Flashback end
"Never wrong huh?" Princess Marina thought as she watched the boy and girl pair on the circular brown box.
"Beautiful!" Zandra Aile said with a bright smile and a clap as she appraised the music box.
"Candidate Felora Fandarin" Zandra Aile said in reference to the neon haired girl.
"Can you explain to this panel how it works?" Zandra Aile said with a bright smile.
"I used tiny fragments of the blue ore which carries the blessings of those blessed with water in order to give it an outwordly design." Felora said as she pointed to the boy-girl pair on top of the circular brown box.
"Then I animated the couple on the box so that their motion can be as natural as possible." Felora said as she pointed to the motions of the boy hugging and releasing the girl only to hug her again.
"And for the tune that plays, the button I pressed contains a tightly wound spring that allows these gears rotate a pinned metal cylinder at a steady pace, and as the cylinder turns, its tiny pins pluck the teeth of a steel comb." Felora said as she opened the circular brown box to show them the gears and cylinders.
"Each tooth is tuned to a specific pitch, so the controlled turning of the cylinder produces a clear, timed melody until the spring's stored energy is used up." Felora said with a bright smile.
"Good." Zandra Aile said with a smile as the panel scrambled something down.
"It's time for the next candidate." Zandra Aile said as Felora packed up her project with a satisfied smile.
The next candidate was a boy with buzzed black hair, black eyes and strong features.
"Candidate Halorin Windmere, why do you think your project is useful?" Zandra Aile asked with her usual smile and the boy smiled awkwardly before clearing his throat and droning on about the mechanics of his project. His project had four tiny circles on each side that were connected to a mini wagon by thin rods. Princess Marina noticed fragments of the white ore that carried the blessings of the spirit of the wind and was rapidly downloading what Halorin was saying until she glanced at the amount of minutes displayed above him and blanched.
Glancing quickly at the examiners, Princess Marina noticed the underlying bored expressions as they listened to him but no one bothered to stop him. Glancing back at Halorin whose lips were rapidly moving, Princess Marina noticed that Halorin mistook their refusal to stop him as interest and his smile grew bigger with each minute that passed. Stretching her legs discreetly to not be seen as rude, Princess Marina had almost given up on Halorin 's project until she saw his project fly.
Glancing up quickly along with everyone else in the room, Princess Marina watched in awe as Candidate Halorin 's project flew like a bird around the entrance hall carrying small things from place to place.
"Good." Zandra Aile said with a bright smile, grateful that she did not listen to a mini lecture for nothing. The panel wrote something down and another candidate was called.
As each candidate showed their projects, Princess Marina cursed the paper in her hand that signified that she would be the last person to present.
Closing her eyes and calming herself with deep breaths, Princess Marina's eyes snapped open when her name was mentioned. Walking to the stage with her head held high, her shoulders back and her project in her hands, Princess Marina asked for Falorin's permission before pointing her project at Falorin and producing a mirror-like version of Falorin above her project.
Blanching at the sudden appearance of her image above Princess Marina's project, Falorin and everyone present watched Princess Marina's project in awe.
Clearing her throat to knock everyone out of their reverie, Zandra Aile tentatively asked "Can you please explain your project to the panel" and Princess Marrina jumped straight into explaining.
"I used fragments from the blue ore from those blessed by the spirit of water, added a few pieces of heating stones in order to create a small but low heating effect, created a photographic film" Princess Marina said and everyone blanked at the word "photographic film"
"And used this lens," Princess Marina said as she showed the lens she had constructed with a piece of rounded glass.
"To capitalize on both the heating property of the heating stones and the water to create a mirage of the object or person that was captured by this." Princess Marina said as she pointed to the lens on her project and everyone stared at her speechless.