"Let me introduce myself, young fledglings. I'm the leader of the Fields of Wrath, and your future leader, Heiran. Welcome to my examination." Heiran introduced himself with his dark and arrogant smile, as he stared at the participants. Although most of the participants were rather quiet, due to Herian's entrance, there were a few others who were talking between them. As for Soren though, he had mixed feelings about it, mostly fear and awe, but he felt a bit of confusion and curiosity.
'It's probably a coincidence, isn't it? There's no way that Heiran would be here. It has to be someone who happens to have the same name, but why can't I shake this uncanny feeling that I've seen him before?' Soren thought to himself as he trying not to show his emotions.
"Alright Sprites-to-be. Settle down." Heiran casually ordered as he made a motion with his hand, before continuing:
"You all want to know the details about become a Wrath Sprite and I get that, but let's not rush ourselves and make a quick recap of what my team usually does. Hmmm... The young elf with the cyan hair, right next to the blue haired dwarf, remind us what my faction does of a living."
After he pointed towards the cyan haired elf, the elf answered with a light male voice:
"Your faction consists of mercenary and adventurer groups and does jobs that require the services of the mercenaries or adventurers. Aside from that, it is also the second fighting force of the Forgotten Godhome and-"
"Alright, that's enough. You more or less had explained all that was needed to explain at 'Forgotten Godhome'." Heiran interrupted calmly before continuing:
"Anyways, like the elf said, my group consists of mercenaries and adventurers. Now, why is it that my team consists of only those and not any... Soldiers, for example? Red-haired giant, answer for me."
"Isn't it because both of these groups don't have to be bound somewhere and can take on any mission, as long as it's within their capabilities?" The tall red-haired man who had intimidated Soren before, answered with a calm and confident expression.
"Tshhh... You just had it and lost it, big guy. Hmmm... How about you, little lone merman?" Heiran then looked towards Soren.
For a moment, Soren nearly got scared out of his wits when Heiran pointed at him, but he paid attention to the conversation and thought for a moment, before he quickly answered with a hint of uncertainty:
"Uhmmm... Isn't it about the freedom of choosing your own mission? I have a bit of experience of both the work of an adventurer and a soldier and the main difference between them would be the-"
"See everyone? That's the key word: Freedom. Both us adventurers and mercenaries have the freedom to pick any job we wish for. It doesn't matter if you are capable or not. So long as you are able to pick it, you are free to do so." Heiran interrupted Soren with a calm voice. before adding:
"Anyways, we've dwelled enough on this topic, so let's get started with the examination. And by examination, I mean the usual three versus three to decide who is worthwhile to join and who is here only to leech and cause trouble."
The moment Heiran finished his sentence, a chilly wind seemed to pass behind everyone's back and gave them a feeling of intimidation towards the leader of the Wrath faction. As he and a few of the nearby men were starting to get things started of the exam, some of the people aorund Soren started to converse silently, but it wasn't hard for Soren to eavesdrop on them.
"I've never seen such a crazy man. Is it even safe to register and work under this guy?"
"I'm starting to have second thoughts about it. Maybe we should have gone to one of the other's factions."
"We can't. We don't have the abilities to join the other factions. Maybe we can try to slip away or something."
'Idiots. We both want to leave, but at least hide your intentions and try to get through it as painlessly as possible.' Soren commented inwardly as he looked at some of the whispering people. He wanted to leave as much as the other guys, if not more than them, since he wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place. He just wanted to meet up Lavenza and Rohan to talk and take care of plans, as well as eat together after four months of separation, but now he wasn't even sure of the amount of time that had passed, ever since his entrance in that passage behind that bookcase in Laventhign's office. Unfortunately, for him, he had to play through the waiting game and hopefully get away from this mess unscathed, but he had a feeling that this desire was nothing more than a pipe dream.
"Alright everyone, settle down. Sorry to take so long, but who am I kidding? I'm never sorry about anything. Anyways, just pick a card from that box over there and wait until everyone has taken their cards." Heiran quickly drew everyone's attention, as he pointed towards a black box that sitting between two people with dual blades on their backs and it didn't long for everyone to pick a card and await for further instructions. As for Soren, he had picked the number 8 card.
"Has everyone picked their cards?" Heiran asked casually. Everyone in front of him nodded and after the nod, Heiran added:
"Good. Go find your teams and then we can proceed to the examination."
After that, everyone started moving towards random directions, while trying to find their team members. It didn't take long for most of the teams to be formed already, but Soren was having a bit of difficulty trying to find his team, since his number didn't match with any of the teams that had less than 3 members. It wasn't long before he found team 8 and he wasn't exactly happy when he found out who one of his team members were, since it was the red-haired man who had intimidated him.
"So, I'm stuck with you pipsqueak?" The red-haired man asked with a dissatisfied expression.
"Can't say I'm happy to be with you as well." Soren answered with an annoyed expression, while looking away from the man's face. As he was looking away from him, he saw that the other member of the team, was a purple-haired woman with a black bow on her back and figured out that she was probably the third member of the team.
"So, he's our third member? Looks a bit thin, to say the least." The woman spoke with a casual expression as she turned her head towards the two of us.
"Talking about sh*tty luck. Can't believe that I have to babysit a baby-faced kid." The red-haired man complained with a sad and annoyed expression.
"Hey. I may have a baby face, but I'm not a kid. I'm 16 and that makes me a teenager, at least." Soren retorted angrily, as he pointed towards himself with his thumb.
"So? You still aren't an adult. You need to be 18, at least, to be considered as an adult. Til then, just stick to your milk and cookies and let us adult deal with the adult problems." The man answered back with a calm and stern expression. To this response though, Soren could do nothing but sigh in exasperation, as he was seriously considering to punch the man, square on his forehead, for his comment.