15~ Entrance Exam
The grading hall, specifically designed for rating Divine Princesses, was nestled among the trees, conveniently located next to the archives hall for storing records post-evaluation.
Besides this, the Academy also had grading halls for Divine Sons, Mages, Alchemists, and other main or secondary professions, though they were more centrally built and separate from the Princess grading area.
Except for the Princess Grading Hall, all other professional rating sections were housed within the same building; only the Princesses got their own separate facility, subtly showcasing just how much the Academy valued each profession.
In terms of scale, the Princess Rating Hall was bigger than all the other grading halls combined, with an abundance of counters to handle applications. There was no chance of queues forming, made even more feasible by how rare Divine Princesses were. It only got busy during the start of the school term, and even then, it was hard to see more than a few Princesses in a day—mostly, it was rather leisurely.
After school, Dillin stood at a secluded spot among the trees and donned his accessory. With a ripple of golden runes, the gold-haired Elf opened her olive-green eyes.
Thankfully, the transformation came with a neatly fitting linen outfit. If it came with an automatic clothing-shredding effect… well, let’s not dwell on that.
Adjusting the regal crown upon her head and disguising her elf ears into ordinary human ones, Tillysha still felt something was off. She sought out a glass wall, examining her appearance. Her cute, baby-faced figure would have been perfect if it weren’t for the black and white scar that almost occupied half her face, ruining the otherwise flawless beauty.
After fixing her bangs neatly, Tillysha nodded contentedly and stepped into the rating hall with steady little steps. She tied her hair neatly at the back, walking with the grace of a cat, head held high with just the right amount of pride. Her behind-the-knees golden tresses swayed like a tail as she moved, her elegance and composure deeply ingrained as if written in her very bones.
Without realizing it, she portrayed the poise of a princess.
These were habits, it seemed, like muscle memory embedded within this body, natural and unassuming as ever.
Until Tillysha noticed, and she stood there, dumbfounded, shaking her bound-shoe-clad foot, puzzled why her walk had suddenly grown so feminine.
Tillysha had long realized that this Elven body carried a certain degree of memory.
But wasn’t the influence too strong? Or were Elves naturally born with such behavior, meaning her transformation led these actions to become involuntary?
Miss Blyth appeared to have been waiting for quite some time, yawning, accompanied by two men in black robes with red linings.
“Good afternoon, I apologize for keeping you waiting, Miss Blyth,” Tillysha murmured, eyes slightly closed, bowing slightly with the ends of her garment held between her fingers, performing an apologetic bow.
“Not at all, I just arrived myself,” Blyth responded, a flicker of surprise in her eyes, seemingly not expecting such polished etiquette from Tillysha.
Though it was impolite to think, having never been given the surname of the girl, Blyth assumed the blonde was a Wild Female.
Being an illegitimate child of a certain powerful family, Wild Females were not widely recognized or entitled to family inheritance, thus often lacking ladylike education.
Speech often revealed a person’s cultural upbringing and educational level. Having managed archives and grading halls for years, Blyth had met her fair share of Wild Females. She could distinguish genuine Princesses from Wild Females just by their air.
Her intuition told her this not-yet-fully-transformed girl wasn’t a Wild Female, but if she were part of a family, why wouldn’t she dare to disclose her surname? Was there something disreputable in her history?
There was much about this child that seemed peculiar, but ultimately, it was her personal privacy, and Blyth wouldn’t snoop around.
“This young girl is the new Divine Princess enrolled today,” Blyth introduced to the two men beside her.
“This child hasn’t fully undergone her transformation yet, so we must start by testing her Divine Princess Domain. The rest we can evaluate after she has completed her transformation.”
“What about the scar on your face, child?” One of the men squatted down, furrowing his brow slightly as he looked at Tillysha’s ‘scar.’
“Mr. Balos…” Blyth facepalmed, who goes up to someone like that asking such personal questions? It might be something she didn’t want to talk about.
“Sir, it’s just a regular scar from a kn*fe,” Tillysha replied.
“A regular scar…?” Balos stared at Tillysha’s face for a long while until Blyth, standing behind him, became annoyed and slammed a fist onto his bald head.
“Alright! Staring at someone’s scar like that is downright rude!”
“…… Sorry,” Balos stood up, unconsciously rubbing his hairstyle that symbolized his strength, yet unable to resist a final glance at Tillysha’s scar.
He wasn’t sure if he was sensing it correctly.
He somehow felt it wasn’t actually a kn*fe scar; he detected a faint flow of Divine Authority in that ‘scar.’
Rather than a scar, it seemed more like some kind of seal?
“Let’s get to business, Mr. Balos.” Blyth said irritably, then turned towards Tillysha with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, this rating hall instructor has always been somewhat eccentric. Don’t mind him.”
Tillysha shook her head to signify she didn’t mind much.
The group arrived at the evaluation grounds in the back courtyard.
The busiest days of the school term had passed, and today, the rating hall was leisurely as usual with no one using the rating field.
Under Balos’s arrangements, Tillysha stood on a circular magic platform with a raised surface.
“Stay put,” Balos ordered, waving a hand to indicate to the other tester far away to begin.
The tester, upon receiving the command, nodded and picked a crossbow and arrow from a pile of various items. With Tillysha watching astonished, the arrow was set in place, aimed directly at her.
