Although in the original game a professor had only mentioned that Veronica, the Saintess of the Holy Church of Light, headed straight to the grading room after arriving at the Magic Tower, there were never any actual scenes showing her inside.
This made it impossible for Greg to know the exact situation inside. The only thing he could be certain of was that he had done his absolute best in what he needed to do.
Not only had he copied the crystallized wisdom born from countless discussions and verifications in the player community word for word, but he had also held his handwriting to the strict standards of his past life's exam-oriented education.
He believed that anyone who laid eyes on his paper would be instantly captivated.
After all, that pleasing sense of neatness was a silent bonus in itself.
Of course, Greg didn't entirely expect a single brilliant paper to make Veronica take the initiative to contact him.
Performing so exceptionally in the preliminary defense was merely laying the groundwork.
His real trump card lay in the secondary defense.
During that phase, Veronica would openly sit in the defense hall to observe, allowing him to showcase his abilities more directly.
He was confident that two consecutive outstanding performances would surely draw her to seek him out.
“Sigh, I really don't know if I can pass the preliminary defense. It's all Greg's fault!”
Victoria, who was eating nearby, suddenly put down her spoon and complained.
Greg retorted helplessly, “Wait, what does your passing the preliminary defense have to do with me?”
Since conversations with Rom and Corwin always somehow devolved into romance talk, Greg had used the excuse of “I'm going to spend time with the girl I like” to break away from his roommates as soon as he saw Victoria and Silvia walking out of the hall.
And so, he had naturally joined Victoria and Silvia for lunch.
Victoria said resentfully:
“It's because you drag me into the lab every day to do that kind of thing! It forces me to spend so much time washing my body after I get back to the dorm every night, leaving me with way less time to study!”
Hearing this, Silvia's spoon slipped from her hand and clattered onto her plate with a sharp ring.
Her cheeks instantly flushed bright red, and her voice trembled noticeably: “Eh... Eh?! You... you two have already done that kind of thing?!”
Greg immediately reacted: “You gray-haired brat, what kind of suggestive nonsense are you spouting?!”
He quickly turned to Silvia to explain: “No, Silvia, you've misunderstood! Victoria didn't mean what you think she meant!”
Victoria looked at the two of them blankly, completely failing to understand why they were so worked up:
“Misunderstood what? Didn't you drag me into the lab, which constantly got me caught in explosions, leaving me covered in dust and potion residue that takes forever to wash off?”
Hearing this, Silvia finally realized she had indeed misunderstood.
Her face turned even redder, but this time out of sheer embarrassment.
She lowered her head, wishing she could bury her face in her plate, inwardly scolding herself for being a shameless girl to let her mind wander to such things.
Victoria, meanwhile, kept pressing: “Where exactly was my wording misleading?”
Greg and Silvia remained silent in unison, neither of them answering her question.
After finishing their meal, the three of them prepared to leave the dining hall.
As they reached the exit, they suddenly heard discordant voices. It sounded like someone was badmouthing Greg.
Turning their heads, the three of them saw the three noble girls who had previously cornered Victoria on the airship.
They were sitting near the exit, intentionally raising their voices as if they were afraid passersby wouldn't hear them.
“Hmph, that Greg Sass looks decent enough on the surface, but he's actually just a piece of trash kicked out by his family! Those achievements being passed around the academy must be fabricated!”
“Exactly! Who knows how someone like him sneaked into the representative team. He must have used his body!”
“And I heard he often bullies underclassmen at school, acting completely lawless just because he has a bit of skill—”
Greg had originally wanted to maintain his character persona and ignore them for now, planning to settle the score once they returned to the academy. However, Victoria suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Victoria knew that the only reason these girls were badmouthing Greg was because he had stood up for her and shut them down before. Nursing a grudge, they were now spreading these rumors behind his back.
While she considered herself to dislike Greg quite a bit—since he constantly provoked her and never spoke seriously—
compared to that, she now hated hearing anyone other than herself speak ill of him even more.
Without any hesitation, Victoria strode right over. Greg didn't even have time to stop her.
“Hey, you guys.”
Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried an imposing aura that could not be ignored: “Are you quite finished?”
The three noble girls turned around. Seeing it was Victoria, their expressions shifted from initial surprise to disdain and mockery.
“Oh, look who it is. Just that commoner.”
“What, does it hurt your feelings to hear us talk about that trash?”
Ignoring their sarcasm, Victoria stared straight at the leading girl and said, word by word:
“The way you talk behind people's backs is truly ugly. It's not your place to judge what kind of person Greg is. If you're not satisfied, you are more than welcome to defeat him fair and square in the exchange, instead of buzzing around here like flies.”
The leading girl's face flushed red and white at her words. Gritting her teeth, she retorted:
“Y-You're just a commoner! What right do you have to lecture us!”
“What about commoners?”
Victoria stood her ground, refusing to back down:
“At least I didn't rely on family connections to sneak into the representative team only to gossip behind people's backs. If you have the free time to speak ill of others here, you'd better spend it reviewing the preliminary defense material—though, with your level, I doubt you'll even make it to the secondary defense.”
“You—!”
The three noble girls were choked up, their faces turning from blue to white at Victoria's sharp remarks.
They fell silent for a moment, exchanging looks, before the leading girl suddenly sneered and changed her tone:
“Oh~ I see. You're defending him so fiercely... could it be because the two of you are already sleeping together?”
Another girl chimed in immediately, her voice sharp and biting:
“No wonder a commoner could become a representative and get so close to him. So you used those kinds of methods. Tsk tsk, who would have thought? You look so proper on the surface, but you're quite the schemer behind closed doors.”
The third girl echoed, her contemptuous gaze sweeping over Victoria:
“Exactly. Who knows what kind of dirty under-the-table deals you made in private to get him to look after you like this.”
Victoria's brow furrowed, and she was about to snap, but before she could speak, a pink figure stepped forward ahead of her.
“Please stop!”
Silvia's voice trembled slightly, but her tone was exceptionally firm.
Standing beside Victoria, she clenched her fists, a rare anger burning in her pink eyes:
“Victoria and Senior Greg are not the kind of people you say they are! Please apologize immediately!”
The three girls were taken aback, then immediately turned their spearheads toward Silvia.
“Oh, another one defending them.”
“What, are you one of his little lovers too?”
“Or do you want to join their little world and make it a love triangle?”
They expected Silvia to fire back angrily like Victoria had—but to their surprise, Silvia's cheeks flushed crimson at a speed visible to the naked eye.
She opened her mouth but failed to utter a single word of rebuttal. Instead, she lowered her head, her fingers twisting together nervously, as she cast a fleeting, evasive glance in Greg's direction before quickly looking away.
Greg: “...”
“Um... Silvia, aren't you just confirming their slander by acting like that?”
Just as Greg was considering whether he should risk his reputation and take action to suppress them, a petite figure suddenly joined the fray.
Rate on N.U.
