The trumpet signaling the start of the exam rang out across the grounds. Candidates who had been loosening up bounced on their toes, shaking energy back into their bodies. As people gathered in one place, the proctor spoke into a megaphone.
“This is the physical fitness examination site. If there are any magic track applicants present, please make your way to where the green flag is. The exam consists of six events in total. Dropping out midway will result in disqualification, and you will not be permitted to participate in the next exam. Candidates will be called in the order of their assigned numbers, and ten candidates will compete simultaneously per event. The events are as follows.”
The proctor went on to explain each event one by one in detail. Watching the other proctors inspect the testing grounds, Kale found himself suddenly reminded of last year’s experience. Only now did the memory come back to him vividly — how utterly grueling it had been, wringing every last drop of stamina out of him with each event that passed.
The first event involved holding heavy weights in both hands and stepping up and down a tall platform repeatedly. The number of repetitions completed within the allotted time was recorded.
Since more than half of the candidates had already been cut during the mana measurement test, and three-tenths of those had been redirected to the magic track, Hirse — who had an early number — was among the very first to go. Even carrying the heavy weights, Hirse moved with a springy, controlled rhythm and surpassed five hundred repetitions in total, drawing cheers from the onlookers.
Number 157, Kale’s turn came around soon enough. The moment he picked up the heavy weights in both hands, Kale already felt like his lower back was going to give out. Still, he had practiced carrying heavy loads during his time working at the inn whenever he could, and whereas last year he hadn’t even managed fifty, this year he pushed through to ninety-eight. If he’d only done two more he would have hit triple digits — Kale felt a small pang of regret over that.
Without a moment’s rest, the next event began. The second event was to put on the given equipment and sprint at full speed to a designated location. While Kale was waiting after finishing the first event, Hirse’s results came in. Hirse had set a remarkable record of ten seconds.
Steeling himself with fresh determination, Kale felt dizzy the moment he put the equipment on. The Dragon Knight Order’s gear was absurdly heavy, and Kale, lacking the raw strength to manage it, came in last among the ten runners who had started simultaneously. His own panting drowned out the announcement, but Kale’s time had exceeded twenty seconds.
Next came an event where candidates pulled on a rope attached to a dragon mannequin. The time it took to turn the mannequin’s twisted head back to face forward was recorded. After that, candidates had to shoulder a weight heavier than the one before and repeat sitting down and standing up. Following that was an event where they had to sprint quickly back and forth across a set distance, side to side.
“Ugh— hah, hah, haah, hah, hah—!”
Having completed five events back to back, Kale was utterly spent. The side-to-side sprint had ended with him stumbling around helplessly, and he felt no sense of accomplishment for it at all.
It was exhausting enough to make him resent the very existence of these events. But they all existed for a reason. Dragon Knights who go to the front lines alongside dragons must be quick in their judgment. To lead a dragon, one needed a fundamentally strong will. The Dragon Knight Order believed that will came from physical endurance.
“Last event. Beginning timed shuttle run. Next group to your positions—”
At the proctor’s instruction, Kale gathered his ragged breathing and forced himself to his feet. If he quit here, there was no delay — it was immediate elimination. That meant going home without even getting to eat. And on top of that, his results were better than last year’s; it would be a shame to give up now.
Just hold on a little longer, Kale. You can do this! One more step! Then, then maybe—
Turning over his many regrets in his mind, Kale steadied his resolve. Ten candidates, Kale included, took their positions. The proctors watched them carefully.
“Begin!”
At the head proctor’s shout, the final timed event commenced. The event measured how many times candidates could run back and forth across a set length of track within a given period. Kale’s rhythm had already been shattered by the preceding events, and he was breathless before he even started — it felt like death. He dug down to the very last reserves of his strength and barely managed to hold himself together.
“Hah— haah— hah. Hah—!”
His face as red as his hair, Kale finished his final lap and dragged his trembling legs back to his position. The examiner who checked Kale’s final record clicked his tongue. He recorded the worst long-distance running time among all this year’s physical track candidates beside number 157.
With scores like these, it seemed he fell far short of the standard required to become a Dragon Knight. Still, Kale took comfort in the fact that he hadn’t given up and had seen it through to the end.
“So this is the level you had the nerve to call yourself a Dragon Knight candidate with? Even worse than I expected. How disappointing.”
Hirse had somehow spotted Kale slumped powerlessly on the ground — conserving what little energy he had left while the other candidates finished their events — and made a point of seeking him out just to sneer at him. Kale had been quietly congratulating himself on having made it through, but he didn’t have the breath to fire back.
“What’s wrong? Why not answer back the way you did before?”
Hirse jabbed at him a few more times — saying something about how pathetic it was to be this tired, how beneath contempt it all was. Kale’s heart was hammering so wildly that his mind had gone completely blank, and he did nothing but sit there and quietly gasp for air. Perhaps finding the lack of reaction boring, Hirse left for elsewhere before long.
“Hah— hoo, hooo. God, I’m dying. I’m actually dying.”
As exhaustion crashed over him all at once, Kale regretted not eating a few more mulberries before handing the rest off to his friend. But hunger like this could be solved with just a little patience. There would be a free dinner waiting after the final exam, after all.
Soon the exam wrapped up. The most agonizing and grueling stretch was over; if he could just get through the next exam, this year’s fiercely competitive Dragon Knight Order entrance exam would finally be done. The proctors finished collecting the candidates’ recorded results and blew their whistles to get everyone’s attention.
“Those sitting the final exam, follow the flag.”
A proctor carrying a flag led the way from the front. Candidates who had been exchanging thoughts on the difficulty of the events fell into step a pace behind. Among them, some voluntarily withdrew from the next exam — people who felt it was hopeless when they saw just how many high-scoring candidates like Hirse were ranked above them. Adding in the magic track candidates would make the competition even fiercer, and from Hirse’s perspective, one could call it the smart decision of someone who knew their limits.
Kale knew he wasn’t exceptional compared to the others, but he didn’t give up. He forced his shaking legs to carry him upright. His thoughts floated light and hazy, and he had no strength left to even twitch a finger.
Having fallen behind, Kale followed along to the next exam location. Watching his own slow, dragging steps, Kale’s mind drifted for a moment to his golden-haired friend who had gone a different way. A small smile touched his lips, just like that friend always wore, and he breathed some courage back into his chest.
After walking for a good while, the two flags converged at the same location. The candidates from both tracks gathered in front of a large building. People who recognized one another exchanged greetings, asking how the other had done. Glad for the reunion, Kale looked around for his golden-haired friend too. With everyone mixed together in a crowd, it wasn’t easy to spot that glittering golden head. His friend tended to move unusually slowly, so it seemed he’d been pushed off to some corner again this time.
He did take the exam, didn’t he? I’d love to see him use magic just once.
Before Kale even had a chance to find his friend, the crowd began moving all at once. All candidates were required to enter the building in front of them under the proctors’ guidance. Under the proctors’ strict supervision, the candidates were funneled through the first-floor corridor and filed one by one into a row of rooms. Inside were desks arranged in neat, orderly rows.
Candidates were assigned to desks in the order they entered. Kale sat down at one of them. A sturdy, smooth desk — the right length, no wobble, no carved-up marks. Quite excellent. Kale curled his fingers into the shape of holding a pen, and imagined what the final exam ahead would look like.
The final exam was a written test evaluating the general knowledge a Dragon Knight candidate ought to possess. Truth be told, Kale wasn’t confident about this exam either. At the orphanage, getting hold of difficult books had been next to impossible, so Kale’s literacy had remained at about the level of a young child raised in a noble household. With so little formal learning, even reading the words took him a long time.
“According to past exams, there’s nothing beyond basic common sense questions.”
“Hmph. As long as it properly filters out the ones with nothing but dung between their ears, I don’t care what it is.”
Of all the terrible luck — Hirse had been assigned to the same room as Kale. And right at the diagonal in front of him, no less, openly mocking the people around him alongside Lien.
Kale overheard the two of them talking so boldly and was appalled. Nothing beyond common sense questions? Kale had pushed through to this point last year too and sat the written exam, and the questions themselves had been so far beyond him he’d felt nauseous.
If I fail this time, maybe I should ask Hirse to teach me. Kale thought about it seriously. He seems to like showing off how much he knows, so if I ask him honestly, he might actually help. And if I can squeeze more information out of him, I’ll be even closer to passing next year.
Either way, even if I fail this year, I need to memorize as many of the exam questions as I can. If I remember them well enough, I can pass next year.
Next year. The final exam hadn’t even started yet, and Kale was already worrying about next year. He tried to think positively, but when things kept getting pushed back by a full year at a time, time inevitably slipped away. Anxiety and unease washed over Kale. Every time he let himself think carelessly, guilt seemed to reach up from behind and drag him back down.
Where on earth is Al? No — I’ll think about that later. Thinking about it here isn’t going to help anything.
Pulling himself back before he sank further into that bog, Kale let his gaze sweep across the room he’d been assigned to. His golden-haired friend was apparently taking the exam in a different room. He wondered whether that friend would actually manage to finish writing in time. Kale was weighing whether to slip over to the next room and check, but before he could act on it, people who appeared to be Dragon Knight Order officials came pouring into the room.
