The Demon Prince goes to the Academy

ght one was right, then I had enough to add 2 more talents at the moment.

However, going by my past experiences, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to leave some points in case of an emergency.
If I used the Revise function in such cases, I might get myself out of a crisis.
Spending too much at the moment, seemed to be a bad choice. 

After thinking about what kind of talent I should develop next, I narrowed it down.

This decision would also decide my future path.

[Magic Sensitivity – 2000 Points]

[Magic Manipulation – 2000 Points]

These two talents were required to become a master in the field of combat, and were also necessary talents for a wizard.

They were the basis for everything having to do with magic power.

In the wizard’s case, they were necessary to evoke magic and move magic power, and in the case of combat masters, they were necessary to strengthen their body using magic power. 

Anyway, both were talents with multiple uses, so it would be far better to have them than not.
Since I had Ellen training me in swordsmanship, I didn’t think it was necessary for me to buy a talent in that area.

Both were necessary talents, but I needed Magic Sensitivity first.
It was a type of talent that contributed to the growth of one’s magic power, and at my current level, it was more important to increase my magic power pool than being able to manipulate it.

[You have spent 2000 Achievement Points.]

With that, I had two talents.

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Self-Suggestion and Magic Sensitivity.

My remaining points were 4130.
As I expected, it would take me 4000 points to get my third talent.

I refrained from hastily spending my remaining points.
In the first place, Magic Manipulation wasn’t something that they taught yet, so acquiring it beforehand would be useless.

I decided to postpone the decision whether I should get a third talent or not until after the midterm exams.

Of course, I had no reason at all to do well in the exams.

However, there was no reason for me to get bad results in most classes either.

If I really were to focus on the midterm exams, I’d only do so for achievement points, not to get good grades.

[Reach the Top 10 in the midterm exams – 3000 Points]

The challenge related to the midterm exams that I saw when I last checked was still there.
This wasn’t talking about just within my class, no, it meant that I had to reach the Top 10 of the whole first grade of Temple’s high school section, which had about 10.000 students.
Even if I was smarter than most of the kids, this was obviously something very difficult to do.

In addition, two more midterm exam related challenges had been added after the challenges were updated.

[Cheat during the midterm exams and get caught – 500 Points]

[Get the lowest rank in the midterm exam – 1000 Points]

“…”

If I were to rank last among 10.000 people, I’d get a thousand points.

I’d automatically get the lowest rank after I got caught cheating, so I’d get 1.500 Points.

Both were very easy to do.
If I were to purposely try to get 0 points, there was literally nothing that could go wrong.
It was overwhelmingly easier than getting into the Top 10.

That punk was doing this on purpose, wasn’t he?

I’ll show you.

I’ll get to 10th place.

* * *

That evening.
In the dining room.

My evening training had ended, but I was still eating some late-night snacks with Ellen as always.

Today’s menu was fried rice.

Ellen made it.

Kids like her were supposed to be good at cooking after all, right? She didn’t even need my advice anymore and can pretty much make everything on her own, right?

After some time, my cooking won’t even be able to compare to hers anymore, right?

“…You said, you wouldn’t study.”

“There are some things people just ought to do.”

When I told her that I would study until the midterm exams and would take a break from training, Ellen just nodded while shoving some fried rice into her mouth.
My goal was to get into the Top 10 of the integrated exams.
The individual professor’s subjects didn’t count to that particular ranking.

So, the only things I needed to study were what we learned during the common classes.

“I think you’ll do well in your studies.”

“…What’s with that so suddenly?”

Did she just give me a compliment without a shred of hesitation? That caught me off guard.

Then Ellen told me calmly something pretty surprising.

“Yes, you are smart.”

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I really didn’t know what was going through that girl’s head.
What was with this? Of course, I might think that way because of the words she was usually using with me.

“Oh… Thank you.”

Well, yeah.
It did feel pretty good.

I also felt like I already lost after getting happy by being praised by a high schooler for being smart.

Also, she was probably a lot smarter than me as well.

“Hey, would you like studying with me then?”

“No.”

Of course, Ellen would refuse my request of mooching off her intelligence.

Anyway, I had a new short-term goal.

Cramming, that is.

Even if they were just first year high school students, was it even possible for me to beat 10.000 students and make it to the Top 10?

I’d see the answer to that question next Monday and Thursday during our common classes.
The other professor’s classes would also hold their midterm evaluation next week, but I didn’t pay that much attention to those.

I could study on my own, and was pretty confident that I would reach a high rank.
However, I had to get the best results, not just pretty good ones.

How did the midterm exams go in the original again?

It was one of the parts that were supposed to showcase Ludwig’s tremendous improvement.

Wasn’t there that common old-fashioned main character trope? The energetic protagonist with a strong sense of justice, who was pretty much an idiot.

So even though Ludwig studied really hard, he would still end up at the bottom of the rankings.
Of course, after he studied together with a certain guy named Louis Ankton of Class B, his grades gradually improved.

As far as brains goes, Louis Ankton was the smartest one of the Royal Class’ first years.

Of course, that guy was highly selfish on Top of being a nerd.
He also was someone quick to run away.
He wasn’t a bad guy, but he was the type of guy I would have loved to give 100 finger flicks to, because he was just so annoying.
In fact, it was probably that same Louis Ankton who went to tattle to the teacher about Cayer’s and my fight in the changing room on my first day in Temple.

Only after Ludwig helped and took care of that guy would he open his heart to others and help out.
It should have been right when they got into 2nd grade.

Ellen had no intention of studying at all, while I was trying my hardest to get myself to rank 10 if possible.

That was the conclusion.

* * *

“Hey.”

Thursday evening.

“Huh?…Uhm? Me?”

I called out to Louis Ankton, who was on his way back after the common classes.

“Who else is there other than you, huh?”

I approached Louis, who was shivering out of some form of fear, and placed my arm on his shoulder.

“I have a question for you.”

“Erm… Huuh? W-What do you want to ask?”

If I were to study with that punk, my chances of getting into the Top 10 would be very high.
The fact that I, who was pretty much infamous among the first years, spoke to him made Louis’ complexion grow very pale.

“Hey, am I hitting you? Why are you acting like that?”

As I laughed loudly, his complexion grew even paler.

The delinquent route was actually surprisingly good.