18th Nonus 1329, Noon
A short while after Eleonora broke the strength-measuring dummy, it was her turn to take the second stage of the swordsmanship test. This was the more significant stage, as it was much more important for a swordsman to have a sense for using the blade rather than simply being a brute with too much strength on their hands.
The test consisted of sparring with a senior student while several professors oversaw the matches, as many students were being tested simultaneously.
While most senior students had no say when it came to making decisions for an examinee's grading, some were exceptional enough to be granted that privilege. Eleonora was purposely assigned to one such student due to her exceptional strength.
Her examiner was Nox Ravensford, a young man with black hair and black eyes from the Ravensford County, a region known for producing many of the greatest knights of the empire. Living up to his family's name, Nox was hugely recognized for his sword skills and was well known for his competitiveness.
Eleonora walked up to him, picked a wooden sword for her test, and approached him.
"Well, hello there. I heard the commotion you made at the first test" said Nox as he greeted her. He then continued, "Oh, where are my manners? I'm Nox Ravensford" he said, bowing slightly.
"Why are you bowing?" asked Eleonora, tilting her head in confusion.
"What do you mean? This is a basic knight's bow before a duel. Even though this isn't exactly a duel, but still..."
"Is that so? Then—" As Eleonora understood the meaning behind his bow, she bowed back and continued, "Please excuse me. I'm not aware of such etiquette. I was confused why a noble would bow to me. I hope you don't think of this as an insult."
"Hahaha, no, it's fine. Should we start?" said Nox.
As Eleonora took a stance prepared to start the test, Nox admired her form.
"She has such a refined stance, but she doesn't know basic knight etiquette? Where did this girl learn swordsmanship?" thought Nox. He took his stance as well and spoke out loud. "I will count to three. You start attacking me, and I will only block. You will then be graded based on your performance, stance, and general control." thought Nox.
After Eleonora nodded, Nox counted down. As soon as he reached zero, Eleonora rushed at Nox, and their wooden swords clashed.
Nox blocked her attacks one after another effortlessly, but he could tell how good she was at controlling her skills and power.
Usually, swordsmen reinforce their weapons with mana to strengthen them, but in Nox's case, he didn't do so for this test. It was simply a test against amateurs who couldn't muster enough power to break the academy's strong wooden swords.
This wasn't the case for Eleonora. The girl who broke a strongly enhanced measurement dummy could most definitely break some flimsy wooden swords.
But regardless, no matter how many times they clashed, she perfectly controlled her power to match the maximum limit those two wooden swords could endure.
"Is she aware of this?" thought Nox as he looked into Eleonora's eyes.
As soon as their eyes met, Eleonora smirked with arrogant satisfaction. He understood: not only was she aware, but she also knew she was being graded for it.
"Where did this monster walk in from? I've got to raise this test's difficulty a notch" thought Nox as he increased his strength and started attacking her back.
Just as well as Eleonora performed with attacking, she did great with blocking and dodging, to the point that he got absorbed into their test, turning it into a real duel.
As the duel went on, Eleonora seemed to be getting cornered; she could do nothing but block and dodge, leaving her no chance of retaliation. However, the more Nox pushed and increased his output, the more he got absorbed into the duel, taking it more and more seriously.
Only when it was too late did Nox come to notice something he had missed.
Nox had kept Eleonora cornered for a while now, leaving her no chance to attack back, meaning she should have been at her limit.
So, how had he not beaten her already after drawing more and more of his strength gradually? As he thought of this, he was already using a great deal of his power for a downward slash that should have been enough to beat her when he noticed her letting out another smirk.
Eleonora quickly shifted her stance. She parried his slash strongly, making use of the strength he put into the sword and her own control to break his sword in two. Eyes widened all around the test area at the sight of an examinee beating a prodigy examiner.
"I'm really sorry, senior! Even though you were holding back to test me, I went too far and broke your sword like this. I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to belittle you in any way" said Eleonora as she bowed repeatedly in apology.
"No, don't—worry about it. You still pass either way. Good job."
"Really! Thank you, and I'm truly sorry. If you will excuse me, I will go hand over my application. Nice to meet you."
As Eleonora rushed off, Nox stood there in shock.
"That girl... she was showing off at me while making sure I don't hold a grudge for making me look bad, wasn't she? Wait a second, to begin with, she started calling me senior before I told her she passed!" thought Nox.
After finishing all tests with flying colors—ranking first in all of them with the exception of the magic test she was exempted from—Eleonora went to hand in her application for processing and verification before moving to a bench to rest.
She sat cross-legged on the bench, exhausted after going through a lot that day.
She had left the village unprepared and got lost in the forest, thinking she might miss the test. However, she met that one merchant who helped her arrive on time. He even told her to pass by him so he could provide her with some life necessities and a place to spend the night as gratitude—two things she had forgotten to account for.
"Sigh, I really benefited a lot from that Mr. Cale. Doing good really is such a nice thing" thought Eleonora.
As Eleonora rested and reflected on how her day and tests went, she finally decided to stop ignoring the girl next to her who was staring.
"You got something to say to me?" asked Eleonora to the girl in annoyance.
"Ah, I'm sorry, you seemed to be lost in thought, I didn't want to bother you" answered the girl.
The girl was a short, walking ball of sunshine. She had long, silky platinum blonde hair and viridian eyes. Her innocent beauty was so bright to Eleonora that she felt like squinting her eyes as the girl continued.
"Hi, I'm Angela. And you?" asked Angela as she closed in more and more on Eleonora, annoying her more than she already was.
"I'm Eleonora" answered Eleonora curtly.
Even though Eleonora had been conducting herself "mostly" kindly and politely so far, she couldn't do so with Angela, especially when the girl was so inconsiderate of her personal space. Regardless, she still held back from getting openly angry.
"What?! You are not a noble? But you are so beautiful and polite, I thought you were definitely a noble!" said Angela as she tilted her head in confusion.
Eleonora thought to herself how often she seemed to be hearing the same line. It seemed to bother her this time, unlike how she considered it to be a compliment from Mr. Cale.
"Thank you for the compliment, but I wouldn't be here if I was a noble, no? Plus, you shouldn't expect to be treated politely by nobles. I really wonder what kind of shell you have been living in to think nobles are kind and polite" said Eleonora in mockery.
"Really? Then that makes you better than nobles! But thanks for warning me" said Angela with a smile, completely unaware of the mockery in Eleonora's tone.
"Did she really not notice I was mocking her? Or is she playing stupid? Wait, is she actually stupid? Either way, dealing with that girl will be troublesome. I should keep my distance" Eleonora thought to herself.
As Eleonora tried to end the conversation and leave, she heard that anger-inducing cheerful voice again.
"I noticed your unique magic at the magic test and was really amazed by it and wanted to talk to you. I was also amazed to see you performing so well in all courses. Unlike you, I only passed for simply having light magic."
"Are you an idiot?! Of course you will pass. Do you know how often light magic users appear? Or do you not realize you use one of the rarest and most sought-out magics in the history of the empire?"
"I know it is rare, but is it really that amazing?"
It was then that Eleonora found a new use for her blood magic: she used it to stabilize her blood pressure, which this midget was so set on raising, and found it in her to stay calm and think clearly.
That girl really was no good, and Eleonora was set on making distance. Just as Eleonora was about to try escaping before she ended up hurting the midget who used none of her magic to brighten her own head, she was stopped by a young man who jumped into the conversation.
"You shouldn't give her those looks. It's as you said; she really was heavily sheltered. That's the Pope's beloved adopted daughter, after all," said the young man.
"And you are?" said Eleonora with a straight face, even though she was surprised by what he just said.
"Sorry, where are my manners? I guess you were right when you said nobles weren't polite. I'm Howard Hildegar."
Eleonora opened her eyes wide in shock at the fact that the young duke of House Hildegar, rulers of the western section of the Ekhart Empire, was standing in front of her. Not only that, but he had also heard her insult to nobles.
"Don't worry about it. You were not exactly wrong, but you shouldn't let anyone else hear you saying such a thing," he said, seeming to enjoy the look on her face.
Howard was an easygoing noble with dark brown hair and black eyes and was the only heir to the Hildegar Duchy, known for their unique inferno magic.
"Regardless, I apologize for my insult" said Eleonora as she jumped off the seat and bowed to Howard.
"Don't worry about it, really. I came here to get to know you, not to have you apologize to me."
"Why me?" said the surprised Eleonora.
"It's normal to get to know promising individuals, no?"
"I'm honored," said Eleonora as she regained her composure.
"You shouldn't really. This is Elriyan; no noble status is applicable here anyway."
"And you ask me to believe this rule is properly followed?"
"What did we say about insults to nobles?" asked Howard with a smile.
"I have a feeling you don't really care about such trivial insults" answered Eleonora.
As the two stared daggers at each other, an assistant arrived at the scene and spoke to Eleonora.
"Excuse my interruption. Miss Eleonora, Headmaster Aron wishes to meet you."
"Well, well. I was wondering which fish you would hook, seems like you caught a whale" said Howard.
"Then, nice to meet you. If you two would excuse me."
"Ah, let's meet again, Elen!" said Angela as she waved at her.
"I don't remember allowing you to play around with my name. My name is Eleonora" said Eleonora as she glared at Angela in annoyance.
"Oh! I'm sorry. See you then, Eleonora."
Eleonora clicked her tongue in annoyance as she left with the assistant, leaving Howard and Angela alone.
"Excuse me, Young Duke, am I imagining things but does she hate me?" asked Angela.
"Hahahaha, you only noticed now?"
"Aww, but why?"
"If you insist on befriending her, try giving her some more personal space next time. She seemed to get angrier as you moved closer to her."
"Oh! Did I move that close to her? I admired her so much I didn't notice. I will make sure to befriend her next time. Ah, I should go try taking those other courses she took, I can't manage swordsmanship but I can try my luck with the rest"
"Did you even study for them?"
"No, but I have some knowledge of them, surely they would be enough, no?"
As Angela steeled her resolve, Eleonora walked the hall with the assistant, not realizing she had no chance of avoiding the glowing midget she had come to hate.