The very next day, Kayden awoke in the early afternoon with an aching back, probably thanks to him falling asleep with his armor still on.
It felt nice to sleep on a bed again. Even with his blankets and pillows, the cart wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, and the ground wasn't much better. An actual mattress was far better than the limited options he had on the road, and he had missed this dearly.
Rumble…
"Damn, I'm starving… Oh right, I skipped dinner last night."
He had been so busy trying to find a place to stay that it just kind of slipped his mind. The strange and tense encounter with the owner of this place didn't help either. After that, all that exhaustion he built up over the past week just hit him at once, and now he was paying the price for it.
Kayden also noted how he hadn't been sucked into any dreams or memories these past few days. Was that just a one-time thing?
Rubbing his stomach, Kayden made his way down to the reception room, where his eyes were invaded by the color of pink once more. Behind the counter sat Tami, who seemed to be trimming her nails.
… Or perhaps she was sharpening them? Her nails were already sharp as hell and didn't seem like they needed any more sharpening. Did she… want to stab someone?
"Oh, you're finally awake," Tami spoke without looking up from her nails. "You said you're an applicant, right? If you haven't registered yet, keep in mind that the deadline's today."
Kayden scratched his head. He had been warned by the old man at the wall about this too. Today would be the last day for registration, and tomorrow would be the start of the exams. Still, he was hungry and wanted to eat something first. Everything else could come later.
"Any place you'd recommend for breakfast?" Kayden asked.
"Breakfast? You mean lunch, right? Honestly, there's just way too many to choose from, so just pick whatever."
Tami dismissed him with a wave, and Kayden shrugged.
'Guess I'll just have to look around…'
He walked out of the establishment and onto the streets of this portion city, where it looked much more normal in the day. At night, it looked… shady… to say the least.
The streets were fairly crowded, a result of having such a massive event coming up. Based on the knowledge he learned from the tourists, people could actually watch the exams being held in real-time, which was very interesting.
Apparently, it was a massive event that people all around the world came to see, raking in large amounts of gold for the Solus Academy every year. It wasn't just the commoners and peasants though; rich and famous people would come to watch too. It was a miracle how Kayden had never heard about this until now.
Eventually, he stumbled upon an old bakery that sold many types of bread and pastries, some of which he had never seen before. He figured he might as well get some to eat while he walked.
He left the shop with an arm full of pastries.
"Let's see here…Cheese, Kali, Coffee, Chicken floss and Fish… I may have gotten too many."
Kayden picked one at random from the bag and began eating, finally satisfying his hunger for food. As he chewed, he made his way over to the actual academy itself, where the towering spiral pillars were located…
Or at least… he tried to.
Midway on his journey, he was suddenly stopped by a massive crowd of people. Massive was an understatement, it was more like an ocean of people with no end in sight, starting from the towers and reaching all the way into the city.
"Hey!" A young boy shouted, "No cutting the queue! We were here first!"
'The queue?'
He looked over at the sardine-packed crowd, and back at the young boy.
"Y-you're queuing… all the way out here?"
"Yes!"
"F-for the entrance exams?"
"Yeah!"
Kayden pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Suffice to say, this was going to take a while.
He traced the end of the line by following the outer wall of people, and it took him twenty minutes and a whole lot of walking before he actually got there. In that span of time, he already finished all his bread.
"I'm finally here…"
"[That sure took a while… Quick! Get in line before the queue gets any longer!]"
But it didn't seem that way. The line didn't seem to get any longer, not because there weren't any people, but rather, they were afraid. Afraid of a tall, armored figure that stood silently at the end of the line. No one wanted to get behind the figure for some reason.
Well, Kayden didn't mind at all. While the figure sure looked imposing to everyone else, Kayden himself was actually around the same height, making him completely unafraid. It was a privilege of the tall, and Kayden couldn't help but feel smug.
"O-oh thank God!" he heard some whispers from behind. "Someone actually joined! We don't have to stand behind that monster!"
'Monster?'
Kayden looked closely at the tall figure from behind, and couldn't really tell any distinguished features, for the figure was covered in heavy, steel plates, all the way from head to toe. On its head was a giant, horned helmet, that covered the person's face, and indeed, he gave off the vibe of a terrifying monster.
Three young girls joined in from behind him, and they all thanked him quietly. Kayden paid them no mind and was instead interested in this 'monster' in front of him.
'Now that I think of it, there were people from all sorts of races queueing up.'
There were elves, dwarves, beastpeople, and even a few gnomes! Or halflings. Kayden couldn't tell them apart.
But still, there weren't any monsters, and the person in front of him seemed to be the largest out of all of them. Was it a monster? He didn't know.
"[You seem strangely interested. I'll appraise their information for you.]"
Name: ???
Title: Armored Hulk
Race: Half-Orc
Level: 20
Health: 418/418
Mana: 132/152
'Half-orc…'
Orcs weren't actually monsters as classified by the Western Continent wizards, but due to their striking resemblance with ogres and trolls, which are one hundred percent monsters, they were ostracized by most people. They were an intelligent race, perhaps a bit dumber than humans, but definitely way ahead of the common beast.
Kayden really didn't care about any of that. After all, as part-giant, he was as much a monster as the half-orc. Giants were similar to orcs in that both are feared races for their own various reasons but were not considered monsters.
He wondered if he should strike up a conversation with his fellow part-monster, but ultimately decided against it. There just wasn't anything of worth for him to say.
And so, Kayden settled for simple waiting, bored out of his mind as the queue barely moved. Combined with the sweltering heat blasted by the afternoon sun, Kayden was about to lose it only just a few minutes in.
"M-maybe I can just cool myself off a bit… There's no harm…"
He was about to use just the teensiest amount of ice magic, but Hel gave him a stern warning.
"[Don't do that! Security isn't exactly lax around here.]"
And she was right. Spaced equally apart from each other were a few adults that directed the queue and looked out for trouble. They probably couldn't link him to the Kelekona reaper simply from his magic, after all, plenty of others could use ice magic.
Still, it wasn't a risk he was willing to take. What if they could trace it back to him? He was the number one suspect, no doubt. Using his ice magic extensively might just be that final push for the Adventurer's Guild to pin it all on him. No, Kayden was done playing dumb, he needed to be deadly serious about this. Going to jail was fine; his master could always break him out. But what if they sentenced him to death? His life as he knew would come to an end, even if he managed to survive and escape.
'That's right. Don't make any dumb moves, Kayden. You're better than this.'
With nothing else to do, and to partially distract himself from the heat, he turned to observe the other applicants. They too were suffering from the heat, but some of them had ways to deal with it.
There was a girl emanating a light breeze from her body, a man who splashed water on his face every once in a while, and many other bizarre methods of keeping cool. Kayden's favorite was the one guy who had one monkey fanning him with a large leaf, and another that sat on his shoulder, holding up another leaf to act as an umbrella.
But a very infuriating method that many people seemed to be doing was to have other people 'save' their spot. They would then just leave to who-knows-where while Kayden had to suffer. The queue was already so long! If they were this many 'saved' spots, how long was the actual queue?
"Damned freeloaders…"
"I know, right?"
A strange, muffled voice responded to his words, and he looked around in surprise. No one seemed to be talking to him.
"Who said that?"
"I'm right in front of you…"
He looked to his front and discovered that the voice came from the tall, armored figure.
"You're talking to me?"
"Yeah, who else?"
The figure spoke without turning around, which made hearing him extremely difficult. Add on that helmet, and Kayden had to really strain his ears to hear anything.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, my name's Kayden," he politely introduced himself, "What's yours?"
The half-orc tilted his head and spoke in a muffled voice.
"Don't speak like that. You remind me of nobles…" he paused, and continued, "It's Paris"
"Paris?"
Somehow, that name just didn't seem to fit him, but that was just Kayden's opinion.
"It's abbreviated from my Orcish name, so yes, call me Paris."
And just like that, Kayden got to know his first half-orc, as well as one of his future competitors, most likely. He wasn't one hundred percent sure if there was going to be a battle amongst the applicants, but it was safe to assume so. What kind of magic academy doesn't test a student's combat ability?
Kayden and Paris weren't speaking to each other anymore after their initial introduction. Neither of them had any topics to discuss, and Kayden himself wasn't in the mood to talk. Instead, he chose to observe every single one of his potential opponents, which surrounded him from front to back.
From what he saw and heard from the people around him, fire magic was, as always, the most common type of magic they used. This was supposed to be a disadvantage to an ice magic user such as himself, but he wasn't planning on using it anyway.
The next on the list for most common types of magic would be body-enhancing ones, which Kayden had none of. Still, his speed was something he was very proud of, and he was sure he won't lose out to someone with speed-enhancing abilities.
'Let's just hope I'm not so unlucky to face off a difficult opponent…'
Kayden wiped the sweat off his forehead with a hand already full of sweat and quickly pulled his hood up. It at least provided some shade.
"[Does this have anything to do with being part ice giant? You're sweating like a pig.]"
Was it? Kayden didn't know. He liked taking hot baths, but for some reason, standing out in the sun reduced him to such a state. He was resistant to the cold, that he was sure of, but a weakness to the heat? In this blazing hot season? That was one of the worst weaknesses one could have, right after dying outright from sunlight like vampires.
"[I will say, the temperature here is far worse than it is on Earth, even in the hottest of countries.]"
Was Earth really that nice? Were their summers not this hot? On Eden, there were nine months of summer, with one month of each for the remaining seasons. Except for the Northern Continent, it didn't snow at all anywhere else, even during the winter when temperatures were more bearable.
"Are you okay? You look don't look too good." Paris asked with concern. Kayden was visibly affected, to the point where even the half-orc noticed.
"I-I guess not…" said Kayden as he tried fanning himself with his own two hands.
"Hmm… in that case…"
Paris raised a hand right over Kayden's head and from his palm sprouted an azure, hexagonal shield that was completely smooth and flat. It was just large enough to cast a shadow over his entire body, giving him some much-needed shade. He couldn't be more grateful.
"Are you a saint or something!? Thanks!"
However, he quickly noticed something.
"Won't your arm get tired?" he asked, "And isn't it hot with all that armor?"
Paris shook his head.
"This is all just training to me, so no need to worry!"
Kayden was incredibly touched. He was reminded of the days when Ezekiel ruthlessly forced him to walk for days on end in the incredibly hot weather, telling him to think of it all as 'training'. Compared to him, Paris was such a kind soul…
Which naturally made him suspicious.
'He's not… brainwashed, right? Can someone this kind actually exist? Perhaps I should ask a few questions first…'
But before he did, the line suddenly moved much faster than before. He moved forward a few spaces every few seconds, a far cry from the snail of a line that was before.
"Why's the queue suddenly so fast?" Kayden asked the half-orc from under the shield.
"It was lunch break for the staff just now. Now that they're back, the line's finally moving."
"Huh? So you're saying I could have gotten an actual meal for lunch?"
"Sure! You didn't think the line will be that slow, did you? Today's the deadline, so they're posting as much staff as possible to handle the applications." Paris casually explained.
Kayden felt dumb. He didn't have to suffer under the sun at all if he knew all this before, but there were no takebacks now.
"Then why are so many people in the line? What's the point of everyone else waiting under the sun until the end of lunch?"
"Hmm…" Paris scratched the chin part of his helmet. "If I had to guess, they think that the later they apply, the lower their chances of entering. Being one of the best academies in the world, and having the opportunity only once every year, not many people are willing to risk it… I myself don't believe it, and you shouldn't too."
"So… you're saying it's all hearsay?"
"Yep," Paris looked at the dumbfounded expression on Kayden, and added with a jovial voice, "Ah. You're wondering why I decided to stand in line too, right? I'm just here to test my endurance against the sun. It's all training."
Kayden was rendered speechless.