The End

Cleo woke up gasping, in a comfortable bed. She was in a fancy room with a canopy bed and soft, ivory-white curtains draped over giant, floor-to-ceiling windows. The room was ginormous. Where was she?

Cleo got out of the bed, realizing, only then, that she was not herself anymore. She was wearing a nightgown that she certainly did not have any recollection of owning. Looking into the enormous mirror beside the bed, Cleo noticed that she looked the same as ever, except that her hair had somehow grown a whole lot longer.

"My lady!" a girl dressed in a maid's outfit came running into the room. "You should have called for me if you were awake!"

Cleo blinked. Did she know this person?

"My lady!" the girl called again, worried. "Do you not recognize me? I'm Fiona, your personal maid!"

"Fiona?" Cleo said, not believing her ears, "As in Fiona de la Rousse, who works for the Sinclair family?"

"Yes, my lady!"

"So, uh, who am I?"

Fiona gaped at Cleo.

"You're Cleodora Sinclair! The only daughter of Baron Sinclair! The pride and joy of your father!"

"I'm not dead?!"

Fiona's jaw dropped a few more inches.

"Of course not! My lady, you shouldn't say such depressing things about yourself!"

Oh. So that was it. Cleo had been reincarnated as a very, very, very minor supporting character in "A Song of Sorrow" who was only mentioned at the entrance exam to the Eldritch Academy of Magic, since she was supposed to be there, but had unfortunately been in an accident a month before, and had died.

Cleo racked her brain for any other information she knew about Cleodora. There had to have been something on the fandom about her. But all she could remember was that Cleodora Sinclair was the daughter of Baron Alastair Sinclair, the head of a fallen noble household that resided in a distant corner of the Imperium Solis, the Empire of the Sun.

"Um, Fiona?" Cleo asked.

"What is it, my lady?"

"What's the date?"

"It's August eleventh, my lady."

August eleventh. September tenth was the day of the entrance exams, so exactly a month earlier would have been the tenth of August, when Cleodora got into the accident. So was the original character dead now?

"Anyways, my lady, you should really start getting ready for the entrance exam to the academy. I wasn't going to bother you for a few days since you were almost dead with your heart stopping and all, but now that you're well enough to pretend that you lost your memory, you should immediately get back to practicing for the entrance exam!"

"My heart...stopped?"

"Yes, yes, my lady. Now, you should get dressed and head to the library. You have many books to memorize for the exam."

The entrance exam for the Eldritch Academy of Magic was a combination of a written test, a mana test, and a practical test. The written test was different each year, generally consisting of an essay on some of the most important texts in the empire. The written examination was the smallest percentage of an individual's grade for the entrance exam. The mana test measured the examinee's amount of mana through a crystal ball, ranging from level one to one hundred. The academy generally did not accept students with mana below level thirty, although there could be exceptions. The practical examination tested the examinee's ability to utilize their abilities in battle, using a bracket system, pitting examinees against each other. Or rather, that was how it was supposed to go. The competition was tough, since the academy only accepted twenty students per year.

If an individual managed to place first in the practical, even if they failed both the written and mana tests, would probably still enter the academy, although that situation was rare and has never happened before. But that was all just Cleo's speculation, since it never happened within the book. Cecil, the male lead, had scored fifth on the written test, first on the mana test, and first again on the practical. Rosa, the female lead, had scored first on the written test, seventh on the mana test, and second to last on the practical, barely making the cut.

Supposedly, Cleodora Sinclair was a rare prodigy when it came to magic, according to the laments of the Eldritch Academy professors in the novel, but was worthless when it came to studying.

Studying. Now that was something Cleo was good at. If she could just figure out how to pass the exam without affecting the story too much...

Cleo was mumbling something inaudible.

Fiona frowned. She shook her head. Her lady was going insane.

Cleo groaned. There was no use worrying about the entrance exam, if she could not even pass the written exam. She decided to focus on studying.

Days passed, and Cleo could recite all fifty textbooks forwards and backwards from memory.

Weeks passed, and Cleo finally managed to figure out how to wield Cleodora's extremely powerful magic.

Eventually, the day of the entrance exam arrived.