There it was. Very deep in the forest, an enormous building started to slowly rise in our sight as we walked.

“Is that one the famous Academia everyone keeps talking about?” I curiously asked.

Before answering me, Lily laughed in a mockingly, yet cute, way and made a question: “¿You truly aren’t from here aren’t ya’?”

I laughed a little and told her that it was my first time in Galdric and that I’d never heard of such a thing like the Academia where I lived.

“Then you probably lived under a rock ‘cause a lot of people from every part of the world come here to try to get admitted. Also a lot of people get rejected because it is a very difficult exam.”

I was starting to get afraid of the kind of exam it was. The only useful thing that I knew at that time was fighting with a sword, apart from that nothing. Also a lot of people tried every 6 months to get admitted and that reduced my chances.

I didn’t care until that moment because we were very late and I was just trying to get on time, but as soon as we saw the building I felt a weird feeling in my stomach and the “If I don’t get admitted, what would happen?” question started to round my mind.

“Well I’m from far, far away you know?” I nervously answered with a low tone.

Before we realized we were in front of the famous building. It was a big beige church-like edification with one tall tower in the center and two smaller towers on the sides. The one of the center had a circular window located a little bit down of the tallest point of the tower. Also every tower finished with a pointy top.

But it’s most notorious characteristic was that there wasn’t any person. No one was there: no sad faces of rejection, no sounds of joy, nothing.

“Are… we… too early?” I said with an uncomfortable tone to try to gladden the mood.

All I could hear was a sad lament from Lily’s little sister who was saying: “So we didn’t make it this semester either right?

Lily had a gloomy face too, even though she tried to dissimulate for me: “C’mon! We’ll sure make it the next time!”

Six months were a lot of time for me. I, who was trying to escape this horrendous place as soon as possible, could not possibly wait six months to start learning how to get into the Academia.

“What could I possibly do in six months? I don’t have a place to stay and I’m too weak to go and try to make out a living of killing monsters.”

“Well, maybe I can stay with Lily and then try to go and find a job. Maybe I can live like a simple pedestrian without much complication you know? Maybe I can live a good and simple life and who knows? Maybe I’ll like it more than my actual life. Anyway is not like I have a good life.”

All these thoughts surrounded my head for a while until I heard, once again, the beautiful voice that already helped me before: “Don’t be stupid, go and try. Maybe you’ll get a chance.”

I turned around and looked everywhere, I even almost let Lily fall of my back.

“Hey be careful! Are y…” I don’t remember the rest; I was too busy looking for Liv but she never appeared.

“Oh, sorry. I think I heard something.”

“Is it so? Seriously be careful!”

After thinking of the words that my guardian angel said, I decided to do exactly what she told me.

Putting a serious expression on my face for the first time since I entered the game, I told Lily that I was going to try something. She seemed confused but decided to trust me. I walked to the doors and got into the great building for once.

There, we saw a tall man dressed in what I assume were formal clothes. The guy was dark-skinned and really big. It wasn’t until we got really close that I noticed his pointy ears and red eyes. He was obviously not a human.

He was talking to a young boy with short black hair and yellow eyes. He was wearing some kind of very cool uniform and had a sword in his back.

“…nothing good this semester either. What a shame.”

Those were the last words the young folk said before I interrupted.

“Excuse me sir” I said with a firm voice.

I expected a very scary response to my answer but fortunately it wasn’t like that.

“What happened boy?” said the serious yet kind voice of the big guy.

I proceeded to explain him our situation and asked him if there wasn’t any other chance or way to make the test.

A very annoying voice interrupted me in the middle of the explanation: “Impossible! If you didn’t come here on time why should we give you another chance? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

The big guy stopped him and told him to shut up. He then directed his gaze to me and started to talk.

“Hmmm” He kept thinking for a while.

“Normally I should not be making this but I’m in a good mood. You see, this time a lot of incompetent people showed up to do the test. Almost no one was accepted. Because there is still some space, I’ll give you and your girlfriend one chance to get admitted. However, as she’s unable to stand on her own, you’ll have to prove you’re worth two spaces in this academy. And you’ll do it by fighting him.”

Right as he finished those words he pointed to the young boy that was talking with him earlier.

The boy started to laugh loudly as if someone just told him the best joke in the world.

“Hahahahahaha! Oh my God you’re so cruel Professor Melinor! To think that their opportunity to get accepted is by defeating me makes me want to crush their dreams in the worst way possible!”

“This guy’s a scumbag” I thought before I accepted the challenge.

A feeling of excitement flooded through my body. I felt like the first time I fought against a monster except that this time a feeling of revenge was also present.

“I’m gonna shut this guy’s mouth.” I kept thinking while we headed to a practice arena in the center of the building.

Curiously, apart from some professors and us, no one was there. I asked this guy, Melinor, the reason of this and he told me that the classes hadn’t begun yet, that today was just the test.

“I see…” was my response while I kept admiring the beautiful place in which we were located.

Lily was still in my back and she didn’t seem very surprised by the elegance of the palace-like academy. It was like she was accustomed to all these fancy stuff.

“Aren’t you nervous?” She asked me with a cute tone.

“To be honest, not really. You see, back in my hometown I practiced a martial art with a sword and I was very good at it.

Also I know a bit of some other martial arts so I’m used to fight.”

“Well, you better win because if not I won’t forgive you!”

“I’ll try my best.”

As we finished talking we arrived to the arena. It was a big place with a lot of good space and all the tools and equipment you may need. “A perfect place for fighting” I said with a smile on my face.

 “Here we are. Grab the wooden sword you want and then I’ll explain you the rules” said Professor Melinor.

I left Lily on a chair nearby with her sister and I went to grab a sword.

There was a bunch of different swords; each with very unique and different styles.

There were different stands divided in categories: short swords, long swords, two handed and curved swords.

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Because I practiced kendo, I was hoping to find a katana. Since I was accustomed to long, curved swords it was going to be easier this way.

When I finally found it I felt relieved and ready to fight.

“You done noob?” said that annoying voice that kept pissing me off.

With a very serious and decided tone I answered to him by saying: “I am.”

The two of us headed to the center of the arena. There was a not so big rectangle in the floor marked with white paint.

After this, Professor Melinor proceeded to explain me the rules.

“It’s quite simple actually; just fight like if you were going to kill your opponent. When your enemy is left with no more chances and you´re about to give him what would be the quietus, you stop. It will be your victory then. Pretty simple huh?”

“Anything else I need to know?”

“Not much. Basically the ways of losing: if you are defeated, if you get out of the rectangle, and the most important one, if you disrespect the rule of not giving the quietus.”

“I get it.”

“With all these said, you’re ready” finally said the Professor.

I was impatient, very excited and dying to fight the guy. I felt the emotion running through my body again as the time arrived.

Because there was no danger of dying I could finally enjoy a fight. That’s why I was so excited. Also because this guy seemed extremely smug and I wanted to defeat him so bad.

“Consider yourself lucky, you’re about to fight against no one else than Kevlin Einhearst, noble, heir of the rich family Einhearst and the best student of the Academia. Although I don’t think a peasant like you would understand the meaning of those words.”

“You know what? I’m gonna enjoy so much shutting your mouth!”

“Start!”

Once I heard those words I put my body in a defensive mode to wait for his attack.

As I was changing my position Kevlin suddenly moved and hit me. He attacked me with a burst of constant strikes; one after another they kept trying to reach me. I could do nothing but defend myself. I parried everyone one of them and backed off. “This guy’s good” I thought.

“I gotta say that I thought you’d lose after that.”

“Who do you think I am?” I responded.

I recovered and put myself back in the fight.

“Now it’s my turn!” I said while going to attack him.

Now it was backwards; I was the one throwing a bunch of strikes to him and he was defending himself from me.

We kept like that until I decided to direct one of my strikes to his leg. He skillfully jumped and dodged my attack leaving me in a compromised position. I boosted to the front and barely avoided his sword.

We both rapidly got up and switched to defensive mode. We kept like that for about half a minute or so. Then, I surprised him by running around him in circles. He remained in the same defensive position. In a moment I attacked him but he parried fast, I got back to running around him and decided to attack again. As a reflection of the last play he parried and I got back to the same position.

I did the same thing once again but this time I didn’t attack him with the sword, I kicked him in the legs making him to fall out. He was in the floor and it was my chance. When I was about to make my last attack he rolled to his left and avoided something that would have probably left him really wounded. I wasn’t playing fair; I wanted to hurt that guy.

I quickly recovered and put myself in defensive mode while waiting for his attack.

He didn’t disappoint me and attacked, this time with more speed and accuracy than before.

I was very concentrated and somehow managed to block that incredible burst of strikes. This wasn’t going to end, he was going to do this until I couldn’t parry anymore.

At some point I could find a hole in all of his attacks and counter-attacked.

When I was about to give him the last attack something happened: some white light came out of his body as he moved to his left.

After that he hit my sword sending it outside of the rectangle of fight and then appeared behind me telling that it was over.

Different than before, his voice sounded serious and pissed off. He left the place and left me alone in the rectangle.

I could not believe it; I was losing my chance to get in the Academia. I was losing the only chance that I had to go home.

I remained silent in the middle of the rectangle without moving. Just standing there like a statue.

“Congratulations! The places are yours!”

“Wh…what?”

“You just won the chance for you and your girlfriend to study here!”

“Bu…but I lost?”

“Yes, you lost, terribly. But I never said that you had to win. I only told you to fight Kevlin, in that way it would be easier for me to evaluate your abilities. And I have to say that you are incredibly strong.”

“Really? Thanks sir! I promise I won’t disappoint you.”

“I hope you don’t. Also do you know the reason of why you lost?”

“Uhmm, no.”

“At the end when you were about to defeat him, you saw that white light right?”

“Yes…”

“That’s what we call a “Skill”. A skill is some kind of non-magic power that is only taught in the Academia. If it wasn’t because of that, you would have probably defeated him.”

“Wow… That’s amazing.”

“Shiroooooooooooooooo!”

Suddenly a female voice interrupted and all I can describe is that I felt someone who pounced at me and then hugged me tight.

“Li…Liv!? Weren’t you injured!?”

“Yes, but I just couldn’t resist and had to hug you! Thank you for that amazing fight and thank you for helping me so much!”

I got all blushed from a sudden and I just didn’t know what to say.

It was the first time that someone apart from my family had shown me so much affect.

Instead of trying to say something I just hugged her back remained like that for a moment. Needless to say, I felt incredibly happy.

For a moment I remembered that this was all supposed to be nothing more than mere data transmitted to my brain and making me feel like this but I didn’t want to ruin the moment and I just got carried away.

“It’s not fair sister! I want to hug him too!” said the little girl.

“Oh yes I’m sorry, I forgot he’s your knight.”

The little girl came to hug me and all I could do was smile. I felt that family love that I hadn’t felt in a while.

After that entire scene, Professor Melinor told us to come back here in two days from now at 9:00 am to get settle and know the academy, that there would be a “welcome party” and a little demonstration of the graduates of what we will learn.

We happily agreed and left the place.

“Do you have a place to stay these days?” asked Lily.

“Well…”

“You don’t right?”

“No.”

“Then don’t worry, you can stay with us in my home.”

“Really!? I mean, am I not gonna be a bother?”

“Don’t worry; guests are always welcome, especially if it’s someone like you who helped us so much.”

“Then I’ll take the offer. Thank you a lot.”

With that said we headed to Lily’s house in Galdric.