Comia's Invitation

The assessment was over.

In the combat trials, first place received 120 points, second place 100, third place 90, fourth and fifth both received 85, while the remaining students received anywhere from 70 to 30 points based on their performance.

"Comia's combat score is 65," Yero read aloud. Quite a few students were surprised, but quickly understood why.

Indeed, Comia had defeated Solin. Though she could only use that ability once or twice a day, it still showed that her combat prowess was far from poor.

"Sylutia's combat score is 60." Yero announced another girl's score, leaving many students baffled and unable to understand.

"Why does she get points? Sylutia didn't even take the field," someone objected.

"Sylutia already has excellent Secret History Class grades. If you add combat points on top of that..." Someone felt their ranking had been snatched away.

"Miss Sylutia spent extra effort and time learning gardening-related skills and officially mastered the Dew Prayer Technique, so the teacher converted that achievement into combat points," Yero explained.

"Dew Prayer Technique? What's that?" someone asked, confused.

"I think it's an ability all professional Gardeners need to know. It can speed up plant growth or ripen flowers and herbs, that sort of thing."

"Doesn't sound all that useful. Giving her 60 points for that is too much—I'd say 30 would be about right." Someone muttered jealously.

"Silence." As Scholar Heide's student and the current teaching assistant, Yero explained again.

"Miss Sylutia took less than ten days to go from first encountering the 'Dew Prayer Technique' to mastering it. The teacher considers that quite an impressive achievement, which is why she was awarded 60 converted points."

"Additionally, Mick received an extra 10 points for breaking through to the second stage of the Breathing Technique, while Solin received an extra 10 for learning 'Power Burst.'"

"If any of you make breakthroughs in your own cultivation of abilities during future studies, the teacher will likewise award bonus points." After his explanation, the students finally accepted it.

"Looking at it that way, doesn't Solin's 90 points put him level with second place?"

"I wonder who'll end up second and third in the final assessment." The crowd buzzed with discussion.

That afternoon, Teacher Heide supervised their Secret History Class examination, then graded the papers on the spot.

"The full score is 100. Iona scored 98, Sylutia scored 100—the gap is small. Next are Baron with 91, Comia with 87, Solin with 85..."

"Finally, Ray scored 43, and Mick scored 36." Their Secret History Class results truly made them two birds of a feather, languishing at the bottom.

"The combined scores are as follows: first place, Iona, 218 points; second place, Solin, 185 points; third place, Baron, 176 points; fourth place, Sylutia, 160 points; sixth place, Toss, 157 points; seventh place, Comia, 152 points..."

Once the rankings came out, the students gathered around to look, discussing them animatedly.

"Iona really did take first place. That cloak was probably something the Viscount had already decided to give her."

"She is his own niece, after all—and Viscount Callen's daughter."

"I never expected Solin to score higher than Baron. Those extra 10 points were crucial. Otherwise, Baron would've taken second place."

Naturally, Baron was furious at the result. Unfortunately, he needed to recover from his injuries and would be unable to attend class for some time.

"Sylutia, you almost made it into the top three!" Comia pounced on the girl, only for Sylutia to catch her and set her back down.

"It wasn't that close—there were 17 points between us." She did not care much about the rankings.

"Let's celebrate tonight! Oh, right, come to my house. My mother said she'll prepare a big feast for us tonight. She told me so after watching the match at noon."

So Comia's parents had come at noon? Sylutia thought it over, then nodded in agreement.

Elsewhere, seated in a private lounge, Iona also listened as Valenie reported the results of the examination.

Her own first-place finish had been beyond doubt, but she was surprised that someone had scored full marks in Secret History Class—higher than even herself.

"Sylutia? That girl who wears glasses every day and carries textbooks around?" Iona turned around.

"Yes, Lady Iona. That quiet commoner girl who hardly ever speaks." Valenie spoke with a trace of resentment.

"She just crams things by rote. She only got a high score because she caught you off guard."

"Is it really just rote memorization?" Iona was somewhat doubtful. Considering that Scholar Heide had not been teaching for long and the current questions were not especially difficult, failing to take first place was unexpected, but not impossible to accept.

"Later on, rote memorization won't be enough to earn high scores." Iona had once studied at the Royal Academy in White Cliff City, and knew of the profound material that would come later.

No matter what, the name Sylutia had appeared in Iona's memory for the first time. She had also grown curious about that ordinarily inconspicuous, low-profile girl.

That evening, Sylutia and Karen arrived at Comia's home.

It was also in the East District, but in a better location. The entire house was built of stone bricks and coated in white lime. Its roof was made of orange-red terracotta tiles, while climbing vines covered one of the side walls, making it especially lovely.

"Welcome, Sylutia—and Karen too." Comia's mother looked kind and gentle. She wore an apron and had a cloth kerchief over her head to keep off the dust.

After leading the two classmates inside, Comia happily ran back and forth through the house, bringing them sweet honey water and showing them a flower basket she had made not long ago, toys from her childhood, a newly bought cloth doll, and more.

The three girls chatted about everything under the sun in Comia's bedroom until the sky began to darken. Only then did Comia's father return from the merchants' association after work.

"You must be Sylutia and Karen. I've been hearing Comia mention you two a lot lately, haha." Comia's father had a slight paunch and seemed to be a minor supervisor at the merchants' association, with plenty to keep him busy each day.

Once the guests and family were all present, everyone sat around the long table chatting while Comia's mother brought out the prepared dinner dish by dish.

The main course was butter-fried steak that Comia's mother had specially prepared, sprinkled with rather costly spices and served beside pale-red translucent currants and a small portion of roasted celery.

At a restaurant, a main course like this might cost one silver coin per serving. Even buying the ingredients alone would cost thirty copper coins per serving. For five portions, plus the other side dishes, tonight's meal would probably cost around two silver coins in total. Even for a well-off family like Comia's, it was no small expense.

At the dinner table, Comia's father occasionally asked about Sylutia and Karen's family backgrounds, but did not pry too much. It seemed that he was more concerned with how Comia had been doing lately in Scholar Heide's classes.

Comia's mother was quieter. According to Comia, her mother had grown up in fairly comfortable circumstances. She had gone to Valley City to study and work, only returning to her hometown later to marry her father. Her father, meanwhile, had once been nothing more than a village youth. After coming to Scorched Stone City, he had gradually made his fortune, eventually earning the recognition of a merchant guild boss and joining the guild.

"They both love me a lot. It's just that I feel like they're rather bland around each other—not very romantic." On the way out as she saw Sylutia and Karen off, Comia spoke of how she felt.

"Sylutia, do you think they had no choice but to be together because of me?"

"I don't know." The girl gave a slight shake of her head.

"But even if that was the case, you don't need to feel upset or guilty about it, because it was their choice."

"What Comia needs to do is grow up healthy and happy. Once you have the ability, then you can help them solve some of their troubles."

"I see..." Comia looked up at the night sky overhead.

"I always feel like Sylutia is someone people can easily lean on. You might not be very good at fighting, but being around you just feels relaxing. It makes me want to tell you little troubles hidden in my heart."

She took a few steps forward, then turned around.

"Thank you for comforting me, Sylutia. Actually, I'm still very strong—I just overthink things sometimes."

"I'm so happy that Sylutia and Karen came to my house today. Mom's always worried that I get too carried away at Scholar Heide's place and offend my classmates, but I'm actually very smart. Adults, though..." She gave a small shake of her head.

"Anyway, I was really happy today. Not only did I show off my skills in front of Teacher and my classmates, I also had you with me."

"See you tomorrow, Karen—and Sylutia~" With that, she waved goodbye to them at the crossroads and ran toward the house whose door still stood open, light spilling out from within.

How wonderful, Sylutia murmured softly in her heart.

Her previous life could no longer be pursued. If she still had family in this life, then where were they?

The road ahead was long; she would search high and low. The future truly was something to look forward to.