01.30 - Red, Green, and Blue

It was the seventh hour of the seventh day after midsummer, on the seventh out of thirteen standard months. It was the first day of the hunter exams, which would run for seven days and conclude on the 28th, the last day of the month of Septembris.

It wasn’t a single exam.

There was one held in every capital city, in every world in the Empire big enough to have a branch of the Hunters Guild.

All exams, from beginning to end, would be broadcast on a special Subcircuit on the Wired. Not quite live, but with a one-hour delay, narrated by anchormen, with recaps, highlights, and a few sponsored ads in between.

This was one of the most viewed events of the year in all of the Arcane Empire, easily topping the Emperor’s new year's address. The whole week was a kind of unofficial national holiday. Bread and circuses, as they say.

Cuddles and his four siblings had gathered in the media room in the waterpark's annex, with high anticipation of the event, already watching the preamble and introduction before the delayed live broadcasts would start at eight.

They were visited by Vega, with Merope and Kass in tow.

All of them carried heavy bags filled to the brim with store-bought snacks and soft drinks.

They joined Aqua and the Cuddle-Fish after putting away most of their baggage.

Just as they settled down, one of the main anchormen switched into a dry monologue.

“...Indeed,” he said. ”As you can see on this chart, the average participants' Core Tier slowly increased within the first few decades of the exam, only to sharply drop shortly after the last great war with the Prime Theocracy.”

“Some call it a statistical fluke. It is true that in terms of raw numbers, the participants with medium to high colored stages of Uncommon Core Tiers steadily increased. At the same time, the number of participants with Rare and above Cores sharply declined.”

“It has been argued that this might be due to those individuals joining the ranks of the great Houses, or seeking out cushioned positions in the upper echelon of the military during the prolonged times of peace.”

“Furthermore, there is the fact that…”

Cuddles yawned. “Isn’t it going to start soon?”

Vega patted his head, offering him a bag of chips. “It has already begun, but the broadcast will only get there in about thirty minutes.”

Cuddles took a few of the fried potato flakes and munched them, then sipped his apple juice.

“You need to be patient,” said Aqua. “The first day is just there to measure the participants' Core stages. And the heavy hitters probably won’t show up before the afternoon.”

“Foo,” complained Cuddles. “And we all got up extra early after yesterday's shift!”

“Wanna take a short nap?” asked Vega. “I’ll wake you up once the main event gets rolling.”

A few hours went by with little highlights of the exam taking place on Arcana Maiora.

Most of the tested participants had Orange, Yellow, Green, or sometimes Blue Uncommon Cores. A few were Indigo, and a single Violet one got most of the attention before the stars of the show arrived.

Then, with a well-rested Cuddles rejoining the watch party, the main events of the day seemed to begin.

“Finally!” exclaimed Kass as a pair of three young men, maybe 19 or 20 years of age and decked out in military gear, entered the exam venue. Each had a minimalist, military hairstyle, but with distinct colors.

Their leader was a red-haired man who introduced himself as Imbrius and led the way while adjusting some wayward strands of his short hair.

The other two, the green-haired Sarpedon and the blue-haired Glaucus, waved at the cameras, visibly enjoying the attention.

All three went right past the receptionist and were welcomed by another clerk who led them to the Core testing device.

“Those are the three you told us about?” asked Vega.

“Yes,” said Kass. “Big brother Hector scouted them two years ago at a demonstration match. They grew up at a military orphanage and graduated last month. They haven’t officially joined House Aeneidis yet, but it really is just a formality. I guess they wanted to make names for themselves first; otherwise, they could have skipped the exam altogether.”

While Kass spoke, both Sarpedon and Glaucus infused their Aura into two separate transparent spheres with a milky white hue. Both spheres began to shine more than they had before, emitting a Red and the other an Orange hue.

Sarpedon’s Core was confirmed as barely at the Rare Orange Tier.

Glaucus’ Core was a bright, Rare Red, almost reaching Orange himself.

Then it was Imbrius' turn.

The intensity of the emitted light slowly circled through all Common and Uncommon Tiers, finally reaching the intensity associated with Rare Cores. First Red, then surpassing Orange and Yellow, finally settling on light Green.

All the eyes in the waiting room focused on the trio after their results were announced. Gasps and awes were audible throughout the venue. Meanwhile, the three of them visibly enjoyed all the attention.

The anchormen in the studio gave a small summary of the biography of the three candidates from their registration forms, submitted days earlier. It was a sob story if you ever heard one. Born as the sons of three barely middle-class merchants, all three of them lost their parents to the same piracy incident near the borders of Cocoon, presumably to a bunch of raiders originating from The Web, focusing on a large trading convoy with insufficient military or mercenary escorts.

All their close relatives fell victim to the incident. The few estranged relatives they had left would or could not take them in, leaving them in the care of one of many military-run orphanages in the Empire. Though their number dwindled compared to the time of the great war.

Just as suddenly as everyone had focused on them, the attention veered again, as the gazes of almost everyone present were drawn to the main entrance once again.