Attending the Written Exam

The squeaking wooden wheels of the carriage held Midas awake, his sunken head aimlessly staring onto the rough texture of his sickle, loosing himself in the dark, faintly orange colour of the oxidised metal. Avalons question wether he truly wanted to use the old tool in the exam made the boy think.

Ever since he was attacked in that village, Midas carried the old metal with him - a unconventional weapon that proved useful as he travelled along with Graf, the youth grew used to wielding it before he could even notice. 

Nevertheless, now he attended the exam with it, adjusting himself to a sword in such a short time would prove difficult, since Midas would need to get used to its length and weight.

His head ached from what ever knowledge he managed to squeeze inside of his head, Avalon was sure he'd succeed today - already speaking of him living inside the living quarters of the university. If he truly proved to be enough to meet their criteria would be announced shortly after the exam had ended, Avalon knew a lot about the exams - he truly worked inside the university after all.

The wagon slowly came to a halt, Gunvar and Avalon sat beside him, unlike the day on which they arrived in the town, Midas was able to recognise some of the words they exchanged with each other. His dimm understanding wasn't enough to get the full picture, Midas turned his head to look out of the back - the road they used was paved, other carriages followed them.

Eventually they turned, the beasts making their ride move were tied up onto a wooden pole, the old driver slowly winked the three of them goodbye before turning to his beasts again. The university grounds were closed off by two bronze gate-doors, now wide open as people were walking through them.

Some were guided by older man or women, some arrived alone - the ones who attended the exam had various ages, some seeming much older than Midas. Gunvar separated himself from the two of them, waving Midas goodbye with a reassuring grin as he headed to a tiny group of knights standing near the gate.

Avalon eventually guided Midas to sit on a bench on the edge of the compound, the youth briefly scanned the crowd that formed infront of the main entrance of the university building, their voices a condensed squabble that faintly reached out to him. To check out where they had to go, Avalon set off to find some plan hung out for the attendants to see, leaving Midas on his own.

Midas was focused even before the start of the exam had been announced - with a blank stare he repeated the words and sentences he had repeatedly writen onto the scrolls. Leaning forward on the wooden bench, he closed his lids - letting his mana circulate while recalling his swings he extensively practiced.

Out of the crowd someone eventually emerged, clothed in a clean dark blue uniform blazer and wearing a brown tie to go with it, a girl ran out of the conglomeration of people. Her long hair a muted pink colour, her skin much more pale than the attendants surroundinging her. Her hair braided, splitting her hair in two halfes, bouncing as she jogged into Midas direction.

Her teeth clenching, she eventually locked her eyes onto a lone guy sitting on a bench - clearly not paying her attention. Without any hesitation she made her way on the bench, sitting close beside the youth - her hand grasping his bandaged right shoulder.

Muting a scream by clenching his lips in pain, Midas straightened his back - his perplexed eyes locking onto a slightly taller girl, her alarmed eyes meeting his gaze. Opening his mouth, unsure what to say to her sudden appearance, he saw her head turning forward.

Out of the crowd, a brown haired boy emerged - his hair comed to the side, sporting an almost perfect haircut, clothed in the same uniform as the foreign girl next to Midas. His lips clenching in frustration as he looked down at the two of them.

„You… A guy from the desert…? She came to you…?"

Midas eyes widened slightly at the northern boy infront of them, his accent thick - yet, he was able to understand what he spoke. The fingers of the girl next to him began to dig deeper into his muscles, forcing him to bear the pain. Seeing her eyes staring directly up to the boy infront of the youth.

„Now im forced to speak this cursed language… whatever, I don't need her anyways…"

Remarking in a hissing voice, the boy unwillingly turned away from them again - hiding his fingers inside the pockets of his perfectly fitting trousers. Turning to the crowd again, as he joined the other contestants. The pink haired girl silently watched his movements, her hands letting go of Midas aching right arm.

Nearly instantly getting up from the bench again, a slim smile formed on her lips - having no need to cling onto the youth anymore. Turning away from his perplexed eyes to retreat into one of the side entrances of the university building. Having two wings, one left and another to the right that were bound together by a central part, which had two more floors - judging by the sets of windows Midas saw on it.

Knocked out from his thoughts by what just happened, Midas leaned back on the wooden bench he rested on - his eyes staring onto the red bricks the grand building infront of them was made out of. Avalon returned to him again, seeing his blank expression - differing grately from what he saw before he left him.

„Geez… Did the nervousity get to you…?"

Avalon stood infront of him, his expression clearly concerned. Midas began to blink again, focusing up as he covered his face to sort his thoughts again - rubbing his shut lids to forget about the perplexing situation.

„No, its fine. Where do we have to go…?"

His determination finding its way back to him, Midas focused glance looked up to Avalon as he got up from the bench - stretching his arms to awaken from his still faintly sleepy state.

„Be patient, you'll have enough time to get through both the tests without having to stress much… You know everything necessary to pass."

Following through the same double door the foreign girl entered through, Midas found himself walking a long hall, the floor spanned with clean cut square bricks, polished to be completely flat, their faint red colour matching to the slightly yellowish white that coloured the walls, the paint mostlikely loosing its clean colour due to its age.

Murmurs escaped an opened wooden door, echoing flatly through the long hall he and Avalon wandered through, standing infront of the door, Avalon lightly grasped Midas left shoulder. Making the youth turn to him as he glanced up to the man.

"Listen, once you enter - just sit down and wait for the instructor to hand out your papers… You'll recognise her by the blue uniform she wears, once she announced the test to start - the tests will be handed out to you."

Midas silently nodded at Avalons guide, he already knew the questions that were written on the paper were written in the northern alphabet - the announcement to start the test mostlikely would also happen in the same language.

"Oh, before you go - I'll wait for you here."

Silently nodding a last time, Midas headed through the open door, grabbing the first free seat he saw - sitting on the second seat from the left in the front row, his eyes scanned through the room. Brown's filled the room - most of the furniture made of wood, the seats in the back elevated by wooden steps to allow for enough vision.

None of them wore the uniforms the pink haired girl and the boy that followed her were clothed in - instead, some seemed quite similar to him when it came to clothing. On the right of the middle rows, a pair of students were dressed in light grey cloth and bandages - their eyes sporting slim markings drawn with black paint, matching the colour of their dark hair.

Anything that Midas imagined would happen during the written part of the exam did happen, their teacher a older woman in a sleek blue uniform, her raised voice quickly shut down any squabbling that happened - handing out the paper, giving another signal for the attendants to use their given feather and ink to write on the paper.

Only after Midas had awnsered the first of the questions, a simple grammatical task that tested his ability to introduce himself in the foreign language, the youth realised he wasn't able to see his troup from the time he travelled with Graf anywhere.

Midas quickly put his emerging concern to the side, he was on a run, the few words he managed to pick up from the questions were enough to give an awnser, tasked with finding the right word that matched the description given in the paper - making him choose between three possible awnsers.

The written part of the written exam quickly came to an end, the test only two papers long. Midas remained quietly seated for a short while before the older woman watching over them started collecting the tests. The time he spent repeatedly pronouncing what ever he had written on the scrolls payed out, he felt confident in his awnsers as he left the room.

The woman left the door of the room open, gesturing them to leave with her hand as she left through the opened door. Just as Midas got up, already met with the sight of children arround his age fleeing through the exit in a loose line, his eyes met a sharp glance.

The dark markings under the boys eyes made his sharp eyes even more intimidating, looking directly at Midas, leading who seemed to be his sister out of the room. Turning to the slightly smaller girl, as she took another quick glance towards Midas aswell.

Worried he did something wrong, Midas let them pass by, exchanging glances with the foreign pair as his turn to leave to room came, nearly one of the last to come out of the door. Avalon already approaching him with noticeable excitement.