Capitano drilled me even harder over the remaining month than he had over the month before. Now that he knew I would resurrect, perhaps he wanted to make me one of his direct subordinates. Not that I wanted to join the Fatui.
And so, on August 20, Capitano and I were spending the final night of my training—mission.
"Thank you for keeping up with the training so well. I am very pleased."
"Uh... thank you..."
My body, excluding my face, was covered in scars of every kind. These would heal, right?
"Those are a warrior's scars. Do not try to erase them. They are proof that you have grown stronger."
"Yes..."
"You look quite tired. Have you not been sleeping properly?"
"Yes... I suppose you could say that..."
Ever since Focalors said that a month ago, she had been working me even harder. As if studying law were not enough, she was even teaching me how to win over the girl I loved. What would you know about dating anyone? All you ever watched were courtroom love triangles more melodramatic than a morning soap opera, unfolding before the Oratrice Mecanique d’Analyse Cardinale.
"Tomorrow, we must part ways. There is still much I have to teach you, but I am sure we will meet again someday."
"Let us hope so."
Crackle, crackle. The campfire burned down, as though someone's time were running out.
August 21, in front of the House of the Hearth.
Since last night, Peruere had been sitting at the window, staring toward the front gate. She had stayed awake all night, hoping for her brother's return. Cravie and Citra were sick of the sight when they saw Peruere sitting there in the same position as the night before.
"She's been doing that for days, but she stayed up all night today? Does she miss her brother that much?"
"Tomorrow is Peruere's birthday. Apparently, he promised to return before then, so I can understand it, but..."
Tomorrow was Peruere's birthday, but there was still no word from him. She had even asked the Mother she despised so much whether she knew if her brother was alive, only to be told that she did not know either. Crucabena also seemed considerably uneasy. She suspected that Capitano might have taken Avrora away behind her back. She had found a vessel to fulfill her ambitions; naturally, even if it was a fellow colleague taking him, she would be furious at having him stolen from her.
Peruere and Crucabena had different aims, but from separate places, both stared toward the same spot as they waited for one person. And that person did not return until nightfall.
Peruere was the first to react. The instant she saw Capitano and me, she raced down to the front gate.
Then she rushed through it and threw herself directly into my arms.
"Whoa. I nearly fell over."
"Brother... you are not hurt anywhere, are you..."
My arms bore countless scars from training. The moment Peruere saw them, she glared at Capitano, pouring her hatred into that look.
"Do not blame me, little girl. Your brother was simply weak. Be grateful that he returned alive."
"My brother... is not weak.... My brother knows everything... There is no way he would lose to an enemy's attack...!"
"Peruere? Calm down, and let us go inside. I even bought you a cake from outside."
In my hand was a cake I had bought from a Fontaine pastry shop. I had gotten it from the place that sold the limited-edition cakes Furina ate.
Peruere accepted the cake, but apparently still dissatisfied, she continued glaring at Capitano as she answered quietly.
"I will let it go this time for my brother's sake. But there will not be a next time..."
"Very well. I look forward to seeing your skill."
Peruere took the cake and returned inside. Capitano and I discussed our impressions of her alone.
"What a frightening little girl. If she could turn her hatred into a blade, I would be dead."
"You cannot die, can you? Please stop joking around."
"Ha ha. So you have learned to indulge an old man's jokes. You have grown a great deal."
"More importantly, Crucabena is coming over there."
Crucabena walked out, passing Peruere. An aura of complaints and discontent radiated from her entire body.
"I will leave the excuses to you. Then I shall be on my way."
"Very well. Until next time."
And so my first encounter with Capitano came to an end. I passed Crucabena and headed for the House of the Hearth, while Crucabena greeted Capitano with a face that plainly had many grievances to air.
While the four of us, including me, held Peruere's birthday party in our room, loud shouting could be heard from outside. Crucabena must have had quite a lot of pent-up dissatisfaction.
"It has been a long time since I last saw Mother that angry."
"Really? Isn't she always like that? Munch, munch."
"Citra, do not eat Peruere's share too."
"I know! But it is delicious!"
While we chattered away, Peruere merely stared at the plate holding the cake. Her face overflowed with relief that her brother had returned, and happiness that he had held her.
Ever since I returned from Capitano, Crucabena's trials seemed to have become much easier. Not because Crucabena had gone easy on me out of consideration, but because Capitano appeared to have trained the living hell out of me. Thanks to that, I could easily win even in matches against my seniors.
"I am fighting a twelve-year-old right now, correct? Why are you so strong?"
"Because you are weak, obviously. I will fight him. Come out here."
Five minutes later.
"Huff... huff... Is he really twelve? I cannot see an opening at all!"
"Ooh, ooh! You talked such a big game, but you are getting tired faster than I am!"
It had already been a major topic that a twelve-year-old had gone on a mission and returned. Now that I was putting down seniors like this, rumors about me began spreading among them as well.
"That is him. The kid who beat Georg."
"I heard he beat Tomi yesterday too. Isn't that crazy?"
It looked as though I had taken another step closer to becoming king. But that was not my goal.
November.
I entered Crucabena's director's office and reported on the training the four of us were doing together.
"Peruere has reached a passing level, but Cravie and Citra are still lacking. In Cravie's case, I expect that with just a little more work, she will reach an acceptable standard—"
"That is enough of the report, Avrora. How are your law studies going?"
"Yes...? I have continued them..."
"You see, I simply cannot wait any longer. Go submit an application for next year's bar examination."
Did I hear that wrong? The bar exam was for those fifteen and older.
"Excuse me... I remember the bar exam being for those fifteen and older. I have not even had my birthday yet—"
"I know that. But do you know that solving plenty of past exam questions and becoming familiar with the test environment is the fastest path to passing?"
That depended on the person, though it was true that doing lots of past questions helped. But did that apply to law too? Since a legal precedent could be overturned, making last year's correct answer wrong, this was unfamiliar territory for someone like me who had never studied that field.
"I am not sure..."
"You do not need to pass this time, so take it without pressure. You still have plenty of time, after all."
"Even so, only those fifteen or older can take the exam—"
"Do I look like someone careless enough not to prepare even for that? Of course I altered your date of birth. By two years."
...What? Had I heard wrong? Was Fontaine's administration really that lax?
"Is that easy to do? Normally, a birth should be registered right after the child is born—"
"Is it that easy? When a child might die, who would put them on the family register immediately?"
Ah... This was one of those things. It had been common in my country too.
Before my country industrialized, infant mortality had been high, so people often raised a child first and registered their birth later. Being one or two years off from one's actual age was commonplace, and there had even been people who lived without knowing their actual birthday, only for their mother to register it based on a vague, "You were born around that day," sort of feeling. In exceptional cases, an older sibling might die soon after birth, and the child born afterward would inherit that sibling's date of birth exactly. That was how lax the administration in my country had been back then.
But Fontaine, the nation of law, was that lax? When had this place ever been a developing country? Its technology alone ranked among the best in Teyvat.
"When did you register me...?"
"I prepared the documents one year after you came here. What a fortunate thing. Since you were an orphan with no relatives, you were easy to falsify, you know?"
The fact that I had drifted here without a single connection was working against me. I had not even met Capitano and received water from the Primordial Sea yet, and she was already telling me to take the bar exam?
Then Crucabena held several sheets of paper out to me.
"This is..."
"Last year's bar exam questions. Take them to your room and solve them. I have selected all three rounds, so I will give you scratch paper as well."
"Yes... understood."
I left the director's office and headed to my room. None of the children were there; perhaps they were playing outside. Good. I should finish this quickly while I could. If the children stormed in and asked me to play with them, I would have no time to solve it.
I immediately picked up my pencil and began working through the exam.
"Agh... my head hurts...."
After completing the constitutional law section in the first session of the first exam, my head felt like it was about to explode. You never said it would be this damn awful, Focalors...
"I still got almost all of them right, though..."
I did not know what the passing score for the bar exam was. But if Fontaine, the nation of law, wrote the questions, it would surely twist them into knots to distinguish the test-takers. And they really had twisted them into knots, with plenty of obscure questions too. I finished constitutional law and skimmed criminal law as well, and it was equally packed with obscure details. Why were there insane cases like, "No flying objects may be launched within the city of Fontaine on the first three days of every month"? Why did I need to know this crap?
Focalors was going to give me hell again today. "You got even something this simple wrong? Your studying has been wasted!" That was what she would say. It truly made you want to die when you got all the difficult questions right and missed the easy ones, sure. It was like getting nearly all the four-point math questions right but missing a two-point question. But would they not all look like two-point questions to Focalors?
As I sat in my chair, completely drained, the children crept in.
"Hey, look! Avrora is sitting there all limp!"
"Hey, Avrora? What is wrong? And what are these papers?"
"Mm... I do not understand a single word!"
With the children coming over and chattering at me, my head hurt even more. I should take a nap.
"I am going to sleep, so do not wake me..."
"Huh? Okay... got it."
And so, thoroughly beaten down by the brutal flavor of Fontaine's bar exam, I collapsed into bed. How was I supposed to take this three times? Someone save me.
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