章節 9: Council Tier 1 Exam
Day of the council's tier-one exam finally arrived. Evelyn rushed towards her carriage as she didn't want to get late for the examination. Her father was out of town and Earl accompanied him. Uncle Admiral, being head councilmember, couldn't accompany her either.
She went all alone like any other candidate. It was wrong that she wasn't anxious but she tried not to be, remembering her father's words. She reached outside the council office and informed the coachman that she will return after three to four hours.
She looked ahead of her to see an enormous, dark brown brick building. Looking at the building she assumed it to be three storeys. But she had heard from her uncle how the council building had underground basements with many floors.
She sighed deeply, trying to calm her anxious self and walked into the building. As she entered she realized that there weren't many female candidates for the exams. Instead, she found many eyes staring at her curiously.
'Relax,' she reminded herself and walked in confidently. Few people who recognised her bowed and she returned them a soft smile.
"Look, another female candidate." She heard someone whispering behind her back as she walked ahead.
"A beautiful one indeed," the comments continued.
"What is a girl doing here?"
"Came to get rejected like other female candidates." They all began laughing.
She ignored them not because she was scared of them but only to maintain peace in her mind by not bothering about some worthless stuff. She stopped in front of the examination hall and looked around as she remembered from the remarks that there were few females present as well.
"Hello, are you going to give the examination?" She heard someone asking her.
She turned around to see a young girl around her age smiling affectionately at her.
"Ah, yes and what about you?" She replied politely.
"Yes. Myself, Ana Mills and you?" She introduced herself.
It appeared that the girl didn't recognise her. Well, Evelyn didn't complain either as there were only a few people who had access to newspapers and magazines where she appeared every now, being a princess.
"Evelyn Walford," she replied.
"Is this your first time appearing for the council exam?" She asked.
"Yes. Did you appear before?" She asked as she found the girl confident while she was the same from outside but deep down she was anxious.
"Last to last year. I cleared the Tier one examination but failed in second. This was my last chance to be in council so I took a year drop to prepare myself well," she informed her.
"I see, that's great," Evelyn smiled.
They heard a bell ring and a man opened the hall. He stood at the door blocking the path and took out a parchment, looking sternly at all the candidates.
He cleared his and announced, "All candidates are requested to line up accordingly and at the count they enter the hall, will be their roll number. It will be a three hours written paper. No candidate will be allowed to go before the allotted time even if he completes the paper early.
Candidates using unfair means beware that you will get a permanent ban from the council no matter who you are. He still can enter the council but only in his dreams," the man chuckled and continued, "Alright then, enter one by one."
"Well then, good luck," Ana wished her to which she wished her back.
Evelyn sat on the second bench of the third column. She was the thirtieth candidate, which was her roll number for the exam. Papers were already placed on the desk with a seal so that no candidate could open them before time.
She glanced around and saw there were ten invigilators, staring at them with eagle eyes, threatening the already threatened candidates.
'No wonder why no one cheated in council exams,' she thought to herself.
The bell rang again.
"You may start now," the man announced.
Evelyn removed the seal and took a deep breath before beginning to write the paper. It was asked to mention their roll numbers and address and name of the candidate.
As she wrote the answers, she realised most of them were practical based. There were a few questions on council rules for which she thanked her uncle.
After writing the last question, she checked the time. She still had fifteen more minutes so decided to go through it once again, not wanting to leave any questions unattended. The bell rang again implying the end of the examination.
"Alright everyone, quill down. The results will be sent directly to your written address soon. Till then, good luck," he informed and waited for the candidates to leave the hall.
Evelyn got up from her seat and went out towards her carriage, thinking about her answers. As she walked out she bumped her head to a person's back, walking in front of her.
"I apologise," she quickly apologised to the person, looking at the floor.
She saw the person turn around and therefore she raised her head. Her eyes got captivated by the brown eyes. She saw his perfectly messy hair fall in front of his earthy brown eyes which hitched her breath. She saw his lips move, implying he was speaking something but she couldn't hear anything.
He snapped his finger in front of her eyes, dragging her back to reality and she heard him say, "It's alright."
His deep voice felt like cotton to her ears. She nodded and saw him turn around to walk away from her. Noticing him disappear from her sight, she tried to call him but found her voice stuck in her throat. She squeezed her eyes in disappointment at her nervousness.
When he completely vanished from her sight, she stood there dumbfounded. Not knowing what to do, she strolled towards her carriage, thinking about him throughout the journey, again.
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