November 29th, year 787 of the Imperial calendar

We arrived at the Capital by train. It was a whole 2 days before the exams actually started, so we got some free time to explore the Capital.

Me, Krista, and Alicia had our mouths hung open at sight of the Imperial Capital. The Capital, which looked like an American city in the early 20th century, was divided into four sections: North, West, South, East.

The Northern section was called the Noble district, it was where most of the mansions and villas were.

All sorts of goods were sold at the Southern quarter, ranging from vegetables to high-grade potions. This was also where the main headquarters of the Adventurer guild was located.

The West was dedicated to Mana engineering, thus making it the place where the Empire developed most of its technologies.

And finally, the Eastern quarter was the commoner's district. Despite being called that, the streets still looked nice and polished. Even Leiast city couldn't compare to the so-called commoner district. As expected of the Imperial Capital.

Surrounding the entire proximity of the Capital were walls about 50m in height. I didn't know why they needed to build walls that high. It's not like there would be void beasts or monsters that big attacking the Capital, right?

Anyways, we were in the Southern district, wearing cloaks to avoid attracting too much attention. Though, it seemed to have the opposite effect instead.

While wearing cloaks was considered normal, wearing white cloaks was not. I couldn't even count the number of adventurers sneering and pointing fingers at us.

"Krista" I said.

"Yes?"

"Go to the adventurer guild and renew your information. You're not hiding your identity anymore so might as well do it now"

"Okay!"

After sending Krista went on her way, I turned towards my head Alicia, and was only met with awkward silence. I furrowed my brows, trying to figure out what to do with her but came up with nothing.

We had already booked our rooms at an inn, and bought enough supplies so there was nothing left do to.

Well, Krista did tell me to buy some clothes for Alicia, but I didn't want to experience the pain of shopping for clothes with a girl. Who knows how many hours that would take.

Luckily, I came up with a solution to save us from this predicament. Since we've already done the most important things, it wouldn't hurt to let Alicia do whatever she wanted now that she was no longer stuck on those mountains. And I would be content with anywhere but the clothing stores.

"So, Alicia, what do you want to do?"

"..."

"..."

"Sleep"

This... I forgot how similar Alicia's personality was to mine. Hell, she even enjoyed sleeping, just like me. However, that made me reconsider going to the clothing stores with her. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad after all.

As we came into the nearest clothing store, a clerk greeted us. She her eyes sparkled at the sight of Alicia. After all, Alicia was objectively very cute.

From the looks of it, Alicia wouldn't be able to escape the fate of being her dress-up doll. Well, I didn't want to waste my energy choosing clothes for other people anyways so I left Alicia to the mercy of the clerk.

Unsurprisingly, the clerk accepted my request with enthusiasm.

But perhaps surprisingly, it went a bit different than what I had expected.

"Hey, try this"

"No"

"How about this?"

"No"

"Try this on, it will look good on you!"

"No"

...

I was wrong. Although Alicia's personality was very similar to mine, she was blunt, too blunt for even my standards. But I doubt she cared about any of that.

"Thank you for your patronage" The clerk said with a strained smile. She clearly didn't expect her dress-up doll to shoot down every attempts she made.

Alicia just nodded at her words and walked out of the store holding a bag containing a simple white shirt and long skirt.

'Even her fashion sense is like mine'

We then decided to go to a tavern to wait for Krista.

It wasn't night, yet the tavern was lively and full of people. The scent of liquor and roasted meat permeates through the air. In such a tavern, both Alicia and I just ordered water and nothing else. At this point, I wasn't even surprised anymore.

|Seriously, why are you like this?| Lyra spoke to Alicia.

"?" Alicia made a puzzled face.

|You're boring just like Theodore. It's almost like you're his daughter or something|

I listened to their conversation in silence. But upon hearing what Lyra had just said, I wanted to give her a hard smack on the head.

Lyra, not knowing about Alicia's circumstances, continued to blabber on and on while not noticing Alicia's depressed look. It had been almost 2 months since the death of Alicia's parents. But that amount of time was not nearly enough for her to completely get over their deaths.

Sighing, I gently caressed Alicia's head. I learned this trick from Krista, apparently Alicia like it when her head was caressed. Well, I also liked it when my mother caressed my head. I was starting to think that Alicia was just the female version of me.

She widened her eyes as she felt my hands on her head, before shutting them close seemingly to focus on feeling the warmth from my hand.

It seemed to have worked as her expression had gotten noticeably better than before. Seeing this, I decided to remove my hands. But Alicia used her own hands to press mine down firmly on her head as I did so.

"Just a bit longer" She said in a low voice.

I nodded. If this could make her feel a bit better, I'd have no problem doing it. I knew how hard it had been for her. Although she seemed apathetic and bored on the outside, I was aware of how lonely she felt inwardly. Unlike me who had the chance to meet my mother again someday, Alicia would could never feel the warmth from her parents again.

Thus, for 2 hours, anyone entering the tavern would be met with the sight of a boy wearing 3 pair of sunglasses patting the head of a pink-haired girl half his age, while occasionally sipping iced water.

***

After leaving the tavern, we headed straight for the inn. Alicia seemed to have returned to normal, judging by the bored look on her face.

As we were walking down the street, however, we saw a girl being surrounded by 5 men in a dark alleyway.

At a glance, anyone could tell that the girl was an absolute beauty. Long black hair that flowed down to her waist, blood red eyes, and attractive facial features. The only thing bad about her was that her chest area was... super underdeveloped. Well, a perverted noble might argue otherwise.

Although some might mistake her for a young child, I knew for a fact that she was the same age as me.

Why? Because she looked exactly like a member of the protagonist's harem. In fact, I was 99% sure that she was a heroine.

"Aren't you going to help her?" Alicia asked me.

I shook my head, before replying.

"No, they're probably just doing that to scam people. It had happened a couple of times before"

Of course, it was a lie. She was really surrounded by 5 suspicious men who wanted to do indecent things to her.

However, I wasn't worried at all since she was strong enough to beat those 5 to death without even batting an eye. That and the fact that the protagonist was going to 'save' her from the men, which would spark her interest in him.

Alicia stared at me suspiciously, before shrugging her shoulders and continued walking.

After a while, we heard explosions going off in the direction of the alleyway.

'Must have been the protagonist' I thought as I patted myself on the back for having made the right decision.

***

We returned to the inn afterwards without much troubles and had dinner, with Krista joining us soon after.

We wasted the next day loitering around, doing nothing much. Well, only Krista did that. Me and Alicia just slept through the whole day.

Finally, it was the day of the entrance exam. Krista and me prepared our gears and departed for Avaron academy.

"Good luck" Alicia said as we were leaving.

I lightly nodded, while Krista enthusiastically raised her fist into the air and hugged Alicia, thanking her for the encouraging words.

Avaron academy was located a good distance away from the Capital, which was understandable. After all, having a bunch of hot-headed teenager practicing large-scale magic inside the Imperial capital was not a wise idea.

However, there were special transfer gates in the Capital that were directly connected to the academy. Thus, we were able to get there without much trouble. Although, the fee of 50 Silvers per person felt like a rip-off, considering that this gate was much like the gate Alicia's family owned since it also made me throw up the breakfast I had this morning.

Cleaning up my mess, I made my way to one of the buildings in which the examinations would take place.

Luckily, there were multiple buildings that hosted the exam. As such, I didn't have to worry about getting crammed in a tight space with thousands of other people.

Inside was what you'd expect. The venue was filled with people my age, most of them were sweating nervously as the exam could be anything, ranging from a 1v1 tournament to a written test.

Of course, I was already aware of the content of the exams. That was not to say I had that much of an advantage over everyone else. After all, the exam was going to be monster hunting, and the type of monster you'd have to hunt was completely random.

***

After an hour of waiting, a burly man, wearing clothes with Avaron academy's insignia entered the building I was in.

"Alright! Listen here you maggots!" He spoke loudly with an authoritative tone.

"Keep quite and come up to me when you get called!" He continued.

Everyone then went silent, heeding to the man's word.

The burly man nodded, seemingly satisfied, before calling out the name of a person.

"Heinz Reutas!"

A boy, who I presumed was Heinz, came up to the man. He then received a piece of paper with a picture of a sandworm drawn on it, with the number '3' written on the back side.

Instantly, the entire venue became noisy as everyone had just roughly figured out what the exam was going to be about.

"QUIET!" The man shouted.

"From the looks of it, I'm sure you all have an idea of what's going on"

"That's right, you will have to hunt monsters if you want to get in this academy!"

"The time limit is 3 days. So I'd suggest giving up if you think you aren't up for it"

The man's speech was met with mixed reactions. Some despaired, while others steeled themselves for the tough challenge to come. However, all of them were aware that if they had to hunt a strong monster, their chances of getting in the academy would be close to nil.

The burly man then proceeded to call everyone's name one by one, not caring about the nervous looks of the examinees.

...

"Krista Nightshade!"

It was Krista's turn. She received the paper and looked at it. She had to hunt stone golems - an F ranked monster. It was a pretty bad match-up for Krista, considering that she didn't have any ways to deal significant damage to them save for her [Void skewer].

Well, she seemed to have not been discouraged by that, as her eyes only flashed with determination.

...

"Arthur Kilvillain"

A youth with pitch black hair, bright golden eyes, handsome face and a well-built body walked forwards.

The faces of all the girls in the venue had a tinge of red, and their eyes were glued to the youth. The boys, however, looked at him with envy and jealousy.

He was the protagonist of 'The holy swordsman', Arthur Kilvillain.

I had to keep myself from running up to him and beat him senselessly to vent my frustration.

This likeable handsome bastard spared so many villains, just for them to come back later and wreck havocs, harming more innocent lives. Honestly, I couldn't care less about the fact that thousands of people would die. It wasn't any of my businesses that their deaths could have been so easily prevented.

However, Arthur, that bastard, he got on my nerves.

A pushover, and a total hypocrite, that's how I would describe him. He kept blabbering on and on about how everyone deserved a second chance in life when he spared the villains, but did he once care about all of their underlings that he killed?

'Kilvillain' my ass!

Not just that, he killed every single Void fiends he came across without batting an eye. Even innocent halflings that were even a bit related to the Void weren't spared. But, why didn't he kill Krista then? Was it because she was useful to him? Or was it because he wanted to have her in his harem?

Whatever reasons he had, it wouldn't change the fact that he was simply a hypocritical child that didn't know how the world works.

And for that, I despised him.

...

Arthur gracefully walked up to the burly man and received his paper.

'Serves you right' I snickered as in the novel, he had to hunt ridiculously strong monsters and was left near dead afterwards. My only regret was that I would probably not be there to witness that happening.

He unfolded his paper, drawn on it were... goblins. Not hobgoblins, but normal goblins. You know, those green gremlins that nearly killed me 6 years ago.

'WHAT?'

I wanted to scream out loud, but I managed to restrain myself. It would be bad if I made a scene here.

However, the situation was very strange. Arthur wasn't supposed to have goblins as his targets, he was supposed to hunt Wyverns in the novel.

Just as I was thinking about what went wrong, I heard my name being called out.

"Theodore Gray!"

I had a bad premonition, but I still came forward. Everyone looked at me, not with affection or envy like they did with Arthur, but with ridicules.

Seriously, was wearing 3 pairs of sunglasses at the same time that ridiculous?

Unfortunately, the sense of unease I had did not come from being sneered at. Instead, it came from the piece of paper I was holding.

I unfolded it and... Wyverns, I had to hunt fucking Wyverns, 5 of them at that.

I hung my head down low and returned to the side of Krista.

'Why did I get Arthur's target?'

Despite thinking that, I already knew the answer. It was luck, purely luck. With Arthur being the luckiest man alive, and me being considerably unlucky, it would make sense for this to happen. Although it was not Arthur's fault, I couldn't help but get angry at him.

Sensing my anger surging up, I quickly activated [F - Emotionless].

I calmed down, and left the venue to start making preparations.

I was stuck with hunting Wyverns, and there was no other way to go about it. Thus, I would just have to try my best.

|You have to hunt Wyverns?| Lyra suddenly spoke up.

|So we will get to meet Storm Wyverns after all!| She continued with an excited voice.

I stared at the Celestial in bird form before me for a good minute, before accepting her suggestion, as Storm Wyverns were one of the weaker sub-species of Wyvern.

Although I'd have liked to hunt Gray Wyverns since the only thing they could do was claw people to death, hunting Storm Wyverns could prove useful in the long run since Lyra could supposedly tame them.

Besides, most Storm Wyverns were at F rank anyways so it shouldn't be too bad as long as I had some help.

"Storm Wyverns it is"

|YES!| She exclaimed excitedly.

'Why is a Great General acting like a child?'

|I'm not!| Lyra said. I could tell that she was pouting from her tone.

"What? You can read my mind?" I asked warily.

|Of course not! Your expression practically exposed your thoughts|

"..."

I then made a mental note to practice my poker face later.

I couldn't go with Krista since she had to hunt monsters at a completely different location from mine. Thus, I parted ways with her, and used the transfer gate to get to the Storm Canyon in the Beastkin territory.

***

As students at Avaron and Kirion academies needed to travel to many regions in the Empire for either their study or practical exams, there were many transfer gates around the Empire that were connected to the two academies.

The Storm Canyon was one such place.

Located at the border between the Dwarven and Beastkin territories, it was home to all kinds of monsters and spirits that had water, wind, and lightning attribute due to its constant stormy weather. As such, it was a famous location for many monster tamers and spiritualists.

It seemed that I've gotten somewhat used to using gates now, as I only spent a minute vomiting this time around.

I stood at the entrance to a town near the Storm Canyon. I could feel the intensity of the rain and the wind even when the town was an hour away from the canyon.

Normally, I'd hate this kind of weather. But, for some reasons, I felt very comfortable. It must have been because of Lyra.

As I would probably be here for at least 2 days, I went to the nearest inn I could find and booked a room. Upon entering the inn, however, I came face to face with someone I knew very well.

"Raun!"

That someone was Raun. And he jolted up in surprise upon hearing his name. He then turned around and saw me waving at him.

Raun smiled brightly and ran up to me. But before he could take 2 steps, however, he suddenly held his stomach with one hand and started laughing uncontrollably.

"HAHAHA! THEODORE! WHAT'S WITH THOSE SUNGLASSES"

Veins bulged out of my forehead. That bastard, he started laughing as soon as he saw the friend that he couldn't meet for 6 years straight.

Seeing me fuming, Raun halted his laughter, coughed a few times before regaining composure.

"Ehem! so how are you today?" He asked, pretending that he hadn't just laughed his ass off just a few seconds ago.

I used my skill to calm down, sighed and answered him.

"I'm fine. But are you here for the exams too?"

"Yep, hunting Wind Wolves. Good match for me since my affinity hard counters theirs. What about you?"

"..."

"Theodore?"

"Storm Wyverns, 5 of them" I spoke in a dejected voice.

"What?" He was flabbergasted, as Wyverns were the second toughest type of monster in this year's entrance exams, just below Ogres.

He looked at me with pity, before making a smug face.

"It couldn't be helped. I guess this generous and handsome Raun could give you a hand. After all, I wouldn't need 5 seconds to kill all those Wyverns"

I really wanted to plant my fists into his smug face, but I managed to restrain myself. After all, I was going to ask other students for cooperation anyways, so I had no reasons refuse Raun's help.

"Okay then, hope you take good care of me" I extended my hand to him.

Raun shook my hand and gave me a smirk.

"I knew you'd someday acknowledge my greatness"

I started to regret my decision as he said that but it was too late to pull out now.

***

We left the inn and walked towards the canyon. We would need to go in quite deep as Storm Wyverns normally don't wander around the outer areas of the canyon. Well, emphasis on 'normally', since we were met with one as soon as we arrived at our destination.

Wyverns looked exactly like small version of dragons, save for the fact that they only had 4 limbs, including the 2 wings on their front limbs, while dragons in their dragon form had 6, four legs and 2 wings.

The Wyvern we spotted was a bit smaller than average, it was probably a juvenile.

After discussing for a while, we decided on what to do: I would be taking on the Wyvern alone.

Raun protested for a bit before giving in since the Wyvern was only at rank F-. But he still readied his shield to prepare for any unexpected situations.

I haven't used my magic at all ever since I bonded with Lyra so this was a good chance for me to test things out.

I took out a sniper rifle, aimed at the Wyvern and used [Railgun].

Bzzzzt—! BANG—!

Orangish-red electricity surrounded the barrel of my rifle, and a silver bullet was shot out, followed by a red trail. It seemed that the bond had affected my mana, turning its original pale white color into an orangish-red one.

Despite the high wind speed, [Railgun] wasn't strayed off course by even a tiny bit, and the bullet made direct contact with the Wyvern's head.

Knowing that it was not enough, I took out my sword and rushed towards it. However, I froze on the spot upon seeing the state of the Wyvern

It was dead, as dead as it could be since its head literally burst into chunks of meat.

Although [Railgun] was powerful, it wasn't powerful enough to do that. At most, even with the power I had acquired from making a bond with Lyra, it would just cleanly pierce through the Wyvern's skull instead of doing whatever that was.

Well, I only had one way to find out.

"Lyra"

|What?|

"How did the Wyvern become like that?"

|Oh, you get stronger in stormy weather like this because of the bond with me|

"I see..."

That did make sense. I was just glad that hunting Storm Wyverns would be much easier from now on.

"H- hey, that was Lightning magic, right? H- how did you make it so powerful?" Raun spoke with his mouth hung open.

"Oh, it's nothin—"

|Hey! This is a good chance to spread my god's name!|

"Uh I mean it was all thanks to the blessings of the great God Of the Storms Vihar!" I spoke somewhat enthusiastically.

Raun just stared at me like I was a different person, before walking up to me and shaking my shoulders.

"You're Theodore, right? No, you can't be! Theodore wasn't even a religious person in the first place! And he sure wouldn't join some backwater religions! RETURN MY THEODORE, IMPOSTOR!"

I just smacked Raun's head in response. It was pretty refreshing not going to lie.

Lyra wasn't even mad at Raun since I guess she had already accepted that Vihar was forgotten in this day and age. Instead, she just lets out a dejected sigh.

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to spread his name widely in the future" I patted the Celestial on the back.

I went up to the dead Wyvern and collected its horns, which was more tedious than I had expected since the horns were blasted off to god knows where. But we found them nonetheless.

We then went deeper into the canyon, meeting a pack of Wind Wolves along the way.

Before they could even do anything, I just obliterated them with a couple of [Lightning spear], essentially completing the entrance exam for Raun.

"..."

"Well well Raun, who's helping who now?" I said with a smug face.

"..."

Seeing him being this confused, I couldn't help but to continue teasing him.

...

We continued going deeper into the canyon.

We met 3 more Storm Wyverns and killed them without much difficulties thanks to Lyra making them more docile. I even thought that I might be able complete the exam in a day.

That was, until we heard a loud roar from behind us.

It was a Wyvern, a big one at that. Its color was pitch black, but I could tell that it wasn't a Black Wyvern as we would have died on the spot if that was the case.

|A Greater Storm Wyvern!| Lyra exclaimed out loud, causing Raun to eye his surrounding warily for the source of the voice. However, he couldn't linger on the mystery of Lyra's voice for long as the monster right in front of us took priority.

"Why is it here" I asked Lyra in a low voice.

|Those Wyverns you killed earlier, they were probably its children|

"Can't you order it to leave us alone or something?"

|I can't, my power is limited here in the mortal world. And it's too enraged to even listen to me|

'Shit' I hardened my grip on the handle of my sword. If that was indeed the case, there was no way it was going to just let us go.

Thus, Raun and I began our fight with an E+ ranked monster.