The words began to fill the air as Dante's ears twitched. He still had his keen sense of hearing due to his looks only being a cover up, though his natural instincts allowed for him to showcase some of his own features from his draconic origin. He looked at Iris, who seemed to be breathing heavily as a sweat bead slowly dropped from her forehead. Her arm continued to shake as she tried to press on.
"Please sir…just one more, I know I can do it."
"...Alrighty, I suppose you are to get three tries. I'm sure you could do it!"
He tried to put on a smile, yet Iris seemed completely dialed in on keeping her breaths in order. She seemed to be under just as much pressure as Dante was in the moment, and that caused him to empathize with her struggle. Silently hoping she could at least get one of the spells to go through. He clenched his fist and hoped to see her next spell be completed.
The headmaster took one more breath before looking her intensely in the eyes. He often would seem to try harder if he knew someone was holding back, though it seemed to be for naught as he said his final spell.
"Polleniere."
"P-pollen…niere."
The words left her mouth with no sense of confidence, causing only a small sprite of mana to come forward, leaving nothing but a wisp of the air to pass by. The headmaster grimaced slightly as he shook his head, Iris quickly spoke up once more.
"Please sir...just let me try once more. I promise I can–"
He stopped her from speaking anymore as he lifted his hand as the projection appeared atop of her head. The image shook a few times before finally showing a clear answer to her efforts previously. A black star appeared as the crowd became silent to see what she had gotten as her rank.
"Zero…stars…?"
She whimpered softly as she put her head down from the showing of her rank. Slowly walking as she passed by some of the whispering students who'd already been graded and placed within their classes. Their eyes were filled with not only shock, but discerning looks as she passed.
"She's an elf and she placed that low…no way…"
"Shh, she might hear you."
"It's crazy to see someone related to him place like that."
"That's gotta blow."
She sat alone in the section where there were no flowers in the flower bed. Sunken to her core as a reaction to her ranking. Her fists clenched in frustration as she looked down to the ground. Others began to stare at her, only causing her ears to slowly grow redder by the moment. She began to grit her teeth as the chatters from the crowd got louder by the second until they heard a single pair of hands in the distance.