Translator: Cialaxis
Editor: Havion
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4 years have pa.s.sed, and it is now 2 days before Elite Academy"s entrance examination.
I have come to the feudal lord"s mansion in order to get the letter of recommendation.
[Carmel-sama, regarding the entrance examination, is dyeing one"s hair to disguise their profession really not prohibited?] (Varius)
[In the first place, this is the first time I have heard of a magic that would change one"s natural hair colour. As long as it is a magic with no precedence of use, I believe Elite Academy has no means of prohibiting it.] (Carmel)
After that conversation, the feudal lord went out of the drawing room, and I was left alone.
——My hair, after using hair bleaching magic, is now a blonde colour.
As people with natural blonde hair have an apt.i.tude towards the Sage profession, the current me gives off the impression of one.
"If Tamers are not able to take the entrance examinations without being disadvantaged, then wouldn"t it be fine to just dye my hair?"…was what I thought, hence why I did what I did.
First is to enter Elite Academy while concealing the fact that I am a Tamer, and reveal the truth once I have acc.u.mulated enough achievements.
That is my plan.
For the record, I have two reasons for picking the Sage profession out of the many other professions.
The first is that the Sage is the easiest profession to mimic.
In the first place, a "Profession Apt.i.tude" is defined as [Being able to use a profession"s specialised magic while consuming less mana].
A Hero using Hero magic while expending less mana, or a Holy Knight using Holy magic with a lower mana cost…things like that.
In the case of the Sage however, things are different.
The Sage possesses the trait of [Being able to use the specialised magic of all professions flawlessly while consuming very little mana.]
Of course there are exceptions. Take Awakening magic for example, not even a Sage is able to use it.
(Rather than the mana consumption being too large, it"s more of other professions being fundamentally unable to use it.)
……Taking that into account, let"s consider the Tamer cla.s.s.
Me being a Tamer, using magic other than a Tamer"s specialised magic would drain a large amounts of mana.
Tamers however, are able to take their tamed monsters" growth experience as their own, immediately raising their mana capacity to a level incomparable to other professions.
Based on everything said so far, it can be concluded that [Tamers, with their overwhelming mana capacity, are able to use every profession"s magic on par with Sages].
Hence why I would naturally pick the Sage as the target for disguise.
…The other reason is…comparably pointless compared to the first.
It"s great that turning a black hair to blonde only requires destroying the melanin in the hair, and the [dyeing] step is not needed.
—Oh, it seems that the feudal lord has returned to the drawing room.
A piece of paper is firmly gripped in his hand.
[This is the letter of recommendation from me to Elite Academy. Please make sure you take this there and be careful as to not lose it.] (Carmel)
[Thank you very much.] (Varius)
I received the letter, and carefully kept it in my Storage Magic.
Elite Academy, a place where only n.o.bles, or those who have received a n.o.ble"s recommendation, are allowed to take the entrance examination.
Meaning, this letter is an extremely important item.
…..And, at that moment.
[Varius, didn"t you say that you had something to hand over to the feudal lord?] (Caucasus)
Caucasus — now shrunk to one tenth his size due to body modification magic — said telepathically while resting on my shoulder.
Now that he mentioned it, I did.
I did have something I thought of giving; as well as something to ask.
[Carmel-sama…if I recall, isn"t it up to the n.o.ble that gave the recommendation to cover the expenses of the entrance exam fees?] (Varius)
[Yes, that"s right.] (Carmel)
[Then…please receive this as payment for your expenses.] (Varius)
Using Storage Magic, I took the snake monster, Jormungand"s skin out, and handed it over to the feudal lord.
This too, is one of Caucasus"s battle spoils.
Although I do not know how much are the examination fees…as this seems to be a high-cla.s.s item, I would like to believe that it is sufficient.
As I thought so, the feudal lord"s mouth opened wide, his eyes boring into the skin as if to devour it.
[Thi, This…..Isn"t this a Jormungand"s hide ! It"s a high-cla.s.s item to the point where even if I had recommended an entire cla.s.s" worth of people, the change returned would be more than the cost, you know? Is it really okay to for me receive something like this? ] (Carmel)
[Eh…is it really worth that much? Well, it"s something I"ve prepared originally anyway, please accept it.] (Varius)
Apparently, a Jormungand"s skin is worth more than the examination fees.
Well, there"s nothing better than a high-cla.s.s gift, I"ll leave this as it is.
Now then, I"ve done everything that needed to be done, it"s about time I head back home.
After saying my farewell to the feudal lord, I flew off using the Nimbus Cloud.
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That night.
Wanting to do some last minute revision, I picked [The First Choice, Non-negotiable] up.
Since I had solved it over a hundred times, it now has a tattered appearance.
It would be easy to restore it using magic, but as it gave off the feel of it being [Proof that I had studied], I decided to leave it as it is.
I opened to the last chapter of that overused book.
It is a corner called [Making discarded questions more difficult], where questions with a low percentage of correct answers are made even harder — a corner with the author"s original questions.
[….Un. No problem] (Varius)
I reflexively answered the numerous easy, hard, and tricky questions one after another.
After a few minutes, I closed the book.
Unlike my previous life, I devoted my full attention towards the boring act of studying for an entrance exam after all. It"s obvious that this would happen since I repeatedly went over the only revision book I have.
I closed my eyes peacefully, and drifted off to sleep.
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The next day.
As I woke up, heavy rain…or rather, a storm has occurred.
The rain was so intense that visibility was limited to only a few metres.
[Varius……isn"t the test tomorrow? You said it would be fine to leave the day before…but with this rain, wouldn"t that be impossible? What do you plan to do?] (Varius" mother)
Mum is worried.
But…it"s a needless worry.
[Please do not worry, Mum. The weather doesn"t matter to me.] (Varius)
I took the Nimbus Cloud out using storage magic, and got on it.
[I"ll be on my way.] (Varius)
I said while flashing a smile to my parents……channeled mana into the Nimbus Cloud, and generated a spherical shield that is specifically designed for weather such as this.
Notes: [1]: Regarding the Harry Botay in the t.i.tle, the raw text gave the name ハリボテ (HRi-Bo-Te), which…well…when you translate it, becomes Harry Botay. Couldn"t think of a better way to name it