A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 23: My Youth Interview Story Was Sure Enough (Part )
Not far from the coffin, there were a dozen or so arcanists who were also here for the interview.

Some of them came out of telephone booths, some came out of a wall, and some looked extremely miserable, covered in feces and dirt, as if they had run a marathon in the sewers of Ashville.

Everyone chooses a different route.

Seeing the coffin suddenly washed ashore and Quinn digging out of the coffin, someone came up to greet him: "Hey, brother, this is the first time I've seen someone come out of a coffin. How long did it take you to find the way?"

"Um, half an hour?" Quinn said uncertainly.

If I hadn't bought a hot dog on the way, I could have probably gone five minutes faster.

It can also be concave!
"Half an hour?!"

In an instant, everyone's eyes were focused on him.

"I searched all the way from yesterday evening until this morning, and finally found the way. I can't understand the Giant language on the map at all, and I only have a vague understanding of Elvish."

He scratched his head with a wry smile, then extended his hand to Quinn. "Amazing! Anyone who dares to interview Grindelwald must be a master. You look like you're from the East, too. Let's be friends. My name is Murata Tatsuya, and I'm from the Minerals Department of the Clock Tower."

Tatsuya Murata also has black hair and a yellow face, but his eyes are purple.

Quinn wondered in his heart, what is the Japanese name format of Murata Tatsuya?
He didn't reach out his hand, but just nodded slightly.

"Quinn."

Then he stopped talking.

"What if I get caught?" Quinn asked Ankua before leaving.

"You have to remember."

Ankuya sat on a recliner, reading an arcane book about demonic sacrifice, and said, "Capable arcanists are all eccentric. Even if some appear normal, they have a hidden paranoid side. So it's okay to act a little weird."

"the same as you?"

"Heh," Ankua didn't respond. "Many people don't meet the requirements, but they still go to Grindelwald for interviews. Besides trying their luck, they're mostly looking to expand their network. They'll rack their brains to dig up information about you, and if you're valuable, they'll curry your favor. After all, in the arcane world, the most efficient way for mediocre people to climb the ladder is to cling to the powerful families. You can just ignore them."

Quinn is cool.

He has a gloomy face, doesn't speak, and pretends to be an expert.

Seeing that Quinn didn't want to pay attention to him, Tatsuya Murata tactfully stopped harassing him.

He withdrew his hand without hesitation and said, "If we are lucky enough to meet again in the East Country, I will treat you to a meal."

Quinn still nodded slightly, his eyes looking elsewhere.

There are many people like Quinn.

Everyone was at the edge of Mirror Lake, but looking around they could find no trace of a city. The airships that should have filled the sky were also nowhere to be found. The lush forest seemed to have taken time back a thousand years.

The sun and the sunny sky disappeared, replaced by Grindelwald's castle and the gorgeous starry sky. This place was like a parallel world, a different time and space overlapping with Ashwell.

"Welcome everyone to Grindelwald Academy."

On the lake, a teacher wearing a monocle walked towards the crowd on the water. He wore a black pointed hat and walked on the water as if it were flat ground, creating circles of ripples.

"I am Jacob Dodomeni, the teacher of Grindelwald's teaching department. I will take you to the academy."

As he spoke these words, a circular platform slowly rose from the water.

"Everyone, please come up to the Star Ladder." Jacob said as he stood in the middle of the platform.

The nervousness in Quinn's eyes flashed away, and the most difficult hurdle was coming.

"Once you find the path and successfully enter the academy, you will face the second test."

Ankuya shook the wine glass. This time he was drinking wine. The rotating wine was in full contact with the air, emitting a rich fruity aroma.

"Unlike the first test, the second test has nothing to do with arcane magic. It is not only the most troublesome, but also the step with the greatest potential for failure."

"Trouble?" Quinn sat up straight. "Then what should I do?"

"No, you don't have to do anything."

An Kuya took a sip of wine, the fully sober red wine colliding with the tip of his tongue. He raised his eyebrows slightly and said after a long while, "The second stage is screening. As for the screening criteria, no one knows."

"No one knows the standards? It's a fucking civil servant interview, right?"

The lifting platform called "Star Ladder" rose steadily into the air.

Like a castle, the Star Staircase floated completely in the air, moving at a remarkable speed, comparable to the high-speed elevators in some skyscrapers. However, standing on it, one felt no sudden increase in altitude, no sense of lift. The scenery above them rose continuously, and a meteor-like light trailed beneath the platform, as if one were riding a star into the sky.

The candidate interviewees stood apart. Those who knew the subject had already started studying the runes on the Star Ladder, while those who came to try their luck, like Murata Tatsuya, gathered around teacher Jacob and tried to get close to him.

Jacob just smiled politely and responded occasionally.

Suddenly a black owl flew over.

It flapped its wings and landed gracefully on Jacob's shoulder.

In the arcane world, owls are the most common familiars. Looking at Jacob's appearance, it is obvious that this owl is his pet, so no one is surprised.

The owl's bright yellow pupils blinked, and it raised its head proudly, standing like a general.

It is watching silently.

When the star ladder rises to half its height.

A candidate standing on the edge suddenly screamed, and then flew backwards as if caught by a gust of wind!

He fell from mid-air with a scream, and his scream was extremely shrill. Anyone who fell from such a height of hundreds of meters would scream like this. Fortunately, the pain is always short-lived, and he was silent after a while.

Everyone was instantly terrified. What was going on?!

Those standing on the edge subconsciously took a few steps inside, no longer caring about keeping their distance.

Except for Quinn, who was still standing there, looking cool.

"He's been eliminated." Jacob said calmly, "Don't worry, those who are eliminated will be sent out of the academy. They are not in danger of death."

".Eliminated?" Everyone looked at each other, bewildered. Someone asked first, "Mr. Jacob, why was he eliminated?" Jacob shook his head.

"I don't know, unfortunately."

"Yes, no one knows." Ankua shook his glass and said calmly, "You are interviewing for a teaching assistant position. The final decision on whether to hire you is not made by the college, but by the teacher."

"Teacher?" Quinn thought thoughtfully.

"Teaching assistants are assigned and hired by teachers. The academy only ensures that applicants have the most basic qualities. The type of teaching assistant a teacher chooses depends entirely on personal preference, and everyone's standards vary greatly, which is why I say this is the most troublesome part."

"Competent arcanists are all weirdos"

Quinn seemed to understand why there was trouble.

Their "selection criteria" cannot be viewed normally.

"No, Grindelwald's teachers were more than just arcanists."

"What is it?"

Quinn began to whisper demonically: "Is he LGBT? Is he a vegetarian? Is he an animal rights activist? Is he a pure-blooded black person whose ancestors were once commodities? Or is he Jewish?"

Ankua replied leisurely:
"They are also wizards—each of Grindelwald's teachers transcended the shackles of the arcane and reached the pinnacle of their respective fields. They are not only masters among masters, but also eccentrics among eccentrics."

Quinn breathed a sigh of relief. "That scared me, but fortunately, it's not the monster I mentioned."

"In short, no one knows the selection criteria except the teacher himself. Some may not like handsome people, some may not like ugly people, some may not like fat people, some may not like thin people, some may not like men, some may not like women, it all depends on appearance."

Ankuya looked at him, with an indescribable meaning in his eyes.

"But fortunately, I happen to know the teacher who is hiring the teaching assistant this time, and I know a little about her preferences. Quinn—"

"Huh?" Quinn looked up blankly.

"Don't move." Ankua suddenly picked up the wand and pointed it at Quinn's chin: "Incendio!! (Incendiary Curse)"

"Huh? Oh my god, it's so hot!!!"

His beard was burned to ashes by the sudden fire. Quinn jumped up and extinguished the sparks on his chin with a grin.

Ankua slowly walked over to Quinn, holding a glass of wine.

"I really am——"

Quinn, who was about to be excited, was suddenly stunned because his chin was hooked up by Ankuya with one hand.

Goosebumps instantly covered his body, and he stammered, "What are you doing? I'm a straight man, I like women, just work, don't get involved in feelings."

"You like women?" Ankua repeatedly looked at his face. "Has any woman ever told you that you're good-looking?"

".Um, someone did say I look a lot like Ethan Ruan."

Quinn thought to himself, I'm far behind you.

"You need to dress up. Facial features aside, you have a sharp, beautiful jawline, very similar to his. Don't waste it."

"Who does he look like?" Quinn blinked blankly.

"A dead man."

Ankuya said expressionlessly, "If you can act out his temperament, maybe there will be no problem."

Quinn took off his gold-rimmed glasses.

People were constantly being ejected by the inexplicable hurricane, and in a short while, only seven people were left out of the dozen or so interviewees.

Quinn memorized everyone's appearance, but he couldn't deduce any particular teacher's preferences. Among those remaining on the Star Ladder were scoundrels like Murata Tatsuya, with ulterior motives, interviewees covered in filth, unkempt older men, and young men in suits.
Everyone stood there with a nervous look on their faces, afraid that they would be the next one.

Only Quinn noticed that the owl was slowly turning its head.

Those who were screened out were those who had been watched by the owl.

And next, it's his turn.

Quinn took a deep breath.

He wore a navy blue silhouette-cut trench coat with large lapels, a pure black wool-blend Naples jacket, and a pair of high-quality black straight-leg pants, giving off a strong British and hipster vibe from head to toe.

This was the clothes that Ankuya had matched for him. Quinn never thought that the most respectable moment in his life would be when he was interviewing for the position of arcane assistant instructor.

He held his glasses in his hand like a cigarette and slowly squatted down.

With heels on the ground, knees spread apart, body naturally aligned with thighs, and one hand on his shoulder, he squatted in a perfectly standard Slavic squat. The scholarly air of the young scholar instantly vanished without a trace, replaced by the peculiar feeling of a gangster.

Just squat there and people will talk about you for the rest of your life.

"You have to act like you're world-weary, like you're arrogant. How should I put it? You have to look like everyone owes you money, so you hate the world equally."

Quinn tilted his head slightly, meeting the owl's gaze from bottom to top. His pupils shifted upwards slightly, revealing a bit of the whites of their lower eyelids, giving him a menacing look—something Quinn had learned from Ankua. Ankua actually fit the description he'd described: cocky, world-weary, distant, the kind of badass who everyone owed money to.

Quinn has been practicing in front of the mirror for three days, and now it's time to show the results.

The owl's gaze seemed to pause.

A gust of wind blew away Quinn's top hat, revealing his short black hair.

Quinn nearly fell to the ground in shock, thinking he was about to crash, but then he realized only his hat had been blown away. He couldn't help but curse under his breath, "What a weird wind!"

The owl shuddered.

It looked at Quinn in disbelief.

It just stared blankly at the man squatting there until it flapped its wings and flew away in an instant, disappearing in a moment.

It was 1:30 in the afternoon, and there were still three and a half hours left until the end of the interview.

The remaining seven interviewees, including Quinn, arrived safely at Grindelwald's gate.

(End of this chapter)