Evaluation I

Kaalsuo woke up, feeling rather lazy today. He had just woken up from a huge feast late in the night. There was so much food that not even a portion of it was close to finishing. In fact, the chunks of meat were as big as a tree and there were hundreds Alsram brought with him.

Alsram ended up giving away most of the creature's meat to the other villages since it'll get rotten soon or later. Even so, the leftover meat was still enough for an entire decade.

Nonetheless, Kaalsuo didn't feel like going outside at the moment. He just wanted to relax and chill inside the house by doing absolutely nothing. Just as he preferred.

"Might as well eat some bread while I'm at it." He thought. He grabbed a long loaf of bread that was comparable to a baguette and slowly chewed it down.

Even on Earth, if he wasn't in the mood of cooking, he would simply grab a piece of bread and eat it like a peasant. It didn't matter if there wasn't any additional flavour on the bread. He only cared about filling up his stomach.

However, Kaalsuo felt as if something was missing. He had nothing hot to drink alongside the loaf of bread. The morning just felt awkward for some reason.

From what he experienced firsthand, he have had to seen chocolate, coffee or even tea. The climate and environment around him would be comparable to Switzerland thus he likely somewhere in a region like Europe.

According to his truthfully bad knowledge in history, it would be safe to say that seeing one of those drinks in the span of his lifetime would be in the realm of impossibility. Unless if people were embarking in colonialism, that is.

"If only I had something to drink." Kaalsuo sighed.

"What's the matter?" Chrysea suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It appeared that she had sensed a slight disturbance in the house.

"Ah, it's nothing really." Kaalsuo said while still chewing a piece of bread in his mouth.

"Alright then. I'll leave it to you then." Chrysea said as she walked back outside. However; as she continued to walk as usual, she suddenly stopped.

"Almost forgot. Kaalsuo, you have to go get evaluated." Chrysea finally remembered and informed Kaalsuo.

"Evaluated?" Out of all the outcomes that could've occured in the morning, this outcome was completed unexpected for Kaalsuo.

* * *

"Honestly, it's to be expected." Kaalsuo sighed. He had already known that his chances of encountering the idiot was absolutely 100 percent. Yet, he was still ultimately disappointed.

"Hey Kaalsuo!" The moment Etrus spotted Kaalsuo, he immediately ran towards Kaalsuo while intensely waving.

In Kaalsuo's eyes, Etrus sort of resembled a eager naive little puppy that kept running towards you for affection. However, instead of affection, this dude was crazy for friends.

Nonetheless, there was also another person that Kaalsuo initially didn't expect to appear.

"Hi!" Syra waved from afar. Unlike a certain person named Etrus, she didn't try to immediately sprint towards Kaalsuo as if he was a celebrity.

You would think that Kaalsuo wouldn't even interact with Syra. However, it seemed that she was actually friends with Etrus.

That also meant that he would have even more company. Kaalsuo didn't want that to happen as he preferred to simply go solo in the long run.

Still, he didn't want to completely isolate himself since friends could become handy henchmen in the future. In case things go wrong.

Additionally, Kaalsuo figured that if he was isolated, other people besides kids would tend to dislike him since he would become more like a outsider than a local.

Thus, it wasn't like he couldn't just ditch Etrus. He was simply thinking about his future long term.

Even so, Kaalsuo still couldn't figured out something about Etrus. Out of the people and friends that he had made, he still targeted Kaalsuo whenever he got the chance to do so.

"Well, it's no good overthinking. I'll become Saitama before I'm even 10 at this rate." Kaalsuo thought.

"Ahem, are you guys also going to get evaluated?" Kaalsuo said. Though, Kaalsuo already knew that they were gonna reply with a 'yes' since there would be no reason for them to walk on a gravel path alongside thousands of other kids.

He just planning to talk about random stuff to them in order to be 'friends' with them.

"Yeah! Of course." Etrus shouted in intense enthusiasm that even shocked Kaalsuo.

"Yeah." Syra said in moderate enthusiasm.

"I don't know why but I feel like Etrus is trying too hard to be enthusiastic that it even feels awkward now." Kaalsuo thought. Due to Etrus's overly intensive enthusiasm, it sounded kinda cringe.

"Where are we going anyways?" Kaalsuo asked those two. He had already known where he was supposed to head thanks to the information Chrysea had given him. He figured he should just keep the conversation going and ignore the fact he didn't need to ask in the first place.

"Sorry but I don't know. My mom just told me to follow the crowds of kids walking down the road."

"Same for me."

"I just remembered. Apparently, we're gonna head to the Gate town of Xerxes for the evaluation." Kaalsuo didn't expect for the two kids to not even know where they were headed. Nonetheless, he had prepared for this outcome. He was still maintaining the conversation quite well.

It wasn't a matter of enjoying a conversation with people like usual. It was simply to develop friendships that would important and useful in the future.

"Xerxes? Is it far?"

"Nah, I think we're getting closer." Kaalsuo initially had no clue where Xerxes was located. However, thanks to the intel Alsram had given him, he knew vaguely where his destination was. Though, the info that had gotten would amount to, more or less, following the road.

Unlike the sprawling nature-filled valley he was familiar with, the valley around him seemed slightly more arid or dry. There were less trees and shrubs on his surroundings and overall felt and looked less greener.

Alsram didn't really tell Kaalsuo about the exact location of the town and instead told him about the overall atmosphere of the area. "If the air seems more dry than usual, you're on the right track."

"I feel like we're getting closer." Syra said. She seemed to glance at her surroundings rather keenly.

"Isn't that what I said..?" Kaalsuo responded. He thought that she was just repeating his words from earlier. Though, judging by her behaviour, Kaalsuo couldn't be sure just yet.

"No, there's more houses here than the houses we passed." Syra said, pointing the more abundant houses in the area.

"Makes sense." Kaalsuo said. She was right. The infrastructure around this part of the valley seemed to be quite better and there were more people here rather than the villages they had passed along the way.

His reasoning was that if there was a city, there had to be multiple small clumps of villages or towns around it.

Then Kaalsuo saw the town.

"Woah!" The groups of children ahead of Kaalsuo and the idiots were amazed by the beauty of the town. Some kids tried to immediately run inside the town but was halted by the town guards by the side of the opened gate.

It was to be expected. Even Kaalsuo was somewhat surprised by how different the town looked from he had imagined in his head.

There was a gigantic arch-like structure at the entrance to the town and it seemed to be made from sandstone due to it's yellowish color. The arch had multiple complicated patterns at each side. However, the patterns didn't have vibrant colours since it appeared to have faded for a long time. Even so, the colours did still exist and that was all it mattered.

The gate itself seemed to have been made with some kind of blueish metallic material. Like the arch, the gate had decorations that seemed to show coat of arms. The coat of arms had a strange looking shield at the center and two snakes at each side of the shield. On the shield, there was a vague distorted shape of a wide tall structure. Additionally, there was also a sword lodging at the roof of that structure.

The structure somewhat reminded Kaalsuo of a ziggurat from ancient mesopotamian times.

Besides that, there was also an additional gate at the other end of the town. On the other side of that mentioned gate was a huge circular lake. The sunlight reflected off the lake to create a dazzling sparkling effect. On top of that, the terrain around the lake was not greenery but rather a desert.

The fact that it was desert completely solved why the air around them felt more dry than usual.

The town appeared to be your typical medieval town with tons of carriages moving throughout the town. However, there was quite a surprising exception.

It was the existence of some particular parts of the town. These parts of the town were not heavily populated and seemed to harbor some random homeless hobos. There was also a lot of stables there which made the atmosphere of that area utterly disgusting.

However, there was something unusual at the area. Besides the disgusting part, there seemed to be ruins or remnants of a huge structure around those parts. There were tall wrecked walls and a handful of random aligned pillars. Whatever the structure was, it was now a shell of its former past.

It made Kaalsuo wonder about the history of the town but that was for another day. He had to get evaluated since he couldn't stand here wondering all day.

"Woah, this town is huge!" Etrus commented about the town. He quickly glanced at almost every single shop and tavern around the place. He even tried to wander off to grab some fruits before shortly stopped by a guard leading them to the evaluation.

"Your curiosity will, one day, be the cause of your downfall." Kaalsuo facepalmed. However, Kaalsuo was actually enjoying the company of the idiot as he watched Etrus doing goofy stuff.

"He's just having fun!" Syra playfully said. She too appeared to be excited to look around the place. Even so, she was still well behaved enough to not wander around every second or two.

"At least she's somewhat the opposite of Etrus." Kaalsuo thought.

***

"I did not expect this at all." Kaalsuo was completely taken by surprise. He knew that he was just getting evaluated but he did not expect for the place to be this big.

The place of evaluation was a massive medieval-esque castle that could even rival Hogwarts. A part of the castle was also, unbelievably, floating high up in the air. The castle looked spectacular and majestic but it also looked spooky at the same time. Additionally, the walls around the castle was also extraordinary. There was multiple towers at the wall that had a floating orb on top of the tower. The orb seemed to be powering the massive dome encasing the castle.

"I'm so excited!" Etrus couldn't help but feel extremely excited for the evaluation. He looked as if he was trying his best to contain his curiosity and excitement. The only reason why he didn't run off into the castle was the fact the guards straight up just glued Etrus to a chair by using a particular spell. Thankfully, Etrus didn't seem to be mad at all.

"Can't believe I initially thought this guy was going to be a great reliable leader." Kaalsuo thought.

Kaalsuo and the others were all in one huge rectangular chamber. All the children were all organised in rows like some kind of march. They, including Kaalsuo, were all standing with the exception of Etrus of course.

Suddenly, a loud broadcast could be heard throughout the the chamber.

"Welcome to the Xerxes Magic Academy, children!" a woman announced.

"Wait, we're in an academy?" Kaalsuo inwardly thought. He simply thought that they were just going to get evaluated in a castle organized by some random rich noble.

"Today is a special day for all of you. You shall be evaluated to determine whether you're talented. Don't worry, this isn't the only evaluation. Talent takes time."

"Well, I guess I'm talented in the arts of reincarnation." Kaalsuo inwardly commented.

"We'll split all the children into 5 groups. These groups will be individually evaluated by our most proficient students." The woman said as the students appear from behind the curtains on the stage.

"Wait a second. Is that who I think it is?" Kaalsuo suddenly saw a familiar figure amongst the group of students on the stage.

"Let us begin the evaluation!"

"That's Churnol!" Kaalsuo realized who it was. Churnol then spotted Kaalsuo from afar and waved.