The First Female Duke

Chapter 19

Edith was currently nestled on the couch, carefully wiping her alabaster wand with a fine flannel cloth, tomorrow was the day of the test, and the difficulty of her test was still nightmare level, for which Edith dared not take lightly.

As the old saying goes, to do a good job, one must first sharpen one's weapon, and she felt that no matter what the outcome of the test was, her "weapon" still needed to be "good" first.

The slender and compact wand was inlaid with a clear and transparent fire magic stone, as if it was the finishing touch, the color of the whole wand was enriched.

Elena's line of sight swept over the excellent quality magic raw stone and raised an eyebrow, as if she thought of something to ask:

"Honey, who did you pick for your fire mentor?"

"Mentor Bertha."

"...... I never realized before that you had such a strong sense of adventure." Elena said subtly.

Edith raised her eyes to look at her and lowered them again, "Why do I hear in your words a sense of sadness that you are about to die?"

Elena giggled, "My dear ...... of course you live a long life, but, on another level, your choice would be similar to 'going to your death'."

Edith smacked her lips, "Thanks, I'd like to live a few more years, no need to curse me ...... Why don't you go swing your big, bulky sword if you have the time? After all, the test is tomorrow."

The big bulky sword ...... Elena felt offended, she sat up straight and held the sword in one hand while shouting at Edith, "That's because you don't know what you're talking about, my sword was given to me by my mother out of the family's stash, Master Lyon himself!" Saying that, she flipped the master's mark on the sword to Edith.

At first she was sad about her awakening as a knight for several days, but when her mom brought her this sword, it felt right, her previous depression was swept away, just like what Edith said, she was born to be a knight.

Edith did take a couple serious looks at the mark and nodded, "It is indeed Master Lyon's mark."

Elena lifted her chin in triumph, "Right!"

Edith smiled wickedly, "But it still doesn't hide the fact that it's bulky and heavy."

Elena: ...... So angry, I can't believe I can't beat her in an argument.

She sits back down on the couch deflated and looking kinda sad says, "Edith, you've changed."

Edith raised an eyebrow.

"I remember when I first met you, you were cute as a doll, you were innocent and pure and decent and kind ......"

Edith, tingling with acid, hastily interrupted her, "Get to the point!"

"The person you are now is not the person you once were!" She wailed as she made a face like she was about to cry.

"Yes," Edith blinked, the sweet words coming out of her mouth, "but I love your heart as much as ever."

Elena: "......"

Flanda: "Pfft~"

Edith heard Flanda's laughter and gazed over toward her, only to look sideways and see Penny, who was sitting across the couch and reading seriously.

"Penny?"

Penny lifted her head at the sound of the voice and cast a questioning glance toward Edith. The wall sconce gave off an orange light that hit the side of her face just right, revealing its pretty features. Edith sighed slightly in her heart, obviously a pretty girl, why did she push herself so hard!

"Did the sound of our talking disturb you?" Edith said softly.

"No." Penny winked, as if afraid Edith wouldn't believe her, and added, "I'll go to my room if it gets loud, so it's okay."

Elena, who had just grumbled in anger, only to turn her head and forget what she was angry about, saw that Penny was talking, and she looked her gaze over as well, just in time to see the book in Penny's hand, and she said rather incredulously:

"Penny, it's so late, what kind of book is so nice?"

Penny answered directly with her actions, reaching out and turning the cover of the book over, on which were written a few large words, "Water Basic Magic Spells for Beginners".

Reading the title of the book, Elena's eyes widened, "Isn't this a textbook?"

"It is the textbook."

"Oh my god!" Elena, who had never known what reviewing before an exam was, said in surprise, "You're working too hard, too, knowing that it's almost our bedtime."

Penny smiled faintly and didn't explain much. Because she knew Elena wouldn't be able to empathize.

Most of the people who had achieved success did so through talent plus hard work, and her talent wasn't bad and could even be said to be excellent - there were plenty of people who could be even better than her, Edith by her side was a typical example, and if she wanted to catch up she could only increase her leverage through hard work.

Mentor Anna was by far her best option, Penny didn't want to miss out on this opportunity due to insufficient preparation - she couldn't accept that happening.

By the time the hands of the ancient round clock hanging on the wall pointed to ten, Elena finally yawned her third yawn of the evening.

Eyes brimming with tears, Elena said:

"I can't, I'm going to bed." As she said this, she stood up and headed upstairs, "You guys go to bed early too, good night."

Seeing Elena go to bed, Flanda followed her back to her room - her pace always following Elena's.

Edith's keen insight allowed her to notice this detail, and she smiled silently; Flanda was indeed a competent chaperone - never talkative, never with any sideways thoughts in her head - in stark contrast to her chaperone, Penny.

Only two people were left in the downstairs parlor at this point, and since the loudest of them, Elena, was gone, and Edith hadn't spoken, the sound of Penny flipping through her book was noticeable.

In the midst of such silence, Edith suddenly shouted.

"Penny."

"Hmm?"

"I get the feeling that you and Flanda, are very different." She said this without a word, yet Penny's grip on the pages of the book squeezed noiselessly.

For a moment, Penny felt like she had nothing to hide in front of Edith.

If Elena were here, she wouldn't have understood what Edith meant by that, but Penny did, and she understood almost instantly.

She wasn't like Flanda ...... What was Flanda like?

She's careful, she carves the world's class concepts into her bones and doesn't think there's anything wrong with it, she draws a line in the sand and never takes a step back, and sometimes Penny wonders if someone like Flanda is the kind of daughter her mother would have called a capable daughter.

But what about her ......

Penny's mind was complicated and difficult to describe, she was surprised and afraid of Edith's acumen, she wanted to say a few words in her defense, but in the end she swallowed back all the explanations, she only said one sentence.

"I'm sorry."

I'm sorry there's no way to be like Frenda. You probably really shouldn't have picked me as a chaperone.

As a result, Edith laughed, "Don't be nervous, I didn't mean anything else."

She glanced at the clock, it was indeed late and she really should go to bed.

Edith stood up, she said very seriously:

"Penny, you didn't do anything wrong. You're great, really."

"If there comes a time when you don't want to be a chaperone anymore, you can just tell me. I'll make a good arrangement for you, and there won't be any chastisement on your family's side."

"It's late, go to bed early."

Edith's body was tired but her mind was clear as she lay in bed.

She had discovered Penny's deepest secret on the day she had enrolled in school, and at the time she had been quite surprised, but then she hadn't been all that surprised when she thought about it. Perhaps that was the only way to explain Penny's perversity.

Edith could already see that even though they might be from the same place, she and Penny were two people with completely different personalities.

She took things as they came, her ability to adapt to the environment was extremely strong, the purpose of life was to live a happy life, there was no need to bother herself with things she had no way to change, of course, her shortcomings were also very obvious, her over-pursuit of comfort and ease also led to her lack of aggressiveness.

So she was serious when she said Panny was great, she admired Panny for her exuberant desire to climb the ladder.

She would respect Penny's ideas - both from a modern person's point of view and from a nobleman's point of view.

With that thought, Edith slowly closed her eyes.

The next day, several people got up early, as they had to head to the examination classroom within the specified time.

Elena yawned, "I always have trouble sleeping on the eve of every exam."

Edith looked at her incredulously, "You were the one who slept the earliest yesterday, and you're the one who got up the latest today, how much sleep are you not getting?"

Elena waved her hand, "Honey, don't be so hot in the morning, you'll get wrinkles."

This guy was kinda reasonable?

After simply packing up, Edith's few people first went to the seventh building to eat something, and then went straight to the examination classroom.

Edith thought that they had come early enough, but apparently she had underestimated the enthusiasm of the other students. The place was packed with people, originally the examination classroom was undoubtedly extremely spacious, as a result, so many people crammed in also seemed slightly crowded.

At the front of the classroom was a row of long tables, lined up side by side, with the names of the tutors from different departments on the tables, and now the seats were empty, obviously the tutors hadn't come in yet.

"I'm sure we'll have to wait in line for a while, but" Elena said with a grin as she turned her head towards Edith, "you won't have to, I'm pretty sure you're the only one on Mentor Faust's side."

"When the time comes, you'll go straight on as soon as the test starts, no one will have to wait. Thinking about it this way, picking Tutor Faust is pretty good isn't it?"

Edith: "......"

Though but, what she said is also true.

*

Waiting for the classroom's pendulum to thump, the tutors sat down one by one in the seats that belonged to them, and even though the number of students held an absolute advantage, they were as well-behaved as quails in front of the tutors, not daring to utter a single breath.

Only to see these tutors pinching a pile of thick paper in their hands, those were all □□□. Edith blinked her eyes as she watched these tutors with different looks come in, perhaps today was a more formal day, most of the male tutors wore bow ties and the female tutors wore bowler hats.

In the midst of a quiet atmosphere, Elena quietly tugged on Edith's sleeve and reached out to point in a direction.

Edith saw a red-bearded grandfather sitting in the seat with the nameplate "Faustus Gary". He was thin, but his eyes were sharp - an intimidating presence.

Elena tapped her on the shoulder and gave her a look of good luck.

Edith barely managed to hold back a roll of her eyes.

The tutors pinched the list and started calling the students' names, the students who were called up were lined up, and it was a strange sight to see, some tutors had long lines in front of them, while others only had a handful of people in front of them.

Out of Edith's surprise, the first one to have her name called was the fire tutor Bertha, who had a head of big, open and fluffy curly hair, with curls comparable to the famous food instant noodles in her previous life.

"Ms. Willey?"

Edith greeted respectfully as Bertha flipped through the information in her hands, then looked up and smiled at her:

"You can go to your Light tutor first."

It meant that she was told to go to her Light Tutor's test first, Edith didn't understand why but nodded her head obediently.

Looking dainty and small, she turned and walked towards the front of Mentor Faust, where the old red-bearded man sat lazily, even having dozed off a bit - and his group was empty at his heels.

But there was now, and the spot stood bare for Edith alone.

-- Edith would have bet that she had received numerous subtle glances from people since she had walked here.

Well, she had been prepared for that when she applied for the Faust tutor.

"Mentor Faust." Edith shouted good-naturedly.

Girls as delicate as dolls like her were usually extraordinarily pleasing to old men - but the red-bearded old man didn't eat this.

He only lifted his eyelids lazily to look at her.

"Smiling at me doesn't work!" He grunted as he sat up straight, "Most of the students who smiled at me in the beginning ran out crying in the back."

Edith: "...... I'm not going to cry."

Old Man with Red Beard: "Those students who cried said the same thing at first."

Edith: Great ...... I don't need to read the exam questions, I can already feel how difficult this little old man is right now.

Seeing that Edith did not speak, the old man glanced at her and slowly took out an object from the space ring on his hand, while asking again, "Your last name is Willey?"

Edith nodded her head.

"It's your mother who inherits the Taggart now?"

Edith nodded again.

"I was friends with your grandfather ...... Too bad the old man was a short one ......"

Edith was dumbfounded, both were elders, how was she supposed to answer that?

Only to hear the red bearded old man grunt, "Don't expect me to give you a break because of your grandfather, start the exam!"

Edith: Come on, the word is out for you anyway.

She looked towards the thing that her mentor had just taken out from the spatial ring - a four-sided closed, glass-covered looking thing that held a white rat, except that the white rat was glowing with a black light, and it looked like it had been under a curse or something like that, and was dying.

"The test is simple, this white rat is infested with dark spells, all you have to do is remove the traces of darkness from its body" the old man looked at the pendulum, "Time limit, well ...... fifteen minutes. Ok now start."

He said this in a tone like, "Here you do the math for me on what one plus one equals."

Edith's mind raced, the topic seemed really simple at first glance - just remove the dark negative effects from the white rat.

But in Edith's limited knowledge of light-based spells so far, the only ones that could do that were healing spells and purification spells - and that seemed to be something that was only learned in second year.

Even if she did know this spell, there was another problem in front of her - what about the "glass cover" outside? With this "glass cover" in the way, her spells would not be able to work on the white rats at all.

Just as Edith was pondering, the old man seemed to remember something, "I forgot to say, the outside glass is reinforced with a reinforcement array ...... Well, you can see what you can do."

His eyes flickered as his gaze glanced at Edith's white wand.

"I hope you don't live up to the wand in your hand."

Edith's grip on her wand tightened slightly - of course she wouldn't live up to it, swearing on the honor of the House of Willey.

Mentor Faust's title reached the others as well - the fact that there was only one empty person on his side made it hard not to notice.

The topic sounded simple at first glance, but those who could enter Sophia were all elites, and after a little thought they understood the difficulty behind it - it should be said that it really deserved to be Mentor Faust, and the first time it came out was at the Deadly Nightmare level, and the Light Department wasn't supposed to be known for its attack power, and spells involving attacks had to wait until at least the fourth year, which meant that, let alone the mice for a moment, whether or not he could open up the glass cover outside was a question.

This question was obviously already seriously over the top, and was definitely not something that a freshman could answer.

The crowd couldn't help but cast sympathetic glances at Edith - it seemed that this Miss Willey, who had been known as Sophia from the moment she arrived, was destined to pay the price for her blind confidence.

Edith took a deep breath, dismissing all outside voices in her head, and raised the white wand as the crowd looked on.

--Then unexpectedly, the tip of the wand lit up with a red glow.

Crowd: ?

Is this Ms. Willey crazy, she's even using fire spells in the light tutor's test???