Eric Axwell, the person who yielded seven thousand points from the origin capacity test. Looking at him up close made me realize just how much the two of us are alike. We're both wearing dirty ragged robes unlike everybody else. The only difference was, mine had a fancy suit underneath, whereas his was a set of dirty mercenary clothing. He is also wearing this dirty old blue scarf around his neck, which covers half of his face from everyone to see.
His hair is weirdly long but fitting. The gloomy look on his face made me remember the face I once wore when I first lost my parents and village. Even the toxic tone of his voice, it was very much like mine.
"Is that so? What happened?" I asked with a friendly tone, and Eric closed his eyes as he recalled.
"He gave up seconds after I walked up the arena." Eric recalled what happened, and I realized why the fight ended so early.
Because the fight… never happened.
"I… I see. That's disappointing, indeed--"
"Disappointing, but it allows me to watch your battle." Eric said suddenly, and I can tell he is wearing a grin underneath that scarf. "It was an amazing technique by the pretty prince, but you tanked it as if it was nothing."
Hearing himself getting called a 'Pretty Prince', Reju looked like he wanted to step forward. But, I spoke before he ever said a word.
"I got a little lucky there. There was a hidden hole in his technique that I abused, which allowed me to not get touched by the explosion at all." I said modestly, but Eric saw through the lie easily.
"Is that so? Then, I wonder if anyone else other than you can also survive if they did the same thing." He found the hole in my reasoning, that is how no one else could do such a feat unless they're as good as me.
"Funny. I have this hunch that a person like you can survive it."
"I doubt that I'll be able to come out without a scratch."
"Really? Well, it's not like I came out unscathed. Look." I lifted my right sleeves as I said it, and he noticed the burnt parts on my sleeves.
Eric stayed silent after that. From his silence, it seems like he is not the type to joke around.
"How did you do it?" He suddenly asked, and I turned confused.
"Do what?"
"How did you get exactly two thousand--"
BOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!
Eric's questions were cut off by the powerful explosion coming from an arena. We all turned our gaze to that area because the smoke coming from it was quite massive, and it seemed to be coming from the earth origin arena.
Right… the one fighting over there is him, wasn't it? The son of the holy knight?
I became quite curious about the result of this battle, and it seems like Eric is also curious about it. After about a few seconds, the smoke cleared, which showed us the aftermath of that blast just now.
The person standing is a scrawny child that is so thin that his arms and legs might as well be a tree twig. His height isn't quite tall, only about one hundred and sixty centimeters. If I'm not wrong, that person was the second highest scorer at the origin capacity test from the earth origin.
And the person kneeling on the ground in the middle of the smoke was the complete opposite of the child. His large body is on the ground, kneeling on his massive unit of legs. His expression wasn't quite noticed, but he proceeded to fall to the side after that.
Seeing that he has fallen over, the jury is satisfied with the result.
"Jonah Calfman has fallen. Winner, Regie Vagran!" The jury announced, and everyone from the earth origin cheered.
It seems like the battle was quite a heated one if the spectators were all so hyped about it. I didn't really see it happening, but it must be quite clear that Regie was overpowering Jonah during the battle. After all, that thin scrawny kid looked really healthy compared to his opponent once the battle ended.
After seeing the result of the battle, Eric turned his eyes back to me. "Anyway, as I was saying--"
"Nathan!!!"
From afar, a voice called out to me. I turned my gaze to the source, and running towards us from behind Eric is Lily. Her face looked quite happy, and it seems like she has won her battle.
"Lily? Did you win?" I asked her once she arrived next to me, and she lowered her head for a bit to catch her breath.
"Did you watch my battle!?" She asked with starry eyes, but I only turned my eyes away from her. Lily immediately noticed the meaning of that signal, and she held both my collars really tightly. "You didn't watch…?"
"W-Well…" I scratched my head while Lily's angered stare blazed my face.
Meanwhile, the guy I was talking to noticed that our conversation had been interrupted.
"It seems like you're quite busy. Then, we'll talk some other time." Eric then turned away as he excused himself, and I noticed that his sentence got cut off when Lily came.
"Wait." I said hurriedly before he left, and Eric turned his cold glare at me. "One day... One day, I'll show you what I'm capable of."
Eric heard my words loud and clear, and he pulled the scarf on his neck to show a really creepy grin at me. "You think you're good enough for me to notice you? Stop being delusional."
Ha… Look at this guy.
Eric then proceeded to walk away, and no one is stopping him despite what he said. Reju turned to me with confusion, but he didn't say anything since he respected how I felt.
"Sorry… did I mess up something?" Lily asked apologetically, and I only turned my annoyed eyes at her.
"How long are you going to keep holding my chest?" I asked with an annoyed glare, and Lily quickly realized her hand was still holding my robe.
"Oh… Oh! Because you didn't watch me fight!!"
"I mean, weren't you going to win anyway…?"
"It wasn't that easy!"
"Then, that's your problem!" I said without thinking, and Lily immediately became openly surprised.
She let go of my robe and started walking away. On the path she is leaving, I can see the girl that Lily previously mentioned to me. The girl realized Lily's state and quickly talked to her, and the two went away from our view.
"Did I say something wrong…?" I asked out of pure confusion, not knowing why Lily got so disappointed.
"My dear brother." Next to me, Reju called me quite coldly, and I only turned to him confused. "It seems like you need some counseling when it comes to talking with girls."
Hearing that coming from him, I only squinted my eyes. "From you!? Not in a million years."
"I'm just saying. I know what's wrong with what you said, and you don't." Reju lifted both his shoulders as he said it, and I became curious.
"What did I say wrong, then?"
"I wonder. Maybe you can learn if you talk to her more about what you mean." Reju gave the idea before walking away, and I can tell he is going to go back to the fire origin arena to watch the next battles.
Meanwhile, I was left thinking on my own. But, by the time I figured it out, the series of tests was already over.
All the applicants had already fought with one another, and the scores had been recorded. The test conductor then invited all the applicants to a different room where the next phase of the examination is going to be held.
The applicants all followed the test conductors into a large tall building in the middle of the academy. And once we arrived at the massive lobby, they finally announced what test we will be having here.
"This test is the last part of the examination. Keep in mind, failing this test will not kick you out of the academy. However, it will determine your position in classes for when the semester starts." The test conductor announced after everyone had arrived and lined up nicely at the lobby of the building.
"For this final test, all of you will be separated into groups of twenty. You will then be handled by one teacher for every group, and you will be led into a classroom… where the test shall be held." The test conductor continued, and everyone immediately knew what kind of test we would be having.
I can already hear some people grunting from realizing, and I also noticed some of them are showing their disgust over mathematics. I wonder why.
"Because for this next test, it will be a written-based theory exam. There will be a set of questions for you to answer, and the questions are divided into five categories. Language, biology, mathematics, history, and origins." The test conductor explained, and I can hear Reju sighing next to me.
"You gotta be kidding me…" He facepalmed after hearing the categories, and I only chuckled.
"Your best friend is back, Reju! Aren't you excited?"
"Best friend my ass… Why did it have to be a test?"
I patted Reju in the back to cheer him up, and he only bent his back from the disappointment. I've known him long enough to know how much he hated mathematics. But, it's not like I'm in the clear as well.
Language topics… are always the bane of my existence. I just suck at writing things.
And so, the teachers began to form us into groups. Fortunately, me and Reju got into the same group, and everyone else I knew went to the other groups. We then headed to the classroom on the third floor of this building. Reju and I chose a seat next to each other, but we didn't get any chances to cheat during the test.
There were ten questions for each category, and each category took fifteen minutes. The overall time for this test was an hour and fifteen minutes, which is the longest test so far. It's just pure suffering.
But, once it was done…
"Congratulations for passing all the examinations! I will now announce the result of the tests conducted today." The female teacher who was watching our last test announced to everyone in the classroom, and we all sighed in relief because there are no more tests.
The teacher then turned on the large screen behind her, and I just noticed that the whiteboard behind her was actually a screen for a device. The teacher touched the screen multiple times to reveal a certain appearance to the members of this classroom.
"That's… the results, isn't it?" Reju mumbled as he studied the things written on the screen, and I nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. I can't believe it took them that fast to calculate the results." My eyes studied the list of names on the large screen in front of the class.
I noticed that the list only shows the names of the members in this classroom. There are twenty people in this classroom, and there are also twenty names on that list. I guess they have separated the members based on this grouping, and it's quite easy to find our names that way.
Once I spotted my name, I quickly turned my gaze to the scores next to it. Immediately, I realized that all the plans I had in the beginning to hide my abilities had all failed.
"Nathan Fiore… Origin Capacity, S. Aiming, S. Firepower, S. Agility, S. Combat, S. Knowledge, S." I read out my results, and I was quite amazed that I got all of them with the perfect S rank. "Overall ranking, S. That's S for Sweet. What did you get?"
I turned my eyes to Reju's name, and I realized what I received was by no means the perfect result. I turned to Reju and realized that the guy was too shocked to say a word.
"Rejulus Fiordal. Origin Capacity, S+. Aiming, A. Firepower, S+. Agility, S. Combat, S+. Knowledge… C!?!?!?"
Reju stated his results one by one, and his voice cracked at the very last one. "And Overall ranking is A?? Not even an S??"
"I can't believe you fumbled that hard… If you failed only in mathematics, then you'd get at least A or B. But, C? What did you do??" I asked out of pure confusion, and it looks like Reju is even more confused than I am.
"I don't think I answered that badly!?"
"What's the name of the bone on your knee? That's question 6 of Biology." I remembered that question specifically because I had trouble remembering, so I asked Reju about it.
"Uh… I think I answered… 'Femur'?" Reju tried remembering, and I only facepalmed.
That's the thigh bone. They're close, but… not the right one.
"It's 'Patella'."
"Oh my god, I do suck…"
Reju facepalmed as well, and my eyes were then locked to his other scores. I noticed that his capacity test and firepower test are both ranked S+, which was odd because S was supposed to be the highest rank. What's even weirder was the fact that his combat is ranked S+, while mine ranked S.
"How did you get S+ in combat? I won and I got an S." I complained, and Reju only chuckled when he heard that.
"You never once showed your ability. All you did was take an attack head on." Reju tried giving a good enough reason.
"That's true… but, shouldn't my score still be higher? This is favoritism. Stupid crown prince title."
"Woi! Why are you bringing up real ranks!?" Reju angrily yelled at me, but I was already in my own thoughts.
If there's an S+ rank, then…
What ranks did that guy get?