Slowly but surely, mostly in part to the many students being preoccupied by a certain pair of magic item obsessors and the dragony girl that loomed over them like an impending flood held back by a dam riddled with fissures and cracks. It wouldn't be a stretch to say she was a little miffed.

  Despite the scene caused by the trio slowing things down somewhat, the attribute assessment/check segment of the entrance exam came to a close; Lizu sighed disappointedly, peeved to a small extent that her chance to ask Inkaro about his Sky-Style Syntax thing was taken from her yet again. On the topic of Inkaro's latest magic venture, that's been half a year in the making, she hardly knew anything about it other than the name. It has zero commonalities with any existing magic methods, which she learned from doing a little bit of snooping; it left Lizu wondering why Inkaro was being so secretive about his new method of casting style in the first place.

  She sighed in dejection. It's not as if something being incomplete or even dangerous has stopped him from sharing information about his inventions with her before. So she wondered what was different about this time; was an outside force forcing him to keep quiet, or was he simply embarrassed about it?

  "Urrrr, I know I wished he would be more conscious about his actions when I was a kid, but did he have to choose this to be his first thing to be conscious about? It's so frustrating...," Lizu grumbled, knowing she and Inkaro shared in how headstrong they both become when they're committed to something. Lizu sighed again, weakly stomping her feet against the floor as she silently marched behind the sitting Inkaro and planting herself on the floor before with her back firmly against his. She remained firm, childishly hoping the knowledge she sought might osmosis into her somehow.

  The duo of the short royalty and the threat to normalcy toiled away with their words, the content of their conversations leading back to a single point of origin: Enetha's tapestry set. Lizu could only pout at the duo's choice in topic, mainly on how it wasn't floating syntax-related.

  Faintly lifting her cloth-like appendage to do so, Enetha presented one of the six tapestries belonging to the royal set directly in front of Inkaro's face, leaving him little in the way of visibility with how blurry the close-up object was to his face. "So it's called Mould Breaker and those are... Mould Figures?"

  Enetha nodded, holding a handful of small objects up to Inkaro's face for him to peruse at his leisure; however, the larger object right in his face made that leisure not so convenient. The three objects resembled chess pieces commonly found in the board game, including their sizes, aside from the things the pieces represented. But, despite not being able to see them with his eyes, Inkaro seemed to notice something others would deem as a minor detail.

  "Does the material of the figure impact how the golem functions, outside of it being made of that material?"

  Enetha nodded as she went to sit down; three of her cloth-like appendages sniped the spot under her and intercepted her path, like devote retainers saving her public image, forcing her butt to sit on their ring-shaped formation. As the Enetha subconsiously moved the obstruction in the guy's way, Inkaro looked over the three chess pieces: the first is a standard king chess piece made of pale gold with a floating golden crown-looking ring that hovers around the part of the chess piece below its crown part. The piece is covered in glowing lapis lazuli lines that resemble connected jigsaw pieces.

  The second is a standard king chess piece made of silver with an opaque white glass-like bowtie on its middle. The piece is covered in glowing emerald lines that resemble connected jigsaw pieces.

  And the third one...

  "Did you make this one?" Inkaro asked as he pointed out the non-job-themed piece: with a stand chess piece-like base, it is a cute-cartoony looking octopus made of obsidian with goofy googly eyes. The piece is covered in glowing violet lines that resemble connected jigsaw pieces.

  A light gasp of silent surprise found its way out of Enetha. She hadn't expected that. Leaving her momentarily stunned, she found herself unable to keep a weak blush from appearing on her neutral face, excluding the faintest of an open mouth that resembled someone in awe. But that little 'o' of an expression was telling; Enetha truly hadn't expected or anticipated Inkaro to point out the non-standard chess piece.

  As she brought them together, the girl timidly spun her index fingers against each other, like winding up thread around a spool or two celestial bodies orbiting each other.

  "Y-yeah, I called it Umbra... Termination," Enetha said with a flat tone, whilst her brief pauses displayed the underlying whirlwind of overlapping thoughts swirling inside her mind. The main one being shame from making up such a simple name on the spot.

  However, a faint, reserved snicker caught the duo's attention, derailing Enetha's train of thought, and the two of them peered back at Lizu.

  "Well, would you look at that, someone whose naming sense rivals yours, in a sense, Inkaro," Lizu murmured, in half parts cheek and the other irritation as she could stop herself from snickering.

  Like before, a certain duo of reincarnated students watched the peculiar sight of the commoner surrounded by nobles, with the female of the two wondering if Inkaro was secretly someone of significance. Subtly smirking, she found the prospect utterly enticing and would most certainly do some snooping later.

  Her friend, however, had something else on his mind.

  "Was that an insult?" Xythio muttered as he passed through the archway leading to an enclosed courtyard where other examinees had already headed off to. That quip brought Myendi back from her musings.

  After shortly getting her attribute assessment/check sorted out herself, she quickly followed closely behind Xythio, ready to end the guy's short moment of teasing-free peace.

  "Nah, it's just how some girls are," Myendi said teasingly with a dismissive wave of her hand; her tone made Xythio mentally groan, having half a mind to risk being labelled a delinquent to deal with her.

  "Will you two stop geeking out over that tapestry and move on to the application test like everyone else?" Lizu muttered jestfully as she pointed something out with her tail; their fellow students followed the examiners out into the nearby courtyard.

  "Hnh? Oh, suppose so," Enetha murmured as she rose to her feet, whilst Inkaro held his head low, dejected.

  "Very well...," Inkaro uttered, his voice somehow even lower in volume than Enetha when she was flustered. Dragging himself to his feet, the grimoire maker didn't so much as bother saying another word, leaving the two girls bearing the fate of being short in the metaphorical dust. Wasting no time or allowing herself to be a hypocrite, Lizu raised a foot to hurry after Inkaro, only to be stopped by a single word hitting her ear, courtesy of the princess.

  "Goober?"

  Lizu flinched at the absurd word that came out of Enetha's mouth. She didn't know what to think, let alone how to respond and could only mumble out a confused noise. "Huh?"

  Tilting her head to one side, Enetha passed Lizu a contemplative stare, her confusion reaching a similar level to Lizu's as the princess wondered what was so confusing about her question. "Is he not someone you care about who happens to be silly sometimes?"

  "O-oh, that's what you... meant; yeah... he's my goober," Lizu whispered, her nerves so razzled she didn't even realise she'd inadvertently exposed the true nature of her relationship with Inkaro to the hyper-focused princess. Enetha distinctly huffed in indignation, catching Lizu a little off guard and snapping her senses back to normal as her tail weakly quivered.

  "For shame, I wanted to make him mine...," Enetha grumbled disappointingly. To emphasise her disappointment, her cloth-like appendages crossed over one another just like her arms as she crossed them too.

  "Trust me, he has more than enough stupidity to sha-"

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Lizu's brain buffered hard. Had she heard that right? Surely not; it must've been a mechanical fault with her ears. No, she heard that "mine" as clear as a sacred mountain's untainted lake.

  The princess's deliberate use of "mine" rang aggrivatingly strongly in Lizu's mind, and the dragolyte didn't quite know how to comprehend the meaning behind the princess's choice of words. But she did know one thing: it made her irrationally defensive as she felt a vein bulge on her forehead.

  "What's that supposed to mean? Wait, what do you think goober means?" Lizu said somewhat, compelled by a sense to correct the peculiar misconception the little princess appeared to possess. The task may be arduous, but it's nothing new to the girl who had Inkaro as a childhood friend. Enetha simply tilted her head to one side, setting her big doll-like eyes on the attack. The sheer innocence and cuteness radiating from the princess's eyes slapped Lizu's conviction, destroying it with the might of a freight train, and Lizu, just like Enetha, simply tilted her head, only for a different reason.

  Mere minutes later, one by one, the students took their turns displaying their proficiency in deploying their spells upon the target set up in the plain green courtyard. Inkaro was bored out of his mind, steadily creeping towards having a migraine from such low mental stimulation. It got so bad that he didn't witness Xythio or Myendi wielding their curios with efficiency and gusto, respectively.

  The dark blue boulder, shaped to look like an archery target, showed obvious signs of cracking due to being imparted with attacks by the duo.

  Aside from those of royalty, Lizu, and Inkaro, the onlookers were left speechless at the sight of the material being cracked. After all, the material and the defensive magic applied to it should've kept it from cracking until at least the last few students were taking their turns.

  The examiner was a little disheartened that she'd have to go through the trouble of making new targets in the near future, but also proud that it took the two students with the pope's recommendation to damage their defensive curio to such an extent. So she clapped her hands to display that the pair passed.

  As they returned, Myendi took a cheeky jab at her friend. Xythio told her to be quiet without hesitation and stated he only showed off a little to try getting Inkaro's attention, since Myendi was so insistent on not introducing herself to Inkaro like a normal person. Myendi let out a huff of dismay, showing a rare face of shame; she adamantly defended herself by stating Inkaro was clearly one of those prodigy commoners. So he was pivotal to her plan of making her fantasy otome game dreams a reality. However, even with her dream riding on it, Myendi couldn't help but point out the glaring fact that Inkaro didn't pay the slightest attention to his surroundings, let alone either of their displays; in fact, he looked like he was about ready to fall asleep.

  "There's always next time...," Xythio whispered as he pulled his hat down to shelter his eyes from Myendi's overbearingly teasing and piercing gaze.

  "You mean the combat test for the Star Course? Yeah, I'm sure the guy who only showed enthusiasm during all the tests involving spell writing and turned into a zombie the second they were over will pay attention to a combat display~."

  "...shut it, Myendi."

  "Student Inkaro, may you step forward, please?" the examiner for the application test called out as she readied herself, her explosive excitement contained just below the surface; she could only wonder what kind of tricks Inkaro must have up his sleeve to catch two of the most magitech-savvy girls around, ignoring Enetha's initial reason for approaching the guy was for the singular fact they both had a low max attribute rank and Lizu, well she's Lizu.

  As he sauntered his way over, still mentally bored, Inkaro's mind was still preoccupied, struggling with every bit of his being to keep himself awake. From having a constant mental chess match with G.Galore to calculating the rough time Hinosa would take to store enough purification magic into the spare storage curio he lent her.

  However, something else quickly caught his attention.

  Upon reaching the examiner, despite looking functionally downwards, he could've seen her face had she not been wearing such a large hood over her head. It was such a familiar scene for him— someone being that short— he slowly raised his head up right as something else caught his eye. Mentally, he muttered to himself, "What are the odds?"

  [The examiner was a twenty-nine-year-old adult female treykuel; she has fluffy neck-low slightly bleached lime green hair that resembles a bush, super dark emerald eyes, dark brown skin, very pointy ears, parts of her body[wrists in a ring shape, and everything below the knees] is made of a stripped-birch-looking material, and a branch-looking horn protruding from the left side of her head. She is so short she barely reaches three feet in height]

  [she is wearing a black academic robe covered in deep blue gems with extra-long sleeves and an oversized hood with a dark blue fur trim, a black t-shirt, black shorts with eight large dark blue suspended which connect on either of her shoulders and then around the belt of her shorts, and a red beryl wedding ring on her horn]

  The sheer amount of curios the woman possessed on her robe was outrageous, if Inkaro wasn't impressed by it. However, upon closer look at the faint runes floating within them, Inkaro felt like he'd seen that particular font somewhere before, but the where illuded him in the current moment.

  "Ok, Inkaro, show me what you've got, no intentionally holding back or going overboard, please; the head masters got quite a few messages pertaining to you from a member of the church," the examiner said with an ever-present soft voice that could put even the most rowdy of people in a soothed and calmed state.

  Inkaro silently nodded, mostly unfazed by the effects of the examiner's voice, thanks to his disinterest in the situation, and agreed to her demands.

  To sate the examiner's requirements and keep Lizu from blowing a fuse, Inkaro absently raised a finger. With a trail of floating and glowing red grimoire syntax following behind, he spun his finger to conjure a red magic ring. However, all it took was the thought of Lizu giving him a scornful look for him to rethink things; he surmised she'd want him to, at the very least, use a more standard-looking method of magic to make things easier for the academy to appraise him and not draw too much attention to himself by using an unknown magic method.

  But because of his long pause of consideration, it gave the examiner just enough time to notice something about Inkarp's file on her curio tablet with a tinted glass-like screen.

  "Hold on, it says here on your application file, you've registered as an adventurer and even ranked up recently... after only registering a few days ago. Is that correct?"

  "It is; is that a problem?"

  The examiner shook her head, simply stating it's rather uncommon for people nowadays to go about it that way; she also added that the Adventuer's Guild's test is slightly harder compared to the academy's given the whole needing to excell at three vastly different fields of expertise: compatence in a range of practical skills, teamwork, and a diverse pool of knowledge; things rarely found at the same time in teenagers.

  "So, I don't have to do this test?"

  "Not unless you want to show off your adventurer-approved magic."

  Inkaro shook his head, adding that a certain friend of his wouldn't let him hear the end of it if he did something that showy. A little disappointed she wouldn't get to see what the person who passed the Adventurer's Guild entrance exam and got Enetha's attention was capable of, the examiner meekly allowed Inkaro to return to the others. Inkaro bowed before doing as instructed.

  As he walked, he pondered over a new question: why were the enscribed runes in the examiner's curios so familiar?

  The examiner slapped her forehead, only just now realising she'd forgotten to introduce herself to the students before starting the test. "What a blunder, I forgot to tell the students my name was Alureino. Social customs are so tedious."

  The woman looked forward with a deflated exhaustion, hoping she'd not make the same blunder when she starts her job as a full-blown teacher tomorrow. However, her saddened state wasn't meant to last as something about Inkaro caught her attention; more precisely, the opaque golden gem on the end of his chain. Her knowledge in the field made identifying what it was a piece of cake. It was a storage-type curio, and the runes inside it were unmistakable; she'd seen their font somewhere before, she was sure of it, so she quickly marked after Inkaro.

  Just then, Inkaro snapped his fingers after he heard Alureino say her own name. "Oh, yeah, I remember now-"

  Inkaro was cut off as a pair of small hands grabbed onto the chain attached to his coat and yanked him with enough force it made him instinctively activate his physical enhancement spells to protect himself. But all his enhancements managed to achieve was keep him in a plank position before he flopped back-first onto the grassy ground, with Alureino's angry pout being the only thing blocking his view of the sky above.

  "You're that kid, aren't you? The one that idol-loving ghost guy was bragging about and forced me to make curio study material for, like seven years ago! You gave me such a headache back then, you know that? Do you have the slightest idea how long I toiled over those study guides just for you to breeze through them like they were made for a baby?! It made me question my own intelligence."

  She held nothing back.

  Alureino's heartfelt explosion of complaints was finally being unleashed after all this time, which has been marinating over the past seven years, from never being able to put a face to the perpetrator until this very moment.

  Her complaints, which even Inkaro of all people came to realise bore no real malice, it was just glorified venting, continued on even as she conducted the other students' applications test. They all found it both respectable and impressive how she could multitask while being so heated, not that her unchangingly constant soft tone made that apparent.

  "I think I'll just lie here until she's only complaining about Teacher."