A few days after the banquet, the time for Estelle and Vince to join the Royal Flossen Academy had come. As the carriage gradually approached the academy, Estelle recalled everything she was told about this academy.

It was an academy that all noble children were required to attend, but some commoners were there too.

The commoners there were either attendants of a noble family or were there because of their skills. As long as one had a strong enough cultivation base, he would be granted nobility. Therefore the academy recruited talented commoners to create new nobles.

One would think that there would be too many noble families after some time, but that wasn’t the case at all. If a noble family failed to give birth to strong figures, its rank would be reduced over time.

If a Knight household failed to produce any cultivators good enough for the title, they would be demoted to commoners after a while. Many Knight families could not create a legacy to raise strong enough cultivators and thus lost the title.

The number of new Knight families cancelled out with the amount losing their title. Thus, even though the amount of Knights could fluctuate, it tended to stay consistent.

Another interesting fact was that status didn’t matter anymore once inside the academy. In order to encourage competitiveness, everyone was treated fairly inside the academy regardless of status.

The status inside the academy was decided entirely based on one’s achievements and battle prowess. But that didn’t mean that any commoners were reigning. The pyramid inside the academy wasn’t all that different from the outside.

The excellence of their bloodlines and legacies allowed high nobles to reign supreme even inside the academy. The policy of everyone being equal was also a way to show that they weren’t weak and reigning merely because of past glories. It was a way to show that they deserved their ranks.

The way the status inside the academy was established was through rankings. Twice a year, there would be competition to decide the rankings, and the rest of the time, one could try their luck by challenging someone of a higher rank to a duel.

Attaining a high rank came with its benefits, such as better education, better accommodation, a higher allowance, and more. Thus, it was of utmost importance to place well at the first ranking, as the gap between the top and the bottom would only widen due to the different standards of education they would receive.

Yet, despite telling her all of this, Estelle’s cultivation was still sealed. And she couldn’t wrap her head around the reason. All she had been told was “The nail that sticks out too much gets hammered down”. And when she asked why she was told that she would eventually understand.

‘Why seal my cultivation? Now I’m no better than a mortal, and I’ll have a harder time in the upcoming examination. They preached about the importance of ranking well, yet they prevented me from using my cultivation base. I don’t understand at all!’

Once the carriage reached the academy, Vince opened the door, stepped down and helped her step down as well. In front of them was a large crowd of children their age, all waiting outside the gates.

Vince picked up the backpack with the weapons they had bought on that fateful day and followed Estelle, who was walking towards the gates.

All of the children were dressed in the same school uniform. The only difference between the males’ and the females’ was the bottom. Males had pants, girls had skirts, and for the top, both wore a blazer.

The fact that all wore the same uniform was to show that everyone inside the academy was the same. At least on the surface, that is.

After a short while, the gates opened. Everyone walked inside, and they were brought to an auditorium. It was a big hall with a small stage in the middle and a podium on top of it.

Once everyone was seated on the semicircular rows of seats, a middle-aged man stepped on the stage. And after briefly preparing, he started his speech.

“Everyone, welcome to the Royal Flossen Academy! I’m the headmaster, and I’m here today to guide you. This is the institution tasked with nurturing the next generation of leaders of our nation. As you know, in the world of cultivation, prowess is everything. Thus everything will be centred around strength. And to encourage competition, everyone will be treated based on their achievements and not their status. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no status inside the academy. Shortly we will hold a test to decide everyone’s rank. Since it’s your first ranking, it will be slightly different compared to other placement tests. There’s going to be a written exam and two practical exams. The written exam will range from very generic questions to very specific ones. As for the practical ones, the first will be a physical examination, while the other a fight against a monster. Any questions?”

A kid from among the thousands gathered shyly raised his hand.

“You there; what do you want to ask?”

“What about those who can’t read or write?”

“Good question! That’s their problem, not mine! Not being able to read or write will be a hindrance to studying cultivation manuals and much else. So it’s a given that we don’t want to waste resources on someone who can’t make good use of them. Any other questions?”

Someone else raised his hand. Once the headmaster acknowledged him, he asked a question.

“What kind of monster will we be fighting in the second practical exam?”

“A fundamental question. It will be a goblin with no cultivation base. Its physical abilities should be roughly the same as yours, while its intelligence should be slightly lacking in comparison. No one else? Perfect, then we shall immediately hold the written exam. It will be held here. All those seats have a desk in them. You have to take it out from underneath.”

A group of teachers then started walking through the seats, giving out pieces of paper and pens.

Once she was given her things, Estelle couldn’t help but be stunned at the difficulty. They were given five pages of questions, and even though they were generic questions, only a few were easy. They ranged from history questions to general knowledge about cultivation, to even maths.

‘There are even multiplication and divisions… I can solve the easy ones, but I have no clue about the harder ones. Well… let’s try anyway.’

Vince, who was right beside her, was the first to finish. While peeking, Estelle could tell. Yet, he was still pretending to be writing and even struggling.

‘Why? You finished. Why are you there acting like you are struggling? Well matters not, I have to finish mine!’

The total time they were given was about three hours. The first one to turn the paper in was a kid with short black hair at about the two hours mark. While turning the test in, he acted as if it was only natural.

Estelle was the second to turn the paper in, just around twenty minutes later than that kid. After her, a girl and a boy also turned in, and only then did Vince turn his own in.

At the three-hour mark, not even a quarter of the students had turned in the test papers yet. Many kids despaired when the time to hand over the test came. Many even started crying.

Once the teachers finished collecting all the tests, the principal stepped once again on the stage.

“Congratulations, everyone! The written exam is now over. It will account for roughly a third of your final score. We will immediately check them and give the scores. The scores range from zero to three hundred. We will also immediately establish a ranking. The ranking will be determined based on the score and will be updated once every part of the placement test is over.”

After twenty minutes, the ranking was established. The top ten ranks were on a neatly decorated board, while the rest was on an ordinary bulletin board.

The headmaster himself was to place the top ten in place. Having taken the paper stripes, he started flying, not without gasps from the audience, and reached for the giant top ten board.

“Starting from number ten, we have Lukas Daschner with two hundred and eleven points! Congratulations! On number nine, we have…”

“On number three… there’s his highness Rick Flossen with two hundred and eighty-nine points! Consider that the previous record on the written exam was just three points more!”

“On number two, there’s Estelle von Sideria with two hundred and ninety-four points! It would have been a record, but not this year!”

“And on number one… Vince von Sideria! He scored a perfect three hundred!”

Among the audience, many shocked faces surfaced everywhere. The idle chatter among the audience reached the ears of Estelle, who, contrary to them, had expected this much.

‘As if that guy wouldn’t score three hundred. If he didn’t, I would have thought that he scored low on purpose.’

“A perfect score… wow! He’s the first-ever to achieve anything like that! I wonder what kind of guy he is!”

“I wonder how the prince will react. He wasn’t topped by just a single person, but two! And both from the same family at that!”

‘He’s right. I wonder how the prince will react. Now I have to spot him, though.’

But the problem was solved by itself. The black-haired boy who was the first to hand over his test came in front of her and Vince and declared something aloud while pointing his index at them.

“You two have topped me in the written exam, but don’t expect to be able to win in the practicals as well! I’ll show everyone what it means to be a prince!”