B-BOOM

An attack from who knows where broke the last remaining shields and caused another explosion.

“H-hey…”

The support mage in their team hurried to create shields, but there was no time for that.

Kairen shot his spell at that moment. It wasn’t a proper attack, it was mostly just a small amount of formless mana mixed in an unfinished spell.

OOONNNG

….!!

The monster flinched after sensing a huge amount of power approaching it. It tried to run away, but it couldn’t move its injured body that fast.

WIZZ

The spell that hit the monster made a weird sound as it destroyed its huge body. It was as if the monster was being dissolved… as if you have splashed acid on the body. The monster couldn’t even make any noise as its body was destroyed and disappeared in an instant.

“….”

“….”

The members of the team, as well as the people who were close enough to see the monster through the mist, all turned silent.

SOSHH

An aura slash landed right where the monster was and cut its skin, but it didn’t matter anymore. The monster was already dead.

[Team pink successfully annihilated all of their monsters. You can leave the area now.]

‘It is over. Finally!’

Kairen plopped down to the floor. He was out of mana and tired as hell.

“….”

Dang

“Ha… Hahahaha!”

Arran threw away his sword and burst into laughter.

“You saw that, orange bastard?”

“What?”

“Just kill your fucking monsters and get lost! Greedy bastards!”

“You- Ah!”

The man that wanted to rush at Arran was pushed aside by Serria. She passed the man and approached Kairen.

“Are you fine?”

“Yep.”

Kairen nodded his head while looking around. The mist that was surrounding them had vanished and he could see everything better now. He looked at the screen that was showing the time.

[7: 34]

The exam was over. The whole thing didn’t even take 10 minutes, but it felt like hours for him and the others.

“Bastards! Why did you kill our monster?”

“You attacked us!”

“So what? This is a test.”

“That bitch!”

Angry yells and screams rose up from every corner of the area. Some people picked up their weapons as if to prepare themselves for a battle and some silently tried to leave.

[Attantion everyone. The exam is over. Please leave the area. The results of today’s test will be sent to your private accounts on our website.]

The same people who had dragged away the members of team blue came into the area and started to control the participants. No one wanted to do something that might affect the results of their exam, so they put aside their weapons and silently exited the area while sending angry glares to the others.

.

.

.

“That was crazy!”

Serria grumbled while leaning against the back of the bench. Kairen nodded his head, also in the same position.

They had to stop at a park after leaving the exam because of Serria who was hungry and kept on nagging about it.

“I mean, they could’ve just told us to fight each other if that was their goal… Or at least they could tell us beforehand that what would happen if you lost your monster. It was unfair.”

Serria seemed greatly displeased by the rules of the exam. She grumbled nonstop since leaving the building. She had to stop her own teammate from killing Kairen’s team’s monster and she was even more annoyed because of that.

However, Reyan seemed to be the one who had gone through the most between the three of them. Apparently, he had hurridly killed all of his team’s monsters and then, started to fight his own team members who wanted to attack the other teams. His teammates didn’t stop bothering him until the three of them ran away from the building.

“It was unfair for the team that got disqualified the first. It was just a mistake done by someone else, not them.”

“What are you guys talking about?”

Reyan who had gone to buy them something to eat came back at that moment. He handed them each one sandwich and a bottle of water and sat down beside Kairen.

“That test, it wasn’t fair!”

Reyan raised one of his eyebrows at that sentence.

“Fair? Did you really expect it to be fair and just?”

“Huh?”

Reyan unwrapped his sandwich and took a bite of it.

“That wasn’t an elementary school’s entrance exam, but SMF’s. This is the nature of the job you have chosen. There is no fairness in battle or the missions.”

Reyan shrugged his shoulders and took another bite of his sandwich.

“Then you think that what they did was right?”

“I don’t think they had done anything wrong.”

Serria and Kairen looked at each other. What Reyan said seemed logical. It wasn’t like they could demand fairness from their enemy in a real fight or expect someone to explain the rules of a mission for them. If that was what the exam wanted to emphasize, then there was nothing to argue about.

Kairen didn’t really care that much about fairness or things like that. He had done anything he could do and didn’t care about the others, so he just silently chewed his sandwich and listened to his friends’ conversation.

“If that’s as you say, then why did you fight your own teammates who wanted to attack the other teams?”

Serria asked that question from Reyan.

Reyan was eating his sandwich with an unchanged expression.

“… I decided to do that because I thought it was the right thing to do. An unfair and wrong situation doesn’t mean you should also behave the wrong way that everyone else wants you to.”

“Okay okay. Our professor of ethics, please don’t start another one of your lectures again!”

Serria waved her hand and leaned back again. She began eating her sandwich without any other word. But she couldn’t hold herself for more than five minutes.

“But Kairen, your last attack was really something! How did you do that?”

Kairen shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t have an answer to that question.

“I don’t know. I just placed all of my mana in a half-complete spell. I don’t know how it worked.”

“Hmm. I must try it once… Oh, it is getting late, I guess I should go home.”

Serria looked at his watch and got up from the bench. It was indeed late. Kairen looked at the time on his phone. It was 8:23 P.M. He had to go back before Kain started to get worried so he also got up.

“I’ll have to leave as well.”

“See you then.”

“Bye.”

They all started walking their own ways after bidding farewell.

.

.

.

Kain grabbed Kairen’s arms even before he could set foot into the house.

“Tell me! H-how was the exam? Tell the truth it doesn’t matter if you didn’t do well! Did you- wait, why are you so pale? Look into my eyes! Are you fine? Did you get injured? What kind of test did those goddamned-”

“Wait wait wait!”

“The exam must have been dangerous! They are all crazy! I regret it! Why didn’t I stop you when you talked about working there! I should have tried more to persuade you back then!”

“Hey man, calm down.”

Kairen took Kain’s hands off of his arms.

“Everything went just fine.”

“A-are you sure?”

Kain bit his lips and hesitantly observed him from head to toe.

“Why are you so worried all of a sudden?”

Kain flinched and scratched his cheek as if he just understood how weird he was behaving. He observed Kairen once more before averting his gaze.

“…You were late… so I thought that something crazy happened again.”

“Again?”

Kain waved his hand and walked in. Kairen entered the house after him and looked around. The house was weirdly silent.

“He is sleeping with her mom if you are looking for Ariyan.”

“Ah! She came back?”

“Yes. She came back just hours ago.”

Kain walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.

“Are you hungry? There is some food left from the dinner.”

Kairen shook his head and walked to his room.

“No. I’ll just go sleep.”

He waved his hand at Kain and went into his room.. It didn’t take him long to fall into a deep slumber.