I asked for the price at a snack stall near the exam site, “How much is it?”

“The cooked corn costs a pelk each, a bag of roasted peanuts is 3 pelks, and one roasted beef is 4 pelks.”

The smell of a large roasted beef on a heated stone was delicious. Maybe it was because I staved off lunch with the little bit of the cookie that Yuria shared with me at the library, but food seemed more appetizing now.

“Then I’ll take 3 bags of the roasted peanuts, and 5 roasted beef.”

“Ok, that will be 29 pelks.”

I paid in iron and refined iron coins and went to where Lisbon was sitting with the snacks.

“Oh! Looks delicious!” Lisbon stared at the snacks with eyes wide open. He looked like a big dog with a snack in front of his eyes. I knew from the moment when this big eater said, “My body will become clumsier” and started eating less. Most likely, he barely even ate lunch. I handed over a bag of peanuts and two roasted beef.

“Since you have to take the exam soon, you shouldn’t eat too much.”

As soon as I handed Lisbon the snacks, he took a big bite from the roasted beef and nodded.

“I’m not joking. Make sure you don’t eat too much now and fail the exam because your body became clumsy. You put in so much effort to the point of getting blisters and if you end up failing, having a poor body condition is not a valid excuse. In the first place, does it make sense for a knight to not even be able to take care of his own body?”

At my nagging, Lisbon booed and looked teary. “Woo-ooh, Den is talking like Aly.”

While saying so, he did not let go of the jerky he had in his hand. I also took some peanuts from the bag and threw them in my mouth. The first peanuts in this life were quite tasty. Mmm savory.

“Uh oh, Mr. Den?”

I heard someone call my name so I turned my head and saw Yuria standing there with a white parasol.

It’s been only about 5 minutes since we parted ways?

“Who?” Lisbon asked in a small whisper.

“She is Miss Yuria. I got to know her at the library.”

Then, Lisbon rose from his seat and lightly gave a greeting.

“I see. Hello, I am Lisbon von Carter.”

“Yes, hello. I am Yuria Fendria.”

Now that I think about it, we talked quite a bit in the library but this was my first time hearing her last name. But why is the name Fendria so familiar?

Lisbon’s eyes opened wide. “If it’s Fendria, then you are General William’s?”

General William? William Fendria?

Could it be William von de Neyron Fendria of the Butterfly Tribe?

“Yes, he is my uncle,” Yuria answered with a grin.

The world must be very tiny. Else how could such an absurd coincidence of meeting Uncle Bloody’s friend’s niece happen? I just barely managed to fix my face from a rotten one to a smile.

“Then is Miss Yuria also a member of the Butterfly Tribe?” Lisbon asked an obvious question.

Perhaps he was a fool? Ah, right he was.

Yuria nodded with a face full of pride. “Yes, that’s right. I just happened to end up revealing my last name, but I hope Mister Den doesn’t feel pressured by it.” She gave an awkward smile.

I tilted my head as I couldn’t understand. If Yuria’s uncle was a high-ranking member of the emperor’s entourage, then instead of specifically telling me, shouldn’t Lisbon naturally be included as well? The Yuria at the library was too sociable to consider that she only told me because she was unfamiliar with Lisbon.

“Since Mr. Den is so knowledgeable in magic, I’m sure you must have figured it out immediately, but my grandfather is one of the four great magicians, an elemental magician of the Butterfly Tribe.

Ah… I didn’t know. In fact, I only learned that there were four great magicians from the library. When I was in my hometown, I was only interested in magic knowledge, I did not care about history or famous people. Come to think of it, Elder Mirpa once told me that there was a crazy old man in the Butterfly Tribe who would freeze and break everything when he got mad. That crazy old man couldn’t be Yuria’s grandfather, right?

“Yes, I was a little surprised, but Miss Yuria is Miss Yuria, and a great magician is a great magician.”

Honestly, I wasn’t surprised at all, but I tried to act a little surprised. Then, with glistening eyes, Yuria grabbed my hand and brought her face close.

“That’s right! Grandfather is Grandfather, I am me!”

Uh, excuse me. I’m a little uncomfortable. We were close enough to feel each other’s breaths. When our eyes met, Yuria blushed and pulled away.

“Ah, I’m sorry. It was unintentional.” Yuria scratched her bright red cheeks and stuck her tongue out a little as she spoke in a flustered manner.

“Hey, I mean, ah! The fact that you are here means that someone you know is taking the exam?”

I shook my head at Yuria. “No, I’m just looking around. But isn’t the magic school exam starting soon, Miss Yuria? Is it ok for you to be here right now?”

Yuria looked very pleased by my question and smiled as she answered, “It’s ok. As long as I get there before the exam starts. I don’t know if the test is going by names in ascending or descending order, but I will have to wait either way, it’s just the wait time might get longer.”

Ah, the exam goes in alphabetical order? I didn’t know because I wasn’t interested. Perhaps Lisbon could watch Alice first before his exam.

“Also, my twin brother is taking the knight school exam this time. I’m just going to watch Al’s performance and leave.”

The brother’s name seemed to be Al. If it’s Al, then he would be near the end alphabetically?[1]

No, since she said she would watch before leaving, it has to be ‘A’ for time to work out, or ‘Z’ if it’s the reverse order. If Al is a nickname, then would it be a name that starts with ‘A’? For example, Alphonso.

I laughed inwardly at my reasoning. It didn’t seem likely that the crybaby that I met on the street by chance in the morning, would happen to be the twin brother of Yuria whom I met by chance in the library. All they had in common was a parasol, white hair, and red eyes…

And similar… Looks?

There’s no way. Please tell me it’s not!

“Ah! That’s my brother with the black parasol in the training hall that says number 5!”

I turned my eyes to Training Hall No. 5. There was a young boy with a black parasol, stiff with anxiety, walking in.

What! Why would a member of Butterfly go to knight school! God, have I wronged you?

-o-

A second-year, middle-rank knight school student, Gamry von Owen, transferred to the lower-rank knight school’s exam as a sparring opponent, was headed to Training Hall No. 5. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of Alphonso with the black parasol heading towards him in the training hall.

An instructor in charge of the exam called him in yesterday to say that amongst the examinees who would fight against the sparring opponents, there were those from the battle race. His face had instantly paled. He went on to beg the instructor to let him off, but he was only comforted saying it would be a good experience. He had almost yelled that he was doing whatever he wanted to because it wasn’t his own life, but according to the instructor, the Butterfly Tribe was not outstanding with swords or martial arts. However, the instructor still advised him against being complacent for they still had the strength and stamina of a knight before kicking him out with a command.

Gamry, seeing the nervous white-haired boy moving with the same hand and feet at the same time, felt a little regretful that he had stayed up all night with anxiety.[2] If he were this nervous, he probably couldn’t display his skills.

Right then, the instructor in-charge of evaluating training halls 1-5 blew a whistle.

“Salute each other!”

Standing side by side, the two saluted in line with the instructor’s shout.

“Are you going to spar with that on?”

At Gamry’s question, Alphonso folded the parasol and threw it into a corner of the training hall in a fluster.

The instructor took a look at the examinees as a whole.

“Start the spar!”

Gamry drew his sword at the same time as the instructor’s shout. Alphonso was taken aback and quickly drew his own sword.

Gamry grinned at the sight and said, “I’ll let you attack three times first, so come at me.”

The instructor, who was keeping a close eye on the fifth training hall, frowned at the words. Going easy in a spar was obviously looking down on the opponent. Usually, a spar was often between people who knew each other well, unless it was a situation like this exam. Therefore, going easy was not uncommon and may not have anything to do with manners, but it didn’t look good in the current circumstances.

The instructor looked at Alphonso with slight nervousness. Alphonso was the nephew of a peak existence who was in charge of the imperial magician corps and one of the top-three in the imperial army. If he were offended here, that thoughtless idiot would get discharged before he even became a knight or live his life on a thorny path. Perhaps because he was nervous or because he never sparred before, Alphonso didn’t seem to know about the etiquette and didn’t seem particularly upset.

“Sure!”

Rather, Alphonso who answered nervously with a slightly trembling voice shot forward towards Gamry and slashed his sword from top to bottom. At the obvious attack, Gamry leisurely raised his sword diagonally to block.

“Idiot! Dodge!”

The instructor shouted urgently at Gamry. Due to all the time he spent under the instructor, he reflexively retreated half a step at the instructor’s shout. The sudden change in action caused him to lose some strength in the sword hand.

Then, Alphonso’s sword struck Gamry’s sword and continued down to hit the floor of the training hall.

Clang! Boom!

Because of Alphonso’s sword hitting his sword, Gamry’s sword was broken short. But rather than that, the impact from the slash when his grip had weakened made the tendons in his hand throb. Moreover, the dent on the floor created by Alphonso’s sword looked like it had been dug by a shovel and not from a sword hitting it. The only people that Gamry knew who could leave a mark like this were those geniuses who could already put mana in their swords before graduating and were slated to join a knight division. If it weren’t for the instructor’s shout, even if he had blocked it, the strength behind Alphonso’s slash would still have cut and killed him.

The force from the sword definitely contained mana. Gamry swallowed dry saliva and looked at Alphonso. The latter jerked the sword with an innocent face, shaking the dirt off the blade and getting back into position. Gamry felt an indescribable absurdity when he saw the white-haired boy standing in a sloppy stance with a bunch of gaps. Some people wielded the sword thousands of times while refining their forms but still couldn’t wrap it in mana, let alone use mana to amplify their physical abilities. Seeing him being able to use mana in the sword even with such poor posture and form rendered all efforts vain.

1. In Korean, Al is pronounced similar to the letter R (with Korean accent), so the author is indicating that with the letter R, it would be later in the order of names.

2. Alphonso was so nervous that he forgot how to walk, thus he was walking with his hands and feet on the same side moving together instead of alternating like a normal person.