While Ronan and Greyson had been exchanging complints, the head examiner had made his way over. He had their respective badges in his hands signifying their passing grades for the painting association test.
"Congratulations to you both! So young, yet so talented. You guys will be the new shining stars of our association and take it to new heights. I can already tell that you both are ant for greatness looking at your ages, magic level, and painting ability..." He continued droning on without even bothering to ask for their nas. Unlike Grandmaster Allen, this head examiner did not co off as sincere at all. Instead he had a wily fox-like gleam in his eyes and a servile posture that looked like he would kiss up to anyone with power. Seeing through the man's deanor, Greyson did not respond at all to the man and just accepted the badge with a nod. Ronan, however, felt trapped by the sudden burst of the man's words that were praising him to the high heavens. He could only innocently blush while trying his best to deny the claims.
Completely bored with the pointless exchanging of pleasantries, Greyson had long drowned out the man's words. His brain was turning through ideas on how to quickly leave without coming off too offensively. However, he was soon distracted when he saw so sneaky movent in the crowd. Spotting the face along with the body, his eyes filled with an evil glint and a smirk ford on his face.
"Oh, no, where ever did Mr. 8-years-of-experience go? I so was hoping that he could give his advice to 3-years-of-experience . I know I still have much to learn from him." His voice practically dripping with sarcasm, the poisonous words suddenly drew the crowd's attention back to the young boy who spoke out earlier. So people showed sympathy while others were smiling at other's misfortune. Said boy, pretended he did not hear Greyson's words and continued sneaking away. Staying would only be inviting more humiliation on himself, especially since so people would recognize his na and know which painting is his. To be fair, his painting ability was really not bad, however, he had been so distracted looking at Ronan and Greyson that his painting for the exam was done haphazardly and distracted. When he finally ca to and looked at his work after the head examiner had yelled that ti was up, he could only think of quickly leaving. Just as he had believed he had quietly left with no one noticing, he heard the words of that half-elf and almost just died at that mont. Feeling the blood rushing to his head and his eyes turning red, the boy took a deep breath and controlled his anger. Leaving only one last murderous glare towards Greyson, he humphed before turning around. It would not be over with just this!
...
"Hm?" Although he could not be sure, Greyson had instinctively felt killing intent towards himself. Sneering inwardly, he could already guess who that look had co from. However, he was now an accepted student of the academy and he believed he would be able to stick out as a talented student above most of the others. This would grab the attention of those higher up in the academy who would in turn protect him. What could a random kid like that do to him?
Finally, noticing Greyson's attention had completely wondered away from him, the head examiner took the hint and stopped the conversation and let them go. He could tell by this point that both of these students were not weak towards flattery like the other egotistical noble children. Unknown thoughts flashed in his minds while a weird look was hidden as he bowed his head. This ant these kids would be much harder to control. Hmmmm... he would have to think of a solution. Greyson was too distracted to notice the odd behavior, however, Lucius, who had never left Greyson's shoulder, had noticed the strange atmosphere around the examiner and made sure to rember to remind Greyson about it later.
Ronan had let out a huge sigh of relief once he was freed from the situation. Seeing the other boy looking so worn out, Greyson couldn't hold in a small giggle.
"You know that you did not have to respond to him. You are part of the reason he would not stop talking to us. If you just ignore people like that and give them a cold response then they will go away on their own. No one likes to be the one forcing interaction."
"You make it sound easy. I don't know. With my personality, it's already hard enough to not stutter in front of strangers, let alone co off all cool and collected like you." Ronan just shook his head while smiling wryly.
"Hahaha, well, you have now right? I'll be the confident one for us."
"Yeah! I'll be counting on you then." Ronan smiled happily while extending his hand. Greyson smiled before shaking it.
"Are you going to be headed over with the rest of the kids who passed then?"
"No, I am actually going to go over and take the music exam as well."
"Music?! You play an instrunt, too?" Ronan looked over with a shocked expression.
"Yeah, I'm not exactly positive of my skill, but I think it should be passable." Greyson responded while scratching his head slightly in embarrassnt.
"You even have the blacksmith's badge on... Isn't that three occupations, then? Plus you already passed for two of them." Ronan's looked at the other badge shining on Greyson's chest that was now accompanied by the painting badge. Not holding back at all he glanced at Greyson like he was looking at so sort of monster. His expression quickly changed from awe to bitterness.
"What is it?"
"I practiced so hard to get to my level in painting, yet you sohow are already catching up to with only 3 years of experience and while splitting your ti between two other occupations. Comparing yourself to others with talent is just too depressing..."
"This is only in the earlier stages. Even I know that I will probably have to give up at least one of them to continue getting better at all of them. It only gets harder the more I try to increase my level in all of them." Hearing Ronan's words, Greyson only sighed while shaking his head. Practicing all three only seed easy right now, but he knew that blacksmithing especially would get harder and harder to increase his tier.
"Do you want to walk over with to check out the situation?" Greyson looked over and asked.
"To the music association area?" At first he paused in thought before Ronan's eyes flashed with a slightly mischievous light as he suddenly thought of sothing.
"No, I don't think I can. I'm not good with strangers, plus I know nothing about music. I think its best if you just go by yourself."
"Hm? What did you just think of?" Greyson noticed the weird look in his eyes before Ronan had said no.
"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking of a funny happening before with the music association."
"Really?" Greyson squinted his eyes and slightly scrutinized the boy in front of him.
"Yeah, really!" Ronan rapidly nodded his head.
"Okay, then. Well, I catch up to you later after the exam." Greyson of course did not believe him at all, but since Ronan had not wanted to say, he decided against prying. Waving goodbye to his new friend, he headed off to the music association exam area.
...
Slightly looking around, Greyson soon found the area. It was in a large outdoor amphitheater and the testing student would stand on the stage and perform a randomly given song before the judges and the rest of the waiting students. It was to test their musical ability first and foremost, but to also test their experience performing in front of crowds. As most musicians would have to play in front of grand audiences if they wanted to beco famous later on. In contrast to so of the more stage-fright prone peers, Greyson was completely calm with the idea. His teacher, Carlyle, had allowed him to play in the music association's concert hall before, so he was not a stranger to this aspect. He did, however, start to realize sothing very odd with the testing area. From the mont he arrived, all of the waiting students and even so of the judges kept glancing over at him and whispering. It was not that he was not used to others staring, since with his mixed blood status, a lot of people normally point and stare. It was the look in their eyes. A different kind of confusion and disdain. He also couldn't help but notice that he was one of the only males in sight. Almost every single other student and judge was a female.
Greyson was not aware, however, in the noble circles of higher tier kingdoms, only females pursued side occupations in music. Actually even back at the Dalia Academy, he was one of the few boys, but it was not exaggerated to this point of disparity. Very few n joined and most of them who did only had impure intentions towards being surrounded by only females. They also all joined later on and made so excuse like they had only just started learning when in reality they had hit puberty and recently beca more and more interested in flirting with girls. This built up a bad reputation and a stigma towards all boys who wanted to join the music association. This was why so many people were whispering about him and looking at him with disdain and disgust. Such a cute-looking and gentle half-elf boy was actually hiding such a perverse mind. He didn't look any older than 8! Most of them shook their heads thinking of such a distracted boy's future.
Oblivious to the thoughts of all the other people, Greyson just found an empty seat and listened to the current performance. To his surprise, it was actually a singer. Most of the people he knew in the association played an instrunt, however, there were a select group of amazing singers who were well-known and well-paid for their services as they were more rare. Her looks were unfortunately average, but her voice was enchanting. Closing his eyes, he felt like her voice could lull him to sleep. It was a classic song, "Red Sun," by Fleurette who was a legend in the music scene. She was even famous in the neighboring empires outside of Snow Country. The song was written by her after she had received her father's cold body after a night of battle and saw the contrasting beautiful red sun rise in the sky at dawn. Poignant and heart-breaking, it was her most famous song as the emotions were so raw. The sun continues to rise even after a long day of slaughter as if nothing had just occurred.
Although he had never experienced war, the singer touched his emotions even evoking a small tear to roll down. After the song finished, the emotions still lingered in the air, and it took a mont for the audience to break out of their reverie. Soon thunderous applause and whistles rang out as the listeners finally expressed their amazent towards her magical performance.
"Hey, isn't that Claire Fairchild?"
"Yeah! No wonder she has beco so famous these days. I did not realize she was also a talented magician."
"Exactly, she is even part of the Fairchild family. Although they are not a top ten family, they are still a powerful family in the Idris Kingdom. The head of the family is the City Lord of the Elon City, which is the third largest city in the kingdom."
Greyson continued to overhear the whispering of the girls around him about the girl onstage. Claire Fairchild? A pretty na that matched her beautiful voice. Greyson also joined in on the applause as he was genuinely impressed by her performance. After Claire, a couple of diocre performances passed by until it was already Greyson's turn. Normally he would have had to wait awhile, however, since he arrived so late because he took the other exams, most of the other students had already taken the exam. They were only sitting in the audience to enjoy the music.
Once his na was called to co onstage and perform, Greyson quickly stood up from his spot and walked over to the judges to receive his random song. The reaction of the judges was definitely less than welcoming as the head examiner only angrily grunted in response to seeing Greyson but refused to speak. One of the nicer won finally looked over to him to speak.
"Greyson?"
"Yes."
"Which instrunt do you play?"
"Flute."
"Alright, then this will be your piece." She randomly picked out a song from a pile and handed it to Greyson. He received it respectfully before looking over it quickly. Eyes lighting up happily, Greyson realized it was a song that he had enjoyed playing. It was on of Carlyle's favorite songs as well. "Snow Falling" was a famous flute piece, but the composer was unknown. It was a beautiful song that gave one the feeling of watching the first snowfall. In a country like Snow Country, this song was an obviously famous one that was extrely relatable for all the citizens. Quickly ascending the stage, Greyson brought out a cushion and placed it in the middle of the stage. Sitting crossed legged, he slowly took a breath to calm himself before waving his hand and summoning sr. Once people saw the flute, the earlier disdain slowly changed and so of the judges looked much more interested. They could tell the flute was a magic tool, which ant that the boy in front of them was actually fairly serious about music. Otherwise, no one would waste money creating a magic instrunt.
Slowly closing his eyes, Greyson brought the flute up to his lips and a light green glow flowed from his fingers into the flute. Starting peacefully and quietly, Greyson's music slowly perated throughout the amphitheater. Under the influence of Siren's Voice, the audience beca enveloped in feelings of calm silence. They picture the seen of a clear forest and the snow falling quietly. A beautiful picture. All dark feelings of anxiety and disgust were blown away as they swayed to the music released by the flute.
...
Far from the theater, a pair of long ears twitched hearing the noise projected.
"Oh?"
He waved his hand, and soon a mirror presented itself in front of him. Reflected in the mirror was surprisingly Greyson's figure onstage.
"Half-elf? Hmmmm... How interesting!" His lips curling into a smile, the man quickly disappeared from his far tower.
...
Greyson soon finished playing as the song was only a couple minutes. However, similar to Claire's earlier situation, the entire audience was still stuck in the beautiful sounds they had just heard. Soon, one clap could be heard from a random audience mber. Woken up by the clap, the audience slowly joined in until all hands were applauding the performance. Smiling politely, Greyson gave a standard bow in accordance to performance manners before slowly stepping off the stage. The judges all looked more warmly at him while the head judge gave a couple criticisms. Although she did not complint him, Greyson could tell the older woman was much happier with him than before, and he would never shy away from criticism as it would only make him better. Carlyle was one to always criticize him anyways. He soon received his third badge from their hands which he soon clipped onto his chest along with the other two.
It was at this mont that everyone else finally realized that he had three badges. Which ant he had passed three exams for different occupations! Soon rumors of this genius burst out into the rest of the exam stations and everyone was made aware of this new talent. Greyson had yet to realize but he had beco the center of attention for the rest of the students and teachers.
...
"He actually passed the exams for all three? Hmph, how annoying. I was hoping he would be just a little less talented." A familiar voice pouted.
"Oh? Little Sister Natalia is acquainted with this boy?" Another boy's voice echoed.
"Know? I guess you could say so... He's interesting. Also, talented. Maybe even more talented than you and I."
"Hahaha, well I sure hope so! I've been bored with this status quo lately."
"Gross, only Big Brother Leo would be such a competition freak. And here I was hoping to make you jealous." Natalia looked over in disdain at the boy's excited reaction.
"Jealous? That is only for those who are lack confidence in their ability. That is why they fear competition and those more talented. Plus, is talent everything? There is also hard work. I for one will not look down on my opponent, but I will also not needlessly put myself down. I am powerful. I look forward to see whether this boy, Greyson, can be a new opponent." The boy responded.
"You just look like a brawn for brains to . This is why my father loves you so much. How annoying."
"That is only because he sees how much talent his precious daughter has but she never puts practice and ditation seriously and wastes it. Whereas I am always practicing and taking advantage of my talent. You could most likely be much stronger than if only you were serious."
"Boo, not you too. I'm no longer talking with you, it's no fun. I'm leaving!" Without another word, the red-haired girl quickly flew off.
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