Chapter 8

4 years have passed, and it is now 2 days before Elite Academy’s entrance examination .

I have come to the feudal lord’s mansion in order to get the letter of recommendation .

[Carmel-sama, regarding the entrance examination, is dyeing one’s hair to disguise their profession really not prohibited?] (Varius)

[In the first place, this is the first time I have heard of a magic that would change one’s natural hair colour . As long as it is a magic with no precedence of use, I believe Elite Academy has no means of prohibiting it . ] (Carmel)

After that conversation, the feudal lord went out of the drawing room, and I was left alone .

——My hair, after using hair bleaching magic, is now a blonde colour .

As people with natural blonde hair have an aptitude towards the Sage profession, the current me gives off the impression of one .

“If Tamers are not able to take the entrance examinations without being disadvantaged, then wouldn’t it be fine to just dye my hair?”…was what I thought, hence why I did what I did .

First is to enter Elite Academy while concealing the fact that I am a Tamer, and reveal the truth once I have accumulated enough achievements .

That is my plan .

For the record, I have two reasons for picking the Sage profession out of the many other professions .

The first is that the Sage is the easiest profession to mimic .

In the first place, a ‘Profession Aptitude’ is defined as [Being able to use a profession’s specialised magic while consuming less mana] .

A Hero using Hero magic while expending less mana, or a Holy Knight using Holy magic with a lower mana cost…things like that .

In the case of the Sage however, things are different .

The Sage possesses the trait of [Being able to use the specialised magic of all professions flawlessly while consuming very little mana . ]

Of course there are exceptions . Take Awakening magic for example, not even a Sage is able to use it .

(Rather than the mana consumption being too large, it’s more of other professions being fundamentally unable to use it . )

……Taking that into account, let’s consider the Tamer class .

Me being a Tamer, using magic other than a Tamer’s specialised magic would drain a large amounts of mana .

Tamers however, are able to take their tamed monsters’ growth experience as their own, immediately raising their mana capacity to a level incomparable to other professions .

Based on everything said so far, it can be concluded that [Tamers, with their overwhelming mana capacity, are able to use every profession’s magic on par with Sages] .

Hence why I would naturally pick the Sage as the target for disguise .

…The other reason is…comparably pointless compared to the first .

It’s great that turning a black hair to blonde only requires destroying the melanin in the hair, and the [dyeing] step is not needed .

—Oh, it seems that the feudal lord has returned to the drawing room .

A piece of paper is firmly gripped in his hand .

[This is the letter of recommendation from me to Elite Academy . Please make sure you take this there and be careful as to not lose it . ] (Carmel)

[Thank you very much . ] (Varius)

I received the letter, and carefully kept it in my Storage Magic .

Elite Academy, a place where only Nobles, or those who have received a Noble’s recommendation, are allowed to take the entrance examination .

Meaning, this letter is an extremely important item .

… . . And, at that moment .

[Varius, didn’t you say that you had something to hand over to the feudal lord?] (Caucasus)

Caucasus — now shrunk to one tenth his size due to body modification magic — said telepathically while resting on my shoulder .

Now that he mentioned it, I did .

I did have something I thought of giving .

[Carmel-sama…if I recall, isn’t it up to the noble that gave the recommendation to cover the expenses of the entrance exam fees?] (Varius)

[Yes, that’s right . ] (Carmel)

[Then…please receive this as payment for your expenses . ] (Varius)

Using Storage Magic, I took the snake monster, Jormungand’s skin out, and handed it over to the feudal lord .

This too, is one of Caucasus’s battle spoils .

Although I do not know how much are the examination fees…as this seems to be a high-class item, I would like to believe that it is sufficient .

As I thought so, the feudal lord’s mouth opened wide, his eyes boring into the skin as if to devour it .

[Thi, This… . . Isn’t this a Jormungand’s hide ! It’s a high-class item to the point where even if I had recommended an entire class’ worth of people, the change returned would be more than the cost, you know? Is it really okay to for me receive something like this? ] (Carmel)

[Eh…is it really worth that much? Well, it’s something I’ve prepared originally anyway, please accept it . ] (Varius)

Apparently, a Jormungand’s skin is worth more than the examination fees .

Well, there’s nothing better than a high-class gift, I’ll leave this as it is .

Now then, I’ve done everything that needed to be done, it’s about time I head back home .

After saying my farewell to the feudal lord, I flew off using the Nimbus Cloud .

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That night .

Wanting to do some last minute revision, I picked [The First Choice, Non-negotiable] up .

Since I had solved it over a hundred times, it now has a tattered appearance .

It would be easy to restore it using magic, but as it gave off the feel of it being [Proof that I had studied], I decided to leave it as it is .

I opened to the last chapter of that overused book .

It is a corner called [Making discarded questions more difficult], where questions with a low percentage of correct answers are made even harder — a corner with the author’s original questions .

[… . Un . No problem] (Varius)

I reflexively answered the numerous easy, hard, and tricky questions one after another .

After a few minutes, I closed the book .

Unlike my previous life, I devoted my full attention towards the boring act of studying for an entrance exam after all . It’s obvious that this would happen since I repeatedly went over the only revision book I have .

I closed my eyes peacefully, and drifted off to sleep .

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The next day .

As I woke up, heavy rain…or rather, a storm has occurred .

The rain was so intense that visibility was limited to only a few metres .

[Varius……isn’t the test tomorrow? You said it would be fine to leave the day before…but with this rain, wouldn’t that be impossible? What do you plan to do?] (Varius’ mother)

Mum is worried .

But…it’s a needless worry .

[Please do not worry, Mum . The weather doesn’t matter to me . ] (Varius)

I took the Nimbus Cloud out using storage magic, and got on it .

[I’ll be on my way . ] (Varius)

I said while flashing a smile to my parents……channeled mana into the Nimbus Cloud, and generated a spherical shield that is specifically designed for weather such as this .