It was a day later, the day of the entrance exam. Lance was unsure of what to expect really, and as such his anxiety was crawling up his back like a tarantula.
The Academy had handed out Pamphlets for the new students, but all they really did was discuss what would happen *after* you passed. As such, they were useless in preparing for the coming day.
Sitting alone on a bench in the academy gardens, Lance watched the students shuffle around and talk. His eye in particular caught two Large guys, probably twins, towering over a smaller boy with headphones and a book in his lap.
The first of the twins laughed.
“Oi Lazar, you see this kid? He looks so small, do you think he'll survive the exams?”
The second grinned while looking back to his brother.
“Nah Avgust, he prolly wont. Doubt he's Even E Rank. Don't they disqualify F Ranks?”
Avgust spoke again, leaning over the smaller Boy with headphones, yanking them out.
“Ya listening? We're talking to you~”
The boy looked shocked, and quickly grabbed the headphones back.
“What's your problem you stupid Sovs’?”
Lazar grinned.
“He speaks! And with such a ferocious tongue, how scary!”
Avgust brushed back his black hair and pointed directly into the short guy's face.
“Ye shouldn't be going around calling us Sovs’, ye might hurt me feelings! We're Russians, see?”
The boy with the headphones sighed, putting his book aside.
“Oh how scary, the mighty Russians have come to make Fun of some random Arabic guy they've never met. Charming, I'm sure all of the women love you.”
Avgust smirked in annoyance.
“Arabia's a long way from here, lad. Why don't ye go back to your own pitiful country, and we call it a day, ya?”
Lazar actually frowned.
“Brother, that might be-”
The boy with the headphones stood up, his short black hair shaking and his eyes closed. He got into Avgusts’ face with a wide smile.
“Why don't you go back to yours?”
He paused, then laughed with his arms out to his sides.
“Oh wait. You can't.”
Avgust immediately threw the first punch.
His opponent immediately caught the punch, stopping the force completely. Avgust grunted in annoyance.
“Tsk, stupid cultivators, always showoffs. Aren't you supposed to look strong?”
Lazar grabbed his brother's other arm as the Arabian cultivator let go.
“Brother Avgust, people are staring. Let us go, ya?”
Indeed, People were staring at them, including an older man with long hair that appeared to be staring like a hawk. Avgust yanked his hand free and looked back at the cultivator with an annoyed smile.
“We shall be good friends soon enough, Cultivator.”
The cultivator scoffed in annoyance, picking his book back up to read as he sat down.
“It's Hasib. Hasib Najjar, you knucklehead. Now let me read in peace.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Lazar bowed to the cultivator as his brother looked on in annoyance.
“Good to meet you, Hasib Najjar. I am Lazar, Lazar Zhukov of New Saint Petersburg colony in your state of Montana.”
Hasib groaned.
“Why are you introducing yourself when you were just helping your brother attempt to pick on me?”
Avgust walked off, huffing and puffing while Lazar spoke again.
“My brother only respects the strong. I, too, respect strength, but also wisdom to use it. Please forgive him and do well in the exams, ya?”
Hasib placed his head back into his book.
“Whatever. I'm still gonna consider you both an enemy regardless.”
Lazar sighed, speaking to himself as he wandered off to find his brother in the crowd.
“Who needs enemies when you can have comrades in arms?”
Lance zoned back into his own space as he stopped watching the crowd.
Looking to his left, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he noticed some girl had sat down next to him without him even noticing.
He sputtered to make a proper introduction.
“I-Uh, Hi! Where uh, did you…?”
The girl sat in silence. She had Black hair with blue highlights, likely dyed at some point, and her eyes were silver. She was hunched over, watching some sort of silent video of a man, a Cultivator Alchemist making some sort of pill.
As she watched the video, the girl simply quietly breathed, highly focused. Lance, finally coming down from being startled, simply sat next to her in silence as well.
A moment later, the girl finally spoke up.
“Alchemy is so interesting, don't you think?”
Lance nodded, more so as to be polite than anything. The girl smiled.
“With Alchemy, you can make medicines that do just about everything you can imagine. All you need is to practice and have the right recipe, and the world is yours.”
The silver eyed girl seemed to zone out for a moment, as if in another world entirely. Then, a second later, she popped back into reality.
“Ah! I should introduce myself. I’m Iris Petrovik.”
Lance looked the girl over before replying.
“Are you from one of the Russian relocation Colonies?”
Iris shook her head.
“Ah! No, I'm Croatian actually. Well, half Croatian on my dad's side, English on my mom's.”
Iris blinked before readjusting her dress and pulling her phone back out. She turned to Lance.
“Do you have any interest in pill Making or Alchemy? It's really cool stuff!”
Lance felt it was best to be honest.
“I uh, don't know anything about Cultivation based Alchemy, sorry… I'm a Mystic Pather.”
Iris perked up.
“Ah! So do you know about Mystic crafting then, stuff like Spell Seals and Arrays?”
Lance smiled awkwardly.
“I'm a combat major, sorry…”
Iris frowned for a moment before picking herself Back up.
“Well, maybe I can teach you then? I know a lot about the various Path crafter methods! And I think everyone should learn at least the basics!”
Lance felt conflicted. The girl was glowing at the prospect of teaching him Crafting of some sort, but chances are Lance wouldn't even see them again once the exams happened. Still, he felt like if he turned the girl down now she might cry.
“Uh… Sure, if we ever meet again and have time. It wouldn't hurt to know how Arrays work at least.”
Iris’ silver eyes sparkled. Quietly, she grabbed Lance’s hands, which kinda startled him for a moment.
“From this day forward, Your Crafting Master, Iris Petrovik, will teach you everything you need to know! As my pupil, you will go far!”
“Master? Pupil? What?” Lance felt disoriented, but Iris just kept laughing maniacally with a determined expression.
To the side, a girl watching the whole Exchange sighed.
“I think that guy just accidently sold his soul to the devil?”
She turned to the guy next to her.
“What do you think, Victor?”
A sickly looking, lanky man sighed.
“He has no idea what he probably just signed up for.”
Victor paused before laughing.
“When girls are involved, guys will do just about anything, huh?”
…
An hour passed, and the students were all collected into a massive auditorium, which seemingly also doubled as an Arena of some sort. Lance had been followed the entire way by Iris, who hadn't stopped talking about crafting for the entire time since they met.
Just when Lance had thought he was free of the girl for a short bit, as she had left to find a friend of hers, he looked to the seat at his left and found her quietly sitting there while staring forward.
Lance in response just kinda chuckled and shook his head. He looked down at the Arena, where a makeshift stage had been set up. Atop the stage was many speakers, as well as two figures.
One was the hawk expressioned older man Lance spotted earlier, and the other was an older woman who exuded the Witch aura with her entire being.
The Witch had a tall, pointy hat, a black and green robe covering most of her outfit, and a white dress under it that contrasted the black and green. Her expression was soft yet inquisitive, as if scanning the crowd for points of interest.
The Hawk-man spoke up,his long hair swaying.
“Attention Student Candidates! Before we begin to divide everyone up for the entrance exam, Lady Karmine has a few things to say.”
The crowd began mumbling in confusion and shock. The Headmasters of the Academies were often very busy people, especially those of high rank. As Lance found out, Konstantina Karmine was ranked 287 worldwide.
This may not seem very high, but given there were only around 2000 S Ranks Globally, It was a massive achievement already.
Lady Karmine slowly approached the microphone. Smiling, she began speaking.
“Effort. What does it mean to you?”
Karmine let the line sink in for a moment, and the crowd murmured in response. She then continued.
“You've all heard this line, I'm sure. Algot Hansson said it in his infamous speeches many times. Effort this, effort that. It's all ‘try your hardest and you'll succeed’ talk nowadays.”
Karmine stopped smiling.
“It's rich to hear such a line coming from a man who had all the luck in the world behind him, and pure talent to ride on. Not everyone is that lucky.”
Lady Karmine pulled out a cane and tapped it on The podium. A spell suddenly cast, sending the room into complete darkness. Some of the student body quickly began panicking, while others remained quiet.
“Silence!” The familiar voice of Hawk-man shouted, and everyone quieted down.
In the darkness, tiny lights began sparkling. The roof appeared to be one of the cosmos, stars and planets, meteors and comets streaking by. Konstantina continued.
“In the universe, there are trillions of bodies that float through space, but only a fraction of them are, will ever become, or were stars. You student candidates are much the same.
Sure, some of you will reach moderate success, but most of you? You'll either die young in a field not meant for you, or live long enough to realize you made a mistake.”
The room lit up again. Karmine's expression had turned sadder.
“I'm here to weed out the stars from the stardust and to ensure those who aren't meant to be here see reason. I'm here so we don't have to have another grand tragedy this generation.”
On her chest, a small red and white flower badge shone in the light.
Karmine tapped her cane on the floor, her hat tilting A little.
“My advice for all of you is to remember this- effort can accomplish a lot, but not everything. If you can't, there's no reason to toss your life away for no reason. Only pursue this path if you truly know you can. And if you still try and cannot," Karmine smiled.
“I will protect you from yourself.”
Karmine, silent now, walked down from the stage, leaving the Hawk-eyed man to bark orders. As he explained the details of the upcoming exam, Iris frowned.
“Lady Karmine really is quite serious, huh? She always came across as more of a sweet old lady in the video's i've seen before.”
Lance replied, the smell of food filling the air. Down in the arena, it turned out the staff had provided lunch for the student candidates.
“After Hong Kong, a lot of people have changed. It was a very scary event for just about everyone, let alone the people actually involved.”
Lance and Iris stood up with the rest of the others to get into the line for Pizza. Iris spoke again, quieter.
“From the way you said that… did… Did you lose someone in the incident?”
Lance sighed with a frown.
“Kinda. I had a good friend deeply involved in it, and although he survived, it broke him. I doubt I'll even get to see him again.”
Iris poked Lance in the arm, making him look over at her.
“Don't be sad, my pupil. I'm sure you'll see him again.”
Iris gave a big, comforting smile. “...After all, goodbyes are never forever unless you let them be.”
Lance chuckled, regret in his voice.
“I hope you're right, Iris. I hope you're right.”
