“When will you be back, boss?” Perk asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ll get back and let you know the situation as soon as I can. You have money, so just stay here and train while you wait for me to come back.” Adion said, turning to leave. He had gotten the brothers a room at an inn fairly close to the Academy so that he could be at ease while he got everything sorted. But now he had to hurry for admissions.

“Okay, boss,” Perk nodded.

“We won’t slack off,” Tib said.

“I know,” Adion said, “Just don’t forget to eat and get some exercise. Explore the city a little. It should be safe as long as you don’t go out too late or do anything suspicious.”

“Mm,” Tib nodded.

“But don’t go out both at once,” Adion reminded, “I never want my stuff to be left unattended. Even if it’s hidden.”

“Don’t worry, boss,” Tib said, “We’ll make sure no one comes near it.”

“Mm,” Adion nodded, “See you soon.”

Adion headed out of the inn after saying goodbye to his subordinates and found himself in front of the carriage again.

“You know the way, Holen?” Adion asked the driver, who was leaning against the carriage waiting for him.

“It’s a very well-planned city,” Holen said, looking up from a map that Adion had bought as they arrived in the city. “And I’ve been there before, so there is no problem. Do you want your map back?”

“If you don’t need it, I guess it would be good to get an idea of the city,” Adion said, accepting the map.

“It should be about 30 minutes,” Holen said.

“Good,” Adion nodded and got into the carriage.

The sun is about to go down, but there are still about 6 hours until midnight, so I should arrive with more than enough time to spare. That man said midnight and not sundown, right? Yeah. Definitely midnight.

Adion looked out through the window as the carriage started moving, enjoying the view of the city. He hadn’t seen anything spectacular so far. Except for the size, the city didn’t differ much from others Adion had visited. But there was a certain atmosphere that was hard to describe; the city almost felt peaceful despite the crowded streets and people hurrying around.

Maybe it’s just me that’s peaceful. I’m finally here.

Even though Adion had arrived later than he had planned, he was very happy. The last month and a half had been filled with dread almost every day of not making it in time.

It would have been nice to head straight for my family, but I don’t really know where they are anyway. Even if I had arrived early, I might have had to wait for admission to ask the elders if they knew their whereabouts.

“This is as far as I’m allowed to go with a carriage, Adion!” Holen’s voice sounded.

Adion stepped out of the carriage and saw a great wall that cast a long shadow over the road he was standing on.

“Is that the Academy?” Adion went up to Holen and asked.

“The public part,” Holen nodded, “Even so, it is well-guarded, and it would cost a pretty penny to take a carriage inside.”

“No problem,” Adion said, “I can walk.”

“Good luck,” Holen said with a smile, “Have fun during your time here.”

“I will,” Adion said, “Thanks for the ride. Sorry for the poor conditions. If I ever hire you for a ride again, I promise to do so during summer.”

“Hehe,” Holen chuckled, “I appreciate it. Now go, you don’t want to be late.”

“Mm,” Adion nodded and started walking to the large gate leading into the public Academy. He had already paid for the ride, and all his luggage was with Perk and Tib. Even his backpack had been left behind, as Adion wasn’t sure what kind of situation he would encounter during his admissions. He felt a lot more at ease without his pills on him.

As he approached the wall, he saw ten huge slabs above the entrance. Each slab had a number next to it. The slab with the name ‘Shields’ next to the 1 gave Adion a good idea of what the list was concerning.

That should be the top 10 Houses. The Shields are number 1, as expected.

Adion turned to look at the rest of the names.

#1 - Shields

#2 - Soaring Souls

#3 - Eternal Fire

#4 - Scrolls

#5 - Raindrops

#6 - Outskirters

#7 - Runesmiths

#8 - Senkan

#9 - Alchemists

#10 - Perillians

I should read up on the Houses. If I want to join any of them, I need all the information available. Maybe I’ll ask Sell about it, she should know.

At the thought of Sell, Adion’s heart started beating in anticipation. He hurried his steps a little more than before, making his way into the public Academy without being stopped.

That should be the place we decided.

Adion looked around the plaza in case he had gotten the location wrong, but after looking around for 10 minutes, he had to accept that she wasn’t there.

It’s not strange, I’m arriving at the last minute. A lot later than we had said. I hope she won’t be too mad.

Adion gave up and moved to the huge line that had taken shape outside one of the massive buildings facing the plaza he was currently on.

That’s a lot of people. Thankfully, the line seems to be moving quite fast.

Adion took his place at the back of one of the lines and took time to look around. For some reason, he was looking for his family in the crowd of people, even if he knew that there was no chance of them being there.

I’ll just have to wait a little longer.

Adion was far from the last to arrive. More people kept filling up the queue as Adion moved forward. He tried sensing the strength of the people around him and wasn’t surprised at what he found.

Almost all of them are low Bronze. I wonder how common middle Bronze mages are? From what I can tell, there are around three here right now. Is middle Bronze not enough to be guaranteed a spot in the diamond class? I guess there are a lot of powerful families when you take the whole continent into account. At least my spot will be safe.

It took around 20 minutes before Adion was finally at the front of the line. A man with a scholarly look was sitting by an impromptu desk, waving Adion over.

“Name, strength, family clan?” The man asked.

“Er, Adion Remori. I’m a middle Bronze mage from a 2nd tier family,” Adion responded.

“Good,” The man nodded, “Any other relevant information?”

“Er,” Adion hesitated, “I’m sorry. Is this the admission?”

“Of course not,” The man said, “I just need to know what hall to send you to. It doesn’t matter. You’re a middle Bronze mage, so you’ll go to hall A. Head inside. There are clear directions there.”

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“Right,” Adion nodded and entered the building that was working as a test center for admissions at the moment.

Luckily, hall A was indeed not hard to find, taking Adion only a minute to locate it. There was a girl standing outside the doors leading into the hall. From her age, Adion guessed that she was a 3rd year student.

“You were assigned hall A?” The girl asked.

“Yeah,” Adion said.

“There is no line at the moment, so you can head straight inside,” The girl said, opening the door for Adion.

“Thanks,” Adion nodded and entered.

The hall seemed to be some kind of auditorium, but right now, there was no one in the many seats that were probably occupied by students under normal circumstances. Only three people were in the hall. They each had a big wooden desk in front of them, stacked with papers.

They were all facing Adion as he entered, and he soon took his spot in front of them. He was slightly nervous despite his confidence in not revealing anything he shouldn’t.

I know Sahra said so, but it’s incredible that they actually have Diamond mages handling the admission.

As Adion took his place in the area where he assumed professors usually held their lectures, he quickly examined the three people, as they did him.

To the left was a skinny man who looked to be in his fifties. A stubble adorned his face, and he looked bored to be there.

In the middle sat a man who only looked to be in his late twenties, something very unusual for a Diamond mage. He had a kind smile on his face as he looked at Adion.

The one to the right was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her late thirties. She didn’t even look up at Adion as he entered but was focused on something written on the papers in front of her.

“Hello there,” The man in the middle said, “My name is Lukas Horrof, welcome to Cyalis Academy.”

Lukas Horrof? I’ve heard that name. Isn’t he the dean?

“Thank you,” Adion said and gave a slight bow.

“What is your name, young man?” Lukas asked.

“I’m Adion Remori, sir,” Adion rescinded respectfully.

“Remori?” Lukas asked.

“That’s right,” Adion nodded, “I actually have a brother and sister here in the Academy. Aiden and Ailera Remori, do you know of them?”

“What a fool,” The man on the left muttered, “You think we will rank you higher just because you have a brother and sister here? I’ll take 10 credits just because you annoy me.”

Adion looked at the man, stumped.

When did I say that?

“Er, it’s not like that,” Adion said, “I haven’t seen them in 5 years and simply wanted to know where they are.”

The man looked at Adion for a few seconds before responding, “It still annoyed me, so I’m keeping the credits.”

“Professor Haul,” Lukas said, turning to look at the man, “Please be reasonable. You were the one who asked to be here.”

“I had to be somewhere around here. I just asked to be with you. At least there is a chance of someone interesting showing up.” The man surnamed Haul said.

“Still,” Lukas said patiently, “You’ll have to uphold some sort of decorum if you want to stay.”

“Have your credits then,” Haul muttered. He then pulled a bottle from his coat pocket. Taking out a small pill from the bottle, Haul popped it in his mouth and put the bottle back in his coat.

What kind of pill was that?

Lukas nodded, satisfied, and turned back to Adion. “So a missing Remori child…very interesting.”

“Why is that interesting?” The woman asked, butting into the conversation for the first time.

“We can talk about it later,” Lukas said to the woman before turning to Adion again, “Your brother and sister are both here. I’ll have someone show you to them later.”

“Thank you very much, sir,” Adion said, relieved.

“As for this ‘sir,’ you can throw it away,” Lukas said, “Professor, elder, scholar, and teacher are the titles used here at the Academy. With a few exceptions, such as myself. You can call me Dean Lukas.”

Lukas? Whatever.

“Thank you for the lesson, Dean Lukas,” Adion said.

“You will learn more about all this once classes start,” Lukas said, “Let’s get on with the test.”

“Ah! Ailera Remori is in several of my classes,” The woman exclaimed suddenly, “I always call her ‘Limia,’ so I didn’t realize.”

Why?

“What’s so special about her?” The woman asked Lukas.

“There is nothing special about her. We will talk about it later, professor Alamani,” Lukas said.

Is he talking about the situation at the Remori manor? If he is the dean, he should be pretty well-informed.

“Now,” Lukas said, “Let’s see what you can do. What type of mage are you?”

“I’m a fire mage, Dean Lukas,” Adion responded.

“Alright. See that training dummy?” Lukas asked and pointed toward a dummy that seemed to be made out of some metal, as far as Adion could tell. Adion hadn’t even noticed it when he entered the room.

“Attack it with your fire until we tell you to stop,” Lukas said. He then turned to Haul, “Haul, pay attention.”

“I am,” Haul responded non-committedly.

I’ll need to make sure I don’t hold on to the fire more than I should be able to.

Adion conjured a fire, much bigger than he had Authority over in order to both impress the professors and get a good feeling of how much he could control fire without Authority.

He shot it toward the dummy and Willed it to burn. Unfortunately, fire wasn’t that easy to control, so it didn’t have any effect on the dummy.

If I could use my Authority, I would be able to melt that thing. But my concepts aren’t developed enough to have any effect that quickly, not on metal.

Adion continued his barrage of attacks for a full minute before he was asked to stop.

“What do you think, Haul?” Lukas asked.

“Average concepts, below-average control,” Haul responded.

What?

“I think that the dummy being made of metal didn’t really allow my concepts to-,” Adion began but was cut off by Haul.

“And a deduction of 20 credits for thinking that he knows more about concepts than a professor at the Academy he is seeking admission to,” Haul added lazily.

Adion was stumped once again. He didn’t know exactly what credits were used for, but he knew he wanted to have as many as possible. He turned to Lukas in hopes that he would reverse the situation again.

“He’s got a point,” Lukas shrugged, “Any other elements or battle prowess you want to showcase?”

“Hold on,” Haul said, leaning forward in his chair to look at Adion, “Why didn’t you use the fire mana from your core?”

“He didn’t?” Alamani asked.

“No, he conjured it from the pure mana around him,” Haul said.

“Oh? I didn’t even notice,” Alamani said, surprised.

“I wanted to have a full core for meditation later,” Adion lied, controlling his aura not to reveal anything. He wasn’t panicking as he had been prepared for someone to notice. “I have practiced conjuring fire from pure mana for that reason. It has become a habit at this point.”

Haul stared at him quietly for a while. “Smart,” He finally said. “Finally, someone who thinks ahead a little. 10 credits. And 10 more credits for not annoying me by bringing it up yourself.”

Is this common? Do professors just throw credits around left and right? At least he doesn’t only take them away.

“Very impressive, Adion,” Lukas said with a smile, “Any other abilities you want to showcase? Only abilities that are useful when you’re fighting, I should add. Your knowledge of other things will come into play later in the year.”

Adion had considered showcasing his shadow abilities now that he had spent a year practicing it, but he realized it would be hard without risking revealing his Authority. And it wouldn’t be bad to keep that ability a secret.

“I don’t have any control of any other element,” Adion said, preparing to bring up his ‘Gift.’

“Since you seem to have been away from your family clan, I should remind you that it is strictly forbidden to hide your strength. So think hard about if there is anything you haven’t shown that can be used in a fight,” Lukas said.

“Er, I do have one other thing that I was about to bring up,” Adion said, “But why is it forbidden to hide something?”

“Everyone has secrets, and that is fine,” Lukas explained, “But you’re not allowed to hide strength during the admission due to the risks that would pose on students in the upcoming ranking tournament. Say you hide your strength, and we place you in stone class, as that is the strength you have shown us. When other stone class students go up against you in the tournament, they would be far too weak to handle you and could possibly end up dead.

“Injuries are expected, and accidents happen, but should we discover that someone has feigned weakness and used an official fight to kill a student…well, let’s just say that whole family clans have been known to disappear after such incidents.”

That makes sense. But I can’t show off my strength, can I? What would happen if they found out I’m a Silver mage? It might be fine…But I shouldn’t change my plans on the spot. I need to think it through.

Even if the Academy is the strongest force on Shiora and is known for protecting its students, I’m quite the special case. And who knows who could be on the side of Heavenly Light in secret? It’s good to keep your cards close to your chest.

I’ll just make sure I get the top spot. That way, it doesn’t really matter how much extra strength I’ve hidden.

“Well,” Adion said, “You should probably place me at rank 1 in the diamond class if that’s the case. I’m afraid any student that goes up against me will end up dead.”