Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Chapter 6. Admission Test

“There’s something I’m curious about.”

Inside an old carriage that no one could call comfortable even out of politeness.

Kawin asked Vilcus, who was sitting across from him.

“You said Father once saved your life, right?”

“That is correct.”

“And that’s why you’ve stayed beside him all these years.”

“That is correct.”

“That’s what I don’t understand. Our family’s magic is clearly...”

“A worthy rival to static electricity.”

For once, Vilcus bared his teeth in a grin.

House Anper’s magic was useful only when clothes were covered in dust or lint.

It had nowhere near enough power to save someone’s life.

“It is natural that you find it strange. Back then, the family head’s Lightning magic was only slightly better than flint. However...”

Vilcus stroked his bare scalp.

There was a very old burn scar there.

“Even flint can play an important role when you’re surrounded by things ready to explode.”

“I see.”

A scar on his scalp and that sinister laugh.

Whatever had happened, the two of them apparently shared quite an explosive past.

Vilcus was not a suspicious person.

Kawin had already confirmed his sincerity through his breathing and the scent of his sweat.

He simply had trouble imagining it.

His father’s magic actually ‘saving’ someone.

“We have arrived. Let us get off.”

When Kawin stepped out of the carriage, a fairly prosperous city came into view.

The city where the Academy he would attend was located.

Ashfall.

“What an interesting place.”

Kawin’s clear blue eyes roamed around.

“There are plenty of shops, but you can also see ruins from war everywhere.”

“It isn’t called the ‘City of Ashes’ for nothing. Since it lies far from the capital, monsters and foreign tribes attack frequently. There is a reason the Academy here turned out the way it did.”

Kawin nodded.

Amazingly, these were the entirety of Tesca Academy’s rules.

[FIGHT!FIGHT!FIGHT!]

Fight without rest.

And rip your opponent’s head off.

Besides competing within the Academy, its students had historically served as cadet soldiers during wartime.

Naturally, they were expected to tear into each other like it was real combat.

“You must be truly careful from this point onward, Young Master.”

Vilcus’s voice sharpened considerably.

As though worried about a child left beside the water, he moved closer to Kawin.

“In a crowded city like this, anything can happen. No matter how much we pretend otherwise, we cannot hide the fact that we are country bumpkins from the provinces. That makes us excellent targets for swindlers and pickpockets.”

“Like this?”

Kawin grinned and raised his hand.

Two fingers belonging to a stranger were trapped in his grip.

“Let go!”

Vilcus’s shoulders jolted at the sudden turn of events.

A boy had been caught by Kawin.

And in his other hand was Kawin’s wallet.

“Wh... When did that happen!”

Vilcus stared dumbfoundedly at the pair.

They had barely entered the city, yet something like this had already happened?

But even more surprising was Kawin catching the pickpocket instantly.

“Let go! I said let go!”

The captured boy looked two or three years younger than Kawin.

He had the look of a boy just short of becoming a young man.

He struggled so violently that his sky-blue hair whipped around like a feather duster.

“Give back what you took and I’ll let go.”

At Kawin’s calm reply, the blue-haired boy bit down hard on his lip.

Then, looking deeply reluctant, he returned the wallet with his other hand.

But Kawin shook his head.

“That’s not enough. Hand over your wallet too.”

“What? That’s straight-up robbery!”

“Not something a petty pickpocket gets to complain about.”

The sky-blue-haired boy.

Eir felt as though he were dreaming.

How delighted had he been upon spotting two obvious country bumpkins?

Thinking fortune was smiling on him today, he used ‘Whisper Step.’

A First-Circle wind spell.

It was unimpressive on a battlefield, but perfect for stealing wallets.

It quickened his steps and concealed his presence.

Everything had gone perfectly right up until the moment he pulled out the wallet.

Until the country bumpkin snatched two of his fingers.

‘Damn it. How did he know?’

The corner of Kawin’s mouth lifted slightly.

Seeing the boy look both frustrated and curious naturally made him smile.

He hadn’t needed the grimoire’s power to catch a pickpocket.

Just his sense of smell.

From far away, the scent of the boy’s sweat had suddenly intensified.

Naturally, Kawin had become wary.

“If you’re going to gamble on emptying someone else’s pockets, shouldn’t you at least put your own on the line?”

“D-don’t act so smug!”

Having lost his own wallet, Eir clenched both fists.

“You must’ve gotten lucky somehow, but if my sister ever catches someone like you...!”

“Your sister?”

“Yeah! She’s a mage talented enough to earn admission to Tesca Academy!”

“Oh?”

Kawin rubbed his chin as though troubled.

“How would that proud new student feel if she heard her little brother got dragged off by the guards for pickpocketing?”

“Y-you crazy bastard! You took my wallet too!”

Eir drew out all his mana and used ‘Whisper Step.’

Then he fled as fast as his legs could carry him.

“He’s fast.”

Still holding Eir’s wallet, Kawin asked Vilcus,

“You saw him too, right? That kid’s a mage. He must have completed at least his First Circle.”

“That is how it appeared to me as well.”

“If he has a completed Circle but still has to pick pockets here, it must be because of money, right?”

Vilcus merely nodded instead of answering.

Talent alone was not enough to enter an Academy.

One needed either the wealth of a merchant family like the Prios family or sponsorship from a noble house.

‘No wonder we lose to the Iron Empire.’

Astallon, the empire of the novel’s protagonist.

Everyone there was given an equal opportunity.

Noble or commoner, even a slave convicted of a crime could earn a new status by proving their strength.

The curriculum was brutal, but there were no fees.

It was the complete opposite of Kawin’s empire, Illumina.

Even without knowing the novel, it was obvious which side would ultimately win.

“Worrying about it won’t solve anything.”

For now, he should enjoy his unexpected profit.

Kawin shook Eir’s wallet and winked at Vilcus.

* * *

The day of the entrance ceremony arrived.

Vilcus had left yesterday immediately after lunch.

They had come here together by carriage.

He would return on foot.

He said that if he walked for three straight days and nights, he could catch a merchant caravan and ride the rest of the way for free, so he needed to hurry.

“Young Master, you are the pride of House Anper. Engrave that fact upon your heart every morning.”

Saying it was fortunate that the pickpocket had provided them with a few extra necessities, Vilcus departed.

He stubbornly refused the carriage fare Kawin offered him.

Watching his back somehow reminded Kawin of the library director.

Had the director’s crown been that bare too?

With that ridiculous thought, Kawin greeted the morning alone.

“Whoa.”

Vilcus had repeatedly warned him not to act like a country bumpkin, but Kawin couldn’t help letting his mouth fall open.

He had never seen such an enormous building in his life.

Several roofs rose like horns above spotless white outer walls.

Countless windows gleamed with a faint emerald light.

The structure was so vast that it was impossible to take in the whole thing at once.

“If Tesca is this big, just how enormous is the Academy in the capital?”

Seeing an enormous structure for the first time naturally made one feel overwhelmed.

Kawin took a moment to calm himself.

He had an admission application in hand, but the process was not yet complete.

He had to prove on-site that he was a ‘First-Circle mage’ before becoming an official student.

“What is this... a parking lot?”

When he reached the Academy’s front gate, rows of enormous carriages in every shape and color filled the area.

Each one flaunted its owner’s wealth and status.

Kawin whistled while looking at them.

House Anper struggled even to rent a single battered carriage.

Turning his gaze, he saw others like himself approaching on foot from afar.

Most of them were commoners.

“There’s already an invisible line before the test even begins.”

Perhaps he should call it fortunate.

Once admitted, every student received equal status.

Noble and commoner alike were required to address each other by name.

For Kawin, who was unaccustomed to etiquette anyway, that was easier.

“Do your best, Young Master!”

“My lady, if anything displeases you, send word at once. I shall come running immediately!”

“Third son of the great House Keynes! Go show them your pride!”

Kawin had never been to one, but was this what a military boot camp felt like?

Some people shouted at the top of their lungs while others wiped away tears.

Most of the freshmen wore confident expressions.

Some were already sizing each other up with obvious hostility.

“The top freshman will be decided by this test, right?”

“Mind your own business. I doubt it concerns you.”

“Ha! You’re that third son of Count Keynes whose servants were screaming earlier, aren’t you? Have some shame.”

“...I wish they’d change the test. Make it about killing your opponent.”

Whatever.

Kawin walked straight toward the main building.

Reminding himself why he had come here.

‘FIGHT.FIGHT.FIGHT.’

Kawin’s objective aligned perfectly with the Academy’s rules.

One of the abilities he had obtained by deciphering the grimoire.

[Passive: Electric Predation]

An ability that allowed him to absorb his opponent’s mana during battle.

Tesca Academy could hardly be a better stage for using it.

‘And there’s one more thing.’

A grimoire said to have never been deciphered by anyone.

That grimoire toured different academies as an exhibition piece, and this year it would be kept at Tesca Academy.

What if that book, like Dharma’s grimoire, was also written in Braille?

‘Only I can decipher it.’

Just imagining it sent chills down his spine.

Since the empire called it a national treasure, it should be comparable in value to Dharma’s grimoire.

He had tried organizing his thoughts to calm down, yet his heart only beat faster.

Kawin took a deep breath and stepped into the entrance-test area.

-Greetings, everyone!

A towering platform stood before the space where hundreds of people had gathered.

And upon it stood a young man in a black suit.

‘A young man? No. That’s...’

A wooden puppet.

It was so intricately made that Kawin hadn’t noticed at first, but now he could see its skin was made of wood.

The puppet stood alone on the platform before abruptly declaring,

-Ha-ha! We shall now begin Tesca Academy’s entrance examination!

“What is that?”

“Where are all the professors? Why is there only a puppet?”

Its bizarre appearance was enough to prevent even the usual applause.

Kawin narrowed his eyes at the wooden puppet.

A special sense capable of seeing through another being’s mana.

Electro-Perception told him the answer.

The puppet might look ridiculous at first glance, but an almost nauseating amount of mana churned around it.

‘Puppetry.’

A branch of magic said to be several times harder than summoning,

which directly calls forth another being,

or necromancy, which forcibly inserts another spirit into a vessel.

The more humanlike its movements, the greater the puppeteer’s skill, and this wooden puppet seemed human in every way except its skin.

Which meant,

‘Fifth Circle. No, at least Sixth Circle.’

-I am Dorothy, the headmaster of Tesca Academy. Ten people at a time will step forward, hold a cube, and close their eyes.

The name felt slightly odd considering the wooden puppet’s appearance.

But that didn’t matter.

Puppeteers rarely used their real names openly.

-There is no need to create a magic circle or recite an incantation. The moment you hold the cube, your Circle will activate automatically! Ha-ha!

As soon as it finished speaking, ten objects appeared simultaneously in midair.

Fist-sized cubes glowing in every imaginable color.

The applicants’ eyes became filled with a rainbow of light.

Before anyone could even gasp in admiration, the cubes settled in front of the students.

-We shall begin!

The applicants rolled up their sleeves with confident expressions.

An admission application could not be issued in the first place without a completed Circle.

So this was essentially a formality.

Unless someone’s Circle had suddenly been destroyed or a substitute had come in their place, there was no reason to fail.

Whoosh!

When one student gripped the cube, flames blossomed,

Whirr!

before another, wind swirled.

Splash.

And before another, a stream of water poured down.

Then,

“What’s with him?”

“Why isn’t anything happening?”

“Could it be...?”

Nothing happened at all in front of Kawin as he held the cube.