The room had emptied.
The eliminated students had not screamed.
They had not protested.
They had simply walked out, as if someone had turned off a light inside them.
Kael remained seated.
He hadn't moved for almost an hour, but he wasn't still.
He was observing what remained.
There were thirteen left.
A wrong number.
Too specific to be random.
The side doors opened without warning.
Three instructors entered. None wore uniforms. Each carried something different: a tablet, a paper folder, a metal wristband.
The man they had already seen spoke first.
"If you are still here," he said, "you have passed the observation phase."
Someone sighed.
A mistake.
"Now the access tests begin."
The air in the room changed.
"These tests," he continued, "do not evaluate what you can do.
They evaluate how much you are willing to lose."
Kael folded his hands.
So they aren't looking for winners, he thought.
They're looking for leftovers.
TEST 1 – ASYMMETRICAL CHOICE
They were divided into pairs.
Not randomly.
Kael was assigned to a girl with short hair, a sharp gaze, rigid posture. She didn't speak. She observed.
They were led into separate but symmetrical rooms.
A table.
Three cards.
A timer.
An artificial voice:
"You have only one choice.
Only one of you will pass this test."
The girl spoke first.
"Psychological games," she said. "It's not real."
Kael didn't answer.
The cards read:
TAKE → pass immediately
WAIT → possibility that both pass
GIVE UP → no one passes
The timer started.
The girl immediately reached for TAKE.
Kael spoke, calmly.
"If you do that, you pass. But you lose points in later tests."
She hesitated.
"How do you know?"
"Because Valencrest doesn't reward choices without cost."
The timer kept ticking down.
"Then what do you want?" she asked.
Kael looked at the WAIT card.
"Time."
She clenched her teeth.
"And if you're lying?"
"Then you pass," Kael replied. "And I don't."
Silence.
The timer reached the last ten seconds.
She pressed WAIT.
Time expired.
Artificial voice:
"Test passed.
Evaluation: forced cooperation."
Kael lowered his gaze.
I lost something, he thought.
Good.
TEST 2 – CONTROLLED STRESS
No explanation.
Only single rooms. Bright lights. Irregular noises. Contradictory orders.
Kael recognized the method immediately.
They don't want you to fail, he thought.
They want to see when you lose control.
They gave him pointless calculations.
Then took the papers away.
Then returned them—different.
At one point, an instructor spoke.
"You're slow."
Kael answered a second too late.
"I'm choosing what to ignore."
Annotation.
They made him repeat the same test three times.
On the fourth, Kael failed on purpose.
A longer annotation.
TEST 3 – FUNCTIONAL COMBAT
Not an arena.
An irregular room. Obstacles. Tight space.
Opponent: bigger. Stronger.
Single rule:
"The fight ends when one of you can no longer continue."
The opponent attacked immediately.
Kael retreated. Used the space. Fell.
Real pain. Controlled.
When he could have turned the situation around… he didn't.
He lost.
The instructor raised an eyebrow.
"You could have won."
Kael was breathing hard.
"I would have drawn attention."
Silence.
Annotation.
TEST 4 – GUIDED TRUTH
Final test.
One room. One chair. Arden, on the other side of the glass.
Kael did not tense.
A voice in the earpiece:
"Answer truthfully.
Lies will be detected."
Question 1:
"Why do you want to enter Valencrest?"
Kael remained silent.
Too long.
"Because outside I would die," he finally said.
"Here… I might choose when."
Question 2:
"Do you want to rise to the top?"
Kael barely shook his head.
"No."
Question 3:
"Then why are you dangerous?"
Kael lifted his gaze toward the glass.
"Because I know how to wait."
Total silence.
The doors opened.
The thirteen returned to the central hall.
Now there were nine.
An instructor spoke:
"You have passed the access tests."
Pause.
"That does not mean you will remain."
Kael lowered his gaze.
Arden watched from above.
He got in, he thought.
And he left no obvious traces.
Valencrest had opened its mouth.
And Kael had entered it
not as a talent,
but as a silent problem.
End of Episode 4.