15 Doubting

As the old Headmaster continued to laugh, the people present broke out into gasps and clamour. They began to have conversations amongst themselves.

The faces of the representatives from the ancient families twisted to become ugly and unsightly. They kept staring at the sword in Aaron's hand, trying to see through it for any tempering or flaws. But to their disappointment, they found no such defects to the sword. However, they were all sceptical of the result in front of their eyes.

In the empire, only the Aaron family has had the highest affinity towards the sword. This is something completely undeniable. However, today all reasoning told them that something like this was paradoxical. As these gentlemen and ladies continued to speculate, others, however, could no longer hold their disbelief.

"This is all a sham! If one has to fool people at least try and make it believable. A White grade has never appeared in the Empire in aeons." a nobleman stood up and said with bated breath.

"A practical joke like this is not something anyone would believe." another man retorted.

As more and more people started to disagree with the results, the old stopped laughing. His previously amiable face turned dark, he said in a cold and loud voice.

"So, you are saying that this old man has made an alteration to today's assessment! Although this old man's face might not be as thick as Lord Alan's it's not you youngsters turn to throw mud on it. This old man has always believed in facts, so we will make it a fact today that a White grade talent has been born." as he said he walked closer to Aaron, he smiled and extended his hand. Aaron tacitly handed the sword to him. He continued. "This old man was assessed to have a mid-Yellow grade affinity to swords. Everyone from my generation can vouch for! Now watch carefully!"

The Sword in his hand started glowing just like it did when Aaron held it. The colour of the glow turned light yellow and slowly it became slightly darker and brighter. As it reached the conclusion the old man held the sword higher.

Seeing the sword everyone quieted down. The old man then said.

"Since a single assessment is not enough, anyone who has a sword affinity come on up!" The Headmaster said loud and clear.

A man in his early thirties stood up and walked towards the stage. He took the sword in his hand. A similar scene repeated itself. The glowing sword this time had an orange colour. Seeing it the man nodded as he returned back the sword and head towards his seat.

"We need a few more! Hurry up! This old bones of my won't let me stand all day!" The old man said.

The two men who had commented earlier also came to the stage and went through the process. They silently left without saying a word.

"Well, Lord Alan if you would please enlighten us more that would be much appreciated." The old man turned towards Alan as he said.

Alan took the sword in his hand it began to glow and change colours. Stopping after turning bright red.

"I think that's enough to prove that the sword is doing what it should do flawlessly. Now just to make sure that it was not a fluke, we will perform the assessment again. Young Prince Aaron please!" the old man smiled. He held the sword with both his hands and presented in front of Aaron.

Taking the sword in his hands Aaron walked closer to the people who were looking at him with different looks. Some had anticipation, some had a mocking smile on their faces.

Sword did what it was supposed to do! The same scene of glowing and changing colour appeared. Slowing down as it turned red, then dimming a bit and followed by all the colours appearing just like before. They again started to mix with one another turning bright white in colour.

Majority of them had now been convinced however the people who were sceptical didn't say anything further and stayed silent.

"Young Prince Aaron, please walk closer to the other weapons while holding the sword." As Aaron was about put the sword back inside the box he heard the old man call out to him and said.

Aaron nodded and walk towards the other weapons, the closer he got the louder the humming sound became. As he reached right beside the box, the noise coming from the box became loud as if someone was intentionally making them vibrate.

"Do you know what is happening right now?" asked the Headmaster looking at everyone.

Everyone exchanged glances with one another with dumb faces.

"Let me explain! Right now all the weapons are in a frenzy to get away, far away from the sword. The reason being, these weapons were designed to or enchanted in a way so as to always create an equilibrium with one another. Right now, that equilibrium has been disrupted. This is a sign that their status quo has been hampered. The sword in Young Prince's hand right now has superiority to other weapons. This only happens when the glow turns while. To fix this issue we will do another simple test. I want three or more people to come up, you have to have an affinity to one of the other weapons." Headmaster explained.

A few people stood up, they walked towards the box and stood there.

"Now, you will pick up your respective weapons to which you have an affinity and walk further away from the sword in Young Prince's hand." Headmaster instructed.

The nobles grabbed the weapons, the weapons continued to vibrate as the started glowing to the holder's affinity to the weapon.

Next, they began to walk in different directions away from Aaron. With every step, the weapon's vibrations slowed down. They continued walking until their weapons stopped vibrating completely.

"Now, one by one walk closer towards the sword," Headmaster said.

A man with a Spear in hand started walking closer to the Sword. As he got closer the spears vibration became more and more distinct.

A bulky man with a Battle Axe was next to walk towards the Sword, the Axe just like the spear began vibrating again as he walked closer and closer.

The charming yet hot lady who had previously mentioned the Young Miss of the Hartington family walked towards the Sword while holding a Bow. It also began to vibrate more and more the closer it got to the Sword.

As all three of them reached next to Aaron, the same loud noise was heard.

"Young Prince put the sword down," Headmaster said with a smile.

As soon as Aaron put the sword on the floor the glowing white colour disappeared. The other weapons stopped vibrating abruptly.

"I think these tests were sufficient to prove that there was no tempering done to the weapons. All of them abide by the rules set by the Weapon Enchanting Master. For those who don't know currently, there is no Master level Weapon Enchanter in our Empire. These weapons are the exclusive properties of the Imperial Academy. They have tested many talented individuals from a talented commoner to the heroes of our Empire. Not even this old man can shoulder the responsibility to temper them! If you still think that these tests are made up by me then you can ask any weapon enchanter in the empire to verify my claims. Today, this old man has made an exception and not taken your words at heart or else even your family's head would not be able to pardon you!" Headmaster said as his face became serious, he looked at the two nobles who had made the previous comments.

The two nobles shivered with fever, this old headmaster is not someone like them could offend. If their family's head learned that they were even disrespectful towards the headmaster they would be imprisoned in lightly punished and executed if strictly punished. Whatever the case it may be they won't be able to shoulder the responsibility of making the headmaster upset.

"Please forgive us juniors headmaster! We said something without thinking. We were muddleheaded." both of them kneeled in their places and said loudly.

The old Headmaster didn't bother with them. A senior like him could not intentionally make things difficult for his juniors. He had many arrogant students in the past who would, due to their rebellious nature do things and go overboard but how could he take offence of someone who was half a century younger than him? A teacher without patience, being caring and forgiving would be too narrow-minded and unfit to be a good teacher.

As everyone came to terms with Aaron having a White grade affinity to the sword. The hall's atmosphere became much better compared to before.

The representatives of the other ancient families never objected to the results.

Although they were sceptical they knew that it served no purpose to claim something that would be easily proved wrong if investigated. However, after the Headmaster's explanation and through his in-depth and meticulous tests that all of them witnessed.

After a short period of silence, everyone started discussing again. But this time they were careful not to say anything reckless and anger the headmaster.

"Next, will be the assessment for magic affinity. I wonder what kind of affinity would the young prince have?" a gentleman asked curiously to his friends.

"What's there to wonder? Lord Alan is a Fire Mage it is likely he would also be a Fire Mage." the man to his right said.

"Not necessary, there have been times when young children would have an affinity towards the completely different element then their parents. It is written in many books by great researchers that the affinity to an element is not completely dependent on the parents of the child. But it tends to lean more towards it." the man to his left said.

"Hmm, would having fire affinity make him just like Lord Alan? Also with his talent for swordsmanship, he could even surpass Lord Alan! Can you imagine what kind of stir it would cause if he would be able to surpass his father?" in another group one of the men contemplated.

"That would truly be an event to witness!" said another man listening to the previous one.