Stela ignored their jabs. She knew she had powers, but recently, a thought had begun to take shape in her mind. If she used her Saintess powers, she would be forced to leave her family and relive the same life she had led in the past. Though her lack of knowledge about the test made her a little nervous, she tightened her hand into a fist. She would make sure that she got admitted as a different magic wielder.

She let out a sigh. It would have helped if she had some information on the test. Her parents had placed too much faith in her, sending her off to school without informing her of what the test would be.

The tall man in black, i.e., Edgar, made his way to the podium. He snapped his finger. Stela felt a sudden silence envelope the field.

Sound magic! Stela thought. It looked like the shameless Headmaster was also a skilled magician. Sound magicians were rare...

Edgar coughed to clear his throat. However the sound of him clearing his throat could be heard across the field loudly and clearly.

"Children, parents. Welcome to Sherol Academy's yearly admission event.", he said, in a vain and conceited manner.

"Admittees, you might be.", he continued, waving a hand at the group of now nervous children, "But whether you are granted admission to our academy, that is another issue."

Stela watched him, a little amused. She had to admit that Edgar had a penchant for theatrics.

"You see, here at Sherol, we only accept - certain talent. Any child that wants to study here requires something.", he said. He pointed at an empty part of the field on his left.

The children gathered there stared confusedly at what was clearly an empty plot of land.

Edgar waved his hand again and the children gasped. A brown cottage suddenly began to take shape on what was earlier an empty plot of land.

Edgar smiled, "Go ahead, walk in children.", he said, directing the children to enter the cottage.

Stela squinted, there were at least a hundred children standing in the field. The cottage looked like it could house only 50 children at most. She looked around to see parents goading their children to enter the cottage. She spotted Martin and Martha standing on one side waving at her frantically to enter the cottage.

Stolen novel; please report.

Taking a deep breath Stela walked towards the cottage and pushed open the door. At the same time that Stela took a step in, the pink haired girl she had met earlier also walked in.

Stela looked around. It looked like she was in a room made of mirrors as countless reflections stared back at her. However, the pink haired girl was nowhere to be seen. A long table stood alone in the center of the room. Light from a candle burning on the table, reflected off the mirrors and lit up the entire room. Apart from the candle there were also several crystal balls placed in a row, with an opaque wooden hourglass placed inconspicuously on one corner. Stela looked at the mirrors curiously, wondering if they were a part of the test. However the reflections on the mirror looked back at her blankly. It was clear that the main test had more to do with the mysterious crystal balls.

Stela continued to observe her surroundings thoughtfully. It seemed to be a simple interactive test, befitting the children who were to partake in it. She walked towards the table to pick a crystal ball. She had considered being more wary as teleportation magic could have been involved, but gauging by the wooden hourglass, that was unlikely. To the other participants it may have seemed like the hourglass had been placed in the room with the specific intention of instilling a sense of confusion and uncertainty. However, Stela recognized the object from her past life. The hourglass was an uncommon space warping item that distorted the space it was placed in.

It was clear that the item served three functions in the test. The first was to confuse the participants. The second, was to warp the space. The third and most interesting function, was to weed out cheaters. If any participant being fearful of the perceived time constraint, flipped the hour glass to buy more time, the warp magic would be undone and the person would be thrown outside the magic space.

Being confident that the real test lay in the crystals, Stela picked up a random crystal ball. As soon as her hand touched the ball, it began to glow and Stela felt a warmth run up her hand. As if activated by the ball, one of her reflections in a mirror suddenly moved. It conjured a chalk and began to draw a complicated spell circle on the ground. When it was seemingly done, a piercing red light ran swiftly through the outer layer of the circle making it burst out in flames. Then, as the flames subsided, Stela saw what looked like a small unidentifiable creature at the center of the circle. At this point the mirror turned dark and the crystal ball grew cold.

Stela placed it back on the table. She recollected a certain memory from her past life. When she had first gone to the Holy Seer's Temple, one of the temple acolytes had taken her to a dingy room with a tall wooden screen partition at the center. A single chair had been placed before the screen. The acolyte had brought her a box with a circular hole at the top and asked her to place her hand inside. While fearful, she had done as she was told. There seemed to have been several objects inside the box, but when she had touched what felt like a smooth stone, her hand had gotten tingly and she had withdrawn it instinctively. The acolyte had seemed strangely excited to see her reaction and asked her to place her hand back in and hold on to the "stone". When she did, hesitantly, she had seen a golden light emanate from the other side of the screen. After some time, the light had faded away and the stone had grown cold.

As the room grew dark, a voice had spoken from behind the screen.