'My intuition tells me someone is talking bad about me!'
With that question in mind, Kiana switched to third-person mode, her sharp gaze sweeping around her surroundings.
She didn't find the person gossiping about her, but instead discovered a new use for third-person view during an exam.
'Levi, are you confident you can get NO.1?' Kiana asked mysteriously.
'If not… I can use third-person mode to help you check the answers.'
She had just tested it. In this mode, she could clearly see every detail in all directions.
It wasn't limited by vision at all, wherever she wanted to look, she could look.
Basically, front, back, left, right, so long as it was in the same classroom, she could see everything clearly.
For example, the test papers in front of everyone.
'I'm confident. Don't need it.' Levi refused her kindness.
This level of exam didn't require taking risks to cheat, for a genius like him, it was completely unnecessary.
Kiana: 'It's not even risky. They can't detect me. I just have to tell you the answers.'
Levi: 'And do you know which answers are correct and which ones are wrong?'
Kiana fell silent.
If she did, she wouldn't need Levi to take this exam for her.
She could get first place herself.
Levi shook his head. "Have a little more faith in your pilot. If I'm not absolutely sure I can win, I won't accept your commission."
As a veteran captain, a veteran Honkai scholar, and someone who'd achieved a perfect score on the weekly quiz without fail, a simple exam like this wasn't going to trip her up, right?
Levi: 'Watch me perform!'
"..."
———
[Some Time Later]
Levi stared at the sheet in front of him, on which he had only answered two questions so far. He scratched his head.
Levi: 'The normal Honkai energy content in a Valkyrie's body… Types and abilities of basic artificial stigmata… A Chariot-class Honkai beast charges at you from ten meters away, do you dodge forward or backward…'
Kiana: 'I think this question has a trap. It doesn't say you can't dodge left or right.'
Levi: 'Kiana, shut up… I'm thinking.'
Things he had studied on his own were slightly different from what Schicksal professors taught.
But he still remembered the mantra his teacher taught him, ("If you don't know it, skip it first!")
Levi kept reading downward.
Pa!
He slapped his own forehead.
The sound was so loud it drew the attention of all the Valkyries in the classroom.
After seeing the troubled look on his face, they all exchanged knowing smiles.
Not knowing the answers?
Totally normal.
Among the Valkyries here, few could answer these.
After all, this was the exam room for underperformers. Knowing the answers would actually be the abnormal thing.
Fu Hua pushed up her glasses, withdrew her gaze, and continued writing.
She glanced around; even looking at all of Levi's questions, she didn't spot many she herself could answer.
Finally her eyes settled on one she roughly knew.
'In history, who was Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie?'
If it were before, Levi would've written "Kallen Kaslana," but now he wrote…
'Lady Green Lily. Perfect!'
After writing it, Levi stared at the incomprehensible paper in front of him and said in a solemn tone, 'Kiana, I've never asked you for anything in my life…'
Kiana: 'Mm, I'm listening.'
Kiana replied proudly.
'In the end, doesn't it still come down to this lady saving the day?'
Levi didn't mind. As long as he could complete the mission, the process... wasn't important.
Levi: 'See the gray-haired Valkyrie with glasses sitting by the window in the second-to-last row? Tell me all the answers she writes.'
Levi gestured with his mouth that Kiana only needed to stare at Fu Hua's paper and copy.
Listening to Kiana read off the answers one by one, he glanced from the corner of his eye at the focused Fu Hua and smirked slightly.
Here to monitor him?
Then she can kiss her first-place goodbye.
Kiana: 'Hurry and write, she's about to flip the page!'
Levi: 'Roger, roger!'
A man and a woman working together, things get done with half the effort. This was exactly that moment.
Kiana read, Levi wrote.
With their cooperation, they soon copied all of Fu Hua's answers.
And thanks to Levi's clever edits, no one could tell he'd taken reference from someone else.
———
After the exam ended, stretching as he walked out of the exam room, Levi asked, "So is this done? Can I go back now?"
"No. There's still a practical combat exam this afternoon. For you, getting first in that one is easy."
A practical exam.
Even though Kiana was very confident in her own combat ability, leaving it to Levi was obviously safer and more reliable.
And of course, there was another reason, later, Raiden Mei might want to play with him.
This way she could save herself one reward payment.
———
"Mmm, Mei, you can look at me more, I don't mind."
In the student cafeteria, Levi rested his chin in his hands, smiling mischievously at Raiden Mei sitting across from him.
Levi's teasing nearly made Raiden Mei choke on her food.
She quickly picked up her cup and took two sips of water.
Seeing the mischievous smile on Levi's face, her cheeks flushed as she stammered, "C-Can you… not… say such w-weird things?"
If you asked what in the world had the strongest killing power, it was when someone you had feelings for relentlessly flirted with you.
No one could withstand that.
"Don't just chat. Eat a few bites. I'm hungry." Kiana urged.
She didn't know if Levi could feel the body's hunger, but she definitely felt the body pushing her to get lunch.
"That's just psychological~ Right now we're completely surviving on Honkai energy. We don't even need food!"
"No!" Kiana replied loudly.
If becoming a Herrscher required paying that price, then she'd rather remain a normal person forever.
For the first time, Kiana was terrified of becoming a Herrscher.
———
[Academy Principal's Office]
After the exam, Theresa immediately used her principal privileges to pull up the test papers from Kiana's exam room.
Because grading was done by St. Freya's AI, which was hundreds of times more efficient than manual grading,
The Valkyries' scores were already out, just not yet announced.
Among the pile of zero-point papers, Theresa first spotted Bronya's.
"60 points? Not bad! Just arrived and already scored 60."
Theresa was quite satisfied with Bronya's score.
Then she found Kiana's test paper.
Seeing the score, Theresa froze, feeling like she was hallucinating.
"100 points… Kiana?!"
'What's going on?!'
Theresa jumped up from her seat.
She stared wide-eyed at the paper for a long time, then finally sat down, muttering in disbelief, "Did I see wrong? She's not like Siegfried… she's like Cecilia…"
'Not a fool.'
'But a true genius.'
'Could Kiana really be a genius?!'
'Kiana, genius?!'
It wasn't until Theresa flipped to the last paper and saw Fu Hua's perfect score that she understood the source of Kiana's perfect paper.
She just didn't know why Fu Hua would be in the same room as Kiana.
"Probably some system glitch. I'll have the tech department fix it this afternoon."
Looking at Kiana's test paper, Theresa sighed.
"Good technique. Better than me, better than Siegfried back then."
Even after realizing Kiana's perfect paper wasn't original, Theresa didn't intend to reset her score.
A Valkyrie's capability was always weighted toward combat ability, with academics as a secondary measure.
Using her own ability to "reference" someone else's work without being caught by the proctor was also a type of intelligence-gathering skill.
"Hehehe, next let's see her combat ability."
But her power…
Hiss, Maybe we should forbid non-human abilities, and focus on evaluating combat technique.
Otherwise nothing will be able to stand against Kiana.
"..."
While thinking, Theresa noticed something odd.
"Huh? Strongest Valkyrie… 'Lady Green Lily'? Never heard of that name… but why did the system mark this as correct?"
"Isn't the correct answer supposed to be Kallen Kaslana?"
Theresa scratched her head, completely puzzled.
"I'll ask Grandpa later and see if he knows who this is."