| Author: Kashiwagi Masato | Original Source: Syosetu | Word Count: 2393 characters |
| Translator: PunishedLyly | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1203 words |
| Editor(s): Fire | ||
「Oh Lily, you~… Hm?」
「Sola, is there something wrong?」
「Well, that……」
Looking at where Sola was pointing at, there was a glistening golden crow flying towards us from the direction of the castle. I whistled, raised my right arm, and the crow then flew straight to us and landed on my arm. It has golden feathers and a white beak, and as its two legs perched on my arm, its third leg1 held itself towards me.
While in normal cases, a crow this large would tear apart the arm it’s perched on and the uniform over it, but thanks to the modifications I made to my uniform, it has more defensive capabilities than any regular armor. Naturally, Urania’s uniform and Est’s work clothes are already modified as well.
「What’s the matter, Tres?2 And what about Lord Ces?」
「Lily, that is…?」
「Ah, forgive my manners. This is Tres, the familiar of Lord Ces.」
This golden crow is a familiar Ces is contracted with. As its appearance showed, this magic beast is a three-legged crow, but I heard that it’s a mutated one. This three-legged crow Tres has a large body and is nimble with his three legs, and since he always knows where Ces is, Tres is used as a means of communication.
A letter is tied on his third leg, and since the leg is held towards me, then this means that Ces wrote this letter to me.
「Is this for me?」
「Kaaw!」
「I see, then I’ll be reading it now.」
Tres is incredibly smart and can remember anyone he’s seen once. Tres and I met once when Ces came back home, and I’ve also exchanged letters with Ces through Tres several times during the winter, so it should be safe to say that he remembers my face really well.
「My, Lord Ces seems to be having a rough time. 」
「What is it?」
「There seems to be some trouble. It’s written that he won’t be able to watch over the examination and that we should head to the examination area by ourselves.」
While there aren’t any issues with his remaining work, it seems that a new problem just came up and Ces won’t have any free time for a while. We can just come back on another date, but since we’re already here, we took the exam by ourselves.
「My, in that case, let’s go around the examination hall together! Right, this is perfect! Let’s definitely do it!」
「Eh…… Uhhh…… are you sure?」
「Geez! Don’t be so reserved now! We’re friends, aren’t we?」
「That’s right. In that case, let’s go together.」
While I was told about the flow of the examination, remembering the flow and actually performing is completely different. I am not insecure about my skill in magic, but it’s still somewhat nerve-racking, and I’m also worried that I might accidentally do something problematic. Because of this, I’m really thankful for Sola’s offer.
◆◇◆◇◆
Led by Sola, Urania and I arrived at the examination hall. Originally, this area is used as the training grounds for the knights’ order, so it’s considerably wide. The mansion at Gateskeep is pretty wide itself, and this hall is wide enough to fit the entire estate inside. In the center, there is a largish tent which is surrounded by twelve other tents.
「This is where the magic academy’s examination is held. I intend to take the examinations as a sorcerer for fire, water, and life attributes. Lily, Urania, which attributes will you be testing for?」
Magic and magecraft have attributes and types. Attributes include the four fundamental attributes: fire, water, earth, and wind, in addition to other special or composite attributes such as light, life, and space. Types mainly differ based on the scale of the magic or magecraft. For example, the magic I use, “Burn” and “Cut”, are considered to be a part of the basic-type of magic, while Adan’s forte is weather-type magic. In short, the type a sorcerer is good at differs from person to person.
Though with that said, since attributes are generally seen as more important than the types, the class sorting examination divides the examinations by attribute, with each having a respective tent, and the enrollees can take the exams for the attributes they can use.
「Nn, I’ll be doing earth, wind, and life.」
「So you have three attributes and all three of them are a part of the seven major attributes like mine are as well. We only match with the life attribute, so our classes will be mostly different, it seems. What about you, Lily?」
「Ahh, umm……」
The most common attributes are the seven major attributes which comprise the four fundamental attributes and the three attributes: life, space, and light. The four fundamental attributes are those considered being the foundation of this world, and added on to that is the life attribute concerned with healing and restoration, space attribute which includes dimensional storage and teleportation, and the light attribute that produces light and such. And since these enrich the lives of the people, there seems to be a lot of advancements in the research of these attributes.
「Oh? Are you perhaps a singular attribute?」
「Well no, it’s not the case but……」
Singular attribute refers to sorcerers and mages like Arisa who can only use one attribute. While they lack adaptability, they can be much more powerful than those with multiple attributes when it comes to the attribute they can use. According to what I heard, there are singular attribute mages that use magecraft more powerful than the magic of a sorcerer. Naturally, I’m not a singular attribute.
「Uhh…… All of them.」
「There are many active magicians which can only use a single attribute. While the same can be said with singular attribute mages, singular attribute sorcerers are quite…… Excuse me, could you repeat that?」
「All of them. I’ll be taking all the exams.」
「By that, you mean all the fundamental attributes? Or is it all the major attributes?」
「All of those as well as wood, lighting, star, poison, and alchemic.」
「…… That literally is all the attributes, isn’t it?」
Incidentally, dark attribute exists as well, but this isn’t taught in the academy.3 Well, it is related to the black color that this country doesn’t quite like, so I guess it’s only obvious. By the way, dark attribute magic has no relation to curses. After all, while I can use dark attribute magic, I can’t use curses.
「As… expected of the Iglesio household’s guest sorcerer, I suppose…… Alright then, let’s start from that one, shall we?.」
「I’m sorry for the trouble……」
「I don’t particularly mind it, alright?」
Sola promptly suggested that we go around clockwise, starting from the nearest tent. Naturally, I have absolutely nothing to complain about that, so I agreed with Sola’s suggestion and started from the fire attribute tent which was nearest to us.
