In the drainage pipe.
"Don't you want me to hand you over to the police?" Ray asked.
The magical beasts shook their heads. But Ray was thinking hard about whether he could take care of all of them. Would there be enough food?
Sensing the worry from the eyes and heart of the young man chosen by the phoenix, everyone wanted this person to take them in and care for them. They wanted to be his strength.
Ray searched through the bags of the unconscious bandits lying on the ground, seeing that there was plenty of beast food to feed everyone. So he made his decision.
"Alright, everyone can go find homes inside my bag."
All the magical beasts in the drainage pipe cried out with joy, jumping and dancing. Ray lifted up his backpack before absorbing everyone into one of the most luxurious, spacious, and comfortable bags in the world.
"Yeah! Finally done with that. I'm so sleepy. I want to go home and sleep some more."
Ray covered a yawn, tears streaming, rubbing his eyes gently.
But it seemed like he was forgetting something. The phoenix slowly flew down to perch on Ray's shoulder lightly.
"Wait a minute!? It's morning outside, isn't it!? I'm in trouble—I have an exam this morning!"
The phoenix nodded glumly in calm response.
The black cat with the sword tail cheerfully rolled around, delighted to see Ray in trouble.
While the half-rabbit, half-squirrel clasped her hands together worriedly.
"Ahhhhh! Will I even make it to the exam!?"
-----
Ray tried to comfort himself. At least he did what Mark told him—he didn't stay up late before the exam at all. He just got very little sleep, that's all.
After he tied up the bandits with spider silk from his new friend named Taranla, Ray notified the police by writing a letter for White Raven to deliver.
Then he went home to bathe and get dressed, before traveling to the giant castle, or Temmecia Beast Tamer Academy itself.
The atmosphere was very peaceful. There was a bit of fog in the morning. The school entrance was full of many people crowding in who were walking into Temmecia Academy.
Some rode Trihorns, some rode regular horses, some rode griffins, and some…
Rode unicorns.
Every eye stared at the beauty of the white horned horse without blinking, including whispered gossip about the rider, which Ray, who was walking by, secretly overheard as well.
"That's the high-class Falerian family! Riding a unicorn to the school exam on the first day—declaring fame and prestige!"
"Yeah, I've heard of them too. Look at that cold, confident face. She'll definitely pass the exam no matter what. Rich kids with connections."
"Right! If I had a magical-level creature of my own, I'd probably pass too."
"I wonder if she has real ability, or just has good stuff?"
"Totally!"
Finishing their words, the two gossipy girls laughed and walked past Ray on the beautiful stone-paved road in front of the school. Ray stopped abruptly, looking toward the silver-haired girl in fancy clothes riding the unicorn. She looked like a proper lady who wouldn't harm anyone.
Ray then realized that even having just a magical-level creature earned that much gossip. If it were him with both Rogue and Nixie, he didn't know how much resentment he'd face if everyone knew.
Ray had never had this experience before. He'd never owned something others wanted because he'd been poor his whole life. Whatever he had, he spoke about directly and honestly. Now he was just learning that he should think about how to handle this properly.
"Uh, you, you—what's your name? Can I ask you something?"
He walked clumsily and foolishly next to the beautiful girl riding the unicorn. She furrowed her brows slightly that this person didn't already know her name, which later made her relax because at least this guy didn't have any prejudice.
"I'm Aria Atheria Falerian. And you?"
"I'm Ray Landroll."
"So what did you want to ask me, Ray?" She stopped her beautiful horse and turned to talk.
"Well, I wanted to ask how you deal with being famous? In case I accidentally become famous sometime."
That was all it took for Aria to elegantly cover her mouth and laugh like a proper lady, before gesturing with an open palm to tell him:
"You're funny. I don't know—my father taught me to be humble. But personally, I don't care what anyone thinks about me, so I don't really have problems with that sort of thing." Finishing her words, she crossed her arms and looked down at him.
"Oh, that's really good advice. Thank you, Miss Aria."
"You're strange," she smiled while crossing her arms.
"Huh? How so?"
"I mean you're so good and honest that it's strange. Your personality is just like the animals."
"Are you insulting me or complimenting me?" Ray furrowed his brows.
"Figure it out yourself. I'm leaving, Ray Landroll, the potentially famous person of the future." She waved from behind, riding her unicorn past Ray. Ray watched as people had to make way for her, stabling their mounts and walking into the registration building together with others.
"Aria, I think you're… even stranger than me," Ray smiled dryly before gripping his own bag firmly and following after her.
-----
The registration process was simple—just writing down information about who you are, what your name is, where you live. For someone like Ray, it was very easy. Orphans from Lugana all had records in the orphanage database. So Ray didn't waste much time except standing in line like everyone else.
Next was registering magical bags to know information about the examinees' magical beasts, and to choose three of their own magical beasts for the second round of exams.
Ray asked the registration staff if they could not look inside his bag. The staff said no, because this was a policy of Grand Professor Witsane Lumilen.
Ray asked why.
She explained that magical beasts choose to serve people whose personalities match theirs and who can draw out their power best. So to easily get to know students without hardly needing to interview them, they just look at that student's magical bag.
Another thing was that Professor Witsane didn't want power to be hidden during exams, because it would cause errors in selecting students into houses for different specialties.
"Alright then…" Ray sighed after sitting and talking with the staff until everything was cleared up.
He slowly took out his own bag and placed it on the table, letting her use magic to check the inventory inside.
A system screen appeared.
The moment she saw the complete list, her eyes immediately froze.
"Sir! Sir! This bag is insane!" She stood up in great shock, overwhelmed as if she couldn't believe her own eyes.
"Hahaha! See? This is why I didn't want you to look," Ray laughed.
"There's a phoenix, a Shadowprowler, and over two hundred others—fifty-three species! Are you really an orphan? How did you get along with so many creatures? All their status shows they're completely tamed!"
"Hehe," he scratched his head and smiled shyly, looking down.
"Staff member, what should I do if I don't want to be famous?"
"You can't! You have to be famous! The more famous and skilled you are, the more opportunities you'll have to get in. Sure, there might be some annoying people, but don't you want a good life with opportunities? Isn't that what an orphan like you wants?"
"Well, I'm afraid other people won't like me."
"Oh right! You're fifteen! Making sure classmates at school don't hate you is important too. I think you're quite smart. How about if you don't want to be famous, you don't register legendary-level magical creatures like the phoenix or magical-level creatures for the exam? I'll tell the school to keep it secret for you."
"Wow! The school will really keep secrets for me?" His face started beaming and he couldn't hide it.
"They will! If schools don't take care of students or develop students, why would they be schools?" She pushed up her glasses with a sweet smile.
"Whoa! You give really good advice. Are you a teacher here?" Ray smiled happily.
"About that—I'm more surprised that you don't know," she rested her chin and smiled thinly.
Ray scratched his head and looked down at the table, not knowing what she meant.
After Ray spent some time thinking, he successfully finished choosing the three magical creatures he would use for the exam.
"I'll go with these guys then."
The female staff looked at Ray's list that he had written in the registry and smiled coolly, nodding to him.
"Good choices. Good luck on your exam, Ray Landroll."
Ray bowed to her before thanking her and walking out of the room.
The blue-haired female staff in a proper long skirt took all of Ray's information documents to the door at the back of the room. She opened the door and told the exam supervisors who were busy sorting documents at the round table:
"Professor David, please arrange for this person to be in the same exam arena as Miss Falerian. It looks like it's going to be very interesting," the beautiful woman smiled sweetly.
The young male teacher in black clothes received the documents and responded:
"Yes, Grand Professor Witzany."
-----
Due to sleepiness, Ray barely had any concentration during the written exam. But he tried his best as much as he could. Questions he didn't know, he guessed. Questions he knew, he just knew.
All of Ray's knowledge about magical beasts came from working at the beast food shop and on the farm. He had never studied or attended cram school like others. So Ray's knowledge was quite scattered and disorganized.
Some questions he answered very deeply—so deep that ordinary kids couldn't possibly answer them. Some basic exam questions he barely had any knowledge of at all. Even so, Ray was confident he scored more than half.
The results were as expected. After the exam finished, scores came out immediately. Ray stood looking at the results on the board.
"Thank you, Aunt Olivia. Uncle Roger."
He scored 51/100.
He passed and got to take the next round of exams in the afternoon.
With time to spare, Ray stored his bag in a locker and chose to collapse in the fountain garden in front of the school, where parents and guardians were celebrating with students in a big way. There were also people crying as they left the school grounds.
But Ray's eyes couldn't stay open. He dozed off under the pleasant shade of a tree.
-----
Three hours passed.
"Aren't you going to take the second round? It's almost your turn," a voice said while gently shaking Ray's arm until he came to his senses, startled awake.
"Ah, Miss Aria! Wait—has the second round started!? What time is it!?"
"Three in the afternoon. It's almost your turn. You happened to get the same exam arena as me. I didn't see you come at all, so I came to check this spot again," she crossed her arms and furrowed her brows, looking down disdainfully at his irresponsibility.
"Oh! Thank you! If Miss Aria hadn't come to wake me up, I would have been in real trouble."
"Sigh. I just wanted to know how capable the person who said he might become famous really is. You don't need to thank me. Consider it payback for you being so honest and naive that you didn't recognize me," she said with crossed arms, her cold gaze and long silver hair braided behind her flowing with the wind and grass.
Ray rolled his eyes back and forth thinking, before pointing foolishly to ask: "Are you insulting me just now?"
"Think about it yourself. I don't care what you or anyone thinks about me, and I don't like telling anyone how they should think about me either."
"See? I told you you're even stranger than me."
"Yeah, that's right," she nodded in easy acceptance, still as ice. Nothing happened.
"Hahaha! How remarkably strong! Hahaha! I respect you. I definitely couldn't do it—enduring other people's stares. I think you're more skilled than strange."
Aria sighed, slowly releasing her crossed arms little by little, relaxing. She adjusted her lady's bag on her shoulder and walked away. "Whether you go to the exam or not is your business. I can't help people who won't help themselves," she spoke like someone with substance.
"Hahaha! If you're going to be kind, you could act a bit more like a kind person, Miss Aria! Everyone misunderstands you completely. Thank you for waking me up, even though you're taking the same exam."
Hearing this, she got irritated and quickly walked away from Ray even faster than before, before stopping abruptly in the middle of the path and quickly turning around, walking back to Ray in quick steps.
Standing still in front of him, she took a deep breath before saying:
"Alright, Ray. After considering all the people taking exams at Temmecia Academy, I just analyzed everything carefully and thoroughly according to my own logic. So I've decided that if I don't become friends with you, I can't be friends with anyone, because I'm not good at socializing. Therefore, you should go pass the second round and come study as my friend, because I don't want fake friends who hope to befriend me for my family's reputation and then gossip about me behind my back. I want someone who dares to speak directly to me without caring if I'll hate them, like you. For all these reasons, I want to shout at you: stop standing there stupidly and go take your exam already!" She looked very angry.
"Hahaha! You think too complexly! My head hurts. I don't think about things like that at all. Just being friends is simple. Can't someone smart who scored third not be good at this? Hahaha! It's fine—I'll be your friend myself, Aria. I'm going now," Ray laughed before following Aria, who shook her head in irritation and discomfort.
"Take responsibility for yourself next time. I don't like meddling in other people's business."
"You helping me isn't called meddling!"
He called out. The silver-haired girl laughed a little at the attitude of her new friend, whom she dared to call a friend. She was happy inside that she would finally get to try having a real friend for the first time.
-----
Ray and Aria walked to the magical beast battle arena in field nine, finding that the pair before them had finished competing, and the next examinee's name was announced just in time.
"The second round exam, pair one hundred and seventeen, is about to begin. Examinee number 703, Ray Landroll, please come report to the front of the stage."
Ray walked into the arena just in time. Aria patted his back gently to send him up to the stage. "Do your best, Ray," she said in a calm but powerful voice. Ray nodded once to thank his friend.
Before walking to the judge.
"Yes, I'm here," he walked to sign his name with the judge, before hearing a familiar mocking voice just in time.
"Haha! Is that you? My fifth corpse today. I'll finish you off and everyone else left, you parentless orphan brat! You're done for right here, you weakling! Today you can't run away with your tail between your legs anymore!" The evil voice laughed loudly with its spiky purple hair standing up.
Ray looked at the other side without fear.
"Bring it on then, Jason," he smiled as if to say 'see you soon.'
The person in the suit with purple hair, his old rival, pulled his showing-off tie and looked down disdainfully at the poor kid.
Then the judge announced:
"Begin the duel!"
-----