Case 29: The evaluation test.

Case 29: The evaluation test.

October of 1834.

It's the beginning of the cold season, the temperature is rapidly decreasing, and autumn leaves are beginning to fall off from the trees planted around the academy ground. Despite that, the atmosphere seems to be only getting warmer as more and more students come to this place.

rustle

rustle

And here I am, sweeping the dead leaves near the main entrance of the academy.

It's usually not my job to do this, even though one might think that it is natural. Officially, I am known as Chloe's exclusive maid, so my job is to take care of her needs.

Now, I don't do that, partly because I'm not actually her maid, and I won't take care of her needs either.

But the point is, the maids who usually do this job all got a cold simultaneously, so I volunteered to replace them for today. It's a nice change of pace for me, doing mundane tasks like this.

''Whoa... An owl-kin.''

''Her feathers look so smooth... What, level 20...?!''

''As expected of the Astra Academy, they even have maids like them...''

There is one thing I discovered over the last three weeks—beast-kin people like me are extremely rare. I only know another one besides Nydia.

So because of that, we got quite a lot of attention from the students and the staff, even now as we're sweeping leaves. We, because Nydia is here with me.

''It's quite cold now, huh...'' Nydia wraps herself with her wings and says.

''Yeah, and I heard it's going to get even colder?'' I reply.

''According to the forecast, yes.''

''That's unfortunate, and I think we're done with this part, let's go sit somewhere and take a break.''

''Alright.''

So we walk to a bench nearby and sit down side to side, watching the students passing by.

I've become quite friendly with Nydia now, although she still gets flustered when interacting with me occasionally, I wonder why.

''It's cold...!'' Nydia's body shudders. ''I'm going to light a fire, come closer.''

''Mhm.''

As I sit myself closer to her, shoulder touches shoulder, Nydia conjures a simple fire from the palm of her hand, warming the atmosphere around us. We both spread out our wings and form a circle, my left wing hugging her waist, her right wing hugging mine, trying to trap the heat inside.

''Hah... This is bliss.'' She says, her face a little red.

''Let's stay like this for a bit.''

''Yeah.''

'''' ... ''''

''Eh, ah, thank you?''

Why a question?

Oh, Claire is waving to me, let's wave back, maybe smile at her too.

''Number fifty-one, Please begin.'' The professor says after I got into position.

'''' ... ''''

''Number fifty-one?''

''Ah, excuse me!'' The female student finally stops staring at me and starts her performance.

Well, aside from that, there is something I have to do here as well.

According to Chloe, Maria Oriana - the haughty noble that bullied Claire a few weeks ago will target her again today. The reason I'll get into later, but we first have to stop her.

''Number fifty-six.''

''Yes.''

There she is.

Now, Maria is a mage, and her primary element is water. If it goes according to the scenario, she will 'accidentally' send a spell toward poor Claire with the intention of injuring her, thus having her transported to the infirmary.

I just need to prevent the spell.

''O Mighty Water, grant me the power to destroy my enemies—!'' Maria shouts. ''Waterfall!''

Instantly, a vortex appears above the practice dummy, then, an obscene amount of water erupts from it, crushing the dummy squarely. The water on the ground disappears right after that.

But her time is not up yet. She conjures several water lances and aims them at the remaining dummies.

''Kyah—!!''

Right when she is about to launch them, a bolt of red lightning bursts out from one of the dummies, disabling the barrier altogether and making Maria lose control of her lances—or at least that's what it seems like.

Her lances shoot out in virtually every direction, and I see at least three of them heading toward the confused students. One of them is flying straight at Claire.

I activate [Acceleration] and swiftly run in front of the students, then cast a simple ice wall to block the lances. A moderately thick wall in the shape of a half-circle erupts from the ground.

CRACK—!!

CRACK—!!

My proficiency in this body is quite low, so the wall cracks right away, but that managed to stop the attack.

I cancel my ice wall, turning it into sparkles of light, and together with that revealing the panicking staff above and the culprit herself below. She is now sitting on the ground, glaring at me with a rather displeased expression.

''You...'' I hear she mutter.

Now then, it's time to take care of this girl.