Mary’s friend must have been the faster of the two because the pair eventually came back, with a very depressed-looking butler being led by the shoulders but no sign of school security.
“You should apologize for teasing him like that. If Reiko had actually been violated before her wedding day, her mother would have skinned him alive for failing in his duty. Worse, she might have cancelled the wedding entirely and ordered his family to have him disowned.” The fluff-loving friend that had been trying to woo Mary chided Wolfe.
His concern for Reiko’s Butler, officially her assigned marriage candidate, was actually quite touching. Enough so that Wolfe didn’t have the heart to tell them that today’s changes were because he had permanently claimed both of their Witches as his own. In theory, they could break the blood pact, he hadn’t put any restrictions into their informal agreement before the pact was finalized, but it would mean giving up all the benefits, which very few would willingly consider.
“Fine, just let him calm down a little bit first, and then I will do my best to remind him that Miss Reiko is a proper young Witch and has never in her life done anything like that.” Wolfe agreed.
For the next few hours, the cafeteria remained mostly full of Guardians and Assistants waiting for their Witches to return from their exams. None of the men had anything better to do for the day, so they just waited and swapped stories about how they ended up there at the Academy.
A few of the men were noble sons sent to look for a bride, some of them were assigned to protect a specific Witch, but the majority were sent here to make sure their bride didn’t run away from an arranged marriage.
That had backfired spectacularly, and after the uproar when they were assigned as roommates, most of the relationships had started out hostile and had only gotten worse. At this point, most of the men in the room had been hexed at least once a day since they arrived, and the ones who got the silent treatment from their arranged brides actually considered themselves lucky.
They largely understood that they were going to have a lower social status than their wives after the marriage was complete, but here at the Academy, they had been demoted all the way down to butlers, errand boys, or even kicked out of their bride’s room entirely and reassigned as school staff, as Gerry Isabel had been.
The unfortunate man had since attracted the romantic interest of his childhood bully, Risa. As one of the most athletic Witches in the school and an incredibly talented one as well, she seemed determined to make his entire life into her plaything.
There was a rumour that she had even sent a letter to the council, asking them to drop the marriage decree he had arrived here with so that she could claim him as her own.
Gerry still talked a big game, but Wolfe was using [Detect Hidden] and could see the love bites on his chest and what looked like whip marks on his back.
Maybe she really was an evil creature, as he called her. But he seemed to be enjoying it.
The Witches began to trickle in around lunchtime as they finished their exams. Early completion for the upperclassmen who were doing their practical exams was a good sign, but the few First Years who arrived early from their Alchemy exam were devastated.
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The alchemy students had six hours for the exam in total, but if they failed too many times or too late into the hardest of the concoctions, they wouldn’t be able to complete the exam at all and would have to rely on the marks gained from the potions that they did complete.
Each station had been given a set of reagents, of which many were common to multiple assignments. You could use them as you saw fit and redo failures, but there weren’t many extra resources, and it could mean that you had used up an ingredient needed for another potion.
The results were graded on quality, with more points for mastering the more difficult potions, so you only really had to do half of the assigned potions to pass with a decent grade, assuming you did those few of them well.
The mana draw from Wolfe was relatively constant all morning, with the draws varying up and down individually as the Witches worked, but never to an excessive level, and his four lovely charges came into the cafeteria together just before two in the afternoon, only minutes before the exam would be forcefully ended, all wearing huge smiles and picking out celebratory cake slices from the trays.
“I take it everybody’s exams went well?” Wolfe asked before the other men could speak.
“You have no idea how much we owe you. The others were all exhausted and making simple mistakes from the prolonged mana use, but we just breezed through. The Professor will be grading quality for a few days, but we completed every potion, and they looked like the descriptions.” Reiko informed Wolfe, then wrapped him in a hug that brought her butler’s rage back to the surface.
This time he kept silent, though, not wanting to make her like him even less than she already did. His dreams of an idyllic year sharing a room with his beautiful bride-to-be were already crushed, and he didn’t want to end up reassigned and moved to the Staff wing as so many others had been.
“One more exam and we have the whole weekend to relax. We should arrange a party.” Reiko suggested.
“We are way ahead of you. The auditorium has been booked, the catering has been arranged, and we have bribed ourselves some entertainment for the evening. Witches only, sorry gentlemen.” One of the third-year students from the Library Club informed them from a few tables away.
“Ooh, entertainment. Do you think we can outdo last year’s finale?” One of the girls sitting further down the booths along the wall asked.
“With most of the men gone this year, we were short on strippers, but I think we can make it more lively.” The organizer smirked.
“We have high hopes for you. Don’t let us down.” One of the High Nobles laughed, shocking many of the Witches who weren’t used to them talking to anyone outside their group.
To say that the men were upset was an understatement. The school didn’t hold social functions to encourage mingling, so the student-organized ones were all they had, but the Witches had planned the celebration to deliberately exclude them.
Everyone was about to head back to their rooms when the library club member pulled Wolfe aside for a private conversation.
“I know you all need him around to prep spells for tomorrow’s exam, so I won’t keep him long.” The Witch assured his companions with a conspiratorial smile.
“Alright, we will be in our room. Grab more amulet blanks and this list of reagents on the way back. We have the rest of what we need.” Cassie agreed and handed Wolfe a description of the amulets they wanted to make in preparation for their exam.