Volume 2Chapter 14

Chapter 14 – Before the Exam

The season that had been the dead of winter at the Founding Festival has been putting more warm days together lately, and the Royal Academy’s examination is finally a week away. I go to the ducal house today, and I’m to spend the week there getting myself into condition. At the moment we’re all waiting for Roger to come and fetch me.

“Leon, do your best at the Royal Academy examination. You’ll be fine.”

“Leon, take it steadily and you’ll be fine.”

“Mom, Dad, thank you. I’ll go and do my best.”

Today it’s Mom and Dad who can’t sit still. They tell me to be calm and the two of them are the ones fidgeting.

“Ha… You two calm down. I’ll be fine.”

“You’re right. You’ll be fine, Leon. Mom believes in you, of course.”

“Dad too. But what if your stomach starts hurting, or a noble picks on you? There’s all sorts to worry about…”

“Dad, saying that makes me nervous instead.”

“S-sorry!”

Dad got even more flustered and started walking circles round me. Dad, settle down… Though watching the two of them is having the reverse effect and calming me down. There’s nothing like somebody else’s panic for making you calm.

“Big Brother, you’re taking the school’s exam, aren’t you?”

“That’s right. Pass this exam and I can enroll at the school.”

I don’t know how much of it Marie follows, and she listens seriously to what I say and nods.

“Then, I’ll give you this! Big Brother, do your best.”

What Marie held out to me was a small orange flower. The kind that grows in the forest now and then. They aren’t common at the roadside…

“Marie, thank you. That makes me very happy. Did you go to the forest for this?”

“Yes! I went with Luke and Nikola yesterday.”

“Did you. Thank you, truly. Now your big brother can do anything.”

This is more than I can take. Now I feel nothing but certain of passing. I thought I’d probably pass from the beginning, and now failing feels impossible. Marie’s power is remarkable. Because she went all the way to the forest to pick her big brother a flower. Marie is too good and too adorable!

“Good!”

Marie beamed up at me. Ugh… Marie is so adorable it hurts. There’s no little sister anywhere as accomplished as this. Ours is the best.

So while Mom and Dad walked about being unable to settle, I was being healed by the most adorable Marie in the world, and there was a knock at the restaurant door and a voice saying, “It is Roger.”

Hearing it, I tore myself away from Marie and went to open the door.

“Master Leon. I have come to fetch you.”

Opening the door, there was Roger, the same as ever. Roger always comes for me like this, so my whole family has got used to him.

“Thanks. I’m all packed, so I’ll come straight away.”

I picked up the luggage I’d got ready and turned back to Mom, Dad and Marie.

“Mom, Dad, and Marie. I’m going to go and do my best.”

“Yes. Do your best.”

“You’ll be fine, Leon.”

Mom and Dad had slightly awkward smiles on, presumably trying not to let their worry show. Seeing their faces made me laugh.

“Ha… You’re both making a very strange face. There’s no need to worry that much.”

“You’re right. I know. Do your best.”

“And if it goes wrong there’s no need to be down about it.”

Mom said hers as though telling herself, and Dad put the failing case into words. Both of them think the likelier outcome is that I don’t pass. Well, to a commoner the Royal Academy is above the clouds. Even taking the examination is mostly done for the memory of having tried, so thinking the chance is small may be fair enough.

“Thanks. Then I’ll be off. Marie, I’m off. I’ll carry this flower and do my best.”

“Yes! Big Brother, do your best! I’ll be waiting for you to come home.”

“Thanks. When I’m back, let’s go round the stalls together again.”

“Yes!”

So I left the house, got into the carriage with Roger and set off for the ducal residence.

Arriving at the residence, I was shown straight to the usual guest room. Guest room, though it’s already become my room. Lady Elisabeth’s gifts are in it, and it’s the room I’ll live in while I attend the Royal Academy.

“Master Leon, might I go over the arrangements for the day of the examination?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you. On the morning of the examination, you will go to the Royal Academy in the ducal house’s carriage with Lord Lucien. The carriage can only enter partway, so from there you will go on foot to the examination hall. The hall differs by station, so please take care not to go to the wrong reception. And this is your admission slip; please hand it in at reception.”

What Roger held out as he said it was a small piece of paper. My name is on it, and my examinee number, and an affiliation. My affiliation appears to be House Townsend.

“What do people without an affiliation do?”

“Those without one rarely take it at all. A noble’s child has his own house as the affiliation, and among commoners the children who take it are mostly from merchant houses, so the trading company is the affiliation. Where they belong to neither, it seems usual to put the church of the district they live in. The affiliation is where the result is delivered, so somewhere easily found is chosen.”

So that’s the system. A commoner affiliated to House Townsend is going to stand out a great deal.

“Are there others who are commoners with a noble house as the affiliation?”

“Almost none, I understand. Though a knight who holds a knighthood will occasionally send a commoner with a talent for the sword to the Royal Academy in order to make him a knight.”

So a commoner affiliated to a ducal house is unheard of by ordinary standards. It would be good if I could simply make friends… I can only see a future where I’m either feared or bullied out of envy. I’ll be as pleasant about it as I possibly can.

“Then, to continue with the arrangements: when the examination is over, please return to the place where you got down from the carriage in the morning. The ducal house’s carriage will be waiting, so I hope you will come back with Lord Lucien.”

“Understood, thanks. …And how long does the examination take?”

“That is not precisely known. The written examination is held all together and is fixed at one hour every year, but the rest will change depending on what the other examinations are. Last year the interview was about five minutes each, and the magic practical was optional and about ten minutes each.”

Right, it does change with whatever this year’s examination turns out to be. I hope it isn’t something I haven’t anticipated at all.

“That’s true. Thanks for telling me.”

“Not at all. Please ask at any time if further questions arise. Then, as there is nothing in particular arranged for today, please rest at your leisure until dinner. You will be dining with the family in the dining room.”

An hour or so until dinner. I’ll take it thoroughly easy and build up my strength.

“Then I’ll take it easy until dinner. Could I ask for some tea?”

“Certainly. One moment, please.”

So I spent an unhurried stretch of time drinking the tea Roger poured me. I think the examination will be all right, and I am a little nervous all the same. More than worrying about passing, I’m worried about walking into noble society. Then again, being too casual about the examination is no good either. Exam days come with unforeseen incidents. Was there anything when I sat exams in Japan? This is the moment to make use of experience.

Which reminds me, there was the time I forgot to bring spare leads for my mechanical pencil and the lead started running out mid-exam. I remember it clearly even now. I just about got to the end of the paper, and I failed that one, as I recall. Panicking really does ruin it. On the day I’ll keep from panicking and hold on to an ordinary state of mind.

Hang on… I got that far in my thinking and noticed a serious mistake. I don’t own a pen! Do you bring your own pen to an exam in this world? Pens are expensive items. Could I still buy one now? This was a problem several steps before any state of mind. I hardly ever have occasion to use a pen, and I always borrow one on the spot, so it never occurred to me.

“Roger! Do you use your own pen at the examination? I haven’t got one…”

I asked it in a flap, and Roger answered calmly.

“Master Leon, the school lends pens to those who have none or have forgotten one. There is no need for that much alarm. And your pen and ink have been prepared by the master.”

He’s had even that prepared for me? That is beyond kind. I can never repay it.

“This is Master Leon’s own pen and ink.”

The pen Roger brought was a simple thing that looked easy to use. The pen I borrowed at the bank was much like it, so this must be the ordinary kind. It’s made of metal and you dip it in ink to write.

“Thanks. Is there anything else I need on the day?”

“With the pen and ink and the admission slip, there should be no difficulty.”

I’ll take those three and absolutely not forget them. I’m truly glad that didn’t turn into a disaster. After that I let myself sink into the sofa and rested properly, and when the hour came I went down to the dining room and had dinner with the household.

The next morning. I got up, had breakfast, and found myself with time on my hands in my room. I came a week early because a long carriage ride is tiring and it was better to get into condition, and there’s nothing whatever to do. By rights I should be pushing the last of my exam study, and the content is too easy to need any pushing. At home there’d be restaurant work and housework and plenty else, and at the ducal house the servants do all of it, and when I try to help I’m told that I’m a guest and can’t be allowed to. I’m thoroughly bored…

“Roger, what does Lord Lucien usually do in the house?”

I thought I’d take Lucien’s way of spending the day as a model, and asked.

“As a rule, lessons with his tutor, or sword training.”

He does swordsmanship! Couldn’t I be allowed to do it with him? I’m interested in the tutor’s lessons as well.

“Do you suppose I could join in with that?”

“Let me see… I cannot judge that myself, so I shall ask the mistress.”

Roger asked Lady Catherine, and the result is that I can sit in on Lucien’s lessons. I’m looking forward to it enormously. The lessons are apparently held in Lucien’s room, so Roger and I went straight along to it. Going in, the teacher hadn’t arrived yet and Lucien was sitting on the sofa.

“Leon, morning. I am glad to be taking lessons with you.”

“Lord Lucien. Good morning. I am honored to be allowed to join you.”

“This morning is etiquette and dance, and the afternoon is swordsmanship.”

Etiquette! That’s welcome. I’ve wanted to know the correct forms by station. There may be some special observance I don’t know about. Dance, though… That I’d rather avoid. I can’t believe I have any talent for it. It’s a field I never touched at all in Japan.

“Lord Lucien, is dance something one must be able to do?”

“It is. If you cannot dance you would be shamed at a party, would you not? And the Royal Academy has dance among its classes.”

The Royal Academy has dance too?! …Then I’ll have to learn it in earnest. Being able to learn it before I enroll may be a mercy. I’ll take it seriously.

A little later the teacher came into the room. I stood up to receive her.

“Lord Lucien, I look forward to working with you again today.”

“Yes, and I with you. Leon here will be taking the lesson with me today. Is that acceptable?”

“My name is Leon. I look forward to working with you.”

“Master Leon, is it. Of course, I do not mind how many take the lesson.”

“My thanks. Leon, this is my teacher of etiquette and dance.”

So she teaches both. A slightly slender woman with soft, downturned eyes and a kind face. We sat down at the table with her and the lesson began at once.

“As there is not a great deal left to teach Lord Lucien, and since Master Leon is here today, might I suggest teaching whatever Master Leon would like to know?”

“That is a good idea. Leon, is there anything you want to know?”

Let me see… I’ve never properly learned either, so I’d like it from the basics.

“I have never studied either of them properly. I am a complete beginner at dance in particular, so I should be glad to be taught from the basics.”

“Oh, is that truly so? Your speech is very correct for that…”

“What etiquette I have I learned by watching, and from what I have picked up, so I do not know the proper forms.”

I’m always on edge about whether what I’m doing is right. I copy the people around me and nobody has corrected me so far, so I think it’s all right, and I’d like proper knowledge if I can have it.

“Then for etiquette, I believe it would be best to study from the book Lord Lucien has. Teaching all of it in a single day would be difficult, and Master Leon appears already to have etiquette in hand, so filling in the knowledge from the book afterward should be quite enough.”

“That is a good idea. It is a book the teacher wrote and compiled herself. It is set out very clearly and I found it invaluable. I shall lend it to Leon for a while.”

The teacher wrote it herself. If Lucien says that much of it, it must be a good book. I’ll be glad to borrow it.

“Thank you very much. Then I shall borrow that book.”

“Master Leon will have etiquette in hand very soon, I am sure. Then, rather than etiquette, let us make today’s lesson dance.”

Once the teacher had settled that, the three of us moved. Where we arrived was a wide room with nothing in it but a sofa and a small table at one end. This must be the room for practicing dance.

“As Master Leon is with us today, we shall go over the basics again from the beginning. The basics are important, so please practice in earnest as well, Lord Lucien.”

“I understand.”

“I look forward to it.”

And from there a punishing dance practice began. It started with practicing the posture that dance is built on, and no amount of it would pass. I thought I was standing properly and got picked apart for nearly an hour before I finally passed.

“Master Leon, that posture. You dance while keeping that posture. On no account may the back round. Nor may the chest arch. You keep the vertical, purely. And no strength in the shoulders; relax them.”

This posture is genuinely hard until you’re used to it. Being told to stand well makes you want to arch your chest. I must be using muscles I never use, because my whole body is getting tired… I’ll ache tomorrow.

“If you are conscious of that posture from day to day, you will also look well. Please live in that posture from now on.”

I live my whole life in this?! It would look well, granted… And it’s tiring. Nobles are formidable. Though I had been thinking how good everybody’s posture is. I’ll work at being thought the same.

“Then let us try walking in that posture. On no account let the posture break.”

“Yes.”

So I started walking, and walking breaks the posture.

“Master Leon, the posture is breaking. You must not arch the chest so far.”

“Certainly.”

“Master Leon, there is strength in the shoulders. A little more looseness, please.”

“Yes.”

After that it was picking apart from end to end, and the lesson finished on keeping the posture. That alone left me thoroughly tired. A dance practice, and it ended without any dancing.

“Once you can hold that posture naturally, all that is left is learning the steps. Practice every day until you enroll at the Royal Academy and you will not struggle in the class.”

Told that, there’s nothing for it but doing it daily. I’ll get the steps taught too and work at it.

“Teacher, thank you for today. And Lord Lucien, thank you for letting me use your valuable lesson time.”

“It is my work. Master Leon practiced in earnest, so it was a pleasure to teach.”

“I have already been taught the whole of it once, so it is always revision for me. Having Leon here made the revision go better.”

“It is good of you to say so. Thank you very much for today.”

So the morning’s lesson ended, and I had lunch with Lucien. The afternoon is swordsmanship. After lunch and a short rest, I changed into training clothes and went out to the garden.

Hm? Has the teacher not come yet? I went to the garden and there was nobody there, and I was thinking that when Jacques stepped out in front of us. He usually stands behind Lucien with a sharp eye on everything. What’s going on?

“Then, shall we begin the practice?”

“Jacques, Leon is here today, so from the basics, if you please.”

Jacques is the teacher! Though a guard is with him all the time, so he may be exactly the man for it.

“So you are the teacher.”

“That’s right, and I’m strict.”

Jacques said it in a slightly clowning tone.

“Then please be strict!”

When I answered, Jacques broke into a grin on the spot.

“Plenty of willingness, then. So, Leon, have you ever held a sword?”

“I have not.”

“Then we start with the grip.”

I took the wooden sword Jacques handed me. There’s more weight in it than I expected.

“Lord Lucien, please do your practice swings.”

“Understood.”

Lucien is apparently doing his swings on his own. …That’s impressive. It looks thoroughly like the real thing and it’s cool. I want to be like that.

“As for the grip, the basis is right hand above, left hand below, both hands on it. Though for a left-hander there are some who take it the other way round.”

“Understood. If the sword is held two-handed, is a shield not carried?”

“The overwhelming majority don’t carry one. There’s the occasional man with a shield, but the defense is basically the armor. And even if you carry a shield in the future, the two-handed sword is the basis, so there’s nothing lost in doing the basics.”

“Then I shall work at the two-handed sword first.”

“That’s the way. Now take hold of it.”

I gripped the wooden sword, recalling what he’d explained, and held it thrust out in front of me. Held like this it’s quite heavy. Jacques corrected the grip, and then corrected the position of my feet and the whole set of my body as well. Posture again, after the dance.

“Is this right?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Then the most basic practice swings first. Do it without breaking the posture. Fifty cuts, from above downward. It’s really a hundred, but you’re a beginner so I’ll cut it down for you. Begin!”

“Yes!”

I started swinging the wooden sword down from above. This is harder than I expected… The wooden sword is simply heavy and my arms go solid, and the edge and the speed drain out of it stroke by stroke.

“Twenty more! Don’t slow the pace!”

“Yes!”

Don’t slow the pace, he says. That’s unreasonable. I’ve been doing stamina work and strength work alongside the magic practice, and swinging a sword is this hard. The muscles are completely different, and a child’s body makes it worse.

Lucien is sweating and still swinging away, though. Building it up daily is what counts. I’ll work at it too. I could use body strengthening magic, and that spell raises whatever physical ability you already have, so the more the body itself is trained the stronger you get. Which is why I want to train without it, except in a real fight.

“Fifty!”

Hah. Hah. Done at last… My arms hurt and I’m breathing hard. This is punishing. I suppose it’s because I’ve been putting the magic practice first and leaving the stamina work till later. I need to do more.

“Next, downward from upper right to lower left. Fifty again. Begin!”

“What?! There’s more?!”

“Of course that isn’t the end of it.”

Seriously? Upper right to lower left means there’s the reverse of it coming as well. Seriously… I whipped my tired body along and somehow started swinging again.

“One… two… three… forty-nine… fifty!”

“Hah… hah… hah…”

That’s it, my arms are solid and they won’t lift. I put my hands on my knees and stood there breathing roughly. I’m soaked through. Jacques is far too strict!

“Ready for the next?”

“W-wait a moment, please! May I rest a little?”

“All right, I suppose. Only a little.”

The instant I heard it I sat straight down on the ground. To be this hard… Does Lucien do practice this hard every day? I looked over at him with that thought, and he seems to have finished his swings and to be starting practice of the real kind with Jacques.

Jacques holds a guard and Lucien attacks it, and the practice is breaking through the guard, apparently. Lucien really is remarkable… To my eye he handles that sword entirely as he pleases. Isn’t that considerable ability? And he’s only ten.

Having done the swings myself, I can tell that handling a sword as you please takes a great deal of training. He must have put in an enormous amount of work. I was thinking that when Jacques came back over. Lucien seems to be taking a break.

“Jacques, Lord Lucien looks to have considerable ability. Is being able to handle a sword as well as Lord Lucien the ordinary thing for a noble?”

“Not at all. It’s true that a noble’s second son and below either becomes a knight or a civil official, so the ones aiming at knighthood are at a fair level. But the eldest son who inherits, and the ones aiming to be civil officials, often barely handle a sword at all. There’s a swordsmanship class at the Royal Academy, so a noble can manage the minimum, and few train beyond that.”

Ah. If you’ve no reason to train at the sword you wouldn’t want to do anything this punishing. But Lucien is the eldest son, so why is he this serious about it? Jacques must have caught the question in my face, because he spoke.

“Lord Lucien simply loves the sword. He took an interest in it when he was small, and he has trained every day without missing one since. And he seems to have a talent for it as well. He is only ten and his ability is considerable.”

So that’s it… I keep saying it and Lucien is remarkable. I’ll work at it so as not to fall behind. I got to my feet with my resolve back up.

“Please carry on!”

“Good! Next is downward from upper left to lower right.”

“Yes!”

After that came the upward cut from lower right to upper left and the upward cut from lower left to upper right, and the practice swings were over. I’m too tired to want to move a single step…

“I didn’t think you’d get to the end. Anybody with that much grit suits the sword. Train every day from here and you’ll certainly get strong. Keep that sword; it’s lent to you.”

“Thank you very much!”

I found myself oddly moved by the sense of having seen it through. I’ll practice with this wooden sword every day! I was settling on that when Lucien came over.

“Leon, did you get through fifty of each? That is remarkable. I was certain it was impossible. Even I would find that hard.”

“What? But Jacques said a hundred is the ordinary number…”

“That would be Jacques’s ordinary, would it not? I am still a child, so I started at ten of each, and I am at thirty of each now.”

What?! I knew that was too punishing to be right!

“Jacques!”

“Sorry, sorry, it was meant as a bit of mischief. Only you worked harder at it than I expected, so it got enjoyable and I let you go on, and you went to the end. Going by the look of you, though, Leon, you train a fair amount, don’t you? So I thought your body wouldn’t give out and it would be all right.”

Jacques is scratching his head with a rueful smile. Honestly, I got through it and it was genuinely hard!

“It was extremely hard, I’ll have you know!”

“I know, I know, sorry. But you’re trained, Leon, so I do think you can start from around this number. If we cut it, thirty of each. Once you’re used to it, better to increase it quickly. If it isn’t hard there isn’t much point. Lord Lucien, you might increase yours a little as well.”

So from now I’ll start at thirty of each and increase it as soon as I’m used to it.

“Very well. Then I shall raise mine to forty of each and try that.”

“I think that would be good. Then shall we call today’s training finished?”

“Yes. Jacques, thank you.”

“Thank you very much.”

So the swordsmanship lesson finished too and we each went back to our rooms. Back in mine I washed the sweat off in the bath at once. It was enormously hard work, and sweating that much and washing it off felt wonderful.

And then for several days I passed the time taking lessons with Lucien. I managed to learn the dance steps after a fashion, and I borrowed the book so I could fill in the etiquette knowledge. I trained at the sword every day too, and the other day I had my first bout with Jacques. Hopeless, of course, and it turned into the reason I mean to work at the swings and the strength training all over again.

Passing days as full as that, tomorrow is finally the day of the Royal Academy’s examination. I’m about to have dinner with the household and go to bed early tonight. Lord Richard, Lady Catherine and Lucien are in the dining room.

“Leon, tomorrow is the examination at last. Are you all right?”

“Yes. I believe I shall be all right, but I shall keep my guard up and do my best.”

“Quite so. I shall not be careless either, and shall do my best.”

I’m not especially nervous, and Lucien seems the same as ever and quite all right. Well, Lucien is clever too, so failing is out of the question.

The Royal Academy’s entrance examination isn’t all that difficult in the first place, for a noble who has had the chance to learn. The written examination is basic arithmetic and reading and writing and simple history, and nothing else. Study honestly up to now and failing is close to impossible. The children of noble houses who do fail are, in most cases, apparently turned out of the house. In this country you can’t become a noble or a semi-noble without graduating from the Royal Academy, so it’s cruel and presumably unavoidable.

Except that it’s only easy for a noble; commoners, for whom the chance to learn is hard to come by, almost never pass. The commoners who pass are nearly all children of very rich merchants, the people who can spend money on a child’s education. There are a great many commoner candidates staking a thread of hope on it, and of those, apparently, only a genuine handful actually pass.

“Leon, from when will you live in this house?”

Lord Richard asked it. The talk has moved on to assuming I’ve passed, plainly. Not that I think I’ll fail.

“I was thinking of moving in a few days before enrollment. Would that be all right? I should like time to prepare what I need as well.”

“A few days before enrollment. Then I shall tell the servants so.”

“Thank you very much.”

“So from now on I shall be living with Leon. Something to look forward to!”

Lucien is thoroughly pleased about it. I enjoy being with Lucien too, and living in the same house is something to look forward to. Though being away from my family is the lonely part.

“I am looking forward to it as well. I know very little of noble society, so please teach me a great many things.”

“Yes, of course!”

I really am glad I became friends with Lucien. Thinking about the life ahead, he’s an ally worth a great deal. It would be good if everybody were decent people like the household of House Townsend… There will certainly be a great many who are not. I’ll go at it with a strong mind.

“Leon, the magic lessons with Her Highness have finished until you enroll at the Royal Academy, but do teach me magic now and then from here on as well.”

“Lady Catherine, of course. Whenever you call on me I shall teach you.”

“Thank you. And now we shall be living in the same house, so I can be taught a great deal more than before.”

The magic lessons for Martine came to an end as enrollment drew near. Part of it is that most of it has been taught, and part of the reason is apparently that from now on we can meet at the Royal Academy whenever we like.

My acquaintance with Martine is officially only as Lady Catherine’s attendant. But Martine said she would make some opening at the Royal Academy, so I expect we’ll be acquainted there before long. Being able to talk to her is wonderful, and I can picture the standing out and the envy perfectly. There’s no help for that part. Nothing to do but endure it.

So dinner went along with talk about life after enrolling at the Royal Academy, and ended in an easy mood.

“Then, both of you, rest early tonight and do your best properly tomorrow.”

“Yes, Grandfather. I shall go and do my best.”

“Certainly, Lord Richard. I shall give it everything I have.”

Back in my room, once the bath was done, the tiredness of training day after day caught up with me and I got sleepy, so I lay straight down. And I fell into a deep sleep resolving to do my best tomorrow.