Not long after Kairos's attributes had been verified, he quietly found a seat to wait for the rest of the examination to conclude. The whispers and murmurs around him, however, only added more pressure to his already tense heart.
(Sigh... Just being stared at is exhausting enough. Now people are talking behind my back too? How am I supposed to get along with anyone here...?)
He sighed inwardly, feeling increasingly burdened. But before long, his eyes caught sight of a silver-haired girl who stood out from the crowd. She was so graceful, he could hardly look away.
He vaguely recognized her.
She was Fiona, daughter of Duke Elvareth—one of the empire's other great noble houses and a long-standing ally of his own family. Thanks to that, her name lingered faintly in his memory.
Before he could think more about it, a staff member's voice rang out across the hall.
"Weapon: ThreadGrade: MysticalAttribute: Mirenith."
A wave of astonishment swept through the room.
A weapon of Mystical grade—the first in a hundred years—had just been revealed. Even Kyros was taken aback.
(Whoa... no wonder she's a duke's daughter. Her abilities must be on another level.)
After the attribute assessments were complete, the candidates sat for a general written test in the morning to evaluate basic knowledge. Then, in the afternoon, came the most anticipated part: the power application test.
At the Testing Grounds
Examinees gathered at their assigned areas, ready to demonstrate their combat and energy manipulation skills against training dummies.
"All examinees, please proceed to your designated testing zones.You'll be battling against a series of ten combat dummies.The test continues until you're either defeated—or successfully overcome all ten."
The announcement echoed clearly through the arena.
Kairos, noticing that Fiona was about to begin her test, found himself watching her with interest. Fiona, preparing herself, turned and gave him a small smile.
"I wonder how she'll show her abilities..."
(Was that... a smile?)
"...?!"
Kairos's eyes widened.
(Wait—did she just smile at me? Or... maybe not? But there's no one else nearby...)
A mix of surprise and fluster washed over him. But curiosity quickly overtook it.
He focused again, wondering what kind of power she would demonstrate.
Then, unexpectedly, Fiona raised her hand to speak with the proctor.
"Excuse me, may I use a stone?My ability requires a physical object to work."
The proctor raised an eyebrow in confusion, but after a moment, nodded.
"Begin the test."
As soon as the words were spoken, Fiona released her threads. They slithered out like living things, gently embedding themselves into the stone she held.
She whispered something softly. No one else could hear it—but Kairos, whose senses far surpassed the norm, caught every word.
("Break apart.")
That was what she said.
Moments later, she lightly tossed the stone at the dummy. It wasn't even thrown with force—but the dummy, reacting quickly, raised its arm to block it.
Then...
Cracks slowly spread across its frame—until it collapsed, piece by piece.
Kairos watched with a cold sweat on his brow, murmuring to himself in disbelief.
"What kind of crazy ability is that...?That noble lady... might just be too dangerous..."