"Heh-heh."
Guter replied to the head chef, Lake, without much enthusiasm. After exchanging a few polite words, he paid and took the food away.
Carrying bags upon bags of snacks, the two senior and junior disciples returned to the Examination Hall.
Standing before the hall doors, Guter set down the food and released a trace of mana to sense the area. Sure enough, the doors were no longer covered in mana. It seemed Teacher Serie had already soothed her disciple's emotions.
With that thought, Guter gently pushed the door. The solid wooden doors opened with ease, revealing the scene within the hall.
Inside, Teacher Serie sat as she usually did in the chair symbolizing "authority," lounging in an uninhibited posture with her cheek propped on one hand, seemingly lost in thought.
Yet Guter, who often sneaked glances at Serie, still noticed something different.
One of Teacher's hair ties was missing, leaving the hair on one side slightly disheveled. Guter had a guess and turned his gaze toward Gumi.
Sure enough.
His observation had been correct. His Junior Disciple no longer wore her hair loose as she had earlier. It had been braided, and the hair tie Teacher was missing was now in her hair.
When Gumi saw Guter and Lairn return, she smiled and waved at her senior disciples. Her emotions had recovered completely, and she was once again her usual bright, cheerful self. Especially when she saw them carrying so much delicious food, she hurried over in a small run.
Once Gumi came close, Guter smiled and handed her the takeout boxes he was carrying, not forgetting to rub her head twice.
Mm—
How should he put it? Once her hair was tied up, it really did feel different.
Besides that, Guter caught a familiar clean fragrance from Gumi. If he remembered correctly, it was the lingering scent left behind after Teacher used magic to thoroughly remove stains from clothing.
So had she cried so much earlier that even her clothes had been soaked with tears?
Looking at the food-loving girl smiling so carefreely before him, Guter fell silent.
What kind of horrific state had Gumi's former hometown been in?
And how long had those heavy memories been buried within his Junior Disciple's heart?
"Ahh..."
Guter met the gaze of Teacher in the hall. In the end, all he could do was sigh.
Several more days passed.
At dusk, the church bells rang out melodiously. Lairn, who had been sitting on the ground meditating, opened his eyes. After glancing at the sunset beyond the window, he took out the Barrier Terminal from his robes and silently cut off the mana supply to the examination barrier.
As the semicircular sky-blue barrier dissipated, the First Mage Examination held by the Continental Magic Association in Oysaster officially came to an end.
Inside the hall.
Serie leaned against the back of her chair in boredom, swinging her two pale, jade-like feet with a faintly displeased expression.
"In the end, I only took in these few disciples."
"If I'd known, I wouldn't have come for the last few days."
Below the hall, Guter held the thick Magic Book in his hands. As for how long it had been since he last turned a page, even Guter himself had no idea.
After all, he had devoted all his attention to admiring Teacher's jade-like feet. How could he have had any energy left to read the Magic Book?
Honestly.
He had originally planned to use "learn one page of knowledge, then sneak a glance at those jade-like feet" as motivation. Yet he finished learning a page very quickly, while one glance at those feet lasted for a very, very long time.
At first, it had been, "As long as I don't blink, it still counts as one glance."
But after watching for two minutes, it became, "I'm already looking anyway. This exquisite sight isn't available every moment, so I might as well watch a little longer."
Even now, Guter did not spare any attention for the system notification that sounded beside his ear.
Unfortunately, when the church bells rang, Serie left her chair.
Those jade-like feet naturally stopped swaying as well.
After walking down from the hall, Serie swept her gaze across her disciples in turn. She smacked Guter hard on the head with the Magic Book, then spoke.
"Come on. We're going out for dinner tonight, and I have some things to tell you."
"Alright."
All the disciples agreed. Gumi especially perked up the instant Teacher brought it up.
A little later.
In a private room at an upscale restaurant in the city.
As she looked over the menu, Gumi pouted slightly, seeming rather unenthusiastic.
Even when ordering, she was far more restrained than usual. She ordered only one steak as a main course, with just a few desserts and snacks besides that.
Guter, seated beside his Junior Disciple, found this strange. He lightly nudged Gumi several times with his elbow and quietly asked what was wrong with her today. Was she feeling unwell somewhere?
As for whether the prices at this upscale restaurant had limited Gumi's ordering, that possibility never even crossed Guter's mind.
For one thing, Teacher Serie had always paid for their sect's group meals.
Unlike Frieren, who did not know how to manage money, this elven Teacher of theirs understood a thing or two about finances.
As a legendary Archmage who had lived from the Mythic Era until now, Serie had likely accumulated so much wealth that even she herself could not say how much she possessed.
Besides.
If they were discussing financial means, Guter was probably the poorest among the four master and disciples.
Although Lairn had been stripped of his noble title, he had once been a noble of the Imperial Capital. His financial foundation was beyond what ordinary nobles from remote borderlands could imagine.
As for Gumi.
Although she had never voluntarily spoken about her background in front of everyone, Guter, as her longtime dining companion, had still learned some things.
Her hometown lay on the border between the Central Countries and the Northern Countries.
Her family had likely been nobles as well, though not of particularly high rank. There was a strong chance they had been Barons without inheritance rights, or perhaps even knights.
But unlike Lairn, who came from pure aristocratic power, Gumi's parents mainly ran a merchant guild, and their business seemed to have been quite large.
They had even turned their remote hometown into the merchant guild's headquarters, building it into a prosperous town.
Rather than a reward, her family's noble title seemed more like recognition from the various countries they traded with for her family's contributions.
Even though her hometown, the headquarters of her family's merchant guild, had all been reduced to ashes under the Demons' rampage—
It had still been a massive merchant guild. Even without its headquarters, it had branches and trade units throughout the various city-states and countries.
That was by no means a fortune to be underestimated.
Though he did not know how Gumi had ultimately handled it, Guter knew she would never be troubled by money.
Her lack of appetite now was most likely due to some other reason.
Sure enough, after hearing the question from the senior disciple who had always looked after her, Gumi bit her lip and replied.
"I'm not feeling unwell or anything. Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother."
"This... might just be a personal habit of mine."
"Back then..."
Before you continue