“Haaa… So Bella, why did you drag me here? I’m so sleepy…”
Winnidith yawned over ten times in a row.
Theodore, whom she hadn’t seen in one year, had kept her talking until very, very late last night.
She thought she could have a good rest today and live a lazy life, but Isabella had dragged her out of bed early in the morning.
Half-dazed, she had her clothes changed and was brought to the Training Ground.
Coincidentally, it was the same Training Ground she had played in yesterday.
Here, 1,000 neatly dressed mages watched the entrance of the Training Ground with a mix of nervousness and excitement.
When she appeared, a clear commotion rippled through the crowd.
“Ugh… Bella, I don’t really want to play magic games today. Can you let me go back to sleep?”
Winnidith struggled to open one eye.
Seeing so many mages, she thought she had to compete with them in magic again, just like yesterday.
But yesterday she had the energy to play; now, she just wanted to go back to sleep!
“Just think of it as helping me, okay, Wendy? I can only rely on you here,” the Princess said.
Her voice was soft and pleasant, making one’s heart itch.
Well, it wasn’t impossible to move her hands a bit more.
Winnidith shook herself awake, drew her Staff from her Personal Subspace, and held it with both hands, aiming at the 1,000 mages.
‘Wait, why are there so many people?’
Winnidith’s eyes suddenly widened, and she rubbed them vigorously in disbelief.
The number of people hadn’t decreased.
The young lady’s face turned pale with fright, and even her voice became shaky.
“Bella… This… If all these people come at me at once, I’ll die.”
‘Although I’m a noble lady, I really can’t face 1,000 people at once!’
‘Even the Sea Blue Bracelet would be drained dry!!!’
“What are you talking about?”
Isabella tapped her on the forehead, annoyed.
She couldn’t bear to let Wendy get that tired.
Seeing that she still didn’t understand, Isabella simply stated her purpose directly.
“I plan to form a special unit of 300 people at Whispering Wind Fortress. This unit needs thirty mages, so please help me select those with better talent, Wendy.”
‘Oh, so it was just picking people instead of fighting. That’s much easier.’
Putting the Staff back into her Personal Subspace, Winnidith looked at the mages and felt a bit of a headache.
Selecting thirty out of 1,000 was still quite troublesome, especially when it came to something as ethereal as magic talent…
Oh!
Got it!
Winnidith’s eyes lit up.
Under the fanatical and somewhat questioning gazes of the mages, she crouched on the ground and drew something with magic power.
It looked… like a Magic Array.
The mages leaned their heads over to peek.
This was a Magic Array drawn by the Genius Mage; it might be some new type of magic that could cause a sensation throughout the country.
But they didn’t need to be so anxious because this Magic Array was designed for them to see from the very beginning.
“Done!”
As the last stroke of magic power fell, Winnidith stood up and clapped her hands with satisfaction, gesturing for the crowd to come and take a look.
The mages, who had long been unable to suppress their curiosity, naturally wouldn’t refuse.
In an instant, dozens of circles of people surrounded Winnidith and Isabella.
Some who couldn’t get a position even used Flight Magic to fly up.
But no matter how they looked at it, the Magic Array created by this Genius Mage seemed very ordinary.
‘Isn’t this just a common Level 2 magic? Any mage present could easily draw it.’
They were right.
The one Winnidith drew was indeed a simple Level 2 Magic Array—the Light Initiation Array.
It was the most common exam question in the Level 2 mage assessment, but she had slightly modified some parts.
Before Winnidith could triumphantly explain her carefully prepared exam question, a timid voice came from the crowd.
“Is this… drawn incorrectly?”
With that one sentence, Winnidith’s smile immediately froze on her face, while the surrounding mages thought nothing of it.
Drawn incorrectly?
How could that be!
Winnidith was a recognized magic genius, a future Magic Leader personally acknowledged by that Archmage.
Would she draw a Level 2 Magic Array incorrectly?
Most likely, that person had misseen it.
Winnidith looked in the direction of the voice.
Her sharp gaze pierced through the palpitating mages and directly picked out the person who had just spoken—a very young-looking, pink-haired girl who was half a head shorter than her.
Suddenly exposed to everyone’s sight, two blushes surged onto the little girl’s face.
Like a hamster, she tried to duck back into the crowd.
Unfortunately, the mages around her didn’t give her a chance to escape.
She could only watch, trembling, as Winnidith got closer and closer to her.
“What is your name?”
Winnidith asked.
There was no anger in her voice, which made the little girl feel much more relaxed.
“Monica… Monica Best. I greet Young Lady Winnidi—ugh!!!”
The pink-haired girl… Monica, covered her mouth and slowly crouched down.
From the sudden pronunciation error, it wasn’t hard to guess that she must have bitten her tongue out of nervousness.
The tears brimming in the corners of her eyes also proved this.
Winnidith was soft-hearted.
Seeing that she was crying from the pain, she waited quietly for her to recover.
But this didn’t mean Isabella would let precious time be wasted here for nothing.
“Your Highness, here it is.”
The accompanying Royal Knight was well-prepared and presented Monica’s files.
Isabella took a look and found nothing particularly striking.
Monica Best was born in a small village on the Imperial Western Plains.
After being discovered to have magic talent, she entered the Western Magic Academy to study magic.
Six years later, as an outstanding graduate of the academy, she became a member of the Iron Thorn Fortress Mage Corps and was later transferred to Whispering Wind Fortress.
Out of this mage group of 1,000, there were at least 600 similar resumes.
But since Winnidith cared so much about her, the girl must have her own merits.
“Wooo… ugh! I-I’m sowy!!!”
Monica, covering her mouth, suddenly realized the situation.
Without even having time to wipe away the tear stains on her face, she hurriedly apologized.
However, Winnidith hadn’t waited for her for so long just to hear an apology.
She pointed at the array carved on the ground and asked, “You said there’s a problem with my array. Can you point out where the problem is? And how would you solve it?”
The mages nearby were ready to watch a joke.
In their view, this girl, who had never been famous in the fortress, just wanted to use this opportunity to show off in front of the two Princesses.
To flaunt low-level magic knowledge in front of Lady Winnidith was simply overestimating herself.
Monica indeed thought so, but it wasn’t about overestimating herself; she truly saw the flaws in this Magic Array.
She hurriedly ran to the side of the array and crouched down, covering her mouth with one hand and pointing at the array on the ground with the other.
“There’s also here…”
“Just point out one spot,” Winnidith stopped her.
“Oh.”
The surrounding mages gradually realized that the atmosphere was a bit off, and some were even starting to get restless.
“The flow of magic power here should be like this, and the element is also wrong. You shouldn’t use the Wood Element; it should be the Wind Element instead.”
Monica’s finger slid.
With Winnidith’s permission, she erased the magic power belonging to Winnidith and redrew it with her own.
“This kind of array should be the correct flow… Eh?”
Monica suddenly froze for a moment, her gaze involuntarily looking elsewhere.
Following the lines of the magic power, a brand-new Magic Array gradually took shape in her mind.
What kind of array was that?
She had never seen it before.
Monica looked at the silver-haired girl beside her in surprise, only to meet Winnidith’s appreciative smile.
Her small face turned red, and she slowly lowered her head again.
But Winnidith wouldn’t care about all that.
Monica’s appearance had greatly exceeded her expectations.
She turned back and smiled at Isabella.
“I’ve already found the first person for you~”