36 Testing Potential

The trip ended uneventfully, there was just continuous sparring and meditation for me to do within the carriage, and once inside the royal capital I saw a whole new scenery; Unlike the city of Ariandel, this place looked majestic,as if everyone here was of noble origins, the streets were clean and water was flowing from fountains and grand gardens that littered the place, it was beautiful almost a heaven on earth.

The houses were well organized in various districts. Unlike noble houses that had huge spaces, these were of lesser sizes but never lacked in decorations or prestige.

The paved stone road would guide you anywhere into the various places of the city, and our destination was a grandiose school that was on the rims of the city.

It was situated on an open space with several kilometers of open field, a majestic three-story building that hosted hundreds of classrooms, and two enormous buildings, one on each of its sides.

Behind the central building was a vast paved stone floor, it was squared and was surrounded by rows of seats.

This was an arena inside the school, due to the nature of the school various duels would be upheld every now and then.

This place, I was certain that I will be visiting in the near future.

Once passed the steel gates, I saw several caravans entering and leaving, they were carrying people from prestigious houses.

All of them were followed by their guards and servants like high-class nobles. These Young masters and mistresses were the daughters and sons of the most prominent and influential nobles.

Once it was our turn, I was asked by Melinda to leave the caravan and wait outside.

The carriage holding our luggage was guided by some of the school's personnel towards one of the two buildings that were on the sides of the main school building.

As for us we were asked to move forward toward the entrance and guided toward a grand hall.

The nobles and the servants were separated in there as we stood behind them in ten perfect rows of twenty servants per row.

Two for each noble, meaning that the new batch of nobles consisted of one hundred noble.

This was of course only a quarter of the total students that would be enrolling this year. Meaning that the total of the enrolling nobles were more than four hundred with eight hundred servants.

It would have been, too much if it was that each of these nobles was of different houses, but many of the nobles would enroll several of their children this year.

And only 10 of these twelve hundred will be eligible to become an active enforcer. Without doubt the nobles had a lot of backing and power behind them so they will certainly secure several of the spots for the final 10, however it is not rare to find some of the servants within those ranks, after all the powerful houses always try and are the strongest servants to accompany their children so it will not be weird if they are amongst them.

And I will be needing to get a spot there.

A man walked forward, he was veiled and looked rather imposing, he wore a white attire that covered his entire persona and a black veil on his face, both his hands were crossed into each other while the long sleeves of his white robe were dangled.

The first rows of students were all nobles of the most dignified and prestigious houses, amongst them was lady Akari of the House Ling.

"Greetings young ones, I am the vice Headmaster of this school, and I will be welcoming you to Visania. Where your mettle will be tested and your knowledge enriched. Your role in this place is to become more understanding toward yourselves and towards those around you. You should become more proficient in the art of war, to help become our leading figures in times of crisis. You must all know that the calamity will soon prevail this land, and we are all here to ensure that our most gifted and strongest will be there once the time comes, so train well, and know more. For it is only that that will aid you in venturing into the unknown future." Said the man

After a brief pause, he then added

"You should all know, that here, your class or status is irrelevant, high, or low nobles, servants or not, you are all here to learn, make sure to abide by the rules of this school, for all differences this school shy not from proving one's worth through combat, and I am sure you all know about the ranking system for high classes. Your status will be measured and your class will be assigned, once that is completed you will prove yourselves by attaining higher classes. Sadly contradicting what I just spoke before about the school not discriminating between nobles and Servants here the rule falls short. For the servants, you will only be eligible to attain high classes if you prove your worth through challenge. Once you will you shall obtain the loser's position in their class. The school library is divided into seven segments, once your student cards have been issued you shall be given a rank according to it. The higher our rank the more floors of the library you shall be able to access, this card will also enable you to access higher classrooms. They will be your keys to your dorm and your way to rank up, you can initiate a challenge with another student once you press both cards on each other, the rank swap will be initiated once the duel ends."

Ah, now I understand this way they can keep track of everything.

"Now the ranking ceremony shall commence, all of you step forward in an organized manner first row first." He said as two men that were wearing school personnel clothes moved forward carrying a small floating orb, it looked like a blood orb but was white.

"Press your hands here and your potential will be tested, based on it you will be assigned a class. State your names and your household before it."

The first was a young handsome man wearing a black jacket that hung all the way to his knees, he had the emblem of a tiger on his back.

"First Prince of the Sun Kingdom. Dior Visania." Said the man as he pressed his hand forward.

Once he said the words the room turned to whispers and low speaking, many must have known of his existence and many must have wanted to get closer to him he was after all the royal prince.

So this is the king to be. The son of the current king Roland Visania.

The white orb crackled with lightning as it gave signs of great magic power. I was using monochrome eyes to see the fluctuation of the magic in the air.

'This place holds many talents' said Nocturne as he swept with his gaze through everyone. 'However…' he said as his tone grew heavy

'I saw them… there are many of them here…' I replied as my heart sank… not only amongst the servants even amongst the nobles, many gave staggering and unholy signs of defilement… they are here… why would the school permit their existence? Did they not know?

'Don't make a move Basara, and make sure to not alert them, let's see first what they want and how the school will handle them, if they are not exposed, we shall hunt them down one by one."

'Do you think we can do that? There are many of them here, you can see for yourself.'

'Attacking them all at once is suicide, but we can with their numbers one by one.' He said 'You still need more power in order to fight against them…'

"As expected of the royal lineage, S class magic potential with A class potential for swordsmanship," said the Vice headmaster. A card then emerged from the orb and fell into the prince's hand. It carried the emblem of a tiger and had an S and A letters one on each of its sides.

"Next!" said the headmaster as the boy walked forward and waited in line. It seems that the ceremony will have to continue while everyone remains in this room.

"Lissandra Visania, first princess of the Sun Kingdom," said a girl that had black silky hair, who resembled the boy by a lot… they must be twins…"

Once her hand was on the orb, it also sparkled in a somewhat less imposing lightning than her brother, but the results were not less in any aspects as the Vice-headmaster said

"Splendid indeed, A class magic potential with an S class potential for swordsmanship! Indeed the royal lineage is most powerful." You may take your card.

So the boy excels in magic while the girl excels in swordsmanship, they must be quite powerful indeed…

The ceremony continued, with various and prominent figures showing their overflowing potential

'I thought that it should be impossible or rather hard for anyone to be able to wield both blade and magic at once.' I said to Nocturne remembering what he told me before.

'It is hard indeed, but you should know that that orb only verifies their potential, though they have the potential in mastering both the sword and magic, if they follow that route they will find themselves unable to master any of them, thus why they will mostly focus on one or another.' Replied Nocturne.

"Akari Ling, of the fire dragon household," said Lady Akari as she was now next in line."

The orb then illuminated the room with a bright red light, it was her power.

"Amazing talent from the city of fire Ariandel! Lady Akari, S Class magic with a B class potential for swordsmanship" said the Vice-principal.

Oh, lady Akari sure is amazing, already securing a high position and gaining herself a lot of admiration.