Rivers of the Night

On his way back to his dorm, Theron passed by the only flashy ornament in the whole academy. It was a stele adorned with gold.

This stele was the Perfect Credit Stele. It listed the number of Perfect Credit students to pass from this branch of the Imperial Academy.

In its many generations of existence, Thistle Brook's Imperial Academy had just four names of their own. Three from the military stream and just one from the political stream.

A so-called Perfect Credit graduate was a student that managed to pass all available classes in a stream with top marks. This top mark didn't refer to a perfect score but rather the S-grade.

There were a total of 99 available credits and a total of 33 classes. One could receive a PASS, an A, or an S when receiving a credit, and of course, a FAIL was also possible.

A PASS netted one a single credit, an A received two, while an S received a full three credits.

One could spend a maximum of five years in the academy regardless of what age below 17 they entered. Graduating required one to accumulate 33 credits total, regardless of classes completed. You could graduate with honors if you managed to accumulate 66.

Just the title of Honored Imperial Scholar was enough to net a student a great deal of opportunities after graduation. It was just that a Perfect Credit graduate was on another level.

There were also benchmarks a student had to meet during their time here, or else one could be expelled early. Theron had joined the academy almost six months ago now and accumulated four S grades and 12 credits in that time.

The benchmark for the first year was only five credits total, while every subsequent year was seven. So Theron certainly had quite some breathing room, but Teacher Fern had her eyes on a much bigger prize.

Three layers were working in conjunction here.

First, there was Teacher Fern's enthusiasm. The second was the coming exchange with Teacher Bloom's class. But deeper than all of that was the stele of the glowing gold.

Three Perfect Credit graduates from the military stream and just one from the political stream.

Theron always did his homework, so he knew the competition between the two streams was stiff. The academy had two deans, and they were evaluated not much unlike the students. The teachers were likewise in the same boat.

It couldn't be said that the Perfect Credit graduate was the end-all, be-all. They were too rare, after all.

But it certainly helped.

Theron entered his room, or more accurately, his courtyard. He was treated much better as an Imperial Scholar than a bottom-feeding assassin. There was even a basement perfect for his training and resistant to his attacks.

Without delay, Theron descended to his training room and began a night of long practice, drilling and familiarizing himself with the three techniques he had just exchanged for.

**

Early the next morning, Theron walked into Teacher Fern's class, his white and violet robes as primly kept as always.

With the number of points he had accumulated on his last mission, he wouldn't need to complete another for the next three months. That was the benefit of clearing a three-star difficulty-rated mission.

As for what would happen if he didn't? Well, the mark left on the back of his hand would certainly have something to say about that.

The association was a place where kind-hearted souls gathered. There was no shortage of untalented assassins who lost their lives not due to lack of trying, but lack of success.

It was said the death the Soul Mark gave you was as excruciating as it was cruel, and Theron had no intention of becoming a living example.

"Theron! Over here!" Sadie waved from the front row.

Theron took a seat by her side with a smile.

"You left in such a hurry yesterday. I was worried that you'd disappear again. Teacher Fern would have your—"

Sadie hurriedly covered her mouth with both of her little hands as a familiar figure walked into the class.

Teacher Fern gave her a pointed look, and the little girl could only sink into her chair, trying to hide her expression.

"Today will be the exchange. I'll need someone to pair up with Theron, so we'll hold a small competition." She held up a stack of papers. "There are two questions on here. I will mark based on a combination of speed and accuracy."

A greenish color exuded from Teacher Fern's eyes, and the papers fluttered on the wind to everyone but Theron.

"Teacher, this isn't fair. Why does Theron automatically get a spot?"

One of the older students stood up from the back, their face red from suppressing their displeasure. He wasn't the only one who felt this way; he was just the only one who dared to speak.

The most powerful family in Thistle Brook was the family of the Marquise. This young man wasn't a member of their main branch, but he shared their last name: Thistle. He was probably one of the few who dared to directly refute a teacher of the Imperial Academy.

The young man wasn't targeting Theron without cause. There were only two exchanges a year and one yearly competition. Just participating granted one a single credit, and this was already enough for students to go wild. However, if you participated and performed well, you could earn as much as three whole credits.

This was absolutely huge. Who would want to miss out on this?

Theron sighed inwardly. This should be yet another punishment. It seemed the valiant housewife hadn't had enough of scolding him. Now she wanted to turn the whole class against him.

Things would have been fine if he just took the test as well, but with the order of operations flipped, there was no escaping some sort of fallout whether he won or lost.

Yesterday, he didn't really mind the scolding. But this time, he felt Teacher Fern had gone too far.