Amidst the falling snow, on Friday, the third day of the Common Calendar year 1854, the year-end exam that the five members of the group had half anticipated and half worried about finally arrived as scheduled.
Early that morning, Father Augustus, Dr. Schneider, Luvia and Dorothy arrived at No. 6 St. Teresa's Square. After taking out the spare tables and chairs from the basement, the five of them set up the examination room in Room 2 on the second floor, and then waited anxiously for the exam to begin.
Of course, since the examination venue was in Room 2 on the second floor, theoretically, Shad could cheat by entering the Secret Keeper's Hall, but he did not do such a bad thing.
Compared to the summer exam, Shade has now been promoted from the second ring to the fifth ring, the doctor from the fifth ring to the sixth ring, Luvia from the third ring to the fifth ring, and Dorothy from the fourth ring to the fifth ring. All four of them need to take the upgrade exam, and Shade skipped to the fourth grade. Although Luvia also upgraded two rings of sorcerer level, she did not choose to skip.
Among the five people in the group, Father Augustus was the only one who did not need to take the upgrade exam, so he became the one who was relatively relaxed during this winter exam week. In addition, the old priest had always had a very good attitude, so before the invigilators from the academy arrived, he comforted the other four people not to be too nervous.
Xia De was not too nervous at first, but when he heard the priest say this, he inexplicably became nervous.
Just like last time, Xia De still didn't eat much breakfast before the exam, but he fed Mia in advance to prevent the cat from making trouble at noon. Of course, the probability of this happening is very small, after all, Mia is still very sensible.
The exam started at nine o'clock. Before that, everyone sat on the sofa in Room 1 on the second floor. No one wanted to enter the exam room early. While waiting, Shad thought about St. Byron's anti-cheating measures, and then thought about Dorothy and Leicia.
Apparently, the academy failed to discover the bond between the two girls' souls. Therefore, theoretically speaking, if one is not afraid of excessive loss of mental power, or deliberately chooses the "Red Butterfly Day" when the exchange does not cost too much, then during the exam, Dorothy can completely use frequent soul exchanges to find the answer in the body of Lecia.
After all, although the examination time arranged by Zala Liberal Arts Academy for local correspondence students is also this week, it is not on the same day.
Thinking of this, he looked at the blonde writer, who tilted her head to look at Luvia's divination results and did not notice Shad's eyes.
With silence and random thoughts, the time came to 8:50. Dr. Schneider was the first to stand up, and the others also stood up. The blue-eyed psychiatrist wore a formal white shirt and tie in the warm house. He coughed, which meant he had something to say:
"I don't need to tell you the significance of this exam. Once we all pass the exam, it means that our group is qualified to go to St. Byron's..."
The blue eyes looked at each person in turn:
"Although we don't plan to leave in the next few years, this also has very important representative significance... ... The time is almost up, I won't say any more, let's go."
Judging from the doctor's expression, he still doesn't seem to have much confidence in "Ether Mechanics" at this moment.
Five tables were evenly spaced together in a circle, and five chairs were placed in the open space between the tables, so that everyone faced outward. At the same time, a basin was placed in the middle of the five chairs, forming the projection ceremony of the college, and further away, against the wall, in the four directions of east, west, south and north, there were four chairs for the ceremony, which were convenient for the college professors in charge of the examination to appear.
As a lucky mascot, Shade placed Little Mia on the windowsill to bask in the sun. The cat lay on the soft cushion, a little angry because all the rings were "confiscated", but considering that Shade seemed to be able to see it all day, the cat showed special docility.
At nine o'clock, as the parchment of the projection ceremony was thrown into the basin, a chilly wind gradually blew into the tightly closed room, blowing through the shirts of Shade and the doctor, the gray robes of the priest, and the black dresses of the two girls.
In the wind, four transparent figures appeared on the four chairs. The five people preparing for the exam stood up to welcome them, and the invigilators also smiled and nodded to them.
As expected, Professor Garcia, the vice dean of the School of History, showed up again this time. He sat on the chair on the east side. On the south and north sides were Associate Professor Sarah Horns from the School of Folklore, where Dorothy belonged, and Professor Earl Gulliver from the School of Mechanics, where the doctor belonged.
The latter also showed up during the summer exam week and served as an invigilator.
As for the lady sitting on the west chair, she was wearing a red business coat and a black skirt, and she didn't look very old. This was Miss Tris, the secretary of the Student Affairs Office. She smiled and nodded to the five people, and then Professor Garcia continued to speak. It seemed that he would be the host of this exam.
It was not the first time for the five members of the group to experience the exam week, so they were quite familiar with the process. Professor Garcia took out the parchment, coughed, and announced:
"Sixth Era, Common Calendar Year 1854, Third Day of the First Month, Friday. The Academy has received an application from Bill Schneider's group for the winter exam, which will begin at 9:00 a.m."
In the silence of the others, he announced each person's examination subjects one by one. When it came to Xia De, he wisely only studied five subjects and then said "etc. subjects".
The five people confirmed their respective examination items, and then the parchment rolls were distributed, and the examination officially began.
Everything went on in an orderly manner. Starting from nine o'clock in the morning, Xia De wrote furiously while discussing with "her" and answering the questions on the parchment test paper.
Father Augustus was the first to finish. He actually had only a few second-year exams left, so he was entitled to lunch. The second person to finish was Luvia. It was already one in the afternoon. The purple-eyed girl rubbed her wrist and handed in the parchment scroll with the answers.
The doctor and Dorothy finished their respective examinations at almost the same time at half past two. Although he should not be distracted, Shad still looked at their expressions when they stood up.
It was interesting that Dr. Schneider, who was expected to be in big trouble, actually looked relaxed. Instead, it was Dorothy who handed in the test paper hesitantly. Shade, who was now very familiar with the blonde writer, could immediately see that she was very nervous at the moment.
In the summer, Xia De took eighteen subjects at once, writing from nine in the morning to four twenty-one in the afternoon. Although this time it was a grade-skipping exam, he only had to take seventeen subjects, after all, the first grade had the most courses and the basic courses were too concentrated.
But even so, he still sighed and put the last period when it was almost five o'clock in the afternoon, when the setting sun had made Xiaomia's fur on the windowsill glow, allowing the ink to spread on the parchment.
The answers to all the examination subjects had to be written on the same piece of parchment, so at this moment, Shade picked up all the parchments that had drooped to the ground, checked the answers to each item in turn, and then submitted the examination paper.
He knew that his answer was definitely not perfect, and that he would definitely find mistakes if he checked carefully, but he was no longer in the mood to do so:
"It's finally over..."
The four invigilators left their seats temporarily and disappeared into the room. Xia De also stood up and picked up Xiaomia, who had been very well-behaved all day, then pushed open the secret door on the wall and came to Room No. 1.
"It's over. Let's take a half-hour break before announcing the exam results and the end-of-year evaluation for 1853."
Shade sighed and said to the doctor. The doctor sat on a small sofa, holding his face with one hand and nodded, looking exhausted. Father Augustus sat opposite him, reading a small book. Of course, it was not the number of school exams, but a brochure of the Dawn Church. Luvia and Dorothy sat on the sofa together. The purple-eyed girl was doing divination with a serious expression. The writer was looking through the pile of books on the coffee table in a listless manner, looking like she was confirming her answers.
"Doctor, how do you feel?"
He held the cat in his arms and pulled a chair to sit in front of the fireplace. He yawned as he sat down, so Mia yawned too. Seeing Shade looking down at it, he whipped Shade's wrist with his tail. The doctor felt the urge to yawn as well, but he managed to hold it back:
“It feels okay this time.”
As he spoke, his face was filled with unconcealed joy. Shade then looked at Luvia, who had already revealed the third card:
"It looks like our group has good luck today, but... ...some people may have some minor accidents, but it's not a big problem."
This made Dorothy even more worried. She seemed to want to ask Luvia about the divination results in more detail, but in the end she just sat there resigned to her fate and said nothing.
They returned to the examination room at the right time. When the five of them sat down, the four professors had also returned.
Professor Garcia will still announce the test results. The test will not be scored, but will be rated based on five criteria: "excellent", "exceeds expectations", "pass", "fail", and "terrible".
What reassured everyone was that everyone passed all the exams during the winter exam week, including elective and compulsory courses, which naturally included Dr. Schneider's "Ether Mechanics". Although it was only a "pass" evaluation, he did pass the exam for this elective course and was allowed to take further courses.
Just as Dorothy expected, she passed three of the nine required courses, which meant that her previous worries were completely normal.
It’s not that the writer didn’t review seriously, nor is it that she is not good at taking exams. It seems that she just had bad luck.