Lisbon met and faced his exam opponent. They saluted each other.

For the middle-rank knight school, one would usually move up from the low-rank knight school. However, in cases of failing to enter the low-rank knight school due to unavoidable circumstances like Lisbon, an entrance exam could be taken. As it was not the normal route, the exam assessment was much harsher. The reason being when a student transferred directly into a middle-rank knight school, he missed out on learning military science or military strategy from the low-rank knight school. Even if the examinee claimed to have learned them, it wasn’t something that could be evaluated in a short time. Therefore, they demanded skills over the necessary knowledge for a knight.

Moreover, in order to draw out the skills of the examinees in the middle-rank knight school exam, the academy requested knights from the capital’s knight division to be opponents every year. The instructors could have also served as opponents, but their number was insufficient as the low-rank knight school exam overlapped and because they had to do the evaluations too.

All the...