the monarch

"I hope I rank high", the old man wasn't worried about that, Kayden's premature awakening was already a sign that he would rank high.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful, Kayden quickly got used to flying and enjoyed the feeling of seeing everything from a higher angle. It was only a few kilometers away from the city, so the trip didn't take more than a few minutes.

By the time Kayden saw the city, he was out of breath. A wall at least 50 meters high could be seen. There were guard posts every few meters away, at each one of them it was possible to see wizards in white and gold robes guarding the entrances to the city. They were large stone gates that were open during the day, their size was colossal, reaching more than 300 meters in width each. They made Kayden rethink his entire understanding of size and architecture.

The city had a modern and medieval-style model. The streets were normally one-sided and could fit a maximum of 3 cars together. He also saw large entrances of trains that passed inside the walls.

Kayden couldn't see much else. When he was rambling, the old man started to go down to a rectangular-looking building that occupied an entire block, easily reaching 500 meters of construction. It had two stories and full windows on both sides of the building, it was almost a glass school.

Once again Kayden felt small compared to the buildings around him. When they got out, they went straight to a line at the entrance to the building. The line was relatively long, but as Kayden got closer, he saw that most of them were parents and friends who had come to watch the children test.

Upon entering the courtyard, they could see a woman holding a small round device in her hands and, in a matter of seconds, she was able to give a classification result.

"Kayden, go wait in line over there on the side, I'll be waiting for you here after your test."

Without delay, Kayden nodded and headed for the front of the queue. He couldn't lie, he was anxious to know his result. He saw several children having their bracelets removed and their results were expressed by the device.

"Tier 3 talent, next. Tier 3 talent, next. Tier 2 talent", while the official was speaking the ratings, the people around were chatting and debating the result. The moment the level 2 talent was revealed, some adults made a disgusted and pitying face. Without a doubt, that child's life was going to be difficult in the future.

As soon as her results came out, the child began to cry and refused to move. Cases like this were common and school officials quickly sent the child to their classroom. After waiting for a few seconds, Kayden finally had his turn. With just a few simple movements of the officer's hands, Kayden had his handcuffs released.

The moment they fell from his wrist, he felt the world around him different. It seemed to be full of mana, what used to take a lot of effort could now be done with medium effort. It was a refreshing sensation, similar to pulling out a thorn that had been bothering you for days.

"Level talent... wait, I'll take a new measurement, the device seems to be giving error", hearing that, Kayden felt strange. Was it his fault? But the old man knew that the girl was probably not believing the result that was given by the device, and this resulted in the old man's anxiety exploding to insane levels. Was Kayden a top-notch talent? That would be magnificent.

"It doesn't seem to have any mistakes at all, near level 1 talent," the girl said with a bit of surprise. His revelation caused a deathly silence to fall on the people present, almost no one there had seen a level 1 result in their entire life, and even those who had already witnessed it still did so through videos.

The old man took a while to think, the shock left him speechless for several seconds. Kayden was no different, only this one was able to recover faster. He was already happy to be in this world, and he would make it to the top, even with this "little" setback.

In a matter of seconds, the audience turned into a fire of parallel conversations, all criticizing the child. If even the lowest of society are Level 2's, what's a Level 1 to do? Not even beggars were of that level. The old man hurried to Kayden.

"Kayden, Kayden, it's not a problem, you can still go a long way, talent doesn't define anyone's future", the old man even got out of his tsundere role, hugging Kayden.

"Stop fooling him, this child is going to be a failure," one of the people shouted from the crowd.

"Quiet", the old man only said one word, but it seemed to carry the weight of a mountain. His voice was filled with anger, it was the first time Kayden had seen the old man break down. All the people in the area felt like they were carrying a backpack weighing tens of kilos on their backs, some even fell to their knees.

The officer even tried to speak, but he couldn't even whisper a word. Then the old man conjured a white barrier around him and Kayden. Still holding Kayden, he tried to comfort him again.

"You'll still get to live a comfortable life, and on the bright side, you won't need to get involved in conflicts or risk your life, will you..."

"Uncle, I'm not sad."

"Oi? It's okay to deny it, Kayden, no need to play strong", the old man didn't believe the boy's words.

"Seriously uncle, I'm going to climb to the top, it's just going to take a little longer." At that moment, the old man looked into Kayden's eyes and saw not an ounce of doubt or confusion, almost as if the boy was stating an already-known fact.

"Alright, let's take you to your class", as he spoke, the old man removed the barrier. When he left, he saw that the audience was more restrained. The officer recognized the old man's strength and tried to apologize.

"Sorry if we offended you, elder," the officer bowed low to the ground. He knew that if the old man killed everyone there, with his level of power, it wouldn't have very big consequences and probably the government would just hide this case.

"Don't worry, it was just me losing control", the old man said just that and didn't go any further, that was a benefit of the strong, they don't need to justify themselves. "Kayden, escort your teacher to class."

After saying that, the old man quickly left the place. Kayden walked to a teacher in the hallway that was opposite the entrance. Her teacher seemed to be used to the craft, she was fat and short, almost like a standard movie teacher.

After greeting the student, she led him to a room on the first floor and introduced a few places in the school as she went. The canteen easily had room for 500 people to eat at the same time. Snacks were served at the entrance and exit of classes.

"Your class starts at 9 am and ends at 3 pm. You'll learn about a lot of subjects here and make a lot of friends", she started chattering non-stop, just like she does with children to get their attention. After a while, Kayden just started ignoring her and just nodding in agreement with her lines.