I spent all of yesterday studying with Rose, making sure we were both ready for the test today.

  “Good luck today, Master Nyx” Rose told me.

  “Rose, while we are at school, can you please not call me master?” I asked her.

  “Yes, but only at school” she said.

  I had thought of Rose as my friend, but I could never tell if she thought the same about me.

  We were currently walking to the academy district of the capital, where the royal magic academy was.

  Today was our pcement test.

  We both were wearing casual clothes. Mine was a very simple white dress that ended above my knee, with no real extra design on it. On top of it, I had an open pink knit sweater. I was also wearing white stockings and heeled boots.

  Over the st 4 years, I had finally gotten used to true high heels, which I normally wore now. I could even fight with them.

  Rose wore shorts and a crop top. In all honesty she was wearing very little clothes. Her top covered none of her stomach, just her chest. And it had one sleeve. Her shorts were also very short, just barely covering her. The rest of her legs had stockings on. She also had a number of other accessories which all highlighted how little her clothes covered her. Lastly she had boots with a slight heel.

  Whenever we passed a man, they stared at her.

  I also heard some comments about me, but it was never that I was ‘hot’ like I heard about her. Just cute. I didn’t mind.

  “Thank you for coming to the Royal Magic academy pcement test” A school staff member told us. “You can check the board to see your testing group”. They gestured towards a set of boards with a number of names on it.

  Checking the list for mine and Rose's name, we found our groups.

  We were in different ones.

  “Nyx” Rose said to me. “You’ve got this” she told me. “If you want, I can take you to your testing room”

  “No, I got this. I’ll be fine” I tell her. I had gone a long way from being the boy locked in my room.

  With that, we went our separate ways. I made my way to my testing css.

  When I got there, I saw a number of people already in the room. I chose a seat at random and sat down, waiting for the tester to come in and start the written test.

  ∴

  Emily von Stardom had spent the st 2 years quite annoyed. She had spent 2 years waiting to meet him again, and then he didn’t show up to the debut.

  His parents sent a letter saying he was suffering from a chronic illness, so that made sense.

  But, even with one conversation, which he did not participate in, was good enough to have her find interest in him. She wanted to know more.

  She wasn’t positive of her mothers suggestion of an engagement, but maybe…

  Today was her pcement for the royal magic academy. Like her mother before her, she was aiming for the combat css as a mage. She found interest in research, but very little.

  But, since she was a princess, she was aiming for S css as well. She was ready for the test.

  When she got to the school, she found her testing group and made her way to that css.

  When she entered she saw a number of other students. But her eyes were almost instantly drawn to a girl, or so she instantly thought, with dark hair and eyes. She was wearing a very simple white dress and pink sweater, and was reading a book.

  She was unbelievably cute.

  Over the st 4 years, Emily had learned a bit about herself, including her interest in girls, and teasing them. She had often teased the maids in the castle.

  And this girl was just her type.

  But she also thought of something interesting.

  “Could that be?” she said, walking up to them.

  “Excuse me” Emily said to them.

  They jumped at the sound and turned to look at emily.

  “Um, yes?” they ask, with a very cute voice.

  “Are you Nyx von Blut, by chance?” Emily asked, completely thinking it couldn't be.

  “Um, yes I am” they respond.

  “Oh, well, you might not remember me…” Emily started.

  “Oh, no I do. Your…” they started in a normal tone, but then quieted down. "Emily von Stardom. I met you with my mom” they said.

  “You do huh? Well, can I sit next to you” Emily asked them, ecstatic that they had found him. She thought that if he had missed the debut because of a chronic illness, they might not come to school.

  “Sure” Nyx said, moving so Emily could sit down.

  Nyx went back to their book, while Emily just stared at them.

  She still didn’t know why Nyx wore girl clothing, but since she wasn’t interested in sleeping with him, the only thing that mattered was the appearance.

  Or at least right now that was it.

  Emily started to form her pn. Befriend Nyx. Then py with Nyx.

  She didn’t have any steps after that, but she could think of that ter.

  But she needed to be friends with them first.

  But before she could strike up any more conversation, the room's atmosphere changed. A rgeish group was entering the room.

  And Emily knew exactly who it was.

  Her twin brothers.

  Emily had a bunch of siblings, which included 2 really close to her in age. They were the queen's twin sons. They were both hailed as absolutely beautiful and had the eye of every noble girl who didn’t already have a partner.

  And of course they would be in this testing group. This was the first group, which would included a number of different nobles from this country and several others as well.

  And the first of the interesting ones to show up were Micehal and Oscar. As they walked in, they barely even looked at her.

  Following them, several other people of interest. A boy Emily had often met because of his mother working as a court mage. Two Elf princesses and one prince. A wolf girl who was supposed to be the next leader of her country. A famous merchant's daughter. The children of the Empress of the Sorceress Dynasty. Another elf noble. A prince of another nation. And stly, right before the proctor came in a famous mage families only son.

  All in all, several very interesting people were in the room.

  When the proctor entered they started talking. “Alright everyone. Welcome to the written portion of your pcement exam. Please finish the test to the best of your ability. You have 2 hours. If you finish early, please just wait in your seat” they say, then hand out a rge amount of papers.

  The test was very long, about a hundred questions in each portion, covering math, nguage and history.

  With the start, Emily started through the test. She had studied a lot for this test, and was completely ready. She started the test with the utmost confidence.

  But from the corner of her eye, she saw him work. Without a thought on each question, he gave his answer and moved on.

  As she continued to work, he finished the test in about 45 minutes.

  And by the end of the 2 hours, when she had barely finished, he was ying his head on the desk.

  “Thank you” the proctor said, “Please hand your tests to the front please”

  The css full of students handed their tests forward.

  “Allright, so next up you need to follow the instructions for each different css. Combat csses please head to the field outside, and research css please head to the b downstairs.

  WIth that, everyone stood up and made their way in their directions.

  ‘Hey, Nyx, which css are you going into?” Emily asked Nyx as they left the cssroom together.

  “Oh, I'm going into the combat css” he said in a small tone. It was clear to Emily that he was still very shy.

  “Really? You don’t really look like it”

  He got a small smile from that. “Believe it or not, but I am quite good in a fight actually” he said.

  “Really? Well, we will see” she says and they head out to the field outside.

  About half of the group from the written test was in the combat css. There testing group originally had 50ish people, now down to about 25.

  In front of them in the field was a knight and a set of weapons, ranging from practice swords and spears, to magic casting tools. The knight spoke up.

  “Alright. This test will consist of 2 parts. The practice duel against myself, and the practical duel against one of your cssmates. Please grab whatever weapon you prefer and get in an orderly line”

  Emily grabbed a staff, since she used magic. She saw Nyx grab a sword. A number of others grabbed different weapons. The wolf girl didn’t grab any, the elf prince grabbed a bow. Her brother Michael grabbed a spear. Others also grabbed swords and staff.

  It was a good mix of each weapon type.

  Emily stood next to Nyx in line and started talking to him.

  “If this is like most knights in the country, he should be pretty good with the sword. The bare minimum is around a proficiency of 20” she told him.

  “Oh, yeah” Nyx said. “I wonder how the grading works though?”

  “The test proctor gets to pick your score based on several factors they look for.” Emily said, with her educated guess.

  “Cool” Nyx said.

  As the fights started, Emily watched as most of the people tried their best, but all lost quickly to the knight.

  The most interesting fight before her was the elf prince and noble girl who used a bow for their weapon.

  They had the easiest time, but lost once they ran out of arrows.

  She saw her brother struggle against the knight, but he did better than anyone else so far. After him was Nyx.

  He started the fight with his sword right in front of him, waiting for an attack to come. Right when it did, Nyx quickly guarded the strike, parried it. Then he jumped into the air slightly and did something no one expected to see. The sword skill Ground Strike. This pushed the knight back and Nyx followed up with a dash attack, the skill Bde Rush. And in one final combo, ending with a guard break.

  This caused the knight to forfeit the match.

  Nyx thanked him and walked back to the waiting group.

  Everyone looked at him in amazement. He had shown off skill with the sword beyond that of the knight. Based on the skills he showed, Nyx should be around a proficiency of 30.

  Emily was up next. She started off the fight by firing a number of ice attacks at the knight. She was a skilled ice magic user. She was at 25 in her magic proficiency and used it to the full advantage. She fired a number of ice arrows in quick succession.

  But she was unable to deal any deceive blows to the knight and lost.

  She walked back out to the crowd who were all still looking at Nyx, who was watching her match in amazement.

  When she got back over to him, she decided to ask the question on her mind.

  “Nyx, what proficiency are you with the sword?” she asked. She was only as strong as she was in ice magic because of her bloodline trait.

  “26. Why?” he asked her.

  “26?! Really. That is as good as I am in ice magic and I have been doing that for years” she said.

  “Well, I have been doing sword training with my dad every other day for the st 4 years.” he said. “And I told you I was strong,” he said, the second part with a smile.

  “Every other day?” she asked.

  “Oh, yeah I also have a small proficiency in several different elements of magic” he said.

  “What would those be” Emily asked, scared of what the answer might be.

  “9 in fire, water, earth, wind, ice and lightning” he said in a whisper. Even with his bragging about being strong, he still wasn’t trying to show off to everyone.

  “Really? Nyx that is really impressive” Emily said. She was scared that this would throw a wrench in her pns, but she just got more excited.

  Even if he is that strong, he still seems so cute was the only thought she had.

  As they talked, the st duel against the knight was happening.

  It was Aric Voidwalker. He was the son of a very famous mage family, and a prodigy in magic.

  Rumors had it that his family started teaching him magic when he was still a child, around 5.

  His fight was just as impressive as Nyx’s. He pushed the knight back constantly with a never ending barrage of high level magic of several elements.

  And when the knight surrendered, he just walked back, without any expression.

  With all of the knights' duels done, he started calling groups of two students to do their duels against each other.

  Most of them were much more fair then the ones against the knight. But none very exciting. Micheal won his match, followed by Emily winning hers.

  And st up, were the two people who beat the knight.

  It was clear to everyone that they would be matched against each other.

  Nyx and Aric walked onto the battlefield and prepared for their battle. The knight then spoke up.

  “Normally, this rules will never come up, but I feel inclined to mention them. If your battle exceeds 15 minutes, it will be called a draw. You can still receive full marks, just the fight will end there” he said.

  Both of them acknowledged this.

  THe knight then started the match. Nyx opened up first with his bde rush. Emily knew he wasn’t high enough proficiency to have the skill yet, but his fake worked great.

  He made contact and started a combo, but was pushed back with wind magic from Aric. Nyx continued to cover the distance to try and get a good shot in on him, but Aric kept the distance, preferring medium range.

  This continued on for most of the match. Nyx was perfect at blocking and dodging, but he could never really get a good shot off on him.

  A perfect stalemate.

  But then, with only a few seconds remaining in their fight, Nyx changed up.

  Holding up his off hand, Nyx used magic to shoot a small amount of ice right at Aric. This distracted him enough to give Nyx enough time to cover the distance and prepare a st attack.

  And right as the knight called the end of the fight, Nyx’s sword stopped right in front of Aric's throat.