Straf looks at Corvus, and the group of examinators beside him. Corvus looks back at them both with his brows expectantly raised, and the examinators keep glancing at each other. Straf turns his head to the prospect students, they chuckle quietly with snide grins on their faces, apparently greatly amused by Cycelia's spell. Finally, he turns his gaze to the other examinees at the line, and they appear to be waiting for Cycelia to go first.

「Alright, Lia!…」

Straf exclaims loud enough for all the gathered to hear, looking at Cycelia with his bored eyes.

「…There's no need for you to do anything fancy. Keep it simple, silly.」

He announces, snapping his fingers, and points at her.

「…Huh? But Straf-」

Cycelia tilts her head, sneaking a brief, nervous glance towards the examinators.

「Lia!… Remember that ice spell?」

He loudly interrupts her, pointing his finger at her face as he asks.

「Huh?… Freeze Ray?」

She asks, blinking with her brows furrowed.

「…Is that what it was called?…」

Straf quietly mumbles, rubbing his chin briefly as he looks at the black slabs across the field.

「Yeah! That's right! Hit it with the ice spell, Lia!」

After a moment of thinking, he snaps his fingers again, and points his hand at the target out in the distance.

「Um… Okay, but… What were the spellwords?」

She meekly asks with a tight-lipped expression, toeing the exam line.

「Spellwords?」

「Yes…」

Cycelia nods her chestnut head in reply, anxiously pulling her pink lips inward into her mouth as she looks at him with her big, green eyes.

「Lia…」

He sighs, and places his large hand on her small shoulder.

「…Have you ever seen me use spellwords? Do you think they matter? It's just what these nerds want magic to be like. Do you really want to sound like a 12 year old chanting all that shit? Come on.」

Straf calmly says with a soft voice, smirking at her while gently hunching over, encouraging her while at the same time ridiculing the idea of magic.

「Okay, so… So I just flow mana, and call the spell's name?」

Cycelia nods and asks, tilting her head.

「Do whatever you think works best, Lia! You are the really special mage here, not me!」

Straf exclaims, spreading his arms with a sardonic smile directed at the examinees, and then the examinators. Cycelia giggles softly, covering her mouth with a loose fist.

「Straf… Don't joke like that, we both know that's not true…」

She replies when her giggling calms, and points her palm at the black slab.

「You won't know until you try it. Go on, Lia! Cast it!」

He loudly encourages her, standing just by her side. Cycelia anxiously glances over her shoulder at the students behind her, and turns her emerald gaze to Corvus and the examinators. She gulps nervously, then takes a deep breath. She looks at her pink fingertips, and her eyes focus on the black target, far in the distance between her splayed fingers.

「『Freeze Ray』!」

Cycelia exclaims, pointing her palm at the black slab ahead. Nothing happens, aside from causing the group waiting behind them to burst out into laughter.

「Eh?」

She blinks, and looks at her palm with confused eyes. Her panicking face turns to Straf for help, and he looks back at her with a slanted mouth.

「Haha… What is she thinking? Freeze Ray won't even get through the antimagic coating!」

One of the prospect students remarks, giggling with her hand covering her mouth.

「Did she miscast a beginner spell? Poor girl might rip her arm off!」

Another chuckles with a snide grin on her face, shaking her hatted head with her arms crossed.

「…Has she said a single spellword so far? No? Anyone?」

An examinator asks his fellow mages, looking side to side. They all look back at him equally confused, and shrug their robed shoulders.

「Straf! It isn't working!」

Cycelia exclaims with a desperate hushed voice, looking at Straf with huge green puppy eyes that are very obviously begging for some form of rescue.

「Hmmmmm… Lia, what are you doing?」

Straf bluntly asks, with his fists on his hips and looking quite unimpressed.

「Huh? I- I don't know!? I thought it would work-」

She explains on the verge of panic, while her dainty hands tremble.

「Ms. Lia, will you begin soon?」

「Eep!」

She jumps up with a yelp as Corvus asks a sudden question.

「I thought there was no time limit!?」

Straf shouts back, spreading his arms with a ridiculing smirk.

「Correct, there isn't, but…」

Corvus nods his head in reply, and looks to his fellow examinators with a troubled expression on his face, hesitating to continue his statement.

「…Quite frankly, we are beginning to lose hope that Ms. Lia will hit the target within any given time frame.」

Regardless, he does go on, brushing his long beard on his chest with his fingers as he speaks. Cycelia looks at him with a dismayed face, and her heart shatters to the laughter of the students behind her.

「Hey! I said she's nervous, alright!?」

Straf points at the old mage, shouting over the exam area with an indignant tone. Ms. Lia turns her wetting emerald eyes to Straf, biting her lower lip as it quivers gently. Nodding, Corvus pinches the frame of his glasses to adjust them.

「Lia! Did you imagine your spell when you tried to cast it?」

Straf exclaims her pet name, and turns his eyes to her with a smug grin on his face.

「W- What?…」

Cycelia asks, sniffling softly.

「What?」「Huh?」「What is this guy talking about?」

A lot of confused voices rise in response to Straf's loud and clear question. He sighs, shaking his head in resignation as he spreads his hands.

「No wonder! You're so nervous you forgot to, Lia!」

Straf announces, shrugging his shoulders as he looks at the prospect students with a little innocuous smirk.

「What? But- Straf, I don't think-」

Cycelia shakes her head lightly in confusion, protesting Straf's explanation, but he quickly shuts her down by gently placing his finger on her soft, pink lips. She immediately freezes up, staring into his eyes.

「Ssh. I know.」

《You're an airhead like that, after all…》

He returns a knowing nod, lightly hunched over, and straightens out as he pulls his finger away. Instead, she pulls her own dainty hand up to her lips, feeling for Straf's finger that have just left.

「Lia… Don't think! Imagine!」

Straf exclaims something that sounds like a tagline or a trademark, with a loud and proud voice as he snaps his fingers, grinning. More student chuckling begins, and the examinators mumble amongst themselves.

「Headmaster, put an end to this! This is ridiculous! They are making a mockery of our Academy's lineage!-」

The examinator approaches closer and practically begs Corvus, pointing his hand at Straf and Cycelia with outrage on his face. His protests are quickly shut down by the headmaster's wrinkled palm in front of him.

「No, professor. They should at least have a chance to fail. Let them, or perhaps allow them to surprise us.」

Corvus lowers his aged hand, and smiles softly at the frustrated professor. He bows his head in reply, and returns to his spot amongst the examinators. The old mage turns his kind gaze to Straf and Cycelia, watching them closely.

「But…」

Cycelia utters out quietly, looking down at the grass to escape the students' judging gazes. Straf briefly looks around, and sets the large baggage in his hand down onto the grass.

「Lia, look! Do you see that over there?」

He asks, placing his hands on her shoulders, and steering her in the direction of the large mountain in the center of the kingdom.

「…Dragon's Nest?」

She asks, looking at the distant mountain he's pointing at.

「Is that what's it called? Whatever. Lia, imagine you turn those targets into a mountain of ice as big as that, alright?」

He loudly says, and gives her an exaggerated smile. Straf then briefly glances over his shoulder at Corvus, before returning his eyes to her.

「Huh? But- Well… Okay…」

Cycelia hesitantly nods her chestnut head when Straf lets go, and she toes the stone line again. More and more examinators grow frustrated, and the examinees beside Cycelia are still waiting to see what she's going to do.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

She takes a deep breath, and points her palm at the black slab. Her emerald eyes peek at the headmaster, smiling softly with his hands behind his back, and the grim-faced Academy professors watching with their arms crossed. Her gaze returns to the targets. Briefly, snippets of memories where Albus would try and get her to study for this moment replayed in her head. Again, again, and again, with a magic tome in his wrinkled hands, Albus would chase after young Cycelia.

《I'll do it later, huh? Serves me right…》

A bitter thought forces its way to her mind. She clenches her teeth and struggles to swallow it. The same old excuse she had always used with Albus. He'd only relent, because then Otto would receive more of his attention, believing the princess will eventually be good on her word, eventually. Cycelia begins blinking rapidly, knowing that she never gave him a chance to finally teach her magic.

「Listen Lia… Even if no one else believes you can do it, I believe in you.」

Straf abruptly encourages her, holding his thumb up and smirking. Briefly, Cycelia gets thrown out of her negative thought flow, and blinks at him in confusion before idly nodding back.

「And remember to hold back!」

He chuckles with his fists on his hips.

《I don't want to disappoint Albus…》

She thinks, lowering her head and biting her lip out of angst.

《…But most of all, I don't want to disappoint Straf right now!》

Her emerald-green eyes refocus on the target with a resolute gaze. She glances up at Straf's softly smiling face, then shifts her focus to the faraway mountain behind his back.

Cycelia's gaze snaps forward across the field. In her mind, a veritable mountain of ice appears, large enough to dwarf the dragons.

「『Freeze Ray』!」

She shouts with determination in her voice, glaring sharply at the black slab ahead, pointing her palm at it. Briefly, nothing happens, causing some examinators to scoff with disdain.

Then, a blue light forms at an arm's length away from her palm. A shining ice-blue orb abruptly shoots out a narrow beam of the same color towards the target. Cycelia's jaw drops in surprise.

The ray pierces right through the magic resistant space around the target, as if it was not even there to begin with, and splashes against the black slab. Faster than the blink of an eye, an enormous mountain of ice sprouts into the sky, growing taller than the main Academy building itself, and almost engulfing the target next to it. The ice acts like a prism, majestically glittering in the light, and the morning sun casts a large rainbow onto the grass. The entire exam field is silent, the examinees and the examinators stare in shock at the black target stuck in the gigantic chunk of ice ahead.

Clap clap clap clap clap clap!

「Nice, Lia! Good thing you didn't go all-out after all!」

Straf claps, smugly grinning at the shocked examinators, before turning his snide smirk to the stunned students.

「I- I did that!?」

Cycelia asks in disbelief, grinning ear to ear at Straf while she points her dainty finger at the ice mountain. Her emerald eyes shine with joy at him.

「Did it look like it was me, Lia?」

Straf spreads his hands, shrugging with a smug smile.

「No- I mean- Wow! I really am special!?」

She exclaims, clasping her hands together at her chest with a face of pure happiness.

「…Without incantation?…」「But how?…」「That's Freeze Ray? It can't be!…」「She imagined it?…」

The students and the examinators mumble the same things amongst each other, in two separate groups. The examinees at the line appear both awed and a little demoralized, staring at Cycelia as if she just stabbed them in the back, with their arms slumped.

「Yup. You are, Lia. Weren't you listening?-」

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.

Loud clapping coming from the examinators' direction interrupts Straf.

「Well done! Well done!…」

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.

Corvus exclaims, approaching Straf and Cycelia as he claps and nods his head.

「…Ms. Lia. Well done. While I have said that we want to be impressed, rather than shown raw power… To put on such a display with a beginner level spell like this…」

The headmaster adds and places his hands behind his back, looking aside at the misty mass of ice engulfing the black slab.

「…Not to mention, the complete absence of any incantation that we could hear… Or see. Impressive. Very impressive.」

Corvus continues as he looks at Straf, nodding his head.

「Yeah, like I said, Lia is a very special girl. She was just a little nervous… Right, Lia?」

「Yes…」

Straf smirks at Cycelia, and with her chestnut head lowered, she bashfully nods back. The old mage momentarily glances at her, before returning his eyes back to Straf.

「Since it's obvious from the very beginning that we will want you in our Academy… Would you come with me so I can show you some of our facilities, and get you settled in?」

Corvus asks, then looks at Cycelia.

「Huh? Right now?」

She tilts her head, blinking at the old mage with confused eyes.

「Yeah, no big scoreboard? No looking through the list to see what's her rank, only to find out she's on the top? She's just in?」

Straf asks, spreading his hands.

「Yes. It would be my pleasure to personally show you the Academy…」

Corvus nods at Cycelia, then turns his round spectacles and soft gaze to Straf again.

「…I believe the other examinators can take over for me here!」

He shouts over his back at the Academy professors, before knowingly smiling at Straf. They appear less than pleased by the headmaster's implied announcement, but shrug their hands.

「Well… If they're insisting, Lia-」

Straf shrugs his shoulders, and reaches for the baggage waiting on the grass.

「Before we go!…」

Corvus stops Straf with his voice raised, and his wrinkled palm directed at him.

「…Would you like to give the targets a try, Straf?」

The old mage asks with his brows inquisitively raised, presenting with his hand another target next to the mass of ice. The question gives Straf a momentary pause, and he hesitates on his answer.

「…Yeah, sure.」

He glances at the target and Corvus, then ultimately shrugs, straightening out and leaving the baggage be. With his hands in his pockets, he steps up to the line of stones. Corvus follows closely behind.

「So, uh… I just have to hit it, huh?」

Straf asks, glancing at the old mage beside him.

「Correct. Feel free to impress us.」

Corvus nods in reply, smiling softly at Straf. The old headmaster watches the target with his hands behind his back, one holding the other.

Straf shrugs his shoulders, pulls his hand out of his pocket, and points his palm at the target. His eyes look at the ice mountain, before briefly drifting along the blue, early morning sky while he thinks. He clicks his tongue, and lets out a sigh.

「『Abra Cadabra』.」

He nonchalantly declares with a slanted mouth, and a blue orb appears in front of his palm. A narrow ray of ice-blue light projects across the field and impacts the target, engulfing it in a truck-sized boulder of ice.

「Woah!」「What was that spell!?」

The examinees exclaim, amazed by Straf's magic as he casually places his hand back in his pocket.

Clapclapclapclapclap.

「Impressive, Mr. Straf!-」

「Just Straf.」

「Yes, yes… Impressive, indeed! Was that a shortened incantation?」

Corvus nods his head, corrected by Straf once again as his brief but intense applause slows to a halt.

「Hm? Yeah, I guess, kind of…」

Straf shoots back a dismissive reply, shrugging his shoulders. The old mage nods once more, stroking his long beard.

「I see, I see… Very few professors at the academy are capable of that, Straf. You are both very impressive indeed… As expected of a bodyguard of such a…」

Corvus explains and looks at Cycelia, thinking for a few seconds while his fingers run through his beard on his chest.

「…Powerful mage indeed!」

He nods again, looking Straf in the eyes as he picks the baggage up, and flicks it over his shoulder.

「Well, let us go now, shall we? I have a lot to show you.」

Corvus says, and begins walking towards the Academy's entrance. The prospect students part their large group, stepping aside to make way for Straf and Cycelia, staring at them in awe when they walk past.

「I have to say… I haven't seen students as impressive as you in a long while-」

The old mage says, placing himself at Straf's side while they walk towards the main gate along the wall, leaving the exam grounds behind.

「Student. I'm a bodyguard, she's the student.」

Straf quickly corrects the old man, glancing at him with a slanted mouth on his face.

「Yes, yes… Either way, you have immense magic aptitude, to the degree of it being almost unnatural.」

Corvus nods, glancing at Straf from above his spectacles every few steps.

「Yeah. Makes you feel stupid you almost turned her away, don't it?… Right-?」

Straf asks, then as he's turning his head to Cycelia, he soon realizes that she's too busy celebrating to pay any attention to him.

Cycelia briefly jogs in place, pumping her clenched fists as she lets out a squeal of joy with a massive smile on her face…