Chapter 15

The first to introduce themselves was the beautiful man.

"Hector Mainstar, I'm a mana teacher." His voice was definitely that of a mans, but was still soft and not deep, more boyish than manly.

"Jake Seal" the neon haired boy spoke, staring curiously at Alexis. "I teach mathematics and numerics."

"I'm Wallace of the Silver dukedom, I've come as a response of his majesty and specialise with languages" Alexis was drawn to the smug mans beard.

'Purple...'

She recalled a time her father had made the mistake of buying purple hair die and applied it to his white beard. He meant it to go black so he could look more put together, and ended up loosing the whole beard. She couldn't help but chuckle at the memory and smiled warmly at him.

It surprised him since he meant to come off as cold.

"Noah Bell, I'm a scientist." Alexis ears pricked when she heard the words coming from the tall white haired gentleman.

"Scientist? In what field?" She asked.

"Physics." Alexis smiled at that. It was approval since physics was something more easily understood, to a certain degree.

"And you?" She turned to the cotton candy man who was severely distracted by Agathus' green skin.

"Eh-oh? I'm Joshua, Joshua Enflada." He carried on staring at the Agathus while the neon haired boy spoke.

"You mean!- you're the heir to the Enflada family?" The whites of his eyes widened and his throat seemed rather dry when he spoke.

"Hm-oh yeah... please don't mind that." The cotton candy haired man waved away as he now turned to Alexis, "Now Miss mage fairy, if you could explain why his majesty has summoned us to see you." 

Alexis gave a relieves sigh and explained what she needed from them.

"His majesty wants an exam to be made for orphans?" Spoke the magic teacher.

"Yes, but that's confidential information which can't be given to any external parties" Agathus interrupted before Alexis could say much.

After that, they seemed to understand. 

"So that's five pages per subject?" Asked the physics teacher, Noah.

"That's right. It's best to be short since it's advanced questions and I'd like to see how quickly they can pass through all sections. With five of each, there'll be 25 pages all together and since the children are young I don't want to overwhelm them." Alexis recalled her own memories of being overwhelmed by thick exam booklets and shook her head with a shudder.

"It's admirable how you take into account the way they might react," it was the cotton candy man, Joshua, who said this, "Are you sure you're not an archaic earth fairy!" He pressed again.

"I think I'd be aware if I was" Alexis dryly replied, he had already asked the question 3 times while he worked on his pages. Hector laughed at this.

"Can you check the formatting for the magic exam questions?" He seemed to be more casual compared to earlier. Alexis made her way over with a-.

"Sure." And knelt at the papers.

She frowned and turned the pages. Then she turned some more until she came to the end. 

It was empty. All of it.

"What do you see?" He asked, an interested look on his face. Alexis contemplated on what exactly he was getting at.

'What type of joke is this...’

"Nothing." She patiently said.

Hector smiled at that. "That means your level of magic is beyond the scale I made. In that case you would probably ignore the papers right?" Alexis furrowed her brows in confusion.

"You mean?..." she waited for a further explanation.

"Different levels of mana allow people to see different things, you must already know this so I'll just explain the concept. People with low levels will answer different questions and complete different tasks than people with higher mana." Alexis understood a bit at this. But, she frowned, she really needed to read those books if this was common knowledge.

"Then what do you see?" She asked. 

"I can't take it since I created it, but someone else might offer to?" He looked around him, passing through the multiple people who seemed focused on their own works.

His gaze lingered on Wallace, Alexis called him out without much thought.

"Mr Silver? Won't you give it a try?" She asked the man who lifted a peculiar brow at her and lifted his nose.

"It's well known that nobles have magic so I have no need." He replied.

"But that's all the more reason. Your answer will provide the evidence Miss Alexis needs." Alexis scrunched up her nose at that.

She didn't ask for evidence, but it would be refreshing to know other people actual saw questions on the paper.

Mr Silver clicked his tongue and grabbed Hectors work. He quickly worked through questions and the longer he wrote the more baffled he looked.

"What's the colour of the socks I'm wearing have anything to do with my magic?" He asked, genuinely lost. 

'So he saw something?' Alexis surprised and then excitedly smiled at his funny words. 

"Oh it just means you can see the question and most children would have an enjoyable time answering" the more Hector spoke, the more Alexis grew fond of him.

'He's so interesting!'

When Wallace finally finished and handed the paper back to Hector, he looked a bit glad it was over. Hector didn't look through the book and tick through it. Instead, he waved his hand over it and the number five burned through the pages without actually burning any of the paper.

"Your at grade five, Mr Silver. I'd say it's the average for nobles of you lineage" he replied, his words were taken for granted by everyone.

"Is that so." A rather bashful smile spread across Wallace's face.

"Well, I'm done with mine." Hector stood and passed the papers to Alexis, "there shouldn't be any mistakes so I won't be seeing much of you after this Miss Mage. Goodluck with your task." He said and stood up to leave.

"Wait!" Alexis rushed to stop the enigmatic man, "You're welcome to visit the palace anytime, so please come back soon!" He was the only person she felt comfortable with among the group and really didn't want to never see him again.

Hector looked surprised at that and laughed in reply.

"I shall Miss Mage. I have to say I don't think the Emperor is as violent as the rumours say." He spoke mysteriously with a smile and then with a wave he vanished.

'No, he literally vanished...' Alexis stared, stunned at the place he'd last been, 'he wasn't invisible, was he?' She pondered on the possibility and just sighed as she turned to the others.

The others also slowly managed to finish their work one by one and piled them up next to Alexis who felt a sudden headache at the thought of reading more. 

She smiled gratefully at all of them and invited them all to visit whenever they wished, but of course, all most of them wanted to do was leave the dragons den they seemed to be relaxing in, but the charming girl who somehow seemed to capture all their interests made them inclined to visit again.

She looked frail and was out-spoken, yet didn't seem at all scared when his highness was mentioned. A notion seemed to bother them all that, maybe, just possibly, the rumours were a bit far fetched.