After Jaewon walked down the platform under thundering applause, which took a full minute to calm down, the ceremony returned to its usual proceedings.
The officials didn't rush it and waited with patience. As if with the accustomed experience that exceptional results always produced exceptional delays. His record was already registered and marked. Seven skills, all high-grade, locking in his future Gold rank.
A result that's good for the ceremony, producing an exceptional individual, but bad for everyone else who had to follow after his result.
'Just thinking about going on stage after him is depressing,' Jihoon sighed.
"Park Juntae! To the platform!"
The next name belonged to a boy coming from a mid-tier guild family. His expression was as if the heavens had betrayed him, his face pale and lips trembling. Going up on stage right after Jaewon was like asking to be mocked, to get his results compared to that over-the-top elite.
And just as expected, he only manifested one skill.
The applause was brief and respectful, one he took with a bitter expression. He walked off with his chin held up despite that, as if he expected this long ago anyway.
The ceremony continued as usual in a fixed rhythm. Names were called, kids climbed up the platform, a burst of light revealed their skills, and then there were varying degrees of applause and cheers.
Jihoon tracked it the same way he'd been doing in the past hour—not as a passive observer, but as someone collecting data on a system he was about to be judged by.
Two skills were the median so far; three put you solidly on a silver platter, off to an almost elite track. Four or more, and the clan sections would be clawing their throats to try and get you.
Time slipped by. Nine minutes, eight, seven... the clock kept on ticking.
'You're doing math again,' Jihoon warned himself. 'That's a really great use of the time you have left...'
At the next moment, the Shin Clan section had gone very still.
He noticed it before he understood what was happening—a collective gasp of anticipation, as if finally seeing something they'd all been waiting for. His eyes moved to the platform out of reflex.
There, a single figure stood. Shin Seoyeon.
She stood without panic, casual and cold. Walking toward the pale circle in the middle as if she was just going for a stroll, with the even, measured pace she used for every social event... Technically everything that's public.
Jihoon had known her for seven years, but he had never once seen her rush.
The pale circle lit when she stepped onto it.
He watched her face carefully. Most participants looked at the pillar or at the official, or toward the observer stands where their families and friends were—whatever their nerves chose for them. But Seoyeon just looked straight ahead, at a fixed point somewhere beyond the platform's edge. At nothing and everything, simultaneously.
Her expression was stone-cold and indifferent, with not a hint of change or nervousness.
"WOAH!"
A groan escaped from the crowd as her skills came in, one after another.
For the first one, the official's stylus moved with care.
The second, murmurs began to echo from the clan sections.
Three, the echoing whispers turned into something cacophonous. Almost as if they were already celebrating.
At the fourth, the Shin Clan adults in the reserved rows of seats weren't whispering anymore. They were watching with the focused stillness of people watching history be made.
At the fifth skill, somewhere in the upper gallery, cheering began to seep out. Like a sharp exhale multiplied by a hundredfold.
And then... it ended there.
The pillar showed five skill names in the middle of it. Each one was high-grade, not losing out to Jaewon's at all. Each one from a classification tier that would put her comfortably in the Gold track without doubt. But all her skills were not random but quite synergistic. Something the others hadn't seen before.
Seoyeon stood inside the light with her hands to her sides. Her face was absolutely still. Almost as if she had known the result beforehand, like she'd carried this number for years and had simply been waiting for the evaluation to give it to her flatly.
Though only one person realized the relief hidden under her thick mask of normality.
The applause that followed was different compared to Jaewon's. It wasn't a surprise meeting confirmation, but rather, something quieter and more appreciative. Recognition, yes, but also the particular echo of someone's image getting even brighter than before. Someone rising to even more fame.
Jihoon's fist clamped down on his knees. He pressed hard once, then let go. He didn't cheer, desperately holding back the congratulatory words rising from his throat.
Seoyeon stepped down from the platform, walking back to her seat.
Carefully and gracefully, she sat down. Folding her hands in her lap once again. The Shin Clan adults behind her exchanged one or two words, which she didn't react to at all.
'Five great skills...' Jihoon thought. 'And she didn't even tell me.'
Big clans have a method to predict the number of skills one would get before the Awakening Ceremony even occurred. But despite that, despite knowing how many skills she could get, she didn't speak of it at all. She didn't want to brag, for it to be an object of discussion and envy.
She simply wanted to have others discover her worth when it was revealed, not beforehand.
That was very Seoyeon-like.
He wasn't sure what that said about him, that he found it almost funny.
The ceremony continued, the same as before. More names were called, more skills revealed, and applause rained down like the world itself blessing them. Jihoon registered the next three awakenings without fully processing them. Two skills, then one, then three. It was the same as usual.
Three minutes left.
'Okay.'
He took a breath that was longer and deeper than the ones before it.
His heart was beating loudly in his ears, pounding in his chest. The seats in his row had thinned considerably. After all, some of those who got their skills didn't return to their seats but rather went to their families to cheer and celebrate quietly. In moderation.
Only Jihoon and three others remained in the list, added to the few who were staying in their seats patiently until the ceremony ended.
The official's voice echoed clearly in the hall. Each name called, the weight in Jihoon's heart felt even more solid. A professional style that called each name with equal tone, equal hype, and without bias. A sort of professional kindness that Jihoon appreciated.
Trying to distract himself, he continued calculating.
Two names left, only one minute to go.
The hall was starting to feel hot, both from the collective body heat of everyone present and the stale circulation of the ventilation. His collar felt awkward against his neck, the fabric seemingly sticking to his skin. He thought about adjusting it but chose not to.
He had no mirror to fix it reliably.
In the Shin Clan's row, Seoyeon's hands were still folded. Still with her thumb spinning circles. Jihoon noticed that and chuckled. He wasn't sure what to think about it.
"Kang Jihoon!"
Finally, his name was called.
With determination...
He stood up.