Chapter 6.4

A month passed by so quickly.

I don’t even remember how I spent the last week. Jeras, saying I needed to save my strength, got rid of the homework and instead gave me mock exams. I was so busy making my own answer key and reviewing that I was completely out of my mind.

The exam day has finally arrived. I pulled my hairband back tight and prepared myself.

The reflection in the mirror showed my eyes looked sharper and more pointed than usual, with the corners turned up. I felt like a seasoned warrior ready for a decisive battle. It’s not a bad feeling.

“His Highness Jeras is here to escort you! Oh, Lady. Why is your hairband so low? Let me fix it for you.”

“Just leave it. My bangs get in the way. Why did he come, anyway? I wanted to go quietly by myself.”

“He came to pay the donation fee on the spot if you fail the exam.”

“Are you going to bring me bad luck before I even start, Teacher?”

“Bad luck? What’s so bad about it? You can take the exam without any pressure.”

Jeras shrugged. His words always flowed so smoothly.

I deliberately tried to pass him by, but Jeras stuck close.

“Did you get enough sleep? Did you have breakfast?”

“I slept well, ate well, and pooped well.”

“I didn’t ask about that.”

I was so nervous that I just blurted out whatever came to mind. Jeras frowned in disgust. I guess I went a little too far.

Worried I might make another mistake and feeling embarrassed, I clamped my mouth shut and got into the carriage parked in front of the mansion. As I took the last step, Jeras asked from behind me.

“Lady, did you bring your admission ticket?”

“Of course… I didn’t! Hilda! Bring me the envelope from my room. Quickly!”

Hilda rushed back with the envelope. Jeras shot me a look that said he was utterly ashamed of me. What? People get nervous, it happens.

Ahem! I cleared my throat and sat down as if nothing had happened. Jeras sat across from me, and the door closed. I could hear Hilda and Alberto’s voices from outside.

“Good luck with your exam! I’ll be cheering for you, Lady!”

“I pray that you get a good result.”

The carriage started moving. My heart pounded as soon as we left the main gate.

Ugh, what do I do? My mind is a complete blank, and I can’t remember anything.

Let’s see… the emperor who completed the law codes was Emperor Auros III, and the emperor who first introduced the tax system was Emperor Caric I…

“Lady, are you nervous?”

“I’m reviewing, so don’t talk to me. Was it Caric I or Gawain who developed the roads…”

“I’ll help you relax. Look at me.”

Before I could answer, Jeras’s hand gently held my chin and lifted it. Our eyes met, and Jeras smiled sweetly. And then…

His face suddenly came closer.

A heavy silence settled in the carriage. Jeras, looking down at me from a slightly higher position, had an expression I couldn’t read at all.

I wanted to turn my head away from the awkward atmosphere, but Jeras was holding my chin, so I couldn’t. Should I say something weird again to break the mood? But I had no idea what to say in this situation.

“Ah, say ‘ah.'”

“What? All of a sudden… Mmph!”

Something round and hard was slipped into my mouth.

What is this? This good-for-nothing, what did he just make me eat? Surely, he’s not pretending to take me to the academy only to lead me to some deserted temple again, is he?

It wasn’t so bitter that my tongue went numb, nor did it have a foul smell. I couldn’t just swallow it without knowing what it was. But Jeras, as if he could read my mind, covered my mouth, preventing me from spitting it out.

“Mmph! Mmmph! Mmph!”

“It’s nothing weird, just swallow it. It’s a hard-to-find… Ah! Lady, are you crazy?”

Not a chance. I managed to open my mouth and bit Jeras’s finger. I bit it really hard, so it must have hurt a lot.

Jeras took off his glove and examined his bitten finger. In the meantime, I spit out the candy-like thing into an empty cup. It was a dark green color, half the size of my pinky nail, and it wasn’t perfectly round; it looked like it had been cut in half.

It looked extremely suspicious.

“Even if you’re a squirrel, you shouldn’t just bite people.”

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?”

“It hurts. Look at this. There’s a tooth mark.”

Jeras pretended to be in pain and held out his finger. What tooth mark? There was nothing there.

I made a clicking sound with my teeth and threatened him, and the crybaby pulled his finger back.

“You’re just so suspicious.”

It was ridiculous how he pouted as if to protest. Seriously, who was the one in the wrong here?

“Don’t you think it was wrong to just shove it into my mouth without warning?”

“No, I don’t. I’ve been your teacher for a month. A teacher would naturally prepare something helpful, wouldn’t they?”

“Oh, really? Then why don’t you explain it? What is this?”

“It’s a medicine that helps you stay awake and calms your nerves. The ingredients are so rare that it’s very hard to find.”

Now that I heard that, it sounded familiar. It was like a “Cheongsimhwan”*. I guess they have things like that here, too. It seems places where people live are all pretty similar.

[T/N: a traditional Korean herbal medicine used to relieve anxiety, stress, and improve mental clarity]

I was staring at the medicine, feeling oddly happy and amazed, when Jeras urged me on.

“Now that you know, why don’t you eat it? You have to eat it before the exam for it to take effect on time.”

The part about it being hard to find was probably a lie, but I was a little touched that he had brought it for me. Yeah. He should do commendable things like this sometimes.

It would be a shame to mess up the exam because of my nervousness, so I’d better eat it.

I was about to swallow the medicine when I asked him something I had been curious about.

“By the way, is it supposed to look like this? It looks like it’s been cut in half.”

“That’s how they are.”

Well, I guess so. I didn’t ask any more questions and swallowed the medicine. It suddenly felt very real that I was about to take an exam.

Unlike me, who was calming my churning stomach with cold water, Jeras had his arms crossed and his eyes closed. Was he sleeping? He wasn’t taking the exam, so he was just being carefree.

“We seem to have arrived.”

“Already?”

How much time had passed? It felt like we hadn’t been far from the Grand Duke’s residence when the carriage stopped. The door opened, and the stairs were smoothly lowered.

Jeras, who had uncrossed his arms, got out of the carriage first. Then he held out his hand to me. The beautiful smile on his lips reminded me of the night of the ball when he had escorted me.

“I’ll pay the donation fee, so don’t worry and just relax, Student Eloe.”

“How very gracious of you, Teacher.”

If only his personality were as handsome as his face.

I pretended to step on the stairs and aimed for Jeras’s foot, but I failed. He was so annoying in every way that he drove me crazy.

Huffing and puffing, I got out of the carriage and gasped in admiration at the towering blue-gray building.

***

With a history spanning well over 300 years, Haiola Academy lived up to its reputation as the best on the continent, boasting an immense size. At first glance, it looked about half the size of the Imperial Palace.

I couldn’t have possibly missed such a massive facility, but I hadn’t even come close to it since I arrived in the capital. I wondered how that was possible, but I was told that the entire academy grounds were enchanted for safety and security. Something about a spatial distortion spell.

To be honest, I didn’t listen to the full explanation. I was too nervous.

‘Is that medicine even working?’

I followed the floating guidance arrow through the air.

I had parted ways with Jeras a while ago. Escorts weren’t allowed into the exam hall and had to wait in a lounge near the entrance. An academy employee recognized Jeras, and Jeras tried every trick he could think of to follow me, using his status and connections, but he failed. When nothing worked, he resorted to, ‘Do you know who I am? I’m the prince!’ It was so embarrassing I wanted to die.

And what did he plan to do if he came in, anyway? He would only be a distraction.

The arrow flickered in front of a classroom. I must be here.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. Inside the spacious classroom, desks and chairs were arranged at a reasonable distance. There were a total of ten desks, and three people were already seated. Two of them looked at me, and one was busy flipping through a book.

“Hello. May I see your admission ticket?”

A woman with glasses, who looked like a proctor, approached. I showed her my admission ticket, and after carefully examining it, she nodded and pointed to a desk in the middle.

“This is your seat, Lady Eloered. The exam will begin on time, so please have a seat and wait.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

I sat down and took out my small notebook. It was a notebook filled with the core essence that Jeras and I had extracted. I read through it once with my eyes and recalled it again in my mind, doing a final check. By the time I was done, all the empty desks were filled.

There were five women and five men. Most of them looked to be in their mid-teens, and three people looked like adults: me, the woman next to me, and the man in the front.

“The exam will begin in five minutes. You cannot leave during the exam, so please take care of any business now.”

At the proctor’s words, some of the applicants went out of the classroom. I held my pounding heart and took a few deep breaths.

The woman next to me rustled around and took something out to put in her mouth. Huh? It looked similar to the medicine Jeras gave me. But why was hers perfectly round?

“…Would you like one?”

“Pardon? Oh, no. It’s okay. I’m sorry.”

I had been staring too intently. I quickly apologized, embarrassed, and turned my head. It was clear that Jeras had kept half of the medicine for himself.

Where and why did he keep it? It wasn’t important, but I was curious. Did he eat it himself?

‘No way.’

Just then, a bell rang. The proctor clapped twice, and a paper and a pen appeared on each desk.

“The Haiola Academy special entrance exam will now begin. You have three hours remaining until the exam ends. The bell will ring once every hour to let you know the time.”

I didn’t have time to be amazed by the sudden appearance of the paper and pen; the exam had already started. I grabbed the pen, but my hand was trembling and felt so sweaty that it slipped and fell.

It was supposed to prevent sleepiness and calm my nerves, but it didn’t seem to be working at all. What a scammer.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. Don’t be nervous. This isn’t the Suneung* where I’d have to suffer for another year if I failed. If I fail, I’ll just tell Jeras to pay the donation fee.

[*T/N: Korean SAT]

As I thought that, my heart, which felt like it was about to jump out of my chest, gradually calmed down. My hands, with their trembling subsiding, gripped the pen.

The test was a total of eight pages, two pages for each subject. Hmm, but this…

‘This is too easy?’

The history and language questions that had given me so much trouble for the past month were flowing out effortlessly. It felt like the answers were just popping out like a vending machine the moment I read the questions, without me even having to consciously recall them.

It was like I wasn’t accessing memories I had crammed in a short period but rather recalling common sense I had acquired over time. The feeling reached its peak when I was solving the etiquette questions.

As I was mindlessly writing with the pen, I suddenly realized. This wasn’t “Han Seha’s” knowledge; it was “Eloered’s” knowledge. Eloe hadn’t been disconnected from her studies. I had just been unable to properly use Eloe’s knowledge.

And to think I didn’t even know that… I’m so sorry, Eloe.

By appropriately using both Eloe’s and my own knowledge, I was able to solve all the problems in less than two hours. Even after going back and checking every single question from beginning to end, I had a good amount of time left.

I doodled some meaningless scribbles in the corner of the exam paper and fell into thought.

‘Why didn’t this knowledge come to me before?’

*  * *

After finishing the written exam, the applicants, including myself, moved to a new location for the practical exam. The practical exam was done one person at a time in front of the examiners, where we had to showcase our magic or swordsmanship skills. The order was determined by a random drawing. I was number seven.

Jeras had said I just needed to show that I could handle divine power to some extent, so I wasn’t as nervous as I was for the written exam. The written exam had also been much easier than I expected.

“Next, applicant number seven, please come in.”

“Yes.”

Three examiners were seated in a row, watching me.

A middle-aged man with a long scar over his left eye, a woman with black hair tied in a ponytail, and lastly, a person wearing a hood that concealed their entire face.

People like that are usually the final boss. Anyway, they were all quite unique.

I stood in a suitable spot and bowed.

“I am Eloered Shu Le Kilmaria. I would like to show you a simple divine magic spell. Please be kind.”

“Oh my, how exciting. Go on, show us.”

The woman with the ponytail said cheerfully. She seemed like a capable and popular teacher with a good sense of humor and excellent skills. If I pass, I must take her class.

I was already getting ahead of myself, but I was determined. I’d finish this quickly and go to lunch. I was hungry.

I closed my eyes. I recalled Grandpa Mason’s teachings and focused my mind to raise my divine power. A warm energy slowly rose from my toes. I gathered the energy in my hands, as if molding a snowball.

“Medetia!”

I stretched my arms forward and shouted. It was a healing spell that was somewhere between a beginner and intermediate level. I chose this one because I thought the purification spell, ‘Puratio,’ wouldn’t have any special effect here.

I felt the divine power gathered in my hands disperse and opened my eyes.

“That was good. If you don’t have any other spells to show us, then your practical exam…”

“Another spell…”

The hooded person interrupted the ponytail woman. It was an ambiguous voice that sounded like a woman’s and a boy’s at the same time. The voice was so quiet it was hard to hear properly.

“Could you… show us another spell?”

This time, I heard it clearly. The man with the scar looked at the hooded person with a slightly surprised expression. The atmosphere instantly became strange.

Did I do something wrong? Feeling anxious, I quickly gathered divine power. This time, instead of healing or purification, I chanted a beginner-level blessing spell. I kept my eyes open to confirm the result myself.

“De Amoar.”

The light that flew from my hands split into three and seeped into the examiners. A blessing spell from someone who wasn’t an official priest only made them feel a little better.

The magic was successful, but a heavy silence filled the exam hall. Something must have gone wrong.

I was watching the three of them when I was startled. The person with the hood jumped up and grabbed my hand.

“…I finally found you.”

“Pardon? Me?”

“The light magic that couldn’t be inherited since Archmage Haiola… my wait was worth it.”

Haiola? The archmage who founded the academy? Why is his name being brought up here?

I was flustered and tried to pull my hand away, but I failed. The woman was much stronger than she looked.

“Huh? No, I used divine magic, not light magic…”

“That’s not divine magic. It’s light magic.”

The person said in a slow but firm tone and took off their hood. It was a late-teen girl with a neat and clean impression. More than anything, her heterochromatic eyes stood out.

“I’ve been waiting for you, successor of the light.”

The girl’s eyes, which had been dazed right after taking off the hood, now had a focused look.