Final Exam (1)

The next day, before the final exam, Professor Maria Gentile’s Basic Magic II class was held. It was a lecture that summarized the semester’s contents. Unlike Zebedee, who pushed the students off a cliff and made them climb back up, Professor Maria offered careful explanations to make everything easier to understand.

Zebedee was a typical genius, making his lectures hard to understand. As a student, he had skipped the small steps of learning to achieve the results immediately, and even now, as a professor, he skipped details and focused on the outcome. In contrast, Maria’s lecture was easy to understand. She had reached level 7 only in her fifties, and her specialty was building reinforcement and defense, which suited her sincere personality. Kleio looked down at the lecture book that contained a wealth of examples and anecdotes to help students understand the concept as well as the theory, as evidence of her sincerity.

‘Thanks to her, it’s easy for even a bad student to follow along. In fact, isn’t magic a practical study? Zebedee’s objectively wrong. A type like Professor Maria is a way better teacher.’

If she published her lectures, they might have become bestsellers. Professor Maria ended the class five minutes early as she oversaw the children writing down the lecture contents.

“Okay, this is the end of class. The Magic Basics II written test is next Monday, and the practical is Friday. The order of the practice is on the bulletin board, so please check it.”

“Yes!”

“Thank you!”

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There were many royal events at the end of the year, meaning that Arthur was busy at the castle. Isiel had disappeared into the library with her notebooks to study. Now that the assassins had stopped, Isiel didn’t need to follow Arthur as much as before. In that fiery school atmosphere, only Cel and Kleio remained relaxed as they had lunch together. Today’s menu was oven-baked gratin with mashed potatoes and herb salted cod with winter spinach sauté. The wine served alongside it was bright and lemony, without sweetness, and with a fair amount of acidity.

‘It goes well with the gratin. It starts with acidity, but the finish is rich like butter. Ha.’

Silently, Cel jabbed Kleio as he concentrated on the food, alternatively eating and sipping at wine.

“If you’re like this, your swordsmanship will fail. Okay? Stop drinking and wield a practice sword.”

“Are you telling me to stop drinking now that I’ve tasted this?”

Cel, who tilted her own glass lightly, showed off her knowledge of wine as she sipped at it.

“Well, is it Tolytum Glishni? Something pretty good has come out of the school cafeteria. Since it is the end of the year, I suppose.”

Indeed, she was the child of a Carolinger noble and of a hotel magnate.

“Speaking of, I should buy a few bottles from the liquor store.”

The wine Kleio had taken from the mansion had already been consumed. He preferred to make money rather than to spend it, but he would lavishly pay for alcohol. It was truly fortunate that this society was tolerant of drinking.

“Anything from 1879 would be okay… No, alcohol isn’t the problem now. Would you like to check the basic fencing posture this afternoon? Didn’t you say you would get third place and avoid the army?”

“What you don’t know is I’m in the magic class, so I don’t have to go around with you guys next year. I’ve already found out how they select exempt applicants.”

“Ha, what a ghastly expression.”

Kleio, smiling faintly, refilled his glass with the liquor held in a carafe. From the second year, the number of points for each subject was different from that of the first. In the magic class, the points were increased to 100 for majors of magic and 150 points for magic practice. The common subjects were 50 in classics and history, and the remaining 50 were allocated by 25 points per topic, with elective subjects decided by the students. Elective subjects included military studies, mathematics, and geometry, as well as modern foreign languages and geography, so his range of options was wide.

“When I finish, there will be no problem because my major scores will be the highest.”

“Wow, Sir Kleio. You’re a magic elite, right? You were very confident when you went against the vice-captain of the magic team who came to restart the barrier.”

“Cel, you don’t need to use my title.”

“Even if you say you want to live a simple life, you’re secretly provocative. You even made a bet against Vice-captain Sergey.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“There’s nobody in the school right now who doesn’t know the news. Ezra Sergey is a legendary madman. Everyone was excited to hear about it. I even bet money.”

“Legendary madman, what a nickname. Although his appearance was unusual.”

Kleio had no idea what was happening behind the scenes, apparently.

“The reason why he has that white hair and ivory eyes is because of a magic experiment he conducted when he was nineteen. The ether vessel broke, and he fell into a coma for four months. During that time, the color leaked out from his body, and he could no longer increase his ether sensitivity.”

“What?!”

Ezra Sergey was a wizard whose future many were watching closely when he was attending the school. However, because he lacked common sense but was overflowing with inquiry and action, he was trouble to Zebedee. It was said that he wasn’t interested in healing or defense, but was passionate about recreating legendary fantastical creatures.

‘That explains that rabbit. Ugh.’

“Before the accident, they thought he would make a chimera.”

“How did he go about that? No, in the first place, wizards can’t use magic that applies to their bodies.”

“That’s why he did it with a mana stone. There was a huge alabaster mana stone vessel passed down the generations in Sergey’s family, and he tried to use that by applying a complicated double load, then plant it in his body.”

“So, that magic wasn’t banned by the royal family? That information is still out there?”

“There was nothing forbidden about it, though there was only one mana stone of that size on the continent.”

“So he broke the heirloom and reached level 6 as a result? His ether was strong, and his skill was good. Level 6, no, maybe even more…”

“Everyone regrets that, but he doesn’t care. The purpose wasn’t to raise his ether level.”

“Then?!”

“I heard he tried to make a griffin after it happened. There was a legend that the alabaster vessel once received griffin’s blood.”

“Wow… Really…”

“Yes. He’s probably the biggest problem person ever produced by the Defense Force’s school in nearly thirty years.”

“I heard that he dropped out?”

“Who says that?”

“…He did.”

“Do you believe that? After waking up from a coma at the age of nineteen, Professor Zebedee refused to teach him anymore, so he went straight into the Defense Force. Since then, he has been repeatedly promoted.”

At this point, Kleio knew to some extent how it worked. Wizards who went directly to the field were generally higher in rank than those who only studied. He heard that there were many opportunities, as the risk was great. However, it was usually the job of low-level wizards or commoners.

‘I heard that the higher the level, the more precious they are, so they’re often delegated to research wizards…’

“He runs directly on the field. He didn’t seem a human capable of a noble spirit of sacrifice.”

“Right. He’s just someone who’s interested in ether-related abnormal events. He’s traveled all over the country, looking for materials to make a chimera.”

“It sounds like he’s from a great household, but why do they let their kid run around?”

“Sergey’s family is the largest marble-producer on the Dernier continent, so their family has great wealth and status. But what could be done? Even at that house, their fourth son had a strange mind.”

Kleio felt he was in serious trouble as he took the last bite of his food, which had already cooled down.

‘Was it a wise choice to put him here? Wouldn’t another wizard be better?’

***

The final exam schedule commenced. He didn’t even require the help of Behemoth for the magic test, and rather, writing magical formulas felt like a bit of a break. The history subject also went well this time, and, finally, Friday arrived. Behemoth circled around Kleio as he fastened the buttons on his coat.

“There’s no clown like that. Should you bother so close to the Festival of Lights?”

The Festival of Lights was the last week of December, a celebration before the New Year. The day following the winter solstice was regarded as the day when the spring sun was revived, and each house was lit up all night, making the streets the brightest they ever were all year.

“Well, I decided to do it anyway. It would be okay if I could use Ezra in the investigation.”

“Ezra is crazy. Is it worth it…? This cat is very skeptical. Is that all? The knight commander and the prince will be gathered in the stands. Do you want to do that in front of them?”

It was something Kleio had already considered, but his magic had already attracted plenty of attention. No magic could stop those words that had already spread.

‘If the magic I show is too weak, they will be suspicious I’m hiding something, and I want to avoid showing attack magic directly.’

Rather, Ezra’s suggestion allowed him to show off moderately harmless yet powerful magic. With all the buttons on his coat done up and the defense medal on his collar, Kleio pulled the mana stone snow quartz ring from his pocket. The ring was heavy, and on the polished side, he could see transparent crystals shimmering like snowflakes. Inside the ring was a decorative capital letter that appeared to be the crest of the Sergey family.

‘It’s a valuable mana stone.’

Ding-Ding-

He heard a bell announcing 11 AM. Putting on his gloves and grabbing his wand, Kleio turned toward the door.

“Shall we go out then?”

“It’s cold, but I want to see what goes wrong.”

“It is cold, but nothing will go wrong.”

Behemoth had insisted that he would watch the achievements of his uninitiated disciple once he had learned of Kleio’s plan.

‘He can’t be honest, anyway.’

Kleio left the dormitory.

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The place was crowded with visitors and parents. Under the attendant’s tent, he saw a magic team of assistants using [fever] magic to keep warm. There was much work to prepare for, so the staff and teaching assistants looked more haggard than the students. There was still a while left until the finals of the swordsmen class, the highlights of the final exam, but the seats were almost full.

‘Look, the police chief and Count Ramsdale are here. Aren’t they big shots? Don’t they have anything else to do?’

He could see Dione waving behind the unwelcome faces. Turning on Perception, he could see that she was mouthing, ‘You’re good.’ Suddenly, Behemoth was sitting in her lap, munching at a canape, ready to watch the show. Looking all the way around the parade grounds, Ezra was on the other side of the stands with a hand on his waist. A group had gathered around him, and it seemed he was receiving one-sided criticism.

“What are you doing to a child like that?”

“Experimentation? Wasn’t what you did to yourself enough?”

“Vice-captain, if you harm the second son of Baronet Asel, your family’s business will suffer…”

They were saying things like that.

‘Well… everyone thinks I’m going to fail.’

If so, this would be a little more entertaining.

“Next up, 1st-year magic class Kleio Asel. Please enter the test center.”

Hearing the call, Kleio stepped up as he felt the eyes of all the visitors fall on him at once.