IBYDH 53

Chapter: 53

After leaving the academy, I quickly took Bell and Hans with me and headed for the portal.

I need to leave before they start chasing after me.

Judging by the look on Examiner Sant’s face earlier, he seemed like he wanted to grab hold of me and bombard me with questions all day long.

And if I failed to answer properly, there was a good chance he’d try to run some strange experiment on me.

If he’s a mage from the Mage Tower, that’s entirely possible.

The few Mage Tower mages that appeared in Sylvia’s memories were all overflowing with individuality.

That was the generous way to put it. To be honest, every single one of them was strange in some way, like a screw was loose somewhere.

The problem is that they’re all incredibly capable.

If they were just eccentric, they’d simply be oddballs—but when exceptional ability comes with it, it becomes troublesome.

What if Examiner Sant took me away to experiment on me and ended up realizing that I had contracted with a sylph?

He might cling to me saying he wants to research the Spirit King—or worse, research me, the one who contracted with a Spirit King.

I wanted to dismiss it as paranoia, but mages were simply like that.

At least, according to Sylvia’s memories.

“A portal to the capital. Three people.”

As soon as we finished the procedures, we were able to use the portal back to the capital.

There were hardly any people waiting.

Those who failed probably left in the morning, and those who passed are still in the middle of the exams.

The timing was perfect.

“Have a pleasant journey!”

When I opened my eyes again, we were back in the capital.

Bell, who had suffered from motion sickness on the first day, looked perfectly fine this time.

Inside the carriage heading back to the mansion, I greeted Bell and Hans.

“Thank you both for your hard work over the past two days.”

“It felt more like a vacation to me. It’s all thanks to you, miss.”

Bell laughed softly as she expressed her gratitude.

“Hard work? Not at all! If the others hear what happened in Aicel, they’ll be jealous.”

Hans muttered that since he went to work and ended up having fun instead, his colleagues would definitely tell him to buy them a round of beer.

I’m glad it wasn’t tiring for them—if anything, it was enjoyable.

Smiling at their bright expressions, I spoke again.

“But if possible, I’d like you not to talk about the entrance exam.”

“Pardon?”

Hans asked, eyes wide.

“But shouldn’t everyone know that you placed first in the first exam, miss? Hiding such an incredible achievement seems wrong!”

“I don’t know if it’s really that incredible… but still, it’d be better not to talk about it. There’s already plenty of gossip about me as it is. If people find out I even took the entrance exam—and topped it—it’ll just become more troublesome.”

Most people would dismiss it as a ridiculous rumor, but there would surely be some who’d take it seriously and start sending even more persistent invitations.

Once I officially enrolled in the academy, everyone would find out anyway—but I wanted to delay that annoyance as long as possible.

Thankfully, both of them nodded in agreement.

Though their faces were filled with regret.

If these two keep quiet, will no one know that I took the academy entrance exam?

No—there was one person who knew.

Evadin, the one who picked a fight with me, also knew that I took the exam.

And that I placed first in the first round.

She has a loose tongue, so it’s a little worrying… but surely she wouldn’t spread that around?

Failing the entrance exam with a single-digit score was humiliating, no matter how difficult it was.

Embarrassing enough to keep one from showing their face in high society for at least a year.

I chose to believe that Evadin still had a shred of shame left.

If Evadin turns out to be someone who feels no shame and spreads it anyway… well, that can’t be helped.

I wasn’t keeping quiet because I hated revealing my score—it was just bothersome to deal with all the attention.

With that thought concluded, I turned my gaze out the window.

The enormous Atlante mansion was slowly drawing closer.

Several days had passed since the academy entrance exam ended.

Fortunately, there still didn’t seem to be any rumors spreading about me having taken the exam.

If the rumors were out, I’d be getting far more letters than this.

I was still receiving plenty of invitations, but noticeably fewer than before.

My assumption that things would naturally fade with time seemed to be correct.

Good. Let’s keep it this way.

Leaning back against the bed, I resumed reading.

I’d been reading the same book for two straight days now, and only a few pages remained.

Yet turning those few pages took an absurd amount of time.

The pages were crammed with tiny letters, and on top of that, the content was highly academic and specialized—understanding even a single sentence required intense concentration.

“Whew. Finally finished.”

As I closed the book, a sense of accomplishment washed over me for having endured something so tedious and difficult—along with the hollow disappointment of still not finding what I wanted.

“So it’s not here either.”

For the past few days, I had been borrowing every book related to mana from the main library and reading them one by one.

The reason was what happened during the second exam.

More specifically, the incident where the mana I leaked caused the measuring device to turn red and crack.

“The most plausible explanation is that the mana-measuring device was faulty, but…”

Something about that explanation still felt unsettling.

That was why, when I was measured again with a new device afterward, I deliberately controlled the amount of mana I released.

According to Sylvia’s memories, in the original future it barely even turned turquoise—never mind red. She didn’t need to control her mana at all. So why did this happen now?

I couldn’t just brush it off, so I searched through related books—but even after finishing this one, I still couldn’t find the exact cause.

No matter how much knowledge I gained about mana, the answer I wanted remained elusive.

Still, it wasn’t as though I had no suspicions at all.

The only thing that seems even remotely related is Sylphid.

The things that differed completely from Sylvia’s memories—without my intention—were the results of the second exam and Sylphid.

No, there’s one more.

The Crown Prince’s request for a dance.

Originally, he was supposed to ask Aerin, and the two of them were meant to share their first dance together.

But for some reason, the Crown Prince asked me instead.

That, too, was something that diverged from Sylvia’s memories without my intending it.

…But that has nothing to do with mana, so let’s set it aside.

Aside from the incident at the ball, none of the events that had changed so far were unintended.

My improved relationship with Aerin, the servants’ changed attitudes, and Tebra training to become my guard.

All of those differed from Sylvia’s memories, but on a larger scale, they were changes I had deliberately caused.

Apologizing to Aerin. Not mistreating the servants. Bringing Tebra with me.

All of them were consequences of my own actions.

But Sylphid and the second exam are different.

Both were related to me, yet I had no clear explanation for either.

After summoning Sylphid several times, I even asked him directly.

Why did he respond to my summoning?

His answer was—

That it was the first attempt to summon him in several hundred years, so he immediately crossed over to the human world through the summoning circle.

According to Sylphid, beings capable of summoning a Spirit King were extremely rare, so he usually responded without hesitation.

The problem is that I have no idea how I was able to summon him in the first place.

Sylphid could say he responded because a summoning circle appeared before him.

But how did I create a summoning circle capable of calling Sylphid to begin with?

The summoning circle I drew back then was the same basic one Sylvia used in her memories.

Same circle. Same method.

Nothing was different—

Yet the result was.

Could the fact that I summoned Sylphid be connected to the mana-measuring device turning red?

…I don’t know.

I got up from the bed and took out a map of the empire.

Centered around the capital and stretching all the way to the distant northern border, the map was dotted with several red circles.

All of them marked places close to the capital, yet rarely visited by people.

There was only one reason I’d marked those locations.

I need to test Sylphid’s combat capabilities.

After the unexpected incident during the academy exam,

I realized how complacent I’d been.

Having memories of the future doesn’t mean everything is perfect.

The future I knew was incomplete—and could change at any time.

And Sylphid didn’t even exist at all in Sylvia’s memories.

I summoned a spirit because I needed power, yet I never checked how strong that spirit actually was—or how to use his attacks efficiently.

If a truly life-threatening situation arose, there was no way I’d be able to fight properly like this.

At least I realized that before it was too late.

I took out the notebook where I’d organized information about Sylphid and spread it open beside the map.

 Then, on one side of the page where I’d written down the basic information I’d learned from Sylphid, I boldly wrote: