Gabriel stepped closer to the Mansion where the meeting of the Scholars was to take place.
Most of the prominent Scholars were all issued an invitation which allowed them an easy entry. However, entry to the ones without the invitation wasn't banned either. It's just that they had to prove that they were indeed scholars with a vast amount of knowledge.
As Gabriel stepped closer to the mansion, the guards first looked at his attire. Even though Gabriel's clothes were also spotless, for some reason, the guards didn't feel that he was actually a scholar.
"You don't have an invitation, do you??" The guard asked. "I suppose you'll be taking the test in that case? Unless you came here by accident and have no interest in attending the Scholar's meet?"
Gabriel nodded in response. Even though he didn't know what the test was, he just had to stay here until the Goddess of Water arrived here.
He followed the guards to the side, where a board was placed. On the board, there were over a hundred riddles placed.
Amongst those hundred, ten were clarified as unsolvable, thirty were classified as almost impossible to solve and the rest were hard and averaged difficulty.
To get an entry, one only had to answer any two of the hundred riddles successfully.
"Solve any two of them, and you shall be granted an entry," The guard informed Gabriel.
Looking at Gabriel, the guards didn't really expect him to be able to answer any. Even they themselves didn't know the answer to any of them. They only had a list which contained the answers of most of them, at least the ones that were solved in the past.
"Any two?" Gabriel looked at the riddles on the board. Even though there were some that he didn't know the answer to, amongst the riddles, he knew the answer to most of them.
This test was very easy for him. He nodded, and selected the first riddle on the board, not knowing that they were classified by their difficulty.
Gabriel went forward and gave an answer to the first two riddles right away, without even taking much time.
The two Guards looked at each other in confusion. Even they didn't know the answer to the two riddles so they couldn't even know if he was correct or not. However they also couldn't prove that he was wrong.
They both looked at each other, not knowing what to do. In the end, one of the guards came up with an idea.
"Alright. Solve the last two then!"
If they didn't have the answer to the top two, they just had to make sure that Gabriel wasn't giving any random answers. They told him to solve what they knew.
To their surprise, Gabriel once again gave the answer. If the top ones were hard, then the bottom ones were the easiest.
Both the guards were taken aback. It was clear that Gabriel wasn't answering nonsense.
'Does that mean his top two answers were correct as well?' one of the guards thought, as he noted the answers that Gabriel had given, making sure to tell this to the City Lord, who came up with these riddles herself!
At the same time, they allowed Gabriel an entry into the premise, where all the Scholars were already seated.
Some of the scholars were still talking about how they were going to meet the City Lord, while getting acquainted with the others while the rest were standing alone, keeping their distance from the others as if worried about being tainted by them.
As Gabriel entered, he gathered quite a lot of attention, unintentionally, especially since he didn't look much like a Scholar.
"Do they allow any dog to enter this place as well? Did you bribe the guards?" One of the Scholars asked as he stepped closer to Gabriel, having a hand fan in his hand.
"You're right. They do allow dogs to enter this place. To think that you would have so much self awareness about yourself..." Gabriel calmly responded, shaking his head lightly.
He didn't want to interact with the people here. He just had to wait for the Goddess of Water to arrive so she couldn't escape him. Everyone else wasn't worth his attention.
Gabriel walked past the Scholar, whose face was red. As a Scholar, he didn't want to act vulgarly by fighting. However, he did remember Gabriel's face.
Throughout the rest of the time, he kept using poems while sipping his tea, clearly targeting Gabriel with those poems. However, Gabriel remained seated, with his eyes closed as if he didn't have any intention of associating with anyone.
Half an hour passed, and a loud noise was heard outside. The entourage of the City Lord had finally arrived at the entrance of the mansion.
Most of the people who were still outside, despite the warning of the guards, were imprisoned and if they resisted, they were killed.
The Goddess of Water stepped out of the carriage, carrying a graceful presence. Her beautiful blue hair fluttered with the wind as she stepped down.
However, she wasn't alone. From her carriage, another girl stepped out.
The girl shared similar facial features to the Goddess of Water, but her aura was even stronger for some reason.
"Mother, I never understood why you like poetry so much? Isn't it just a pastime of weak people who can't grow stronger or do anything else that is useful with their lives?" The young girl asked, rolling her eyes.
"Your thinking is naive, little one. Knowledge is never useless." The Goddess of Water stated, as she started laughing.
From another carriage, a young man also stepped out. The man appeared charming, and had a robe that carried the symbol of the Northern General's mansion. However, no weapon could be seen on him.
"That's correct. Strength without knowledge is nothing but an arrow without aim..." He stepped closer to the two ladies, joining them.
"Your father isn't a Scholar, is he?" The Young Girl rolled her eyes. "No matter how much knowledge one has, can they go against the Northern General?"
