It was finally time to say goodbye.

Ged stood at the doorway of his childhood home, his bag packed with essentials. He hesitated, memories of his past flooding through him, holding him back from taking the next step.

Ben leaned against the wall, still hungover, but determined not to miss a single moment.

"Ged, go on and make us proud. We expect great things from you," Ben said, his tone encouraging.

Ged turned and gave his father a nod.

Nora stood nearby, casting an annoyed look at Ben.

"Don't listen to him, just do your best," she said, smiling warmly at Ged.

Ged let out a deep sigh, then smiled. He turned to face the parked carriage that would take him to Main City.

It was large and housed many people on its back, its interior obscured by cloth.

Seated on the coach was a middle-aged man, casually talking with one of the townsfolk.

Ged approached to get the man's attention, and the man gestured for him to board.

Ged took one final look at his parents. Their expressions, once excited and hopeful, were now solemn and tearful.

After saying one last goodbye, Ged moved to the back entrance of the carriage. Ignoring the curious stares of those already seated, he climbed aboard and made his way to the far back.

After a few minutes, the coach driver finished his conversation, and the carriage departed.

As they departed, Ged watched his previous life fade into the distance.

First, he saw his parents and the home he grew up in disappear. Then, the familiar shops and roads vanished as he traveled further and further away. He clenched his hand into a fist.

"I must have faith in the path ahead," he thought to himself.

He looked around at the various people in the carriage. Most were middle-aged men and women with vacant looks in their eyes, commuting from their small towns to work in the city where money was more plentiful.

Based on their shabby appearances, it was difficult to say they were any better off for their decision.

One person stood out among these people. More than half the age of those around him, he was dressed in business attire, with a freshly ironed suit and tie and a fancy-looking watch. He was constantly pushing his hair to the side, as if it was bothering him.

In his hands was a gold-lined scroll, creased and dirty as if it had been through a lot.

Ged spotted the scroll, and an excited expression lit up his face. He pulled out a similar scroll from his bag.

Before leaving town, he had asked his peers if they were accepted as well, curious if there were any other applicants nearby.

To his surprise, none of them reported being accepted. This puzzled him, as he knew many of these children were exceptionally talented, far surpassing him in education and physical ability.

It left Ged wondering about the church's criteria for selecting candidates.

Now, seeing the scroll in the boy's hand finally allowed the possibility of finding out the answer to this question.

"Are you also headed to the Church of Mount Existence?" Ged asked the man.

The well-dressed young man looked at Ged with a hint of disdain. He had a hint of arrogance and haughtiness in his eyes.

"I'm not making any donations today." He waved off Ged with his hand. "No money, sorry." The man turned his head away, ignoring Ged.

Ged wore an odd expression as he glanced down at his shabby clothes. "Do I really look that poor?" he thought.

The green grassy hill wiped away his insecurity, and Ged once again tried to get the man's attention.

Ged pointed to the scrunched scroll in the man's hands. "No, you misunderstand. I saw you holding your acceptance letter. I have one as well."

Ged showed his letter. "I believe we are fellow disciples of the Church of Mount Existence. I'm Ged. What's your name?"

"Fellow disciples?" A skeptical look appeared on the man's face. Without another word, he snatched the piece of paper from Ged's hands, verifying its contents.

"Well, I'll be damned, we really are." He returned the letter to Ged, a condescending look on his face. "Please forgive our misunderstanding earlier. My name is Raff Swan."

Raff chuckled to himself. "Strange, I truly thought you to be some money-begging fool, but if you are a disciple of the church, you must at least have some talent." He looked Ged up and down with derisive eyes. "I guess geniuses do come in all shapes and sizes," Raff concluded.

Ged was unfazed by Raff Swan's haughty attitude.

He had heard of the Swan family before. They were once a successful merchant family stationed in Main City.

One hundred years ago, they squandered their wealth due to the fervent ambition of their then-head, who dreamed of building a castle in the stars. He planned to construct a spire that would rise from the ground to the sky, connecting his sky empire to the city below.

Mocked for his insane ambition, he received little support even from his own family. The project was fraught with flaws, and doubts lingered about whether it could ever be completed. Yet nothing could deter him; his vision of constructing an illustrious castle consumed both him and his family. Ignoring all the warning signs, he initiated construction.

The project went over budget almost immediately, plagued by problems and setbacks. Even so, the head had no plans to give up. The Swan family bled money to keep the project afloat, selling off properties and taking out loans.

Eventually, the money stopped coming. The Swans had no more funds to give, and the spire reached its tallest point, only three-quarters of the way to the sky. With their wealth gone, the Swan family downsized from the city to the countryside, selling off their businesses before they left.

The head died in agony, his ambition incomplete. The Swan family became a laughingstock; without their influence, even the family members who once supported the head now cursed his name under their breath.

The next-generation head cut their losses, selling the Swan Spire to Main City to use as a tourist attraction. This stemmed the bleeding a little bit, but it was too little too late.

Over the years, the Swans made a bit of a comeback, securing a few governing positions in the Zelch province and owning some successful businesses. However, this paled in comparison to what they once had.

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Ignoring Raff's haughty demeanor, Ged continued to press Raff with conversation.

Raff initially wasn't too keen on talking with Ged, employing every tactic in the book—from straight up ignoring his words to more direct verbal confrontation. Yet Ged persisted, unfazed by this pushback.

Ged continued to question Raff on topics from favorite foods to what growing up in the Swan family was like. After ignoring such questions, Ged would simply repeat them again as if this was the first time he asked.

"This man has no boundaries! When will he leave me alone?" Raff pondered to himself.

Ged was like a fly; unless he was killed, nothing would stop his pestering.

After a bit, Raff finally gave in, interacting with Ged's pestering more and more.

Over time the two became more amiable, and the topic of how they were accepted as applicants for the Church came up.

Raff spoke of the strangeness of the process. Despite sharing answers with many of his brothers and sisters of the Swan family and submitting the exact same responses on the assessment, only Raff was accepted.

"I believe the church has placed hidden spies around the country. These spies can ascertain a person's hidden talent and send out invites based on this," Raff surmised.

"Hidden talent?" Ged mused.

He was never one with high grades or especially great perception, yet his application was also accepted by the church, hidden talent was unlikely something Ged had.

"If that's true then maybe, it has something to do with the trial we have to take?" Ged continued.

The two talked about what they knew about the trial.

"The trial is meant to test one's faith to the Church, as long as you hold your faith strong then you will assuredly pass." Raff spoke with confidence.

While they were talking, the carriage had stopped at an intermediary town. Their conversation was drowned out as the coachman yelled for the passengers to get out and stretch their legs.

Ged and Raff got off, surveying the unfamiliar town. It was small and quaint, with only a few buildings lining the main road. Raff seemed particularly unimpressed.

"What a dump," he commented.

The two of them walked around for a bit while the coachman fed and provided water for the horses.

Locals from the town soon congregated around the coachman, some came just to converse, others asked to join in on the journey promising to pay fare.

At some point, many of the passengers got tired of standing and returned to sit inside the carriage.

Raff and Ged were among the crowd, carving out space in the back for themselves.

The horses were ready to take off once again, and the coachman called for the passengers to return to the carriage.

As the people filed back inside, some new faces were mixed in. One that particularly caught the eyes of Ged and Raff was a girl with fiery red hair.

She wore a long black dress with mountain earrings. Her face was serious and cold, and she ignored the looks from the two boys in the back of the carriage.

Although her appearance was not bad, Raff and Ged were staring at her not because of her looks, but because of the golden-tipped scroll she held in her hands.

"She looks to be a fellow disciple. We should ask her to sit with us," Raff said to Ged, he slicked back his hair, standing up from his seat to call out to her, when Ged beat him to it.

"Hey, red-haired girl," he called out, gesturing for her attention.

Not too impressed with Ged's gesture, she glared fiercely towards him, as if to ward him off from speaking further.

This, however, was hardly effective against the emotionally impenetrable Ged. "You must be headed to the Church of Mount Existence for the trial," he said, pointing to Raff, who was gingerly holding his golden-tipped scroll.

"We are also accepted disciples who want to share experiences and know more about the trial. Won't you join us and chat?" Ged finished with an innocent smile.

These words seemed to calm some of the girl's initial suspicions. Still unconvinced of their intentions, she walked over and sat down near the two boys. Remaining quiet, she cast suspicious glances at Ged and Raff.

Raff wore a half-smile; he had never felt this level of secondhand embarrassment before. He had always considered himself someone who felt little shame in his actions, but after meeting Ged, he was beginning to think he might be far more reasonable than he had believed.

Ged stared at the girl with bright, unblinking eyes. "What's your name? I'm Ged." He smiled.

Brit was taken aback by Ged's endless energy. "I'm Brit. Nice to meet you two," she spoke in a reserved tone.

"Raff Swan," Raff interjected, not wanting to be left out.

The three began to talk. Ged led the charge with a barrage of questions to Brit. She spoke in a quiet and reserved tone, never talking at great lengths about a subject. Like Ged, she came from a less affluent family, one with devout ties to the Church of Mount Existence.

When it came to the subject of how she got accepted, she shared a similar story of being the only one accepted in her town.

All three of them seemed to have answered the questions differently on the application. Besides being a similar age, they shared nothing else in common.

"This confirms it," Raff said. "The application is a complete farce. They must have some hidden master roaming the land who can distinguish hidden talents among the masses. This application must just be to make others less suspicious of their mysterious ways."

"Maybe it's random," Ged pondered aloud.

To Brit, the church was a transcendent existence, something that people would never be able to understand. Questioning the church wasn't something she was brave enough to do.

"What use is there in having all these questions? I have faith in the church and its plan for us," she said dismissively.

Although a rocky process, over time Brit ended up opening up slightly to Ged and Raff.

Time passed.

Night came, and the carriage stopped in another small intermediary town. Local hotels offered lodging for some of the passengers while others stayed with local families, providing silver and gold for their troubles.

Ged stayed with a family of four, while Brit and Raff stayed in a more private-looking hotel.

Brit and Raff were eating a meal on the first floor.

"I'm exhausted. Thank the mountain that little shit decided to sleep somewhere else," Raff said, shoveling a bite of stew into his mouth.

"You two aren't close?" Brit moved the stew around with her spoon.

"No, like you, I met that otherworldly creature just today," Raff lamented.

Soon after, the two of them went to bed, and the second day came.

The carriage started up early in the morning. Ged was saying goodbye to the family he was staying with, a smile plastered on his face. He handed over a few silver coins as thanks, then made his way to the carriage.

"Morning, Raff. Morning, Brit," Ged called out to a groggy Raff and Brit.

Neither responded immediately, and the three once again sat together in the carriage.

The carriage set off, and so began the second day of travel.

Along the route, another carriage joined the voyage, forming a small convoy.

In the second carriage were two more disciples headed to Main City to take the trial.

One was a pudgy boy named Pim. He was friendly but a little slow. He shared snacks and told stories of his village.

The other was a girl named Polka. With short blonde hair, she had a free spirit, having grown up on a farm in the countryside. She showed off a jade pendant her parents gave her, explaining that it was a rare precious stone her father found in a stream.

The five of them got along quite well, and Ged was in high spirits, excited to reach the church and feeling more confident about taking on the trial.

The two carriages now approached the walls of the capital city.

The stone walls towered over the surroundings, with a gate patrolled by guards inspecting a long line of carriages entering within.

As the carriages crawled forward, many passengers stepped out to stretch their limbs, walking alongside to chat and mingle with others waiting in line.

This was the first time many of the five had been so close to the city. Besides Raff, the rest couldn't help but gawk at the grandness of the many structures that could be seen over the tall stone walls.

A towering spire particularly grabbed Ged's attention. It extended upward as if touching the heavens, its peak obstructed by clouds.

Ged asked Raff, "Is that your family's Swan Spire?"

Raff looked up at the grand tower, a complicated look on his face. "It's not ours anymore," he curtly replied.

The group slowly moved through the queue to enter the city.

To enter the city, one either needed proper identification or to be vouched for as a decent person by a registered courier.

The coach driver flashed a shiny white identification card to the guards, pointing out the people who rode with him.

Most of the middle-aged passengers and Raff had similar identification cards. They paid the coach his fare before entering the city walls.

The rest of the people, including Ged and the other four, had their wrists stamped by the guards, marking them as guest visitors. Ged thanked the coach and made his way into Main City.

A sprawl of people filled the street. An overwhelming feeling came over Ged as he saw the scene. Never had he seen so many people. Endless shops and stores spread out in front of him. Main City is the business center for the Zelch province, where stores and businesses thrived and money was king.

Similar feelings washed over Pim and Polka.

"I heard the food here is the best," Pim remarked.

"I want to buy a dress," Polka said, her face filled with excitement.

"The ceremony at the church is to start soon. We can't fool around for too long. It is quite a far walk away," Brit remarked, pointing off into the distance.

The group saw the large golden church off in the distance. It was raised above ground atop a large hill. Stone steps followed up the mountainside leading to its doorstep. Its golden hue stood out greatly, even in contrast to some of the luxurious houses in the city.

Raff looked at his watch, smiling. "No need to hurry just yet. We should have enough time to stop by some places on the way."

Brit frowned but didn't say anything further.

Ged looked around at his newfound friends and couldn't help but smile.

"Let's hurry. I want to be able to visit as many stores as I can." Ged declared to the group.