The walk to the academy took thirty minutes, Nieves and Vincent walked alongside other students that lived around Golden Plains. All heading the same direction, Arcane Collegium.
Vincent stopped at the entrance of the academy, opening the mini gate slightly for Nieves.
"This is as far as I go love, I've got to deal with the 'other matter'."
Nieves nodded.
She entered the school grounds, heading for the commoners' building. The inside structure looked worn out, dust everywhere.
The hallway was mostly empty except for the few staffs scattered here and there.
She noticed a boy who walked a few steps behind her, brown messy hair, carrying a sword; just like her. They followed the voices coming from somewhere at the back of the building.
They passed through a huge door that led outside to a massive courtyard where about forty students sat on the ground all wearing black uniforms with pink badges on their chests.
Standing in front of them was an old man with white beard. He held a wooden stick which he swung all over.
"Ah! There they are!" The old man's voice boomed when he spotted Nieves and the other boy behind her.
Nieves stood in front of the seated students, all of them staring at her with their expressions filled with curiosity.
Old man brooks, is the name the student calls the old man. The funniest and most favorites.
"Alright lads and ladies, we've got fresh meat today!" He laughed heartily, other students laughing along with him. "Now then, you two introduce yourselves and tell us the reason why you'd rather be here than getting a normal job like your parents would want you to have."
Everyone who applied to train in any academy had one goal, whether they were noble or commoner didn't matter in the end. They all shared the same dream of becoming an Eternal Knight or Mage, ranks reserved only for those who had reached the Eternal Sun realm, a level of power so absurdly high that only twenty-one people in the entire history of the kingdom had ever achieved it.
Out of those twenty-one, only two were commoners, the rest were nobles who had access to resources and training that people like Nieves could never dream of having. Every other commoner who tried either quit after realizing it was basically impossible or died trying to prove themselves worthy of a title they'd never earn.
The boy went first, stumbling over his words as he talked about protecting his family and his will to get stronger to achieve that goal.
Then it was Nieves's turn.
"My name is Nieves Evergreen, I am here for the sole purpose of getting stronger and removing evil from our kingdom."
"…"
That was it, there was no way she was going to tell them she is training to take revenge on the people who killed her family.
"Get stronger, eh?" Old man brooks studied them for a while then laughed it off. "Haha, that's great. Now then let's see what kind of potentials our newbies have!"
The students shouted and cheered in response.
"Chiara!" Old man brooks pointed to a girl on the third row. "Come up here."
A girl walked up to the front, she had black hair, dark gloomy eyes and wore the same uniform as everyone else except her badge had a bit of golden stripe which marked her as a top-ranking student.
"Five minutes, just a quick assessment of your ability, use whatever skill you got." Old man brooks gestured for the other students to give them space.
They formed a circle around them; old man brooks raised his stick up.
"Evergreen, you go first, let's see what you're made of!"
Chiara picked up two wooden swords from a rack mounted on the wall, throwing one to Nieves.
She tested the blade's weight. It was poor and light compared to her real blade but it will have to do.
"Ready when you are," Chiara placed one hand behind her back, pointing her sword at Nieves.
"…And go!" Old man brooks slammed his stick to the ground.
Nieves charged at Chiara head-on, her blade swinging Chiara's shoulder.
Crack!
Chiara raised her sword slightly to block off the attack, the shock sent vibrations towards Nieves' arm.
Nieves followed up with another strike at Chiara ribs this time, then transitioned into a thrust towards her heart, then a low sweep, each attack flowing in the fluent motion, not giving Chiara anytime to retaliate.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Their wooden swords clashed repeatedly as Nieves increased her speed and intensity of her assault to find the weakness in Chiara's defense.
Chiara, however, blocked everything with little movements, her expression remained calm and focused as she didn't move an inch from her spot, it was her way of showing superiority to new trainees.
It was like Chiara wasn't even trying.
'Tsk, I haven't been able to land a single hit.' Nieves jumped back as she sorts to catch her breath.
Old man brooks looked at his timer.
[2:34…]
[2:33…]
[2:32…]
'Almost three minutes had passed and she hasn't landed a single blow, well she is up against Chiara, that girl doesn't know how to take a hint hohoho' Old man brooks thought as he clicked the timer back.
Crack! Crack!
Nieves launched continuous attacks once more and it was still no good. This time Chiara even used less effort in blocking the attacks.
She was studying Nieves' techniques and body movement and when she got a hold of it, it felt easier to block.
Nieves noticed this and tried a different manner of approach. She charged head-on again at Chiara but this time she threw dust in the way to blind Chiara's vision.
Chiara remained focus and heightened her senses.
Then a blade came from the dust aiming for Chiara's head.
Crack!
She parried it away but she had lost sight of Nieves.
At that moment, she felt something blurry in her peripheral vision. Nieves had used the dust to blind her vision and the sword as a decoy to allow her to escape Chiara's line of sight.
"Clever girl." Chiara jumped up to avoid the incoming punch and landed a few steps away.
"You moved…" Nieves scoffed as she picked up her wooden sword.
Chiara found this annoying and vanished on the spot.
Fwsh…!
Appearing behind Nieves at insane speed.
Crack!
Nieves was too slow in motion to react but she managed to parry Chiara's sword though it took every ounce of strength and speed she had.
[0:02…]
[0:01…]
[0:00!]
"And stop…!" Old man brooks hit his stick on the ground with a loud thud.
Every student around the circle was amazed by Nieves's performance.
"She didn't even use magic…"
"They both didn't and she still managed to keep up with Chiara."
"I don't think I can last five seconds with Chiara!"
They began to whisper among each other.
Chiara walked up to Nieves and stretched her hand.
"Good fight, you seem to have some sort of experience."
Nieves stretched her hand to accept the handshake. "You're pretty strong too."