The first day of practical training in Pasadian had arrived.
Anakin headed to the training grounds with Mantis.
Except for the two of them, all the children there had familiar faces.
“Hilde.”
When Anakin called his name, Hilde looked back.
“I guess only the 47th-class students are doing the training this time.”
“It looks like it. Those two over there must have been the last ones chosen.”
Kayla, Lute, Mantis, Lucien, and even Lana and Henry.
These were the only passing candidates they knew, but more people had been added later.
They said ten people would be chosen back then.
Looking at the sharp look in their eyes, it was easy to tell how many hardships they had gone through to pass.
One of those two was the winner of the second exam tournament.
Even though they barely made it, Anakin did not think they were easy targets.
In fact, children who survived until the very end with such grit were more frightening than those who were picked early.
The two of them seemed to have formed a special bond at the testing site, as they stayed close together and stayed on guard against everyone else.
“Hey. You don’t need to be so defensive.”
“…Mind your own business.”
When Lute couldn’t watch any longer and spoke up, he got an aggressive answer right back.
Perhaps because of their hostile attitude, the other children didn’t look very welcoming either.
‘This isn’t a good way to start,’ Anakin thought.
As Anakin fell into deep thought, a heated voice was heard.
“…You don’t know what kind of hell we went through after you guys left, do you?”
“…”
The boy with a face tanned dark by the sun spoke while frowning.
At those words, all the children became silent.
Since there were even casualties, and the eight people who passed had already left… they couldn’t even imagine how fierce it must have been for the remaining applicants.
“Do you know what I had to do to get picked? Just how many people I… Ugh!”
While speaking, the dark-skinned boy suddenly collapsed.
Thinking back to that time made him feel sick to his stomach.
The children all looked at him with shocked faces.
Perhaps there had been more than just one casualty.
“I understand your pain. I was also lucky to be chosen.”
Kayla, who covered one eye with an eyepatch, expressed her sympathy.
Lute also nodded as if he agreed.
But then, a voice like cold water interrupted the understanding mood.
“If you can’t even handle that much, maybe Pasadian isn’t the right place for you?”
Lucien, who had been quiet, spoke mockingly.
Then, another passing candidate who couldn’t stand the mockery rushed at Lucien with fire in his eyes.
“What did you say?”
“It’s true. If it were me, I wouldn’t have felt anything.”
“You didn’t even go through it yourself…”
His shaking hands showed how much anger and sorrow they felt.
None of the watching children could easily stop him.
“How would you know if I went through it or not…”
At the same time, Lucien, with a cold look in his eyes, lightly pushed away the boy who had grabbed his collar using a wave of mana.
It was blue mana.
The air around them froze because of his blue mana.
The mana was so thick that it smelled like blood, as if it were made for killing.
It felt different from when Hilde used black magic.
“Stop it.”
Anakin spoke up, pouring cold water on the heated scene.
“There’s no point in us fighting each other, right? The exam is already over anyway.”
“…That’s right. We should only think about becoming official disciples now.”
Mantis, who was flustered by the situation, agreed with Anakin.
In reality, the opponents they had to compete with now were the seniors from previous classes, who had a much higher chance of becoming official disciples.
They were tightly united as a group and well-organized, so they didn’t really like it when new students stood out.
The most important thing to become an official disciple was performance.
If they didn’t cooperate with their classmates, it would be hard to get results no matter how skilled they were.
‘We should help each other. We are classmates, after all.’
The boy who had been pushed away quietly dusted off his clothes and stood up.
While the situation was being settled, a man’s voice was suddenly heard from behind.
Anakin turned around in surprise.
“Why? You should have let them keep going.”
It was the teacher, Chris, who was watching while sitting cross-legged under the dome-shaped transparent ceiling.
None of them had noticed that he was watching.
The children looked at him with tense faces as the teacher suddenly appeared.
Chris jumped down the stairs casually and approached them.
‘He’s even bigger in person. He seems more suited to be a warrior.’
Anakin stepped back slightly from the threatening size of the man, who looked more like a swordsman than a mage.
“This class definitely has a lot of people. Is it because the Elder changed to Salute…?”
While he was muttering something they couldn’t understand, Anakin went over to the boy who had been vomiting and reached out a hand.
“…”
The boy frowned even more at the kind hand.
When Anakin pushed the hand out further, telling him to take it, the boy reluctantly grabbed it and stood up.
“Well, there are about ten of you. Is everyone here?”
Chris looked around and then stared at the children who were picked late.
“You guys won’t recognize these two. Their names are Roque and Hess.”
Chris pointed to the boy who had vomited and called him Roque, and then pointed to the boy who had grabbed Lucien’s collar and called him Hess.
“This class is a bit unusual. Fighting right from the start.”
Anakin agreed with him.
‘Is this not normal? Maybe this group is just unique.’
Chris pointed at Lucien with his chin and said.
“That white-haired kid is right. Pasadian is cold and cruel. But it does you no good to make everyone your enemy. If you don’t build up enough achievements, you’ll be stuck living here, won’t you?”
In Pasadian, only official disciples were allowed to go outside, except for missions.
In the end, if they failed to become official disciples, they would have no choice but to live inside Pasadian for the rest of their lives, just training.
“As time goes by, you will slowly realize that the exam was nothing.”
At his words, all the children became solemn.
To change the mood, Chris spoke with a powerful voice.
“For now, everyone line up one by one.”
Following his command, the children all stood in a line in front of him.
He pulled over a table and had them touch a strange magic crystal ball one by one.
That device was a very expensive magical tool known to show not only the density of mana but also the individual’s magical properties.
Since this was Pasadian, they seemed to be able to get such things easily.
After it was Hilde’s turn, it was Anakin’s turn. Anakin stared blankly at Chris.
“Put your hand on it and bring out your mana.”
Anakin placed his hand on the crystal ball as told.
Not long after injecting mana, the crystal ball began to glow red.
The red light became clearer and then flared up intensely.
Anakin was flustered.
Within the completely red-stained crystal ball, a white light flickered and then began to spread widely.
‘What is this? The other children only showed one color.’
Chris also looked at the crystal ball with a very serious face.
The red mana disappeared, and only the white mana energy filled the crystal ball.
“This is…”
When it seemed to be finished, Anakin quickly took his hand off the crystal ball.
“What is white mana?”
Anakin had heard that everyone has a unique mana color, but he had never heard of white mana.
‘Is it a special ability of the main character?’
Chris remained silent for a long time after Anakin’s question, and then he spoke.
“White mana doesn’t usually come from humans. You only see it in Saints or Popes. Or… spirits.”
“Spirits?”
Anakin tilted his head at the sudden mention of spirits.
“Spirits?”
“Yes. Even spirit summoners cannot show white mana. This is only possible if the mana is as pure and clean as a spirit’s…”
Chris also frowned as if it were hard to understand.
“Are you perhaps a descendant of a spirit?”
“What?”
When Anakin asked back in a confused voice, Chris shook his head and said.
“Let’s talk about this separately later. You are Anakin Descartes, right?”
“Yes.”
Anakin nodded with an obedient face.
“…A pure and clear energy flows out of you. It’s like it lures in things that are cloudy and dirty. It’s my first time seeing a case like this, so it’s hard to say.”
‘Pure and clean.’
Anakin thought it must be a unique ability of the main character.
After all, Camille and Leo were both drawn to Anakin’s purity.
Once everyone’s turn was over, Anakin went to Hilde and asked.
Anakin stood on his tiptoes to whisper, and Hilde naturally tilted his head toward Anakin.
“Did you get caught?”
Hilde shook his head.
“I just used my regular mana. Luckily, he didn’t notice.”
It seemed that as long as he didn’t bring out the power of black magic, it couldn’t be felt.
Anakin said with a smile.
“That’s a relief.”
