Maydare Volume 4 Chapter 1 - The Final Exams ~The Honor Student Candidates~ (Part 1)

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The day Airi disappeared from the royal palace.

I, Makia O’Drielle, ran around the royal capital once again, but…

In the evening, Fugue, my teammate Nero’s spirit, flew to me and informed me that Airi was at the glass bottle atelier at magic school.

I wondered why she was there, but I rushed to Lune Ruschia with Thor.

“It’s true. Airi really is here…!”

Airi was lying down on the sofa that we Garnet Team 9 members often relaxed on, sleeping soundly.

I couldn’t believe how worried she made us.

But we were relieved that the Savior girl had been found safely.

“You have our gratitude for protecting Lady Airi.”

“...It’s not a big deal. She just showed up before I knew it.”

Thor thanked Nero politely, and Nero answered in his usual detached manner. I watched the two converse with fresh eyes.

Thor picked up Airi in his arms, left the atelier and immediately returned to the palace, since Prince Gilbert and Sir Lionel would be worried.

Airi’s eyes were swollen from crying, but her expression looked somewhat peaceful.

Nero told me that she had apparently come here to see me.

And then, she made umeboshi and tuna mayo onigiri here and ate up all the rice I cooked…

“Tuna mayo, huh.”

I thought about the meaning behind the scribbles Airi left behind.

I was sure that she wanted to test my memory of when I was Oda Kazuha.

It was our favorite onigiri filling, the one that led us to become friends.

“Gi-gi-gi-giii, gisha!”

The next morning. As I was sleeping soundly in my dorm room after an exhausting yesterday, I was awakened by the horribly grating cries of Will-o’-th’-wisp, the blue demon fire.

“Stop, stop, you’re going to wake Lapis up too!”

It was chiefly my new alarm clock.

I jumped up and tried to silence the demon fire, but it suddenly became quiet and trembled in the cage, still in its hamster form. I turned around and saw my spirits, Donsuke and Popotarou standing side-by-side on the window sill, glaring at the demon fire with serious looks on their faces…

I looked at the bed next to mine and saw that my roommate, Lapis, was already gone.

I left the bedroom and found Lapis tying her hair in the bathroom.

“Oh, you’re up early, Lapis. Does your part-time job start this morning again?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

“No, it was my noisy alarm clock that woke me up…”

Recently, there haven’t been many classes because it was right before the exams, and students often studied in their own rooms, the library, or a place like an atelier they often used, but Lapis seemed to have more difficulties with her part-time job than studying for exams.

“Hey, you said you work as a magic tutor, but are your students taking the exams or something? I’m beginning to get curious about it.”

I was wondering if she was taking care of students who were taking exams here at Lune Ruschia, given the time of year, but Lapis shook her head and somewhat averted her gaze.

“I’m sure…you will find out soon enough,” she murmured.

Though it sounded like there was some hidden meaning, Lapis didn’t say anything more than that, quickly got ready, and left our room. I wondered if she properly ate breakfast.

Now then. Similarly, I was also called by Bishop Eska, even though it was right before the exams.

I did that cliched thing of running out of my room with a piece of bread in my mouth and ran to the chapel on the school island. There, a gray-haired bishop in clean bishop’s vestments was sitting on the altar with a sullen look on his face.

“You’re damn late!”

He shouted at me. This Eska person was so thorough in his spirit of punctuality and getting ready beforehand that I was the one who basically came late.

He really was meticulous in too many ways, even though he had a villainous face and way of speaking.

“You probably know about what happened yesterday since you’re a bishop, right? That’s why I’m a little tired and sleepy today.”

“Shut up. I’m not interested in the Savior’s running away from home. I don’t care if you’re tired or not either.”

“The final exams are coming up next week.”

“So you’ll have to work on this at the same time.”

Bishop Eska was picking his ears with a bored look on his face.

Well, I knew that. I just decided to try telling him about it.

The reason why I was summoned by this delinquent bishop so early in the morning was because he was teaching me how to fight demons.

“Don’t space out, I’m gonna start training you to fight against demons. So, are you able to do the stuff I taught you before?”

“Do you mean using magic to hold a flame in the palm of my hands without using incantations?”

“That’s right. The magicians of the Kingdom of Ruschia who stand around chanting spells are no use against demons who move at the speed of beasts. For example, if you encounter a demon alone, it would be a good idea to have a fast-acting, incantation-less spell. I told you that, didn’t I?”

“...Yes, sir.”

Yes, that’s right. Bishop Eska had been teaching me for a while how to use firearms, physical techniques, and a little bit of magic to protect myself. Now that I was able to do some of those things, he was teaching me a spell I could use without incantations. 

Speaking of which…Nero told me before that speed would be important for magic in the future.

It might be the norm in other countries.

There was no demon that would wait for a magician who was on the brink of life or death, chanting spells at a leisurely pace.

The magic most familiar to me was naturally【Fire】attribute magic.

Combined with my heat constitution, it was the most natural magic for me to use.

Bishop Eska had noticed this and told me to learn how to use a spell that not only put heat in the palm of my hand, but also covered it in flames with offensive power, without chanting an incantation.

I took in a deep breath and created the image of a flame in my palm.

It took a little effort, but I was able to light a flame in my palm without chanting. However,

“The flame just gets bigger and bigger. That might make it difficult to use.”

“I agree. If the flame can be made smaller, but with more firepower, it can be used in battle. It would be especially effective against large ogres. If you can put flames in your hand at a moment’s notice, they will be intimidated by you.”

A small flame with firepower, huh…?

When I used the〈Scarlet Witch’s〉magic at the summer ball, in my dim consciousness I held out a small flame that I scooped up with the palm of my hand toward the mastermind, Margrave Greigs.

It was too quiet for a flame…

It was like a “drop of flame,” polished and sparkling like a newly born star.

Was the image of such a flame important?

“Hey, hey, don’t rest. Familiarize yourself with it by repeating it. So that you can do it even while you’re asleep.”

“If I do it when I’m asleep, the girls’ dorm will be set on fire.”

“Good grief, how weak. A skilled fire magician won’t burn anything they don’t want burned. Not even unconsciously.”

“Huh? Really?”

I’ve never seen or heard of such a thing.

“...Can’t be helped. I’ll show you.”

Perhaps because I looked like I didn’t really get it, Bishop Eska stepped down from the altar and showed me a flame around the palm of his hand. 

I could tell that it was a refined flame that firmly clung to his hand. Unlike mine, it didn’t spread or flicker.

Bishop Eska touched a bench in the chapel with his flame-clad hand.

At first glance, this seemed like an uncharacteristic behavior for a bishop, but the bench didn’t burn at all even when he touched it with his hand.

This was probably what it truly meant to wield【Fire】magic.

“What you burn with your flame and what you don’t burn depends on your reason and the memories imprinted in your subconscious. This is a state skilled fire magicians must reach in order to not swallow up important things with large-scale flame magic. To be able to do this, it seems simple, but it takes a lot of training. Even if you’re a【Fire】Blessed Child, it would probably take more time to be able to do this.”

“Then that means you really are a skilled magician, Bishop Eska.”

“Of course. I can use all the elements at this level.”

“Which element do you excel at in particular?”

“...I guess it’d be【Light】.”

There was a short, strange pause.

“Well. I am a genius after all. I’m a prodigy who understood everything the moment I was born.”

He summarized the conversation with a hatefully smug look on his face.

However, the more he taught me how to fight, the more I understood that he wasn’t just an ordinary person. 

Regardless of what he said, he was good at looking after others, and in contrast to his roughness, he was good at teaching and very attentive to details.

I felt that he was somewhat similar to Professor Ulysses.

No, their faces and personalities were completely different, but still.

One week later.

Finally, the finals exams for the second semester began at Lune Ruschia Magic School.

Written and practical exams were held for five major subjects, and with these exams, we completed our first year and received an overall grade for the year.

The five major subjects were:

• Potions

• History of the Magical World

• Elemental Magic Studies

• Magical Physical Education

• Spirit Magic Studies

By the way, the exam questions given by Professor Ulysses in Spirit Magic Studies were considered the most difficult, both for the written and practical exams.

The first day of the final exams, Potions―

The written exam was mainly memorization, so it was a subject that could be managed depending on your effort. 

But that wasn’t the case for the practical exam. It was a exam of one’s sense, and it was easy to see one’s strengths and weaknesses.

I wasn’t worried about it in the first place because I learned to prepare magic potions at home and frankly, I was good at it.

The only question was what kind of questions would Uncle Medite, who was as nasty and obstinate as a snake, pose.

Uncle Medite, or rather, the Potions Professor, came to the potion preparation room and unveiled the question to the students gathered there for the practical exam.

“The practical exam for Potions is the preparation of the potion needed in the following situation. Now, good luck, students!”

【Question】

In the northern Galps mountain range of the Kingdom of Ruschia, one of your companions has been bitten by a poisonous snake, the “raggle cobra.” You must formulate the most effective potion within one hour or your companion will die. You only have “White Powder No.3” with you. If you can make the potion within the time limit, you can also collect other ingredients in the mountains. Now, what potion will you use to counteract the poison?

Practical exams in Potions were always scored on a point system. 

While there were several potions that would be considered correct, which potion you chose and the quality of the potion you make were checked and scored in detail.

The only ingredients we had were the “White Powder No.3” specified in the exam problem, and the white box containing various materials distributed evenly to everyone.

In short, each person must use any of the ingredients in this box to formulate a potion that would answer the question. 

However, even in this box, there had to be a mix of materials that could be obtained in the Northern Galps mountains and materials that couldn’t be obtained there. You had to be careful of this trick.

The difficult part about this potion was that you had to know geography as well. 

“...The poison of the raggle cobra, huh.”

It was an extremely dangerous poisonous snake that lived in the mountainous and rocky areas of the Kingdom of Ruskia. 

In fact, the snake spirit that obeyed my mother was also in the form of a raggle cobra. 

The usual antidote for the poison of the raggle cobra was a special potion called the “raggle antidote,” and most students could probably make this antidote. 

To make the raggle antidote, one should select “chise seeds” and “karya grass,” both of which could be found in the mountains with high probability, and add a pinch of “White Powder No.3,” as mentioned in the question text, to prepare the potion. However, this potion took a long time to boil, and there was a risk of being just short of the time limit. 

“Would Uncle come up with such an easy problem in the first place? The raggle antidote shouldn’t be incorrect, but there must be an ‘even better answer.’”

I smiled and checked the contents of the box that had been handed out to me. 

The first point one should note in this question was the part about “in the Northern Galps mountains of the Kingdom of Luskia.” 

In actuality, only the poison of the raggle cobra that lived in the Northern Galps had a more effective antidote. 

“...It’s here. Fufufu, this is it, this is the one.”

I took out the vial of “mountain peacock blood” from the white box containing the ingredients, opened the lid of the vial on the workbench, mixed in a pinch of “White Powder No.3,” and recited the incantation.

“Myr vis makia——limit the effects to neutralization.”

The spell cast was a spell to neutralize the side effects of the potion. “White Powder No.3” was a substance used to reduce the side effects of potions. 

The antidote was completed with a single spell, without the need to grind, mix, or cook the ingredients in a pot. In short, with this, one could make an antidote in a short time. 

I leisurely submitted it to the submission box and left the potion preparation room. 

All the students who were thinking the same thing as me had also submitted theirs very quickly and left the room. 

Now, to explain what I just did…

“There are so many mountain peacocks breeding in the Northern Galps that you can find them just by walking around there. In the end, the neutralization effect for the raggle cobra’s poison was present in the mountain peacocks’ blood from the start…”

I mumbled to myself in the empty hallway.

Recent research had shown that mountain peacocks, the rulers of the northern Galps, preyed on raggle cobras, and that caused their blood to contain a component that nullified the poison of the raggle cobra. 

As a matter of fact, I myself was also immune to raggle cobra poison. 

Let me tell you a story that would make you wince.

The Baroness O’Drielle (my mother) came from the Medite family, a family of potion experts. She was the biological older sister of the Potions instructor, Professor Medite. 

The Medites ingested all kinds of poisons little by little into their bodies from an early age and created an anti-poison serum in their bodies. In short, all poisons were ineffective to them, and it was possible to make antidotes from the flesh and blood that flows through their own body. 

In fact, I had also been accustomed to poisons since I was a child, and although I wasn’t as tolerant to them as Professor Medite and my mother, they weren’t very effective against me. Even if one was, it was much less severe than for other people. I was raised that way, and my constitution allowed me to do so. 

So, for instance, even if I were bitten by a raggle cobra in the mountains, I would be fine, so there would be no need to make a magic potion for myself. Final answer. 

Second day of the final exams,  History of the Magical World——

In the History of Magic, we had fill-in-the-blanks questions, which were mainly memorization, and write an essay on one of the great magicians in history. 

In the first year, we studied the “three important eras” of the age of magicians, starting from the mythical era of the Maydare. It was a very simple exam, with an answer sheet in chronological order and fill-in-the-blanks questions on important words and people. 

The teacher, Professor Mary Erlich, was strict in class, but made the written examinations so that anyone could get a high score if they made a good effort. 

The most troublesome part was the essay. 

At first, I thought about writing about my ancestor, the〈Scarlet Witch〉, but I felt that it might not be fair to use that topic, so I chose the〈White Sage〉, who was the founder of the Lune Ruschia Magic School. This might be too simple in its own way, though. 

However, after reading a book written by the〈White Sage〉in the second library, I became strangely curious about him, and I had been personally researching him. 

The third day of the final exams, Elemental Magic Studies——

The written exam of this subject consists of a huge amount of questions to be answered in bubble sheet format.

The subject was so wide-ranging that one teacher was assigned to each element. 

It was a subject with a wide scope. The scope of the written test was also vast, making it the most time-consuming subject to study for the exam.

To make up for it, there was no practical test for Elemental Magic Studies.

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