The alchemy hall was in a separate large building that was built for everything related to alchemy and was even a center of trade for alchemy-related products.
But before entering the hall, all the participants were required to take the written examination so that most would be eliminated in this round and only the knowledgeable ones would be remaining.
Damien and Valentina weren't taking the exam directly. So, they sat somewhere near the building where there weren't many people and even if there were, they wouldn't pay attention to a boy resting his head on a girl.
It would look like a couple was resting. Since Damien needed to control Tristen's body personally to take the exam, he couldn't risk sitting with the audience. He needed a quiet environment with no eyes watching him or anyone to disturb him.
The audience was eagerly waiting for the written examination to get over, but everyone learned how tough the written examination was after getting the news.
Apparently, the questions were prepared by Rank 7 Alchemists, and the basic level of knowledge required to pass the examination was the knowledge of a Rank 5 Alchemist.
Damien, who was now controlling Tristen's body, had the exam paper in his hands with hundreds of other candidates sitting near him.
He took a look around and saw that this examination hall had the capacity to seat over a thousand people, and there were several proctors walking around the hall to see if anyone committed malpractice.
Of course, all the rules were conveyed, including the severe repercussions of cheating.
Damien saw that the questions were indeed tough, and even a Rank 4 Alchemist from the Alchemy Society would find it difficult to pass. Fortunately, his knowledge was beyond a Rank 5 Alchemist, and he was easily able to write down the correct answers.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Within just ten minutes, he quickly finished the exam and passed it to a senior invigilator who casually took the paper from him, thinking that he was probably one of the ones who gave up early after finding out how difficult it was.
This was not the first exam he was supervising, and he knew what kind of people write these exams.
Kale, who was occasionally keeping notice of Maximus, saw Tristen leaving so early and mockingly smiled, thinking that his brother indeed knew nothing about true alchemy.
He knew the questions were hard, but because he prepared for them, he felt that he could think and answer all of them within the time limit.
But after twenty minutes, he had a baffled look to see Maximus getting up and giving his paper to the same senior invigilator who had an appreciative look and even went through the answers Maximus wrote on the paper.
"I see that you have really excelled in this exam, Your Highness. Congratulations in advance," The invigilator said with a wide smile while Maximus politely smiled and slightly bowed before leaving, making the invigilator sigh in respect, seeing that Maximus shows respect to seniors despite his status.
Kale gritted his teeth, seeing that his only rival was walking out like a boss while he still had five more questions to answer which were the toughest ones.
Still, he dreamt about Yuria again and used that to rekindle his confidence and continued to focus on the exam.
However, as Maximus walked out, the smile he had on his face slowly stifled, and he wasn't even feeling good that he had done well on the exam since his mind was still reiterating the words Yuria said to him.
If it wasn't for his mind getting distracted, he would have finished the exam in twenty minutes.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})He still couldn't help but think why Yuria didn't seem to be interested in marriage and, most of all, who was this man she was looking for. It occurred to him that this mysterious man and Yuria might already have a history between them, because of which she even refused to consider him as a possible candidate for marriage.
He wasn't narcissistic, but the only other prince he could think of who could match his halo was Arthur Xeton, the crown prince of the Xeton Empire. But still, he knew that Arthur never even visited Yuria before and didn't even seem to be interested in marrying anytime soon.
At the same time, he had never heard about Yuria visiting some other prince, let alone any other man around his age, especially when her own father doesn't let her leave the palace alone.
So he couldn't help but grit his teeth since the woman he loved all these years apparently already had some secret lover. He couldn't understand what he fell less in for her to not consider him.
In his perspective, he already had everything a girl could possibly ask for, especially when he told her that he would take good care of her. He even did his best to build a good relationship with King Krisen and felt that he had a good chance when King Krisen seemed to appreciate him very well.
However, what happened yesterday was something he never saw coming, and he wondered if being direct with her was a good idea.
Still, this only fueled his determination to win even more since he felt that he still stood a chance if he proved his worth by winning the competition and even defeating her supposed lover who might be here already.
He didn't care about the rewards since the only reason he was here was to make sure that he gets the girl for whom he had feelings for more than six years.
He felt that the mysterious lover couldn't have known her for longer than he did.
But little did Maximus know that for love to be fostered between two individuals, time was not the most important factor, but it was the experiences and memories they shared. And if he knew what Damien and Yuria shared together, he would have wallowed in despair.
