292 Carona's Future

\"Each of you should have a set question and answer sheet in front of you.

If anyone is missing anything.... please raise your hand up, and I will get to you immediately.

Alright..... The time is 10:55 A.M.

You can start filling your names on your sheets.\"

\"_\"

.

Today, Hermon and his siblings were having their first school examination..... And it was for Math 2!

Hermon quickly wrote his name, his student number, Course name, and the date of today on his answer sheet.

.

11 A.M

'Flip! Flip! Flip!'

A series of page-turning sounds could be heard from every corner of the classroom... as the students hastily flipped their question sheets open.

The room turned into a battlefield, as the students fought against their opponent... Mr. Time.

.

Hermon looked at the first question, while rocking himself back and forth.

He was anxious hell!!... and his belly began to grumble from extreme anxiety.

He felt like he had ants in his butt... as sitting still, seemed like an almost impossible feat at the moment.

'Calm down.... calm down!

You can answer all these questions...'Hermon told himself, as he began the exam.

.

'Flip! Flip! Flip!'

As the tiresome battle with time had begun... students could be seen biting the ends of their pencils, chewing the cork of their pens and so on.

But as time passed by, everyone's body soon loosened up.

And just like that, the exam was finally over.

The battle had finally concluded.

\"Please pass your sheets forward!\" The examiner said.

.

Hermon stretched his arms up in the air, and tried to shake off all his tiredness from the whole ordeal.

He had been studying hard for the past 2 weeks, and had even pulled all-nighters on several occasions just for his exams.

.

And to be honest, it had drained them completely.

Not just him, but all of his siblings as well.

They had never experienced such an exam setting like this one.

No!..... it was more like they had never felt such pressure as they did right now.

.

In truth, they were much more impressed with the school system here.

They had learned about things that they never knew existed..... like multiplication and division.

And while they had serious classes daily, they also had fun ones... like gym class, and Arts & Craft.

All in all, they thought that Baymard's school system was much better compared to Carona.

.

Hermon quickly got up, and rushed over to his siblings and his new friends.

Now, they were going to meet Little Momo and Linda for lunch.

As he walked with the others, he couldn't help but want to treasure these moments.

.

For the first time in his life, he felt like he could control his own destiny all by himself.

He had made up his mind that when his education was completed, he would help his eldest cousin in running Carona.

He wanted to create jobs and opportunities for the citizens as well.

.

He gripped the pen in his pocket firmly, as he felt sheer excitement from thinking about the future.

As his majesty Landon had always said:

[Education was power.

And with Great Power, came great responsibilities.]

.

Of course, Hermon wasn't the only one who was enjoying his stay here in Baymard

Not too far away from the school, was the hospital.

.

\"Hah!..... Old fool!

You are clearly cheating!

How is 'Ludicrous' a word?\"

\"It's a word I tell yah!

Hehehe...you can look at the Baymardian dictionary, if you'd like.

But if you do, you'll loose your turn.\"

\"Dammit!.... You bloody cheater!!\"

\"_\"

.

Grandpa Adrian was currently enjoying his time playing scrabble with his new friends.

Yup!

The old man had made a ton of new friends when he was still recovering from his surgery.

.

He had been discharged 2 weeks ago, but had chosen to join the hospital's senior programs.....which required him to come 2 days a week.

With these programs, they would massage his legs and body for blood circulation, show him the proper sport activities he should be doing at his age and so on.

.

Plus, the thing he liked most about these programs, was that it was similar to school.

He would sit up with people around his age, and they would talk, play, and do all sort of activities together.

The whole experience made him feel young again.

.

With his wife dead, and his children and grandchildren having their own duties and families.... he had no one to really chat with around his age.

Sure... he had close friends in Carona, but they were usually too busy as well.

They had their wives, grandchildren and families to worry about.

And to make matters worse, when he was around them..... they would still talk to him as if he were a king.

.

Fine!... they respected him.

But having people continuously treat you with extreme prospect or caution for the past 60 years... was downright annoying.

The issue was that his friends had all aided him in governing Carona at a certain time.

And now, they all saw him as a wise leader, someone to be revered... and what not.

Sometimes, they would still call him Commander.... even at this age.

.

But here, these old folks didn't care about his bloody status.

They joked with him, patted his back while laughing.... and even teased him here and there.

Especially the 3 musketeers and the Fantastic 7.

He found them to be hilarious.

.

In essence, having people treat him like himself, made him not feel lonely anymore.

Hence he had decided that even if he left, he would come to Baymard once a year to see all of them again.

.

It has been close to 2 months now, and he had already bonded with a ton of them.

As well as played board games like bingo, chess and scrabble..... as well as card games like old maid with his new friends.

Time sure did fly by fast, when one was having fun.

.

Adrian looked at the scrabble board in front of him, and swiftly looked at the number of letters he had at hand.

\"Look!... he's stuck.

Hahahahah.... I knew I would win this match!:

\"You?..... ... Win?

Please!!.... Can't you see that I have more points than you do?

And compared to you all, I'm a veteran at this game.... so there's no way that I won't be the winner.\"

.

As Adrain listened to their endless bragging, a smile slowly crept onto his face.

And soon... he made his move!!

[Queer!... 63 Points]

--silence--

Everyone around the board, counted the points twice just to be sure.

\"Hahahahhaha!.... I win!\"

\"Damn!.... it's because you had 'Q' all along.\"

\"Good play!!!.

But you know, you were just lucky this time.

Hehehe.... next time, I'll wipe your ass clean with my moves!\"

\"Oh?..... bring it on grandpa!\"

\"Heyyy... Who are you calling grandpa?

I'll have you know that I'm turning 25 this year.\"

\"You?.. 25? ... Dream On!!\"

\"Bro... if your 25, then I'm 16!\"

\"Hahhahahahahaha!!!\"

\"_\"