It was impossible to miss the day of the entrance exams. The whole Tabulan was preparing for the big day for at least a month and if it wasn’t a spring, Alex would’ve thought it was time for the midsummer festival. The city was decorated with flowers, flags and banners, many businesses were closed and the owners enjoyed the prolonged holidays while others, like restaurants and inns, were working overtime.

The academy was founded by the current emperor Cirius twenty years ago and this will only be the fifth time for the new students to be accepted. Back then he abolished the old systems and, mostly by force, made all the saints join the empire. Afterwards he made sure every new talented person was ‘properly taught’ in the academy, making them loyal and reliable tool for the empire, but the prestige of the academy was meticulously polished and soon it became a dream of every youth to study there.

At first everyone was surprised that ‘the Academy of saints’ accepted talents even from more regular backgrounds, but as soon as the first general from a poor neighborhood graduated the academy, the news of it spread far and wide and the day of the entrance exams become a festival to celebrate the emperor’s wisdom.

‘The guy didn’t even have to do anything himself!’ Alex thought looking at the busy streets and remembering the story Jamil told him.

This festival was created unofficially by the imperial subjects as a token of appreciation to their ruler and somehow later, without a special law or order, became a public holiday. Alex could only sigh in respect to the emperor’s PR skills, but he realized a large part of the success might be related to his ‘natural talent’ – the three trikutas.

Earlier today he thanked Zahir for the hospitality and after picking up his few things, left. In the end Alex couldn’t figure out if the man was happy to see him leave or upset because he didn’t stay longer, but there was no reason for him to remain in the Isa residence. After he got in the academy, he would live there anyway, but if he didn’t – why would he even stay in Tabulan?

Alex enjoyed the sights for an hour, then bought a bag of sugar-coated nuts in a street stall and, slowly munching on them, proceeded towards the main street. He knew that long lines of candidates were formed there since the sunrise and he still had at least few hours time, but to not miss out he joined them in case someone for some reason decided to limit the number of participants. Luckily it turned out Alex was worried for nothing and even after he joined one of the lines, during the next hour children and youths continued to arrive.

There were no surprises and the entrance exam seemed to be similar to the previous ones. Jamil already explained the rules to Alex and, in fact, there was nothing much to explain.

The first part was a simple combat test. In order to eliminate most candidates, in the central plaza were erected multiple small arenas and candidates in sixteen orderly lines proceeded towards them. One candidate from each line fought with another from the neighboring line and the winner proceeded to the next fight while the looser was eliminated. Thus, after one fight sixteen lines turned into eight, then four, then two and in the end – one. Basically to get to the next part of the entrance exam one had to win four matches.

Youths with open trikutas as well as those whose trikutas were about to open, could proceed directly to the second part of the entrance exam – the Qi aptitude test. In fact, this was also the main event that was blessed by the presence of the emperor Cirius himself and the whole celebration began when the young saints and the future saints arrived, strangely enough – almost all from the noble families. For any of them to fail the test was almost impossible and in the last two decades there had been only a couple of such cases. That was the reason for Jamil’s confidence.

When Alex arrived, all of them had passed their test and proudly stood on the other side of the central plaza bored out of their minds, waiting for the less important people to join them. Watching the other children spar was dull and even most of the spectators had left after his imperial majesty departed. For some reason the festival was more about drinking and dancing in the streets than the brawling of the kids.

Sun was up high when Alex was sent to his first match. He didn’t inspect his potential opponents from the line next to him earlier and didn’t bother after the judge said ‘start’. He took a couple of quick steps forward and landed his palm on a boy’s chest and the poor guy flew a couple of meters only to land on his buttocks outside the arena not realizing what happened.

Alex was directed to the next line and this time only few people stood in it. He looked around and indeed, behind him there were eight neat arenas, but in the front – only four. After the first fight the atmosphere also had changed. The kids were all pumped up, especially under the encouraging shouts of the thin crowd of spectators that were left in the stands.

“Miss, why do you have to do this? Your father wouldn’t approve!” Alex heard someone complaining in the line next to him.

A tall burly man was talking to a young girl, probably eleven or twelve years of age.

“This has nothing to do with him! It’s my decision!” She said proudly raising her chin, “Didn’t you see how easy I dealt with that guy?”

“But miss, you could’ve directly gone to the second …” The man continued to complain, but she interrupted.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Don’t care! I don’t have trikuta, so I’ll get in to the academy like everyone else!”

‘Either she’s capricious and has serious ‘daddy issues’ or has a sense of pride.’ Alex quickly judged with a smile.

He didn’t care for either of the character traits, but even he was bored so he took a closer look at her. There were not that many girls applying to the academy and even less with open or soon-to-open trikutas, but all of them already were done with the second test.

This particular one, dressed in what at first glance seemed to be simple linen clothing, was definitely from a very rich family. Even if one ignored the earlier dialog, after looking at the sandals made of a soft, white leather, it was easily to judge her origins were not simple. Compared to her Alex in his rough linen shirt and straw hat was a dressed up country boy.

“What the hell are you looking at?” Alex stare was caught by the girl’s servant or bodyguard, who ever he might be.

Alex realized that for the social class he represented he did act rudely and immediately turned to the safest solution – playing dumb.

“I’m sorry if I offended you, miss. It’s just your sandals … they are expertly made! Your father must be a very skilled shoemaker!” He seriously said.

“You little …” The men intended to draw his sword, but the girl stopped him bursting in to a melodic laughter.

“Hahaha! Shoemaker! … He’ll die from amusement when I tell him!” She continued to giggle and only now Alex could take a better look at her face that was earlier hidden behind her short, dark hair.

‘Wtf?!’ Alex inwardly exclaimed, ‘Marianna? … no … Melanie? … no … what was her name? … Mathilda!!! It’s friggin’ Mathilda! How the hell is that possible? She even has the birthmark on her left cheek!’

Even though decades had passed since his first life, Alex still remembered few of his favorite movies. And one of the all time favorites was ‘Léon: The Professional’ … and this girl in the line next to him was the exact copy of Mathilda in the movie played by …

‘Damn it! What was the name of that actress?’ Alex furrowed brows trying to remember, ‘There was Gary Oldman and Jean Reno … why the hell I remember the names of those guys, but for the life of me can’t remember the female actress? Wait … later she played … f*ck! ... where exactly did she play afterwards?’

Alex tried to rewind his memories, but from side it looked like he was gawking at the young girl. The earlier discussion attracted attention of other kids in their lines and now most of them laughed at the stunned country bumpkin.

“How dare you to stare at her like that …” The bodyguard was about to slap Alex, but before he reacted with another excuse, the girl stopped the man again.

“Luya, don’t make trouble!” She commanded, “If you wish to stay here, you can watch from the spectator stands. Now, go away!”

“But, miss … if this hillbilly ...” The man tried to protest.

“What? You think I can’t take care of myself? Watch me eliminate him in the next fight!” She said stomping her foot.

‘A girl is always a girl.’ Alex swallowed a sarcastic remark, ‘But at least she can count. Looks like she’s my next opponent … yey … lucky me, sigh.’

Indeed, from what it looked like after a couple of fights it would be her turn to get eliminated.

But before it got to that a judge loudly shouted, “Disqualified!”

“What? Why?” A youth at least of the age of eighteen, maybe even twenty made a dumb expression.

He was earlier standing in the Alex’s line, but when it was his turn, the judge immediately threw him out.

“You’re obviously too old!” Judge angrily said.

“But the other judge …” The youth tried to argue, but judge didn’t care.

“Get. Out. Of. My. Sight!” He hissed with his teeth clenched.

Probably the first judge was the boy’s relative or got bribed and this one got pissed about it. While in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter and the guy would get eliminated during the second test, it would be an embarrassment to let him through.

In the end the youth sighed and left on his own, but Alex’s ‘bonus’ was a remark from the girl in the neighboring line, “Count yourself lucky, hillbilly!”

‘Was I also this annoying in my last life?’ Alex thought and it was his turn to get in the arena.

The fight ended in an instant, just like the previous one and Alex took the spot in one of the remaining lines. This time he curiously glanced over at his next opponent, in fact, it was impossible to not notice the guy since his large stature was covering the sun.

The youth was over two meters tall, but judging from the foolish expression was not older than fourteen.

‘This one has eaten a lot of vitamins!’ Alex inwardly grinned.

But then a fresh and sweet fragrance assaulted his senses. Earlier he noticed the smell, but didn’t pay any attention to it and now it was clear it belonged to the Mathilda’s twin. She obviously finished her fight as quickly as Alex did and now was standing behind him.

Alex barely managed to hold himself together resisting the urge of lying down in a flowerbed full of lilies. He revolved the Qi within his consciousness and focused on his soul particles which for some reason became oddly unruly.

‘I’m a kid! I’m just a kid!’ He kept telling to himself, but then in his mind registered the most important aspect that immediately sobered him, ‘SHE’s a kid!’

The sweet fragrance suddenly faded away and Alex realized he was already standing in the arena. This was second to last hurdle before the final test, except there was a giant standing in front of him.

‘Can I throw him out with a strike of a palm like the others before?’ Alex thought observing the huge opponent.