"I see… in such case, am I in the right to assume that you, as a prominent member of the actual Vallhall family, already possess skills far exceeding his?"
"Of course! Unlike trash like him, I am a pride of the Vallhall family and…!"
*WHAM*
The vice headmaster clearly mocked the silver-haired girl, and she kept responding to him with her voice raised… that is, until suddenly one of the windows in the girls' dormitory was slammed open, causing everyone on the training ground to shift their attention to it, the vice headmaster and Saria included.
"WILL BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE HEL UP ALREADY!? DO THE DAMNED EXAM AND BE OVER IT! SOME PEOPLE TRY TO STUDY IN PEACE!"
Disheveled Rotsard Vallhall, with an unbuttoned and wrinkled shirt, leaning out and glaring down the noisy pair, roared, and his furious voice echoed through the training grounds.
"Yo-mpfhhh?!?!"
"Oh, right…! Sorry for that! We're over it already and will continue the exam normally! Apologies for the trouble!"
Saria's face turned crimson red from anger, and she was fully prepared to respond in kind to her cousin, but the vice headmaster was much faster… he actually grabbed her from behind and blocked her mouth with one hand before waving towards the bleached-blond-haired youth and apologizing with a guilty expression.
"...hpmh… Yeah, you better."
Rotsard squinted his eyes, staring daggers at the pair before scoffing to himself as he reached to the sides and then closed the window.
He did not linger by it at all, immediately moving back to whatever it was that he was doing in the girl's dormitory room.
"MPFH! MMPHH! FGHH!"
Saria was flailing wildly but found herself unable to break free from the vice headmaster's grasp, so she was forced to unleash some muffled screeches instead of some choice words.
"I wasn't going to use that, but you're giving me no choice. If you won't calm down, I will contact Lady Lia and inform her about your shameless behavior."
"!!!"
The vice headmaster rolled his eyes and said in a cold voice. What he said was something that Rotsard shared with him as a perfect method to deal with Saria in case she misbehaves, and it sure worked like a charm! The silver-haired girl froze in place as if actually struck by a spell.
Her golden eyes widened, staring at the man with disbelief mixed with fear.
"Let's just agree that both of us were in the wrong and just continue with the exam as we should. If you insist on shouting, I won't bother with reporting things to your father and will contact your mother directly."
"..."
He added and removed his hand from the girl's mouth.
…she did not let out even a peep, instead staring intensely at the vice headmaster…
"...you're bluffing, you don't know my mother, so a direct message won't work…"
When she actually did speak up after he was let go and stepped to the side, she grumbled with accusation, but her voice wasn't even close to her normal volume, so it was clear that even if she suspected the threat to be empty, she wasn't willing to risk it before being certain.
"Headmaster Lazalarius does know her, though, and it's basically the same as me knowing her."
"!!!"
The vice headmaster shrugged his shoulders and pointed out, which caused Saria's face to turn so pale it actually became slightly bluish.
"...th-then let's agree that we were both at fault and leave it like that… alright? There's no reason to get my mom involved…!"
The girl swallowed her saliva nervously, actually cowering and clenching her hands with a pitiful expression, and repeated what the vice headmaster had already suggested.
It was a rather surprising sight.
Saria seemed to fear her mother even more than Syon feared Rotsard banning him from studying the perfect mana unity!
There was no need for more words. Syon simply pointed towards the new training dummy put in place of the previous one, and Saria turned the right way, reaching out her hand.
"Snowball."
She chanted out an incantation, and petals of snow that began materializing in the air around her all hurried towards her palm to take the form she wished for.
The result was… pretty normal-looking snowball, actually.
It was fluffier than one made with conventional methods, given that it wasn't molded by hand, but besides that, the only visual indication of it being a spell was that Saria didn't have to throw since it shot out at the target on its own.
*THUNK*
The impact sound was quite loud, and the training dummy faltered as its chestplate indented a bit right where the snowball struck it.
The snowball itself lost most of its shape and remained stuck to the target… without seemingly doing much else.
Teacher Hervolst and vice headmaster approached it for further examination and whispered to each other something no one else could hear…