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Now that Hirschur was here, Fraularm wouldn’t be able to fake my score. She grimaced as she took the exam paper over to her desk. Hirschur was watching closely to ensure there was no foul play—and barely a moment passed before she interjected. “Fraularm, you...” “Oh, dear me. I appear to have given Lady Rozemyne the wrong test. Ohohoho...” “Not that it seems to be a problem. She answered all of the questions correctly.” “She—?! What did you say?!” Fraularm examined the sheet at once; her eyebrows raised even higher than before. “Did something happen?” I asked.

“The test you just took was for fifth-years,” Hirschur explained. “How do you even know this material, Lady Rozemyne?” “Ferdinand forced me to learn the syllabus for every single grade, so it is all the same to me.” I had been taught everything up until graduation in one go, so I wasn’t even sure what counted as third-year material. The questions that Fraularm had given to me had seemed fine enough, so I hadn’t thought twice when answering them. “Ferdinand truly does demand the unreasonable,” Hirschur said, a hand on her forehead. “I am amazed that you can keep up with him.” Meanwhile, Fraularm was muttering, “This isn’t normal...” over and over again. I personally believed that her giving me a test meant for older students was the abnormality here—as was Ferdinand going so over the top as to have prepared me for it. I was normal. “Does this still count as a pass?” I asked. “Or do I need to redo the test with a third-year paper?” Hirschur turned to Fraularm. “Is there time for a retake? I was under the impression that we were going to speak about a new joint research project.” Unable to endure the pressure that Hirschur and I were putting on her, Fraularm went bright red and hysterically screamed, “That will do for the exam!” She took a seat to indicate that she was ready for our discussion to begin, though I couldn’t help but notice how aggressively she dropped into her chair. It couldn’t have been good for her backside, but at least I understood that she was feeling very displeased.

— Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 5 Volume 1 by Miya Kazuki, You Shiina (60%)

The empire lay to the east. To the south there was the United States of Azeria; to the north, the Greater Rossiam Dynasty; to the west, the Holy Arcian Empire; and in the center, the Republic of Chinese Fiefdoms. These five forces had arisen to become the great leaders in their respective regions.

Until a few decades ago, they had ruthlessly competed with each other for global dominance, but over time, a sort of equilibrium had established itself. As they carefully watched each other, waiting for their rival forces to decay, they’d wound up building mature international economic relationships. On the surface, war no longer existed, and an era of peace seemed ready to dawn. But national discontent over neighbors never fully vanished, and if someone earned a profit, someone else needed to lose out. This dissatisfaction built up over time, smoldering out of sight, and four years ago, it exploded. The trigger came when the Republic of Chinese Fiefdoms suffered a large-scale drought. The lack of water led to starvation and rampant disease outbreaks. This unavoidably led to a dissident movement, but the Republic’s government manipulated this discontent, pointing it outside its borders in order to protect itself. Now the entire world had gotten involved. For their first move, the Chinese turned their attention southward, to a large grain-producing region. The National People’s Council voted unanimously to invade the United States of Azeria, and that signaled the beginning of war. In a flash, the entire world was in conflict. The Greater Rossiam Dynasty up north was the next to react after witnessing the Chinese military moves. They staged their own invasion of the Chinese mainland, and their mission was clear—to obtain land for agriculture and a warm-water port. The region was suffering from an extreme drought, but that would no doubt fix itself in a few years…and so Rossiam returned to its old habit of conquest. Naturally, the Chinese weren’t taking this sitting down. All their remaining forces gathered to fight back, plunging the entire nation into a state of war. This was when the Conquering Empire of Japan got dragged in. They relied wholly on these Chinese fiefdoms for their food supply, and so were forced to deploy their military to the Republic on a “humanitarian mission.” That was done in the hopes it’d bring the war to a quick end, but Greater Rossiam was incensed, and Japan’s relationship with Azeria suffered. Japan had been forced to pick a side between Azeria and the Chinese, and it chose its main food lifeline. The Holy Arcian Empire made no moves at first, but the relative peace there didn’t even last a year. It was soon the empire’s turn to face severe famine, forcing it to cut off the support it had been giving other countries. The bad news continued with an accident at an oil storage facility, and the resulting fire cost the empire three years’ worth of fuel. The evidence left on the scene indicated that it was the work of saboteurs from Rossiam. The mood among the people took a sharp anti-Rossiam turn, and the momentum finally drove the empire to start a military operation.

One person had suspicions about all these events. This was Pulcinella, the Mad Priest and leader of the Holy Spiritualist Church. Spiritualism was one of the world’s three major religions, alongside Buddhism and the Free Path—and Pulcinella, its most prominent figure, had spoken of a vision that told him of a great, evil presence behind the scenes. Affiliated churches across the land began to investigate this, and they managed to track down a yohma that had allegedly played a major role…but by then, it was too late.

— That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime, Vol. 17 (light Novel) by Fuse, Mitz Vah (21% - 22%)