“Ryther! Hurry up, we’re going to be late!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming Dad!”

Immediately after his father called for him, Ryther rushed toward the main hall. At the door, he stopped for a moment to greet the two guards on either side before he opened the door and entered. Inside the room, there was a sturdily built man who stood at around six foot. He had long black hair and a goatee with hints of grey in them. The man was Ryther’s father, Rosland.

At the sight of his father, Ryther couldn’t help but make a snide remark.

“Dad, how is it that you seem more nervous than I am? Sheesh, relax a little!”

When he heard what his son said, Rosland didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“You rascal! Today’s the day where we find out your soul strength and level! How can you be so relaxed?!”

Ryther only laughed at his father’s rebuke. In truth, he understood why his dad was so worried. For his whole life, Rosland had suffered bitterly due to not having a great soul strength or having a high grade beast soul.

When he was young, all the other children used to make fun of him. None of the adults took him seriously and just ignored him. Even his parents seemed resigned to the fact that their son would not be a strong warrior.

Being out casted by everyone, Rosland left everything behind and trained desperately as though his life depended on it. After decades worth of training and adventure, he grew strong enough and contributed enough to the Kingdom of Estrados to become a Provincial Lord.

Even though he knew that soul strength and beast soul grade didn’t matter much, Rosland still hoped for his son to get ranked high in both so that at the very least his son would not have to go through what he did in his childhood. No matter what though, in the end he made the determination to help support his son no matter what the results of the test were.

“Dad, you’re WAY too tense! Just look at Ryther. He’s the twelve year old who’s about to be tested, not you! It’s not like it’s your first time either; you were just like this for my evaluation too!”

As the bell like voice reached them, a young lady entered the hall. The lady was very pretty, with short black hair that fitted with her oval shaped face. Her round blue eyes were mesmerizing, making people who saw them dazed. With a height of five foot six inches, she was neither short nor tall but seemed to match with her perfect figure. One could easily tell that all the boys would go crazy after her looks. It was Ryther’s older sister, Raia.

“Yeah, like Raia noona said, relax dad! Everything will be fine just like when Raia noona went and got examined, just watch.”

As he saw his two children, Rosland sighed. They were right, he was needlessly being too worried. There was nothing that he could do; he would just have to react to whatever happens later. As he thought of that, Rosland’s mood slowly became better and he calmed down. With a smile on his face, he grabbed his son by the shoulder and started to head to the entrance.

“Alright then! Since Raia is here let’s head out!”

As the three headed out of the mansion, they were accompanied by a group of guards to protect them. As they walked down the main street, the bustling crowd respectfully parted for them and bowed to Rosland. In response, he would smile and wave at all the citizens in acknowledgement.

Within the Haneul province, the tax rate was low and Rosland invested a lot of time and funds into making the life of the people better with canal projects, better irrigation systems, farming methods, and etc. Due to all of his effort, the Haneul province became one of the wealthier provinces in the Kingdom and many people lived better lives than others in the Kingdom.

After they had walked on the main street for another ten minutes, the group finally arrived in front of a large white cathedral building. The building had a gothic look towards it with colorful images sketched onto the windows. The most distinct portion though, was the tall tower with the large silver bell within it at the middle of the building.

At the entrance of the cathedral, there was a long line of children who stood in a line with their parents as they awaited their turn for their soul to be evaluated by the Kingdom’s representatives. As they approached the line, Rosland dismissed the guards as he didn’t want to cause too much of a scene and had them wait at a nearby pub.

“So Ryther, you scared yet? You know, you don’t have to feel pressured about getting a high grade beast soul like this big noona!”

As he heard what his sister said, Ryther rolled his eyes.

“Sigh, no need to brag that you have an A class beast soul noona. Don’t you feel embarrassed being a sixteen year old and bragging to your ten year old younger brother?”

The beast souls were divided into six ranks: E, D, C, B, A, and the very rare S class. As the ranks get higher, they become much more rare. It is said that only one in every hundred thousand people would have an A rank beast soul.

“This rascal! It’s been awhile since this noona has taught you a  lesson huh?! Get over here!”

After she heard Ryther’s words, Raia put him in a headlock gave him a nuggy. At the sight of his children as they messed around, Rosland sighed before he knocked them in the head with a soft punch.

“Knock it off you two, you aren’t kids anymore! There’s people who are watching.”

After he made sure they wouldn’t continue their act, Rosland turned back and waited patiently.  As his head turned, Ryther and Raia glared at each other while holding their head and waited. After a few moments the line slowly moved forward and people began to exit the cathedral.

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It was pretty easy to tell who did well and who didn’t as they left. The children either left dejected, depressed, crying, or leaping up and down in joy.  The majority of the parents tried to console their children but unfortunately there were those few minorities that bashed their children for not being talented. At that sight, Rosland couldn’t help but flinch; it brought back memories of his own childhood.

After they had waited in line for over an hour, they finally entered the cathedral. Inside, there were numerous long tables where officials took down the names of the children and then had them line up in front of a row of orbs.  As the children walked forward, an official would guide them to an orb where they would place their hand on it.

Once they put their hand on the orb, the orb would begin to brighten. The orb would always brighten to either red, blue, silver, green, white, or black. Depending on the strength of the soul, the orb would glow more brightly or dimly.  The weird thing would be that after that, the glow would move from the orb to the child’s other hand and then condense into a weapon.  The weapon would vary for each person: some formed into swords, others formed into spears, halberds, lances, qatars, bows, crossbows, and etc.

After the weapons would form, the officials would then state out the results loudly.

“Participant 241, soul strength medium, beast soul attribute wind, grade: D.”

“Participant 250, soul strength low, beat soul attribute fire, grade: E.”

“Participant 259, soul strength medium, beast soul attribute light, grade: B.”

As the results were stated, adults who were in some official clothing would go up to the higher testing children and started to recruit them for their schools. Some children would just get enrollment while more talented ones would receive extra benefits such as a stipend, free tuition, not having to attend classes, and such.

Ryther, however, wasn’t really interested in that. He was more curious about how the officials were grading the beast soul grade.

“Hey dad, how are the officials deciding the beast soul grades?”

“You know how the brightness of the light in the orb determines the soul strength right? Well for the beast soul grade, the officials only need to determine how pure the color is. The more pure a color, the higher grade the beast soul is.”

Once Ryther heard what Rosland said, he immediately began to focus on the orbs once again. Once he focused his attention more, he started to notice there was indeed a difference in the pureness of each color.  Sometimes the colors would seem murky or dull while at others they would be more bright and pure.

As the line decreased and Ryther was getting closer to the front, he began to get excited. Even though he didn’t show it, inwardly he was indeed nervous. He wasn’t really worried about himself more that he didn’t want to let his dad down. After waiting for another fifteen while he had those thoughts, it was finally his turn.

“Welp, it's finally my turn. I’ll be right back!”

“Good luck son! Even if your soul isn’t strong dad will help you!”

“Don’t worry about being a failure too much, this noona will take care of you!”

After receiving encouragement(?) from his family, Ryther walked forward to the desk to register for the  evaluation.

“Participant 323, go to area 7. Once there wait for the orders of the officials. Any questions?”

“No sir. Thank you.”

After he bowed at the official who was seated behind the table, he walked toward the area that was indicated as area 7. As he waited patiently for a couple of minutes, the official finally called him forward to take the evaluation.

“Participant 323, please step forward and put a hand on the orb. Stay still as the orb evaluates and awakens your beast soul.”

As the official told him, Ryther moved forward and slowly raised his left arm to the orb. If you looked closely at the outstretched arm, one would be able to see that the arm was shaking ever so slightly due to nervousness. As his palm made contact with the orb, the orb released a huge brilliant light.

Unlike with the other children, the orb released a pure and clear blue light and then a brilliant silver light, interchanging with one another as though they were chasing after each other. After a few moments the lights traveled through the confused Ryther and gathered in his right hand, condensing. Once the light faded away, there was a beautiful one handed sword in his right hand.

The blade was a double edged one handed sword around three feet long with a width of three inches. On the sword guard, there was an top view of a dragon’s imprinted onto it. What was most distinguishable about the sword, however, was the chilling blue aura the sword gave off and the words etched onto the blade.

Azuron’s Requiem.

For some unknown reason when Ryther saw the words etched onto the blade, a surge of sadness ran through him, as though those words had some painful meaning for him. Slowly, a tear formed and fell from his eye.Surprised by the sudden tear drop he shed, Ryther quickly moved his arm and wiped it away before he once more studied his soul weapon.

As Ryther was engrossed with his sword, he never heard the official’s almost panicked announcement of his evaluation or the uproar it caused in the whole cathedral.

“Pa-Par-Participant 323, so-so-soul strength superb, beast soul attribute wa-water and wind, grade: S!!”