Professor Sotra walked into the noisy classroom, a strange expression on his face. He gazed at the students who gradually calmed down after his arrival.
Frederic lifted one of his eyebrows at the unusual behavior of their teacher.
Were the test results that bad? But Professor Sotra would be fuming with rage if that was the case, not stay silent like this.
"Calm down everyone," the professor finally said something, 5 minutes after he entered the classroom.
The students were nervous watching Professor Sotra. But his next words surprised them.
"The exam results this time are... very good."
Cheering echoed in the class, so their professor was just messing with them, they were secretly relieved. Their parents would have killed them if they had flunked this test.
Although..., something still felt off...
One after the other they were called to the front to retrieve their grade and test sheet. Most had a bright smile on their faces when they saw their grade, only few looked frustrated or even frightenly pale.
Frederic carefully observed this process.
This was pretty much the usual grade distribution in their class, including his own and his friends' grades, so why did their professor proclaim that the results were very good this time?
The last person to be called was Januar. His shoulders were slumped as he walked towards Professor Sotra.
This was also the same as usual, Januar always scored the worst in their class, he himself was aware of that fact.
Januar stood in front of Professor Sotra, waiting in shame for his grade to be announced to the whole class, so they would be able to make fun of him again.
'What an embarrassing mistake!' 'That test was so easy, how could anyone flunk it?' 'You must be really stupid to not know the difference between the two!'
He waited for a long time but didn't hear Professor Sotra say anything. Januar slowly looked up from the ground and found that the professor was staring at him. Only when he met the teacher's eyes did the other pass him his grade and exam paper.
Januar was stunned silly, unable to move after seeing his score.
Frederic had a bad feeling as he watched the class loser's reaction.
Another student at the front also noticed this weird behavior and couldn't bear it anylonger. He stood up to see how bad Januar's score had to be for them to act this way, but after only a short glance, the student exclaimed.
"No way!"
Out of 100 points, Januar scored a whopping 75! This was miles better than his usual score! No not miles, the difference was literally heaven and earth! He was even better than the class' average!
After hearing the boy's cry, another student asked: "What's the matter? Is his result so bad?"
Receiving no answer from the baffled boy another student stoop up to look at the results.
"75! It's actually 75 points!"
The class became noisy in an instant, most of them accusing Januar of cheating in disbelief. Even Frederic's face had darkened considerably, Leopold who noticed this loudly shouted.
"Professor, he must have cheated! There's no way he scored so high through fair means when his usual results are this terrible!"
Frederic looked at his foolish friend, who soon got retribution for his idiotic words.
Professor Sotra frowned after hearing Leopold's bold claim.
"Mr. Raster, if I was in your shoes, I wouldn't accuse someone else of cheating and hope for them to be punished."
Leopold grew pale hearing the Professor's words.
Frederic shook his head lightly, he was asking for it.
But something else caught his attention in the professor's reprimand, he was clearly implying that Januar didn't cheat. If that was truly the case, Frederic had some investigating to do...
Professor Sotra coughed, the class calmed down again.
"You can return to your seat now."
Januar was startled and immediately rushed back to his table. But continued to stare at his exam paper.
The teacher started his lesson, but no one was really paying attention. Professor Sotra understood their current worries and didn't blame them for being inattentive. It was enough if they returned to their senses by tomorrow.
The professor concluded his lesson with a sigh and left.
Next was PE.
This was the favorite subject of many students. But now that they thought about it, didn't Januar also have some improvements in this direction?
A few students looked at Januar, noticing for the first time that he indeed looked a bit slimmer than still a month ago.
They felt strange at their discovery and paid closer attention to him during PE.
Frederic also belonged to this faction, but his observations were often interrupted by Professor Bellator praising Leopold and Sophie's talent in wielding weapons and taking advantage of their 'Card Ability'.
Leopold using his 'Gauntlets of Stainless Steel' to block attacks effectively while remaining on the offensive with the axe in his other hand. While Sophie used the special ability of her 'Broken Shackles' to gain a slight speed and damage buff during continuous attacks.
It was obvious that the both them wanted to impress Frederic with their display, but he was just annoyed at being interrupted all the time.
"What's wrong, Fred? You don't look so good, is it because of that cheating trash? Should I teach him a lesson later?" Leopold asked enthusiastically, apparently he had already forgotten Professor Sotra's warning.
Frederic shook his head absentmindedly. If something even close to a beating should occur, Frederic had to come up with the plan himself anyway.
Sophie also saw Frederic's absent expression while he looked at Januar. Suspicion rose in her heart.
She walked up to Professor Bellator who already instructed another pair of students.
"Professor, I've noticed that Januar hasn't sparred with anyone until now, wouldn't it be dangerous for him to stay this way?" Sophie asked with an innocent voice.
The PE teacher reacted to the girl's words by glancing in Januar's direction. He hadn't paid too much attention on Januar's training the last few weeks, only occassionally observing for a minute and determining by how much he would increase his grade.
Now, he discovered that Januar barely scraped the requirements for combat training.
"You're right, I'll have him choose a weapon later."
Sophie smiled with a glint in her eyes.
Thank you for the chapter.