Aptitude Test (2): Raw Mana and the Arts
The magic measurement was even simpler than the swordsmanship test.
All I had to do was cast the best magic I could muster at the training dummy.
Then the machine would beep and boop on its own and spit out the results.
"Student Kael Lotus. If you'd like to forfeit, that's perfectly fine."
"Just get the target ready."
Of course, I had zero expertise in magic, so this was nothing more than a whim or practice run.
I tried the spell I'd practiced the most and gotten halfway decent at.
Focus all my concentration...
Feel the mana.
Thread-like strands stretched throughout my body. I grabbed those threads with my mind and consciously pushed them out.
Compress them hard and raise the temperature...
Whoosh—
Before I knew it, a fireball had formed above my hand.
I hurled it straight ahead with the sensation of firing it as fast as possible.
But it fizzled with a crackle, scattering just a few meters in without reaching the target.
It unraveled in midair, never making contact.
"Sigh..."
A bitter taste filled my mouth.
I'd practiced magic just as diligently as swordsmanship...
The novel described Kael as pretty damn good at it. So why couldn't I make it work?
I had the hang of how to do it now, at least.
But then...
"The measurement's glitching...?"
"Hold on. This..."
"I'll get the professor."
Something seemed to be wrong.
Soon, the magic department professor overseeing another testing room entered mine.
He fiddled with the machine a few times, then...
"Student Kael Lotus? Would you mind casting the same spell once more?"
He demanded a retest.
No reason not to, so I formed another fireball and lobbed it into the air.
It disintegrated after a few meters, same as before.
The professor tilted his head, puzzled.
"Student. Why is there no magic circle?"
"Magic circle? What magic circle?"
"Don't tell me... you shaped the mana directly without one? Good lord..."
The examiners' and professor's faces grew complicated.
They huddled in hurried discussion before signaling me to leave.
"What the hell?"
I had no clue, but since I wasn't planning on the magic department anyway, it didn't matter.
"Student Kael Lotus. Based on your measurement results, the departments you qualify for are as follows."
And surprisingly...
I qualified for every single one.
Swordsmanship, magic, politics, alchemy, arts, clerical studies, medicine.
In other words, they'd judged me talented in both swordsmanship and magic.
Unexpected... I figured magic would be a bust.
Of course, my choice was a no-brainer.
I naturally picked the arts department.
The reason? Simple. It was the perfect department for coasting through a noble academy.
But my choice caught them off guard, and the examiners double-checked.
"Are you certain you want arts?"
"Do I have to say it three times? Arts. Yes."
"A... understood."
They'd given me a provisional score for magic, but swordsmanship was top marks.
Naturally, they wondered why I wasn't choosing swordsmanship.
But I had no obligation to explain.
"We done here?"
With my choice made, I headed out.
The sun was shining brightly by the time I finished and stepped outside.
Elia Adventus, who'd tested first, was waiting for someone.
"What? Who you waiting for?"
"Kael. You, of course."
"Me? Why?"
"We have to tour the academy together."
The second day was mostly testing, but there was one more thing: wandering the grounds.
A free stroll to check out the buildings and get familiar with where we'd be living.
Nobles our age usually had partners already—fiancés or sweethearts.
So most roamed in pairs, boy-girl.
Peak romance fantasy setup.
"We could just skip it. You're overacting, aren't you?"
But not everyone had a partner. Plenty wandered solo.
Solos outnumbered couples here. Even in this girl-targeted romance fantasy world, single folks existed.
So we could've gone alone without issue, if we wanted.
"Why assume it's acting? Maybe I really wanted to go together."
"For real?"
"It's a secret."
"You said it yourself back then—you knew your situation, being sold off and all."
"Hearts can change."
"To a scumbag like me? Sure, whatever."
I chuckled and walked ahead.
Glancing back, Elia stared at me with a sulky pout.
"What? You're coming, right?"
Only then did she catch up.
Every movement dripped with elegance.
Amazing. How did she make everything so graceful?
Total opposite of me. I could never move like that.
Academy admissions office.
Amid professors chatting, a report came in from the magic department.
"What do you mean? Someone using magic by deconstructing mana units directly?"
"Well... normally, you memorize a magic circle and deploy it with mana, right? But one student skipped the circle entirely, converting raw mana to cast."
"Casting without a magic circle? That's impossible."
"Not sure, but that's what the record says. We gave a provisional score for now, but it's unprecedented..."
Yes. An unheard-of feat left professors and admissions staff flustered.
Magic was using mana to mimic natural phenomena.
But mana was an unknown force humanity barely understood. Muscles obeyed the will, but mana didn't.
So mages had to grasp magic's fundamentals slowly, ultimately following a manual: the magic circle.
Yet this student cast without one? That meant treating mana like a muscle—freely at will.
Magic academia had long deemed it impossible. Theoretically feasible, but human will couldn't bend mana that way.
"If true, we must recruit him to magic. Immense research value."
"That's... the issue. The department he chose..."
"Swordsmanship?"
"Or politics?"
Professors eyed the examiner eagerly.
But the answer stunned them.
"Arts."
"Arts?"
"Top swordsmanship score and raw mana mastery... to arts?"
"Yes."
"What family?"
"Heir of Lotus territory."
"The border count's? A martial house heir to arts? Must be an error."
Professors sighed in dismay.
A prodigy who'd shocked everyone across the aptitude tests.
Swordsmanship lauded him as history's greatest genius—he'd beaten a professor who'd devoted decades to the blade.
Was it right for such an outlier to pick a fringe department like arts? Beneficial to the empire?
Politics, bridging combat and statecraft, might've made sense.
But arts, with no ties to either? Baffling, even to them.
"We confirmed multiple times, but he insisted on arts."
"Good lord..."
"Examiners are confused too. They say we need proper scores, not provisionals."
Back to the point.
How to score this unprecedented casting method?
That was the crux.
And Kael Lotus wasn't alone.
"Maria Frendis. She cast in a wholly new way too—not circles, but spirits."
"Spirits? Ancient method, isn't it?"
"Examiners are struggling with her scoring too."
Spirit magic was treated as lost technology.
No one could contract spirits anymore.
The conditions were a mystery.
No spirit mages remained. So Maria Frendis's emergence sent the admissions meeting into another uproar.