Chapter 4 - Volume 1 (2/2)

It was an impure motive, but if I had no talent for magic anyway, I would automatically be sent to the normal school.

I’ll try my best for the magic examination!

There were quite the number of people in the examination hall when we entered. At a glance, I saw that there were around ten children around my age.

When we approached the reception desk, the receptionist lady seemed to jump with surprise when she turned to look at us.

To look so surprised upon seeing someone’s face, how rude….When I intently glared at her, the lady appeared to be flustered as she began giving an explanation to Mother.

Not bothered by what happened, Mother and Vio were calmly nodding as they listened. Impressive indeed.

……Uh-oh, that was bad. I had to behave like a human would.

The magical power examination seemed to involve some manual work aspects.

You didn’t get to place your hand on a crystal ball and they didn’t tell you anything like, “your aptitude for magic goes like this”. Instead, at every examination booth there was a spell charged wand, which would shoot out a teensy bit of magic upon being waved, and it counted as a pass if the magic activated. If it didn’t activate, it was a fail. Absolutely simple.

But would a 2 year old even know how to channel magical power…?

Sneaking a peek to one side, I saw that one child was releasing a flame like a lighter. I wondered if that degree of magic meant that the child had overflowing amounts of magical power.

There were other booths marked with water and wind-like signs too, so it might be that a person’s aptitude wasn’t limited to one type of magic.

First of all, I was to begin with trying normal magic. It was normally activated through magical power and spells.

Although it was called normal, it was a versatile kind of magic.

It seemed that there were various types, but for the time being there would be no problems choosing among earth, water, fire and wind elements.

“…Th, then ojou-sama, please try using this one.”

Another one afraid of me….Please don’t be scared of a 2 year old.

Pulling myself together, I took the wand that was passed to me…this was a pencil right…and I waved it.

“………?”

“It appears that ojou-sama doesn’t have an affinity for fire…. I am so sorry.”

Why apologize? Was it because I looked like a noble? Come to think of it, what was the status of our household again…?

Recovering my thoughts, I went to try the other booths.

“………”

“Yuru-oujousama, there is still spirit magic remaining.”

Her thoughtfulness was painful.

Vio spoke to comfort the me who successively failed at the water, wind and earth booths.

But I wonder why the magic wouldn’t activate…?　When the old man in charge of the examination saw that the wands would start shining just from my touch, he had told me that my magical power was high. Was it that I simply had no affinity whatsoever..?

There were 6 booths remaining to be tried.

4 kinds of spirit magic and…eh?　There was supposed to be light and dark spirits in fantasies. I wonder if there was none in this world?

And the others were….

When I turned to look at the last remaining 2 booths, Vio spoke in a voice only Mother and I could hear.

“Ria-sama. Lately…there has been a bad reputation of summoning magic going around.”

“Even though it isn’t that dangerous, apart from demon summoning….”

Demon summoning…huh. Certainly it brought a bad image to mind.

Upon further listening, I learnt that summoning magic was capitalized on the research of magic circles, and nobles would study it mainly to take part in the research. It seemed interesting.

“Mother, what about that one~?”

“That one is for holy magic. It’s used for things like healing people.”

“Ria-sama. Becoming a user of holy magic, there is the risk of being taken in by the church….”

I wondered if she had some sort of bad experience with the church in the past….

When Vio, who could use healing magic, said those words with knitted brows, Mother showed a troubled and bitter smile.

Mother was acquainted with the old man from the church after all. It was quite the troublesome matter.

And apparently, holy magic wasn’t something that only the church and its members could use.

“For now, let us try out everything. I think that it isn’t right for us to limit the possibilities for Yuru.”

“……I understand.”

I had a feeling she was in a bleak mood, so I gently patted Vio on the head, which seemed to make her feel a little better.

The next booth was for spirit magic. I had a bit of expectation for this one. Because demons and spirits were both inhabitants of the same spiritual world, I thought of them as an existence similar to myself.

“…………”

Those wind spirit midgets. They ran away looking frightened the moment they saw my face.

Even the examiner onii-chan was in blank amazement from seeing the lesser wind spirits fleeing as fast as they could, just like the wind, and not allowing even a moments time to call out to them.

The water spirit made me cry inside.

When I drew near the tiny water spirit that was in the form of a woman, she covered her face and cowered, so much that no matter what the spirit user ordered, she wouldn’t move an inch.

But I knew why. It looked like the spirit user couldn’t understand the words of spirits, but I could hear it. She was continuously muttering…

“[I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry…]”

Catching on to the current situation, the earth spirit returned into the ground without a word, and didn’t respond to the summons for a second time.

The fire spirit was a little better. But it was no good. When I asked the fire spirit who was fixedly glaring at me,

“You’re not going to disappear…?”

The instant I spoke, it vanished with a puff.

“………”

“……It appears that ojou-sama does not have an aptitude for spirit magic so….”

Well~, next up was summoning magic.

Mm?　It’s not like I’m feeling down in particular. It’s true I tell you!

“Please try touching the magic circle here.”

A straight-backed old man with the air of a professor instructed me.

The old man had embarked on a lengthy explanation, as if conducting a lecture, however…what was this person doing to a 2 year old really….

To summarize, this general purpose summoning circle was a very casual product, from which you couldn’t call out anything big. It would casually connect to some realm, and casually summon an insect demon, or if your magical power was high, an adequately small animal demon would appear.

“……Okay.”

I casually nodded and touched the summoning circle.

“[………ROOOOOOAAAAAAAA…………]”

From somewhere far away…I heard a voice I had memories of…as if it was crying out from the deep depths of the earth.

When I unintentionally, or should I say unconsciously, slapped my hand onto the summoning magic circle, the light given off by my magical power disappeared.

Having accidentally heard that voice too, the professor old man inspected the magic circle with a blue face, and though he was puzzled about my previous actions, he turned around to face the three of us.

“My apologies. It seems that the summoning circle was broken. However, although it’s uncertain for the ojousama, I believe that she has an aptitude for summoning magic.”

That was dangerous…a close call. There was no doubt about it. That voice…he was mad alright.

At any rate, I finally received a pass…although just barely.

But later on I came to know, that anyone with magical power was able to use summoning magic circles….

After giving our thanks to the professor and standing up, we headed to the final booth for holy magic.

Feeling delighted that her daughter would be attending the same academy as she did, Mother held me in her arms on the way to the booth.

“Isn’t it great~, Yuru.”

“Yup.”

In contrast to the joyfully smiling pair of mother and daughter, the facial expression of Vio wasn’t too good.

……It couldn’t be helped. When I stretched out my hand toward her with a curious look on my face, acting like a child that didn’t understand a thing, Vio finally took my hand with a laugh.

Did she hate the church that much?

Now then, the last booth was for holy magic, but I was fine with not taking the examination if Vio disliked it that much. To be frank, I didn’t mind it since I’d already earned the qualification to enter the magic academy.

But on the contrary, Vio encouraged me to take the examination, influenced by the talks of my future possibilities and the like.

And so….

“………”

A fish-san was flopping about on top of a chopping board.

Even now, the light being given off from the wand I was holding prevented the fish from dying.

“It appears that ojousama has a strong aptitude for holy magic.”

Are you serious, I’m a demon you know?

In the booth, there was a fish on the verge of death. Placed on top of a chopping board and unable to breathe, the fish only desired for its suffering to quickly end…or so I imagined.

At that moment, a strong light had shot out of the wand held in my hand, which prolonged the suffering of the fish.

Quite cruel if I may say so myself.

As I thought…I’m a demon after all.