I woke up to knocking at my door the next morning, it was Irene.

“Come on! You have to wake up!”

It was still dark out; the sun hadn’t even started to come out yet.

I tilted my head.

“Get dressed!”

I shut the door and did as she asked, I put on a comfy but good-looking attire and packed up the rest of my clothes.

When I exited the room, she was waiting.

“Phew, you actually put on proper clothes today.”

“If you hadn’t, I would’ve hit you.”

Scary.

“Are you all packed up? We won’t be coming back here after today.”

“Yeah.”

“Great! Let’s go eat then!”

We went downstairs and ordered the breakfast meal.

“You two are going to the knight academy, right?” The worker asked

“Yup! After we eat, we’ll be heading over there!”

“Then I’ll put a little extra food in the meal for you two.” The worker smiled before heading to the kitchen

“Hah, I’m pretty nervous what about you?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t know.”

I’ve never been to school before, but I assume it’s probably going to be like how Kevin and Jane taught us. If so, then it wouldn’t be too hard.

“You’re not nervous? Even just a little bit?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Hah, why couldn’t I have your nerves of steel.”

The worker brought out the breakfast meal, it was eggs and bacon but with a lot more bacon than before.

“I put some extra protein in there! Good luck at the academy and enjoy your food!”

“Thank you!”

“Thanks.”

I started to eat how Irene wanted me to.

After a few minutes we both finished our meals.

“You ate properly this time!”

“If it’s soup then I’ll eat it my way.”

“Hmm, fine.”

We headed out the door and Irene started walking towards the academy.

There were a lot of people heading there as well, a lot of them came with their families.

“You see that big building?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s where we’re heading too.”

“It’s pretty big.”

“Yup! And that’s not even the only building, I hear the dormitories had a completely separate building too.”

I nodded my head, that was pretty impressive. It was bigger than the manor, and that was the biggest building I've seen so far.

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We arrived at the entrance to the academy, there were a lot of people waiting around. It seemed everyone thought to come early.

After a few minutes of waiting, I suddenly felt sick.

There was a bright blue circle on the ground.

“What the?” Irene looked confused

“Kai are you alri-”

Irene disappeared.

My eyes opened wide-

What happened? She just disappeared?

I looked around and saw that more people were disappearing.

And suddenly the area I was looking at completely changed.

I was now in an area with a large group of people, I looked around for Irene, but I couldn’t find her.

Suddenly I heard a voice from above, everyone looked up. It was a person with messy black hair that covered his eyes-

It’s him.

It was the person who came to the table yesterday.

He looked around for a little bit before he locked eyes with me for a quick second, he then began to speak.

“Greetings everyone, I’ll be your test instructor for today. Tomorrow you’ll be assigned into a class.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

“What are you talking about?”

Some of the people here asked, others looked like they were getting ready for something.

“Currently, I will be taking no questions.”

“After this first test, I’ll answer those who can ask.”

Those who can ask? What a weird choice of words, was he planning to kill us or something?

“Now, run.”

“What?”

“Huh?”

There were still people who asked and looked confused.

“Run around the track until I say stop.”

Some people immediately started to run, while some stood still.

It was only for less than a second, but we locked eyes again.

I began to run.

I was towards the back of everyone running.

Luckily these clothes weren’t getting in the way, I thought it’d feel weird to run in these, but it felt fine.

Around an hour later we were still running, there were some people who started to walk and some who gave up and sat down.

Another hour went by and even more stopped. I was still running.

Another hour past, I was completely out of breath. But I still ran.

After another hour there was barely anyone still running, including myself, I counted around 8 people.

At this point I was completely out of it, I was fading in and out of consciousness, why was I still running? He didn’t say anything to those that stopped so it’d be fine if I stopped right? At some point I stopped feeling my legs and was running on muscle memory, why was I so dead set on running?

After another hour there were only 5 people left including me. I could see all their backs way ahead of me.

“Stop!”

I fell over and looked towards him, I was heavily panting.

The other 4 people also immediately sat or laid down.

“Good job, today.”

“I will now be accepting questions.”

I was too tired to speak so I just laid still.

Suddenly a water bottle appeared next to me and the other 4.

I immediately started to drink it, I thought I’d be finished with it in an instant, but the water kept on coming.

“Yes, you?”

He pointed to someone with his hand raised.

“Why did we run?”

“It was a test.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you mean ‘What do you mean?’ This is Knight Academy; I was testing everyone's current level.”

Another student raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“How did you test our current level with just running?”

“I was testing your willpower and stamina.”

“Shouldn’t you be testing our skill with a sword?”

“Your skill with a sword is pointless if you don’t have the stamina to keep going.”

“Any other questions?”

It seemed like most of the questions had been answered, but I still had one.

I raised my hand.

“Yes?”

“...The people who disappeared, where’d they go?”

I wanted to know if Irene was safe.

“They went to a different testing area; a different instructor is testing them.”

She was probably safe then.

“Any other questions.”

One of the other 4 who didn’t stop running raises his hand.

“Yes?”

“How many more tests are there?”

He smiled.

“There are 4 more tests, after completing them you’ll get assigned to a class.”

Another one of the 4 raised her hand.

“Yes?”

“What is your name?”

“I am Instructor Kendel Aemys.”

A lot of people gasped. I looked around and could hear some people talking with their hand over their mouths.

“The Ghost Sword?”

“Ghost Sword? I heard he disappeared a while ago?”

“Ghost Sword Kendel?”

“He’s the Ghost Sword, right?”

What?

What were they talking about? The Ghost Sword?

“Any other questions?”

No one had any questions.

“Alright, onto the next test.”

I sighed and tried to get up, I figured that I would barely be able to move but that wasn’t the case. My body felt refreshed for some reason.