On the day of the final exams, the hallway was no longer filled with the usual chatter and noise. In its place were the sounds of flipping pages, quiet recitations, and deep breaths.
Serena and the other three stood silently at the entrance of the examination room. No one spoke for a moment—until Aiden finally broke the silence.
"My stomach hurts... Is that a sign I'm going to fail?"
"That's because you ate breakfast too fast," Elena said coldly, shooting him a glance.
"Don't worry," Serena patted his shoulder. "If you're really that anxious about doing poorly, I heard that eating that four-leaf clover I just gave you will help you score higher~"
"Really?"
"Not at all," Serena replied without hesitation.
"..."
Lucien's gaze was calm. "Remember to manage your time. Don't spend too long on the first question."
"O—okay!" Aiden took a deep breath, steeling himself.
As the bell rang, the doors to the exam hall slowly opened.
Serena quickly skimmed through the test paper. She had reviewed almost all of this material and began writing with confidence.
Lucien, as always, was composed. Each answer flowed as if he had rehearsed it a thousand times. Elena's brows furrowed slightly, but her pace remained steady.
As for Aiden... He bit his pen cap, stuck on the first question for a full two minutes, until Serena's explanation from the other day resurfaced in his mind. Enlightened, he began writing.
"Thank goodness I didn't blank out..." he muttered to himself, quickly trying to catch up.
The second subject. The third...
Time ticked by. Sweat slid down foreheads. Some flipped pages, some buried their heads in writing, some froze with pens in mid-air—the tension never abated.
—
When the bell signaling the end of the exam rang, many still hadn't finished writing. Aiden collapsed in his chair and groaned at the ceiling, "I did my best... I just hope I answered at least some of them right..."
"So, did you finish writing all the questions?" Serena asked with concern.
"I did! Though I'm not sure how good my answers were..." Aiden replied with a bitter smile.
"As long as you came up with the answers yourself, it wasn't in vain," Serena said with an encouraging smile.
A few days later, the results were officially released.
In the dining hall that morning, most students looked tense, and the air buzzed with anxious chatter.
Suddenly, the magical intercom chimed:
"Ding—"
"All students, please proceed to the academy's main building bulletin board. The year-end exam results have been officially posted."
The four of them sprinted toward the bulletin board. Aiden looked so pale he could faint. "Help... What if I really got sent to Class B..."
They pushed through the crowd, eyes searching for their names on the posted list.
Serena's gaze scanned swiftly—
"Lucien, Elena... Aiden!! We all passed! No one was demoted!"
"We... we made it!!" Aiden cried out, eyes shining.
He lunged forward, found his name on the list, and dropped to the ground with joy: "Waaaaah, thank goodness! I'm still Aiden from Class A!!!"
Elena's lips curled slightly. "At least you didn't embarrass us."
Lucien quietly looked down at the notebook in his hand and gently closed it. As calm as ever, but the relief in his eyes couldn't be hidden.
But as Serena glanced over the list once more, her initial excitement slowly faded.
She realized that out of the expected eighteen names, only fourteen were listed.
Four students had been eliminated from the elite Class A.
Her gaze paused—and then fell on two familiar names:
Ivy and Vivian.
"...How could this be..." Serena murmured, a tight feeling rising in her chest.
She instinctively looked around—and soon spotted Ivy on the other side of the crowd.
The girl stood quietly on the fringe of the crowd, shrouded in shadow despite the sunlight. She still wore her usual gentle smile, but it seemed noticeably dimmer than usual. In her hand, she tightly clutched her grade report, her fingers pale from how hard she was gripping it.
Serena's heart sank. She quickly pushed through the crowd toward her.
"Ivy—" she called out, but before she could say more, Ivy gently shook her head.
"I'm okay, Serena." Ivy's voice was soft, but tinged with a trace of unshakable disappointment. "I already suspected I wouldn't do very well this time... Being in the elite class for a whole year was already more than I expected."
She tried to smile, not wanting anyone to worry.
"Even though I'll be moving to Class B... I heard our dorms won't change. I'm still your roommate, right? So we'll still see each other?"
Serena felt a lump in her throat. She didn't know what to say.
She could see Ivy was forcing herself. No matter how steady her tone, no matter how calm her eyes looked—the tremble in her fingers and the heaviness in her voice betrayed her.
"...Yeah." Serena nodded and took Ivy's hand in hers. "We'll definitely still see each other. You'll always be our friend, no matter which class you're in."
Ivy blinked, a bit choked up, but in the end, she didn't let her tears fall.
Not far away, Vivian silently left the bulletin board. She didn't say a word. She was more prideful than Ivy and left behind only a cold, distant figure—as if unwilling to let anyone see her vulnerable.
A heavy sense of confusion suddenly flooded Serena's heart.
How could this happen?
In her past life, Ivy's grades had always been average. Not top-tier, but steady. It wasn't until her third year—when coursework got harder and stress increased—that she fell behind and was reassigned to Class B.
But now, she was demoted at the end of just the first year?
And what's more—Vivian.
In Serena's memory, Vivian's scores were consistently above average, sometimes even surpassing Elena in theory-based subjects. There was no way she should've been eliminated so easily.
Why was she demoted?
In the original timeline, Aiden was the one who failed.
Serena's expression darkened.
She had purposely drawn Aiden into their team—not just to help him gain points in competitions, but to ensure he wouldn't repeat his downfall in this life. Through effort, strategy, and connections, she had managed to anchor him firmly in Class A—
She had done everything right.
So why had Ivy and Vivian taken his place?
The trajectory… had shifted.
A chill crept up Serena's spine, as though some unseen force was tearing at her carefully restored timeline.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm.
No panicking. Think clearly.
Maybe her interference changed Aiden's fate—and the consequence was that the "weight" of demotion simply shifted to others? If that were the case, then the force behind this change wasn't something to take lightly.
But Serena knew one thing for certain—she had to protect Aiden.
Not just because he was a friend—
But because he carried something essential to her future plans.
Aiden's distant family connection to the powerful Green and Cassano ducal houses made him a critical stepping stone in Serena's future revenge plot.
She needed him close to infiltrate the Cassano family.
She would keep him by her side—
But now…
The game was growing more complicated.