"Do your best, Ruka!" Makise shouted from outside of the campus gates.
Nodding her head towards Makise, Ruka nervously made his way inside.
Ruka has just graduated high school and was now about to take the exam on the reigning number one school for mages of their city, Triage Magic Academy.
Due to her outstanding mana aptitude and equally outstanding mana results on mana control exams, she was able to obtain a chance for a scholarship. However, the scholarship would only shoulder half of the tuitions if she isn't able to enter the Special Class. And with the already low admission rate of the academy even, managing to get in the top class seemed felt impossible to her when talented individuals from across the four bastions aimed to enter it too.
As Ruka entered the hall, one of the proctors stopped her.
"You must be Miss Nagano Ruka." The proctor greeted Ruka as she offered a handshake.
"Umm... Who are you, ma'am?" Ruka timidly asked.
"I'm Katelyn. I'm here to guide you to your exam room. Please follow me." Katelyn, the female instructor, lowered her hand and started walking towards the door on the other side of the hall.
Ruka looked at the large hall filled with examinees before looking back towards Katelyn's back. Not knowing what to do, she just followed the female proctor.
Katelyn led Ruka to a corridor before finally stopping beside a door. She then gestured for Ruka to go inside.
"You should take a seat. They will begin in a few moments." Katelyn explained before going back.
Ruka could hear voices from inside the room. Curious, she opened the door and slowly entered while making as little noise as possible.
"Ugh! Do I really have to do drag around a bunch of chicks and teach them tricks and stuff? I didn't have to do this apprentice thing when I was a freshman." A blonde girl could be seen arguing with someone.
"Miss Foster, we both know you were a special case. Your skills back then could already match those of a third-year student. The headmaster simply deemed it unnecessary for you to be an apprentice then." A woman in a suit answered in a calm manner.
"Then can't he just exempt me again? Everybody already knows my temper. What are you gonna do if I accidentally blast those chicks to bits?" The girl continued to argue with no intention of letting up.
"You should give up Miss Firecracker. This is a requirement for moving up." A young man chimed in from the side.
Alisa, the blonde girl, instantly swung her eyes towards the mocking voice.
"Do you want me to blast you instead, Jake?" Her eyes were showing tiny little sparks.
Jake just shrugged at her provocation and sat down.
"You should stay away from her, Jake. Her stupidity may be contagious." Someone else remarked, which almost immediately attracted Alisa's glaring eyes.
"You wanna fight too? Go on, stand up! I'll take you and your whole team on." Alisa sneered.
"Tsk."
"Miss Foster, please calm yourself." The woman in a suit.
"Heh, cowards." Alisa mocked the man who insulted her.
"Umm... E-excuse me?"
Ruka, who witnessed all this spoke which drew almost all of the eyes from the room towards her. This made the timid girl shrink back.
"I want that little chick then." Alisa told the woman as she pointed her finger towards Ruka.
"Oi! You can't just call dibs on people." Jake laughed at the side.
"None of you can stop me anyway."
Jake and Alisa continued to banter in front of the classroom.
"Psst! This way." A girl waved at Ruka. It was Amy, her ex-classmate.
Amy pointed to the seat beside her and smiled at Ruka.
"Please don't mind my sister that much. She has always been that way, acting on impulse."
"Sister?"
"Yeah, Alisa Foster. Number two of Special Class III."
Amy looked towards Alisa with an admiring gaze.
"Umm, can you tell me why we're here? Aren't we supposed to take a test."
"Oh, that? Since you're here, you don't need to do that. The 30 students here have been selected to skip past all the tests and are sure to become our classmates on the Special Class."
Ruka was surprised. She got all worked up and was barely able to sleep last night for nothing. What came to mind next was why she was chosen. There were thousands of examinees in the main hall, all of which were definitely cream of the crop. Even with her outstanding potential, she could not believe that it would be this easy to get in.
"You know the apprenticeship between the freshmen and third-year students right?"
Ruka nodded. It was common knowledge for everyone that students in their third year were required to take freshmen students as apprentices, the top 10 required at least 3. Freshmen students from the Special Class are also expected to become apprentices.
It was then that Ruka realized who the 10 students at the front were. They were the best of their year, the 10 Magnus. Admiration filled her eyes as she quietly watched the commotion slowly die down.
"Alright fine, just give me whoever." Alisa seemed to have calmed down and just wanted to get this over with.
"We should begin."
The woman wearing a suit glanced at her watch. She looked at the silent students as she stood in front of the class.
"I'll make this quick and I will not repeat it again, so listen carefully. The 30 of you have been pre-selected to be part of the Special Class I..."
The woman may have said she was going to make it quick but everyone in the room still felt like an eternity passed due to the excessive formalities and boring speech she used. Even the attentive Ruka was feeling her energy slowly getting drained.
Miss Firecracker sitting at the front was likely feeling the same, her eyes even twitching from irritation. When she finally couldn't hold it any longer she shouted.
"Quick my ass! Finish this already. We don't have time for your 50-page speech that you most likely practiced for over a month!" Alisa stood up and stomped her feet, the 9 other Magnus laughed at the sight.
"Ehem..." The woman coughed awkwardly.
"The 10 top third years behind me will each select three to become their apprentice..." The woman continued to talk but this time, evidently more concise. She was probably embarrassed when Alisa hit the bullseye.
A few minutes later...
"Oi! Why didn't you guys give me my sister?"
Alisa looked at her peers and asked.
"Oh, she asked me to take her." Jake answered.
"Is that true?" Alisa raised her brows and turned to Amy sitting beside Ruka.
"Yes, senior."
"Why?"
Amy then stood up and said seriously, "I didn't want to be on the same team as my rival."
She looked at Ruka beside her and smiled.
Ruka pointed at herself confusedly. "Me!?"
Alisa nodded at her little sister. She then took a look at the files on her hand. One of them being Ruka's and the others were from identical twins. One of the twins was a quiet boy, the other one kept on talking to her sibling.
After quickly reading through the folders, Alisa turned to Ruka and asked, "You have pretty good potential, can you show me what spells you can use?"
"I can't." Ruka cast her eyes down.
"I figured as much. They wouldn't have let me have you if you were as perfect as your records say."
Alisa opened Ruka's files once more and shook her head.
"A- Mana pool with A Mana control, such a waste of potential. By practising mana control without actual practice spells, you have turned your mana pool attributeless."
Ruka's head dipped even lower as she heard her talk. It couldn't be helped, though. She had no way of getting a spell for practice. It was far too expensive for her and her sisters. not to mention, they were already deep in debt. Hearing that she may have destroyed her future depressed her.
"I know someone who might be able to help you. But I already have a hard time getting him to teach me stuff. He's always missing when I look for him to..." Alisa muttered to herself the end of her sentence.
When Ruka heard that there was hope, her eyes lit up. She clenched her fists and promised herself to not miss any opportunity.
"This is fine I guess. All I need are obedient little chicks who will follow my orders." Alisa turned to the three 'chicks' and said, "Let's go. I'll show you around before you go home."
Ruka shook her head. She doubted any freshmen in that room would dare to disobey the Lightning Goddess in front of her. Alisa Foster was famous even outside the campus. People would either obey her from respect or from fear, it was one or the other.
***
As she excitedly went home, Ruka even jumped a couple of times while she walked. However, her excitement soon died down when she saw a few familiar black vehicles in front of their apartment building. She ran past the cars and went straight home.
Ruka got out of the elevator and on the corridor, she could already see two men in black suits beside their door. They bowed simultaneously towards her as she opened it.
Inside the tiny little apartment, she saw Mizuki talking with someone on the table, behind her was Makise gritting her teeth.
"Sister?"
"Ah, Ruka come here." Mizuki beckoned her to her side.
"Did you get in the Special Class?" She smiled warmly at Ruka.
The man sitting in front of Mizuki and Makise stood up.
"I'll come back at a later date."
He nodded at Ruka as he passed her. Once he was at the doorsteps he stopped and said, "It's already been decided. Whether you agree or not, does not matter. Miss Ruka will inherit the clan with or without her consent. The old master has already been thinking about it even before he came back anyway."
The steps gradually faded away. What was left was the four girls in the apartment filled with silence.