Chapter 31: Passing Criteria.

Her eyes first glanced at the table of food, inspecting it. Then she stepped into the room.

The other two Big Bosses followed behind her. Some Squires then trailed the three Big Bosses.

Tessa came up to him and stood beside him. She didn’t say anything for a while. Instead, she glanced at the girl examining her to make sure that she was alive and wasn’t bleeding anywhere.

When she determined that the girl was not injured, she said, "Good job. You pass the test."

"That’s good to hear," he said with a sigh of relief.

Then he asked, "If I may ask, what’s the criteria for passing?"

"It is not much," she said nonchalantly. "As long as you didn’t eat the girl, you will pass.

"If you’re to be trusted to handle yourself properly. Then, at the very least, you can’t eat a living being during a test for a training that taught you restraint."

"Knowing that you would be killed if you failed, if you had eaten the girl, not only would you be deemed unable to control your urges, but you would be considered too stupid to use. That would have made you unredeemable."

"So I could have eaten the food on the table? I didn’t know that," he said, chuckling. "I could have avoided a lot of trouble if I knew."

But Tessa snorted and said, "Of course not. The food on the table doesn’t count toward passing or failing, but I’ll still punish you for eating it. After all, you’re not supposed to eat or do anything unless you’ve been given express permission to do so."

"That’s true," he said, nodding his head in understanding.

Tessa also nodded and said, "The test is over. Let’s go."

But Alexander quickly said, "Forgive me for being presumptuous, but I hope that the girl can be accepted into the order as a maid."

"Is that so?" Tessa said, raising her eyebrow. "Do you want her to become your maid by any chance? Have you taken a fancy to her?"

Alexander’s face fell again, and he became gloomy as he said, "It is not like that. I just don’t want her to risk her life in vain. She should get something for her effort."

"If you say so," Tessa said, a smile tugging at her lips. "Anyway, you don’t have to worry about her. She will surely become a maid."

"Now let’s go," she said, turning around.

But Alexander still had something to say. This time, he sighed as he said, "Can you take her away first?"

"Why?" Tessa asked, her voice taking on a dangerous edge. "Take note that this is the second time I’ve ordered you to do something, and you rebuffed me. If you don’t give me a good reason, I will break your legs."

Hearing her threat, Alexander was tempted to say something stupid so that she could break his legs and teach the worm some pain. But he didn’t want to take any chances, so he decided to come clean.

He said, "I can’t move as long as she is here. I need her to leave first."

"What do you mean?" she asked, taking the club into her hands. "Are you telling me that you won’t leave until you see to it that the girl has been sorted?"

"No, no, no!" Alexander hurriedly said, waving his hands and shaking his head.

When he realized that he could move his body again, he jumped to his feet and said, "Never mind. I’m ready to go."

Unfortunately, Tessa was still angry with him for wasting her time. Her arm flashed forward, and her hand clasped around his neck like steel vices.

With little effort, she raised her arm and lifted him completely off his feet. Then she threw him towards the other side of the room.

His body flew through the air before smashing into the wall. He carried so much momentum that he broke through the wall and kept flying for a while.

His figure was thrown out of the room and landed a short distance from the building. His entire body ached, causing him to groan. But before he could recover, Tessa was upon him.

She raised her foot and brought it down on his stomach. Her foot crushed everything in its way down to his spine until she smashed a hole in the ground beneath him.

The hit directly knocked the wind out of him. As for the pain, it nearly knocked him out.

It felt as if someone had put hot coal in his guts. The pain came in waves, each stronger than the last, threatening to overwhelm his consciousness. Even the worm in his mind was wailing in pain.

With her foot in his gut, he couldn’t heal. She twisted the foot, expanding the wound and making it hurt more as she said, "You’ve grown a lot these past few days. But you’ve also gotten cocky."

"I can understand the source of your pride. You’ve become an Apostle and have grown much stronger these past few days. Clearly, the power has gotten to your head."

"You think that now that you’re stronger, you can mess around with me, wasting my time. Do you think you can take me on?" she asked with a sneer.

Despite the pain trying to force him to black out, he said, "No, Big Boss."

He had to answer because she asked a question. If he didn’t answer, the treatment could get much worse.

She was still sneering as she said, "Of course, you can’t take me. It is clear now how easily I can dispatch you."

"You must have thought you could handle me now that you’re a big man. Why else would you mess around with me like that?"

"Let this be a wake-up call to you. This is the kind of power that qualifies me as the Big Boss. When you reach your first limit and evolve, then you will have the right to contend with me."