18

Valere reaches the row where Sion, Scima, Eva, and Anima sit. He smiles at them, then gestures to include the row in front of and behind them.

“I’ll take charge of you guys, so everyone follow after me.”

Valere starts to walk, and the three rows all rise to follow. Scima gets partially cut off by the row behind him, who Valere passed as he began to walk. However, he makes it past them easily, they do not resist, and Scima begins to walk beside Valere.

“Valere, let’s fight.” Valere takes a moment to process what he said.

“What? Didn’t you say that you were sad you would never be able to beat the man that I was?”

“That’s that and this is this. Even if you’re weaker, you’re still strong. There’s still value in beating you like that.”

“Why are you talking like you would win? And all this is beside the point, actually. I’m sure it’s not right for a teacher to start fights with his students, especially on the first day. Especially when it’ll be so one-sided.”

“What?”

“What?”

“Aren’t you supposed to train by getting beaten until you’re strong enough to win?”

“No? I don’t think so? What sort of sadistic teacher did you have?” Scima grumbles quietly to himself.

“I knew that it wasn’t normal. Why else would Theyni have been so worried? I’ll get that damn old man for this…” Scima turns back to Valere. “Is your arm good?” Valere looks down at it, as if he’s inspecting it.

“It works good enough for me to swing a sword, but I wouldn’t put much trust in it.”

“Then we should fight.”

“How did you get there?”

“I draw my line past old men. If you’re still basically able, then it’s still fine.”

“Why does that mean I should fight you?”

“It would be fun.” Valere looks at Scima beaming at him.

“Yeah, I’m starting to think that too.” Valere opens a set of doors, then quickly makes his way to a large room. “Go take the test.” Valere walks to the focal point of the room that the rows of desks radiate out from.

All the students take their seats, Sion, Scima, Eva, and Anima ending up scattered around the room. Valere begins to address them all once he sees the students seated.

“Alright then, I’ll assume we’re all here and we can begin the first test for today.” Valere lifts a box filled with stacks of papers and places it on a desk around where he stands. “I’ll pass out the tests now. I was told there was a magic to do this for me, but I don’t know how to use it, so nobody start working until I tell you to.” He begins to walk around the room placing test booklets on the occupied desks. “Once the exam begins, you are expected to remain silent. You can take the test in whatever order and at whatever pace you want, but you will only be allowed three hours. Try your best, because your results overall and in each section will be posted during the break.” Valere finishes passing out the booklets and returns to his place. “Alright, go ahead.” Valere turns over an hourglass sitting on the desk.

The first section is short. It is testing arithmetic and algebra, and as such does not get too complicated. The students all pass by it quickly and easily, all by design. Most smile, underestimating the difficulty of future sections just from that warm-up.

The next section is on magical theory and functions of magic. From the first question of this section, the difficulty spikes dramatically. Immediately, any who underestimated the test are taken aback. Some collect themselves quickly and continue on. Others panic and begin to flip through the test to the next section, hoping it to be a more favorable subject to them. Meanwhile, Sion, Scima, Eva, and Anima all continue on unfazed. While Eva understands the subject quite well, Sion, Scima, and Anima do not. Sion and Scima both maintain their composure without any difficulty, while Anima carefully makes sure not to panic, knowing it will serve only to harm her.

The next section is on countries and politics. Most of the students are relieved or emboldened by the topic. Many of Sagax’s students are sent there with the recommendation of a nation. With kingdoms as their backers, the vast majority of students at Sagax have been brought up in an environment that is well-suited for learning the topic. Most have already been educated to be the leaders of their homelands one day. There are still many exceptions to this, and those exceptions are very liable to falter at this section. Warriors like Scima, those in Sagax due to incredible combat prowess, are often lacking this sort of education, and though he fares better than many like him, Scima is no exception. Those especially selected and given offers by the school itself, such as Anima, are often of commoner backgrounds, and although she can pass by with her father’s haphazard lessons on the state of the world, she performs worse than many of the thoroughbred lords and ladies. A foreigner from across the sea like Tenka, who has only been in the continent for a matter of days, cannot answer almost any of the questions. The same is true for Sion, who was taught by people who themselves knew very little of the world beyond the village, and whose formal education was more suited for a priest than a lord.

Immediately following this section, showing the test writer’s somewhat sadistic personality, is one on religion. Many of the nobles and royals, in their pursuit of understanding worldly affairs, neglect the spiritual. Many quite firmly believe in the separation of the two, and happily leave spiritual affairs to priests alone. In terms of actual difficulty, this section and the last are meant to be analogous, but owing to this specialization, it is a nearly insurmountable challenge. While some questions can likely be answered having only occasionally attended church services, which many of these students have in an official capacity, many more require learning that they were not expected to have. The only one in the room who works through the section without hesitation is Sion, who was not expecting there to be another section this simple after the math.

The next section finds a kind middle ground in history. There is a great deal of focus placed on modern history, since the founding of the first Dracabanan Empire, with several questions regarding times far more ancient than that. Several questions also ask about the lands across the seas, historical knowledge that is more niche than many would know, but is far less out of the question for the average student than the religion section had been.

The following section, created perhaps as a break or as a trap, is on reading comprehension and language skills. Provided are short excerpts of prose fiction and poetry, and questions meant to demonstrate understanding. As with the arithmetic and algebra section, this is quite a bit more simplistic and basic than the rest of the exam has been. While other sections have required some specific knowledge of a field of study to be able to answer, math and language require only skills many hone somewhere in their life. Although their degree of skill may be greater than the average person, these sections were made with the intention of being accessible to a wide range of people.

The final section regards natural sciences. This section, to the surprise of the students, is quite challenging. Although many of the terms are familiar, few of the answers are quick for most. Very few of the questions call for naming terms or defining them, meaning most of the students, who do not intend to become researchers and as such gained only surface knowledge of the sciences so they would know at least the basics, cannot answer confidently. On the lackluster note of this section, the exam ends. The last grain of sand falls in the hourglass and Valere begins to collect the test booklets. Once he has them gathered, he dismisses the students, telling them to return back to the courtyard and await the unveiling of the results.

The students gather in the courtyard once more. The stage and the rows of chairs have disappeared. In their place are small circular tables with parasols covering them and the seats set around them. Before any of the students arrived, Headmaster Mirus, Rebello, and Linea already sat at a table slightly set apart from the rest. With only the three of them, two seats were left unoccupied.

Once students begin to arrive, uniformed workers start to bustle around. They line up in a clear area where the stage once was. They start to pass around sheets of paper. When they get to the fifth paper to look over, the workers grow confused. One of the workers rushes over to the table where Rebello sits. He leans over and speaks softly.

“Sir Faegen, I have something to report.”

“Is there a problem with the exam scores?”

“Well, it’s not a problem per se… I’ll just tell you. A student achieved a perfect score on the religion section of the exam.” Rebello straightens up from surprise.

“What? How is that possible? I made it to punish those noble brats and knock them off their high horse. Who did it?”

“Well, I don’t think it was a noble, at least. It was a student named Sion. If it makes you feel better, sir, he didn’t do fantastically on any of the other sections, and nobody did nearly as well as he did on this one.”

“That does make me feel better. You’re dismissed then.” As the worker returns to the others, Rebello turns to Headmaster Mirus. “Did Sacercor finally send a student or something?”

“No, I’m fairly certain not. They haven’t, right, Linea?”

“You’re correct, Master. There isn’t a single student from Sacercor this year.” Rebello thinks about it for a moment.

“‘Sion,’ huh? I’ll remember the name, then.”

Meanwhile, the workers have begun their job. Using earth magic, they raise nine tall stone walls, a flat, smooth face pointed towards the students. Another worker, after the walls have been raised, then uses another spell to carve into the stone. On each face is a label for the section, then the ranking, name, and score of the test takers in order.

In the overall scores, only Eva broke into the top ten, ranking 6th, though none of them dropped into the bottom half. Anima sits in the upper quarter of scores, ranking 27th. Sion and Scima rank 56th and 73rd respectively. Eva tied for the top score in two categories, politics and history. Anima, having not made even a single easy mistake that many others had, achieved a perfect score in the math section, giving her the highest score, as well as having one of the highest scores in the science section. In the religion section, Sion has the highest score, a perfect score, with Tenka trailing far behind him, followed by a small group including Eva and Anima above the majority of the students.

After a short break to eat and inspect the rankings, the students regroup with their proctoring teacher and move on to the physical tests. Valere leads the students to a small area built for training, a makeshift booth constructed for the day’s events.

“Before any testing, you need to disclose your class to me. I’ll be in the booth so we get some privacy.” Although Sion himself does not let anything show on his face, Anima approaches him, worried.

“Sion, what will you do? About the class, I mean?”

“The crystal won’t work again, but I’m sure he’d need to ask questions and I wouldn’t be able to do anything. So I should just deal with it.”

“I guess you could, but I think you might be able to hide it.”

“Really? How?”

“Well, I was thinking that if you showed the crystal not working, then Valere might connect it to you not being able to join the guild. If you play it off as bad luck, then tell him what class to put, then he might not look deeper at all, and might just let it pass without question.” Sion considers her plan.

“Lying… it might work. I’ll try it. Thank you, Anima.”

Sion goes off into the booth. He places his hand on the crystal and the same darkness invades it as it had at the guild. Valere looks at the phenomenon thoughtfully.

“Is this what happened at the guild too? Is it some kind of curse?”

“Yeah, so you can just put my class as ‘Farmer’ or something.” Although it is clear that Sion is lying, he thinks the plan is going extremely well.

“‘Farmer,’ really? With how you scored on the exam, I’m sure I could put ‘Priest’ and nobody would bat an eye.” Sion considers the proposal.

“Really? Then put ‘Deacon’ for my class.” Valere stifles a laugh.

“I don’t know why you’re hiding your class, but you’re not even pretending not to lie. Not that I care.” Sion is taken aback. He leaves the booth and shoots a thumbs-up at Anima, as if the plan worked perfectly.

After each student disclosed their class, they all performed basic physical benchmarks. Even among a prodigious crowd, Sion and Scima stand out greatly. They outperform everyone but Tenka handily, and in each benchmark end up competing against each other for the top spot. After the benchmarks, Valere directs their attention to a set of training dummies.

“Next, we’ll measure sheer power. First you should punch the dummy, then kick it, both of them without magic. After that, do whatever you want and use your strongest attack against the thing, magic and weapons included.”

All the students line up, though out of intrigue they let Sion and Scima go before them, so that they can look on. Sion punches the side of the dummy’s head, then kicks the same spot, both blows shaking it around. Scima punches the dummy’s face, then kicks it in the side. Sion comes out on top, being much stronger with his bare fists than Scima is. Sion then channels his soul magic through his leg and unleashes a powerful kick. Although the soul magic reverberates throughout the dummy, the score is not much higher. Scima, meanwhile, swings his sword, creating a giant slash of light that far outstrips Sion’s in power.

Eva, both due to actual inexperience and a desire to cultivate an elegant image, performs poorly in the first two tests. In the third, she makes sure to cast a spell that is as flashy and eye-catching as she can. Other students step back and look on in amazement as she creates a large flowing serpentine flame then brings it down on the dummy. It produces one of the greatest strengths of the day.

Anima, due entirely to a lack of inexperience, throws a very weak punch. This, combined with her wearing a skirt and not knowing how to work around that either, produced an even weaker kick. For her final test, Anima creates an intricate implement out of her vines. She creates a large amount of vines, slowly weaving and twisting them together until they create one great mass. She strikes the dummy with it, creating another of the strongest blows of the day.

After the physical exams, the students again gather in the courtyard. The rankings are again posted, with Scima at number one, Sion at number two, and Tenka at number three beneath them. Scima begins to approach Tenka to pose another duel to him, but stops when something catches his attention.

Rebello Faegen, the deputy headmaster of one of the most prestigious schools in the world, walks across the courtyard towards the stones containing the rankings. His demeanor has obviously changed. He carries a giant white board on one shoulder and holds a flask in his free hand. When he reaches the rankings, he places the board on the ground with a loud thump that forces everyone’s attention right on him.

“Alright then, I’m sure you’re all feeling happy, but the celebration isn’t over yet! To end the festivities for your inauguration, I arranged a fun tournament for you!”