CHAPTER 46: FIRST TEST

In a completely different location, a deep laughter resounded through the air, as a handsome man with ink black hair, focused on the screen before him.

"I never knew he was this bold," he said with an amused expression, after getting his full of laughter.

Richelle didn’t reply, her face spotting a little frown.

"What?" Noxus asked seeing her expression. "Aren’t you supposed to be proud of him?"

Richelle sighed, and leaned back against her chair. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, before she exhaled, her voice coming out softly.

"He’s changed."

Noxus smiled. "Yeah, he’s becoming a man. You can’t always expect him to be your little boy."

"I guess so," she replied, as her eyes opened slowly.

In the screen she watched as Julian attacked with ferocity, and Sean parried his punch, pulling the young man’s arm, and using the momentum to flip him over his head.

Her lips curled up slightly, pride blooming like a flower in her chest. Instantly, different scenarios where she had done the same to Sean during their training played in her mind, and she chuckled.

He truly had changed. Not just in the way he acted, though there were still similarities that tied him back to the Sean she knew, he seemed to have become a different person entirely.

The way he thought, learning speed, everything. He changed in everyway and while she was happy and proud, there was still a pang of sadness as she felt like there was something she had lost, and could never reclaim.

"Is this how you’d act when our children grow up too?" Noxus asked with a grin.

Richelle’s small smile disappeared and she turned to him with mock disdain. "Like you can do anything."

Noxus expression froze, but before he could say anything, Richelle hushed him.

"It’s starting," she said, as the holographic screens displayed the gates of the "Academy" opening up.

However, after a few seconds, her expression changed into a murderous one, as she watched the man in military wear, press his aura on Sean.

----

Sean sneered audibly at the pressure pressing down on him, and his posture straightened, his eyes locked with that of the man hovering in the air.

The man was about to say something, when he suddenly stopped, his eyes shifting from Sean to something else.

The gathered youths watched him in silent whispers, as his expression experienced minute changes, and his aura withdrew, becoming still.

His eyes flicked towards Sean about once or twice, before his expression steeled.

After some seconds, he cleared his throat, calling attention back to him, and brushing the earlier occurrence away like it never happened.

He snapped his fingers, and Julian woke up with a gasp, keeling as though the air from his lungs were knocked out.

"Please refrain from any other unsightly actions," he said, his gaze warning as it shifted between Sean and Julian.

Julian seeing himself on the floor was confused for a few seconds, before his brain rebooted, and memories of what had happened, came flowing back.

His expression turned black, and when he felt the gazes on his figure, rage once again, threatened to overwhelm him.

However, a slight shift in the air when he made the slightest movement, made his blood run cold. Raising his head up, he saw a pair of blue eyes staring back at him with complete apathy.

Emma shifted her gaze from Julian to Sean.

"Who are you?" She asked, not caring that there was another authority present.

Sean on the other hand smiled in response. "You’ll know soon enough," he replied, his gaze turning back to the figure above.

Emma as well, did not bother with him anymore, her gaze turning back to the man above. As for Julian, she was no longer concerned with him. She had already given him enough warning... If he tried anything else, then whatever came out of it, was his cross to carry.

In fact, she might as well have begun to consider him an outsider rather than family... If she had ever saw him as one. And most likely, he would be disowned after the entrance examination.

Julian felt burning shame in his heart, but for now, he couldn’t do anything. For now...

It would be a different thing during the exam, and he would make sure Sean suffered for it.

Standing up, he made his way to other Crofts, his jaw tightening as he met their disdainful and hostile gazes.

Losing to a no name, in another scenario, he would have already been killed.

Seeing that everything was now calm, the military personnel finally spoke again.

"I am Lieutenant Grayson and would be overseeing your examination to the academy," he said, cutting the chase. "For the foreseeable future, you’re adviced to follow the rules."

A small portal opened up behind him, and a pouch fell out which he caught deftly.

Without a word, he overturned the pouch and from within it, what appeared to be wrist watches began to fall out.

Each one hung in the air, before moving one after another to each of the youths... A watch for each youth.

From the size the pouch, no one would expect its contents to be so much, that even after everyone present had received a watch, it still appeared full like before.

"You’re to put them on." Lt. Grayson said.

"These watches would serve as your identity, and would track your progress during the examination. Incase of any situation where you feel your life is threatened, you can request for help using the button by the side."

Sean looked at the wrist watch strapped to his left wrist, displaying his information, just like with Aegis Protocol. By its side, just like the lieutenant said, there was a red button on it.

Seeing that they followed the instructions, he beckoned on them to follow him into the gates, where they saw an oval portal with jagged edges and flickering with silver lightning flashes.

A Gate Entrance.

"Your first test, is to survive 6 hours in this Stage-2 gate."