"Your theme for this exam will be Light in the Dark," Instructor Afri announced from the center of the stadium. "You will be given five hours. Prepare your tools. Once you hear the signal, the examination will begin."

The stadium immediately erupted into movement.

Thousands of spectators filled the seats while hundreds of carving students stood behind their workstations. Each table held a pristine block of Luminite Marble waiting to be transformed.

I organized my tools neatly and stretched my fingers.

Five hours.

That was plenty of time.

BANG!

The starting shot echoed throughout the stadium as chisels struck stone all at once.

The carving examination had officially begun.

I lowered my gaze and began sketching the rough shape of my sculpture.

For approximately thirty seconds before chaos erupted.

A chair was thrown across the stadium.

A student suddenly shoved another student.

Someone screamed.

A chisel flew and struck another student’s marble.

Three people were wrestling over a toolbox.

"..."

I slowly stopped carving as I looked around the stadium.

One student sprinted away carrying somebody else’s carving materials while the owner chased after him with murderous intent.

Another student got tackled.

A girl hit somebody with a mallet.

Somewhere in the distance, a sculpture exploded.

Surely the instructors would stop this but the instructors weren’t doing anything.

In fact, Instructor Afri was drinking bubble tea. Another one was reading a book while the other was eating snacks.

The audience wasn’t horrified either, they were actually cheering.

CHEERING.

An old man in the front row was even standing and clapping enthusiastically.

"HIT HIM AGAIN!"

The crowd roared in approval.

What.

Kind.

Of.

Exam.

Was this?

I slowly turned my head and saw Silvano calmly carving his piece.

Then, without even looking up, he kicked a student squarely in the stomach when they tried to grab his marble block.

The student rolled across the ground as Silvano continued carving.

Another student immediately tried to interfere with his sculpture but Silvano punched him.

The second student stumbled away.

Silvano continued carving again nonchalantly.

I stared at him. "Sylvie."

Silvano didn’t look up. "What?"

"Care to explain what the hell am I looking at right now?"

"It’s part of the test."

He casually sidestepped another student who tried to snatch his tool kit before smacking the guy on the back of the head.

The student fell flat on the floor before crawling away.

"Part of the test," he repeated.

I looked at the chaos again.

A student suddenly ran past carrying three stolen toolboxes.

Another student chased him while swinging a hammer.

"Who even decided to allow this kind of exam?!" I hissed.

"This has always been the exam."

Another student attempted to steal his marble.

Silvano casually shoved his entire table three feet to the side without interrupting his carving.

The thief stumbled face-first into the floor.

"It’s tradition," he added.

"So it’s tradition?" I nearly choked. "Then why the hell won’t they change it?"

Silvano looked genuinely confused by the question. "Where’s the fun in that?"

I was speechless.

He wasn’t joking, there wasn’t even a hint of sarcasm.

I finally understood that the carving wasn’t the main attraction, the violence was.

The carving was just something they happened to do between fights.

I snapped out of my thoughts when a student from another class suddenly appeared beside my workstation with a hammer raised high above his head.

He was aiming straight for my sculpture.

Without hesitation, I lifted my chisel and pointed it directly at him.

"One more step," I said calmly, "and I’ll personally carve my name into your face."

The student snorted. "Who are you even supposed to be?"

"Blanca."

"Blanca?" He froze. "Miss Blanca Frostine?"

I nodded.

The guy instantly dropped to his knees as the hammer clattered onto the ground. "Please do it!"

I frowned. "...What?"

His eyes sparkled. "Please carve your name on me!"

I stared at him.

He stared back.

Then, to my absolute horror, he grabbed the front of his shirt and ripped it open dramatically.

"I want it right here!" he said enthusiastically while slapping his chest. "I’ll frame it forever!"

My brain stopped functioning.

For several seconds I genuinely wondered if I had inhaled marble dust.

"What?"

"I’m a huge fan of yours, Miss Blanca!"

He started inching towards me.

I immediately took three steps backward.

The weirdo took three steps forward.

I took another three steps back.

He stubbornly followed me. "Please! Just a small signature!"

"No!"

"Then your initials!"

"No!"

"Just a tiny B!"

"WHY WOULD I CARVE A B INTO YOUR CHEST?!"

Around us, several students had stopped fighting just to watch.

One student whispered, "He’s so brave."

Another nodded, "I would’ve asked for a full autograph."

The fanatic slowly crawled closer. "I’ll even pay!"

I recoiled in horror as I screamed, "Sylvie!"

Beside me, Silvano was currently elbowing a student away from his workstation. "What now?"

"Some weirdo is asking me to carve my name into his chest!"

Silvano looked over.

The fanatic immediately waved. "Hello!"

Silvano blinked then looked back at me. "I’m busy."

The fanatic pointed excitedly at himself. "If the chest is too much, then can you carve your initials here?" he asked while pointing at his shoulder.

I let out an undignified shriek and bolted.

The fanatic immediately stood up. "WAIT MISS BLANCA!"

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

"JUST ONE INITIAL!"

"Sylvie, help!" I yelled while sprinting around the tables. "Or I will personally destroy you until this exam is over!"

Silvano’s expression immediately changed.

It wasn’t because he was afraid of me but because he knew I was fully capable of following through.

With a long-suffering sigh, he carefully put down his chisel.

"Hey."

The fanatic stopped mid-chase. "What?"

Silvano pointed toward me, who was currently hiding behind him. "You know the guy who’s always with her, right?"

The fanatic blinked. "Yeah. I know him. So what?"

Silvano nodded. "Well, he’s watching you right now."

The fanatic frowned. "And?" 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Silvano’s expression remained completely serious. "If you harass Blanca one more time, he’ll spend the rest of the semester harassing you back."

The fanatic froze, his face immediately lost all color.

Silvano continued mercilessly. "As a matter of fact, I can practically see him right now throwing death glares at you from somewhere in the stadium."

The fanatic slowly looked around, as if expecting Gawain to emerge from the shadows like an assassin.

The poor guy looked like he had just remembered every horror story he ever heard about Gawain. Without another word, he turned around and sprinted away.

"I JUST WANTED MISS BLANCA’S SIGNATURE!" he cried as he disappeared into the crowd.

I watched him go. "...Since when did students become this crazy?"

Silvano immediately resumed carving. "Ever since you came here."

"No, you’re all just crazy, carving is all about peace and silence not war!"

I was deeply offended. "No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

I pointed at the surrounding chaos.

Students were wrestling, someone was hanging onto another student’s leg, another hammer had just flown across the stadium, and the audience was cheering.

"Look around you!"

"I am."

"You people are insane!"

"That’s rich coming from you."

"Carving is supposed to be peaceful!" I argued. "It’s an art form! A sacred craft! A journey of self-expression and inner tranquility!"

"Yeah... I know... Wow... You’re so right... Amazing..." Silvano mumbled and the way he said it made it painfully obvious he wasn’t listening anymore.

Arguing with him was pointless so I gave up.

With a sigh, I turned around and walked back toward my workstation.

If the academy wanted to turn carving into a battlefield, then fine. I’ll just ignore the chaos and focus on my sculpture.

’The rough sketch is almost so I just need to—’

I stopped and stared at my table. Everything was there except for one very important thing.

My marble block.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Which one of you stole my material?"

The students immediately avoided eye contact, some suddenly became very interested in their sculptures, others looked up at the sky, and one guy started whistling.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Return it."

Silence.

"Return it now."

Nothing.

A vein twitched on my forehead.

"Whoever stole it," I announced calmly, "I promise I won’t be angry."

Several students visibly relaxed.

I smiled. "I’ll just carve your funeral monument instead."

The students immediately became tense again.

I laughed. "I’m just kidding."

Several students visibly relaxed.

One even wiped sweat from his forehead.

"But," I continued, "I do hope I’m simply imagining things and that when I turn around, my marble will magically be back on my table."

"Let’s do this properly," I nodded to myself before turning around and facing the nearest wall.

"In the count of ten," I announced cheerfully, "if my marble is still not on my table, then I hope we all have lots of fun during the combat exams."

Then I started laughing, just enough to make it worse.

"One..."

I immediately heard shuffling behind me.

"Three..."

Something heavy scraped across the floor.

"Five..."

The shuffling intensified.

"What are you doing? That’s not hers!"

"Then whose marble is this?!"

"I don’t know! Just put it somewhere!"

"Stop shoving it at me!"

"Seven..."

"Does she even know how to count?"

"Who cares?! Just return it!"

"I don’t want to relive my nightmares about her!"

"Then give it back already!"

"I DID!"

"TO WHO?!"

"Nine..."

"WHY IS SHE SKIPPING NUMBERS?!"

"Because she’s Blanca!"

"Ten...."

I turned around and saw six marble blocks sitting on my table.

One on the table, two under the table, and three stacked beside it.

I stared at the pile before I walked forward and picked up my original marble and examined the identification number.

I smiled warmly. "It seems I was hallucinating after all."