Three days later, the overlords had finished building the inter-dimensional portals, and they were ready to leave. Laia waved them off, grinning. "Have fun! Bring back lots of refugees! And don't forget, if you clear those dimension monsters, I bet we get a huge bonus!"
Kane nodded, grinning. "Don't worry! We'll be back in a week! And we'll bring you lots of gifts!"
They left, and Laia sat back down on her throne, about to eat another cheese sandwich, when her old comms device pinged. The one from Aetheris Academy, the one she hadn't checked in months.
She blinked, opening it. It was her old instructor, the one who'd done her realm awakening test. "Laia? Hey, you still alive? You missed the final exam last month. If you want to graduate, you need to come take it this week. Otherwise, you'll have to retake the whole year."
Laia froze.
Wait.
Final exam? Graduation?
Oh right! She'd forgotten! She'd been so busy doing all those missions, making all that money, she'd forgotten she was still a student! She needed to graduate! She'd worked so hard to get into that academy, she couldn't just not graduate after all that!
She immediately stood up, grabbing her bag. She needed to go back to the academy! Take the exam! Graduate properly!
Just as she was about to teleport, the overlords teleported back in, grinning, covered in a little inter-dimensional dust. "We're back! We cleared all the higher dimensions! Brought all the refugees there, 10 billion more people! They all want to join the realm, said they heard we have the best god around!"
Laia blinked, then grinned. "Wow! Great job! Hey, guys, I'm going back to the academy! I need to take my final exam! Wanna come? They have really good cafeteria cheese sandwiches there!"
The overlords froze.
Wait.
The Overgod? Was going back to that little mortal academy? To take an exam?
Why? Was that part of his plan? To hide again? To walk among mortals like he used to?
Oh right! He loved doing that!
They nodded immediately, grinning. "Sure! We'll come with you! To protect you!" Laia nodded. Oh right, they just wanted to get that cafeteria food again. That made sense.
Then, they all teleported to the academy.
When they arrived, the entire academy froze. The students, the teachers, everyone, staring at Laia, and then at the overlords behind her—all the overlords of the races, the Chaos Lord, the War God, the Void Emperor, the Higher Gods, all of them, standing behind her, looking like her personal bodyguards.
Her old instructor ran over, bowing deeply, so deep his head almost touched the ground. "Miss Hayes! The Supreme Overgod! You're back! You don't need to take the exam! We'll give you your diploma right now! You can graduate automatically! No need for tests!"
Laia blinked. "Wait, no! I want to take the exam! I studied for it! I wanna graduate properly, like everyone else!"
The instructor nodded immediately, scrambling to get out of her way. "Right! Right! Of course! The exam room is right this way! We'll get you the best desk! No one will disturb you!"
Laia headed into the exam room, and the overlords waited outside, standing guard, making sure no one even dared to breathe too loud, to disturb the Overgod while he took his final exam.
An hour later, Laia came out, grinning, holding her exam paper. "I finished! I think I got an A! That math problem was a little hard, but I got it!"
Her old instructor hurried over, handing her the golden diploma, already engraved with her name. "Here you go! You graduated! Valedictorian! Of course! The best student we've ever had!"
Laia stared at the diploma, grinning so wide her cheeks hurt. Wow! She did it! She graduated! Just like she'd always wanted, back when she was just a broke orphan scrubbing mugs at the tavern.
Then, the overlords walked over, grinning, already pulling up new schematics. "Hey, Overgod! We just got a message from the Higher Gods! There are more universes outside the multiverse! The Outerverse! They have refugees there too! And those Outerverse monsters! We can go clear them! Bring all the refugees! Protect you forever!"
Laia blinked, then grinned, doing the math in her head. More refugees? More tax?
Wow.
She'd just graduated, she'd been planning to retire and eat cheese sandwiches all day. But... that was a lot of money.
She nodded. "Sure! We can do that! Just one more mission!"
The overlords cheered, and headed off to prepare the new Outerverse fleet.
Laia stared at her diploma, then at her cheese sandwich, then at her bank account, which was already so big she couldn't even read the number anymore.
She'd started this, just wanting enough money to pay her tuition, so she could stop scrubbing mugs.
Now she was gonna be the god of the entire Outerverse.
And she was gonna be so, so rich.