55 Ugh, Can'st You Just Leave Me Alone?!

Walking towards side room outside the auction theater, Greyson felt excited just thinking of the sudden money he was coming into. Although the auction house was taking 50 gold coins, that was still 450 gold coins! 45,000 silver coins and 4,500,000 copper coins! He used to be a boy who thought a couple hundred copper coins was already a fortune, let alone having a couple hundred gold coins. He almost felt a little emotional thinking how far he has come after a couple of years.

He got to the room first and could not control his impatience. Slowly going crazy while he waited, Greyson decided to calm himself using meditation. Slowly concentrating on his breathing, the extra thoughts in his mind were slowly cast out as he concentrated on just absorbing the mana. After he entered this state, the excess energy left him and he could finally calm down. Time flowed like water, before his concentration was broken by a couple light knocks on the door. Calmly opening his eyes, he looked over at the door to see the same Manager Swan from before.

"I told you your painting was popular." She grinned with a hint of excitement thinking of the amount the painting ended up selling for. As someone involved in the process with the painter, she would get some credit for how well the sale went.

"Yes, even I was shocked and I was the one who painted it." Lightly smiling, Greyson mocked his inability to even assess his own painting's worth. This experience made him realize that he really had not payed any attention to that part of the business. His teachers always helped him find gigs, jobs, or sell his paintings for him. Not ever experiencing things for himself only proved his ignorance in the subject. Maybe it was good to leave his teachers so that he could experience these little hardships and grow.

"Well, onto the official business of today. This bag contains the 450 gold coins. You can keep the spatial bag it's within. Those are not too expensive as they are only practical for holding money, but are too small for every day needs." She passed over the small bag in her hands to Greyson. Sitting down for a cup of tea, Manager Swan looked as if she wanted to mention something but was unfortunately interrupted by a panicking servant. The young man looked completely flustered before walking over to whisper something in the manager's ear. At first Manager Swan looked completely displeased by the servant's lack of decorum, however, her face soon followed suit with his.

"Something urgent has come up in the auction house, Mr. Silver Dragon. I'm afraid I will have to hurry out and postpone any talks for today." Bowing deeply, she apologized looking upset by the change in situations.

"No, of course, I understand! Go do what you need to do, I need to head back to my room anyways." Greyson had no real desire to talk with the woman any longer, so he was actually glad that some problem had pulled away her attention. Merchants were the hardest people to deal with as they were always looking for the best profits not to live moral lives. Who knows when one would try to take advantage of him. It would be better to steer clear of them.

The first day of the exam was tomorrow, so Greyson quickly left the auction house and bought some essentials for the possible outdoor exam and decided to go to the inn early and get a good night's rest before the exam. Being well rested would definitely be best for his stress levels. A lot of nervous excitement coursed through his body all night, so his early sleeping plan did not pan out as expected. He just could not fall asleep from the anxious energy he felt. After bragging about getting into the school to Sister Lily and the other kids plus his teachers' expectations, he felt there was no other option other than passing. Confidence in his talent was one thing, but he was really afraid of becoming complacent. There was a lot more talent in this kingdom then in the Dalia Kingdom, so he had to keep himself cautious.

...

Groaning, Greyson had to convince himself to get out of bed in the morning after barely falling asleep. How was it already morning? He felt like he finally shut his eyes just a little while ago. Still half-asleep, Greyson grabbed his clothes and started to slowly dress himself. He wore a normal blue linen tunic tied with a brown leather belt, pants, and his old leather boots. It was casual but extremely comfortable and dexterous which he believed was the most important. He looked outside, but the sunlight made the previous drowsiness disappear. He was running late!

Grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder and hooking his scabbard onto his belt, Greyson ran out the doors. Lucius did not have the chance to hop onto Greyson's shoulders before the boy rushed out the doors, so he could only grunt with annoyance and run to follow.

He made it to the Aurora Academy gates with a little time to spare. The imperial capital city had multiple academies in the city, however, the most prestigious and hardest to get into was the Aurora Academy as it was a rank 4 academy in the Moon Empire. In the empire, there was a scale for ranking the power and ability to teach for each academy. Dalia Academy was rank 7, the lowest, and any other academies in the Dalia kingdom or tier three kingdoms were not even ranked. Rank 4 was the highest ranking for tier one kingdoms because only the top three kingdoms and the main area of the empire have more than one Great Magister level magician. There was also the Idris Military Academy that was well-known for those who wanted to become palace officials or military leaders. There was still a focus on magic, but they also took classes on war strategy and tactics and learn about the law or politics. It was rank 5. A couple more rank 5-7 schools were present in the Idris Kingdom. Greyson knew right away after reading that information that he would only aim for the best. Aurora Academy was his goal.

*CLANG!*

A loud bell rang which caught the audiences attention and silenced them. Following the origin of the sound, everyone's eyes fell onto surprisingly young-looking man. From his outer appearance, he looked to be in his mid-20s or so, however, he was most likely a magister and his aging had slowed down. Coldly glancing at the crowd, he scanned young faces full of expectation. Inwardly, he was shaking his head and sighing though. Most likely not even 25% of these children would pass the first round. Their exam happened only once every three years, so a good amount of kids who want to join keep adding up before the exam.

"I am the Head Examiner. I will not give my name as most of you will not have the ability to enter the school, so it would be pointless for you to know. I will now explain the three stages of the exam. There is around 500 of you here today. The first stage will take place in the Faded Mist Woods not too far away from here. The exam will last for 3 days. You must hunt 10 magic beasts of your same level and 20 of a level below you. The beast cores of your kills will be the evidence. Examiners will follow you around and grade your abilities. We will not prohibit teams or attacking others to steal their beast cores. However, we do prohibit killing other participants. If we discover you have killed someone then you will be handed over to the family of the deceased for their handling even if it means we have to disable your magic so they can torture you to their hearts content." Eyes flashing with murderous intention, the man made all the children all feel a shiver run down their spine.

"The second stage is fairly straight forward. You will be tested on your secondary professions, as long as they are up to standard then you pass this stage. I would not get your hopes up though, the standard is very high. As for the third stage, I am sure you all are familiar as it is the same every year. By the third stage, you have all made it into the academy, however, for rewards and possible discipleship under the higher-ups of the academy then participation in the third stage is necessary. It will be basic tournament battle. Match-ups are random and once you are defeated you are out. Don't underestimate the importance of this round just because it does not determine your getting into the academy. A huge difference exists between being a general student taught in large classes by one teacher whereas if you become a personal disciple of a head teacher, the principal, or a Protector it will be one on one learning and much more in depth. The general teachers are also only advance level magicians whereas the head teachers, principal, and Protectors are all magister level magicians." Pausing, he looked into the audience and could tell by the burning passion in their eyes, they all had understood the difference.

"This is all I will say. We will start teleporting you all to the edge of the forest. Those who go first will see a checkpoint flag with another teacher. Wait there until everyone arrives." Finishing his explanation of the stages, the head examiner turned and pointed to an open space with a large circle sigil carved into the ground. Six other smaller circles were carved around the large circle and inside each smaller circle was a teacher. The first group walked into the circle and then the teachers channeled their magic into the teleportation circle. Once the mana gathered and the circle lit up, the children inside had all disappeared. Greyson couldn't help widening his mouth in surprise, he had never witnessed such a grand use of teleportation circles. He also felt that it was such a shame that, of his many elements, the spatial element is not one he can control. Otherwise he could teleport right out of dangerous situations himself. He did know, however, that the spell took a lot of mana so he could hardly teleport more than a couple feet with his power, spatial magic is one that is almost completely useless in teleporting people until the magician's level passes the magister level.

Group by group went into the circle and were teleported away. Each teleportation had a swap of the people channeling mana, so Greyson could assume that using the teleportation circle required pretty enormous amounts of mana. He was part of the last group that would leave. Once he stepped into the circle he felt a certain excitement as this was different from being teleported up a bunch of floors. They were going to travel hundreds of miles away to the forest. He said the forest was "close" but it was at least a day's ride away, maybe half a day if one flew. Enormous mana concentration was appearing within the range of the circle before Greyson felt all his senses fail and the front of him went blank. The scene in front of his eyes blinked to black before the blue sky was apparent to him again. Used to this feeling, he quickly activated his wind magic and oriented himself so he could gracefully fall onto the ground. Around half of the children looked as though they had experienced teleportation while the other half fell straight to ground. Some eating dirt while others slammed onto their butt. A bunch of groans sounded out. Greyson couldn't help but let out a small smile thinking of the first time he had used a teleportation circle. His teachers had laughed at him then.

"Gross thing, what are you laughing at?!" A disgruntled kid next to him shouted out. Glaring with disdain at Greyson, he quickly got off the ground and dusted himself off before walking over to his friends. Although the words were insulting, Greyson just shrugged while sighing. If he were to get angry at every single arrogant and discriminating human, it would be a waste of his time. Thinking of his disguise spell, he quickly shook his head knowing he could not use it. The Principal had mentioned it before he left. Apparently, once one was a level higher than him they could notice that it was a disguise. In order to avoid suspicion, he should not activate it lest they assume he has some kind of evil intention.

The Head Examiner was already at the front again and he let out a nonchalant, "Start!" before disappearing. Shocked by the suddenness, everyone was frozen before they started forming groups with their friends. Greyson knew no one, so without waiting he made a move to head into the forest.

"Wait! Greyson!" A voice suddenly shouted out to him. Without even turning around Greyson vaguely recognized who it could be. Feeling a headache come up, he kept going without turning around hoping that the girl would give up. An entitled rich princess was the last thing he needed during this outdoor exam.

"Hey! Don't you hear me?! Greyson! Stop!" Speeding up every time he heard her shout, Greyson continued to run away not paying any mind to the shocked looks of others. A flash of bright red showed up in front of him causing his steps to slow to a stop. Familiar red hair and brown eyes were glaring back at him. Looking at her pink frilly dress, Greyson flashed back to that day in the forest.

"Oh... Hi? Do I know you?" Not even blinking an eye, Greyson blatantly pretended not to know her. Ever since he had pretended to be mute, he had great control over his expressions. The smug smile on her face froze as she looked at him in disbelief.

Was he stupid? How could he not remember her? Was she mistaken?

"You're Greyson, aren't you?"

"Greyson? Sorry, my name is Lyle." Greyson just blurted out the first name that came to him. Just as he was about to get away, Natalia noticed the familiar silver kitten on his shoulder.

"Hmph! If you want to lie, you should at least hide that very telling kitten on your shoulder. What? You don't want to meet me again?"

Sighing, Greyson knew there was no escaping it this time.

"Natalia Ivywood, nice to see you again..." He awkwardly began.

"Nice? I'm not so sure about that anymore. I for sure was happy to see you again."

"Uh... I just took a moment to remember. What are you doing here, though?" Blushing a little at the obvious lie, he tried to move on in the conversation.

"Taking the exam, what else would I be doing here with the rest of the people?" She rolled her eyes before deciding to just let it go.

"Hm... yes, well, good luck, I know you will definitely pass. I will get going now, as there are only so many magic beasts to go around." Indicating that he was leaving, he began to activate Wind Legs and jumped away only to realize that she was still following him. She did not say a word, so Greyson just decided to ignore her.

The day slowly passed as Greyson ran around hunting magic beasts, however, every time he met a beast of his same level, Natalia would swoop in and take the final hit for the kill. As she was the one who "killed" the beast she justified stealing the cores. Not caring to fight with her about it, Greyson let it go the first couple of times. However, it continued occurring all day long even after she had swooped in and gathered more than ten. Only once was he able to get the upper hand and kill the beast in one shot so she would not take it. Patience wearing thin, Greyson took deep breaths while trying to reason with her that since she already has enough for the exam it was about time they parted ways so Greyson could finish his exam as well. Not responding and just lighting sniffing in response, she ignored his words and continued her actions. Knowing that she was just immaturely getting back at him for earlier, Greyson was seriously tempted to scream that this was why he tried running away. Who wants this annoying princess following them around that holds petty grudges but has a super family backing her up?

Once day turned to night, he finally could not take it.

"For the sake of my sanity, WILL YOU PLEASE STOP FOLLOWING ME?!"