After grabbing her belongings from the nursing station, Elizabeth quickly began running to the exam site, the Bellum Coliseum. In her rush through the bustling, lively streets of the capital, she dashed past storefronts, trade carts in large pavilions, and hundreds of people, many of them heading in the same direction at a leisurely pace. Elizabeth didn't have time to think about the number of people heading for the largest coliseum in the kingdom, nor the businesses and traders she passed. She knew she had to get to the Coliseum before the exams began, and there would be time for everything else later.
After half an hour, Elizabeth finally reached her destination, the Bellum Coliseum. She panted out of breath, leaning over and planting her hands on her knees, attempting to catch her breath. Her gaze was locked to the ground as beads of sweat dripped down from her forehead onto the herringbone white and grey brick road beneath her. She raised her right arm and wiped the back of her hand on her forehead, attempting to wipe away her signs of fatigue.
As Elizabeth looked up at one of the architectural wonders in the capital, her eyes went wide. She was in shock from the sheer size of it and the number of people walking in. The coliseum itself was built to hold at least half of the original capital, and was made from carved marble. It looked to be larger than her entire village, just in circumference. Black banners hung between the columns in the middle section of the three tiers that made up the coliseum. The banners were taller than a conventional building, all sporting the symbol of Rege-Uptus, a depiction of a gold phoenix fighting a red dragon. It was a way to show the rise from the ashes of the Dragonic War.
"Hey there, you look like you rushed to get here," A deep voice sounds out behind Elizabeth, "You must be here for the exams too, huh?"
Elizabeth turned to see a rather tall, yet young-looking man with short, well-maintained black hair. His face was rather angular, with a sharp jaw and high cheekbones, his eyes a dark greyish color. He wore a form-fitting leather jacket that was unzipped to show his grey shirt underneath, along with a pair of dark-washed jeans and black combat boots. All of his clothes were completely clean, his boots practically shining in the daylight. Elizabeth could tell he came from a regal life, possibly living in the capital or a neighboring city.
"Y-yeah, I just ran here all the way from the hospital to take them." Elizabeth panted between heavy breaths. "Are you here for the exams too?" She managed to ask as she stood herself up straight.
"Of course, I mean, look around, practically half the capital is here for them." The young man gestured to the seas of people funneling into the gates. "But I'm here to take them the same as you. Name's Gabe by the way, pleasure to meet you." Gabe said, reaching his hand out in a motion to shake.
Elizabeth took Gabe's hand in hers to give it a shake, "Nice to meet you, my name's Elizabeth." She answered, putting a smile on her face as she continued catching her breath. "So, you ready for the exams?"
Gabe chuckled as the handshake broke. "Yeah, I've been training for them since I was six, so I'd like to think so," Gabe gave a cocky tone, clearly full of himself, "How about yourself?"
"Wait, you've been training since you were six?" Elizabeth's eyes widened in shock, her face becoming flushed.
"Yeah, I know. I was quite young when my parents started training me. Being a part of the Grand Infantry is in my blood. My father, and his father before him, and on and on. Plus, with my affinity, my parents wanted me to train right away; they thought I'd be the strongest in my family." Gabe said with a casual attitude, "It was too soon if you ask me, most people never have any official training before becoming Grand Infantryman. Usually, only those with high-born families or those with deep pockets train that early. I came from the former to be honest with you." Gabe bragged about his background, still maintaining his casual demeanor.
This calmed Elizabeth down and made her roll her eyes accidentally. She knew Gabe was only trying to flaunt how long he'd been training. "So, you're joining cause your family wants you to?" Elizabeth said with a disingenuous tone.
"I wouldn't say that." Gabe laughed nervously due to Elizabeth's iciness. "They do, but I want to do it for me, you know, defend the people of the kingdom and all. Especially with the state of everything and the 'Order of the Blue Flame.'" Gabe used air quotes during his explanation. "But I want to protect people, do something that really matters, so I figure, the Grand Infantry is the best decision I can make."
Elizabeth's face and attitude began to soften at Gabe's response, "Huh, well then I can understand that at least. I'm here for the same reason," Elizabeth's tone shifted to become much more polite. "Speaking of the Grand Infantry, is it true that when we pass the exams, the Archmagus of War swears us in personally?"
"From what I know and my father told me, yeah. I'm super excited to meet him if I'm honest with you. Everything he's been doing to secure more land in the South has been incredible, not to mention all that he's done in his past two terms as Archmagus has been the most anyone in his position has done." Gabe complimented the Archmagus.
Elizabeth turned her head to the side inquisitively, "Wait, what has he been doing to secure more land to the South exactly? I'm sorry, I'm from Lapidus, so I'm not quite up to date on everything going on."
"Really? You haven't heard of the war with the Southern tribes? Basically, the Southern tribes attacked supply lines and villages in Southern Rege-Uptus, and from what I've heard, the current Archmagus tried to broker peace, but they refused and began a war with us." Gabe continued to explain recent events with Elizabeth, "So he mobilized some of the best of the best and took the opportunity to free those tribes and bring them into Rege-Uptus. They've supposedly been building new villages and towns there already. It's impressive if you ask me."
Elizabeth nodded along, "Huh, I can't believe news of this didn't reach Lapidus, when did this war begin?"
"Only about two months ago," Gabe answered enthusiastically, "That's one of the things that makes it so impressive. Apparently, the exams were almost delayed because the Archmagus needed to come back from the frontlines himself, but they decided to go through with the exams anyway and just have him swear us in later. Speaking of, we should go actually sign in before they start," Gabe chuckled, gesturing towards one of the many gates to the coliseum, but instead of a line of people in front of it, there was a large table covered in a regal cloth with two banners posted. These banners both displayed the crest of the Grand Infantry, a simple golden crown over a sterling silver colored heater shield. Two people sat at the sign-in table, both with dark hair, one male and the other female, and both had warm expressions on their faces as Elizabeth and Gabe walked up.
As Elizabeth and Gabe walked up, Gabe turned his head towards Elizabeth, "So by the way, if it's not too much to ask, what's your affinity? Don't worry, I'm not trying to pry for information about possible opponents during the exams, so if you don't want to tell me, it's fine, I get it."
"No, no, it's fine. It's not like you won't see it during the exams anyway. Besides, it's not like we both can't make it into the infantry." Elizabeth answered, "I actually have an affinity for ice magic. I know, lucky me and all." Elizabeth bragged to her new acquaintance.
"Wow, you got an ice affinity?" Gabe asked, yet he didn't sound as shocked as most people did when Elizabeth told them. "That's pretty nice. I myself have a wind magic affinity." Gabe gloated with a similar tone to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth's eyes widened as Gabe revealed his affinity. "Wait, so you're telling me, you have a pure elemental affinity too?" Eliabeth asked in shock. "The only other person I thought who had one in our time was the Archmagus of War."
"He does have one, but he's far from the only one. Here in the capital, there are a few families that have pure affinities that run through them. It's why such powerful mages come from here. Back in the old days, some families would only have kids with those about equal to their strength in magic, so their kids would be even stronger." Gabe explained, "But if you ask me, that system was super messed up, and the Archmagus agreed, so they outlawed that practice luckily. Yet, stronger and stronger people are still being born, and pure affinities are still sticking to almost exclusively large and powerful families in the capital. But you and I seemed to luck out, cause wind affinities don't run in my family, and I don't think pure affinities come out of Lapidus too often." Gabe shrugged it off as if everything he said was common knowledge.
"Huh, I didn't know that people used to do that, I can't even believe it honestly," Elizabeth said as she and Gabe reached the sign-in table together.
"Some people just want as much power in their family as possible. Luckily, the Archmagi put it to an end." Gabe said as he walked up to the table, "Hey guys, we're here to sign in for the Grand Infantry exams."
"Alright, can we get names for the two of you then? Both your first name and surname." The man at the sign-in table says as he picks up a clipboard and a pen with a long list of names written previously.
"Gabriel Supertus," Gabe answered and then looked back over to Elizabeth.
"Elizabeth Glutatio," Elizabeth repeated her name as the man behind the table wrote both of their names down.
"Alright, and if you two wouldn't mind paying your fees to the lady sitting next to me, we'll get you two your participant tags." The man said after hearing Elizabeth's name. Elizabeth swung her bag around her shoulder and unzipped a pocket to pull a small pouch of silver and gold coins, untying the small ribbon and beginning to count her money.
"The total is twenty-five gold pieces, right?" Elizabeth asked as she counted her money on the table, sifting through her money.
"Sorry, dear, it's two hundred and fifty gold pieces to participate." The lady behind the desk declared, her face becoming one of pity.
"What? Two hundred and fifty? But the newspapers said twenty-five. I could work for months and not make two hundred and fifty gold," Elizabeth began to panic, looking at her pile of coins, knowing it was nowhere near two hundred and fifty gold coins worth.
"Yes, we're sorry, we've been getting this all day, but do to the war in the South, and the Order of the Blue Flame crippling supply lines, along with the ever increasing amount of Grand Infantry applicants, the Archmagi have determined a new price for participation." The woman explained, almost robotically.
"But that's ridiculous. Only families from the capital could afford something like that just to participate in the exams." Elizabeth argued, feeling herself get irritated at the pair behind the table.
"Elizabeth, it's fine, here," Gabe pulled a pouch from his belt and set it on the table. As he undid the ribbon, he poured out fifty platinum coins, the equivalent of five hundred gold coins. "This should pay the dues for us both. Now, if we could please get our participant tags, that would be wonderful."
Both Elizabeth and the lady sitting at the table blinked and looked up at Gabe. "Are you sure? That's a lot of money to ju-" Elizabeth was cut off by Gabe putting his hand up.
"Don't worry about it. My family has plenty of money, it really is no trouble for me at all. Plus, how would it be fair for another pure elemental affinity user to not even be allowed to participate in the exams?" Gabe asked, somewhat humorously. "Trust me, it's more than fine, your financial state shouldn't affect if you can join the infantry."
"Here are your participant badges, numbers seven hundred fifty and seven hundred fifty-one." The lady behind the table slid over two badges with the mentioned numbers on them, which both Elizabeth and Gabe promptly grabbed and put on, with Gabe taking number seven hundred fifty, and Elizabeth donning seven hundred fifty-one.
"You have no idea how much this means to me, Gabe, I promise, I'll pay you back someday," Elizabeth said as she readjusted her belongings and began walking down the corridor to the exam participant room, Gabe following behind.
"Seriously, there's no need to worry about it, I'd rather pay for you than know I could've and you have to go back to Lapidus just cause you couldn't afford the entrance fee. I'm surprised they upped the fees so much, though. I guess the war effort and those new order people are causing the kingdom some big money." Gabe reassured as they walked.
The pair walked down the corridor for about a minute before Elizabeth realized there wasn't any noise, and that there didn't seem to be anybody else. "Hey, Gabe, isn't this place supposed to be full of people?"
"Yeah, and?" Gabe raised an eyebrow at her question.
"Then why can't we hear anyone?" Elizabeth pointed out the obvious.
"Oh, that. Yeah, this space is enchanted to magically prevent the noise from the crowds above from reaching the inner portions of the coliseum." Gabe explained as he continued to walk. "They do that, so while we take our written exam, the people who get to the coliseum early don't distract us."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense." Elizabeth shrugged as they reached a set of stairs and ascended to a higher floor inside the coliseum.
"You really are from Lapidus, aren't you?" Gabe asked.
"What does that mean?" Elizabeth scowled as a response.
"Nothing like that, I just mean, you really aren't well-versed in more practical and advanced uses of mana and magic." Gabe defended himself, putting his hands up to ward off Elizabeth's glare.
"Oh," Elizabeth's scowl faded, "Yeah, I suppose you're right. There's a lot about mana and magic I don't understand yet, but that's cause most people in my village never really learned any advanced applications or anything practical beyond reinforcement enchantments on buildings. I was just born with more mana than anyone in my village, and so I trained my mana the best I could since my uncle would let me."
"Ah, that explains it a bit more. I figure that if you're as strong as you say, then joining the Grand Infantry shouldn't be much of an issue, but trust me, there's going to be a lot of techniques you'll need to catch up on. Have you at least studied everything for your written exam?" Gabe asked as the pair found a sign at the landing that the stairs led them to. The sign pointed right towards the written exam rooms, into a corridor lit by torchlight.
"Yeah, I've studied that part plenty. The written exam consists of all questions on the history of the kingdom, the chain of command, your job as a Grand Infantryman, and the role of the kingdom and the Archmagi. That stuff they taught me in school." Elizabeth answered dismissively. The pair continued until they saw several sets of doors and a post in the middle of the corridor with instructions.
Elizabeth read the posted instructions as follows:
"Rule Number 1: No Talking During Testing
Rule Number 2: No Notes or Textbooks Allowed
Rule Number 3: The Written Exam Period Will Be an Hour Long, No More, No Less
Participants 1-150: Room A
Participants 151-300: Room B
Participants 301-450: Room C
Participants 451-600: Room D
Participants 601-750: Room E
Participants 751-900: Room F
Participants 900-1050: Room G
Participants 1051+: Wait in Overflow Auxiliary Room for Instruction."
"Well, I suppose this is where we part ways then, for now." Gabe turned to Elizabeth. "It's been a pleasure to meet you, Elizabeth. I can't wait to see you out there for the physical exams. You better make it, cause with you being a fellow pure affinity user, that makes you a rival of mine, I suppose." Gabe raises his fist for a fist bump. "And that just means we're gonna work harder to beat each other, right?"
Elizabeth looked down at Gabe's fist and smiled at the first acquaintance she had made since leaving home. "You're damn right. Good luck, Gabe, and thank you again for being so nice to me," Elizabeth raised her own arm and gave Gabe the fist bump he had asked for. The two then turned towards their respective rooms to begin the written exam.