Moonlight After Sunset's
[S2E70] Closer

"Pease of comfort will make a person unconsciously become closer."

******************#####****************

The field is a place where students usually take practice exams. This field is twice the size of a football field so that it can accommodate many students at once.

In the center of the field was a magic podium featuring a battle hologram. Unlike duels that require students to physically fight each other. The combat field more shows the skill of a student in dealing with monsters.

There were different types of monsters of different levels. Each tester would be given monsters according to their level. This is done to minimize accidents during the exam.

However there are some cases where students will challenge higher monsters to show their talents to the target professor.

"My current level is nine, if I don't want to get caught then I should be able to control myself when the exam starts."

The sun looks more alert than ever. He knew that the practice exam this time was a little different from the usual combat practice.

Currently not only his classmates were watching but rather one school would watch combat exams like a carnival.

To be honest, Dusk really hates it, he is not happy if a fight is watched like a show. He felt that he and other students who were fighting fate on the podium were more like animals than humans.

"Alley."

Call for a baritone voice that makes the Dusk daydream crumble. Lazy twilight tries to stay calm. He turned his face towards the origin of the sound.

"For, how? What are you, you like?" asked the figure in a slightly trembling voice.

"Uhm, this is delicious." replied Dusk while lifting the sandwich in his right hand.

"Thank God, I'm afraid it doesn't suit your taste."

"No, I like this."

"Alright, I brought you this too. Take it."

Amir then handed her a bottle of lemon tea that looked fresh. At first Dusk wanted to refuse but since the weather was quite hot this afternoon, he consciously took the drink.

"Damn, I was tempted again." Inner Dusk before drinking the tea.

"Senja, if you want more. I made it a lot." exclaimed Amir as he pointed at the styrofoam box in one of the waiting chairs.

"I made it a lot to share with others as well" he continued before leaving Dusk.

Unlike Kira who always sticks to the side of Dusk. Amir tends to come and go just like that. That was the reason why Dusk did not think too much about the bad rumors about him.

According to Dusk, Amir is a good man and inexplicably often involved in problems. Dusk did not want to get involved in the matter at all, so he was more likely to be neutral and let Amir just like that.

"Look at him, very timid." lirih Dusk when he saw Amir who shyly distributed his drink to other students passing by.

"It's true that not all rumors are true. Sometimes we'd better look at it in person and confirm it before taking an arbitrary assessment."

Dusk was very confident of that because their assessment of Dusk was not much worse than their assessment of Amir.

Dusk knew clearly about himself, he knew what he was like. Dusk also knew that many strange rumors surrounded him but he tried to ignore it because it was not the top priority.

The more Dusk thinks about Amir's condition the more he realizes that they are similar. Dusk feels sorry for Amir and he unknowingly continues to engage with him.

"Ah yes, speaking of Amir, I forgot about Kira's condition." murmured Dusk when he saw many students begin to fill the field.

Surprisingly Dusk had not seen Kira at all. Dusk was sure how excited Kira was in waiting for the test this time. But from the beginning of the test even the trunk of his nose was completely invisible.

When Dusk was cool to think of the oddity suddenly his ears rang loudly. Dusk quickly closed his ear hole while looking around. There again Dusk saw the happy face of Prof Philip.

"Damn, if I'm not alert it's possible that my eardrum has broken." lamented Dusk annoyed.

Dusk then glanced at Amie subconsciously. There he saw Amir who was crouching with some tea bottles scattered on the ground.

"Prof Philip is crazy, in this hot weather he can make a tantrum." grumbled at Dusk while staring intently at Prof Philip.

Not only Dusk even all the students in the field did the same. Prof Philip casually raised both his hands in surrender. He then stopped the loud noise and immediately climbed onto the podium.

"I'm doing this to test you guys. I want to see how long you can last in such a situation." - Prof Philip.

"The test practice this time there are three, you can see it here." continued Prof Philip while spreading a strange sheet to 15 students who will take the exam.

Inside the test there are three types of practice tests. There is also clearly stated the time of the examination.

"Now take the queue number and you can start it right when the clock is showing the number 12."

Hearing the notification made the students immediately queue to pick up the queue number. They don't want anything strange to happen again if they linger there.

After getting the queue number and the time has shown 12 o'clock exactly. Soon Prof Philip voted for the first student to perform.

The lottery is randomly drawn so that students who get the first number do not feel cheated. It really depends on their luck.

"Hmm, ah, can. What number is this." exclaimed Prof Philip in a playful tone.

"One, two, three. Number 6." cried Prof Philip who made the faces of students other than number six feel relieved.

No one likes the weird humor of Prof Philip. Every student hates the crisp humor so much that they just can not miss it because Prof Philip is one of the great Profs recognized both in the academy and the kingdom.

"Prof Philip was most happy to tease his students but he was not the prof killer that many students feared. It's just that the way to act is quite firm." muttered Dusk who felt sorry for the number six student.

Of course even though only 15 students can take the exam sessions in his class but he is not stingy at all. Prof Philip will also re-evaluate the 10 students he had put out earlier.

"Well, even if the values given are no more than D but at least they don't come back empty-handed."

This is inversely proportional to other professors who will not even give any grades if their students fail the exam. They tend to give an F value to make students mentally down.

Even though to pass the exam they must get an A with a perfect point of 15. It is better to get a low score than nothing.

"Let's wait our turn" murmured Dusk while biding his time.

****

Fifteen minutes have passed, and now there are five more students who have not taken the exam including Dusk. They were very confident of passing the first practice exam because the opponent faced was so easy.

"Ending a moving target for one minute. The maximum target to be eliminated is 50 and the minimum is 25."

Twilight read the rules of the game on the first practice exam. This test was easy because the target that had to be destroyed was an iron plate that flew in all directions.

The students only need to shoot the target according to the minimum amount to be able to pass this first stage practice exam. While the second stage, they were asked to finish off the goblins for two minutes.

And for the third stage they were asked to finish the slime for five minutes. It looks a bit strange when looking at the time comparison between goblins and slimes.

In fact the slime was the weakest monster that did not even take a minute to kill it.

"Whatever it is, I must remain vigilant." murmured Dusk before standing towards the podium.

It is currently the turn of Dusk to perform after waiting for 18 minutes. When he was on stage, Dusk was encouraged to choose the level he wanted.

The Dusk course selects a standard level usually chosen by other students. Without a doubt, Dusk had prepared a design before the start writing turned green.

"Are you ready?" ask Prof Philip.

"Already," replied Dusk and a second later the alarm signal sounded and the start sign had turned green.

Instantly the podium area is filled by a variety of different targets. It was a little more unique than the other target students. Seeing this made Dusk's forehead twinkle not like.

"I'm sure I've chosen a standard level, but what is this?"

Dusk berated his misfortune when he saw Prof Philip's mischievous face. Dusk was convinced that it was Prof Philip's attempt to test him.

Angrily Dusk attacked the targets one by one. Although he had already restrained his strength yet level six compared to level four and five was quite a lot different.

The target that Dusk killed continued to increase every second, until in just fifteen seconds he had already killed 25 targets. Realizing his mistake, Dusk began to lower the frequency of his speed in killing the target.

Luckily it managed to distract the students and the audience. In the rest of his time, Dusk managed to finish off 21 other targets. So that the total target spent by Dusk for one minute is 46 targets.

"While it wasn't the maximum target score but he had managed to break the record by killing more targets than any other student." Prof Philip's inner.

"Again I expected it from the beginning, not only have I even all the teachers in this school been aware of it since that day." continued Prof Philip while recalling the incident 10 months ago when Dusk first set the magic hall building on fire.

Dusk was relieved and confused because after the hologram was deactivated, the entire audience cheered happily at him instead. They looked doubtful and curious when they saw the results of the Dusk exam.

Even so Dusk ignored their question mark gazes and chose to return to his thinness. He then saw other students being called in for testing.

It had been 45 minutes since the first stage began. And now Dusk and the other students were waiting for the time for the second stage.

The second stage will start ten minutes later when the clock has shown at 1 pm. A tired twilight went to Amir to ask for a drink.

"That's great, you broke the record" exclaimed Amir as he choked with a terrible bottle of drink.

"Record?" tanya Dusk did not understand.

"Yes a record, don't you know that no one has ever managed to finish off as many targets as you."

"What yes? What about the seniors?"

"Uhm, as far as I know there was once a senior who managed to get the highest number of targets and he managed to maintain that value for ten years, but now that record you've beaten."

Hearing the words of Amir makes the mouth of Dusk foamy. He unconsciously regurgitated his nearly finished drink.

"Geez Dusk be careful." exclaimed Amir in shock when he saw the mouth of Dusk that had been flooded with water.

Amir then wiped the lips of Dusk with his handkerchief. He also wiped the water spilled on his hands and clothes.

"Ugh, thank you." lirih Dusk while squeezing her wet clothes.

"No need, Drain."

Amir used his wind magic to dry his twilight clothes. Of course it did not escape the sight of the three friends of Dusk who had seen them from the crowd of spectators from the beginning.

"Who is he?" luna asked confusedly.

"Either, Dusk never says anything." retorted Muna suspiciously.

"He's Amir, a classmate of Dusk." Maya said casually.

"He's an orphan, so I guess it's only natural that they're close" he continued with an indifferent gaze.

"Basic, how could that be. We have to ask the details later." luna doesn't like it.

Honestly, Luna is not happy if Dusk whose incident will be her sister-in-law will be seized by others.

"I'll tell brother."