"Hey, wait for me!", said a little black-haired boy, who looks to be around five years old, to what seems like a friend who is blonde and has shiny blue eyes.
One could see already that the blonde kid will surely be a handsome young man as soon as he gets rid of his baby fat and starts growing a bit.
The same couldn't be said about the black-haired kid, because he looks as average as can be, maybe even below average. His only chance of looking even remotely good would be if puberty hits him harder than his dad hits his mom when he comes home drunk.
But those two didn't seem to be bothered by that even in the slightest. They were inseparable from the moment those two were born. They both always played around together without a care in the world, always excited to find out new things about their world.
Yet today, everybody not only the kids but also the rest of the villagers were unusually excited.
Because today a magician from the capital will come to test the aptitudes of all the children from the village ranging from the age of a few months old to eight years. A magician from the capital always came on the same day every eight years.
The villagers didn't question that the magician only came every eight years as they knew that if their children were to be selected, they would be living in comfort because every child that has ever been selected, grew up to be important people in their kingdom and each one of them was stinking rich.
"Hey, what do you think will be my aptitude?" asked the blonde kid, who is called Gent Ian Artemis his best friend, Hem Lock Rose. Despite not having the typical rose hair that everybody in his family has.
"Probably fire or wind because there is only hot air inside that head of yours," replied Hem jokingly but he only got met with the confused expression on his friend's face as he was wondering what he meant by that.
"Anyway, shouldn't we head over to the main square of the village? Your parents are going to get mad at you if you're late for the aptitude test."
"Calm down, we've still got plenty of ti-"
Gent got interrupted by the loud murmurs of the villager after a seemingly normal carriage arrived at the front gates of the village. In the carriage, there's an old man with a long white beard. He looks like a kind, and caring grandpa any child wishes to have.
After the old man got out of the carriage, he seemed to have an aura of kindness and wisdom around him.
"Well then, let's quickly get this over with. These old bones of mine don't have much time left," he said after walking to the main square and taking a seeming less orb out of his robe.
Every child quickly went to their respective parents and waited impatiently for their turn. It didn't take long for it to be Hem's turn.
"Come here young man! Don't be nervous, just put your hands on the orb and empty your mind, the rest will happen eventually," said the old man encouragingly to Hem.
Closing his eyes, Hem did exactly as instructed. A could feeling ean trough one of his arm to his navel and from there back through the other hand. Afterwards Hem started feeling a bit fatigued.
Feeling impatient and extremely excited, Hem opened his only to see the extremely disgusted look on the old man's face.
Confused, Hem tried asking the old man what's going, but before he could ask the old man said:
"No Aptitude!!!"
Murmurs started, waking up Hem out of his stupor.
'No Aptitude!? Whar does that mean? Is something wrong? Am I useless? Will Gent still want to be friends with me even if I am useless?'
Helplessly Gent started looking for his parents as tears started swelling up at the sides of his eyes.
After a seemingly eternity he finally found his parents, he started sprinting towards his parents calling out "Mama" only to be met with same disgusted look on his parents face that the old man had.
"Don't come near me, you disgusting... th-thing!"
"Eh?"
Even as a five year old Hem understood that this is cruel. A parent isn't supposed to say something like that.
Now in tears, Hem ran into the forest near the main square, barely acknowledging the cheers of the villagers that cried out: " Gent has a quadruple Aptitude!!! This is incredible!"
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