The week flew by in a blur as Vera and I dove deep into our preparations for the entrance exam. The exam covered a wide array of topics as expected from the premier academic frontier into magic in the empire. It didn't just test for mana theory, it also covered mathematics, basic physics and chemistry, and reading and writing.
Mana theory would probably be a cinch for me since I do have around 5 years of experience of using mana under my belt and all the books I've read about it. Reading and writing should also be doable for both me and Vera with our shared love for reading. It was mathematics, physics, and chemistry that worried me.
Sure, I've read through books on those topics throughout the years, but I've never actually put them into practice. Thankfully, reading and writing was the portion of the exams that held the most weight according to Lady Artanis. They reasoned that knowledge on the other topics could all be taught as long as the student was quickly able to understand what they were reading.
Petra took care of everything in the house without us asking her to. She said that these were the duties Lady Artanis implied her to do by asking her to come with us. She also helped us — mostly, Vera — prepare for the exam and taught us the basics; and since it's Petra I'm talking about, she taught us by showing us how she arrived at an answer. There were also multiple other books in the house that helped us while studying. From what Petra told us, this house was the one Lady Artanis uses whenever she had business in the academy.
We spent each day dedicated to one field for five days. Petra gave us a mock exam on the sixth day, and we spent the last day before the exams relaxing inside the house. Petra was the one to streamline our schedule and she mandated the rest day before exams.
We left the house early with Petra leading the way heading directly south. With the house facing the north, this meant we left through the back door and walked right into the woods.
We walked for about an hour before we finally got out of the woods and the academy in all of its glory finally revealed itself to us.
Vier Academy was a walled star-shaped territory and had entrances at each vertex. The academy had five different colleges with each college located in different rays. We would be entering through the entrance located at the north vertex which led to the College of Mana.
The colleges have full jurisdiction over their respective areas. This meant that each college had different standards and were distinctly unique from each other. Due to this discretion, the College of Mana had low walls and only had two security personnel stationed at its entrance. From an outsider's perspective, it was incredibly lax; when in reality, it was near the top in terms of security — according to Petra. They relied on their implementation of Spell Formations to limit trespassers, which was basically a refined version of the mana device that Helgi had to go through. This sort of security system suited the college perfectly.
Petra confidently strode up to the entrance where two guards looked incredibly comfortable as they sat in recliners. One fast asleep, while the other kept watch.
When the one awake saw Petra, he immediate stood up and bowed while kicking over his companion's recliner. "Miss Petra! Welcome back! Is Lady Artanis with you?"
"Ughh. What's wrong? Why'd you kick me like that?" The figure at the floor groggily sat up as he rubbed his eyes. "Wake up idiot! Miss Petra's here!"
"Oh!" He jumped up from the floor, landed with his feet set, and saluted. "Miss Petra!"
Petra gave us a glance and we showed Lady Artanis' letter of recommendation to the two. They gave it a quick look and allowed us to enter. "Lady Artanis' recommendation? Damn." He whistled. "I probably don't need to explain since you have Miss Petra with you, but you can head to any of the administration buildings to register for the exam. Good luck to the both of you!"
We thanked him and followed Petra inside. There was a bicycle rack close by from which Petra took out three bikes. These bicycles were for public use within the college to easily traverse the nearly 70 hectare area of the college.
The Administration Building of the College of Mana was located at the center of the college. When we got inside the building, hundreds of people were already in the lobby waiting around. Petra pushed through all of them, skipped the queue numbers, and went inside the office with us timidly walking behind her.
She took our recommendation letters, led us to the dean's office, and approached the important-looking woman behind the desk. The forest elf behind the desk looked up from her paperwork as she heard our not-subtle entry when Petra basically slammed the door wide open.
"Oh. Petra. It's good to see you." She smiled, soft blonde hair side-swept to her right. Numerous piercings could be seen near the base of her long ears. "Are those two behind you people Arty recommended?"
"Yes."
"Hey you two, I'm Ilmarë. The humble dean of this shabby college." She giggled.
"I'm Dina and this is Vera."
She received the letters from Petra and read through it while humming a simple tune. She suddenly inserted mana into the letters and widened her eyes.
She took another glance at the both of us and muttered something underneath her breath. She sighed out and clapped her hands together. "Welp! Alright! Welcome to the Academy! I assume you'll be staying at Arty's place so you don't need to stay in the dorms here."
Even Vera couldn't hide her shock as she reacted with a "What?"
"Classes will start next week, you just need to have Petra tell me what course you want to take and I'll grant it. You can make your own schedule or join blocks, I'll send you your curriculum and a list of subjects you can take. Your mandatory mana classes will be handled by me. I'll give you a temporary ID to enter the academy while your mana is still inactive."
"Wait, what? Don't we have to take the entrance exam?"
A puzzled expression filled her face. "Why would you? Your Arty's kids, of course you'll pass anyways. If you weren't up to snuff, then Arty would've never had given you her recommendation."
"Won't we be stepping on toes by skipping the exam?"
She waved our worries off. "Bah! Who cares about them? I'm the dean. Besides, all the staff in this college will accept it, no problem."
Thinking about it rationally, it was a huge stroke of luck. I really should accept the offer with an open heart, but I couldn't help the conflicted feelings welling up inside me. "This is corruption, no?"
"What? You want to take the exam instead or something?" She laughed. "Sure, go ahead. You know what, fuck this. I'll give you the exam personally."
She stood up and dragged us over to a lecture hall in the building where she made me take a seat.
"How about it missy? You wanna take the exam too?"
Caught off-guard by the sudden attention, Vera quickly shook her head no which prompted another laugh from the dean.
"Well, seems like you're on your own kid." She gave me the exam test papers, a pen, and 2 hours to finish the exam.
Vera quietly sat beside me to watch me answer the exam. She was a godsend in comparison to the dean who just kept on talking to Petra. Surprisingly, Petra actually verbally responded to most of the dean's questions. She didn't give her her standard answers of silence.
The exam itself was actually easier than I expected, all things considered. The entire exam was multiple-choice questions, so I could gather context clues from the question and from other questions for the things I wasn't sure about. I could then narrow down my choices to the most likely answers and hope for the best.
As focused as I was in the exam, the allotted two hours flew by in a flash.
"Okaaay! Time's up!" Ilmarë took my answer booklet and blitzed through checking my answers with her own pen.
"See! I told you you didn't have to take the exam! Petra made sure to drill you in with the basics after all."
"But what if I failed?"
"Then I wouldn't accept you, duh. Of course, I'll still let cute Vera go ahead and enroll, but not you. You can't have it both ways."
That was understandable. She seemed a bit too irresponsible at first for her position as dean, but she actually did try uphold a standard.
"Also, had you failed, I would've held that over Arty's head forever." She cackled. "Maybe it was better had you just failed. What a shame."