Chapter 41: Final Exam

Fortunately, because of the kidnapping incident, the Bandon Family now strictly forbids her from going anywhere alone after leaving School. Basically, as soon as she steps out the School gate, a servant from the Bandon Family pulls her into a carriage, so Hrim no longer has to worry about how to shake them off after School each day.

“Hey, Hrim, do you have any plans for the term break?”

“Um, that… Training?”

“Eh—! That’s so boring! Why don’t you come over to my house and play?”

“… …”

Fran these days left Hrim unsure how to deal with her, and Semilis had never taught her how to handle this sort of situation.

She even felt like the old Fran, who always seemed to be annoyed at everyone, was actually easier to deal with.

“Wow, those two are glued together again!”

“Yeah, just like a pair of sticky bugs, clinging to each other~!”

At that moment, gossiping voices came from behind them.

“Who is it? Who’s spouting nonsense back there!”

Fran turned around and roared in anger.

… … Thinking about it, it seems Fran’s personality hasn’t really changed—she’s just changed her attitude towards her.

“Whoa, so fierce! If she catches us, she’ll slaughter us. Let’s run~.”

Several boys over there were jeering.

Fran was absolutely fuming.

“What did you idiots just say!?”

Being called idiots by Fran, a few of the boys weren’t happy either.

“What the heck, calling us idiots? You’re the tagalong… …”

“Ah—?!”

Fran rolled up her sleeves, ready to settle things with some ‘physical theory’.

Hrim hurriedly tried to stop her. “Fran, don’t be impulsive. Killing people is bad. At least not at School, or you’ll get caught.”

“… …”

The scene instantly fell silent.

Fran stared at Hrim, completely shocked.

Huh? Kill them? Me? I just wanted to teach them a lesson!

The boys opposite were even more dumbfounded.

Wait? We were just teasing, and now we’re going to be killed? And ‘at least not at School’—does that mean it’s okay outside… …?

Scary! These two girls are terrifying!

“Ahem! Sorry, they were just joking, please forgive them.”

Ander, who was walking behind the rowdy boys, quickly stepped out to smooth things over.

The boys hurriedly started apologizing, panicking. “Sorry, we were just joking, please don’t take it to heart!”

“I apologize, please don’t kill me!”

“Sorry… …”

Looking at the boys apologizing to her, and then at Hrim, who looked as if nothing happened, Fran didn’t know how to react for a moment.

Eh? Did I ever say I was going to kill them? Why does everyone act like I’m some dangerous person?

“… …Fine, that’s enough, don’t let it happen again!”

The boys, relieved as if granted amnesty, hurried off with their tails between their legs.

“Hmph!”

Fran snorted at them, then glanced sideways at Ander, who had stepped forward.

“Ander, you sure like meddling in other people’s business. It has nothing to do with you, but you still help those guys.”

Ander just smiled and shook his head.

“Well, we’re acquainted, after all. If I can help, why not? Anyway, class is starting soon~.”

In Magic class,

Colette looked at the crowd with a beaming smile.

“Do you all know what day it is today?”

“We do!”

The students responded in a jumble, some sounding confident, others anxious.

“Since everyone’s so eager! The final exam begins now~!”

“Sigh—!”

No matter how many complaints, the final exam proceeded as scheduled.

First was the Magic Theory exam, held in the Classroom like all regular academic subjects.

After all the written tests were done, it was time for the Magic Practical Exam.

The practical test was to assess the students’ progress in learning magic.

Colette somehow brought over a desk and set it up solemnly in the Playground.

A circle had already been drawn on the Playground.

“Alright, please come up one by one in the order you drew lots~. I’ll be scoring your performance~!”

Very soon, a girl stepped up first, standing inside the marked circle. She tried to cast the magic she had practiced for half a year, but maybe because she was nervous, she failed several times in a row.

“Don’t be nervous~. Just cast it like you usually do.”

Colette encouraged her.

The girl calmed down a bit and tried twice more.

“[ᛣᛏᚠᚷᛜᛣᛃᛗᛡᛁᚾᛗᛚᚪᛜᛈᛒᚱᚪ]”

“Breeze!”

A gentle wind puffed from her palm.

“S-Success! I did it!”

The girl cheered happily on the spot.

Colette smiled and nodded. “Very good, well done. You may step down now. Next, please.”

“Yes, Teacher Colette!”

With the first student’s success, the others gained more confidence, and the next few all managed to cast their magic successfully.

But toward the end, not everyone managed it.

Some still couldn’t use magic.

However, Colette didn’t mark these students as failing.

She would give a score based on the state of Magic Essence they could mobilize, and then encourage them. After all, being able to stir Magic Essence meant learning magic was only a matter of time.

Finally, Colette announced the rankings for the practical exam.

As expected, Hrim, Fran, and Ander took the top three spots. No one was surprised, since those three were way ahead of everyone else.

But there was a bit of a surprise: Fran didn’t get second place—she was overtaken by Ander and ended up in third.

Normally, with a Private Tutor and such an early start in magic, it would make sense that Fran couldn’t beat a multi-element mage like Hrim, but losing to a commoner like Ander felt a bit odd.

However, Hrim wasn’t surprised at all.

Ander, though his educational conditions were nowhere near as good as Fran’s, had parents who were adventurers. Even before learning magic, that didn’t matter much, but now that he was studying magic, his parents surely took him to experience actual combat.

Magic, just as Semilis had once said, is all about real battle.

Practicing magic in a safe place over and over might make your casting fast and smooth, but that’s just a false illusion. Only being able to reliably cast magic under all kinds of circumstances means you’ve truly mastered it.

Fighting humans and Magic Creatures with magic is a process of turning that illusion into your own real ability.

Clearly, Fran hadn’t gone through that process, so Hrim had no doubt: if it was a magic duel, Fran would definitely lose to Ander.

And Teacher Colette probably understood this, too, which is why Ander scored higher…

“Alright, everyone, see you next term~! For those who couldn’t cast magic, don’t be discouraged. You can keep working hard next term~!”

With Colette’s announcement of dismissal, the School instantly became noisy again.

Many people surrounded Ander, asking him for advice.

“Ander, how did you improve so fast? Do you have any special methods?”

At first, Ander’s magic couldn’t match Fran’s, but now he’d surpassed her, so everyone thought he had some sort of secret. Especially those who still hadn’t learned magic—they wanted to know even more.

“Uh… About methods, I actually don’t really have any methods worth mentioning… …”

Ander looked a bit troubled, but still told everyone about his situation.

“My parents just took me to fight some Magic Creatures, that’s all. Without even realizing, my magic improved.”

“Really?! Ander, you can already fight Magic Creatures?!”

“Amazing! I’ve never even seen a Magic Creature!”

“What are they like? Ander, what kind of Magic Creatures have you beaten? Tell us about it!”

“Haha, it’s not as impressive as you make it sound. Just some Magic Spiders, Goblins, and slimes, that sort of thing… …”

The noise of the Classroom gradually faded behind them.

Just as Hrim was about to leave the School gates, Colette called out to her.