"Huh, strange. Kagura isn't here today?"
When Symboli Rudolf arrived at the training field as usual, she quickly noticed Kagura was missing.
"The chairwoman said she accepted Kagura's enrollment, but she still wanted to test her abilities privately. So, she called Kagura away today for a special exam."
Earlier this afternoon, Tojo-sensei had already received notice from Akikawa Yayoi. The chairwoman mentioned that she'd personally conduct a private exam for Kagura and specifically borrowed Kagura for the afternoon.
"Oh? So she's just making Kagura catch up on the entrance knowledge exam?"
"You could put it that way. Kagura-chan wasn't enrolled through standard procedures, after all. I don't know what exactly the chairwoman has in mind, but maybe she simply wanted a proper reason to formally add Kagura's name to the student register."
"That's really..."
Symboli Rudolf was a little surprised. Although she didn't think the entrance exams were difficult, the pressure of taking an exam with the chairwoman personally supervising was another story entirely. Rudolf worried if Kagura, already shy by nature, would be alright.
"You don't have to worry about Kagura. She's more reliable than you imagine. Besides, you're competing tomorrow. Focus on your training today, review the techniques Kagura taught you, and let's see if you can execute them perfectly even without her by your side."
...
Meanwhile, in Akikawa Yayoi's office…
Summoned by Akikawa Yayoi around 2:00 PM, Kagura was now seated next to the chairwoman, staring at the blank exam paper freshly printed from the printer.
"Um…Akikawa-sama, is this the reason you called me over? This exam paper?"
"Testing! Although I trust Kagura-chan's abilities, you didn't enter through normal channels, so now we're just officially completing the process."
Akikawa Yayoi's voice was energetic and spirited as usual, but Kagura wasn't particularly concerned about that at the moment. What worried her was that she'd never received any formal schooling—how on earth was she supposed to handle this paper?
"Relax! No pressure, it's just procedure. Even if you fail, it's completely fine!"
Indeed, Yayoi had no intention of troubling Kagura with this exam. Kagura's performance around campus recently was obvious enough; never mind new entrants, even most veteran Support Uma at Tracen couldn't match her skill level. In terms of abilities and overall qualities, Kagura's competence was undeniable.
But Yayoi still organized this test for two reasons. On one hand, she genuinely wanted Kagura to follow proper procedures, giving her a justifiable reason for enrollment, and something to explain to classmates later.
On the other hand, this wasn't the ordinary entrance exam. Yayoi had deliberately added many challenging questions of her own, most of which no freshman would realistically solve. Speed-sama had praised Kagura's intelligence, so Yayoi wanted to see just how impressive this girl truly was.
"You have two and a half hours for the exam. Read the questions carefully, and don't write answers in the wrong places~"
"…"
While Yayoi was still explaining the exam rules, Kagura had already skimmed through the paper. Apart from some racing-related knowledge, it mainly covered basic language, math, and English. The early questions were extremely easy, and even the tougher ones later barely reached high-school entrance level.
That scared me. I thought going in blind would be a disaster…but these are just junior-high-level and common-sense questions…
After quickly confirming the difficulty level, Kagura heaved a sigh of relief. When she'd first received the notice, she'd thought herself doomed—but now it seemed her worry was unnecessary.
Even regarding race-related knowledge that had previously been unfamiliar, Kagura had diligently studied it with Tojo-sensei and Eclipse. They weren't overly complex anyway, so she had quickly memorized everything.
If anything in this exam actually gave her pressure, it would be Yayoi standing right beside her, staring at her every move.
Mere middle-school-level problems! Don't underestimate this veteran of medical-school hell!
After Yayoi finished explaining, the clock struck 2:30 PM, and she finally signaled Kagura to start.
Immediately after starting the test, Yayoi stood behind Kagura to observe the whole process. However, she immediately realized something was off—without even seeming to read the questions, Kagura flew through the first twenty multiple-choice questions at lightning speed. She answered decisively, without hesitation, as if guessing randomly—but upon careful checking, Yayoi found Kagura hadn't made a single mistake.
…Huh?
Had she not needed to maintain silence, Yayoi would've involuntarily voiced her shock out loud.
When Kagura reached question twenty-one, her speed finally slowed slightly. She now took one or two seconds per question, but it was still far faster than any freshman Yayoi had ever observed at this age.
The multiple-choice section didn't slow Kagura down for long. Under Yayoi's incredulous gaze, Kagura soon folded the exam paper and moved to the subjective questions. Although Kagura's writing speed slightly reduced her overall pace, Yayoi could clearly see Kagura's thinking remained crystal-clear. The answers seemed to already exist fully-formed in her mind, only restricted by her writing speed.
Is this really an eleven-year-old child?
Yayoi began to doubt if there was some mistake with Kagura's registered age. But Kagura was undeniably still just a child.
Originally, Yayoi had worried that two-and-a-half hours wouldn't be enough for Kagura to finish the exam. Now she realized her concerns had been completely unnecessary.
Half an hour passed, and Kagura had already finished all the questions from the original "official entrance exam" section, double-checking everything twice. Yayoi had followed carefully and knew Kagura hadn't lost a single point so far.
No wonder that girl named Nice Nature-san's grades were so good, I heard Kagura-chan usually tutors her…such an incredibly gifted child.
If Kagura had taken the regular entrance exam, this year's theoretical exam top scorer wouldn't be Nice Nature-san, but Kagura herself, since she had answered everything perfectly—at most, someone could tie with her.
Upon entering the additional questions Yayoi personally prepared, Kagura's speed visibly slowed down, as these questions involved tougher calculations and practical racing scenarios.
However, even then, Kagura completed the entire test after one and a half hours, carefully checking multiple times to ensure she couldn't make any further corrections, then looked up at Yayoi.
"Akikawa-sama, may I turn the exam in early?"
"Surprise! Such incredible speed!"
Yayoi had, in fact, already graded Kagura's answers. On all the questions with definite answers, Kagura had been flawless. But on practical experience-based problems without clear-cut answers, Kagura's answers were notably theoretical and somewhat lacking. It matched exactly what Yayoi expected—Kagura simply didn't have enough real-world experience.
Kagura wasn't completely inexperienced, but the limited practical training she had with Eclipse wasn't sufficient for the special questions Yayoi had personally crafted.
When Kagura finished, Yayoi had already mentally tallied her score. Despite some weaknesses on the practical questions at the end, Yayoi was more than satisfied.
"Then… I'll head back now and wait for my result?"
"No need! Kagura-chan, I've already graded your answers. Your total score for both sections is 193 out of 200. You did excellently! I'm tempted to give you a special reward!"
Initially, Kagura suspected Yayoi had arbitrarily assigned her a random score. But thinking carefully, if Yayoi truly wanted to fudge the score, she'd simply award full marks rather than 193. This had to be an honest assessment. Receiving this score wasn't very surprising to Kagura anyway; this exam was truly easy for her.
Yayoi felt pleased for two reasons. First, she confirmed Kagura not only possessed exceptional physical talent but also a strong theoretical foundation. Secondly, Yayoi's test validated Tojo-sensei's earlier suspicion: Kagura indeed lacked practical racing experience. Thus, Kagura most likely hadn't completed that incredibly detailed racecourse guide alone. She must know another experienced Uma Musume but was deliberately protecting her identity.
Just who exactly is this mysterious friend of yours, Kagura-chan…?