NoGift

Chapter 26: skipping grades

ARGENT checked Aurum's answers on the mock exam she made. She was satisfied to see her sister's score. She got 78 correctly out of 100 questions. And that was enough because she calibrated this test's difficulty to that of the second graders. So, having that kind of score was definitely enough for Aurum to pass the upcoming exam.

Argent patted Aurum's head. "My sister is really smart."

Aurum gave her a wide grin. "Will I pass the test tomorrow, Brother?"

"Of course. I have no doubt you would."

Tomorrow was the Starlight Academy's quarterly exam. Argent already made a decision that after the results of the test came out, she would request if she could skip grades. She has no doubt that she would take the top score in their grade. It would be truly embarassing if she couldn't. Proving how smart she was would make the teachers more inclined to approve of her skipping grades. But to make sure that they would agree, she needed to talk to Jaxon first.

Argent pick another mock exam and put it in front of Aurum. "Here's another one."

Aurum looked at the test paper sulkily. "Do I still have to answer this? I thought we're already done."

"This will be the last one. After this, I'll ask Felicia to make you your favorite desert."

"Okay." Aurum reluctantly picked up the pen and started answering the questions on the test paper.

"I'll go out for a while. Be sure not to cheat, okay, Aurum?"

Aurum pouted, as if extremly affronted by the idea. "Of course I won't."

Argent just smiled helplessly and went out of her sister's room. She then proceeded downstairs. She carefully checked if Ruby was around before walking towards the study. These past weeks, avoiding the girl had became a habit. Interacting with Ruby just gave Argent headaches so it's better to just avoid her.

Once in front of the study, she knocked on the door. It was Sunday and usually during this time, Jaxon was inside his study. Probably looking at account books or something.

"Come in," said Jaxon's voice from inside.

She opened the door and entered the study. Just as Argent thought, Jaxon was sitting behind a mahogany desk looking through some papers. He looked up and smiled when he saw her.

"Do you need something, Argent?" The girl seldom took the initiative to speak to him. Ever since the twins came to live here, Argent treated him in a sort of formal way. Which highly dissatisfied Jaxon. He wanted to be closer to the twins and be treated like their genuine uncle. After all, they're the children of his closest friends. But Argent kept him at arms length while Aurum - although much better than her sister - didn't really interact with him that much. What a travesty.

Argent walked towards the desk. "Uncle Jaxon, I apologized for disturbing you."

"It's fine. I'm not really that busy."

"I know this may seem presumptuous, but could I make a request?"

Jaxon was slightly surprised. But hearing what Argent said, it immediately made him happy. "Sure. Sure. What is it? Anything you want, as long as it's in your Uncle Jax' ability, I'll definitely give it to you."

Argent didn't understand what got him so excited. But it didn't really matter as long as he helped her. "I heard that the Starlight Academy allows students to skip grades as long as they passed a certain academic exam. I want to take that test. I will ask my homeroom teacher if I could. But if she refused, could you talk to the Chairman so they could allow me to?"

Argent was sure that if Jaxon talked to the Chairman, he would surely not refused him. After all, who would refused the wealthiest man in the country?

Jaxon raised one of his brows. "May I ask why you want to skip grades?"

"Because I already know everything that's currently being taught to all the 1st graders at the academy. Remaining there for the whole year would just be a big waste of my time."

"I see." Jaxon certainly knew how smart Argent was. And her staying at that level would really be a big waste of his time. Not to mention, her talent. "You don't have to talk to your teacher. I heard tomorrow is the academy's quarterly examination. If you want, I could talk to the Chairman now and tell him that you will take that advancement exam instead of the quarterly exam. What do you think?"

Argent thought about it for a few seconds before nodding in agreement. Jaxon's suggestion was definitely better.

Jaxon smiled. "How many grades do you want to skip?"

"I want to directly go to the seventh grade."

Somehow, Jaxon was already expecting that answer. "I better get to it then."

"Thank you, Uncle Jaxon."

She slightly bowed towards Jaxon and walked outside the study. She hasn't even walked that far from the study when someone suddenly spoke, stopping her from her tracks.

"You really are quite gutsy, aren't you?" Argent turned around and saw Finn standing near the door of the study. He walked in front of her. "Wanting to directly skip to seventh grade, I don't know if you're arrogant or just simply shameless."

"I'm neither. I'm smart," she answered. "Evesdropping is a bad habit, you know? Not something a perfect prince should do. That's what you wanted right, to become the perfect prince?" she added, mocking him.

Finn clenched his teeth. He knew that he shouldn't pick a fight with this guy. That's something he wouldn't ever do under normal circumstances. But every time he saw this guy, he just couldn't help but feel irritated. Especially since whenever he saw this guy's overly pretty face, it felt like his heart was being scratched by something. "Do you really think you could skip up to the seventh grade? Asking Uncle Jax to speak to the Chairman, you're just going to humiliate him."

"I won't. Because I'm going to pass. And then you're the one who's going to end up feeling embarrassed because of the way you're acting right now."

Then she turned around and walked away. Leaving Finn with a dark expression on his face.

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The twins stood in front of their classroom's door. Argent turned towards Aurum and said, "Are you nervous?"

"Not really. I'm pretty confident after all the mock exams you gave me. But I'm nervous for you."

Aurum already knew that her brother would take the advancement exam today. At first, she didn't really like the fact that they wouldn't be classmates anymore once Argent passed this exam. But then she reminded herself that she shouldn't pull her brother back. And besides, even if her brother was not in the same class anymore, she already knew how to control the people around her with her acting and her smile. She was sure that no one would dare to bully her. But not having her brother by her side, even if only during class, still saddened her.

"What, are you nervous that I won't pass?" Argent teased.

"Of course not. You're so smart. I'm a hundred percent sure that you will. I'm just worried that something may happen and then it will ruin your test."

Argent held her sister's hand. "Nothing will happen. Go on in. I'll pick you up later."

"Okay." Aurum finally entered the classroom.

Argent started walking towards the room where she's going to take her advancement exam. After a minute of walking, she found the empty classroom. She entered the room and sat on one of the front seats. She didn't wait long before the vice-chairman came in. She was kind of surprise. She didn't expect that it would be him that would facilitate her exam.

"Your Grace," he greeted. "Are you ready to take the exam?"

"Yes, vice-chairman. But before we start, did the vice-chairman brought what I asked?" She asked if they could record her while she's taking the exam. She knew that there's a magical tool that could do that. If she passed, and she definitely would, there would definitelty be people who would question it. So, she decided to be prepared in advanced. If they saw how she answered everything correctly, then that would definitely shut them up.

"Yes, of course." The vice-chairman took a small crystal ball from the inside pocket of his coat. It looked like a defaro crystal, but Argent knew it has a different function. "Shall we start?"

"Then I'd trouble the vice-chairman."

The vice-chairman walked towards her and put a few pages of paper in front of her. Then he stood beside her to record everything. Argent took her pen and started answering the questions.

The vice-chairman didn't really have that much of an opinion about this advancement exam. He just thought that this little boy was too arrogant, wanting to skip straight to seventh grade. But Jaxon McAllister personally talked to the Chairman so that this little duke could take this advancement exam. And since they couldn't offend him, they could only agree. Now if this boy failed, that was out of their control. And Mr. McAllister should not blame them.

He glanced at the paper and his eyes widened when he saw Argent's answers. He checked the answers from top to bottom and found that they were all right. So he couldn't help but observe more. But as Argent flipped the pages of the exam papers, he found that all of Argent's answers were correct. Until the boy was at the last page, and he still hasn't written any wrong answer. The vice-chairman gulped. This boy was a genius!

"I'm done, vice-chairman," Argent said, giving the exam papers to the vice-chairman.

"Yes, yes," the vice-chairman took the papers. "We will tell you the result after a week." But he was pretty sure that this boy would definitely pass this advancement exam.

Argent bid farewell to the vice-chairman and walked outside the classroom. The quarterly exam lasted only until the end of the morning class. There was still a lot of time left before Aurum finished her exam so she decided to go to the small gymnasium to pass the time. She might as well continue her swordmanship training.

Once she reached the gym, she went inside and started practicing her footwork. The Sui-Ryu style used a unique footwork technique called the 'water dance'. It was something that would help the user to move fluidly and gracefully while fighting. She hasn't really fully grasp it. It would probably take months before she really could. But it doesn't matter because she's determined to learn everything.

"Don't you have an exam today?" said a familiar voice from the doorway.

Argent turned and saw her master leaning on the gym's door. "Master." She bowed slightly. "I'm done with my exam."

"Already? But I heard the one you took today was the advancement exam."

Argent was not that surprised that her master knew about it. After all, he's still a teacher here. "It was."

"And you're already done after only an hour?"

"Yes."

"Are you certain you would pass?"

"Yes."

Hattori grinned. "Good. Taking that kind of exam and then failing would only embarrass me, your master."

"Skipping grades would mean that I would graduate early. Would master still teach me if I do?"

Hattori flicked Argent's forehead. "What kind of question was that? I already said that I will be your master. Even if you leave this school, even if you grow old, I will always be your master. That's something that would never change. Remember that."

Argent touched her flicked forehead and showed a rare smile. "Yes, master."

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Aurum went out of the classroom and immediately saw Argent waiting for her outside. She ran towards her brother and hugged her arm. "Brother."

"Did you do well?" Argent asked.

"Of course," Aurum answered confidently. "But I'm so hungry. Answering all those questions just depleted my energy."

"Then let's go home."

Aurum said goodbye to their other classmates coming out of the classroom. And the two started walking outside the school building. They walked towards the parking space provided by the school where countless carriages where parked. They walked until they saw the familiar coachman who's been driving them to and from school since they arrived here.

"Milord, milady," he greeted them.

Argent furrowed her brows. The coachman's voice seemed somewhat different. But before she could think more about it, the coachman already opened the carriage's door and when she saw Finn and Ruby inside, she completely forgot all about it. The siblings usually didn't ride with them. They usually ride in a separate carriage.

"Why are you two here?" Aurum asked, clearly annoyed.

"What's it to you? May I remind you that this carriage belong to our family. So us being here is not something you should question," Ruby snarled back.

"Milord, milady, the other coachman suddenly caught a cold. So Master Jaxon told me to also fetch the young master and the young miss," said the coachman, answering Aurum's question.

"Let's go inside, Aurum," she just said. They couldn't just stand here all day. Sharing a carriage wouldn't kill them so they might as well go home together.

Aurum tsked but still went inside the carriage. She followed suit. When all of them were seated, the carriage started moving.

Ruby suddenly reached for Argent's hand. "I heard you took the advancement exam today. How was it?"

Aurum immediately pulled her brother's hand away from Ruby, this witch. "Of course he did good, do you even need to ask?"

"I'm not asking you, you annoying brat!"

Then the two started their usual round of bickering.

Argent sighed and just looked outside the carriage's window. She frowned. Because they're taking a different route than usual. Finn was seating opposite her and their gazes met. Just by looking at his expression, she knew they were thinking about the same thing.

Something was wrong.

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