Chapter 53 - Late But Not Out Of Options

-- Aaris - POV --

"What in the world are you trying to do?" Crown prince treaded at me in bitterness, 

"Are you not the one whom Madam Tara vouched for? If you are then why are you not in the top five!" He was fuming in anger but it was only his facial expressions that didn't change much.

'Well I am kind of but I am certainly not someone she is backing up! I should wrap things soon or it will get more complicated from here on.

Listening to this he squeezed his forehead and huffed out a sigh, 

"Guess I'm wrong here, she clearly did not declare you her Seth yet! Never mind if you don't mind, can you tell me your ranking of your prior test?" 

'Hmmm... Of course! I did enter the hall before many candidates, which would mean I did grab a decent rank!' Let me check.' I pulled out my G.S.C card and turned it around, 

'What's my current ranking?' I had a proud smile on my face but it went away sooner than I expected.

On the back of my card, a number appeared, 

| RANK - 800th |

| Clearing Time - one hour, twenty-three minutes, and forty-six seconds |

'What in the beautiful fuck?' Inside of my heart shattered, and I even forgot I was smiling earlier and none of the expressions changed.

"Oye… one, are you serious? You hit the rock bottom dude" Styrmir peeked from my shoulder and was all smug ear to ear.

'B...but how is this possible? I am sure I got here before many candidates. I should've ranked at least close to 400 or 300!' My hands started shaking.

"I can't believe this, what kind of assumptions did Miss Tara make before giving his name?" Muttering this he went away, and most of the candidates followed him outside.

"I think I know why you are confused about your rank, did you go to the infirmary after the test? You see many candidates went to the infirmary and the mana rejuvenation chamber, to get their wounds checked they got during the test and restore their mana, the next trial is tomorrow so the academy provided us a rejuvenation center where candidates trials can prepare and get back what they used in the first test, it takes some time probably an hour or something to completely rejuvenate it." Styrmir explained.

"But that doesn't explain your awful passing time, how did you spend an entire hour? Well for most of us there we sabotage or set up where they take one hostage or just try to kill in the name of decreasing competition, but the opponents were so weak it shouldn't even take more than thirty minutes. What were you doing for an hour?" His doubt was more of a tease rubbing salt on my wounds.

'For an hour, oh I remembered I was asleep!' I just remembered, Miss Tara mentioned that I failed to perceive what was happening next to me and slept nonchalantly.

"Bruh! What kind of idiot are you?" Here this from him makes me wanna drown somewhere.

"Well more or less, it was the first day and we still got three more trials ahead. Nobody knows what the future holds, so don't sulk and go take a rest, I'll look forward to our next meeting!" Styrmir whacked my back and went out of the hall with the rest of the candidates.

I should get going too, this isn't the end, there are still three more trials left, I can still redeem myself but for that I need sleep!

My fatigue triumphed over my stress and I went back to my chamber and went to sleep.

The next day the dawn broke, 

"Rise! Oye Rise! Get up! Or you'll be late for the trial!" I opened my eyes and saw my roommates shaking me.

'Just five minutes more!' 

"What a fool! We were told that we have to meet at 12 o'clock at noon and it's already 11 when are you going to wake up?"

This voice, crown prince? And what did he say?

I jumped out of my bed.

'11 o'clock!? Ah! I need to get ready fast! I am definitely going to miss breakfast!' I opened my private closet with the card which had my candidate uniform and went straight to the bathroom.

"What are you talking about? We already had breakfast at 8 am. We tried to take you up but you were senseless and said Mr. Serlin just five more minutes." 

"Hahaha… now I know you were telling the truth back then when you said that we're asleep during the test!" Another guy jumped into the conversation and facepalmed his face in laughter.

Though they didn't have any hostility or anger towards me, I noticed all nine of them were properly dressed and were waiting for me.

'Cut me some slack! And I am really sorry for bothering you so you can go ahead and I'll see you all at the ground.' 

"Fine then! We all are going ahead, Luke, stay here, and bring him with you as soon as he is ready." The Crown Prince grabbed his coat and left with the other boys.

"As you say, your majesty." 

'So your name is Luke? I heard this name somewhere before...oh! You are the fourth ranker !' The boy who woke me up was Luke Gram, he has a kind face & long black hair, he smiled at me and then sat on his bed, which was just next to me.

"Well yeah, I am also his majesty's imperial knight but still under training."

Crap! I need to hurry! I took a shower and got dressed as fast as I could.

'I am ready!' 

" You sure took your sweet time." His smile was still unfazed.

'What do you mean we can still make it-' I glanced at the clock, it was striking its arms at 11:55, the ground was at least 2 kilometers away from the dorm, even if we ran...

'We'll never make it!' Tears came to my eyes why everything goes wrong when I need to do something!

"Haha...fret let's get out of dorm space" he calmly got up, we got off the dorm and came back to the octagon pillar, I checked the time at the huge clock tower in the academy visible from any corner around the whole city, it was already 11:57.

'I am sorry we both will be kicked out because of me'

"Didn't I tell you to fret not," he grabbed my waist,

[ TALARIA LEAP ]

his feet started oozing yellow smoke and a magic circle appeared on the ground of his feet.

'What the-' he suddenly jumped and we flew in the air, it was a huge leap in the sky for moments I could even see the whole city of Freyan, but when we started descending my stopped for a while, no air drag or wind pressure was blocking us and when I looked down I saw the ground where all of the candidates were assembled.

'How will you land?' My heartbeat was springing through the sky.

"Of course on foot." He looked at me like it was the easiest and obvious thing to do.

'Are you serious? We are probably 400 meters above the ground! We will be crushed if we land on our feet!' 

He was kidding. I know he has different plans.

He looked at me and smiled again.

'You've got to be kidding me.

Aaaaaa!! Somebody help!" I screamed out loud.

**

"Woah you heard that?"

"What?"

"A loud scream."

"I heard it too, it's getting louder but where is it coming from?"

The candidates were looking around searching for the source of the painful second getting more intense with each second.

"LOOK AT THE SKY!" a girl pointed at the sky and everybody elevated their gaze.

"What is that? "

"Meteor? Are we under attack?"

"It's probably a dog" 

"Are you serious? "

"Save talk for later and save them first if they hit the ground dropping from such altitude even if their bones will turn to powder." An upheaval surges the crowd of hundreds.

"Don't worry they'll be fine!" Niran said loudly, every candidate was surprised looking at him so calm and relaxed.

"Is it him? The one Madam Tara backed for Rise Kier?" Welkin Dinzen, The Scholar among the faculty spoke.

"Yup! It's him! Wow! he is literally flying at this point but he is not alone." Bianca Rollins, ( Scholar ) giggled.

"Somebody help!!!!!" Aaris wanted to cry but the tears flew away before they came out of their eyes.

"RISE!!" Uru cried in shock, "don't die! Life is precious, you can still get your rank up!" Uru was running around in anxiety.

"This lump of meat!" Aaris mumbled to himself.

"Ready?" Luke spoke, 

"Ready for what?" Aaris' life flashed before his eyes again.

With just a few tens meters above the ground.

"I am sorry mother this is it I am coming to you," Aaris said in his prayers.

A huge crash was made to the ground, rocks and dust flew everywhere but no one got hurt.

Dodging the ruins in different ways, many candidates tried to get close but when the dust clouds were cleared they couldn't believe what was in front of them.

Luke Gram and Rise Kier landed without any scratch on their body.

They looked as they just came after dressing up unfazed.

"What a hell of an entry, we are going to have a lot of fun this year!" Bianca licked her lips.