The Greatest Sinner

Evan slowly entered the amphitheater. It was huge and majestic, and this was where the most important events and announcements in "The Last Moon" took place.

The seats in the parterre numbered in hundreds, there were also several floors above, offering an impressive view of the stage. Massive crystal chandeliers illuminated the entire auditorium, and the marble, carved columns gave the amphitheater an ancient aura.

Evan wasn't the first to arrive, several dozen students were already seated in the front rows. The girl told Evan to sit wherever he wanted and quickly left the amphitheater. Her only job was to escort Evan to the right place.

He sat down in the fifth row and waited for the beginning. As time passed, there were more and more students, and the teachers had already filled almost the entire upper floor.

<Are there all the teachers of the Academy here?> Evan thought as he looked at the upper floors.

Each one of them was looking intently at the students and was extremely serious. The entrance ceremony was one of the most important events in every Academy of Magic. The new students were the future power of the Academy, and some of them will become teachers in the future.

"Looks like the ceremony is starting." Evan muttered quietly as he looked at Arabella entering the stage.

Her appearance was much different now than it had been this morning. Her look wasn`t sleepy now and there were no bags under her eyes. Her movements were not sluggish, and she herself looked alert and energetic.

Evan was surprised, he thought that Arabella was sleepy and slow in any situation.

"To begin with, I congratulate you all on your admission to "The Last Moon", I hope this place will be a second home for you, where you can become better and learn many new things. Now, each of you will get your mantle, map and emblem, and then you meet your teacher. In addition, you will be assigned to the classes you will be studying in." Calmly Arabella said.

The next moment she called out one student's name and he immediately walked onto the stage.

Whoosh.

A blue mantle with a white emblem appeared in the air next to Arabella, which she handed to the young man.

Arabella said loudly: "Andre Booth - "Creator", white "Warp", F- class, 100 "Moon Coins", teacher - Thomas Burke."

After her words, a man in a silver mantle, who was this young man's teacher, came onto the stage. They quickly left the stage together and Arabella called out the name of the next student.

In addition to the mantle and the emblem, Arabella also gave out a card with a certain number of "Moon Coins" on it. The better the class the student was in, the more 'Moon Coins" he got.

The card was special because only "Moon Coins" could be placed on it. This was done to ensure that there was only one currency in the city and the Academy. It was simply impossible to buy anything with gold coins.

A tall girl came to the stage and also received her mantle, emblem, and map. A man in a white mantle came out to her. Then Arabella called out the name of the next student.

<Hmm, I thought we`re going on the stage in alphabetical order, but I guess I was wrong. It's all about class, the later a student enters the stage, the better class he'll be in.> Evan thought as he watched another student enter the stage.

Evan was surprised to see that even people with purple emblems were getting into the F-class. This meant that the color of the "Warp", in this Academy of Magic was really not important. It was the student's skills, abilities and actions that counted, not his luck. It was impossible to become a great magician just because you were lucky enough to have a purple "Warp".

Evan liked this system, of course, nothing was fair in this world, but this system was times better than the others.

As time went on, students stopped getting into the F- class. The next student who entered the scene was assigned to the E-class. He received not 100, but 200 "Moon Coins". 

After a while, one girl was assigned to D-class - the more students entered the stage, the higher was the rank of the class. Students who got into the D-class got 300 "Moon Coins". Each time the amount increased.

One of the students who got into the D- class was Katlyn van Erden. Her results during the entrance exam were not the best, but not the worst either. Her teacher was of a third rank and wore a platinum mantle.

After a while, Arabella named the first student to get into the C- class.

<Hmm, F, E, D, C... so the best class is A-class, right?> Evan thought.

Evan had already seen many students, but not a single "Inner student" had come on stage yet. Evan assumed that everyone who had taken part in this morning's test would be assigned to A-class, including him.

"Fien Vierdag - "Creator", purple "Warp", B-class, 500 "Moon Coins", teacher- Lionel Thomas." Arabella said calmly, handing the girl the mantle and the map emblem.

<Hmm, Fien didn't last very many seconds during the test, but she still made it to the B- class, it looks like the teachers liked her performance.>  Evan thought and continued to wait his turn.

Despite the huge number of students, the ceremony went fairly quickly. Arabella did not waste any more time with idle chitchat, she only gave the necessary information.

However, Evan's expectations were not matched by reality. "Inner students" did not make it into A-class.

"Bernt Vignes - "Creator", white "Warp", A-class, 600 "Moon Coins", teacher - Valentine Goberd."

<Bernt... this is the guy who was only two seconds short of becoming an "Inner student". If those who could practically last ten seconds get into the A-class, what class will I get into?> Evan pondered, looking at the contented young man on the stage.

In Bernt`s family, the magicians with the white "Warp" were considered losers. This had been weighing on Bernt for years, but now he realized that none of this mattered. All that mattered was that he had proved himself far better than most other students. Moreover, he had always wanted to do alchemy, and the teacher of alchemy took him as a student. Today was the best day of his life for Bernt.

Besides Bernt, there were many other students who were happy with their results. Of course, every of them wanted to become an "Inner student", but they understood that it was almost impossible to do so. Only fourteen people out of several hundred had become "Inner students". Only this showed how difficult it was to last ten seconds.

After hundreds of students, there were only fourteen people left in the amphitheater who hadn't received their mantles from the Head of the Academy yet.

"Kent Waage - "Summoner", purple "Warp", S- class, 700 "Moon Coins", you also get an extra 1000 "Moon Coins" for passing the entrance exam and becoming an "Inner student", teacher - Lourens Vouwe."

Kent received his green mantle with a black frame, and then the man in the gray mantle took the stage.