After being called, I quickly made my way towards professor Eagath. She looked at me indifferently and projected her voice through the microphone and said the same instructions she said to the previous examinees.

"Orion Haloligh, Grade 2 magic swordsman apprentice will now be taking the exam. I'll repeat the requirements for passing. You'll have to perform a Grade 3 spell and 1 grade 3 sword technique. You'll be performing them on the training dummy right across the room and I'll be the judge to see if you pass. Proceed".

I nodded and faced the training dummy and slowly raised my hands toward the dummy. I silently and slowly chanted my spell. A red sphere formed infront of my hand and propelled towards the training dummy. It collided with the dummy leaving charred marks on it.

Professor Eagath looks at me and says "Your accuracy was great and your mana was very stable but you took a long time to cast the fire blast spell. Passed but barely. Now move on to the sword technique".

I nodded and faced the training dummy whilst simultaneously drawing my sword. My sword has no distinguishable features as it is a run off the mill double bladed sword. Eventhough it is cheap, it has served me well for the past few years. I started slowly and silently chanting and soon afterwards my whole body and sword were covered in a silvery aura. Yes this is sword aura, the same sword technique Nubia used to pass her exam. I quickly ran towards the dummy and slashed it multiple times leaving multiple lines on the training dummy. Then I took a deep breath and deactivated sword aura causing the silvery aura around me to disappear. Then I faced professor Eagath to hear her final judgement.

Professor Eagath looked at me nodding saying "Well done, you performaed sword aura very immaculately, only loosing out to Nubia by a bit. Therefore you have passed and your identification will be updated to grade 3 swordsman apprentice in 24 hours. You may stay to observe the rest of the examinees or leave."

I nodded and walked towards where Nubia and the other examinees were standing.

I looked at Nubia and to my surprise she wasn't smiling like she would normally. I slightly furrowed my brows and said with a smirk "What? no congratulations? I feel betrayed". I seemed to have caught her off guard as she started lightly laughing at what I said.

After her short outburst she smiled saying "Oh sorry, was thinking of something else. Congratulations on passing eventhough you chanted slowly on purpose not to stand out, it's pretty obvious you were holding back".

Being caught wasn't the best feeling but then again, she always notices. I am more curious as to why she looks as if something is troubling her. I looked at her and said "Well I passed didn't I? that's all that matters". She just smiles at me and continues to watch the other examinees. Meanwhile I was busy thinking.

Should I ask if something is troubling her?.. I am not sure if we are even close enough so would she even tell me if I asked? Do I even want to know? Well I guess there's no harm in me asking or is there? Oh well, here goes nothing.

"Nubia, is something troubling you?". At my question she turns around seemingly slightly surprised and says "No, why?". I didn't expect her to tell me in the first place so I wasn't surprised. I looked at her with my face clearly not hiding the fact that I didn't believe her and said "I understand if you can't trust me enough to say it, well whatever it is I hope it gets resolved. I'll be off". I turned around and started walking towards the exit of the battle hall since there's no need to keep poking when she clearly doesn't intend to tell me.

As I was about to reach the exit I felt a hand grabbing on to my left forearm and I hear "Wait Orion!". I turned around clearly surprised and a sad looking Nubia was standing behind me holding on to my left forearm with her right hand. We started at each other in silence for a few seconds.

After staring at each other for a few seconds she breaks the silence by quietly saying "Could you walk with me to the campus park?". I nodded saying "Ofcourse".

I quietly followed behind her. she was walking off to my left still holding on to my arm... How did it turn out like this? Why did I have to poke her? Guess I'll see how this turns out.

We shortly arrived at the campus park. The campus park has a small lake in the middle and was surrounded by big trees that provided shade to the benches that were built all round the lake.

She sat down on a bench and I sat right beside her looking at the ducks that were sailing along the lake.

At this point I might seem calm on the outside but my mind was working overtime trying to make out heads or tails in this situation. What do I do? what do I say in this kind of situation? I am sitting here next to a troubled Nubia who haven't let go of my arm since we left the battle hall. What does anyone do in this kind of situation?

As I was wrecking my brain trying to think of something I felt her grip around my arm tighten causing me to look to my left where Nubia was sitting. What welcomed me was the sight of a girl with long wavy brown hair with tears flowing down her face from her saddened green eyes. I was at a loss of words.

Nubia is crying infront of me? The girl who has been smiling non-stop ever since I have known her is crying? Before I could say anything she looks directly into my eyes and says "Are we friends?".

This question for some reason tugged on a heart string causing me to feel saddened. Without much thought I reached out with my right hand and wiped away her tears saying "Considering that you are the only person that even bothers to talk to me, If we aren't friends then I'd have no one else. Friends or not, you are definitely the closest person to me".

Wether I said this to maker her feel better or not, it was undoubtedly the truth. I don't have anyone else I interact as much as her. After hearing my answer she gives me a bitter but genuine smile. Her next words caught me off guard causing my eyes to widen. "I am leaving, this is my last day at the academy".