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nGoing back in time, to when Brance finished his test, like his brother several minutes later, he was teleported to an empty classroom. Unlike his brother’s experience, though, since Brance had finished the test so quickly, he was actually the first person to enter the room.

nStanding in place, he observed the room silently for a few moments before walking up to the wall-sized Tv and looking for some way to turn it on. After several minutes of searching and coming up empty-handed, Brance was startled by the appearance of the first person, an athletic-looking teenage boy with blond hair and dark skin. When the boy saw he wasn’t the first to pass the exam, he scoffed and walked up to Brance while radiating an air of superiority.

n“You there, kid, what luck you have to be in the presence of me, Talio Freel. You are now one of my underlings, and since you were smart enough to even best me, the Heir of the Freel Merchant Group, in the Written Exam, I shall grace you with a position in my father’s company.” Then, stopping a couple of feet from Brance, he struck a haughty pose while looking down on the boy who was clearly younger than him.

nBut unlike what he had expected, Brance didn’t seem overjoyed at his declaration. Instead, the younger boy was staring at him with a strange look that seemed to say, “are you insane?”

n“Um…no, thank you, Talio Freel, I’m sorry, but my family wouldn’t agree with me working at such a young age.” Brance tried to speak with a friendly tone, but seeing Talio’s reaction, it seemed he had verbally bitchslapped him from the way he responded.

n“WHAT, how dare you? I went out of my way to show you the kindness people would kill for, and you…you…you use a dumb excuse like that.” Talio’s face turned bright red like a tomato, and the veins in his temple started poking out.

n‘Please don’t do the thing, please don’t do the thing, please don’t do the thing.’ Since important things should be said three times, Brance begged Talio internally not to do what he was expecting would come after his rejection. But his expectations were shattered.

n“How dare you, it looks like I’ll have to teach you just how badly you’ve screwed up, kid. I didn’t want to have to do this since you look so frail.” Rolling up his sleeves, Talio stepped forward and tried to look as menacing as possible before drawing back his left arm and slapping Brance across the face.

nSquinting his eyes, Brance watched as the older boy seemed to move in slow motion to him and reached out to catch the incoming palm. Using literally zero effort, he easily caught the boy’s palm and gave it a slight squeeze, forcing the bones in Talio’s hand to pop loudly.

n“AHHHH,” Talio screamed in pain and fell to his knees as Brance stood in place, looking at the older boy sympathetically but not releasing his grip on the still popping hand. Brance, unlike Cynrik, didn’t actually like hurting people. He would rather just show them kindness and use his words, but by no means did this mean he was a pushover. So while Cynrik was savage and would have beat Talio to a pulp, Brance stood there looking down at Talio, and after squeezing two more times, he released his grip on his hand.

n“You shouldn’t resort to violence; it’s not good to just up and hit someone over a disagreement.” Then, while sighing, Brance stepped away from Talio, who remained on the ground cradling his hand, which in the best case was now fractured in several places.

n“You little jerk, you just broke my hand, My father will hear of this, and I will watch him destr…

nBANG

nBefore he could finish his sentence, a large tear-drop-shaped shield slammed into the ground, inches away from his face, with enough force to cause cracks in the linoleum tile.

n“Finish that statement, and your father will have a daughter instead of a son after the exams finish.” Recalling his CS Tear MK1, Brance chose to walk away and treat Talio as if he was an insect.

nComing from a Merchant family, and not one who was centered around combat, the sudden situation struck Talio with so much fear that he pissed himself. He had assumed that the small boy was harmless, only to find out he was, in fact, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The throbbing pain in his hand brought him back to reality as his eyes drifted to the cracked linoleum inches in front of him. But, he was intelligent enough to realize he had just escaped with his life, and he very quickly made the decision to never mess with Brance, or even speak to him, for that matter, again.

nWith the room falling back to silence once more, Brance continued his investigation of the room. Since arriving, he felt something was strange about this place. Although it appeared to be a simple classroom, the fact that it was both windowless and doorless made him see it as something other than a holding place.

nEventually, he ended up in front of the large TV again when he saw a flash of light out the corner of his eye, and a breathless Gabby appeared.

n“BRANCIE!” Bouncing like a small bunny, Gabby swiftly made her way to Brance before jumping at him and hugging him tightly.

nLetting out a small helpless chuckle, he caught the girl and hugged her back before patting her head. “Looks like you even beat big brother; that’s our Gabby, sharp as a sword.”

n“Mhm,” beaming brightly and basking in Brance’s praise, Gabby let him go and looked around the room curiously. “So, where are we?”

n“No idea, Cynrik and the others haven’t shown up, so I’m guessing this is where we go after you pass.” Brance crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the girl who was a head shorter than him.

n“I figure we should wait for the others. Something’s up about this room. Did you notice anything yet?” Then, wanting to test Gabby’s observation skills, Brance asked her to see if she noticed what he did.

nGabby’s face scrunched up in thought as she tilted her head to the side and looked around. “mmm, there’s no doors and windows here, plus that TV is HUGGEEE, that’s kinda weird, right? I don’t see any remotes or anything to turn it on with.” Brance smiled as she answered. Contrary to what Cynrik seemed to think, Gabby was actually the smartest out of their little group. The only thing that made Cynrik feel otherwise was her pure heart and innocence. She was playful and bubbly, but when push came to shove, she was highly observant and had picked up on the few oddities that had taken Brance a couple of minutes to find.

n“Good girl, you nailed it.” Brance treated her like a puppy and again pat her head, which caused Gabby to giggle and squirm in place.

n“For now, let’s just hang tight and wait for our brothers to show up.”

n“Yep, yep.”

nThe two moved to the side of the room and chatted idly as, over time, more kids passed the exam and were summoned into the room. A couple of older boys had tried to flirt with Gabby in that time, but when they saw Brance giving them a dangerous look, they quickly backed off and congregated with the other kids.

nAlthough Brance only saw Gabby as the little sister type, he knew that she was considered cute, but seeing as he had a soul that could be regarded as middle age, he treated her more like a daughter than a childhood friend.

nEventually, Benny showed up and joined the group, but Cynrik was still missing, which caused Brance to try using the mind link, but just as Cynrik would find out later, the connection was cut. He didn’t have the same reaction as his older brother, but it still caused him to be concerned.

n“Brance, you’ve been here the longest, has that TV turned on, or have we received any instructions yet?” The wait had caused Benny to speak up.

n“No, nothing at all, it’s kind of strange. First, I thought there was some kind of puzzle-like earlier, but I didn’t find anything, so then I thought if more people showed up, it would turn on and give us a message, but that hasn’t happened either.” Frowning, Brance looked around at the clusters of kids, which had reached approximately 40 now, and saw several moving around, searching for clues.

n“You guys are so serious; how bout we go meet some new friends, I’m tired of standing here in the corner acting like Big Bro Cyn; you two are all mopey and serious.” Gabby grabbed both their wrists and started dragging them towards a group of kids who were laughing and joking around with each other and decided to join them.

nBut when she was a couple of steps away, she heard a click, and the small tile under her foot moved, causing her to yelp in surprise, which was cut off by not only her but Benny and Brance being turned into light and vanishing from the room.

nWhen the group opened their eyes, they were in a large grassy courtyard filled with flowers.

n“What the hell just happened.” Brance stared at Gabby absentmindedly, and she just giggled.

n“See, told you we should go meet some new friends; good things happen when you’re proactive, Brancie,” letting go of both boys’ wrists, Gabby put her hands on her hips and whipped her head back and forth gloatingly.

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