After Yaku and Emilia slept at her place, she woke him up as he slept on the ground.
"Wake up, today is the day," she said.
He mumbles some words, "Just two more minutes, mom... please."
Emilia smiles and looks at him—his brown hair messy, his eyes shut tight, and his mouth wide open, drooling.
"YAKU! YOU MISSED THE DEADLINE FOR THE ARCHIVE THING!" she shouts.
Yaku immediately wakes up in a panic, grabs his sword, and rushes toward the door.
"HAHAHAHA! I was jokinggg! It's still morning, silly," Emilia says, laughing.
"Emilia, please don't joke about that. I had a heart attack," Yaku says in his tired morning voice.
Emilia made breakfast for both of them—two eggs each and some sliced bread. Yaku ate all of it so fast, she couldn't even blink.
"Okay, I'm gonna go to the archive doors," he said.
"But there are still hours until noon?" Emilia asked.
Yaku stood up and put his sword on his belt.
"I can't risk missing the deadline. I'll just wait there," he said.
"Be careful not to be recognized by some guards of that noble. But honestly, this whole thing was probably swept under the rug by now. No one wants to make too much trouble, because Doth would just take pleasure in executing them," Emilia said.
He tells Emilia his goodbyes and says he'll see her again once he's done. She smiles at him and wishes him luck.
He takes many side roads to make sure he's not being followed by that noble's men. Fortunately, no one recognized him.
He reaches the archive doors, and the guards stop him.
"What business do you have here?" they ask.
"I have a test at noon. A robed man told me to come here at noon, but he never told me his name," Yaku says.
The guards tell him they can't let him in until someone comes out to get him. So he sits on the ground, waiting and waiting for hours—watching people pass by, birds in the trees, rats making their way through the streets, and, of course, nobles treating their slaves and servants like trash.
After three hours, the door finally opens.
Yaku stands up, ready to face the test.
But it's not the robed man. Just a random guy walking out.
"HOLY SHIT, WHEN IS HE COMING OUT?" Yaku screams, then sits back down on the ground, drawing in the dirt with his finger.
And then… another man comes out—and it's the robed man.
"You're here. Come with me, kid," the man says.
Yaku is let into the Archive's outer yard. It's a beautiful yard with many trees and benches to sit on.
"My name is Sunder, and I'm a teacher at the Magic Academy that is connected to the Archive," Sunder tells Yaku.
They head to the training grounds. Yaku sees what looks like a student with a sword at his hip. The student looks like he's the same height as Yaku. He has black hair with a single purple strand to the side and is wearing the academy's uniform—made of two pieces, a top and bottom, both fitted for practical and elegant wear, with the academy's crest embroidered near the heart, signaling pride in their magic.
All three introduce themselves formally.
Then, Teacher Sunder says,
"Yaku, you must fight Geo in a serious battle. He is a medium-level mage that specializes in reinforcement magic just like you. If you survive three minutes without getting knocked out, I'll allow you to use the magic archive for your studies."
Geo and Yaku stand in the training ground, looking at each other as the wind makes their clothes and hair dance.
"THE FIGHT… STARTS NOW!" Sunder screams.
They both unsheath their swords. Geo's sword is noticeably better in quality than Yaku's.
Yaku puts about 20% of his mana into his sword just to measure his opponent's strength. Neither of them wants to make the first move, so Yaku begins by lunging at Geo.
Their swords clash, and sparks fly all around. But it looks like Geo has way more mana put into his sword than Yaku. With a clean push, Geo forces Yaku's sword back hard. Since Yaku is gripping it tightly, it pulls him with it.
Unfortunately, when he lands, his sword digs deep into the training ground's dirt. Yaku tries to pull it out, but Geo immediately takes advantage and blitzes toward him, forcing Yaku to ditch the sword.
Yaku is now defenseless, and Geo keeps attacking relentlessly. Yaku is barely able to dodge any attacks.
Geo slashes at Yaku and nearly takes his eye out, but Yaku manages to dodge at the last second. He still gets cut under the eye. The wound starts to bleed—but not too much.
He realizes this can't go on forever. He'll eventually get knocked out—or worse, killed by accident.
Geo attacks him again. Yaku manages to roll to the side, but then Geo immediately follows up with a fireball, surprising Yaku.
Teacher Sunder smiles, thinking Yaku will lose. But Yaku immediately thinks of a new plan.
He looks at the sword lodged into the ground behind Geo. He puts 100% of his mana into his feet and runs super fast toward Geo, taking him off guard.
Geo tries to slash Yaku, but Yaku gets on two knees and slides under the sword, completely speed-blitzing him. As soon as he touches the hilt of his sword, it powers up to 100%, and he pulls it out of the dirt with ease.
He powers the sword down to 50% while keeping the other 50% on his feet.
He looks at the time—it's only one minute left to survive.
The fight continues.
Yaku and Geo are almost at the exact same speed. Sparks of mana fly around every time their swords collide.
The blue mana from Yaku and the dark blue, almost purple mana from Geo make a beautiful light show.
Geo is growing more and more angry because a low-class mage is keeping up with him.
How could he be disrespected like this? A medium-class mage?
He screams, showing his gums and teeth, and unleashes 100% of his mana. It's overwhelming for Yaku.
He's never faced pressure this big before.
Their swords collide once more.
Geo cuts Yaku's sword like paper.
Yaku now has a broken sword and is unable to fight.
Geo jumps at Yaku with intent to kill.
Yaku looks up and drops his sword, ready to die.
"TIME IS UP! STOP!" Sunder screams.
But Geo doesn't listen.
So Sunder blitzes in, puts Geo in a water bubble. Geo gasps for air until he passes out. Then Sunder lets him out after.
"Congratulations. You passed. I'm impressed with what you did—reinforcing your feet for speed. After you rest, I'll show you where the archive is," Sunder says to Yaku.
Yaku smiles and falls to his knees.
"One more second and I would've died. I wouldn't call this a win… but thank you," Yaku says, exhausted.
Sunder helps Yaku up. After making sure Geo is up and has calmed down, he leads Yaku to his room.