ADAD Chapter 5: Sorting, part 3
Anastasios was worried. A little voice in his head said that he won't be in Darius's house. Would they make an exception for the two of them, and let them sleep in the same room?
Wasn't the entire reason behind coming to Orestria that I get to be in the same room as Dari? That we got to spend the entire period together?
"Ah, prince Anastasios, welcome," a man with yellowish skin and the strangest features that Anastasios had ever seen walked into the room, where the young prince was waiting.
"Are you... a human?" Anastasios had only seen these types of features once, when the person who made his katana came to Baskia to sell it.
"A wizard, of unconventional talents. But yes, a human in my core," the man sat down on the desk, and then placed a stack of papers before the prince. "Fill these in."
"All of them?" Anastasios looked incredulous. If he filled all of these forms, then that would take him the better part of the day.
"I heard rumors that you know your way around the katana, but you have never entered a competition until now, so I can't be certain. If you know the theory, and can show me the practice, I will make sure you end up in the Martial Arts House," the instructor said, and handed Anastasios a pen. "Come now, the last person who took this test filled it up in two hours. Can you beat that?"
"I can try," Anastasios said, and began to fill in the questions. There were three options of every question, and he had to pick either the correct one, or the incorrect one, depending on the description of the question.
On the top of the test there was a text that said that he couldn't correct his answers, so he was extremely careful to pay attention if he should look for the correct, or incorrect, answer.
When he was done, he looked at the clock behind the instructor. It had taken him two hours and five minutes. His shoulders slumped.
"Now, none of that. That was a hard test. Let me check it now," the instructor took the stack of papers, and zapped them with magic. When the test glowed green, he whistled. "There is something I didn't tell you about the first person to take the test. His test glowed yellow, and he is now a part of the rogue house."
"So, he rushed the answers?" Anastasios asked, and the instructor nodded.
"My name is Haru, by the way. Haru Nobura," the instructor offered his hand to the boy, and Anastasios shook it.
"Anastasios Vicente, I am pleased to meet you, Master Nobura," Anastasios finished with a slight bow, and Haru chuckled.
"Well, I am pleased that I will be instructing a Vicente," Haru said, and then nodded to a door behind his desk. "Follow me."
The two got up, and went through the door. It was a desert on the other side, and Anastasios wondered how that was possible.
"It says in your file that you want to be a bounty hunter, but your father has expressed his wish to see you with classes that will aid you in your future role as king of Baskia," Haru said, and Anastasios groaned.
"I would like to learn how to fight, not how to rule. Dad will be king forever," the boy protested, but his instructor just shook his head.
"Correct me if I am wrong, but hadn't there been more than a million kings of Baskia, from the grounding of the realm, to the present day? Some of them are still alive and here in the Realms of the Forgotten Times. I can connect you with them, through a mirror, if you don't believe me," Haru said, and Anastasios sighed.
"I know, but dad is a good king, and..." Anastasios began to protest, but Haru just patted him on the head.
"How would you get your people to live in such a place?" The instructor asked, motioning to their surroundings, and Anastasios became thoughtful.
"It will be hard. Water will be something that we will have a need for, but..." Anastasios then looked up at the sky. "Wait, are we even still in Orestria?"
"No, we are not. This is the desert realm of Gorgon. Nothing lives here. If you pick a ruling elective, which is something that your father would like, you will be tasked with populating the realm," Haru explained, and Anastasios's eyes widened.
"What is the time difference between Orestria and Gorgon?" The vampire prince asked, and Haru chuckled.
"Figured that one out, did you? They pass the same way. Granted, if you pick ruling as your main elective, then you will also have to learn to teleport," Haru told him, and Anastasios groaned.
"It seems like you already have my electives figured out," Anastasios accused, and the human nodded.
"Not I, your father picked them. Still, if you want to leave the refugees that are looking forward to someone guiding them to Gorgon from their ships, then I can't do anything about that. You can pick five electives that are offered from the Martial House, and I won't be able to argue with you," Haru said, making it clear that he would be disappointed in the boy, if Anastasios turned his back on the refugees.
"People are waiting for me to help them?" Anastasios murmured, and then bowed his head. "Then I will take the ruling elective, for at least the first one-hundred years. But I will pick up the bounty hunting electives for the second part of my study."
"You will pick a mastery so soon?" Haru sounded approving, and Anastasios nodded.
"You can't learn to rule in five years," Anastasios said, and the instructor nodded.
"Then, your house will be the Martial Arts house because you will get a private tutor for your katana wielding advancement. More than that, you will have the Ruling elective as your main one, and as secondary ones you will have teleportation, management skills, city building, army commanding, and, finally, sword training. What do you want as clubs?" Haru asked, and Anastasios knew just the thing.
"Swimming," the vampire prince said. One thing was for certain, Darius would pick swimming, and then the two of them would be together for just a couple of hours every day. Or so Anastasios hoped.
