Practical Exam (4)
Camp life began in the middle of a complete disaster zone.
How was that possible, you ask, on a testing ground that had been crawling with venomous beasts, man-eaters, and every other dangerous creature imaginable on day one?
It was all thanks to Lily.
The iron golem she'd built had swept up everything in the vicinity that posed a threat, turning the area around us into a relatively safe haven.
One way to put it: the exam had been normalized.
The first day of the test being a minefield of instant death—that was what had been abnormal.
I don't know what kind of exam the professors were hoping for, but as far as I was concerned, this much was appropriate for an academy-level test.
"Oh, we got one."
A deer was caught in one of the traps we'd set up nearby.
Its flank impaled by a sharpened stake, the deer lay huddled against the dirt, breath coming in ragged heaves. Lily looked at it and her face fell.
"It looks like it's suffering......"
"Let's put it out of its misery."
We ended the life of the deer as it gazed up at us with glassy eyes, accepting its fate, and I slung it over my shoulder.
When we got back to camp and set the deer down by the fire pit, Luna's head poked tentatively out of the tent.
For the record, all she'd accomplished in our absence was lighting the campfire and waiting.
"Hey, freeloader. Did you gather plenty of firewood?"
Luna narrowed her eyes at me.
She looked annoyed, but relief that it was us coming back seemed to win out.
Even though I'd clearly told her this area was safe, she was apparently still too scared to be alone.
"Enough firewood."
Luna crawled out of the tent inch by inch and settled down near the fire pit. Lily set down the armful of branches she'd been carrying and sat beside her.
"Give me a minute."
I pulled the dagger out of the survival kit I'd brought along and set about breaking down the deer—skinning it, draining the blood, separating out the organs.
"Why are you shirtless while you do that?"
Luna, who had been hopping in place clutching a stick in each hand like a hungry baby bird demanding venison, asked the question.
An excellent question.
As I threaded chunks of cut meat onto sharpened sticks, I answered.
"There's nothing to do while we wait, so I figured you could at least enjoy the view."
"Do you have an exhibitionism problem or something?"
An exhibitionism problem, she says.
If I had to pick yes or no, it might lean closer to yes, honestly.
Like I've said before—this is a body I built for myself, and letting it go to waste would be a sin.
"Lily seems to like it, for the record."
Luna's head swiveled toward Lily, sitting beside her.
Lily, who had been staring with total concentration, only then pretended nothing had happened and started aimlessly kicking a pebble in front of her.
"So you're stealing Lily's happy time again, huh."
"What? How is that my fault?"
"Lily gets embarrassed when you call her out like that. Look, now she's pretending she wasn't staring."
"You're unbelievable."
After that, we ate venison until our bellies nearly burst.
Unlike the meat we usually had, it was gamey and unseasoned, so it wasn't exactly delicious—but practicing eating like this was kind of the whole point of the exam, wasn't it?
And so bedtime came around.
The tent was, predictably, cramped.
Three people sleeping in it meant our shoulders were bound to touch no matter what.
No surprise there, but actually facing the reality of squeezing three bodies into that tiny space made it suddenly hard to breathe. I pointed a finger at Luna.
"No choice. You go outside."
"Let's settle it fair and square. Rock, paper, scissors."
"No."
"I'm scared to sleep alone out there. Come on, let me sleep with you guys."
"Owen, it's dangerous for him to sleep outside alone, so couldn't we all just stay together?"
My heart wanted nothing more than to kick Luna straight out the tent flap, but with Lily saying that, what could I do?
Soft-hearted when it comes to my own people, once again.
"Then how about Luna takes the far inside spot?"
"The far inside?"
"Yeah. Sleeping pressed up next to a guy you're not close with can't be comfortable."
"......"
Luna mulled it over for a moment.
I had a pretty good idea of what gears were turning in that head.
Knowing my personality, I'd be the one holding the sleeping bag for all of us—so if he wanted a share of that, he'd have to be next to me, right?
And by Lily's suggestion, Luna would be separated from us with me and Lily between him and everything else. Not exactly appealing, I'd wager.
"No, it's fine. Doesn't really matter to me. If sleeping next to a guy bothers him, I can sleep in the middle."
Called it.
Knew that was coming.
That's when I cut in.
"Hey, Bedwetter. Read the room. Lily's doing this because she can't stand the sight of you two snuggled up together."
"N-no, I'm not......!"
Lily flailed in a panic.
She'd apparently been trying to separate Luna from us without being obvious about it. Did she really think I had no eye for this stuff?
As I pressed Luna with smug confidence, Lily grabbed my arm and shook her head.
"That's not—it's not like that at all......!"
"If you'd just had the decency to slink off to the corner on your own, Lily wouldn't be suffering this embarrassment. You really are a rotten little guy."
Luna clicked his tongue.
"Seems to me like you're the one doling out all the embarrassment around here."
"It's your fault for creating a situation where I'm forced to speak Lily's innermost feelings out loud. Apologize to Lily right now."
"Owen, stop. Seriously, stop it."
"Just be honest and tell him you want to sleep next to me because of the sleeping bag. Then Lily can stop getting the wrong idea and quit shadowboxing."
"Kyaaahh......! No! I'm telling you it's not that! Just listen to me!"
Lily balled up her tiny fists and pounded them against my back—puck, puck.
She was putting more force into it than usual; my whole upper body was swaying with each hit.
"I-I'll just sleep in the far inside. Yeah. That's what I'll do."
"Now Lily has to sleep in the corner because of you. Is that really what you want?"
"......"
Maybe I'd teased too hard.
Lips pressed into a tight line.
Eyes gone glossy and wet.
Shoulders and fists trembling.
Lily was on the verge of bursting into tears from sheer mortification.
"I'll just take the inside spot."
In the end, it was Luna who backed down.
And so three of us lay side by side in the tent.
In order from the entrance: me, Lily, then Luna.
For the record, the sleeping bag covered me and Lily; Luna got nothing but his own bare skin.
With no pillow to speak of, I stretched out one arm and asked,
"Want to use it?"
Lily didn't answer—just nodded, and rested her little head on my outstretched arm.
It wasn't just not heavy; it was practically weightless.
"......Ah. My side's getting cold."
Luna's muttering from the corner sounded awfully lonely.
Aww.
Well, I'm warm.
The practical exam ran for about a week.
Normally it wrapped up in two or three days, but apparently this year's was dragged out unusually long.
Whatever. After Lily went on her rampage, nothing happened that could really be called dangerous.
You know that old saying, don't you?
In the martial world, beware the old man, the child, and the woman.
In a world where strength is law, the fact that such seemingly weak figures survived at all means their real ability is never to be underestimated—hence the warning.
The same principle applied here.
At the academy, beware the commoner.
A commoner with no backing and no money—that means someone earning a scholarship on pure merit. In other words, a genuine talent.
And Lily, a poor commoner, fit that description perfectly.
With Lily and me holding the line as a team, nothing short of the extraordinary could threaten us.
We were so comfortable, in fact, that we spent the remaining time studying the illusion magic the professors had used to construct the practical exam grounds.
Anyway.
The exam was over, and because this year's test had somehow proven harder and longer than in previous years, the students were granted several days of rest.
Lily deserved her break, so I'd put off the AI work and take care of the commissions I'd received first.
"Let's see here."
The commissions, if I remembered right, were for a muscle-building drug and a drug that could turn someone into a woman.
"I'll probably need to make anabolic steroids, plus estrogen and an androgen inhibitor."
Anabolic steroids are hormones that promote protein synthesis in muscle cells, accelerating muscle growth and recovery.
You can pack on serious muscle with them, but they come with a laundry list of side effects, so they demand careful use...... Still, the commission had clearly said to make a drug for rapidly building muscle, hadn't it?
I hadn't strayed from the request, so there was no problem, right?
So what if you lose a bit of hair, your skin goes bad, and your testicles shrink?
Just as in my old world, would a gym rat desperate to grow his own muscles ever care about that?
Estrogen is the female hormone, and an androgen inhibitor suppresses male hormones.
The two working in combination reduce masculinity and amplify femininity—that's the principle.
Of course, without additional surgery, one doesn't become a real woman.
But you can look like a woman while keeping what's downstairs intact.
"I'll need to ask Muriel to help with this one."
Lost in that thought, I walked, and before I knew it, I'd arrived at Muriel's house and mine.
Nearly a week since I'd last seen her, wasn't it?
That face I hadn't seen through the whole training period—it felt like the swell of emotion you get on graduation day, meeting your parents again.
Click.
I opened the door.
The first thing I saw was Muriel's face.
She must have noticed I was coming and been waiting for me.
"You're home?"
Muriel smiled and spread her arms wide.
"Yes, I'm back."
Scooping her up in a hug, I returned her greeting in kind.
Trinity Academy—the undisputed finest academy in the Empire.
Even in a place attended by the sons and daughters of countless noble houses, there were those regarded as being in a league of their own.
The prime example: Camilla Ermilla, daughter of the Northern Grand Duke and a former Hero, and the current Student Council President.
Her notoriety was legendary.
Turning any male student who caught her fancy into her personal slave was everyday business for her, and thanks to her family's prestige and authority, even the children of fairly powerful noble houses rarely dared breathe a word against her.
And then there was one more.
He wasn't notorious.
The problem was that the blood flowing in his veins was so exalted that his mere existence could, at times, be taken for a calamity by certain people.
"Hoo...... hoo......"
His name was Kylian.
There were other names that followed it, of course.
But long ago, in keeping with the will of the Sage—the founder spirit of the academy's original organization—that disciples hold no rank and stand as equals, he had enrolled under the single name of Kylian, shedding every title that would announce his identity.
Knock, knock.
"A reply has arrived to the letter you sent the other day, Your Highness."
"Did I not tell you to call me simply Kylian while at the Academy?"
"My apologies."
Kylian, mid-set of handstand push-ups, righted himself and wiped the streaming sweat from his face with a towel before taking the reply his escort knight offered.
He broke the sealing wax and read the letter's contents.
They read as follows.
I have crafted a medicine that helps muscle grow more readily. Should you wish to purchase it, kindly visit the Engineering Club.
"Oh-ho. Already finished, is it?"
Kylian draped a jacket over his sculpted, muscular frame and tucked the letter into his pocket.
"Then I shall have to pay a visit."
"Yes, I shall escort you."
And so Kylian, Second Prince of the Empire, set off.
His destination: the Engineering Club.