Chapter 157: [X] - 157: Registration Accepted
The blue haired registrar looked at Alex for a long moment longer, the displeasure in her expression had only increased.
When she finally spoke, her voice carried the precise edge of someone who had already decided the conversation was going to be a problem.
"Why are you here, and why are you interrupting the selection process?"
Alex answered without raising his voice or changing expression.
"I am here to register for the Proving."
The words landed in the hall like a stone dropped into still water.
Sudden silence fell across the entire registration area.
For a full second no one spoke or moved.
Then the silence shattered.
Voices erupted from every direction at once, overlapping and rising until the sound filled the high ceiling.
"He is registering?!"
"He is only twelve!"
"That cannot be right!"
"No one that young has ever—!"
"Is he serious about this? On the last day at that?!"
Many of the people present knew his age.
While registering below eighteen was not illegal, the act itself was completely unprecedented.
The weight of that fact moved through the crowd in visible waves of disbelief and calculation.
The registrar’s expression turned very dark.
She leaned forward slightly over the counter, blue eyes fixed on him with a sharpness that made the formations under the surface glow a fraction brighter.
"Are you certain?" she asked.
"Do you understand what you are requesting?"
Alex met her gaze without flinching.
"Register me quickly, or you will be the reason others cannot finish registering before the deadline closes."
"The line behind me is not going to wait forever while we discuss whether I am serious."
She was visibly annoyed and the muscle at the corner of her jaw tightened once.
For a moment it looked as if she might refuse on principle.
Then practical reality reasserted itself.
The CBI did not turn away a properly presented registration simply because the applicant was young and inconvenient.
She exhaled through her nose and reached under the counter.
"Very well."
She produced a glowing orb the size of a closed fist and a detailed consent form printed on thick, formation treated paper.
The orb pulsed with a steady internal light, the same soft colour as the residual glow along the counter’s edge.
She set both items in front of him with deliberate care.
"Place your hand on the orb only after you have read the form carefully."
"And remember... doing so means full acceptance of every condition of the Proving."
"There is no withdrawal once the registration is sealed."
Alex picked up the form.
He read it in silence.
The language was dense and formal, but every major point matched exactly what his parents had already told him in the study.
The structure of the competition, the public observers during the event, the fact that only actual situation near certain death would trigger extraction to save his life, and the clear statement that severe injury and temporary foundation damage were accepted risks.
At the end, set apart in heavier script, the final note:
No one under the age of eighteen is recommended to enter.
Any participant who chooses to ignore this recommendation does so entirely at their own risk and responsibility.
The Institution accepts no liability for consequences arising from early registration.
Alex finished the last line, set the form down, and looked at the orb.
’Exactly as they said, no surprises there.’
Through the bond Zara’s presence stayed steady, but he could feel the quiet tension under it.
’Alex, you do not have to do this today....’
’I know, but Zara, I have you with me, don’t I?’
He placed his hand on the orb.
The surface was cool and smooth.
The internal light brightened at once, climbing from soft colour to a sharper light that washed across the counter and the lower half of his face.
The glow held for several heartbeats, long enough for the entire hall to see it, then faded cleanly back to its original state.
The registrar stared at the orb as if it had betrayed her.
Disbelief sat open on her face for the first time since he had approached the counter.
She looked from the now quiet orb to Alex’s hand and back again, clearly processing the fact that he had actually gone through with it.
"No one in the last few years has been foolish enough to accept under those conditions," she said.
The words came out flatter than before, almost as if she were speaking to herself.
"Most who even consider early entry walk away once they read the final clause... you have no idea what you are getting yourself into."
Alex removed his hand from the orb and stepped back half a pace, the registration complete.
Before he could turn fully away, Zara stepped forward to the counter.
She did not wait for an invitation or an explanation.
She simply placed herself in the same position Alex had occupied a moment earlier and looked at the registrar with the calm expression she used when a decision had already been made.
The blue haired woman stared at her.
"You as well?"
Zara’s answer was short and clear.
"I am registering for the Proving."
A second wave of noise moved through the hall, lower than the first but no less sharp.
The idea of the Third Prince entering early was already unprecedented.
His Shadow Guard registering beside him pushed the reaction further.
The registrar’s expression darkened again.
She did not bother repeating the full warning.
She produced a second consent form, set the same orb back on the counter, and waited in tight lipped silence while Zara read the document with the same careful attention Alex had given it.
Zara finished, set the form down, and placed her hand on the orb without hesitation.
The light flared once more, held, and faded.
The registrar looked from one of them to the other.
When she finally spoke, her voice carried the same dark edge it had held for Alex.
"I’m warning you again, stay in your palace, at your age, you have no business entering the Proving, you’ll only live to regret it."
"I appreciate your concern, but for now you should go ahead and finish registering others who are left."
Alex said nothing more to her.
Zara said nothing.
They turned and walked away from the counter together.
Outside the immediate space of the counter, Zara fell into step beside him, and Alex could feel that she was becoming increasingly worried for him after reading the final line in the consent form.
"Alex, you need to be careful, the Proving is deliberately biased against anyone who ignores CBI recommendations and they do not need to break the no death rule to make an example."
"They only need to arrange the conditions so that early entrants face the worst possible combinations of terrain and opposition."
Alex answered without slowing his pace.
"Zara, there must be a reason the age limit remains only a recommendation and not a formal rule."
"If they wanted it absolute they would have made it absolute."
"The fact that they left the door open means something."
Velen, walking on Alex’s other side, gave a short, rough sound that was almost a laugh.
"You are overthinking it, nephew, the Institution leaves the door open because it makes the ones who walk through it look like fools when they fail, that is all the reason they need."
Zara’s gaze flicked toward Velen, then back to Alex.
"Alex, you can still refuse to go, the Abyss household has enough power that if you withdraw now they will still be able to resolve the matter without open conflict."
"No one will be able to force you if you refuse youself."
Alex stopped walking for half a step, then continued.
"Zara, my decision is made, so I will go."
The words were quiet, but they carried the same finality he had used in the study with his parents.
Velen’s laugh this time was fuller and loud enough that a few people near the exit turned to look.
"Then you’d better take first place, nephew!" he said.
"I am putting my entire life savings on your name!"
Alex’s mouth twitched as they reached the open doors and stepped back out into the daylight.
The carriage was still waiting exactly where they had left it, the dual crests of Winterfang and Abyss catching the light.
"You should not be playing with your life savings," Alex said as he climbed the first step.
"Aunt Ella will not like it if you come home empty handed."
Velen snorted and waved the concern away with one large hand.
"You do not need to worry about her, she has survived worse habits of mine than a single wager like this one."
Alex laughed once, short and real, and stepped fully inside the carriage.
Zara followed without needing to be told.
Velen took the outer position and pulled the door shut behind them.
The carriage began to move.
Behind them the registration hall did not quiet.
The voices that had erupted at the moment of registration continued to rise and spread, carrying the news outward through the open doors and into the streets beyond.
By the time the dual crested carriage turned the first corner, the fact that both the Third Prince and his Shadow Guard had registered for the Proving was already moving through the capital.
A large spreading commotion was left in its wake.
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End of Chapter 157: Registration Accepted
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