“Young master, wake up, it's time to get prepared. Come on now, the master and mistress will be here soon”
“Alright Lucia, just give me a moment”
The familiar sight of my bedroom greeted me as I woke up. It wasn’t as lavish as some of the places I stayed in later in my past life, but for this time period I can imagine just how luxurious something like this would be. A king size bed, a fully furnished study, and of course bookshelves covering the walls. There's even a large window by my bedside that overlooks the territory.
Overall, from my location there isn’t much to see though. Just wooden houses and farmlands as far as the eye can see.
It seems that due to some historical reasons, the capital city of the Ronwen Dukedom was located quite a distance away from the main estate.
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—--
By the crack of dawn, I was bathed, combed, and dressed in formal garments, which was made up of a complex layering of tunics and coats.
Damn it, if I had my way I would have bathed by myself, but Lucia’s water magic was necessary as a water source. Screw this magic over reliant world….
As I stepped out of my room, I was immediately greeted by the sight of my mother and father who continued to wear those proud expressions on their faces.
“Son, keep calm and remain dignified as befitting of a Ronwen”
Alaric Ronwen, my father, said in a soft but firm voice as he give me a pat on the shoulder
“Oh Alaric, you don’t need to pressure him, I’m sure Julius knows exactly what he needs to do”
“You’re right Adrianna, I was foolish, its natural that our boy will perform well”
And with the pep talk of my parents finished, we made our way to the main hall, where our guest was waiting.
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—--
It seems that in this world, testing aptitude is an art form in itself performed by only a few well trained individuals. They make use of devices called testing stones, which glow when touched. There were 4 varieties of testing stones, one for each branch of magic and to test one’s aptitude in a branch you simply needed to hold the corresponding stone and see how much it glowed.
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Now that's where the expert came in. Since there was no measuring device for light intensity, it was their job to serve as human scales to quantify how bright the light glowed. They would then assess which of the 6 aptitudes levels one belonged to based on this measurement.
“Ahh so this is Young Master Julius, Duke Alaric, Lady Adrianna, the two of you have sired quite the dignified young heir, I can sense his confidence and boundless wisdom from here”
“You flatter us esteemed master”
In front of me stood an old man, he wore a dark blue cloak with rune like engravings on his sleeves. A satchel was slung over his shoulder, containing 4 stones of different colors, which I assume were the testing stones.
It seems these testers were of a higher status than I thought, I knew they were looked upon well by society for their skills but to stand and chat on equal footing with Duke Ronwen, now thats something else
“Now shall we commence the test right away? I’m sure the proud parents are excited to see where this boy’s talents lie”
“Of course esteemed master, we wouldn’t want to take too much of your time either.”
My mother answered as she almost failed to hide the excitement in her tone.
“Then right away, I shall get the stones prepared”
As he said that the old man took the 4 stones out of his satchel and started polishing them with a cloth and a special gel. From what I’ve read, it's to make sure the outsides of the stones are completely transparent so as to not cause any minor errors in the measurement.
As he began his polishing, the old man began to make small talk with my parents.
“If I may be so bold, Duke Ronwen, make I ask what your results were during your aptitude test?”
“It wasn’t anything grand esteemed master, I scored a unique in mana processing and below average in the three other branches”
As expected of the Duke, he was acting humble but to be born with unique aptitude would mean that you had the potential to topple nations on your own. Then again, he also had a point as well, for most people being born with that sort of aptitude would be a miracle on top of a miracle which not even one in a million people receive, but for someone of his stature it was the bare minimum. Anything less and his very position might have been threatened.
“I believe my son will greatly surpass me. With his temperament I wouldn’t be surprised if he was born with generational aptitude. Grahahahaha!”
My father replied with a large smile on his face.
By the time they finished their short exchange, the stones were ready.
“Only one way to find out, right sire?”
“Of course of course”
The old man carefully laid the stones in front of me, and handed me a green colored one.
“This one is the testing stone for mana intake, little lord. Please hold it in your dominant hand “
I took the stone from him and it began to glow.