Chapter 4: Chapter 4. The Entrance Exam (1)

The terrorist attack at sea was brought under control without serious harm.

The students’ resistance had thrown the terrorists into confusion, and security personnel from the academy had eventually arrived and stormed aboard, subduing them all.

Had the students not resisted, the terrorists would have retained control and staged a hostage crisis, forcing the academy into a long, nerve-racking negotiation.

“We’re fortunate it ended as well as it did. If the students hadn’t bravely stepped forward, the damage would have been worse.”

Professor Horizon, head of the academy’s security department, frowned after hearing the report on what had happened aboard the boat.

“Still, this is utterly absurd. We’ll have to tighten security screening at the dock.”

The boys and girls who had come to take the entrance exam could all have been killed. It had happened outside the academy, but even so, it should never have happened at all.

Horizon would probably face a barrage of criticism at the next faculty meeting. There was no avoiding the political fallout.

“You said there was a boy who detected magic being cast?”

“Yes. Apparently, he realized that the terrorists’ leader had used magic to cause the explosion.”

“Is that possible? How could an incoming student tell the difference?”

“Well… he said he could sense the magic being cast…”

“…”

“Could the boy have been mistaken?”

In the past, magic had required spoken incantations or drawn magic circles, making it obvious when someone was preparing a spell.

Modern magic was different. A mage used “formula language” to construct a complex spell formula in their mind, then projected it into the real world. This applied a formula that had existed only in the mage’s consciousness to reality, producing a magical phenomenon.

Constructing a spell formula took time, but it all happened inside the caster’s head. It was virtually impossible for anyone else to notice.

“No. Perhaps he wasn’t mistaken.”

“Pardon?”

“If he read the spell formula… at the instant it was projected into reality, it would be possible.”

“He read the spell formula?”

“Yes.”

“Th-that’s impossible. A spell formula is projected into reality in a mere instant… How could a student read it? By any reasonable standard, it’s impossible.”

“Quite right. By any reasonable standard, it is impossible. But… the world of magic occasionally defies reason.”

“Pardon?”

“It seems…”

With a thoughtful stroke of the chin, Horizon murmured with interest,

“We may be about to see the first mage in quite some time with a talent for ‘reading comprehension.’”

Even after the guards finally arrived and rescued us, we still weren’t free to go.

We had to submit to questioning.

The three of us who had first stood up to the terrorists were questioned for even longer than everyone else.

By the time we had finished being questioned face-to-face with the captured terrorists, night had already fallen.

“Whew, that took forever. I need to study for the exam.”

“It really did.”

Kane Trigger, the black-haired girl, and I.

The three of us were sitting in the waiting room of the academy’s security office, talking.

“Oh, thank you for stepping forward so bravely today.”

The girl bowed her head to us.

“My name is Senia Artian. And your names are…?”

“I’m Kane Trigger. This guy here is Eriol Valencia.”

Kane rested a hand on my shoulder as though we were close friends and introduced me himself.

“Wait, Artian? Are you from the Artian family? The famous swordsmanship family?”

“Oh, yes…”

“Ah, that explains it. I thought there was something different about the way you moved.”

The Artian family, renowned for swordsmanship.

Like the Trigger family of assassins, they were one of the continent’s famed “Ten Great Families.”

They had once been renowned as the foremost of the Ten Great Families, but with the development of magic, their standing was no longer what it had been.

Still, a distinguished family is a distinguished family. I suppose the academy really does attract a lot of people from prominent houses.

I didn’t know where they stood within their respective families, but belonging to one of the Ten Great Families was a mark of status in itself.

There was no comparing them to someone like me, born into an ordinary provincial noble family like the Valencias.

“But why come to the academy if you’re an Artian?”

“I want to study magical swordsmanship…”

Magical swordsmanship was exactly what it sounded like: imbuing a sword with magic to fight.

It was a fairly niche approach, but it seemed likely to work well in combination with the Artian family’s celebrated swordsmanship.

“Sounds a lot like me. I’m here to learn the academy’s orthodox magic and incorporate it into my family’s assassination magic.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Come to think of it, Eriol, why did you come to the academy?”

Kane turned his question to me.

“My family went broke.”

“What?”

“I had no idea how I was going to make a living, so I came to the academy to turn my life around.”

“…”

Kane stared at me, apparently at a loss for words.

Senia wore much the same expression.

But I paid them no mind.

I was thinking about something else.

That wildlife guide they took as evidence… Are they going to give it back?

An Illustrated Guide to the Wildlife of the Southern Jungles.

It was a thick hardcover. It hadn’t been cheap, either…

After being released from the security office, I spent the night at the lodgings I had booked in advance.

The next morning, I headed to the venue for the entrance exam.

It was bustling with more than a thousand people.

Not many people fail the entrance exam.

Passing the exam itself was fairly easy.

However, scores determined class placements. A poor score meant placement in a correspondingly lower class.

The lower classes received less advanced instruction and little support from the academy.

To receive a proper magical education here, I would have to do well enough on this entrance exam to get into at least an intermediate class.

The problem is… I’ve never taken an exam before.

I had never attended school or studied under a proper tutor.

I had solved practice problems in textbooks and reader quizzes in magazines… but this would be my first formal exam.

There’ll be a time limit, too. This won’t be easy.

With all the knowledge I had accumulated through reading, my results probably wouldn’t be terrible. Still, I couldn’t afford to be careless.

I had to be at least average.

If I want to succeed as a mage at the academy… I’ll have to keep my grades at least that high.

Just then, I spotted some familiar faces.

It was Kane Trigger and Senia Artian, whom I had seen yesterday.

They were chatting as they walked toward the exam venue.

Let’s pretend I didn’t see them.

Knowing Kane, he would latch onto me and start chattering the moment he saw my face.

Keeping my distance was the best choice if I wanted to concentrate on the entrance exam.

With that decided, I kept my head down and headed toward the exam venue.

“Cousin, is that Eriol Valencia over there?”

“Yes. He said himself that he was Kaisel Valencia’s nephew.”

“Walking around with his head hanging like that… What a gloomy fellow.”

Watching Eriol walk away alone, Monark Orson spoke with his younger cousin.

“Yes. Yesterday, he seemed to open a book every chance he got. He seems like quite a gloomy sort.”

“Was he studying for the exam?”

“I suppose so.”

“Burying his nose in a book this late won’t change his score.”

“Exactly. What an idiot.”

It was true that Eriol’s distraction yesterday had helped bring the incident to an end without much harm.

But Monark didn’t particularly like him.

“He’s Kaisel Valencia’s nephew… Once he’s at the academy, he’ll get all sorts of special treatment.”

“I’m sure he will. Professor Kaisel has enormous power here. With an uncle like that, he’ll try to take full advantage.”

“Tsk. The academy ought to be a meritocracy.”

Monark came from a powerful ducal family and had applied to the academy with his family’s expectations resting on his shoulders.

It had already been arranged that, if he graduated with excellent grades, he would be given a high-ranking government post.

For that reason, Monark had spent the past several years studying in preparation for the academy.

He had even used his connections to obtain some of the material that would appear on the entrance exam.

“I’ll take first place on the entrance exam… and put him in his place.”

“I’m sure you can do it, Cousin.”

Basking in his younger cousin’s flattery, Monark headed to the exam venue.

The applicants were assigned different rooms according to their examinee numbers. As it happened, he was in the same room as Eriol.

Good. Now, then…

At last, it was time for the exam, and the papers were handed out.

There were four subjects in total. The first session was a one-hour linguistics exam.

This passage is like… a brick.

Monark sighed softly at the densely packed text.

And since it was written in “Standard Scholarly Language,” which was used for academic purposes, rather than the continent’s everyday common tongue, simply reading it would take quite some time.

Ten written-response questions… Can I finish them all in an hour?

According to the information he had obtained beforehand, most students only managed to answer about half the questions.

Of course, the average score was even lower. He believed it was around thirty.

I need at least eighty to take first place. I’d better hurry.

With that thought, Monark concentrated on the first page.

First, he needed to work out what the passage was about.

“…?”

Just then,

he heard the scratching of a pen from somewhere ahead.

With everyone silently reading the passage, the sound was particularly loud.

Huh?

Monark looked up without thinking—and started in surprise.

Eriol Valencia had written something on his answer sheet…

Rustle!

And was turning the first page of the question paper over, moving on to the next.