63: Chapter 14 - Magic examination (Horeo, part 1)

Chapter 14 - Magic examination (Horeo, part 1)

Horeo Marets Bellcephora was walking as slow as he could to delay the start of the exam in a way that wouldn't be considered rude or arrogant.

The examiners and the students gathered there observed the prince's every move.

He was the one student that almost everyone else wanted to see in action, after all.

As the first prince, he was going to become the next king – he must have been someone special!

"..."

The gold-haired prince smiled and waved benevolently to the crowd surrounding the three available sides of the examination grounds.

Seeing his grand manners, the examiners nodded their heads with approval while the students gasped in awe.

The first prince was so dignified and calm!

As expected of the future king!

For him, the exam was only a formality!

"My prince..."

The red-haired middle-aged teacher bowed his head to Horeo, making the golden-haired student squint his eyes momentarily at him.

In the academy, every student was supposed to show respect to the teacher, while the teachers were not supposed to act biased towards the students.

And yet the behavior and tone of voice of the red-haired man seemed to suggest clearly that he was on the first prince's side.

|Bastard, do you think I did not see how you treated Zoemi when it was his turn...?|

Horeo thought to himself with disdain, but nothing from his outward appearance would suggest that he was disgusted by the teacher's behavior.

"Student Bellcephora. If you may."

On the other hand, the young blue-haired female teacher showcased a proper way of how a teacher should act towards a student, showing Horeo to the device with a magic crystal on their table.

The first prince had his mana measured and the elderly light magician asked him to proceed to the close combat dummy.

Every pair of eyes was glued to him but Horeo wasn't happy at all.

The attention of easily influenced young nobles meant nothing to him as he knew that more than half of them will follow him as long as they will have something to gain – be it protection or influence.

The one person that he wanted to show how much he improved wasn't there – was there really even a point in showing off?

He could just end this whole examination with two spells and still be placed at the top of the ranking.

Nonetheless, he still waited, hoping that that person would show up.

"..."

"...is... is he not going to start...?"

"...maybe he is shy...?"

"...what if he is actually weak? Has anyone seen him using any spells...?"

Still, regardless of his hopes, the people were starting to whisper amongst themselves and some of those whispers were quite bold and audacious, so the first prince just had to begin or it would look strange as if he was actually unsure if he could complete the basic test.

|Guess I'll start with the strength augmentation...|

He sighed internally.

*thump*

"...?"

But then, he felt a little bump of earth raising beneath his feet...!

Surprised, he looked at his attendants, Teo and Veo, with a questioning look.

Having her master look at her, Veo smiled encouragingly and pointed at something behind him.

"..."

The first prince turned around and...

"...!"

His face brightened as he saw people moving around to make a way for his fiancé and her attendant!

Horeo's eyes shone with energy!

Now he felt like trying a bit!

He moved in front of the close combat dummy so that it would be in line with the short-range one. He put his arm up.

"Light burst!"

*BOOOOM*

Horeo said with a soft but confident smile and a cone of blinding golden light erupted from his hand engulfing two dummies at the same time!

"!!!!!!!!!!"

Both the examiners and the students watching held their breaths as when the light dissipated, there was no trace of either dummy!

Forget about the magic crystals letting out any sort of light, the cone of light had erased it all from existence!

"WHOA...!"

"Hey, you! Didn't you say something about the first prince being weak?"

"...huh...?! N-no! I just said that no one has seen him use spells... be-because he must always be holding back because he is so strong...!"

The crowd watching him gasped and started applauding – someone was even feverishly explaining their previous doubts about Horeo's abilities.

Meanwhile, the gold-haired prince looked back and saw his fiancé clapping her hands elegantly with a soft smile while her attendant's hands were moving so fast that they were just a blur and his eyes were sparkling.

|It's cool, right?|

Horeo grinned and the crowd went wild, it was as if he was some kind of an idol or a movie star.

|Guess I'll show off a bit more... Not too much though...|

The first prince decided, glancing at the sun and smirking before reaching his hand towards the sky.

"Light canons - Ready."

Nine golden orbs - the size of a football each - appeared around the gold-haired youth like a halo and started slowly orbiting above his head.

Horeo aimed his hand at the next target.2

"Fire!"

He commanded, and a light beam shoot out from the first orb – then, immediately after, the orb moved, making room for another orb and that orb shot out the light beam too.

The barraged did not stop until every orb shot once and the middle-ranged target was annihilated up down to the last speck.

After that the prince aimed at the next target.

"...hmmm..."

The gold-haired first prince furrowed his brows and hummed while deep in thoughts.

What he should use now...?

He could use the light cannons as their effective range was almost twice as far as the long-range target, but doing the same attacks twice in a row seemed boring.

Something like that could pass in the defense and utility tests as at his age a normal light magician wasn't supposed to master anything more difficult than the body augmenting enchants, but it certainly wasn't the same for the offense.

"...hmmmmmm..."

Horeo tilted his head, reaching his hand forward, thinking that maybe destroying both the long and the extreme-long distance targets would do the work, but before actually firing the spell he had in mind, he glanced back towards Miriette and Zoemi.

"...!"

...and he ended up raising his brows when he saw the cheering black-haired boy waving his hand as if was throwing a ball.

|Ah...! That's right! The last time we trained together I was still figuring out how that spell worked – of course, he would like to see it in action!|

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