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Volume 6 Chapter 121

Luna’s past (3/4)

I arrived at the town where the entrance examinations for Ifrus Magic Academy were to be hosted.
It was a large town about two hours by carriage from my hometown. I had been here several times before with the nuns, but this was the first time being here alone.
I thanked the merchant who had given me a lift here in the early morning, and I entered the town. Today, the town was bustling as the entrance exam hall of the Ifrus Magic Academy was being set up.
The exam was scheduled for the afternoon.
But before that, I had to apply to take the exam. So I queued for the application.

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After successfully completing my examination application I was given the applicant number of 101. The applicant before me was number 99, I had thought it would be exactly 100, but for some reason it was 101.
I suspected that maybe there was a nobleman taking the exam before me. At Ifrus Magic Academy, even people related to nobility still have to take an entrance exam.
However, unlike commoners like myself, nobles can apply for the exam in advance. Moreover, they can take the examination in any order they like.
So, they do not have to get up early in the morning, come to the city and queue up for an application. It is a bit enviable.
And since the children of noble families learn magic from renowned wizards from an early age, they are all highly skilled in the use of magic. That’s why most of them seem to pass the entrance exams without any problems.
The school is a place to learn magic, yes, but to some extent one has to show aptitude to magic in order to enter. By the way, at the time there seemed to be a program to scout for children who seemed to have the right qualities, but it did not reach me.
I am over level 50 and I can use all kinds of supporting magic……
Well, I do live in a small remote town and I have not achieved anything remarkable publicly, so it’s no wonder I did not catch the attention of the scouts at the school.
There was no point in regretting my choices.
I just had to give the exam my all.
I cannot just pass the exam. I needed recognition to be accepted as a scholarship student as I wouldn’t be able to afford the fees. If I merely passed the exam in an unimpressive effort, it would be for naught.
First exam was a written one.
The questions ranged from general knowledge about magic to the extremely difficult question of deciphering ancient runes, but I was able to solve them all.
The ancient runes were written in runes that I could read without any difficulty, thanks to my Language Comprehension skill.
The runes when deciphered read, 『Blessed is the one who understands this sentence』 – which somewhat made me smile.
During the exam we as candidates were seated in order of our exam numbers, but number 100 was absent. I thought perhaps the nobleman was taking the exam in a separate room. To be honest I was a bit curious as to what kind of person 100 was.

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The applicants were later taken to a different venue to take the practical exam. In the practical test, it is where we were to demonstrate to the examiner what magic we were most skilled in and show our use of magic.
I planned to cast plenty of support magic on myself and then destroy the target with the lowest-level offensive magic — that was my plan. I had defeated a lot of monsters this way, so I was confident that I had quite a sophisticated way of using magic.
The boy, candidate number 99, finished his exam.
I was about to step into the hall when—
「Ah, you must be number 101. Please wait a moment」
As I was about to walk into the hall, I was told to wait at the entrance by the staff member. It seemed that candidate 100 was about to take his practical exam now.
After a short wait, someone came in from another entrance. It could be number 100, I thought. I caught a glimpse of his profile and I recognised him immediately.
The person who was number 100 about to take their exam in front of me was, as expected, a noble. He was the son of Count Silveri, whose domain covers this town and my hometown.
His name was Haruto-san.
He was the same age as me.
He had black hair, which is a rarity in this world, and his eyes were a beautiful shade of blue. His mannerisms were dignified and cool.
His clothes were of high quality. He certainly lived in a different world from me.
Haruto-san bowed to the examiner and began to release his magic power. I was not very good at sensing other people’s magic, but his was so dense that even I could tell, it was an enormous amount of magic power.
With that magic power, I began to wonder to myself what sort of high-level magic he was using.
I watched Haruto-san’s movement’s nervously.
「Firelance!」
Contrary to my expectations, Haruto-san unleashed the lowest-level of Fire magic. But I was surprised by the result.
The magic he released easily pierced the sturdy-looking target that had been prepared, and it burned it to the ground. It was not the power of the lowest class of magic no matter what I thought.
Haruto-san left the hall with a look of satisfaction on his face. There seemed to be a separate exit from the entrance to the hall where I was waiting. So I do not think he noticed me watching at all.
The examiner was a little stunned, but he realised that I was waiting at the entrance and resumed the exam.
I was thinking of a way to appeal to the examiner by using my lowest-level magic, but now, after witnessing Haruto-san’s magic, my magic might look too weak to the examiner.
In the end, I could not think of any other way, so I applied as much support magic as I could on myself and managed to destroy the target with intermediate magic.
But I could not entirely destroy it.
Haruto-san is not normal…….
But I did my best to stand out.
Now I just had to hope to get a good result.

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Back at the orphanage, I wrote in my diary about my day. I have Absolute Memory, I know, so I don’t need to keep a diary about each day, but it’s a habit I have from my old world.
If I don’t write in it, I feel kind of restless. Besides, I cannot recall feelings at the time with Absolute Memory, so I write about it in my diary.
『Today I took the entrance exam for Ifrus Magic Academy. I think I aced my written exam. I’m not sure about the practicals though. I did the best I could, but I’m worried that my results will look weak because I could only destroy half of the target, even with my best…… Compared to me, the lord’s son, Haruto-san, with his lowest level magic completely destroyed it. Oh, Haruto-san looked so cool. It was the first time seeing him up close. I really want to go to the same school as him』
— This is where I ended.
If I write more, I will end up writing up my fantasy of enjoying school life with Haruto-san. This is a diary.
I’ll leave the fantasy school life with Haruto-san to my dreams.
I was blessed by the ancient runes today, I have a strong feeling I will have good dreams tonight.
Good night then.
I hope tomorrow is a good day.