Ch.65— Exam Day

Today was probably the worst day to not sleep properly.
Amy sighed as she walked down the school hallway. Stella and Alba were beside her, talking about something she had lost track of several turns ago.
Funny. She’d finally woken up from a nightmare, only to have another one waiting for her. For days now she’d been dreaming about corpses and all kinds of gory things. And then, when she actually needed sleep, she couldn’t get any. Why today? The timing was awful even by her standards.
“—my. Amy. Amy.”
She blinked and turned toward Stella, who was holding on to her sleeve.
“You went past it.”
“What?”
“The classroom, Amy.” Stella pulled her back toward the door they’d passed. “We’re in here.”
“I knew that.”
Stella didn’t look convinced. Well, Amy wouldn’t have believed herself either.
They entered the classroom for their first class of the day: Professor Lirienne’s Channeling Techniques class. Amy usually liked it more than the others, or at least liked the idea of getting better at using her ability. Today she was having trouble keeping her eyes open long enough to see the teacher.
Lirienne began by asking them to center themselves. It was difficult to pay attention when she spoke in such a soothing voice, though Amy did catch the part about pacience or something.
“Think of your power as a river,” the professor told them. “You are its banks. You give it shape, so concentrate on that.”
Right, shaping her mana. Libris had advised her to work on mastering her ability, and this was supposed to help. Amy shut her eyes, trying to picture what Lirienne was describing.
Before she realized she had fallen sleep in its waters.
By the time Stella and Alba managed to wake her, everyone else was leaving for lunch. Amy had apparently slept through the whole lecture. Or most of it? She remembered starting, at least.
Somehow she felt worse after sleeping. Her head was heavy, and at lunch she barely followed what Stella and Alba were saying. She answered them anyway, with a yes or a no whenever it seemed necessary, until Iris arrived and took the spoon from her hand.
“Blondie, what’s wrong with you today?”
Amy couldn’t be bothered to answer. She’d already put salt in her tea, and her soup was going cold while she sat there looking at it.
Iris took some bread from Amy’s tray. As she did, she noticed Amy’s hands.
“Oh. They took the bandages off?”
“Yeah.” Amy glanced down at them too. “I’m done being a mummy.”
“Good for you.” Iris sounded distracted, but then she looked back at Amy with a grin. “You know, you could’ve used those to get out of the exam. Probably wouldn’t have worked on Drayke, but you could’ve tried.”
Amy’s hand stopped halfway back to her spoon.
Ah. So that was what she’d forgotten.
Their first combat-class exam. Of course it was today.
“…Damn it.”
She already hated that class. Having to take the exam when she could barely stay awake seemed especially unfair.
Did I truly ever escape the nightmare…?
 
-————-　■　-————-
 
The Hall of Elements, where Combat class always took place, was an enormous circular chamber.
Amy went to change with Stella, Alba, and the other girls. The Academy had provided their training clothes: loose black pants and a short-sleeved tunic in the same color, with its emblem embroidered on the chest. At least the fabric was breathable. She put on the soft-soled shoes that went with them and headed back into the hall.
Then she saw Crow.
Amy sighed. He was back already.
Lyra and Ash stood on either side of him, though he’d left some space between himself and them. He was in the same uniform as everyone else, except he’d rolled up the left sleeve. Amy looked at it for a moment before realizing what she was seeing.
He had an arm there again. A prosthetic one, made of dark metal, with silver showing at the joints and faint runes along its length.
Damn. He already looked way too edgy before with his hair covering one eye and his dark gaze, yet now…
Suddenly, Crow’s cold eyes found her across the field.
Amy’s heart froze for a second.
They stared at each other fixedly for a few seconds. Then his gaze finally moved away as he turned pointedly towards somewhere else.
“Goodness gracious, blondie.” Iris suddenly materialized beside her and put an arm around her. “You really charm them all,” she muttered while staring at the boy who had just looked at Amy with the coldest gaze ever.
Amy only gave her a dirty look before walking towards the center, where the professor and the others were congregating.
“GOOD AFTERNOON, EVERYONE.”
It was a rough voice that caught everybody’s attention.
Their teacher was about two meters tall, with enough muscle and scars to make Amy question what the academy considered a normal hiring process. Burns covered half his face. His gray wolf ears were perked up, and his tail swayed behind him as he waited for everyone to pay attention. Amy glanced at his mechanical arm. Crow’s new one reminded her of it.
Professor Drayke, head of Combat Applications, formerly of the military, currently of Amy’s nightmares, beamed down at his students with a sort of smile that showed way too many sharp teeth.
“Everyone get enough sleep? I hope so. I’ve been waiting weeks for this exam.”
Amy groaned. Apparently she was the only one who hadn’t been looking forward to today. Or rather, the professor was the only one who had.
He was looking over the students when he noticed Crow. Both ears stood straight up.
“Thorne!”
Crow tilted his head. “Professor?”
Drayke was in front of him before Amy saw him move. His time-stop ability, probably. He lifted his mechanical arm next to Crow’s and turned it, comparing the two. There was a small smile on his face now.
“Look at that. We match.”
Crow didn’t answer. He just stood there looking at the professor, who was far too interested in his new arm to mind the gaze Crow was giving him.
“You got the Mark VII articulation, did you? Rune-fed, and it calibrates itself.” Drayke’s tail was wagging as he inspected it; he looked almost cute if one didn’t look at his face. “Mine doesn’t do that. I’ve had her for years.” He patted his own arm. “If that elbow starts clicking in the cold, come see me. It’s usually the servo. I’ve got some oils that help.” Drayke was still looking at Crow’s arm. “A few other recommendations too, if you need them.”
Crow took a moment to answer.
“…Thank you.” He eventually said with a groan.
Apparently that was enough for the professor, who nodded and turned towards the students again.
“Right. The exam.”
He clapped to get their attention.
“You’ll start from this field. To pass, you have to make it outside the academy’s outer gates. You have until sundown.”
Amy waited for him to explain why that would be awful.
“Of course, we’ll be trying to catch you. All of the faculty.” He seemed pleased by the reaction that got. “And we can follow you anywhere. Going over the rooftops won’t save you. Neither will hiding in a courtyard or a hallway somewhere. The wards will be active, so keep those in mind too.”
Yes, there it was.
“Oh, and no lethal force. I shouldn’t have to say this, but if you melt a colleague, you’ve failed.”
Amy listened, increasingly unhappy with every new detail.
“You’ll have teammates. In combat, you need to know how to work with other people. Same goes for war. In my experience, the ones who insist on doing everything alone tend to die stupidly, and I’d prefer you learn that here.”
He pulled a folded sheet of paper from his belt.
“Five to a group. I’ve assigned them already, so listen for your names. I put quite a bit of thought into this.”
Amy didn’t like how pleased he sounded about that.
The first two groups seemed fine. They were reasonable mixes of second-years, and she could see why he’d put some of those students together.
Then:
“Group three. Brighthaven. Silvermoon. Blackwood. Veyre. Ashford.”
Silence enveloped the room. Then, a second later, from two entirely different directions and in almost perfect unison:
“Professor.”
Stella and Tallen had both stepped forward, then immediately shot each other a look of mutual disgust at having synchronized.
“Professor,” Tallen began, “with all due respect, Brighthaven, Silvermoon, and I can’t be in the same group. I refuse to have my exam grade shackled to two commoners who—”
“Oh, here we go—” Stella cut him off with an annoyed expression, then turned to the professor. “He is insufferable, I can’t—”
“—who lack even the most basic—”
“—his superiority complex—”
“—my family won’t allow such—”
Alba, who was standing just behind Stella and on Amy’s left, sighed but said nothing.
Drayke listened to all of it. “I see, I see,” he said while nodding along. “Difficult chemistry. Understandable. Let me finish reading, and we’ll address it.”
He shushed the two of them, who stopped complaining after getting what they wanted, then went on. He named two more groups. Just like Stella and Tallen, they didn’t like it either, so a series of complaints followed too.
And then:
“Group six. Thorne. Stake. Thornfield. Wright. Gaspard.”
Amy only let out a big breath. Honestly, she had been expecting it. Things always ended like this somehow.
“Professor.” Crow’s voice arrived in Amy’s ears, bringing her back from her thoughts. “I’d like to request a change.”
“Oh?” Drayke’s eyebrow rose, and his ears swiveled toward him. “Reason?”
“There is a problem in that composition,” Crow said, gaze fixed firmly on the middle distance, at no one and nothing, “that I cannot currently work with.”
Half the class was looking back and forth between Zayd and Crow, yet only the protagonist group and Drayke, who had followed the manga character’s glances, looked at Amy.
Amy kept a pleasant expression. She wasn’t sure why the comment annoyed her so much. It wasn’t as if she’d wanted to be in his group either.
“Mm. Noted.”
Drayke read out the last group before folding the paper and putting it away.
“Well, I can see some of you aren’t happy. That’s understandable. You should feel comfortable with your teammates.” He held his arms out, looking far too sympathetic for Amy’s liking. “Raise your hand if you’d like me to change your group.”
Amy kept hers down.
Maybe she’d read too many manga, but there was no way this wasn’t a trap. Just look at him. Even his tail had stopped moving.
Stella raised her hand immediately. Tallen and Alba did too, along with several others. Amy counted roughly eight hands, including Crow’s. He looked as indifferent as before.
Zayd started to raise his, hesitated, and lowered it again.
Drayke counted them himself. Then he took the paper back out and tried to write on it, awkwardly holding it against his palm.
“Thank you for being honest. We can’t improve things if you won’t tell me there’s a problem.” He made another mark. “Those of you with your hands up will be reassigned to pairs or groups of three. I’ll choose those as well. Everyone else, your original groups stand. Good work adapting.”
Amy should have felt relieved. She’d kept her hand down, after all. For some reason, though, she was feeling worse.
“Brighthaven and Blackwood. You’ll be a pair.”
Stella’s mouth fell open. Tallen made a strangled sound beside her.
“Silvermoon, you’re with Veyre and Ashford.”
Alba closed her eyes. She’d ended up with two nobles from Tallen’s faction and apparently didn’t have the energy to object anymore.
Drayke kept reading. After a few more names, Amy began to understand what he’d done. He knew who disliked whom, and he was putting them together. Every single new group had that problem.
Oh God, no….
The professor looked at her, then at Crow.
“Thorne and Stake. Another pair.”
“Professor, I didn’t raise my—”
“No, you didn’t.”
He smiled at her without showing his teeth, then went back to reading as if she’d said nothing.
Of course… of fucking course it had to end like this…
Amy bit her lip. When she glanced at Crow, he was already looking at her, his expression as cold as earlier. She looked straight back at him. If he was waiting for a reaction, she wasn’t going to give him one.
She stopped paying attention to the names Drayke was calling. Crow hadn’t looked away, and now she didn’t want to be the first to do it either.
“Stake. Thorne.”
The professor pointed to a circle marked at the eastern edge of the field.
“Over there, that’s your staging area. You’ve got ten minutes to work out a strategy. Then the wards go up.”
Crow watched her for another second before turning towards the circle. He left without saying anything, his new arm visible beneath the rolled-up sleeve.
Amy let out a long breath and pulled her satchel strap into place. Then she went after him.
“…I should really stop getting surprised by these developments…” she muttered, and kept walking.