In another room of the second floor of the building, several professionals of different areas gathered to read the answers of the several young adepts downstairs.
When Ellen received Thomas' answers, her expression was slightly shaken. "An seventeen-year old boy has passed the special-grade test?"
From all the 500 juniors accepted by the training camp, only seven had been able to get an core spot and receive special-grade treatment which was already a pretty good result considering even the higher ups felt the examination for the core spot was a little too hard for those students.
'Wait, I heard an eighteen year old elite adept has gotten an core spot as well. Either way, this boy here must be the only one among the non-elite adepts to receive special-grade treatment.' Her eyes glowed as her expectation towards this written exam grew.
With her eyes reading through the numerous questions, her smile turned brighter as she nodded repeatedly. "Correct, correct, correct... wrong, correct, correct... His theoretical knowledge is pretty good, some of these questions even teachers would have hard to give the right answer."
Reading the questions, she realized some of of the questions had things not even herself knew for example: [Question 33: Name the types and difference between demons to demonic beasts.]
As a open question, Thomas had to use his own words for the awnser and so he wrote: [The official ranking of demons established by the association is: Low, Mid, High, Noble, Prince and Lord. Further in time, bestial creatures sharing characteristics from both demons and animals were discovered and then named Demonic beasts. Those are divided by Beast, Elite Beast, Master Beast and Beast King.
Those demons are mainly different to the demonic beasts due to their humanoid shape and characteristics closer to a human.
After the first invasion of demons in the year of 2048, Professor Ernst Holdermann proposed the Demonic Evolution Theory that in similar to humans that the demon world had once been ruled by the demonic beasts then one of its species may have evolved to the humanoid demons we now know....]
The awnser still followed for about ten lines, even Ellen was surprised he would put so much effort on a single question since not even her know of this Demonic Evolution Theory so she went to search on the web and saw it was exactly as Thomas had written.
After some more time, she reached the final question where Thomas Wrote: [First I would have some Adept to calm down the civilians and bring them to the the several emergency spaceships and send them away as quickly as possible.
Once all the civilians are gone I would be able to focus on guarding the city. First, I would leave most of the troops guarding the city, form small groups of elite adepts to perform attacks where the enemy troops are weakest.
If done the right way should be able to draw internal conflict which could be crucial to the survival of the city.
By the time the enemy has reached the city, the adepts put on guard would have dug several pits and fill it with dragon oil, bombs planted on strategic points to will bring buildings upon their troops.
In case the reinforcements aren't able to arrive in time and there is no other way, the whole city and the invaders will burn down with me. This way, the city might lose its adepts but at least it will keep its foundation that are its people standing.]
The answer was direct and didn't waste time on any of that idealistic shit Ellen was used to see in her career which was already a positive point to her. The answer in itself being crude and filled with naivety about society, something she could accept as it was an seventeen year old that wrote this.
...
Thomas was finally allowed to leave and when he got to the garden right next to the female dormitories there was something which drew his attention.
'Huh?' Having a closer look, he saw some skinny white-haired handsome young man all dressed in white which gave him a somewhat princely look. The distance between them was fairly large yet he could clearly hear what was being said.
"What a small world, I didn't expect to see you here. Your beauty is certainly most impressive. I believe soon the Elite Adepts of Dexia City would have a wonderful new addition to them."
"Thanks for the kind words mister Clawthorne." The girl he was talking too seemed fairly apprehensive as she responded respectfully while maintaining some distance from the boy.
From the looks he saw on the other student faces and the surname he just heard, Thomas had a guess about who this person may be.
As for the girl, there was no need to guess as it was clearly his friend's alternate personality Claire, without her mask which.
Without noticing, he frowned. Since she couldn't walk with her mask on in this place, he knew that with her unmatched beauty she would certainly attract the gazes of those talented adepts, especially when she's already famous as the Flame Empress of Dexia City.
As he kept watching this scene unfolding, Claire seemed nervous and unsure about what to do, at least it was what he believed.
After a moment of pondering, Thomas believed in her abilities and decided to let it go when he stopped. The white-haired man who was clearly making advances on Claire, and the latter who was uncomfortable happened to glance as the side, her eyes meeting Thomas'.
In that instant, Thomas understood the thoughts behind her glance and sighed. Unlike Clarisse who he had a good relationship with, Claire was rude and didn't treat him well at all sometimes even to the point to screwing up every moment he and Clarisse got too close to one another.
'Fuck it, I guess I can used this to say she owes me latter.' Having this thought, Thomas run over, a naive and childish look was stamped which made him look like a cute next-door boy.
"Claire, sorry I was late, can we go now?" Arriving right next to her, he hugged her left arm and waved his other hand up and down excitedly before his eyes turning to the side, then revealing a expression of surprise.
"Claire do you know this uncle? His pure white hair is so pretty like that of my grandma, I didn't know he was a part of the teachers." Hearing these piecing words coming from the airhead-looking Thomas, Claire's face turned stiff as if struggling to hold her laugh.
The white-haired young man's face froze, unknown emotions appearing on his gaze before being suppressed. "Who is this?"
Noticing the look he was giving Thomas, Claire joined with Thomas. "This is the new recruit of the Azure Garden, Thomas Ries. Despite being a bit of an airhead, naive and stupid sometimes he is a prodigy that reached the 3-star Adept level at the age of 16."
Hearing her excessive insults, Thomas shot a discrete and fierce look at her.'Hey! Mind you words.'
Claire noticed his gaze, and laughed in her heart as she proceed to ignore it. "Because we are both of the same team, Team Leader Alice is having me taking care of me so I'm kind of busy at the moment, can we mark this dinner latter."
"Okay it's fine." The handsome young man took a step back then shot a gaze filled with enmity towards Thomas who responded with a sweet and playful smile as he watched the forming walking away.
"Thanks." Once she saw he was far away, Claire slapped Thomas in arm and pushed him away from her.
Thomas also returned to normal and questioned. "Just who is that guy anyway? I remember hearing something about a Clawthorne but not much."
Claire was now feeling much better and so she replied as they went to pick a hotdog to eat on the way. "That guy you met earlier is Adam Clawthorne, an 19-year old Elite-Adept from the Colony Capital. Two months ago, he transferred to Platinum Knights, the number one team of Dexia City. Probably an a measure to investigate the Retribution Organization and the giant sky breach that may break into a invasion at any moment."
With her eyes observing the other students in the training camp, Claire took a step closer and whispering in his ear. "Another thing I heard is that he has a ill-fame related to women. Every day appearing in the news with a different girl. It's also said he took three young female adepts about my age as disciples, two of them appeared pregnant some time latter. We met one and half a month ago in a special dinner in the association building, since then he's always pestering me but there is nothing I can do other than respectfully keep my distance."
'That Asshole!' Thomas face turned green. He already knew what type of man he was just from these words and was grateful he didn't let either Claire or Clarisse spent a second more next to that guy.
When they were about to arrive at the female dormitory number 11 where Claire was living, THomas recalled something. "These dormitories are really bad. Oh right, I didn't tell you that as a part of the special-grade treatment, I can chose to rent somewhere to say and since that guy has his sight on you, why don't you come with me? Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything, is your choice."
Hearing his words, Claire felt grateful and something more when Clarisse who was watching everything from the depths of her mind blushed deeply. This time, Claire knew he was doing this out of his concern and she decided to accept his favor this time. "I admit this dormitory is really bad, I can't even sleep well here. Fine, as long we both have separate bedrooms I can move with you. It's just for three months anyway."