Nadrina felt her cheeks flush. “No, I’m... I’m done,” she repeated lamely, shaking the sheets for emphasis. She wanted him to just take the damn scroll and leave her be.

Still looking confused and uncertain, the headmaster took the offered diagrams and began reviewing them. When he was done looking them over, he looked back up with a carefully blank expression on his face.

Wow. That bad, huh?

Another five minutes passed before her opponent finally gave over his scroll, while they forced Nadrina to just stand there and wait to fail. Their scrolls were returned to them after a quick inspection from Headmaster Elmaris.

“Very well. You may imbue and cast your scrolls when ready.”

Both Nadrina and the plain boy took several more minutes to imbue and cast while the crowd watched on with anticipation. Nadrina wished she had the professor’s freakish ability to imbue and cast almost instantly. She wanted this torture to just end already.

Nadrina finished a fraction of a second before the boy did. It shocked her when her scroll just vanished in a flash of light. The boy’s scroll did something similar, but it was much more drawn out and dramatic. When the light show finally ended, the scroll was still laying on the ground in front of him.

“Well, I suppose that decides it,” the headmaster declared. Nadrina waited for the axe to fall as every student leaned forward for the results.

“I can say with certainty that Nadrina Flemming has not only won, but has set a new school record for the fastest completion of the first year’s sorcery exam, at only ten minutes and twenty-three seconds.”

... wait. The what?

Nadrina’s brain finally caught up to her when she felt someone hugging her. Lilianna was there, beaming at her, as Codrin yelled in victory. Even Alek had come up to congratulate her. Professor Rainer’s class looked dismayed.

“Drina, you did it! You won this for the entire class!” Lilianna exclaimed. Professor Aldric stood just behind them, a smile on his face that said he wasn’t the least bit surprised.

“Nicely done, all of you,” he said. “Get on back to the bleachers for now. The headmaster will make the formal declaration soon. All of you get dinner on me tonight.”

Alek and Codrin cheered in unison before hurrying off to the bleachers. Lilianna made to drag Nadrina off with her, but the professor stopped her.

“One moment. I’ll give her back to you soon.” Lilianna looked confused but nodded, hurrying after her classmates.

“You did really well, Flemming, but I need to tell you my ulterior motive for all of this.”

Nadrina was still a bit dazed, so she could only tilt her head in confusion. Wasn’t this a just another weird assignment from their eccentric professor?