Chapter 21 Home

The sky was dark, the edges of the sunset were dipping below the horizon. He'd spent nearly half the day away from home. Yet Rui was in no hurry, he was walking home peacefully in a nonchalant manner, contemplating what had occurred throughout the entire day.

('The first round weeded out a majority of the applicants, around ninety-percent or so, the second round got rid of seventy percent and the third round got rid of precisely half.')

That left only left around a little over one percent of the applications, such was the tiny proportion of applicants that managed to pass the exam.

('Furthermore, even among the applicants who pass the exam, only a small proportion of them reach the Martial Squire stage.')

It was a brutal ordeal, one Rui had almost overcome.

"Sigh... I wonder if Kane passed... He probably did."

He hoped so, atleast. Although he hadn't even known the kid for even a day, he was cool. Furthermore, he helped Rui out. A debt Rui promised he would pay back.

"Fae definitely passed too."

There was no doubt about this either, he was pretty sure she was either extremely rich, or she was family of an extremely powerful Martial Artist, or both. He sighed. He didn't regret being born in the Quarrier Orphanage, but there were undeniably benefits that he missed being born in a lower class of the economy.

('Still... I'd stick to the orphanage if given a choice.') He smiled warmly as he thought about his family in the orphanage. The pain of being separated from them was not something he wanted to voluntarily put himself through.

As his mind wandered, he kept trudging through. He was in a very dull mood, but he didn't feel regret, at the very least.

('I gave it my all.') He shrugged. What more could a person do? Besides although he was almost certainly done for, the official judgement had not been released yet, so who knew? Anything was possible.

Rui stopped walking as he reached the gate to the orphanage. He almost didn't want to go inside, he didn't want to be in the center of attention while he was still saturated with shame and frustration.

('The problem is with me, not them. They'll console and encourage me.')

Rui sighed before entering. The door opened before he reached it, and Farion could already tell what had happened based on Rui's expression.

"Don't worry about it, come in, dinner's ready." He said before gesturing Rui inside. Rui smirked slightly, it was a very Farion-way of consoling people. He was not someone who would bare his thoughts and emotions directly, but would still convey what he wanted to. His words just then roughly translated to:

'I know you didn't achieve what you wanted to, I know it sucks, but for now come and spend time with the family you love, we're here for you.'

"Yeah... I'll do that."

He scratched his head walking in.

"I'm back."

Lashara looked to be full of pure relief. Out of all those in the Quarrier Orphanage, she cared more for his well-being and life than his first attempt at the Martial Entrance Exam. She'd scanned his body top to bottom, an embarrassing ordeal for a thirteen-year-old, but even more so for a seventy-two-year-old. But he allowed her to do it, he owed her that much atleast, after ignoring years of overprotectiveness to eventually attempt the Martial Entrance Exam.

Of course, his wounds had all been treated by the Medical Department, so there was nothing to fear, but did that deter Lashara?

"Heh, looks like Mom might even force you to sleep beside her out of anxiety." Nina smirked.

"Anything but that! I haven't done that in six years!" Rui complained.

"Well? How did it go?" Julian asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"I failed in the final round." Rui sighed in response.

"Shame, don't worry, you can try again next year. The fact that you made it to the final round in itself is actually quite remarkable. But how do you know you failed if the official announcement isn't out yet?"

He was aware that the Martial Academies sent official letters stamped with the seal of the Kandrian Martial Union declaring admission of the candidates who were accepted as students while setting up an appointment with the candidate and/or with the Guardian.

"The objective of the round was specified, and I perfectly failed to meet it. There's no way I passed."

"Hmm.. I see. Well, don't worry about it. Let's start eating."

And so they did. They discussed boisterously about a variety of topics rapidly, forcing Rui to take his mind off the exam, which he was grateful for.

**********

Master Aronian had just finished grading the final round of the Entrance Exam. Only 567 applicants had passed the Entrance Exam in the Kandrian branch, this year. As the appointed head invigilator of this year, he was given full discretion regarding the Exam, and as long as he didn't go overboard, he could do whatever he wanted. Normally, he considered this duty a dull chore, but this year's applicants were interesting, to say the least.

('The top-level talent in this year's batch is impressive... There's Kane Arrancar. Son of Sage Damian Arrancar. Based on his performances, his overall skill and combat capability was at the Martial Apprentice level. Extremely impressive that he managed to discover his Martial Path at the age of thirteen, a genius with unknown potential. What is interesting is how vastly different his Martial Art seems to be from that of Sage Arrancar. Sage Arrancar's Devil Fury Fist is a striking Martial Art that heavily emphasized on raw power and durability at the cost of speed and maneuvering, although I didn't particularly expect Kane to go down the exact same path, it's a little strange he chose the exact opposite.')

Kane had chosen a Martial Art with a strong focus on speed, agility and evasive maneuvering, at the cost of a powerful body.

('Martial Arts are manifestations of the Soul, in a sense. For Kane to have focused on evasiveness and chosen a completely different path from the Arrancar family tradition. I wonder how this bodes for Arrancar Household...')