And since Inna didn't know which one was which, in the whole test, she simply wrote A, B, C, D, and E in succession in every number except for one regarding eating food.
The question was about uneaten food and leaving it unattended on the table.
She knew how to answer that since Solomon used to always scream at her not to have food left on her plate. It's because it's somehow their tradition that whenever food has been taken away from its serving plate, then it shall be fully consumed. Any leftovers aside from inedible ones are deemed as being ungrateful to the provider.
And also, another one of their tradition is that food should never ever be left on a table unattended. Because apparently, according to Solomon, it would be shameful and ungrateful to do that towards the gifts given by the 'Supreme God.' It would seem as though we are ignoring or refusing to eat that food despite it being served on a table.
So, she was proud that she understood at least one question in the whole test.
Hence, when she looked at the number of green glowing letters on her paper, she almost laughed to herself.
"You seem to be joking."
The old man made of smoke muttered as he glared at her.
"How could you do such a shameful thing of simply answering without thinking?!"
Inna looked at the angry old man in pure innocence.
"What do you mean?"
Seeing the fake-ness of her expression, the old man slammed his hand on the table to show his anger. But it failed on intimidating Inna since it didn't make a sound.
"You obviously just wrote an answer as soon as the question popped out!"
Inna grinned at the man as she simply shrugged her shoulders, infuriating the old man even more.
"What can I say, I'm a fast reader."
Speechless of how shameless she was, the old man was only able to glare at her before laughing in sarcasm.
"Your tricks won't do you any good here, little girl! Finally, it's time to collect all your papers! Let's see who gets kicked out of this place! Ha ha ha!"
Then, he floated towards her to grab the paper away. He grinned as he started to count the number of red letters she had. But then, when he finished, his grin dropped as well as his jaw.
Inna puffed out her chest in pride as she mocked him silently.
He thought she was going fail, but too bad!
She got thirteen out of twenty-five questions right!
And all because she used her ultimate technique of the ABC's.
"H-how! I-impossible! How could you dare to simply answer A, B, C, D, and E successively?! Such a foolish thing to do!"
Inna shrugged again, her proud expression made the old man feel like clawing at her face.
"Who cares if it's foolish, as long as it works."
The old man held in his anger as he raised his hand.
"Hmph. It was simply a fluke! Let's see you in the next test then!"
Then, the figure of the old man slowly dissipated together with the fog that was surrounding her.
As the fog disappeared, Inna saw that there were barely enough people left on the testing area. But the people were spread apart from her so she wasn't able to see who they were clearly.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, a cloud made its way into the center of the area. Inna was about to walk towards it out of curiosity when suddenly, a wrinkly old foot went out from the cloud. When the foot landed on the hard ground, she saw that it belonged to a familiar old wrinkly man. He was a hunchback and had on white pristine robes with small cloud patterns that's almost indiscernible to the naked eye. He had both his hand clasped together behind his back as he scanned the whole area. He looked quite intimidating while doing so since his eyes had that grey iciness towards it. And it doesn't help the fact that his white hair was made into a regal bun on top of his head and that his face looked like an old strict scholar ready to reprimand the young ones.
But Inna couldn't take him seriously because of his mustache.
He literally looks like a catfish with a white man bun on top.
When Inna had that image in mind, she couldn't help but let out a small snicker. But then, that caught the attention of the old man, and his beady grey eyes locked onto Inna like she was his prey.
"Congratulations to those who passed." The old man glared at Inna as he addressed everyone. Then, before Inna could return his glare, he looked at the rest of the students before him.
"Now that we've finished the first stage. It's time for the practical exam. But before we will proceed with it, we will be having a short five minute break to help you rest and recall all that you've learned. Congratulations, freshmen."
"And to those of you who do not know me…" the old man's gaze stopped at Inna significantly before continuing on scanning the people by the bleachers.
"I am Professor Gnarly and I teach the lessons on Anemolian Laws, Social Morals, and Etiquette. Hopefully, after watching today, you'll be able to learn or be enticed to enter this Removal exam wherein, if you were to ever pass, you will be given the choice to 'remove' my subject from your schedule. But mind this, only one person was able to pass my test on his first try, and that was Mirzo Rynne, the second prince, who took it a few years past."
"So, if you wish to pass, then better study and practice hard. And I do expect quite a lot from those students who came from high class families."
Then, without any warning, Professor Gnarly waved his hand and his whole body was shrouded by a cloud before completely disappearing.
Meanwhile, Inna just simply stared at the show he made in amusement as two words were stuck inside her mind.
Magician Catfish.