Millicent finished her examination just before time ran out. The proctors ordered everyone to stop writing and began collecting the papers.
A wave of relieved chatter swept through the Debate Parlor. Regardless of how well anyone had performed, the mere fact that the examination was over was reason enough to celebrate. The instructors gathered the scrolls and stacked them inside an old wooden chest. Every scroll looked exactly alike, making some candidates wonder whether their own papers might accidentally get mixed up with someone else's.
Everyone wanted the effort they had poured their hearts into to be respected.
This was Millicent's first examination. In the past, her examiner had been fate, and her answer sheet had been life itself. Before meeting Skyl, she had already failed that examination miserably, condemned to spend her remaining days groaning in agony from the Scarlet Rot while waiting to die.
Now, however, her answer sheet had been extended considerably, and the things written upon it had become so wildly imaginative and absurd that no one could have predicted them. A wandering swordswoman had somehow found her way into a magical academy and even taken an examination.
How would Skyl eventually look back upon her brief life? That was a story only time could tell.
Skyl had left halfway through the examination, and Millicent had almost felt a pang of loss.
While she was answering questions, that invisible ghost with a strangely tangible presence had lingered around her, seemingly driven by three parts mischief and seven parts reluctance to leave. He had softly hummed beside her ear, the melody burrowing into her head like an earworm, then reached out to brush her cheek.
The unexpected touch had made her tremble in surprise, nearly causing her to drop her quill. Even the characters she wrote had gone crooked.
There had been the professor's hostile gaze, the cold, unwavering stare of the proctor standing beside her, and the astonished, suspicious glances the other candidates had secretly directed her way.
None of them had known that Millicent was being haunted by an invisible ghost.
He wasn't the God of Exams at all.
He was Peeves the Poltergeist!
And Millicent could never bring herself to ignore his words or actions. Even when he teased her, she wouldn't have tried to pretend he wasn't there.
This was probably an examination she would remember for the rest of her life.
Millicent couldn't help thinking that someone as seemingly cold and detached as Skyl turned out to be an astonishingly clingy, childish fellow once you got close enough to him.
Now she sat alone, quietly letting out a long breath.
Nobody came over to speak with her.
People who had endured terrible suffering probably never fit particularly well into a school environment. Millicent understood that she was an outsider, so it was only natural that she had no classmates to exchange examination experiences with.
The sharp, intimidating demeanor that occasionally surfaced in the swordswoman's expression was enough to frighten the others away. Besides, the Academy's sorcerers were already rather aloof by nature, and making friends with them was hardly easy.
Even Melina could only be considered something of an acquaintance.
Whenever two people quieter than ice occupied the same room, the atmosphere inevitably resembled winter. Millicent and Melina were like two little insects hibernating beneath the snow, neither willing to emerge from the earth until the spring sunshine had warmed the ground.
Thops came running over excitedly and took his young apprentice's hand, fussing over her with such concern that he looked remarkably like a devoted single father.
Doniel, meanwhile, wore an expression of restrained self-satisfaction as he discussed his own abilities with a smile. His irritating mouth soon had the surrounding students avoiding him like the plague.
Millicent was still smiling as she observed the expressions of the people around her when a dark shadow suddenly entered her field of vision.
She looked up.
The detestable Botari was standing directly in front of her.
He removed his glintstone crown, exposing his hideous, repulsive face. The glintstone fragments embedded in his skull resembled festering sores.
"You cheated," the instructor declared in a hoarse, muffled voice.
"I didn't cheat. Even if you gave me a completely new examination paper right now, I could finish it on my own."
Millicent was genuinely unafraid.
She had used Candle Coins to purchase knowledge through the Silver Network. Everything she acquired emerged naturally within her memories, almost as though she had spent years studying the material and was merely recalling it now.
Although her understanding was still somewhat rough around the edges, she nevertheless possessed an abundance of confidence.
Through instanced planes, even a completely ignorant caveman could eventually become a PhD.
Most barriers in the world arose from unequal access to information. Any means capable of overcoming that inequality was extraordinarily valuable.
The Silver Network provided precisely such an opportunity for advancement.
"Did you think your little tricks would be enough to fool everyone?" Botari's mouth twisted grotesquely. "You and that man are both robbers! Scoundrels! You think you're so extraordinary, don't you? There's nothing impressive about either of you. I'll expose you. I'll make you see yourselves for what you really are!"
Millicent found the whole thing rather amusing.
She couldn't even bring herself to get angry with him.
This man simply had no understanding of the opponents he was facing.
Could a mortal destroy the sun simply by shouting at it?
Whether the world suffered through scorching summers or freezing winters, mortals could only endure and adapt to the sun's radiance. They had no right to demand that the sun change itself.
"As long as I remain at this Academy, you can forget about ever passing your examination. I'll discover how you cheated, and I'll have you expelled!"
"You're taking yourself far too seriously, Professor."
Millicent's reply was crisp and straightforward.
"If you want to defeat us, then do something about it. We can settle this with a wizard's duel."
Botari's expression twisted even further, his eyes flashing with venom.
He let out a cold laugh.
The laughter dragged on and on like an icy wind sweeping through the Debate Parlor, freezing the entire room into silence. The apprentices and even many of the instructors were too frightened to utter a word.
"A mere apprentice dares challenge me? Me, the Chief Instructor of the Karolos Conspectus, heir to the legacy of Primeval Sorcerer Azur! You dare challenge me?!"
"Why shouldn't I? In the Lands Between, the victor has always ruled."
Millicent delivered her threat with remarkable gentleness.
"If you lose to me, you must resign as an instructor. If I lose to you, I'll leave the Academy immediately and never return."
"That's not enough!" Botari roared. "If you lose, you'll pay for my Triz with your life!"
Millicent's expression remained perfectly composed.
"My life belongs to Skyl. Anyone who wants to take it from me had better be prepared to die."
"Heh... heh... hahahaha!"
Seeing a distinguished chief instructor and a newly enrolled apprentice on the verge of fighting a duel to the death, instructors from the other schools hurried forward to intervene.
Unfortunately, they couldn't persuade Botari to stop.
His mental state was clearly deteriorating, and the flames of hatred had practically cooked him from the inside.
The instructors of the Karolos Conspectus began preparing the dueling ground.
It looked as though the Debate Parlor was about to become the scene of an all-out brawl.
"Why does it have to come to this? It was just an examination!"
Siegfried was developing a terrible headache.
"Someone go get Nabler!"
He also appealed to the representative of the Carian royal family, asking the knight to step forward and put an end to the dispute.
The knight, however, merely opened a betting pool and began accepting wagers on the outcome.
Siegfried's headache grew so terrible that his head felt larger than his glintstone crown.
He had long heard that this gatekeeping knight was the wealthiest man in all of Caria. Apparently, he'd made his fortune fixing matches when he was younger.
Now he'd simply become a bookmaker.
The man's skin was thicker than a castle wall, and his heart was blacker than coal.
Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, probably wouldn't intervene either.
The royal family had always refrained from interfering excessively in Academy affairs, at least as far as appearances were concerned.
Siegfried heaved a long sigh.
He sincerely missed those rough-and-tumble fellows from the Haima Conspectus.
Without those battlemages around to maintain order, the Academy had descended into complete chaos.
The various Conspectuses were constantly scheming against one another, and now that a chief instructor had decided to cause trouble, there wasn't a single person capable of stopping him.
"Has Nabler still not arrived?"
"He says he isn't coming. He's busy supervising an examination. He also asked us to pass a message to Botari. As long as he surrenders his staff and admits defeat, Mage Skyl will let bygones be bygones."
A thunderous roar erupted from Botari's hoarse throat.
Blood would be spilled in the examination hall today.
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