CHAPTER 6
THE SPIRIT KINGS OF THE WEST
One week after she repaired the clock, Leticiel arrived at the academy and frowned when she saw that the entrance hall was much more crowded than usual. All of the students were huddled around the eastern wall. Was there an event or something going on?
“Ah, Miss Drossell. Good morning.”
“Good morning, Master!”
Only one person called Leticiel “Master.” She turned around to see Mirandalette, who looked somewhat nervous, and a happy Hilmes.
“Good morning, Hilmes. You seem happy today.”
“Of course I am! Today is the day our final exam results are being announced!” Hilmes said enthusiastically, breathing heavily.
“Oh, is that so?” Leticiel glanced at the eastern wall once more. When she took a closer look, she could see that there was a large piece of paper on the bulletin board there, though it was mostly hidden by other students’ heads.
“Yes! I worked super hard this time, so I can’t wait to see the results!”
“On the other hand, I’m pretty worried…”
“Come on, Lulu. You have to think positive! After all the studying we did, you’re sure to be fine!” Hilmes cheered up an anxious Mirandalette. Leticiel wondered if he was simple—pardon her, “pure”—enough to purposefully put on a show for her sake, but he genuinely seemed to believe what he was saying. His unadulterated grin brought a smile to Mirandalette’s lips, as well.
“Let’s take a look now. It’ll be even more crowded once the other students arrive,” Leticiel suggested.
“Right. I need to face reality!” Part of Leticiel felt like the other girl didn’t need to get that fired up just to view her grades.
Her eyes traced the letters on the bulletin board. Each student’s score was divided into three parts: the individual scores for the written and practical tests, plus a total score that was the combination of both. The scores were arranged from highest to lowest, with a red line drawn to separate those who had received less than the average score. Those underneath the line seemed to have failed the exams.
“…Ah! I found my score! I passed!” Mirandalette couldn’t help but shriek when she found her name on the list. She immediately bowed in apology to those around her.
“How did you do, Hilmes?” Leticiel asked.
“Heh heh… Don’t be surprised when you hear this, okay?” Hilmes crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and smiled fearlessly. Leticiel wondered if he’d really done so well in the rankings when he continued, “I’m fifth from the top of the borderline!”
“…Good for you,” Leticiel intoned weakly in the face of his smug look. In other words, he’d been on the verge of failing. But she supposed it was good that he had worked hard and passed, especially considering how much he hated to study.
Leticiel’s name was in a very conspicuous spot. As she was staring at the announcement, she heard Zeke call out from behind her, saying, “Miss Drossell, you’re here already?”
“Yes. I just found my own name.”
Drossell’s name was in fourth place for the written exam. She thought it was a fairly high ranking considering that there were around 200 Primary students.
But she hadn’t ranked at the top for the practical or combined test scores. Naturally, the practical exam had been a test on magic. Leticiel hadn’t even been able to take it because she didn’t have any magical power. Therefore, she’d gotten a zero for the practical exam, which had brought down the sum of her test scores.
Leticiel had personally been more than willing to take the practical exam with the argument that she could always use sorcery instead of magic, but she’d had to battle with Lucas, who refused to let even more of the academy be destroyed. In the end, she’d given up on the practical exam in consideration of how her sorcery was supposed to be confidential.
“It’s not a bad ranking. And it’s all thanks to you and Veronica, Zeke.”
“That’s not true. It’s because you worked hard, Miss Drossell,” Zeke replied humbly. Well, that answer certainly made sense considering his character.
Come to think of it, where’s Zeke ranked? Curious, Leticiel searched for the name “Zeke Violiss” in the rankings.
“…Well, I expected this much.” She found his name quickly. After all, his name commanded first place in the written, practical, and overall scores. If he could get scores like that without attending class, then there was certainly no reason for him to go.
Veronica had placed second in the written exam. After studying with the girl, Leticiel was fully aware of how talented she was, so she could only say that she expected as much. And below Veronica, in third place on the written exam, was Christa.
Huh. I didn’t know Christa was such a good student. Since they hadn’t been involved in each other’s lives much, Leticiel’s only impression of Christa was that she got along well with Rocheford, which therefore meant that she must be stupid. But now that she thought about it, people expected more from her than from Leticiel, so it would be odd for her not to excel.
“Hmm?” Sensing a piercing gaze on the back of her neck, Leticiel turned around. Christa was surrounded by a large number of noble boys and girls, yet she was quietly watching Leticiel. Her eyes were filled with a hidden sense of triumph and superiority.
“Still, you’re amazing, Miss Drossell! I know I may not be one to talk, but you studied so hard to make fourth place even though your scores in each subject were so shaky at the start,” Mirandalette said, her gaze impressed as she looked at the rankings.
However, Leticiel wasn’t interested in the rankings. She looked away and said, “No, rankings are trivial. To be honest, I couldn’t care less about them.”
“Aha ha! I figured you’d say something like that, Miss Drossell!” Hilmes cackled.
Leticiel didn’t care what rank she was in. Using the knowledge she had gained in her personal life was more important. No matter how high you ranked, it was meaningless if you didn’t use that knowledge.
Christa, who had overheard their conversation, glowered at Leticiel’s back as she walked off, wondering what she should do today.
✦ ✦ ✦
After getting home from the academy, Christa flung her bag on her bed without stopping to change out of her uniform. The events of that morning were still stuck in her mind.
Christa was unbelievably frustrated. Why did she have to feel this miserable when she had definitely been the winner? And how could her sister act so unaffected?
Unmotivated to do anything, Christa went downstairs to visit the garden in her uniform. She’d always taken walks in the garden to distract herself when she wasn’t in the mood to do anything.
In the evening, there were only a few gardeners—including the head gardener, Claud—working in the garden. With no particular flower in mind, Christa wandered aimlessly along the paths until her eyes landed on unfamiliar pink flowers planted on the left side of the garden.
Claud just happened to be passing by, so she stopped him to ask, “Hey, what are these flowers?”
“Those are lune flowers. The duchess had them brought in from the north. I just finished planting all the ones she ordered last week.”
“Hmm, I see.” Christa realized that she hadn’t been in the garden for over a week. It felt like time had stopped for her ever since the incident at the academy.
Looking away from the lune flowers, Christa turned and found yet another new flower. It was in what they called the flower warehouse, a place where the plants were stored before they were planted in the garden or potted.
The flower’s petals were of a strange color. Though it was dyed red in the light of the setting sun, the pure white petals shone with a faint pink, blue, and yellow sheen. There was only one flower in the storage, but it was as big as Christa’s arm and emitted a refreshingly sweet smell.
“This is…”
Christa knew the flower’s name without having to ask Claud. It was a rare flower called a mullolia that only bloomed in warm regions in the south. She’d found it while reading an encyclopedia in class at the academy and had fallen in love with it at first sight, so she’d asked her parents to buy one for her.
“That’s the mullolia I ordered for you, Miss Christa. It just arrived.” The mullolia hadn’t been repotted yet; it was still in the bag of dirt it’d been transported in. Since it had just arrived, it was only natural that it had been placed right in the ground.
Regardless, seeing that the flower she adored so much had been placed haphazardly in the ground with other flowers made Christa impulsively yell, “Why did you put the mullolia in the ground like this? Didn’t I tell you to immediately transfer it into a flowerpot? Can you not even do that much?!”
Somewhere in her heart she knew that Claud hadn’t done anything wrong and that nothing would change even if she took her frustration out on him, but she was powerless to contain her irritation.
“I-I’m terribly sorry. I’ll have it ready right away!” Claud bowed quickly and ran off to the warehouse. As she watched him go, Christa’s lips twitched in self-deprecation as she wondered what she was doing before she too left the garden.