Entrance Exam (1)
Six days remained until the academy exam.
The academy offered several departments: Vanguard, Assault, Magic, Support, and Special Operations. Think of them as tank, dealer, mage, supporter, and rogue roles, respectively.
“Luca, you’re going for Assault. I’m taking Magic, so get ready on your own.”
“I’ll take first place in the exam, no problem.”
That was probably impossible. Radian Draken was already at the peak of Expert Advanced, on the verge of becoming a Swordmaster.
“Yeah. Good luck with that.”
Each department’s exam had three stages. The first stage tested qualifications—except for Special Operations. Aura, magic, spirit power, law power, divine power. You needed to meet the minimum threshold in at least one.
“Hmm… Stage one is a given. Stage two is combat, stage three is the written test.”
The weighting was 20% for stage one, 50% for stage two, and 30% for stage three. Combat ability mattered most.
“I don’t really need to prepare, do I?”
The written test? I was a Grand Shaman. What could they possibly ask that I wouldn’t know? The examiners would just be ordinary shamans anyway. No Grand Shaman would be wasting time teaching here.
“Hmm… Luca might barely scrape by on the written part, but at least there’s no failing grade.”
Thankfully, only the first stage had a hard cutoff. Estellia was aiming for Support, not Special Operations, and as a baron’s daughter she hadn’t studied properly. Right now she was just a talented alchemist rather than a genius one. Once she learned the theory and made some money, she’d become famous as a prodigy.
“Estellia will pass too, obviously… No issues there, right?”
While thinking that, I pulled out the cursed items the duke had given me. Three in total.
“A sword, a fountain pen, and a tree branch, huh.”
Each one radiated a gloomy aura. Definitely cursed. Especially the branch—it carried an enormous curse.
“Sword first.”
An old blade, blood dried on it, rust eating the metal. Even when I grabbed it bare-handed, nothing happened.
“Hey, why are you hiding? Come out.”
Uuuuung!
When I poured law power into it, something flowed out. I thought it was a curse, but it wasn’t.
“P-please spare me!”
“What the—?”
A knight in shattered armor prostrated himself on the floor. After glancing at me nervously, he spoke.
“My name is Jed. The reason I became a vengeful spirit is—”
“Nah, not interested.”
The knight pressed himself even flatter. From what I could sense, he’d been an Expert mid-rank knight. As a vengeful spirit he was immune to physical attacks and could use aura… not an easy opponent. For most people, anyway.
When I told him to be quiet, he started trembling, clearly thinking I was about to exorcise him.
“Will you become my familiar?”
“Y-yes! I will!”
“Good. Don’t resist.”
As I slowly pushed law power into him, the knight began convulsing. I was replacing the foundation of his being—death energy—with my own law power. Even a being that couldn’t feel pain would feel that. Once I’d completely overwritten his aura with law power, he passed out.
“Hmm… he ranked up?”
From mid-rank to high-rank Expert. His broken armor had been restored, and the cursed sword had vanished.
“I’ll put him away for now. Next, the fountain pen.”
I unsummoned Gabriel and he disappeared without a trace. Then I picked up the fountain pen. Having already seen Gabriel, it immediately tried to curse me.
“Tch… can’t make a familiar out of this one.”
It wasn’t sentient—just reacting on instinct to a threat. I let it pour the curse into a sheet of yellow talisman paper I’d prepared. After a while, once it had emptied itself, the pen crumbled to dust.
“The curse… corrosion, huh. Pretty strong.”
Any ordinary person touching it would’ve started rotting from the arm outward until they turned to powder. A nasty curse.
Finally, the branch—the one with the strongest aura. When I infused it with law power, something appeared.
“Whoa… a spirit?”
Kyaaaaaaaak!
It had lost so much intelligence it couldn’t even speak properly. The curse must have been on it for a long time. It wasn’t a normal spirit anymore—just a curse given form.
“Binding Talisman.”
Chwaaaak!
I poured law power into the Binding Talismans I’d already scattered, and chains of materialized law force wrapped around the spirit.
“Huh? This isn’t a curse?”
It wasn’t. It was death energy that had gotten dangerously close to becoming a curse. This thing was a spirit born from gathered death energy.
Kyaaak…! Kyak! Kyaaaaak!
Just like with Gabriel, feeding it law power made the spirit writhe in pain. Once its entire body had been converted, its foundation changed. Originally a spirit made of curse energy, it would’ve vanished if I’d forced the curse out, so I’d planned to transfer the curse to talisman paper first. But now I saw it was death energy—a spirit filled with aura of death.
Since I could already replace death energy with law power, I gave it a try…
“Whoa, it actually worked. You’re… the Talisman Spirit.”
I never expected it to become a real spirit. And since it became my spirit, I could sense its ability right away. Talismans. Because I specialized in talisman shamanism, it could automatically produce them. I wouldn’t have to make that damn yellow paper by hand anymore! I wouldn’t even have to draw them myself!
It would cost a lot of law power, but I had plenty to spare.
“This is insane… I can’t wait. Spit out Luck Talismans right now!”
Buwek…
The sound was weird, but a hundred talismans came out. Making a hundred by hand, including the time to prepare the paper, would’ve taken at least three days.
“Holy crap… holy crap! Courage Talismans too!”
Buwek…
“Bwahahahaha!”
One hundred. Another hundred. Two hundred total. Converting Gabriel and this spirit had used up a ton of law power, yet I still had enough left for two hundred talismans.
“You little… you’re the best! The absolute best!”
I hugged the yellow blob spirit, now covered in talismans. Luca had gone to wash up after training, so it was fine.
“Hey! Shut up already!”
Whoosh
Luca came out of the bath, steam rising from her body, and shouted. Come to think of it, she’d been in there for at least twenty minutes. Still, the noble suite was ridiculously expensive and came with private bathrooms, so that was nice.
“Why are you even covering up?”
“Ugh… because of you, you damn bastard!”
“What did I do?!”
“You ruined everything! Everything!”
She hurried back inside. When she came out again, she was already fully dressed.
While I was feeling disappointed, I finally understood why she’d reacted that way.
“No, I covered your whole body. Only your face was showing.”
When we came down from the Academy Back Mountain last time, Luca had been wearing revealing clothes. Showing that much skin to other men would’ve been humiliating for her, so I’d taken off my outer clothes and covered her. She didn’t believe me.
“That’s not the problem! My face was exposed! Do you have any idea how many rumors are going around about us?!”
“Rumors… are a problem?”
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
Smack!
“Guh…”
I was 6th Tier. She was 5th Tier. One rank difference, but an enormous gap. Still, even a 6th Tier wasn’t immune to a serious kick from a 5th Tier. I clutched my shin and rolled on the floor while Luca started stomping on me.
“Stop stepping on me…”
“Ugh… die! Just die already! Hic…! You’re laughing! Ugh… this pisses me off… die! Dieeeee!”
Was this what they called “domestic violence” back on Earth? …Didn’t feel that bad, actually.
While I was thinking that and getting kicked, someone knocked.
Knock knock
“Ah… who is it?!”
Luca hurriedly moved her leg and shouted. Then a familiar voice came from outside.
“Um… isn’t this Luca’s room?”
“Oh, Estellia! Come in!”
Luca ran to the door and opened it. Estellia spoke to her.
“Um… where is Kanahan’s room? I was told only Luca’s room was here… huh?”
Her eyes widened when she saw me. She looked at me. Then at Luca. Then back at me. Then at Luca again.
“E… eh? What is this…?”
“Hi.”
“H-hi? What do you mean hi… no, that’s not the issue! Why are you sharing a room?!”
“Huh? We’re family, so obviously we share.”
“Eh…? Family?”
Estellia looked confused. To be fair, I looked scary and Luca looked delicate. She was actually small, too—where did all that strength come from? Anyway, Estellia stared at me like she couldn’t believe we were related when I was much uglier, we looked nothing alike, and our skin tones were completely different.
“Ah, we adopted Luca. She’s my daughter.”
“Why would I be your daughter?! I’m Mom’s daughter!”
“Come on, it’s basically the same. Come give your dad a hug.”
“You lunatic!”
I caught her foot as she tried to kick me again and tossed her onto the bed. She was yelling something from behind, but I closed the door first. Even with good soundproofing, an open door would be noisy.
“So… you’re step-siblings?”
“Yeah. I was born in January, she was born in August. I’m the older brother.”
“Who’s calling you older brother?!”
Luca had sprawled out on the bed like a starfish, apparently comfortable. Estellia stared at her in amazement.
“So why’d you come?”
“Ah…! I wanted to check if you were preparing well for the academy entrance exam!”
“We’re doing fine. Here, take this. I made it specially.”
“Ehh… for me…?”
Blushing, Estellia took the talisman from my hand. It wasn’t one the spirit had produced—I’d drawn it myself. I’d put real effort into it, so the effect would be excellent.
“Use it and let the other academy students know how it worked later, okay?”
“Yes…?”
“I’m planning to sell them. I put extra care into yours, so it’ll work way better than the ones for everyone else.”
“Hic… thank you for the effort!”
She really had good manners. She immediately bowed ninety degrees. While we were having a pleasant conversation—
“Me too! Give me one too!”
Luca, who’d been quietly listening from the bed, suddenly sat up.
“Here you go~”
Thud
“Thanks!”
She caught the talisman I tossed perfectly. I’d given them both Luck Talismans and Courage Talismans. Even if Luca just scribbled on the test, she’d probably get at least fifty points.
“Um… would you like to have dinner together?”
“Sure!”
“Oh, sounds good.”
The six days until the academy entrance exam flew by. On the day of the exam—
“Haha, Radian. Still just an Expert, huh? When are you planning to reach Master?”
“Shut your mouth, Dierban.”
“P-please stop, both of you!”
Ah… right. This was a romance fantasy.