To Be a Power in the Shadows! (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter 1.4

Part 4

The only sound in the classroom is that of pens scribbling across exam papers.

I frown and glare at my test.

“…Welp, I’m stumped.”

Finals are just around the corner, so we’ve been getting a lot more pop quizzes lately. The only punishment you get for failing them is an extra homework assignment, but those extra assignments are a bunch of work and a royal pain in the ass. The teachers are desperate to get even the absolute morons up to par.

Personally speaking, I’ve been keeping up my background character facade by just barely passing each quiz. Through cheating, of course. Now, however, my overreliance on cheating is finally catching up with me.

The problem is, Isaac is absent.

Not only is Isaac the top student in the class, he also sits at the perfect angle for me to see his paper from my seat. It’s like he was born for the express purpose of me cheating off him. Thanks to this guy, I’ve been able to tailor my quiz scores with nearly superhuman precision.

But today, he’s absent!

Now I’m in real danger of failing.

“Rgh…”

When you’re cheating, it’s crucial to pick the right person to cheat from. It won’t do you any good sneaking peeks at an answer sheet if the person writing on it is an idiot.

I look to my right and see Skel shadily glancing around.

He’s useless to me.

I look to my left and see Po staring beneath his desk at a suspicious angle.

He’s useless, too.

At this point, the only person I have left to rely on…is Christina, the duke’s daughter, who sits diagonally in front of me. She’s one of the top five students in the class, but there’s one big problem with her—from the angle I’m at, more than half of her answer sheet is obscured.

I’ve already copied down the bits I can see, but that adds up to only forty points out of a hundred, tops. I need sixty to avoid failing, and this ain’t gonna cut it.

Should I conceal my presence and sneak somewhere that gives me a better view to copy from?

The issue there is, concealing my presence doesn’t do squat as far as making my physical body disappear. If I start walking around without any cover or obstructions, then people are just gonna spot me with their eyes. And given how many eyes there are in the classroom, I’ll get caught for sure.

In light of that, it looks like my only choice is to move so fast that no one can see me. It’s an option, for sure. If I really let loose, moving that fast is a piece of cake.

However, there’s a glaring flaw in that plan.

If I move faster than the naked eye can see, the wind pressure will literally blow my cover. I might accidentally send the test paper flying. Heck, I might accidentally send Christina flying. That right there would be a complete baby/bathwater situation.

In other words, I need to move subtly enough to not release any wind yet fast enough that nobody sees me. Who knew a little old pop quiz was going to demand such an exacting level of technical mastery?

Am I even going to be able to pull this off…?

I’ve done loads and loads of training to be able to move fast. However, not once have I ever trained to be able to move fast without building up wind pressure.

That said, the extra homework assignment would take me two whole days to finish.

“…No guts, no glory.”

To give up now would be to sully my name as a background character.

I begin molding magic so fine that no one will notice it. All right, baby. First time’s the charm.

Right as I do…

“Hey, you there! What do you think you’re doing?!”

“ ?!”

I got spotted?!

I freeze in shock, and my magic dissipates.

However, I’m not the one the teacher is looking at. He’s looking at the seat beside mine.

“Skel Etal!! You’re cheating!”

Skel trembles as the color drains from his face. “I—I—IIIII wasn’t looking at anything!! I swear I wasn’t looking at Christina’s answers!!”

“Ah, so nice of you to admit exactly what you did. I’ve been watching you like a hawk, you know. Get out of my classroom. You just earned yourself two extra homework assignments.”

“B-but that’s not fair…”

Skel leaves the room looking like a dead man walking. Christina watches him go with an expression of absolute contempt.

A-all right, Cid, pull yourself together.

I mold my magic as fine as can be, and right as I do…

“Hey, you there! What do you think you’re doing?!”

Again?!

I look up in alarm, but the teacher still isn’t staring at me. Once again, his eyes are on the seat right beside mine.

“Po Tato!! What’re you looking under your desk for?!”

Po begins sweating buckets. “I—I—IIIII wasn’t looking at anything!! I swear I wasn’t looking at the cheat sheet under my desk!!”

“Well, at least you’re being honest about it. Get out of my classroom. You just earned yourself three extra homework assignments.”

“Th-the number went up…”

Po leaves the room, staggering unsteadily as he goes.

“The next person I catch cheating is going home with four extra homework assignments.” The teacher’s eyes gleam.

Dammit, Skel and Po, why’d you have to go and make such a mess of things? Thanks to those two bozos, the risk level just skyrocketed, and our teacher is on high alert.

But that’s not gonna stop me.

“Surrender isn’t an option.”

I mold my magic.

The flow of time seems to slow.

Right here, right now, I just might be able to do it. This is a mythical Hidden Normie Technique designed specifically for cheating—and it’s my forty-ninth one!!

“Behold…”

Then, right as I focus every nerve in my body, I hear it. There’s a loud thud as something comes falling out of the air.

“………”

When things happen that make zero logical sense, people tend to find themselves at a loss for words. I have no idea why Claire just fell on top of our teacher, but every person in the class is now staring at her in dumbfounded silence. Even I had no idea she was planning on going this far. To think that this is what she was foreshadowing when she decided to go missing…

“What do you mean, you can’t let them ‘have’ me?!” Claire tramples our teacher underfoot as she rises to her feet and shouts at the empty air. “Answer me! I have special powers, and I’m not—!”

At that point, she shoots a quick glance around the classroom. Her expression stiffens.

“You’re in the wrong room, Claire Kagenou,” our squished teacher chokes through the pain.

“Ah, well, that’s, uh… Heh.” Claire turns bright red. I can’t tell if she’s smiling or if her face is just twitching. “I-I’ll be going now! So sorry about that!!”

With a brisk bow, she does a quick one-eighty and scurries away.

Looks like someone’s getting in trouble later.

She’s falling out of the sky, she’s talking to the empty air, she’s declaring that she’s got special powers… Her symptoms are progressing faster than I ever expected.

Just this once, though, they saved my hide.

“Thanks for distracting everyone, Sis.”

With a grin, I fill in the empty spots on my answer sheet.