Release that Witch

Three days later, Evelyn got her grades for the final exam.

She scored an amazing 113 points out of 150. This was a very high score, judging from her usual standards.

Since Scroll accompanied His Majesty Roland to the Longsong Area for inspection work, Sister Wendy was the one who told her about the results. She even patted Evelyn on her shoulder and said encouragingly, ”Good work. Her Highness Tilly would be very happy when she gets to know about this. Keep up the great work.”

”I’ll continue to work hard!” Evelyn nodded firmly and turned round to look for Candle. ”How many points did you get?”

”91 points, which is still a pass,” Candle answered, ”Looking at your happy expression, you must have done very well on the test.”

”Um!” Evelyn blurted. ”113!”

”Really? This score is probably close to Lucia’s!” Candle said excitedly, ”Would you like me to find out?”

”I don’t think so. They must have done better.” Evelyn waved her hand. ”I only want to know Maggie’s result.”

”Perhaps my next goal could be replaced by Lily or Lucia,” she thought. She was aware her ability was indeed very bad, but she was born like that which was unchangeable. Learning, however, was something that could improve with efforts. Even ordinary people could excel in learning, and hence she did not want to lose to anyone.

She also wanted to be a learned and talented person like His Majesty Roland.

After class, Evelyn found Maggie, but Maggie’s reply was unbelievable. ”Cuckoo—I scored 117!”

How could this be possible?

She stood there motionlessly for a long time, feeling incredulous even after Maggie left.

”How could this be? Scroll must have made a mistake in her results.” For a moment, Evelyn thought she heard her own voice. She blinked, only to realize that the one who had spoken was Mystery Moon. She happened to hear the conversation and had a similar puzzled look on her face.

”What’s so strange about that?” Lily stared at Mystery Moon. ”Don’t doubt the ability of others, just because you fared poorly.”

”But I was sitting right in front of her.” Mystery Moon tried to justify herself. ”When I collected the test, I saw that she drew honey jerky all over the blank paper.”

”Are you sure?” Lily frowned.

”I swear on my electromagnetic force!”

”Hah... that’s not in the least bit convincing at all.” Lily shrugged and prepared to leave, but was pulled back by Mystery Moon.

”Wait a minute, what I said was all true! Maybe we should investigate.”

”I’m not interested.” Lily snarled. ”If you have any doubts, you can check with Scroll when she comes back.”

”That would defeat the whole purpose of exploring, ah,” said Mystery Moon with an expression of mischief. ”Evelyn, let’s help you to find out the truth!”

”Don’t count me in!”

”What happened?” Candle called out.

Evelyn hesitated and then revealed her confused thoughts.

”Hmm... what would you do if you wanted to investigate?” Candle touched Evelyn’s head and said, ”It takes a few days for Teacher Scroll to return, right?”

”Now that both His Majesty and Nightingale are away, don’t think that I’ll allow you to sneak into the office.” Lily glared at Mystery Moon. ”Don’t think I’m unaware of what you plan to do.”

”Steal the tests? I’m not that stupid.” Mystery Moon shook her fingers. ”I just want to find out where Scroll marks the tests.”

”You mean...” Candle’s eyes lit up.

”We just need to call Summer.” She smirked.

Evelyn instantly understood Mystery Moon’s plan. Summer could replay the illusion where Scroll was scoring the test for Maggie, and the mystery would be solved. ”But... Teacher Scroll usually does so at City Hall. Won’t it be inappropriate for us to be there?”

”What’s wrong with that? In the city of Neverwinter, everyone can easily access City Hall, so there’s no reason why we can’t go.” Mystery Moon shouted. ”It’s not His Majesty’s office, so I think some people should stop worrying unnecessarily.”

”I have to remind you,” said Lily, ”Most people only have access to the lobby of City Hall. The office of the Ministry of Education is on the second floor. Do you think those officials will let us enter?”

”Well, this...” Mystery Moon was at a loss for words.

”In that case, let’s forget about it,” Evelyn said. She did not want to bother the others. ”I’ll wait for a few more days.”

”No, I have a way around it.” Candle pondered as she touched her chin.

...

Candle’s method was very simple, which was to involve Nana. According to her plan, since Summer would already be involved, it would not matter if they called another person as well.

And as it turned out, this method did work.

Evelyn was amazed by Nana Pine’s popularity. As soon as Nana entered City Hall the next day, she was greeted warmly and stopped by no one. This was probably due to the popular image of the little angel, or the fact that her father was a well-known noble in the Border Area who had been personally praised by His Majesty. Anyway, she entered the office of the Ministry of Education effortlessly.

There was no one in the room.

Few teachers would come here unless there was a meeting.

”We’re in!” Mystery Moon said excitedly, ”Let’s start backtracking!”

”Are you sure... this is alright?” Summer was a little hesitant. ”Only officials are allowed to be here.”

”Officials are no different from us. Hummingbird is even the vice minister of the Ministry of Construction,” Mystery Moon patted her chest and said, ”Don’t worry, as long as we don’t say anything, Scroll would certainly not mind that we visited her office.”

”If I find out that you’re lying, I promise I’ll tell Scroll,” Lily said coldly.

”I thought you said you weren’t coming?”

”Hmm... I, I’m here to supervise you and prevent you from making a big mistake, got it?”

Looking at the both of them arguing, Evelyn suddenly felt that her decision might be a mistake.

Finally, Candle managed to persuade Summer. When the illusion appeared in the office, everyone held their breath.

It was pretty clear that the exact time when Scroll marked the papers had to be the day after the exam and before she left for Longsong Stronghold. Summer quickly found the exact scene with a quick flashback.

Everyone quickly squeezed behind ”Scroll”.

As long as the time had not lapsed for too long, Summer would be able to maintain the illusion for 30 minutes. Soon after, Evelyn saw Maggie’s paper.

”Look, I wasn’t lying!” Mystery Moon shouted.

”...” Lily could not help but frown.

There was indeed a large amount of blank space on the paper. Other than the easier fill-in-the-blank questions plus the question-and-answer type of questions in front, almost no words were included in the calculation section. Some of the items even had drawings of roasted meat underneath them. Even ”Scroll” was shaking her head unwittingly.

It was very clear that this test could not have attained a score of 117.

”Could it be possible that Maggie was lying?” Evelyn thought.