If Xi Ya remembered correctly, this senior student was the department head in charge of managing commissions in the Student Council, and he was notoriously inflexible.
In the game, when Feili came back to turn in her commission, if she ran into that female senior from before, the settlement would go through without any issues.
But if her luck was bad and she hit the ten percent chance of running into this department head, it became a hassle.
This department head was overly meticulous.
Seeing that a newly enrolled student like Feili could complete a C-class commission on her own, he would interrogate her from every angle, suspect something was off, and the subsequent process would become a huge headache.
She’d even have to seek help from her advisor before he’d finally approve it after all that trouble.
Anyway, whenever he encountered this scenario, he’d just reload a save and skip the headache.
And yet, he ran into that one-in-ten chance?
Except this wasn’t the game anymore, and he couldn’t reload a save.
Xi Ya wondered if he should head back first and come again tomorrow, but Dailina had already walked up to the registration desk and handed the commission letter to that senior student.
Damn it, why’d you hand it over already?!
Xi Ya had no choice but to brace himself and walk over.
The senior student took the commission letter, pushed up his glasses, and looked down at it for a moment.
“Senior, can we settle this now?”
Dailina asked.
“It’s possible, but isn’t there a problem with this commission’s rating?”
The senior looked up and stared at them with an expressionless face.
Sure enough, he knew this senior would question the rating.
Even a C-class commission like Feili’s got challenged, let alone their B-level one.
“Huh? Doesn’t it have the Academy’s stamp on it? What could be wrong?”
Xi Ya asked with confusion, deciding to follow the game’s dialogue options first.
“The stamp is genuine, but I don’t know how the Academy reviewed this. Whether it’s the mission content or the results of your investigation, none of it supports a B-level difficulty.”
The senior tapped the two short lines of text on the commission letter with the end of his pen.
“The culprit is just an infected blood eagle. I think this commission can at most be rated C-class, and even C-class might be generous. If I were to rate it, I’d probably give it a D.”
A D?
Why not just say this doesn’t even count as a commission?
Might as well have them work for free.
Xi Ya was speechless.
He sighed inwardly and decided to come clean with the senior.
“Senior, actually, this commission withheld the truth. The real culprit was a vampire. The client wanted to avoid causing a panic, so they only announced to the public that it was a blood eagle…”
Xi Ya leaned in a bit closer, then briefly explained the whole situation to the senior.
But after hearing it, the senior asked in return:
“You’re saying the culprit was a vampire? Then can you produce evidence? How do you prove it was done by a vampire?”
Evidence?
How the hell am I supposed to have evidence?
Do you want me to go back and collect Kang Na’s ashes to show you?
Xi Ya barely suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and continued explaining with patience:
“That vampire has already been burned to ashes by us, so there’s no way to give you evidence… But this has the town’s official stamp on it, which should prove we completed the commission, right?”
“But this stamp only proves you killed the blood eagle. It doesn’t prove what you just said.”
The senior still didn’t believe them, saying it mercilessly.
Xi Ya fell silent again.
Setting the facts aside, that actually did make some sense.
What were they supposed to do now?
They couldn’t exactly go back for another trip, could they?
By the time they went back and forth, next week’s ranking tournament would already be starting.
“Senior, what Xi Ya said is true.”
Dailina stepped forward, placing both hands on the edge of the registration desk.
“We discussed with the client for a long time before deciding not to reveal the truth. The investigation results were written this way to prevent any leaks.”
“I know what you’re saying doesn’t sound like a lie.”
The senior’s tone softened slightly, but he still didn’t budge.
“But my duty is to review according to regulations. The evidence you submitted only proves you killed a blood eagle, not the vampire you mentioned. If every student told me the client hid the truth, am I supposed to believe all of them?”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you. It’s that the materials you submitted aren’t sufficient to support a B-level rating.”
The senior added another line, setting down his pen.
Xi Ya was done.
How could there be someone like this?
No sense of human decency, and no flexibility with the rules either.
Both sides had stamped their seals, so wasn’t it complete?
“Senior, I know you operate by the rules, but this commission’s rating was set by the Academy, not requested by us. We just completed the mission according to the requirements on the commission letter. Now if you’re telling me there’s a problem with the rating, that’s not our problem, is it?”
Xi Ya let out a quiet breath, keeping his patience.
“Since the stamp is already on the commission letter, that proves we’ve completed this commission. We’re here to settle it now. Is there a problem with that?”
“I never said it was your problem.”
The senior didn’t even glance at Xi Ya’s expression, his tone still icy.
“But as the department head managing commissions, I have another duty: to review the true difficulty of commissions. If a commission’s rating doesn’t match reality, I have the right to appeal to the Academy.”
He had nothing left to say.
It wasn’t that he was being a coward.
This department head genuinely had the authority to appeal, and he could really get the Academy to revise the commission’s rating.
Apparently, of the commissions he appealed, eight or nine out of ten successfully got their ratings revised.
And their commission’s assessment was already somewhat questionable to begin with.
If this got appealed, not only would it take several days, but it would most likely get downgraded.
And once downgraded, the credits would shrink accordingly.
They had done this commission as a pair, so splitting it between two people meant even less.
As the bottom of the elite class, he already struggled to complete commissions.
Now his credits were getting docked on top of that.
Every single point lost could potentially knock him out of the elite class.
What should he do…
Even if he took the commission letter and left now, coming back tomorrow to see the female senior wouldn’t work anymore.
This senior had already flagged their commission.
He really wanted to handle this using his game experience, but his situation was completely different from Feili’s.
Feili was being questioned about her capability, while they were being questioned about the commission’s rating.
The options in the game simply didn’t fit this scenario.
Xi Ya racked his brain for a way to deal with this, but he kept feeling like the noise from the hall earlier was getting closer and closer to him.
He turned his head toward the sound and realized Feili had somehow already started walking in their direction.
“Hey, you adopted daughter, stop right there! Did you hear me?”
Dylan pointed one finger at Feili, his face already flushed red with anger.
“I heard you. Would you please go do your own business, Young Master Dylan? I need to go submit my commission, so I won’t stick around to make a scene with you here.”
Feili didn’t even turn her head back, simply walking toward Xi Ya with a smile.
Xi Ya looked at Feili’s friendly smile and immediately felt a sense of dread.
Oh crap, don’t you come over here!
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