After Ray had left, Amana proceeded to excuse herself from analyzing the shards for now.

She also requested that they let her examine the shards late into the night if she ever requested so.

Vivian looked confused at first but smiled lightly after noticing that Amana was not as tense and depressed as before.

Vivian had observed her state for the past few days that they have been working together and it was obvious that she was pushing herself too much.

Frustration and worry was visible on her face each time she had failed in her attempt.

Coming from a royal representative perspective, fulfilling the headmaster's request was something she viewed as her duty.

This further made her more desperate and critical over this experimentation.

It was quite worrying to see, Vivian also regretted that she couldn't do anything to help becuase she didn't have any legitimate reason to tell her off.

They were all the same as well, working around the clock all this time so it wouldn't be convincing from her part.

She figured there wasn't anything she could do at this point.

But Amana had suddenly decided to take a break, she who was always in the lab doing extraneous work.

This was something out of left field but a rather comforting news to hear.

Vivian then gave her peemission to take a break as she watched the princess leave with a rather calm air.

"...What did that boy say to her?"

Vivian asked herself.

It was just pure coincidence that she had brought Ray here after realizing that he had never physically observed the destroyed item.

She had just realized this after he had caught her attention in class, demonstrating rapid growth over the week in her class.

It was impressive to see and she had thought it would be interesting to see what he would observe by coming to the lab.

Alas it was over without any major discovery being found, it was quite dissapointing for Vivian but she figured she just had to wait for the report if it didn't really bear any fruit.

Aside from that, he had abruptly offered the princess a hand and in her surprise, he managed to make her agree.

It perplexed her that Amana Reandelle would listen to soneone like Ray Irisville.

Vivian was vaguely aware of the relationships between her students. She knew how badly those two people tended to avoid socializing with people.

Although she knew that they had some people around them like that elven knight for the princess and Ray's party for him, they seem to avoid it if necessarry.

She also knew that they had fought in a mock duel once, so it didn't make sense why Amana would entertain any words coming out from Ray at all.

'What does he know? and what is he hiding?' Vivain curiously thought.

Vivian then shook her thoughts away as she noticed the snoring sound of someone.

Looking at Ulden sleeping on the chair, Vivian stroded towards him with a clenched up fist.

"Don't sleep here!"

"Whoah!"

Instinctively dodging her fist, Ulden swirled his chair to get away from her.

On the other corner of the room, Sophia sighed as she looked at them fight for the 8th time.

She was used to it and as such, she returned to her work quietly. She then looked at the door where Amana had just left.

"Hmmph, why would you listen to that guy?"

She muttered in distaste.

-----

Scribbling down on my unfinished report, I focused on writing down and erasing the unecessary parts that I had written down before.

After I had carefully observed the underlying engravings from the shards, I figured it would be redundant to state the obvious.

It would be more helpful if I give out the information about the supporting structure and engravings of the shards.

That would ensure that the research team would be able to fully realize what the Space Canceller item is.

Although by doing so, I would need to be really careful in writing my report now. My observations should be mildly vague as to not arouse much suspiscions.

It should be implied in a way that my findings and conclusions would be acquired by anyone in the team if looked at in a different persective.

After a little while, I was finally finished as I stretched my back.

"This should be good enough. I just have to wait after the exams"

Putting down my pen in the table, I proceeded to prepare my learning materials and notes.

It was time for a last spurt because after this, I would be focusing on my physical training and skill assimilation.

I was already competent enough to get a good grade but I had to make sure I didn't leave any gap in my mind.

Including the one with Amana earlier.

It was critical that all bases of their experimentation and study is covered, specially the princess's since none of us can't look through spirit arts.

It could only be her.

I instantly realized that if the only problem was her skill level in spirit arts then all she would need to do is train and level up.

But obviously that would be take a really long time to do and such the alternative was to use the aid of the lunar earings.

The lunar earings can help drastically improve mana regeneration under the full moon and more importantly, it increases the ability to connect with spirits.

This effect would enable the princess to go beyond her current level of spirit arts temporarily which makes it possible to study the shards.

And luckily, she didn't make it hard for me to impart my suggestion to her. Maybe because of exhaustion, she didn't have any energy to argue with me.

Although I doubt that would be the case.

'I would be deluded if I think she has some level of trust in me but maybe that's the reason why...' I mused, unconvinced by my own thoughts.

Another thing to note was that she had already realized how the artifact I gave her increases her connection with the spirits.

It was an unkown side effect so she must have used it often.

The fact that she's wearing it all the time supports my guess.

Since she understood me quickly, I could reasonably say that she did know it beforehand.

Loose ends were fixed and-

"All I have to do now is pass the exams..."

I sighed heavily while my eyes traced the textbooks on the table.

----

Two days later.

It was time for the exams and we were waiting on the student lobby.

The Professors would call us by batch as we waited to enter the classroom for the exam.

As I sat in a three person chair, I shook ny head as my two seatmates were making a fuss.

"Oh crap, I think I forgot about this part!"

"Calm down. I need to calm down"

Alice and Jun was doing their best as they reviewed in the last minute.

Jun was skimming through his vrace as his eyes quickly read through the information.

Alice just focused on reviewing her handmade flash cards in a hurry. It was quite neatly made and decorated with stickers.

It was probably made by Emily.

The whole party was here a while ago but Emily and Lily were called just now which made these two idiots to become unnecessarily nervous.

"Hey did you study?"

"Nope"

"So you gave up huh.."

"Well I crammed!"

Other people were also talking aloud while waiting for their turn. Some even had given up altogether.

I wanted some peace and quiet before I take the exam but nothing exactly goes my way.

My attention then got redirected towards Vivian who came out the entrance of the lobby.

Everyone looked nervous as she appeared. I for one was strangely calm about all of this.

She then started to call out the student's name one by one until-

"Hoshino Ken"

"Airish Quilt Bantan"

"Ollen Tyrus Weinz"

"Alice Rozenthine"

"Ray Irisville"

As she called Alice and my name, both of us stood up as we proceeded to exit the lobby.

I noticed that Jun was stretching out his arms towards us but there wasn't anything he could do but despair alone.

Although he must be exaggerating because he was tutored for several days by geniuses. 

Plus he had the help of a mental skill, [Mind Palace] which enabled it's user to create vivid and tangible storages inside one's mind.

It also functioned as a mental barrier for debuffs.

It was useful for these type of things because Jun could access it by using only his thoughts.

He was probably just nervous because this was the first time he would ever take on an exam like this.

As we stopped by a room, we were immediately given the test papers where every subject was crammed in.

"Good luck Ray!"

Alice said as she went inside.

I also went inside after taking my papers and grinned.

'I really don't need luck. I still have [Pattern Analysis] with me afterall' I thought, confident in my studies and passive skill.

And such our midterms had officially started.