Iris was teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown, sitting at that desk with the scroll in front of her and the damn tickle from Kai still buzzing in her groin.

  Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

  Iris dropped the quill with a sharp smack against the wood and raised her voice, shaky and tangled:

  “Hey, proctor, you gave me a messed-up exam!”

  The man looked up from his papers, blinking in confusion behind his round gsses.

  “Pardon, Your Highness?” he said, his deep voice more baffled than annoyed.

  He leaned forward, adjusting his gsses with a finger as he took the scroll Iris jabbed at with a rough gesture.

  The proctor examined it, turning it side to side like he was hunting for an obvious fw, but his frown deepened.

  “I don’t see anything wrong here,” he murmured, scratching his short beard with a slow motion. “What’s the problem?”

  Iris pointed at the bnk lines—or what she saw as answers—with a finger trembling from sheer indignation.

  “This! Aren’t these parts supposed to be empty or what?” she asked, her voice pitching up as she fought to keep it together.

  The proctor raised an eyebrow, eyeing the spot she pointed at.

  From his view, it was completely bnk, as it should be.

  “Yes, Your Highness,” he replied, his tone patient but a touch dry, like he was expining something obvious to a kid. “It’s a fill-in exam. You’re supposed to write the answers.”

  Iris blinked, stunned, her mouth parting slightly.

  ‘What?’ she thought, staring at the proctor like he’d just insulted her in another nguage.

  “So you don’t see the answers right there?” she said, her tone mixing confusion and fury.

  Iris pointed again, harder, as if the gesture would magically make the words pop up for him.

  The proctor sighed, setting the scroll on the desk with a tired motion, and looked at her with an expression Iris knew too well: disappointment.

  “Your Highness, I can’t give you the answers,” he said, his tone firm but calm. “That’d be unfair.”

  “I’m not asking you to give them to me!” Iris shot back, her voice rising as she leapt to her feet, making the desk wobble. “I’m saying they’re already there! Can’t you see the exam’s solved?”

  Iris’s breathing sped up, and the heat in her cheeks fred, both from rage and a sudden jolt from Kai that made her clench her thighs on reflex.

  The proctor watched her with a mix of confusion and pity, adjusting his gsses again.

  “Princess, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, a hint of exasperation creeping in. “There’s nothing written on those lines.”

  Iris felt something snap inside her.

  That look—the same one her parents gave her when they expected her to fail—was the st straw.

  With a choked yell, she grabbed the scroll and flung it to the floor with a theatrical sweep.

  “Well, I’m not answering something that’s already done!” Iris excimed, her eyes bzing with fury as she pointed at the crumpled paper like it was a mortal enemy.

  The proctor crossed his arms, letting out a long, resigned sigh.

  “Your tantrums won’t make me hand you the answers, Your Highness,” he said, his tone dripping with weariness. “If you don’t want to take the exam, that’s your choice, but…”

  “Give me an empty one then!” Iris cut in, her screech echoing off the stone walls.

  The proctor blinked, clearly thrown, but shrugged and pulled an identical scroll from the stack on his desk.

  “Here you go,” he said, sliding it toward her with a slow motion, almost like he braced for another outburst. Iris snatched it with shaky hands, unfolding it in front of her, and there they were again: the same answers in that grayish ink that seemed to mock her sanity.

  “An explosion,” “dust,” “smoke”… all right there, clear as day to her, but apparently invisible to the proctor.

  Iris let out a low, almost manic giggle as she slumped back into the desk.

  ‘Are they seriously treating me like an idiot?’ she thought, her heart pounding with raw disbelief.

  “If that’s what they want, fine, I’ll do it,” Iris muttered to herself, grabbing the quill with a quick jerk and copying the answers at breakneck speed.

  Her strokes were sloppy, ink spttering a bit from the rush, but she didn’t care.

  ‘If they’re giving me the answers, I’ll use them, period,’ Iris thought, as the demon on her shoulder cackled and the angel covered its face with its hands, mortified.

  The proctor, meanwhile, bent down to pick up the scroll Iris had tossed, shaking it to dust it off with a slow gesture. He sat back down, resting his elbows on the desk and watching the princess with a mix of disappointment and resignation.

  ‘I expected more from her,’ he thought, scratching his beard as he observed her scribbling like she was possessed.

  He’d heard the rumors: the third princess, the useless one, good for nothing but stirring trouble.

  But this exam wasn’t a freebie.

  What the nobles didn’t know was that this early version was tougher than the academy’s official test, designed to weed out the mediocre.

  ‘If she passes, it won’t be on her own merit,’ he mused, convinced Iris was throwing a fit to get the answers handed to her. ‘And at the academy, she won’t be able to manipute anything. This won’t help her much.’

  Suddenly, a sharp thud snapped him out of his thoughts.

  Iris was done.

  Iris shoved the completed scroll at him, sliding it across the desk with a rough flick.

  “I’m finished,” she said, her tone sharp and irritated as she stood up.

  Without waiting for a reply, she yanked the door open and stormed out, leaving the proctor with his mouth half-open.

  “Your Highness?” he called, bewildered, but she was already gone.

  Normally, nobles lingered, eager to hear if they’d been accepted.

  Iris bolting like that, so fast, only confirmed his suspicions:

  ‘She doesn’t know a thing. She ran to dodge the failure,’ he thought, shaking his head as he picked up the scroll to check it.

  But then, the proctor’s eyes went wide.

  Every answer was correct.

  Completion, reasoning, formus, theories… all perfect.

  He flipped to the next scroll, then the next, his hands trembling as he scanned line after line.

  Not a single mistake.

  “What…?” he murmured, his voice cracking as sweat beaded on his forehead.

  ‘Ten minutes? Ten damn minutes to solve this?’ he thought, dropping the scroll onto the desk like it burned.

  It was impossible.

  Even the academy’s top students couldn’t do this that fast.

  ‘How…?’

  …

  Meanwhile, Iris marched quickly down a hallway toward the castle garden, fresh air hitting her face as she gnced out an open window.

  She took a deep breath, letting the flower scent calm her, and suddenly realized something: Kai had stopped moving.

  The tickle in her groin had faded, like the mage had vanished.

  ‘Did he die?’ she thought, a knot of worry tightening her stomach.

  But there was no way to get him out, not now, because trailing behind her was that damn silver-haired maid, jogging to catch up with short, quick steps.

  “Your Highness, why’d you leave me behind!” the maid excimed, her nasal voice one Iris loathed.

  Her gray hair was messier than ever, and her gray eyes fixed on Iris with a mix of reproach and confusion.

  Iris clenched her teeth, forcing a tight smile.

  “I’m… exercising,” she lied, her tone more growl than excuse.

  The maid frowned, adjusting her apron with a nervous tug.

  “Be careful, princess. After what happened in the bath, we don’t want you overdoing it,” she said, her motherly tone making Iris want to scream.

  Before she could snap back, another figure came sprinting from the far end of the hall: the brown-haired maid, the young one with the sloppy ponytail and big eyes.

  She arrived panting, a huge grin lighting up her freckled face.

  “Congratutions, princess! You passed the exam!” she shouted, practically bouncing with excitement.

  Iris stared at her, stone-faced, not a flicker of joy.

  The gray-haired maid’s eyes widened, spinning to her colleague.

  “With what score?” she asked, her tone blending curiosity and suspicion.

  The brown-haired girl grinned even wider, throwing her hands up like she was announcing an epic win.

  “She scored perfect!”

  The silence that followed was deafening.

  This novel already has 3 advance chapters on Patreon, more coming soon!

  Postings of each new chapter will be every 2 days starting today.