“You want us to form into groups of four?” Floreta asked.
“That’s right,” said the examiner with a smooth smile. “We’ll be assessing you on your performance in groups rather than individuals. We’re saving that for the practical exam. Now, form into groups of four so we can get started on the written exam.”
He clapped his hands lightly and indicated for them to get forming into groups.
“Hey, Regi,” said Rizer to the bulkier boy, “you’re with me.”
“Sure,” replied Regi with a shrug, seeming to accept the decision without much thought.
“Hey, sweet heart,” Rizer spoke sweetly to Floreta and extended his hand out, “come and join us. You’re welcome to join too, Stella.”
He was looking at the two princesses confidently, seeming to believe that they would accept his offer. Stella looked uncertain while Floreta had a look of utmost disdain on her face.
“I’m sorry, but I’m forming my own group,” replied Floreta curtly. Then she turned and smiled at the girl seated beside her and asked, “Stella, will you join me?”
“I will,” responded Stella with a beaming smile, and the two grinned happily at one another.
“Oh. I see,” he said, slowly dropping his hand and looking a little sour. “Is that how you’ll operate. Fine. Let’s see who else will join you,” and threw a menacing look at the others.
It was an indirect warning for the others to not join her group unless they wished to face his wrath. Being a prince and a very powerful one at that, the others immediately retracted from asking to join her group. Floreta and Stella looked at them, causing the others to quickly avert their eyes and form into their own groups.
“Hey, that’s dirty!” Stella complained to him.
“All is fair when it’s done my way,” replied Rizer with a smirk. “Now will you join me, my dear Floreta?”
The Princess of East Nation glared at him with clear anger in her face, but she breathed a sigh and put on a smile instead. She then turned to face Theodore and Edna, who were watching this scene with amazement.
“Edna and Theodore, will you please join my group?” The princess asked them politely with a smile.
“Uh…!” Edna hesitated, looking worryingly at the threatening glare she received from Rizer.
Floreta saw her hesitation and glance, making her turn and glare back at Rizer, who smiled lovingly at her. He flinched when he sensed a powerful glare placed upon him. Shifting his eight, he saw Theodore glaring seriously at him, who had noticed the prince glaring threateningly at Edna.
“Yes. We’re thrilled to join you if you are willing to accept us, princess,” Theodore said to Floreta with a big smile and smiled smugly at Rizer.
“Really? That’s great!” Floreta said happily while Edna looked at him in confusion. She grabbed both of Edna’s hands and said, “Thank you for joining my group, Edna. You too Theodore.”
“T-T-The pleasure’s all mine, princess,” stuttered Edna initially before smiling confidently.
The Prince of North Nation looked on at the smiling scene and wondered aloud, “What’s his problem?”
“You glared at her,” said Regi.
“Pardon?”
“You threw a serious look at that girl he accompanied with. He got angry at you.”
“Oh…!” Rizer said, realising the meaning and snorting with disbelief. “How stupid.”
“I can say the same thing about what you did.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing…!”
Regi finished his rebuttal with a guilty smile while Rizer threw him an annoyed look. Then he glanced around and saw his sister rise from her chair while closing her book.
“So, sister. You’ll join me?” He asked, although it sounded more like a statement.
She gave him a cold look and replied, “We may be siblings, but that doesn’t mean I do whatever you want,” and walked towards the others to form a group of her own.
“As cold as ever,” he remarked at his sister’s treatment of him and gestured for two girls to come and join his group, to which they did willingly with excited smiles on their faces.
The students took a few minutes to form into four groups before turning back to face the examiners.
“We’re ready,” Rizer said.
“Mmm,” the examiner said as he examined them before smiling and replying, “if you say so.”
“What?”
The examiner pointed with his hand in a certain direction and said, “There’s one left out.”
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At his indication, they all turned and saw Lustre Grand still seated in his chair and looking on with interest. When all attention was focused on him, he smiled sheepishly and waved at them with an embarrassed smile.
“Oh. Him,” said Rizer after a moment of pause. “I guess we kind of forgot about him. He’s forgettable really.”
“Rizer!” Floreta said sharply in annoyance.
“I’m telling you the truth, or don’t tell me you remember but somehow forgot to mention him?” He asked her sceptically.
Floreta did not say anything back and merely looked at him with a frustrated expression. This caused him to look mockingly sad and shake his finger while making a cit-cit-cit sound with his tongue.
“Who would’ve guessed that the Princess of East Nation forgot someone? This moment should go down in history as an historical moment for generations to know!”
“Shut up!” Floreta snapped. Then she turned and asked the examiner, “Sir, there’s seventeen of us, and you told us to form into groups of four.”
“Yes, I did, and your point is…?”
“How can we form into groups of four while leaving one of them out?”
He looked at her with almost like a pitiful expression before saying, “That’s for you to decide, princess.”
“Sorry?” She asked suspiciously. “I don’t understand.”
“Princess, my only requirement was for you to form into groups of four. I never specified how you should form into groups of four, now did I?”
Floreta stared at him in with a dumbfounded look on her face, which caused Rizer to chuckle.
“I guess this means someone from their group must include him in theirs,” said Stella with sadness and turned to look at Lustre.
“Well, sorry, but I don’t need a weakling in my group,” said Rizer instantly. “How about you, dear sister?”
At his question, all eyes turned towards Evangel, who had closed her eyes. She momentarily opened them and seeing everyone looking at her, she glanced at Lustre and simply breathed a sigh before closing her eyes once more.
“I’ll take that as a no,” said her brother with a snort.
Then he turned and asked the other group, to which they also shook their heads in refusal.
“Now, this is a darn shame, isn’t it?” He asked aloud while raising his hands into the air. “This is the Magic Titan’s pupil we’re talking about here, and he’s been left out. What a dilemma?”
There was a moment of pause before Floreta said, “Who said he’s been left out?” When they all turned to her, she walked over to Lustre and asked, “Lustre, I know this is late in asking, but will you join my group?”
Lustre looked up at her in surprise and jumped to his feet, causing him to accidentally kick the chair and make it slide back while he almost stumbled. Almost everyone laughed while Stella, Theodore, Edna, Regi and Evangel kept their composure.
“A-Are you willing to… take me in?” He asked her nervously.
“Definitely,” she replied firmly with a determined smile on her face.
He continued to look at her in awe before stretching his hand out and grasping hers with a happy smile forming on his face.
“In that case, I’d be happy to join you.”
While this was happening, Rizer snorted and said, “What a strange group.”
“How so?” Regi asked curiously.
“Take a look. Two princesses, two commoners and a weakling. Just great. A group of oddities.”
“It’s better than a group of complete idiots,” rebutted Floreta with a smile.
While Rizer shook his head with a sigh, Regi looked confused and asked, “Um…? Am I also an idiot?”
“Who knows and who even cares,” said Rizer with a shake of the head, “but I know that group is too much for me.” He turned back to the examiner and asked, “Are we done now? Can we get on with it?”
“Yes,” the examiner replied with a smile. Then he pulled out his wand and pointed it up at the ceiling where all the candles were floating and said, “Elemental Spirits of Light, choose your partners.”
In accordance with his command, seventeen candles split away from the other floating candles and slowly floated down to them. Then a candle hovered next to each and every one of them until all seventeen candles were next to someone.
“Ignite,” he said, and flames sprung forth on each candle.
As everyone eyed the ignited candles with wonder, Rizer asked, “What’s this?”
“These are the candles of truth,” the examiner explained. “A candle is assigned to each student and it stays ignited, afloat, and won’t melt at all. However, if you cheat or do something wrongful during the exam, a piece of the candle stick will automatically be removed.”
“Oh.”
As everyone else was murmuring about this piece of information, Florenta asked, “So, it’s like an anti-cheat thing. That makes sense.”
“B-But… what happens if… all of the candle sticks get removed?” Stella asked with concern.
The examiner looked at them and smiled serenely as he replied, “They will explode.”
“What?!”
“Huh?!”
“You’re kidding!”
That was the kind of reaction that was released by several people in response to his shocking statement.
“They will explode?” The Princess of East Nation asked with a raised eyebrow. “Are you serious?”
“I am serious,” the examiner replied. “The candle that loses all of its sticks will indeed explode.”
“This is a surprising turn of events,” muttered Theodore with a smirk as he glanced at his floating candle.
“You’re kidding,” said Edna with her mouth slightly open with shock.
“I’m not kidding at all. The candle that explodes will indicate that its partner will automatically be declared to have failed the exam.”
There was a nervous murmur among the students before Floreta asked, “Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”
Before the examiner could respond, Rizer scoffed at her question and said, “Dangerous? Sweet heart, your question is ridiculous.”
“How is it ridiculous?” She rounded on him. “When they explode, not only do the person fail the exam but they also get injured! That’s bad!”
“I would like to defer,” he replied with a smile. “I’d say they deserve to be injured if they sink so low as to cheat in an exam! Joining and studying at Astral Academy is not for the faintest hearts or for those that use dirty tricks.”
“Like you?” Regi asked curiously.
“What?” Rizer demanded with a severe glare.
“Nothing. I was mistaken,” replied Regi automatically.
Rizer nodded and looked back before saying, “As I was saying, the candles exploding and causing some injuries to those that failed the exam is a good way to punish those wrong doers. This is the Astral Academy after all and sustaining injuries should be part of the development.”
“About that,” raised the examiner, “you can rest assured that there will not be any serious injuries when the candles explode. The most they could do is knock the person off his chair and possibly render them unconscious. That is about all the damage they can do.”
“I see,” said Floreta, looking unimpressed but somewhat satisfied.
Rizer snorted and said, “That’s being soft. They should deserve to be dealt with more damage.”
The examiner smiled at him and said, “I concur with your judgement, prince.” When Rizer smiled proudly, the examiner continued saying, “As a matter of fact, when the candle explodes, so will the rest of their group’s candles.”
There was a moment of silence before several people exclaimed, “What?!”
“What are you saying, sir?” Floreta asked, looking alarmed.
“It’s as I said, princess,” the examiner replied with a serene smile. “If one of the candles in your group explodes, the rest of the candles will explode simultaneously. Which means that if one of you fail the exam, the rest of you will also fail.”
“No way!” Was the shout that several students uttered.
“You’re being serious?” Stella asked weakly.
“I am, princess,” he replied to her sweetly, “and speaking of being serious, now that I’ve brought you all up-to-speed on the rules of the examination, it’s time to get started,” and he smiled coolly at the look of horror on their faces.