Beast Taming? Nah, Dragon Herding is Way Better! - Chapter 50

Chapter 50: An Examiner’s Surprise
While the old man goes back to what he is supposed to do, the white-haired, youthful beauty of a principal of this academy starts moving to investigate the young man she takes interest in, her figure after disappearing from the area where the old guard is located now appearing once again on a relatively tall tower connected to the main building of the academy, looking down on the ground as she tries to search for the young man’s figure amidst all the other exam takers down below.

“Does anything pique your interest, Miss Aria?” out of the shadows that blurs some parts of the room she is currently in, a voice that seems to talk to the principal asks with an apparent trace of patience and dedication on her feminine voice, dutifully waiting for the white-haired beauty’s words and just standing right where she is like a statue.

“Observe that young man over there for a while, take note of all his actions during his exams” finally seeing the figure of Diluc among the crowd, the horned beauty orders as she points out exactly where he is right now, earning a nod of acceptance from the feminine figure hiding in the shadows of the room.

“As you command, my lady” the figure hiding in the shadows replies as she completely disappeared from where she is previously located, a technique, or rather a trick that the very same lady she is receiving order from taught her and the other ladies bearing the same insignia of the same force on them, a force exclusively under the direct orders of this white-haired youthful beauty.

“What sort of things are you hiding, young man…” she mutters to herself as she thinks of several reason why she is somehow so fascinated with him despite thinking that there are a lot more talents that is on equal, if not of a greater standing than him, not even in her wildest dream will she be aware of the fact that this young man is a ticket for her to grow into greater heights.

———-

Meanwhile, unaware of the thing happening within the premise of the academy, Diluc continues to tread the path towards the next trials of the entrance exam, finally seeing the end of this road as he saw a building that seems to be made for a gathering of a lot of people, something of a hall that spans more than dozen meters in both length and width, with its height spanning across ten of meters from ground up.

Seeing that there are a lot of young men going towards the multiple entrances of this hall, the emperor-like young man then proceeds to walk towards one of the entrances as well, following after some young men who seems to start making connections with others already, opting not to do something similar right now as he never knew when he will meet a traitorous bastard similar to the people his parents used to know.

Finally entering inside this hall, the young man hears a lot of things within the surroundings due to his heightened senses from the blessings he received, blessings that he already acquired thrice now given that the young fire dragon, Seraphina, who is now about to enter her adolescent age also gives him her blessings just a few minutes after she comes out of her shell.

What stands out the most from the things he is hearing are those of the people right in the middle of the hall, on an elevated stage surrounded by the ladder-like seats where they are guided to sit by staffs of the academy as they enter inside.

As he looks at the location where most of the sound from talking come from, the young man saw ten clear perfectly spherical orbs the size of an adult human’s head standing on top of a pedestal engraved with multitude of magic runes derived from magic circles, its purpose seemingly measuring the mana of the exam takers somehow given that it gives off different intensity of light the moment the examinee places their hands on it and surges their mana respectively.

“Number 1233, fail”

“Number 1235, fail”

“Number 1237, fail”

“Number 1238, fail”

“Number 1239, fail”

Hearing the consecutive failed mark coming from the examiners observing the intensity of light coming out from the spheres, most of the young men in the surrounding couldn’t help but feel a tad too nervous despite it not being their time to enter this trial yet, most of them worrying due to the fact that they don’t even know whether it is the level of mana they have or whether it is the quality of their mana that the device is checking.

“Anyone who isn’t mentioned, please move toward this door, the next trial is waiting for you…” one of the staff of the academy points out towards the exit right behind him, his face containing a patronizing smile that seems to make the aspiring students amiable with their approach to him.

“…as for the ones who failed, please move towards this door, we will be awaiting you next year once again” after seeing that the ones who passed are already out of the hall, another staff said as she points towards the exit behind her, her expressions similar to the one that the man guarding the exit for the aspiring students who passed, however her smile is more of a comforting rather than the congratulating one, causing the ones who failed to not feel so bad about themselves.

“This is… surprisingly good” seeing this, Diluc couldn’t help but think that even despite all the things he heard from his parents about the academy, it feels completely different given how these staffs seems to care even for the ones who fails the exam, as well as treat everyone who passed with respect no matter what their social status is.

This seems to work quite well in their favor as well, given that so far into the exams and they still haven’t encountered a troublemaker that will disrupt the flow of the test, something that they are also thankful for given that just one minor interruption might cause a long delay for their work.

“Number 1241 to 1250, please come to the stage to get your mana tested” one of the examiners on the stage said prompting ten other young men to approach the stage, each one of them bearing different appearance yet sharing the very same expression on their face, one that is quite dominated with nervousness and worry, albeit each one of them has different intensity of it from the other.

This way of testing the students continues without any mishap, probably because of the amiable staffs or probably because these young men are afraid of making a mess in this place, where the most powerful people not only of the Flammenherz Kingdom, but also from the neighboring lands, gathers.

“Number 1451 to number 1460, please come to the stage to get your mana tested” another person among the ten examiners on the stage said, prompting ten new young men to approach the elevated stage, one among them bearing an expression of absolute confidence in his face, something that these examiners rarely saw on someone taking this trial.

Stepping into the stage, Diluc comes face to face with the examiner who is supposed to check his results, said examiner so amiable that he even made a small conversation with him as if to get the thought and worries of this trial out of his mind.

“You seem pretty confident, young man” the one examining him, what seems to be a middle-aged beast kin with a cat tail behind her along with the cat ears poking out of the examiner’s hat she is wearing, said with a smile on her face, a smile that reveals her feral fangs, something that fascinates the emperor-like young man.

“Indeed, miss, I’m just quite worried about the performance of my companion” Diluc replies as he thought about Alea who might be taking similar type of exam now as well, his words causing this beast kin lady to get curious of who his companion is.

“Mind telling me who your companion is?” as she guides him to the process of the exam, the beast kin lady asks while she starts infusing her mana to kickstart the process of the runes on the pedestal holding the sphere, causing her to cover her mouth in giggles as she heard the young man’s reply.

“My companion… she’s on the other branch of the road…” he said a bit ambiguously, yet given how this is the method that they always test the student with, only having some minor changes in it, the lady immediately gets what he is talking about, probably wanting to urge him to speak about the ‘companion’ he has if not for the event that starts to happen, something concerning the young man’s mana testing device.

“This…” seeing the thing happening in front of her, the beast kin examiner couldn’t help but feel a bit astonished, prompting her to look at the young man she is supposed to observe during this trial.