17 1.17 Magic Knight Academy Exam - part 2

"Congratulations everyone, I knew you all would pass," Andrew said when he saw our cheerful faces after we got back to the inn.

It was already time for dinner when we got back. The dining room was filled with customers so we moved to one of our rooms to talk. We were planning to wait and have dinner together with Diane and Ria.

"Did you guys get your scores?" Jabal asked us.

Ronald had all our score sheets. Our name, numbers, and scores were written in it and it also had the Magic Knight Academy's stamp. He gave them to Jabal saying, "Yeah, here, have a look."

Jabal and Andrew started looking at them one after another. The first one was Nina's.

"Looks like Nina did well at magic control and magic skills test, good job," said Andrew after looking at her scores.

"Yeah, with these scores you will easily pass even if you just do average at written test tomorrow," Jabal added.

Nina was acting confident contrary to her norman self who used to think she was inferior due to her lack of natural talent so she replied with just "thank you". Her scores were above average and considering she is so good at magic knowledge she will easily be able to pass.

Next, they moved on to Arica. Arica was good at almost everything related to magic so I wasn't sure why she even wanted to be a knight. She must have had her reasons but I decided not to ask because that would be crossing the line of privacy.

Andrew said, "as expected of Arica, talented as always" to which Jabal added, "yes, she is as good as ever". Arica just replied with a smile.

Next was Sistina. She did well in the mana bank test. She had a larger mana bank than normal so this was expected.

"Looks like you did well too Sistina, I am proud of you," said Jabal. He treated Sistina as his daughter.

"Yes, well done," Andrew added patting her head.

They then moved on to Marina. Andrew looked surprised at how well she did and said, "Wow, this is brilliant Marina, you did very good" to which Jabal nodded in agreement.

Marina said, "thank you" in a small voice looking towards the floor. This was her usual reaction when someone complimented her.

They moved to Ronald whom they complimented saying "good job" since there was nothing unexpected about his results. He had remarkable sword skills and his magic skills complemented his sword well.

They then moved to my scores and the reactions on their faces were totally different from one another. Jabal's jaw dropped in surprise as he shouted, "WHAT! A FULL SCORE". While Andrew was reacting as if he expected this and was trying to calm Jabal down.

After a while, Jabal calmed down and said, "But it's a full score and I have never seen or heard of anyone scoring this high in exam."

"Yeah, I know. It is shocking that he learned this much in just one year and on top of that he is hardworking so he will continue to progress. But whatever the case he is like our son so we should always support him as he moves forward," Andrew replied.

"Yeah, we are with you Nara, so you don't have to feel lonely," said Sistina with a big smile.

"Looks like we will have to work hard to catch up to you," Nina said to cheer me up.

"You are amazing Nara," said Marina in a low voice.

It was unusual for Marina to say things like that so Arica teased her with, "Hou, why don't you just say, you like him".

"No No, there is nothing like that," Marina denied quickly waving her hand.

"Your big bro is with you too. Let's do our best tomorrow as well," Ronald said while putting his hand around my shoulders.

"Thank you so much, everyone. This means a lot to me, let's do our best." I thanked everyone for their kindness.

I knew deep down that it was not my magic, my talent, or this score that was making me happy. The thing that was making me happy were the people around me.

As we were talking Ria came saying, "Hey everyone, dinner is almost ready wash yourself quickly and come down."

After Andrew replied, "Yes, we will be there soon", girls went to their room. Andrew and Jabal went down ahead of us and Ronald and I took bath in turns.

After around half an hour we went down to the inn's dining room. Andrew and Jabal were talking to Diane when we got there. Diane was looking at me as if she has seen a ghost so they were probably talking about our scores.

"Congratulations both of you, you guys did very well," she quickly composed herself and congratulated us when we got to the table. While we were talking, the girls joined us too.

"Yeah, these kids have trained hard every single day so I expected no less," Andrew said acting as a proud father.

"Ria, you should also work hard like these brothers and sisters, okay?" said Diane while turning towards Ria who replied with "Okay mom" with a smile.

After that we all had dinner. Since we had a written exam tomorrow, we went to bed early. It was a tiring day so I fell asleep quickly.

The next day we left for Academy after breakfast. Andrew and Jabal went to do the work they had in the city. Andrew was saying that it was going well and they just had to do some final paperwork today.

When we reached the academy gate, we were directed to a board where the numbers were written. We had to go into the room where our number was. All 6 of us were assigned to a different room.

I went to the room that was assigned to me. Inside there were 10 desks with chairs in two rows with 5 desks in each. Seven students were already there so I was the 8th one. The instructor was the same man who did our Magic control test by checking the mana density of our 'mana cloaks' using the clock-like device. He smiled when he saw me get into the room and said, "Please have a seat at any desk that isn't already occupied".

I sat at the desk on the corner of the left side. The blonde-haired noble guy who was bullying those demihuman people yesterday was also in the same room.

He didn't look very happy about waiting and said, "Hmph... start it already, it's their fault for not coming early for the test," to the instructor in a commanding voice.

The instructor politely refused saying, "please wait a little longer your highness. We don't want them disturbing you during your exam, do we?"

After some time, the two remaining candidates came together and sat on the remaining two desks.

"Okay everyone, I will bring inkpots and quills to your desks first. After I finish that I will distribute question papers. The papers will contain 15 questions that you will have to answer. You can leave as soon as you finish writing the answers," The instructor said.

'It looks like this world has no time limit during the exams. yay!'

The instructor brought quill and ink first and then gave us all the papers with questions.

Everyone started writing. Some questions were difficult since they were about history and the period of changes in this world. I finished looking at all the questions and was about to start writing when the blonde-haired guy stood from the chair at his desk. He gave the paper to the instructor and went out. The instructor said, "thank you, your highness" while taking the paper. This was none of my business so I ignored it.

After about an hour I finished answering all the questions. My answers weren't very good but not very bad either. I was the second one to finish it after the blonde guy.

When I handed the paper the instructor said, "The results will be announced during the afternoon tomorrow in the presence of the duke, king's representative, nobles and staff of the academy so you have to come."

'What! Is this some kind of magic show or something that you would need to do in front of so many people. Oh, wait, magic shows in this world are probably no big deal since anyone can do it.'

I kept my thoughts to myself and said, "I will be there, thank you" and got out of the test room. I hadn't shown myself in front of a crowd before this so I was super freaked out but since it was inevitable, I accepted my fate.

After I waited for a while outside, everyone came out one after another and we all headed towards the inn talking about how everyone did at the test. Looks like everyone did well. But when we talked about the result announcement part, I found out that everyone was as freaked out as me.

'Well, we are in this together so, things will work out somehow.'

Next Chapter: The king's representative