* * *
The day of the second selection exam had finally arrived.
Anakin, who woke up early in the morning, slowly lifted his upper body and rubbed his eyes.
Then, an unfamiliar voice came from across the room.
“Hey. Aren’t you nervous?”
It was Mantis, his temporary roommate for this period.
Mantis, a boy with chestnut-brown hair and light freckles, had a peculiar habit of muttering to himself and walking around the dormitory since he was assigned as the temporary roommate.
Eventually, he started talking to Anakin, and he seemed vulnerable to beauty.
When he first saw Anakin’s bare face, he was speechless for about an hour, as if his soul had left his body.
The good news was that they could now exchange words naturally.
It took some time for Anakin to get used to his way of speaking, which was quite different from the people he had met so far.
But his flustered manner reminded Anakin of an old friend from his past life, and he unknowingly felt a sense of closeness.
Moreover, it was rare for someone to speak to him first, so Anakin smiled and nodded.
“Yeah. I am nervous.”
When Anakin smiled sweetly with his sleepy face, Mantis’s face turned red like a ripe persimmon.
Anakin quietly looked up at Mantis, who was stammering as if he was broken.
‘He talks to me easily, but then he can’t say anything and just blushes when I respond. He’s quite unusual.’
“Your face is red. Are you sick?”
“A-No… But what do you think the exam will be about?”
At Mantis’s attempt to change the subject, Anakin turned his head to stare at the ceiling and pondered deeply.
The exam was to select the top 10 raw talents out of 100 people.
Only one-tenth of them would survive this.
“I have no idea. Do you know anything?”
“No. The exam is so closed-off…”
Mantis shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t know either.
Anakin asked Mantis.
“You said you came to Pasadian because you wanted revenge, didn’t you?”
Mantis nodded.
His face was serious, a complete turnaround from just a moment ago.
“That guy is also here in this examination hall. I must defeat him…”
A firm resolve could be felt in Mantis’s tone, and at the same time, desperation was evident.
Looking at Mantis, Anakin also opened his mouth.
“I also have someone I want to get revenge on.”
“What? Who is it?”
To Mantis’s question about the target, Anakin only smiled silently.
Mantis would faint if he knew who it was.
So, he just didn’t say.
“It’s about time to go down. Let’s get ready now.”
Mantis looked at the clock and stood up with a look of regret.
“Already… Anyway, Anakin, I hope your revenge succeeds.”
“…You too. I hope you succeed.”
With that, they encouraged each other and left the room.
“The second selection exam will be in the form of a tournament. However, it is slightly different from the existing rules. The Pasadian judges will scout based only on the content of the match, regardless of victory or defeat.”
The person in charge of the proceedings was the same disciple they had seen yesterday during the results announcement.
“However, the final winner who remains until the end is unconditionally accepted, regardless of the judges’ agreement.”
The moment they heard that, all the applicants’ eyes changed.
If they just became the winner, their place as a Pasadian disciple was confirmed.
Although it was a slim chance, everyone held a slight glimmer of hope.
“You will have one-on-one duels with your designated opponents shown on the magic screen, and Pasadian disciples will sit in the spectator seats and judge the matches. If you are deemed a suitable talent for Pasadian, you will pass, and if not, you will fail.”
The magic video orb projected light, showing the bracket as before.
“Losing consciousness naturally means elimination, and yielding also means elimination. If a candidate is deemed qualified, the judges will stop the match themselves.”
In short, the only ways to pass were to impress the judges or to win the tournament.
It meant that they would be accepted as disciples if they showed overwhelming power or if the content of their match was to the judges’ liking.
“Recovery potions and healers will be on constant standby in this arena to take care of your injuries throughout the tournament. We will not be responsible for any misfortunes that occur if you fail to yield.”
To Anakin’s ears, those words sounded like, ‘Don’t show unnecessary bravado; if you don’t have the talent, just fail.’
Since everyone would feel pressured to achieve overwhelming results, the matches would become even more brutal, and they were likely worried about the consequences of losing control of their power.
Anakin looked at the bracket and found his name.
Anakin Descartes – Wood
His first opponent was Wood.
His memory was faint, but he seemed to have seen him somewhere in the middle ranks of the overall ranking.
Anakin looked around.
Everyone seemed confused, but there was one boy whose eyes met Anakin’s.
His expression was one of extreme bewilderment, close to despair or frustration.
It was understandable since he was matched against the 4th rank, who was far beyond his own skill level, right from the start.
What became clear from this was that the Pasadian School, which was so notorious, had a system of making candidates compete with others right from the entrance exam.
Was it truly the same as the rumors?
At any rate, he knew it was far from an ordinary exam.
While everyone was looking at the bracket to find their opponent, mages wearing Pasadian’s blue robes appeared at the entrance.
Most of them wore casual clothes with the Pasadian robe thrown on just for formality.
“Do I really have to judge brats like these with my experience?”
“We have no choice. The lineage will be cut off if no one is selected.”
“It seems Rubdum is paying a lot of attention to this disciple selection.”
They were the excellent formal disciples who could be called the core of the School.
Usually, when a provisional disciple advances to a formal disciple, they must progress through the stages of Junior, Intermediate, and Senior.
Seeing that the cape patterns were different, it seemed that Junior, Intermediate, and Senior disciples were all mixed together.
The mere appearance of those six people sent a chill down the spines of all the applicants.
While the Elders induced a primal fear, like looking at a non-human entity, a few of those present radiated a vast gap in power, like a massive mountain.
“I wonder why people rush to this crazy School like moths to a flame.”
“Don’t you know? People outside don’t know even a quarter of what goes on inside.”
Anakin swallowed hard as he looked at them.
Every single person was a monster.
“We will now begin the second provisional disciple selection exam. Applicants who have drawn the first sequence, please step up to the duel arena.”
Anakin’s turn was 13th.
After checking his number tag, Anakin glanced at Hilde’s number tag and said.
“Yours is almost at the end.”
Hilde’s turn was 47th. But the order was meaningless to him.
There seemed to be no applicant currently capable of defeating him, and Anakin himself wondered if he could beat him.
At best, Lute could put up a fight against Hilde, and the rest… they just had to pray their limbs remained intact.
The matches started with the first sequence, and the arena was filled with the passionate cheers and shouts of the applicants.
“Will those people choose me?”
The eyes of the Pasadian Senior Disciples looking down from above seemed like predators watching interesting prey.
Despite being only six, their presence was as massive as if there were hundreds of mages.
“Are you worried?”
Hilde, who was watching the fierce battle with his arms crossed and a nonchalant look, glanced at Anakin beside him and said.
“…”
Anakin silently stared intently at one of the disciples in response to his question.
The disciple’s gaze was piercingly directed at Anakin.
He had been sharply focused only on Anakin since his first appearance.
When Anakin also stared back without backing down, he saw the corner of the disciple’s mouth rise slightly.
Seeing the red embroidery on the trim, just like the facilitator, he must be a Senior Disciple.
Since he was covered by a robe, Anakin couldn’t tell if the feeling he had towards him was one of goodwill or the opposite.
However, Anakin felt a slight discomfort at the expression and turned his head back to the arena.
The matches proceeded quickly and soon approached the sixth turn.
The disciples only watched silently until then.
One of them even yawned in boredom, looking down with an uninterested gaze.
‘Is it because there are no talents worth selecting?’
Because of this, the applicants who won the duels couldn’t even rejoice and only anxiously watched the judges.
And next was Mantis’s turn.
“Mantis. Good luck.”
Anakin whispered to Mantis as he climbed into the arena.
Hilde, who looked at Anakin curiously, asked.
“Are you acquainted?”
“He was my roommate. Just for a day.”
Mantis blushed as soon as he saw Anakin and nodded like a shy boy.
“Thank you.”
“Hey. Hurry up and get going.”
At that moment, an orange-haired boy playfully pushed Mantis’s head.
Mantis, who was shoved, bit his teeth and turned around.
Mantis’s cold eyes were directed at the orange-haired boy.
“Dorman…”
* * *
