"Did you pack your lunch? Your emergency kit? Your first aid kit? Your healing crystals? Your-"
"Sakura, I have packed everything I could fit into my pocket storage. Any more and it will burst out. You don't need to worry so much about my safety and health. I will be alright and I will also come back safely."
Sakura pouted at Amane's words but the worry in her eyes did not go anywhere.
It was finally time for the weekend test and Amane had been looking forward to this the whole week now.
This was the most exciting thing that was about to happen for the whole week and Amane had a few plans about what to do when she reached the Lyco forest.
As soon as Amane had read the necessary information about the 'Survival test', she had done her best to go through as much information about the Lyco forest as she could.
Now obviously, knew that the location that was chosen for a student test won't be extremely dangerous. There were not the same war times Amane had lived in before so the level of danger was not the same.
But that did not mean that the Lyco forest did not have any kind of research value for Amane. There were a few small beasts that Amane wanted to take a look at and study while the test was ongoing.
'Besides, I know Nadia is planning something big for this Survival test. It might turn out to be much more fun than I anticipate it being.'
"Fine, I will stop nagging you now. But are you sure you have everything ready?"
"Of course. See, I have all the supplies and I have Nebi for protection. Everything will be alright in the end."
"Hebi? Wait, isn't that-"
The Naga names Hebi slithered out of Amane's wide-sleeved and hissed at Sakura. The younger girl let out a startled yell at the closeness of that snake.
The Naga Amane had managed to find was a rare albino specie and it was highly lethal with its poison.
"Y-Y-Yoko, I am sure it's illegal to take a beast on this Survival Test. You will get expelled if you take it. Better yet, why do you even have a Naga with you? Isn't it too dangerous to keep one in the main house? How long did you have it for? Is it even tamed?"
Sakura was shaking in her place. Her legs looked like they were about to give out and the scene was so cute that it made Amane want to tease her even more.
'Should I do it? Well, fuck it. I want to tease Sakura even more.'
"Don't worry, Hibi is trained. I handed it to Eclipse as a training dummy and he finally succeeded yesterday. Would you like to hold Hibi now?"
If Sakura was shaking before then he had gone deadly still now.
"E-Eclipse tamed it? Is it even safe for you to hold that beast? Isn't Eclipse too weak to be able to tame anything? Yoko let go. Let go of the beast now."
It was amusing to see Sakura try and brave her fear of the snake beast to try and save Yoko's life.
"Don't worry, it is perfectly safe. Won't you agree, Eclipse? Here, you hold Hibi to show Sakura how safe it is."
Eclipse shuddered at Amane's commanding tone but he came forward without any delay.
Unlike Sakura, Eclipse had a healthy amount of fear inside him but he also had talent. He extended his hand to hold the Naga by its neck to not get bitten.
Eclipse was talented in the art of beast taming but he was still an immature brat. There was no way a beast as strong as Naga would listen to him right now.
And as expected, the Naga struggled to get out of Eclipse's grasp. Its body struggled to get free and even managed to overpower Eclipse's grasp.
But Amane picked up the Naga before it could bite Eclipse and cradled it close to her chest. The beast calmed down instantly.
"SEE! I told you it was not tamed. We cannot trust Eclipse's control."
Sakura finally got to prove a point. She had been trying to diss Eclipse ever since Amane had brought the half-demon home.
Maybe she did not even realize how jealous she sounded in those moments. It brought a chuckle to Amane's lips to realize that.
"Yoko, stop laughing and kill that beast already."
"Don't worry Sakura, Hibi is trained. I was the one who tamed it so I can handle any of its moods as well. Besides, I already read the rules and we are permitted the use our abilities in this survival test. Hibi is already the safest beast I can take with me."
Sakura opened her mouth to refute before realizing how true Amane's words were.
The only other small beast Amane had was the phoenix chick but a forest was not a good place to take a phoenix chick.
Especially when the one Amane had was in its molting stages. The forest would catch fire if she did that.
"Fine, you win. But don't take any weird beast home this time. God knows that you are a trouble magnet when it comes to these things."
"Don't worry I will be careful. And I will try to not bring anything weird home this time, be it a beast or a human."
"Hey, what does that even mean? Yoko, tell me you are joking! HEY, COME BACK HERE-"
Sakura's cry of disbelief reached Amane's ears and she giggled in amusement. It was so easy and fun to rile Sakura up. She could not wait to come back and do this again.
___________________________
"Lady Yoko, this way. You were late so the teacher already gave us the map and basic supplies. We are supposed to handle everything else on our own now. Oh, you should also check in now to show that you are present."
The enthusiastic voice that had called out to Amane belonged to no one else but Lady Ely Zhen.
The green-haired lady was currently calling out to Amane right in the middle of the gathering space. The people around her looked uncomfortable to be standing near her but Lady Ely seemed unaware of it all.
Her eyes were centered on Amane and shining in excitement.
'Man, if anyone had any doubt of Lady Ely's crush on me then it should be gone by now. How careless can this girl be?'
Lady Faridha's suffering sigh from Lady Elys' side mirrored how Amane felt about her situation.
'I guess even Lady Faridha agreed that Lady Ely is hopeless in hiding her feelings. How did this girl manage to get this far with such a native attitude? Just how good is her luck?'
Amane shook her head as she made her way over to her group. One person was missing from her group and Amane could feel the familiar presence creeping up behind her.
It looked like Nadia had a plan that involved scaring Yoko but Amane had already sensed her.
'Should I scare her back? Or should I let Nadia approach me?'
Amane had a choice until she didn't anymore because Lady Faridha decided to be the spoil-sport and alert Amane publicly of Lady Faridha's approach.
"Is there a reason you are creeping around like this, Herman? There is no need to walk on eggshells around us since we are groupmates now."
Just as Lady Faridha spoke those words, Amane turned around as well. Nadia's face looked red and embarrassed.
She looked at Amane from the corner of her eyes as if begging for help before realizing that she was not getting her message across.
"Hahaha, of course not. Why do I have to walk on eggshells around Lady Faridha and Lady Zhen? And Yoko and I are friends who understand each other. I think Lady Faridha is mistaken about something."
Nadia's face looked pale at the sudden call-out but she handled it somehow.
'Darn, Nadia got saved hard. Hibi would have taken a bit out of her if she had touched me.'
Amane could feel Hibi moving all over her body. The Naga had a special ability that allowed them to remain dormant on someone's body in the shape of a shadow tattoo unless they were called upon.
Even now, Amane could feel Hibi moving all over her breast area and toward her arm instead.
'And this is why I chose to wear long-sleeves today. Baking in the sun was well worth the trade-off.'
"Anyway, now that we are all here, we can head into the forest. Different teams have different spots available for setting up camp and ours is quite far away. Even though this forest doesn't have any ferocious beasts nearby, I still want to maintain caution."
Lady Faridha took the leadership role and Amane let her. If it was about seniority or experience, Amane was much more apt to be the leader but it did not suit her style.
Being a leader meant responsibility and work. Amane had enough of it back home, she did not need any more of this during school hours as well.
"Hey, why are you the leader of this group? Shouldn't it be Yoko since she's the oldest person in our group?"
And of course, the one who said that was Nadia. That girl was not stupid but she chose to make things worse at the wrong time for herself.
She was already on bad terms with Faridha but this would make the crack even bigger.
'Does she think that she can get my favor if she speaks up for me like this? Sorry honey, but I don't do things that way.'
"I don't mind Lady Faridha being the leader it is convenient for me if I stay in the background and I am not good at leading anyway."
Amane could feel Lady Faridha's eyes boring into her back. Even Lady Ely looked stunned at Amane's instant refusal to consider leadership.
"B-But you are the Tsurugi family head. You have to lead us here or it will be a hit to your reputation. Does it not matter to you what people say about you?"
Nadia's words sounded passionate and pained. Her throat sounded a little choked as she spoke those words aloud.
"Ara, are you worried about my reputation and honor, Nadia? But as far as I know, this issue had nothing to do with you nor do you need to look this deeply into my matters. Why is my reputation being ruined worrying you so much?"
Nadia had a 'deep caught in the street-light' expression on her face. It went white and then red before going white again.
Her mouth opened and closed like a goldfish before it settled into a resigned expression.
"Fine, do what you want to. But we should hurry up and go in. We are the last group standing out here and the test is about to start."
Amane wanted to probe more into the issue but Nadia had successfully managed to change the topic.
The sun was about to rise which meant that the time for the test had started.
"She's right. We should head in now. We can think over our options later once we settle down a little."
Amane let her words fall from her lips after she heard Ely's suggestion. She did not want to make things worse for Ely so she agreed.
Even Faridha let the rest of the matter and their party finally entered the testing grounds.
"Then, I will head out and scout the area. You all head toward our camping site and make yourself home."
Amane pointed toward the direction the party needed to go to set up their tent.
Once they were gone, Amane raised her sleeve and the tattoo on her arm slithered down to the ground.
It flopped around until the dark matter fell off and the Naga was visible again.
"Go out and scout the area. Tell me if you find something interesting."
The Naga made a saluting motion with its tail before it ran away. Now one of the matters was taken care of. And Amane had some time to explore the forest on her own.