511 Chapter 511: The Tes (1/2)

With all the things that were going on, I almost forgot that there was a test on Monday. It was a good thing I could study on Sunday, particularly when I had nothing better to do because I was confined to home. So during the time when I wasn't training myself or Adrian and Melina, I was studying for tests and revising my homework.

Actually, I had already completed my homework. My motto was ”no procrastination!” So I always completed my homework and assignments almost immediately and ahead of time, as long as it was within my capabilities. The rationale was that if I had already finished them, then I could do whatever I wanted for the remainder of my time without having to worry about deadlines and submissions.

Of course, the tradeoff was sloppy, rushed work, but in the grand scheme of things, it didn't matter much as long as I had the spare time to indulge in my hobbies. Worse still, I had to split my free time between training and hobbies, which severely reduced my periods of enjoyment. Oh, well. Still worth it, though.

So I was prepared for the test on Monday, when Teacher Einsberg arrived in the classroom with a stack of papers. He plopped them down and began distributing them after the standard briefing. Eeach of us were isolated by our desks, and had to write down our answers the old-fashioned way. Why they didn't just do everything digitally, I had no idea, but Saint Teresa Academy preserved some of the old, traditional ways of learning. Writing and paper tests were one of those traditions that they were determined to preserve.

Well, it wasn't my business. I was just here on exchange. While I was still here, I would adhere to whatever rules they had established. As such, I furiously wrote down the answers with a pen, dredging the answers from my memroies and replying to the questions as best as I could. Even with my previous knowledge, a lot of things had changed in the education curriculum that exited a thousand years later, so I wasn't going to get full marks. Unfortunately, I wasn't that much of a genius.

”All right, time's up!”

I raised my head when Teacher Einsberg announced the end of the test. That was a lot faster than I thought, but that was the same with anything. When you rushing through the test, time seemed to fly by a lot faster than usual. Theory of relativity and all that.

Thankfully, I had completed all of the questions, leaving nothing blank, and so I went along with the motions of submitting my test script to the front. As Teacher Einsberg gathered the piles of test scripts from the front student of each row, he called the class representative to help him carry the bundle of scripts to the staff room.

”Ban Zhang, can you help me?”

”No.”

”Oi!”

Ban Zhang, despite his name, was an irresponsible class monitor who shirked all of his duties and behaved like a spoilt brat. As he was the son of a rich and hugely influential family, Teacher Einsberg was helpless to do anything but endure when he openly defied his instructions. Sighing, I raised my hand.

”Teacher Einsberg, I will help.”

”Thank you, Richard.” Teacher Einsberg looked immensely relieved when I offered my assistance. It never hurt to play the teacher's pet once in a while, because I often reaped the benefits of getting on the adults' good side. Not only that, it was the right thing to do, even if there weren't any real benefits. ”I'll be counting on you.”

As we proceeded down the corridor toward the staff room, I saw that the other classes were still busily tallying up their papers and other miscellaneous stuff. It appeared that my class was the fastest, even though we were supposed to be learning ice magic.

”I'm sorry to trouble you, Richard, but could you help me arrange the test papers?”

Teacher Einsberg looked apologetic. He was a nice guy who rarely raised his voice and was often looked down by the aristocrats in our class because of his quiet nature, but he was polite and kind, often on hand to help out the more unfortunate students. It was a good thing that the overwhelming majority of students in Saint Teresa Academy, despite the prevalent arrogance, were well behaved and disciplined, having been brought up in the strict households of nobles to adhere to a certain code of conduct. Otherwise, Teacher Einsberg would be helpless to control a wild, rampant class…unless he decided to freeze all of them in one go, of course. In contast to his diminutive nature, his ice magic was nothing short of phenomenal.

”Sure, no problem.”

”You should be the class monitor instead…” Teacher Einsberg shook his head in disgust. ”You do a lot more than Ban Zhang.”

Unfortunately, I was only an exchange student, so that wasn't a practical solution. In any case, I would rather not. I only handled the menial tasks like ferrying test scripts up and down the classroom and staff room, but the more important, formal occasions such as attending class committees meetings, organizing the school festivals, and others, I was more than happy to leave to Ban Zhang. Despite his snobbish attitude, he was actually more competent in handling such large, formal affairs. Unlike me who returned home immediately when classes ended, Ban Zhang had no qualms staying behind after school to handle these huge events and attend long, boring meetings. As long as I handled the physical and menial chores, the class would be able to maintain a perfect equilibrium.

I was more than contented with sticking to such an arrangement.

Teacher Einsberg and I arranged the papers together and left it on the desk in fairly short order. While we did so, a lot of the other teachers and class presidents came in to do similar jobs. As we were the first to finish, Teacher Einbserg thanked me and dismissed me.

”Thanks for your hard work. You should go rest now.”

”Yes, sir.”

Bowing politely, I took my leave. As I weaved my way out of the staff room, I accidentally knocked over a box of paper clips that had been sitting in an empty cubicle and ended up scatter the tiny metal pieces all over the carpeted floor.

”Uwah! I'm sorry!”

Apologizing to nobody in particular, I sighed and dropped to my knees, clumsily searching for the paper clips that had scattered all over the floor. Making use of the hi-tech sensors on my glasses, I was able to easily locate each and every one of them and packed them back into the crumpled box that I now held in my hand.

That was when Nan Gong Ji Yan and her teacher, a nameless, bespectacled woman with wavy, long brown hair, walked in, carrying their own piles of test scripts. While I fumbled under the cubicle's table, scooping up paper clips, I could sense them walking into the cubicle directly opposite the one I was residing in.

”Could you help me arrange the test papers in order, according to student number, and then tie them all up?” The teacher asked in a sick, sweetly voice that sounded so fake that I wanted to puke. If Ji Yan had detected the artificiality of the insincere tone, she didn't show it and instead responded politely with an equally fake-happy ”yes.”

Like teacher, like student, huh? Well, the same went for me and Teacher Einsberg, so I wasn't in any position to criticize them. Now, if Ban Zhang could also follow Teacher Einbserg's example…

A buzzing almost caused me to slam my head against the desk above me. It took me a second to realize that someone's smartphone was ringing. It wasn't my ring tone, so I knew it wasn't mine. But when the teacher spoke up, I discovered who the owner was.

”Sorry, Ji Yan. I need to take this call. Can I leave things to you?”

”Yes, of course.”

”Thank you!”

The teacher hurriedly stepped outside to take the phone call. Why, I had no idea. Maybe she had a secret lover so she didn't want Ji Yan to eavesdrop on their sinful, dirty conversation. Or maybe it was an obscure, unnaturally contrived plot device to force the teacher's absence so that Ji Yan could pull off a nefarious stunt. I say that because as a teaching assistant, normally we would just hang up on the phone and call back after our job was done, rather than leave our poor student waiting for us. It was just unprofessional. Whoever wrote this evidently had no idea how real teachers behaved.