Later that night in the library inside the orphanage Grey was reading some of the books that described the history of the royal family and the other noble families of the kingdom, from afar a person would see a small figure with well cut grey hair focusing of a book. The library inside the orphanage was small and old and the assortment of the books inside were old and out of date with the rest of the world's issues. But this place was the only place that could give Grey some inside information into the workings of this kingdom of Arin.
The kingdom of Arin was relatively young, it's founder whose name was simply written as the First King of Arin in the book that Grey was reading. It was written that the King tried to make the kingdom after observing other kingdoms that had failed at one point or the other. The result of that was that kingdom allowed all of its people to get a form basic education, this was considered an idiotic thing by the other kingdoms around at the time, by that proved to be incorrect later. This only made the people who lived in the kingdom more willing to be patriotic towards the kingdom, but that did not mean the power of the royals was diluted with many people who could better themselves with knowledge. The royal family and the other founding noble families kept most of the power through the use of powerful magic users, the so called mages, they also limited the noble titles, this limited the number of new noble families to enter the competition of resources.
The more Grey read into the working of the kingdom, he figured the person who came up with this system was a genius, you can control the masses using the power of magic, but also make them feel more loving to the kingdom by giving opportunities that do not give the real power. The books in the library did not mention much about the inner workings of magic, however it was mentioned that in the kingdom anyone who had magic talent can be given the opportunity to develop, it was not only the military who had ways to develop mages. The royal family had academies to develop their own mages, these people could be rich people or poor people but as long as they had magic talent, they could be developed, they would be in service of the royal family when they become mages.
After Grey finished reading he went back to his room which he shared with three other male children, as he laid in his bed he was thinking of his plans to join the military.
'I wonder how magic actually works in this world, I have tried to feel magic like protagonists of novels, but nothing. I only know that I am special, I have high awareness, great memory and comprehension.'
Grey spent the rest of the week doing the same routine of going to the library to read after dinner, he was not going to finish the books in the library in a week, but he chose books that had importance, books that would help him out of trouble for example, like books that had the laws of the kingdom.
The administration of the orphanage was exited because they all hoped that at least Grey would have a bit magic talent, orphanages were primarily built because the military would always need an infusion of new blood, thus when a magic talent was found in an orphanage the orphanage would be awarded, so when the day of the testing they had him wear a simple formal clothes.
Grey looked at his small figure in the mirror wearing a small suit which he did not know came from, his grey hair was still cut short and neat.
'Hopefully not too much cliche nonsense happens during this test.'
Grey was exited, he was going to meet a real mage, because it is said the tests are done by a real mage when he asked Mrs Daniel a few days ago. He went down the stair to wait with the other children, the other children were not wearing formal, not that Grey cared much. It looked like that was something that happened in most orphanages where direct favouritism happened. After eating their breakfast the children were told to go to the assembly hall, the hall was decorated by the orphanage workers in red, black and white colours, those were the colours of the military.
The children were told to seat in the seats in the hall, Grey was seating in the first seat, the number children who were five years old were not that many, between 20 and 30, so the hall was not full. At exactly 08:00 a man wearing military uniform came on stage, the man was in his 30s and looked like he had gone to combat before.
"Good morning children my name is First Lieutenant Michael Sergei, I am part of Kingdom's Mage Army. I came here to look for other potentials who can wield magic, so that they can join us."
As he said so the man raised his hand and a small fire materialised in his hand like magic, which it was, this was Grey's first time seeing magic and his serious eyes shone with light of desire.
"That children, was a basic tier 0 spell [Burning ember], it does not have much practical use in combat, but it is useful to start a fire."
This was the first time Grey got to know such information, he had asked Mrs Daniel about magic, but she did not know much because such information is usually not said during such scouting drives, it looked like 1st Lt Sergei was indulging the children. The information he said had lots of valuable tid bits, like that magic had a ranking system.
"I hope I will get other potentials in this place, can the first one come into the room with me."
With that he left into the room off to the side of the stage, it was then that Grey knew his time was nigh, he stood up and walked into the room with a steady cadence and an indifferent look in his face but still with the serious look in eyes. He knocked on the door, and then waited to be asked in, he did not have to wait for long until 1st Lt Sergei called him in.
"So you are this orphanage's choice for the first one to come in, come in son."
He asked a rhetorical question as he studied the boy in front of him, good disposition, neat and serious, those were important in a mage, but the boy was slightly indifferent to the world. As a mage Michael also had good awareness and could pick the smallest of tid bits about a person.
"Yes sir, Grey Gram is my name."
Ah, Grey's surname was something he was given in the orphanage, the orphanage did not know what was his mother's surname, so it became like that, he personally liked the surname.
"Seat on the seat at the corner, 2nd Lt Davidson will hook you up to the machine, and we will see if you are a have magic potential."
Second Lieutenant Davidson was the second mage in this testing session, she was a female mage that came together with 1st Lt Sergei, the 2nd Lt was not a beautiful women but she was not ugly which made her just average on looks, but it was difficult to pass her by, she had an aura which made her noticeable, maybe it is because she is a mage. The armed forces of the Arin kingdom were very liberal when it came to gender, females were allowed to enter the military if they had the ability to pass the training, Arin had in its history had had female Queens
"This device that I am strapping to you measures you magic potential but reading the waves that are emitted by your brain. The orbs you see of your left determines if you have the potential and how much of it."
The seat that Grey was seating on had nine orbs on Grey's left hand side, they looks like light bulbs in a circle.
"Mam, what do you mean by "How much of it"?"
That statement interested Grey very much, 2nd Lt Davidson did not answer, 1st Lt Sergei answered, she just kept strapping Grey into the chair.
"We call this device a potential measuring device, it obviously measures how far a mage can go in the path of magic, the nine orbs represent the tiers of magic, from tier 1 to tier 9. The number of orbs that light up show how far one can go in the path of magic."
Grey was calm when hearing this revelation, it meant that having high talent meant that you can reach higher in the magic tiers.
"Sir does that mean there is no possible way of surpassing what the device shows in this scale?"
"Actually no, people have been seen surpassing what was shown in their talent test, you just need to be a genius to find a way through, the most well known way is to consume treasures that will increase you potential, there are other methods out there…"
1st Lt Sergei was interrupted by 2nd Lt Davidson.
"Done. Let's see whether you have the talent young Grey."
The machine made some noise for a few seconds, then started to work.