Chapter 691: LWH Chapter 679: Sobu High's Utter Defeat

Sobu High Staff Office.

“Tch, the situation this time isn’t looking good,” the head of the grade looked somewhat helplessly at the batch of graded test papers, unable to help shaking his head and sighing.

“Actually, looking purely at the average score, our Sobu High is still higher than Toyogasaki, only slightly worse than Shuchiin, that’s all.”

A teacher beside him consoled.

“Did you forget the joint exam rules of the Triwizard Tournament? This time it’s not compared by average score, but only by a side-by-side comparison of the total scores of the top ten students in each grade across the three schools.” The head of the grade shook his head, “No matter how good the average score is, it’s useless if the top students drop the ball.”

Not only that, but due to the tournament format, a cascading collapse could easily occur in this joint exam competition—just like the phrasing ‘Sobu High suffered three consecutive losses against Shuchiin in the joint exam,’ which sounded as if Sobu High couldn’t even touch a single hair on Shuchiin’s feet.

In truth, the top three students’ scores might have been 100/98/96 for Shuchiin and 99/97/95 for Sobu High, with only a three-point difference in total score. Yet because of the rules, 1st place could only be compared against 1st place, while subsequent ranks would certainly score lower than the preceding ranks, eventually creating a chain-reaction rout under such side-by-side comparisons.

This gave the head of the grade quite a headache.

Granted, he indeed held some hopes of building ties with Shuchiin through the Triwizard Tournament, but losing so terribly that even their competence was questioned meant that, let alone building ties, not being mocked as useless trash by the other side would already be fortunate enough.

“Actually, it can’t really be considered dropping the ball,” that teacher couldn’t help standing up for their students, “It was Toyogasaki playing dirty tricks. The exam papers this time were jointly prepared by the three schools, claimed to be fair and just, but they secretly laid many traps in the papers. They specifically targeted the habitual mindset of top students—they solve problems both quickly and accurately, making them the most prone to overlooking fine details.”

“These people are too dishonest!” The head of the grade shook his head, “Aren’t they afraid of getting caught?”

“Even if caught, what good would it do?” That teacher said with a bitter smile, “Things like score distribution and question difficulty gradients have far too many subjective elements. It would have been fine if discovered before the joint exam, but raising an inquiry now would only be seen as being a sore loser. At most, Toyogasaki would just have the test-making teacher come out, say ‘Hontouni sumimasen,’ and bow; they can’t possibly reorganize another three-school joint exam just for this, can they?”

The office fell into silence. The other teachers stopped the work in their hands as well, while Hiratsuka in the corner puffed on her cigarette irritably.

Presently, it was almost a settled conclusion that Sobu High would finish dead last in the first event of the Triwizard Tournament. As a college-preparatory high school, not only would losing in an academic competition be a complete loss of face, but the students’ morale would also be shaken, which would very likely put them at a disadvantage in the subsequent club battles.

“I originally thought we could at least suppress Toyogasaki, but I didn’t expect…” The head of the grade lamented softly, “Seems like they still need to practice a lot more.”

The atmosphere in the office grew increasingly stifling. Just when the gloom reached a peak, a teacher responsible for tallying scores suddenly looked up and said in utter disbelief: “Everyone, come look quickly! There’s one test paper that’s way too bizarre!”

The head of the grade frowned: “What’s the rush? Did someone miscalculate a student’s score?”

However, things having come to this, even if there was an error in tallying one or two students’ scores, it could no longer change the overall outcome.

“It wasn’t miscalculated—it’s the second-year Asakura Takuma’s exam paper!” That teacher shook his head, sighed, and made an expression of ‘this is unbelievable’ while handing over the tally sheet, “Look at his answering status.”

The head of the grade took the test papers, his expression calm at first, but after looking for a moment, his eyes widened involuntarily.

At this moment, Hiratsuka, who had originally remained detached, also walked over upon hearing it concerned her student.

After seeing the statistical data recorded on the sheet clearly, she could more or less understand that teacher’s astonishment as well.

The duration for each subject in the joint exam was around two hours. To prevent issues, each school contributed five sets of papers per subject, making a total of fifteen sets for a single subject. For ordinary students, even if they raced against the clock and rushed through without proper digestion, being able to finish two or three sets was already impressive. Yet on Asakura Takuma’s papers, there was not a single blank space left, and every question was completed—even the big problems in the back were no exception.

That teacher added: “I just logged onto the school system to check the exam room surveillance, and there were no problems at all—yet even for honor students, two hours is only enough to finish two or three sets at most. Those able to complete more than five sets are rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns among the three schools, and even if only doing the small questions in front, almost nobody could reach ten sets. His speed is more than three times faster than a normal honor student!”

“More than three times?” The head of the grade muttered to himself in astonishment, “That’s impossible! Did he know the questions in advance? Was there a leak?”

“I was his proctor, and I can attest that he did not cheat.”

Hiratsuka looked coldly at the head of the grade: “He answered normally.”

Even if she usually adopted an annoyed tone on the surface, Hiratsuka actually valued her students very much. Likewise, toward an honor student like Asakura Takuma, although she wouldn’t play favorites like other teachers, she still placed considerable trust in him.

What’s more, in a corner of her heart she wasn’t even conscious of, she held an inexplicable sense of trust toward this fellow whom her fists could never seem to hit no matter what.

“In fact,” the teacher tallying the scores pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and explained carefully to the head of the grade, “even knowing the answers in advance wouldn’t help. This Asakura-kun’s answering speed is simply too fast. You must know that an honor student’s speed is already faster than an ordinary student’s; if compared against ordinary students, this Asakura-kun’s speed is probably seven times that of an average student—being able to read, understand, and devise solutions for questions in such a short time is no longer merely a matter of academic ability. It places extremely high demands on the student’s own reaction speed, and it must be the kind of sustained reaction power that can last through an entire exam, rather than just momentary reaction from short bursts of intense focus.”

“There is another piece of evidence that also proves Asakura-kun did not cheat,” the teacher from the beginning spoke up after looking over the records as well, “which is the accuracy rate of the portions he completed… Well, among honor students, it isn’t top-tier.”

Everyone gathered around for a closer look. There were indeed quite a few red X marks on the papers, with the accuracy rate hovering slightly below 90%. For an honor student, this accuracy rate was slightly embarrassing; for instance, someone like Yukino, who was also a top honor student, maintained an accuracy rate steadily above 95% even in this joint exam, with some subjects she excelled at reaching a full 99%, making her a rarity across all of Sobu High and considerably higher than Asakura Takuma.

The catch, however, was that Asakura Takuma was the only person who completed all fifteen sets of exam papers. Even if his accuracy rate was just shy of 90%, the total score he obtained was far greater than any other student’s, causing his total score to lead by a mile and outstrip all other students by far—including those from Shuchiin and Toyogasaki.

Much of the gloom on the grade head’s face dissipated, replaced by surprise and bewilderment: “I remember this Asakura Takuma was already rank one in the second-year grade before and usually had good grades, but I never heard he answered questions this fast. How on earth did he pull it off?”

“Look at what you’re saying,” Hiratsuka scoffed with a smirk: “Normal exams don’t have that many test papers for him to do either.”

The head of the grade turned his head, pretending not to hear the sarcasm in Hiratsuka’s words.

“In any case, although by victory points our Sobu High is still in last place, at least the joint exam’s rank one belongs to us,” he spoke in an official tone, “so it’s not a total, crushing defeat. And as for this outstanding Asakura-kun, I believe he will serve as the starting point for our Sobu High to establish good relations with the other two schools—”

Meanwhile, inside the Service Club activity room.

Asakura, who was regarded as the starting point for establishing good relations.

“Although it’s somewhat sudden, from now until the end of the Triwizard Tournament, our Magic Club will participate as a temporary subordinate organization under the Student Council.”

Raising his right hand high, he spoke to the bewildered girls in the activity room: “Let us go smash the heads of those bastards from Shuchiin and Toyogasaki together!”

“No, no, no, that’s way too brutal no matter how you look at it, hey!”