Meil kissed someone. Meil... kissed someone. Well, got kissed by someone, but same thing really. There's no such thing as a difference between the two. It's kind of like killing and getting killed. At the end of the day, one of you is still dead. Wait, that analogy doesn't work. Then maybe... Like hugging and getting hugged! Right, it's exactly that!
"Hey, hey, what's it feel like to kiss?" I poked him on the cheek as he was discussing the mock exam with the Librarian guy.
"Hrm...!" He gruntled a bit as he tried to ignore my question, "As I was saying, Javi, the real exam should be on Sunday, so I really am thankful for you supplying us with a copy of the latest one."
"What's this about kissing, little lady?" Librarian guy's interest was thoroughly piqued, "Meil, she's asking you a question, so why don't you answer it?"
"Javi, I will cut your pay for this if you continue the jeers." Meil got serious.
"But didn't you say you'd answer any and all questions she had once she enrolled?" Librarian guy put his hands under his chin as he donned a smug look.
You go, Librarian guy! See, this is how you climb the ranks on my favorability scale, and this guy absolutely gets it! Take note, Meil's other friends, because you've still got a long ways to go.
"Tch! You are enjoying this...!" Meil finally caved, clearing his throat as he turned around to face me, "It was bloody and smelled like gunpowder. There, happy now?"
"Don't give me that crap!" I couldn't accept that answer, "Be honest! Everyone says it tastes like lemons and other sweet and sour things, so stop lying and tell me for real!"
"I did tell you for real, so now you need to focus on memorizing the mock exams here before the real test comes." He rolled his eyes, "Just remember this, if you fail this first step, I am sending you straight back to your family."
"Whaaaat~? That wasn't part of the contract! You said we'd live happily ever after together in University once I turn old enough to enroll!"
"Still, that does not excuse you from putting all of your parents' hard earned money to waste." He turned around, "Good luck on this mock exam. I hope you studied for this."
Ugh, damn mom and uncle, I'll never forgive them for this! Had they not chosen to butt in like this, then things would've been way more smooth sailing with Meil than they are now! They're not only ruining my chances with University, but they're ruining my chances with my love life, dammit!
"Hey, I got an idea." Librarian guy sucked the life out of the juice he was drinking from his straw, "Since you're so opposed to the idea, how about we make things a bit more interesting."
"What are you plotting now, Javi?" Meil sighed, but was still inclined to hear him out.
"It's just a simple wager." He smiled, "If mademoiselle here passes the mock exam, you have to do whatever one thing she asks of you."
"Bet!" I hit the table hard as I raced to ace the exam.
"Hold it!" Meil stopped me before I got too ahead of myself, "A wager is one thing, but I have no merit to accepting this. There has to be something in it for me if she fails."
"You're doubting me?" I glared back at him, only for him to counter with the harsh truth.
"Right now, I have no reason to doubt nor believe in you. What do you think this mock exam is for even?"
"Urk, fine then..." I thought up a simple reward for him as well, "If I fail, I have to do the same. I have to do any one thing you wish."
"Alright, timer starts now, then." He tapped on the table, "My internal clock is perfectly correct to the third decimal, so when I say "Stop", just know it's been an hour and a half."
"Fueh!? A-Alright! I'll do my best!" I fumbled around to write my name on the paper, "There we go! First question - What is the formula for a cube's Area? Easy peasy, it's 6*a²!"
"Well, at least we know you aren't all talk." Librarian guy chuckled, "But you know, you don't have to verbalize your thoughts, since this is technically a practice for the real exam. You can't even cough or sneeze for the duration of that one."
"Eh, really!?" I jolted, "But what if I...!"
"Shh." Meil refused to take his eyes away from the test as he gestured for me to shut up, "The time is ticking, and you still have 99 more questions left."
"A-Ah, right! I really should take this seriously, huh?" I then mumbled under my breath, "Oh ho ho~! The things I'll make you do when I pass...!"
He most probably heard me, but he didn't react to that statement one bit. A part of me was mad at him for that, because in my eyes that just means he's confident I won't make it, but on the other hand, he might only be keeping quiet so as not to potentially distract me. Heh, him, mom, uncle, they'll all see! They'll see just how well-prepared I am for this school! I'll climb the ranks, reach Onum, and Meil will be so impressed, he'll be right in the palm of my hands! Muahahahaha!
***
The next couple of questions were just as easy as the first one. Mostly just theory - stuff like how logical ones and zeroes work, venn diagrams, and a fuckton of formulas. It's simple stuff, and the questions are super short, so it honestly made me feel like I was gonna finish it before we even reached the fifteen minute mark. That's when the next batch of questions came in...
"Huh?" I glanced up at these two with a semi-worried look on my face, "H-Heh, I don't remember really focusing on this part, ha-ha..."
"Don't know the answer?" Librarian guy gave me a pretty helpful tip, "Just mark it down for now and skip it. Once you're all done with the questions you know, you can come back to the ones you're stumped on."
"Javi, I thought we agreed not to help her during the exam." Meil furrowed his brows at him.
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"And I thought you said you weren't gonna talk during the exam either, yet here you are." Librarian guy then smiled at me, "She's only just turned thirteen. Still a little girl as far as I'm concerned, so shouldn't we as adults guide her with as much tips as we can cram in while we have the chance? Learning from your more experienced peers is the best study method, after all."
"Mn!" I nodded with a newfound motivation, "Thank you!"
Flipping to the next page, then the next, and then the next... Oh, no more pages. But hold on a second, that means I only knew 15 out of the 100 questions? No, that can't be, maybe I didn't read them properly? Going back to the start and checking the questions again, I had now already spent a good half hour just blankly staring at the pieces of paper, as they too blankly stared back. A passing mark for the exam is 72 percent, so that means that I'm still... 57 points shy!? What the-!? That's like over half the entire test!
"Shit..." I mumbled, now finally fearing for my life.
"Swearing would get you kicked out immediately, even if you got every question right, Nelly." Meil offhandedly mentioned.
"Who cares!?" I once again checked the unanswered questions, "If I fail now, everything will be gone! My entire plot, my entire motivation, my life! It'll all go to shit if I don't get this right!"
"Mademoiselle, I think your best bet right now would be to calm down." Librarian guy gently put his hand over my free hand, "What usually helps me a lot when I'm under stress is to just let go of the pen, close my eyes, and take a deep breath."
Doing as he explained, I noticed my heart rate went down a bit from it's previously frantic state. Soon after that, I had recalled an important formula required to solve question #54. I was super happy, and I guess his tip really worked, because soon after that, the answers kept coming to me one by one until I had done a sizeable part of the test.
"Alright! I think I'm almost done!" I smiled as I turned the papers back around to the first page and started calculating how many questions I had done.
"What are you doing?" Meil then stopped to advise me, "By the time you count all that, at the rate you're counting, you will have lost 2 minutes and 16 seconds. That is of course if we assume all of the questions you answered are actually right in the first place."
"Yeah, but I just wanna...!"
"Make sure?" He raised an eyebrow as he finished my sentence, "You only have around 10 more minutes until the time is up, so do you really want to waste almost a quarter of the remaining time?"
"He's not saying this to harm your progress." Librarian guy reassured me, "Everything he's been saying is prime advice that only a small handful of the upper ranks know of. This is basically the point where we differentiate the scholars from the wannabes."
"Right, but with how long we've been talking, we've already wasted a whole minute." I noted.
"That's your problem, not ours." Meil and Librarian guy both put on shit eating grins as they reclined in their seats.
"Damned scholars...!" I cursed them as I continued doing the remaining questions.
There we go. The exam was finished, and just in time, no less. I was pretty confident in my answers, and I was pretty sure I did more than 72 questions all in all, so there was a pretty realistic chance of me passing the exam. Now all that was left was to wait for these two to...
"Done." Meil handed me back a corrected test sheet, "Out of the 100 questions, you Nelly Grimheart, have answered 75 correctly. With how you were acting at the start, I am pretty satisfied with the results."
"Eh?" I donned a flustered yet confused smile, "Y-You already graded it?"
"I finished my entrance exam in 10 minutes, so it is only natural that grading one would take but a fraction of that time." He humbly bragged, but I was too ecstatic to care.
"And I passed!?" I was so happy I almost hugged him right then and there.
"No."
"H-Huh?"
"You certainly did correctly answer 75 questions, but you are forgetting that every wrong answer deducts a point as well." Meil then stated, "You left 20 questions unanswered instead of guessing them, though you answered five questions incorrectly, meaning your final score is 70 points."
"W-What?" I could feel my world shattering as I spoke, my voice barely even strong enough to handle talking, "I-I was... 2 points shy? I-I... I fail?"
"Yes, Nelly." Meil got up to leave the coffee shop, "You fail, and you know what that means."
I-I'm done for. Meil is gonna send me back home now. I'm gonna get mocked by my family there too. I won't get to climb the ranks of University, I won't achieve success, fame or wealth. More importantly... I'll lose this precious time with Meil. Huh? Tears? Heh, makes sense, a damned stupid, slutty succubus like me wouldn't have gotten far in this place anyways, so why in the world did I even think I'd do good? I'm a failure, and that's that.
"You failed, that means you have to do one thing I ask of you." Meil smiled, "Nelly Grimheart, my wish is for you to take this preparation phase seriously from now on."
"Huh?" I glanced back at him and Javi chuckling, "Y-You're, sob, n-not gonna send me back to my Family?"
"Were you anyone else in the world, I would." Meil then grabbed me by the shoulders, hugging me tightly as petted my head, "But you are not someone who is unworthy of enrolling, and your test results best showcase this. If you focus on my teachings and let go of your pride, then I am certain that you, Nelly, will without a doubt make the entire University remember your name."
M-Meil! He's giving me one more chance, even after all this? Heh, this guy, he's too forgiving for his own good... Well, I guess this served as my wake up call. I wonder if these two knew I'd fail the test, so they set up this wager on purpose. Not that I care though. The real exam is this Sunday, so I should give my all to properly get tutored by Meil from now on. Next time, I definitely won't fail!