“I guess am super late right?”, Andrew asks while his hands roam through his hair. “Sure you are. Hurry up before the exam gets over”, Eve replies while dragging him.
It didn’t take them too long before they got to the building. It was just a small building which Andrew hasn’t seemed to search through formerly and it has seem to be deserted. It was just beside the gate and he thought it was meant for the guards or normal workers in the school, but it turns out to be where the exam was being taken and its quietness was due to the fact that no talks were allowed during the examination and anyone caught would immediately be disqualified from entering the school. Such a strict rule for just the screening exercise.
The building was bigger on the inside though, seems like the ground floor was dug up before the building cause it got deeper as they went inside the building and wider also but that still didn’t prevent it from being properly ventilated and from being properly lit. There was more than one hall in the building and all the halls were quiet, if one didn’t enter the hall, no one would have thought that people were inside.
On entering the hall which was allocated to him, everybody’s eyes were turned towards him, both that of the invigilator and those writing the exams.
They were up to a thousand applicants present in just this hall alone. There was only one invigilator in the hall who was just casually sitting down in the hall while going through some papers. But on seeing this person who was acting as the invigilator, Andrew was shocked. He didn’t expect that the kingdom would be so filled with experts that they could spare a sensory realm expert just for a normal admission examination.
The truth was way far from that though, this invigilator happens to be among one of the top four executives excluding the headmaster who was responsible for the administration of various affairs in the school, and happens to have a lot of free time such that he was bored enough to want to invigilate the students during the screening exercise.
The invigilator notices the gaze that Andrew levels on him and for the first time since the start of the exam, he raises his head. After staring at Andrew for a while, he was unable to perceive even any strong aura from him which he finds weird.
‘Why did I get that vibe when he was staring at me then? Was my perception wrong? Guess I have started waning’, he questions himself inwardly.
The man raising his head up happens to look like a wisened old man with some wrinkles on his face, but even though he looked this old, he was still a bit handsome although elderly which went to show that he was a handsome man when he was young. His eyes were sharp, but the way he sat made him seem like that elder whom one could always go to for advice. Seeing the man with wrinkles made Andrew understand that no matter how powerful you are, time would surely take its toll on you one day.
He felt somehow for a while but his resolve still didn’t depreciate one bit but rather increases to a brand new height. ‘I don’t mind if I get old, feeble and die, all I want is to die as someone so powerful that just a single word of mine would shake the whole world’, he said inwardly.
After clearing all the negativities he was feeling, he felt invigorated and stared at the man. The man notices the light which flashes by Andrew’s eyes and at that moment, he was sure there was something about this boy he couldn’t put his hands on.
At this point, there were three people staring at Andrew. The first was the invigilator, the other was Marian and the last was a boy who didn’t seem anything special, the rest students has turned back to their exam papers.
The boy looks frail but exudes a healthy glow. He has white but short hair which wasn’t anything short of beautiful. His eyes colour were red, which was a contrast with his looks. But it didn’t decrease his beauty a single bit.
The way he was staring at Andrew seems like they had known each other for a long while. Andrew notices his gaze and turns in his direction, but the boy snorts immediately Andrew saw him and turns his focus back to what he was writing.
Andrew was shocked by the attitude of this boy but dismissed it anyway, not like they would be acquainted with each other or anything of that sort.
“What can I do for you?”, the man finally asks after staring at Andrew for a while. “Sorry sir, I am here for the exams”, replies Andrew with his head bowed. “Huh.... You are here for the exams and you came this late?”, the man asks. “I got lost, sir”, Andrew replies awkwardly still keeping his head bowed. “You should go out. There is no hope for you to write anything”, the man spoke decisively without any chance for Andrew to talk his way through. But as opposed to the man’s thought, even after a minute, Andrew was still there with his head bowed. Although the man has his face buried in the book which was in his hands, he still sensed that Andrew was there.
“What are you still waiting for? Didn’t you hear what I just said?”, the man asks with a frown. “I am sorry, sir. But I hope you can give me a chance to at least write something”, Andrew replies not still raising his head. ‘What a good boy’, the man says inwardly, really appreciative of the manners of Andrew, although he was a bit impressed about the way Andrew behaved when entering the hall, that was all there was to it. Only if he knew what was in Andrew's mind, he wouldn’t have thought that way though.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“Alright then, you have less than thirty minutes remaining. Hope to see you do your best”, the man finally says once again while pointing at his desk for Andrew to pick up one of the papers. Andrew picks up the paper and runs towards the only opening space which happens to be close to where the boy who has formerly stared at him sat down.
Although he was shocked at first that this was the last available seat, that didn’t bother him one bit. After sitting down, he stares at what was in his paper and was shocked. He didn’t understand any of the questions in it, wanting to turn his head to stare at what his fellow examinees were doing, he was shocked to find that the invigilator was staring at him. He just smiles awkwardly while scratching his head and focusing on his book. The boy who was close to him just snorts again noticing his actions, “Hoping to spy your way into the academy, huh”, he murmurs.
Andrew doesn’t pay attention to what he has said but instead, focuses on his paper, just staring at the words on it, causes his head to spin. Although using the memories from the body which he reincarnated into he was able to understand the words and a lot of other stuff, he still wasn’t able to answer the questions since he didn’t bother to go through any book thinking of it as a waste of time. This was way harder than when he was fighting with Edson. ‘
Never knew that fights such as this existed. Gosh, why is it even necessary to go through all these just to gain admission’, Andrew thought inwardly.
He has already gathered information from Eve about the exams of the academy and knew that even spying was useless as different questions were being given to different examinees.
‘I am finished, kaput. This is the end for me. I should have just stayed at home’, he says. The papers were just to mark the correct answers after all and didn’t deal with anything serious like writing. But Andrew who didn’t have anything idea was just staring blankly.
The invigilator notices this attitude of Andrew and was shocked, but he chooses not to comment on his actions and goes back to his book. Time ticked by and soon there were just ten minutes away from the exam being concluded.
‘It’s now or anything then. I am putting it all at stake’, Andrew says finally deciding with all seriousness. No matter how he had pondered about the answers, he still couldn’t figure out how he could get the answers and he finally understood the importance of studying. Although if for a bit. He shades any answer with lightning speed and before the time was up, he has finished shading his answers.
“Time’s up”, the man said at this moment and most of the examinees stops to write. But some being blockheaded, decides to just shade some more answers without thinking so that they could at least answer all the questions. The man just smiles and tells the potential students to line up. He collects their papers and those who have been writing when he said the time is up, their papers were torn up, which shows that they were disqualified. None of them who has written had their papers collected. Their faces all lost colour and were ashen. They understood that even begging wouldn’t sort out anything.
Luckily, Andrew hasn’t written after the time was up as he understood the kind of person who was invigilating them. After submitting, they all went out of the hall, a few with happy faces, some nervous, others sighing and some having given up on being admitted into the school.
He and Marian saw while going out and she talks a lot about the exam and how it has been okay as what she has read has mostly come out. Andrew’s face got darker as she boasted about the exams as he knew that he didn’t write anything and had truly given up all hope about being admitted to the school. Although he was that way, he didn’t allow Marian to notice his expression and just allowed her to boast about how the exams has been for her with a pretty smile on her face.
They met with Eve who has been waiting all these while for them to be through with their exams. She waves immediately as she sees the duo and they went to meet her. Although Andrew has not been accepting her advances actively, he hasn’t stopped it either. He didn’t know how their relationship would develop and didn’t want to stop it with his own hands. Eve wanted to ask about how the exams went but on seeing how Andrew looks, she kept quiet. The one who loves you notices every little change in your expression after all. But this didn’t stop Marian from continuing to talk about the exams. But being considerate enough, Eve allows Marian to speak but cuts the conversation short and suggests that they should be going home.
While about to enter their carriage, Andrew saw that white-haired boy once again who currently has a blank face like nothing in this world could affect him. He was about to enter another carriage which was more distinguished than theirs, but as if he notices the gaze of Andrew, he turns in his direction and their eyes met. It seems like just seeing the face of Andrew spites the boy and his face turns into a frown which continues to shock Andrew.
Eve noticing that Andrew has stopped walking turns to look at what was holding him back and saw the white-haired boy and was shocked. She taps Andrew lightly before asking, “Do you know him?”. “Huh, him? I don’t. He has just been looking at me in an awkward way which seems to be a bother”, replies Andrew. “Who is he?”, he asks.
“That is Alex. The adopted son of the king. According to public rumour, he is said to be an illegitimate son of the king but other sources say that he was found by a general while scouting through one of the cities and he found out that he was a talent and brought him to the capital. The king saw him and immediately adopted him. Since then, he has always been treated with special attention and care. He is said to be a genius rarely seen in thousands of years both in studying and in cultivation. He is rumoured to be in the double increase realm. But if in fights, you should probably be able to defeat him”, Eve replies in one breath.
Andrew just stares at this boy who was rumoured to be a genius, he makes a face at him and turns towards his carriage without sparing another glance at him. Alex snorts on seeing his attitude but instead of making a scene, he just ignores Andrew and gets into his carriage.
If only these two boys know what kind of game the wheel of fate intends to play with them, they would be in laughter about their immaturity.