I finished the written portion of the exam and exited the lecture hall. As I walked around the area, thinking I would find Nor and get something to eat with her, I came across her and Ruchika in the courtyard.
“Hope it went well, Nor, Ruchika.”
“You too, Leonie.”
“Yeah, sure…”
Nor was her usual self, but Ruchika appeared rather dejected. She had her head on Nor’s lap, using it as a pillow.
“I’m guessing your written exam went well, Nor?”
“Mm-hmm. What about you, Leonie?”
“Same here.”
“I see. But as for Ruchika…”
“That was impossible… All those big words gave me a headache…”
Judging from how Ruchika appeared to have collapsed in exhaustion, she must have had quite a hard time on the written exam. My first impression was that classroom learning probably wasn’t her strong suit, but I never imagined it would be this bad.
“Get a hold of yourself, Ruchika. You’re going to become the strongest hero there is, aren’t you?” I said.
“Yeah… But at this rate, I might be kicked out in the prelims…”
“I didn’t think it was that difficult…,” said Nor.
“Come on, Nor, don’t rub salt in my wounds…”
“Oh. Sorry.”
With Ruchika’s head still in her lap, Nor began to softly pet her hair. They’re awfully close all of a sudden…
“Since when have you two been so intimate, Nor?”
“Huh?”
“Oh? What, Leonie, you jealous?” Ruchika said.
“No.”
While I did feel a little bit like Nor had been taken away from me, Ruchika made it sound too malicious.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha! Not looking so hot anymore, are you, li’l miss strongest hero?”
“For real!”
“Danita…”
Danita and her follower had shown up to sneer at Ruchika in her low spirits. While Danita wasn’t exactly known for her good behavior, she was well-educated. She lived up to her reputation as a famous hero’s daughter. Incidentally, her father had also been in my mother’s party and had been known as the Battle-Ax Hero, and her mother was an instructor at this very Hero Institute.
“Shut up, Danita. Go away,” said Ruchika.
“Yeah, yeah. I don’t want anything to do with you anyway. See ya, you dropout. Come on, let’s get outta here.”
“Ah, wait up, Danita!”
Throwing out a final insult, Danita left with her follower at her heels.
“What was the point in her coming over here anyway…?” asked Ruchika.
“To…cheer us on, maybe?”
“No way her intentions were that good…”
Regardless, if she really had no interest in Ruchika, she wouldn’t have come over to talk to her. In that sense, I could tell that Danita was starting to take notice of her. We still didn’t have a good idea of Ruchika’s abilities, but something about her had been enough to draw the attention of a fierce fighter like Danita.
“Moping about it isn’t going to help anything. They’ll be posting the results soon, so let’s hurry up and have something to eat,” I said.
“C-come on, Ruchika. Time to get up,” added Nor.
“Nnnh… Just a little longer…”
“Get up,” I said.
“Ouch! Leonie, you’re so strict!”
“I believe I’m being very reasonable.”
As I rolled my eyes, Ruchika reluctantly stood up and stretched. She reminded me of a big kitten. You might say a “big kitten” is just a cat, but she really was like a kitten that just happened to have a larger body.
People had started to crowd around the bulletin board at the entrance of the Hero Institute, where the results of the written exam would be posted. It seemed the results were already up. As people either rejoiced at having passed or lamented their failure, their various reactions began to spread throughout the crowd.
The three of us cut through the crowd to get in front of the display board.
…Thank goodness. I passed.
It’s true I was confident about my ability to pass, but I hadn’t discounted the possibility of me making some kind of careless mistake while filling out the answer sheet. I was relieved that I had gotten through this phase without issue.
“Oh, good. I passed…,” said Nor.
“You too, Nor? Congratulations.”
“Thanks. Looks like you did, too, Leonie. Congrats!”
Nor and I grasped each other’s hands and celebrated. Nor had always been an excellent student, so I figured there was no chance she could fail, but it still made me happy to be able to confirm we passed together like this.
The only remaining problem was—
“…”
“Ruchika?” I asked.
“I don’t wanna look. I’m too scared.”
Ruchika was covering her eyes with her hands. When I tried to pull her hands away, she just shook her head and refused. My goodness.
“Leonie, can you check it for me?” she asked.
“What number were you?”
“B-613.”
“Got it.”
Let’s see… B-613… B-613…
“I don’t see it anywhere.”
“No way?!”
Ruchika let out a scream and pulled her hands away from her face. Her eyes went wide as she frantically scanned the bulletin board.
“Ah… Huh…? It’s right there…”
“Yes. Congratulations, Ruchika. It looks like you barely made it through this round. You passed.”
“Whaaat?! Don’t scare me like that! I really thought I failed for a second there!”
“Hee-hee. Oh, Leonie…,” said Nor.
I had only wanted to tease her a little, but seeing how seriously Ruchika had panicked, I felt a bit guilty. That wasn’t very nice of me.
“I’m sorry, Ruchika. My joke was in poor taste.”
“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. Ah, talk about a relief!”
“Ruchika, I think it might be a little too early to celebrate…”
Nor said this with an unhappy look on her face. It looked like she was still worried about something.
“What do you mean, Nor?”
“Remember, the practical exam is a one-on-one mock battle. And, Ruchika, you’ve been paired up with—”
At Nor’s comment, Ruchika looked at the bulletin board again. I had already checked who my upcoming opponent was—a talented mage of some renown. Nor’s opponent was a skilled swordsman, but with her abilities, there was nothing for her to worry about. The issue was Ruchika’s opponent.
“I’m paired up with… Oh.”
She had seen it now. Her opponent was—
“Danita.”
That was right—Ruchika had been paired up with Danita for the mock battle. From what I had seen during our encounter with the pickpocket, the demon girl seemed like she could hold her own in battle, but I couldn’t imagine she was anywhere close to someone like Danita, who was already being lauded as one of the strongest heroes of her generation. Her Gear had declared her strongest ability to be her swordsmanship, and her combat skills were rumored to be even better than her father’s, who had been known as the Battle-Ax Hero.
However…
“Hmm. Lucky me! I wanted to try fighting her anyway.”
Saying this, Ruchika smiled just like a little kid heading to a picnic in the park.
“Are you insane? This is the Hero Institute entrance examination, you know. What awful luck for this to happen after you managed to scrape by the written test,” I said.
“Yeah, you may be right about that. But nothing gets me pumped like a strong fighter. She seems super tough, so I bet it’ll be a really fun battle.”
“‘F-fun’…?”
Nor’s face said it all—this was totally incomprehensible to her. It was the kind of reaction I would expect from her, since she was quiet by nature and didn’t like battle. Despite all that, she could still be quite the fierce fighter when she needed to.
But to return to the topic at hand…
First off, we decided to head to the venue for the practical exam, which didn’t take long. It looked like this portion of the test had already begun, as we could see two men already crossing swords in the middle of the arena.
“Even though this is the entrance exam for the Hero Institute, I guess that doesn’t mean everyone is strong like Danita,” Ruchika commented with a yawn as we watched the two men battle.
“True, but those two seem to be relatively skilled fighters.”
“I wonder. The short one isn’t so bad, but the taller one looks like he’s having a pretty hard time. I bet it’ll be over in about five more attacks,” Ruchika commented, predicting the outcome of the battle. Thinking there was no way she could be right, Nor and I watched on as the battle continued. Then…
“…Exactly five attacks. How did you know?”
Just as Ruchika had predicted, the mock battle had concluded with the shorter emerging as the victor in exactly five moves.
“Hmm? I dunno. Just had a feeling.”
Ruchika laughed it off like it was no big deal, but I knew even Gear couldn’t predict so far into the future with such accuracy. There was something special about this girl.
After that, Ruchika continued to predict the outcomes of the mock battles. She wasn’t always right, but her forecasts hit the mark about 80 percent of the time—accurate enough to suggest there was more to her analyses than just a “feeling.” Did this mean Ruchika was able to predict the future just as well—or even better—than Gear?
“Next up, A-13.”
“Here.”
Eventually, it was my turn to fight.
“We’re rooting for you, Leonie!”
“Do your best!”
“Thank you. Here I go.”