The Rise of the Heir

Chapter 9

The morning sunlight filtering through the ventilation gaps in the boarding house felt like needles stabbing directly into Theo's eyeballs. He woke with a sharp, nauseous sensation—a side effect of the dehydration and pain that had settled in his body since last night.

Every slight movement as he tried to adjust his sleeping position became a real torture. His right ribs were stiff, restricting the oxygen supply to his lungs, while his right shoulder, which had just been forcibly pulled by Bima, felt like it was cemented in place.

However, the frightening warning from his mother, Risa, who had been crying in this room a few hours earlier, was fueling his burning head. Hiding and resigning himself to being a cleaning service for the rest of his life was no longer an option when Monia's underworld had already begun to break down his boarding house door.

If he remained still, the loan sharks would take his life tomorrow, and Valen would discover his presence sooner or later. He had to move, but not with his aching muscles.

Theo dragged himself to the bathroom, dousing his head with cold water to ward off the dizziness. After drying himself, he retrieved the cleanest, plain white shirt from the closet.

With his left hand, he carefully rewrapped the elastic bandage around his chest, securing it tightly so that his right ribs wouldn't shift too much when he breathed. He deliberately wore a slightly loose shirt, then layered it with a thick denim jacket to hide the silhouette of the mitela supporting his right shoulder.

Before leaving, Theo reached for his cracked phone. There was a single message from Yanuar at five in the morning. It was the address of the multipurpose building in Sector 2 and a string of digital exam participant numbers.

“The anonymous scholarship written exam starts at nine sharp. This is the only legal way to activate your father's will without arousing suspicion from government factions. Use your head, Theo. Don't be late.”

Theo tucked his phone into his jacket pocket. He didn't reply to the message. With faltering steps, he descended into the parking lot, started his creaking old Vespa, and then cut through the streets of Monia toward Sector 2.

The Armagenda University multipurpose building in Sector 2 looked massive and was guarded by several neatly uniformed security guards. Hundreds of young people from various lower-class districts had gathered in front of the large hall, their faces tense. For these poor, unconnected children, this anonymous scholarship route was the only, unlikely, chance to penetrate the thick walls of Monia's most elite university.

As soon as Theo parked his Vespa in a remote corner, he immediately noticed a familiar black luxury sedan parked directly in front of the main lobby of the rectorate building, which was adjacent to the exam hall. It belonged to Danu Handaya.

Theo tucked the collar of his jacket into his pockets and walked through the crowd of exam participants, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead. However, as he passed through the glass corridor connecting the rectorate building and the hall, he spotted Danu Handaya walking out with several university deans.

Behind Danu, Rian strutted arrogantly, clutching a leather folder filled with administrative documents. Rian was there to finalize the paperwork for his super-exclusive invitation process, while Danu was there as the main donor on a formal visit.

Rian, who was listening to his father's conversation, accidentally glanced toward the glass window in the corridor and caught sight of Theo walking among the crowd of children from the lower district. Rian was stunned. He immediately whispered to Danu, then quickly quickened his pace to intercept Theo near the hall entrance.

"Brother Theo?" Rian frowned, standing in Theo's path with a frown. "What are you doing here? And... what's wrong with your face? Did you get beaten up by the market people again?"

Danu Handaya also stopped behind Rian, eyeing Theo up and down with his usual cold gaze. The young man in front of him looked disheveled, with a purplish bruise on his temple and a split lip—unbeknownst to them, the remains of the beatings from Valen's men the night before.

Rian glanced at the digital exam card held in Theo's left hand, then a second later snorted in amusement. "You want to take the Anonymous Scholarship Exam? Sis, don't be ridiculous. That route doesn't look at social background, but the questions are designed to filter out geniuses. You haven't touched a book in a year and are just busy cleaning. You'll only embarrass Mother if your name is at the bottom of the list."

"Just take care of your invitation paperwork, Rian. Your time is almost up," Theo said coldly without breaking stride. He walked past his half-brother, handed his digital exam card to the officer at the sensor gate, and stepped into the cold hall.

Rian stared at Theo's back with suppressed irritation. Meanwhile, Danu Handaya remained silent, his eyes narrowed sharply at Theo's slightly limping and stiff gait, as if analyzing something suspicious about his wife's stepson.

The examination hall was eerily quiet, filled only with the sound of fingers tapping on the screen of a special exam tablet provided by the committee. Theo sat in the middle row, table number 142. The room was equipped with a high-tech signal jammer to ensure no candidates could use any external devices.

In front of Theo, a mini monitor lit up, displaying a five-minute countdown before the exam questions were revealed. Theo took a deep breath, holding back a small groan as his right ribs throbbed again from sitting too upright.

BEEP.

The screen turned a deep blue. One hundred multiple-choice questions and three Monia criminal law analysis cases appeared before his eyes.

Time: 120 minutes.

Theo squinted.

In the first thirty minutes, he moved quickly through the basic theory questions. His dormant brain began to work at an unusual speed. To him, the written laws of Monia weren't just academic memorization, but rather the rules of a rotten system that had oppressed his life.

He knew all too well how the financial regulations of the lower classes worked, having personally experienced how loan shark factions twisted the law to extort his mother.

However, as the second half of the exam approached, the real challenge began. The case study questions on the final page no longer used the standard school format. They detailed [A Logistics Asset Ownership Dispute and Inheritance Rights of a Company Left Without a President Director Due to the Death of the Legal Owner].

Theo froze. His heart pounded, pounding against his bandaged chest.

This wasn't just an exam question. This question was a true depiction of the ongoing conflict between the Atmaja Group and Agen RX. Theo realized something… the anonymous scholarship selection committee at Armagenda University had deliberately inserted this case to select those with a tactical understanding of the factional conflict in Monia. Whoever created this issue was trying to figure out if anyone could resolve the legal mess at the Atmaja Group.

Theo closed his eyes for a moment, recalling the notary-stamped documents Yanuar had shown him at his boarding house yesterday. The pages of Monia's faction's legal system, which he had briefly skimmed in the dim light of his dorm room, now played back in his mind with absolute clarity.

Theo's left hand began to move nimbly across the touchscreen. He wasn't using the standard resolution process taught in elite schools. Instead, he typed out a dirty yet legitimate legal analysis—exploiting a loophole in Article 12 of Monia's independent faction regulations, which allows a biological child's inheritance rights to immediately override all board decisions if the heir successfully registers their legal status as an active student under the university's legal protection.

He outlined his asset defense strategy using cold, tactical, and sharp language. Every sentence he typed was no longer an exam answer, but a blueprint for his war plan to reclaim Rouza Grill and legally destroy Valen's Baru faction's influence.

Theo's temples had been drenched in cold sweat for the past twenty minutes. The ache in his ribs had worsened due to his unsteady typing position. His vision blurred occasionally, but his fingers didn't stop moving until the final point of his legal analysis was complete.

Just as the exam's end alarm rang throughout the hall, Theo pressed the Submit button.

An hour later, the outer hall was filled with the panic and din of hundreds of students gathered in front of a giant projector screen in the main lobby. The results and the name of the sole anonymous scholarship recipient for the Law Department would be displayed there.

Danu Handaya and Rian hadn't left yet; they were standing on the second floor of the rectorate building, which had a glass balcony overlooking the outer hall lobby, gathered with several campus officials.

"This year, the faction legal case is being deliberately complicated to see if any of the lower-district students have political instincts," the Dean of Law told Danu. Danu nodded slowly, his eyes remaining fixed on the ground.

BEEP.

The giant projector screen below flickered, updating data. The name of the highest scorer was announced with a prominent number.

[ANONOMIC SCHOLARSHIP SELECTION RESULTS – LAW DEPARTMENT]

1st Place: ACCUMULATED SCORE: 98.5 – PARTICIPANT ID: 042-TA (NAME: THEO ATMAJA)

The lobby below suddenly filled with confused whispers from the hundreds of failed participants. From behind the second-floor balcony, Rian, who was watching the screen, immediately widened his eyes. His face suddenly paled. The last name 'Atmaja' written at the top of the list made his heart beat faster with disbelief.

"Dad... that... that's Brother Theo," Rian whispered in a trembling voice, staring at Danu.

Danu Handaya didn't respond to his stepson's words. His sharp eyes locked on the name "Theo Atmaja" on the projector screen. The successful businessman's face hardened instantly.

As someone familiar with this city's dark history, the name 'Atmaja' combined with his unwavering ability to resolve logistical disputes on the exam sheet set off a major alarm bell in his head. The stepson he had always considered street trash had just held the key to the most dangerous legal system in Armagenda.

Downstairs, Theo didn't wait to see their reactions any longer. He straightened up, ignoring the pain in his ribs. His steps felt more steady as he walked out of the building and toward the Vespa parking lot.

His first exam had been completed on paper. With his status as a law student at Armagenda University protected by faction law, the inheritance documents in his boarding room were no longer a piece of trash paper, but a legitimate weapon he was ready to use to drag Valen and his people into a true hell.