In spring, the sky over Vienna was always drizzling, yet the rain never felt cold. Flowers along the roadside still vied with one another in full bloom.
Outside the headquarters of the City Defense Force, a sea of examinees crowded together until the air seemed stiflingly hot.
Franz hadn't chosen the City Defense Force headquarters because he liked militarism. It simply had enough large, spacious rooms, and it was suitably dignified. After all, the noble lords here wouldn't shortchange themselves.
In reality, the examinees felt an indescribable awkwardness standing at the gates of a military camp.
"Hey, Hans! Long time no see!"
"Well, if it isn't the top genius of Graz Middle School, Paul Pierlot!"
"Hans, you're no slouch either. If you hadn't been a year behind me, you'd have been Graz Middle School's top genius!"
Two middle-aged men in respectable, if slightly outdated, clothes started shamelessly praising each other. They'd graduated from middle school more than twenty years ago, so surely no one would recognize them by now.
According to past experience, the exam had already begun. Examiners from the Austrian Empire were always mixed in among the examinees, secretly assessing them.
And making a good impression on an examiner was a crucial step toward the pinnacle of success.
Where had they gotten this experience? Naturally, from the best-selling novels and folk tales of the nineteenth-century Austrian Empire. In reality, the inefficiency of the appointment system had driven many people waiting for posts to the brink of madness.
These people used their wild imaginations to compensate for their own shortcomings, while planting unrealistic fantasies in the minds of others.
Thalia had read this sort of thing back then and convinced herself that she could impress the examiners with her talent. As a result, she'd nearly been hanged in the