Chapter 112
“Ha, haha.”
Rose laughed as though she found this quite amusing.
And the other mages looked at me too.
“How about we teach that arrogant brat a lesson first?”
“Let’s do that.”
It seemed their opinions had become unanimous.
Not that it would make a difference.
“Ah, just so you know, even if you defeat me, you won’t be able to take the tokens. Keep that in mind.”
“Haha, we’ll find out once we catch you.”
I told them the truth, but they didn’t believe me.
Not that I was telling them to believe me, honestly.
If they believed me and ran away instead, it would only make things troublesome for me.
“So, when are you coming? My neck’s going to break from waiting. Don’t tell me you’re too scared to shoot?”
I looked over at them and snickered.
The mages immediately began chanting spells.
“I’ll make you regret this!!”
“Encode, Fire Ar—”
“Spell Jamming.”
The moment I raised my wand and chanted, the mana of several mages who were casting spells scattered from their wands as though shattering.
“Y-you mean encryption? How did you—”
“Encryption doesn’t make jamming impossible.”
Encryption merely makes jamming difficult.
Of course, with proper encryption, I wouldn’t be able to jam it before it finished casting either.
“Encode, Ice Spear.”
‘Right, just like that.’
When Rose chanted, the empty air around her froze and took the shape of a spear.
“Encode, Bullet.”
—KWA-CHANG!!
Unfortunately, it shattered immediately.
I quickly prepared to block the other spells.
The properly encrypted spells finished casting.
“Encode, Fire Ball!”
“Encode, Water Bullet!”
Spells filled the air with terrifying momentum.
“Encode, Shield.”
—KWA-A-A-A-AANG!!
Spells of that level were certainly threatening.
It was a pure contest of firepower.
I blocked them all, but the shield shattered completely.
“Well? If you make more than a dozen mages your enemies, even you won’t make it out safely without a frontliner!”
Rose shouted confidently.
“Ice Spear, Triple!”
Three points in the air began to freeze.
“You’re right. It would be nice to have a frontliner about now.”
Dragon mana was a little dangerous to use on people.
Then why had I used it on Karnarof?
Because he wasn’t human, so it was fine.
[Is it my turn to go out?]
After continuously supplying mana to Leocan’s essence, I had gained this function.
The ability to communicate with Leocan inside the essence.
Leocan was rather taciturn and rarely initiated a conversation, but he would ask about my intentions in situations like this.
Leocan had finished preparing to deploy, but unfortunately, what I had to say was the opposite.
“No?”
[Yes?]
“Then I can be the frontliner.”
“What are you talking ab—”
Oz Caster.
With a single mutter, I reached the spot in front of Rose,
and struck her on the head with the flat of my blade as she stared at me in confusion and muttered,
“Casting fai—”
—KWA-A-AANG!!!
Rose was slammed flat onto the ground.
Her protector activated, but she was already unconscious.
The mages whose distance had been closed in an instant shouted in panic.
That completely eliminated their advantages in distance and numbers.
If they fired carelessly, they would hit their own allies as well.
“Damn it!! Don’t let him get close!”
“That bastard’s a battlemage!”
“Why is a battlemage that strong taking this exam now!?”
Battlemage?
I didn’t know what they meant, but I used spatial movement again.
“Hello?”
Creating distance was meaningless.
I only had to move my coordinates by that much.
“H-how…?”
“And goodbye.”
“H-hyaaaaaaaaah!!”
***
There had been several explosions and a fair amount of bloodshed, but the situation was resolved relatively quickly and cleanly.
“What should I do with these?”
I had gathered the tokens, but there were about twenty of them left in total.
I felt a little reluctant to give them back to those guys.
“Hmm…”
I looked deeper into the ruins.
Only the intermittent cries of monsters could be heard in the pitch-black darkness.
“Ugh.”
—TSUP-A-A-A-AANG!!
The tokens vanished into the darkness as I threw them with enough force to create a sonic boom.
It would take quite a while to find them again.
Only then did I take Elena out.
“W-what did you do!? And what is that space!?”
Elena swallowed hard as she looked at the great cavern, which had been devastated.
“I collected all five tokens. Isn’t that what matters?”
I showed her the five tokens in my hand.
“That’s not the important—”
“Let’s run!”
Too lazy to explain, I simply chose to sprint straight for the exit.
“W-wait for me!”
Elena hurried after me so she wouldn’t fall behind.
***
I submitted the five tokens and returned to the examination site on a Bima.
“Good work. You should be able to receive your exam results the day after tomorrow.”
Elena heard something similar.
And so, all the exams came to an end.
“Yumia!”
“Aris?”
Aris greeted me with a delighted expression outside the examination site.
“You worked hard on the exam… Who’s this?”
“Oh, she’s a friend who took the exam with me. She helped me.”
I said this while pointing at Elena.
“I see! May I ask your name?”
“I’m Elena.”
“I’m Aris Script.”
“S-Script!? That’s the Empire’s greatest noble family!”
“I-I’m a little embarrassed when you put it that way… Please treat me casually.”
Aris blushed.
“Is that okay?”
“Of course. I’ll guarantee it in the name of House Script.”
“Well, I treat you casually too.”
Honestly, from a modern person’s perspective, I didn’t know whether being a noble was really that impressive.
In the first place, the noble kids these days treated me with excessive formality.
After chatting for a while, Aris spoke up.
“Come to think of it, your clothes are in tatters.”
“Ah.”
We had traveled too fast on the Bima, and above all, there had been far too many battles.
As a result, our clothes had practically turned into rags.
“Let’s go to a clothing store. You too, Elena! Please think of it as a token of appreciation for helping Yumia!”
Aris took both of Elena’s hands with a smile.
Elena, who had a bit of a tsundere streak, didn’t know what to do in the face of Aris’s sunshine-like onslaught.
I tried to use that opportunity to sneak away, but…
“I have clothes, so I’m fi—”
“Yumia can’t sit this one out. Ruen is quite famous for its clothes, you know? Yumia, you don’t have many clothes here, do you?”
I was caught.
And so, Elena and I faced a future in which we became Aris’s dress-up dolls in exchange for new clothes.
***
Several days passed, and the results came out.
Of course, that wasn’t important.
‘What matters more is how much homework we’ll get during finals!’
“Through this opportunity, all of you have obtained your Rank 1 mage certifications without exception. You have acquired the Rank 1 certification that you would normally obtain during the first semester of your second year.”
Karnarof briefly wrote the next curriculum on the blackboard.
“This is the combat division’s curriculum. If you follow it faithfully, you will be able to obtain Rank 3 regular mage and Rank 1 battle mage certifications during the second semester of your second year.”
Why did it seem like the battle mage part was being emphasized slightly?
Was I the only one who heard it that way?
“Once you submit your report cards, I’ll distribute your assignments during the next class. With that, classes for this semester are effectively over.”
Karnarof snapped his fingers, and everything written on the blackboard vanished.
Applause rang out.
One class had ended before finals had even begun.
That was quite good news for the students.
Of course, I was a little different.
“And Yumia. Come to my office after dinner. There’s something I need to discuss regarding the exam you took.”
“Yep.”
Karnarof said this while looking at me.
Judging by his reaction, he had apparently already known.
This is screwed.
I should try negotiating for just a little less homework.
***
Karnarof’s office.
Several crystal balls and magic tools were balanced together to form a single large barrier.
It was a barrier that provided a positive boost to everything Karnarof did.
There was no room for variables there.
Everything was already in Karnarof’s hands.
However, external variables still needed to be controlled.
For example, someone who had applied for an exam several times more difficult despite all the warnings.
[What became of the talent you said you would send?]
One of the crystal balls lit up, and a voice played from it.
“It should be about time for her to arrive.”
[Then shall we proceed with this mission together with her?]
“There will be areas where she falls short. Filling those gaps will be your mission.”
[You mean experience?]
“Yes. I’ll leave those matters to you.”
[Understood.]
The crystal ball clicked off.
Karnarof immediately moved his pen, dipping it into the ink and writing in his notebook.
His full name was written on the document in elegant script by scribe magic.
“So, what are you going to do?”
Isabel’s voice echoed from one side of the room.
“Wouldn’t it be best to leave it to her choice?”
“Are you acting so relaxed because you’ve already recruited her?”
“Relaxed, am I?”
Karnarof wore a meaningful expression.
“If you can control that, anyway.”
“And if she chooses the Potion Department, don’t blame me?”
“Then so be it.”
With those words, Isabel disappeared from the room.
A few minutes later.
There was a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
Karnarof looked at Yumia with a displeased expression.
“You applied for the wrong exam.”
“I… did, didn’t I?”
Her eyes shifted from side to side, and her fingers fidgeted.
It was the characteristic reaction of someone who had done something wrong.
‘Thank goodness.’
At least she seemed to be aware of her own shortcomings.
“You learned from this, I trust. That things aren’t always easy.”
“Yep.”
“It’s a shame about the perfect score, but at least taking the battle mage exam will have been a valuable experience.”
A perfect score on the battle mage exam was not something it had been designed to let people achieve in the first place.
It required several coincidences, information, and thorough preparation.
There could be no shortcomings on the written exam, and naturally, one had to demonstrate perfect magic in the second exam.
In the third exam, one had to defeat all three opponents without allowing even a single valid hit.
And in the fourth exam, one had to arrive first on a Bima and obtain all five tokens.
The details varied, but this much never changed.
That was why Karnarof had never even considered the possibility of a perfect score.
“Yes… what?”
“Once you submit your report card, I’ll assign you homework in the areas where you fell short.”
“Wait a second.”
“Do you have something else to say?”
Karnarof’s prediction had been wrong.
“But I got a perfect score.”
In Yumia’s hand, raised with an awkward expression, was a golden card she had taken out of her Inventory.
The Imperial Palace pass meant one thing.
She had demonstrated overwhelming ability in every exam.