Appraisal Ceremony

Five and a half years had passed since Allen was first born into this world.

It was now spring and halfway through April.

Today, Theresia and Rodin had been quite restless ever since the morning.

"Don't make trouble for the father, okay?"

"I understand, mama."

This exchange had already taken place more than ten times since yesterday. Allen stood patiently as his mother brushed dust off his outfit again.

"Theresia, Allen's a smart kid. You know he wouldn't do anything he shouldn't. It's time. We're off."

Today was the day of Allen's Appraisal Ceremony.

'My parents sure are gung-ho about this', he thought as he reflected over what he had been told the past few days.

The Appraisal Ceremony was an occasion to appraise each individual for their innate Talent, if they had one at all. It was law in this kingdom that everyone, from royalty to serfs, must undertake this ceremony when they reached five years of age. Depending on the Talent, the child could be promised a government job in the future, regardless of social class. This was one of the few ways for serfs to escape their lowly station.

Allen found himself making his way to the center of the frontier village. It was just him and Rodin; Theresia had stayed behind to take care of Mash.

As his father led him down the farm road, Allen heard a very familiar voice.

"Alleeeen!" Krena shouted, energetically waving her arm as her pink hair fluttered in the wind.

Thinking about how long it had been since he last saw her without a wooden sword, Allen replied, "Hey, Krena. You're going to the Appraisal Ceremony too?"

"Mm-hm! I'm gonna get Swordswoman! And then I'm gonna become a knight!" Krena replied with a bright smile.

Krena was also going to take part in the ceremony today. It was held only once annually in April for all the children that turned five within the year.

The Church was hardly going to make the arrangements again and again for each child's birthday.

Beside Krena was the burly Gerda. The two families began walking together as a group of four.

Before long, they had left the fields behind and arrived at the area of the village packed with buildings. Along the way, Krena went into detail about her dream of becoming a knight, practically repeating word for word what she had told Allen yesterday and the day before.

Even after Allen was born, the population of this village had continued rising. By now, the village center was quite well-developed. The last time Allen had been here was when Rodin brought him to watch a great boar butchering when he was one year old. Back then there were only a handful of buildings, the memory of which proved a sharp contrast to the current state of the village.

The ceremony would be starting at 9 a.m. Although it was still a bit early, there was already a crowd of nearly a hundred in front of the building that was very clearly the church.

What Allen first noticed about the people was the cleanliness of their clothing. Although everyone was wearing hemp, there were some—serfs—with conspicuous brown stains on their clothes, presumably from working frequently in the fields and having no easy access to soap. The stains served as a conspicuous visual mark of the difference in accessibility to various resources between social classes.

'Whoa, the difference between commoners and serfs is that obvious, huh? Wait, so the commoners are appraised together with the serfs?'

When the nine o'clock bell clanged, the large double doors opened and clergymen emerged, wearing full-body robes of matching design.

'This is gonna be my first time entering the church', Allen thought as he and his father were guided inside by the clergy.

The exterior appearance of the building seemed to imply that there were two floors, but it turned out to be a single floor with a vaulted ceiling.

At the far end, pure white statues—both male and female, similar in style to the ones made of Greek mythological figures—towered over all who drew near. There was little doubt that these were representations of this world's deities.

'Let me guess, this one's holding what looks like a rice plant, so he's probably the God of Bountiful Harvest. And that one is holding a weapon, so...Goddess of War, I'd guess. But the one standing in the middle farthest in the back...that's definitely the God of Creation.'

The statue of Elmea depicted him as a man in his late twenties with waist-length hair, a toned build, and fair features. Both of his eyes were closed and the top half of his body was bare. None of the deities had wings. Allen thought back to when he turned one and received a message from Elmea through his grimoire. He had not received any other contact since.

The group of parents and children were instructed to sit together in a group on the ground. When they were all settled, the one who appeared to be the most senior clergyman came forward.

"Thank you all for gathering today for the Appraisal Ceremony."

The serfs started when all the commoners bowed their heads, then quickly mimicked what they saw. The commoners apparently visited the church frequently—at least, enough to have a basic grasp of the etiquette involved.

Of course, Allen obediently followed suit as well.

The senior clergyman continued, "Elmea, the God of Creation, grants opportunity equally to all. Those of you born as serfs might not be as familiar with the stories, but there are those of your status who have gone on to become champions of our country."

The villagers stirred, buzzing with amazement at this claim. Many of the parents present today were hearing this for the first time, as they were here with their first child to reach five years of age.

The village itself had been founded ten years ago. The first two to three years saw rather meager harvests, which made it difficult to survive, much less consider children. By the fourth year, however, the development of the village had gradually gotten on track and the crop yields started stabilizing.

Thanks to this, the families finally had the leeway to start having children.

Rodin and Theresia were part of this group. In other words, the thirty or so children here, including Allen, made up the village's first baby boom.

"As examples, Clasys the Saintess was born as a commoner. Dverg the Sword Lord, who is actively serving our kingdom even today, was born as a serf."

As the clergyman's voice reverberated through the room, the villagers became increasingly astonished, their murmurs buzzing louder in turn.

'Ahh, I get it now.'

Among the crowd, Allen was the only one who actually understood what the clergyman was saying. He thought back to when he was still choosing his preferences for this "game" on his computer.

When he selected classes with lots of stars, such as Hero or Sword Lord, the game restricted the social classes that he could become to the lower strata. The setup was such that class and social class were inversely correlated. It was therefore impossible for powerful classes to be born from royalty or upper nobility.

'Which means that what I saw as settings for character selection are the actual foundations of this world. So that's why the people here are so thorough about testing even the serfs for Talents, which I assume refers to the job classes. So that no Talent-holder goes undiscovered.'

As the senior clergyman went on to give a simple rundown of the Appraisal Ceremony, other clergy members carried over a crystal and set it up in front of him. The children were to place their hands on this crystal, after which the results of their appraisal would display on the pitch-black surface of a 170-cm-tall metallic panel that stood next to the clergyman.

'Hmm, so the crystal won't change colors or glow? The results of the appraisal will just show u— Wait, so it'll be all public? Well, I guess there's no hiding the results, not in front of this many people.'

Soon enough, the Appraisal Ceremony began.

"Pelomas, son of Deboji. Step forward and place your hands on the crystal," the senior clergyman said in a sonorous tone, reading from a parchment that likely contained the list of the names of all thirty or so children present.

The village chief Deboji led his son forward and brought him before the crystal. Upon being prompted again by the clergyman, the little boy laid both his hands on the ball.

It emanated a faint glow that was sucked toward the metallic panel, which then displayed silver-colored lines of text.

'Hold on a moment! So, it basically works like how my grimoire does?! Does that mean the function of the Appraisal Ceremony was just incorporated into my grimoire automatically?'

"Wonderful! You have the Talent of a Merchant. Congratulations."

___

Name: Pelomas

HP: C

MP: D

Attack: D

Endurance: C

Agility: D

Intelligence: B

Luck: B

Talent: Merchant

___

The village chief whooped with delight as he saw the Talent and threw his arms around his son, squeezing him fiercely. Pelomas also looked happy, albeit a bit smothered.

'Is Deboji happy about Merchant specifically, or is he just happy that his son had a Talent at all? And the stats are displayed as ranks. I see.'

Allen called out his grimoire and noted down the results of Pelomas's appraisal. Another commoner boy was called up next. His father also brought him forward, and he placed his hands over the crystal.

Once again, silver text appeared on the metallic panel. The Talent field said "None," causing the father's shoulders to slump in disappointment.

However, he then simply withdrew with no attempt to protest the result, as if understanding that the reading was absolute.

The appraisals continued.

After Pelomas, most of the other children were Talentless and had stats that only went up to C at most. Because the senior clergyman was calling the commoners first, the serfs were still waiting.

Those who had already been appraised were free to either return home or stay behind to watch the other children's results.

"I did it, papa! I got Ax User! It says I'm an Ax User!"

The seventh child, a stocky little boy, rejoiced with his father when the clergyman informed them of his Talent.

___

Name: Dogora

HP: B

MP: D

Attack: A

Endurance: B

Agility: C

Intelligence: D

Luck: C

Talent: Ax User

___

'Wow! That's the first time an "A" has shown up in anybody's Status. And he has a Talent That can't be a coincidence. Does this mean those without Talents naturally have lower stats?' Just as he had done for all the others, Allen copied down this boy's Status into the grimoire, jotting down his thoughts in the margins.

It was not long before the senior clergyman had finished appraising the commoner children and moved on to calling the serfs.

Most of them also turned out to be Talentless.

When one child was pronounced to be a Cleric, the clergyman told both the child and parent to stay behind afterward.

'I still haven't been called... Not that I mind—I'm glad I've got the chance to survey such a large sample of Statuses.'

As it turned out, Krena and Allen were the last two children. While the majority had already left, a handful of families stood in the back of the chamber, having chosen to stay behind out of curiosity.

"Krena, daughter of Gerda. Step forward and place your hands on the crystal."

"Okay!" The pink-haired girl approached the crystal, led by her father.

She placed both of her hands onto it, beaming.

That instant, the crystal lit up far brighter than it had all day. The clergy and remaining parents all jolted in surprise. Even Gerda's face was filled with astonishment.

When the light subsided, the metallic plate displayed the results of Krena's appraisal.

The senior clergyman started trembling like a leaf as he fell into an even greater shock, stuttering, "I-It appeared! I can't believe it!"