Chapter 36 - Academy Exams

The seasons rolled around again and Arthur turned twelve. For his birthday, he rejected all plans for a celebration saying that it was too much of a hassle. There was a saying that those who handled cinnabar are stained with red, and those who work with ink are stained with black. (Chinese saying that if you approach good people, you'd become good and vice versa.)

Layla had already been influenced by Arthur, even though she herself was not noticing it, she also declined having a celebration for the same reason. Naturally, her mother Iberis, disagreed with her just like Cattleya disagreed with Arthur.

In response to this, the two decided to make themselves scarce for a week until both their birthdays had passed. Using Arthur's connections, they were able to get on a spacecraft going to a different star system, where they stayed for the week before returning.

Although Diablo and Eryrth obviously knew where they were, the two men decided to be silent about it. When they returned, Layla received a warning from her father regarding her 'trip' with Arthur. The matter was kept under wraps so besides the two families involved, no other person found out.

He then inquired about her preparations for the upcoming Royal Academy exams. The Devildom's Royal academy was located on a planet called Kreiz which was right next to the capital world, Aeturn.

It was compulsory for every child from the age of twelve to attend the academy, devil or not. This does not mean that entering was free, one had to take exams and have a score of no less than 50% of the total to pass, if not they were to try again the next year until they passed. This was the same with the other Academies in various parts of the Devildom.

This rule was implemented so that the children of the devils and other races who lived in the Devildom do not grow up to be uneducated. Unfortunately, it is not possible for it to be implemented everywhere in the Devildom, it was an entire universe after all. However, it is safe to say that it is properly followed in more than 40% of the Devildom.

The exam consisted of two parts, a written section and a practical one. The practical section is further subdivided into two sections, a magic ability test and a battle test. The battle test is simply just the examinees facing off against the battle instructors prepared for them.

In the magic ability test, the examinees are given a dummy made of magic resistant material and are asked to cast an attack spell on it. These are for those who wish to be in the combat departments.

For those who wish to enter the non-combatant departments, they are given practical tests depending on their department of choice. For example, those who wish to become alchemists are given ingredients and are asked to concoct a particular potion.

The total score of the exams is mostly over 200, 100 for the written test and 100 for the practical test. The scores of the top 1000 students are published for all to see.

The academy is to be attended for six years, after this the students can go to any higher education institutions of their choice.

This was the educational system of the Devildom, Primary education taken at home, when they turn twelve, they are sent to an academy for secondary education, then tertiary education is completely up to their choice.

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The days went by quickly and the time for the exams came around. The entrance exams were to be conducted over the course of two weeks, from the 1st day of March in the Year 712 of the 50th general calendar till the 14th. The results would be released a week later on the 21st and the students are required to report to the school on the 1st of April.

The school has an entire planet to itself, this was more than enough space to conduct the exams for the thousands of students that are to be admitted.

On the faithful morning of March 1st, Arthur arrived at the examination center alongside Layla. During the journey there, he expressed his reluctance to be the freshman representative and attempted to pressure Layla into taking that position away from him.

He even repeatedly thanked his inability to use magic for making him unable to receive a perfect score. Layla stared at him doing this and sighed in exasperation.

'He's a lost cause.'

The written exams were conducted not long after they had arrived. Many young devils, both noble and commoners had looks of despair after the exams due to the difficulty of the questions.

Arthur had received the best education due to his status as a prince, coupled with his natural genius, the questions were a breeze for him. As he hummed to himself while walking out of the hall, he ignored the stares around him and searched for Layla, only to find her conversing with a group of young noble ladies.

'That's true, I keep forgetting this but Layla is really popular.'

As the daughter of a grand duke, that was a given. Besides, Layla was what one would call the perfect noble lady, if you ignored the way she acted when with Arthur. A lot of young noble ladies, some men too, looked up to her as a role model.

However, not all of the Devildom's nobles resided in the capital world, Aeturn, as such most of these ladies had only heard of her by word of mouth or seen photos and videos of her on online through their phones.

A chance to meet her in person was rare, and although there would be many more chances to come across her, given they were to be attending the same school, these ladies still rushed to her like fans would to an Idol.

Arthur saw this and decided not to disturb her, sitting down quietly and fiddling with his phone as he waited for the practical tests to begin.

"Greetings your highness."

Upon hearing this greeting, Arthur looked up to see a group of boys in front of him, putting down his phone, he looked at them and sighed.

'Probably another bunch of foolish royals form remote planets.'

Although the Devildom encompassed the entire Universe, each planet still had their respective countries, kingdoms and empires. These were mostly taken as vassals to the Devildom and were considered lesser kingdoms or empires by the Devildom's nobles.

Both officially and unofficially the nobles of the Devildom ranked higher than these lesser kings and emperors. Most of the Devildom's nobles were Arch devils and even the weakest of them could decimate most of these kings and emperors alongside their countries. However, the royals and nobles from these countries sometimes grew arrogant enough to challenge the nobles of the Devildom.

Arthur had come across a scene where one of these demanded Layla be respectful to him, simply because he was a prince in his intergalactic empire and Layla was the daughter of the Devildom's grand duke. The rank of price is higher than that of a grand duke so he kept on trying to assert some sort of dominance over her.

Layla simply beat him up and paid his father a visit, threatening to end his empire with the power of the Eryrth Grand Dukedom. His parents, who were obviously wiser than he was, understood their son had offended someone he should have never dared to and apologized before disowning him.

Arthur who followed Layla on this trip laughed every time he remembered the scene of the intergalactic emperor grovelling to the ten year old Layla.

While he was reminiscing about that event, the leader of the group spoke up again, this time with a louder voice in an attempt to gain attention.

"He can't even respond to someone's greetings, what more could one respect from a defect prince who can't even use magic."

At his words, the surrounding areas quieted and many came over to see the situation, some even took up their phones to record.

The onlookers were split into three groups, for those who didn't know Arthur, they shook their heads and gave him gazes of pity. The did not expect the pretty boy sitting down to be able to stand up to the group in front of him.

For those who were aware of Arthur and knew the status he had, they simply sighed while wishing that the group of boys had a quick death, knowing that anyone who dared insult the Devildom's royal family would not come out unscathed.

For those who knew Arthur personally, namely; the majority of the Devildom nobles, they just laughed at the words of the other two groups and decided to watch the show. One of them even told Arthur to take it easy on them, as they were just ignorant of the power Arthur held in their universe.

As for Arthur, while he expected that there would be those who looked down on him because of his inability to use magic, it didn't mean he would take any provocations without retaliation.

He simple threw a slap at the leader of the group of boys much to the surprise of most of the onlookers, he then proceeded to beat them all up. The self defense artifacts they possessed were of no use due to the artifact cancellers installed in various parts of the written Exam center.

Magic was also neutralized in the center and so the group only had their physical strengths to fall back on for defense, unfortunately, Arthur possessed the physical strength of a grandmaster.

Even though he could not advance in realm easily due to his inability to use energy, it did not mean he could not become stronger, even if it was only a little.

"That's enough Arthur, they've lost consciousness already. You should have simply ignored them you know?"

Layla's voice rang out in the quiet area that was only filled with the sound of punches and kicks. She stared at the beaten boys on the floor before looking at the culprit who was cleaning his hands with a pocket tissue.

"They reminded me of that idiot from the intergalactic empire two years ago, and I was in a bad mood so I decided to beat them up to make myself feel better."

"Don't use random people as punching bags, a prince of the Devildom should not reduce himself to such a level."

"So i shouldn't beat them up because I'm a prince? Sometimes being the prince of the universe is quite annoying."

Arthur's words shocked most of the onlookers who did not know who he was, upon this realization, some looked at him with fervent gazes. The Arch devils of Hell were worshipped in the way the gods of other universes were worshipped.

The fact that one of the most powerful of these Arch Devils had a son was known far and wide, upon seeing the child of the being they worshipped in the flesh, some of them naturally had quite...extreme reactions.

Some of those who crowded Layla earlier were part of this group too, seeing the gazes some of them were giving Arthur, she sighed in exasperation for the nth time today.

Arthur figured out the reason for Layla's sigh and clicked his tongue. He had encountered some these ardent worshippers before and he does not have any good memories of them.

Luckily, an announcement that the practical exams were about to begin caused the crowd to disperse, taking those who looked like they wanted to pounce on Arthur and Layla away with it. The both of them heaved sighs of relief at this.

"Somehow, I feel like school isn't gonna be as fun as I thought."

"I feel you Arthur, I totally do."