His Exam (1)

Thud thud thud— thud thud thud—

Rain poured down outside the restaurant window in a midsummer downpour, and Ifrin poked listlessly at her food, steeped in gloom.

"Why is that? Life sometimes veers so far off course, doesn't it? Irrevocably so."

"……"

"I thought that if despair came out of nowhere, maybe hope to overcome it in one go would follow. But reality isn't that simple. Something to compensate for despair like this…… doesn't come around often."

Ifrin, who had been fiddling with her chopsticks, finally set all her utensils down on the table. Her round eyes welled up with pitiful tears.

"Why, why? It's delicious."

Lete and Endel, Sylvia's maids, were flustered. To them, the steak tasted perfectly fine.

"She only likes other kinds of pork."

Sylvia ate calmly. To her, it didn't matter if it was onigiri, fried rice, pork, or beef.

"Why though…… Why today of all days……"

But Ifrin mumbled dejectedly. "Pig's Blossom" was closed today.

No matter how much she thought about it, Ifrin couldn't figure out the reason. She'd have to ask Julie later.

"Stupid Ifrin."

Sylvia smirked as if she'd gotten her comeuppance and rose from her seat. Ifrin didn't have the energy to retort.

One of the three maids left with Sylvia, while the other two stayed seated, watching Ifrin.

They spoke to the utterly deflated Ifrin.

"It's the first time."

"……Pardon?"

"Since the lady of the house passed away, the young miss has never once brought a friend home."

"Ah……"

Ifrin smiled bitterly.

In truth, Sylvia was so famous that information about her family was practically public knowledge. So not just people from the tower, but even ordinary undergrads at the university knew her mother had passed away.

Such were the woes of celebrity.

"So when you came looking for her yourself, I can't tell you how happy we were. You even came right up to the mansion without hesitation."

"Ahaha…… I did hesitate a bit……"

To be honest, she'd been loitering outside, got spotted, and was basically dragged in. But the servants treated her so well that she'd ended up showering before she knew it.

"No, really, it was the first time. Everyone's intimidated by the young miss, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she's never pulled anyone's nose or anything like that."

"……R-Really?"

"Of course~ So…… could you keep being friends with Miss Sylvia from now on?"

Ifrin found it hard to answer easily. Of course, they didn't know, but the relationship between Ilayde and Luna wasn't one you could call good even as an empty ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠compliment.

"You can't……?"

"……Huh? No, no. Of course we'll get along."

Ifrin forced a smile and picked up her fork and knife. She started eating her half-finished steak again.

*

Sylvia returned home before it got too late. With Deculein's exam next Friday, she had a lot to prepare. Of course, she'd need to revise her application too.

"Miss."

But in the darkened living room of the mansion.

An unexpected figure waited for her in the middle of it.

It was Gilteon.

"Oh. Family head. When did you—"

"Lete, you may go."

The atmosphere was distinctly cold. The air hung heavy.

"Ah…… Yes. Understood."

The maid Lete looked worried but soon left Sylvia behind and went outside.

Sylvia tilted her head and approached him.

"What's going on."

"……"

Gilteon tapped the application on the desk without a word. Sylvia's eyes widened.

"Why'd you look at it without asking."

Sylvia hurried over and reached for the application. Gilteon, face hardened, blocked her and asked.

"Miss. Are you really planning to apply under Deculein."

"……Yeah. Just for six months."

At those words, Gilteon ground his teeth. He simply stared at Sylvia.

She was the spitting image of his wife.

"……Sylvia. I wanted you to grow up hearing only good things, seeing only good things. Unlike me."

His gaze drifted to his wife's portrait in one corner of the living room.

Cielia, who had passed away long ago. Her radiant smile.

"Conflicts between mage families. The cold-blooded law of wizards as beasts. I thought that world was still too early ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for you."

Gilteon's expression slowly crumbled.

This was no act.

Even he, who had come to perform, couldn't suppress the emotions flaring like wildfire in this moment.

"What are you talking about."

"……Sylvia. Do you know about the relationship between Yukline and Ilayde? That tenacious bad blood."

Sylvia didn't answer. The maskless Gilteon felt unfamiliar. Frightening.

Gilteon watched indifferently as she backed away.

"Cielia."

The name of the person Sylvia loved most in the world, her mother. Sylvia's slender shoulders trembled.

"She was a beautiful woman. A wife beyond my deserving, a good mother."

Gilteon shot to his feet and approached Sylvia. He grabbed her shoulders to prevent escape and peered into her eyes.

"Listen well, Sylvia."

He continued, chewing each word.

"The Yuklines killed the Ciel I loved, the one you love."

Sylvia's eyes slowly widened. Gilteon's rage reflected in her dilating pupils.

In that instant, the world seemed to recede. Sylvia's ears rang, fear gripped her. Gilteon didn't seem like Gilteon. He was just like boiling flames……

"Deculein killed Cielia."

At those words, Sylvia snapped back. She wasn't a child who froze in terror.

"Ilayde and Yukline are bound that way. You need to know that—"

Gilteon kept talking, but a certain 'belief' had already taken root in Sylvia's heart.

"Liar."

"……"

Gilteon's face twisted. Sylvia shoved away the hand gripping her.

"I know. Why Mom left her hometown."

"What?"

"Mom hated you, Dad."

"……Sylvia."

"And you lied back then too."

"……"

Gilteon let out a hollow laugh.

Suddenly, Deculein's face came to mind. That arrogant visage looking down on the world as if only he were noble.

And the Yuklines before Deculein, that damned sly fox of a family.

The entire Yukline house ignited Gilteon's fury.

"……Then just ask him yourself."

His murmuring tone was icy.

"He won't be able to say my words are false. So."

Gilteon looked at Sylvia. She doubted him. Her own father, casting a misguided gaze.

Just like Cielia once had.

"After you ask him yourself! You'll see how foolish you've been—!"

He bellowed and tore Sylvia's application to shreds.

It was a face he'd never shown his child before.

The shocked Sylvia bit her lip.

"Feel it with your own heart. Then you'll understand."

With that, he stormed out of the mansion. He flung open the front door as if to break it. The fidgeting servants outside bowed deeply.

Gilteon ignored them and got straight into the car.

—……You okay?

A small voice leaked from the crystal orb in his pocket. Gilteon breathed raggedly and replied.

"I've been too lax. Even if the times are peaceful, I should have honed her character more harshly."

—Brother, isn't the child-rearing too harsh? She's still young. It might be tough.

"Hah."

Gilteon thought of his own past. At seven, he'd nearly become tiger chow. At thirteen, he'd been forced to kill his closest friend. At twenty, war claimed his mother.

"If she can't overcome even this, she's no Ilayde."

Yet Gilteon never blamed his fate.

This adversity and hardship were Ilayde in the end. Ilayde's ambition was a ravenous blaze that devoured his entire life like kindling, burning ever more madly.

"Don't worry. Sylvia won't disappoint me. Even if she stumbles once, she'll soar brilliantly again in the end."

Gilteon's murmuring eyes were coldly sunken……

*

Early Friday morning.

"Kuuuuh~"

Ifrin yawned as she left the dorm.

Now, major required courses like "Utilization of Destruction Series," "Conversion of Support Series," and even liberal arts like "History of the Empire," "Tracking Crimes"—nearly all exams were done.

All perfect scores, without exception, it seemed.

The only one left was Deculein's "Understanding Pure Elements."

"Most important, most important."

Final for a 5-credit lecture. Its weight went without saying.

Screw this one up? Even A+ in three requireds would be worthless. For Soda exam, professor recommendation—must get at least 2nd place……

Steeling herself as she walked, she spotted yellow hair in the distance.

No, "yellow" didn't capture its mystique. Sylvia's hair was that special.

A luster like pure gold mixed halfway with sunlight. A glossy cascade flowing like a waterfall.

That world's most beautiful blonde, the Ilayde symbol anyone would envy, young or old, man or woman.

"Sylvia!"

Ifrin called out, approaching her back. Sylvia flinched but soon faced her with her usual contempt.

"Today…… Huh? What's with your face?"

"……"

Ifrin startled at Sylvia's appearance.

Haggard. Dark circles deep, cheeks sunken.

"Did you bomb the exam? No, wait, you got perfects. Word's out."

Sylvia brushed past without a word. Ifrin was puzzled but didn't let her tail escape.

"40th floor, right?"

She boarded the elevator with Sylvia and pressed 40. The girl still said nothing.

"……Ignoring me all of a sudden? Rude. Cocky Ifrin— not doing it?"

"……"

Ifrin pouted, feeling oddly hurt.

Incidentally, the tower had "special floors." Spaces rarely allowed to debutantes, divided in 10-floor increments.

10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, like that.

Among them, 40th was "Rocaille Forest," an artificial natural landscape crafted by magic.

Ding—!

The elevator doors opened.

That moment, both Ifrin and Sylvia were surprised.

It was all forest. Perfect greenery. Foliage vibrant, thick sunlight beaming clearly.

"Whoa…… So this is a special floor."

The two stepped into the woods.

After walking a bit, debutantes appeared.

Nobles like Lucia, Beck, Jupern, and even Julie and the Flat Earth Exploration club members.

"Iffy!"

"Julie!"

Ifrin ran and hugged them without thinking. Noble glares stabbed, but she ignored them.

"You knew too, Julie!"

"Yeah! Took me forever though. Like two weeks?"

Chatting away, Ifrin glanced at Sylvia. She seemed disinterested in everyone here.

—Then.

"Greetings."

Everyone jolted straight at the voice.

On the hill beyond the woods, Deculein looked down at them.

"Congratulations. 117 debutantes found the exam site."

"……"

Sylvia's gaze on Deculein was vacant.

Is it that good? Ifrin smiled bitterly and shook her head.

"Today's exam theme is the fusion of theory and intuition."

Obviously tough. Ifrin and the wizards tensed, focusing.

"I've said it often. Without theory, intuition wavers; without intuition, theory is an empty shell."

As he spoke, Deculein cast magic. Refinement. Soil and wood intertwined, birthing an elegant chair.

Deculein's signature graceful magic was always mesmerizing.

"Mana disasters and phenomena that shake theory and intuition will occur sporadically in this Rocaille Forest, but complete the tasks unshaken. Allen?"

Deculein sat. Allen appeared next. Smiling as always, but somehow listless.

"Here~ Everyone take your exam papers~"

Total five problems. Ifrin sighed upon seeing them. The other wizards wore similar faces.

But in times like this, mental management was key.

If it's hard for me, it's hard for others. That mindset.

"Some magics might need materials. Find them in Rocaille Forest. But careful! It's a special floor! Special floors are special because they're dangerous!"

"Exam time?"

Ifrin asked. Allen sneezed—achoo!—then answered.

"Ah, sorry. No time limit! And if danger arises, ask Professor Deculein for help~"

Allen scampered up the hill. He spread a mat beside Deculein and sat demurely.

A tiny voice drifted: Professor~ Tea?

* * *

Sylvia sat by the stream, glancing at Deculein atop the hill. He was still reading.

—Deculein killed Cielia.

Gilteon's words replayed in her ears. Endlessly.

Every time she saw Deculein, her rage-filled father's face overlapped.

"……"

Sylvia shook her head.

Lies.

Definitely lies.

Sylvia repeated it to herself over and over.

Probably just bad blood between Ilayde and Yukline.

That's the truth, the rest lies. Dad always exaggerates and deceives.

"……Exam."

Sylvia focused on the exam. She crouched, staring at the paper.

Thwack—!

Suddenly, cold pain stabbed her crown.

"Ow."

Clutching her head in pain, she looked up. Hail poured from the sky. Sylvia quickly made a canopy.

She began solving in earnest.

Manifest and preserve the three magics in sequence.

Not hard.

Just, just, just……

—Just ask him yourself. He won't say my words are false. So……

"Head hurts."

Sylvia clutched her head, mumbling tearfully.

The words wouldn't leave her mind.

Deculein in the distance.

Her muse.

The one she admired…… maybe even liked.

Dad said he killed her mother.

Why?

"……Right."

After agonizing with headache, Sylvia nodded.

Finish the exam and ask.

After acing this exam perfectly.

—Sylvia. Perfect score again.

After hearing that, ask Deculein.

Then he'll say it's lies. That Gilteon misunderstood.

"I can do it."

Steeling herself, Sylvia started on problem 1.

Too easy for her caliber, but just 5 minutes later.

She realized something was wrong.

"……Ah."

1. Manifest and preserve the three magics recorded below in sequence.

Three magics using the Pure Element "water," in sequence.

But Sylvia had fused them.

Ironically, her talent and mana were so brilliant it caused the mistake.

Mid-scale magics merged out of nowhere—backlash inevitable.

"No."

She murmured softly.

Whoosh——!

The magic burst, unleashing a torrent. Water and wind magically intertwined into a massive flood surging up.

Sylvia was swept in before she could flee.