New Me

After Professor Ana offered to accompany him, Quagmire passed several buildings, some even unfinished, where countless automated robots with sharp equipment continued to hammer and level the brittle buildings. Now, something that hasn't changed in the last few minutes was that wherever he went, people looked at the color of his eyes and hair, analyzing him from head to toe.

They treated him as if he were some kind of circus attraction, put there for people to be vehemently entertained, however, despite finding it odd, he still tried to remain as neutral as possible, passing with his head and body erect while keeping the focus of his gaze on the direction in which he walked.

Due to the speed at which he and Ana walked, they were both able to quickly reach the main facility for the initiation ceremony. In front of them was a door larger than any Quagmire had ever seen reports of, but still smaller than the huge silver gates at the entrance of the academy.

''Well, you can go ahead. I still have some business out here.'' Said the red-haired woman, walking nimbly to the left and heading in the opposite direction from Quagmire, disappearing altogether as she turned into a narrow path.

"Thanks." The boy muttered under his breath, when the woman had already left.

Returning his gaze to the big door, he already knew what would happen the moment he entered that place. He took a moment to take a deep breath, to calm down and be able to walk into that room without getting into trouble with any rich idiots. Having mentally prepared himself properly (at least he thought so), Quagmire opened the huge doors and walked in along with a group of girls with strangely colored hair, probably Huritys from important houses, completely different from the boy, who was a young Landra totally ragged in a 'strange' place for his people.

As on other occasions, people glanced at Quagmire, muttering silently to each other, probably saying bad things about him being a Landra and being there. Even some of the staff responsible for monitoring the students, looked at Quagmire strangely. He was unaffected by such frivolous things, stowing his things in his suitcase once more, and wondering if maybe he hadn't forgotten something as he walked forward.

He chose to sit next to a platinum-haired boy and sat down, the boy got up imediatelly and walked past, pushing Quagmire onto the bench he was on, leaving. Quagmire had already predicted that no one would choose to sit next to a Landra, so, one way or another, that didn't surprise him at all.

However, against all his expectations, a burly brown-haired boy, dressed in aristocratic clothes reminiscent of medieval age, sat down on his left side. Next to him came a girl with long, completely pink hair, wearing a tight white dress shirt along with long black pants, always keeping a strange smile on her face as she stared at Quagmire.

No one said anything for the next 4 minutes, but the girl in an attempt to strike up a conversation, tapped Quagmire on the shoulder, who was distracted thinking of ways to avoid problems that awaited him in the future.

''You are a Landra, am I right?'' The girl asked.

"I think it's pretty obvious, don't you think?" He replied wryly.

''Well, anyway.'' The girl clasped her hands together in a loud thud, ignoring Quagmire's mocking comment ''Nice to meet you! My name is Alice Kura Linjol and yours?''

The moment the girl mentioned her name, Quagmire's eyes twinkled for a few seconds, Kura Linjol was the surname of one of the biggest noble houses in the republic. It is also one of the main houses responsible for the unspecified dismissal of Quagmire.

Realizing this, the boy assumed a more rigid posture in relation to Alice, looking her from head to toe. It was remarkable that, contrary to what might be expected for her age, Alice had a voluptuously physique, with breasts and 'back' (as Quagmire respectfully called it) quite full. Her purple eyes were sunken and seemed to penetrate deep into Quagmire's soul, the more he watched them.

Having noticed the timing discrepancy, which grew more and more as he watched her, Quagmire responded hastily, molding his own tone more firmly and more fiercely.

''Quagmire. Just Quagmire, nothing more.'' He replied firmly.

''What a unique name! It's also very beautiful.'' She parted her hands and placed them in a way that engulfed Quagmire's right hand, surprising him.

''The one on your side is Samuel! Samuel Linus Greathollow!'' She said, nodding at the boy who sat next to Quagmire.

The burly young man only nodded, shaking his head and hand, not saying a word. And while he was doing that, employees dressed in black entered the room where the students were.

''Follow us.'' Said the tall, bearded man who walked in front of the door.

Everyone got up and started to line up, when they eventually started walking through various places in the academy.

The employees guided the students along a very beautiful path, decorated by pilasters that supported the place and also with some works of art placed here and there, giving an air of classicism to the place.

Arriving in the test room, the architecture resembled that of the Gothic period, containing pointed vaults, and the room being positioned in a vertical manner. But what stood out the most was that in the middle of the room was a huge silver-colored machine, which had some wires (probably copper) scattered around the ends of the walls, which was almost certainly its supply of energy. And when you looked to the far end of the place, you could see chairs positioned on high sides, where the executives and the director of the academy stood, silently watching the students.

''Welcome!'' Said a man with weird glasses, short and disheveled attire. He had emerged from behind the machine and based on the dirt soaking into his clothes, it was likely that he was responsible for handling it.

''I ask you to sit down. Testing will start in a few seconds.'' He said, returning to the machine, this time tucking a tiny microphone-like device into his shirt pocket.

Conversations could be heard here and there, but Quagmire decided it was smarter to keep quiet, trying his hardest not to attract attention until his turn came.

It didn't take long for people to start getting called, and some of the first people to get called were Alice and Samuel.

A huge canvas hung on one decorated wall showed people's rank and assimilation rate. The assimilation rate is the amount, in percentage, of a person's ability to release neural energy, in short, a number that would dictate an individual's compatibility with battle units.

On the screen, several messages appeared, accompanied by a narration that sometimes changed its voice.

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[Connecting to the Cavalry System...]

[Connection established! Proceeding to Activate Protocol 0103 ...]

[Protocol started! Calculating the 'soul' energy release]

[Calculation performed successfully!]

[The neural energy of the 'Soul' released by Cadet 13 is 65.4%]

[Final result: 65.4% assimilation rate]

[Rating in the list of cadets: 003/224]

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The screen showed that Alice was an extraordinary person, managing to slightly surpass the 60% placement and being known as the third best cadet of the primary year.

As for Samuel, he ended up getting similarly optimistic results, getting calming messages that said things like: [Final Score: 63.6% Assimilation Rate] and [Cadet List Rank: 004/224].

Impressively, the duo was only bested by 2 people, girls with unique hair colors, who Quagmire suspected were heirs to some of the Greater noble houses.

The screen of the first girl, with blue hair with pink streaks, showed messages like: [Final Score: 69.6% Assimilation Rate] and [Cadet List Rank: 002/224].

As for the other girl, it was a girl with blond hair that bordered on white, extremely beautiful. She was the only one able to score above 70%, having messages that said: [Final Score: 71.8% Assimilation Rate] and [Cadet List Rank: 001/224].

After that, the cadets were tested with an unstoppable pace that only accelerated, becoming extremely fast, and increasingly approached Quagmire's turn, who continued to replay his idea in his mind, over and over.

''Cadet 223, get up and put your hand on the machine, please.'' Said the man, who was now behind the machine, probably controlling it.

'Whatever fate wants' Quagmire thought, putting his hand on the strange machine as he broke out in cold sweat.