Chapter 316
Chapter 316
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 316
Chapter Title: One-Third (2)
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Shirone recounted what he had been through in Kazra.
As Amy had asked, he left out the story about Armin, but even so, there had been so much that happened. He had engaged in a war of words with the king of a nation and befriended Uorin, the empress’s daughter. He’d had a showdown with the executives of the magic department and even demonstrated Ataraxia in front of the highest-ranking nobles.
His friends listened with their mouths agape, stunned. The scale of it all was too absurd for an eighteen-year-old boy to have experienced. Shirone had been to a royal castle.
“So you got stabbed? You really could have died.”
Shirone lifted the hem of his shirt to show them the wound. The stitches were clearly visible.
Iruki asked with concern.
“Is your head okay? The shock must have been immense.”
“Thankfully, it got a lot better after a few days of rest. My stomach still throbs, though. Oh, right, I brought the objet with me, too. Come to my room later. I’ll show you.”
“Huh? For real? Weapons are banned on campus. Guess that stab wound gave you some guts, huh?”
Shirone waved his hand with a tired expression.
“No, I didn’t want to, but there were… circumstances.”
Its pride wounded at being stuck in a corner, Armant had tormented Shirone every night with psychic waves. It had pecked away at his mind when he desperately needed to rest, leaving him no choice but to promise he would take it with him. Like most magic swords, Armant seemed to have a rather difficult personality.
“Then let’s go see it now. I want to see it! Diamond Aegis! Rated Control!”
“Later. I have to be somewhere right now.”
“Huh? Where are you going?”
Iruki nudged Nade in the ribs.
“It’s the graduation exam. He has to spend the last night with his girlfriend.”
Shirone shook his head firmly.
“It’s not like that! Amy followed me all the way to Kazra to help me. I want to go and cheer her on in person.”
“Sure, you do. Anyway, you should get going. The steel gate closes at sunset. Tell her we’re rooting for her, too.”
Shirone checked the time and was startled.
“Oh, is it that late already? I’ll be back then. See you later.”
Leaving the training grounds, Shirone headed for the graduating class building.
The reason he hadn’t gone to see Amy as soon as he arrived at the academy was that the experiences of his avatar were still drifting beyond the veil of his consciousness. Among them, a certain scene where he confessed his jealousy to Amy would ambush his thoughts, making him want to crawl into a hole and hide.
If they had tried to talk right after the incident, it wouldn’t have been so awkward, but the circumstances hadn’t allowed for it. Shirone had collapsed in the carriage and been taken home, while Amy had returned to the academy without a moment’s rest to prepare for her graduation exam.
‘*Sigh*, this is bad. How am I going to face Amy?’
Shirone shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.
Amy had followed him to Kazra right before her important exam. If it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t have been able to attend the magic academy today with a sound mind.
‘*Right, let’s not think about anything else for now. Amy passing is what’s important.*’
The day she would reap the rewards of the six years since she had enrolled at twelve was just one day away. Her current rank in the graduating class was an impressive 4th. It was an incredible rate of growth for something achieved in just half a year.
‘*So I guess I couldn’t keep my promise in the end? Well, it doesn’t matter.*’
Shirone had promised to catch up to Amy. But she, too, had worked tirelessly to reach that high rank. If she graduated, he would gladly admit defeat.
As he passed through the steel gate, the symbol of the graduating class, he saw a few upperclassmen walking through the flowerbeds.
No one glanced at Shirone. Today didn't exist. Their minds were filled with nothing but thoughts of tomorrow.
While some focused on mental concentration, others thought it better to relax. A group huddled around a bonfire, chatting, belonged to the latter.
There were many familiar faces, and Amy and Seriel were among them.
“Oh my, isn’t that Shirone over there?”
“Huh? It really is.”
Shirone approached with a stiff expression. He hadn’t expected Amy to be with other upperclassmen.
“Hello…”
Seriel ran up and pulled Shirone into a hug.
“Aah! It’s Shirone! What are you doing here? Did you come to cheer for me?”
Buried in Seriel’s chest, Shirone’s cheeks burned.
But when he felt her body trembling, he realized she wasn’t joking. He could hear her heart pounding rapidly.
‘*So this is what it’s like to be in the graduating class.*’
Everyone here had dedicated their lives to becoming mages. And if they passed the exam tomorrow, they would become the mages they had always dreamed of being.
The probability was one in three.
When he’d thought of it as someone else’s problem, it seemed like a fairly high probability. But when he put himself in their shoes, it meant that the remaining twenty students would have to endure another year of grueling competition.
With that thought, even being pressed against Seriel’s chest didn’t feel embarrassing.
Shirone hugged her back with all his might. Everyone had worked so hard. The thought of any of them failing was unbearable.
But if possible… he hoped she would pass.
“Do your best, senior. I’ll be cheering for you.”
“Yeah. Thanks, Shirone.”
Shirone could finally see Seriel’s face. Fear and excitement coexisted within it.
Even her expression, which looked like she could burst into tears at any moment, was sublime. He knew how much effort she had put in to get this far.
Shirone turned to look at Amy.
Unlike Seriel, her face showed no trace of tension or excitement. All her preparations were complete. It was as if her six-year growth curve had been perfectly aligned for tomorrow.
For that, he was glad and grateful. If she had shown even the slightest sign of wavering, he would have been tormented by the guilt of having taken her to Kazra.
“Amy, you do your best, too. I’ll be cheering hard for you tomorrow.”
“Yeah, thanks. I’ll give it my all.”
Amy’s mind was currently like a great river where all the streams of her thoughts had merged into one powerful current. There was no room for awkward memories of Kazra to surface.
Shirone chatted quietly with the seniors. The student council president, Amira, was also there. She was the one who had incited the student council to stage a protest when Shirone was trapped in Miro’s time-space, but that was just a memory now.
“Finally, tomorrow’s the day this dreadful school life comes to an end.”
Most of them nodded at Amira’s words. A day before the exam, no one was thinking they would be the one to fail.
However, Sanuel’s expression was grim.
Shirone remembered when he had come as Etella’s demonstration assistant. The senior who had stunned the advanced class students with his incredible Sonics.
But even he had failed the graduation exam last year, and this was his second attempt.
According to the academy’s statistics, the probability of a student passing on their second attempt after failing the first was quite low, so it was natural for him to be tense.
Amira comforted Sanuel.
“Don’t worry too much, Sanuel. You worked hard. You barely missed it on the last graduation exam. I’m sure you’ll get a good result this time.”
“Yeah, thanks. You make sure to pass, too.”
Since it wasn’t a matter of only one person passing, the fact that competitors could encourage each other was a small mercy.
“Well, well. Look who’s all gathered here.”
A group of famous seniors walked over.
Richard of Alchemy. Lycan the Electric Monster. Hershe of Sonar.
And leading them was the number one student of Class One, Arduino Fermi.
Fermi, who always stuck to suits, looked more like an accountant than a mage. Come to think of it, he’d heard the Arduino family was a famous merchant family.
“What’s with the long faces? Don’t be so tense. I mean, look at me—I’ve been taking the graduation exam for six years. Hahaha!”
Fermi joked, but no one laughed.
The reason why he, who always held the top spot in the graduating class, had yet to graduate was one of Alpheas Magic Academy’s mysteries. Rumors circulated that he was a broker who took money to rig the graduation exam in others’ favor, but nothing had ever been confirmed.
“Aren’t you being a little too complacent, Fermi? Act that nonchalant, and you’ll be taking the exam with the underclassmen again next year.”
“Haha! I just do my best, that’s all. These things are ultimately up to fate.”
Fermi felt a gaze and turned his head. Amy was staring at him with a defiant expression.
“Whew, our little lady is as feisty as ever today, huh? How are you feeling?”
“Couldn’t be better. What about you?”
“Me? I’m… doing all right.”
“I hope you’re in top condition for the exam. Because tomorrow is the day I graduate from this academy as number one.”
“Hahaha! I really can’t win with you. Alright, let’s give it a proper go. Tomorrow, we’re not classmates, we’re competitors.”
As Fermi led his group away, those gathered around the bonfire watched them with wary eyes. Their skills were one thing, but they were all veterans who had taken the graduation exam at least four times, so the difference in experience couldn’t be ignored.
To change the mood, Amira spoke up.
“I visited the World Climate Organization last vacation. It was incredible. There were over a thousand professional mages there.”
“Wow, that place has some serious clout. I heard the director has more power than the king of a nation.”
Weather is a powerful factor that controls human necessities, food production, and ecosystems. For that reason, climate mages, who belong to the Red Line, are considered criminals if they use their magic without passing the state examination. Furthermore, since weather knows no borders, international agreements are necessary, and the body that oversees them is the World Climate Organization.
“It’s not just the World Climate Organization; they have immense power. One of my relatives works at the astronomical observatory, and apparently, even high-ranking nobles can’t push them around.”
“But you have to pass the state exam. I know someone who couldn’t pass for ten years and ended up changing their major.”
Amira said, full of spirit.
“Hehe! That’s why it’s a challenge. High risk, high return is my motto. If you pass, you get to challenge for the highest position a mage can attain.”
“True, if anyone can do it, it’s you. When you land a high position, don’t forget to call me, alright? Haha!”
Since Amira had served as student council president, it was easy to picture her as the director of the World Climate Organization.
In the future, when she entered society and realized the vast gap between the two positions, she would probably find today’s declaration unbearably embarrassing, but what did it matter? It was a dream precisely because someone, somewhere, would eventually achieve it.
Starting with Amira, they each shared their ambitions.
Seriel said that at first, her dream was to get a job at a public health center and live an ordinary life, but now she had changed her mind and wanted to develop vaccine magic at the World Health Organization. Her theory was that if vaccine magic became widespread, the cost of medicine would go down.
Amy’s goal was still to be a soldier, but after her recent trip to Kazra, she had found a new sense of calling.
Hearing her words, Shirone thought of Zion. When he heard how Zion had threatened Amy by talking about starting a war with Tormia, his own blood had boiled so much that he’d felt like enlisting in the army himself.
Sanuel was planning to double major. Command magic was important, but he planned to study abroad to learn mental-type magic.
“Hah! Everyone’s got a tough road ahead. Alright, let’s give it our all! Tomorrow, we all become mages!”
“Yeah!”
Watching the seniors take their first steps toward their dreams, Shirone’s heart swelled with emotion.
He sincerely hoped that everyone there would pass.
***
Morning came.
The Colosseum, where the graduation exam would be held, was teeming with people.
Although it wasn’t mandatory, the entire student body had applied to watch, and most of the graduating class’s parents had also come to the academy. Scouts from various national magic associations and special correspondents had arrived to cover the event.
Shirone couldn’t believe that figures he’d only seen in newspapers were walking around so casually. It felt less like a magic academy exam and more like a political arena.
“The graduation exam is really something else.”
Iruki said nonchalantly.
“It’s like this every year. They get so worked up. I just hope my dad didn’t come.”
“Shirone, that person over there. Isn’t that Amy’s father?”
Carmis Shakora and his wife, Isis, stood in front of the Colosseum, arm in arm.