After Nero understood the blood codex and finished his trial he felt the same deprivation sensation he had felt when he entered and closed his eyes.
'Finally, this is over. I wonder how much time I spent in there, whit all the pain and deep meditation on the codexes, the sense of time I had was completely distorted. It didn´t help that nothing in that hell seemed to change after all this, it was the exact same when I got there and when I left.'
A couple of seconds passed and he felt the normal sensations return to his body, he opened his eyes, and a confusing sight appeared in his vision. A slight blush appeared on his cheeks.
He didn´t return to the outside world like he was expected to, instead, he appeared once again behind the sofa in the white administration room.
"What the hell are you doing to my body!?"
The administrator had his back to him, but the sudden shout made him and his three maids turn to Nero. When Nero appeared in the room they were all in very suggestive positions, two of them were by his side rubbing their voluptuous bodies against 'Nero's' skinny frame, and the last one was seated slightly in front of them, feeding him whit what seemed to be purple apple slices.
"You came back, I'm glad."
The administrator clapped his hands and the three maids got up, bowed in his direction, and left the white room.
"I watched your whole trial from here, congratulations on forming the three codexes! I thought it would take you way longer to comprehend the blood one especially."
"Why?"
"Well, you must have felt it yourself. The blood codex is a very profound and deep one, normally it would take a normal Listener two times the time it took you to get it, even the most incomplete one."
A frown appeared on Nero's face.
"Is mine incomplete? And what made me get it this fast?"
"Both are very good questions and are related to the reason I brought you here. Your blood codex is incomplete, but that´s a normal thing, almost every single codex is made incomplete not counting a few exceptions. Can you guess what they are?"
Nero paused and looked at the three codexes in his mind, the answer was obvious when you compared all three of them.
"The essences that have a god."
"Ring! Ring! Ring! We have a winner!"
"But how those that affect my comprehension time in learning the blood codex"
"I was gonna get to that. Why do you think you had such an easy time learning the sword codex? Because the blueprint to it was literally in your blood! If the key to blood affinity is literally in your blood, and about 50% of your blood is made of something you are perfectly attuned to, your time trying to comprehend the blood codex was obviously halved."
A proud feeling emanated from the sword codex, having someone as powerful as the administrator speaking highly of it was really busting his ego.
'I get it, your awesome, can you let me focus on the conversation?'
"Now for the reason I brought you here. I was asked by a friend to give you a small help, hide your blood affinity."
'A friend?'
A dark look appeared on Nero´s face.
"Why? You know I have a good reason to show it off."
"Yes, your sister. It´s all very sad, but you got it all wrong, being a dual affinity ascendant is a rare enough thing for the sword clan to sponsor your sister's treatment. Showing your three affinities will only endanger you, and will diminish your chances to grow more powerful in the future."
"But why? And how do I fake it? Won´t they have ways to check when I get out?"
"You are really curious about things. Stop asking so many questions and just do what I say, you are really ruining my mood."
"But -"
"No buts, I will send you out now. Just do as I said and everything will be good."
Vroom.
He felt the depriving sensation return and after a couple of seconds, he was back outside. He opened his eyes and saw a group of people gathered in a semicircle around him, Claire was at the front of this group, half a step in front of the other people.
"I guess only the two of you came back, it´s a bit less than what we expected but it's within the predictions."
'Two?'
He looked to his side and saw the most perfect youth he ever saw, it seemed like a goddess had hand-crafted every single detail on his face. The hair on his head was one of the most peculiar he had ever seen, like every single color in the universe was represented on his long waives.
"Nero?"
'What? How does he know my name?'
"Jake?"
"Yes! What the hell happened to your hair?"
'My hair?'
"What the hell happened to your hair? And your face! You look like one of those models from the magazines!"
Clare stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down, all of your doubts will be answered in a while. Let me check your backs first"
"My back?"
"Yes, the information on your codexes will be on your backs."
Jake looked at Clare.
"But how? The administrator of my trial explained that the codexes only existed in my mind. Nobody can steal or copy what I understood, it´s something exclusively mine."
"True, the codex and comprehension are exclusively yours, but they manifest on your backs as tattoos. Nobody really knows why this happens, so don´t ask."
'Crap, so they can check! How the hell am I supposed to hide a freaking tattoo!'
Nero took a step back.
"Why do you need to check it? Shouldn´t it be a personal secret?"
"We need to input it into the database, and the clan's recruitment group will look at it to evaluate if they want to recruit you or not. Don´t worry, every detail about yourself and your affinities will be kept hidden by the ascender's privacy regulation"
'Fuck! I guess I can´t really keep it hidden. Let´s see what the administrator meant when he said he would take care of it.'
Following Clare's indication Jake and Nero went to the middle of the group and stand whit their backs faced to her. After a couple of seconds, a camera appeared on her hand and Claire asked them to take off their shirt.
A shocked face appeared on every single person in the crowd.