Chapter 257
Final Exam Ends
Mr “King” Augustus was finally given temporary lodging in the White Queen District by Eivass.
After settling him in, Eivass and Isabel returned to the Silver and Tin Hall.
For his safety and to prevent him from escaping, Augustus was effectively under house arrest. He was monitored and protected by at least six Inspectors on rotation, with three servants from the Silver and Tin Hall assigned to attend to his daily needs and report his every move.
Yet, even so, the “King” was moved to tears.
Good person!
Oh, no.
Good fox!
Before this, he had already prepared himself for prison.
Avalon’s prisons were different from Star Antimony’s. The most common punishments and labor there involved treadmills.
Each set of treadmills was like a seven-person hamster wheel, with partitions in the middle to prevent whispering. Below, it was connected to a shaft device capable of grinding corn and other grains.
Once this device started running, it would continue to turn by inertia. The result was that once all seven people started running, none of them could stop. Prisoners were required to run for three hours at a time, twice a day, with severe offenders running three times. The physical exertion was equivalent to climbing a mountain four to five thousand meters high.
This allowed the prisons to function as large mills. Furthermore, the prisoners’ energy was completely depleted by the machines; by controlling their diet, they would naturally have no excess energy for escaping or fighting.
The speed of the treadmills was actually not too fast. After all, they were not run empty but were used to grind grain. However, the physical exertion was essentially equivalent to climbing stairs non-stop.
The most terrifying aspect of this forced labor was that during work, all one could see were the white walls in front and to the sides—white being the representative color of the Silver Crown Dragon, and seven being Its Sacred Number. While being punished, it was also equivalent to worshipping Him.
Because of this, prisoners would not faint or die suddenly on the treadmills but would instead experience slow healing… but also because of this, the body’s self-protection limits would gradually be opened, leading to their stamina being ever more cleanly drained.
Beyond this, the prisoners had no other decorations and could not see the time. Thus, they did not know how much longer they had to work, nor how long they had already worked. Even upon returning to their cells, they generally lacked the energy to chat with others.
Over time, they would even forget how long they had been in prison and how much longer they would remain.
Therefore, Avalon’s jailers did not need to use restraints or torture devices to beat or torment prisoners, yet they could still make prisoners fear the prison. After their release, they were also rarely brave enough to break the law and return to prison.
This was completely different from Star Antimony.
Star Antimony’s prisons were basically no different from slums. There were gangs, rules, homemade liquor, and frequent brawls. Prisoners typically worked in prison factories, and occasionally they could read newspapers and exercise. In exchange, they would occasionally be dragged out by jailers to be tortured as punishment.
But the King would rather be imprisoned in Star Antimony and tortured with instruments than be imprisoned in Avalon.
Having already made such psychological preparations, even if Eivass had directly stated he would be placed under house arrest, he would only be grateful for Minister Moriarty’s magnanimity. He also hoped that Avalon could quickly bring his family over.
Augustus naturally knew that free things were the most expensive—
Although Avalon seemed to demand no price, offering to bring his family over to help them escape Star Antimony’s surveillance and kidnapping, in reality, this would cost him the rest of his life. Since his family would be in Avalon, it would naturally be even harder for him to run away. It was easy for one person to run, but it was basically impossible to run with one’s entire family.
—But what did it matter?
The fact that Avalon went to such lengths to bring him and his family over meant that Avalon needed him. Although Augustus himself did not know what he could do, it was better than slowly starving to death in Star Antimony.
The place he was now under house arrest was even a villa in the capital’s White Queen District—he even had a butler and two servants looking after and monitoring him!
To relieve his boredom, and also to assess his capabilities, Eivass had specifically instructed the servants to buy Augustus some raw materials and let him make plant essential oils at home with professional equipment.
Meanwhile, Eivass and Isabel were focused on their exams this week.
After this week, Eivass’s subjects would all be concluded.
Isabel was one grade higher than Eivass and had enrolled in more elective courses, so she had more classes. She still had three exams to take next week.
He ultimately received five perfect scores, giving him a good idea of his level after advancing to the Third Tier. Thus, he slightly controlled his scores in the last Star Antimony Language and Iris Flower Language exams, only obtaining two Three-petal flowers.
In reality, if he had written them seriously, he should have at least scored Five-petal flowers. However, if he did so, with five “Flawless” and two “Exceeding Expectations,” the valedictorian of their level would undoubtedly be him.
But Eivass hoped to leave some opportunities for other talented individuals.
Although Eivass now also had a formidable five Flawless scores, he received Three-petal flowers, which were below Four-petal flowers. The valedictorian must have at least Four-petal flowers on all subjects, representing “normal level.” A single Three-petal flower, representing “passing,” would make it impossible to be valedictorian.
Haina had already graduated early and had been working for almost half a year.
Although she had not yet been assigned her own Gryphon, she obviously did not need to worry too much about final exams. Apart from a few elective courses she still had to take, all others had already been completed. And the grades for these elective courses were ultimately irrelevant. However, even so, Haina had still reviewed a bit for a few weeks in between work so that they too had a chance to maintain a perfect score.
After the exams, a relieved Eivass and Haina gathered at Bishop Mathers’s home.
“Are you especially determined to get a perfect score, senior?”
Eivass asked out of curiosity, “Your graduation grades are probably not very useful to you anymore, right?”
“It’s a sort of obsession…”
Haina, beaming, hugged her graduation certificate and couldn’t help but kiss it, inhaling the fresh ink aroma.
She then turned to Eivass and explained, “You know… I’m actually not very intelligent, I’m simply good at studying.”
—Indeed.
Eivass thought, you really aren’t very smart.
This exceptionally gifted and beautiful village girl was, at her core, still a village girl. She typically alternated between studying and training. After months of frontline experience, she was still clumsy.
Despite possessing a wealth of theoretical knowledge and extremely excellent skills among her peers, her application was still somewhat clunky. Not only in the application of theoretical knowledge, but even in combat, she was still a bit unadaptable.
There was a strange sense of disconnect about her—as if the skills learned through the system were not mastered by herself, but by Haina.
Eivass, who directly improved his skill levels through the system, did not feel this disconnect as much as Haina did.
Fortunately, although Meg had successfully reincarnated, her promise to Haina still held.
Now, Haina had also become Lixia’s formal disciple.
If nothing unexpected happened, after her next promotion, she would transfer to the Arbitration Hall. For now, she was still in the Inspection Bureau, accumulating work experience.
Eivass even speculated that the Inspection Bureau had consistently not assigned Haina a Gryphon because they were unsure of what specifications of Gryphon to give her.
Even the previous Haina… before Meg had taken notice of her, Haina’s grades were ridiculously high. It was highly likely she would be transferred to the Supervisory Court or the Arbitration Hall after a period.
Gryphons, in general, were permanent. There was no such thing as being given a subpar one and then getting a better one after a promotion; nor was it possible to find someone to replace it if the one given previously died. Gryphons and their professional careers were bound together. Even Meg herself, after her Gryphon died in action, had not acquired a new one through her authority for all these years.
This was not only a rule but also a form of love.
Gryphons, as companions to the people of Avalon, were not mere pets. Gryphon Knights were not their masters, but their human partners. Since humans and Gryphons could advance in their Paths together, it meant that their souls had effectively merged.
Because of this, Gryphons could share their ability to transform into wind and fly at high speeds with their partners.
Otherwise, with the Gryphons’ maximum speed, they might stir up storms on the ground and tear up trees just by flying. The Gryphons’ physical strength could not withstand such pressure, nor could humans.
But they did not need to resist.
Because Gryphons were the darlings of the storm.
Even an eighteen-level typhoon would not harm a young Gryphon in the slightest. Any pure-blooded Gryphon could transform its essence into a storm. This was like humans using tools; it was an innate talent that did not require teaching.
As a result, most Gryphons could only fly at full speed when flying with their partners. In this state, other companions riding on their backs would fall off immediately after the Gryphon accelerated. Even the Gryphon of the Grand Guardian that Eivass had ridden previously, while it could control the surrounding wind to prevent Eivass from being blown off, did not dare to fly at full speed.
“I am now basically certain that you will be able to get a White Feather Gryphon.”
Eivass smiled as he delivered the good news to her.
He was also genuinely happy for Haina. In a sense, Haina was like his good brother; he felt no pressure interacting with her.
“That’s awesome?!”
Haina exclaimed in surprise, “Amazing—”
Although her words were somewhat rough for a girl, they were just right for her.
