The days passed quickly. Sleep, eat, work, teach, I had gotten used to this schedule. And finally, it was the day of the Heavensward applications.

I got dressed in a comfortable attire and headed to the staff canteen, Rio followed along.

He hadn’t fully learnt how to read yet, but he knew a lot. He was a pretty quick learner.

When we entered the staff canteen, Rachel, Jennette, Saul, and the other workers were there. There were already 2 plates of food on the table for us.

“Morning, boys!” Rachel greeted us.

“Morning?” It was a little odd seeing everyone gathered this early.

“G-good morning!” Rio sounded nervous.

We took a seat and Jennette started to speak, “Today’s the day, huh?”

“Yeah, we were going to eat breakfast then head over there.” I replied, “What’s everyone doing up?” I asked.

“We’re here to send you off! Isn’t that obvious?” Rachel replied.

“We’ll be back later, we’d have to wait for the test results anyways.”

“Aw-Don’t be such a Debbie downer, sweetheart! Haha!” She patted me on the back, “Saul cooked y’all up some special food for today!”

“Alright, thanks, Saul.”

“T-Thank you, Mr. Saul!”

Saul nodded his head.

“He cooked y’all up some special chicken, Panslo. It gives you luck!” Rachel said.

“Chicken for breakfast, odd choice, but I do love chicken.”

Panslo, huh? I don’t recall ever writing about that. What kind of superstitions did I even write about anyways? I can’t remember…

“H-hot!” Rio quickly drank water while blowing on his tongue, “It’s good! Mr. Saul!”

“Yeah, it’s a little hot, so be careful, haha!’ Rachel commented.

The chicken was delicious. It was simple breaded chicken that was probably deep-fried, but it tasted great. Scrumptious even.

“That filled me up, it was good.” I commented before taking a sip of water.

“So, how are you two feeling? Nervous? Anxious?” Jennette asked.

“N-n-nervous…” Rio mumbled.

“Well, Rio, do you want to learn a secret trick?” Jennette asked and Rio looked at her with curious eyes before nodding his head, “This is something that my father taught me when I was first starting my business. Fake your confidence until you think it’s real.” She smiled.

“Huh…? Fake my confidence?”

“That’s right. If you’re nervous, scared of how to answer, just straighten your back and fake it.”

I don’t get it…?

“O-okay! I’ll try! Thank you, Ms. Jennette!”

“If that doesn’t work, you can just imagine them in their underwear!” Rachel chimed in.

“H-huh? In their u-underwear?” His face reddened.

Isn’t that what you would do when you make a speech?

I stood up and stretched my arms, “Alright.”

Rio quickly stood up as well.

“You two are going?” Jennette asked.

“Yeah, it’s a far walk.” I replied.

“Alright, before you go, both of you take this.” She held out her hands.

Rio and I put our hands under hers and she dropped something into them. It was a miniature crescent moon, “If you two get nervous and nothing works, you could always think of this place.” Jennette smiled.

It was like a charm of sorts, something you could attach to something, and it’d hang off of it.

“A moon for the Moonlit Inn, it’s pretty nice.” I inspected it a little.

“T-Thank you! I’ll treasure this!” Rio replied.

“Haha, alright. Now go and kick their butts.” Jennette smiled.

“Yeah! Kick their asses!” Rachel agreed.

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea, but we’ll try.” I replied before turning around.

“Yeah! Thank you!” Rio started to follow behind me.

“Good luck, Rio. Good luck, Leo.” Jennette waved. The others did the same as we left.

We left and headed towards Heavensward. Because of its size, it had its own section in the capital. Or so I thought…? After a few dozen minutes we had reached the front gates of Heavensward, it was big, but not as big as I imagined. It looked more like a mansion than what I had written.

I could see a lot of people around, some of them with similarly curious faces, others with confidence. Some with parents, some alone. They were around mine and Rio’s age. They were waiting in a long line towards the side.

“T-this is Heavensward…?” Rio said nervously as his eyes wandered around.

“I don’t think so.” I replied before looking towards an outlier. An old man waiting by the gate.

He was just standing there with his arms behind his back and a false smile on his face. I don’t know why, but something about him felt fishy. It was the same feeling I felt when I saw the king’s butler.

“Rio, how do you feel right now?” I asked.

“N-nervous…”

“Alright, alright, give it some time, you’ll be alright~” I sang quietly to him, “How about now?”

“It feels like the pounding in my chest lessened! I feel better, thank you! But…I’m still a little nervous.” He didn’t stutter anymore so it was probably fine now.

“Alright, good. Follow me.” I replied.

“Okay.” Rio nodded his head as I headed to the old man by the gate.

“I have a question.” I spoke.

“Oh? What is it, young man?” He had a polite tone, but something felt off, it felt like I was hearing someone younger talk at the same time he did.

“Is this really Heavensward?”

“Hm? Of course, this is the Heavensward, what makes you ask, young man?”

“It’s-uh…A little underwhelming? People are just kind of waiting in line over there too, it doesn’t feel that prestigious or amazing as people say. It kind of just looks like someone’s house to me.”

I was saying that, but I knew of how good Heavensward actually was. I was the one who writ it after all. I was just confused, it had looked nothing like the words I had written.

‘The gates of Heavensward were made of pure gold, but the inside was what made it rich. With a campus of over 10 miles in length, it housed everything and anything you could need, from dorms to restaurant’s, all the way to markets, you could find it all. With security surpassing that of an army, there was nothing to worry about as long as you were inside.’

I had it where Heavensward was basically a kingdom in itself, there were different districts within it that a variety of specialties.

“Hm…? Are you two perhaps aspiring applicants then?”

“Yeah. Is this like a fake entrance thingy or something?” As I asked that he suddenly had a pouch in his hand and was looking in it.

Huh…? That’s…

I didn’t even realize him taking my pouch. I had it in my pocket, it was kind of bigger than the pocket itself, so it’d take some force to take it out, but I didn’t feel anything.

“20 gold exactly. Come this way.” He smiled before opening a gate door behind him.

“Huh…?” I was confused, but this guy was clearly something. I nodded to Rio before we followed him.

“What are your names?” He asked without looking towards us.

“Leo Vondheart.” I replied.

“R-Rio Vondheart!”

“Well then, I wish you two the best of luck. Leo Vondheart, Rio Vondheart.” Just as he spoke, it was like he disappeared into mist. Right before our eyes, he vanished.

“What? Rio, did you see-” When I looked to my left, Rio was gone.

The test had already started.

‘The Heavensward test revealed one’s true personality, students were accepted based on their actions.’

I had never specified anything beyond that. I was going through this blind.

“I knew he was fishy…” I mumbled.

Moments later, I heard a scream. As I headed towards the sound, it suddenly stopped before starting again, only this time behind me.

As I headed towards that one, it happened again. The screams were vanishing as I got close and appearing in different places.

That’s a little annoying…

I decided to just walk straight and ignore the screams that continued. If they were going to keep disappearing, there was no point in seeing what was happening.

As I took another step, the scenery changed. From the misty fog to a field of green.

“A forest…?” I was looking towards a bunch of trees. Behind me were just fields of grass, there really didn’t seem to be any intended direction.

I’ll go towards the grass, I guess…

As I turned around, I could hear a scream that sounded like the words, “Help me.”

I knew it was an illusion, I knew it was fake. But I started to head towards it anyways. It sounded like a child’s voice.

I looked around as I entered the forest, the sticks I stepped on were loud. The trees I touched felt real, the crickets and cicadas sounded annoying. It was like I was teleported to an actual forest.

“Help me.”

I heard the noise again, but it never felt like I was getting closer. Instead, it felt the opposite. Like I was getting further and further away from it.

I stopped in my tracks and looked around. There was nothing but trees. I was deep in the forest.

Suddenly, I could start to hear footsteps, dozens of them. It sounded like they were circling me.

My eyes jolted around, it sure as hell didn’t sound like an animal was making those footsteps. I looked up as well, but all I could see were leaves and a few branches.

I took a deep breath before starting to walk forward. “This is fake.” Is what I told myself. I presumed that the footsteps and voices were fake, just like the screams in the mist.

As I continued to walk, the footsteps eventually stopped, and I reached the edge of the forest. In front of me were fields of green.

Did I just walk through the whole forest…?

When I started to look around again, I suddenly heard one loud noise that shook the forest behind me. It sounded like a footstep.

Another one of these…?

When I turned around, I was expecting there to be nothing, once again. But instead, I was met with a giant, green creature. It wore a loin croft and held an entire tree in one hand.

It’s breathing sounded like grunting and it radiated a foul stench.

“Ogre…?” I mumbled as I saw it lift the tree high.

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