The journey to Leonasia took an entire day, and with an escort of twenty men and one of the village's strongest soldiers, Captain Gillian, Cloud safely arrived at Leonasia, walking into its capital late in the night.
They were led to rooms prepared for them, and the next day taken to the grand royal hall where the awakening would take place.
From his seat among the candidates, Cloud watched as various dignitaries walked into the hall.
Bribing his guide, he had been informed that top officials in the kingdom would be attending the ceremony, them along with the royal family, all looking for talents to scout.
An hour later, when the occasion finally began, the king of Leonasia, sitting high on a podium, stood up and gave a long speech, looking at the candidates with a well-wishing smile.
When he was done talking, a slightly chubby man dressed in red, who introduced himself as one of the teachers of the royal academy, stepped to the front to conduct the ceremony.
As the man spoke, a large translucent orb was wheeled onto the stage, and after a few words from the teacher, names began being called.
Cloud took interest in two things as the first of the candidates headed to the front.
The first was the cameras flashing as the candidates stepped onto the stage.
Compared to Earth, the most basic of technology in this world was seen as a luxury, not a necessity.
Dakurt village did not have a camera, and in his ten years of being in this world, it was his first time seeing one.
The second thing that grabbed Cloud's interest was the large orb on the stage.
It was called an awakening orb, and Dakurt village had its own, but it was much smaller.
The ability of an orb to sense and awaken a class in a person depended on its size, and from what he had been told, they were extremely expensive.
An orb that fit in the palm, the type Dakurt village had, cost one hundred A-rank cores. Cloud could not imagine the cost of the one on stage.
"Sky Leaonard."
Leonard was the name of the royal family, and from among the children he had been sitting with, a boy who had been receiving looks of admiration from the very start stood up, shoulders raised, and walked onto the stage.
Cloud referred to the other candidates as children, not because he possessed a mind much older than theirs, but because they were all aged twelve to fifteen.
There was an intense light from the stage, and already looking forward, Cloud watched as the image of a golden sword formed above the orb, releasing a warm aura before vanishing.
The hall immediately burst into noise, the children speaking the loudest, exclaiming about how amazing their prince was.
Cloud spoke to no one, and no one spoke to him. His presence among the candidates had drawn strange glances, but since their teachers said nothing, they quickly forgot about him and focused on their special day.
"Sword King, S-rank awakening," the teacher on stage exclaimed.
The noise grew louder, and clearly not satisfied with the praise, Sky stepped forward, asking for a sword. Facing a wall, he concentrated and swung the blade, golden energy shooting out and slamming into the wall, leaving a cut far wider than the sword's edge.
"Our prince has not just awakened an S-rank class, but has also inherited the rare-grade skill of the royal family, 'Depart'."
No one looked more confident than the prince, and no one grinned harder than the king. The shouts and hails eventually subsided, and the ceremony continued.
Names were called, and there were a few more exceptions, two B-rank fire mages and a healer appearing, while the rest fluctuated between D and C ranks.
Cloud's name eventually came, and it was the last on the list.
"Cloud Outsborn, Prince of Dakurt village."
When there was the prince of a kingdom present, hearing about the prince of a village didn't inspire awe, and when he was a man among a group of children, the opposite of respect was what everyone felt.
The hall was silent, whispers passing around, but Cloud wasn't bothered. He walked up to the awakening orb and looked at the teacher.
With a stoic expression, the chubby man spoke.
"Place both your hands on the awakening orb and channel as much mana as you can into it."
Awakening a class wasn't a common occurrence, and statistics showed that only five percent of people in the world ever successfully awakened a class. This did not count those who failed to unlock mana, which was a prerequisite.
Sixty-nine candidates had come for the royal awakening ceremony, and out of that number, sixty-eight had successfully awakened a class.
The number didn't surprise Cloud. Clearly, the entire ceremony was propaganda. There was no way the king and his top officials would gather to watch three out of seventy candidates awaken a class.
Nodding, Cloud placed his hands on the orb, commanding the mana within him and pouring it into the crystal through his palms.
The standard time for each candidate was thirty seconds, after which it would be concluded that they had failed to awaken.
For some reason, a pin-drop silence spread through the hall.
The thirtieth second came quickly, yet the orb showed no change.
Murmurs erupted almost immediately, and shaking his head, the chubby man took a step forward. But just as he opened his mouth, Cloud turned to him.
"I'm not done yet."