Chapter One (Continued)
Alex opened his eyes and looked around. He saw people who had lost consciousness lined up in an orderly fashion, placed next to each other.
He stood up.
"Wow..." he said, taking in the scene. He noticed a few people had already woken up. In front of him stood a beautiful girl in an aristocratic outfit, holding a towel. she was extremely beautiful and had respectful expression, she was also really professional, they took great care of the examinees here because they had incredible powers and people participating here had great confidence in pride and could pass the exam. so she was looking forward to making connections. with the examinees to make sure she would be incredible.
"Greetings, Mr. Alex. You have passed the qualification test for our Greek University. You may wait in the waiting room until the test concludes," the girl said with a warm smile.
"Thank you. Could you tell me how much time has passed since we entered the test?" Alex asked as he brushed off the dust from his clothes.
"Oh, about a month," the girl responded.
"Wha--- cough, that's... nice..." Alex smiled, then glanced at his hand.
"I need to break through quickly. Only one month remains before the invasion. I hope this doesn't take too long..." Alex entered the university through the same route he came and waited in the corridor. There was a wooden room, cube-shaped, with one large window on the left and several smaller windows on the right. A wooden seat extended across the room, except for the large window, which was decorated and provided a view of the examinees.
"Greetings..." he was welcomed by three people sitting there.
"Hello, my name is Alex," he introduced himself, smiling at the man in front of him. The man was enormous—about 2.5 meters tall with impressive muscles, blue eyes, and blonde hair, dressed in white Greek attire.
"My name is Pericles Alex. Nice to meet you. Let me introduce you to these boring three," Pericles said with a grin, giving Alex a friendly punch on the shoulder.
"This boring-looking redhead is Nikos," Pericles introduced a man with red hair and eyes, his body tanned. Nikos was sitting and gazing out the windows.
"Sup."
That was the extent of Nikos's response as he continued to look out the window.
"Sup?" Alex raised his eyebrows, surprised by the casualness.
"Yeah, I told you. Here it—agh," Pericles began, but was interrupted by an energetic girl who jumped in front of Alex.
"Hahahaha, greetings, greetings! Sorry, the show is just so entertaining. My name is Maria. Look, I have a carving that says my name..." Maria introduced herself with enthusiasm. Surprisingly, she had brown skin and black hair, looking more Indian to Alex. She wore traditional Greek clothes and appeared extremely cute.
This revelation confirmed several things for Alex that he needed to consider.
"Dammit, Maria, what did I tell you? Don't scare the man!" Pericles grumbled.
"Hahahahaha, come on now, Perry. You know I like to make a good first impression," Maria winked at Alex.
Alex raised his eyebrows and smiled.
"Alright, this bookworm's name is—"
"Love, according to Phaedrus, is the oldest of the gods and the first to be honored by the ancient poets. He was the first to be honored and was present at the dawn of creation?" The man looked up and asked.
[A/N: This excerpt is taken from Plato's "The Symposium," Phaedrus section.]
"Have you seen the true nature of Love, Mr. Alexander?"
"Cough... this boring man's name is Theodoros," Pericles said, a bit cringed.
Theodoros had brown hair and blue eyes, dressed in traditional Greek attire with glasses like an old aristocrat. He held a book and sat with his feet up on the couch.
"You must be a philosopher, Theodoros," Alex remarked.
BANG!!!
The book was slammed shut.
Theodoros looked up, stood, and took Alex's hand. He recited, "This is that life above all others which man should live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute; a beauty which, if you once beheld, you would see not to be measured by gold, garments, and fair boys and youths, whose presence now entrances you; and you and many others would be content to live seeing them only and conversing with them without meat or drink if that were possible—you only want to look at them and to be with them. But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty—the divine beauty, pure and clear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the colors and vanities of human life—thither looking, and holding converse with the true beauty simple and divine?"
[Author's Notes: This passage is from Plato's "The Symposium," Socrates' section on the "Ladder of Love." btw fair boys? wtf socrates]
Theodoros glanced at Maria, who had both feet on the couch and was gazing out the window.
"Maria..." Theodoros pulled her hand, and Maria, startled, also stood up.
"Would you marry me?"
"Ughhh... Theo, no," Maria replied, returning to her window-watching.
Theodoros solemnly nodded and went back to his book.
Alex was bewildered, not quite understanding what had just happened.
"GAHAHAHAHAH, don't mind them. Theo tries his shot every time, and Maria rejects him consistently. Anyway, introduce yourself to us now, Alex," Pericles said, grinning at Alex.
"Cough, my name is Alex. I was a soldier before awakening to the Spark. There's not much interesting about me, to be honest. I was just an ordinary guy before this..." Alex said, scratching his head.
"I see. No matter. We're lucky. We all awakened at the same time. In the test, we managed to break the illusion by working together... ugh..." Maria shivered.
"Yeah, that was one freaky illusion. They were so evil for not telling us we were in one," Pericles added.
"Well, I guess we had to be tested," Alex said, sitting next to Maria and looking out.
He also looked out and saw they were high in the sky, overlooking the exam.
End of Chapter.