房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

The rest of the wind magicians didn\'t come even close to the unfortunate boy whom Kierul picked for Zoem\'s plan.

Actually, the first two water magicians weren\'t any better either. The first one got yellow light out of the medium-range target and his water spear flopped to the ground a good few feet before the long-range one, and as for the other one, she got white light out of the medium-range target and didn\'t even try the long-range one – which actually was a bit below the average when it comes to the level that water magicians should present...

...although both of them managed to get the red light out of the close-combat dummies – after all, the piercing power of their attribute was only second to the darkness blade of darkness magicians.

But – with both of them out of the way, it was the turn for the second prince.

Surou Delche Bellcephora.

The prince was on the examination grounds all along, but still, he didn\'t approach the judges\' table to get his mana measured.

Instead, he turned towards Kierul and Zoemi and approached them – though only one of them was there in his eyes.

"My lady. Please watch me."

The second prince bowed his head and asked with a serious face.

He didn\'t have to say that – it was obvious that Kierul who stayed there for the wind magicians and the first two water magicians would not suddenly turn around and disrespect the royalty.

But he did say it anyway, and honestly, Zoemi was blown away.

He didn\'t even have to look at his master to know her reaction, after all, he could clearly hear her heartbeat accelerating to its limits.

|That cheeky guy...|

The black-haired boy thought barely able to hold back an excited grin.

Even if it was by an accident, he was just ticking all the boxes in Kierul\'s list of traits she liked in another person.

The blue-haired prince shouldn\'t know that yet, but if he made a fool out of himself or failed to achieve what he wants and would tear up defeated, he would stir up the sadistic nerve that the red-haired girl had in her... which would be good...

But not as good as if he would actually show something good.

By any chance, if Surou would become reliable in her eyes, then by that point even if Zoemi actively tried to pull Kierul away from him, it would be impossible.

As for the girl\'s response...

"...!"

For a second she seemed abashed and she lowered her gaze while raising her hand to her mouth – but that gesture was only done so she could partially hide the grin that was blooming on her face.

A person she liked was trying to impress her – even if she didn\'t believe in him having feelings for her, that was still something a girl in love could not ignore.

"I will, my prince."

The red-haired girl took a deep breath and responded, lowering her head even more while curtsying.

After hearing her words, the second prince nodded to her and walked to the examiners.

"Student Bellcephora, put your hand over the device."

The gold-haired teacher told him while pointing at the modern artifact on the table.

The Blue-haired boy did as he was told and the device lit up.

"The perfectly average amount of mana for a water magician. Thank you. Proceed to the dummies."

The teacher nodded while he and the other two teachers noted something on their papers.

"Of course."

Surou nodded and walked to the brand-new close-range target.

"Water spout."

"...?"

The second prince said sternly, surprising basically everyone present, and used the most basic of basic spells available for water magicians – just like the name suggested he created a water spout bursting from the tip of his index finger.

It was a useful spell... useful utility spell that is. It had no place in the office part of the magic examination though.

It looked as if the blue-haired boy was aware of that as well since he didn\'t turn the spell at the target.

But then...

"Gem cutter." *PSHHHHHHH*

Surou added another spell on top of the first one, turning the lousy water spout into hair-breadth\'s thin highly pressured jet that was stirring up the ground despite the height at which the blue-haired boy was keeping his hand.

"..." *PSHHHHHH*

Surou furrowed his brows, focusing and moving his hands almost lightheartedly, with no strength in the swing – he merely moved it across the armor...

*clang*

"!!!"

That instantly released a bright red light as the upper part slid down on the diagonal cut, cleanly bisected – turning everyone – including Kierul and Zoemi – speechless.

Surou didn\'t even glance toward the judges, but he did sneak a peek at Kierul as he deactivated the destructive spell and clenched his fists prepared to push through.

The blue-haired boy moved on to the short-range target.

"Water spear."

This time there was nothing surprising about the choice of spell – but once the spell itself condensed itself next to its caster, it did look slightly out of the norm.

Despite keeping its spear-like shape, it appeared to be a stretched-out whirlpool, constantly swirling around itself instead of being crystal-clear as it should be.

Depending on the spot it hit, from that range, the damage that could be done in perfect conditions was between the yellow and orange light, so from light to serious wound or incapacitation.

But when Surou waved his hand, forcing the spell to move...

*THUNK*

It pierced through the enchanted armor getting halfway stuck in it – of course, with something like that the light that the device inside of the dummy produced could only be red – instant death.

"Student Bellcephora. Come back here for a moment."

The middle-aged red-haired teacher called out to the second prince who was just adjusting his position to aim at the middle-ranged target.

"...? Of course."

Surou frowned not really fancying having to break his concentration, but he did approach the examiners\' table and waited for further instructions.

"Put your hand over the artifact again."

Teacher Ikarveth asked, sliding the mana measuring device towards the blue-haired student.

"..."

"..."

Without knowing about it, both Surou and Kierul frowned and their gaze grew cold.

Some of the students might not understand what was going on because the teacher didn\'t say it outright, but the second prince just got accused of cheating by using an artifact to get better results.

Simply put, it was outrageous.

Teacher Ikarveth was good with making connections and flattering the right students amongst whom many already had taken high positions so he must have felt confident enough to do something like that to the second prince whom the queen mother wanted others to forget.

At least the red-haired teacher mustered the bare minimum of discretion, if he was any more clear, he would be basically attempting to shame a member of a royal family - which was a punishable offense.

That was also why the other two teachers not only didn\'t say a thing but were staring at him as if he dunked himself in a barrel of tar and rolled in feathers...

And the elderly teacher Shuze would know how weird that would be since he did that exact activity once as a bet.

"..."

"..."

Surou and teacher Ikarveth looked at each other, and the middle-aged teacher could see every bit of respect that the young student held for him evaporate, leaving only dry distaste.

Nonetheless, the red-haired man wasn\'t going to back off at all.

The mana measuring device had two uses – it could give a correct reading of the size of the user\'s mana reservoir as a whole using the mana pool of an unawakened commoner as a basic unit of measurement – and it also could give a reading of the current level of mana stored in the user\'s mana reservoir.

Meaning – if someone dared to cheat and use an artifact, they would have spent no mana at all and the reading would be used as proof.

And in the first place, the device was giving out both readings at the same time – thanks to that all examiners were aware that at the beginning of the examination, the second prince had a completely full mana reservoir.

Surou raised his hand and placed it over the artifact just as he did mere moments earlier, the device revealed a humming noise and...

"..."

Teacher Auequas gazed happened and she glared at her red-haired colleague while leaning from the side of the oldest among the three of them, teacher Shuze.

"If there are still doubts... water spear."

The blue-haired boy shrugged his shoulder without taking his hand away from the space above the device and called out the name of the spell so that the device would signal the drop in his mana level.

Once again it wasn\'t a normal water spear but a variation, it had a much shorter piercing point that was actually a lot duller than it should be, almost more like a ball than a spike - and the overall thickness of the spear\'s diameter was above the average too...

...it also seemed like the water composing the spell was bubbling for some reason...

*THUNK*

Following the boy\'s gesture the special water spear shot out at an angle – it first raised and then sloped down, hitting and punching into the armor instead of stabbing into it.

Nonetheless, the effect was there – a clear yellow light as the left pauldron got dented suggesting that the spell would deal at least some damage to whoever would be inside the armor...

"Expand." *PSHANG* *CLANG*

"!!!"

Just as most witnesses thought that any water magicians with above-average-sized mana reservoir would get a better result with just a normal water spear, and others at the level of the second prince would get the same result as him, Surou commanded and the water comprising the spherical tip of the spear turned into a vapor, increasing its volume explosively - blowing off a large chunk of the enchanted armor and turning the light from the device inside of it from yellow to red.