Chapter 108
“Huh? What is this, really?”
“What on earth are you talking about, Yumia? You’re the one who hasn’t fully woken up, aren’t you?”
Robert asked with an incredulous expression.
Feeling wronged, I showed him the map.
“No, look at this! I was going the right way! The Rank 1 mage exam!”
“The Rank 1... battle... mage exam?”
“Yumia...”
Aris hesitated, looking flustered.
“I think you applied for the wrong one. Professor told us to apply for the regular Rank 1 mage exam, didn’t he?”
“…Eek.”
Aris showed me her map.
[Rank 1 Regular Mage Exam Site]
Ah.
It was marked there.
I understood everything.
The road, the world, Robert, Linia, and Aris weren’t at fault.
‘I just entered the wrong one.’
Damn it.
I had really screwed up.
Aris said as though comforting me.
“Well, I hear the common sections are similar to or a little harder than the regular mage exam, so maybe the professor will take that into consideration?”
“Huh, really?”
“Second-years in the combat division have to take the battle mage exam, so I know about it too. People say the common sections are similar.”
“Then there’s no problem... No, there is!”
That picky Karnarof would never give me a good score just because I got perfect scores in all the regular mage exam subjects!
From the outset, applying for the wrong exam because I was sleepy was already enough to warrant a reflective essay.
‘You entered the wrong exam? Ho ho, then write a short paper about why you filled it out incorrectly and why it couldn’t have turned out any other way, roughly as long as one written by someone who failed the regular mage exam.’
It wouldn’t have been strange if he said that.
The moment I heard those words, I might just run away.
If so, I had no choice but to somehow get a perfect score.
Then I’d throw myself at his feet and plead.
Begging him to exempt me from writing the report, at least.
Though “plead” was probably more accurate than “argue,” I had no choice.
“So cheer me on, everyone! I’ll come back with a perfect score!”
I shouted as I dashed off in the opposite direction, but...
“I’ll pray for your soul.”
“I’ll help you a little with writing the report.”
“...Yumia, even a Rank 3 mage would have trouble getting a perfect score on the battle mage exam.”
These guys had absolutely no faith in me.
And they called themselves my friends.
* * *
“The written exam will begin shortly! Those taking the Rank 1 battle mage exam, please proceed to Exam Room Five!”
Having ended up taking a different exam alone, I went to the other registration desk and submitted my identification token.
“Miss Yumia of Reinhart... You’re remarkably young.”
“Yep.”
“As expected of Reinhart. You’re verified. The exam room is over there!”
Leaving the friendly receptionist behind, I headed toward the exam room.
Well, I’d just have to do my best somehow.
There were quite a lot of people in the exam room.
Most of them looked older than me.
Some of them looked quite rough and didn’t look like mages at all.
I found my seat and sat down.
“We’ll collect everything except writing implements. In particular, please submit all wands.”
The proctor wore a white hat and cloak, with a golden badge pinned to their chest.
The proctor went around collecting the wands.
Of course, I didn’t hand mine over and simply put it in my Inventory.
It would be a hassle to retrieve it later, and more than anything, it was best not to let my weapon out of my reach.
“Did you perhaps not bring a wand?”
“Yep. I left it somewhere else.”
I lied as naturally as breathing, but apparently wasn’t caught.
“...Is that a writing implement?”
At that moment, the proctor took an interest in my ballpoint pen.
“Yep. Want to see it?”
I handed over the pen.
Jealous?
This is actually a pretty good one.
“...There’s no magical processing on it. And it doesn’t seem to have any other tricks, either.”
Ah, so that was what they meant.
I thought they wanted one.
I was being conceited.
Once the wands had been collected,
the proctor lifted one with a solemn expression and headed toward the podium.
Then the exam papers flew over and were delivered before me at precisely the correct angle.
‘I wish ours worked like that.’
It was much cooler than handing out ten pages, having everyone keep one booklet, and pass the rest back.
“The exam papers have been distributed.”
After confirming that thick exam papers had been placed before every examinee, including me, the proctor spoke.
“The morning exam will cover five areas over four hours. Please open the first page.”
And so we opened the first page.
“Each section has a set amount of time, and only during that time will you be able to view the questions and revise your answers.”
“Oho.”
I sneakily glanced at the back page.
The questions looked as though they had all been blurred out.
‘Is this... magic?’
More meticulous than I expected, huh?
Karnarof just slapped on a single anti-cheating spell and called it a day.
“After confirming that the pattern on your exam paper matches your token, begin the exam.”
I checked carefully.
“We’ll begin the exam.”
As soon as I heard that, I opened the exam paper and started solving.
I had solved all the problems meant to prepare us for the exam.
Of course, the questions always changed, and it was illegal even to provide difficult past questions.
‘I had to make do with theory questions and practice problems from other books.’
Still, I didn’t feel underprepared.
I even activated Dragon Eyes before starting, so I wouldn’t miss a single word of the questions.
1.
It was a question asking about the basic process of activating magic.
Three seconds was enough.
2.
It was a question about the numerical calculations for basic offensive magic, the world’s most famous magic formula.
I solved it in two seconds.
I finished all the basic questions and turned to the next page.
The sound of papers turning rang out almost simultaneously.
‘As expected, the first page is easy.’
And so, the second page.
11. The magic circle above is a wood-element spell that makes a tree flower.
Analyze it using Kehenet’s magic formula, and write out the entire solution process.
Also write at least three ways to implement this magic circle and uses for it, as many as you know.
As expected, somewhat difficult questions were appearing.
A magic circle filled a quarter of the page.
The rest was space for writing the solution.
But when I actually tried to solve the problem, I couldn’t help but feel flustered.
‘But... huh?’
This is easy?
I just had to apply the formula and list a few other implementation methods.
It was twice as easy as the practice problems Karnarof always gave me.
...What?
But Rowen had definitely said,
‘Even people from Reinhart said the written battle mage exam was difficult. The math and magic-circle subjects in particular are extremely hard.’
‘You probably won’t be able to solve the high-difficulty problems unless you’ve learned the second-year material.’
Maybe they had given me something blatantly easy because it was the first question?
Thinking that, I continued solving the problems.
—Flip.
—Flip.
—Flip.
But somehow, I couldn’t hear pages turning anywhere else.
I could hear them faintly now and then, but I was the only one turning pages at this pace.
Even the questions weren’t difficult.
The last one was the only one that was even a little hard.
‘Huh, it’s the last one?’
I even had thirty minutes left in the exam.
Normally, I would have buried my head in the desk and slept at this point, but today’s me was a little different.
‘I can’t keep studying after finals.’
I still had to climb the Tower, and more importantly, I had to play!
Since things had come to this, I would show them my sincerity.
I returned to the first page.
***
Marquis Madro was a Rank 5 court mage.
He also held a Rank 4 battle mage certification and was an examiner for the second gate on the path to becoming a battle mage.
And as a member of the noble faction, he was also under orders to keep an eye on Karnarof.
No, that phrasing was a little off.
‘It would be more accurate to say that he had no choice but to keep an eye on Karnarof.’
His faction wasn’t large, but he was more threatening than anyone.
After the written exam ended, he went there while avoiding Kren, the chief examiner.
He had heard that a first-year from Reinhart had applied for the battle mage exam.
‘News from Reinhart is the same as news about Karnarof.’
And he was surprised.
Because a girl who didn’t even appear to be twenty was there.
He hadn’t been able to get a close look, but she didn’t seem to have much mana either.
‘How did Karnarof think to throw such a girl into this vicious exam?’
It was an incomprehensible decision.
Thinking that, he obtained the written exam paper.
He, too, had the authority to look at it briefly under a simple pretext.
And then he was astonished enough for his eyes to pop out.
He couldn’t know the answers because it hadn’t been graded, but...
‘There’s no unnecessary fluff in her solutions.’
Besides, her understanding of magic was on a completely different level from that of the other examinees.
While the other examinees barely wrote the essential steps, she had so much to write that it felt as though she had selected only the best from an overflow of material.
“This... is a first-year?”
The written exam was quite difficult.
It was difficult enough that even the examiners openly said they should make it easier the following year.
To demonstrate this level of understanding on such an exam...
“No, we don’t know yet.”
The second exam.
It was none other than an exam demonstrating the offensive magic she was most confident in.
Even if someone was well-versed in theory, no one knew whether their practical ability to use real magic would be equally impressive.
This was where they would be separated.
‘Whether it’s really true that Karnarof is raising a monster.’