CHAPTER 47: MONTHLY RANKING TEST 5

"So," Scarlett said, still with her arm around Aegis. "What are you thinking of doing for the last test?"

Aegis cockily smirked back at her.

"I... have something in mind."

Scarlett blinked.

"I am very curious about why you’re saying it like that." Scarlett raised a brow. "You can’t tell me?"

"My dear Lionheart," Aegis put on a posh accent and leaned in real close. "Why would I spoil the surprise for you?"

Scarlett’s eyes flicked down to Aegis’s tits (yes, Aegis noticed) and she nodded.

"Pssht. Okay, sure." She shrugged, clearly trying her hardest not to look again.

The reason she didn’t talk about it wasn’t just to not spoil the surprise though. At the same time, Aegis was still actively debating whether she should or should not do what she had in mind.

[Yeah... even if I put on a decent performance, I might end up getting expelled anyway.]

Of course, there was the option of just doing another piece of "modern art". Except, there wasn’t.

In the game, you were forced to cycle through various kinds of art for these. She couldn’t just reuse painting again or the judges would call her out on it.

So, she was going to sing, instead.

Aegis glanced over at Lune, who sat quietly with her sketchbook. Part of her wanted to ask what the artist planned to do, but honestly? She was kind of scared to find out.

[Better not to know.]

"Next up," Professor Loralei announced, floating three feet off the ground because why not. "Liora Vale!"

The sweet blonde stepped forward, hands clasped in front of her secondhand uniform. She looked nervous but determined.

And then she opened her mouth.

Holy. Shit.

What came out wasn’t just singing. It was perfection that made the entire auditorium go dead silent. Liora’s voice soared through an aria that would have made Earth’s greatest opera singers weep with envy. Each note hung in the air, wrapping around the audience and squeezing their hearts.

[Man... Hearing this in person hits different.]

Aegis watched, slack-jawed. The judges sat frozen, tears streaming down their faces. Even Commander Korvo looked emotionally compromised.

But what really caught Aegis’s attention was Talia.

The princess sat ramrod straight, yellow eyes locked on Liora with an intensity that could melt steel. Her hands gripped the edge of her seat so hard the wood creaked. There was longing in that gaze, mixed with something that looked suspiciously like regret.

Aegis smiled sympathetically, though Talia didn’t notice.

[Hits ya in the feels, doesn’t it, princess?]

Liora finished to thunderous applause. She curtsied, cheeks pink, and hurried back to her seat.

"Well." Professor Loralei dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. "That was... transcendent. Next, Lune Solana!"

As she heard her name get called, Lune looked up. She had probably been sleeping with her eyes open or something, given her reaction.

She drifted to the front like a ghost. Without a word, without any acknowledgement or any show of nerves that let people know she even understood the situation, she set up her easel and began to paint.

Aegis shifted uncomfortably. Something about watching Lune work always made her feel exposed, like the artist could see right through her skin to whatever made her tick.

The painting took shape quickly. Lune’s brush moved with inhuman speed, creating strokes that seemed to writhe on the canvas.

And the subject...

"Is that me?" Aegis whispered, squinting.

It was. But, it was not just any regular old portrait. This was Aegis mid-combat, Aether Whip crackling from her hands, face twisted in concentration.

[Whoa.]

The painting moved. Actually moved. Canvas-Aegis’s hair whipped around her face, the magical energy pulsing with light that poured out of the flat image and spilled out onto the stage.

"Fascinating use of illusion magic," one judge murmured. "The way it captures motion..."

Aegis looked around.

[Great. Now everyone’s staring at me. Thanks, Lune.]

Aegis sank lower in her seat as whispers filled the room. She could feel eyes on her from every direction. Varyn smirked from across the auditorium. Talia looked comically disgusted.

Lune finished and returned to her seat without acknowledging the applause. She didn’t even look at Aegis, despite the feeling in the air of her having basically just proposed marriage or something.

"Aegis Starcaller!"

Aegis shook her head, focusing up.

[Showtime.]

Aegis stood, Ruby and Sapphire shifting against her thighs as she walked to the front. The judges watched her with barely concealed curiosity. After all, she’d pulled off that "modern art" bullshit last time.

What would the notorious commoner do now?

"I’ll be singing," she announced.

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Talia actually snorted.

[Yeah, laugh it up, princess. You’re about to get a show.]

Aegis had spent the last week practicing with Liora, sure. But she wasn’t going to sing some boring Valdrian ballad.

No, she had something much better in mind.

Something from Earth that would make these stuffy nobles clutch their pearls.

She’d picked the sluttiest

, most suggestive pop song she could remember. The kind that would’ve had parents writing angry letters back home and warning their kids about how the lizard people were trying to ruin their innocent minds through music.

[Time to put this Charisma 100 to work.]

"This is an... original composition," Aegis lied smoothly. "I call it ’Midnight Invitation.’"

She took a deep breath, locked eyes with the head judge, and began.

"When the moon is high and the sheets are low~"

Her voice wasn’t technically perfect like Liora’s.

But the plan was that what she lacked in skill, she would make up for in pure, concentrated sex appeal.

So, she let her hips sway to the beat in her head that she remembered from listening to the song a million times on that hospital bed. She ran her hands down her sides and aimed her half-lidded gaze at the audience.

"I’ve got secrets that I want you to know~"

The judges shifted in their seats. One loosened his collar.

"Come a little closer, don’t be shy~"

Aegis stepped forward, making direct eye contact with each judge in turn. Her voice dropped to a husky whisper on certain words, lips curving around syllables like they were something delicious.

"I’ll teach you how to make me sigh~"

[Is that steam coming out of Professor Loralei’s ears? Excellent.]

She moved into the chorus, voice growing stronger. Her body moved with precision, every gesture calculated to draw the eye. A flip of her hair here, a roll of her shoulders there. Nothing too obvious. Just enough to suggest.

As far as her movements were concerned anyway.

The audience was dead silent except for someone’s strangled cough. Scarlett’s mouth hung open. Talia looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. Liora had turned an impressive shade of red.

Aegis continued her performance, each verse more suggestive than the last. She made sure to project confidence with every note, even when she hit a slightly flat one. It didn’t matter. This wasn’t about technical perfection.

This was about making everyone in this room have very impure thoughts.

She reached the bridge, where the lyrics got particularly spicy. Something about "teaching lessons after dark" and "grades that aren’t on paper." The head judge’s quill snapped in half.

[Oops. Hope that’s a good sign.]

As she moved into the final chorus, Aegis decided to really go for it. She pulled the tie from her uniform, letting it slide through her fingers before tossing it aside. The top button of her shirt may have accidentally come undone.

"So when you’re lying awake tonight~"

She dragged out the last note, letting it fade into a breathy sigh that had at least three people audibly gulping.

"Remember my midnight invitation~"

The song ended.

Silence.

Then someone started slow clapping. Then another. Soon the entire auditorium erupted in applause mixed with scandalized whispers.

Aegis curtsied, making sure to lean forward just enough to give the judges a nice view. She retrieved her tie and sauntered back to her seat, fighting the urge to grin like a maniac.

[Nailed it. Now let’s see if they have the balls to fail me after that.]

Professor Loralei floated higher, fanning herself with both hands.

"Well! That was certainly... educational. We’ll, um, we’ll post the results within the hour."

As students filed out of the auditorium, Aegis caught snippets of conversation.

"Did you see Judge Whitmore’s face?"

"My mother would die if she knew I watched that."

"Where can I get a copy of those lyrics?"

Scarlett grabbed Aegis’s arm the moment they were outside.

"What the fuck was that?" She looked torn between impressed and aroused. "Where did you even learn a song like that?"

"Trade secret," Aegis winked.

"You can’t just—" Scarlett gestured wildly. "That was basically musical porn!"

"Did you like it?"

Scarlett’s face went red.

"That’s not the point!"

[It absolutely is the point.]

Across the courtyard, Aegis spotted Talia storming off with her usual gaggle of noble followers. But not before shooting Aegis a look that promised retribution.

[Bring it on, princess.]

One way or another, she’d passed the test. She was sure of it. No judge could fail her after that performance without looking like a complete prude.

The question was: what kind of reputation would she have after this?

[Guess I’m about to find out.]

Achievement Unlocked: Scandal Points +10

Scandal Points: 60

Reputation: The Shameless Commoner