On My First Day Undercover, the Organization Collapsed - Chapter 436

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

First Day of Infiltration, The Organization Was Destroyed Chapter 436
The Transfer Exam Storm (4)
Joshua’s plan was this.
A few days prior.
Telvir Academy.
“Joshua. I have a task for you.”
“Chancellor, please tell me.”
“Apply for the transfer exam to Edelwein Academy.”
“Pardon?”
At the unexpected order, Joshua’s eyes went wide.
“Me, sir?”
“Yes.”
“But why……?”
“Because then we won’t lose it next time.”
“……What do you mean, sir?”
Sigmund Valentin, Chancellor of Telvir Academy, exhaled a long sigh.
“If we can’t stop it anyway, you need to go see how the exam is conducted, what the atmosphere is like, and what else there might be. That way we can apply the same improvements to our own academy.”
“But sir, if I apply, there’s bound to be considerable risk……”
“That’s precisely why you must go. You’ll naturally pass, and after passing, you’ll gracefully decline and come back.”
In other words.
A spy.
“So you’re asking me to infiltrate the academy, sir.”
Joshua’s eyes gleamed.
His heart quickened.
“This is a mission, then!”
“W-well, not something quite so grand……”
“In any case, I go and take the exam under the pretense of applying for transfer, and at the very end I gracefully decline the admission and leave, yes?”
“That’s right. And gather as much information as you can related to the transfer exam. You understand what I mean, don’t you?”
“Of course, Chancellor.”
“Our academy needs to change too. Find out what equipment they use, what curriculum they follow…… In short, learn everything you can.”
And then came the line that made his heart race most of all.
“And Joshua.”
“Yes, Chancellor.”
“This conversation never officially happened.”
“……!”
That line from spy novels!
Joshua added his own response without hesitation.
“What conversation did we have, sir?”
And now, back in the present.
Joshua was filled with regret.
‘What glory was I hoping to gain?’
And right as he was exhausted, the second round exam was upon him.
The applicants who had moved back to the Auditorium could hardly conceal their tension.
Their opponent, after all.
Was Ziel Steelheart, whose depth of strength remained unknowable.
Were they really about to spar with him—they who were mere fledglings?
“Brother, you’re done for now.”
Celia’s whisper as she passed froze Joshua’s blood.
He’d suffered through the first round already.
Lucky that he’d escaped; had he chosen the wrong path at the end, he and his friends would have been eliminated en masse!
With things already looking grim, the second round was to spar with the Empire’s hero!
“……”
If he failed, he’d be laughed at.
But he couldn’t guarantee he’d pass either.
He’d come with a light heart, thinking ‘someone like me, what does it matter’……
‘I’m truly done for.’
Just as he moved toward the Auditorium.
“I will now announce the rankings from the first exam.”
The names were called from the lowest ranks upward.
“Those ranked eleventh and below whom I just called will be eliminated immediately if you allow me three or more successful attacks during your sparring match.”
The reaction was split when they heard “three attempts.”
“Three attempts? That’s doable, isn’t it?”
“Three… I mean, three attempts should be manageable, right?”
The responses leaned toward possibility.
“…But if we have to endure for the whole time limit, I don’t think we can do it.”
“How are we supposed to dodge or block attacks from a Master-level opponent?”
The other camp saw it as hopeless.
“Next, I’ll call the names starting from tenth rank. Those called will have four attempts.”
At least tenth rank and below got bumped up to four attempts, though it still looked much the same.
But that was when it happened.
“Students ranked first through tenth demonstrated remarkable performance in the first exam. In particular, Joshuah Rihart, ranked first, displayed exceptional Leadership and Situation Judgment.”
Every eye snapped to attention in an instant.
Joshua’s heart suddenly raced.
‘I was praised?’
Praised by the very hero of the Empire, no less!
“Should you wish to know the reasons behind the other rankings, inquire after the second exam concludes. That said, we begin the test.”
The warmth of that moment was brief.
Yet its echo lingered deep within him.
‘I was praised…’
Ziel Steelheart.
The idol of boys his age.
A young man.
Striking looks.
Swordsmanship that defied logic.
Strength wrapped in mystery.
And the rumor that he’d actually challenged His Majesty the Emperor to a sparring match had spread far and wide.
Such a man could hardly be called anything but fearless.
‘One day, I will too.’
Joshua’s shoulder was nudged by a friend, breaking his vacant stare at Ziel.
“What are you doing?”
“Huh? Oh. Nothing.”
“If you actually pass the second exam, what are you going to do?”
“…”
Joshua fell silent—different from before.
‘What do I do, really?’
He’d imagined walking away from the transfer with style…
But thinking about it now, accepting the transfer didn’t seem so bad.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Joshua shook his head.
‘Get a hold of yourself. You can’t betray them.’
Passing was already a challenge, but right now, he was here as a spy.
And as a spy, it was only natural to carry out his mission!
“The second exam will now begin.”
And so the second exam started, and then…
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
In Ziel’s hand was a single short rod.
It was shorter and thinner than a typical Short Sword.
“One additional announcement: if you manage to block my attacks well enough to scratch this rod, you pass the transfer exam.”
“…!”
The chances had multiplied several times over.
Just a scratch?
‘If I just manage to block it… surely that’s possible?’
No matter how much of a hero of the Empire he was, it was just a wooden rod. Unless it was the Ether River disguised as a wooden rod, it was only natural that it would get scratched!
“They’re holding onto false hope, aren’t they?”
“They sure are.”
But the Third Years knew better.
While Teacher Ziel had certainly shown mercy with that condition, the reality was that almost no applicant would actually achieve it.
How did they know?
“Didn’t Teacher’s Practice Sword stay completely intact even when we wielded real swords against it?”
“It did. These guys are in for a shock.”
I’ve been through it before, after all!
It was a pattern, if anything.
It seemed like the kind of condition that might work out somehow, but when you actually faced it, it didn’t.
“I blocked it!”
The proof came immediately.
The first applicant to step forward blocked the sword that Ziel had tossed lightly—but then.
“Wait, I blocked it?”
His sword snapped in two.
Against a wooden rod.
“The mana infused in that sword is far too weak. Come back with a new one.”
…….
He cut a sword with a wooden stick?
Everyone stared blankly at a sight they’d never heard of, let alone seen.
“Could it be magic?”
It was a reasonable guess.
But it was neither magic nor anything of the sort.
Celia muttered under her breath.
“He’s just absurdly strong.”
That was simply all it was.
Even if you clashed with an equally sharp sword, when blade meets blade, nicks and broken edges are inevitable.
Yet whatever Ziel held in his hand—whether sword, rod, or stone—bore not a single scratch.
Everyone understood the reason: mana.
They understood it, but they couldn’t replicate it.
“Rank twenty, Toby Recon. Eliminated.”
“Aaaagh!”
Dropouts began cascading forth.
From twentieth down to eleventh place—it happened in a blink.
Then came tenth, ninth, and eighth as well, all eliminated.
Every last one of them failed to evade Ziel’s attacks even once during the allotted time.
“At this rate, no one’s going to transfer in at all, are they?”
“The standards really are brutal…….”
The remaining applicants trembled in fear, while some of the existing students began to harbor doubts.
Yurio especially.
“Why only evade? Karen, doesn’t this strike you as strange?”
The moment the teacher laid down the rod and presented additional conditions, it was tantamount to providing a separate hint.
Simply evading alone wouldn’t pass this exam.
They had to attack.
“You think so too, Yurio? Even I see something off about this. Nobody’s working up the courage to attack.”
And for good reason.
To the enrolled students, Ziel was less a hero than their supervising teacher, and they’d learned their lessons well over time.
For the transfer applicants, by contrast, Ziel loomed so impossibly high that even gazing upon him felt audacious.
Yet exceptions always existed.
A student who’d ranked second in the first exam stepped forward.
“Roxana, was it?”
At Celia’s murmur, Delev beside her echoed the name as a question.
“Roxana?”
“Roxana Drneur. She’s the eldest daughter of quite a renowned house in the South.”
“……You know that kind of thing?”
“Why don’t you? And more importantly—how long have you been standing next to me?”
House Drneur.
A family that had only recently begun appearing in social circles.
Or more precisely, it was Roxana Drneur’s entrance into those circles that stirred considerable talk.
The reason was simple enough.
“……Anyway, that house seems anything but ordinary.”
“Why?”
“There’s rampant rumor that they control the underworld of the South.”
That was the very nature of House Drneur’s operations.
The South.
Even in that place where abundant, warm sunlight poured down, back alleys existed, and people made their lives within those shadowed passages.
The house that ruled over that ecology—commonly called the underworld.
That was the Drneur Noble Family.
Their eldest daughter was Roxana, who had just stepped forward.
While everyone’s gaze was drawn to her black hair with a faint green tint, Delev found himself muttering without thinking.
“She’s beautiful.”
“What did you say?”
“I said she was… beautiful?”
“Beautiful?”
“……Or is she not?”
He wasn’t actually asking if she was truly beautiful, but there was no way Delev could have grasped the subtext.
“All right, let’s begin.”
And at that very moment.
Roxana approached the exam in a manner entirely unlike the other students!
Tap!
She launched herself forward, and the instant the test commenced, she charged straight at Ziel.
“Excellent.”
Ziel offered praise for the first time in the Second Round examination.
Until now, he had merely matched his attacks to his opponent’s level and declared them eliminated.
But now he had encountered the first student to launch a preemptive strike.
Clang!
Though the wooden rod and sword clearly struck each other, the sound that rang out was as though metal had collided with metal. This, too, was the first time such a sound had echoed.
“You channel your mana well, Roxana Drneur.”
“But I’m just getting started?”
With a faint smile playing at her lips, Roxana pressed her attack on Ziel once more.
Ziel, in turn, raised the wooden rod to block rather than quickening his pace—
“Hah!”
He unleashed a thrust so swift that Roxana’s breath caught.
Of course, he had tempered his speed to an appropriate level.
“You couldn’t evade that.”
The rod struck Roxana squarely on the shoulder.
Had he infused it with mana, the blow would have bored a hole clean through.
Yet Roxana merely chuckled, lowered her sword for a moment, grasped her struck shoulder with her opposite hand, and gave it a sharp twist—
Crack.
She popped the dislocated shoulder back into place.
“…….”
“……Damn, did you see that?”
She then seized her sword once more and grinned wickedly.
“That’s impressive. If I pass the transfer exam, will you teach me that too?”
“If you pass, you’ll learn far more than that.”
There was someone who had responded to Roxana’s fiery spirit and unflinching composure.
“That’s cool.”
It was Quantus.
Quantus preferred things simple, clean, and spirited.
“I hope she passes the transfer exam…….”
Time was slipping away.
Each candidate was allotted one minute.
One round had been spent, leaving three remaining.
Thud!
“Ugh.”
Quick as thought, the end of Ziel’s wooden rod struck Roxana’s thigh.
This was no mere numbness. It was a powerful blow—the kind that would bloom into vivid bruising within hours.
“Two rounds left, Roxana Drneur.”
Yet Roxana only pressed her assault harder.
If she gave him an opening and let her opponent gain space to attack, far more blows would rain down.
So there was only one thing to do—keep attacking!
‘A tactical mind.’
Ziel nodded inwardly at her approach, and he foresaw one possible future.
Whoosh!
This time, Roxana barely managed to slip the attack!
“Isn’t this a first?”
“This is no joke?”
She allowed one more hit as the barrage continued, but time was nearly exhausted.
Then Ziel’s attack came flying at her.
It was nearly the last.
The same speed and power as before—unchanged!
Roxana sensed it instinctively.
‘I can’t stop this.’
But as this was the final blow, she raised her sword to meet it with everything she had—
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The bell rang out.
The exam was over.
“Student Roxana Drneur, you pass.”
The eldest daughter of House Drneur, which held dominion over the criminal underworld of the South.
With Roxana Drneur’s passing, the first transfer student had emerged.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————