The last part of the test

Inside the Grand hall from where the students were teleported a month ago.

Louis, a rank 1 mage tasked to take care of the junior apprentices arriving today, from the Moonlight forest through the one time teleportation portal- was lazily seated on his chair while gazing at the center area.

Today was the day when the apprentices would be coming so he, with his fellow rank 1 mages, was waiting for their arrival. As this wasn't the first time he had done this job, he wasn't thinking of flaunting his superiority to some apprentices like the other ones who, had just newly advanced and become mages.

There was a time when he was like them too but being a rank 1 mage for more than fifty years had made him indifferent to the worldly matters that young mages still pursued. Now, the only thing that could still move him was whether he could advance or not.

If it weren't for his aptitude that barely reached yellow-ring and him being from a third rate poor family of mages, with the effort he had done while studying- there was no doubt in his mind that he would've reached rank two ages ago. Alas, it seemed that he was fated to die as a rank 1 mage though.

Thus, when he thought about those from well-off families, even among minors- becoming mages in their early twenties, he always had the urge to shout that it was unfair for him, for others and for those who did their best at everything.

While he lamented on his circumstances, which he believed was the reason for his inability to advance- small dark portals started appearing on the center of the hall on where the apprentices had stood at the day of observance.

'So they are here... let's see how many managed to survive this year' as Louis gazed at the simultaneously appearing portals, which kept getting bigger and bigger only to let the apprentices pass through them, and step on the hall again- he slowly took out the quill pen from the ink container and waited for the apprentices' arrival.

As per the instructions they were given, the apprentices quickly formed a queue before the six mages, seated on their own chairs behind their desks.

"Name?" Louis asked the first apprentice on line.

"Misa Chougoline" she quickly replied.

"Family?"

"From Minor Chougoline Family"

"How many moonstones did you have before you broke your token?"

"I had 13!" she replied, her tone implying that she was quite happy.

Without even looking at her, Louis wrote down what she said and as he saw that the words didn't erase by themselves, he said to her, "Alright, you can go. Your senior badge will be delivered to your dorm room, along with a sheet that states the position you managed to acquire."

With her as the first one, one apprentice after another came forward and answered Louis's simple questions, quickly leaving after they were done. However, this peaceful questioning session didn't last long as within 10 minutes, an apperentice was suddenly flung to the sides by a simple gesture of that rank 1 mage just as he had said "20" as his last answer.

The reason? It was because that apprentice had lied as when Louis wrote 20 under that apprentice's name, it was automatically erased.

This was the last part of the test the apprentices had to go through and to pass it was simple. To not lie in front of real mages. They had to learn who they were before they attempted to take the risk. This was the lesson they had to comprehend which most apprentices failed at doing.

Looking disappointedly at the apprentice who was now making attempts at standing up, Louis said in a plain manner.

"You failed to be a senior apprentice."

"Ha...how could it be? I already had 11 moonstones when I broke the token, how could I not become a senior apprentice?" The boy suddenly started bawling when he heard the what the mage had said. However, the next moment he was forced to stop.

"Shut up!" Louis sternly said. He hated these types of pampered children. And to think that he dared to lie in front of him. Rage boiled inside him even as he looked at that apprentice who already had tears and snot on his face.

"Get out of my sight this instant!" He yelled at the sobbing apprentice, who hearing his words, promptly picked himself up and ran out.

Restraining his anger, Louis turned his gaze at the black robed apprentice in front of him and continued, again regaining his calm tone.

"Name?"

"Syden, Syden Guniver from minor family of Gunivers." A young voice sounded from under the hood that the apprentice was wearing.

"Number of moonstones?" at this point, there was no need to elaborately ask. The apprentice also seemed smart enough to give the name of his family without him asking.

"0"

There was a short pause of two seconds when Louis heard that. Still, the next moment, he quickly wrote down that sole number and said. "Naturally, you'll remain a junior. Even so, it's a good thing that you've at least come back alive. You can go now. Next!"

Hearing the Mage's words, Aren didn't remain in the hall for long and quickly made his way towards the exit.

After killing Chauv, the moonstones that were on his token along with his four, were all transferred to Katty's by him. As he didn't need them, there was no need for him to keep those moonstones. Thereafter, for the rest of the days until the end of test, Aren had aided Katty in acquiring moonstones and returned to the academy.

It was not that he wasn't worried about the marking left by that greater mage but he had no choice but to come to the academy once. Otherwise, he could've just made his way towards Deathlands the moment he Killed Chauv. He had to find a way to get rid of the marking fast or at least increase the time of its suppression.

However, as an apprentice mage, he still had many things to do and to take from the academy before leaving.

Yes, he was thinking of leaving the academy at once. Although he had used Guniver's identity to participate in this test, he was not foolish enough to think that he could remain under the nose of a greater mage just because of it. When time passes by, Aren was sure that the said mage would surely find out who the killer is. He or she might even be already searching for him.

At the thought of being captured, Aren, along with his increased heart beats, increased his pacing to quickly reach his dorm room.

He also didn't visit his tutor, Claude nor did he meet with Rahil and Shahil. Time was of essence, so he had to avoid doing useless things as much as possible.

Opening the door as he reached at the entrance of his dorm room, Aren pushed himself inside. The first thing he did after getting in was to take off that old robe and take a quick bath. Although he had taken a bath at that river on Moonlight forest, he still wanted to bathe.

After that, he quickly changed into a new set of clothes- one that he bought from the central district and donned his large Academy uniform over it. After checking that he had his spellbook, the earth bracelet, the ring and other things on him- he meticulously took ten of his best enchanted scrolls, his two important notebooks which had all rune advancement formulas recorded in them and Anthony's Journals with him.

As the book from which he had learned about time and space runes, Aren had decided to keep it. It might give him some clue when would start to research about these runes so he had kept it until now.

After he was done packing some pair of clothes in a small bag which he hid under his cloak, Aren looked around his dorm room to make sure that he had left nothing. Right then, his gaze fell on the window pane.

'It has been two months since she last wrote to me. There is no reply to the letter I sent before going to Moonlight forest either.' Aren thought as a worried expression appeared on his face.