She thanked the man and walked out of the waiting area. As she was about to go to her mother outside of the arena, she saw the four new friends she made, waiting.
"Lady Ponterise, did you get a perfect score?" Rosa excitedly asked as the other three anticipated.
"Yeah..." Nera shyly replied as she scratched her head.
"Amazing!" Dianne exclaimed, "You'll do exceptionally great tomorrow, I'm sure of it."
Gerald nodded and Ren crossed his arms with a smile on his face.
"Good thing Rosa befriended you." Ren chuckled, as Nera did. Ren took a slap from each of his friends. "I was joking! Even Lady Ponterise laughed!"
As they continued to chuckle, they heard a snicker from behind them.
"Congratulations on acing this test, Lady Ponterise." A woman with silver hair, tied into a ponytail but still able to reach beyond her shoulders and ruby-red eyes. "So the rumors about you being the black sheep aren't inherently true."
Her words may seem nice, but the tone of her voice sounded as if she were mocking Nera. Crossing her arms, she had an arrogant smirk plastered on her face.
Nera's eyes widened and her body stiffened as she glanced over to the confident person standing behind her. She was with two other people, a girl who had purple hair, the same as her own, and the other with blue.
"Greetings, Lady Alacase, may the goddess bring her blessings upon you." Rosa, Ren, Gerald, and Dianne all bowed at the same time and greeted.
"Pfft," Lady Alacase sneered. "You're hanging out with a Baron and a Viscount's child? You don't have any tact, Lady Ponterise?"
Nera furrowed her eyebrows but couldn't reply to anything, so Dianne did first.
"We are honored to be in your presence, my lady," Dianne spoke elegantly while lowering her head even further.
"You should be." Lady Alacase scoffed and raised her eyebrow at Nera. "Good luck tomorrow, Lady Ponterise. Let's see if you can live up to everyone's expectations." She walked away with her entourage while waving her fingers.
When they were far enough, the four nobles raised their heads.
"Hah..." Rosa sighed. "Are you alright, Dianne?"
"Of course." Dianne smiled.
"Man, that person is terrifying up close." Ren shivered and Gerald nodded his head in agreement.
"I'm sorry for that..." Nera, finally coming back to her senses, apologized.
"Why are you saying sorry, Lady Ponterise?" Dianne reassured Nera, "She's already known to be that pompous, no need to worry."
Nera bitterly smiled at Dianne and Ren, who Lady Alacase mocked directly.
"Anyway, how did you all do?" Nera changed the topic. They mentioned their grades and she clapped excitedly for them, "Everyone got a 90%! That's nice."
Ren sighed, "We can't be too happy about this though, there's still the aura and mental test."
"Yeah, those two are going to be the real challenges." Dianne nodded.
"I'm sure you'll do great too. You've practiced for this, right? We just have to do our best tomorrow and the next day." Nera grinned, showing her teeth. Her smile made the others smile as well, as they nodded in agreement.
They bid their goodbyes and Nera walked to her mother who was smiling proudly.
"My baby..." Peryani hugged her daughter tightly. "You did so great, my girl." She gently tucked Nera's hair behind her ear.
"Thank you, mother..." Nera grinned in response, and then noticed the two silver-haired people behind her mother.
"I knew you were strong, but this is just spectacular!" Jasmine jumped over Nera and wrapped her hands around her waist.
Nera continued to smile at her friend. 'Man, I'm so glad to see Jasmine after that encounter...'
"You did alright," Jamie mumbled as he glanced around at Nera, avoiding her gaze.
Jasmine rolled her eyes at her brother's words. 'As if you didn't praise her out loud earlier.'
"Thanks," Nera smirked. "Even though that comment was lackluster, I still appreciate the words, comedy man."
"Comedy man?" Jamie raised his eyebrow in confusion. "When have I ever delved into comedy?"
"Never mind it." Nera shrugged and waved her hand in front of her.
After seeing Jamie for so long, she couldn't help but remember her revelation a month ago. She laughed in her head remembering all the hardships he went through in the novel as the personal advisor of the Crown Prince.
'Ah, your time will come, Jamie...'
Peryani and Nera rode their carriage back home after Jasmine finally finished congratulating her friend repeatedly.
Nera immediately came to her room and after washing up, she plopped herself on her bed.
'That was still extremely tiring despite exercising for a whole year...'
She thought that her exercise wasn't enough. Even though she had the upper hand when it came to physical abilities alone, she still had a long way to go without using aura.
Nera said to herself that she'll worry about it next time as she still had the aura test to worry about tomorrow.
"Oh, right... I wanted to ask Father about Count Pentrefila." She mumbled but afterwards, she fell asleep.
***
Nera woke up, moonlight shining through her windows.
She saw her crystal bead was blinking, meaning she missed a call and they left her a voice message instead. She opened it and Felya's voice came out.
"Hmm, hello, Nera. I found out from Aunt Peryani that you passed with flying colors so I'm here to congratulate you." Felya's strict and graceful voice came out from the bead.
"Why are you so stiff?" Nera chuckled after hearing Felya.
"As I'm still not fond of using this device, I'll express my other words through a letter I'll send after the whole exam. Good luck to the next ones, dear cousin."
And with that, the voice message ended.
"Thanks..." Nera mumbled and she stretched her body as she stood up from her bed.