Promotion Exam
Just one month remained until enrollment at the academy.
Joan spent her remaining days in the Lampail domain fulfilling guild requests. In town, she took on jobs like shopping errands, cleaning inns, and sometimes even sewer maintenance. As for deliveries, she mounted Pearl and used her storage skill under the name Pearl Express, handling as many as thirty deliveries in a single day when it was busy.
At first, the townspeople were hesitant, saying they felt bad letting Young lady Joan handle such things. But Joan insisted she was just a regular adventurer, and after completing all sorts of tasks, they eventually stopped calling her "Young lady" and began calling her "Joan," treating her with warmth and affection.
As a result of her tireless efforts, today—an extraordinary two months after registration—she was taking the promotion exam.
When she opened the swinging doors of the Adventurers’ Guild, several familiar adventurers were already there.
“Hey, Missy. It’s today, huh? The promotion test. But damn, that was fast. You’ve only been registered for two months, right?”
“Gene was fast too, but Joan’s even faster~”
“At this rate, you’ll catch up to him in no time! Ahahaha!”
“You’re one to talk. She’ll surpass you first, haha!”
“Quit yelling, you guys. Anyway, good luck.”
“Not that I’m worried about you, Missy.”
“We’re gonna watch later!”
“Yeah, me too, me too!”
“OkayGene~ I’ll do my best!”
“Good afternoon, Miss Lily~”
“Welcome, Joan. Geez, you’ve been working too hard. Already taking a promotion test just two months in…”
“Ehehe, I really gave it my all. I want to be a D-ranker before enrollment.”
“Haha, you really do what you say. Well then, let’s head to the practical exam area. I’m sure the examiner and witnesses are dying to see you.”
＊＊＊＊＊
At the exam grounds, the examiner was B-ranker Mr. Gies. Witnesses included the guild master, mohawked B-ranker Mr. Brian, and A-ranker Mr. Nick with his light-blue, semi-long hair parted to one side.
“Missy~! Give it your best~!”
“Joan~! Go get Gies~!”
“Go, Joan, go!”
“Joan! Fight oh~!”
“Take him out with one blow~ Young lady~!”
Looking around, Joan saw the spectators circling the arena—Mr. Jackal, Mr. Kodak, Lou, Dennis, Miss Lily—and somehow her father, brothers, Nancy, Sarah, and Zack had also arrived.
That last voice shouting "Take him out" definitely came from Nancy…
Pearl, as usual, left her side with a calm “just be yourself.”
“You’re here. Man, this really is too soon… Well, fine. Missy, ready?”
“Yes!”
“Begin!”
Gies raised his one-handed sword. The blade trembled and began glowing red from the hilt.
–Oh—Mr. Gies uses fire magic, huh. Hmm, what should I do?
With just two long strides, Gies closed the gap and slashed. Joan leapt backward to dodge. At that moment, she used a skill to splash water on the sword. With a hiss, steam rose as the high-temperature blade vaporized the water, triggering a steam explosion—BOOM!—causing Gies to flinch for an instant.
Joan seized the moment, rushed in, and dropped her heel on Gies’s sword hand, then jumped back.
“Guh!”
The impact caused Gies to drop his sword.
As he reached to grab it, Joan threw a kunai to stop him.
Cursing, Gies drew a dagger from his waist and charged. Joan parried with her sword, but he landed a kick to her stomach. The weight difference sent Joan flying about five meters. Twisting midair, she landed on her feet.
Without pause, she sprinted toward Gies and leapt, locking her legs around his head. Using his neck as a pivot, she twisted and flung him across the arena. As he lay sprawled, she swiftly threw several kunai, pinning his clothes to the ground. Like Gulliver in the picture book from her past life, Gies was immobilized.
That headscissors whip! I always wanted to try that after watching pro wrestling every week! First time trying it and I was a little scared, but it worked…
“Stop!”
The Guildmaster called out, then turned to the witnesses.
“Any objections to the challenger’s victory?”
“None!”
“None here!”
“Any foul play?”
“No foul play!”
“None at all!”
“All right! Then I vote for rank D.”
“She beat a B-ranker, you know? Should be rank C.”
“I say rank D.”
“Okay! The challenger is hereby promoted to Rank D!”
“I did itttt!”
““““Wooooooo!!””””
““That’s amazingggg!!””
“““““Congratulations!!”””””
The crowd had grown significantly before she even realized.
“Whoa, there’s a ton of people…”
“What, you didn’t notice?”
“I noticed more people came, but I didn’t think it was this many…”
“Of course! Hardly anyone takes a promotion test just two months in, and you’re you.”
“Exactly. If I wasn’t a witness today, I would’ve been out there watching too.”
As Joan chatted with the guild master and Nick, Mr. Brian removed the kunai, allowing Gies to get up and approach.
“That just proves how amazing Joan is. But don’t go showing off at the academy, or you’ll attract trouble.”
“Yeah, exactly. Look, the whole Lampail family is nuts, okay? Joan’s strength is way above normal.”
“Brian, what do you mean?”
“Most people don’t start training at age five. Especially not noble daughters. And your whole household—not just the family, but even the staff—are all experts. You’re just used to it.”
“If you gathered all the royal knights, I bet they still couldn’t beat the Lampail household.”
“Seriously…?”
“““Seriously!”””
Turns out… my family is the scariest.
Yeah, I guess I kind of suspected already.
Like the training regime, and how my brothers got exempt from martial arts classes at the academy…
What do you think about this chapter?
