Thank you to everyone who left a review! I shall respond to them here. If you want something answered, please leave a review and I'll get to you as soon as I can.

declanbeech97: Oh dear god no. Shirou is not a nonce. I absolutely refuse for Shirou to have any romantic with minors whatsoever. Sorry if I worried you there for a second.

adislt: No worries. The Excalibur Artoria had in FSN and the Excalibur in this world are two completely different blades. Artoria summoned Excalibur like any other child would during the summoning ritual and in this world, that's where it's history started. There's no indication that the Artoria in this world is the one he knows and loves.

Chapter 12: Entrance Exam

Shirou thanked the Goddess (if she even existed) that he was given his dorm room before the exam. He didn't mind sleeping outside for the next four days, but it certainly helped that he was indoors. He sighed and laid into bed. Kanshou and Bakuya started to glow and morph until Carnwennan was resting comfortably in Shirou's hands.

"Saber…" Shirou whispered. He then shot up when he heard the doorknob turn. In an instant, the dagger returned to the form of Shirou's preferred weapons. The door opened to reveal a boy with blonde hair and purple eyes. He was holding a spear made of what seemed to be copper or bronze.

"Uh…" The boy rubbed the back of his neck. Shirou then realized he had instinctively entered a combat position. "Are you my roommate?"

"Looks like it," Shirou sheathed his swords again. "Sorry about that."

"No worries," The boy said as he closed the door behind him. "The name's Edwin by the way. Nice to meetcha."

"Shirou," The redhead walked over and offered his hand. Edwin smiled and shook it. "You ready for the exam?"

"Nope," Edwin shook his head and chuckled. "I've trained a lot, but there's always this thought nagging at the back of my head."

"I understand how you feel," Shirou put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "You already got accepted. Just do your best. If anyone gives you crap for that, they're not worth your time."

"I guess you're right," Edwin looked up at Shirou with new determination. "Thanks, man."

"Anytime," Shirou replied with a smile. At least his roommate wasn't terrible.

Several days had passed and it was finally time for the entrance exam. Shirou, Edwin, and Mary were all sitting next to each other in a large classroom, waiting for the teacher to walk in.

"Ugh, I didn't think there'd be a writing exam," Mary groaned. "I thought we were just going to cut shit up and leave it at that."

"Language," Shirou's eyes flicked over to the girl, who flinched under his gaze. "Even though we're going to the Knight's Academy, we still have to learn basic academics. We need reading comprehension so we can understand important documents and math so we can manage our finances."

"Oh…" Mary looked down at the desk. "I didn't really think about it like that."

"Don't worry about it," Edwin chimed in. "I think we're all a bit nervous."

"Yeah," Shirou muttered. At that moment, the door opened and a familiar woman walked into the room.

"Hello. My name is Cassandra and I'll be overseeing your exam today," The young knight said with a welcoming smile. "This is my first year as a teacher, so please be patient with me."

Huh, she seemed like the type to teach, but what a coincidence, Shirou thought to himself.

"Alright, I'll be handing out your exams along with pencils. This is something the Academy has been working on for a long time so please don't break them," Cassandra said, holding out the papers. The pencils in her hand were just a piece of wood with a small bit of graphite stuck at the end, but Shirou was still impressed. He didn't expect pencils to be around in this world for at least another couple decades.

As the new teacher handed the tests to the trio, Cassandra turned to Shirou. "It's nice to see you again."

"Likewise," Shirou replied with a nod as he took his test and pencil. As she continued down the line, Edwin and Mary turned to look at Shirou.

"She was the one who was there when I summoned my Swords," Shirou knew he was bad at lying, so he decided to come up with a half-truth. "I almost blew up the tent, so I'm not surprised she remembered me."

"If it were anyone else I would have doubted you, but your Swords are actually very pretty," Mary rubbed her chin.

"Alright!" Edwin was going to open his mouth, but he was cut off by Cassandra, who was now in the front of the classroom again. "You all have 90 minutes to do your test. The time starts now."

Shirou was very underwhelmed by the questions on the written exam. Sure, the test was meant for both commoners and nobles, but the curriculum was roughly the equivalent of fourth-grade work back home.

"Ugh, I never want to do that again in my life!" Mary whined as she walked up next to Shirou. The crowd of upcoming students were following Cassandra outside to one of the fields.

"A lot of the later questions were really hard," Edwin grumbled, looking at the tip of his pike.

"Hopefully we'll get these back so we know where we need to improve," Shirou said idly.

"Alright, we're going to be doing a simple power test," Cassandra said. Shirou almost face-faulted when Cassandra turned around and raised her sword, causing a large wall of earth to erect from the ground.

We're really doing this, huh? Shirou thought to himself.

"You're allowed to use any Sword Arts that you know to try and cut down this wall," Cassandra said. "Don't worry if you don't get far, though. This is just to know how far you are in your progression. I want you all to try your best, though. Now form into a line, we'll be going one at a time."

Shirou rolled his eyes as the first student went up. So uncivilized.

"So why did you want me here again?" Alcia asked as she watched the strength portion of the exam. She always thought this particular section was bullshit. The Wall was outdated when she was in the Academy and they're still using it.

"I wanted you to see Shiro," Elizabeth replied. Both Stella and Jasmine were also in the audience. "If he's good enough, will you teach him?"

"I only agreed to teach you, but if he meets my standards…" Alcia paused for a second. "Fine, but you know how high my standards are."

"I still haven't won a single spar against him, even over the holidays," Elizabeth pointed out.

"So you admit it?" Alcia smirked. Elizabeth didn't dignify her question with a reply. Alcia was going to say something, but was interrupted by an explosion.

"By the Goddess!" Elizabeth shouted, turning back to the exam. From what she could gather, the student, a girl with black twin-tails and blue eyes, pointed her sword at the wall and used some sort of ranged Sword Art to blow the entire wall up.

"Uh…" Even Cassandra looked dumbfounded. "You pass, sweetie. Make your way over to where the rest of the children are."

"Thank you, Miss Cassandra," The girl curtsied and walked away. With a swing of Cassandra's sword, another wall was ready for the next student. The next girl who walked up had the most inane hairstyle Elizabeth had ever seen. She had some sort of… twisters in place of tails.

"Whenever you're ready," Cassandra said. The girl nodded and unsheathed her sword. Wind started to surround the girl's sword as she stabbed at the wall from roughly a meter away. The wind, however, shot forward and collided with the wall, causing it to shatter immediately. The wind flew several meters at breakneck speeds before dissipating completely.

"Huh, there really are some interesting ones this year, huh?" Alcia put a hand on her hip and smirked. "How do you think your little Shiro will stack up to those two?"

Elizabeth was silent as Shiro walked up to the wall. He turned his head and looked Elizabeth straight in the eye. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and tried her best to glare at him. Shiro shook his head and shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Whenever you're ready, Shiro," Cassandra said, summoning another wall. Shiro took a deep breath and stepped up to the wall, stopping several paces away from it. He then unsheathed a single sword.

"What are you doing, Shiro?" Elizabeth muttered quietly as she gritted her teeth. Was he really going to embarrass himself here?

"My best, huh?" Shiro smiled as he looked at the black blade. He then closed his eyes. "Trace… Overedge…"

The blade started to grow until it resembled the wing of a fallen angel. After a second, the blade returned back to normal and the wall was cut into separate pieces.

"Would that suffice?" Shiro asked with the most innocent smile on his face, but he wasn't looking at Cassandra. He was looking straight at Elizabeth.

"You know what?" Alcia smirked. "I think I like this kid."

"What the hell was that?!" Mary asked as Shirou idly walked to where his friends were.

"Just a Sword Art," Shirou shrugged. "It's called Overedge. Or at least that's what I call it."

"How would you even go about unlocking something like that?" Edwind asked. He looked at his pike and sighed.

"You'll get there eventually," Shirou put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I happen to know a bit about spearmanship. I can teach you a thing or two."

"Really?" Edwin looked up at Shirou with pleading eyes.

"Hey, no fair! What about me?!" Mary pouted.

"I know I can teach you a lot, Mary," Shirou replied.

"Alright, there's one more section before the duels," Cassandra's voice sounded above everyone else's. She was standing in front of a weird contraption. There was a tray to place a weapon and a screen. Shirou didn't know what to expect, but it definitely wasn't this.

"When you place your weapon here, this device will scan it and show what Sword Arts you have learned so far," Cassandra explained. "When I call your name, please come up and place your weapon in the slot."

"Did you know that there was something like this here?" Mary asked. Both Shirou and Edwin shook their heads.

"That's so cool!" Mary's eyes started to sparkle again. "How did they get that to work without any weapons? Is it powered by the weapon placed in the slot?"

"One way to find out," Shirou replied.

"Rose Giliad," Cassandra called. Shirou physically flinched as the girl walked up. She looked… exactly like Rin. Memories of Shirou's last moments on Earth flashed through his mind. He took a deep breath and shoved his feelings down. He couldn't act out like this.

Rose placed her sword on the device and the screen flared to live. Multiple people gasped as words started to appear.

Strengthening: Level 3

Fire: Level 5

Wind: Level 2

Water: Level 3

Earth: Level 2

Curse: Level 5

Healing: Level 2

"Is that good?" Rose tilted her head.

"You…" Cassandra turned to Rose with a look of shock and a little bit of fear. "Those Sword Arts are equivalent to a graduate…"

"Huh," Rin picked her sword up and the screen instantly went black. "Thank you for letting me know."

"A-alright…" Cassandra looked at the sheet of paper in her hand. "L-Lubelia Giliad."

The world is probably playing some sick joke on me, Shirou thought as a chibi version of Luvia walked up and placed her sword on the tray.

Strengthening: Level 4

Wind: Level 5

Water Level 5

Earth: Level 2

Curse: Level 4

Healing: Level 2

The numbers added up to the same as Rose's, but there were less Sword Arts. Lubelia curtsied before going to join her sister… where they promptly began to bicker.

"Mary?" Cassandra asked.

"Oh, that's me!" Mary jumped up and down. "Wish me luck!"

She then ran over and placed her two cutlasses on the machine. There were muffled whispers as the screen flared to life.

Strengthening: Level 3

Hardening: Level 2

Healing: Level 1

Mary visibly deflated when she saw her levels weren't as high as the previous two.

"Don't worry about it, honey," Cassandra placed a gentle hand on Mary's shoulder. "You're already plenty talented for your age."

"Thanks, Miss…" Mary forced a smile before standing to the side. Cassandra then took a deep breath and looked back at the paper.

"Shiro?"

Merlin pursed his lips from his ivory tower as he watched the young boy approach the machine.

"Honestly, I don't know what's going to pop up on that machine, but I'll give you a hand anyways," Merlin said. He grabbed his sword and tapped the bowl twice. The water started to ripple and Merlin sighed. "You better make little Artoria happy, alright?"

Well, it could have been worse, Shirou thought as he looked at the screen. There were muffled whispers that confirmed that everybody else saw exactly what he was seeing.

Sword Morph: MAX Level

Strengthening: Level 3

Hardening: Level 2

Healing: Level 6

Well, that's that. There's going to be another part of the entrance exams so do expect some fight scenes in the near future. Anyways, please do consider leaving a review! I would love to read and reply to your thoughts. As this is an original world, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Also please join my Discord! I would love to talk to you all and answer all your questions! I talk a lot about my thought process while writing, so if you're interested in that, do consider joining. The url is discord . gg (forego the spaces) followed by a slash and CpVs7R8KXz. Unfortunately you'll have to type the rest of the url in manually because I'm not allowed to post links. Thank you for reading and I'll catch you on the flipside.