Theodore and a few Elemental Spirits flew out of the building by passing through the walls and soared towards where the ominous aura was coming from.

“Damn. I hope it’s not the enemy!” He muttered in a serious voice as he flew through the air.

It led them into a ticket of trees and soon, they arrived at the origin of the aura, which made the young man raise his eyebrows in confusion by what he saw.

There were three young boys moving slowly through the trees while trying to make as minimal sound as possible. They were taking extreme care in placing their steps and seemed to be carrying something small in their hands.

“What the?” He asked of no one, blinking in surprise at their sight. “Judging by their uniform, they’re students here, but… what are they doing here in the middle of a forest?”

“Pe?” An Elemental Spirit asked from beside him as they watched from his side.

“Yeah. I’d like to know what they are doing here too,” he said in response to the spirit. “Actually, where do they think they’re going?”

Examining by their movement, he realised they were heading straight towards something. Floating down, he checked if they were under any kind of mind spell, but they clearly were not. Instead, he was disturbed to see that they were making disgusting expressions on their faces, almost as if they had leud thoughts running through their minds.

“This is not right,” muttered Theodore with concern.

Turning around, he flew off in the general direction that the three students were going towards. A few seconds later, he emerged out of the forest and was amazed to find a large pool was located here. Not only that but there were students happily making sounds and playing there.

The pool was being used by several girls in swimsuits while they were conjuring water magic with their wands. It was clearly a magic lesson where the adult, a female teacher judging by her attire, was getting them to practice their water magic.

“So… those three idiots are coming here huh?” Asked Theodore himself, looking bewildered. “What in the world are they thinking…?”

“Pe?”

He did not respond to the Elemental Spirit as he thought about what reason the male students would be coming there for. It quickly dawned on him of what they were thinking.

“Oh geez,” he muttered wearily. “I get it now. They want to watch the girls soaked in water and those objects in their hands… they must be those devices that takes images of people. Bastards want to take images of these girls.”

There had been a recent increase in innovation of technology and one of those was the Image Capture Box. These are devices that are used to capture a still image of whatever the user takes and the image then can be printed on paper.

“Pe?”

“Yes, it’s very bad,” replied Theodore to the Elemental Spirit. “Once they take images of these girls, they’ll probably go around selling them to other boys. What’s even worse is that they’ll use it to blackmail the victims.”

“Pe!” The Elemental Spirits exclaimed, becoming angry.

“Yeah! If I had my weapon with me, I’d put them in their place!” Agreed Theodore with an angry look. “Still, they’re young and immature. What they need now is to be taught a lesson!”

The Elemental Spirits appeared to be confused by his leniency and made “Pe” sounds in protest.

“Don’t worry. We can deal with them if this happens again,” he told them with a smirk. “If you don’t mind assisting in teaching them, here’s what I want you to do.”

He told the Elemental Spirits of his plan on what to do to the three boys. Upon hearing his plan, the Elemental Spirits made chuckling sounds as if they found his plan to be rather funny. Theodore was also chuckling as he concluded in informing them about his. A moment later, he told them to get ready and turned back to wait for the students to arrive.

A minute later, the three male students arrived at the edge of the forest and hid behind the large bushes before pulling up the Image Capture Boxes. Seeing this, Theodore nodded his head knowingly as they did exactly what he predicted they would do.

As they raised their devices and pointed it at the students in the pool, he gave the signal to the Elemental Spirits by saying, “Now!”

In that moment, the Fire Elemental Spirits quickly swooped down on their targets and as the boys could not see Elemental Spirits, they remained unguarded. While in that state, the fire spirits easily set the pants of the three students on fire.

“Huh?!”

“What!”

“Argh! Fire!”

It did not take the students long before they felt the fire licking at their pants. They made wild yelps and began to frantically try and put out the sudden fire. They moved back and forth trying their best to put out the fire by swatting at it with their hands but to no avail.

Up in the air, Theodore burst into a huge laughter and shouted, “Serves you right, idiots!”

As it turned out, his plan was for the Elemental Spirits to set their pants on fire. He did ask the spirits to make it non-lethal flame that only burns the cloth and not harm the student as that would cause some problems between the spirits and the humans. Thus, the end result was the students desperately trying to put out the flames.

In the process of trying to put out the flames, they fell out from behind the bushes and out into the open. While they were yelping with fright, one of them somehow got a strange idea and quickly unbuttoned his pants and took them off in a desperate attempt to save himself, which left him with only his underwear on.

“Pft!” Theodore burst out with a huge laughter. “That idiot! What’s he thinking?!”

At the same time, the sounds of girls shrieking and crying out with fright and alarm rang out in the open air. As expected, the shouts from the boys reached the girls and one look that way was easy enough for them to realise that the three boys had sunk up on their lesson.

“This is too funny to watch,” Theodore stammered while struggling to contain his laughter as another one began to cry for their mother’s help. “Geez.”

“What’s going on here?!” The teacher exclaimed, hurrying over and gasping with alarm as the pants of the male students were on fire. “Good heavens?! What is the meaning of this?!”

She pointed her wand at them and chanted, “Spirits of Water, put out the fires of these poor children. Water Splash.”

In an instant, a small portion of the water in the pool soared into the air and flowed down to slam into the three students. Within seconds, the fire was extinguished and the three of them remained still and silent with shocked expressions on their faces.

“Ha. That was brilliant,” remarked Theodore as he watched this spectacle.

“Hey. Are you alright?” The teacher asked them with concern.

As they groggily sat upright, she noticed the three Image Capture Devices that were lying around and instantly knew what they were up.

“You… fools!” She thundered down on them with a fear exterior, making them flinch. “How dare you sneak up on my female students and attempt to take images?! How dare you?!”

The three male students began to shake with fright as they looked on at the fearsome persona she exerted, which was contrast to the concern she showed moments before.

“Welp,” said Theodore from up in the sky with a satisfied smile, “I’ve seen enough and the teacher will make sure to handle those idiots. Time to get back to that boring exam.”

Giving the three students one last glance, the young man flew back towards the exam hall while being followed by the Elemental Spirits that came with him. They were all happy from the satisfaction of taking care of some idiots when a loud bang occurred.

“What the?!” He exclaimed in alarm as he heard the bang coming from the exam hall. “What was that?”

As he questioned the sound, four more bangs occurred from the exam hall, which made him panic. Worrying that it was possibly an enemy attack, he quickly hurried to fly back in his Astral Form to renter his body.

“Please, put me back in my body! It’s urgent!” He asked the Elemental Spirits, and they agreed.

The moment they passed through the wall in the exam hall, they activated their powers, and he found himself speeding forward until he entered into his body.

“Wha?! What’s going on?!” He exclaimed upon regaining control over his body. He jumped to his feet in alarm and made a defensive position while wildly looking around. “Where’s the enemy?!”

For a moment, everyone turned to look at him in alarm while Edna let out a cute chuckle from beside his desk.

“What enemy were you dreaming?” Asked Rizer curtly from several seats away.

“Huh?” Theodore asked around, blinking in confusion.

It was then that he saw a few examiners helping up five students that appeared to be unconscious.

“Um… What happened to them?” He asked, feeling even more confused.

“Sit down, Theo,” said Edna from beside him. “You’re drawing too much attention.”

“Oh,” he said and that was when he realised that everyone was looking at him. “Sorry,” he apologised with a sheepish smile and quickly sat down. As he watched the examiners carry the five unconscious students out of the hall, he asked Edna in a low voice, “What happened here?”

“Well,” she began and seemed to be trying to not smile, “their candles exploded.”

“Oh,” said the young man, looking sympathetically at the students being carried out.

“That idiot,” said Rizer loudly with annoyance. “He already lost two candle sticks without realizing it and now, he goes and gets his candle exploded in his face along with taking out his group members! What a total loser!”

“Rizer!” Floreta said sharply. “Mind your language.”

“I would if that loser minded himself in the first place!” He retorted back irritably. “Because of him, I my concentration is broken and lost my chain of thoughts!” He picked up a piece of paper and snarled, “This is no good,” and fiercely cast fire magic to burn it into a crisp. “I need to redo everything, that bastard.”

“Alright everyone. Please remember that you’re still in an examination,” said the examiner with a cool smile, taking up the front stage and acting as if nothing problematic happened. “Make sure to learn from those around you to not make their mistakes,” he advised serenely.

“Ha,” sighed Theodore wearily and slumped on his desk tiredly. “So much for getting all worked up over nothing.”

He felt he wasted a good chance to explore the academy in his Astral Form, but now he was stuck. Not wanting to stab himself repeatedly and ask the help from the Elemental Spirits, he accepted his face and decided it was best if he simply slept on the desk.

Almost an hour later, the same examiner rose to his feet and walked to the front to face all the students.

“As of this moment, the written examination has… concluded,” he said and clapped his hands once.

Without warning, all the papers from each desk moved on their own and formed into a pile before sorting itself. They every moved out from under a few students, who were still trying to finish whatever question they were on. Then they rose into the air and flew towards the front, where a large desk was placed. There they stacked each other neatly without losing a single paper in the process.

Some of the students began to complain of not being able to complete the question they were on, but he shook his head and replied sweetly, “I’m sorry to hear that, but the exam is over. What you’ve written till now count, but don’t worry. We will take into consideration of the amount you’ve managed to complete on the last question,” and winked at them.

While watching him in silence, Theodore thought to himself, “Somehow, I get the feeling he’ll not consider it one bit.”

The examiner told them to stay seated until they returned, leaving the students to get up off their seats and move around to speak to their group members while he and the other examiners exited the hall.

“How did you two do?” Floreta asked as she, Stella and Lustre reached them and took seats around them.

“The exam was pretty tough, wasn’t it?” Stella asked curiously. “How did you do, Edna and Theodore?”

“Fairly well,” replied Theodore with a small smile.

“I do hope I did my best,” hoped Edna aloud with a hopeful smile.

“I’m sure you did,” comforted the Princess of East Nation.

“T-Thank you, princess,” said Edna shyly. “I-If you don’t mind me asking. h-how did you do, Princess Floreta? You too, Princess Stella?”

“Hey now,” said Stella, smiling warmly. “Don’t address us with our titles. While at school, let’s be fellow schoolmates. Just call us by our names. Okay?”

“Oh no! I can’t do that! How can I?” Edna reacted in alarm.

“I insist,” said Stella firmly.

Floreta added, “Me too, Edna. Call me Floreta.”

“And call me Stella,” said the Princess of South Nation with a smile.

Edna hesitated for a moment before nodding and saying awkwardly, “Yes. F-F-Floreta. S-S-Stella.”

“That’s better,” said Stella with a smile, “and it would be better if you didn’t stutter the next time.”

“Yes. I’ll do my best,” replied Edna confidently with a smile.

“In that case, please call me Lustre as well,” said Lustre from the side with a grin.

“Of course!” Floreta said firmly with a smile. “By the way, how did you do in the exam?”

“Oh,” he began and looked troubled. “A-Actually… I found the exam to be rather… easy.”

“You did?” Floreta asked in amazement while Stella widened her eyes in surprise as her reaction.

“Yes. Well, I had prepared very much for the exam. So, when I found it so easy, I… I admittedly took a small nap.”

“A small nap?” Stella asked curiously.

“He means to sleep lightly,” explained Floreta, which surprised Stella before chuckling. “So, you decided to sleep because the exam paper was easy?” She asked him with a wry smile.

“Well,” he began with a sheepish smile, “I realised that I’d be sitting and feeling bored, so I wanted to complete the question paper in the hour before the time is up.”

“Oh. I understand,” said Floreta, looking impressed.

“That’s impressive that you felt confident that you could do it in an hour,” expressed Edna in amazement.

While Lustre laughed in embarrassment, Theodore watched him with an equally happy smile on his face. However, on the inside, he was observing every movement the Magic Titan’s pupil was making.

“Did he really not see or hear me in my Astral Form?” He wondered in a curious voice.

“A-Actually,” started the young man seated to the side, “I began to do it a little bit earlier than I intended.”

When they looked surprised and Theodore showed interest, Lustre went on to explain that he felt a strangeness in him and the spirits around him. Something had urged him to do the exam papers, and it also advised him to not bring shame his master’s name in front of others with his lazy attitude.

“I thought it was probably my master’s Contracted Spirit urging me from somewhere far away, so I ended up listening to the advice and began doing the exam a lot earlier than I intended,” he finished with an embarrassed smile on his face.

“Oh wow. You must be really trained well to be so in tune with the Spirits,” praised Floreta in amazement.

“Oh. It’s nothing, really,” replied Lustre in the same embarrassed smile.

Theodore continued to smile, but wondered to himself, “Really? He couldn’t be sure who it was, but certainly heard me speaking to him? That’s interesting.”

At that moment, the examiners re-entered the hall and everyone turned to face them. The main examiner, who had been addressing them since the start, stepped forward and smiled warmly at them.

“Congratulations everyone on successfully completing the written exam,” he told them and almost everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

“Heh,” Rizer smirked proudly.

The examiner looked around at them and smiled as he said, “Now, without further ado, let us proceed to conduct the practical exam.”

¹

After some strange shenanigans and two hours of hard work, it's time to move onto the practical exam! Stay tuned to find out how it will turn out next time as the legend proceeds to the next stage!