The magnificent yet solemn Great Hall gave all the Batmen quite a shock.
In their universe, magic was something that could not be brought into polite society. Most mages lived in poverty, with Constantine being the prime example. Even mages like Zatanna, who did not need to pay a price for their magic, had to earn their living through street performances. They might not have been ragged and homeless, but they were still short on cash and without a fixed residence.
Yet the mages of this universe had managed to build such a grand magic academy. Never mind all the wondrous magical effects; the cost of constructing a castle this large alone was unimaginable.
Of course, the Batmen did not know that this castle had only been built recently, and the traces of history had been deliberately weathered for filming. They assumed the castle had to be at least several centuries old. In other words, the mages of this universe might already have been highly advanced in the Middle Ages.
Some of the more thoughtful Batmen naturally recognized the crucial question: if the mages of this universe were so wealthy and magic had such a long history here, then during certain dark and ignorant periods of history, might ordinary people have had even harder lives?
Once they thought of it that way, the Batmen felt that every inch of the castle's splendor was stained with blood and tears.
But before they could give more thought to such practical issues, a difficult obstacle appeared before them—the academy's sorting process was actually an exam!
From seeing the castle to entering the Great Hall, the entire process had felt intensely magical. Yet when it came to the crucial sorting, what lay before them was a stack of utterly familiar exam papers, with a