The old woman was displeased with Cate's words, but she saw the validity in Cate's point. Changing the test now was indeed unfair to those who had already created their spells and were confident in passing. Cate and the examiner held each other's gaze until the examiner felt her very soul freeze. She looked away in shock but quickly concealed her emotions.
"If there are those among you who have completed your spells and are sure you can pass, you may choose to continue with the original test. If you pass, you will move on to the third and final test, while the rest will move on to the newly prepared second test."
Cate curtsied dramatically at these words.
"A bastard will always be a bastard. I guess you can now die and stop leeching off my family," said Jordan Staranse. This young woman was supposed to be the real Catherine's sister, but the two had little relationship beyond what Jordan had heard her mother say about Catherine Staranse. In Jordan's eyes, Catherine was a bastard whose mother had seduced her father, leading to the collapse of Jordan's family. To this day, Jordan could still hear her mother's late-night sobs.
Because she loved her parents and didn't want to blame her father for what happened, Jordan decided to hate her bastard sister. She moved toward Cate with her head held high and her hands clenched into fists. She was clearly anxious to meet this sister, yet she had already made up her mind to kill her if the chance presented itself.
Cate knew about Jordan but didn't care about the Staranse mage clan. She wasn't the original Catherine. In fact, she hoped the Staranse clan would leave her alone. She wanted to get the Keys of Chaos and begin her revenge in peace. If the Staranse clan got in her way, she was more than willing to wipe them out. This wouldn't be the first clan she had wiped out. Catherine didn't know it, but she was playing with the fate of her entire clan right now. She stopped a few inches away from Cate and looked directly into her eyes. This didn't last long before Catherine had to look away. Cate might have given up her body as Medusa, but she was still Medusa. The curse that had turned her into a monster wasn't placed on her body but on her soul. She could change bodies thousands of times, but she would forever remain the one and only Medusa.
"What do you want?" Cate asked Jordan, hoping the young woman wouldn't pull her into her family drama.
Jordan gritted her teeth. She felt that Cate was treating her like a young kid who knew no better.
"I want you to stop going around bringing shame to the name 'Staranse'," Jordan said in a calm voice that held a chilling venom.
Cate thought for a second. After evaluating that there was nothing to gain from keeping this name, she nodded her head.
"From this day forth, I am no longer a Staranse. I will go by Cate, and that will be enough."
Jordan was stunned by this quick response. She honestly thought Cate would put up some kind of fight before being put in her place.
"Are you sure?" Jordan asked in disbelief.
"Hahaha," Cate suddenly began laughing. She took a step forward, her head getting closer to Jordan's. "I have never gained anything from the Staranse clan. There is no reason to hold on to something useless."
At this point, the other participants began enjoying the drama playing out before their eyes. Some hoped for a catfight between the two attractive women. Jordan calmed herself before speaking.
"Even though you are a bastard, the clan has still made sure to provide for you since the day you were born. If we calculate the amount of money the clan has spent on you until now, it would be in the millions." Jordan wasn't willing to let Cate have the last word. "If you are giving up the name, you should also give up all your accounts and repay the money that has been wasted on you. To be fair, you should also pay interest."
Jordan was very serious at this point. She felt that by making Cate pay for the sin of her existence, her mother could be soothed even a little.
Cate hadn't expected this to be brought up so soon, but she wasn't surprised. From the very beginning, she had known she would have to face a few problems from the Staranse clan. She had also expected a situation where they would make her pay for having left the cold palace where they had thrown her without the family's permission. In this way, the clan would not be of any help for her mission and would instead be a hindrance. Since this was the case, the best thing to do was to cut all ties to the clan.
"From the day I was born until now, I have used up seventeen mage coins. This is the equivalent of the millions you have been yapping about. I am not poor enough to count my money in any currency other than Mage Coins," said Cate with a smirk.
The crowd burst into laughter, with many people laughing at how poor they were. A single Mage Coin was enough for them to live like kings, yet the Staranse clan had spent seventeen of these coins on their bastard.
Before Jordan could say anything, Cate waved her hands, and seventeen Mage Coins appeared in her palms. They glowed with a powerful light that lit up the hall. Mage Coins were a condensation of magic, and right now, this magic was out in the open, making the world stand still.
"The Staranse clan spent seventeen low-grade Mage Coins on my upbringing. I will pay you back with seventeen high-grade Mage Coins. This is tens of times more than what you spent on me. Consider the extra to be the interest on your money," Cate said as she handed the coins over to Jordan.