Several days later, after breakfast, Linley followed the flagstone path toward the rear mountain.
As he walked, he suddenly heard voices deliberately lowered yet unable to hide their excitement:
"Have you heard? It's Dixie! Yesterday's year-end test results came out..."
"Seriously? This is only his second year!"
"A fourth-year upperclassman said it himself. How could it be false? A fourth-rank magus! And he's only nine!"
Linley's footsteps involuntarily slowed.
Several girls in third-year uniforms stood beneath the wisteria arbor beside the path, holding breakfast rolls, their faces glowing with a kind of reflected pride. One continued, "My older sister is in his class. She said Dixie's magic reached the fourth-rank standard during the test. Even the examiner was stunned..."
"A nine-year-old fourth-rank magus." Another girl clasped both hands over her heart. "I heard his Spiritual Force was sixty-eight times that of his peers when he enrolled. He's practically a gift to humanity from the Lord of Light..."
Linley's fingers unconsciously tightened, the edges of his books leaving shallow impressions in his palm.
A fourth-rank magus.
They had both enrolled at nine, and Dixie was even a month younger than him. Yet now, Dixie had crossed the threshold between the third and fourth ranks, a barrier many magi needed years to overcome, while he remained at Rank 2.
And then there was Loa. His close friend, who had chosen the warrior's path, was already a Rank 5 Warrior at thirteen, just a hair away from Uncle Hillman's sixth rank. Although Loa was more than two years older than him, that rate of improvement...
It felt as though something had squeezed his chest hard, making even breathing difficult.
Just then, a figure emerged from the library entrance.
His dark blue, regulation third-year mage robes were spotless. His short golden hair gleamed almost