4. The Test

"I'm Blaze Draven," Blaze said confidently. 

His bizarre confidence forced the headmistress to think deeply of his name, but after a while, neither the name nor surname rang any bell in her memory. 

"Pardon me for my forgettable memory, but do I know you?" the headmistress asked cautiously, with an apologetic smile. His confident demeanor made her doubt her recollection. Even nobles in the Empire aren't proud when in her presence; worse of all, he's a teenager. Except he has a powerful background, there is no way he will be fearless in front of her.

"Yeah. Just now. I came to join the academy, but because of some issues, I got late and couldn't register. Any solution?" Blaze questioned from his seat, comfortably.

This made everybody's eyes go wide.

"Do you realize I could kill you and claim you're a spy?" the headmistress asked coldly.

"Miss…"

"Avery Drakon,"

"Miss Avery Drakon, I know that, but I came because I'm better than most of the accepted students," Blaze said calmly.

This caused an uproar among the three hundred admitted students.

"Quiet!" Avery roared at the students before turning to Blaze. "Interesting boy. Okay, come and test your mana."

Blaze strutted confidently to the mana tester and dripped a drop of his blood.

It glowed red.

"Upon all your proud words, you got just a red—"

The globe abruptly changed to violet, which made the man too shocked to speak, before it dropped to green. It started fluctuating between the seven colors of the rainbow system. After waiting for a minute without the globe stabilizing at a single color, Avery turned to Blaze.

"Have you ever absorbed mana before?" Avery asked Blaze with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope." It was White Demon that told him that his mana assessment was indefinite.

His answer caused Avery's face distort into a nasty grimace. Blaze was too confident in his ignorance. The three hundred students were already showering curses on him. He talked about them like garbage, while he is an ignorant moron.

"Fine. Cherry, come and test Blaze," Avery said with a smirk. It made everybody who knew her shiver. They knew she was planning something terrible. 

A girl, dressed in a suit, trousers, and knee-length boots, walked towards Blaze. The suit had a golden lapel, shoulders, and buttons. She had a stony face that made her beautiful heart shape spell 'unapproachable'.

"Blaze, pick up the training sword and remain undefeated for one minute," Avery said with a smirk. "If you lose, I will chop off your hand. If you win, you get to enter the academy."

She was confident in her sister's ability, but she needed a reason to punish the incomprehensible, prideful runt.

"Sure." Blaze walked to the rack and picked up a wooden training sword with no change in his expression. His actions and nonchalance surprised everybody. 

'Is he not aware sword masters train that Cherry?' That was the thought going on in everybody's mind.

"No magic," Avery added to make things fair.

Blaze and Cherry stood some distance apart, in the middle of the podium, with their training swords. 

"Poor standing posture!" One of the accepted students spat.

"Fight!" the man who called the names yelled.

Blaze, who had no time to play, dashed at Cherry at his max speed. Cherry moved nimbly and elegantly while blocking his attacks. The fight started with Blaze attacking. His sword moved like a berserker, swinging and storming Cherry wildly. To the spectator, Blaze was swinging the training sword aimlessly. However, Cherry couldn't counter-attack. Blaze pushed the battle to the peak the moment it began. Cherry could only defend in the face of the sword storming.

"Is he supposed to beat her like that? No elegance or calculation. It lacks the essence of a sword," the man who called the scroll muttered.

"Christopher, you are not observing his sword skill, or you would have noticed the subtlety in it. His sword lacks finesse but aims for killing. It looks like he is swinging wildly, but he's aiming at her vitals. One error from Cherry, and her battle power is reduced by twenty percent," Avery concluded solemnly after staring at the battle for a while.

This prompted Christopher to look intently, and he noticed Blaze's subtle action beneath his crazy swinging.

Suddenly, Blaze stopped and moved backward. He moved a considerable distance from Cherry and stopped moving: he stood erect with his sword pointing downward. After he noticed that Cherry was faster than him, he stopped his futile action. If they were of equal speed, she would have been beaten blue-black.

Cherry looked at him with her chest rapidly heaving up and down. He mounted mighty pressure with his uncoordinated sword skill with no pattern. Although she was faster than him, one mistake was all it took to end the fight. 

"What's the name of your sword skill?" Cherry asked curiously with her eyes gleaming.

"Berserker," Blaze blurted the first name that came to his mind. It was not sword skill. It was merely swinging the knife while aiming at your opponent's vitals. As a special agent, he used knives and guns.

Cherry nodded before raising her training sword. She dashed towards him at a fast speed, but Blaze just stood there without moving. When Cherry was about a meter from him, she slashed at his neck, but his next action astonished her. Instead of moving backward or blocking her, he moved forward: he moved into the strike. Just as he was a hair-breadth from her sword, he side-stepped while sticking out his foot.

Cherry, who was unbalanced because of the abrupt change in distance, tripped over his foot and fell to the ground. When she turned, she saw Blaze pointing his training sword at her face.

Everybody's mouth was opened agape. The series of events took place too fast before they could judge, predict, and comment on the next result. It angered Cherry because she hadn't shown any sword skill before getting defeated.

'That must be a coincidence. Moving towards her while calculating when she would be only standing on the tip of her toes,' Avery thought.

"You pass!" Avery said after regaining her senses. He dropped his training sword and joined the other students.

However, everybody was looking at him strangely. They avoided him like a plague. He was too lazy to care about them. He has a big aim, not some child's play. Firstly, he needs to get powerful before commencing the second phase of his revenge plan.

"The train will take you to your rooms. Two per room. Select your roommate," Avery said. Although the presence of a train surprised Blaze.

When they got there, there were many rows of brick duplexes. They separated boys and girls. Strangely, there were an equal number of boys and girls. After everybody finished choosing their rooms, there was no room for him.

"There is one building that is in between the boys' and the girls' hostel. But it's a little dilapidated," Christopher told Blaze as he walked up to him.

"Anything is fine," Blaze replied without thinking much.

When they got to the building, it was slightly old as Christopher stated, but it was smaller and isolated from the rest of the houses like a lone pyramid in the desert. The remote location suited Blaze's needs because of the secret beneath his cloth. The building had a big tree that hovered over its roof like a canopy.

"Thanks," he said to Christopher before walking into the building.

Christopher left after Blaze entered.

The building was empty. It only had one room and a toilet. The first thing he did was take off his robe. There were red, stroke-like bruises on his body. Although he still remembered his skills, due to lack of training, he had become a little rusty. During the fight, Cherry had hit him sometimes in her course of defense. Because she was faster than him and his reaction speed is not the same as before, she got him. But he had ignored the pain during the battle.

Blaze wore his robe and began cleaning his room slowly and meticulously. The availability of cleaning tools helped him.

"I never knew you were very scheming during battle," White Demon spoke.

"It was common sense. After slashing at her for a while with no opening, there was only one way to go about it: To continue slashing if I had infinite energy so that she would slip after a while, or to allow her to make the first move before setting up a trap," Blaze answered without looking at her as he continued his cleaning.

"The risk of your trap was too much. You had to trip her when she was on her toes before her training sword reached you. It requires accurate timing and reaction," White Demon advised him.

"If you were an agent, you would understand. You are always dancing on the tip of the blade and treading on thin ice," Blaze said and walked outside to continue his cleaning.

"Humph! Who told you I didn't take risks?" White Demon scoffed, before advising, "You shouldn't try that with real swords".

"Wait, are you worried about me?" Blaze asked with a raised eyebrow and an impassive face. White Demon couldn't discern whether he was teasing her or serious because of his stern expression. 

"Who is worried about you? It's just that, if you die, I will become lonely again." White Demon folded her arms across her chest.

Blaze nodded and continued with his cleaning. Suddenly, he felt somebody approaching.

He raised his head, and he saw a boy dressed moderately, with an athletic body build. His short blonde hair matched the golden embroidery on his cloth. Overall, he was handsome. 

"What do you want?" Blaze asked coldly. He wants to have minimal interaction with the students.

"Nothing. Just came to give you a warning because I admire you. Do you know that the person you thrash up is a princess of the Dragon Empire? After you abruptly beat her, many people thought you could have defeated her from the beginning, but you wanted to toy with her. Her betrothed might come after you," the boy said before walking in the direction of the girls' hostel.

"I don't have time for children's play," Blaze muttered before he went back to cleaning.

"But you should prepare yourself. I mean your sword skill for killing, and the headmistress, or should I call her the Princess, saw it. Any experienced person will know that the person who taught you is an efficient killer. They might detain you because they think you are a spy. Maybe they might…" White Demon swiped her thumb across her neck, slowly.