Chapter 30

30 The First Exam Mishap

A girl is standing in front of her window, she leans and smiles at the world. A girl with purple hair, and determination in her eyes. Anne is up and ready, she was taking her shower, with all of her stationaries on her bag, and with Chikara begging her for food. She refill his bowl and saw something from under her door.

A small note, from David.

‘Anne, Darla, and I have already gone to our exam room, turns out yours is not in the same building as us. So sorry love, catch you after the exam.’

Anne giggled while reading the small note, at least they will meet her after the exam. She looks at the time and thought that she has some time to eat breakfast. Missus Del gave her a sandwich and send her away to the front door.

“The last thing you want is to be late on your exam, dear, better go now alright?”

“Thanks, Missus Del, wish me luck?”

She rustled Anne’s hair and smiled, “Of course young lady, now off you go.”

Anne feels overwhelmed by Missus Del’s affection towards her, the only one who gave her the same treatment is her adopted parents. Anne never had those from her birth parents, even from her friends or past lovers. Alexithymia is a silent but frightening disease when diagnosed at the tender age of three in the old world.

Fighting was all she wanted to do, sadly not for her parents. They give up, as soon as they saw that there’s not even any laugh or smile coming on her face, her mother describes her as a cold face, her father calls her a little zombie, and both of them call her their misfortune. When her mother fall from the stairs, it was her fault, when her father lost his job, it was her fault. Because she never made them happy and content.

.....

Somehow, when she got pulled into this new world, her disease is no longer a problem. She could express her love towards Ed and Martha, feels anger, smile anytime she wanted to, and all of the freedom that she couldn’t give to her birth parents. Because for Anne, the terrifying thought as the child of misfortune is still there, embedded in her mind.

Anne took the carriage to P Street to the place where she need to take her first exam. She look around at the almost empty hall and got confused by her exam place. She took a second glance at her note and scratches her head.

“How am I going to go to this Magi building five and one? I don’t even know where is this Magi building!” Anne shouted her frustration thinking about the time.

It was almost time for the exam, she tried to look around any information board but found nothing. Until a hand patted her back, Anne turn her head and saw a man smiling at her.

“Hey, you seem lost.”

“Oh yes, I am, thank you for noticing, I need to go to the Magi building?”

The man paused at first, looks like he was thinking about something, and then he pointed at one building the farthest away from the hall, “Right there, miss, the south building, you can’t miss it.”

Anne then run as fast as she could to the building, but not before she said her thanks to the stranger. The man waves at her and walks to one of the corners, there’s Heirim, waiting with her hands folded.

“So, she believes you?”

“Yes, I lead her to Magic Knight practice building.”

Heirim got a smile on her beautiful face, she knows the result for anyone who is late for the exam, immediate dismissal. She got this whole plan out, in the early morning, when she informed her friends that Anne went away to her exam place. the next step in her plan is to put the written note under Anne’s door, and also to make sure she got overslept by the lullaby herbs from her open window.

She wanted Anne to be gone forever from the capital, and it’s all because of what happened a few weeks earlier. When she saw Anne being carried by the one that she wanted to be for her entire life, the man with red eyes and flaming red hair, the crown prince of the Valorian kingdom.

Meanwhile, Anne without knowing how she has been cheated by Heirim, was entered the wrong building and immediately got escorted outside by one of the exam committees.

“But, I don’t get it, this is my exam building, right? Magi building?”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong, miss, the Magi building is in the other adjacent building, it would take ten minutes to walk.”

Her desperation is at its peak when the clock tower chimes several times. The exam finally begins, she knows about the rules and the immediate dismissal. But Anne is not going to give up easily, she toughens herself and rushes into the Magi Building. Little that she knows there’s a man, following her from behind, the man was practicing archery outside, near the Magic Knight building. He recognizes Anne from afar just by her hair color.

Purple hair, shining brightly from the way he saw it, he was mesmerized and immediately followed her. He notice how panicked she was when she reached the Magi building. The committees are doing their job properly. Poor Anne gets the consequences, he saw how heartbroken her face was when she walks. He doesn’t want her to be defeated just for some mishap. The man goes to the exam committees and does what he has never done before.

Anne walk into the hallway, thinking defeated already, and then a voice called her name from behind. It was the exam committee, chasing her all the way to the hall.

“Miss Anne, you may now join the others to take the written exam.”

Her eyes widen with sudden surprise, “Wait? I thought?”

“Please, no need to question about what happened, you just need to enter your designated exam room, but no additional time will be given to you. Is that okay?”

“Yes... Yes! Of course, oh, thank you so much!”

“No need to thank me miss, just be glad that someone in the higher-ups is noticing.”

Puzzled by his remarks, but happy at the same time, Anne doesn’t want to get into any more trouble. She choose to be quiet the whole way back to her designated room. Finally, she took the exam like the others and was thankful to whoever the higher up, who’s been looking after her.

Justice saw Anne from one of the windows, looking so serious and fully concentrated on taking the exam. He is so happy to see her able to take the exam. Now he can go back to his archery practice, knowing that she is still here, fighting to become what she wanted to be.