Practical Exam (1)

Shaaak!

A serpent lunged from the tree with terrifying speed, and I twisted my upper body just enough to slip past its strike before clamping a hand around its head.

Thud!

I drove the sword I'd brought along up under its jaw, and the keen edge found nothing to slow it as it punched clean through the snake's skull.

"Not bad, honestly."

I'd been operating under the assumption that even the empire's finest academy would only ever pose a threat at, well, academy level. Apparently that assumption had been wrong. The one impression I'd formed while wandering this place, brief as my survey had been, was: they set THIS difficulty for a student exam? Let your focus slip for even a moment and the jungle's teeming wildlife would make a meal of you. It was a space crawling with creatures dangerous enough to warrant that kind of vigilance.

"First priority is meeting up with Lily."

This exam had gotten interesting, sure, but the thing I actually needed to do was confirm Lily's magic. If the difficulty really was higher than I'd expected, there was a real chance she'd wash out early—so I wanted to find her first if I could manage it.

"I can't even tell how big this place is. Unbelievable."

I climbed a tall tree to get my bearings, only to find a low fog ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blanketing the ground, making it impossible to survey from above. No clever method for locating Lily came to mind, which left me with nothing to do but wander. As I pushed through the dense undergrowth, a scream reached my ears by chance, and I dragged a student free from a giant man-eating plant—half his lower body already dissolved by digestive fluid, his mind clearly gone.

Rustle.

Then, a short distance away, bushes swayed. At the sound of an unfamiliar presence, I drew a quill pen from inside my coat. And what emerged, parting the grass, was—

"Aqledp dlsad sadlf dasda."

A human being spouting incomprehensible gibberish. Definitely not an academy student, though. Half-naked, a primitive spear in one hand, and a student gripped by the hair in the other—it was impossible to mistake the trophy it carried. Apparently this was the cannibal-type enemy that lived here. So that student being devoured by the man-eating plant earlier must have been bait to lure people in.

"You have got to be kidding me."

The academy had lost its mind. This kind of vicious difficulty for a mere practical exam—even I was whistling in admiration. Were all the professors demons or something?

"Let go! Let go of me!"

A familiar language, threaded between the cannibals' strange cries. Someone else had been captured, it seemed—and there she was, a woman bound hand and foot to a long wooden pole like a pig headed for the roasting spit. I didn't know her well, but I knew the face. The ghost member of the Engineering Club. The lunatic who dared call herself the Imperial Princess. Luna, I was fairly sure her name was.

Mid-standoff with the cannibals, Luna spotted me and thrashed against her bonds, shouting. "Help! HELP!!"

I turned away from the desperate plea in her eyes. This was all illusion magic—she wouldn't actually die. The dying part might sting a little, but that was her problem, not mine. Crossing my fingers, I answered her plea for help. "Your death. I will remember it."

"Cut the crap and save me! I won't forget this! That's right—the moment I become Empress, I'll grant you a noble title!"

"I don't care for the way you ask for help."

"Please save me! Please save me! Please save me! Please save me! PLEASE SAVE ME!"

Well, all right then. Ghost member or not, she was still in my club, and as its president I supposed I ought to rescue her. Just this once.

Lily opened her eyes. "Huh?"

It was a strange sensation—like sinking into deep water. Her chest felt tight and her breath wouldn't come, and strength drained from her body until simply moving her limbs was a struggle.

"I was definitely..."

She retraced her memories. She had passed through the gate with Owen for the practical exam. She'd come to in a spot separated from him, and in an environment she couldn't bring herself to believe was illusion magic, she'd started by surveying her surroundings, trying to work out where she was.

"Ah, right."

And then she had run into a strange monster. A body round as a ball, painted in black. The only color on it was a great eye set within a slit down the center of its trunk. She remembered locking gazes with that grotesque eye, and then losing consciousness.

And now—the monster was still there, right in front of her. "Oh—"

Lily heated her mana. She felt it spreading through her whole body, that flowing current—and the instant it tried to pour into the teddy bear in her bag—

Flash.

The monster's eye lit up with a sickening color. The moment that light touched her, the strength bled out of Lily's body. She couldn't gather herself, couldn't hold onto a single thread of the focus she needed for spellcasting—everything was snatched away by memories surging up from nowhere.

"Ah......"

The memory crashed over her mind like a wave—the kind she wanted to forget, yet never could. The event that had awakened Lily's magic, and left behind the hollow ache that had never quite filled in her heart.

Her parents' death. A house with no warmth left in it. And Lily, left alone in the world.

"My thanks. I won't forget the debt of you saving me—I will repay it, without fail."

"Your tone is awfully insolent. Should I just leave you here?"

"How dare you. I am the Imperial Princess of this empir—ah, wait, don't go! Fine, fine! I'll fix it, all right? The tone......"

I only made a gesture of turning to leave, and Luna folded on her pride, snapping back into what was presumably her normal manner. Meanwhile, I finished off the fallen cannibal for good with a knife to the throat and asked, "Did you see Lily on your way here?"

Perhaps she wasn't used to scenes like this, because Luna answered while pointedly looking away. "Dunno who Lily is."

"The blonde girl who was with me when we met before."

I stood up, wiping the blood spattered across my face. Maybe ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a casual swipe with the back of my hand hadn't done the job, because when Luna got a look at me she flinched and hastily held out a handkerchief.

"Didn't see her. I was too busy running."

"From the cannibals?"

"No."

Dusk was already settling in. Between the towering trees heavy with leaves and the thick, rolling fog, traveling any farther by moonlight seemed like a losing proposition. Looked like I was camping here for the night. With that thought, I struck fire into the kindling with the fire steel I'd packed, and listened to Luna's answer.

"I wasn't running from cannibals."

Well, what else could it be? Some animal, maybe, or a plant that uprooted itself and stalked people. That was the assumption I'd been settling into—until Luna spoke again.

"I was running from the students who'd lost their minds."

Her answer was nothing like what I'd guessed. Once the campfire was going, Luna scurried over and sat herself down in the circle of its light to finish her story. "It was like they were being controlled by something. Anyway, none of them were in their right mind."

"Is that so."

I'd need ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to keep in mind the possibility that something out here could puppet people around. More importantly—was Lily all right? I'd never actually seen her fight, and it needled at me more than it should. These days I dragged her along and fed her properly, but her arms were still on the skinny side if you looked. Would a girl like that really hold up in terrain this brutal?

And Muriel, too. Normally this would be the time I'd chat with her for a few minutes before bed, and being unable to keep that habitual routine left me oddly restless. Poking at the campfire with a stick while I brooded, I heard—

Grrroowl.

The sound of a stomach growling beside me. I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠glanced over to find Luna clutching her belly with both hands, mortified. She looked up at me. "You wouldn't happen to have anything to eat?"

"Shameless, absolutely shameless. Well, I suppose it takes nerve like that to go around calling yourself the Imperial Princess. As it happens, I approve of the attitude. To the shameless, I bestow: one chocolate bar."

"My gratitude. I shall remember this deed."

Nibbling at the chocolate bar, Luna scribbled something into a little notebook. Curious, I stole a glance—and here's what was written there:

So she was actually keeping records. Not that a self-proclaimed princess could ever actually deliver on that particular reward, mind you. Incidentally, above my name there was an entry about Luke as well. Curiosity got the better of me and I skimmed that one too:

Hmm. Luke, you poor bastard—you're hated. Though considering the way the man talks and carries himself, it would be stranger if she didn't resent him.

"Anyway, I'm going to sleep now."

Pop!

I pitched the tent I'd brought onto a patch of dry ground. Calling it a tent was generous—it was nothing like a modern one—but it would keep out wind and rain well enough.

"Huh? What's that?"

While I was inside spreading out my sleeping bag, Luna loitered at the entrance, craning her neck. I'd sealed the door with a zipper—something that didn't exist in this era—but she worked out how it functioned on her own, unzipped it, and peered inside. "Would it be all right if I slept in here? There are bugs outside and I'm scared of them......"

"You'd evict your host and seize his quarters for yourself. That's a level of shamelessness that borders on impressive. Which is exactly why I understand where you're coming from."

"Much obliged."

"I did not, however, say I'd give up my spot."

"Hah?"

I shimmied into the sleeping bag and waved at her. Door shut so the bugs can't get in—now beat it. Luna fixed me with a wounded, faraway look. One that said, you can't possibly be serious. One that said, you'd really make me sleep out there, in a night crawling with insects?

Tsk. If this girl weren't a member of my club, there'd be no chance in hell. "If you're that desperate to get in, then sleep in here with me. That's the furthest I'm willing to go."

"......"

Luna deliberated. Should she press her body against an unrelated man for the night, or rub up against horrifying insects until dawn? The deliberation didn't last long. Naturally. Was there even a contest between the bugs and me?

"Okay. Thank you."

Luna shuffled awkwardly into the tent. It had been snug for one person already; with her crammed in too, we were packed to the point of suffocation. "By the way, what's that thing you're wrapped in? It looks so warm."

"I'm not sharing it."

"It's so cold. My body's sh-shaking."

"Not my problem."

"You're so cruel......"

Luna pulled out her notebook and began sweeping her pen across it. Wondering what she was up to now, I cracked my eyes open—she was adding to the entry under my name.

Oh, wonderful. Because I wouldn't share my sleeping bag, my noble title had apparently been downgraded and decided. I called out to Luna, who was curled up in a ball, shivering. "Hey."

"What."

"Cold?"

"Cold."

"Normally I wouldn't bother, but I'm making a special exception because you're in my club."

I unzipped the sleeping bag and flipped it inside out and upside down. Done this way, the bag that had been cocooning my body could be draped over the two of us like a shared blanket. I lifted one edge with my arm. "In you get."

Luna hesitated, fidgeting. If it came to this, our bodies were inevitably going to touch. But apparently it beat shivering in a knife of a wind, because she squirmed her way into the sleeping bag beside me. I closed my eyes to sleep—and Luna went rolling right back out of the bag like a runaway ball.

She sat up and asked: "You're not going to... pounce on me, right?"

Too tired to deal with any more of this, I just shut my eyes. If she got cold, she'd figure out on her own to come back inside.

"......"

Unbelievable. That's my girl. No wonder I'd felt cold—I'd woken to find the ungrateful wretch wrapped up like a burrito in my entire sleeping bag, fast asleep. Absurdity won out over drowsiness, and I yanked the bag clean off her. "Waaah!"

Luna tumbled out onto the ground, stripped of her cocoon. Still half in a dream, she tried to get her bearings and open her mouth in protest—and I slapped my palm over it. "Shh."

Numerous mana signatures were radiating from somewhere nearby. That was why my sleep had broken. Creeeak. Creeeak. The sound of metal grinding against metal. I stepped out of the tent to see what we were dealing with.

Something like a golem stitched together out of iron plates. But its helmet was hollow and empty—no person inside.

"What in the—these things...!"

Luna, who'd followed me out, went pale at the sight of the iron golems surrounding our camp. And no wonder. Their numbers were monstrous. Dozens visible at a glance, and hundreds within the vicinity judging by the mana I could sense. That many iron golems, strutting freely around the exam grounds.

"I'll remember every last one of those professors! Calling THIS an exam—!"

Luna seemed to assume the professors were behind it, but I knew better. I knew exactly who was responsible for this.

"Stay back."

I sent Luna behind me and raised my pen. What I needed to do was sever the force binding those golems together. And fortunately, if they'd been welded into shape by magic rather than craft, then the magic was merely suppressing the physical force that rightly ought to be tearing the iron apart—that force still existed, still pressed outward, held down by nothing but the spell itself.

In other words, there was room for my magic to intervene. I scattered ink into the air. The drifting droplets gathered themselves into the shape of letters. "Fall apart."

CLANG!

The sound of iron parting from iron. And what spread out before me was a sight like gazing up close at the rings of Jupiter—plates of iron, sundered and suspended, drifting through the air. They strained toward one another, responding to the binding mana, trying to reassemble into their golem shapes, but a greater force barred the way and they could not join. One after another, the threads of mana snapped clean through—

And then, with a mighty crash, the mass of iron surrendered to gravity and rained down onto the ground all at once.

"You really showed me something."

The infusion of souls into inanimate objects. There was no mistaking it. This was Lily's magic.