“Convert any input mana into a balanced mixture, then filter out each primary element into individual crystallization arrays.”

Narae was already drawing before Seong Min even finished speaking. She had to suppress a laugh. The formations were tough, but they had an obvious theme. Every task they’d been given was extremely mana-hungry.

It wasn’t hard to guess why. Heian’s cat form was curled up in the center of Haeun’s circle, while her human form sat in quiet meditation within Narae’s. By all appearances, she was just sitting there quietly and napping while she allowed the girls to draw upon her essence. So of course, since they were both drawing mana from the same spirit, the examiners were trying to exhaust poor Heian.

Except that in reality, Heian was acting as a conduit to Yoshika’s soul, and by extension the Sovereign’s Tear. Good luck exhausting that.

The formations they needed to draw also frequently involved complicated conversions and filters—presumably to take advantage of the fact that spirits were made up of esoteric elements, which were notoriously difficult to work with in spellcraft. But Heian was smarter than that, and the essence she was providing was already elementally neutral—which was the easiest to work with.

Min and her cronies were also obviously unprepared for just how fast the girls could draw their formations. All those drills hadn’t been for nothing. For the first twenty minutes or so, the examiners had been drawing from a prepared list of formations, but Narae was pretty sure that they’d started improvising after that.

Well, she was fine with that. Narae could keep up with them all day if she had to, and once she’d gotten used to it, drawing out rapid-fire formations was actually pretty fun. She’d definitely be spending a bit more time on talismans and formations in the future.

By the end of the second hour, Seong Min had grown visibly agitated, crossing her arms under her chest and tapping her index finger impatiently.

“Enough! You can stop now.”

In the time it had taken her to say that, Narae had already finished the last task they’d given out. The princess sighed.

“Your improvised spellcraft is...adequate. Unorthodox, but undeniably effective.”

The exhausted magi flanking her nodded urgently in agreement.

“Yes, quite! I’ve never seen anything so sup—”

Min shot the mage a withering glare, and he choked on his words.

“Er, strange, yes. Ahem! Very unusual.”

She turned her attention back to the girls.

“You may now give your individual spellcraft presentations, beginning with Princess Seong Haeun.”

Narae didn’t bother hiding her grin as her friend stepped forward and produced a prepared talisman. Though she’d never admit it, Haeun had the biggest crush on Hyeong Daesung, which meant that she very closely followed his research and always paid extra attention in his classes. Extra even for Haeun, that is.

Dae’s claim to fame, before developing Jiaguo’s reflecting pool, had been his work in the field of personal teleportation. It was an extremely rare and expensive form of magic, and even years later his demonstration of a personal teleportation talisman during the original academy’s grand tournament was still talked about.

Since then, he’d shifted his focus, but for his fans he’d always be known as the one who’d mastered space magic. And Haeun was without a doubt his biggest fan.

Haeun’s spell was small and nondescript, having been drawn with plain ink on a common paper talisman. Of course, she had the resources to make it as elaborate and expensive as she liked, but in this case, the efficiency was the point.

She bowed politely and held the talisman out.

“For my demonstration, I’ll be casting my own humble interpretation of a spell developed by our academy headmaster, and further refined by my own efforts during my time as a student in Jiaguo’s Grand Academy.”

Without further fanfare, the talisman disintegrated into motes of pure black, and Haeun disappeared with a loud pop. She reappeared a few feet to the right and bowed to indicate that she’d completed her demonstration.

Min and the other magi conferred for a moment before Haeun’s cousin turned back to address her.

“While we find the spell impressive, it speaks more to the abilities of Hyeong Daesung—which are already well-established—rather than your own. The point of this exercise is for you to demonstrate your own spell.”

Haeun shook her head.

“With respect, clan sister, this is my own spell. Though I used the headmaster’s design as a base, I have spent much of the last five years refining and perfecting it into something more practical. Observe.”

She took out another talisman and immediately vanished. Narae sensed her intent and whirled around to block an incoming attack as Haeun appeared next to her, only to instantly vanish again and appear on the opposite side already poised to flick Narae in the back of the head.

This was why Narae could never beat Haeun in duels. It was unbelievably frustrating, but unmatched mobility was useless when one’s opponent could be wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Haeun’s spell wasn’t remarkable because of what it did—though that was impressive in its own right—it was remarkable because she’d managed to perfect it so thoroughly that she could do it with minimal resources.

Before Narae could retaliate, Haeun teleported once again, this time directly in front of the examiners. She took a blank sheet of talisman paper from within her sleeve, quickly drew the spell on it with a calligraphy brush she’d taken from...somewhere—ancestors, Narae hadn’t even seen that part—and handed it over to Seong Min.

“If you are able to cast or replicate my spell here and now, then I’ll accept my failure, but I think you’ll find it’s harder than I make it look.”

Her cousin glanced down at the talisman, then at her fellow examiners, before looking back to Haeun and sighing. She handed the talisman back.

“No need. You’ve proven yourself admirably.”

Haeun kept a straight face and bowed politely.

“Thank you, clan sister.”

Narae could see Haeun desperately trying to keep a grin off her face as she returned. It must have been pretty satisfying to stick it to her cousin like that.

“Nice job—though you could have given me something easier to follow.”

Haeun scoffed.

“You can say that after we present our theses and not a moment before.”

“Ehehe, yeah, fair enough.”

Narae’s spell presentation wasn’t going to be nearly as impressive as Haeun’s, but hopefully it would still be enough to at least earn her a pass. She stepped up before Seong Min and bowed respectfully.

“My formation is based on techniques I learned from Qin and Yamato. I’ve modified and adapted these techniques into a new application using only arcane arts.”

Seong Min nodded.

“You may proceed.”

Unlike Haeun, Narae hadn’t been able to make her formation ahead of time—though she’d spent plenty of time practicing it. It was a little more difficult to construct as a temporary formation, but Narae made do with her chalk and a little bit of ingenuity.

When the circle was finished, she stood in the center, powering it with her own aura.

“I call this formation a Circle of Gravitational Freedom.”

She slowly lifted off of the ground without even using her actual Gravitational Freedom—the signature flight spell that she’d based her formation off of. Seong Min crossed her arms under her chest and frowned.

“Flight spells within the houtian rank are rare, but not unheard of. This Circle of Gravitational Freedom seems rather restrictive, despite the name. Unlimited flight within a small area is very impractical.”

Narae shrugged as she floated lazily around the perimeter.

“Sure, but flight isn’t its only purpose. Try launching a physical attack my way.”

Seong Min extended a hand, forming a huge icicle over her shoulder, which launched itself at Narae like the arrow of a ballista. As soon as the ice crossed the threshold of Narae’s circle, it plummeted to the ground and shattered.

Narae grinned.

“That part is based on a technique from Qin called Domain of the Earthen Realm. Ignore the name, it’s basically an ensnaring technique that traps enemies in a circle of high gravity that doesn’t affect the user. Anything affected by gravity can’t touch me here.”

The princess pursed her lips.

“Hmm, better, but still rather narrow. You’re still vulnerable to purely magical attacks and restricted to a small area.”

“Yep! That’s why it can also do this!”

Narae took a deep breath. She regretted using her own strength to power the circle, since she wouldn’t be able to hold it for long by herself, but Heian needed to save her strength for later. She threw her arms out to each side, and with an effort of will, expanded the effect of the circle to encompass the entire Sky Hall.

Haeun, Eunae, and the two magi all fell to their knees immediately, and while Seong Min didn’t react immediately, a slight tremor in her legs gave away the effort it took for her to stay standing. Only Eui and Narae herself were undisturbed by the circle’s effects. Narae because it was her own technique, and Eui because she was an absolute monster. Well, Heian too, but she didn’t count since she was purely magical.

Narae held her grin despite the sweat beading on her forehead as she struggled to maintain the effect.

“Formations don’t have to be constrained within their circles. It just takes a lot of extra power to expand past the border. Not even Haeun can beat me inside of this—her teleportation spell doesn’t work.”

Of course, that didn’t mean anything unless Narae could somehow get the entire formation drawn, which was a little impractical in the context of a duel. Nevertheless, Seong Min was suitably impressed.

“Very well, Lee Narae—you’ve made your point. Dispel the formation before it causes any interference with the Sky Hall.”

“Gladly!”

Narae let out a sigh of relief as she cut off power to the formation, flying gently back down to the ground under the power of her own technique just to flex a little bit. She wiped the sweat from her brow and gasped to catch her breath.

After a brief conference with the other magi, Seong Min delivered her judgment.

“Your spell is clearly designed to complement your own unique style, and has limited practical use in the hands of anyone else. Nevertheless, it demonstrates clear potential as a battlefield aura and is powerful enough to give even xiantian magi pause. We deem this to be a satisfactory demonstration of your mastery of spellcraft.”

“Yes!”

Narae pumped her fist in excitement before quickly schooling her expression and bowing.

“Ahem, I mean, uh—thank you, Your Highness.”

Seong Min smiled.

“Indeed. We’ll take a short recess while you each prepare to present your thesis. Well done, both of you—even getting this far is an accomplishment you can be proud of. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us.”

The girls returned to Eui and Eunae, and Narae scratched her head as she glanced back at the princess.

“Is it just me, or was she being weirdly nice at the end, there?”

Haeun shook her head.

“I told you she was. She puts on airs because she has so many responsibilities, but Min’s always been a kind person at heart.”

Eunae nodded in agreement.

“We’ve never been particularly close, but she’s always been cordial with me, and she puts a lot of effort into her role as prime minister. She’s much more popular than her predecessor was.”

Eui scoffed.

“More popular than a guy that people called ‘the Snake’? Kind of a low bar, isn't it?”

“Not at all. Do Hye was enormously popular among the people because he wasn’t associated with any of the high nobility, and enjoyed a fair bit of popularity among the high nobles because he was very good at finding ways to appease them while still pushing his own goals forward.”

“Why am I not surprised? Anyway, going by the pattern so far, you’re probably up next Haeun—you ready?”

The youngest princess clenched her fists and nodded solemnly.

“I’ve been ready for this moment my whole life. I’m finally going to show those curmudgeonly old magi that there’s more than one way to do magic.”

Eui chuckled.

“Go get ‘em, kiddo.”