Not only the girls around but everyone including those on the test arena was looking at Mel now. Grumpy Hanry had turned on the show lights for him.
“Did I hear him wrong? Did Master Hanry say ten buds?”
When a girl on his back row spoke, Mel heard clearly what she said.
“He’s talking about a hundred-year-old record. He must certainly have said ten buds!”
His friend next to her answered immediately. It was obvious that the point that caught her attention was the word ‘record’.
Mel, who overheard many conversations like this, blushed. Apparently, he was so embarrassed that his tilted head looking at the ground did not rise for a second.
“Actually, he doesn’t have a bad look!”
“Bad? He is a tall and sturdy boy. I hope he doesn’t have a girlfriend!”
After a while, exclamations of surprise were replaced by flirty words and glances. Now, Mel was facing a completely different situation.
“Mel, dude; you are like the sun rising into the night!”
Edgan spoke by throwing his arm on the shoulder of the large teenager next to him while not neglecting to blink.
Mel blushed more with the charge of the handsome boy. His heels, which were accompanied by his toes hitting on his knees, were showing that he could not standstill.
“Girls, are you looking for someone?”
Edgan called out to the group of standing girls. The girls, who were petrified after the latest developments, were still standing. Unable to answer the question for about ten seconds, they looked at Edgan and Mel in turns. After another five seconds, the soft-faced one began to speak.
“Well, we couldn’t see the stage clearly. We came to see if there are any empty seats!”
The black-haired girl finished her sentence by stuttering. Her situation made the people around laugh.
“I think there’s enough room here. If you want to sit down, we don’t mind!”
Edgan swiftly moved away from Mel and put a two-person distance between them. Seeing where Edgan was pointing with his hand, the four girls began to stare at him with empty looks.
“The stage looks very clear from here. It’s a little narrow, but I believe that slim and elegant girls like you can fit here!”
The four girls could not resist more since all the people in the hall were looking at them. As members of the Alchemy Department, they could not have been more humiliated in the test of the novice.
As Edgan said, they were able to fit in the space for two, but those on the sidelines almost had to sit on the lap of two young boys.
“Brat, the kid next to you is kind of smart. Stick to him! He looks like someone you can benefit a lot from!”
Hanry, sending the voice transmission with a wicked smile on his face, was busy with telling the administrators of the Alchemy Department today’s events. The middle-aged man adjusted his voice in such a way that it seemed only speaking to a few people, but actually let everyone know what was going on.
Mel couldn’t look at the face of the girl sitting on his left knee. Actually, he could not look at anyone. His eyes were directed to the ceiling of the building with a large dome, and even his breathing had slowed down.
Mel remained in this state until the test was over. At the moments when Edgan ran his hands over the girl, Mel stood stiff like a statue that defied years.
“The First Test of the Alchemy Department is over! You can see your results on the billboard tomorrow!”
Mel took a deep breath when the announcement was made. It was almost three past midnight and he had been uncomfortable for almost two and a half hours. The girls also immediately walked away. There was no reason left for this embarrassing situation to continue.
Edgan approached Mel with a piquant look. His eyes were moving up and down.
“Did you have fun? The girls got hoisted with their own petard.”
The handsome boy seemed to have had a lot of fun the whole time. But opposite to him, Mel was frowning. Seeing this state of mind, Edgan got a little serious, wiping the smile on his face.
“I am taking Marvina and going to the inn where we have been staying.”
After he finished speaking, he began to walk. But then suddenly he turned around and asked “do you have a place to stay?”
Mel answered without waiting a second.
“Yes, I’ll go where I stayed last night!”
Edgan did not insist and continued to walk towards his sister with quiet steps. Mel quickly went out of the building where the test took place.
Mel did not stop here too. He headed east, to the gate from which he entered the city and started running. He was unaware, but two people who saw him walking away began to talk about him.
“Look at that peasant! After he attracted some attention, he didn’t know what to do!”
If Mel saw who said these words, he would surely recognize him because that was the man who took on Mel a lot during the Plant Department test.
“Don’t worry, sir. Tomorrow, I will surpass him and glorify our family name!”
The young girl answered by lifting her nose. As the two turned back and moved away, their sparkling outfits seemed to have waged war against the darkness of the night.
Mel went out of the fortification gate of the compound and did not even bother to respond to the guards shouting after him.
Judging by the direction he ran towards, his target was the outer forest. Thus, he soon disappeared between the dense branches.
“I can’t take a break from my training!”
Sometime after he muttered, the smile that had left him during the Alchemy Department test came back to his face.
“Who am I kidding? After the fights I watched today, I must fight!
Traveling through the forest by talking to himself, Mel easily passed through the places where he was attacked last night.
When he reached the place where he killed the boss class snake, traces from the previous battle greeted him. The creature’s blood was not fully absorbed by the soil.
“It seems that the creatures in this area have no intention of confronting me!”
He turned around and spoke calmly after he could not get any reaction.
“Do not worry! I will not harm any living creature that does not enter the killing circle!”
The surrounding trees reacted by bowing their branches to the ground as if they were asking for forgiveness.
Mel looked at them for a time of few breaths and moved into the forest. No matter how much he tried to suppress it, the excitement and desire of fighting in him were evident in his every move.
He walked for ten minutes, but nothing changed. The trees and wild creatures in the area were content to hide with his arrival.
He did not attack any of them. He respected the words of his grandfather as he respected his other legacies. He ignored the creatures that did not attack him and continued on his way until he crossed the border where the color of trees and soil had changed.
