16 Years Old – K of Hearts Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.
Today is the day of the Royal Magic Academy magic exam. At this school, a pa.s.s is determined by the c.u.mulative scores of the general education exam and the magic exam. The other day, we had the general exam, and I was shocked at the incredible amount of people. ‘It’d be great if I pa.s.sed, but…’ Or so I began to worry. I mean, for a prince to fail the exam, it would be much too lame, you know?
Achille will probably pa.s.s without a problem. Camille… I’m a little worried about her general section.
The contents of this time’s exam is extremely simple. You destroy a st.u.r.dy target provided by a teacher, there’s a measurement of your magic power, and finally there are various challenges set for you. Because there are a great number of people, we take the exams in groups of twenty, but upon checking which group I ended up in on the magic noticeboard, due to some good luck I was allotted to the same group as Camille.
“Royce-sama~”
While I waited at the gathering place for our group, Camille ran over with sparkling eyes.
“Camille, we’re in the same group, huh.”
“Yes! It seems that the first exam will be held on the field grounds, you know? Let’s go.”
A continuation from the day of the general exam, Camille has no tattoos today, which is a very fresh look. Looking at her like this, she’s extremely cute. Achille probably can’t relax out of nervousness.
Because Camille and I are moving together, there are no women obstructing our path like the day of the general education exam. Camille as well, because I’m here, isn’t being surrounded by men either.
We were headed to a large field in the middle of the academy. On the lawn in the middle was the first group of students. Surrounding, were spectator seats, and students waiting for their turn were sitting there.
“We’re the eighth group, huh.”
“Yes, that’s right! Incidentally, Achille is the second group, so… he might be waiting down here, huh?”
While we were speaking, the first group began their exam. When the examiner used magic to bring up a rectangular target, the people in the spectator seats began watching the exam seriously. In front of each student floated a hard-looking stone slab target. The exam involved accurately breaking your target, without getting any of the other targets involved. The slates of stone look hard, and not so easily broken. People who managed to break the stone, people who didn’t manage to scratch it at all, people who fired their magic in the wrong direction… The first exam finished with a lot of people still unable to break their stones.
Next was the second group with Achille. High-pitched screams rose from the spectator seats. Even though he’s engaged to Camille… Achille has it rough too, huh.
Achille skilfully broke apart a slab like the ones from earlier. Once again, high-pitched screams rose around us.
After that, the exams continued… Finally, it’s our turn.
“Royce-sama! It’ll be okay!”
Camille who noticed my nervousness, encouraged me.
“After all, with your power, Royce-sama, you’ll be able to reliably break that rock slab.”
It seems that she accurately grasped the strength of those magically produced rock slabs and my magic power.
“…Your words are very rea.s.suring.”
It’s too rea.s.suring. When it comes to magic, I trust in Camille’s words more than anything else. With her skill in magic alone, despite being only sixteen, she climbed to quite a high position within “Red”.
In time with the examiner’s signal, slates of stone appeared before Camille and I.
“Royce-sama, just watch~”
Camille who was next to me winked, and at the same time her stone slab was pulverised without a trace. A commotion ran through the spectator seats… but she didn’t pay it any attention.
She turned to me with a gaze that said “Praise me, praise me.”
“…I see. There’s still the stone powder left. Shall I burn it away?”
“It’s fine, that’s plenty. I can really see that you’ve been trying your best, Camille. As a candidate for my guard, there’s no complaints to say about your skill.”
So that Camille doesn’t do anything unnecessary, it’s my job to stop her. Right now Achille isn’t here, so I have to do it properly.
“Really? I’ll definitely become an excellent guard, okay!?”
With a happy expression on her face, she gave a fist pump… Because of Camille, my nervousness about the exam has disappeared.
When I calmed down and faced the target, I gathered mana around the target and made it explode. With one shot, it cracked, and then it very quickly flew off in four directions. Thanks to the magic cast on the area, the flying pieces of stone didn’t hit any other students.
“It’s just like you said, huh, Camille. It broke.”
When I said that, she looked incredibly glad and smiled. Probably startled by that smile of hers, the men around us were entranced by her. Some of them shot off their magic in various directions, or hit themselves with magic instead of the targets… Even though it’s an examination, they sure lack concentration, huh…
Up until now, Camille hasn’t concerned herself with the gazes of the opposite s.e.x. She only knew of boys sidling up to her in their aim for the seat of the next marquis during tea parties while she was young, and of men who looked down on her from a distance due to her tattoos. That’s why she didn’t notice at all, the commotion she caused amongst the men. It’s fine that she doesn’t notice their gazes, but I wish she would just hurry up and notice Achille’s feelings already… Achille’s also in the wrong for not frankly telling her his feelings though, huh. After we finished the target-destruction exam, we headed to the examination ground for the magic power measurement.
However, at our destination, the exam was temporarily suspended. The other students were making a fuss.
“Oi, have you heard? It seems that in the group before ours, there was someone who broke the measurement item.”
“Serious…? They didn’t get disqualified?”
“Nah, the examiner said that it broke because their magic power was too great, and it couldn’t be measured.”
It seems that there’s an incredible examinee. Camille also has strong magic power, but even she isn’t strong enough that she’d destroy the measurement item. I looked towards her, and found that for some reason, her eyebrows were knit in thought. It’s rare that Camille makes such a serious face.
In the end, the magic power measurement started again a little while after that, and we finished the final exam without a problem.
But still, there are still heaps of incredible people in this world, huhh.
/Child Chapter End
“Camille who noticed my nervousness, encouraged me.” is actually just “spoke to me”, but 話しかけてくれた seems grateful enough, so yeah
Might be a bit late to mention, but the prince is relatively soft spoken. Uh, also he uses ‘boku（僕）’. Achille uses ‘ore（俺）(at least in his monologues)’.
Also funny that Royce thinks her dullness is because of her lack of experience with men. She’s been to high school before, and her monologues show that she clearly has experience. It’s clear to us that she didn’t notice them, simply because she’s just a straight up legit 100% idiot sometimes, lol.
Also, hehe. Enter the heroine. I’d be happy as long as she was even half as nice as Wakaba-chan.