"What?" Nera smiled, dumbfounded.
"One minute and two seconds!" The knight smiled joyfully at her. "This has never been done before, you're amazing, Lady Ponterise!"
"One minute?" The knight beside Nera's line spoke and the others looked as amazed as the one in front of Nera. 'Woah's were heard all around the Coliseum.
Nera shook the knight in front of her excitedly.
"Do you mean it?!"
"Yes!" The knight showed her the device and it did indeed show her time as one minute and two seconds.
"That's crazy!" Nera shouted.
"You're crazy!" The knight shouted back, which was considered rude but Nera wouldn't care less even if she wasn't drunk in excitement at this moment.
"I know! What the hell!" Nera excitedly hit the knight on his back. Both of them raised their arms and screamed happily.
'I can't believe this!' She jumped up a down. She breathed out and regained her composure outside but inside, she still wanted to scream. 'I'll brag later at our house...'
She cleared her throat and patted the knight's back.
"Thanks for your work."
"I'm just doing my duty, my lady." The knight shyly bowed as he realized he had been shouting with the Marquess' daughter.
She sat down on the chairs at the side, reserved for the finishers, and was given healing patches and water to recover her energy.
A few minutes later, she finally saw a familiar face finish the course.
Nera looked at the person and it was Gerald cu Coulden. She smiled at him as he walked to the chairs.
As she was about to say 'Congratulations on finishing safely', he suddenly bowed at her.
"You're amazing, Lady Ponterise!" He shouted in a robotic voice.
Nera awkwardly smiled and patted his back. "Thank you. You too!"
Gerald showed a small grin and sat down beside her.
"Woah, you finished first?" Ren crashed his body next to Gerald which made the blue-haired boy flinch. "That's cool... You too, Lady Ponterise." He smiled while showing his teeth.
"Thanks, you too!" She smiled back.
"What was your time, Gerald?" Ren asked.
"...Three minutes and 16 seconds." He somewhat whispered.
"Oh! Mine is four minutes and 33 seconds!" Ren patted Gerald's back. "What about you, Lady Ponterise?"
"One minute and two seconds."
The two boys stared at Nera blankly and she stiffened.
"Woah!"
"Wow."
They shouted in unison.
"That's unheard of!" Ren shouted which made Nera excited again.
"Right?! I can't believe it myself!" She screamed, full of joy.
The two boys smiled at her and Rosa and Dianne showed up.
"We heard! Lady Ponterise! One minute!" Rosa shook Nera's shoulders.
"You're so amazing, Lady Ponterise!" Dianne praised.
"Thank you so much."
Nera handed the box of healing patches to the four of them and took some.
"I finished at four minutes and 52 seconds! I'm so annoyed, I slipped at the tenth course." Rosa grunted.
"I finished at four minutes and 59 seconds. Too close for comfort." Dianne sighed.
"Well, at least we all get above 90% score." Ren chuckled and patted Dianne's head. Rosa and Gerald nodded.
Nera's smile never left again as she saw the four of them getting excited.
'This feels really nice... yet familiar.'
***
As the five of them recovered their energy, the other five from their group arrived. The other five were all commoner examinees and to Nera's relief, they all finished before 6 minutes, which meant they had 80%.
When they heard Nera finish the whole course in a minute, they all suddenly lowered their heads to show their respects.
Nera bowed her head multiple times without noticing, which was uncommon for nobles, but she didn't think about those trivial things and just wanted to show her gratefulness for them congratulating her.
When the 10 of them arrived at the finish line, they moved to the waiting area to be called for the strength test.
When Nera walked by the starting line, she saw her brother Noah giving her a thumbs up. She chuckled, seeing how much he wanted to shout at her.
She looked around and couldn't find her other brother, Noel, and her father, Namilde around.
'I guess higher-ups aren't going to this test, huh?'
They sat down by the chairs and chatted.
"The next one is gonna be the easiest 90% in this whole exam." Ren sighed.
"You said it," Dianne nodded. "No other effort, at all."
Rosa and Gerald agreed. Nera wondered how strong these four were. Seeing the confidence they have and the fact that they were all able to finish the course in less than five minutes, that alone is a feat.
'I should ask my father about Count Pentrefila's family.'
Since all of them were trained under Rosa's father, she couldn't help but wonder why she hasn't heard about such a man. Closing her eyes, she quickly realized why.
'Ah, I should really start socializing.'
After an hour, they were called by the announcer.
"50-59, please line up to the strength test."
"Here we go, then we get to go home after!" Rosa shouted.
"Agreed," Nera spoke.
They each went to a designated station where there was a knight of earth affinity waiting for them. The knight in front saluted and Nera saluted back.
"We'll start in 100% with 500 kilograms then go down to lighter ones if you can't carry this one." The knight raised a 500-kilogram block of earth from the ground.
Nera breathed out and looked at the size of the block.
'It looks really heavy...'
She crouched down and as she put her fingers under the block, it easily moved.
'What the hell? It isn't?'
It was like carrying an empty cardboard box. Thinking that it was overconfidence talking but then she stood up with the block in her hands and she carried it with ease.
'What's up with today? It's scary how easy this is...'
The knight's face was slightly surprised at how Nera easily carried the block from the ground. He checked if she was using aura, and she wasn't. It wasn't new for someone to be able to carry it to get a perfect score, but he saw how she was able to carry it leisurely, he couldn't help but gasp in his head.
***
"Ah! That's my lovely daughter!" Peryani exclaimed while she was taking a video as she saw Nera carry the big block. Her fan was over half of her face and her eyes were teary.
Jasmine covered her mouth as she gasped.
"She's... really strong." She uttered then turned her head to Jamie.
Jamie's eyes widened as he saw the scene and he didn't notice that his sister was staring at her.
"Amazing..." He mumbled while smiling.
Jasmine smirked as she heard him say that word. She lightly nudged his arm and it made the boy flinch.
"What?" He glared at his suspiciously smiling sister. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Sigh, I told you Nera is amazing."
"Ugh," Jamie immediately covered his mouth, "Did I say that out loud?"
Jasmine nodded and shrugged, "It's not hard to admit that you're starting to want to be friends with her, right?"
"That's..." He trailed off and glanced back to Nera. He poked his sister, then pointed to where Nera was.
"Oh my!" Jasmine exclaimed happily.
***
'I guess this is why people looked down on the body test, it's crazily easy... I wonder if I can carry this with one hand...'
She pursed her lips and she removed her other hand under the block then carried it with one hand.
'This is really the heaviest? The blocks that father made me carry are way heavier...'
The privilege, that is for Nera, of being a Ponterise is that her whole family is dedicated to getting stronger in order to serve the Empire, of course, her father's menu regiments aren't going to be normal. Although, it was normal for the Ponterise siblings.
"Are we done?" Nera spoke to the knight while she was carrying the 500-kilogram block with one hand.
The knight slowly nodded while his eyes were still stuck to her hand.
Nera gently placed it down the ground but it made a loud thud when it touched the floor.
"Thank you." Nera saluted to the knight and she left the station.
The knight was still in awe and stuck to his place but as he saw her saluting, he did it back immediately.
Nera walked back quite proudly to the waiting area and handed her number to the collector.
The man lazily took the piece of metal from her and swiped it at the crystal ball. His eyes blinked a few times at the numbers shown on the crystal ball, he kept glancing back and forth from the crystal ball to the beaming purple-haired woman in front of him.
"How did I do?" Nera asked, despite knowing how she did. "Just to make sure."
"Perfect score," The man showed a lazy grin. "Good job."
Her smile only got wider as he heard him say those words. He handed her number back and she pinned it where it was.
"Good luck tomorrow..." He waved his hand and she gave her senior a salute.