Chapter 38.

"Uncle?"

Yuria had spread out a large sheet on the floor to draw magic lines for a magic circle. When she saw William, she embraced him.

"Oh, my! You’ve gotten a lot heavier."

"Didn’t I tell you that you can’t tell a lady that she’s heavy?"

When Yuria puffed out her cheek, William raised her and made eye contact with her.

"Yes, yes. You’re still very light, so eat a lot and study well."

"Okay."

"Ahem! William, long time no see."

William grinned and put down Yuria.

"Father, have you been well?"

"Yes, I’ve been well thanks to you."

While Wiliam greeted his father, the girl showed interest in the man standing behind her uncle -- Bloody.

"Mister, who are you?"

"Me?"

Alphonso introduced Bloody before he could introduce himself. "Mister here is a knight!"

"Knight?" Yuria had also never heard of a knight before.

Bloody stroked Alphonso’s head and laughed.

"Yes, Mister here is a brave knight."

The great elder stared at Bloody with an amused look.

“Are you from the Crow Tribe?”

"Yes. My name is Bloody Blade."

“You’re the son of the Crow Tribe’s chief. How are your parents?”

"Hahaha, my father passed on his position to my brother and is currently on a journey."

The great elder let out a sigh of envy. "I don’t know when I’ll be able to retire from this annoying position. I envy your parents."

William awkwardly smiled. "Haha, Father is still full of vigor."

"That’s enough, boy. A man also needs to know when to back out. How is that man with a ferocious temper?"

Bloody smiled bitterly as he knew who the title of ‘ferocious man’ was referring to.

"Yes, Mr. Mirpa is still full of vigor."

"Hmm, that’s too bad." Although the great elder said so, he looked inwardly happy.

Mirpa was one of the few rivals in the great elder’s life. It was a blessing to still have a rival at his old age.

William sent out Yuria and Alphonso while his father was in a good mood.

"Yuria, Alphonso, Uncle has something to talk about with Grandfather. Will you go out for a while?"

The twins nodded and left.

"Why did you come out?"

When the secretary doing her work outside the room asked, Yuria shook her head.

"They said they had something to talk about for a moment."

"Really? Then shall we hang out for a while?"

Alphonso responded energetically to the secretary’s suggestion.

"Okay! Nice!"

The secretary brought out chairs, sat down, and started doing origami. Suddenly, the door to the great elder’s office was smashed and Bloody rolled out injured.

-o-

Yuria who had briefly recalled the past asked her twin brother Alphonso.

"But didn’t you come here to call me?"

"Oh right! Grandfather called us for the coming-of-age ceremony."

Yuria checked her watch and shouted in surprise.

"Is it time already?"

Yuria pulled out a two-meter staff and a mountable saddle from her pocket space. She attached the saddle to the staff and said to Alphonso as she sat down, "Sit down."

"They told us not to fly outside the village because it’s dangerous."

When Alphonso hesitated, she simply forced him to sit at the back of the saddle then sat at the front again. "I’m not going to fly all the way into the village. ’Fly!’”

When Yuria shouted out the spell, a magic pattern engraved on the staff started to shine and the staff rose into the air. In a flash, it rapidly flew towards the village.

Alphonso, who was riding in the back, started to scream.

"It’s....Too....Fast...!"

"What?"

"Fast!"

"Faster? Okay?"

Alphonso felt like passing out when Yuria increased the speed. The siblings came near the village in an instant and touched down. Upon landing, Alphonso dropped to his knees, placed both hands on the ground, and vomited.

"Uwheck-!"

He then covered the vomit with snow and placed some snow in his mouth to rinse it.

"Haha, sorry. It’s been a while since I flew so I couldn’t control my speed well."

She definitely flew to get to Everest’s summit! Alphonso felt resentful towards his lying sister.

"That’s so... Uweeckk-!” He threw up again and stood up exhausted.

Yuria stroked his head with an apologetic face and cast a healing spell.

"Recovery!"

After a faint light, Alphonso felt his dizziness disappear. When the recovered Alphonso tried to say something, Yuria grabbed his hand and ran to the village.

"Isn’t the family waiting for us? Let’s go already!"

"Uh, yeah."

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Alphonso made up his mind as he got dragged along.

Leaving aside the fact if the person would be recognized as an adult, this coming of age ceremony determined whether the person would be allowed to go to the capital. As a tribe that mainly used magic, the Butterfly Tribe tested magical capability during their coming of age ceremony. Although the test was different every time, it consisted of magic that couldn’t even be attempted unless you were a great magician.

The test sometimes tested whether you could summon hellfire. On other occasions, it tested whether you could create ice with absolute zero temperature. In any case, the test was never easy. And in severe cases, some people failed the test and became adults at the age of 17 or 18 instead of 16.

As someone from the Butterfly Tribe, Alphonso was weak in magic. Nonetheless, he was determined to pass the test and enroll in the capital’s knight school.

Upon entering the village, the twins headed towards the senate which was located in the heart of the village. Just as the coming of age ceremony was held in front of the village hall where the chief of the Crow Tribe worked, the Butterfly Tribe performed theirs before the senate where their ruling group stayed.

"Yuria, Alphonso, you were almost late."

Yuria and Alphonso bowed their heads at the great elder who was the head of the Butterfly Tribe.

"Great Elder, I’m sorry."

"It’s all right, Yuria. And call me Grandfather like you do at home."

The great elder looked kindly at his granddaughter. At the same time, he looked worried.

Yuria was fine since she had shown overwhelming talent in magic since she was young. But his grandson Alphonso was less talented than others his age. Despite the fact, after listening to the black-headed guy called Bloody or something, Alphonso had started to train to become a knight by swinging iron sticks and neglected his magic training. Due to this, he had immense worry towards his grandson.

The great elder who had been worrying whether his grandson could pass the ceremony, changed his mind at a sudden thought.

If Alphonso doesn’t become an adult, wouldn’t that mean he wouldn’t have to send both his granddaughter and grandson to the capital?

The great elder pondered while looking at his grandson.

Alphonso, fail the test! Don’t leave my side. You’re my lovely grandson!

Although he wasn’t pleased with the black-clothed person, he was still a grandson that he doted on. If possible, he wanted his grandson to remain by his side until he lay in a coffin.

Yes, I wish he could stay by my side for another 200 years.

The great elder had recently broken a bottleneck and his lifespan had significantly increased as a result. With that much of a lifespan remaining, although he wouldn’t imagine his grandchildren dying before him, he hoped that Alphonso would be eliminated during the exam.

"Let the coming of age ceremony begin. As a test, create a ‘pocket space’."

"What? Great Elder, originally-- "

"Shh!"

The great elder glared at his aide to make him shut his mouth.

The original test was to fly 1,000m above the current location, but the great elder had changed the test content to create a ‘pocket space’ which was several times harder. Creating a pocket space was a symbol of a great magician, but its difficulty level was so high that it was a kind of magic even great magicians struggled with.

Yuria immediately started to create a pocket space at the great elder’s words. For her who had already created her own pocket space, creating a new one instead of expanding it was quite a difficult feat. However, it did not take a long time for her to create one about a meter long.

"Haha, as expected of Yuria. You could have just shown off the one you made before, but you actually created a new one. It’s a pass."

"Then, can I get rid of this pocket space? The other pocket space is trembling because I’m maintaining both at the same time."

"Yes, get rid of it."

Yuria removed the new pocket space without hesitation. The size of pocket space could be expanded proportionally to the size of magic power, so there was no need to create a new pocket as long as the magic power was increased.

"Next, Alphonso."

"Yes!"

Alphonso began to make a pocket space with a nervous face. He sweated and spent an hour trying to create one.

"Alphonso, if it’s too hard, you can try another time."

As if he couldn’t hear the great elder’s words, Alphonso focused his attention on creating his own pocket space and managed to create one with a length of 10cm.

"I... I succeeded?"

After pouring in all his energy and magic power, Alphonso, covered in sweat collapsed, on the spot.

Yuria, who had thought Alphonso would fail the test, also applauded Alphonso’s determination.

"Congratulations!"

The great elder was also taken aback when Alphonso created a pocket space. He had thought Alphonso would fail with his current abilities, but he eventually managed to make one. If anyone had assisted Alphonso, the great elder as the greatest great magician in the village would have been the first to notice. As such, he was touched by the growth of his grandson, but he shed tears at the fact that he would have to say goodbye to both Alphonso and Yuria.

"Good... good work. Alphonso... My baby."

"Grandpa?"

Alphonso and the great elder both hugged each other and wept.

"But can you not go to the capital? This old man would be lonely without you and Yuria."

"But- I want to become a knight."

"I’ll let you become one! The one and only knight guarding the village!"

The great elder’s aide and Yuria shook their heads and let out a sigh.

You should control how much love you shower on your grandson. Does it make sense to create a meaningless position just to make him stay?

"But...Still...."

Yuria spoke on behalf of crying Alphonso.

"Great Elder-nim? It’s time for you to go back to work! Alphonso should also go pack up if he wants to leave tomorrow."

When Yuria pulled her grandfather away from Alphonso, the great elder reached his hand out to Alphonso.

"Al~Phon~So~"

"Grand~pa~"

Looking at the show his grandfather was making, Yuria handed the great elder to his aide. It seemed like it would be a noisy night because of the two.

-o-

I felt a little disappointed when I came out from the civil service exam. The questions had been a lot easier than expected.

Why on earth did I spend so much effort trying to check the exam questions?

Of course, it would have felt easy because I had looked through the exam paper beforehand. At this level, however, the paper was easy enough for me to manipulate my grade even without looking at the test paper beforehand.

Back at the boarding house, Lisbon was swinging a sword in the garden.

"Oh, you’re back? How was the exam?"

"I think I did well."

"Really? That’s great."

Lisbon came to me while wiping off his sweat.

"What do you think? Do you think you’ll be able to pass the exam in two days?"

This time I asked Lisbon.

Due to transferring to the middle-rank knight school from family circumstances, the exam was trickier for him. If he failed the exam in two days, he would have to take an extra exam in half a year for selecting additional students. However, there were years in which they wouldn’t select additional students, which would result in Lisbon having to wait another year for his next exam. If he also failed the exam a year later, it would be safe to assume that Lisbon would have to give up taking elite courses as a knight.

Enrolling in a knight school wasn’t the only way to become a knight, but it was the most orthodox and convenient way. Although Lisbon did not express it, it was vital for him to pass the exam.