Kal arrived at the test venue and went in after showing his entrance ticket. He was then led towards the room for the aristocrats. He sat on his reserved seat as he looked around. Everyone around him wore clothes of silk lined with threads of gold and platinum. The accessories made of gems and precious metals shone along with a few made of magic that gave out their own light. He stood out like a sore thumb among them with his simple clothing. He could sense the looks of disgust directed at him by those around him, but he ignored it. The room felt suffocating for Kal as the room was filled with energy, but it was still manageable as he had practised in a room with a lot more magic, to prepare for this day.

But even then he felt lightheaded and he could feel a slight but continuous pain in his chest. He tried his best to ignore it as he had to focus on his test, but he could not focus properly.

Fortunately, the examiner arrived and quickly distributed the papers for the test. Kal attended most of the questions as they felt very easy, but he realized he was feeling increasingly uncomfortable sitting in this place.

He could feel his quick heartbeats and he realized he was breathing too quickly. He knew it was dangerous but that only made him panic more. He tried in vain to calm himself, but the pain increased as he breathed in rapidly and that made him panic unable to think. It was like a loop with no way to break out. Suddenly he came to his senses and forced his hand to close his nose. He held his breath as long as he could, calming himself. But then his body forcefully took in a lot of air, and he was unable to control it. He felt a strong pain in his chest and he nearly lost consciousness but he gritted his teeth and stayed awake. After a few minutes he had returned to his normal state. He then let out a sigh of relief as nobody had noticed his predicament, but a he had wasted considerable amount of time so he hurried to answer the remaining questions.

As Kal walked out of the test centre dragging his feet on the ground, Albert who had been on standby silently supported him and led him to the carriage letting him lie down. Albert’s eyes filled with tears looking at the boy, who was like his own son suffering to even live a normal life. He had always been by his side, so he knew how much Kal had suffered.

He had seen him train his body to even be able to step outside his own home, and he had seen how difficult it had been to train his body to be as strong as it was right now. So even though he was weaker than most people his age he had put the most effort. He looked at Kal who had fallen asleep with pity, as he who was already tired from the theoretical test had to participate in the practical test as well. But soon he looked away realizing how rude he had been.

He knew how much Kal had practiced swordsmanship, and how good he was at it. So there was a decent chance that he would win in the spar that was used to test practical skills, and it was not like he had to win. Even if one lost it did not matter as the scores were given by judges who carefully observed the spar, so he just had to show them something that was worth their while. Hoping for the best result in the practical test in the afternoon, he told the driver to take the carriage to a restaurant for lunch.

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Kal awoke, ate lunch and prepared himself for the practical test. He changed his clothes to those suitable for combat and what was allowed in the spar. He then stretched himself and took his practice sword. Soon he arrived at the arena along with his butler. It was a large ground surrounded by seats for thousands of people. He showed his ticket and was led to where instructions about the spar were given. After a large crowd gathered the instructions were announced along with pairings for the upcoming spar. They were then led to seats arranged in order of their matches, with all their opponents on the opposite side of the arena.

Kal waited, breathing carefully as it would be a problem if he breathed too quickly due to nervousness. He tried his best to be calm and confident, but his limbs continued to shake uncontrollably. He looked around seeing people some grinning from ear to year as they had won the spar, others dejected as the lost, some who remained calm irrespective of the outcome. He turned around to see people yet to spar some visibly excited, others anxious, some were confident, others restless. Seeing all these people Kal relaxed a bit as he realized he was not the only one who was unable to keep his calm.

Soon his turn came up so he rose from his seat moving towards the ground. He walked along to his designated place without even thinking. He held his left hand that held the sword with his right hand, to stop it from trembling. He then looked forward to face his opponent. He was large, muscular guy with a mace as his weapon. All the strategies that he could use to defeat such an opponent came to his mind. But he could not implement most of these as his body would not support him, as he had to be mindful not to become tired.

The bell signaling the start of the spar resounded, and Kal took out his practice sword as his opponent approached him.

“Why is my opponent this twig,” the opponent looked down from his tall stature staring at Kal in the face. “Hey you must be a sheltered ARITOCRAT, so let me make this clear. I hate nobles, and I hate cocky ones more. So just give up right now and let me fight with another opponent or you won't be going home with just a bruise.”

Kal stood his ground ignoring his remarks, focusing solely on the actions of his opponent. This seemed to anger him as he ran towards Kal with his mace held high shouting, “Don’t tell me that I didn’t warn you.”

Kal waited for the perfect time and stepped aside at the perfect time, evading his opponents charge.

“YOUU…”, this seemed to have angered him a lot, but he quickly came back to his senses. He held the mace with proper posture and started to attack Kal with proper technique. But Kal expertly evaded or parried those blows, as well as attack a few times when his opponent showed an opening. But those blows seemed to be of no concern to his opponent as it barely caused him a few second of pain.

This continued for a few moments until Kal seemed a little sluggish, as he was barely keeping up with the blows of his opponent. “What happened, out of steam already. Your swordsmanship was pretty good, but that is all, you have no stamina at all. You will never be able to beat me, do you know why. It is because you can get anything you want without any effort, while people like me have to put effort every moment in our lives to even survive.”

The opponent noticed that Kal was red with anger, so he wanted to taunt him more, but suddenly Kal tried swinging his sword. It was a weak swing so the opponent pushed it aside and swung his mace. Kal tried to parry it but suddenly he felt unbearable pain from his chest as he realized he had breathed in too rapidly. He had fortunately evaded the blow to his head but he was helpless as he saw another blow to his right leg rapidly approaching. It was too late to react, he screamed as he felt a pang of pain as his leg buckled up, and the pain in his chest flared up as well, thus he lost consciousness unable bear all the pain.