“Welcome, new applicants! Hopefully, you all got through your written exams without any problems. Now, with all that stuff finished, we’ll be moving on to the interesting part—your practical exams! If you are here, then that means you are planning to apply as a water mage. If that isn’t the case, please find your way to one of our other three testing locations.”

Murmurs went across the assembly of new students as the announcer put his microphone down. The crowd was large enough to take up a large chunk of the area surrounding the pool’s far end.

“Is it true that these many people apply every single month?” Ari asked. “This school must be packed if they have that many students.”

“Yeah, and don’t forget the number of people at the other testing sites,” Abby said. “The school does have a lot of students, but it’s said that its admissions rate is less than one person every one hundred applicants. It’s really competitive.”

I gazed into the crowd where Em stood. She wouldn’t fail as Ari did, right? No. I hadn’t seen much of her magic in action, but she must be very powerful from how Ari had described it. I’m sure she’s at the top one percent.

The announcer’s voice came through the loudspeakers again. “Okay, future students! We will now begin the first stage, our magical aptitude test. Please step up and touch one of our aptitude sensors here once you are called! Graham Galenos!”

After a few moments, a boy stepped out from the crowd and walked over one of the floating platforms. On the platforms stood a few machines that looked more like ATMs than a magic crystal or orb I had expected. When the boy reached one of the machines, he placed his palm over the screen. Moments later, the loudspeakers boomed again, this time with the voice of a woman in an indifferent tone.

“Graham Galenos. 453 points.”

A display suddenly appeared on the wall, showing a picture of the boy’s head along with a few other statistics, including his birthplace, age, height, and weight. A few giggles went through the crowd, and Abby put her palm over her face in dismay.

“Seriously,” she said, “what’s the point in displaying all that personal info for the entire world to see!?”

“It brings a bit of competition,” Ari argued. “Makes it more interesting, don’t you think?”

Abby sighed and shook her head. “I swear, I’m gonna come back and fix this corrupt education system one day.”

“Hey, why? I think it’s already good as it is, right, Day?” Ari and Abby both looked at me for an answer.

“I…” I looked between both of them but made my decision quickly. “Well… Abby’s not wrong. It sounds kind of stressful. Your school was like that too, right?” I said, thinking back to when Ari talked about other students of his school getting high ranks in the military.

Ari scratched his head. “Yeah, I guess so… But it’s still a good thing. The real world is competitive, so it’s good to learn to turn that competition into motivation while you’re still young.”

“Heh, and look where that got you. You basically ran away from home crying like a—”

“Emilia Nereus. 41,810 points.”

We stopped our argument and turned back to the testing. Em stood at one of the machines with her hand over the sensor. There was a hush through the crowd when her stats were displayed on the wall.

Emilia Nereus

Birth Region: Aquina (Priscan Region)

Age: 13

“Wait, she’s only thirteen!?” I asked when I saw her age displayed.

Abby shrugged. “That’s just mental age. Her physical age is sixteen since she did accelerate her age when she was younger.”

I sat back and thought for a moment. Why would she accelerate her age instead of decelerating it? I guess sometimes it’s better to appear older than younger. And if this were such a thing, what if my sister did the same too? The princess we met yesterday did look more mature than just twelve.

“Hey, more importantly,” Ari said, making me turn away from my thoughts, “look at that aptitude score she got! It’s the highest so far!”

“Yep, as expected from Em,” Abby agreed. “It’s definitely higher than the admissions’ average, but—”

“Zoe Kleopatra. 58,319 points.”

The crowd hushed again at another high score. In the silence, Abby finished her sentence with a whisper and a sigh. “…but she might still have a bit of competition.”

Minutes passed as students continued to test their magic aptitude’s on the machines. After the last person went, Zoe’s score was still at the top, and Em’s aptitude was beaten a few more times.

In the crowd, I already saw people grouping together to start up conversations. But I could tell that it was high rankers with high rankers and low rankers with low rankers. The first boy that had gone was standing at the sidelines as if he was banished from the rest. Well, what would you expect from such a forced competitive environment? I looked away in disgust, remembering my life at my old school, and listened as the announcer spoke again.

“Attention, everyone! That will conclude the magic aptitude test. Next, we will move on to our magic strength test. For this test, we will ask you to lift as much water as you can out of this pool and stabilize it under your control. The test will measure how well you can manipulate water. We will go in the same order as the previous test.”

Again, the boy walked up to the platform, this time with his arms drooping unconfidently. He knelt down, took out a short wand from his pocket, and raised it up half-heartedly. After a count to three, a stream of water slithered its way out the surface of the pool.

More and more water came out in the thin stream, collecting in an orb of clear fluid hovering in the air. In the assembly, students talked with each other about the performance. When the collection grew to the size of an entire car, the crowd quieted, waiting tensely as the water came out through the stream. However, that was when the announcer interrupted him.

“Graham Galenos! Time is up!”

The sudden voice caused the boy to lose focus. The water he had collected rained back down to the pool, sending a large splash across his clothes. The crowd erupted in laughter as he stood up and walked back in defeat.

I watched the boy walk through the crowd, and I wasn’t surprised when I saw him go straight out the exit, not caring whether there was another test. His chances of getting into the school were pretty much zero at this point, and there wasn’t any more reason to humiliate himself any longer. It was what I would have done in his shoes.

After a couple more people took their turns, each accomplishing better than the previous, it was finally Em’s turn again. She walked onto the floating platform. However, she dropped her staff to the ground. She could still perform magic without that crystal? I sat at the edge of my seat as Em stepped to the platform’s edge and raised her arms. The audience quieted, remembering the high aptitude she received before.

When everything became still and silent, a large, dazzling fountain emerged from the pool. In just seconds, the spray and even individual drops merged to form an enormous glob of water. A fan gave out a loud “Woo!” and whistle from the crowd, but Em continued to enlarge her collection. A steady tunnel connecting to the pool’s surface sucked in more water, causing the water level to lower noticeably. Em decided to shift her water into a tube-like shape as the orb expanded, allowing it to slither through the room like a flying dragon putting on a show.

Then, as I watched the spectacle, I saw Em’s stance shift from the corner of my vision. I returned my attention to her just in time to see her wobble a few times and lose her balance. There was a loud splash as Em’s body fell into the pool. To the side, the water dragon gently eased its way back into the water, disappearing under the surface.

I saw the entire crowd turn their heads over to the ripples expanding out from where Em sank. Wait, she was sinking? Five seconds passed. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Did she not know how to swim? Or did she lose consciousness? I stood up from my seat, concerned.

“E-Em must have used too much mana,” Abby quickly said, standing up with Ari as well. “There’s no way she wasn’t taught how to swim in a water world.”

“But they’ll go help her, right?” Ari asked. “Why is nobody doing anyth—”

I took off, sprinting down the stands and across the wet pool deck. I looked down through the clear water and felt uneasy after seeing how deep it was again. However, I recovered and saw Em’s body in the large expanse, still sinking. At that depth, she might even die from the high pressure! Why did they make such a deep pool!?

“Hey Day! Stop! It’s dangerous! I’ll go save her!” I heard a woman say to me from behind. It was Grace. But I ignored her and continued to run toward the pool.

Evaporation.

It’s an excruciatingly slow process, and at this temperature and humidity, maybe only a glass full of water could evaporate in an hour. But I can quicken that rate. If I could grow a tree an entire year in just a few seconds, I should be able to evaporate the whole pool given the time.

When I reached the edge of the water, I leaped out. My last thought before I fell in was whether I could even shift the temporal body of a liquid.

However, I ignored my concerns. Holding my arms out in the air, I concentrated. It would be the same as those many trees—push the water back, and pull the future into the present.

I clenched my teeth. The water slowly came closer, yet nothing happened. I had to try harder. I had to get down there.

Finally, my fingers met the cool water, breaking its surface tension. An aura formed around me. This time it was brighter than ever. Still, the water failed to vaporize. Why? Why wouldn’t it do as I wanted?

Looking past my hands, my eyes focused on Em again. Bubbles rose from the depths, taking an eternity to reach the surface. Was I too late? No. I could still get to her. I had to get to her.

I formed my hand into a fist and raised it through the slow ripples. With a loud cry in desperation and fury, I sent it back down.

I punched through the air. It was a success. Below me, water disappeared into a faint cloud of vapor. More water flowed in, trying to refill the hole. However, I continued to evaporate the pool, allowing myself to fall through.

When I reached Em, I grabbed her arm and pulled her up to my body in a hug. Her eyes were closed, and she didn’t seem to be breathing, but I still felt a faint heartbeat.

With the girl in my arms, I looked back up. All I had to do was get back to the surface, but how was I supposed to do that? It’s not that I could fly with these powers.

Before I could find a solution, water collapsed back in where the hole was. I continued to evaporate water, creating a small air pocket. However, I knew this wouldn’t last long. After a certain point, the humidity would become too high for more water to be vaporized. So I took one last breath of air, covered Em’s mouth and nose with my hand, and let the water collapse around me.

Suddenly the extreme pressure came crashing in. It felt like I was lying down with two elephants sitting on top of me, though I didn’t know what that felt like in the first place. I tried swimming up, but even with our temporal speeds decelerated, it wouldn’t change the amount of time we had to spend underwater. My lungs burned, and I released a bubble of air.

But just then, I felt a sudden warm current rush past me, heading upwards. The pressure slowly decreased until another air pocket formed around my head. After a few moments, we broke the surface of the water, with a wave carrying us back over the edge of the pool.

Before I paused to wonder what just happened, I sat up and laid Em on the ground gently. Looking around, my eyes settled on Gracelyn, who had just come running towards us.

“Out of the way, Day. I’ll take care of her now.”