The Clover's Shadow

Magic Knight Exams

"I'm off!" Raven called out to her family as she left Hage Village for the Royal Capital.

  "Be safe! Don't forget to write to us!" Sister Lily calls out, waving the girl off.

  "Bye, Raven," Yuno waves.

  "See ya, Raven!!!" Asta yells, waving energetically until she's long out of sight.

Time skip, 3 days later
Royal Capital

  "I'm Raven from Hage Village," Raven said as she got up to the registration counter.

   "Raven from Hage Village... could I see your grimoire?" The man behind the counter asks, to which she complies. "You're number 137."

She nods, walking into the arena to wait for the exam to start. As she stood there waiting, she saw people getting pecked by black and red birds.

    "What are these things?!" She heard someone exclaim in confusion as she tried to beckon one of the birds to her hand.

   "They're anti-birds! The less magic you have, the more they'll flock you!" Another answered as Raven successfully got the cute bird to come to her hand and let her pet its head. The birds all suddenly flew away as the magic knight captains came out.

    Fuegoleon Vermillion, captain of the Crimson Lions. Jack the Ripper, captain of the Green Mantises. Charlotte Roselei, captain of the Blue Roses. Nozel Silva, captain of the Silver Eagles. Dorothy Unsworth, captain of Coral Peacocks. Gueldre Poizot, captain of the Purple Orcas. Yami Sukehiro, captain of the Black Bulls. Escanor Dreyer, acting captain of the Shadow Wolves. William Vangeance, captain of the Golden Dawn. And finally, Jien Du, captain of the Grey Deer. 

    "I'll be in charge of the exams this year, so please do your best!" Jien steps forwards, voice booming. "The exam will now begin! We shall be putting you all through a multitude of rigorous tests. The ten of us captains will be judging your progress and abilities. We shall then select the candidates we want for our squads. If you don't get chosen, don't forget you can take this exam as many times as you wish! The first test is to fly using broomsticks, which you'll find on the left side of the arena. Any mage who has any control over their mana can instinctively ride one. If you cannot ride a broom, then you have no future here."

   "I'd rather use my Phoenix's Wings..." Raven quietly grumbled as she went to grab a broom. Sitting on it traditionally, she cautiously began to float in the air. Once she felt confident in that, she switched to sitting sideways so she could stand on her broom. After getting a feel for how to fly it, she began speeding around. Crouching down to grab the front of the broom with her hand, she began doing spins and tricks, laughing excitedly.

   "Look at that one, the one with the black and red hair," Charlotte pointed at the girl. "She has amazing control, although she seems childish."

   "I wonder if she's a noble," Nozel wondered aloud.

   After a little while of watching the examinees, Jien stepped forwards again.

   "Alright, off the brooms now! It's time for the next test!" He nods to one of the nearby mages, who then made brick walls. "Break those with your magic. You may use any spell you'd like. You'll be doing it in turns, 15 of you at a time."

    Heading up to a wall once it was her turn, she reached her hand out towards it and closed her eyes, focusing on the shadows in the cracks and forcing them to all expand and shift and once, causing the wall to practically explode.

   "What's that kids magic?" Yami questions. "I can't tell what she did to break that wall!"

   "If I'm correct, she has shadow magic. If you watched closely, the shadow of the wall shifted ever so slightly before it broke," Escanor answered, watching the girl intently with amber eyes.

   "Isn't that the same kind of magic your old captain used?" Yami looked at the dirty-blonde man.

  "Yes," he all but snapped. Taking the hint, Yami dropped the subject, going back to focusing on the exams. After a while, the test was over.

    "The next test will be target practice!" Jien nodded to another mage nearby, immediately made moving targets in the air. "Your task is to hit and destroy the targets with your magic."

   Easy enough, Raven thinks to herself as she focuses her magic to her hand, forming a shadow projectile that she launched at the balloons target.

   "The next test will be creating something with your magic!"

   Raven immediately makes a fake baby shadow phoenix.

   "Now, for the next and final test, you all shall pair off to fight. You may use your grimoires. The main job of the Magic Knights is battle. Show us what you can do,"

   Looking around, Raven saw a girl who was also trying to find a partner and headed over to her. "Hey! Wanna be my partner for this?"

   "Sure," she shrugs.

   "The match is over when a competitor gives up or can no longer fight. We have recovery mages on stand-by, so fight freely. Now, would the first competitors step forward?"

  "Guess that's us," Raven led the way.

  "Ready? Begin!"

   "Alchemy Magic: Combustion Orb!" Her grimoire produced a red orb, which she promptly threw on the ground to produce an explosion.

"Shadow magic: Dark Marbles," the black-haired girl quietly says, grimoire producing a small pouch of marbles which she immediately emptied onto the ground around the other girl.

"Marbles?" Her opponent raised a brow, causing Raven to smirk slightly. She began shadow-jumping between the marbles, overwhelming the Alchemy user with physical attacks. Each marble disappeared after she jumped to it, which didn't go unnoticed by the captains. Her opponent quickly figured out her trick and quickly made a counterattack.

"Alchemy Magic: Blinding Flash!" Her grimoire gave her a white orb, which she threw to the ground to make a bright flash. Unfortunately, this would be her undoing, as Raven immediately took this chance to shadow jump into her elongated shadow and knock her out from behind.

"How did she get behind her?!" Several people began to whisper, trying to figure out what her magic was. After all, she'd only used her grimoire to make a bunch of marbles that got destroyed by the bright light.

Time skip

   "Number 137," Raven stepped forward, slightly nervous. Escanor, Charlotte, Yami, Nozel, and Jien raised their hands. "Five offers."

  "Ummm... could I have a bit of time to decide?" She scratches the back of her head unsurely. The captains that raised their hands look at each other. 

  "Yes, but please decide before breakfast tomorrow. The captains will send a squad member each to hear your answer. You shall be provided a hotel room to spend the night. Someone will be sent to escort you after the exam concludes," Jien tells her. 

  "Thank you very much!"