I felt a bit more awake now that the drawn-out speech was over.
I choose to stand as sitting in the comfortable couch made the exhaustion worse.
I looked down at the stage from the clear glass window to avoid Adam's questioning gaze.
Being read like an open book was very uncomfortable.
His enhanced perception could catch the smallest change in my expression, which allowed him to read me very easily.
It was odd when he pointed out an expression, I didn't know I was making.
However, there wasn't much I could do about it for now.
So, I decided to just look at the show.
Thousands of people wearing blue blazers emblazoned with gold and the academy logo filled the stage in a neat formation.
There were many groups of students and the only difference I could see from up here was that the groups with fewer students had more gold accents on their uniform.
They were from the elite classes, students with extraordinary talent on top of being an awakened.
Adam had his eyes set on the smallest group with a prideful smile, the one where Emma was located.
I couldn't see everything clearly because I couldn't bring mana to my eyes, but I could see them vaguely.
The cheers of the crowd were deafening, seemingly shaking the glass window as they looked at the future heroes.
"Alright everyone please calm down." A familiar stern voice rang through the stadium.
It was Corin, but instead of her battle-ready light armor she wore a suit as she stood on an elevated podium.
The crowd took some time to calm down as Corin began to introduce the groups of students and their instructors.
"-Finally, we have the Roc class with B class hero Troy Marton as their instructor."
A man with short black hair and a curved sword at his hip strolled onto the stage before standing in front of the elite class.
He had a confident grin on his face as he stood, his hair neatly styled to one side as his eyes scanned the crowd before landing on the window that I was looking through.
He then gave a smug grin before waving towards us.
"I'm going to kill him." Adam said in a low tone as he gave a fake smile and waved back.
At this point I got accustomed to everyone knowing Adam, but I knew how these two were related.
The headmaster of the academy Merlin wanted only the best B class heroes to train the Roc class, so he had made an offer.
He would personally assist the instructor in becoming the second hero ever to reach A rank.
Adam and Troy were the two main contenders both being heroes with many accolades and fame.
However, Adam would often fight with Merlin calling him old fashioned and out of touch.
Therefore, the position was given to Troy.
This dispute wasn't entirely known to the public until later on.
I looked at Adam for a bit.
In the original novel he died before the selection process could be completed.
I was hoping he could be the instructor this time, he was good at teaching, and I also respected him for going against the strongest awakened.
However, its mainly because Troy was a villain in the original novel.
He truly thought he would reach A rank with Merlin's help. He dreamt of power on a scale unlike any other.
Merlin's promises were false.
The only reason he was A rank was because of an elixir he had long ago which was also the reason for his seeming immortality.
He had no idea how to get another hero to his level.
Troy gets frustrated after months of waiting and eventually decides to turn to the quickest and easiest source of power for all awakened.
Corruption.
The final boss of the first arc, the main character had to beat his previous instructor.
'A lot of people will die.' I thought as I looked at Troy parading around the stage.
"Ajax?" Adams voice broke me out of my train of thought.
I realized I had forced mana to my eyes by instinct when looking at Troy as I rubbed my temples to ease the pain.
"Are you okay?" Adam asked with a concerned voice.
"Yes, just a bit tired."
I looked back up to see the students walking off the stage with their instructors.
Adam looked at me for a moment before moving the couch closer to the window and taking a seat.
"Here, rest. I'll wake you up if you fall asleep."
I nodded as I sat down, looking at the screen displaying the stage instead.
Most people had walked off the stage now and only three students stood with the headmaster Merlin and Corin on the podium.
Of course, I recognized the students.
"We would now like to announce the three candidates with the best scores on the entrance exam." Corin said.
"First up I'd like to introduce a generational talent, I have no doubt in my mind that this young man could reach even my level someday." Merlin spoke with enthusiasm.
"Rank number 1, everybody welcome Lucian Gray!" Merlin shouted as the crowd applauded.
On the screens a picture of Lucian was displayed along with his scores.
"76 Theoretical, 100 Practical!" Adam seemed pretty shocked by those scores.
As did everyone else as the crowd stared at the score in awe.
The second and third were introduced with their scores below Lucian.
'2. Emma Kane- 85 Theoretical, 87 Practical.'
'3. Marcus Reinhardt- 94 Theoretical, 81 Practical.'
The scores weren't inverted, it's just that Practical mattered a lot more than theory.
Lucian looked around as if this whole event was a bother to him, while Emma looked at him with competitive eyes.
Marcus only calmy looked at the two beside him before politely waving to the crowd.
The other two were phenomenal but 100 score was previously unheard of and most of the crowd was looking at Lucian in awe.
Soon the presentation ended with a few more awards for instructors and heroes.
The crowd took some time to recover from the announcement but as the presentation went on the crowd seemingly pushed it to the back of their minds.
As the formalities continued, I looked at Adam, he seemed bored but also seemed distracted.
He was probably still thinking about Lucian.
However, he would occasionally look like he wanted to ask me something before stopping.
I wasn't sure what he was thinking but I was hoping he could help Lucian get stronger faster, maybe some deaths could be prevented because of him.
The only way to know for sure was time.