Beyond the stone buildings and lush trees of the South Ward, a magical bridge stretched across the divide, connecting it to the North Ward.
The sun had long set, and the sky had deepened to a velvety dark. High above, the twin moons, Caelia and Noctua, bathed the land below in their ethereal glow.
The Argent Bridge, the undisputed jewel of Argentis, captured the splendor of its namesakes and shone with a brilliant, otherworldly light.
From his balcony, Alaric drank in the awe-inspiring sight, a gasp of wonder escaping his lips. "So beautiful."
The bridge looked as though it were woven from countless tiny stars. Alaric had never seen anything so spectacular in his life. He watched it for several minutes before letting out a wistful sigh. "The world of magic is truly fascinating…"
He stepped back into his room and sat on the couch. Wincing, he slowly unwrapped the blood-soaked bandage from his left arm. He then uncorked the vial of healing potion and downed it in a single swallow.
A sweet flavor filled his mouth, chased by a slightly bitter aftertaste. Within a minute, a maddening itch began to crawl deep within his left arm, growing more intense with each passing second.
Alaric gritted his teeth, his focus fixed on the injury. He could feel a strange, pulling sensation as his bones began to knit together, followed by the slow, miraculous restoration of tendon and muscle. A minute later, new skin began to stretch across the wound. In a matter of moments, the arm that should have been crippled for life was completely healed.
"Healed in minutes," Alaric whispered, his eyes shining. He flexed his fingers and rotated his shoulder, testing the arm’s renewed strength. "It should have left me a cripple."
Satisfied with the potion's effects, he went to the bathroom for a long shower. Afterwards, he climbed onto the bed and bounced a few times, a grin spreading across his face. "So fluffy and… luxurious, haha!"
After a moment more of playful bouncing, he finally lay back and stared up at the wooden ceiling. "Seven days until the examination. I can't wait to join the academy."
His mind buzzed with thoughts of the future, and soon, exhaustion claimed him.
The week passed in a blur of anticipation, and the day of Veridian Academy's entrance examination arrived.
Alaric walked the crowded cobblestone streets of the South Ward, his eyes bright with excitement.
He wore a dark blue tunic with white seams, its sleeves rolled to his elbows to reveal toned forearms. His white cotton pants and black bamboo shoes were neat, but washed so many times they had become thin and worn.
His jet-black hair, parted in the middle, had grown since he’d left his hometown and now brushed against his shoulders.
It was only a few hundred meters from Hawthorne's Inn to the academy, and the grand white marble archway of the entrance soon came into view.
The sight that greeted him, however, brought him to a halt.
"So many people," he muttered in astonishment.
Hundreds of children stood in an orderly line that snaked out from the academy gates. A quick count suggested there were at least five hundred of them gathered here.
It seemed that children from all over the Aethelgard Kingdom, and even the other kingdoms of the Southern Concord, had come to enroll. Alaric took a breath and calmly walked to the end of the queue.
"Hey, everyone, get a load of this guy!"
"Does he know where he is?"
"Haha, what a clown. He must be lost."
"Go back to the rice fields, farmboy!"
As the nearby children caught sight of Alaric, their whispers turned to open amusement. Though his clothes were clean, their poor quality marked him as an outsider, someone who clearly didn't belong.
Alaric ignored them, crossing his arms and closing his eyes. Their taunts stung, but he refused to be drawn into a pointless squabble. His entire focus was on the examination.
A freckled youth standing in front of him decided to have some fun. He turned, puffing out his chest to stare Alaric down. "Oi, peasant. Why don't you go tend to the cattle?"
His words drew a fresh wave of raucous laughter from the others. Alaric, however, remained perfectly still, his expression unchanged.
Slightly annoyed, the freckled youth reached out and clasped Alaric’s shoulder firmly. "Bastard, didn't you hear me? I said, go back to the—"
The words died in his throat.
Alaric's eyes snapped open, black and deep as an abyss, and he fixed the boy with a chilling glare. "Piss off."
The freckled boy's knees went weak, and he stumbled back several steps. Beads of cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Staring into Alaric's eyes had sent a sharp, painful jolt through his head.
The feeling terrified him to his core. He couldn't bring himself to meet that gaze again and immediately scrambled away, retreating to the very end of the line, as far from Alaric as he could get.
The other children stared, stunned by what had just happened. They dismissed the freckled boy as a coward, but still, the incident was enough to make them stop bothering Alaric.
Over the past week, Alaric had spent every spare moment absorbing souls and reviewing his knowledge of herbalism. After taking in tens of the small motes of light, his own soul had strengthened tremendously.
Sometimes, his soul now emitted a subtle, almost imperceptible pressure. That was what the freckled youth had felt when he met Alaric's gaze—the crushing weight of a soul far more powerful than his own.
In fact, Alaric’s soul was already as strong as that of a novice who had just become a Rank 1 Magus.
But after absorbing so many souls within the mysterious space of the Celestial Lily, he was beginning to feel a sense of saturation, as if he were reaching a limit. He suspected he would soon be unable to consume any more motes of light.
When that happened, he had no idea what he would do or how he would proceed.
His thoughts were interrupted as a group of people in dark green cloaks, each bearing the crest of a four-leaf clover, emerged from the academy. An old man standing in the center of the group stepped forward, his voice booming over the assembled children.
"The Veridian Academy's entrance examination will now begin. Everyone, follow me!"