ILIAS PAYNE

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By nighttime, the symptoms of hangover had more or less disappeared. After dinner, Camaro saw us each to bed while explaining that we must leave two hours before sunrise as punishment and to make ground for the time we lost.

He kept that promise.

The colonel woke us up at around four in the morning already donning his uniform.

“Five more minutes,” Private Gama groaned as he pulled his blanket over him.

Camaro ripped the blanket away. “You had a full day!”

Camaro and Gama’s relationship doesn’t resemble one of leader and subordinate. It was more that of a responsible older brother and a lazy younger one.

After a grumpy start—we were used to waking up at around thirty past six—we continued on our journey.

The colonel was stricter for a couple of days. We were only allowed to stop twice. Once for lunch and twice to call it a day and set up camp. If we needed to use the privy, we either had to hold it in or ride ahead and relieve ourselves. When people started complaining, he ignored them.

Heloise couldn’t hold it in one time, so the two of us stopped. Camaro and the others didn’t and we had to make our horse gallop to catch up.

After three days of this, we went back to the old routine.

We stopped by three more towns on the way to the Capital and the colonel saw us to bed each time we were at an inn to make sure we didn’t get drunk.

After over a fortnight of travelling, we finally arrived at the Capital. It was the same as I remembered it over a hundred years ago. The walls had expanded and there were small hamlets outside the city gates, but the Capital was practically the same as was a century ago.

When we were let in, the four adventurers thanked us for letting them tag along and split off. Our remaining party headed further into the city and passed by the amphitheatre where I was once executed. Since Camaro knew I took an interest in Decan’s Rebellion, we took a couple of minutes to visit it. There was a patch of earth beside the stage with a flower bed and a gravestone in memoriam to Decan.

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It took a lot not to be overwhelmed with fluttering emotions of sadness and anger, but I bit my lip and managed to keep it together.

Our next stop was at a post office. It gave me a chance to write back to Mother and for the colonel to make a request from General Clegane to dispatch additional soldiers to Gilead.

Our final destination was a tavern called Tally Hall. Camaro and Heloise got off their mounts and stooped down to my level.

“This is where we leave you,” the colonel said. “You’re not allowed to make contact with the outside world during the exam, but when it finishes, we’ll be in an inn called The Green Dragon. Just tell them our names. See you then.”

“So I just walk in?”

“Yes, but remember, this is the State Jynxist Exam. Entering is not that simple. You must think like a jynxist.”

Heloise petted my head. “Make us proud, okay?”

I nodded. “I will.”

Heloise, Camaro, and the colonel’s team took their leave, cheering me on as they disappeared into the crowd.

I entered the tavern hauling my briefcase to find it busy and roaring just like a tavern would.

Are they sure this is the right place? What if it changes every year?

I went up to the bartender, who handed me a menu. The item that caught my attention was a drink called Jynxist’s Special. “I’ll have this.”

“How many gates, kid?”

“Gates?”

She held up a bottle. “How many shots do you want?”

“Two. I guess?”

The bartender began making the drink.

Wait, the legal drinking age is sixteen. She should’ve kicked me out by now.

“Wait,” I called out, focusing mana onto my eyes. I was able to see how many gates were on her body. “Thirteen. I want thirteen shots.”

The bartender stopped making the drink and took me into a private room in the back with eight other people.

“A kid, huh?” a person dressed as a jester asked. “This’ll be interesting.”

Just then, the entire room began to descend. We exited when it stopped and entered a large hall lit up by thousands of lumarine stones embedded in the ceiling. There were a couple hundred people that filled the hall, all of them looking like they’d taken this exam before.

A beast person with green patterned skin, a long slow-moving tail, and giant eyes that moved individually approached us. He wore a white shirt and a simple unbuttoned brown jerkin on top of it. His blonde hair was cut short and his goatee was of the same bright colour.

“It looks like you six are the last batch of participants. My name is Ivan Van Vanir and before you ask, my typing is a chameleon. I am the main proctor for this year’s exam. This badge will be your identification during this exam. Please don’t lose it.”

The badge number I got was 603.

“With these six participants, the application period is now over!” Ivan announced. “With that out of the way, the seventy-third State Jynxist Exam now officially begins!”