Day two began peacefully and with the same, if not an even greater, level of excitement than the first as more and more people looked forward to whatever surprises today’s examination had in store.
Now, that would’ve been a perfectly accurate description of the second day of the licensure exam if it had actually been factual.
Unfortunately, only the part about the excitement was true.
For instead of a peaceful start, the day actually opened with several arrests.
Yes.
Literal arrests involving people who’d attempted to sneak into the testing grounds and examine Ollie’s partially completed mecha after it’d been left there overnight in accordance with the examination rules.
Luca watched the unfolding scene with unconcealed fascination as several students were being sternly reprimanded by their teachers and parents, while a handful of others were calmly escorted away by military personnel for questioning.
"Wow," he said, blinking in amazement. "You were right. I didn’t think people would actually come looking!"
"That normally happens every year," Xavier replied, casually sweeping his gaze across the arena for anything his people might’ve overlooked, all while keeping his wife securely in his arms. "You just didn’t see it during your own examination."
"Oh!"
Luca paused.
"That’s true... I don’t recall having such a problem back then."
He was about to ask why that had been the case when the strong arms holding him protectively answered before he could voice the question.
"You do realize you didn’t leave an unfinished mecha behind, right?" Xavier pointed out with quiet amusement.
The little chipmunk blinked in wonder.
"Each build was completed the same day they were started. Then one immediately went to the Marshal, while the other stayed with you. With that kind of distribution, who would dare come to snoop?"
Well, putting it like that, it actually made a lot of sense.
So instead of asking other things he simply asked, "But is it always this bad? And how did they even make it this far into the arena?"
"Wouldn’t it be a waste not to make use of such convenient bait?" Xavier answered matter-of-factly. "We may not catch the biggest fish that way, but we can at least weed out some of the smaller ones."
Standing nearby, and still well within the confines of their spiritual barrier, Kyle silently resisted the urge to clarify that the Imperial Crown Prince’s definition of "smaller fish" was probably very different from Luca’s.
Their guild leader was most likely imagining overly curious cadets hoping to snap a few pictures or gather inspiration for their own careers.
Xavier, on the other hand, had been referring to the various research institutes, industrial spies, and black-market organizations they’d quietly caught trying to steal manufacturing information they could later profit from.
In the end, Kyle decided against explaining any of that.
There wasn’t much point in making Luca any more anxious than he already was, especially since today’s plan already involved bringing the little Queen Bee along for a totally different experiment.


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