-Sunday Morning, 6th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-
AOD Chapter 5: Registering For The Entrance Exam
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Approaching the city wall, I can finally see the gates up ahead. Carriages and travelers are going in and out of the city passing by the guards on the way. Gramps slows down the carriage and joins the line going into the city. I watch as the carriages and travelers pass us by while waiting for our turn to come.
“This is one of the busiest times of the year because the Academy’s entrance exams are being held, so the crowd is a lot bigger than usual,” Gramps explains to me, “Normally the south gate is the least busy of the four gates, but right now the traffic going in and out is a little more than double the usual amount.”
‘This is the gate with the least amount of traffic?’ Looking at the carriages behind us, beside us, and in front of us, I find it hard to believe.
After waiting for a little over an hour, we finally make it to the front of the line. Gramps takes out a silver badge with the figure of a woman with two slim wings on her back. The guard takes the badge out of his hand and inspects it for a moment before handing it back to Gramps and staring at me.
Gramps meets his eyes and tells him, “This boy is my adopted Grandson, I’ll vouch for his identity.”
“Yes Sir!” The guard straightens up and signals the other guards to let us pass.
After we enter the city I ask Gramps, “Grandson?”
“Why not? You don’t have a Grandfather, do you? And you already call me Gramps so why not be my adopted Grandson?” Gramps offers with a laugh.
In the past week, I’ve gotten used to messing around with Gramps every now and then, so I didn’t take his offer seriously. Although I wouldn’t mind being his adopted Grandson, I would have to ask my parents first.
“Will you take me to the Academy?” I ask Gramps thinking that his job was done when we entered the gate but I didn’t want him to leave yet.
“Of course!” Gramps tells me as if it was obvious.
I offer to pay him more money, but he shakes his head like always.
“But your job is over now isn’t it?” He’s paid for everything so far and I don’t want to bother him more than I already have, the least I can do is give him some more money for taking me to the Academy.
“Ryner, once you tried to protect me from those bandits, I stopped doing this for money. At this point, I’ll stick with you until you pass your exam.” Gramps pats my head roughly, giving me his usual smile.
“Gramps-” I try to say something, but he knocks me on the head, “-Ouch!”
“Alright now Ryner, don’t get all emotional with me. Let’s go to a good inn and then go register,” Gramps tells me and starts guiding the carriage down the city road.
We pass by a lot of different shops and stands, some large and some small. Unlike Cara Village, all the buildings were made of stone decorated with different colors and signs. At some of the smaller shops, people are standing outside drawing in customers.
Suddenly, some people call out to us, so Gramps stops the carriage. The moment we stop, people from different shops come over shoving their papers at us.
“What’s that?” I ask him, staring at the small stack of papers building up next to him.
“It’s just flyers advertising their businesses,” Gramps explains, after accepting another flyer.
“Advertising?” I ask, curious about the word I haven’t heard before.
After the last person hands Gramps a flyer, he tells me, “It’s when a business gives people some information about themselves to draw people in.”
I nod my head, not really interested in the conversation anymore. Gramps waves his hands at the people handing out flyers, and we start moving again. Sometimes he would tell me about the shops we pass by, what they sell there and things like that. After a few minutes, he starts to slow down.
“There’s the inn over there,” Gramps points to a wide, blue, two-story building up ahead on the left side of the road, “It’s one of the best inns in this part of the city.”
We stop the carriage near the front of the building and get off. Grabbing my bag, I follow behind Gramps not wanting to get separated in a new place. I look around trying to find the name of the Inn. In front of the building, a clean white sign has the name, “Clear Sky Inn” written on it.
“We’ll go inside and rent a room first before we go to the academy.” He pushes the inn’s door open and walks inside.
I follow two steps behind him and enter the inn. Looking around, there are lots of different people sitting at tables on the right and left side of the inn eating their meals. Some people turn to us for a moment but turn back around right after to continue their meal. We walk up to the receptionist’s desk where a young woman in a sky blue dress is sitting with a bright smile.
“Good Morning Sir, how may I help you today?” She asks us.
“I want to rent a room for two.”
“For how long?”
After thinking for a moment Gramps tells her, “Six Days.”
“That will be twelve copper.”
“Alright,” He takes out twelve copper coins from the pouch on his waist and hands it to her.
The receptionist places the copper coins inside of a machine on the counter, after 3 seconds the machine makes a low “DING!”
“Your payment has been confirmed. One moment please,” The receptionist grabs a key from the wall behind her with a room number written on the wooden tag attached to it.
“Thank you,” Gramps accepts the key and walks up the stairs on the right. I follow behind him after thanking the lady.
After dropping the bags off in our room Gramps locks the door and we leave the inn.
●●●
Gramps told me earlier that the Academy was in the center of the city. He steers the carriage towards the center and after a few minutes, I see a large stone building, bigger than the other buildings in this part of the city. As we got closer I realized that it was surrounded by other buildings, some smaller and some bigger. The buildings are separated from the city by a wide circular stone wall double my height. We had to go around the wall to get to the Northside where the entrance was.
After a few minutes, I can finally see the entrance. Some adults and kids are surrounding the gate, probably here to register like me.
“That’s a lot of people,” Looking at that crowd, I feel more nervous than before.
“Don’t worry, after the exam is over, you’ll be surprised by the number of people who pass.” Gramps shakes his head.
“What do you mean?” I tilt my head confused by his statement.
“The Academy’s selection process is tough, they only let the best of the best in.” He stops the carriage and we get off.
I follow behind him and circulate my Qi, trying to calm down as we dive into the crowd.
●●●
After a few hours, the crowd shrunk a lot and it was finally my turn. I walk up to the registration table in front of the Academy’s gate.
“Good Afternoon, I would like to register,” I repeat what Gramps told me a moment ago.
“Good Afternoon, the registration fee is 5 silver without a recommendation letter.” The man on the other side of the table tells me.
“Here you go,” I reach my hands into my pouch and pull out 5 silver coins.
He takes the coins and drops them into a machine like the one that was at the inn. Just like the one at the inn after 3 seconds it went “DING!”
“Alright, please write your name down here, beside the number.” The man hands me a piece of paper with multiple names on it, some messy, some neat.
He hands me an item I haven’t seen before, he called it a “Pen.” He tells me to push in the tip then write my name. Although I’m a little confused, I do what he told me and write my name down next to the number. Surprisingly it felt smoother than when I wrote with a quill.
After I finish writing my name, he hands me an iron plate with the number 764 on it. I take the plate and put it in my pocket after thanking him.
“The test will start early tomorrow morning so be here on time otherwise you’ll be disqualified.” The man reminds me before waving goodbye.
I thank him one more time before leaving the crowd with Gramps.
●●●
-Thursday Afternoon, 6th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-
After I finished registering, Gramps took me to a restaurant to have lunch. While we were eating he told me more about the city. When we were done, he took me on a small tour. We spent the whole afternoon exploring some of the South Part of the city before returning to the Inn for the night.
Author's Note: Pyris
Thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Thanks to whoever favorited the previous chapters, I'm glad you liked them! So next week I won't be releasing anything since I'm feeling kinda down because of this quarantine life atm, but I should be continuing after next week!
Read it on our site: https://deceitfixation.wixsite.com/mysite
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