Shinazu stared down and read the contents of his paper resting in front of him.
He kept looking at it for five full minutes before taking one final, horrified look.
His soul practically left his body.
Who in heaven’s sacred name made this hell..?
The questions staring back at him were nothing short of terrifying demons from hell as the exam consisted of wide variety of advance topics like: complex magic theory, global geography, ancient history, mathematics, monster biology, magical resource tracking, dead languages, foreign cultures, and macroeconomic trade policies.
Why is there any need learn to ancient languages, Let them be dead!
This wasn’t a test for but a brutal torture for him.
As an orphan who had spent his entire life fighting to survive day-to-day on the streets, he had never set foot inside a grade school, nor had he ever been tutored by an educated adult.
Shinazu had barely managed to teach himself how to read and write by collecting discarded newspapers and tattered old books from alleyways, and his mathematical knowledge was limited to basic street calculations.
He took a brief glance at his classmates and the room around him, which was filled only with tension and the sound of quills dancing furiously across the paper.
Everyone was deeply immersed in their test knowing what they are doing.
Even the sleepy looking girl in the back row was filling out her sheet with ease, and watching them only made his anxiety grow with every passing second.
He lowered his head, holding his temples for quite a minute.
He then glanced sideways, where Princess Akira had her head lowered, writing her answers effortlessly with absolute focus.
A cold panic slowly crept up in his chest.
Think…
think!
You have to at least write something down!
He absolutely didn’t want to look like a fool around her.
Determined to try, he extended a trembling hand, picked up his feather quill, and went to write.
However, holding the quill, he simply blinked at it for five seconds.
His expression froze as if someone had robbed him of his face muscles, turning completely pale.
…How do you even use this thing?
He had never held a proper feather quill in his entire life.
Not even once.
Pencils?
He had picked up a few worn stubs here and there.
Charcoal?
Sure, he had used burnt wood to scribble on alley walls.
Sticks in the dirt?
Countless times, drawing letters on the dirt.
But a delicate, ink writing quill?
Never.
When you spend every day struggling just to afford a single loaf of bread, buying fancy inkwells and feather quills is a luxury that never even crossed his mind.
Slowly, very, very slowly, he shifted his gaze to the far right corner of his eyes.
He watched Akira’s hand glide smoothly and effortlessly across the parchment.
Her handwriting was a true work of art.
Shinazu kept watching her hand closely, then glanced back down at his own clumsy grip.
He looked over at hers again, studying where her fingers placed, before checking his own alignment.
Very carefully, he shifted his fingers to match her exact posture, copying the way she held the quill.
The tip of his tongue poked out slightly between his lips in pure concentration as he mimicked the movement in air.
Dip.
Write.
Dip.
Write.
‘Stop playing with your quill!’ Kana called out sharply without even looking up, her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned back against her desk.
Shinazu choked on his breath and immediately lowered his head.
Several students looked up to see who the remark was meant for before quickly returning to their own work.
Is it like that?
No…
maybe like this.
Shinazu struggled to make the metal nib glide smoothly without tearing the paper in his own world.
Akira narrowed her eyes slightly, highly perplexed by his odd behavior.
Her gaze drifted down toward his test sheet to see how much progress her strange neighbor had made.
And when she saw his paper, she was left in shock.
His paper was completely blank and not a single question had been answered.
Except, there was one glaring anomaly.
Written repeatedly all over the back of the last page, over and over again, were the words:
Shinazu Tsukuyomi
Shinazu Tsukuyomi
Shinazu Tsukuyomi
Shinazu Tsu…
The handwriting was crude and shaky, looking exactly like the work of a toddler who is practicing to write his own name countless times just to master the basic strokes.
Akira blinked in disbelief and twice, staring at the messy ink.
He’s…
he is practicing writing his own name?
or is he fooling around?
Her sharp gaze shifted down to his hand, noticing the awkward way his fingers clutched the base of the feather quill, the clear uncertainty in his wrist, and the heavy hesitation in his posture.
Don’t tell me…
he has never actually used a writing quill before in his life?
Her golden eyes widened slightly.
This was Himetsu Royal Academy, the absolute pinnacle of education in the world.
Every single student admitted here was talented and highly educated, even the commoners.
Yet, the fourteen-year-old boy sitting right beside her looked completely lost, lacking even the fundamental knowledge of how to hold a quill and write properly.
Shinazu noticed her intense golden gaze directly on him and started sweating attempting to look entirely normal, definitely not suspicious.
She looked at his panicked expression and she narrowed her eyes in deep contemplation.
Did he never studied…?
Slowly, she sighed and averted her gaze, returning her attention to her own difficult test paper.
Meanwhile, Shinazu was experiencing absolute hell.
She saw me!
She definitely saw my paper!
I’m completely finished!
She must be laughing historically at me inside her head right now!
Shinazu quietly continued practicing different words with the quill.
His movements were still awkward, but he was gradually becoming more comfortable with it.
The difficult questions weren’t even his biggest problem right now, his struggle was with writing itself.
Though he clearly knew words and characters, everything he had learned came from discarded newspapers, books, and scribbling with sticks and stones on the dirt ground.
Thirty minutes passed.
Akira silently glanced sideways again.
Shinazu had finally managed to write his name cleanly: Shinazu Tsukuyomi.
Every letter stood completely apart from the others.
There was no elegance, no cursive lines, just crude, separated characters.
He really can’t write properly, she thought.
But now, he seemed to have gotten used to the feel of the quill, and his speed had improved considerably.
Meanwhile, Shinazu reread the test paper.
Twice.
Three times.
Then, the harsh reality hit him again, the only answer he actually knew on the entire sheet was his own name.
Sensei said failure will have catastrophic results and what will I tell Minato-sensei?
That I failed on the very first test?
He grabbed his head with both hands, panicking hard.
He kept staring at it blankly or quite a few minutes then, his eyes suddenly widened.
Wait.
What if I…
Celestial Moon Eyes.
Stage 1: Star Sight.
Deep within his black eyes countless stars started to glimmer with faint slivery light and his empowered vision changed everything.
Glowing letters started manifesting before him as he looked at any question with a will to get an answer, and all the correct answers started floating perfectly below their respective questions.
A wide evil grin spread across his face and without a moment of hesitation, Shinazu lowered his head and began writing down the floating information.
But he still moved painfully slowly and steadily, trying his best to make the letters readable.
Akira glanced at him from the corner of her eye and he was still writing with the speed of a turtle.
At least he’s trying.
She sighed inwardly before averting her attention back to her own test.
One and a half hours later, most of the students had finished whatever answers they could manage to pull from their heads and nervous glances started to spread across the classroom as some students quietly looked around at each other, but most of them didn’t knew one another well enough to trust each other for help on the very first day.
“Cheating will result in immediate expulsion.” Kana said calmly but her words carried terrifying reality which made anyone even looking idly to snap their heads down, staring blankly at their desks.
Meanwhile, Shinazu kept writing at his slowpoke speed, concentrated on making each character as clear as possible.
…
Ring-!
“Time’s up.”
With a sharp wave of her hand, Kana channeled her wind magic and instantly, all twenty answer sheets lifted from their marbled desks and flew toward her podium as the clock ran out of time and the three hours passed by.
Shinazu was still in the middle of writing, and a tragic expression appeared on his face as sensei immediately took the papers away.
But after a moment, he let out a sigh of relief.
I was only able to finish seventy questions…
but that’s okay.
At least I won’t fail and an average is score better to not stand out among these nobles.
Thoroughly satisfied, he placed his quill down with a joyful smile.
Hope the mysterious lady would forgive me for using her gifted eyes for cheating in a test paper?
I really apologize.
His face was concentrated with happiness, completely forgetting that Akira was gazing at him with a cold, icy look.
Kana-sensei quickly checked the sheets.
Then, she suddenly stopped and her eyes narrowed tightly as she looked at one specific answer sheet.
Then she looked toward Shinazu, who immediately looked away, staring out the window.
She’s looking right at me….
He sweated, I am sorry it was my first time using a quill, don’t curse me for a bad handwriting, I tried my best.
he cried internally, but Kana kept glancing repeatedly between him and his paper.
Don’t panic.
If you don’t make eye contact, maybe she won’t notice.
He tried calming himself down as he was somehow scared to be scolded on the very first day twice.
Kana stared for another long moment, and sighed before sorting everything neatly and putting them inside her storage ring.
“Now then, allow me to explain how Himetsu Royal Academy functions.”
Everyone in the room looked forward with attention.