“Well, it’d be lying if I said I was confident.” Lisbon smiled with a slightly tired face.

“Come to think of it, is Alice’s exam the day after tomorrow?”

“Yea, the schedule says hers is before mine, but she told me not to come.”

Alice was well aware of Lisbon’s situation and was being considerate. Even so, the fellow seemed a little disappointed.

“Hey, Den.”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry but could you go to Alice’s exam instead of me? It’s an open examination but it bothers me that I might not be able to go cheer her on.”

I sighed inwardly. How is he worrying for someone else when he has his own problems to deal with?

I don’t know how hard the knight school examination is, but the difficulty level of the magic school examination was included in the information regarding the magic I bought from the informant. So, as a pretty competent magician myself, I knew that Alice was stable.

The content of the exam was all about practical skills, but considering you just had to hit and damage a target 50m away with attack magic or fly up at least 5m in the sky, it was just a trivial level of difficulty.

I don’t know what there is to even worry about, it’s not like you had to destroy a 50m radius without any trace, or fly random number maneuvers at high speeds 5000m in the sky!

Perhaps they were going to create an environment similar to Olympus then use magic?

Surely there was no way you could tell the difference between good and bad at this level of difficulty. For example, it was like using the level of difficulty of a driver’s license exam for a college admission exam.

If somehow my prediction were correct, then Alice was definitely going to fail. That’s too bad.

“Yes, since I’m done with my exam, I’ll head over pretending to just take a look around.”

I might as well take a look at some of the magic books at the magic school while I’m there. Even if it was not something like a dangerous grimoire, the library was open to nobles. So, I’d slowly take my time looking through them.

Tonight, I should organize some of the information regarding the magic school.

“Thanks!”

With that, he headed towards the center of the garden to swing his sword again with a brighter face.

It’d be nice if he passed since he’s trying so hard.

-o-

In front of the Butterfly Tribe village’s warp gate, a grandchild was starting a new wave.

“Alphonso, can you not go?”

Alphonso’s grandfather, who was also a grand elder of the Butterfly Tribe, hugged the boy and implored in tears.

“Grandpa, don’t cry. It’s making me sad too!”

After seeing the two weeping last night, Yuria was dumbfounded to see them crying again today. The grand elder stretched up his left arm and called Yuria since his right arm was holding Alphonso.

“Yuria, could you not go either?”

Sighing, Yuria went to hug her grandfather.

“Grandfather, it’s one thing if Alphonso doesn’t go, but he makes me worry, so I can’t help it. Besides, you can’t study alchemic magic here.”

In the Butterfly Tribe, if there was one magic that you couldn’t freely study, it was alchemy. Alchemy required a lot of ingredients, but unless one left Everest, it took too long and was difficult to obtain various samples.

“Yuria, Alphonso!”

As she wiped away her grandfather’s tears, Yuria thought the reason her brother was all teary was that he felt just like their grandfather. After separating the two, they headed towards the gate.

“Father, Mother, Grandfather. I’ll be back safely.” Yuria bade goodbye.

Her mother and father nodded and replied, “All right, make sure to send letters often. Should something happen, don’t hesitate to tell William, and write to us too.”

“If anything happens, Mom and Dad will hurry over, so don’t worry.”

“Yuria~”

The grandfather called out to Yuria while crying. The girl smiled and headed for the gate.

“Then, I’ll be off.”

“Mom, Dad, Grandpa, we’ll be off now .” Alphonso, while waving his hand, also headed for the gate.

“Alphonso~”

Despite hearing the voice calling for him, Alphonso tightly shut his eyes and ran into the gate.

Beyond the gate was an empty room.

“Huh? I thought Uncle would be here?”

Yuria replied to Alphonso’s question. “You didn’t study, did you? My goodness, how did you manage to create a pocket space with that kind of understanding of space.”

“Hahaha, well…Through will?

Yuria mumbled an “I shouldn’t even have asked” as she left the room. William was waiting outside the room.

“You arrived earlier than expected? I thought I was going to have to wait longer because of my dad clinging on to you guys.”

“I know. I thought so too, but he let us go more easily than expected.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

As William smiled, Alphonso who was hesitating at the back, rushed towards William.

“Uncle!”

“Aigoo, boy. You’re an adult now. You need to consider your weight.”

“Hehehe.”

As he patted Alphonso’s head, William spoke. “I’ve applied for your admission, but you’ll have to take the test first. Yuria is heading to magic school, and Alphonso to knight school, right?”

“Yes.”

“The entrance exam for the magic school won’t feel like anything if you’ve successfully passed the coming-of-age ceremony, but the knight school has a sword competition so you need to be careful.”

“Don’t worry! Because I’ve trained hard!”

Seeing Alphonso trying to show off his biceps on his thin arms, William laughed and rumpled up his nephew’s hair.

“Hahaha. Well, even if magic is the main power of our tribe and we don’t match up to the other battle races in terms of body strength, at least we still have the strength of an average knight, so you don’t have to worry. But still, you will fail if you use magic. So be careful.”

“Yes!”

“Also, a knight under me will take care of you guys after you unpack, so push off touring the capital to tomorrow.”

“Yes!”

-o-

2 days later —-

After breakfast, Alphonso gallantly went out to the knight school alone. Before he left, his twin sister, Yuria told him to wait so they could go together, but with the memories of yesterday’s tour, he bravely showed his courage to go alone.

“I can go by myself!”

“Even so, today is the day of the exam. What are you going to do if you get lost?”

Alphonso faltered briefly but William backed him up.

“So what, the school isn’t even far away.”

William cheered Alphonso on as he said that it’s not a bad idea for Alphonso to try going alone as it’s not like he could always accompany Alphonso every day. William reassured Yuria by saying that even if Alphonso got lost, he could use location tracking magic to quickly find his way.

“Then, I’ll be off!”

Bidding an enthusiastic goodbye, Alphonso cheerfully left as he opened his black parasol and his braided white hair dangled behind him.

The whole of yesterday, Alphonso had toured around the capital with his twin sister Yuria and Uncle William. However, compared to the Butterfly Tribe village located on Mount Everest, the busy streets of the capital were full of color and life and were on a completely different level.

With beaming eyes, Alphonso looked around again at the streets of the capital. Alphonso passed by the main road as he looked around. As people continued to bump into the parasol which he was using owing to the tribe’s weakness for the sun, he continued to apologize as he headed to a street with few people.

As he got out of the bustling street and took a step back to breathe, he heard an angry voice from behind.

“Ow!”

When Alphonso turned around, there were three men giving off a scary impression. Among them, the man rubbing his left arm raised his right hand and put on a scary face. It seemed that he had been scraped by the parasol that Alphonso was carrying.

The parasol that Alphonso was carrying had been specially made by his grandfather. It was created from the flesh and bones of the Behemoth, one of the strongest monsters on the Alps mountain that was known to be a monster haven. Considering that the fabric of the parasol was made with magically coated yarn of heavenly silkworm fabric, which was several times stronger than steel of the same thickness, one could say it was a weapon by itself.

“Why you!”

At that moment a sly-looking man, behind the man who was about to attack, raised his hand to stop the man and whispered something in his ear. The sly-looking man put on an odd smile and looked over to Alphonso. Alphonso felt that something was wrong and apologized.

“Sorr… I’m sorry.”

However, the man gravely yelled at Alphonso’s apology.

“Are you joking right now! Huh!? If you hit, huh, a person, huh, you need to give compensation!”

Alphonso was frightened when the man with the threatening face suddenly shouted.

“Sorr… I’m sorry.”

“Is it over if you are sorry!? Since my arm is broken, hand over 3000 pelks!”

The man seemed like he was about to hit him. Alphonso suddenly shut his eyes in fear and threw out a punch.

-o-

Finally, the morning of Lisbon and Alice’s entrance exams arrived.

Saying she was nervous, Alice skipped breakfast and holed up in her room refining her magic. Also, saying that eating too much would dull one’s body, Lisbon really ate little compared to his usual large meals and went out to the garden in light clothes to stretch. Without Lisbon’s usual banter, the dining table became rather quiet. Mrs. Arscilla and I were the only ones left at breakfast and had some conversations.

“Come to think of it, Den, if you pass the civil service examination, will you be going to live in the dormitory?”

“Yes, since that is apparently the rule, there’s not much I can do.”

Mrs. Arscilla spoke with a truly sad face. “Since you have to move to the dorms by the end of July if you are admitted, it’s really going to be such a short time. I’ve been fond of you this past month.”

Like Mrs. Arscilla said, somehow it’s already been a month since I started boarding here. The results of the admission exams would be announced in half a month, so at most, I’d have to leave here in a month. I know not about other things, but the thought of not being able to eat the meals here made me sad.

“It is definitely unfortunate, but you know the results still have yet to be revealed. If something goes wrong, I might have to burden you for another half a year.”

I was just saying that. I even sneaked into the palace to check the question paper, so there was no chance of failure. The actual exam questions being so easy made me feel dumb for putting in all that effort.

“Also, even if I pass, I’ll have to look for housing again in half a year so I may have to be indebted to you again.”

Mrs. Arscilla smiled at my shameless remark, telling me to come any time.

After breakfast, I slowly took a stroll towards the magic school. Although I say I was heading towards the magic school, the knight school and the civil servant training institute were attached to it, so technically you couldn’t just simply call it the magic school.

Since my goal was the magic books at a level under a grimoire stored in the school, there was no need to hurry. Especially since Alice, the one who was taking the exam was still holed up in her room. As I was going to the school, a black umbrella amid the crowd came into view.

Why an umbrella? The sky was so clear.

No matter where you go, there are always weird people. As I was going through a shortcut through the back alley without thinking, I heard a voice shouting from somewhere.

“Are you joking right now! Huh?”

Oh! A fight! The best things to watch are a fight and a fire. It’s even better if the people fighting had nothing to do with me.

In order to secretly watch the fight, I sneakily moved towards the alley where I heard the sound.

“If you hit, huh, a person, huh, you need to give compensation!”

Contrary to my expectations, the scene in the alley was of 3 gangster-like guys tearing apart a fragile-looking boy with a black umbrella.

How disappointing! Even if it wasn’t a brutal dog fight, I was hoping to see some street fighting.