After walking for a few minutes, they reached the front gates. As most cities or towns have, there is an entrance fee. For Alicia, this wasn't a problem as she already had her cultivator badge. Every disciple or elder of the Flying Mountain Sect would have a badge that allowed them a small amount of authority within the Kingdom.
Caz wasn't the same, he didn't even have the money to get in. No one ever trusted him enough to even carry a few coppers. The last time he was given money was back in the Higher Realm, one of his close friends had given him the exact amount of money needed to buy a mansion for Caz to use.
Things didn't go the way his friend intended as Caz spent exactly 5 million gold on candy. How Caz had found so much candy that it was worth the same price as a mansion, his friend would never know.
Caz was in a small predicament until Alicia told the guards that he was with her. The guards were slightly shocked to see a disciple of Flying Mountain outside of the sect.
"Okay, we still have about an hour or so until the entrance exams start, so I'll show you around the city," Alicia said with a bright smile, still eagerly fantasizing about teaching her future juniors. "I'll give you a couple silver coins to spend on anything you might need."
As soon as the words left her mouth, the money in her hands disappeared along with Caz. She was dumbfounded for a second until she saw Caz again next to a stall that was selling sweets.
Caz currently had a doughnut in his hand while he was using his other hand to eat a cookie. He had a look of pure bliss on his face.
Alicia started thinking about if it was a good idea for this man to join the sect. If one didn't know, after the entrance exams were over, the Elders of the sect would prepare a feast to celebrate and give the new disciples a warm welcome while the older disciples would mingle with them.
She could imagine the look on his face if he passed. Now that she was thinking about the entrance exam, she forgot to ask if Caz had a cultivation base already or not. Some people join sects only after they have set foot on the cultivation path. Most of them are still ordinary mortals with a little extra talent when joining, however.
Alicia thought about just checking for herself but decided against it. She couldn't feel any cultivation aura at all coming from his body so she just thought that he was a mortal. This might also explain how he sat beside her without her noticing.
After chasing Caz around for 20 minutes, the time for the exam was near. She quickly scolded Caz for eating so many sweets before dragging him by his ear towards the centre of the city for the exam.
They soon saw many cultivators and mortals alike brimming with excitement at the chance to join such an illustrious sect. Meanwhile, Caz was picking his nose with a bored expression as he sat in line.
Alicia had excused herself as she quickly found some of her friends and sat down beside them. She watched Caz pick his nose while her face twitched with anger. His face had more excitement when he was eating the cookie earlier compared to his.
Shouts were heard up ahead within the exam area as a young woman fought a skinny but tall man. The young woman was one of the current princesses to the Kingdom. While Alicia and she might have the same princess title, they are worlds apart in terms of rank. Alicia is only the princess of a small-to-medium sized city while the young woman was the princess to one of the bigger kingdoms in Tairo.
There was only one trial that the students had to go through. It was a simple fight between one another. While you were encouraged to go all-out, they wouldn't allow you to kill your opponent.
The young woman/princess was standing over the kneeling man with a sword to his throat, even though the man had lost, he still had a bright glimmer within his eyes. He was actually quite honoured to fight the so-called 'Battle Princess'.
While the princess had never actually participated in a war, she was known to be quite the battle maniac. Even at the ripe age of 20, she was already at the Foundation Establishment realm. While she was a once in a lifetime genius, this was to be expected from the daughter to the Holy Couple, the King and Queen of Cou Kingdom. They had quite a reputation in their earlier days.
The princess had quite the advantage compared to others taking the test, so the elders had made exceptions for the losing side. If they could last a certain amount of time while fighting the princess, they'd still be allowed to join the sect. They had to make a new rule out of nowhere, it wasn't unexpected, though. The princess was the only one here within the new disciples with a Foundation Establishment cultivation. Even if she somehow lost, they would gladly take her as a core disciple.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Caz watched the fight for about 3 seconds until his mind was occupied with something more important, something that could very well end the world. Trying to get the booger out his nose. The feisty little thing wouldn't give up.
Without him noticing, the line shortened and shortened until he was next in line. The sect elder watching over the exam was stupified when he saw the young man in front of him. The main reason was because of his serious expression while picking his nose, the second reason is that he was of the Devil race. While the people in Tairo didn't discriminate much with some of the other races, it was still very rare to see anyone other than a human.
Especially those odd eyes, while some races had different eyes, he'd never seen a type of eye quite like this. Quickly snapping out of his thoughts, he quickly got the young mans attention by waving his hand in front of his face.
"Excuse me, young man, you're next in line. Hurry up to the stage, please." The elder said with a slightly angered voice.
"Oh. Sorry gramps, I was fighting a war." Caz said with a confused smile. "So I just have to fight someone and then I'll be able to join the sect?"
"Fighting a war with boogers.... *sigh*. Yes yes, just hurry. Make your way to the stage and wait on your opponent. Don't lose too easily haha!" The sect elder said with an evil laugh.
'What poor luck this fool has, the princess is going to wipe the floor with you.' Thought the elder as he watched the cheerful man walk up the stairs leading into the fighting area.
As Caz entered the arena, his opponent was already waiting for him. It was the princess that he saw earlier. He smiled and waved at the girl. "Hey, cutie! How about we meet up for a meal after the fight?"
The princess was surprised that someone dared to talk to her this way. Most of the time, people would hurriedly walk away whenever they saw her, in fear of offending the Kingdom. Now after all these years of being avoided, someone actually offered to take her out on a date. She slightly smiled, at least this guy was interesting. "Alright, sure. I'll accept your invitation. If you can beat me, that is." She replied back in a slightly mocking tone.
"Really?! Woo! 2 beauties in one day, what more can a guy ask for?" Caz did a victory pose as the princess laughed a bit. "So all I gotta do is defeat you and you'll accept? Challenged accepted, girly!"
The princess was a bit irritated with his response but her interest in the guy had increased. What kind of backing or skill did this man have to talk to the princess this way? She held up her sword and slowly got into a fighting stance.
Caz just awkwardly sat there making no movements towards her. This made her a bit angry, she'd show this guy what it meant to not take her seriously.
She charged at him in a zig-zag movement with a lightning fast speed. After only a second, she was already behind him and was about to swing down onto his shoulder. As soon as the blade was only an inch from his shoulder, the sword flew out of her hands and embedded itself within the arena walls.
The princess was struck dumb as she looked at her hands where her sword once was. She quickly got over the fact that she didn't have a sword anymore and was about to charge with her fists when she realized that she couldn't move. She quickly found the reason she couldn't move, his hand was wrapped around her neck and was holding her in the air.
She looked down into his eyes and her soul almost jumped out of her body. A dark bottomless pit sucked her into as she fell into despair. She was going to die here. All her hard work was finished, now all she had to do was sit back and wait for the demon to put an end to her life. There was nothing she could do as 2 tears slowly worked their way down her cheeks.
She opened her eyes as she was curious as to why she was still alive. She looked down and saw that her feet attached themselves onto the ground again. The princess turned her eyes toward the direction of the man when she felt something soft on her head.
The man was staring at her with a worried expression. "Are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I? I could have guaranteed that I didn't use any force." His hand was attached to her head and she felt a warm sensation journey through from the top of her head into her body. The despair she felt quickly vanished as a soft moan escaped her lips. All she felt was pure relaxation.
She opened her eyes again and saw that the man was looking into her eyes with a curious expression.
"You're okay, right?" Caz asked her while he still had a worried expression.
"...mhm" The princess meekly nodded her head as she was shy from seeing the concerned look on the man. The only other people that would give her this much concern could be counted on one hand. Her father, her mother, her older sister and her personal maid.
"Whew, that's good. Then why were you crying? Damn, don't tell me you find me so unattractive that you'd rather die than go on a date with me?" Caz joked with a horrified face.
".....ahahaha......Ahahahahaha!" The princess couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing.
She actually laughed for almost 2 minutes, the longest she had ever laughed since she was born.
Caz had a wide smile on his face the entire time, wondering if his jokes were that good.
"It's good to see you're okay, don't forget about our date, okay? It's not good to lie." Caz reminded with a laugh of his own while still patting the head of the princess.
"Hehe, I've decided." (Princess)
"Decided what?" Caz responded with an inquisitive tone.
"I've decided that you'll become mine" The princess replied with a creepy smile that made even the young God tremble for a second.
The response had completely dumbfounded Caz and the audience.