Since the central building of the Academic Institute functioned primarily as a public library, they had to head to the left wing where the offices, workshops, and labs of the official academics were located.

It was in the left wing where all the important activities took place, prompting the three of them to head there for a small interview with one of the lower-ranked academics before officially becoming apprentices of the institute.

“Wait here for a moment. I will return soon. Just sit down and relax. The interview will be simple,” the receptionist, who had guided them until now, instructed them before disappearing through one of the many doors in the area. Illyan promptly sat down, followed by the slightly nervous duo.

“Kaoran, I didn’t know you were so young. I thought you would be in your thirties…” Cara remarked, glancing at Illyan's flawless countenance with slightly red ears.

“That pristine face of yours was unexpected,” she also added.

“Do I seem that old?” Illyan asked with a curious expression.

“Well, we didn’t see your face properly through that hood of yours and your low voice was always so calm and composed that it made us feel you had lived through a lot of experiences over time…”

“It also makes your voice sound deeper as you have kind of… Limited emphatic intonation,” Nord chimed in.

Listening to their explanations, Illyan frowned inwardly.

‘People already think I am older than I look when I am mentally just around 19 years old… How bad will it be in the future?’

He already expected that his behavior would change along with time while his face would age slowly. But he didn’t expect the discrepancy would happen so soon.

His childhood ended when he was eight years old. Since then, he stopped being a child and became a survivor fighting for his life.

‘I guess there is a price for everything, huh. This makes me think over some things… Since I planned to be in this place for a while, I should also find some recreational activities… I should enjoy myself once in a while…’

During his life, Illyan didn’t have many hobbies or fun activities to do. When he was younger, he was always looking for a way to fill his stomach, and the only fun activity he got to have was learning herbology and listening to stories. In his later years, the only thing he did was train, fight and study. While he loved each of those activities, it was far from all what life offered.

As he pondered, the old man reappeared and brought Cara with him.

From then on, only two of them waited.

But after time enough only to drink a cup of tea, the old man returned and took Nord with him.

“Where is Cara?” Nord asked as he left with the old man.

“She is discussing accommodation with the staff right now. Don’t worry, you will be able to communicate together once you finish,” the old man answered before guiding Nord inside.

As the door closed, there was only Illyan waiting in the room for his turn in silence. Because of the silence, Illyan closed his eyes and calmed his mind into utmost tranquility as he waited.

Fortunately, just as with the first case, this time it also didn’t take much time before the old man returned.

He didn’t need to say anything as Illyan stood up immediately and followed him inside the doors. The old man smiled as he remarked.

“I already mentioned your expertise to academic Falia. But you need to be honest with her about your abilities and experience as you will need to be requalified by academic physicians. Each try is very expensive. There were many who bragged and then went poor dirt after failing several times. So, just tell her as much as you can while being transparent.”

“Thank you, elder,” Illyan nodded as he made a small bow.

“Hoho~ There is no need for such formalities. If everything goes well, then we will be colleagues in no time. You can just call me Ollie or old man like everyone else does.”

“Alright, Mr. Ollie.”

After that, Illyan went through the other doors where academic Falia was already waiting.

“Please, sit down.”

Before he could say anything, she prompted him with a cold voice. Illyan nodded and sat down at the chair in front of her desk. She was a middle-aged woman with a pale countenance. Her face already showed wrinkles from age, but Illyan could guess that her frowning was also partially at fault.

She had a monocle over her left eye and was reading some kind of paper while ignoring Illyan. When he noticed her brown hair tied into a ponytail to avoid getting in the way, he wondered if he should also tie his hair up.

“So… Mr. Kaoran, was it right?” At last, she put her eyes away from the documents and looked at him.

“Yes.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Well then, from Ollie’s words, you are an uncertified physician. Can you please tell me more about you? Why did you decide to pursue the path of physician?” Falia asked with an apathetic voice, as if she had done this hundreds of times.

“You see, since I was small…” Illyan started to explain about himself, highlighting his time learning herbology from a young age and then learning medicine on the frontline with his ‘grandfather’. Of course, while the most important things remained unchanged, his story was still very different from reality. He couldn’t say he was from the north where only barbarians lived, after all.

Instead, he decided to change his story to where he was from the south and worked as an assistant to his grandfather during the war. He decided on this story ever since he heard from Terren that large-scale skirmishes were common in the south.

“I see. How far does your knowledge and proficiency go?”

“I pretty much can heal any kind of physical injury as long as I have the right tools and herbs. I know and can detoxify most common poisons and treat most diseases that are not too rare.”

The conversation was definitely much longer than that of the duo, but Illyan was prepared for it, as he was aware that she would ask about his abilities.

She was asking, and he was answering.

“Now, I would like to test whether you can truly write and read. It is common procedure as there were cases of liars trying to become academics without making an effort, to make profit or for other nefarious intentions.”

She put an old parchment, which was half-filled with text, in front of him.

“Please read the text written on it.”

“Alright.”

When he looked at the parchment, he saw the small letters. They were familiar, as he had trained reading them the entire day. As such, he didn’t even get stuck as he read fluently.

“The ancient city of Naaza is known for its unrelenting brunt of the dark miasma…”

At first, he read for the sake of reading, but seeing that the content was interesting, he also absorbed whatever information it gave him. Of course, one paragraph of text was nothing, but it still piqued his curiosity.

“Good. You can read quite well for such a young man. Now, please try to write your thoughts about the text you have just read. The length of it should be the same as the content you have read.”

She gave him

a feather quill and an ink bottle. Illyan focused, knowing this would be his first obstacle.

While he learned reading, he never actively wrote anything, as even the old parchment he was using right now was expensive.

He took the feather quill and carefully dipped it into an ink bottle.

Fortunately, he wasn’t too stiff with it, as his experiences with [The Way of the Body] made him extremely nimble with his body and whatever item he was holding.

Of course, that still didn’t make him professional, but for casual use, it was sufficient.

At first, he pondered what to write, but then he just thought that writing his honest thoughts would be easiest. As he wrote from his perspective, he mentioned his interest in that place and also his guesses as to what was happening there based on his knowledge.

“Sir Kaoran, I wanted the text to be the same length as the original text…” When he stopped, he realized he had filled the parchment by two-thirds. That made him a little awkward.

Cough

“I apologize. I was carried away.”

“Hmm… It doesn’t matter. Let me see…”

She took the parchment and started to read it. At first, her frown deepened, and she used her feather quill to write something into the text. But as time passed, not only did her expression loosen, but it also seemed that her eyes sparkled a little.

After a minute passed, she took a deep breath and looked back at Illyan.

“There are several grammatical mistakes. It is not bad considering that you probably didn’t have much practice, as parchments and paper are expensive or even unavailable in some places. Your penmanship is also sub-par. For normal people, that would be enough, but not for academics, so you will need to practice more. As a benefit of being an apprentice here, you will be given five standard parchments every month. You may take this to look at your mistakes.”

She said as she gave him back the old parchment. Illyan looked at it and noticed some scribbles next to some words he wrote. However, those scribbles were much smaller, elegant, and more artistic than his, which looked as amateurish as it could.

He stopped looking at it before putting it in his bag before looking back at Falia, who didn’t stop talking.

“All in all, it wasn’t horrible. But what took my interest was the content itself that you wrote. That itself shows a lot about a person. And you, Sir Illyan, seem to be a very curious young man, yet being rational while looking from more perspectives. That is a trait that is very welcomed here. As for your curiosity, I will indulge you for this one. Yes, the city of Naaza exists, but it is very far away from here.”

After she said this, Illyan nodded satisfied. While the text was interesting, he didn’t know if it was just fiction. Now that his curiosity was satisfied, he thought inwardly about whether he would get a chance to visit the place in the future.

“Now, I have one last question. I personally think it is not needed in your case as your text already showed it all but still. Procedures are procedures. The question sounds: "Why did you choose the path of academics?”

After the entire interview, Falia seemed to be much more friendly than at the beginning. She still didn’t smile, but she didn’t frown either.

Illyan didn’t need to think about the question as he promptly said.

“Because I like to study and learn new things. And because I think knowledge is power.”

“I see.” Falia nodded as she took out an account book.

“Sir, before completing this interview… There is a small one-off fee to become an apprentice. It is five bronzes. Once you pay it, you will be given accommodation, three meals a day, free lectures on basic subjects, and free access to the library for as long as you stay as an apprentice here. Of course, you will also have other responsibilities once one year passes. If you don’t have…”

“No, it is alright. I have that much. Here you go,” Illyan, while pained that most of his money was gone, still gave her the fee. After that, she started to scribble something in that big account book before looking back at him.

“Good. Congratulations, Mr. Kaoran. From now on, you are an apprentice of this institute. Study diligently as the apprentices are being tested every month. If you are not getting better, then you will be expelled. But if you get promoted to a full-fledged academic, then you will be fine. For you to get promoted, you must be proficient in at least one field and get tested minimally by three academics of that field. That costs a lot too, since academics don’t have that much free time. The first time is just one silver coin, but after that each try costs over ten silver coins.” She said this with a serious expression as she stood up and gave him a hand.

That confused Illyan a bit, but then he realized it was probably a cultural thing and took her hand, shaking it.

“Thank you.”

“You don’t need to worry. You will be given more details by one of the instructors once you get proper accommodation. Before that, you can do whatever you want, but please stay in the building before everything is done. You can either rest or go look around the library.”

After she said this, she opened one of the drawers and took a small bronze badge.

“This is confirmation of your identity. Put it on your robe and don’t lose it. Also, don’t try to exploit it, or there will be consequences.”

After she gave him advice, or more rather a warning, she saw him off at her office. Outside, there was another man waiting for him…