5th of Libra, there was chaos in the palace. Even though the palace was small, the noise and the panic among the people was immense. Anjela, First Young master's wife, her water broke and she was ready to give birth, she was only 16 when she was married into Yadeth household, now after 3 years she was giving birth to the first of the 3rd generation of Yadeth. After suffering and holding it for more than 3 hours she fainted and gave birth to a boy. The Baron was happy and content that he got an heir, the eldest young master was happy to have a son who will call him father and the rest of the family was happy to have a child around.
Looking back at it, it was probably the only time that boy, made anyone happy with his presence.
The boy was prophesised to be named with either "C" or "Y" and after thinking prudently the family named him Chrys. Chrys Yadeth, the pride of Yadeth and the reason of their happiness.
Time flew by and the kid grew up to be in his teens thirteen to be precise, it was around the time when people begin to develop affinity to mana, this was the time when one's faith decided whether they will either live a life full of prosperity, if they have great affinity to mana, or if they will live a life full of shame, if they have no affinity to mana.
Chrys went to the capital with his father to take the exam.
"I will score the highest and become a great mage. I will make you proud papa." Chrys said in a high pitched voiced filled with enthusiasm.
"Yes, yes you will my dear son" replied Vickir Yadeth with a smile. He hid his emotions of inferiority that were swelling up inside of him.
Even though there were many outskirt nobles below him he always felt inferior to those above him. Yadeth was a small town in the outskirt high up in the north, it had no importance to the kingdom, tourism was the only business sector which was keeping the city alive. Yadeth was far away from neighbouring empires so it was safer but no one really cared about the city, due to which the funds with the Yadeth family were low, hence, they only have two carriages as the cost to maintain even a modest looking one was at the very least 10 silvers a month.
One carriage was designated for the Baron and none can use it except for him and his wife, while the other was for everyone to use. This time Baron's youngest son and only daughter were attending the academy, hence the other carriage was used by them only. This left Vickir with nothing but his horse. Vickir was angry at his own father.
'To think he will put his eldest through shame in front of all the nobles at the capital.' He felt betrayed and even thought to go back to the city and come only when he has a carriage but seeing how happy his son was to attend the test, he let go of his emotions and walk through the capital with his son on the horse.
"Form a line in front of the gate, those with royal passes can cut the line and come straight to the gate." A mage guard was using mana to amplify his voice to announce details about the mana test. "Those from royal background will have yellow bands, those from the noble background will have red bands and commoners will be given black bands. DO NOT DESTROY OR MISPLACE THE BAND"
"Stay with me and don't let go of my-"
"Hey! Hey! Look who we have here." Said Miles while interrupting Vickir who was giving directions to Chrys.
Seeing Miles, Vickir's face twisted. He never liked Miles, since their childhood Miles has only bullied him. He was one of the several reasons which made Vickir drop out of the academy and why he had to learn the way of swords by himself.
"Have you come with your child too?" Miles asked.
"Yes." Vickir answered firmly.
"Ohooo!! Me too. What do you say Vickir, shall we make a bet on who will perform better?" Said Miles with a smirk.
Miles Benedict, he did not belong to any distinguished family, he too was from an outskirt noble family that had a region, smaller than Yadeth, under his control, yet, he was much well off than the Yadeth household. This is because he was a distant cousin to Dakur Von Klaus, one of the prominent figures in the Vampire Assembly. Miles was one-sixteenth of a Vampire himself, that is why had to cover himself, though not as much as those who were half or full blood vampires. Moreover, he might have never even met Dakur more than a couple of times, despite that, Miles made full use of his connection.
"No. I am not obliged to do that. Moreover, that was the time of the past, it is neither that time nor am I that person anymore. Looks like it is our turn now." Vickir did not even wait for a response and went inside the gate.
A red band was given to Chrys, while putting the band around his wrist the supervisor repeated the instructions announced by the mage guard.
Chrys entered the arena and Vickir was told to sit on the side with the rest of the parents and audiences.
The test was being held in a common arena where all sorts of competition or events takes place, it was organized by Empirical Society of Mana. It did not distinguish between royals, nobles or commoners, the bands were only given to distinguish the talent by their social ranking and help the scouting agents sent by different academies to scout them. Everyone despite of their social ranking and power, they had to sit on the same place amongst each other. This for many could be an issue of security but Empirical Society of Mana (ESM) had talented faculty to look after security.
1000s of security warrior guards, 100s of mage guards and 10s of healer mages were here, among them was Arnold Werchester, a Sword Saint who could slash a mountain with a slight movement of a knife and Winston Bardock, who was an 8th halo mage. They were both were enough to take over an entire country. Moreover, the only royal present there was Juan Palsey, youngest son of The King and a swordsmen of Sword Warrior level, accompanying him was her aide, Kath. Her identity was a mystery but she was rumoured to be at the level of a Sword Master. Juan was here to see the performance of his cute little sister, Athena.
*POW*
Chrys was on his knees with tears coming down his eyes.
"Y-You!!"
"Shut up, you lowly peasant. How dare you touch my robe" Athena shouted with anger in her eyes.