Ain turned his eyes to the two girls who spoke pleasantly under the tree.
"Michelle is as quiet as Fita, she doesn't get along very well with boys, does she?
"Yeah, I think so."
Zap nods.
"He's not at all prominent, so I can't remember his name at first."
Yeah, I guess so.
Ain nods confidently.
"They practice exams there all the time."
Ain said.
"Exams aren't just about subjects that you don't know what to put up to production. Have you guys been given any assignments in advance?"
That's how I looked at Zap.
"Challenges that need to be prepared for production on exam day"
"Assignment"
Zap looked confused.
Something happened?
See Almark's face asking for help.
Almark shook his head.
I'm not a sophomore.
Oh, yeah.
After nodding and thinking for a while, Zap probably raised his voice.
"Isn't it magic?
"The exam isn't just magic. Especially since you're a sophomore, you still don't have a lot of magic."
Ain nods when he says so.
"Did you think of something?
"Behavioral simulation practice..."
Ah.
Ain looked convinced by Zap's words.
Then I saw the proper Almark.
"Did you know the Behavioral Simulation Practice class?"
"It's a subject that's not in third-grade class."
Almark answers.
"What do you do with action mapping?"
"As you know, magic often mimics the movements and voices of other people and creatures, such as the art of change and the art of mimicry."
Ah.
"But it wasn't too late for me to start practicing imitation after I could use magic. That's why I started training when I was a freshman. The dog runs, the bird flies, the fish swims. Not just animals. As for humans, they train and accumulate a lot of behavioral predictions about how this person will move and what he or she will talk about at these times. That's an action simulation exercise."
"I didn't practice like that."
Almark keeps an eye out.
"In majoring, Dr. Ilmis suddenly told me to make rats."
"You're special."
Ain smiles.
"In your case, the journey to the academy itself might have been a substitute for training in behavioral prediction."
Travel time, huh?
Almark put his arms together.
Behavioral prediction.
The ability to sense how humans and beasts move next.
Indeed, it was a necessary ability on the battlefield and on the journey.
"If you ask me, I might be. Does predicting the other person's next behavior mean tracing the other person's thoughts, that is, copying them?"
"I like you when you're early."
Ain smiles.
"So, Zap. Have you been given the task of behavioral simulation in your second year?"
"Yeah."
Zap nodded.
"One at a time, one at a time. My challenge was a sick grandmother."
"Isn't everyone different?"
Almark sees Ain.
"Yeah, it was like last year."
Ain answered.
"In general, they pose a challenge to a type of person that is quite far from their nature. Build into yourself a figure of a given assignment. In the live exam, questions are asked about it. In this case, what would you do if you were the person in charge of your assignment?"
I see.
Almark nodded.
The task of creating another self within yourself.
Isn't that the role of the play at the magic festival itself?
"I figured out why everyone was so good at magic festival plays."
Ah.
Ain laughed.
"Of course, it's also a behavioral simulation training. But the script of your play was more about each of you than that. That's why there's something even more amazing about acting. Exams don't require that much."
"But what's wrong with that?"
Zap clasped his mouth with an unruly face.
"What does that have to do with Michelle wanting to know about me?"
Still don't know?
Ain smiles thinly.
"I think Michelle has been asked a different type of person. For example."
"Brave boy."
Almark answered.
"I'm sure Michelle had a challenge as a brave boy."
Eh?
Zap rounds his eyes.
"What do you mean?"
Almark continued his words toward Ain, who smiled and didn't answer.
"I can tell from that, Ain. Michelle, who had barely spoken to the boy before, talked to Fita in trouble under the tree. A brave boy gave me an assignment, but I don't know what to do. And Fita answered."
Almark looks at Zap.
"Then I'll tell you about the bravest boy I know."
Almark slapped Zap in the shoulder with his eyes rounded.
And Fita told me about you.
Fita said she was brave about me.
Zap murmured.
"Oh, no."
You were brave that day.
Almark said with a smile.
"I felt it, too. Fita would have felt it even more if she walked with you in the midnight forest where the monsters were wandering."
"Your predictions are great, Almark."
Ain smiles.
"But Zap, that's not all. Michelle may have fallen in love with you while listening to Fita every day."
Well, that's not true.
Zap wandered his face bright red.
"I'm in trouble. I am."
"It's just a possibility."
Ain says.
"But Michelle wanted to talk to Fita about you yesterday, didn't she? I don't think it's just for the task. It could be enough."
"Wait a minute. I don't know what to do"
Zap shakes his head.
"And then who was Fita talking about?"
"I want you to tell me in return for your cooperation on the task. It would also be about Fita's challenges."
Ain answers.
"Michelle hardly seems to talk to boys, and maybe even a little brother. Suppose the challenge I was given to Fita was a boy younger than me."
"Speaking of which, I think Fita asked me before."
Zap opens his eyes.
"Do you have a brother?"
It's settled.
Ain smiled.
Was that so?
Zap murmured with a stunned face.
"Was it an exchange of information?"
"Whatever the problem."
Almark clasped his mouth.
"Zap, the important thing is that Fita thinks of you as the bravest boy."
"... yeah"
Zap saw two people talking funny under the tree today.
"What am I supposed to do tomorrow?"
I think it's as good as ever.
Almark answered.
"As always, you should get along with Fita. Sometimes time will tell you the answer."
Don't say a good thing.
Ain nods with a smile.
"Zap, if you continue to be the brave boy you've always been, Fita's preferences may be clear for you in the future. Michelle's preference may come true. I'm still feeling fuzzy right now, but it might take shape over time."
Zap nodded at Ain's words.
"Yeah."
"But to do that, first,"
"I know. We have to work hard on the exam first."
Zap preceded Ain's words.
"You just got ahead of yourself today."
Ain has a white face.
"I'm going home."
Zap said.
"It wasn't like this. We have to study early."
That's what I'm talking about, Zap.
Almark nodded.
"Let's do our best."
"Yeah."
Zap nodded with a smile.
"Thank you, Almark, Ain. I'll do my best."
Ain, who was walking alongside Almark, dropped off Zap's back as he walked down the hill cheerfully through the bushes.
"You're a bad guy, too."
"What do you want?"
When Almark saw Ain's face, Ain smiled meaningfully.
"You've been well adjusted to my nonsense."
Ah.
Almark nods with a cool face.
"I thought it would be better for Zap."
Say that and look at Ain.
"I thought you'd put it together nicely. I knew you were right to talk to me."
"Is your realism, which seems to be plain and occasionally looks like the North Stream?"
Ain smiled bitterly.
"I don't really know what kind of challenges Michelle has been given. It may have been a challenge to be not a brave boy, but a healthy boy and a good boy. Besides..."
Almark inherits Ain's words.
"I don't even know who Fita is talking about. It could really be Michelle's brother."
"In that regard, I can even think that Michelle thanked me for sharing information about Fita's favorite boys. If you're in the same class and you've never spoken directly, there's something to teach you."
Ain says calmly.
"But Zap didn't notice it either."
"That's fine."
Almark said.
"You better not know how a girl really feels."
After all, we don't really know where the truth of the conversation is.
But Almark thinks that's fine.
The world is still all that I don't know.
But there's a lot you don't have to know.
"Even if Fita's favorite boy wasn't Zap right now, there's always a chance that he'll be Zap."
Almark said.
"So Zap doesn't have to give up, and he doesn't have to know how Fita feels right now."
"I think you have a sense of reality."
Ain tells me to make fun of him.
"Don't you want to know how Wendy feels?"
"If it's not about you, you can look calm."
Almark laughed lightly.
"When it comes to me, I'm more confident than Zap."
"Yeah, I know."
Ain nodded with a smile.
"There's no need to predict your behavior. I can see it in my hand."