The commoner examination grounds of Sigrian Academy.
Andre Rinon, a 3rd-rank professor in charge of these commoner examination grounds, was bored.
‘Everyone’s level is abysmal this year. I know they’re commoners who can’t handle mana, but this is rather severe.’
How many hours had he been administering the exam now?
When he checked the time, it had only just become noon.
There were still several hours left until today’s entrance examination ended.
How many applicants had he already seen?
He had given up counting long ago.
Every single one of them was hopelessly lacking.
Even taking into account the fact that they were commoners who could not handle mana, it was bad enough to make him think this was too much.
He was tempted to just conduct the exam halfheartedly, but this was the finest educational institution there was.
If they admitted every nobody who came along, it would truly be a stain on the proud reputation of Sigrian Academy.
The commoners’ entrance examination was far easier than the nobles’ entrance examination.
It was rare for a commoner to handle mana.
This commoner examination was meant to select those who had even the slightest possibility of being able to operate mana.
“This one is a little better. You pass.”
“Thank you! Hahaha! I passed!”
When he informed an unknown commoner of his acceptance, the successful applicant showed joy as though he had obtained the entire world.
‘It certainly won’t last long, but be as happy as you can while you still can.’
Andre murmured inwardly to the rejoicing successful applicant.
Of course, it was not a curse.
Nobles and commoners.
The gap between those who could handle mana and those who could not was just that stark.
And by that same gap, he would likely be looked down upon by the noble students at the academy.
This would probably be the last time he could feel happy, so Andre was telling him to enjoy it.
He looked at the applicants waiting behind him.
There were still so many of them that he had a feeling he would have to skip meals if he wanted to evaluate them all before the day was over.
The thought made irritation surge up in him.
“Phew... Next.”
After that, he continued issuing notices of passing and failing.
The boredom welling up inside him and the irritation from his faint hunger.
There was a minor disturbance midway when he finally lost patience and sent one failed applicant flying, but Andre doggedly continued the examination.
“I look forward to your guidance.”
Then a young man stepped onto the examination grounds with a sword in hand.
He was a rather pretty-looking boy with long brown hair. When Andre checked his personal details, this name was written there:
Azelan.
The information was brief: male, eighteen years old. Seeing that he had no surname, he was a complete commoner.
If he were a commoner with a surname, then a few generations ago his family might have been nobles who handled mana, and the power of that bloodline might remain faintly and manifest.
But if he was a commoner without even a surname, the chances of that were slim.
If nothing else, it might have been different if he at least had a good build, but the boy was rather slight.
The slender boy, who might have been mistaken for a woman if not for the information saying he was male, slowly raised his sword.
‘At the very least, come back after building up your physique next time.’
Already half-convinced he would fail, Andre nodded.
It was at that moment.
—Kwa-gwa-gwang!
A roar rang out from far away. The sound came from the nobles’ examination grounds.
The examination for nobles, who could handle mana, was quite a bit livelier than this place.
Of course, that sound just now had been especially loud.
What was more, a huge lump of stone was flying through the sky.
“What is that?”
Andre knew what the stone flying through the air was.
It was the head of a test dummy made of rock, used when noble-born applicants took their examination.
And it was not just ordinary rock.
The test dummies used for nobles who could handle mana were treated with all sorts of reinforcement magic to receive various kinds of mana.
Something boasting durability incomparable to the wooden dummies used exclusively for commoners was flying toward them like some pebble?
“D-dangerous!”
“Kyaaah!”
Like Andre, the people who saw the rock cutting across the air toward them instinctively sensed danger.
But that was when it happened.
“!?”
Andre felt a massive wave of mana from the opposite direction. And the source was none other than the boy named Azelan standing before him.
“Huh?”
“Everyone, get out of the way!”
An extraordinary surge of mana. Azelan gathered mana into his sword and shouted as he swung it.
“Star-Severing Flash (星斷一閃)!”
Dazzling mana like starlight was released from Azelan’s sword and rushed toward the white boulder.
The blinding flash swallowed up every newly erected test dummy in its path, yet its power did not diminish at all.
And then...
—Kwaaaaang!
A savage gale whipped through the area along with a deafening roar.
“.......”
Andre closed his mouth as he looked at the shattered fragments of the boulder in his field of vision, then stared at the boy named Azelan who had destroyed it.
“How can a commoner possess mana like this...?”
A commoner without even a surname had emitted a release of mana uncommon even among nobles.
But that question lasted only a moment.
“Professor Andre!”
Rex’s voice came from behind him. He should have been administering exams for commoners like himself elsewhere, so Andre had no idea why he was here.
But his expression looked urgent.
“W-what is it? That mana just now?”
“I don’t know either.”
Though there was a difference in rank between 3rd and 4th, Andre shook his head at Rex, with whom he had formed a friendship.
“If it was where that pile of broken dummies was, there were definitely people there! I brought people over to help with your work!”
“What?”
At Rex’s words, Andre’s expression stiffened, and he looked over there.
There was no trace to be found, no matter how hard he looked, of the mountain-like pile of dummies that had been there until just now, when the two mighty powers collided.
If ordinary people had been there, it would be difficult even to find their bodies.
“Good heavens. What do we do...!”
And Azelan, who had launched that powerful mana, instantly turned pale as well.
To think ordinary people had been caught up in the middle of the examination!
The negative impact on his academy admission was one thing, but more than that, he seemed overwhelmed by the thought that he had harmed innocent people, and hurriedly ran toward the place.
They reached the epicenter in an instant.
There, Azelan, Andre, and Rex immediately found a person collapsed and unconscious.
“Louis!”
Rex called out the unconscious Louis’s name with a strange expression. Fortunately, he had no serious injuries.
There was no room in their minds to wonder why an ordinary person who could not handle mana was so unharmed at the point where such powerful mana had collided.
They were simply relieved that he was safe.
“...Should we call this incredibly fortunate?”
Andre spoke to Rex, feeling relieved.
“No, Louis is safe, but there was one more person...”
It was at that moment.
“Good grief! Sisne, you’re all brute strength and no sense! Why did you have to cause an accident?”
Two young women and one elderly man flew through the air toward them.
Andre and Rex were seeing the women for the first time, but they knew who the man was.
“1st-rank Professor Rupasto Higrat.”
A 1st-rank professor of Sigrian Academy.
Rupasto Higrat.
The head of the prestigious noble Higrat family, holder of the title of marquis,
and a master of magic whose name was well known even across the continent.
For him, who should have been overseeing the examination of noble applicants nearby, to personally visit the commoner examination grounds.
“My apologies. There was an unexpected accident.”
A 1st-rank professor of Sigrian Academy, far above them in both position and experience, apologized first.
“An accident, you say...”
The examination for noble applicants who could handle mana was indeed that much more dangerous.
But precisely for that reason, for an accident to occur at an examination ground controlled by at least a 2nd-rank professor, and even a 1st-rank professor of exceptional skill like Rupasto...
It made even less sense.
“I was surprised as well. To think an applicant would display such might...”
As if amazed even after thinking back on it, Rupasto nodded.
“If it is enough to impress Professor Rupasto, then they must be a student with tremendous talent in magic. Which Magic Tower master’s disciple are they?”
Andre, who was also a mage, asked the question.
If there was a young mage capable of producing such power with magic, he wanted to remember them as a fellow mage.
“Magic? No, that was not magic. It was swordsmanship.”
But what came back was Rupasto’s denial as he shook his head.
“Pardon? Swordsmanship? What do you mean...”
Andre found Rupasto’s answer, from a man he had always respected, even more baffling.
But he immediately recalled that the Rupasto he knew was not someone who would tell such a lie.
In other words, he was telling the truth.
“The bloodline of the Black Lion is indeed the Black Lion. To think it would be to this extent... Hohoho. This is truly auspicious.”
The Black Lion.
Both Andre and Rex knew all too well what that phrase meant.
The symbol of a prestigious noble family in the northern empire.
The Seronis family.
.
.
.
“Damn it...”
Mel was confused.
Was it because of the sudden collision of two streams of mana?
Absolutely not.
“Was it supposed to start like this?”
The opening of that romance fantasy novel.
More than ten years had passed, so he did not remember the original work in detail,
but he did remember the general flow.
Azelan.
The protagonist of this world, who possessed the bloodline of a hero and thus held immense mana despite being a commoner.
The vast amount of mana, utterly unfitting for an eighteen-year-old boy to possess, truly lived up to its reputation.
And...
“Ugh! My PTSD...!”
Standing there with a sulky expression, as though aware she had caused such a major accident, was a woman with black hair and red eyes.
At the sight of the lady’s beauty, which looked capable of stealing the hearts of countless men, Mel instead complained of psychological trauma.
Sisne Seronis.
The only daughter of Darkan Seronis, the Grand Duke of the North,
the young lady of the ducal house he had served for ten years.
And the villainess of this novel, whom he was seeing again after three years.