Strongest Noble's Daughter Uses Water Magic

Entrance Exam *Mindy*

It was the day of the Entrance Exam for Mindy and Levi. The harpy was feeling quite nervous in taking the exam, despite how hard she and her lady had studied and practiced for this day, and she did not know why. 

"For some reason, I'm feeling really nervous in being here..." she said without realizing, sticking close to Levi to avoid stares of all the nobles around them. 

"It's probably because you're the only purebred here. Don't let the pressure get to you. We have been working hard for this day," Levi reassured.

Upon hearing her say such a thing, Mindy could not help but already fail as both Levi's servant and her friend, especially after all the time they spent for this day. "Yeah... Yeah, you're right, milady. Apologies for... such a display."

In response to her weak apology, Levi patted her head. "It's fine. Besides, if anything, I should be the one getting nervous and sticking out like a sore thumb. I am the only here with a cloak covering her face."

Mindy held back a giggle at the fact, now feeling a little silly for thinking she would stand out, when her caretaker seemed more suspicious than her. At the same time, she felt very comforted with Levi's hand on her head like so, as she always had. "Yeah, that's true."

As soon as the harpy had calmed down, the hand on her head was removed, much to her hidden ire. If Mindy could be honest, she liked it when Levi petted her on the head. She found it embarrassing at first, but as time passed, she started liking them. "In any case, we should go in and get registered. We can't take the exam otherwise."

Mindy nodded in agreement and was about to follow Levi into the building, when two things occurred. The first were mocked laughing from a couple of nobles behind them. While the harpy did not mind being seen as a monster, she hated it when people mock the one person who saved her. She was about to teach the foolish nobles a good lesson, when Levi stopped her. As much as she wanted to deliver a good beating to them, Mindy would much rather not cause any sort of trouble for Levi, and reluctantly stood down.

The second thing that occurred was bullying. Not towards her or Levi, but towards a commoner girl. Mindy was already aware of the possibility of the bad treatment commoners would receive in this school, and thus decided to help them, if Levi permitted her to. After all, they were practically in the same situation as all the other commoners. It was only right that they helped out people of their class, a lesson the harpy learned from the human when they first met.

After helping the commoner, who turned out to be Pocoro's niece, Azalea, they were further assisted by a noble different from the rest, a noble who saw commoners as equals rather than stepping stones like most did, who saw Mindy as a person rather than a monster as most did.

Mindy felt happy to know there was a noble with the same mindset as Levi about people in general, and she knew for sure her caretaker felt the same way. 

It was not much longer that they were placed in a room for the written portion of their entrance exam. Mindy was separated from Levi and their new friends, but it was not much of a problem for her, especially when she and Levi had been studying for the past week or so for this. Not only that, but even if they failed this exam, it was the practicals that counted the most. And with the apparent rule that they had to take the test on paper that requires mana to reveal the questions on it, it was more disadvantageous for most commoners. Despite this, though, there were still a lot of people who were taking the written part seriously, even amongst the commoners, who had very little knowledge in reading or writing. As much as she wanted to help, though, there was only so much she could do at the moment. However, she already planned on helping one out.

Mindy glanced at Azalea just a row below her. The harpy then snuck a glance around them and noticed the others were focused on the test, with the professor not even paying attention to any of them. She took her chance and whispered in a very low tone, "Azalea. Can you hear me?"

The commoner girl flinched upon hearing a familiar voice, seemingly so close to her. Just as she was about to look around the room, Mindy quickly added, "Don't move so much. Unless if you want to get caught and accused of cheating." This made the girl lower her head, seemingly focusing back on the exam. "I'm using my ability to use the wind to direct my voice to you. My whispers. From what I can see, the questions and answers on the test papers are all the same, so I will only read the questions to you. Specifically the ones concerning plants. If that is okay, tap your pen on the table once. Tap twice for 'no'."

It took Azalea a few seconds to think about the offer, before she finally tapped her utensil on the table for the 'okay'.

With the permission granted, Mindy started read each multiple choice question to the commoner. That is, questions that any commoners should be able to answer, even read out the choices to Azalea, all while being careful as to not let anyone nearby hear her. After the questions regarding the herbs were done, the commoner lightly and discreetly held up her paper and pointed her pen to some problems regarding monsters. It did not take long for Mindy to realize she wanted her to read those questions for her to answer and whispered it out to the girl.

An hour passed, and the written portion was over. 

"Time is up! Pens down!" Jerald announced, as all the applicants set down their writing utensils. "Everyone, head to the next examination center. Your practical examinee will be arriving there shortly." With that, he left the room, as did many others.

Mindy, however, met up with Levi and their friends first and went over how they did on the written portion.

"How did you two do?" Azalea asked Levi and Mindy.

"We did pretty good," the human answered for them both. "How about you two? I imagine Leia did well, though."

The noble girl let out a light chuckle at her assumption. "You'd guess right. Though I am surprised you hear you both thought the written exam is okay. You were able to read though and answer them all?"

"Don't think all commoners can't read or write. We can read some. What about you, Azalea?" 

"I could only read my name and letters to my name... That's why I want to thank Mindy!" she said, catching Leia's attention.

"How do you mean?" she asked.

"Mindy used her magic to whisper the questions to me."

This made Mindy hold back a slight chuckle, for what she did back there was not magic, per say. But that was something both she and Levi needed to know.

"You mean you cheated? With magic?! Do you have any idea what will happen if the examiners find out?" Leia warned in a whisper.

"It's not cheating if I did not share the answers with her. I only read the questions and the choices Azalea. Though I skipped the ones requiring written responses," Mindy corrected.

"I'm glad you did. Though, out of all the other questions, I am only feeling confident about the ones concerning herbs and more common monsters," Azalea said.

Upon noticing the worried expression still on Leia's face, Levi said, "Think of it this way. If he did find out about the cheating, that examiner should've said something in the first place."

"... Yeah, I guess so. Still, you could've just chosen to not answer in the first place," she pointed out to the country girl.

"Well, yeah. But I don't want it to look like commoners know nothing about life. There are things we know about, too. Things that can help this kingdom, and I don't just mean growing food," she reasoned.

"Okay, let's end the conversation here," Levi said, getting between the pair. "What happens next happens. Right now, we have practicals to worry about."

"As Lady Levi says. We can worry about what will happen later," Mindy agreed.

Upon putting the conversation at its end, the four of us headed to where our next test was to be.

******

The next exam took place in the courtyard. After a small incident that included Edward and four applicants, the first part of the practical portion had begun. Mindy was still shocked to see Levi's brother here as an examiner, and soon-to-be professor of this academy. It really came as a surprise to everyone, but Mindy was more worried. Not to Edward, but to Levi. How was she to react now that her brother was here, most likely to monitor her every movement in school, should she get accepted. More than enough time had surely passed since she was disowned by her own family, and she had not done anything wrong; Mindy knew that more than anyone. For her brother to even take part of this test as an examiner... Did the family have so little trust in their own daughter, even if they did force her out of the house?

The harpy glanced at her caretaker, wondering how she was taking this as they waited for their turn. Rather than bringing any sort of attention to her brother, however, Levi kept her eyes on their peers' performance, studying their magic. Seeing her so focused like so brought a small smile on Mindy's face. Even at times like this, Levi was still focused on studying magic.

"Next group, step up," Edward called.

"Sounds like us," Levi informed. "Good luck, guys."

"You too," Leia replied, as they and sixteen others stepped up. One by one, from number 201, each applicant used their magic in an attempt to land a hit on one of the targets, though were only barely able to do so, and with such a light damage, at that.

"Number 210," Edward called.

"Here!" Azalea responded, stepping forward.

Upon seeing her step up, several nobles behind us sneered and snickered at her. Despite the whispered insults, though, Azalea was calm as can be, as she took out some seeds from her pouch, in which made the nobles hold back more snickers, and whisper out more insults.

Mindy did not know what sort of magic Azalea was about to use, but she could tell from her voice how confident she was. The harpy continued to watch, as a small, dark green magic circle appeared in the palm of the commoner's hand, causing the seeds she was holding to glow.

"Let's go. Thorny Vines!" Azalea tossed them at the targets, only for them all hit the ground, resulting in more mockery.

Mindy noticed that, despite the display, Azalea was still quite confident, and turned to the seeds she tossed, noticing a brief glow. Next she knew, the seeds suddenly opened up, causing seedlings to sprout out and grow into thorny vines, extending over to the many targets up ahead and pierce through several of them.

"Yes! Success!" Azalea cheered, while the rest of the applicants were surprised by what they had witnessed, especially the nobles.

"Alright. Next. Number 211," Edward called.

"Here," Mindy called, switching with Azalea.

Once she was in place, Mindy had her wings spread out, light green magic circles appearing on the tip of her wings to gather up some wind within them. As soon as she had gathered enough, she brought her wings together to combine them into one sphere of condensed air. 

"Wind Blast!" Mindy tossed the sphere at the targets. As the attack neared them, the condensed air suddenly exploded, causing the targets to be blown away by the force. One sight of this, and Mindy knew for sure she passed this portion of the exam, and returned to her spot, ignoring the childish insults from the other nobles, as Edward called Levi's number for her turn.

As they passed each other, Mindy placed a wing on her shoulder and nodded, signaling her that everything was in place. After all their time training together with magic, Levi was still unable to use it in an area that is without a breeze of any kind, thus constantly needed Mindy's assistance. The Wind Blast spell she used not only creates an explosion of condensed air that blows targets away, but also leaves a lasting breeze, long enough for Levi to cast whatever spell she planned to use.

Levi nodded back at her, prompting the harpy to regroup with Azalea and Leia.

"Wow, that was awesome, Levi!" the former exclaimed.

"I heard of how harpies are masters of wind, but I never thought it was to that extent," the latter stated. "You really lived up to that expectation."

"Why, thank you," Mindy thanked. "But if you think I'm amazing, you better look forward to Lady Levi."

"Why? Is her affinity wind, too?"

"Not really. But you'll see what I mean soon." At that, the harpy turned back to the field, her eyes kept on Levi, and the other two girls did the same.

The moment Levi made her magic affinity known, unlike with Mindy and the other commoners, all the nobles let out laughs upon seeing the sort of magic she uses. Of course, the harpy was far from pleased with their actions, but held back the urge to silence them, instead kept her attention on Levi, hoping she would do something that would leave them all speechless.

And that she did, as Levi unleashed a combo of Water Bullet Barrage and Tsunami, the former that fires multiple water droplets capable of making holes in rocks and dents on steel, and the latter that causes a large wave that swallows up a group of targets, bringing them all down.

Once Levi's magic display had ended, all the nobles voiced out bafflement at what they had witnessed, sounds that were more than satisfying enough for the harpy, who was proud of her savior and caretaker.

Of course, that proud feeling passed almost as quickly as it came, for came Leia's turn, and the kind noble casted a powerful, devastating fire magic at the targets, completely burning them to ash. Not only that, but the girl used her magic without any sort of chant at all. Mindy knew Levi's family was deemed as the strongest noble family in all of Flammel Kingdom, and being from such a family, the harpy knew from watching her time training with Levi that she lived up to suck a title. For a member of another family to show the same amount of magical strength... Mindy had to wonder who Leia was.

It did not take much longer for the first half of practicals to end, and the second half to begin. That second half was weapon combat, the part Mindy had a feeling would come up, especially after seeing the array of weapons on the table by the entrance. Unfortunately, there were no weapons that suited her kind as a harpy. However, from what she heard Edward say in his instruction, they did not really need to use any one of the weapons laid out for them.

"Numbers 211 and 040," Edward called.

"Good luck, Mindy," Levi told her.

"Right, milady. I won't let you down," Mindy vowed, walking to the field without picking up a single weapon on the table, resulting in brief confusion from the noble applicants.

And so, Mindy stood, weaponless, as she stared down at her noble opponent, who had a sword in hand.

"Hmph. So, the one who gets to slay the monster roaming around the academy is me. I feel honored," he spoke. "My name is Samus Rozweld. It will do you some good to memorize that into your head, monster."

"I have a name like any of you humans. And it's Mindy Caribbean," Mindy retorted, causing Samus to let out a laugh. "What is so funny?"

"Oh nothing. Just the fact that you think a monster such as yourself has the right to be given a name. All you are is a monster. Nothing more, nothing less. I don't know who it was that named you, but they are definitely no noble. If anything, for them to be friendly with a monster makes them nothing more than bugs. Nay, something even lower then mere bugs," he insulted.

It was one thing to insult Mindy. Insults toward her, she can take. It was nothing compared to her time as a slave. Insults toward Levi, on the other hand... "Take that back..."

"Huh? Did you say something, monster? Then again, it's not like a monster-"

"Shut up," the harpy interrupted. "If you're not going to apologize, I will just make you."

"Begin!" 

As soon as Edward called it in, Mindy touched the ground with her wing and swung, sending a dusty gust of wind toward Samus, who immediately shielded his eyes from the dust, and thus gave her the chance to fly towards the noble with a good kick to the gut, and a smack down to the face. She did not end it there, as the harpy grabbed the human with her feet and soared upwards.

"Wha-?! What are you doing?!" Samus asked in a panicked tone, slightly recovering from the sneak attack.

"I don't mind you calling me a monster, since that is how most of you humans see my kind, but I will not forgive any insult to milady," she coldly said. "Since I am so much of a monster to you, I might as well act like one. Now say your prayers."

Once she reached a high enough altitude away from the ground, Mindy instantly dove down at high speed, much to Samus's fright, as he was screaming like a little girl. Before the harpy hit the ground, she made a perfect ninety degree turn upwards, gliding at a very low altitude at high speed, with Samus barely above ground himself. Mindy then tossed the noble toward the audience, revealing the boy had fainted from the free fall, pale and with foam coming out of his mouth.

"Winner: Mindy Caribbean," Edward announced so indifferently, a declaration that did not go well with the noble applicants, in which the man quickly silenced, and pointed out that what Mindy did was far from cheating.

Mindy did not care of what any of them said. Instead, she simply walked back to where Levi was, as soon as her spar had ended in easy victory.

"I have returned, Lady Levi," she said.

"So I see. You did good back there," the human complimented as she patted her head, an action that caused Mindy to lightly flapped her ears in joy.

Some spars later, including Azalea, it was finally Levi's turn to do battle, with Leia as her opponent. At first, Mindy was looking forward to seeing her caretaker display her skill towards the insolent nobles, when a shocking revelation occurred.

"My name is Leia. Leia Anberibca."

Mindy was speechless when Leia re-introduced herself. This whole time, she assumed Leia did not state her name because she did not want to be distanced by commoners... but it was because she was an Anberibca? A member of Levi's family?!

No... That was not right. From how Levi had been acting, if Leia was her sister, she would've already known, and there was no way her mother had Leia right after Levi's forced leave. This could only mean one thing... the one thing that Mindy found especially unforgivable toward that duke household, as she sent a glare Edward's way. Whether or not the oldest son of the Anberibca noticed her glare, she did not know, as he remained neutral and kept his eyes on the spar he had began.

"Is something wrong, Mindy?" Azalea asked. "You have a scary look on your face. Not just you but... Levi, too. She has a weird expression on hers."

Mindy turned back to the battle at those words, now hoping her savior does not lose to a false Anberibca, to a replacement. At first when Levi got disarmed by her foe, Mindy panicked slightly, and was tempted to use magic to help out, even if it meant her disqualification, when Levi turned it around, and forced Leia on the ground, while she stood with the borrowed sword in hand.

The harpy glanced at the examiner, waiting to hear him call it in, when the guy only stood speechless at what he saw. It was clear to Mindy that he did not want to announce the defeat of his sister, who was not a member of the Anberibca in the first place. Just as she was about to call him out, though, someone else did, though not with the words she was going to say.

"I forfeit," Levi spoke, dropping the sword to Mindy's surprise.

"Milady?" she asked, as murmurs rose from the decision. Mindy did not bother listening in on what they say, and only focused on her mistress, who whispered something to Edward as she passed him, as he whispered something back to her.

Soon enough, Levi grabbed Mindy and left the area. No words were needed to know why Levi stopped the spar. If anything, the harpy could never imagine the sort of pain the human must be in upon Leia's revelation. And so, as they were about to pass an alley on their way home, Mindy decided to drag Levi in it, in hopes to give her time now to grieve over what occurred the past years away from home.

"Lady Levi... A-Are you okay?" Mindy asked.

"... How can I be...?" she asked back, tears forming in her eyes, and trailing down her cheeks. "I... I knew I was hated by them the moment my affinity was revealed... But to think it was bad enough to replace me..."

Mindy could only be silent, as she watched Levi cry her heart out like this. She did not know what to do, what to say. These past years since she started living with Levi, it was always the human who cheered the harpy up, be it with food or pets. 

Deciding to take a page out of Levi's book on comfort, Mindy could only wrap her wings around her caretaker, hoping her just being there like this was all the girl needed to cheer up.