Nearing the Final Day

"What?" exclaimed Leo in surprise, unsure of what he had heard.

"Are you sure about that?" Austin asked.

"Of course," Jeffrey nodded his head, "You guys don't need to worry about it. I am still a noble. Even if my family takes my name away, I still have a large amount of gold in my personal banking account. Plus," he turned to Leo, "You can always just pay me back later."

In an instant, Leo quickly wanted to refuse. But he hesitated at the thought of Jeffrey's offer.

'It's not like I can't pay it back eventually. Plus, it really doesn't seem like it would bother him...'

There weren't too many negatives in taking this loan. He was mostly just being too cautious.

"It's fine," Jeffrey reassured, "Even if it's a hundred gold coins, I wouldn't be less off. You don't even have t- you can take whatever time you need to pay me back."

Jeffrey was quickly about to say that Leo didn't have to pay him back at all. However, he stopped himself in consideration of his friend's concern.

Leo caught on to what Jeffrey was implying and understood that he probably shouldn't refuse right away.

"Thank you," said Leo as he sincerely lowered his head, "If I ever do feel like quitting, then I'll consider your help."

"It's fine really," Jeffrey replied while taking a letter with a seal on it, "This is an enchanted letter that is traced to me," he handed it over, "Burn that parchment after writing on it and it will be sent over to where I am."

After that, he took out another one of the same design and handed it over to Austin.

"Eh?!" Austin exclaimed as he held it in his palms.

Jeffrey laughed at his friend's reaction, "Haha, you too. If there is anything you get in trouble with, just contact me and I'll see if I can support you."

Austin tried to hand it back but Jeffrey remained adamant.

Leo looked at the young noble with an even more favorable impression.

'Sigh. Now that I've accepted it, it would only be rude not to use it...

'Well, that is if it doesn't go too well.'

----------

As the months passed, spring soon became summer. The climate was hot and students all around at Halo Academy were seen wearing clothing with short sleeves.

It was now a period where examinations and tests would be supplied to the students. However, it was only for those who were on their last year at the school. Those of younger grades had different schedules and already left Halo Academy to return home.

With only the older students remaining, the teachers had a more relaxed time.

"Ahhh, our final evaluations..." Austin commented as he finished his last class for the day.

He was currently walking to the school's library with Leo.

Once there in the quiet environment, they immediately took out their books and began reviewing.

They had already agreed to review together on their courses.

Even if they did not share the same subjects, it was always good to have a companion when studying.

"Whew, I'm so nervous," Austin pretended to be wiping off sweat from his forehead, "I can't imagine what would happen if I don't get a good mark..."

"Cheh, easy for you to say," Leo openly scoffed, earning several looks from the surrounding students in the library that were concentrating in silence, "Your grades are so high, you should be able to pass even if you only get half marks in all your exams."

"Yeah, but," complained Austin as he stretched his arms up lazily in the air while putting on a worried expression, "I have so many subjects..."

Leo wanted to scoff again but held himself back in consideration of the other students. So he simply rolled his eyes at his friend.

'How shameless are you to say that to me...'

Of course, he knew that Austin was just joking around to cope with the moment. The two had long learned that it was important to keep a relaxed mind while studying. Naturally, his friend was simply putting on some dry humor.

"Come on, let's study already," murmured Leo, "Let's set the jokes aside for now."

"Mm," Austin responded while lowering his arms and suddenly keeping a stoic face.

For the next few days before the exams, they spent several hours in the library studying, debating, and asking questions to one another.

More than once, Leo had wished that he should have dropped some of his classes during this year. Even so, he still continued reading, memorizing, and practicing.

After about a week, the exams finally started.

----------

The first exam day soon came in the month of June.

Students were heading to classes and/or labs to either write tests or demonstrate what they have learned with magic.

Before today, the students had been given schedules that told them when and where their examinations would take place.

Austin's first test would be on the day after, hence he was not out of his room right now.

Instead, Leo would be starting his first test today.

He didn't complain, though. Considering that he had more classes, it felt good to start them early.

'Based on my schedule, I should at least finish all my exams a day later than Austin.'

Arriving at his first class, Leo prepared his writing tools.

The first test was on History. There weren't any practice demonstrations for this course, only exams on pure knowledge.

"Not a bad start I guess..." Leo mumbled to himself as a teacher started handing papers out.

----------

The week went by in a flash.

In this time, Leo had completed the written tests for History, Geography, and Law Studies.

Previously, last year, when deciding on which subjects to take, Leo had considered following a similar path to Austin. Hence, he had decided to study Bavalon's laws in consideration of having to give up his dreams of adventure and settle for a different work.

Now, however, Leo kind of regretted picking the subject as he did not feel like he had been invested in it as much as he hoped.

'I wasn't too comfortable with some of the questions. But I should have passed, I think."

Despite not feeling too confident, Leo did feel certain that he had done a good job on History and Geography. He felt he had much greater resonance with those subjects and was able to accurately recall many things during the tests, particularly for Geography.

'One has to know of the different wonders of the world if one must explore it, after all." he thought.

The current day did not have anything for him to do except studying, so he was relaxing his mental state and heading outside to review his other courses.

Austin was unfortunately unable to attend with him as he had a practice demonstration to attend to.

As for Jeffrey, he was currently off somewhere else for reasons he didn't say.

After finishing his reviews, Leo then headed to a training room. It was not the one for combat practice, however, as Leo did not have any tests assigned for his clubs. It was instead a training room where students can safely practice magic.

For his next examinations in the following week, he would have to display spells from different magic systems he had learned in his classes. The written tests for those same subjects would be done on the week after.

----------

"Maaaannnn, I'm exhausted," Austin yawned, "How many exams do you still have? I still need to do a written Alchemy test."

"Just two," Leo tiredly replied, "Both are magic demonstrations involving Elemental Spells and Enchantment."

"So you already did the written tests before those?"

"Yeah, our teachers felt that it was more appropriate in this order."

It was currently the final week.

Most students were already done with their exams while the rest were wrapping it up.

For now, Leo and Austin were in a training room, practicing spells and experiments on a table.

"Have you mastered any new advanced spells yet?" Austin curiously asked.

Leo's brows furrowed slightly.

"No," he sighed, "I think I've reached my limit at this school."

"Well... It's okay," Austin patted his friend on the shoulder, "They don't have too much influence on the exams anyway."

In almost every human magic system, there are ranks among the different spells (or skills, in the case of warriors) that a person can study. They are usually divided into Beginner, Low, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master.

For most young mages, learning Intermediate spells is the norm. Those who can master Advanced spells, however, are considered people with amazing talent. As for Master level, one has to have the luck of the gods to be able to learn them before adulthood.

It would usually take many years time to comprehend and utilize Master spells.

Of course, when considering the mysteriousness of magic, logically categorizing every spell will not always work. There are unique instances where new ranks are created to identify those that exist outside the usual ranking system. Examples often include the divine spells used by deities.