Ji Yan, though. Something along the lines of, ”maybe you might want to improve your attitude and reflect on your petty and competitive personality first instead of looking at your genes.” But that might earn me an earful of condescending responses and a terrifying glare. Even the enjoyable sense of gloating wasn't worth earning this bitch's grudge.

So I tried to step around her to proceed into the corridor leading to the classrooms, but I ended up almost colliding with her when she suddenly stopped in front of the lockers to open her own. While I somehow dodged what would surely be a ”lucky accident” where she would slap me for being a ”pervert” for inadvertently groping her, I caught sight of the contents of her personal locker that Ji Yan was staring intently at.

There was a single blue flower lying within its interior.

My eyes widened when I recognized the flower as the symbol of the infamous Guang Zhi Yi Sect, which apparently was one of the infamous monster hunter groups under the Hunters Association. The Hunters Association, by the way, was yet another huge massive mercenary guild, and one of the Silver Wolves' rivals.

I only knew that because Christopher Redfield told me once that they had clashed over a certain quarry, on some battlefield far, far away…