The Retired Supporting Character Wants to Live Quietly

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]

Chapter 81 - Academy's Representative Team Complete (2)

The intelligence evaluation began.

Despite being suddenly thrust into the evaluation, Merilda accepted the test paper with a calm expression.

During our earlier conversation in the headmaster's office, she mentioned that while she hadn't studied much about intelligence, she was eager to give it a try.

"It's like solving puzzles."

Merilda said with a positive look when she learned what intelligence work entailed. She enjoyed puzzles and believed she was good at them.

"Well, it is somewhat similar to puzzles. Let's see how you do. I need to gauge your level to tailor your education accordingly."

"By the way, Dian."

Kirrin suggested after hearing.

"How about pairing Merilda with Knightley for personal tutoring?"

"Personal tutoring?"

"Yes. I heard that you two have a past connection. And both are special students, after all."

Kirrin wasn't wrong, and adding another student to the personal tutoring sessions wouldn't be too difficult.

The issue was Knightley.

Would she accept sharing her personal tutoring sessions with someone new?

But then again, her approval isn't my concern. I never promised to tutor her alone.

Besides, I've been considering bringing Hindrasta into the personal tutoring sessions as well.

Other professors have noted that Hindrasta's academic behavior is far from ideal.

She often skips classes, spending her time in her dormitory or at dessert cafes.

Her participation in classes is poor, but there's one positive aspect: her social relationships.

Lower-ranked students adore Hindrasta, likely because when she first joined the academy as a special student, she beat up some upper-class bullies, sending them all to the infirmary.

To the lower-ranked students, Hindrasta is a savior who appeared out of nowhere to rescue them.

However, that doesn’t mean she sees them as equals.

While the other professors only see the surface, I know the truth.

Hindrasta doesn't care about the lower-ranked students who cling to her.

To them, she might be an idol, but to her, they are insignificant humans.

This is typical of dragons, who generally look down on other races.

Moreover, Hindrasta is quite ignorant of social customs and etiquette.

I saw her eat with her hands at Linus’s house the other day.

Having spent her life as a ruler in the mountains before being exiled and joining the Leblanc Mercenary Corps, all she knows is fighting.

It's unlikely she learned proper manners or common sense among those brutish and unrefined mercenaries.

If she is to eventually join the Imperial Security Office, I need to start teaching her proper behavior now.

Given that her polymorph form won’t wear off for a thousand years—a brief time for a dragon, but an eternity for a human—she needs to learn how to live among humans during that time.

So my current plan was to personally teach the top student and Duke’s daughter, Knightley, and the special student dragon, Hindrasta.

And now Merilda?

It’s not a bad idea, but the real question is whether Merilda can keep up with Knightley and Hindrasta’s levels.

If I include her in personal tutoring just because of our past connection, she might end up struggling and falling behind.

I only remember Merilda from when she was young, so I don’t really know how capable she is now.

Although she graduated at the top of her public academy, which is akin to a regular humanities school in the modern world, she likely hasn’t acquired much knowledge related to the Special Mission Academy.

But with a sharp mind, she should be able to catch up quickly with a little guidance.

For now, I'll observe her performance in this internal evaluation to see where she stands.

And so, the intelligence evaluation, now including Merilda, began.

I had asked the intelligence professor to lower the difficulty slightly for this test.

The intelligence course is almost as challenging as theology or magical engineering, so bringing in real-world examples could easily crush the students’ spirits.

The real-world knowledge needed for the field will be taught and experienced later during new recruit training at the respective organizations.

There’s no need to demoralize the students right now.

Even with the difficulty lowered, the test paper was still tough.

It involved tasks like decoding hidden meanings by comparing arbitrary cipher tables, inferring overall situations from snippets of intercepted conversations, and solving complex passwords made up of intricate shapes and numbers.

It felt like a public sector aptitude test from the modern world, but much harder.

If this is what they consider an "easier" version, I can’t imagine how talented the members of the Imperial 5439th or 6974th Divisions must be.

I hope our students can handle it.

As expected, after a while, sighs and groans began to echo throughout the room.

Everyone seemed to hit a wall.

"Ugh, damn it..."

I turned to see Hindrasta trembling with frustration, her hand gripping her pencil as if she might snap it in half while staring down at her test paper.

That’s understandable. But what about Knightley?

I walked past several desks and stood next to Knightley. She was furrowing her brow, but she was diligently working through the problems.

Honestly, Linus and I were hopeless in this area too.

We preferred the easier method of capturing and forcing demon commanders to confess instead of trying to decipher codes.

As for complicated passwords, we’d just smash the locks or doors. If that didn’t work, we’d call in the legion’s attack magic to clear the area.

Eventually, we’d be left with just the vault or room, which we’d haul back to the rear to dismantle later.

When it came to intercepts, we’d roughly listen and, if it sounded right, we’d storm in, beat the target to a pulp, and drag them back. If they turned out to be innocent, we’d let them go.

Why did anyone engage in suspicious behavior to begin with?

Anyway, that was our approach until the formal Demon King Slayer Task Force was established, and Kaiden joined us. He brought a much-needed expertise in intelligence.

Kaiden was primarily a mage, but his sharp mind made him proficient in this area as well.

Now that I think about it, didn’t I hear he joined some magic tower? The Tower of Illusions, was it? I should visit him sometime.

# # # # #

After the evaluation, I was urgently summoned to the Theoretical Department.

When I arrived, I found the intelligence professor excitedly waving around a test paper.

"Look at this!"

I took the test paper he handed me and first checked the name. It was Merilda's.

The paper was filled with what looked like scribbles, indicating that she had spent considerable time thinking.

"This student—is she the new special student who joined just before the evaluation?"

"Yes. Is there a problem? Considering she’s from a public academy, it wouldn’t be surprising if her score is low..."

"That's not it!"

Even with the test paper in hand, I couldn’t make sense of it.

Seeing my puzzled expression, the intelligence professor snatched the paper back and exclaimed.

"She scored an impressive 40 points! That's the second-highest score in this evaluation!"

The highest score, unsurprisingly, belonged to Knightley, who scored 41 out of 50. Only a one-point difference.

But considering Merilda knew nothing about intelligence, the real gap is likely more than just one point.

"Student Merilda clearly has a natural talent for this field!"

Is that really the case? Did she not just guess correctly?

Or could she have copied Hindrasta’s answers?

But Hindrasta only scored 5 points. What an absurd dragon...

I decided to call Merilda in to explain her reasoning.

Professor Ismera joined us as well.

With a special student performing exceptionally well in a theoretical subject, it made sense for the Head Theoretical Professor to be present.

When Merilda arrived, summoned by an assistant, she looked slightly flustered but smiled as she noticed the group waiting for her.

"Is there a problem with my answers?"

"Student Merilda, could you explain your thought process for this problem?"

Ismera asked, presenting one of the questions from today’s test paper.

The task was to decode a secret document obtained from the enemy. The encryption method was a complex multi-substitution cipher in the imperial common language.

The content read: VOBBR MMNNO NKKUYU TS JIPOO NZLY

"Oh, this one."

Merilda replied calmly.

"It seemed like each letter was substituted with the letter five places ahead, so I shifted everything back by five places to restore the original text."

Using the pencil Ismera handed her, Merilda wrote out the decoded letters on the paper.

"But the resulting words didn’t make sense, so I tried reversing the order. However, it still didn’t form coherent words."

"And then?"

"So I decided to swap the consonants and vowels, and finally, it made sense."

The sentence Merilda wrote was "Infiltration begins at midnight". The correct answer.

But this wasn’t the standard method. Normally, this type of cipher requires knowledge of a codebook and related techniques to solve. How did she figure it out?

This multi-substitution cipher is a high-level encryption method that completely stumps anyone encountering it for the first time.

Back when Linus and I first encountered it, we couldn’t solve it either, so we resorted to throwing the demon commanders off a cliff one by one until one confessed. But Merilda... how did she manage this...?

Could it be... she’s just exceptionally intelligent?

[Translator - Peptobismol]

[Proofreader - Demon God]