Ever since the tragedy that took place during the party last week, I Lux had started living my own life. A daily normal life with no one going to interfere with me. A normal life knowing that no one is going to interfere makes my mind at ease. So serene and peaceful, I wonder if I could embrace the same feeling inside the laboratory.
At that moment, I remembered what the people did to us.
"I guess not..." I muttered.
creak-
Slowly, the door opened and in the next moment, a woman in her 20s appeared behind the door in a maid outfit.
"Sir Lux, your breakfast is ready." with a slight bow, the maid in charge informed me.
"...I will come there soon. I have to change my clothes first." I said with a low voice and a soft smile.
The maid was stunned as her cheeks turned red. Her legs are trembling unable to withstand it.
"the-then I will wait for you outside," she hurriedly said shyly before closing the door like an angry 7-year-old kid.
Bang!
Sometimes I like this side of a woman.
After changing my clothes, I along with the maid waiting outside the door proceeded to go to the dining room.
In the dining room, many of us around 30, were sitting there waiting for everyone to arrive before we started to eat our breakfast.
The breakfast ended shortly with everyone minding their own business like usual.
And, I was left behind again alone by everyone.
I did not mind it, we have no connections whatsoever in the first place.
I stood up and went outside of the mansion given to us by the king and went towards the capital.
10 minutes later, I arrived at the capital of the acrofollo empire called the Eiffel. When I arrived, I immediately went to the Public Sigma Guild (P.S.G) a public guild created for the awakeners to receive quests and other stuff like secret missions supported by the government.
Walking next to the line, I'd look at the woman waiting for the next participant.
As soon as I walk in, our eyes met.
There is no reason to waste my time so I took the opportunity to talk first.
"Participant Lux no. 50th is willing to take the trial to join the guild and receive my rank."
"do you have the ID we gave last week?"
"Yes. It's here."
I handed her the ID I'd received 5 days ago. Upon receiving it, she checked the ID for cnofirmation. Her eyes met mine again while looking at the ID for a few seconds with a serious and stiff expression.
"ID confirmed. Please follow me to the trial area."
She left and I followed her where the trial is being held. We arrived there and she instructed me about the specific rules and other various stuff about the trial before going back to finish the work she left behind.
Looking at the field, At first, I thought it was just a simple training ground but I'd never thought this place to be the whole arena itself.
"it's huge"
The arena looks so spacious but the number of people here waiting for their turn and watching others during the trial had reached hundreds. This just ascertains how big the arena is.
From the looks of it, they're observing how the examiner fight or tests the participants and takes all the accumulated information they gathered to create the best strategy as early as possible before their turn.
I felt helpless because of the atmosphere but this is it. This is what a trial should be. The whole arena is so tense.
I slowly and silently walked to find a seat while staying vigilant of the surrounding.
After finding an empty seat, I started watching the trials other participants are undergoing currently.
I waited there for my turn patiently while watching others fighting the examiners and getting evaluated at the same time.
They're quite good with swords. I can see why they are an examiner for reasons.
Their rank must be B-rank and above. And judging they're fighting skills and how they evaluate the new participants, their status is predicted to be veterans, retired veterans, and experts at best.
That is what I see.
Some of them have visible injuries engraved on their bodies. Mostly from sword slashes and stabs and trimmed left arm or right arm after engaging in a war or other dangerous missions filled with terrors and nightmares.
The life of a retired soldier is the saddest. No one knew how many stories were untold and the pain they endured getting through all the way here seeking the peace of everyone and yet only few will understand them as they ceased in the memories later on in the next generations.
Life is complicated, as long as you don't make an impact in this world, no one will remember you even till death.
As for the new participants, for now, most of them are probably thinking of all this stuff as nothing sort of complicated but later they will understand everything when the time comes when they have to put their life on the line during the battles awaiting on their way.
For that reason, I, who have come here to join the public awakened organization, did not come here just to earn money and have a stable life inside the wall.
At least that is what I think right now but I don't know if my lazy mind will let that happen.
There are so many times when I want to do something but ended up doing nothing in the end.
The mind is surely full of mystery, no one can predict what it can and what it will do even though it was the one who created what it want to do.
"Next is the 49th participant, please enter the arena. It's your turn to fight the examiner."
While thinking about stuff completely unrelated, it was only then when the manager of the trial announced the next participant did I came back to reality.
so it's finally my turn after this, huh? I can't wait. I wonder what rank I should pick. While it was true that getting an A-rank is the most beneficial out of every rank, I don't think there's anything more it can do other than gaining more work to do. After all, if you are an A-rank, you are essentially a soldier of the empire, unlike a semi-mercenary awakened, you can do whatever you want. Receiving high-class and personal missions from the government is part of being an A-rank Sigma, and just thinking about it is pretty tiring without even saying a word. Nobody knows when and how many tasks you have to complete every day.
As I continued to watch the next participant enter, a familiar face and long red hair entered my view for the second time.
That girl... So she participated as well to become a fully recognized awakened often referred to as sigma, huh?
The first time we meet directly was when she and a knight collaborated to get everyone out of the laboratory.
It was a quite pleasant memory but now seeing her here is kinda surprising.
I was late last week so I did not see her taking the forms to participate.
Just what could be the reason for her presence to be here?
I kept pondering over this but for now, I leave it at that.
As she entered the arena, she drew her sword and brought in her sword-style combat form.
This action made the examiner ready himself for the upcoming battle.
"I will count from three before the battle start." said the manager.
Both participants nodded in agreement and thus indicating the manager to start counting.
"3"
"2"
"1"
"Battle start!"
After announcing the start of the 49th trial, the manager quickly retreated from the arena.
At that moment, the red hair girl dashed forward and swung his sword instantly the moment her sword range reached the opponent.
Swish...
'she's fast. Although the movement seems reckless, I cannot find a way to counter her.' thought the examiner as the tip of the sword is about to reach his skin, however...
Klang!
right before the blade could reach his body, the trial examiner blocked the attack in a blink of an eye before swinging his sword back at his opponent.
Klang...
Surely the sword is fast enough to cut her without noticing it, however, the red hair girl blocks it with ease and immediately went to attack him without any second thought.
Albeit she blocked it with ease, the trial examiner wasn't surprised.
'if she could display such speed, attacks like that are no different from a normal swing of a sword.' he thought.
Swish! Klang! Swish! Swish swish! swish! Klang! Klang!
The two with their super fast speed movements had begun clashing swords together.
Their speed was so fast that only a few could notice their swords clashing.
Even from here, the wind caused by the swords clashing together is getting rough each time passes by.
This just shows how strong their strength is.
Both of them are truly remarkable fighters.
After the fierce battle against the trial examiner head-on, the red hair girl took a step back.
Then, disappeared from her position and instantly appeared from behind his back.
By swinging her sword at that moment, the trial examiner hurriedly tried to twist his body in order to block the attack, however...
Swish!
His eyes went wide.
'where is the sword?' he thought after seeing her swing her hand without the sword.
"you're wide open," she said.
In the next moment, the red hairy girl took that opportunity and used her foot and kicked him in the stomach.
"guak!" the examiner groaned after getting struck by the kick in the stomach as he flew towards the wall.
Bang!
His body was slammed into the wall and lost consciousness. His mouth and head were bleeding from the impact.
"..."
There was a moment of silence throughout the whole arena after that.
Was the probability of her defeating the examiner this low to the expectation of other participants? Or because of the attack, she displayed that immediately put the fight to a conclusion?
Of course, everyone would be shocked to see someone being able to defeat the trial examiner like this. It cannot even be called a fight anymore nor a one-sided fight, it's just a straight-up game of tag where the first one to strike wins.
With that, the whole arena was baffled.
"th-the trial examiner h-has been defeated, therefore. The winner of this match is participant Rose." announced the manager in panic as he hurriedly went to the examiner while requesting aid at the same time.
"no... No way. An A-rank examiner was defeated like that?" said a random person in bewilderment. His trembling voice cannot believe what he had seen.
"is this even possible?"
"that's insane. This is the first time I had seen someone defeating an A-rank examiner like that."
"Does that mean her strength exceeded an A-rank?"
"is that possible?"
Of course, others are no different from him who had just witnessed the whole fight. However, because of the evidence on hand, people are starting to believe what they saw.
Because of that, the people on the sides had gradually begun muttering at each other about the fight just now and decided to estimate her strength like a domino effect.
"Since I had won, it's fine for me to leave this place right?" Rose calmly said.
As a person in charge of the trial, the manager quickly nodded and told: "Yes you can. We will evaluate your rank later."
Rose quickly sheathed her sword before taking a glance at a certain area before leaving the arena.
I followed her trail and saw a beautiful young but older-looking woman than me.
I know nothing about this person. Who could exactly she be for a person like Rose to keep an eye on her?
Judging from her looks, she must have some sort of connection to royal families.
However... It wasn't her role or status in the aristocracy that got me curious but the smile coming from her expression... Was that intentional?
Albeit I had no information whatsoever about this person, it's safe to assume that there's a secret connection between the two. Otherwise, there's no other explanation for the eye contact they made just now.
Plus, that technique just now, a martial arts only us could use, Taekwondo.
A martial art solely focused on kicking created by a martial master from the north which was taught and passed down to us from the laboratory.
With her monstrous strength, it's natural for the enemy to suffer immense pain after taking that kick from the stomach.
Although it wasn't the martial art that caused him to be in that state, It's no wonder why the trial examiner couldn't endure it and lost consciousness easily for the first time. After all, Rose is ranked 3 in the laboratory.
That place is absolutely made to create monsters.
People who are bound to face them will suffer like him.