Chapter 35: The Test Begins! "—Freya Credence." Finn released the breath he’d held as a stifled shriek erupted not far from him. He looked back to find a girl brimming with happiness as she giddily made her way behind Luther to stand with the rest of the others under his supervision. "Which means the rest of you fall under Althea Seneschal," the teacher clapped with a final air and a smile, before making way for another teacher to finish the address. In the meantime, Finn and the remaining four walked towards Althea, all observing and assessing each other... or rather, they were mostly assessing Finn, while he was doing the same to them. Even if they naturally weren’t on speaking terms, the fact that the four were already full students, meant that they had seen each other in classes or at least somewhere within the school grounds at one point or the other, but Finn remained a mystery to them. As they walked towards Althea, the previous chatter before the tense call-up resumed among the rest of the students. And Finn picked up a few traces of their conversations. "Sheesh. All the certified troublemakers fell under Senior Althea—" "Ah... thank goodness I’m not in that team—" "I don’t think you can be on that team anyway. I think it was purposeful—" "I guess she’s the only one that can handle them—" "Hey, but that would mean the new guy must also be very troublesome, right—?" Finn’s face remained passive at their chatter, but inside, even he had realized he was in a peculiar group. From his earlier observations, there was only one person here that looked normal besides him. Just from looks alone, all the others were weird in one way or the other. First, there was a tall, chiseled guy dressed in skin-tight pants and his top shirt unbuttoned to show more than what was necessary. His skin was oiled slick and glistening under the sun like he wanted everyone to see it. One quick glance earlier was all Finn needed to know the guy was a pervert. Besides the fact he had customized his Ossuarist uniform to be as ’Elvis-looking’ as possible, the quick move to part his shirt open wider when he caught Finn observing him had sent shivers down his spine. Finn was definitely going to keep his distance from the guy. Besides the pervert, there was another guy in their group. This one had a scary scar running across the length of his face, with diverse cut-marks riddling his entire arm. Finn didn’t want to judge a book by its cover, but from the chatter he was hearing from the crowd, and from the guy’s scary look and cuts, he’d categorized him as a masochist — for the time being... until proven otherwise. Together with the two, they were the only three guys in the group, with the last two being girls. There was nothing much to be said about the girls. Finn had categorized one of them as a pervert — a no go area for him. At least the pervert guy only made his uniform tightly fitted. She, on the other hand, made a full-on latex version of the uniform. Skin-tight, and with ’very, very purposeful’ adjustments. Finn didn’t even know how she was allowed to wear that in school. She kept throwing inviting glances his way, but he kept his gaze forward as though he couldn’t see her. The last girl was the only normal-looking one. She had brown hair and light freckles on her face like any other average girl. But while she looked normal, Finn also applied his ’do not judge a book by its cover’ motto to her. He categorized her as ’normal’ for now... until proven otherwise. Finn watched the second teacher take to the stage, getting straight to the point as he made the closing remarks and last announcement, "The test is going to run between a month to three months at most, within which you must have purged more than a total of fifty Grade D chaotic soul masses. Your seniors have been briefed on their roles in your test. But you should know that they will do absolutely nothing to help you in purging Grade D soul masses and below. This is not a hold-your-hand kind of test. You’re being sent out into the real world, to purge chaotic soul mass outbreaks in various cities and rural areas!" He cast a slow, passing glance at every one of them, making their gazes turn serious at the severity of the situation. "You are going to feel exactly what it is like to be a true, on-field Ossuarist. It is nothing like the safe school environment you’ve all been brought up in. Theoretical knowledge and controlled practicals would only get you so far. How you perform out in the field will determine whether or not you get promoted to a Grade 2 rank Initiate, becoming a true Ossuarist both in word and in truth!" He let the words end there, nodding curtly before getting off the stage. Immediately he finished, the seniors of every group turned to their juniors, calling them to attention. They began to detail the specifics of the areas and regions they were assigned to and what they were likely to face. Althea turned to the five under her care and started without preamble, "You all know how the tests are usually held, so I won’t bother to reiterate that." Finn had also been briefed the previous day by Isis, and he was sure Althea already knew that. So he wasn’t bothered by the fact that she had chosen to skip it entirely. Basically, it wasn’t only the Seneschal Ossuarist School conducting the Grade 2 Initiate test at this time. All Ossuarist schools in the four regions of Aethelos conducted the test at the same time, so there was a bit of competition involved, where the overall results of the students of all four schools were compared to see which school was most promising. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮 The Seneschal Ossuarist School was situated in the Eastern region of Aethelos, and their main rival school was the Thermes Ossuarist School in the north. They were ’the strongest’ Ossuarist school in Aethelos... At least most of the time. The Seneschal Ossuarist School came out on top last year because students like Althea, Luther, and a few others took their tests at the time. This year, though, the story seemed to be different... Althea continued her briefing. "This year, the Thermese have a whole bunch of talents that are sure to spearhead their charge for the title of the best school — real talents. Wyatt Thermes for one, is taking his test this year—" Immediately Althea said that, all the others besides Finn drew in sharp breaths in surprise. The oiled pervert guy whistled in amazement, before speaking, "I thought it wouldn’t be until a year at least before Wyatt would take his test... How old is he again? Sixteen?" "Fifteen," Althea corrected, frowning. "You shouldn’t feel threatened by him. You five are the wildcards of our school this year. The unpredictable ones... You’re not meant to be so easily moved by something like that." Her words seemed inspiring. But the tone in which she delivered it was placid, as though she was merely stating a fact, rather than trying to rile them up. But perhaps because that same tone had a certain level of surety to it, it went further in riling them up than a generic speech would’ve. "I feel threatened by no one." The scarfaced guy growled. A feeling that was shared by the others from their ready looks. Finn, despite himself, also felt kind of pumped and eager, though he didn’t show it on his face. ​"While I know these guys could maybe qualify as wildcards," a sultry voice suddenly purred. Before Finn could react, a hand rested on his shoulder. He turned sharply to find the girl in the latex outfit, licking her lips with a smile. "Who is this fine piece of man right here, and why does he qualify as a wildcard?"