"By the way, Irene, you haven't answered why you were looking for me," I said.

  "Oh, about that. I originally wanted to find you to work together on this exam, but seeing as we both have 20 medals, it seems we don't need to work together anymore," Irene said.

  "But we're currently working together to find another medal, even if it's for Chloe, Julie, Noa, and Kotaro," I said.

  "Well, you're right. Let's hurry up and explore our destination," Irene said.

  "Yeah," I said.

  The two of us hurried off to that area.

  -

  A little while earlier.

  "From what I know, we're currently in the forest to the west. The Duke's residence is to the north. In the center and south are grasslands and hills. To the east is another forest roughly the same size as the one to the west. A river divides the north and south. It cuts through the eastern forest, then through the grassland in the center and through the western forest as well," Chloe said.

  "You're quite impressive, Chloe, knowing all the areas here. Is it because you've explored all of them that you know?" Noa asked.

  "I haven't explored all of them, I've only seen them from afar and assumed so," Chloe said.

  "Even though it's just an assumption, at least we have a rough map of the areas around here. Then let's split up. We'll split into three teams to explore the western part of this forest, the eastern part, and the southern part."

  "Irene and I will explore the eastern part of the forest, ?Kotaro, Lily, and Leandra will explore the southern part, and Noa, Julie, Chloe, and Lillian will explore this forest. Do you have any objections to this team division?" I asked.

  "I don't mind, but are you okay being alone with Irene, Rid??" Chloe asked.

  "Irene and I should be enough to explore the eastern part of the forest, while the western part needs to be explored by more people because I'm worried that the person who attacked Noa and Kotaro is still roaming around," I said.

  "I see, okay," Chloe said.

  "Ok, then let's start exploring now. We'll explore for an hour and collect as many medals as possible. After that, we'll regroup in the central area and explore. Once everyone has 20 medals, we'll head north to return to the Duke's residence," I said.

  "Roger!," said the others.

  Then we all began exploring our respective destinations.

  -

  In the eastern forest.

  "In the deepest part of this forest, I defeated the soldiers who attacked me and left them to be eaten by the monsters. I wonder if the monsters ate them all yet or not," I thought.

  "It looks like there are no more medals in this place. Have they been taken?" Irene said.

  "Let's continue searching, maybe there are still some medals left unclaimed," I said.

  "Ok," Irene said.

  We continued searching the forest. We managed to find several medals that hadn't been taken. So far, we've found four.

  "It seems like there aren't many medals left, as many have already been taken. Should we just hunt down the other students?" Irene asked.

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  "Have you been getting medals by attacking other students, Irene?" I asked.

  "I didn't attack them first, but they attacked me first. I defeated them and took their medals," Irene said.

  "I see. I also get medals from students who attack me first. I don't really like attacking them first, so I don't agree with your idea," I said.

  "I was just joking, I knew you wouldn't agree with that idea," Irene said.

  Then we continued searching for the medals.

  -

  A few minutes later.

  On the other side of the forest, we found another group of students gathered. There were about 20 of them.

  "Rid Archie and the Ice Princess?" one of them asked.

  The other students looked at us, surprised.

  "I don't recognize them. They seem to be from another class," I said.

  "I guess so. Let's just leave them and continue looking for the other medals," Irene said.

  "Ok," I said.

  We walked away, leaving them behind. But as we left, someone stopped us.

  "Where are you two going? What a coincidence seeing you two here, both of you ranked first and second in first year. You must have a lot of medals. Hand over yours, or we'll all take them by force," one of the students said.

  All the gathered students began to draw their weapons and prepare to attack.

  "We didn't come here to attack them, but they want to attack us," I said.

  "Isn't that great? We can get medals by defeating them. You wouldn't complain if we took the medals from the students who attacked us first, right?" Irene asked.

  "Of course not, I already told you," I said.

  Irene and I were also ready by holding our respective weapons. Then, they all began to advance to attack us.

  -

  In the meadow at the foot of the hills to the south.

  "Sorry, Kotaro, it seems like because we're not human, our team is constantly being attacked by the other students," Leandra said.

  "It's okay, relax. But that way, we can also take their medals after we defeat them," Kotaro said.

  "You're right," Leandra said.

  "If you two had lived in my old country, you would have been able to blend in with other races. My old country didn't discriminate against the races of those who lived there. But still, every country has its shortcomings, and my old country had its shortcomings too. That's why our family chose to move and live in the kingdom of San Fulgen. Forget about that, let's continue exploring this area," said Kotaro.

  -

  In the western forest.

  "It seems like you're here, so we weren't attacked by the other students, Chloe," said Noa.

  "I guess so. Earlier, we ran into a large group of other students, but they didn't attack us. In fact, they looked scared," said Julie.

  "Maybe it was just a coincidence? You know, Julie, that I've been attacked by other students before, right?" asked Chloe.

  "Yeah, that's true. So why didn't they seem to have any intention of attacking us?" asked Julie.

  "I don't know, let's just continue searching for the medals," Chloe said.

  -

  An hour later.

  We gathered in the central area after exploring our respective areas.

  "We only got 11 medals," Chloe said.

  "We got 24 medals," Kotaro said.

  "We got 43 medals," I said.

  The crowd was shocked.

  "How did you and Irene get that many medals?" Chloe asked.

  "Well, let's just say we were lucky to find that many medals," I said.

  Then we started to combine all the medals we found and give them to Julie, Chloe, Noa, and Leandra, whose number of medals is still lacking.

  "Thank you all for your help. With this, Julie, Noa, Kotaro and I have collected 20 medals," Chloe said.

  Julie, Noa, and Kotaro also thanked us.

  "Relax, you're our friends after all," I said.

  "What about the rest of the medals? We have a lot of extras," Julie said.

  "Just put them all here, someone else will find them," I said.

  "Okay," Julie said.

  Julie put the remaining medals in the grass.

  "By the way, I'm curious about Charles. We haven't seen him since earlier," Noa said.

  "Maybe he already went back to the Duke's residence. Since we've all collected 20 medals, we should head back to the Duke's residence," I said.

  "Ok," said the others.

  We all headed north and finally arrived at the back gate of the Duke's residence. Mr. Alan and the other teachers were waiting there. We immediately handed over our medals.

  "You all managed to get 20 medals. You have successfully completed this exam and earned 4,000 points," said Mr. Alan.

  We were all delighted to hear this. Afterward, we were directed to the area where the students who had completed the exam were located. We found Charles there, as I suspected, having completed the exam first. We also found Enzo there, looking at us with a surprised expression.

  -

  It was now 6 p.m. The knights began to descend upon the exam site to pick up the students who hadn't returned to the Duke's residence. One by one, they were picked up and returned to the Duke's residence to hand over their medals. Most of the students who were picked up failed to earn the 20 medals and only received points based on the medals they earned.

  In addition to picking up the students, the knights were also tasked with finding the other 22 knights who hadn't returned after previously checking the exam site. The knights continued searching all areas of the exam site, still continuing until nightfall.

  Until finally they searched in the forest to the east. When they reached the deepest part of the forest, they were shocked to see a large amount of blood and body parts scattered throughout the area. They realized that the body parts were the 22 knights they were looking for.?

  -To be continued