Walking down an incredibly packed street, Arvell raised his head to view the massive structure before him.
'So this is Sky Sword Academy? It lives up to all of the hype around its name, at least the campus's outside appearance does.'
Arvell wasn't able to see much of the campus from his position, but he was still more than capable of grasping how large it was.
He could see many large tower-like structures in the distance, which he assumed were still part of the campus grounds.
The academy itself was situated on the northern side of Karsia, with it not being too far from the city's walls.
Sometimes the academy professors would need to leave Karsia to get materials for their research, so one of the main reasons the location was so far north was to accommodate them.
Arvell looked around for the queue for the entrance examination, but he didn't need to look for too long.
He could see an incredibly long line of people around the same age as him, starting at the academy gates, and ending several kilometres away.
'I heard entrance was competitive, but holy fuck!' Arvell lamented.
Arvell made his way to the end of the line since he did need to wait his turn.
Wilfried had given Arvell the option of driving him by carriage to the academy, giving him a priority when entering for the examination, but Arvell had declined this.
The exam was being run for all of the participants at the same time, so there was no real merit in getting there any quicker.
Secondly, Arvell didn't want to bring too much attention to himself, so coming in a duke's carriage was something he would rather avoid.
Angela, Zen and Reyna wanted to come to cheer him on, but they wouldn't be allowed past the entrance gates, so Arvell asked them to wait for him at the duke's mansion.
Arvell knew it was only a matter of time before he came to the spotlight due to his relationship with the duke, but he would rather stall that for as long as possible.
'Should I ask Zen and the others to pretend like we don't know each other?'
Arvell felt that was the best option in the end.
He finally reached the end of the line and stood there patiently.
Arvell frankly didn't want to be gawked at by those around him, so he decided to wear a standard hooded robe.
He didn't want to be a roadside attraction for all of the girls in line.
That would just be a pain.
So why not just cover up his face?
That was the obvious solution.
While he was standing in the line, his ears started subconsciously picking up on some of the nearby conversations.
"Hey did you hear? This year's roster is apparently quite special, to say the least!'
"What do you mean by 'special', do you mean to say they're unique or something?'
"More than just unique! We have Princess Lillianna, Zen Silvercolt, Marcus Athburg, and quite a few others!"
"Really? I knew about the princess since well, she's royalty, but those 2 as well? Sigh… I might as well just give up…"
'Hmm… It seems like this year's roster is full of bigshots.'
Arvell decided to double down on his idea to pretend that he didn't know Zen.
'I feel like my troubles would increase exponentially if it were known that we had a connection.'
Lykos sighed.
'So you're going to just throw away your 'sworn brother' after using him? Isn't that too cruel?'
'One, I am not 'throwing him away', i'm just putting a little distance. If he gets into trouble and it's not too much work I'll still help him. Two, I never 'used him', I took care of him for a bit and he took care of me. It's a deal with mutual benefits.'
After spending 5 months with Lykos, Arvell started to pick up on his shamelessness.
Arvell continued to wait outside for what felt like a full hour before he could start to see the line in front of him moving.
'Finally!'
Arvell followed the person in front of him, as they reached the entrance gates.
Some of the academy staff were verifying their entrance exam passes to make sure that no one tried to sneak into the exam hall.
Reaching into his pocket, Arvell produced his own entrance pass.
It wasn't anything fancy, being a small metal insignia with the academy's logo on it.
One of the staff members carefully looked it over before moving to hand it back to Arvell.
As he was about to return it to Arvell, the staff member realized that Arvell was wearing a robe that covered up the entirety of his face.
"Young man, you can't wear that robe while inside. Would you mind removing it?"
'Sigh… Welp, I tried.'
Arvell reluctantly removed the hood, to the amazement of the nearby onlookers.
"Are my eyes deceiving me? Can a guy even be that handsome?"
"To think I was standing there silently behind him for an hour! I should have said something!"
One of the nearby girls watched this with an evil grin, licking her lips expectantly.
'I can use this.'
However, Arvell noticed none of this, as he quickly took back his entrance pass and bolted towards the large circular building that all of the nearby examinees were heading to.
[Temporal Manipulation]
Some of the people tried to chase him but Arvell's speed with temporal manipulation was unmatched.
'Fuck! Why can't I just enter normally!'
Arvell pulled into a corner, and after making sure that he wasn't being followed, he pulled a book out of his inventory.
A book coincidentally labelled 'A Brief History Of Sky Sword Academy'
Using the book as a cover to hide his face, Arvell suppressed his presence before joining back with the crowd of test-takers.
This time he was able to make it to the examination hall relatively easily.
After entering, he found it to be an extremely lavish theatre hall.
All of the test takers were directed to sit down in one of the thousands of available seats until the rest of the participants all made it in.
Since there was still some time before the exam began, Arvell put the book on his face, closed his eyes and rested.
It wasn't long before the sound of a loud voice woke him from his slumber.
"-lcome you all here today."
Arvell opened his eyes to find that the entire auditorium had gone dark, with everyone around him watching the theatre stage earnestly.
Lykos materialized next to Arvell.
'Wakey, wakey sleeping beauty, the exam's going to start soon!'
Arvell saw an old man with a long white beard standing before the on-stage podium, reading what appeared to be a pre-written script.
Looking closely, Arvell realized he had seen the man before.
Not personally, but instead from an illustration in the book he was holding.
That man was none other than the current headmaster of the academy, Newton Alabaster Westfield!
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶