Q: What did Edward do on his first encounter with Professor Ranyan?

A: He pickpocketed one of the best Magus of the realm.

- - -

My aunt gave me a second look and continued on checking my answer sheet. Her lips curved up as she checked, as if I had risen above her expectations. Undoubtedly, I have. After all, I had done such a boring and bothersome thing for four hours straight.

Honestly, I was awfully proud of what I did with the test. There was not a single student present in the testing area when I finished perfecting the spell formula. My arms and legs were cramping, though I was still proud of my accomplishment, ignoring the fact that I had an edge in the exam over everyone else with the knowledge from the novel.

"This is excellent!" Rosalyn said, still checking the answer. "So you were not wasting your time so far."

She was about to pat my head, though somehow I dodged that instinctively. She smiled at me and led me into the magic department.

"So that means I have passed?" I asked, to be sure.

"Yes," she said, walking. "Though your second round of papers was terrible, you have succeeded with brilliance in the other two rounds. Ignoring that girl you brought in, your score is the highest on the test."

"Not that it matters," I added. Only getting into the magic department matters. A high score was only an addition.

"Liah would have been so proud of you if she was here with us."

My heart ached hearing that name. It was the name of Scar's mother, but I felt as if it was my mother she was talking about. It was not like that before, but after I went through the awakening of Purgatory, I became an awful lot empathic to Scar. I wouldn't say it was a bad thing, and I can make distinctions with it easily, but whenever that name, or anything related to his mother, came up, I felt a daunting urge to hate myself.

[You have gained 100 destiny points.]

Luckily, another piece of good news stopped me from digging deeper into those feelings. Only by getting into the magic department of the Starlight Academy, I got 100 destiny points. It looks like I have to continue my studies wholeheartedly for the points.

The easiest way to get destiny points is to have some impact on the realm. And merely getting into the best academy in the realm got me 100 points. It clearly showed how impactful this place is in the realm. I wondered how much I would get after graduating. There are only a couple of other places in the realm that will get me such large numbers of points just by getting in there. So, I shouldn't waste any of the opportunities.

“So what changed the mind of my favourite nephew?” Rosalyn asked.

“Aunt, you only have one nephew, but I have no complaints being your favourite,” I said, grinning.

This time, Rosalyn got the better of me, shuffling my hair with her palm. I gave her an uncomfortable look, and she smiled.

“Seriously, what changed your mind?” she asked. “All these times, I tried to convert you. Either you played it down saying you wanted to be the greatest swordsman, or studying goes over your head.”

“I don’t know what I should say,” I said, striding along with her on the polished marble floor. “Back then, everything else was working out for me. Perhaps I like a change of pace.”

“Well, I am glad you decided that,” Rosalyn said with a sigh. “I know you miss her and blame yourself, but you need to let it go at some point."

I let out a heavy sigh and nodded. There was not much for me to reply to here. This kind of conversation makes me very uncomfortable.

"Have you ever wondered which department of high arts you wanted to major in?" she asked again.

"I'm not sure," I answered at once. "With the flame element, the path narrows down to a few things. As for others, I will try out Sympathetic Communion, Thaumaturgy, general warding, and other spirit abilities if I can."

To be honest, I am really pumped up to learn all that, but I am not sure what I will be good at. Other than the Flame that will be my main weapon, I have to learn other things and the most important among them are Thaumaturgy and Sympathetic Communion.

Communion was one of the spirit arts that anyone with spirit power could learn, though very few could master. While Thaumaturgy was far harder to learn, while the perks were obvious.

Magically speaking, a magus could not be called Grand Magus if he had not mastered Thaumaturgy. Other than that, I have my eyes on the Art of Warding and the Lost art of Runes.

Even though there were only three things other than the general flame element arts, I can imagine how much it would take to master even one of them. Not to mention, I have to learn the fundamental arts of knights as well.

Unlike the mentally exhausting things in the magic department, the Knighthood would consume all my physical energy. I was even wondering if I could even succeed. I might not be the laziest person alive, but I was still quite lazy. On the fair side, I can expect some fast growth there.

As I wondered about those things, we arrived at the administrative office. A dozen more students were already waiting there and not all of them got through the exam I took just now. Today should be the first day of check-in before the academic year starts. So, finding other students here was no big deal.

Among the dozen, the prince drew my sight first, and he was not alone. He was discussing something with Elinor. The thin girl was now dressed in the academy's uniform, which, despite being a size larger than she needed, made her look much better. But her face still had some hidden worries in it, as she listened to what the prince had to say.

I took a few steps back and leaned against the wall, trying to hear what the prince was trying to convey to our protagonist. Surely, it was not a love confession.

" . . . Can you even imagine what it would be like to serve the empire at the forefront? All the glory, majesty, grandeur, and prestige that it will bring you?" Ah, so the prince is already busy with his recruitment, and here I was thinking he was like any other teenager. "Evidently, with your talent, you will get a scholarship from the academy, but that will not be enough. Sure, it will be enough if you just want to be a third-rate Magus. But the question is, are you content with just that?"

Elior gave a slow nod that meant no sort of her agreement or disagreement, but it was enough for the prince to continue. Her eyes found my figure in the hall, though Prince Dareth had other things to say.

"Do you know how many get an offer like this from the empire like the one I am giving you?" Dareth asked, though clearly not looking for an answer. "Barely any. The last one I knew was Adarsh, who will be the youngest Grand Magus in the realm if he's not already." But our prince said nothing about if the youngest Grand Magus took the offer or not, or how much the empire helped him to become the youngest grand magus.

"Your talent is in the same league as him and very few others. I am sure you will think about it carefully before choosing. Just remember, the empire will be your biggest supporter if there are any." He said the last part a little louder, eyeing around the others.

Dareth was trying to get Elinor on the empire's side, though I knew it was particularly on his side and by the looks of things—Elinor was giving, I was sure she would not like to go there. At least not now. Even though our prince over-exaggerates things, there is some truth in it. You really need a lot of capital to stay and learn from the academy.

Then my eyes drifted towards a young lady of fine figure. Ciara. She was here too for the check-in. She seemed to notice my gaze and looked back at me for once, then continued standing like I was nothing but thin air to her.

I raised an eyebrow. Should I go to her? No, not now. She was Ciara, of all people. She probably will say something inappropriate before everyone else.

The prince had not finished his plate with her. Elinor only got a chance to leave when an escort came to whisper something in the ears of the prince.

Elinor bowed slightly, as it was courteous before leaving. She came directly towards me with a radiant smile. Seriously, did she have some protagonist sense that tells her I am her sidekick?

"You finally finished your exam," she said jokingly. "I was wondering if you left already, giving up."

"You seem to be in a better mood," I said as I leaned comfortably against the sidewall. The test had drained all of my energy to stand properly. I tried to channel the Spirit Art of Breathing to refresh myself, breathing evenly.

Scar knew how to do it better, but I'm still at the rudimentary level. Mediation and peace of mind are the paths to succeeding—the ones I currently have a hard time finding.

I made a mental note to get more information on this from the library or the Ben-Kyle duo. Breathing was clearly not solely about the mind; the physical body played a significant role as well. Scar had not trained for over a year, and that was why it was so hard for me. I had to start almost from scratch.

"Why would I not be in a good mood?" She asked. "I have been wandering for months trying to get here and finally succeeded. It surely puts me in a good mood."

"So, what were you conversing about with our prince?" I asked then, though I knew the answer.

"Funny that you noticed, though if you listened carefully, you could tell it was not a conversation. A conversation is something where two or more people talk amongst themselves. Here, with the prince, I was only the listener," she said as her eyes drifted off towards the prince, who seemed to be in a bad mood now. Perhaps he learned about his poor judgement in the test. "Oh Saras, he likes to hear his own voice."

I raised an eyebrow at her last sentence. "Should you be saying something like this openly?"

Elior touched her mouth and looked around. Fortunately, nobody heard. "Prince Dareth was too good at conversing, while I barely listened to everything. Apparently, he wanted to sponsor me in the academy."

'Her style of speaking has changed,' I thought in my head. 'Just like Edward.' The girl before me was not a peasant if she really had the same lineage as Edward Eastwood, but a lower-class noble who lost everything a couple of years ago.

She was acting pitifully so far just for the survival instinct, and now that she got into a better place, her upbringing showed itself. Though I am sure there is still some part of her that could not let go of that side.

"Really?" I said, imitating a start.

"He really is too good at conversation," she continued in a whisper. "He started with disregarding my presence and left nothing to remind me that I am a nobody here and if I did not have someone like him on my back, I would graduate as a nobody."

Elinor was barely audible in a voice that only I could hear, smiling as if she was joking with me. Surely, she was smart for her age. Still, she could not help but sigh. "The worst thing is that what he said is true."

A snort of contempt came, even though I knew all of this. This kid, Prince Dareth, was barely sixteen, yet he was dreaming about becoming the emperor. Talk about ambition. But I could not blame him, as it was in his upbringing.

"So, what are your thoughts about joining him?" I asked with a smile.

I knew she was contemptuous about joining with the prince, but I still asked to make sure. In the book, Edward did not take the offer at first. Later, through a lot of problems and disputes, he had to take the sponsorship and do dirty work for Prince Dareth for a while.

I am not sure if this time it will go the same way if I did not involve myself. But thinking about how Dareth tried to pressure other sponsors to overlook her, I became far more sceptical.

Elinor shook her head, as if she was not sure. "My scholarship has not been approved yet," she said. "I have to wait until Professor Ranyan arrives. If you did not know, a board member of the Magi Department could only recommend a single seed per decade for the scholarship. Professor Ranyan was my only hope of getting that."

Right, Professor Ranyan. My brows knitted together. If all had gone according to the book before I got here, that professor might already be dead. Though I could not be sure, as his corpse was never found in the book.

Looking at the bright mood the girl was in, I refrained from commenting on the topic, as Professor Ranyan was her first teacher and should be quite dear to her. Let's not disturb her mood today.

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