After a while, the carriage had reached the city many called the unofficial capital of Atsolaes. The Redcrest Academy was easily visible even from a large distance away. The atmosphere of the city was just like Darmil, yet so different.
Similar in the sense that both were extremely beautiful cities, but different in the sense that while Dalmar had more civilians roaming the streets, Redcrest was more filled with the voices of adventurers and warriors.
This wasn't a surprise as the central guild of Atsolaes was located here.
Soon, they made it to the building that was even grander than the royal palace in Dalmar. The first thing one would notice about the academy was the large crest that was floating over the academy. It was a female dragon in her humanoid form with wings out and the red dragon of the Dragonhart family on her chest.
Az obviously knew who this was supposed to represent, Sierra Dragonhart, known as the strongest female warrior in the history of Atsolaes and the first woman to become a ruler of Atsolaes over 20 million years ago.
Soon, the door opened as they saw the guards at the academy saw the mighty bear, which was the crest of the royal family. As the carriage passed through the door and stopped, the carriage driver got out of the carriage and opened the door for Az, who slowly got out of it.
"Do you know where we go from here, Mr. driver?" Az asked the carriage driver.
The driver, who was a Master level aura user, hung his head in shame. "I'm afraid not, your highness. I never went to Redcrest and when I tried to ask her majesty about it before we started our journey, she just smiled and said you would figure it out."
Az just smiled, easily seeing his mother doing that. "No problem, there are so many students walking around here. We can just ask one of them."
Soon, a young girl was about to pass through them when Az stopped her. "Hello, miss."
The girl stopped walking when she heard a voice and turned to its direction to see Az walking towards her. "I was just wondering where the new admissions should go from here."
However, the girl seemed to be too out of it to reply to his question. "Hello, hello." He said it a few more times before she finally broke out of it.
She almost went into a trance again as she saw Az smiling at her again. "So fucking handsome." "Ah, you can just go towards the left for about 5 minutes, and you'll see a very long line which is for you to register your name and collect your exam card." She said, a slight blush creeping on her face.
"Ah, it seems there are people who are both beautiful and kind in this world. Nice to meet you, Ms...?" Az asked, the smile still on his face.
"Tara Ashbluff, from the cow beastmen house of Ashbluff." She replied, her face as red as a tomato.
She finally exploded when Az kissed her hand and said, "What a beautiful name. My name is Azrath Bloodfallen. Nice to meet you, Ms. Tara."
The driver watched all this with tears threatening to come out of his eyes, cursing himself for not being born with a handsome face like the young prince.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It seemed the young girl was not kidding when she said the line was long. Azrath looked at the line with veins popping out of his forehead.
"Your highness, I have an artifact that allows one to cast an illusion over others below level 10 mage or a Grandmaster level aura user." The driver said.
"How much?" Az replied, knowing what he was getting at. Such an artifact wouldn't be cheap.
"500 gold." The driver said.
"Deal." Az agreed. Since he became a prince, his perspective on money had changed, feeling that most artifacts were worth much more than what they were normally sold at, because of how rare they were.
It took 10 minutes to just cast the magic that lasted for a minute, which was why it wasn't useful in most cases, but it was very useful in situations like this.
The artifact disappeared into thin air as it was a single use artifact as Az and the driver shamelessly cut the line.
"I believe my name is already registered, although I don't know in which year. Can you please check it, sir? My name is Azrath Alikerth Bloodfallen." Az said to the man who seemed to be responsible for the admission and all.
The man nodded, not really caring for the illusion as it wasn't his business. He closed his eyes and after a while, "You've been registered for the entrance of 4th year. Go 3 buildings down from here." He said while handing him a card which said Entrance card with his name and other info on it.
Az nodded and walked away. "I think I can manage from here. Thank you and here you go." Az said as he threw a bag of gold coins that appeared in his hand from his storage ring towards the driver.
The driver nodded and walked away after giving Az a deep bow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Wow. Look at that guy. He's so handsome." One girl whispered to another one that was beside her.
"Yeah. Is he new though? I didn't see him during the 3rd year." The girl whispered back.
Az could perfectly hear them saying that and also the compliments of other girls, along with the remarks from the boys that clearly stemmed from their jealousy. And being the narcissist he was, he was enjoying the attention.
Right now, he was in a room that was meant for the written portion of the entrance test. The entrance consisted of 3 portions, the written portion, a fight among the contestants, and finally a fight with a person in the year they were applying for.
For the last portion, you didn't need to beat the person, just be good enough.
Soon, the whispers stopped as soon as a woman appeared in front of them. The woman was quite beautiful with dark black hair and blood red eyes. She wasn't as remarkable as Diana and Lia in Az's eyes, but she was still an extremely fair lady.
"What's up, brats. Amelia Albatroz here. Better forget about cheating today." She said with a grin revealing her side teeth that were in line with her vampire heritage as the whole class groaned.
"Aw, man. Why her?" A boy right beside Az complained. Clearly, this teacher didn't have a good reputation.
"Shut up. We're all in the first row anyway. At least she's hot." The boy beside him said, mirroring Az's thought process.
"Alright, you all have only an hour to answer all 60 questions." Amelia said.
"What? That's so unfair." Someone yelled out.
"You just have to pass, not attempt all questions. Plus, they're all mcq's. So, it's pretty fair as far as I'm concerned." She said as she snapped her fingers, causing a paper to appear in front of all of them.
Az saw the question and was surprised at how easy this was. Others didn't seem to share this thought process as panic was clear on their faces.
30 minutes later, Az was already finished with his paper and was starting to get bored. He leaned back in his chair and just relaxed. Unfortunately,
"Well, pretty boy, you seem pretty relaxed. Don't you have to write your exam." Amelia questioned.
"I have pretty fast hands, you see." Az replied simply. It didn't seem that Amelia got his little joke as there was no change in her expression and the others were in too much of a hurry to notice his joke.
"Azrath Alikerth Bloodfallen, eh? I did hear that a prince was going to take the exam for 4th year directly. Do you really think that you can pass the 4th year exam as a 13-year-old." Amelia asked.
"I might." Az said simply with a shrug and a smile.
Amelia burst out in laughter. "I like your attitude, brat. Now, let's see your paper, shall we?"
Az just kept smiling.
Amelia looked through the paper with surprise clear in her face, before it turned into an amused smile. "All correct, huh. Pretty impressive, but just being book smart won't be enough, you know?"
"Good thing I'm not just book smart then." Az replied with a confident smile. Amelia simply laughed and continued making rounds around the room.
Half an hour later, "Times up, brats." Amelia said as she kicked a person who was still writing even after the bell rang.
Seeing her kick someone, everybody immediately stopped writing, and thus began the whispers again. "Hey, did you hear that? That guy's a prince and he also got all questions correct."
"Aw, he's only 13, I might go to jail if I kidnap him and do naughty things with him."
"I don't think so. It's only 3 years difference."
"I don't mind going to jail for him."
"Fuck him being a prince. I hope I get to fight him in the 2nd portion. I'll show him."
"Brother, envy is a sin."
"Yeah dude, jealousy is not cool."
"Bastards. Don't act like you aren't jealous."
"You are jealous because you think with your cock. I think with my brain. Thus, I'm not jealous."
"I'm not gonna lie, I am jealous. But at least I'm not bitching about it like you."
"Alright, children. Time to announce the results." Amelia announced.
Az wasn't surprised that the result was being announced so soon. He knew that the papers had a special magic that would let certain people know the exact no od right answers given just by touching them.
Amelia just started naming a bunch of people, making them hopeful that they passed. "You all failed. The rest of you pass. Follow me to the sparring grounds."
Among the around 2000 people that were there, only about 500 passed. Taking into account that there were 6 buildings that were holding entrances for the 4th year and that there were only 300 students in a year, about 2500 more would be eliminated in the other two portions, half of the ones remaining from the 1st portion going in 2nd portion and the others in the 3rd portion.
"Oh, man. I failed."
"Man, me too. The questions were way too hard."
"Bro, I'm sorry we have to separate."
"Wahhhhh. My mom's going to kill me."
Az was indifferent to all this as he followed Amelia along with the other people who passed.
As they were walking, a brown-haired guy who looked like he could be dismissed as a side character any day of the week, put his hands on Az's shoulder. "Hey, man. It's nice to meet you, my name is Obu Obu Obu."
Az was surprised. Both by the fact that someone approached him so casually despite him being a prince and also at the realization of how much someone must hate their children to name them such a …. unique name.
He just flashed him a small smile of pity as he said, "It's nice to meet you, umm, Obu. My name is Azrath. You can just call me Az."
Others who were listening to the conversation were surprised. They thought the boy would get insulted for so casually approaching the prince. However, Az was pretty polite and even allowed him to call him by a nickname.
"All right then, Az." Obu said.
The people listening to this labelled Obu as an idiot. Even if the prince was cool with it, you don't just call royalty by a bloody nickname. Meanwhile, Az was quite amused by how stupid this guy was. He didn't particularly care as Obu wasn't trying to disrespect him in any way, but he knew this idiot wouldn't survive 3 days in the academy.
"Hey, Az. As your friend, let me give you some advice. Just be careful when fighting, ok. The guys here are pretty strong." Obu said with concern in his voice.
Az just laughed it off. "Of course."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Az wasn't particularly impressed by the sparring grounds. They were just as he expected, quite normal. Infront of him, he saw 5 people. He immediately understood who they were.
One of them was the person who decided who fought who for the 2nd portion, 3 were the judges for the 3rd portion and the last one was the one they were to fight for the 3rd portion.
Az smirked as this was the part he was looking forward to the most.
...…. To be continued
A/N: Well boys, 10 chapters completed. Let's goo. Give me them power stones. Anyway, peace out.
Amelia Albatroz visual.