Larissa pouted.

"Why..."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, okay!"

Casa, crying, apologetically shook Larissa, also crying, by the shoulders. Miki tilted her head at the sight, while Zanderfon scratched his head with a nervous chuckle. Even if the tears were real, it was granted that these two girls would resume normal operations in a few minutes.

"Y'all left me!"

"Again, I'm sorry! I'm really sorry! Where's that accent coming from?!"

"Why'lld've j'done tha!?"

"What?!"

Incidentally, after Dominicus Incident #33 just the other day, only Casa, Miki, and Zanderfon were left standing among the students. To be more accurate, standing and conscious. Larissa, on the other hand, was writhing on the ground, feeling as if her eyes had been plucked out by the light that was magnitudes brighter than her smile could ever be.

It's just that, afterwards, Casa, Miki, and Zanderfon went to have lunch together. Without Larissa. Larissa had to be treated at the school's clinic.

"It's not like I was jealous or anything!" she explained. She puffed her cheeks, but as if to mock her silly emotions, Miki nonchalantly squished them between her palms, and air gushed out from Larissa's mouth, making a fart sound.

There was a "How dare!" and a chase that orbited around Casa. Somehow, Zanderfon was enjoying being a spectator. Casa tracked his eyes. "Ah," she realized.

Today, all the freshmen were supposed to take "aptitude evaluations".

The entrance exam wasn't really a detailed evaluation, after all. It was more like a "Do you have an aptitude at all?", which was fair, considering the school's system of education was a bit out-of-norm.

Freshmen aren't actually automatically admitted into the school after passing the entrance exam. It's just that these four were abnormal, and thus were excused from the normal process.

Normally, the decision to accept or fail a student depended almost entirely on whether they passed or failed the talent test. However, the written test, which was taken beforehand, was used to determine when a student would be accepted. Those who scored higher could enter the school earlier, while those who scored lower would have to wait, though they could possibly enter earlier if there was an unexpected drop in the enrollment rate.

It was in this way that the school regulated both the influx and quality of its enrollees. Thanks to this, it was possible to make sure that the number of students rarely mismatched the actual educational capacity of the school, at the same time shaving down the administrative upkeep needed compared to an annual batch processing system.

On their way to the examination room, Larissa lit the group's way. Literally. Almost a quarter of the faculty, staff, and students have learned to avert their gaze from her shining teeth. The source of her luminosity was still a mystery, but the prevailing theory is that she was like a "Second Moon" which merely gathered and reflected existing light. In the meantime, however, such theories were rendered meaningless in the face of her overwhelming radiance. It wasn't a coincidence that the other three always followed behind her, watching her every twitch and giggle for any cues as to when she'll eventually turn around.

"Say! What do you think we're gonna do?"

She turned around and asked cheerfully. Casa and Miki squinted. Zanderfon compressed the space in front of him to diffuse the light. Miki shook her head at the use of such high-level magic just for this purpose, but it couldn't be helped.

"Probably just normal tests like the entrance exam, right?" Casa replied.

"Mm..."

"Oh, Miki?"

"Entrance exam was not normal, Casa..."

Somehow, Casa's heart skipped a beat.

"T-thank you..."

"Mm?"

"You said my name for the first time, oh my god..."

She was crying like a mother who's heard her baby say her name for the first time. Miki looked to Larissa in hopes of resolving this farce, but Larissa herself was harboring dark emotions.

"Why... not me... M-Miki won't say my name..."

Somehow, it seemed like her radiant smile was now emitting black light.

In the next moment, they arrived at the back of a crowd of perhaps a hundred students, waiting at the foot of a huge wooden door.

"Thank you for waiting, everyone! Please walk at a leisurely pace, no need to hurry!"

The owner of the voice couldn't be spotted, but anyway, the doors opened. Those at the head gasped as they walked through, inviting the curiosities of those who followed behind them. Those who stepped in behind them similarly gasped, their expectations having been met.

"Oh wow, I wonder what's in there!"

Larissa was happy again. Up until a while ago, her teeth seemed to have fangs, but they were back to normal now. Maybe she was using emotion modification magic on herself somehow, but then that wouldn't explain the fangs...

They stepped through the door, and it surely was grand. It was a vast plain. The wind was cool, and the sky was striped with white.

"Nuwahh?! Stupid-scale spatial magic?!"

The one with a stupid look on his face was Zanderfon. Indeed, this room was supposedly inside the school's building, but it seemed as if this space was larger than the school's actual property.

"Is this l-legal?!"

Indeed, there were regulations for the ownership of artificially-generated spaces, as such spaces needed vast amounts of magical energy to maintain. The amount of energy needed was exponential to the volume of the space generated, so something like whatever-the-heck-this-is would require a power reactor with enough output to run a small country.

And this space was really enough to fit a small country!

"Greetings to all and one and every!"

The announcer was a certain bearded fellow on a levitating platform. He was speaking behind a lectern, but it didn't look like he had a script. His getup was almost a trademark violation of a certain school's wizard-principal's appearance, if only it weren't for the red necktie. It didn't really make sense. It's probably because old people.

At first it seemed like he was about to give a speech, but then...

"Let the games begin!"

On cue, the sky turned red, the grass wilted, and the distant mountains turned into raging volcanoes. The grass field transformed into a hellscape of examination stations. From a portal, small golems marched out in sync, each one taking their places behind... registration tables? Some of them had stopwatches and clipboards, waiting in front of the starting and finishing lines of courses. What's with the hellscape theme?

A certain magic nerd, not at all fazed by the sudden transformation of the landscape, was instead surprised by the golems.

"No way, Task Automation Magic?!"

He looked up to the examiner behind the floating lectern.

"Oh my god, he must be the master golemer, Master Zurin!"

"Woooh~"

Miki's voice was painfully noncommittal, and so was her applause, but the stars in Zanderfon's eyes wouldn't let him hear her apparent disinterest in the matter. His arms were charged up in excitement.

Every single organization with a half-functioning bureaucracy recognized Master Zurin's art, craftsmanship, and his personal magic: Task Automation Magic. "Let the golems do the menial work, and let people do real work" he so famously decreed in front of the Royal Treasury. His myriad of golems could do janitorial duties, court transcription, office courier duties, and on display right now in front of them, reception, observation, and recording.

It was no exaggeration to say that this man has single-handedly taken tens of thousands of jobs. How he was still alive today despite the violence aimed towards him, nobody knew.

Amidst Zanderfon's fanboyish glee, Larissa popped up in front of him and smiled. Simple light beams shouldn't have physical recoil, but Zanderfon was thrown slightly aback anyway.

"Whhyyy?!"

"We have a test to take!"

After Zanderfon recovered from the ground, a bit irate after Larissa's meaningless teasing, the group adventured around the examination stations. The goal was simple: do them all. The school will use each one's results together with the career consultations, to be held on another day, in order to recommend a customized curriculum for each student.

Incidentally, the recommended curriculum could only be usefully followed for about two years before the predictions from the previous aptitude assessment started deviating, and so older students normally retook the aptitude evaluation to get a more updated recommendation for their target career.

There were 19 stations, but the most reputed among them were the "Terror 3". Each one would make freshmen go "Wait, we need to know these to be Librarians? Seriously?", right before inflicting mental damage against even the most veteran students.

First, the "Evasion Aptitude Test".

As was demonstrated in the recent Dominicus Incident #33, Librarians needed evasion skills. Projectiles were a common threat, to the point that both books and Librarians were issued armor.

Yes, books were armored, which, though made them far deadlier projectiles, also meant that libraries didn't need to keep spending on book restorations as often. Obviously, the priorities here weren't reversed.

The testing apparatus was a simple transparent dome. Students didn't need to wear armor, as the projectiles here were simple holograms that left a holographic stain on students if they got hit with any force. The projectiles themselves still obeyed magic and physics as "solid" objects, so if any students happened to know defensive techniques, they could show it off here.

At first, the projectiles would only come from one direction. This was clued in by the red "danger zone" that highlighted the parts of the dome's wall from which projectiles could come from. Over time, the rate at which projectiles were fired would increase until the student got hit, at which point the projectile speed would be increased, and the firing rate would reset. Once the maximum firing rate and maximum projectile speeds were accomplished, the danger zone would expand, and the cycle would continue once again.

At its worst, projectiles could come from any direction --- even the floor --- without warning, at an extremely high speed, at a ridiculous rate of fire. Of course, the test would halt when it became clear that the student couldn't keep up anymore.

In the test's whole history, only one person was able to clear the test's "Final Cycle".

"Ehh~ Looks fun!" Larissa exclaimed.

Unlike the Living Second Moon, Casa was sweating bullets. Miki sighed, while Zanderfon seemed like he was gearing up for his last battle.

Larissa entered the dome. She left within 30 seconds.

"There there..."

Casa patted the sulking Larissa, who was like an egg on its side on the ground. She couldn't even evade the slowest projectile, which was somewhat unexpected from the one with the most explosive energy among them.

Casa went in next.

The danger zone was just plate-sized and ahead of her. A book flew out, and she quickly stepped to the side.

"Wooh! Nice! Avenge me!"

Larissa's cheering, though fun, wasn't quite what Casa needed right now. Indeed, the firing rate was increasing, and it was taking her all not to lose balance from stepping left and right. In the end, the dome was spewing books at her, but even then, she wasn't hit!

Finally, a horn was sounded, and some of the students were clapping. It really was a spectacle for a normal person to evade that many books. Casa was allowed to rest, and the firing rate was reset, but of course, the projectile speed got increased. In fact, the increase was unforgiving. At the lowest firing rate, she had to outright dive out of the way. When the firing rate was increased just by another step, Casa got hit right when she landed.

The horn sounded. She was allowed to rest again, but it didn't stop there. The administering golems went ahead and tested her at the next level of projectile speed just to see if she could still keep up with it, even if just at the lowest firing rate. Amazingly, she could. They didn't bother testing her at the next firing rate level.

They repeated this sort of "see-and-try" testing on Casa, eventually expanding the danger zone to cover an entire 90-degree cone in front of her.

Somehow, Larissa and co were treated to the spectacle of the entire dome being turned red, and Casa was somehow evading the low-velocity books being spat at her at a ridiculous firing rate.

It seemed that she was pretty good at omni-directional evasion, as long as the projectiles weren't too fast. If anything, the test was actually really thorough, which left an impression on Casa, even if she left the dome in quite a tired state.

"Ha~"

"You were amazing at the end there!"

Larissa's smile instead delivered the finishing blow.

Casa could easily evade the falling dregs of her dad's chaotic home library, but such a thing as evading something at the speed of light, such as light, was just too much to ask.

"It ramps up pretty quickly, huh..." Zanderfon remarked. He was next.

As he entered, there was some "Oh~"'s from the spectators. The Calculis Family was well-known, almost to the point of being celebrities-by-birth --- even if, somehow, a certain commoner and pseudo-commoner close to him didn't actually know, nor would they care to know. Perhaps that's why he liked being friends with them, though.

Enough of that.

The danger zone appeared before him. Of course, it was plate-sized, but nothing like this fazed him.

It was as if he wasn't even evading.

What the spectators thought they were seeing were the projectiles simply passing him by, almost as if they were intentionally missing. The golems were diligently jotting down notes a bit more furiously than normal.

Some people started to think that maybe the dome was broken, or, more daringly, that the Calculis Family had paid for the dome's sabotage in advance to try to get a better grade out of it. Of course, such an act was pointless, since this test only influenced the curriculum recommendation system --- which was completely optional to follow, anyway.

Such doubts quickly disappeared as soon as the projectile flight speed reached inhuman levels. The projectiles were merely blurs to commoners' eyes, and all that was left of Zanderfon were afterimages.

Even when the firing rate was increased, it only made the spectators rub their eyes. "Eh? Did someone apply Gaussian Blur Magic in there?" "Maybe... Maybe I should change careers..."

Of course, even the inhuman had limits.

It seemed that as soon as the danger zone encompassed more than half of the dome, Zanderfon started getting hit.

In the end, he gracefully exited the dome to a resounding applause.

The reason for the Calculis Family's celebrity status was not just in being a Librarian Family, but also a military Family --- a rare integration of two walks of life that mercilessly asserted its power, both in the aisles and in the battlefield. Such a thing as "evasion skills" were considered as basic literacy for a member of the Calculis Family, whether they be soldier or Librarian.

"Waaahh, you're unexpectedly good!"

"Unexpectedly?!"

That was an exchange between Casa and Zanderfon just now. At this, Miki started glaring at the two.

"Ah? Ahh, Miki, no, it's---"

"Whoop, guess I'm just in the way~"

Zanderfon scratched his head, while Casa skillfully slipped out of the way.

"Hey, HEY! What's going on here!"

Such fun wouldn't miss Larissa!

"Hmph!"

Miki turned away and entered the dome.

"G-good luck..." said a dejected Zanderfon.

"Cheer up, Sandy!"

"Sandy?!"

"Larissa, it's not like- ah, y'know what, never mind!"

"Huh? Casa? Casa! What secrets doth thou jealously guard?! Look at me!"

As soon as Miki stepped into the dome, she... danced? She threw a thin stream of white powder around her as she did. The golems paid it no mind. Indeed, their programmer guessed that there might be some weird secret techniques out there, and since it wasn't really a golem's job to think --- then just don't! The test continued...

Just like Zanderfon's initial performance, it seemed like the projectiles were intentionally missing. However, the spectators conjured no conspiracy theories, especially not after witnessing Zanderfon's evasion skills.

Miki's performance was... mind-boggling, to say the least. The pace of her dance remained constant. Even if the projectiles got faster and were fired faster, it was as if she followed her own beat. It was only until half the dome became a danger zone that there was any noticeable change. Her movements became more fluid, but perhaps most curiously, she dispersed powder more often.

There was also the fact that some people started hearing background music in their heads, but if anyone admitted it, they'd sound crazy.

"Hey, Casa, I can hear background music..."

Or they're Larissa.

On the other hand, more and more people started openly admitting to hearing background music. A couple of musicians managed to compare notes and determined that they were hearing different variations of basically the same melody, which was interesting, at least.

Two of the golems administering the test looked at each other, as if saying "Should we do it?" "Yeah" "Cool".

On cue, the whole of the dome was dyed red, and projectiles were being shot at maximum speed, from all directions, at a god-level rate of fire. Miki's dancing started to look more like breakdancing, and she started doing headspins. It was a wonder that the school's robes weren't getting in the way.

"Ah? Ah?! C-Cool!"

Larissa managed to verbalize what was on everyone's minds, but it wasn't because Miki was breakdancing. Well, it was partly that, but more importantly...

A mist of powder constantly surrounded Miki at this point. As the books flew into that mist, its particles would get pushed out of the way by the projectile's sheer wind pressure. It was amongst those particles that Larissa, who virtually had a rainbow of color receptors in her eyes, spotted a faint hue of blue. Whenever a projectile streaked through the mist, it would turn blue in proportion to the violence of its travel.

Like that, she figured out Miki's secret technique.

Still, she's unexpectedly good at breakdancing, huh?

The last projectile completely missed Miki, and, sensing the lull in the firing, she smoothly jumped up and struck a pose. Everyone let out a "Wooaaa!", together with an applause.

In the whole history of the Evasion Aptitude Test, she was the second ever to have cleared the "Final Cycle"

Even as she left the dome, the applause continued. Of course, a certain proctor behind a lectern witnessed this spectacle from above. Sensing that the next challengers would pitifully appear lacking in comparison, he instructed his golems to "perform maintenance" on the dome, which would reopen after 20 minutes once the fever high of Miki's performance had settled down.

"That was amazing!" Casa said smilingly, clapping at a speed that nearly matched the dome's fastest firing rate.

"H-hey! Miki! That last part! You were sensing the positions of each grain of powder weren't you?! That's how you could see them all coming, huh?!"

Miki smiled.

"...not last part..."

"Huh?! Don't lie! I definitely saw---"

"...entire time."

"Ah?!"

Indeed, Miki had activated her Index Magic the entire time, tracking the positions of each and every single particle in the air. Of course, ignoring some shortcuts here and there so that she didn't really need to know every single detail, such a feat couldn't be witnessed from anyone other than the child of a Family.

"That was amazing, Miki."

Zanderfon's smile was soft. Anyone who saw it could tell that it was a genuine smile filled with warmth and--- a little bit of apology?

"Mhm!" was all that Miki replied.

"Ah, she's smug."

"You're right, she's really smug."

Ignoring Casa's and Larissa's comments, Miki's face was full of "praise me more!" directed towards Zanderfon.

"Yes, dear, you were wonderful~"

""Dear?!""

Zanderfon was also taken aback by Casa and Larissa's reaction. Miki continued being smug, keeping her chin up, but --- what's this? She's peeking out of one eye looking for the other girls' reactions?

"Ahhh haha~ I forgot to mention~"

He took Miki's hand and, with the grace of a prince, kissed it, thereby sending a heat wave from the ground to everyone's heads. Both Casa and Larissa were holding each other as if frozen in (delighted) horror, while Zanderfon paused for a moment to reflect on what he had done. Miki herself was trembling, just barely keeping her chin up because yes, be proud! Stay strong!

Even the surroundings had gone a bit quiet. Zanderfon cranked his head to face Casa and Larissa.

"W-We're engaged. Mm! Right-o!"