-Tuesday Evening, 8th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

'What...happened...' Feeling pain all over my body, I slowly open my eyes, '...I was fighting Jun...and...I got hurt a lot...then...I fainted?'

As my vision starts to clear up, I see an unfamiliar ceiling, '...Where...am I?'

Trying to figure out where I am, I turn my head to the left and spot Jun laying on a bed wrapped in bandages with his eyes closed. Even though those bandages make his wounds seem painful, he's still smiling just like he was during our fight.

'I wonder why he's so happy...didn't our fight end in a tie?' I turn my head to the right, feeling confused by his expression.

On my right, Mrs. Janson is sitting on a bed with her eyes closed, holding her head up with her palm, '...Did she bring us here?'

Looking past her, my eyes widen, seeing the moon that's high up in the dark sky, 'It's already this late!? I need to leave, Gramps is probably worried about me!'

"Ugghhh-" I groan, feeling the pain increase throughout my body as I try to get up.

"-Stop moving!" Suddenly, Mrs. Janson grasps my shoulders and pushes me down, forcing me to lay back down, "Your wounds haven't fully healed yet, so stop moving."

"But I have to go back-Ah," As I try to struggle loose, she starts releasing an invisible pressure just like before, completely overpowering me, making it impossible to move.

'Strong!' I used all of my Qi in the fight, so I don't have any way to resist.

When I stop struggling, she sighs and lets go of me, "You can leave after the Nurse heals you, she should return in a bit, until then just calm down and wait patiently."

Hearing her words, I start to calm down and look over my body. Just like Jun, I'm wrapped in bandages stained with blood. My body feels kinda hot, and everything hurts, '...I probably wouldn't even make it out the door with these wounds.'

Realizing that, I stop trying to leave and decide to wait for the Nurse quietly like Mrs. Janson told me to.

After a couple minutes, Mrs. Janson suddenly speaks up, "...I should have stopped your fight."

"Why?" I ask her, feeling confused, 'We didn't break any rules, and neither of us gave up or stepped off the platform, so there shouldn't have been any reason for her to stop us.'

"Because you two went way too far. At least half of those kids were terrified after watching a bloody fight like that. Some of them didn't even want to fight anymore. The test turned into a complete mess because of it," She shakes her head and continues, "Not only that, but both of you ended up severely injured. If I had stopped the fight sooner, both of you wouldn't be in this condition."

"All of that happened because of us?" I can't help but feel odd hearing that, "Isn't it normal to get hurt when you fight?"

Mrs. Janson raises her eyebrows at me, "It is normal to get hurt when you fight, but most of those kids have never seen a fight like that, even some of the older kids in this academy haven't. If you both didn't receive immediate treatment, you could have died from those injuries. That boy has 10 cuts on his body. 3 of them are deep, but the rest of them are only flesh wounds luckily. As for you, there are 15 cuts on your body, including the one on your side. You ended up with 2 deep wounds from that fight, and the injury on your side is even worse than before."

"...Mm," I nod my head, hearing her report. I feel a little shocked knowing that we could have died, but I still don't really understand how bad our fight was, 'Compared to the fights I saw in that dream, I don't think our fight was that bad. At least not bad enough for the other applicants to lose the will to fight because of it.'

"What kind of response is that? Look, I don't know what type of fights you usually see, but at your level and in an exam, those are considered serious injuries that don't normally happen. As for those kids, most of them have probably never seen bloodshed, at least not at this level. I'm not telling you to understand, but that was definitely a fight that should have been stopped," Mrs. Janson sighs.

"So then why didn't you stop us?" If she thought that it was so bad, then why didn't she come in and stop us. With her strength, there's no way she couldn't have.

"I'll answer your question if you answer mine. You and all the other applicants were fighting with restraint for most of the test because you didn't want to seriously hurt someone, right?" I nod my head, and she continues, "But then why did you suddenly stop? There's no way he forced you to stop holding back because he was too strong, he can't even use Qi. I know that he's better than you with the sword, but that alone shouldn't have been enough to make you stop holding back. So then why as the fight went on did you stop holding back?" Mrs. Janson stares into my eyes with a serious expression.

"I-" I stop for a moment and think, "-I don't know. At first, I was happy that I got the chance to fight him because I didn't like how he acted after he beat Johnny. But after we started fighting, all I could think about was beating him. Every time we clashed, every time I saw his smile, every time he laughed, it felt like I was being challenged. Something inside me was screaming, telling me, 'Don't lose. Not to him.' And before I knew it, I was fighting him with everything I had. I stopped caring about the exam and everything else, I just...wanted to beat him."

"I see," Mrs. Janson nods, "Watching your fight, I could feel your determination and his, both of you wanted to win, and I felt that if I interrupted, it would negatively impact your futures. That's why not as an instructor but as a cultivator, I let the fight continue-"

"-And then the both of you ended up here!" A strange lady burst through the door.

'Who is she?'

"Such an irresponsible instructor!" The strange lady sighs and shakes her head, "I don't even know why they let you act as a proctor this time!"

"I-" Before Mrs. Janson can say anything, the lady interrupts, "Be quiet, whatever you have to say doesn't matter, right now, does it? It's the truth that they both ended up here because of you!"

"Ugh!" Mrs. Janson clenches her fist and groans.

"Now, as for the two idiots lying on the infirmary beds after going overboard on a little entrance exam!" She turns her attention to Jun and me, "Firstly, you get up!"

Slap!

She walks over and smacks Jun on the forehead. Feeling the impact, he jumps up, but she just knocks him back down.

"What's the big idea!?" Jun shouts while holding his forehead.

"That's what I should be asking with those wounds!" The lady shouts back at him.

"Huh?" Just like me, it takes him a moment to realize what's going on.

"These wounds!" Before he can react, she lightly(?) smacks his chest.

"Agh!" Jun groans in pain.

"Isn't that just going to hurt him more-" Feeling her gaze, I realize that my thoughts are slipping out, so I shut my mouth in a hurry.

"-Why don't you find out for yourself!" Before I can react, she jumps over his bed and taps the cut on my side.

"Aghhh!" Feeling an intense pain attack my body, I let out a groan that's more like a scream.

"Hurts, don't it?" She laughs, looking like she's enjoying my reaction.

'I- I really don't like this lady!' I grit my teeth, trying to endure the pain and keep the words from slipping out of my mouth.

"I asked a question!" She grabs my cheeks with a scary expression on her face.

"Yewshhh-" I answer her, barely getting the words out.

"KeKeKeKe..." She lets go of my cheeks and laughs with a creepy smile on her face.

'...I never want to come here again…' Seeing her face, I promise myself feeling scared, 'Never again...I won't come here again.'

"Miss Farah-" Hearing Mrs. Janson speak up, the lady stops laughing and snaps her head towards her, "...What about the treatment?"

"Treatment?" She had a confused look on her face for a moment, but after a few seconds, she nods, "Treatment? Right the treatment, alright, let's get to that then!"

'She's the one treating us-'

"-Gulp!" Suddenly, I have a really bad feeling about this.

She walks over to Jun first and unwraps his bandages, scanning over his body she tells him, "Three lacerations, seven flesh wounds. The laceration on your chest is pretty deep too. I could heal it fully without having it leave a scar or anything, but I won't."

"Why?" Jun asks with a confused expression.

"Because you decided to be reckless and reckless kids need to be punished. So I'll heal it, but not fully, so it'll leave a scar," Hearing her words, Jun goes quiet for a moment before asking her, "...I can still fight after you heal me, right?"

"Well, after I'm done you'll be able to move, anything you do after that isn't my problem. But if you end up back on this bed when the school year starts, well, let's just say I could use a new test subject." Hearing her say the Jun gulps, looking a little paler than before.

"..." I'm not saying anything.

"Anyways, onto the treatment! Holy Restoration!" She shouts with both hands on his body.

Her palms start to glow with a bright green light that covers everywhere on his body except for the wound on his chest. After a few seconds, his wounds start to form scabs, then as the light fades, the scabs fall off one by one, without leaving any scars. After that, she uses Great Heal on his chest. The green light covers his wound and forms a scab just like before, but this time it leaves a scar.

Watching her treat his injuries, I think to myself, 'Woah, the fact that she can use Ether is already amazing. But I didn't know that you could use Ether to treat injuries. I kind of want to ask her about it, but I feel like it'll end badly, so I'll just save it for later. I'll probably learn more about it if I get accepted into the academy anyways.'

"Alright you're all done, here, this is a potion to help your body produce more blood to cope with the blood loss," She hands him four vials with some red blood-like fluid in it, "Take one now, and make sure you drink one every day for the next three days; otherwise, you'll become anemic."

"Alright," Jun nods his head and sits up.

"Now it's your turn, same as him, I won't fully heal you. Not only were you reckless during your fight, but you didn't seek treatment after you got injured on your side, and kept fighting, causing it to worsen. So I'll leave a scar there so you can remember your foolishness," After saying that she treats me just like she did Jun. After a few minutes, she finishes, and my whole body feels lighter, "All done! Now just like him drink this, except, you need to drink one for the next five days since you lost a lot more blood than him."

"Okay," I sit up and take the vials, wrapping them in the shredded top of my combat uniform.

"Alright, now, all of you get out! I'm sick of you already!" And like that, we're pushed out of the room.

After a few seconds of silence, Mrs. Janson scratches her head and tells us, "I need to ask you two a couple of things first, then you can go home."

Hearing her words, we both nod and follow her out of the building.

She takes us to the testing building from before, and both of us sign up for a temporary residence pass. The pass will allow us to stay in any inn in the city until the day of the entrance ceremony.

"You're both all set, here are your passes." She hands us bronze plates with the words 'Temporary Residence Pass' on one side, and '17th Of The 1st Month' on the other with an eight-pointed star embedded on both, "It'll take a few days for us to look over everyone's results and select the best out of all of you, but when your results are ready we'll send the letter to your residence listed here."

"Okay," We both nod.

After everything is done, Mrs. Janson leads us to the entrance, "Go back and get some rest. Just because your wounds are recovered, that doesn't mean that you're fully healed!"

I nod and tell her goodbye, before leaving the Academy with Jun.

"Hey!" He calls out to me.

"What?" I tilt my head, unlike before I feel a little more relaxed around him.

"Let's fight again," I shake my head, not feeling up to it, "I won't fight you right now, but if we get accepted, let's fight again someday."

"Alright! Let's fight again!" Jun's smile turns to a smirk, and he tells me, "Of course! Next time I'll win!"

"We'll see about that," I smile as we go our separate ways.