3 days later, Ning got ready to leave for the core region with his daughter. Today was the day of the result of the institute's entrance exam.
Emma was more than excited to find out how she had done. For the first time in forever, she had understood the feeling of nervousness, anxiety, and excitement all at once.
Ning didn't want to ruin this experience for his daughter by telling her how she had done. He hadn't even learned about it himself just yet.
The two of them walked by themselves, with no beasts with them this time. They arrived at the core region sometime later and made their way through the busy streets, making their way to the Institute.
When they arrived, they were surprised to see just how much crowd had gathered before them. And even more were pushing them forward from behind.
Ning looked around and saw a large piece of paper posted on the wall for everyone to see. They were just too far to see it properly.
"Let's go closer. The names are there," Ning said and pushed aside the people, making his way through the crowd by hurting as few people as possible. With his strength, he had to watch out for how much strength he exerted. They arrived at the front and finally saw the list of names and numbers. To their surprise, not only did it have those, but it also had points. The points were in the 3 digits, and from what they could see, it was out of 400.
"100 points per exam for 4 exams," Emma explained to her father before searching for her name. Ning looked for it as well. There were a lot of single names that made her name hard to find immediately. 'So many nobles,' Ning thought and continued through.
He decided to look from the start and immediately paused. "Wait… are you first?" he asked. "What's your number?"
"Huh?" Emma turned her head to look toward the first of the pages and was surprised to see her name there. Just to make sure it was her, she looked at the entrance number and she matched.
Next to it were 3 digits.
398
She had received 398 points. "Woah!" Emma couldn't help but make a sound of her own. "I… did it."
"You did it!" Ning said excitedly.
"I did it!" Emma shrieked in happiness and hugged her father.
They walked away from the crowd to an open space, both father and daughter with wide grins on their faces. They couldn't stop smiling at all.
"I got first place," Emma said softly. "Do you think that has some advantages?"
"A scholarship maybe?" Ning said. "I don't know."
"How do we find out?" Emma asked. "Should we go talk to the staff right away? Now that I think about it, we're supposed to contact them within the next 4 days."
"We can do that," Ning said. "But first… who's the blond guy that keeps staring at us?"
Emma got confused for a second and looked around before finding James staring at her. The moment their eyes met, he acted like he saw her for the first time and came to greet her.
"Hey! Emma, right? how are you doing?" he asked, walking past Ning.
"I'm doing well," Emma said and didn't continue.
The young man felt a little awkward and continued. "Did you see the results yet?" he asked.
"I did," Emma said.
"And?" the boy asked.
"And what?" Ning asked, wrapping his arm around the young man. "If you wanna know how well she did, you can go check on the rankings. I promise you that you won't miss her name."
The young man gulped a little. He ignored Ning, looking at Emma. "So was it you? The one that got first place?"
"I was," Emma answered.
"Wow! Congratulations," he said quickly. "By the way, I was 4th."
"Is that so?" Emma asked, internally realizing that she hadn't looked for any other names besides her own. The moment she saw it at the top, she ignored all else.
"It is," the young man said quickly. "Do you mind if I ask how you did so well? I must say I'm quite stumped."
"My father helped me for the most part," Emma answered with a shrug.
"Your father, huh?" the young man said. "He must be a great man then."
"Oh, he thinks I'm a great man," Ning said with a grin. He patted the young man's shoulder. "You will be a great man soon as well."
The young man finally realized what was happening and stepped away from Ning to stare at him. "You… You are her father?" he asked.
"The name is Ning. You're James, right?" Ning asked.
"James Noran," the young man said with obvious confusion in his eyes. He stared at Ning for a while before shaking himself out of it. "My apologies… I did not expect you to be this young. You look like her brother."
"Thank you," Ning said with a smile. "You guys can catch up later. If you don't mind, I have to get my daughter registered into the institute."
Ning waved him goodbye and walked away. Emma followed him quickly.
"Why did you get so chummy with him?" she asked. "That wasn't necessary."
"Just because," Ning said. "I think he likes you."
Emma paused for a second. "Is my illusion coming off?" she asked in a panicked voice.
"No, you're fine on that note," Ning said. "You would have a lot more people turning heads if your illusion wasn't working."
"Then I think that young boy is just confused," she said. "He told me he's used to being the best, and now he's not. He wants to find out why not."
"I see," Ning said. "That boy is definitely going through a variety of emotions though. Whatever, let's get you registered. Then we can go ahead and celebrate you passing the entrance exam."
"Sure, but that was only the entrance," Emma said. "The real thing starts now."
