Lilith walked into the waiting room for the test. It was just a bunch of desks facing a blackboard, like a regular classroom, but open to a few halls. Most of the people there were wearing the regular school uniform, but in one of the chairs, Lilith could spot Malena, so she ran over and sat beside her. “Hey!”

“Oh hey!” Malena looked nervous, but calmed down a bit when she saw Lilith. “Do you think you’re going to do well on the test?”

“I hope so. We studied so much! But there was so much to learn…” Lilith felt the exhaustion from the past few months coming back.

“At least you’ll get the math portion right.” Malena tried to smile. “Honestly I can’t tell if we’ll do amazing or terrible. One tutor says we’re way ahead, and one says we’re way behind.”

“Well, maybe it’ll be fine. We practically memorized the books,” Lilith said. “Actually…” Lilith leaned closer. “I think W— I think my tutor was trying too hard. Let’s see…” She turned to one of the other students. “Hey, you, let’s practice for the test. If… 6x+2=5, what’s x?”

“Uh,” the boy looked around. “Is there a piece of paper I can use?”

Lilith turned back. “I think we might be good.”

“Oh…” The boy’s shoulders sank.

Just then, the test proctor came out from one of the halls. He looked like he’d fit in well in an adventure or hunting job. “Alright everyone, follow me.”

All the kids got up and walked in. There were several chairs along several long desks with dividers in between, and a stack of papers in front of each chair. In addition to the main proctor, there were several others that were standing around to prevent any cheating.

Lilith took her seat near Malena and was about to chat a bit more.

“Alright, once everyone is seated, we’ll begin the test,” the proctor yelled out. “Make sure not to turn any pages until we tell you to, or you will fail.”

Lilith stiffened while everyone else quickly took their seats.

“Alright. Everyone is seated. Let’s begin the test. Please open your test books to the first page.”

Lilith hesitantly did so, though now she was double and triple checking everything she did to make sure she didn’t mess up and fail.

“Read through that and sign your name and info. Once that’s done, wait until we say to continue to the next page.”

Lilith wrote everything, then waited.

“Please turn the page and begin the language test. Once you’re done, put your pens down. Wait until we say to continue to the next test.”

Lilith struggled a bit on the language test. Even with her studies, there were still a few words she didn’t quite understand, a few stories she didn’t know, and some logic that didn’t really make sense.

The next test was science and magic. She could understand a lot of the healing magic, as well as science relating to animals, physics, and economics. But there were several questions on different magic crystals and how to enchant them that she still had no idea about, as well as philosophy and law. She wasn’t really sure how those related to magic.

Next was the math portion. She finished that one early and looked over her answers until the next test, which was spatial and working memory.

The last test was ‘a personality test with no right or wrong answers’, so she just had fun answering the different scenarios.

At the end, the test proctors took the papers, and the kids were all instructed to go back to the waiting room.

---

“So, what do you think you got?” Malena asked Lilith.

“I don’t think I got any of the math questions wrong.” Lilith shrugged. “So I think I did good there at least.

“Did well,” Malena corrected. “Speaking of which, I don’t think I missed a single question on the first test.” She smiled.

“Words hard,” Lilith replied.

“No… don’t just give up.” Malena smiled and shook her head.

They waited there for a bit along with all the other students. It took a few minutes before the test proctor came out again, then pulled a desk up in front of everyone.

“Alright, everyone line up!”

Lilith and Malena ran up front. There were very few kids that were as excited as them. In fact, a few even fought for the back of the line.

“Lilith Smit, right?” He handed her a paper listing her scores, then held his hand out for a handshake.

She took it, confused.

He shook. “Not everyday you see scores that high. Hope to see you grow into something great!”

“Uh, th— thanks!” Lilith shook off her confusion and smiled, then walked away. As she did, she turned and saw Malena breathing out a sigh of relief.

“Malena right?” The test proctor said. “Looks like it’s gonna be two handshakes in a row. That hasn’t happened in a long time.” He chuckled.

After Lilith awkwardly and slowly walked away while trying to listen in, Malena ran up to her.

“Hey Lilith!” She waved her paper. “What score did you get?”

“Uh, these.” Lilith held her paper out.

“E— eighty in language?” Malena cringed. “After all our studies? You really can’t speak…”

“I can speak!” Lilith pouted. “Hey, you got an eighty in math. I guess you can’t do basic addition then.”

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t understand that, are you sure we’re speaking the same language?” Malena smirked.

“I just— You— Oh you— mmngh…” Lilith pouted.

As they were talking, the boy from before gave them both a look of jealousy and disgust. “Silver spoons…”

“Uh… maybe we should head back,” Lilith said.

Malena looked around and noticed the stares from all the other kids. “Y— yeah.”

---

“What was with those guys?” Lilith asked rhetorically, breathing a sigh of relief once they were far enough away from the building.

“Eh, they’re probably just mad that they’re destined to be peasants or something.” Malena shrugged.

“Wh— Huh?” Lilith turned to look at her, bewildered.

“What? If they didn’t study as hard as we did, then that’s probably why they didn’t get good results. And then they might not have as good of a future to look forward to. It’s kind of their fault in that case.”

Lilith blinked. “That doesn’t seem right. Maybe they just didn’t get a chance to study like we did, you know? I grew up around… people that weren’t really fond of studying, or new ideas.”

Malena squinted at Lilith. “I thought you grew up with a live-in tutor.”

Lilith shrugged. “Well, both can be true? It’s a weird case.”

Malena shrugged. “I can believe it. But then, if you can do this good with a bad upbringing, that just makes the others look worse.”

Lilith looked back to the building. “Not really a bad upbringing. But I think if I didn’t have… my tutor, I wouldn’t have done better than any of them.”

“I guess.” Malena frowned. “I find that hard to believe though. My dad says most people get where they are in life by choosing to be there. There are a few exceptions, but most of the poor chose to be poor.”

“Yeah your dad’s kinda mean.”

“What? My dad’s not mean at all!”

“Your dad’s objectively… er, nevermind.” Lilith was about to call him an asshole, but she thought better of it.

They walked back together in awkward silence for a bit, eventually going past some of the more run down homes in Solis.

“Excuse me,” an orphan in tattered clothes waved at them as they came by. “Would you happen to have anything?”

“Oh, of course.” Malena pulled out a silver coin and handed it to him.

His eyes went wide. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” He went in to hug her, but she held her hands up.

“No touching, sorry.”

“Oh, of course.” He bowed as he walked back.

Malena nodded. “Hope that gets you something good.” She turned and started walking again.

Meanwhile, Lilith seemed confused.

“What?” Malena asked.

“I mean.. A bit ago… you just said the poor, and… they got there because they wanted.”

“What?” Malena tilted her head. “I know language isn’t your strong suit, but I have no idea what you’re trying to say.”

Lilith fumed, then took a moment to organize her thoughts.

“Just a while ago you said the poor got there because they wanted to be there. And that’s on top of, well, other stuff. I thought you just didn’t like poor people?”

Malena blinked. “Why wouldn’t I like poor people? I mean, they’re kinda gross, but they’re still people.”

Lilith stared back, confused.

“I don’t know.” Malena shrugged. “That money will really brighten their day. And what am I going to spend it on? Some food, or some clothes I might wear once? And if I kept all my silver, I’d have to do math with it. That’s your thing.”

Lilith continued staring. “So you give away your money because you don’t want to do math?”

“N— no. I’m not that bad at math. Well, it’s part of it, but that’s the smaller part. Though I do like to see zeros on the right and not other numbers when I’m checking my money so I know how to deal with it.”

“...so is it because you’re just generous or something then?” Lilith asked, still staring.

“Well, uh, I don’t know, maybe?” Malena shrugged, uncomfortable. She pulled up her paper again and looked at the results. “Oh! We didn’t even check the whole thing. Look at these job post suggestions.”

“Ooh, you’re a spy?” Lilith looked over Malena’s jobs. “Cool…”

“What? No. That’s my lowest rated job suggestion, with a B. It says diplomat first, then politician, both with S ranking, then writer with an A, and then spy with B.”

“But spy is cool though.”

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

“I mean, I guess, but I really don’t want to be stuck in an enemy country. That sounds pretty scary.”

“I dunno. Could be fun.”

Malena looked around for Lilith’s paper. “What are your job suggestions?”

Lilith held her paper out for both of them to see.

“S class healer? S class adventurer? A class researcher and A class mage?” Malena read out.

“That’s what it says. Adventurer sounds fun.”

“Really? It sounds like you’d just get killed by a monster really quickly. If I were you, I’d choose researcher, even though it’s A. Maybe healer if you can handle the constant work, as long as you’re good enough to not get stuck with crazy adventurers going into caves full of monsters.”

“Eh, those sound kinda boring. Maybe I wanna explore caves.” Lilith frowned. “I mean, there can’t be too many monsters, right? Those are just the rare stories. Most of the time, it’s just exploring things, right?”

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

“Come on. There can’t be monsters everywhere. The caves don’t all have to be filled with monsters.”

“No, they do. That’s why the adventurers and healers are called there.”

“Hmm.” Lilith remembered her run in with the bandits and reconsidered things.

---

They both made their way into the next building where they’d sign up for their school after the general test. There were several desks with the names of different schools and apprenticeships above them, and Lagora was right in the center.

They walked over to the desk, where the same old bearded guy from before sat.

“Oh, hello again,” Lilith said.

“Hi!” The man said. “Papers please.” He held his hands out to both of them.

They handed their test results over.

“Mhmm.” He looked over Lilith’s first. “Oh. A high score! Let’s see. Math. Magic. Mhmm.” He gave Lilith’s paper back and wrote her name down in a booklet. “I’ll be verifying these scores, but once that’s done, I think you’ve got yourself a scholarship! I hope they don’t mess it up. I wouldn’t want a little S class adventurer hunting me down.”

“Oh, no I wouldn’t—”

He looked over Malena’s paper. “Diplomat and politician? And can speak even better than the adventurer, oh, but can’t add.” He looked back up as he handed her back her paper. “Well, I’m not going to deny royalty her scholarship.”

“Eh heh. I’m not royalty though—”

“Not yet! Not yet!” He laughed. “Oh, when you do become royalty, can you lower my taxes? Or just forget a few of the smaller numbers?”

“I’ll uh, I’ll think about it.”

“So! Now that you’re both admitted, do either of you have any preference for roommates?” He had a pen ready on his booklet.

They looked at each other, then back at him and nodded.

“I’m sorry, I need verbal confirmation, not glances and nods.”

“Uh, yes, I’d like Lilith to be my roommate if that’s possible.”

Lilith felt an involuntary smile before she replied. “Uh, yeah. Same!”

“You’d like Lilith to be your roommate too, Lilith?” He asked.

“What? No.” Lilith frowned. “I’d like Malena to be my roommate.”

He wrote it down. “Perfect. Now, hold it right there…” He moved his fingers around so his pointer fingers and thumbs made a rectangle, then cast some magic, making a few sparks. Then he tore out a couple thick papers from his booklet. “Your student IDs.”

Lilith took hers and looked at it. “Oh, that looks pretty good!”

“I want a redo.” Malena pouted as she looked at hers.

“Sorry, no redos,” the man said as he started packing up some items.

“Huh? Why not?”

“I prefer candid photos.” The man stood up and stepped away. “Anyway, it’s about time for my break.”

“What? You can’t just…” Malena practically growled as the man ran away.

“Ooh!” However, Lilith’s eyes practically sparkled. “I never realized he had a staff! A magic staff! So cool!”

“He should take his staff and shove it.”

“Aww, come on, don’t be mad… we’re roommates now!” Lilith hugged Malena.

Malena’s eyes widened, but she shrugged and hugged back. Then she noticed something weird: where were Lilith’s ears?

---

Lilith excitedly ran back to the inn where she and Sebastian were staying. “I got in! I got in!”

Sebastian looked up from his newspaper and breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness.”

“What? Were you worried I couldn’t?” Lilith smirked and tilted her head.

“No, just had a bit riding on it.”

“Are you betting on me?” She righted her head. “That’s weird.”

Sebastian paused, then shrugged. “Well, whatever makes money makes money.”

“Sure.” Lilith shrugged. “Anyway, can you help me pack?”

“Sure. Why not.”

---

After a few trips back and forth, they both finished unpacking, and Lilith was now sitting in a room full of books, some organized by Malena, and then a bunch of much fancier and opulent items on Malena’s side, like pictures, mirrors, and personal hygiene products.

“Hey where’s your… shampoo?” Malena asked as she looked around when they were finished.

“What’s shampoo?”

“Oh no. You’re not serious, right?”

Lilith stared back blankly.

“The thing you put in your hair when you shower? You have to use it. Your hair wouldn’t look like that without it.” Malena pointed.

“Oh! I just borrow Sebastian's. I guess I’ll have to get my own now.”

Malena couldn’t help the look of disgust.

“What?”

“You will get your own shampoo, and you won’t borrow mine.” She crossed her arms for a moment, then sighed. Suddenly, she stepped closer. “Actually, that reminds me.” She knelt down, then poked at Lilith’s ears, at least, at where they should’ve been.

“Huh?”

“Where are your ears?”

Lilith froze and paled, then held her hat with both hands.

Malena looked at the hat, her eyes widening. She glanced from the hat to where Lilith’s ears should’ve been a few times before asking, “Are you a… beastfolk?”

Lilith looked off to the left, then the right, then the ceiling. She wasn’t sure what she should be doing now. She let her hands drop a bit, since holding the hat was obviously too suspicious.

But Malena’s eyes were only filled with curiosity now. “Ooh? Are you really? What kind?” She grabbed at the hat and pulled it up. “Can I see?”

Lilith now froze completely. It felt like there was ice running through her veins. Her secret was exposed! “I- m’no it…” She squeaked out some noises as she waited for Malena’s response.

Malena reached her hand up to one of the fox ears and massaged it. “Reminds me of my ca…” She stopped herself and pulled her hand back. “Sorry. Why are you hiding those though? They’re so cute!”

“Huh? Really?” Lilith blinked, her fear slowly subsiding. “But people thought I was dumb when they saw them.” She shrank back. “There was that shopper, and those kids, and those bandits that thought I was a slave.”

Malena frowned. “That’s dumb. Who cares what some kids and some dumb shopper think. The customer is not always right. Heck, your test scores prove you’re not dumb.” She reached her hand back up and lightly pushed the hat the rest of the way off, smirking. “If you don’t want them, can I take them?” She squished and pulled one a bit.

“Eh?” Lilith looked up at the hand. The massaging was quickly calming her down. “Wh— whoa. That feels good.”

“You have a tail too, right?” Malena sat back.

Slowly, reluctantly, Lilith unfurled her tail and gently laid it on Malena’s lap.

Malena looked down. “Why does it have spikes?” She poked it. “This thing could be a weapon.”

“Not really. I often can’t even see it, and it’s kinda blunt.”

She squished it a bit. “Huh. It’s like you have a few tails in there.”

“Nah, it’s just thick.” Lilith leaned back. “Fox. Not cat.”

“Sure.” Malena paused. “Oh, do you purr?”

“Do I what?”

“Purr. You know, the noise cats make when they’re happy.”

“Again, I’m a fox beastfolk, not a cat.”

“Oh. Do foxes purr?”

Lilith paused. As it turned out, foxes did in fact purr. “I’m— I’m more human than fox.”

Malena grinned almost like a Cheshire cat. “So you do purr.”

“No? I’ve never purred before.”

“Maybe you should try it.” Malena sat back.

“What, like… ptfrtrr?” Lilith tried to mimic the noise.

“No, no you’re just spitting. I think they do it with their lungs?”

Lilith tried breathing differently, but it was just slower and faster breathing.

“Huh… I guess you can’t?” Malena frowned.

“Hold on…” Lilith moved her sense magic and telekinesis, then up to her vocal cords. “Hmmmmmm…” Her voice went to a slightly higher pitch than should be possible.

“Uh.” Malena stepped back a bit.

“Hmmmmm…” Lilith’s voice went way lower than should’ve been possible, until it finally sounded something like purring. “Ooh! I think I got it! How about this?” Her voice sounded a wavy.

“Huh. That’s quite the vocal range.”

Lilith breathed in and out a few times with the ‘purring’ active. “This is kinda nice actually.”

---

After they settled in and fell asleep in their respective beds, Lilith found herself at the regular lake. But this time, Wispy was wearing a party hat? And apparently so was she.

A party horn manifested in front of Wispy’s mouth just in time for him to blow it, before confetti showered down upon Lilith. “Congratulations! You did a great job! Though it’s not like I’d let you slouch on your studies even if you wanted to.” He opened a few of his tendrils, showing scenes of Lilith and Malena struggling to read through all the books together. “You really did work hard.” One of the scenes included her hat, and it staying on the whole time she was testing.

“Oh yeah, Malena liked my ears. I didn’t need to hide them.”

“She did indeed. You don’t need to hide them from her.”

Lilith frowned. “But you were the one that suggested that I hide them?”

“That’s also true.”

Lilith threw her palms up. “Then why? If it’s just weirdos and bandits that care, then why should I have to hide myself?”

Wispy shrugged. “Sometimes people like Malena are in charge of your fate, and sometimes weirdos and bandits are. Some people have said ‘you’ve got nothing to fear if you’ve got nothing to hide’… but you’ve already been ripped off and considered a slave for your ears, and a heretic for your magic. I think we’ve thoroughly disproved that saying.”

Lilith mulled it over. “Sure… I don’t think I like hiding all the time though.”

“Then don’t. I already said you could trust people like Malena with your secrets.”

Lilith relaxed a bit. “I guess that works.”

“Now, about your scores. Both of you.” Wispy extended two tendrils out, and Lilith’s and Malena’s test results materialized in front of them. “Let’s correct a few mistakes.”

On Lilith’s paper, researcher was followed by ‘(Solis)’, and then the eighty seven. But below it was researcher followed by ‘(Earth)’, and then a score of hundred and thirteen, re-graded as an S class.

“The scores are percentage based,” Lilith pointed out, trying not to smile at the new high score. “A hundred and thirteen doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s a representation of how far beyond the current paradigm you might be right now, assuming the paradigm that I follow is correct. In terms of science, you may succeed in making discoveries that a supposedly perfect person could not, because of your disagreements. But in terms of Solis’ paradigm, you’re still at eighty seven, and it may be harder to understand some of their thinking. We’ll need to test to see which paradigm is more correct.”

“There do seem to be gaps in their scientific method, like statistical analysis and hypothesis generation, but there are also leaps in drawing conclusions that I haven’t seen explanations for yet. Even in magic, what they know is different from what I remember. I don’t remember anything on the written spells they have here, but I do remember an institution that compiled research on information gathering magics that we haven’t seen any hint of here. Though there is a chance that Solis could be keeping such research secret, like the CIA did.”

“See aye ahe,” Lilith repeated. Then, more excitedly, “Wait so there’s secret magic!?”

“Yes. And I believe Malena was partially correct. You should become a researcher, especially if you’re interested in ‘secret magic’. I don’t think you should let that stop you from adventuring either though. The only thing you really want to avoid is healing. Malena hinted at it, but it’s in high demand. You most likely won’t be allowed to adventure if you do well, nor will you be given the time to do any research of your own. If you really want to learn healing magic, it may be best to secretly learn it from books.”

“Huh? But why though?”

“It’s simple. There are a limited number of good healers like Dr. Pana, so Solis wants to make sure they’re getting as much out of them as they can. They would compensate you for taking all of your free time with great pay, but you wouldn’t have the time to spend the money.” He conjured several images in front of Lilith with his tendrils. One was of Malena hugging her, another was of Sebastian driving his caravan, and one was of her selling stuff like Sebastian. Yet another was of her taking long naps, and there were a few more images of ideas she wrote down when bored of studying. “How much money would it take for you to give up all of those things?” Suddenly, gold coins drifted towards her from the lake, piling up on the shore, and then Lilith’s cat naps were replaced with her studying medical books with bags under her eyes. Her dream of selling was replaced with her rushing from patient to patient. And her time with Malena was replaced with Lilith dissecting animals as her homework, making Malena give her the same look of disgust from before, and then leaving her alone in her dorm.

Lilith gazed from scene to scene, slowly reeling back in horror.

“The doctors here took on a responsibility to heal everyone, and they need to share it to lessen their own burden. But you doing that would be a huge waste of your life.” Suddenly, the coins lifted up and faded away, and the images went back to normal. “We both know the future you want, so I’ll say it for you: you must adamantly refuse to become a healer.”

Lilith looked at the scenes he showed her now. Dr. Pana had seemed great, but Malena said what she said. She couldn’t think of anything that disproved what Wispy was saying either, and he was usually trustworthy.

“Okay…” she said, shoulders sagging.

“Also—” Malena’s corrected results floated in front of her. “—Tell Malena to try learning to be a strategist. It was mentioned in the study books and she should’ve got it with her scores. I think it’s not listed because Solis hasn’t been at war for a while. But just like you learned self defense before bandits ever attacked you, her learning strategy early could mean the difference between life and death. Being a better strategist will make her a far better politician too.” He brought up an image of people playing some board games in the local park. “There are a few games here dedicated to strategy. I suggest you two play some together.”

---

After Lilith woke up, Wispy looked over the personality test Solis made them take, his annoyance causing a few of his tendrils to twitch. “Speaking of strategy, I see your move now, Solis. As if you’d let someone that answered ‘I’d steal stuff if I felt I could get away with it’ study magic.”