小嫂子的味道

I found myself leaning against something as my consciousness rose.

\'Agh! My head is all fuzzy. What happened last time?\'

With that thought in mind, I slowly lifted my eyelids; the light that came suddenly caused my vision to get blurred but the next moment it became normal.

There, I saw Zero. He was sitting on the floor, with his hands at the back working as support for the rest of his body, and I was leaning on his left shoulder.

\'Now I remember what happened.\'

We were in the exam and then those monsters attacked, Ster tried to save me from a wolf but ended up getting surrounded by two of them. Then…Zero suggested we should leave him and make a run for it.

\'It was such an absurd idea. How can he decide to abandon a friend like that?\'

But he was serious about it, the look on his face said everything. I had not seen such an expression before and honestly, it was a little scary. He had a straight look on his face, his eyes seemed cold and indifferent.

Just for that moment, he acted very differently from the Zero I know. Even if he was not my real brother, I\'d been spending some time with him lately and I thought I came to know him…though that doesn\'t seem true to me now.

Still, the idea to leave Ster and save ourselves was bizarre! I mean, I saved him from that orc a moment ago, then how can I leave him to die like that? I tried to oppose his idea but then…..ah my memory of what happened after that is not clear.

No wait, I remember; it\'s not clear but I have bits and pieces of what happened after that. He had tightly clenched my wrist and when I tried I free myself…he stroked me on the neck and then I fell unconscious.

\'Then—! Don\'t tell me he ran away when I was out!?!\'

I quickly looked around and discovered that I was no longer in the forest, instead, this was the same hall I was in before the fourth exam started; one with wooden flooring.

Many other students were also there but it seems like Zero was the only one who is sitting—maybe because he had to hold me when I was not conscious.

I saw the look on the faces of other students; some were frustrated, some were confused, and some had given in to despair.

\'Does that means the exam had been conducted? If so then what about Ster? I can\'t see him anywhere!\'

I turned to Zero, he had noticed that I regained consciousness since I was not making much movement. I took the control of my body and moved a bit far from Zero and sat on my own.

Then he noticed me, this time however he didn\'t have that scary look.

"Oh, you\'re awake I see," he mumbled as he gazed at me.

What does he mean by that? It\'s like he doesn\'t even care about Ster. I appreciate that he helped me out with my marriage thing and all but what he did is not something I can ignore.

​ He has angered me and I can\'t forgive this type of thing.

"What do you mean by \'I see\', huh!?! Where is Ster? In the end, you left him to die, right?" I objected, my tone was a little harsh, and my eyes were narrowed.

He held his chin as if thinking something, and then he said, "Hmm, the exam is over so he should be fine by now. Though you won\'t be able to meet him I guess."

Wha—? His words don\'t make any sense. How can Ster be fine if he\'s already dead? It is not like I am sure that he is dead but Zero avoided my question, which must mean he is hiding something.

I had doubts, it is possible that he is just trying to confuse me here but I am not sure of it.

"You didn\'t give me a direct answer, then should I assume you left him to die after all?" I questioned.

"Ahh, jeez! I said, didn\'t I? I indeed left him there so we can escape but he is not dead," he replied as he stood up. I followed him and rose to my feet.

"That doesn\'t make sense Zero. If you left him there and the possibility of him surviving is slim. You saw that he was surrounded by those wolves, didn\'t you?"

At this point, he let out a long sigh. "Guess I can\'t blame you for thinking like that," he said. "It was I who didn\'t explain to you the hidden rules of this exam."

"Hidden rules?" I repeated, furrowing my brows.

"Yeah, hidden rules. The fourth exam was designed in such a way to make you believe that people die there…but it\'s not the truth. Not a single student died there, even the ones who were killed by the monsters."

Is he for real? His words are contradicting themselves. If the people were killed then how come they can\'t die?

He looked at me, it was like he knew I was not getting any of it. "Don\'t worry, you\'ll understand soon," he said with a firm smile.

***

"Hidden rules?" Anya repeated.

"Yeah, hidden rules. The fourth exam was designed in such a way to make you believe that people die there…but it\'s not the truth. Not a single student died there, even the ones who were killed by the monsters," I said, trying to explain it to her a little.

However, her expression said that she did not understand anything that I said. I honestly can\'t blame her for this.

"Don\'t worry, you\'ll understand soon," I insisted.

It was true though, not a single student died in that exam. All of the killings was an act and the ones to set it up is the academy staff. Now, how do I know of this?

Actually, I was not the only one because finding this fabrication was so simple; there were many clues.

The first one was that none of the students who were killed lost much blood, whenever they were attacked by the monsters only a small amount of blood left the body.

The second one is also related to blood, this one was even simpler. The dead body of anyone who died there disappeared after a while. I noticed it when I saw that student get killed by the orc.

When he died he was cut in half, but he did not lose much blood, and then his body turned into light particles and vanished.

It was then that I realized, the academy never made us sign any contract which stated if we got seriously injured or died taking the entrance exam, the academy won\'t be responsible for it.

Without that kind of form, throwing us into an exam where the students can die will be a big legal problem for the academy, as our parents could then charge them with murder.

Then why did the academy add the concept of death to this exam? It\'s simple, it\'s because it was a survival exam. And if until the students\' lives were in real danger, they won\'t take it seriously. The whole purpose of this exam would have turned into a failure.

That\'s when the idea of faking one\'s death appeared. The plan was to make the students believe that their lives are in danger, that they will die for real if they don\'t take it seriously.

To realize this fake death thing, they made use of the barrier which surrounded the forest. I had my doubts, and that\'s why I went and checked the barrier with my own hands—back when we were on the borderline of the forest.

Then my doubts were confirmed, that the barrier was not only a barrier but also a magic circle. This was purely a hunch on my side; I just remembered that I used to add these barrier-type magic circles in my novel so I thought it might be something similar.

I also don\'t know what kind of magic circle it was as I\'m not well versed in the magic of this world. But one was sure that the academy is playing the whole fake death thing with the help of this circle.

The students who died were supposedly teleported back into the hall and sent home because they failed the exam.

At night when the other student started using each other as meat shields were also a result of this. The students who found this loophole made use of it. It was a thing I more or less expected.

That is why that Ster is also alive but Anya can\'t meet him since he failed the exam.

And that is why I was able to keep myself under control…because I knew the pain and suffering I\'m seeing is fake. Though I am grateful for this, after all, I was able to make both myself and Anya pass the exam without any trouble.