## Chapter 39 – Special Assessment, Assemble
A house near Saint Flansina.
In this house, serving as a bachelor pad, a woman was seen opening the door and entering.
The way she yawned cutely and exhaustedly as soon as she came in resembled someone.
“Haa-eum… I’m home.”
As if hearing her voice, Anne, a girl with long purple hair, rushed out and spoke a word even before greeting her.
“Unni…!! Did you see…?”
“You’re probably talking about that?
I don’t know how it happened, but we’re in the same group?”
“The others don’t know yet, but…
I was happy to see your name here…”
“Me too, Anne.
And I think we’re lucky too.”
“Lucky…?”
Anne’s expression was filled with questions at Marie’s words, who smiled brightly and started taking off her coat to hang it on the hanger.
Seeing that, Marie widened her eyes as if realizing something and clapped her hands.
“Come to think of it, Anne doesn’t know about the other group members yet, right?
I was thinking of telling you, but I’ve been busy and forgot?”
“Ah… yeah… Upperclassmen…?”
Perhaps because she was awkward in relationships, Anne wasn’t close to upperclassmen, let alone freshmen in her own grade.
Seeing Anne’s hesitant reaction, feeling a little guilty, Marie smiled and began to speak to her.
“Ohohot…”
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The next day.
Anne and Marie received an invitation from Lucia Borgia, a 4th-year student and the oldest member of their special assessment group.
“So you’re my teammates?”
“Uhm… yes…?”
“You look dim-witted. An inefficient appearance.”
“Huh…!!”
Anne involuntarily burst out laughing at the unbelievably blunt remark that suddenly came from the black-haired girl’s mouth.
Some time ago, after receiving Lucia’s invitation, they arrived at an empty classroom in the academy, where two men and women were waiting for them.
One was a Western man, and the other was an Asian woman.
Looking at the man, Anne remembered Marie’s words and immediately knew who he was.
‘Antonio von Sterben, 4th year of the Alchemy Department…’
He was the only man in this special assessment group and a well-known figure in the Alchemy Department.
A genius who had achieved the development of a new alloy, something that even experienced professionals found difficult to do as a student.
He was also a prominent figure in mechanical engineering.
This was evident from the steel mechanical eagle sitting on his shoulder, preening its wings, or rather, pretending to do so.
It tilted its head this way and that, looking around as if it were a real eagle, and then began to observe Anne and Marie as they entered the classroom, causing Anne to make a small sound.
Of course, due to the academy’s restrictions, the eagle was not suitable for actual combat in terms of power or alloy material.
However, judging from the mechanical eagle’s sharp movements, Anne could tell that it had at least a practical unmanned combat protocol embedded in it.
It was an existence that could inflict enough damage even if it couldn’t kill someone, and perhaps even kill someone very weak.
Turning her gaze to the man with the eagle on his shoulder, Anne noticed his neatly groomed brown hair, parted and waxed into a round shape.
And his clear light brown eyes were fixed on the table.
After briefly watching Antonio sip his tea with a gentlemanly movement, Anne turned her gaze to the woman sitting across from him.
And at the very moment she and Anne made eye contact, the astonishing question and evaluation from earlier came back.
Anne, feeling displeased, began to retort.
“I suppose you look very efficient, then?”
“Of course. My body itself is a collection of the essences of the Tang Clan.
So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that I am the Tang Clan.
It would be strange if I, the embodiment of that, weren’t efficient.”
Whether her attitude was confidence or unfounded arrogance, Anne glanced at her sister, who was blinking a few times beside her, and sighed softly.
‘Tang Hailing… a direct descendant of the Tang Clan, a powerful family in the Chaoxing Empire…’
To her eyes, she just saw an impudent girl who had no manners, but the title of a young lady from a powerful family in Chaoxing had more meaning than she thought.
The clans of Chaoxing. Their power is by no means inferior to the nobles of other countries.
Just as the families of Groden have built up their history, tradition, and power, they too have built up the same things, albeit in a slightly different direction.
Especially for those who have dealt with life, they have more than enough technologies that Groden and Barmhausen do not have.
There’s even a joke that the secret of eternal life is hidden in Chaoxing.
And the Tang Clan is one of the most influential families among those clans in Chaoxing.
In a way, what her sister said, “I think we’re lucky,” wasn’t wrong at all.
Although it was a bit unpleasant, just looking at the people in front of her, there was the mechanized noble from Barmhausen, the direct elite of the Tang Clan, and her own sister, who was academically and physically outstanding in the Department of Magical Engineering.
And as she was deep in thought, Anne suddenly turned around at the sound of fabric brushing past her.
A woman brushed past Anne, made brief eye contact, and stepped into the center of the four gathered people.
As the woman with bright, almost orange-colored hair began to speak, Anne realized that she was the last member.
‘Lucia Borgia…’
Anne didn’t need to hear explanations from others about this person.
Lucia Borgia, a 4th-year student in the Department of Swordsmanship, whom anyone in the department would have heard of.
Born in the Kingdom of Groden, she was the daughter of the Borgia Dukedom, one of the kingdom’s three great families, and a strong person considered to be especially powerful among the 4th-year students who had trained the longest.
She had an authoritative personality, but she was such an outstanding talent that her personality was understandable.
Of course, a student’s strength usually ended at the student level, but in recent academy generations, there were a few cases that surpassed the student level.
One of them was Lucia Borgia.
“I’m Lucia Borgia from the Swordsmanship Department, 4th year. Nice to meet you.”
“Antonio Sterben, 4th year of the Alchemy Department.
I hope we can be a good team.”
“Tang Hailing, 1st year of the Department of Pharmacy.”
As Lucia finished her brief and concise self-introduction and passed the baton, Antonio and Tang Hailing took it in turn.
Of course, compared to the two of them, Tang Hailing’s self-introduction was so rude that it made one think she had given her manners to a dog, but the others didn’t seem to care at all.
Instead, Lucia quickly took charge of the proceedings, as the self-introductions were over.
“As you already know why we’re gathered here, it’s to prepare for the special assessment.
Although the details are different from last year’s special assessment, it will proceed in a similar context, so I will take on the role of leader.
Does anyone object?”
As the others all nodded briefly, Lucia nodded back.
“Then let’s first go over last year’s special assessment.”
Basically, in any group project, the leader was the one who received extra points or held the most power within the team, but there was another reason why the others unanimously nodded to Lucia becoming the leader.
“According to the adaptive evaluation system, different tasks were assigned to each department and grade level.
But if they mixed students from all departments like this, there must be a reason.
Especially since the Swordsmanship Department is involved, I don’t think we’ll be able to avoid using our bodies.”
“I agree with Antonio.
Last year, our task was to jointly solve the problem of constructing a multi-person magic circle and overlapping magic formulas…
But this time, there will probably be elements related to combat.”
As Antonio stroked the mechanical eagle fluttering its wings on his shoulder, Marie nodded in agreement next to Anne.
Lucia and Antonio, as well as Marie, who was in her 3rd year, had experienced the special assessment in their 2nd year, so Anne and Tang Hailing were the only ones who didn’t know anything about it.
First, the three geniuses exchanged information and organized their thoughts, and then, when their thoughts were organized, they began to include the two youngest juniors in the conversation.
“So, just in case, did you two juniors find out anything?”
