Book 3 - The Merchant from the Depths: Chapter 2; Average Question

The screen turns on as the book title plays "Book 3 - The Merchant from the Depths", then the chapter title played "Chapter - 2; Average Question".

It shows one week after the exams were taken as Ace chases Grim down a hallway shouting "Hold it right there, Grim! You're not gettin' off easy today, you hear me?!" Grim just laughs as he flies away now backwards as he shouts at Ace "Maybe you shoulda put your name on it if you wanted it that bad!" Ace shouts "Why, you…!" back at him while continuing to chase Grim.

They run into Yuu and Deuce who were walking in the other direction of their running, just talking.

Yuu sighs and massages the area between her eyes as she asks them "What is it this time?" clearly annoyed. Deuce shakes his head as he asks the two "Seriously, don't you ever get tired of this?"

But Ace ignores their questions as he shouts at Yuu now, "Hey, Yuu! You're the prefect, so do some prefecting!" Yuu makes a keep going movement with her hand, to know why they're fighting to best resolve it.

Ace is annoyed but tells her "This lousy furball swiped the doughnut I bought and ate it! AGAIN!"

Grim defends "I didn't steal nothin'! I just saw a snack left abandoned on a desk and gave it a home outta the goodness of my heart." Ace counters, shouting at him "It's not abandoned if it's on somebody's desk!"

Ace then gets too annoyed as he tells Grim "If you're gonna keep runnin', I've got some wind magic up my sleeve with your name on it." But Grim only challenges back "Oh, YEAH? Try me! I've got fire magic ready to–"

But both suddenly stop and shout "...Erk!"

Both start sweating slightly as Ace tells Grim "Y'know what? I think I'll skip the magic today. I don't wanna get sent to wash even MORE windows." Grim says back "H-heh. For once, I think you've got the right idea. I'd be embarrassin' myself if I was the only one usin' magic, so I'll let you off easy this time."

Yuu was about to yell at them to knock it off but then they both quit on their own so she made a "...Hm?" noise in confusion and curiosity.

Deuce is equally as surprised as he states "Wow. It's not every day I see you two de-escalate one of your fights without outside intervention. Normally, you go at it until the classroom's blasted to bits and the headmage comes storming in."

Ace rubs the back of his head as he rhetorically asks "Hey, what kinda punk would I be if I started fighting with a weasel over one lousy doughnut?" This makes Grim angrily shout at him "Why do you always have to get in one last smart remark?!"

It then switches over to a classroom as a bell rings, causing Crewel to state "It's time for class to start, whelps. Get to your seats. First, I'll pass back your tests."

This is of course being Yuu, Grim, Ace and Deuce's class as well.

Deuce both excitedly and nervously says "This is it – the moment of truth."

Grim laughs confidently as he shouts "Gimme! Gimme! I want that test, Prof!"

Which makes Crewel tell him "Settle down, Grim." But Grim, being as ignorant as he is, doesn't, which makes Crewel shouts "Stay. STAY!" at him until he did.

He then explains to the class "I'll call you up by your class number." Before shouting "Number one!" as he calls up the first student.

It then skips to once the main group have their tests.

Ace shouts happily "SWEET! I got a 92!" Deuce nearly cries of happiness at his score as he yells "I got an 88! I never thought I'd see the day I scored over 80!" Grim then excitedly holds his test up to Yuu as he shouts "Check it out, Yuu! I got an 85!"

But Yuu is entirely shocked as she shouts "You went from failing grades to an 85?!" Grim poutily shouts at her "Hey, I don't like what you're implyin'!"

Crewel just happened to be walking by them as they were talking so he states "You appear to have studied a great deal for this exam. Yes… A great deal indeed, compared to your quiz scores." He then puts a hand to his chin as he looks away and says quieter "In fact, the class average has gone up to a degree one might call…unusual."

The freshmen group overheard him still though, proven by Ace asking the teacher "And what's that supposed to mean?"

Crewel decides to tell them "The average test scores across every level of potionology are over 90. Professor Trein has remarked upon similarly positive trends in his magic history classes."

Deuce shouts surprises "Say what?!" While Grim seems to get a little nervous as he shouts "Mraaah?!" Ace looks down and he says with a sweat drop "Uh-oh. I don't like where this is going…"

But Crewel already moved past them as he announced to the class "The school's fifty highest achievers will be posted in the hall. You can look forward to seeing that shortly."

The students all look around weirdly excitedly.

But Crewel quickly moves on as he states "Now, let us begin today's lesson. Open your textbooks."

As he starts walking to the front of the class the screen fades to black and "To be continued" shows on screen before it fully turns off.