Inaki stood, staring into the maze. It had been about ten minutes since the time had started for Inaki to be able to find his way to the exit, and Inaki had wasted those ten minutes.

Inaki unsheathed his sword and began walking forward. The maze was extremely dark, with thin brick walls, and narrow spaces between them. The only illumination was torches. Fixed to the wall—Tall enough that Inaki couldn’t get them off—and sporadic in frequency. All turns were sharp, and from a distance with the darkness, it seemed like shadows lurked at every edge.

The first few paces, Inaki found that there wasn’t actually much in the name of obstacles. He decided that every time there was a crossroads, he would either go front, or go right, depending on the nature of the crossroads, with preference to going front. He took one right turn, and found nothing there, but there was a torch close by on one of its fixtures.

He jumped back as a column of fire engulfed from the ground where he was standing. But when he jumped back, he saw that an ax, hung by a rope with its edge facing him, was falling right at him. Inaki jumped to the side, and hit the ground. In the days which seemed like a lifetime ago, cutting that rope wouldn’t have been a challenge at all. But now his body didn’t trust his sword enough, and it was right not to.

Inaki decided that he would take the left turn, until someone jumped out of the wall. A Livion volunteer perhaps. He was holding a large ax that no sword could parry and he wore a thick white sweater, and a mask over his head. He began running at Inaki. Inaki began running in the opposite directions, where he had encountered the traps.

Inaki looked up, and with some luck was able to see that there were more axes, all ready to be loosed. Inaki dashed at full speed towards the traps, and the Livion man followed. Inaki quickly triggered the trap, then jumped. He clung onto the torch’s fixture, if he couldn’t get the torch out, the fixture definitely would be able to tolerate his weight.

The ax let loose, a column of fire erupted from where Inaki was standing a second ago. Inaki stuck to the wall as best as he could, and when the fire was gone, the man with the ax was still standing there, only the ax that was loose to hit him was on the ground next to him.

Inaki tried to channel all the agility in his trembling arms. He thought of climbing up towards the top of the wall, but it was too tall. He jumped off the wall, and began running.

And that didn’t go for too long. After taking another right turn, arrows rained from the sky, and began pelting Inaki. Inaki raised his sword and tried to cut through them like he had done several times during training, but he failed, and several arrows embedded themselves into his shoulders and his legs. These were sharp arrows.

Inaki looked back and barely saved his head as the Livion volunteer swung. Inaki stepped forward and tried to slash. The tea had reduced his trembling to almost nothing, but he was still too slow, still worse than a beginner even without his tremor. The man with the ax kicked Inaki in the chest, throwing him back. Right under a guillotine trap. Inaki quickly rolled back as the blade snapped loose. As he rolled, arrows embedded in his body went in deeper, and some of the shafts cracked, leaving only the arrowheads in his body. Inaki stood up, his body was in pain, but the tea had even numbed his pain.

Is he actually going to kill me?

Inaki began running. He heard the guillotine reset itself. The man with the ax began running at Inaki. Inaki looked back to see the. The guillotine fell, the volunteer was under it. Instead of running, or anything, the man raised his ax, and caught the blade of the guillotine. He stepped forward from underneath it, and the blade fell to the ground, victimless with a loud crash.

The man’s silence was eerie. Inaki began running, he didn’t know which direction, he just needed to get away. Inaki began taking turns as he ran just to try and confuse the man with the ax. It was getting darker, torches becoming rarer and rarer. The world was spinning.

No, there was a torch on the wall, it was still dark. Inaki’s head was exploding in pain. Oh no. THe man arrived. Inaki raised his sword through blinking, paining eyes and realized that he couldn’t run anymore, and would faint soon.

The man struck forward with his ax, it hit Inaki in the jaw, and it sent him back onto the floor. The ax was rubber padded. Inaki was alive, but he was seizing. He bit into his own tongue and began trembling there.

“Are you alright,” The man said. “I’m sorry if I hit too hard.” The soft-spokenness of the man shocked Inaki. Inaki was in no control of his body, and was losing consciousness, so he couldn’t say anything. He tried too, but then his consciousness faded.

He woke up in an infirmary.

“My name is Irula-daughter-Smita Livion, and I am one of the examiners for the Diamond exam,” The woman said, introducing herself as Inaki just barely opened his eyes. “You’re in the infirmary, round two of the exam began a few hours ago, and you’ve been disqualified.”

“What?” was the only word that Inaki could muster through his pained lips.

“You were out for too long. You know what that means,” The woman said.

Inaki reached out for his sword, and saw that there was already a Gold band on the hilt.

“Keep it,” Irula said. “Your father has told me to tell you that you don’t need to prove anything to anyone. Your brother is waiting outside to take you back to Tomoka.”

Inaki got up and left the infirmary. He was in the empty entrance hall. All the torches had been put out, the windows were half-shut only letting in slants of the dusk light, and Inaki was all alone.

He walked through the darkness towards the door of the entrance hall, and saw that outside the gate of the entrance hall of the exam, Gonten was waiting there for him.

“You’re okay,” Gonten said, hugging Inaki.

Inaki showed Gonten his sword, “Still not done, I am appearing for next week's Gold exam.

“Cut all of this short,” Gonten said. “Instead of working your way down, why don’t you work your way up. Give the Iron exam next week. If you fail, then they can start you from the beginning, give you exactly what you want.”

“Good idea,” Inaki said. “I’ll go and ask the clerks to change my exam dates.”

“That wasn’t an actual suggestion, Inaki,” Gonten said. “I am taking you home to Tomoka, and this is not a suggestion either, this is just a fact.”

“I am not leaving,” Inaki said. “Until I get my true rank.”

“I’m still leaving, I don’t have weeks to spend over your stupidity,” Gonten said. “I have to go to Gael, I was supposed to be leaving for Gael yesterday, but I delayed one day, and I am not delaying anymore.”

“Why did you delay one day knowing you’ll have to delay for all the other exams I need to give,” Inaki said.

Gonten was silent.

“Glad you have enough trust in me brother, that you thought you wouldn’t have to delay yourself anymore. Anyways, I didn’t need you when you were useless, and I don’t need you now. Bye.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Inaki stormed off, but it was a little awkward, since he and Gonten were going towards the same place—his inn room. The two of them were silent the entire walk. Inaki walked into the room, took his bag, his wooden sword, and everything else had carried with him. He was about to leave when Gonten stopped him. This room that they had gotten had originally been Gonten’s, and now all the exam hotels were full.

“Here, some money for you to get a cart back home, and for you to get a room,” Gonten said. “If you spend this on liquor there will be no way except walking for you to get back home and you’ll have to sleep on the street.”

“Thanks,” Inaki said reluctantly. Gonten seemed to want to say something else, but he didn’t. Inaki walked out of the inn. It was now nearly night time. Inaki found a small alley and fell asleep. With all the swordsmen everywhere, no criminal would ever think of doing anything, regardless, Inaki left his Golden sword revealed, it made sure that even if he wasn’t strong enough to justify it, he would intimidate anyone who would want to steal from him.

Inaki spent the rest of the time between the Diamond exam of the first week, and the Iron exam of the second week sleeping on the street in drunken stupors. He spent too much of his money on alcohol to get an inn. The first day after Gonten leaving he had been able to resist the urge, but he hadn’t been able to resist the urge to forget his problems the second day onwards.Though regardless of where he was lying on the road, his clean robes and his Gold-hilted sword meant that he was left alone.

Inaki got up on the morning of the Iron exam, hoping not to fail. His head was aching from a horrible hangover. Gonten had left some of the tea for him, so he gulped down three glasses of it, making his tremor almost nothing. He got up, carried his few belongings and walked to the exam center. He realized that he had spent most of the money that Gonten had given him for travel and a room on alcohol, and some of it on food in the week. He still had the money that Takehito had given him to get home—he had been smart enough to at least save that money.

He reached the exam center, and stepped in. He set his belongings down next to one of the guards, and told him to take care of them. Inaki gave him a few of his remaining coins, and the man agreed.

He walked into the exam center, and saw the place filled to the brim with people. There must have been ten thousand people there—unlike the Diamond exam, where it seemed like there was such a large room for only fifty people—Inaki tried to push himself through the cramped crowd of swordsmen, and in this cramped group, the Gold on Inaki’s hilt shone out like the sun in a night sky.

“Hello, I’ll be your examiner for today,” Kazuma said, the man who had been the examiner for the Diamond exam too. “As you can tell, I’m really bored of this, and I’m expecting you to wrap this up quickly, and I’m sure you can. You will first be asked to show off your katas, the ones you are proficient in that you submitted…” He went on describing the phases and rules of the exam.

A few groups of people at a time were taken into the next room for the kata demonstration, Inaki’s turn wouldn’t come for the next two whole hours. There were no chairs, so Inaki had to just stand there. Standing for only two hours is affecting me. This injury has really made me soft. When his turn finally came, he and a group of hundred people were all together led into a room. Even here they would be called up in groups of five. Once again, Inaki had to stand and wait, but luckily, this time, his turn came earlier.

“What is your name?” The examiner asked. She was a matronly woman with wrinkles on her eyes from too much smiling.

“Inaki-son-Hassai Tomoka,” Inaki said.

The examiner said, “Show me your fundamental five katas.”

The kata demonstration went exactly as Inaki had expected it. He fell, fumbled, and was the laughing stock of the place. He stumbled through the Fundamental Five katas, and then the examiner asked him to do his own, the Tigerstance, and the Bullstance were the two he had registered. At least for the Tigerstance and the Bullstance he remembered the moves. He fell several times, his movements were as graceless now as they used to be graceful, before Inaki’s injury.

Oh look how the mighty have fallen, I know that spineless Taral only let him go because of his father. Inaki could hear everyone talking about him in his head, a cacophony of people laughing at him.

The next part, where he had to learn a kata from a scroll, somehow that was the phase that went the best for him. He still lacked grace, but he remembered all the moves, and only fell once.

After that he was led to the second phase of the exam, the written exam. It was the part of the exam that went best for him. Since he had drank Takehito’s tea, he felt barely any of his tremor, so he could write with a legible handwriting, even if it was not the best handwriting he had ever had in his life.

He got through the written exam, and then came the last phase of the exam. The duels.

Inaki was led to a large room, somehow larger than the main entrance hall, with circular arenas marked with chalk drawn on the floor. Ten thousand people to duel, all at once. Inaki was assigned an opponent, a boy his own age. They were handed wooden swords for the duel, and Inaki thanked his luck for that.

The duel went exactly like Inaki had expected. He had known the result that this would bring him since the beginning. He still gave the exam to cement it in his mind.

He was no longer a swordsman. The boy had rushed at Inaki, and Inaki jumped out of the arena from fear. His injury had given him fear of Woodens. He remembered being only scared of Platinums like Taral, and fearless when fighting other opponents.

After all the duels were done, Inaki was standing once again in the large entrance hall.

“Since more of you have passed than have failed, I will start out by reading the ones who have failed,” The man read out. “THe first name, with the least scores in the exams history, Inaki-son-Hassai Tomoka.”

Inaki walked out of the room, as he did, he submitted his sword to someone sitting at a desk, the person beat Inaki’s sword’s hilt with a hammer. Inaki couldn’t help but hold back a tear as piece by piece the ring of Gold plating on the hilt of his sword fell off, leaving him once again, a Wooden.

“Head Examiner Kazuma has told you to wait here for the rest of the announcements to be finished,” The man who removed the plating on Inaki’s sword said.

By the time the rest of the announcements were done, it was already sunset. “This way please,” A guard led Inaki through the entrance hall into an office. Around him stood several examiners.

“We make this choice with a heavy heart, and we have to make this choice for several swordsmen who keep fighting injuries to their own and others detriment,” Kazuma said. “We have decided that we will be confiscating your sword, until the Coalition of Sages deems that you have recovered enough to be allowed to wield a sword again.”

“What would it take?” Inaki said, in complete disbelief.

“You would need to win at least five legally sanctioned duels, with a wooden sword of course,” Kazuma said. “Only then will you be given your sword back.”

“Please,” Inaki whispered. “Don’t do this to me.”

“I am sorry, but this is not for you, so that you don’t cause harm to anyone else because of your injury. Rest, recover, win your duels, and you will get your sword back.”

Inaki walked out of the exam hall, collected his belongings from the guard, he checked, and saw everything was there, then he walked out of there. Without the familiar weight of his sword at his waist, he felt empty.

Inaki began his walk of shame from Livion to Tomoka. He had to walk through the crowded market to get to the gate, and when someone grabbed him by the shoulder, he reached down for his sword, only to find that he wasn’t even wearing a sheath anymore, he was an easy target. The person had only grabbed one of his shoulders though.

The person who turned him around turned out to be Gonten. One sleeve hanging limp, his hand was on Inaki’s shoulder. He looked down at Inaki’s waist, and his face twisted into a look of horror.

“Yes,” Inaki said. “Can we not talk about it?”

“Okay,” Gonten said. “Just why?”

“Something about how I might injure others because of my injury,” Inaki said.

“Bullshit,” Gonten said. “Anyways, I knew you’d spend all the money I gave you on alcohol, which is why I’m here to take you home, come on, let's get a cart.”

“So you saw me sleeping on the streets?” Inaki said. “Why didn’t you help?”

“Because you said you didn’t need me,” Gonten said. “I just held you up to your own word.”

They walked to the gates of Livion, and found a lot of carts to hire there. Gonten hired a cart for Inaki with no stops to Tomoka, and he himself hired a cart to take him to the port, from where he would take a boat to Gael.

“Bye brother,” Gonten said. “We are planning to spend the next six months or so in Gael, tending to all sorts of gardens there. Why don’t you join us? Become a gardener, it’s a good profession.”

Inaki wanted to say something about how gardener’s were people not wanted by the world, which is why they were so cheaply paid compared to swordsmen, but instead of saying all that he just said, “No thanks, being a gardener is not for me.”

Then the two brothers went their separate ways. Inaki with his head bowed in shame, going towards Tomoka, and Gonten, with his mind full of aspirations, towards Gael.