I stared at the letters with a small amount of dread. Those weren’t mine, were they?

I flushed red, “Those are…?”

“Blackmail, mostly,” Silas said.

I probably shouldn’t have looked so relieved, because Silas looked more severe than he had before.

“Extortion, blackmail, threats, and various other coercive letters telling me that if I do not pass you, my life will be otherwise brought to ruination,” As he spoke, I reached out, going through the names, “I do not know how you managed to get some of the individuals to care enough about you getting into the Academy, however I will mention that I do not plan to listen to any of them. If you are not able to pass the exam on your own merit, then you should wait until next year, and hope you get lucky with that proctor.”

I blinked, humming as I spoke quietly to myself, “The Guild of Moonlight? Okay…” That was the spy guild Kairos was in charge of, right? “Professor Lance? Who—Oh, yeah, him. Mercury… Mercury… Fuck, I could have sworn I knew who that was.”

“That is your older half-brother,” Kairos supplied.

“Oh! Right. And Pelias is too, right?” I wondered, glancing at Kairos. He nodded, adjusting his glasses, honey eyes focused on the duke.

I glanced at the duke. He was as attractive as ever, his stoic expression giving nothing away as he looked at me. I looked back to the letters.

“Look, dude,” I said, throwing the letters down, grinning at the name of Valentine, “I have amnesia, and have been working my ass off to catch up to knowledge I should already have but don’t,” I set my forearms on the table as I spoke earnestly, “I know I would have passed had I kept my memories, and at the beginning of my studies, it felt hopeless. I couldn’t even read. Now I’m confident I can pass the theoretical parts of the entry exam, and you were my recommendation for a tutor to help me pass the physical and magical parts of the entry exam. None of the threats matter if you’re good at teaching, right? Then you can pass me on my own merit, yeah?”

“Using amnesia as an excuse—“

“Pigheaded fucker,” I muttered, tossing a letter at him, putting my chin back on my fist.

“I want to dual-specialize like you. If you refuse, I’ll probably focus on magic, since an attack on my wonderful, beautiful servant allowed me to realize I can still do magic. Very well, if the accusations of necromancy I’d heard aimed my way are true. If you think I had a hand in any of these threats, I can easily tell you I didn’t. I could swear on my magic I didn’t specifically request for any of these to be sent.”

I tossed another letter at him, seeing his fists clench.

“Nor for any blackmail about your honorable self to be created.”

Then I hesitated.

“Well, you’d have to teach me how to swear on my magic first. I don’t know how.”

Silas glowered at me for a long moment, then he stood up, reaching out his hand. I stood up, taking it. His magic flew out, engulfing me.

“Very well. I will instruct you. Should you fail the exam, you will not follow through on any of these threats. Are those agreeable terms?”

“Just give me the list of people or guilds who’ve sent you threats and I’ll personally speak to them,” I agreed.

The man’s hand was firm and warm, the callouses feeling nice against my skin. Silas was great. I really adored him.

“The king?” I asked an hour later, one hand in my hair and the other holding the letter, “What the fuck, dude, no one has faith in me! He sent that last week you said?”

“Yes,” The duke said.

“Okay this letter was from… The royal librarian? Oh fuck him. He literally taught me, this was yesterday?! That bastard was acting all nice when I was around. Saying I would pass if I worked really hard. No one has faith. Not even a single person I’ve spoken to since I’ve lost my memories.”

“If you truly had lost your memory and recalled nothing about magic nor its theory, what you are attempting is close to impossible,” Silas agreed.

“What, are you going to send yourself blackmail now, too?” I muttered, disgruntled, glancing up and frowning at Silas, “Fuck you. I have faith in myself.”

“You would have to be a genius in magic to pass the exam after only beginning to learn how to use it six months ago,” Silas refuted, crossing his arms, “And it is impossible to grow the muscles needed for swordsmanship in such a time.”

“I already have muscles,” I refused, going through more letters and writing more names down, “Though they’re a bit unused, they’re still there. And I healed someone off vague knowledge that I had been good at healing before I lost my memories, after seeing Lucius use a healing spell.”

Silas hummed, tone negative, “I have seen your skill. It is highly unlikely you are suddenly a prodigy at magic.”

“I don’t have to be,” I refused, shaking my head, “Just because I don’t remember how to use magic, it doesn’t mean this body doesn’t remember.”

“According to the rumors, it is your soul that was injured, causing a permanent loss of memories. The soul is intricately linked to magic. While I will instruct you until I must leave to prepare for the—”

“Ay!” I interrupted as I finished writing the last name, not wanting to hear any more negativity from my favorite character.

“Okay, I got the list. Let’s go, I clearly have no time and you have no faith.”

Reaching out, I physically dragged the duke from his chair, ditching my heels to run barefoot.

“Test my skills, then come up with a plan for tomorrow onward.”

Before anyone could prevent me, I leapt from the nearest window, dragging the duke with me.

I reached out, rolling and jogging forward a bit. Glancing behind me, I saw a mass of magic gently setting Silas down.

“Unneeded,” I criticized, “Anyway where are we going? I presume there’s a training ground around here somewhere?”

Silas reached up, running a hand through his hair. Behind him, Kai landed, rolling much like I did, brushing himself off as he wandered to my side.

“While I appreciate your enthusiasm, your highness, you should at least get changed into something more appropriate for physical activity before you—“

“Yes thanks Kai I appreciate your concern,” I dismissed, waving my hand, and speaking to Silas, “So what magic is most impressive, do you think? Something that will prove to you I’m not hopeless.”

Hopefully the math required was something algebraic and not something like triangles. Triangles sucked. I mean I knew SOHCAHTOA, but I didn’t want to know it. And sure, circles sucked, but it seemed easy enough, right?

Silas sighed, “Lightning magic.”

Oh! The story actually explained lightning magic to me! I even got to see the magical circle, since it was on one of the novel covers. The equation was literally cylinders. Which was just like cubes, but with the circle equation for the base and width.

Did the author think circles were harder than triangles? Because triangles and circles were intricately linked, and the moment a triangle and a circle mixed math became so much harder.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Well, I guess without knowing pi, circles would be the hardest equation to complete, right?

“Okay, then…” I muttered, thinking.

What did I want? Probably lightning to strike the ground. What was the equation for that?

Val used it all the time during his fights, right? Like it was his go-to. So it was… 24 for the radius and 14 for the length, right?

“Two-pi-twenty-four-times-fourteen is pi-forty-eight is forty-eight-times-fourteen is… No, three-point-one-four times forty-eight is…” I slowly worked out the math, not seeing the giant cyan magical circle appearing before me.

The air was charged with static. Wind swirled, suddenly roaring and howling. Everything from the grass to the sky to the movement of the sun seemed to stand still.

Before I could complete the equation, a hand smacked the back of my head.

“Ow!” I whined, looking back.

Silas was much closer, looking irate, “You don’t have enough magic to cast that.”

I pouted, “What? You hit me because I was casting too powerful a spell? Pfft, fine, fine,” I muttered, changing the equation.

Two and three. Easy enough, right?

“Two-pi-two—ow! Stop it!“ I whined, stepping away from my abusive fiancée.

“Make it smaller,” Silas rejected again, sighing.

I scoffed, focusing. Smaller? Fine. One. One. One inch, even.

“Two-pi-one times one,” I muttered, not even having to do the math, “Area of 6.28.”

Lightning escaped my hand, and I sighed at the pathetic bolt that hardly burnt the grass.

Whatever, it wasn’t genius levels of magic, but it was good enough, right?

“See? I can cast magic,” I said, crossing my arms and frowning at Silas, “I’m not hopeless! I can totally pass!”

Silas stared at the burnt grass for a long moment. Before he could say anything, I found myself being kicked in the stomach.

“Oof,” All the air escaped my lungs. I collapsed as Val appeared, seemingly from thin air.

“Are you fucking insane?” Val snapped, hands fisting in my clothes as he dragged me up.

I struggled, feet unable to touch the ground as I stared at Val’s furious expression.

“That would have killed you, you stupid ingrate.”

I blinked, “Uhh, fuck man. You’re literally undressing me right now. You know that, right?”

Val growled. I found myself staggering back, falling as he threw me down to the ground.

I was surprised, staring at Val as he pulled at his hair.

“You’re impossible. You almost kill yourself bringing some pathetic servant back to life using a spell meant to cure papercuts, you don’t even bother healing yourself when that idiotic princess disfigures you, and now you try leveling the castle with-with-with—Agh,” Val collapsed to his knees, covering his face, “I regret ever meeting you. I am going to die early because of you. My mind feels like it’s about to melt with the stress you put me through.”

“I doubt you’ll die,” I muttered, “I’m willing to bet my life on that not happening.”

Val growled, glowering at me with enough rage to poison a snake with its own venom, “Apparently, you’re willing to bet your life on anything.”

I frowned, “Hey! That’s not true. I wouldn’t bet my life on anyone else not dying. Except maybe the Fae King, or the Demon King. Or Silas if it’s in the next five years, he’s pretty impressive. Besides, how am I supposed to know that I don’t have enough magic to cast something?”

Val’s head bowed further, fingers shaking as he covered his face.

“Hello, Lance,” Silas greeted after a moment of silence.

“Hello, Silas. Thank you for not letting this buffoon kill herself,” Val greeted, voice a frustrated hiss.

I glanced up as the others got into annoying pleasantries. The fluffy white clouds floating in the sky were really pretty. The sky was a very bright blue, and Val’s eyes certainly matched its color. Kairos’ hair was a bit lighter than the sky.

His honey gaze was as disapproving as Silas’s, both frowning at me.

I awkwardly looked away, to the side. In the distance, at the edge of the forest, I saw a man with long blond hair leaning against a tree, his arms crossed. The man’s eyes seemed to glow with the light of sunlight, even from this distance.

Oh, the Fae King.

Well… I guess Val did use that circle thing during a literal war. The book said he was able to cast it nigh-constantly, though! I thought I was at least strong enough to cast it once.

Or, well… It didn’t actually mention whether he was using feet or inches or meters or anything… It had to be feet, right?

What nationality was the author, again? I knew her last name was Kim… She could literally be from any country. Even Asian ones.

Well… Whatever. I got stopped, so it didn’t matter, right?

“She cast lightning magic like it was disappointingly easy,” Kairos murmured, more to himself than to the other two.

“Yes, using my invention,” Val agreed, sounding aggravated.

Continuing to avoid their gazes, I looked around at the pretty green grass. Wow! Flowers. How beautiful.

In the distance, many, many more people were currently sprinting toward us.

I avoided looking at them, too, staring at a cute bumblebee who was shivering on a flower.

Did I hurt it?

Well. I could heal it. What did I need, a centimeter diameter circle? Keeping the image of the magic circle Lucius had cast on himself, I focused.

That was 2π0.5. Which was 3.14.

A tiny green circle appeared at the tip of my finger, and the bumblebee stopped shaking so hard. I relaxed, glad the worker felt better.

I watched as the bumblebee wandered over, gently resting on the finger I used to heal it, content. After a moment it lifted off again, not finding any pollen and flying off in its adorable zig-zagged way.

Then I hesitated. Oh, wait, wasn’t area pi-r-squared? Have I been using the wrong equation? Well, 2-pi-r is circumference, isn’t it? That would mean… Wouldn’t I be able to use less magic if I fully calculated the area of a cylinder?

Because that was, what… Area times height? Or was it circumference, too?

Well, let’s see if it did use less magic, right?

I knew I could cast a healing spell that was five feet in diameter, so that was… half of sixty was thirty…

Thirty times thirty was—

“If you cast that spell I will bind your magic until the day of the entrance exam,” Val threatened.

I hesitated, the large green circle fading from in front of me.

“But it’s the only magic I know outside of lightning magic, and you guys are mad I tried casting too big of a spell,” I tried.

The moment Val’s hand moved I spoke quickly, “Waitwaitwait nonono nevermind I won’t I promise,” I begged quickly, hands raising in surrender.

Val’s hand fell, and he stood up. I got up too, brushing myself off.

“What, exactly, were you trying to accomplish?” Val asked.

I felt my face grow red, and I looked at the ground, not answering. My hands fiddled with my dress, and my shoulders were hunched. I felt very scolded, right now.

“This is a question I expect an answer to,” Val demanded vehemently.

“Doing something stupid,” I muttered under my breath.

Okay, so maybe—maybe—I got a bit ahead of myself in trying to prove I wasn’t hopeless.

“What?” Val asked, voice still sharp.

“… Being an idiot,” I mumbled a bit louder, not looking up.

Life was great when it was just me and the bumblebee. Could I go back to that moment of peace?

“She was attempting to prove to Duke Grayson that she was not a lost cause, when it came to entering the Academy this year,” Kairos snitched.

“Claiming a stolen spell as her own would have gotten her immediately disqualified,” Silas mentioned.

“I didn’t claim it was mine,” I refuted, looking at Silas.

It was a mistake, and shame and guilt filled me at the stern look. I looked back to the ground.

“How could I have any magic spells that are mine, right now? I don’t have any memories and only just learned the theories behind it,” I finished telling the grass.

The knights and various others finished swarming around us. The rest of the day was much of the same, me getting scolded heavily by everyone who knew anything about magic, and me staring at the ground, feeling ashamed and embarrassed.

Maybe I should have known, but at the same time, how could I have?

No one mentioned that… Well. Okay, maybe I should have known big destructive magic wasn’t a good idea, but I thought it would just be like a single bolt of lightning that hit the ground! I didn’t realize Val was that strong!

At the end of the day, I found myself locked in my office with Val. Before I could do much more than backpedal, I found myself in the void, Val standing in front of me looking furious.

“You will tell me where you’ve gotten your knowledge or you will never see the light of day again,” Val said.