บท 8: Academy Examinations
While the young girl had a great time in the city, in another place a lot of powerful people had quite a bit of a troublesome time.
"And, what was the outcome of your investigations?" the Emperor was not happy about their current troubles, but at least it did not seem like war would soon be breaking out.
"Your majesty, it seems like the powerful personage came here to escort her younger sister, who will take the examination for the academies. She also said that she was here to explore the world. It might be some test for the younger generation to experience the world and to live for a while without the support of the older generation, to make their way in the world and to overcome hardships with their own efforts."
Vandor nodded once he heard the report as well as the reasoning of his subordinate. "It makes sense. It would also explain why she would be left alone. If she really is royalty from another empire, then she might be groomed as an exceptional person, probably skilled far beyond what her peers would be able to achieve."
The more he thought about it, the more this idea seemed like it could explain all the strange things that had been going on recently. Why would an older sister just leave the young girl all on her own? What could be more important than the safety of her younger sibling and why would they not announce coming into another country?
A test for some empire's young heir would explain all of this. They might not even want to be noticed and while this older sister might have told her younger sibling, that she would not be around for several weeks, likely she would just be hiding in the shadows. It was rather common for someone to keep watch on a royal child from the shadows.
No one would interfere in a little difference between the younger generation, but it would be extremely foolish to see the young girl as a lone child. If someone of their powerhouses would take action, it would likely not be long before they would find someone there to defend the girl, or even worse to have their powerhouses picked off one by one as a deterrent. While Vandor had no idea about the real strength of this expert, he was quite sure that none in his empire would be able to fight against this woman on their own and survive.
"Did the young miss tell you where they came from?" he then asked the general in front of him. A single look into his most trustworthy general's face, who would keep his calm even while facing an enemy army told him more than could be put into words.
"Your majesty, it seems like they came from the forbidden forest and crossed the endless desert as well as the sea of nightmares before coming here." his general dutifully reported.
"By the gods." Vandor muttered and put his face into his palms for a moment.
"From what little I could tell, this girl, who goes by the name of Myra, seems to be gifted with a high level of magical aptitude and based on a little story I heard she seems to have access to runework of exceptional quality, likely many of them runes that were lost to us a long time ago. I could not confirm this myself, but I have seen the flawless runes on her gear and if she was the one who made it herself, this basically proves this rumor true."
A sigh escaped their emperor as he wondered how to approach this situation.
"Keep an eye on her and try to prevent any bigger trouble that could cause the ire of her senior to be sparked. We don't want to hold her hands, as this whole thing seems to be a test for the girl, but we also don't need any of the big powers to start any serious trouble."
--
Several weeks seemed to pass without any incident for Myra. Not only did she get a lot of treasures that she found rather useful, like the dimensional pouch that could store nearly a room full of things, as well as several books on smithing and jewelry, she now also had a better idea of the city and could find her way around without getting lost all the time.
She still noticed some people following her, but they did not really bother her all that much and it was easy enough to lose them whenever she wanted to.
When the time for the examinations finally came and she made her way to the gathering place for all the applicants, she was surprised to find the whole area filled with people, even though it was still early in the morning.
Myra was just standing there for a while wondering what to do. She barely had an idea where the start and the end of this crowd of people was, or how to register somewhere.
"Hey you there!" Myra heard a voice and turned around to find a boy about her age looking at her with a smirk. "Yes you, are you here for the examinations as well?"
Nodding slowly not sure what the boy wanted Myra looked even more confused.
"Well you can join me, I'm also here for the examinations." the boy told her. "I'm Nell by the way, what's your name?"
"Myra" came the slightly delayed answer. "Why do you want me to join you?" Myra could not help but become suspicious of such an invitation by a complete stranger, but she also did not feel like the boy wanted to harm her. It was really confusing.
"Well, you looked like you're lost. It's also boring to wait here all alone. My brother is still gone grabbing us some snacks. This could take a while." Nell explained. He seemed to be the outgoing type of person and his easygoing manner reminded Myra a lot of her brother Ethan.
"Sure, why not, it is definitely better than waiting here alone. Are there no queues or anything like it? It seems like everyone is just standing around somewhere."
"Nah, no queues. That would require someone to actually be here to take the registrations, but it's still early. Those administrative people will still take an hour or two to arrive. Then we might see some. Currently we don't even know where to queue up, even if we could somehow manage to keep everyone in some line. It's the same every year." Nell explained some details to her. He seemed to be a local and lived in the city along with his family.
"What are these examinations all about?" Myra asked, still not having any idea what would really happen.
"Well, it does seem to change every year, but basically it's some basic education stuff along with more specific things. Say if you want to join a knight academy you'd have to show some skill with weapons or physical abilities, or maybe some way to enhance your physique with magical power but if you want to join an academy that focuses on artificing and crafting, then you would need some skill in a proper profession to go along with it. Then there is always the military academies who pick up everyone, who seems to have some talent in something that's useful to them. Fighting prowess, magical aptitude, pathfinding for their scouting units, that kind of stuff. Also there's all the academies that are backed by the temples of some god. They obviously have their own criteria each."
"There are some more general tests, like literacy, basic mathematics and then some things about spiritual and magical skills, most academies are looking for that. If you show some skill then you probably get picked by some academies for further tests that are more specific. It's all very chaotic and often comes down to the people sent by the academies and their personal opinions."
Myra didn't completely understand all of it, but the part about it being chaotic seemed to be true.
"What academy do you want to join?" Myra asked, but before she could get an answer they were interrupted.
"Hey Nell, I'm back, got us some things to keep us from starving while we wait." Nell's brother seemed to have returned.
"Oi Liam, this is Myra, she is also here to get into an academy. Myra, this is Liam my bookworm of a brother."
Liam looked quite a lot like Nell, the only exception was their hairstyle and their behavior. Nell had wild wavy brown, nearly shoulder long hair, while Liam's was a lot shorter and would obviously see a comb more often. Liam seemed to be the shy type of person, easily flustered, while Nell had no issues with attention.
"Nice to m-meet you Myra. I am Liam." He gave her a little bow, with a bag of snacks still in his hands which made it hard for Myra not to laugh. He looked just too adorable.
"Hi Liam, nice to meet you two here."
They were soon sitting together and discussing all the ongoing events in the city, while eating the snacks Liam shared with all of them. It started with the examinations, but as there was not much to see yet, it quickly turned to other events, to the best shopping places and funny stories that happened lately.
"… and then that arrogant guy slipped, fell into the puddle right next to the carriage. He was all high and mighty shouting 'Out of my way commoners' and then splash right with his face into the mud he goes. One of the bystanders even made a joke about throwing stones into a pond. That noble was part of the Dunn family who specialize in earth magic, but the commoners all call them stone heads because not only are they arrogant, but they also have more brawns than brains. Everyone laughed, but that Dunn guy in the mud obviously didn't get it. It was hilarious …" Nell was in the middle of telling them a story when Liam suddenly stopped him. Nell's face darkened visibly when he saw a group of people standing not too far away. They seemed to be part of the Dunn family and it seemed like they did not find the story funny at all.
"Oh, well, let's change the topic." Nell said and switched to some different tale, unrelated to anything that could get him into further trouble.
"Only some lowly commoners begging for scraps from the academies." they could hear the people from the Dunn family talking, obviously in a louder than necessary voice on purpose so they could hear it.
"Aww, sorry 'bout that." Nell looked apologetically at Myra. "I didn't want to drag you into any conflicts before it even starts."
The girl however, did not really seem worried at all and calmly continued with their conversation, totally ignoring the Dunn group as if they didn't even exist.
"So, what academy do you plan on joining?" Myra asked again.
"Silverspire Military Academy." Nell answered her right away. "Oh, but it's not really that easy, not like you could pick an academy as you like. It's more the other way round. An academy could show an interest in you and then you can join them. If you are really skilled and more than one academy is interested in you, you can obviously pick between them, but that's not as easy as it may sound."
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