The morning three days before the entrance exam. I was at Thomas’s. Hrothgarm had finally finished with the wakizashi, and I was really excited to see how it turned out. “That kept me busy for quite a while.” Hrothgarm said, his soot blackened face only broken by the massive smile splitting it.

  I removed the sheath and studied the blade… It was truly beautiful; the spine had a gorgeous blueish green sheen. The edge had the signature flaming wave pattern easily associated with the katana. I stepped up to a target that was laid ready for me to test my blade.

  After going into my stance, I propelled myself forward. Swing!! The blade cut perfectly through the target. After placing it back in its sheath, I placed it along with my katana on my hip ready to be drawn. “Truly astounding craftsmanship, I doubt I could do any better.” I said feeling really impressed.

  “WHAHAHA, well that makes me quite glad, I went through eight tries to copy your other blade. Such excellence is hard to find these days, keep that talent boy, do not ever lose it.” He said, a tear in his eyes, his finger twirling in his soot-stained beard.

  After getting my sword, I spent more time with Thomas and Neffie. They were quite impressed with the blade as well. ”Are you ready for the academy’s entrance exam?” Nefftalia asked, her comment sending a shock through my body. “Entrance exam?” I asked sweat dripping down the nape of my neck.

  As a college student in my previous life, just the mention of the word exam got my nerves on edge. “Well yes naturally. Though you would be our body guard. You still must pass the entrance exam in order to get in. not even the royal children can get in without passing.” She replied looking at me with an explanatory expression.

  “Okay well, what does the entrance exam entail?” I asked, the worry slightly coming through my voice. “Oh, do not worry, it consists of three parts. The first is the Magic Theory section. The second is the magic practical, and then there is the swordsmanship exam.” She said, a hint of smugness creeping into her voice.

  “Anyway, most people only choose to do two of the exams, you don’t need the Third one to pass, but if you want the top score, it’s always better to try all three.” She continued, her brother seeming to become bored hearing her explaining something he obviously knew.

  ***

  After finishing the long visit, I found myself in my room at the inn. ‘We’ll obviously have to pass all three.’ Adviser stated, his nonchalance about the situation got on my nerves. ‘Yeah, but the question is will I pass?’ I spoke. I was really worried about failing, because it would show just how weak I truly am. ‘You will pass, remember, you’re not your average student, think about it for a second, how many kids do you think has the ability to understand the unified field theory in this world.’

  Advisers comment pulled me out of my worried nerve spiral. ‘You are right, I am not just some student worried about writing my thesis to pass. This is a whole new world, it is nothing like my old one.’ I thought my nerves finally calming down. I knew what I needed to do, I had to make sure I got an extremely high mark to set my path ready. But there was one problem, if I show off too much it could draw unwanted attention.

  I guess all I would have to do is pass, but I need to hide my strength. The prospect gave me a bit of a motivational boost. In my previous life I had read quite a lot of stories where the” op” main character hides his true strength. I was excited to try that approach myself.

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  ***

  It was the day of the entrance exam; I had come to Thomas’s Place before we took a carriage to the academy. The place was huge, entire small towns could fit in it. The outside consisted of well-maintained fields and training halls, the academy itself had a large domed section in the middle the rest was built outwards from the circular partition.

  The windows of each new room that could be seen was spaced thirty feet or more per room. After entering the gate, we were given an exam ticket with our number on it. Mine was 1342. Which meant there were more than a thousand students here before me. We were taken to a hall that split into three. One for each test, I went to the magic theory test first.

  It was way easier than what I had thought. The test consisted of a few questions concerning the language that magic responds best to. I had adviser answer those, and about fifty percent of the test consisted of math, I did not even need adviser for it, it was that easy. There was one odd question though. “What allows mana to change the universe around you.” It was a massive change of pace after all those easy math questions, but I had adviser answer that one. “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, and the observation of an object tends to change the object. If mana is excess energy, then thought that contains mana must be able to a to alter the world by forcing an observation on the world around you.”

  I was a huge physics nerd in my previous life so I understood what he had written, in other words, because the brain is able to wield mana the extra energy wants to be converted, and it finds an outlet in the way humans observe the world.

  After the written exam I went to the magic practical test. Unlike all the stories I read in my previous life, it did not just consist of a single target that had to be destroyed, but instead it was a series of tasks that they wanted done with magic, the solution was left up to the examinee.

  They had me balance plates with weights on a current of air, and putting out an oil fire, and lighting a fire in a sealed jar, as well as pulling water out of a water skin without opening it or bursting it. For the first thing all I had to do was remember Bernoulli’s principle (an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in the pressure, or a decrease in the fluids potential energy.)

  So, I just made air flow around the plates in an equal force. I made sure to actually cast the magic with chanting. The next thing was easy as well, I simply removed the oxygen surrounding the flame, it hardly took a few seconds. The third thing was an opposite of what I had just done, so I just kept making more oxygen in the jar, and then I had to create some carbon to use as a fuel.

  The last one was an odd one, I thought of two ways to solve it. The first was to just pull the water through the small holes that still exists in a water skin, or the method I used, I simply made a small spatial gate inside of the waterskin and made its exit point at the bowl ahead.

  After the magic exam the swordsmanship test was really simple, there was an open area, and all they did was ask you to show your technique, I used my katana and simply did one of my basic routines. After finishing the test, I found my friends and we were taken back with their carriage.

  ***

  It was two weeks later and we were back at the academy and the score board was up; I was placed fourth.

  The first was a female student named Hanna the second a male named James, the third was Thomas. Directly after me was Nefftalia. And finally, there I saw it in sixth place Misha, she had scored sixth. I had decided that I would first two, I had never heard of them before, after a bit of asking around, Nefftalia decided to help me out. “They are the prince and the princess of the Angralian kingdom.” She was walking with me to the large hall.

  Thousands of students were standing, waiting for the headmaster to address the hall. He was the very picture of a headmaster, old white beard salt and pepper hair, if the pepper had a budget. He finally addressed the hall. I felt the stirring of wind magic. “Welcome, new students of the Angralian Magic Academy, those of you here are the ones that were selected because of your talent and intellect. We are all ready to teach you and hope you will learn as hard as your predecessors.” After saying that he then said that the top student will address the hall.

  ‘He was very concise.’ Adviser commented. ‘What did you think he would drone on for hours?’ I asked him a smirk playing on my lips. Hannas’s speech was also quite short, she essentially just wished us all luck and said that she hoped to get along with everyone.

  It was done I was finally att

  ending the magic academy.