44 Registration (2)

It did not take Savyrran and Ovandarrak long to find the Administration Block. It was neither its towering size nor the fact that its name was plastered on a beautiful stone notice in front that gave it away. Rather, it was the fact that so many of the young men and women were making their way into the large structure. There was a large screen fixed at the top of the Administration Block. The screen was displaying the various floors on which the registration was going to take place.

"Which floor would you go?" Savyrran said, her eyes still scanning the screen. Applicants for Soul Recovery School would have to register on the ground floor, first floor, and second floor while those going to Combat School had to go to the third floor, fourth floor and fifth floor.

"Let's go in first."

From the first moment Savyrran saw the large number of fifteen to eighteen year old youths entering the academy, she had had her doubts about the feasibility of registering thousands of students within only three days. However, once she entered the Administration Block, her doubt instantly evaporated. She finally understood why Royal Dream Higher Academy felt confident in conducting such a wide-scale registration in such a short span of time. Though the block was flooded with thousands of people, it was as though it was barely filled. It did not look crowded at all. When it came to size, this academy had certainly set a high bar for Savyrran. In Coast Town, the largest building was Coast Town Lower Academy. But it was nothing compared to a simple Administration Block in this academy.

The magnificence of this block was the reason why the academy could afford to host all it applicants and register them within a short time.

At the ground floor, Savyrran observed that there were several glass compartments with bespectacled people in uniforms sitting in them. There were queues formed in front of these glass compartments. However, the queues were rapidly moving.

"Do you want to register here?" Savyrran asked.

"Let's go to the second floor. It seems everyone is here so I have a feeling fewer people will be at the second floor."

"Great. I will be on the third floor then. The earlier we finish, the more time we will have to tour the academy."

For the first time in the lives of the twins, they entered a lift. Savyrran's eyes widened in glee when she learned that lifts could be used in place of stairs without having to actually move an inch. This was marvelous. But once inside the lift, she began to feel restless for being too still. She knew immediately then that she preferred the stairs. Looking at Ovandarrak and Gray Gray though, they felt so much at peace with themselves. Aside from Ovandarrak's simple choice of clothing, he did not look out of place at all. It was like he had been living like this all his life and not from a small remote town.

Since Gray Gray was a reflection of Ovandarrak's soul, the little dog was always as calm and collected as its master. Thus, the only one out of the trio who was gushing with awe at everything was Savyrran.

In mere seconds, they were on the second floor. Savyrran decided to walk her brother to one of those glass registration compartments before leaving for the third floor. However, unlike previously, Savyrran decided to use the stairs this time. Her body was aching for some exercise after all, and lifts did not exactly provide that.

"Let's meet outside the building once we are done, alright?" Savyrran said while holding on to Ovandarrak's shoulder. The latter nodded. Then Savyrran was gone.

Once she reached the third floor, Savyrran decided to take a page out of Ovandarrak's book. She would go to the fifth floor instead to register. Perhaps, there were fewer people over there than they were here on the third floor.

True to her thought, when Savyrran got to the fifth floor, there were about less than fifty people. There were many of those glass compartments around and applicants were getting registered one after the other. Eventually, Savyrran settled on a glass compartment which had only three people waiting in line. Soon it was her turn.

Now she was standing face to face across the counter of the glass compartment, she could finally have a clear view of the people in the uniforms. This particular person staring at her looked to be a few years older than her. Clearly, he was a senior in the academy.

Even with the strange looking spectacles the young man was wearing, Savyrran could still see the look of exhaustion on his face. His eyes lingered on Savyrran's cheerful face for a while before they went back to the rectangular levitating screen in front of him. His fingers moved rapidly in mid-air, making Savyrran wonder what exactly his fingers were moving over.

"Name." The young man pointed to a palm-sized version of a screen fixed on the counter. There was a thin silver pen beside it. "Write on it."

Keeping her awe in check, Savyrran silently wrote 'Savyrran Thark', as instructed, while being extra careful to not break anything. She had seen a lot of these screens around. Even back at Coast Town, the soul tournaments were shown on this screens. However, she had never been in such a close proximity to one this small before. Then she looked back at the young man with a smile, wondering what was next in this registration process.

A small smile broke out at the corner of the young man's mouth until it inhabited his entire face. There was something pure about this boy's smile that instinctively caused him to feel happy. But once the young man's attention went back to his screen and saw the name, 'Savyrran Thark', his smile almost faltered.

Savyrran? Was this not a girl's name among the Gaonans? Why was a boy using that name? But the more he stared deeply into Savyrran's shiny black eyes, the more he saw that this person was indeed a girl. Why was a girl even more handsome than he was? Realizing how odd it seemed just gawking at her, the young man cleared his throat and continued on with the registration.

He asked Savyrran other personal questions such as her date of birth, age, hometown and family background as he swiftly recorded them on his screen. Once he was done, he pointed to a small booth next to his glass compartment then asked Savyrran to go inside and have her imaged captured. A few minutes later, Savyrran was back again.

"Essence?" The young man asked, his eyes not leaving the screen.

"None."

"Essence?" The young man asked again. He had assumed Savyrran had not heard his question. But Savyrran repeated the same answer. The twinkle in her eyes suggested that she was enjoying the way things were going to turn out. It was what she had come to expect. People were always left dumbfounded whenever they learned that she did not have any essence nor soul armos. It might as well be like saying she had two heads while everyone had one.

The young man quickly looked up at Savyrran, his small brown eyes widening with disbelief. "Soul armos type?"

"None."

The young man frowned. Clearly this girl was making a fool out of him. Why was she joking at something this important? In all his eighteen years of life, he had never once heard of anyone not having an essence or soul armos. So why was some random Gaonan girl uttering such a blatant lie?

"What do you mean none?"

Savyrran chuckled. "It means I don't have an essence, neither do I have a soul armos."

"But that's impossible."

"I don't know about that. I have been living like that for fifteen years now."

"But… But… you can't possibly go through the trials without an essence."

A wave of uncertainty flashed in Savyrran's eyes. Master Bufan never told her not having an essence would disqualify her from being registered. Wait, if that were the case, the old man would have said something. She needed to make sure. She could not give up now when she had barely even started.

"Is it against the rules to register while having no essence?"

"Well… no." The young man said thoughtfully. How could there be a rule like that when having no essence was even unprecedented. He thought only people in the First Dimension had no essence. Wait, was this girl from the First Dimension? That was highly unlikely. Surely people in the First Dimension have no access to Bridges connecting the other dimensions. This made no sense.

"Great. Then it will be fine." Savyrran heaved a sigh of relief, thankful that she would not be booted out simply because she had no essence.

The young man's mouth hanged open. Even if it was true that there was indeed someone from the Second Dimension without a soul armos, should that person not be worried that they would absolutely fail the trials? Most often, even people with essence easily failed. But here there was an anomaly who was clearly looking forward to the trials. For a while, the young man smiled slowly.

He was in the Combat School too, thus, he would be closely keeping an eye on Savyrran during the trials. Something about Savyrran's cool confidence told him that she was not mere at all. Even if she had no essence, her impressive arms told him that Savyrran had trained her body very hard. Still, was that enough? Every single person who applied to Royal Dream Higher Academy was incredible in their own way. Yet, out of the thousands of people who applied to the Combat School every year, only about hundred or less usually made it.

"Okay then. Final question. What weapons are you most skilled in?"

"Badisk." Savyrran blurted without thinking.

"Badisk?"

Savyrran laughed. "Sorry. That's the name of my sword. I'm a sword fighter."

The young man chuckled upon hearing Savyrran's beautiful laughter. "How long have you been training as a sword fighter?" This was not part of the standard sets of questions, however, he was too curious to not ask.

"Since I was six. So that will be one.. two… nine years." Savyrran said, slowly recounting the number of years in her head. She had never thought about this before. She smiled when she suddenly thought that Ovandarrak would have immediately called out the number if he were here.

The young man nodded, finally understanding why this girl had such well-defined arms. Well, honestly, they were quite appealing to look at. Savyrran was a very good-looking girl, but he would not say she was his type. He did not think he was secured enough to go after a girl who was more handsome than he was. However, Savyrran's friendliness and charm was just too infectious. For some reason, he sincerely wanted this girl to pass her trials. Perhaps, once she made it into the Combat School, he could challenge her to a friendly duel to gauge for himself exactly how good Savyrran was with the sword.

"Well, good luck in your trials."

"Thank you." Savyrran was about to leave when he decided to ask the boy his name.

"It's Jari." The boy said.

"Jari?" Savyrran's smile widened even more than ever. Wow, what were the odds? Hearing the name of Kasko's brother made her happier than before. Nowadays, Jari Ajoni was no longer the cry baby two year old. Now, he was a thirteen year old boy who was as brave as his older brother.

Jari nodded when Savyrran said his name. He wondered why his plain name would bring so much happiness to Savyrran's face, but he would not complain. Those shiny black eyes were too beautiful to lose their luster.

"Well, see you around Jari." Then she waved at him as she made her way back to the second floor to check on her brother.