A Turn of Events

"Are you feeling better? My name is-."

"...Perukono Alivist." Viv cut him off, his face weary. "You are well known."

 "Ah...haha, well I hope it's for good reason, is there anything we can do to make you feel better?"

 "..." Cautiously looking at Perukono's kindhearted, and earnest expression, Viv turned his gaze away and didn't respond. Instead, he looked toward Elva briefly.

"..I'm sorry, you must be feeling under the weather, and two strangers have arrived in the midst of it." Perukono smiled understandably. "The Doctor should be arriving any moment now..."

 ..Two?

As Perukono was talking, Viv's eyes slowly shifted to the dark purple cloak in the corner, whose presence was basically nonexistent despite sticking out obviously from the white room. If it weren't for the fact Perukono mentioned it, Viv would have disregarded the figure too.

 Let's ignore him for now.

 A sneaking feeling came onto Vivillian, telling him that the presence in the corner was most likely the last capture target that was hardest to capture and deal with. There was too much trouble on his hands currently, so for now, he feigned ignorance.

 "Elva, what happened?" Viv turned to the only person he found strangely reliable, he was too distracted earlier, only finding his senses clearing up after clinging to him.

 "After you suddenly felt sick, I tried to carry you here but it took too long. So Sir Perukono and his friend helped bring you here." Elva looked awkward, scratching his face. "Are you..."

"I'm fine physically." Was the only response Vivillian gave, but his voice was indeed softer when talking to Elva compared to the others.

 "You..."

 There was obviously something wrong with Viv, but neither Elva nor Perukono felt it was appropriate enough to argue with a the stubborn patient.

"Ahem, anyways, you don't have to address me as Sir, I'm not even officially knighted yet..." Perukono said humbly, blushing a little at Elva's words from earlier.

 "Ah, sorry then."

 "No no, it's fine..."

 Slowly, an awkward silence filled the room, as Viv closed his eyes again and steadied his breathing, leaving Elva and Perukono to simply exist there.

"Apologies for being late! Where's the patient?" At that moment, the door flew open, and a woman flew in.

It was the nice older lady with gray curls who did the announcement at the start of the magic exam.

"I'm fine physically, I just need to-," Viv tried to interject, opening his eyes to protest when the nice older lady hushed him.

"You look horribly pale my child, let's just do a quick examination to ease me and your friends's worried hearts." The Doctor said in a warm tone, quickly coming over and casting magic over Viv, and using various medical instruments.

"..." Viv felt awkward as he did all of this in front of the others.

"Hm...you do seem physically fine..." After a while, the Doctor looked worried but the results came back showing no problem.

"Since you guys know i'm fine, I just need to rest alone for a bit." Sighing, Viv lowered his gaze and pulled a blanket over him.

There's nothing you or magic can find here.

Feeling tired, Viv felt slightly grateful to Elva for being there. As his condition got better, Viv felt his eyes slowly closed as he heard the others converse quietly. Unable to make out their words, he fell asleep.

—-

 Darvillion stayed in the corner of the hospital room, leaning against the wall lazily as he watched the Doctor converse with both Elva and Perukono.

Soon after Viv fell asleep, they took their conversation outside the room, unintentionally leaving Darvillion behind.

"...What utter fools. What if I had wanted to hurt the little patient...?" Muttering under his breath, Darvillion slowly walked over to the side of the bed, where Vivillian lie asleep.

 "Hm, Vivillian Ambrosia..." Reaching out his hand, he touched the soft brown hair lying on the pillowcase. "Ambrosia...it reminds me of someone...but who, I do not know."

 Pulling his hand away, Darvillion took a look at the sleeping face.

 "Well, maybe we will see each other again, Ambrosia."

 With a laugh, a dark fog covered the room, and by the time it dissipated, Darvillion was long gone.

—-

"Sorry to hear that you were feeling under the weather during the event." A school administrator came to the nurse's office after Viv had woken up and eaten a meal.

It was the lady on stage of the magical aptitude test, wearing a nice light pink dress with auburn hair. Turns out she was the school's Director of Magic, and not an actual teacher.

 "You may call me Ms. Emile, Vivillian." Emile introduced herself, as she sat on the chair beside the bed, her nice outfit swapped out with a long white coat, and comfortable clothes underneath.

 "...Nice to meet you Ms. Emile." Viv bowed his head politely.

 If someone this young looking could become the Director of Magic for the Einsvul's Academy, then she was surely a key side character for in the future, and someone Viv could not handle lightly.

 "Ha, no need for pleasantries, you are a patient right now." Ms. Emile hummed. "But patient or not, we still have to measure your mana capacity as required. If you had left on normal circumstances this would have never happened, but rare instances like medical problems do have exceptions."

 Getting up, Ms. Emile half hazardly waved her finger, opening up a head sized purple portal, much to Viv's surprise.

"Spatial magic is a must for Einsvul Professors." Ms. Emile smiled as she saw Viv's eyes widening. "You must not be too familiar with magic in the capital."

 "...Yes."

 Was the simple answer that followed.

 However, Ms Emile didn't seem to mind as she stuck her hand inside, unceremoniously pulling out a bowling ball sized crystal orb.

 "If you're wondering, yes, it's the same one from the exam." She placed it on the bed, not seeming to care it was a priceless relic of history. "We just decorate it a bit and make it seem more important, in reality though many other orbs like this have been created. This one is only slightly special for being its first."

 ...Should the Director of Magic really be acting like this?

 "Anyways, just as you saw before, place your hand or hover it above the orb." Ms Emile motioned, she seemed oddly excited and more enthusiastic than usual compared to her bored, no shenanigans business self on stage.

Viv raised his hand, holding back the urge to gulp as the orb began to glow.

"...Low mana capacity, affinity is plants." Ms Emile tried to hide the disappointment in her tone, as she assessed the dark greenish orb.

 Low? Him?

For once, Viv felt slightly concerned about his future in this game world. All the other kids who scored low mana capacity were rejected instantly without a thought.

 What an absurd reality, I can talk to some plants and transform into a bird yet I have low mana.

 "Hm, but plants is still a relatively rare element. I heard that the highest level users of those elements could even find ways to bring things to life...." Seeing Viv's darkened expression, Ms Emile misunderstood it as sadness for the low mana capacity, and quickly tried to cover her disappointment.

 "Since your element is quite rare even among the rare ones, I'm sure you will be admitted." Humming, Ms Emile patted Viv on the back. "Any comments or questions before I go? You may stay here until you feel you are eligible enough to go out, if that is what you plan to ask."

 "No, I don't have any questions." Vivillian stared at his hands underneath his the blanket. "Goodbye, Ms Emile."

 "Goodbye, Vivillian." Ms Emile responded politely, and took her leave after shoving the crystal ball back into her purple portal.

As she walked away, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of disappointment.

His explanations and practical theories he wrote in the written exam could rival that of an adult researcher already graduated from Einsvul.

Ms Emile could almost remember how the Director of Education burst into her study, holding two pieces of paper. One of which was the Crown Prince's while the other was the name of an unknown student.

It was only until after the Director of Education prattled excitedly did Ms Emile get why she was worked up.

The Crown Prince was a carefully nurtured and well taught sprout from a young age, it was only natural there would be no one to compete with him other then the Royal Family because of the careful teachings from the best talents in the world.

His paper was everything that was expected of someone of his status, absolutely perfect except for minor spelling mistakes, that deducted off very little points, which would slowly add up.

However even though all the country expected the Crown Prince to score first, he was actually .2 of a point lower than son of Baron Vivillian Ambrosia, who scored flawlessly.

Doing some research on his past teachers, the only teacher that popped up on records was an old senior of hers who truly lost himself after graduation, despite being a top student.

Seeing how he is only 13, Vivillian Ambrosia is bound to be a great scholar when he grows up. But it's a shame, if he had a higher mana capacity he could have become a sage even if his talent grew over the future years.

Ms Emile kicked a stone into the grass, as she walked on the sidewalk.

Yet another promising student failed by an innate lack of mana.

—-

A crowd of students huddled around the bulletin board, chattering excitedly as they celebrated seeing their name under the admitted list, and then comparing written exam scores.

Perukono was deathly silent, and so was Darvillion as they stood side to side with a certain Crown Prince before them.

"...I got second in place hm...and by the guy you guys helped, hm...." William clutched a copy of the written exam scores in his hands. "By 0.2 of point hm..."

Cold sweat dripped down Perukono's back.

S-So was he angry or not?!