Before I knew it, I’d beco a dog.
How could life be this tumultuous?
When it beca dawn and the emotional haze that had controlled my frontal lobe dissipated, I had spent so ti reflecting on the bullshit I spewed the night before.
I hadn’t expected Hasfeldt to burst into the shed abruptly without warning. I should have gotten rid of my application paper as soon as I ca back in case sothing like this happened.
Once I finished giving myself feedback and concluded that I need to be more careful in the future, I stared off blankly into space.
“Ah.”
What’s the point of trying to improve myself? It’s already been a week.
I didn’t know if Hasfeldt changed her mind. But for the mont, her plan to use to the fullest before sending off to the palace seed to be postponed until after the start of school.
Either way, the quality of my life was decreasing exponentially.
Wake up at 5 a.m. and get off work after midnight. My pay was zero, of course.
I couldn’t even call it getting off of work because I’d been stuck with Professor Hasfeldt for the whole week. The only ti I could catch up on sleep was when she was away at sumr classes for a couple hours a day.
If anyone robbed of that opportunity, I intended to slap the hell out of them even if they were a deity, however....
“Hey! What’s that on your neck?”
Brats were an exception.
Why was she here again?
Having suddenly barged into the lab, Freyr beelined towards with a giggle.
A mix of emotions played across Freyr’s face as she poked at the tal cuff around my neck.
“Don’t touch it, it’s heavy....”
“I an, who put this on you?”
“The prof.”
“That’s what I thought.”
The distinct sll of iron tickled my nose due to the tal chain. It wasn’t the greatest of odors.
It wasn’t good for my neck, either. Not only was it difficult to twist my head due to how tight the collar was, but it weighed quite a bit so if I positioned myself wrong, my clavicles would scream.
On top of that, there was the jangling of the chain. It was the worst environnt to work in a comfortable state of mind.
“Then you should have resisted when she put that on you!”
“You think that’s easy to do?”
Hasfeldt was levels above even from a purely physical aspect without any magic involved. I’d be overtaken in a heartbeat no matter how much I struggled.
It wasn’t only Hasfeldt; all Battle Mages who engaged in close combat were just as physically capable. And if they learned martial arts on top of that, they were able to take down a Magic Beast without using magic, so soone like would be torn apart just like a fish getting deboned.
“Is there anything I can help with?”
“There’s nothing. Go do your own thing.”
Why was she sticking to ?
“It’s stupid do anything with the exams finsihed. We deserve to be lazy until school starts as a reward for working so hard.”
“You say that like you’re going to pass.”
“Ahem! Because I believe in myself!”
Where was this baseless confidence even coming from?
Freyr thrust her fist out towards .
“Anyway, we’ll et next ti in the classroom, Yellow!”
“Sure. Thanks for saying that, kid.”
**
After Freyr’s questionable encouragent, I ca outside to grab lunch.
Any other ti, I would’ve been too humiliated to walk around in public with this collar but hunger trumped everything.
I looked around as I headed to the cafeteria.
And that was when a familiar face ca into view.
“Oh my, haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Professor Heerlein!”
Like Freyr earlier, I scurried up to Professor Heerlein with a distraught expression.
It’d been nearly ten days since I last saw Professor Heerlein because of Hasfeldt keeping an eye on all day for the past week, prohibiting from leaving her side.
Seeing the tal collar on my neck, Heerlein tilted her head.
“Did Klais do this?”
“Yeah, that’s what happened.”
“Hmm.... this is unusual, even for Klais. You’ve never attempted to leave in these last three years. She couldn’t have put that on you for no reason.”
“She found out that I applied here.”
Heerlein hissed through her teeth at my response. Then after a mont of silence, she asked a question.
Well, it wasn’t exactly a question.
“Can I see the keyhole’s structure?”
“Why?”
“Give a minute. I just want to check it quickly.”
Slave collars normally had a groove for the key on one side.
It was structured in a way that it couldn’t be taken off without the key that fit this indentation. This made it highly inconvenient to wash myself or my hair.
Of course, you’d wonder how often a slave got to wash properly, but.... I probably had it better since I could do so every other day.
“Alright, I know what’s going on. More importantly, you filled out the correct address for being notified about your acceptance, right?”
“Yes. It’s to be delivered to your place, Professor.”
There was a simple reason for this–my shed didn’t have an address and if it got delivered to Professor Hasfeldt’s lab or mansion, it could be disposed of without a trace.
It was clear from the way she freaked out at my applying for the Academy. If I passed, she’d lock up and prevent from paying the deposit.
“Good. If you pass, I’ll co find you that very day. I don’t think you’d be in the shed still.... Then perhaps?”
“Yes, I’m currently staying at Professor Hasfeldt’s place.”
“Geez, she’s obsessing over you for what? It’s fine. I understand, so stay calm and wait.”
I nodded at Professor Heerlein’s supportive words.
“Thank you.”
Anyhow, my goal didn’t change.
To get out of this world no matter what.
I even decided to secretly search for a way to escape to the land of the elves just in case.
My hope was that I wouldn’t ever beco desperate enough to consider it.
**
“Hello, Miss!”
“Huu, the weather has been chilly lately. Take care so that none of you catch anything.”
Imdiately after the eting with Aether, riga crossed the school grounds and arrived at the Admissions Managent office, taking a look at the large room’s interior as she removed her muffler. She could see staff mbers and part-tirs reading the written test’s OMR with magic equipnt.
Originally, Klais was supposed to be here as well but she’d canceled a few days ago because of urgent matters so riga had to cover for her.
It was obvious what that urgent matter was.
“Next is group seventeen.”
riga snapped out of it and took her seat.
“Here’s a hundred of them. Thanks, Professor.”
There were talks of how many talented youths had applied for this year’s admissions test.
A male elf student who was nearly perfect in Air Magic, the younger daughter of the Count Saliere family whose passion for anything fla-related even surpassed the Hasfeldt family. A Water Magic user who froze an entire hall and a student who could summon and dismantle a golem at will without a scroll, etc.
And.... the problematic Second Prince who had remarkable talent but was never without won scandals.
As expected, all of their written test marks were in the higher ranks. They would pass with flying colors as long as they didn’t fail the practical.
The elf student especially was in the lead with scores of 90 in every test reading.
Tilette’s practical test was difficult in its own way but the written boasted a level that was unrivaled. A score of 90 even in one subject ant being in the top 0.1 percent out of all the other mages in the sa year.
The elf student would probably be in first place.
The next place would be either the secondary of Fire Magic, the Saliere County, or the young Lady Eliyev who contributed the most to the improvent of Water Magic. And no one was crazy about it but the Second Prince was sure to be assigned to the special class as well
If there was any other variable.......
“Excuse ! There’s an error on this reader!”
“What is it?”
“Well, this student’s OMR ca out as perfect.
Professor Heerlein reflexively stood from her seat.
“Did you try a different one?”
“Uh.... This one works fine. Maybe it’s just a problem with this student’s test?”
“Could it be possible that.......”
“Ehh, of course not. We all know that even the teachers have trouble finishing our school’s test within the ti limit.”
Heerlein approached the admissions staff who were waving their hands dismissively, then said just one thing.
“Na.”
“Pardon? Do you an the student’s na?”
Aether.
Heerlein’s lips curved as her eyes narrowed. Not having caught the change in her expression, the part-tir brought out the answer sheet that had already been printed and claid that it needed to be marked by hand as if the reader couldn’t be trusted.
Right, this would be the normal reaction.
Including Heerlein and the part-tir, four people began to manually mark a subject each. Heerlein was in charge of Basic Magic Theory.
So of the questions were ones that had been decided by Hasfeldt or herself. The questions differed in style depending on which professor gave it, and it was fun to get a peek at the examiner’s personality through this.
In her case, she enjoyed giving ‘bait’ questions where it seed easy at first glance but was possible to get wrong if one hadn’t studied properly. It was relatively entertaining to see undergraduates who received a lower mark than expected because they had confidently chosen the wrong answer thinking that it was a question that they knew. She’d cackle and tell them that they had a long way to go, to which so would say how evil that was behind her back.
On the other hand, Professor Hasfeldt gave challenging questions that required a lot of thinking to solve. It would’ve been fine if it was only that, but her specialty was simplifying what she herself had learned through research into a question.
Heerlein could confidently say that even she wouldn’t be able to solve question 50 by Klais within the ti limit. It’d be more beneficial in many ways to go over and check for any marking mistakes rather than pore over that.
Swish, swish, swish.
In the process of comparing the test to the answers, large, red snow peppered the sheet1.
That flow continued even into the latter half with questions 40 and onwards. When she glanced to the side, it seed that the others were also starting to finish up.
47 correct, 48 correct, and 49. She even breezed through the two-layer trick question that she had given.
The last one was number 50. It was the question of the latest type that Professor Klais Hasfeldt gave. She only needed to check if this had been solved or not.
“Miss, I’ve finished marking Imperial Language. They’re all correct.”
“50 out of 50 correct for Math.”
“Perfect marks for Continental History...!”
“What about Basic Magic Theory?”
Tap.
As the part-tir asked, Heerlein put down her pen and closed the last page of the test.
“It’s a blizzard.”
Today had been especially cold for a reason.
On this day, the first perfect scorer of the written test in the history of Tilette Academy appeared.
Footnotes
1. taphor for correct answers, as in circling them
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