110 Think On Your Own

While they waited for the rest, Rose told Alicia what she went through for her test of courage. It was nowhere near as horrific as what Alicia had to go through. Rose's test consisted of scaling a tall mountain to save some villagers that had disappeared. It was just that this mountain was full of demonic beasts. So she ended up having to fight her way up the mountain until she finally found the villagers. But before all that had happened, she took an entire day to make any sense of her surroundings because it all seemed so real.

Not much time passed before Starla and Claire both exited the Illusion World as well. "Young Miss!" "Alicia!"

This time though Princess Catherine did not yell at them she only stood next to Alicia with a smile on her face. "How was it?" Alicia asked.

"Young Miss that Illusion was horrible. It took me a few days inside just to get used to what was going on." Claire complained.

"Yeah, that was kind of scary. I almost freaked out when I suddenly turned into a man." Starla wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

Alicia let out a light laugh before turning to Princess Catherine. "Big Sister Catherine, this here is Claire she is also my personal Maid but she normally takes care of Frey for me and This is my friend Starla, we met during our Adventurer's Guild test."

"It's good to meet you." Princess Catherine gave a curtsy. She was amazed as to how carefreely the people around Alicia spoke. They complained and acted like children in front of Alicia with no signs of a barrier between royalty and the lower class. But they were still respectful towards Alicia and seemed to truly care about her.

"Big Sister?" Starla was confused for a moment before she finally realized who Princess Catherine was. She suddenly dropped to one knee and lowered her head and said: "Your highness I am sorry for not realizing who you were!"

The sudden change of attitude startled Princess Catherine. The difference in the treatment did not sit well with her. It was as if she was some kind of scary monster. She saw how open and freely Starla spoke to Alicia. This was something that Princess Catherine actually felt was very nice. She had grown up with everyone fearfully attending to her. Never overstepping their bounds or trying to be overly friendly with her. Well, this was true with about everyone except her personal maid Mary. But even Mary still did not dare to become overly friendly with her. But here Starla was calling Alicia by her first name and speaking freely, like how commoners conversed with one another. This made Princess Catherine yearn for a true friend as well. Someone who would truly treat her as a normal person and not as someone from the royal family.

"Please stand. There is no need to do this. You can be yourself around me. Like how you call Alicia by her name you can do the same with me..." Princess Catherine said as she helped Starla up.

Starla had never thought that Princess Catherine was so easy going. She had heard that Princess Catherine was very haughty and looked down on others. But here she was helping Starla up and even saying that Starla could call Princess Catherine by her first name. Starla looked up at the smiling face in front of her and smiled as well. "Then Catherine! Let's get along from now on!"

Seeing how Starla reverted back to how she was a minute ago Princess Catherine was very relieved as she nodded her head and happily said: "Yes! Let's get along!" None of this escaped King Agustus's eyes. He looked at the scene and smiled nodding his head approvingly. 'Seems one more of my brats will be able to understand the world around them and treat others fairly from now on.'

"By the way Claire what did you have to do for your test of courage?" Alicia asked.

"Mine? Well, after I got used to being in that strange place all I had to do was jump over a flaming brazer..." Claire awkwardly scratched her head.

Alicia automatically turned her head to look at King Augustus who was standing not too far away. When their eyes made contact he quickly averted his gaze not willing to look Alicia in the eyes for too long. Mainly because Alicia's eyes were saying "You make me go through such a tragic experience while someone else only needs to jump over a brazer?". This blaming look was something King Augustus was not able to take straight on. Alicia gave a "humph" before turning to Starla and asking "What about you?"

"I had to save a merchant's daughter from a bandit den." Starla lightly explained.

Alicia now had an assumption of what was going on. Those who normally fought alongside her had to undergo harder tests. While those who did not have easier tests. This meant that Starla, Alicia, and Rose will have to undergo all seven virtues in every test and each test would be harder than the last. Thinking about this and how this was all set up by her own father, Alicia couldn't help but let out a long sigh. "Rose, Starla, the next six tests will get harder and harder. So prepare yourselves to have to deal with some pretty bad things."

As the girls talked amongst themselves more and more people came out of the Illusion World. Five hours passed when King Augustus gave the knight in light leather armor a nod. This meant that the test was to end. No more than a few minutes passed and hundreds of people were ejected from the Illusion World. These people had all failed. This time around only three hundred people had passed the test while around seven hundred failed. One of those people who did not pass felt a need to voice out his complaints.

"Why did I fail? I waited so many days inside and never received any kind of information telling me what my goals were! We were told that we would get some information on what we were supposed to do!" A young man around sixteen years old shouted.

King Augustus looked at this young man, shook his head, and sternly said: "Young man! Not everything in this world is spelled out for you. I purposely changed the test this year to make it harder. Each test was based on your Adventurer's Guild rank. There are a few hundred people here who still finished their test without any information whatsoever. Some of them had tests that were ten times harder than anything you could imagine. They also got no information on what their objectives were or how they should go about completing the said objective.

" In life, there is no one who will hold your hand and tell you what needs to be done. As someone who wants to become a squire and later on a knight, you need to be able to think on your feet! Analyze your situation and try to figure out what is going on without any assistance. What would you do if you ran into a situation while out on a mission and your whole team dies and you are trapped behind enemy lines? What would you do in a situation where many civilians were kidnapped and you had to rescue them all on your own or if you were dealing with a corrupted noble and had to pass judgment on to them? If you can not even think on your own, then I do not want you to become a squire of my kingdom, never mind a knight!"

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