I woke up in a big square room and along with me were the five other members of my group already awake, looks like they had been waiting for me to wake up.
And at the end of the room infront of a screen were our two teachers, Mr.Volt and Ms.Lana, discussing with each other.
"I guess this is where they will announce the results" I thought as I remembered how it happened in the novel.
I got up from the hard ground and stood up just like the others who were looking at me.
"Where is this?" I asked subconsciously.
"Shhh~" Sarah gestured for me to quiet down, then she pointed the teachers.
Thanks, but I already noticed them idiot.
"Looks like all of you are up" Ms.Lana shouted with her usual authoritative voice, "out of twenty teams, you guys are the seventh one to finish, which is pretty good."
"Now, let's start the announcement of the results for the six of you" Mr.Volt added.
And so the screen behind them lit up as they explained how our test went.
"Leon died from the Octopus King and Kyle from a piercing in the body by the red boar." Ms.Lana started, "in total four of you escaped successfully out of six."
"Two of you used the normal method, which was the challenges' door" Mr.Volt showed the screen, and on it we could see Daemon and Sarah traverse a row of traps to get out of the place they were trapped in.
"But the other two... and especially one of you..." Ms.Lana glanced at me, "used the secret method, and are the first ones to succeed at doing so..."
The others were confused as they didn't know what I had done, but the screen infront of us changed and displayed my battle agaisn't the Octopus King.
"YOU FOUGHT THAT THING?" Sarah exclaimed while looking at me.
I just shrugged at her words and continued watching the footage, it displayed the moment I fired at the creature, thus killing it, and when I went back to the beach rushing to take Mina with me away from the explosion.
"You're crazy..." Leon whispered.
"I know this is a team based match, but the difference is so blatant we cannot allow to give you all the same score, which was what we were discussion about" the male teacher said as he scratched his beard.
"And so at the end, this is the conclusion we agreed on" Ms.Lana snapped her finger and the screen changed, now displaying each of our names but with a ??? next to the score, the limit was 300, just like the theory exam.
"First off, the first to die even though his teammates asked him to be cautious, Leon" the elf sighed, "178/300, and you can thank your teammates for carrying you because I would have given you less."
"T-thank you very much" the brown hair said out of gratefulness.
"Kyle died but only out of bad luck and lack of attention, he also took part in most of the fights, so we decided to give him 245/300" they continued.
"Shit, I could have had more..."
"Sarah and Daemon took the normal escape route and perfectly survived, thus rewarding the two with 278/300"
"YAY" Sarah jumped in joy, but Daemon had his usual grim expression.
"And finally, Mina and Kaine, and even though Kaine was the one who did all the work and was the one who saved the girl, it is still considered for Mina to have escaped the secret way, which is why we will give the two of you..." the teacher put a silence between her words and the revelation as to let the pressure increase, "300/300."
"WHAT? THE MAX?" Mina shouted out of surprise.
"Figuring out what you needed to do with the laser gun and actually having the courage to do it is something every person should have, this is what we were looking for in this test" Ms.Lana smiled while looking at me.
"Thanks you Kaine" Mina jumped in my arms while pressing her head agaisn't my chest and rubbing it, looks like she had forgotten about the harsh words I said.
"Well, that's it, you can go back to the dorms now" Mr.Volt clapped his hands and dismissed us.
And so we headed back to the academy, but I couldn't help but think about what had happened during the exam.
Why did Kyle die?
Was it because I was here?
Or was it because of something else?
I don't know, but I need to find out, if shit like this happens again in the later arcs where we can actually die, then it's gonna be a problem...
***
Two days had passed since them which meant we were at the final day of the practical exam and I was currently eating breakfast specially prepared by Mina in our dorm.
"So, how are you feeling?" I asked Mina.
"I'm fine, thanks for asking" she replied with a smile.
After the events on the island, I felt like I needed to apologize to her, but I didn't know how to do it, maybe having the hatred system stops me from saying anything relatively nice.
The rest of the day passed smoothly between us until eventually, the practical exam was officially finished and everybody had returned to the academy.
"Let's go check our scores in the auditorium hehe" Mina told me after we finished eating.
And so we were now in the auditorium with the others student trying to look how they did.
Basically, the 300 points from the theory exams and the 300 from the practical one will be regrouped and this will be your final grade for the quarter.
Of course almost everybody knew how they did, but they also wanted to see the ranks of their friends and others in general.
And when Mina and I scrolled to the top of the list, there we were.
[1. Kaine Brande, 600/600]
[2. Mina Silvermoon, 579/600]
"We're at the top! My family will be so happy to hear that hehe, it's all thanks to you!" she shook me like crazy and seemed very happy, Mina's family is from the noble side of town and wanted her to be perfect even in the original novel, so I guess it was normal.
We celebrated for a bit and headed back to our dorm.
But before entering, as Mina stood infront of the door to open it, I held her arm gently.
"Hey Mina, I wanted to talk" she looked back at me, "i'm sorry about what I said during the test, I was just... angry" it was litterally true.
She looked at me five seconds before approaching my face and giving me a kiss on the cheek.
"You saved me twice, so I can't be mad at you for that..." she took a cute pose and said that while blushing.
Damn, that was a direct hit in my heart.
[Anger meter: 0/100]