Yune looked down at his chest.
In the middle of his chest, a purple mark the size of a tennis ball could be seen emitting a faint aura. If other people saw this mark, they would probably not look twice at it, but for some reason it struck awe in Yune.
Yune couldn't help but just stare at the mark that was left on his chest, it seeming more intricated than it looked. It felt so familiar like it had always been there, but at the same time it was alien to the point where he couldn't fathom the existence of it.
The mark was relatively simple, being made up of two patterns: a circle made up of four broken lines and a plus sign in the center of it, going through each line making up the circle.
Deep in thought, trying to process what just happened, Yune couldn't help but just stare at the mark that was left on his chest, speechless. The situation was all too overwhelming.
Everything happened so fast that Yune hadn't entirely processed what just happened. What he did know, however, is that he had just been subject to the marking phenomenon, something the chances for were equivalent to winning the lottery.
Not even having put his thoughts in place yet, Yune suddenly felt his left arm being grabbed. Looking over his shoulder, Yune had to tilt his head up to see the tall man that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. On the hand that was holding Yune, a mark could be seen through their glove, emitting a faint glow.
Startled by someone suddenly grabbing him, Yune turned his head to get the attention of someone, anyone. Only then did he notice that everyone around him had taken a few steps back, having created an open space in the sea of people.
Trying to pull his arm away from the tall man's grip, Yune didn't even get it to budge one bit. But Yune didn't stop struggling as he didn't know who this man was or what he would do to him.
Still struggling to pull away his arm, Yune glanced back.
At that moment every ounce of struggle vanished as the boy's wide eyes were staring at one woman in particular. Even though he was staring at the woman, she had no eyes for him or the situation he was in. Instead, her eyes were glued to a check she was being handed by someone who wore the same attire as the man who was holding him by the arm.
So many emotions were going through the boy's mind that the expression that was being portrayed through his eyes were void of any of them. Just emptily staring at the woman. What his eyes couldn't portray because of the flood of emotions, his tranquil mind could.
'I can't believe a check is more important than me. Not once in the fourteen years that she had taken care of me at the orphanage did I see such a big smile on her face.'
'So, money is more important to you than me… Did you ever even care for me? Was it all just for this very moment?'
Yune opened his mouth, wanting to speak what was on his mind, cursing the woman. But no words were coming out as he suddenly felt dizzy, feeling as if he had spun thousands of times in a single second, his sight immediately blackening.
Struggling to stay on his feet, Yune swayed as he felt the world spinning. The only thing preventing him from falling was the tall man holding his arm firmly. After a good few seconds, the dizziness started subsiding and his sight suddenly came back.
Slowly looking up from the ground, Yune's eyes widened as he laid his eyes upon the portal directly in front of him. Only now could he get a feel for its actual gigantean size. But what was more shocking was not the size of the portal, but its appearance. The blue nebulae surrounding the darkness what was the portal looked even more… unfathomable.
Standing side by side with a few dozen people, Yune was now directly before the massive portal. The only thing standing between them was a single human.
That human, however, gave of a feeling that even if every single person in the dome rushed toward the gate, no one would be able to pass. Standing well over two meters tall, his muscular build was pressing against his uniform that was riddled with ribbons and medals.
Yune didn't know what these ribbons or medals were for, but he did know that not a single other person here had even one of these ribbon or medals on their uniforms. Not even the tall man that was holding Yune, which he couldn't even pull an arm away from.
The man, who Yune could only surmise to be a military commander, looked up at Yune and the dozen people that were standing beside him. Just his gaze was domineering, Yune's body shuddering as his eyes locked with the commander for a fraction of a second.
"You on the right, come here."
As soon as his command left his mouth, the person standing upmost right to Yune couldn't react faster and walked up to the commander as if their lives depended on it.
The conversation that followed couldn't be heard. The only hint of what the conversation was about was the commander's expression, his brows only narrowing before sending the child to the side.
Not wasting a second, the commander called up person after person. His brows narrowing more often than having a neutral expression. Not having seen the commander even remotely happy or content once, Yune's heart started beating louder.
Looking to the left of him, there was only one person before he was going to be called up. Standing beside Yune was a girl with a golden mark on her right hand.
'Is that the person who emitted that strong golden light?'
"Next! You, come here."
The girl walking forward, the corner of the commander's mouth instantly curled upwards as he laid his eyes upon the mark on the girl's hand.
'So, the muscles on the side of his mouth do work…'
For the first time Yune could hear what the conversation was about as the commander was basically shouting it from excitement.
"Good, very good. A natural holy light mark, the glow you emitted was strong and the mark has a good placement. I will get praised for such a result for sure, I might even get rewarded."
Hearing this, Yune's suspicions were confirmed. They were being evaluated by the marks they received. Their worth was being determined.
'Well, hopefully I am worth it…'
Yune couldn't help but be a little excited behind his bitter thoughts as he would soon find out if he had gotten a good mark.
Next in line was Yune. As he was called up, he was still nervous, but a little less than before as he now looked at the commander.
'He is still in a good mood, maybe I will benefit from this.'
But that thought was quickly rebutted as the corner of the commander's mouth dropped to its natural position, which was slightly curled down, as he laid sight upon Yune's mark.
Seeing the commander's expression worsen, Yune's heart sank a little. But this situation still wasn't that bad.
'At least the commander's eyebrows had not narrowed yet. So, my mark can't be that bad, right?'
For the next minute, the commander didn't say anything as if deep in thought. This was the longest the commander had taken by far, the rest of the evaluation being done in mere seconds.
Seeing this take longer and longer, Yune's heart started beating faster and louder with each second passing.
'This can't be good, can it? What is taking so long?'
As soon as Yune thought this, the commander finally broke the silence.
"Possibly a good placement… but what is that mark? I have never seen it before."
Hearing this, Yune's heart outright stopped for a second. He didn't change expression, but he was internally screaming at the commander.
'How can you not know what mark this is?! You have so many medals on your chest, but you don't know what mark this is?! Maybe you should read more books, maybe then-'
Cutting himself off, Yune suddenly realized that he also didn't recognize the mark on his own chest. He himself had read a lot of books about all sort of different marks, but he also didn't recognize it.
The next minute that followed was as silent as the one before, only this time Yune wasn't nervous. Better said, Yune was too deep in thought to be nervous, trying to think about what his mark was himself.
This time the silence was broken by the tall man that was standing beside Yune, still holding his arm for some reason.
"He didn't give of a bright glow, sir."
Yune looked up at the tall man in disbelief, his eyes trying to stare a hole in the man.
'How could you betray me, tall man!'
Yune couldn't see because he was too busy staring at the tall man, but the commander's expression changed for the worse, his eyebrows narrowing.
"Probably a useless mark then… well we don't know for sure. Place him in the admittance group."
Looking at the direction the commander was pointing at, he saw that he was pointing at the group where the girl with the golden mark was standing.
When Yune saw this, he didn't waste a second and quickly scurried over there without any complaints.
'Luckily, I didn't interrupt the commander when he said that my mark was probably useless. That could have been bad…'
But this didn't happen, so Yune set this thought aside and stood beside the blonde-haired girl with a wide smile on his face, all signs of nervousness having left his body.
But a thought had entered Yune's head again, something he couldn't just shake off.
'What mark do I have…?'
Yune had always been inquisitive by nature, and now, being clueless about the most significant thing that had ever happened to him, receiving a mark, Yune could think of nothing else besides this.
But no matter how hard he thought about it, turning the gears inside his head, Yune didn't even have the slightest clue as to what his mark could be.
'My mark is purple. At least I know that, thank the gods for not making me colorblind, I guess…'
But that was literally the only thing that Yune could go off to try and figure out what mark he had, an impossible task, but Yune was still racking his brain over this as he couldn't let this question linger in his mind.
Suddenly, Yune's arm was grabbed again. At this point this had happened so much that he didn't pay attention to it, his mind still somewhere else. It was only when a sudden dizziness hit his mind that he snapped out of thought.
Back to reality, Yune's eyes couldn't help but widen in utter shock.
Yune had entered a portal.