nero dropped out of high school, but, hear me out, not because he's not intelligent
he absolutely is! he's a very smart lad, but he strikes me as the kind of person who cares more for practical, applicable knowledge and prioritizes that over academic skills that he's pretty sure he'll never use
after all, he DID build blue rose all on his own! to him, shit like that is more useful than fuckin. calculus
not to mention that, from what i've gathered, his arm was injured and transformed into the devil bringer not very long before the beginning of dmc4 (i haven't been able to get my little goblin hands on any of the extra supplemental content, unfortunately, so im not entirely sure) and he trained with his new power in secret and figured out what he could do with his new arm ALL ON HIS OWN. if that doesn't speak to his intelligence then idk what does
and sure, he radiates Big Dumbass Energy and goofs off a lot of the time, but he does know how to consider his options, solve problems, and he even managed to stop his uncle and his dad from killing each other and even put an end to their conflict
so yeah nero's smarter than some people might give him credit for, even if he didn't finish high school
also hi, this post sat in my drafts for WEEKS and im just now getting back to it. i initially started making this post when i saw something about people thinking of nero as a dumb jock. he is Not. he's a very smart boy, just not in any so-called "conventional" ways. i don't think algebra and geometry and the useless shit they teach in high school are as important to him as knowing how to fix a vehicle or something of the like