How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 36

Aisha received the letter confirming that she had passed the examination three days later.

It was a truly delightful surprise. The letter explained that although she had not completed the entire route, the examiners had reviewed her performance and agreed that she had passed the first five checkpoints. Her response to an unfamiliar, high-level magical beast like the giant-fanged black wolf was also sufficient to meet the standard for admission.

Furthermore, as a mage with unusual abilities, she could appropriately receive some flexibility in the admission requirements. She was therefore confirmed to have passed and was permitted to proceed to the remaining magical assessments and enrollment.

However, because the circumstances had been unusual and Aisha had not completed the full examination, she still needed to take a special assessment at Wold Warrior School to obtain a score for the sixth checkpoint. At the same time, she could present her examination permit and identification to collect her certificate of qualification.

The anxiety that had hung over her for three days finally lifted. Naturally delighted, Aisha quickly took her examination permit and returned to Wold Warrior School.

After living in Wold and preparing for the examination, Aisha had become thoroughly familiar with the school’s location. She did not even trouble Pal to accompany her and found her way there alone.

Today was also the day candidates who had missed the earlier examination were allowed to continue. Many people still waited in the waiting room, and the atmosphere was as tense as before. But Aisha, already certain she had passed, felt far less pressure. She even had the leisure to smile at anyone who met her eyes. Those who did usually froze before returning an awkward smile.

The examination officials had clearly known that students would be coming to make up their assessments. After Aisha showed them the letter and her permit, they fast-tracked her assessment. As soon as the previous candidate finished, they allowed her directly inside and instructed her to go straight to the sixth checkpoint.

Aisha solemnly drew her wand and nodded.

It was still Route Six and the same map as before, but her mood was much lighter. Standing at the starting line, she took a deep breath and walked steadily inside.

At the same time, like any ordinary student, Aisha appeared on the magical projection in the proctors’ auditorium.

The instant she came into view, Frey, the advanced mage who occupied the eighth floor of the Tower of Magic’s upper section, let out an inexplicable shout and sprang from his seat. Everyone turned toward him.

“What are you doing, Frey?”

Christine, who occupied the third floor of the Tower of Magic’s upper section, pushed up her glasses. She was a female darkfolk with small wings. Her dull leaden skin and immaculate appearance gave her a conscientious, serious air. She was the one who had noticed during the original examination that Aisha was a mage with unusual abilities.

Frey paid no attention to Christine’s question. Christine might have been middle-aged, but among the mages in the upper section, she was still one of the younger members. She had not been there long and naturally knew nothing of Eric’s past.

In truth, few people in the Tower of Magic knew much about Eric’s history. His temperament was strange, and hardly anyone enjoyed associating with him.

In any case, Frey could not be bothered to explain why he was shocked. He snatched up the candidate forms and began flipping through them. Only after finding the information on the girl he had barely noticed before did he stare in astonishment.

“Aisha Byrd! No wonder—I remember wondering why there was another Byrd when I saw the forms! Wait… why is her surname Byrd?!”

Like everyone else who learned the name Aisha used, that was Frey’s first astonished reaction. For one instant, his mind filled with sensational notions: family conflict, divorce, custody battles, what a mess married people made of their lives… The words *illegitimate daughter* even flashed across his mind during a momentary failure of reason. But one more look at the girl’s face made him discard that possibility immediately.

Someone from Wold Warrior School narrowed his eyes as realization dawned.

“That girl… doesn’t she look a little like General Tina Killott of the Helman Federation?”

The moment he spoke, the other eighteen gazes shot like arrows toward the Route Six screen and fixed upon Aisha’s face.

Of course, not all of them had seen Tina. Some could have stared a hole through the projection without recognizing anything.

“Not a little. Very much.”

While the others squinted uncertainly, a middle-aged beastfolk warrior from the school watched the girl walking steadily toward the sixth checkpoint and spoke with certainty.

“I fought Killott in the Free Arena when we were students. She was strong, and… at fifteen or sixteen, she looked almost exactly like this. Though… hmm. This girl is prettier.”

After another brief pause, he added, “Of course, Killott looked more spirited. At that age, she had more or less fought everyone in every Wold school who entered around the same year she did. Every time she finished beating someone, she smiled as though she were glowing. She was the only human girl I ever saw like that.”

“Then this really is Tina Killott’s child?!” Christine exclaimed. “Her child is a mage?! Wait, I always thought she had no children…”

“No…”

The beastfolk warrior hesitated.

“Perhaps not. I don’t believe a woman with Tina’s personality would let her child use her husband’s surname.”

He looked back at the projection with mixed feelings. On one hand, he did not believe this was the daughter of the Tina Killott who had once turned all Wold upside down. On the other, the girl’s appearance made him doubt himself. It was genuinely difficult to be certain.

He could not imagine Tina tolerating her child using the surname of a husband less formidable than she was. Yet the girl looked so much like her.

The Tower of Magic’s examination records passed through layers of review and verification. No student could use a false name. Whatever appeared on the permit had to be the girl’s legal name. Ryan might use a dual-surname system, but the name chosen for an entrance examination was enough to indicate ordinary usage. If they truly were mother and daughter, there seemed no other explanation.

Frey missed the conflict and hesitation in the warrior’s tone. Irritably, he said, “How could she not be? Look at her! If that girl has nothing to do with Tina, I’ll swallow my wand! Besides, Tina is a woman after all. Perhaps she decided to follow tradition on the matter of surnames. Do you know that Tina’s husband is named—”

“Frey, coincidences in both name and appearance are not impossible in this world.”

Claudia’s grave voice stopped him.

“Do not reach conclusions carelessly.”

The rest of Frey’s sentence lodged in his throat. Only now did he seem to notice that Claudia, who should have been as surprised or excited as he was, remained perfectly calm. He alone was exploding over what might soon happen to Eric.

After holding it in for a while, Frey asked, “Then she really isn’t…?”

“No. She is.”

“What?!”

Frey could not understand what Claudia was thinking, nor why she had denied his conclusion only to confirm it. He could not help wondering whether age had finally affected her mind.

But before he could ask, Claudia surveyed everyone waiting for an explanation and slowly spoke again.

“She is not simply taking her father’s surname. She is not deliberately hiding, and she has no intention of concealing her identity.”

Claudia spoke slowly.

When questioned that day, the girl had answered quickly, without lying or evasion.

Had she intended to conceal her identity, she could easily have denied it as a coincidence or covered the truth with careful words. The fact that she did not lie meant she had no deliberate intention of hiding. Her willingness to answer in front of the other candidates meant she did not truly mind people learning who she was—at least, not to the point that it absolutely had to remain secret.

And because she answered quickly, she did not even regard her choice not to use her mother’s surname as something whose reason needed to be hidden. If she simply used her father’s surname more often, she could have said so plainly.

In truth, given her close resemblance to her mother and her use of a legal name, anyone who had met Tina and knew of her marriage could identify Aisha easily.

But the girl’s approach to secrecy amounted to this: she did not volunteer the information, yet when asked—even publicly—she did not lie.

Her reason for not using her mother’s surname had nothing to do with external circumstances, nor with humility or keeping a low profile. It came from the insecurity and weakness within her heart. She was not unwilling to accept the name. She was afraid to accept it and believed herself unworthy.

True… for Tina’s daughter, the girl called Aisha appeared far less dazzling and assertive. But…

Claudia composed herself.

She could sense a flame burning inside the girl just as it had in Tina, only expressed in a more restrained form. Aisha was an uncut gem. And the reason the Tower of Magic recruited new students every year… was precisely to help undiscovered mages reveal the brilliance they deserved to possess.

No matter whose daughter she was, what she needed was the right teacher.

However…

Claudia was not certain Eric Green was that teacher.

…

Unaware that she was being watched and discussed, Aisha finished the battle at the sixth checkpoint.

She had experience from her previous attempt, and she was relaxed and physically rested. Defeating a medium-sized magical fox was not particularly difficult.

After the battle, Aisha crouched as usual and treated the fox. It was clearly far more intelligent than the shaggy beast. Once healed, it sprawled lazily on the ground, gave her a soft yip, and even nodded in thanks. This kind of fox had long, narrow eyes that curved as though it were smiling, making it especially charming.

In excellent spirits, Aisha left through the passage for successful candidates and collected her certificate of qualification without trouble. It listed her individual score for each of the six checkpoints, which her preferred mentors would reportedly consider when selecting students.

Aisha reviewed the marks. Her sixth-checkpoint score was noticeably higher, but it was followed by the words *special assessment*. She did not know whether that would affect mentor placement.

There was no point worrying now. Aisha carefully put away the certificate. Since it was still early, she decided to explore Wold Warrior School.

She had visited several times already, but until now, she had focused almost entirely on examination-related locations and had never toured it properly. Aisha was curious about Wold’s schools, so this was a good opportunity to look around. The Tower of Magic accepted students, but it was not entirely an educational institution. It leaned more toward research.

Ordinary classrooms for theory lessons, specialized training rooms, changing rooms with showers, simulated combat rooms designed for beast forms, lounges designed for beast forms…

Aisha noticed that beastfolk made up an especially high proportion of Wold Warrior School’s students. But that made sense. Humans and beastfolk approached military training differently. Beastfolk valued warriors with powerful individual fighting ability and often studied at warrior schools. Humans placed greater emphasis on team strategy and broad military knowledge, so they chose military academies, as her parents had.

It seemed to have been this way throughout history. More than half the portraits of each year’s finest graduate hanging in the teaching corridor were very likely beastfolk.

There was little obvious difference between a beastfolk’s human form and an ordinary human, but their cultures and habits still left certain clues. For example, a beastfolk’s hair corresponded to the fur of their beast form. If they cut their hair, their fur shortened too. Long hair was therefore especially common among beastfolk. Unless their beast form belonged to an ordinary short-haired species, almost all had long hair or some unusual style.

The graduate from fifteen years ago, with golden hair and a golden beard covering his face, had probably been a lion. The one from ten years ago, with a head of white curls, might have been a sheep. And then the one from five years ago…

Silver-gray hair. Gray-blue eyes. An expressionless but tall and handsome… boy.

Yes. The boy standing straight in the portrait was not yet old enough to be called a man. He was young—younger than everyone else in the portraits. His features were stern, yet retained a trace of childishness. Instead of the military uniform Aisha had seen before, he wore a different crisp white uniform, perhaps a Wold Warrior School uniform. Whatever it was, it suited him exceptionally well and lacked the intimidating pressure of military dress.

Despite the great difference in age, Aisha recognized him at once.

This was the man who had saved her… before he reached adulthood.

“Excuse me!”

Aisha hurriedly stopped a passing student. “Do you know who this is?”

The student looked at the portrait and showed immediate understanding. With a touch of pride, he answered, “That’s an alumnus who graduated five years ago. His name is Les Wolf, the pride of our school. He graduated faster than any student in the history of any school in Wold. He entered at twelve and graduated at fifteen, passing the final examination in only three years!

“Now he’s also the youngest officer in the Empire of Beast—a major general… Hmm? Are you all right? Why is your face red?”

“What?”

Aisha had not noticed anything until he mentioned it. She hurriedly touched her cheeks in confusion.

They were burning.