"To think that there would be two Excellent Ranked Candidates this time, when there hadn't been one in a long time." The woman appeared truly pleased with the development as it was a good thing for this place.
"What a pity that the other guy is the son of Arthur. At the end of the day, he'll still choose the path of sword. But for you, the paths are infinite. Your journey is just beginning. And the moment Lord Merlin comes out of his seclusion, I'm sure he'll be happy to meet you as well."
The woman kept speaking a lot of things, but Raven paid attention to just two things that he found quite interesting. First was that Uther was also selected in the same grade as him. And the second and more important was that Merlin was in seclusion.
After talking for a long time, Circe reached the last point, telling Raven that the documents on the table included every information he had to know about this place.
She also pointed towards a form that Raven had to fill with all his details for the last layer of verification.
"Remember to fill the form honestly, because every lie you write on it will be highlighted on its own. So there's no hiding the truth," Circe once again reminded Raven, paying special emphasis on the importance of that form.
She also told Raven that until he filled the form and it was verified by higher authorities, he couldn't leave this room.
"Also, there's new clothes in the wardrobe. You can get changed into them whenever you get time. And lastly, I noticed that your body is quite frail. It looks like your life essence is weak, possibly because of some defect."
"When Lord Merlin comes out of seclusion and you meet him, he might be able to solve that problem for you. But until then, I've left you a small gift in the drawer."
Revealing a beautiful smile, Circe disappeared and the mirror returned to being a normal mirror.
For quite some time, Raven looked at the mirror. He was certain that it was easy to observe his every move in this place. There was no privacy in this Mansion.
He also understood why this was the case. Although Merlin had opened this place for others, he hadn't forgotten the purpose of this palace and what he wanted to keep secure. The security of this place was actually no less than Arthur's Palace. If anything, it was only harder here.
Raven walked toward the table, opening the drawer to see what 'gift' the woman was talking about.
As he opened the drawer, he noticed a golden pill, beginning with purity. He could feel the life essence within the pill as well. It was a pill that was known to increase the life essence within people who lacked it.
It was mostly used by old people who were at the end of their life, which made him quite amused that this was the gift for him.
He picked the pill, shaking his head lightly. Circe wasn't wrong. He lacked the essence of life essence, but this pill couldn't help him. For him, it was no different than an ordinary pill.
The Curse of Gaia didn't just weaken him, but it also made it impossible for him to use any healing pills. All the effects of pills were blocked by the curse from ever taking effect. In fact, these pills only made things worse.
His fate was sealed, making it impossible for him to free himself even with medicine created by saints. The only thing that could help him was his own strength.
Raven kept the pill in his pocket. Although it wasn't useful for him, he believed it could help the others. It was not easy to find a pill like this after all.
After keeping the pill, he looked at the form in front of him, which had various questions on it. Below each question, there was space for him to write the answers.
The form wasn't created using ordinary paper either. It was a unique form, made from the papers that were created using the branch of a World Tree.
It was just as Circe had said. It was impossible to fool the paper. Everything written on the paper was judged by the worldly laws itself, with all lies highlighted in red.
For quite some time, Raven looked at the form. However, he didn't pick up a pen to answer.
He walked toward the door to open it. Unfortunately, just as he had expected, the door was closed. It was truly the case that he was locked here and couldn't leave without filling this form.
Raven turned back to the table. He picked up the paper and read through the questions. The questions ranged from basic personal information to more in-depth inquiries about his abilities, experiences, and goals.
There were also questions that asked him about the person he hated the most and the person he loved the most, along with the reasons.
There were even questions that asked him if he had ever committed a crime, no matter how small. And in the next line, it asked to write about all the crimes.
Seeing the questions, Raven couldn't help but shake his head as he placed the form back on the table. If he was to count through conventional means, he believed the paper wasn't going to be enough for him to write every 'crime' by this world's standards that he committed.
He left the form on the table and picked up the other documents that contained the information about this Palace, including a detailed map.
First, he checked the map. There, he noticed that the Palace had five zones. The first zone was the Northern Palace which was marked as the House of Aggression. The second zone was in the Eastern Palace, marked as the House of Protection.
The Third Zone was in the Southern Palace, which was marked as the House of Thoughts. And the fourth was the Western Palace where he was, known as the House of Courage.
As for the fifth and the last zone, it was the Central Zone, which was marked as the Forbidden Area. Seeing the map, Raven was certain that it was his destination.