He rose from his seat with an angry expression.

“Passed.”

“Impossible! There must be some inadequacy, Duke Kaidel.”

“None whatsoever? It’s impeccable.”

“Your Grace!”

“Show this test to anyone and they’ll say the same. If you want to fail me, just say you don’t like my handwriting. Because neither do I.”

Rocard, having exited the room, quelled his excitement as he walked down the hall.

While grading Lorisha’s exam, he realized he had seen such a formidable test paper before.

He denied the possibility, but the memory swiftly surfaced.

A test from Rabory Siah at the Academy.

Rabory Siah was certainly Lorisha Roar.

“It was you. The Academy valedictorian.”

Stopping in the corridor, Rocard clenched his fist.

“…Anagram.”

Outside, Lorisha Roar used her mother’s surname ‘Roba’. Rearranging the letters of ‘Lorisha Roba’ spelled ‘Rabory Siah’.

Incredulous, he splashed water on his face.

‘Am I sane right now?’

Why did she use a fake name on the Academy entrance exam and then disappear?

Thus making a fake valedictorian out of him!

Rocard had always been at the top, born the eldest son of the Empire’s greatest military commander, Kaidel, and the first son of a lion.

His background was inherently radiant, but he had no intention of faking what he had. He wanted to be the genuine best.

That was why he had received education beyond the Academy level since a young age. The valedictorian position had long been his.

Learning that an unknown person had taken it hurt his pride.

The fact that he couldn’t challenge and defeat her because she had disappeared made him subtly uneasy.

And to think she was his secret cash stash.

The thought that she might have been laughing at him as a fake valedictorian made his teeth chatter.

‘What kind of woman is this!’

He had long been freely roaming the palace, mingling effortlessly with servants. His rapid information acquisition had that background.

Among the palace servants, only Rocard would laugh off a sting that drew not a drop of blood.

That’s why the test giver first thought of Rocard when a test for Lorisha had to be hastily arranged.

‘A maid of ambiguous origin disrupts palace decorum.’

Rocard understood the test giver’s request to fail Lorisha. And he decided not to pass up the opportunity to reclaim his cash stash.

He grinned and said,

‘If it’s a favor from Mr. Amela, the test giver, I’ll make it as hard as to vex the Academy students.’

It was the test giver’s job to set the passing score. All he had to do was grade fairly.

The test giver, who had reached an understanding with him, smiled, deep wrinkles forming at the corners of his mouth.

‘I trust the skills of Your Grace, the Academy valedictorian.’

He couldn’t help but feel slightly irritated then.

Even though he had nothing to do with Rabory Siah’s disappearance, hearing ‘valedictorian’ felt like stealing someone else’s thunder.

Still, he gave the test, imagining Lorisha Roar’s face crinkling in frustration.

He made the questions difficult enough to stump even Academy graduates.

However, he was somewhat stunned when the test giver returned with the test.

The fluently written answers were as if Lorisha had read his mind.

“This is quite…”

Lorisha’s answers were flawless. She had provided excellent solutions to questions that were challenging even for him.

On his way back to the Second Prince’s palace, Rocard’s mind was entirely occupied by Lorisha’s handwriting.
He felt suffocated. There was undoubtedly a reason she had given up on entering the academy. It was a given that she had no intention of humiliating him.

However, for some reason, he felt a terrible sense of betrayal toward Lorisha Loar.

It seemed as if there were more secrets than money in his secret jar.

“You should have brought her earlier!”

Duke Rocard swallowed his anger. Regret over having leisurely stayed at Zevron Beach overwhelmed him.

But the situation was already irreversible. Lorisha had handed her exam paper to the provost.

“Should have taken it easy.”

Duke Rocard left the Third Imperial Palace with a bitter smile.

I dressed in new clothes with an uneasy feeling and went to the provost’s room. There would be something to talk about today since the exam results should have come out.

“Hello, Provost.”

The provost, who was sitting at her desk, replied by slightly nodding her chin and turned her gaze back to her desk.

‘I wonder if she’ll break her neck doing that.’

I mimicked her gesture.

While tucking in my chin, lowering my eyes, and slightly nodding my chin.

It was half a joke, but I wished for a chance to use such exaggerated arrogance and conceit someday.

What the provost was staring at so intently turned out to be my exam paper.

“Did the results from yesterday’s test come out?”

But she did not answer and stood up from her seat.

“Today, we will verify your manners.”

“Does that mean I passed the written part?”

I smiled pretentiously at her, but she came toward me without blinking, as if she was carved from wood.