Layton left the shack and started towards the Duke of Clearwater's residence. As a person with a darkness affinity, other families might shelter him, but the academy behind them wouldn't be the best place for him to learn. Only the Duke's backing had the best place for the training of dark elements.
As Layton stood in front of the gate, he flashed the medal he had gotten from the shack to the guards, and he was allowed entry. The Duke's residence was desolate compared to other noble houses. Layton had learned that this was because the family favored cruel competition. Anyone who came to the family would be subject to a contest to determine the strongest among them. The strongest had the right to request more resources, while those at the bottom would only be given the most minimal care.
But Layton didn't mind all this. His plan was to remain low-key and abstain from competition in the first place. He knew there was no free lunch in the world, and the winner of the competition would most likely have to help the Duke complete certain tasks when they became wizards.
Layton waited in the yard until a servant came to guide him into the inner areas. As they walked down the pavement, Layton found people sparring and practicing with various weapons. Others, who looked scholarly, were headed towards a building that resembled a library. Layton tried to estimate the power of those on the training grounds and found that most of them were preparatory knights. There were even others who were already knights, and they were all around his age.
Layton sighed as he saw this. It seemed this world wasn't short of geniuses.
One had to know that being a preparatory knight by the age of 13 was already considered a small genius, but from what Layton was seeing, there were already kids who looked younger than 17 and were already knights, and their swordsmanship didn't look bad either.
Although Layton was amazed, he didn't feel he would be weaker than any of them. As long as it wasn't a prolonged fight, Layton believed he had the ability to defeat all the preparatory knights and could even survive a few moves against those who were already knights. Layton set aside these thoughts as he continued following the servant. He was brought to what looked like a storehouse, where he was given a book, a map of the residence, and a brand-new sword. The servant said nothing as he motioned for Layton to follow him, leading him to a secluded courtyard with a small hut in it.
Layton watched the servant hurrying away and guessed that their perfunctory attitude was because he was just a preparatory knight. But he didn't care; he simply smiled and entered the hut.
His main objective right now was to learn more about the wizards and the wizard academy he would be sent to. Everything else didn't really matter in his eyes.
Layton put down the book and sword and went to sleep on the bed inside the hut. He needed to rest; it had been a very long day for him.