The place is crowded than usual, in the previous year this place is not crowded as this. And this is the first time he is seeing this place as this much crowded. But after a thinking he got the reason. Because this year the guardian selection is also happening. Usually the guardian selection happens once in five years. So this is that year. And a universe have at least 20-30 guardians. So becoming a guardian is more easier than becoming a knight. The selection is also more simple than knight selection so because of this reasons more people are interested in becoming a guardian than a knight. Because everyone like easier path will small achievement than difficult path with even greater achievement.
The people crowded here like ants when they see any sweet things. They all are waiting to open the gate. Zup stand in the last of that crowd, he didn't show any urgency like others.
The door of the castle opened and a guy show up. He is nothing look like a guard on the gate. Because he only have a sword the hang on his back nor helmet or any other accessories a guard need. He just look like a normal guy on his dark blue T-Shirt and that black Pants.
He didn't come near the gate. He just stood there and announced with a big and tough voice.
"hellow participants, I am here to announce a thing that we can only allow you in the castle….only at the time of the selection. So kindly follow our guard, he will show you a house. So please stay there until we call you for the trials."
And he ended his announcement.
After that, he left that place and went back into the castle. After a second he leaves, an another soldier shows up in front of the gate. He have a big chest plate and also a silver helmet with a spear. He didn't speak anything. He just walked towards a house.
The house that he walked towards is the biggest among other houses. the crowd followed him, murmuring. They followed him like a flock following its master.
He stopped In front of a giant house. And then only he opened his mouth and said:
"You can stay here."
He didn't wait a single second more. After saying those words, he turned back and walked towards the castle.
The door of that house is not locked, so they entered the house easily. It was very big house, and there is a lot of space inside it. Zup finds an empty space on the cushion, so he sat there.
Some of his fellow participants also sat on that couch, near him. The others roam around the house looking for something interesting.
This house is similar to the house that Zup spent last night. The difference is in this house everything is white, even the table and the other accessories also. This was a new thing that he is seeing, not only him, everyone is a little bit surprised to see everything in white.
Some two dudes went in the upper floor of the house. And they see a door, a big one. It is not like the rest of the other doors. This door is big and covered with gold and copper. They became curious about it, and tried to open it. But it was locked. They tried with their full strength. But it didn't move a bit. They became disappointed and decided to go back. They went back to the hall. And said about the door to some of their friends. And news about the door spread through the crowd like a fire. And some of more people tried to open it. But all failed. They all give their best shot but all failed to open it.In the same time the guard came back and said that the gate is now opened and the selection is going to start.
When everyone leaves, Zup decided to check out that door. He is also very curious about it. He went in the front of the door. The door have a golden knob. He turned it. He didn't feel any struggle to turn it. The door easily opened without making any sound.
"It was too easy," he thinked. He didn't get any idea about why They struggled to open the door. It was too easy for him.
"Oh… you opened it… ha!" he heard a whispering voice from behind. He turned freely. He saw a guy. But only for a fraction of second. It feels like an illusion, but he is pretty sure that he saw a guy.
"Is that a ghost ?" he Thought fearfully. For a second, he felt the house like a haunted mansion. He immediately closed the door and dashed towards the castle.
They need to show the invitation letter to enter the selection center. So Zup took it from the side bag and gave it to the guards. They looked through the letter and then allowed him to cross the gate.
"The castle is fantastic to see from this view," he thought.
The selection was happening in the back side of that building. So he decided to go there without wasting any time.
The selection Is happening on a vast muddy ground, which is surrounded by some old buildings. The buildings do not look like houses; they are older and not in good shape. From its messy structure, Zup realized that these buildings are not fit for living.
He wondered why they were still allowing the old buildings to remain. They could simply destroy them and build new ones.
His flow of thoughts broke when he heard an announcement:
"Hello everyone, please listen to this announcement closely. The selection is going to start, so your first test is the written test. Go to the buildings and find your room. Before that, check your roll number as well as the room number on the notice board. Thank you."
The announcement ended. The speaker was also old, so the sound coming from it was glitchy, but still audible.
Zup looked through the names of the participants and found his name. It was in the middle of the list, and his roll number was
"9EA7H."
His class number was 18, so he entered the room, found his seat, and sat there.
He was alone in that room while others were still roaming around.Because of this, the announcer became mad and announced again, this time in an angry tone.
"If you are not going to your respective rooms, you are all going to be disqualified!"
Within a minute of this announcement, everyone went to their rooms.
Now Zup is not alone; there are almost 20 people in his room, all sitting in their seats. A mocking smile appeared on Zup's face. Within a minute, the invigilator also arrived with a paper bag. He stood in front of them with a smile.
After clearing his throat, he said, "Hello everyone, I'm the invigilator for this exam. I hope you all are prepared well so we can start the exam. Good luck!"
His voice was clear and slow, allowing everyone to catch up with him easily. He carefully cut open the bag with a small knife , then gave out the question papers after going through them himself. In the middle of distributing the question papers, he said,
"The questions are very easy. I hope you all can pass the exams."
When Zup got the question paper, he closed his eyes and prayed to the god for scoring high marks on the exams. Then he started reading the questions one by one.