Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[Eon's POV: ]

There are very rare cases where the teachers or the headmaster allow the students to be present when they are grading any of the aspects of their papers.

Be it us council students or the normal students or the other students, there are only a few cases where we are ever allowed to be present when the evaluation is taking place by the experts and even then, we don't get to know the actual marks that we will receive but simply the feedback that they have.

These unique cases are seen in practical papers in most cases, and though I didn't have something like this today since my paper was completely theory based, Rein ended up having a practical test where she had to make something that represents her 'learning' until now.

'This was a pretty tough test if I say so myself since it isn't really a simple task to incorporate nearly a year's worth of things that we have 'acquired' and not simply understood through basic knowledge or readings.

It was more about having a relative permanent change in our very memory than simply having something stored up in our minds.

"What the hell kind of paper is this…?"

Rein was seeing the paper that I had received, well a copy of the paper that I made for her, and though she knew a bunch of stuff about Magic engineering, she wasn't really any better than a new rising star of the field.

'Creation and the very delicate process of Invention wasn't her thing. Her very essence was all about destruction of things and about the creation of chaos so, even though this test wasn't really her cup of tea, she sure made something pretty interesting.'

A portable code presenter.

That's what I would call it if not a simple pure-recorded projector.

'Similar to a prerecorded holographic projection, she made a device that can play a bunch of things that she had programmed into it with her magic with the help of Mana strings.'

Her decision to use the Mana instead of Aura that she can control better or her unique origin energy that she can control the best was perfect since only Mana could have handled the delicate structure of this thing.

'She used quite a lot of unnecessary things, made a lot more unnecessary connections for something that could have done with two or so different types of connectives, but since she used the Stringular Manablock Codes to create that spatial pocket to fit in all those things, we can just ignore all those connections.'

The teachers who made this paper won't be ignoring this, I know that much, so that is that, but there could have been quite a bit of changes to this structure.'

'It looked like… well, it was something close to a crocodile even though it looked like some monster from the abyss, but I'll just consider this a crocodile.'

She could have made it something geometric to utilise the Stringular Manablocks in a much better way, the (Original Triangle) of nature, the design that most of the scholars of Mana and magic use on large scales, could have been much better for something that was utilising such delicate technology.

'The production of this thing in less than three hours was cutting it very close, and that was after having the help of a dozen people, so I guess she used her clones.'

It was a good idea and with Branwen being there, they must have used their Familiar connection to divide the control of the Clones.

'Celes and I cannot do something like that, so this is something unique to these two.'

Sharing control of each other's mental bodies while being in the state of (pseudo mental synchronisation) was pretty amazing.

'If Celes and I tried doing something like this, the most we could do was share our senses. I cannot control the clones that Celes creates directly and she cannot control My mental body clones (that I create with Magic) like these two do.'

The headmaster did not know about it since it was something unique to them and we don't intend to tell anyone else either.

Anyway…

"What does this mean? Mathematical representation of relationships between a Gear and a Crystal structure? That's magic engineering?"

[{ "I told you that's all dumb stuff. I don't even know why they asked such questions… anyway, I think you should speak with the link." }]

[{ "And why do I do that? It's not like we are interfering with each other's tests. I'm done and you're done as well. There's nothing they or the two of us could do about what we have already submitted, right?" }]n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Rein…

[{ "Dear just look at them." }]

Including the headmaster, the rest of the 'teachers' or the people who were going to mark her creation, the council members that made her test, were all looking at the crocodile that she had made with great interest.

'There was a look of surprise on many of them as I could tell even with the headmaster's concealment magic.'

They are, first of all, surprised to see something like this… they shouldn't be like that. As the ones who gave her this question, they should at least maintain their composure.

This little toy, though filled with things that a normal first year student wouldn't understand in normal circumstances, was ultimately a projection device.

She had simply written down a long poem in the code that was being projected in a string-like layered format instead of on a flat, rectangular screen.

'It looked similar to when one was going through a bunch of memories of someone or something.'

So, at least from my perspective, it wasn't anything special.

However, it was a completely different story for the rest of them.

"Miss Uriel. This is a Gem."

"Had this met the requirements to be a Masterpiece, we would've placed it in the Grand display."

"The concept is fresh… this is a work of art more than it is a piece of magic engineering."

"After we are done with the test evaluation, we would be showing it to an art expert. We hope you will look forward to it."

"…"

"Rein."

"Hmm? Yes?"

"They just complimented your crocodile."

"Hmm? Oh, thanks.

Anyway, what the hell does this…"

She wasn't even interested in their praises… it must have been heartbreaking for someone else, but these panel members knew what they were dealing with so they didn't take her response to heart.

They had seen my test paper as well, and right after passing it among them, they handed it to Rein without saying anything.

They glanced at me a few times, but that was it. They were stunned by many of the questions in that fifteen page long paper and perhaps didn't want to get bothered by it so they focused on what they were in charge of.

'And perhaps, a few of them also prayed for the ones that were going to check these questions since, truthfully, just the questions were tricky as hell.'

I have no idea who made my test paper but whoever made it must be a genius themselves since only by having a complete understanding of each and every thing they have asked me, would they be able to frame those questions in the way they were presented.

'I also had only three hours for this test but I was allowed to use magic so I used a bunch of spells just to answer all those questions in time.'

The amount of magic papers I had used in those three hours while being in the zone for most of that time should be enough to fill up a few books… but we aren't talking about that.

Compared to Rein's one question, that entire paper was pretty simple and relatively easy for me.

It was lengthy, a simple problem that I can overcome with the perks provided to me.

"This is really something, alright?"

Even the headmaster was stunned to see this thing. It was, even in his eyes, something much more than what met to my eyes.

[{ *You're thinking of a hundred ways this Gem could have been improved while they are simply seeing what has been created by someone who did not have as much knowledge and experience in creation as you, Master. You're being arrogant.* }]

'Thanks for saying it to my face.'

[{ *There's more I wish to say.* }]

'You can say that later. Can I please focus on this for now?'

[{ *Absolutely, master.* }]

Yes. As Lucy said, I was seeing this from my point of view. But Still!

'There isn't anything special about it!'

Why is even the headmaster acting as if he's seeing a masterpiece?!

'I just don't understand their reasoning…'

I want to understand it… but… haaa…

"Is there anything you want to ask us about this, Miss Uriel?"

"Hmm? You're done with whatever you were doing? You didn't even ask much."

"It is alright. We have seen what we needed to see."

They looked at me one more time and then turned to her, nodding.

"You can take your leave now."

"Oh, sure~! Thanks~! And give that cutie back when you're done with it~. It's a gift to my darling~."

"Hmm?"

A gift?

For me?

"Absolutely. We can see that already."

"Yes~."

"Wait, what? What do you mean gift-."

"Then good luck to both of you for your next exams."

-Snap!

The headmaster snapped his fingers, and we were thrown out of that testing area.

I had no idea why they meant by gift and why they knew about it but not me, but, there was definitely something going on here.

[{ "Rein" }]

She wanted to give that crocodile to me. It wasn't very special. They called it a gem even though there were many improvements that could have been made to it.

The question that was asked to her was to represent her leanings until now…

'There's something I'm missing here, but I don't know what that is.'

And, I'm pretty sure she's not going to tell me either with the kind of smile she has right now…

But still, I had to ask her.

[{ "What… was that." }]

Questioning was necessary even if I did not get any clear answers for it…