The air froze. The attendants' eyes went wide, jaws slack. The auburn-haired woman swayed slightly, then blurted, "I—I have to inform my boss! Colonel Leon, please, one moment!" She scrambled from her chair and darted down the corridor, nearly tripping over her own haste.
Leon only smiled faintly and waited, arms at his side.
Around him, the murmur began.
"How is he an Azure Colonel at that age?" someone hissed.
Another trial taker frowned, recognition sparking. "Wait… isn't that the kid who cleared his first trial in twenty-eight days?"
"That doesn't make sense," a third muttered. "Back then he was nothing. I saw him. Everyone thought he was talentless."
The whispers swelled into a ripple of disbelief. The settlement was full of seasoned trial takers, men and women who lived more here than in the Federation. They prided themselves on knowing the faces of those who rose quickly. Yet Leon's rise had been too sudden, and too sharp. That it left their assumptions shattered.
