The entrance exams were underway.

  It started off with the lead examiner requesting all the present first-years to divide themselves into five groups of twenty, followed by a long-winded explanation that only Inkaro found interesting. Summarised into a more concise manner: the students were tasked with completing five of the six tests: the theory test, the practical test, the attribute assessment/check, the application test, and the error-solving test.

  The sixth test was a combat one. However, it wasn't required to gain admittance to the academy, but if someone wanted to join the star course, then acquiring a single-digit ranking in the combat test was mandatory. Inkaro, not one for meaningless and senseless violence, was already in a position of not needing to participate to get in. Thanks to a certain dragon-adjacent girl, Inkaro had become privy to a little clause in the academy's policies, which he and Lizu intended to make full use of, even if it wasn't their original intention.

  "Alright, everyone, each test shouldn't take more than ten minutes, so keep that in mind when doing the writing-related tests."

  "On the note of the theory test, your task will be to program the provided grimoire discs to control one of the tiny cars and reach the designated spot."

  Hushed murmurs emerged from the students, discussing how shockingly little time they were given and how simple the task was. By their reactions, the students had clearly expected some freakishly challenging test of their skills that threatened to fry their brains for life. It was such a simple task, some students pondered if completing the task wasn't the true test in and of itself.

  Naturally, Inkaro and Lizu ended up in the same group of students. Shockingly, or maybe not given social conventions, the students gathered around the royalty belonging to their home country: naturally, that meant the grimoire obsessors were in the gaggle surrounding Myhail. Following the crowd, and going with the flow and whatnot

  With the five groups formed, the examiners ushered each of them towards one of the tests, and the Myhail group landed on the theory test. Only Inkaro and Lizu were mentally cheering; everyone else, groaning in a not-so-mental fashion. Raising her gaze, Lizu was greeted by a contemplative configuration of an expression on Inkaro's face. Sadly, it wasn't the kind reserved for writing-related activities but that of someone focusing on something stupid.

  Lizu knew that face well. Its presence made her body move on instinct.

  A light elbow jammed itself into Inkaro's side at Lizu's behest, forcing a barely noticeable jerk on a corner of the guy's lips. No student even flinched, besides Inkaro himself, seemingly anticipating that someone standing so close to Lizu was bound to receive some form of physical pain. If anything, the students were honestly surprised by how long Inkaro had been in such close proximity to Lizu without even a shred of fear or unease, aside from when he initially got hit.

  With the 'issue' 'fixed', Lizu removed her elbow, allowing for Inkaro's recovery to begin. Although it didn't actually hurt sensationally, Inkaro correctly assumed that if Lizu knew he'd figured out how to turn off his sense at will, she would think of hitting him, only to turn to less physical means to get across how dumb what he did was. Certainly something along the lines of forcing him to decide between giving up his grimoire-making funds for a week or... that was about the only thing Lizu could do that wouldn't indirectly or directly affect her. Despite how scary losing funding might be, Inkaro figured if it came to such a case, he could pull out the trump card.

  Now that he thought about things that would get him an earful from Lizu, she'd probably outright pass out from an unfiltered mental overload if she knew he had a non-purified mana manifestation core in his magic storage. Inkaro shot his eyes open, having forgotten he was functionally carrying a living bomb.

  Only as the situation settled, a faint blush spanned across her face as she registered she'd acted on impulse. Swarming up from the depths of her soul, butterflies made their presence in her stomach known, causing Lizu to feel a little nauseous from the shame and guilt alone; although, Inkaro's lack of a response dampened the nauseous feeling inside her, leaving her puzzled and considering if she hadn't hit him that hard.

  She gently shuffled in place without a sound. Torn between apologising for being rough or keeping the other students in the dark about the nature of their relationship, Lizu was at a loss for words. Ultimately, she went with the most straightforward option. Apologise later, if either of them remembers. She forced her face to hide those feelings, turning it into a blank slate for future emotions, in fear that it might upset Inkaro somehow if he thought she was sick, or something else stupid like that.

  After mentally recovering from the jab to his leg, Inkaro lowered his gaze to the perpetrator and saw the look on Lizu's face as she gave him a subtle side eye that conveyed a blunt message: "Are you really pondering over which grimoire to use for the sixth test?"

  Inkaro aggressively flinched more than he had when struck. He'd been caught right in the act. He knew nothing other than the truth or acceptance of it would satisfy Lizu, not that Inkaro could will himself to or succeed in lying to her.

  "So you noticed?" Inkaro retorted quietly to a somewhat sombre extent. Lizu pursed her lips, resembling that of a doll given the wrong expression, before opening her mouth as if to voice her disapproval in a huff, but no sound bothered to pass her lips. It seemed to click in her mind that anything short of a noble distancing would draw unwanted attention if she talked too casually to Inkaro. It was vexing for her. Her mind riled up, she wanted nothing more than to openly flaunt her affection for Inkaro in public. However, doing so before the official announcement on her eighteenth birthday in two years was a cultural no-no, something about bad luck and unfounded superstitions.

  Boring small-talk-level dialogue it was then.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "So, you're aiming for the star course?" Lizu murmured calmly, disappointment for the guy's lack of discretion radiating out of her glaring eyes, clear as day. Although her intention was to intimidate some sense into the guy, all Inkaro saw was the visage of a kid Lizu, one pouting so hard her cheeks turned bright red from the shame of dropping her ice cream on Inkaro's face. The shame came from wasting food, not getting her friend dirty.

  "Naturally, that's why I signed up as an adventurer the other day, can't go causing trouble before my first day," Inkaro stated elegantly, putting on and playing up a tone of voice befitting a certain bishop who hated redundant protocols. Despite his efforts, the impression could barely even be considered trash. Plain awful. His awful impression got a spurt of a giggle from the pouter, despite her efforts to remain noble. Sillyness really was her weakness, triple so when Inkaro was the source of it.

  "Ah, circumventing the risk of standing out by avoiding the combat test altogether," Lizu said, masking her mouth with a simple wave of her hand, swaying it in such a way no one would be able to focus on her face. It was hardly the time to be tongue-in-cheek, but she found herself unable to resist; after all, she hadn't seen Inkaro face-to-face in over a week, and his mere presence was melting away at her no-nonsense facade.

  "You say that like it wasn't your idea for us to do that," Inkaro said jestfully, "Also, you didn't even get to go to a guild building yourself, your pops just had a guild staff come to your place."

  Lizu let out a playful, but reserved, hmph. Like professional synchronised swimmers, the girl's hair hoops bobbed in time with her reserved outburst, knowing if she didn't tone down her next response, things would spiral. After all, a voice crack was a social death sentence. Beckoned by the grimoire lover's jestful tone, Lizu unquestionably wanted to reciprocate. But she could want all she wanted, knowing full well her preferred style of retort was out of the question, given the environment they were in.

  Eyes twinkling as her mind ran wild with ideas for later, Lizu mustered up a feeble-sounding reply, wanting to throw Inkaro off the trail of her shyness, which Inkaro wasn't even on. "Hey... it's not my fault, Vergilou basically pleaded with us to find any way to avoid bruising anyone's egos?"

  Like he hadn't embraced the previous encounter on any level whatsoever, Inkaro smuggly lifted a finger to pull at his hair as he cast down a most oppressive impression down on Lizu, his face a far cry from his usual demeanour with the cocky grin he wielded. Lizu mentally squeeled. He looked like a right villain, and Lizu couldn't believe he was doing this now of all places.

  "Say, you wanna race to see who can finish the test first?"

  The scene of Inkaro sporting a face other than his obliviously cute smile and the sultry tone he employed made Lizu's heart skip a beat; even some of the other female students were caught in the crossfire. Lizu didn't even try to course correct him this time, because that would mean conceding. That word 'concede' didn't apply to Lizu. She shared in Inkaro's disregard for the duo's prior conversation on instinct. They really were two peas in a grimoire-shaped pod. Lizu couldn't keep herself from donning a most wicked grin, matching Inkaro's oppression just in the opposite direction as she firmly pressed a finger into Inkaro's chest.

  "Just don't come crying to me when your driving skills will fail you," Lizu declared as the pair pulled out their mana ink pens, functionally unchanged for the past ten years. The duo's hands moved at breakneck speeds. Word after word, line after line, what should've taken at least nine minutes to complete had been done in fifteen seconds, leaving the other students, aside from Myhail, in surprised awe.

  Keeping one eye on each other as they worked, ensuring the other wasn't taking the lead, the second the final lines were made true with an end line, the grimoire freaks fundamentally catapulted themselves towards the table housing the tiny cars, doing so with reckless abandon. However, they failed to account for one thing: the other wasn't going to move out of the way. So, expectantly, their foreheads collided with a deafening bang that sounded like a gunshot before Inkaro collapsed to the floor.

  "Hah! My... head's...stronker..."

  Lizu shortly followed in Inkaro's footsteps and joined him on the floor, well on his back. The already at a loss for words people found themselves on the brink of going mute, but, given the time constraint, they quickly hunkered down and resumed their own tests.

  Despite the efforts of the duo to remain out of the limelight, excluding their head-on crash, the mere fact that they were conversing seemed to be enough to tick someone off. A pointy-eared someone of royalty.

  "Who does that commoner think he is, talking to a daughter of a high-ranked noble in such a ludicrously lax manner? He should be grateful she's allowing him to stand near her. He'd better hope he refrains from trying the Star course; otherwise, I'll make sure he won't even be able to attend the normal classes... ok, that might be a bit much, that certainly crosses the commoner nobility line."

  But those words wouldn't reach the duo's ears as a far closer voice drowned them out with such ease the closer speaker could've been on the other side of the room and still been more noticeable to Lizu.

  "Hi-ya, Bready~"

  The pamperedly endearing callout struck her like the coldest of ice from an ice bucket. Lizu shuddered down to the very tip of her tail, and she was wide awake. This voice was nothing short of the tangible manifestation of the phrase: pampered to the point of mental regression. It wasn't entirely accurate or inaccurate in this particular scenario. Cognitively, this girl was someone to envy and praise; she was in the same classes as Lizu growing up after all. Emotionally... you can probably assume how bad it would have to be for words to fail to describe just how bad her resilience to mental attacks was. A single insult and she's reduced and rendered as useful as a supporting character from the start of a long-running Shonen series during its final battle.

  "That's not true...right?" the noble girl murmured as she looked around, seemingly searching for something with a lost and longing look in her eyes. Her face wasn't that different from a lost puppy. Regrettably, Lizu had to embrace conceding on this one: the noble girl looked cute.

  Trickles of bundling energies swirled through the highly elevated ceiling, watching the happenstances of the various tests with keen interest. However, the noble girl's occasional glances, which caught the duo's current position, constantly set the blue energy bundle on edge to such a point that the lines making up its body turned jagged and spiky.

  [Did- did she just see us?]

  [Shut it, if the administrators of this place realise we snuck past the portal to check the exam out, we won't hear the end of it from...]

  [...]

  [Sigh... she's behind me, isn't she?]