In order to be promoted to the level of apprentice witch, you have to pass a written exam and then a practical magical skills exam.
The written exam is simple, and so long as you can drill magic theory, history, and other subjects into your head, nothing could be easier, really. But then there's the practical exam. There's no way around it;
without real ability, you'll have to take it over and over again. As for the contents of the practical exam, they mainly look at two skills: your ability to fly a broom and how you handle offensive magic. Each time the exam is given, only one person may pass. The
exam being given in one week's time would be no different. Winding through the sky on a broom, each aspiring witch would attack the others, trying to take down her opponents while protecting herself.
The last one left would pass the exam and be declared an apprentice witch publicly.
The battles were always violent and hard to watch. The nastiest parts of human nature always seemed to be on full display. I would never want to take the exam again.
"I've got to tell you honestly, Saya. With the ability you possess right now, no matter how earnestly you fight, the chance that you can win against the other candidates is pretty close to zero," I said from atop my broom. It was early in the morning the day after I had promised to help her. "However, close to zero doesn't mean absolute zero. Set your mind at ease."
"Wh-what should I do?!" She was energetic even in the early morning, and her eyes sparkled with excitement. She was as radiant as the morning sun.
I steered my broom over to where she was sitting on the tiled roof, knees folded under her. "First, I'll teach you to control your broom at least as well as I can, if not better."
"Aw… That seems a little tough…" She wrinkled her nose Tough? I'm going easy on you.
"There's no other way to keep up during the practical skills exam. If you go in at your current skill level, you'll probably fall off the moment the exam starts and waste another chance. You've got to avoid that at least."
"Rgh…"
So that's where we're at.
First, I set her to work improving this most basic of magical skills. Just as I had imagined, Saya could barely even fly. (It was so bad that I was ready to question whether I should even call her a mage at all!) I really had to put her through the wringer.
Ah, so this is what mothers feel like teaching their children how to fly on brooms…
We trained from morning until night, as long as the day would allow.
We persevered with our crash course even when the neighborhood children flying freely around us started sneering and pointing.
Naturally, I had not forgotten about searching for my brooch. Saya had seen gradual improvement, but I hadn't made any progress at all.
Seriously, where in the world is my brooch?
"Next is turning. Smoothly shift your body weight and make a quick turn, please."
"Okay!"
"Next is emergency braking and speed boosts. Use the full weight of your body and pull the broom hard to stop it, then burst forward like you're kicking the sky."
"Okay!"
"Next is midair dismounts. After letting go of the broom midair, use magic to call it back. I'll help you out if you get into trouble, so don't worry and just fly."
"Okay!"
"Next is—" Okay, you get the idea.
In the end, Saya quickly learned to control her broom almost as well as I could. As for how many days it took for her to reach that level?
Only two! I had coaxed some amazing improvements out of her.
Really makes you wonder what she's been doing before now…or perhaps it's my teaching that's so good?
When I asked her, Saya told me bashfully, "Until now, I've only studied by myself."
Well, there's your problem.
It was the fourth day of my stay in this country—and the third day of our intensive training regimen. Unlike the search for my brooch, which had not seen any headway (though I had simply been asking around), Saya's education was progressing rapidly and didn't seem like it would stop anytime soon.
"Next, let's study some offensive spells—how is your wind magic?"
"Wind magic?" Saya sat atop the scorched reddish-brown roof, head tilted.
I nodded once and answered, "Yes, wind. By controlling the flow of the air, you can block the other participants."
This was the slightly unconventional method that I had used during my own practical exam. Changing the flow of the air had been surprisingly effective, and even now I remembered how the other contestants had lost their balance and fallen from their brooms or swerved into buildings.
Wind control was both easy to learn and a powerful weapon. If we had enough time, I definitely wanted to teach her.
"Well then, hit that can over there with a blast of wind, please." I pointed at the cans we had set up on the peak of the roof across from us. There was about one house's worth of distance between us and the cans, so it wasn't a difficult task at all.
"It works best if you visualize making a ball of air and hitting the cans with it—like so."
I waved my wand, and instantly, a strong wind grazed one of the cans. It teetered back and forth with a clatter.
I turned to face Saya, who was looking at me dubiously. "It didn't fall down, did it? Did you mess up?" she seemed to be asking.
But I did that on purpose. Really!
"All right, give it a try."
"…L-like this?"
With a whoosh, Saya waved her wand. Air magic is one of the first types of magic a novice witch learns, so she was able to produce a gust of wind, but it merely rushed over the tops of the cans. Too bad.
"You're holding the wand wrong. You're pointing it wrong, too. Wind magic is subtle, so trying to force it won't help."
"Um, okay, how about this?"
Whoosh. The wind flew right past the can, exactly as before.
"Wrong. Like this."
I waved my wand, and the cans clattered against each other again.
Saya let out a small noise of surprise. "Whoa…" She had finally realized I was trying not to knock the cans down.
And then she waved her wand again, more gently this time, with a little "Ey!" She had clearly learned from watching me, but the force behind her magic was too weak. It only produced a light breeze.
…This isn't going well.
"Not quite. Like this."
"Like this?"
Swing and a miss.
"Totally wrong. Like this."
"H-how's this?!"
The wind didn't even brush the cans.
"Just awful. Like this, watch."
"Something like this, then!"
...
It was a lost cause. Truly. My instructions made no difference whatsoever.
Time to kick things up a notch. I went around behind her and took hold of both of her wrists. Saya's shoulders hitched in surprise, and I spoke into her ear.
"Are you ready? I'm going to channel some wind magic into your wand. Remember how it feels."
"W-with my body?"
"Yes, with your body." I nodded, and for some reason, her ears were bright red. "Okay, here we go—"
There, like that.
We practiced until the sun went down on the third day, and Saya completely failed to master wind magic.
Somehow she got even worse after I channeled my magic through her… How is that possible? I don't understand.
Obviously, I wasn't attending to Saya constantly. Around midday, I went off by myself and flew around town searching for my brooch, talking to as many different people as I could.
The task was to just keep asking and asking.
Of course, it's not like I expected to find information so easily, and in the end everyone I asked shook their heads and gave the same answer: "I don't know."
"I saw a brooch," said an older woman who looked like she was very experienced with magic. Looking closer, I could see she was wearing a star-shaped brooch of her own over her breast. However, it looked almost as old as she was, and it was quite worn and battered besides.
Oh, it seems like I can expect something out of her. I'm not sure what that "something" is, though…
"Wh-where did you see it?!" I latched onto this news immediately.
The woman let out a very witchy laugh. "Hee-hee-hee… Hmm, I wonder…"
"Please tell me, you wonderful woman!"
"Hee-hee-hee." Suddenly, she was shoving the palm of her hand at me.
"…What does that mean?"
"How much is this information worth to you? Hmm?"
She just stood there with her hand extended toward me. I could read the gesture now: "If you want to hear more, pay up."
…She plays dirty. I'd expect nothing less from a witch…
"..." I silently produced a coin from my purse and dropped it into the woman's hand. When I did, she began moving again, like a windup doll come to life.
"What I saw was—"
The woman's lengthy story only confirmed my suspicions.