Creeking and scraping of metal on tiles faintly pierced through the quaint village classroom as Inkaro found himself unable to sit still on his chair, drawing the attention of the other six children. His explosive glee beat out the other kids' combined excitement by a landslide, almost making them look tame compared to him.

  Unlike the other kids, a certain blonde-haired girl sitting next to Inkaro leaned towards him and whispered, "Dude, you are going to get in trouble if you scratch the floor again."

  As she spoke, the class' teacher strolled into the classroom with the expected swagger of someone fresh out of energy, that being none at all.

  "Now-now, there's no need to be so roady, Inkaro, and sorry to you all for being late. I had to check with the transport's if they had any shedding beastmen passengers within the last two hours."

  One of the boys in the class awkwardly chuckled while one of his friends teased him for having a sensitive nose.

  "Okay, everyone, today is our class' turn to head to the nearby town to attend that ceremony you've been waiting for. So I'll go over the three base Attributes you will be getting tested for," the teacher stated calmly, despite the growing wave of physical excitement hitting him and making it hard for him to think.

  "So would you-"

  "Summary!" the kids, excluding Inkaro, requested in unison, causing Inkaro to slouch forward defeatedly at not getting to hear the long explanation for the seventh time today.

  "Ok... let's see. The three base Attributes are Mana Reserves, Mana Control, and Mana Tolerance. And since you lot wanted a summary, I take it you've actually been paying attention and don't need a reminder, unlike with the other subjects?"

  The kids all turned their heads towards Inkaro, silently staring at him before all shrugging with smug grins plastered on their small faces.

  "Mr Alder, it's impossible not to know about them when he's our classmate," the blonde girl explained teasingly, with the intention of her teasing flying right over the head of its intended and clueless target.

  "You say that like it's a bad thing," a blue-haired girl said meekly, defending Inkaro by adding that thanks to him that their class was able to win the school trivia trials. The blonde scoffed, her tone indicating the target of it was none other than herself, as she grumbled that she knows.

  "Now, shall we get going, or would you like the long explanation after-". Mr Alder was cut off as a swoosh of wind surged past him and out the door, leaving the room studentless save for Inkaro.

  He blinked a few times in disbelief, wondering if he should revise his teaching method when teaching children, since only the anomaly that was Inkaro ever paid attention and functionally translated his lessons to the other kids.

  With a light sigh and turning to Inkaro, Mr Alder said, "Let us get a move on, I'll tell you during the trip."

  Exclaiming in glee with his hands in the air, Inkaro exclaimed a happy, "Yippie!"

  The trip was surprisingly swift, the only hindrance to the journey coming in the form of a giant rabbit obstructing the road and forcing the bus-like carriage to a hold as the hippo of a rabbit waddled its way across the paved road.

  I still cannot believe this world has automotion vehicles, powered by something called a Grimoire Disc. If I had to guess, they're... wait, I'm getting sidetracked.

  Within the halls of the stella and grand church, its walls decorated with intricate engraving so dense a person would have to press their face up against it to make the words even remotely legible, Inkaro and the other kids hurried down the room, dividing the blue carpet with Mr Alder following shortly behind.

  "Aa-ha, if it isn't Alder, I see it's your classes turn today; Madam Abigail would be so mad if she knew you showed up on her day off, it's almost like you're avoiding her," a young nun teased, her body covered from head to toe by well-kept ropes, save for the lower half of her face.

  "That's the idea," Mr Alder retorted coldly. The nun couldn't contain her giggling mood at the guy's lack of restraint in hiding his feelings.

  "Are you still salty about that prank I pulled the other day?". Alder quietly clicked his tongue at the nun's teasing while averting his eyes, making some of the kids and the nun snicker at the guy's annoyance. "But in all seriousness, I'll be the one conducting the ceremony today. So please, no causing a ruckus until you're outside of the church, ok?"

  With that being said, the nun led the kids towards the centre piece of the church, a podium carrying a small, table-sized grimoire. Much like the church which housed it, the grimoire had an almost angelic and comforting feel in its design; covered in pure white feathers from spine to border, with the rest of it wearing a marble casing.

  As they reached the podium, to all the kids' surprise, Inkaro's gaze wasn't on the largest grimoire they'd ever seen, but the comparably smaller girl sitting on one of the front pillowed benches.

  (Lizu Feubread is a very short six-year-old female dragolyte[a human-like race with dragonic features]; she has knee-low deep pink gradient hair that gets paler after halfway down, dark purple eyes, fair skin, two large dark pink dragon-like wings, two thick dark pink gradient plated horns on her forehead, and a long chonky deep pink dragon tail with dark pink plating on the upper half)

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Inkaro silently stared at the girl, or maybe it was the freshly made grimoire in her tiny clutches, with a faint blaze of passion in his eyes. The pink leather-looking book cover of the grimoire and the faint glow it emitting from it was unmistakable. It was the grimoire his father had been stressing over for the past few months.

  The reason it was stressing him so much? It was because Inkaro had forgotten about finishing it, and his father couldn't interfere and do it himself because of the family's sentimental tradition of not messing with a grimoire maker's first grimoire.

  "Ok, Lady Feubread, you can wake up now," the nun said with endearment, almost torn between letting the dragonic girl continue to sleep as she lightly shook the girl's shoulder. The little girl of dragons slowly stirred from her slumber, the firmness of her grimoire clutching increasing as she begrudgingly forced her lazy eyes open to embrace the world.

  In a hushed, yet dignified, speech, Lizu grumbled, "About... time..."

  The little dragon's demeanour was one of primal exhaustion, the evidence of her early awakening far before she was accustomed to being clear for all to see. She waddled forward, joining the other kids in front of the grimoire-carrying podium.

  Somehow, by dumb luck or maybe some act of fate, she ended up standing right next to the grimoire otaku...

  Ok, maybe calling him an otaku is a bigger stretch than saying fate was meddling with things.

  As the nun flicked through the pages of the raving grimoire, looking for the right page containing the spell for Attribute Appraisal, Lizu blankly stared onward, her piercing gaze like that of a soulless statue. Although there was a singular thing ruining her otherwise flawless statue act, the frequent drumming of Inkaro's heartbeats getting caught in her dragon genes-enhanced ears.

  "...do I know you?" Lizu mumbled as she side-eyed Inkaro with half-lidded eyes.

  Not diverting his glimmering, awestruck eyes from the church grimoire in action for a second, Inkaro happily proposed, "I dunno, do you?"

  The bread girl mildly squinted her eyes at the boy, feeling a little offended that he didn't even look her way. Although she didn't sense any intentional rudeness from the boy, so steeled herself to keep up her practised noble aesthetic and outcasted the idea of pouting in public.

  "I feel like I do... which is strange since I only leave my father's estate for events like this."

  Tilting his head, a faint dazzle of his interest transferred from the subject of grimoires to Lizu, if for a moment.

  "That is strange, maybe you have an Attribute for observation-type spells?"

  Eyeing Inkaro with a light stare of odd suspicion, Lizu uttered quietly, "Hmnn... my tutor says that too..."

  "Alright, children. I've found the page, so gather around and take one of these.". The nun's words cut through the children's murmurings, and she brought their attention squarely on her, or more accurately, the transparent, crystaline octagons in her hands with two elongated horizontal sides to make it look like a card. Carefully and with grace, the nun placed one of the crystaline objects in each of the kids' open hands, ensuring they were holding the cards with care so they wouldn't drop them.

  Not that they'd be damaged if dropped.

  "Oooh~ an Attribute Plaque, wonder how I see the ones other than tha base four...?"

  Inkaro's self-posed question caught Lizu's attention, and a somewhat contentious retort of, "Seems you're not just some dumb kid, seems there's some knowledge in that head of yours. Not that your cu- dumb face is helping your case."

  Lizu flinched and jittered on the spot as she processed how confrontational and bratty her words came across, her face grimacing as a result. She cursed all those noble brats from the nobility for being so pretentious that it made her instinctively think any knowledgeable kid was a brat.

  "Oh, thanks for the compliment, my mother says my face is cute too. Your face is cute too~."

  Lizu flinched, awestruck at how easily Inkaro glossed over the majority of her reflexively mean comment, and somehow focused on the one word she didn't fully say. The cute face line being thrown back in her face didn't help her composure either. "Huh...thanks, I suppose."

  "Miss Nun Lady? What are these things?" the blonde-haired girl asked as she gazed through the transparent crystal Attribute Plaque.

  The nun let a cheeky huff escape her lips at the question, eyeing Mr Alder as the guy rolled his eyes at her. "Oh dear, did your teacher forget to teach you about them? Isn't he so careless?"

  The guy scoffed. Alder found the nun's teasing words ever grading on his already spent nerves. "Hardly, and isn't it the church's responsibility to do that, after the ceremony?"

  "Oh, is that what Madam Abigail was drilling into me yesterday?". The nun playfully wagged her fingers at Alder. Finally having had enough, the guy turned on his heel and strolled back up the church aisle before plopping himself on one of the benches far at the back.

  "Miss Nun, are you Mr Alder's sister?"

  Adding a playful edge to her words, the nun stated, "Oh no, I've been found out. I suppose any more teasing would be moot at this point. Ok, children, all together now and listen with your hearts."

  Clasping her palms together in preparation for prayer, the kids mimicked the nun's motion, bowing their heads and closing their eyes as they listened to the spell.

  "Seekers of self, minds marred in the shadows of doubt. Delve within the veil of submerged secrets and unfold them into truth: Attribute Centrifuge."

  Under the nun's command and guidance, the holy grimoire's page sprang to life in a dazzling and blinding flash of glamour. Roots of feathery beams shot from the exposed pages, forming into seven spheres that spiralled up into the air like out-of-control balls that wielded the contained power of a small tornado.

  "Ok, children, now comes the fun part, your plaque will glow when you're near your orb, and whoever gets theirs first will win a treat from my favourite bakery."

  At the promise of a tasty treat, all the children snapped their eyes open before blasting off after the orbs, which were barrelling straight for the archway that led to the church's private garden.