Arthur has been escorted by a Manjuu driver to a seemingly military airport. Behind the main building, he can see parked and moving transport aircraft, air fighter, dive bombers, and torpedo bmobers.
He has been worrying whether humans have been driven to almost extinction by Sirens, but seeing roughly at least 1,000 many human soldiers work in such a massive place makes him feel a little at ease. There are heavy infantry, armored cars, and even medium tanks that patrol the surrounding area.
However, as soon as he leaves the car, he sees a concerning sign: "Kansens are prohibited in this area."
"Master, this is as far as we can escort you," said Belfast.
Several soldiers look at Belfast. Arthur cannot tell their expression since all of them wear dark helmets and dark military uniforms.
The car leaves this area, leaving Arthur alone in front of the building.
A man wearing a wolf-head helmet approaches Arthur. He has a squad of one captain and five soldiers follow behind him. The captain holds a Lanchester and the soldiers hold Lee Enfield No.1 .
Despite the squad's heavy equipment, the leading man does not wield any firearm but empty-handed with dark gloves. Arthur feels as if showing an inch of skin is prohibited for these soldiers.
"Arthur Mandelson, I presume?" asked the man with a mechanical voice. The mask seems to convert the voice to a mechanical one to hide one's identity.
"Yes, that is my name," replied Arthur.
"Please follow me," said the masked man
Arthur follows the man. The squad follows behind Arthur to escort him and their boss.
Throughout the walk, the man and his squad did not speak at all. Arthur looks around the interior while walking. The building's walls, ceilings, and doors all seemed to be reinforced to withstand heavy impacts. Even tank shells cannot break these walls easily.
Occasionally other squads pass through Arthur's escorts, when they do, all squadmates will bow to the man who is leading Arthur before moving on. Clearly this man must be a high rank officer in this facility.
Arthur and his escorts arrive at a door that is being guarded with two soldiers who hold Lee Enfield.
The guard on the right turns around and tap the numbers on a number pad: 6915
The door opens. Arthur sees an elevator in this small room. The man pushes the button of going downwards.
The elevator opens and Arthur and his escort move inside.
This suspense makes Arthur feel nervous. Why is this place so heavily fortified? Why does this place forbid Kansens to enter? What is he going to do in this place? He has so many questions about this place and these people.
The elevator stops and opens its door. A straight hallway with cyan-colored lights makes one easily see the entire interior.
The man and the accompanying escort Arthur to a room numbered "76."
"Please forgive the long walk. You will take your first part of the exam inside," said the man.
First part? This means there will be several more. Arthur wonders how long the exam will be.
Arthur opens the door. A room with 25 desks and seats that are being orderly lined in a square shape with loose points. A typical setup of a school classroom, Arthur thinks.
Some people already arrived before Arthur, but they all focus on their tasks or whatever they are doing. No one pays attention to Arthur and the escort.
"Choose any seat you like, your observer should be with you soon," said the leading man. He and the squad left the classroom.
Soon more people arrived in this room and filled the remaining seats. However, while they were being escorted like Arthur did, the leading man only opened the door and left without a single word. It appears that Arthur has been treated with at least a little more respect than others. Well, not that it mattered much anway.
After around 5 minutes, a young woman wearing a professional suit with a purple tie comes into this classroom. She looks to be in her thirties and tied her long hair in a ponytail. Contrary to her appearance, her eyes give Arthur and the rest of the people a sense of freezingness and darkness, as if she is looking at worms that can be easily smashed to dust in an instant.
"Welcome to the exam to become the commander of the Royal Navy. Since you were given permission to step into this facility, you have already been acknowledged by the hosts that you have outstanding talents," said the woman with a pressuring voice.
"However," she continues, "right now, the Royal Navy needs only one commander, and the hosts agreed to give them one through this exam. I assume I don't need to explain any further?"
Only one person gets to be nominated as the new commander of the Royal Navy. Therefore, it goes without saying that the person who achieved the highest score in this exam will become the commander.
"Oh, I almost forgot. Besides this room, there are 3 more rooms that take the same exam as you do, making a total of 100 participants. The one commander applies to all four rooms as a whole" added the woman.
100 participants and only one winner. The chance of victory seems like 1%, if everyone is about Arthur's skill level.
"Now then, before we start, you have one final chance to withdraw without any penalties. If you are completely certain you will participate in this exam, sign your name on the button of the contract."
Arthur and the rest of the class received the papers of contract
Upon participating in this exam, you agree to keep every event, personnel, and location as your absolute secret. If you fail to comply, you will be removed from your exam and your office should you succeed.
Upon participating in this exam, you agree to keep your interactions with acknowledged personnel in this facility with a respectful and professional attitude.
In the duration of this exam, it is our responsibility to ensure your safety from any harm by any means necessary. Violence between the examinees is prohibited.
If any examiner finds you cheating, you will immediately be removed from this exam and it will be marked as a failure.
Seems fair enough. Everyone in this room is a matured adult. This kind of contract usually exists to prevent the exploitation of written rules.
Arthur signed his name on his received copy.
"Let me explain the rules of this exam. Well, it is quite simple. You will receive a paper, write it with your answer and that's it."
The woman makes her wording sound like there must be something more, but she does not continue. It seems Arthur should focus on answering the questions on the paper correctly.
Arthur analyzes the questions of the exam.
There is only one writing prompt: Suppose if you are a commander of the Royal Navy, how would you treat Kansen, the humanized warships to fight against Sirens.
With the experience of an emergency commander, Arthur quickly wrote a 500 word essay to reply to the prompt. He described his experience with certain important Kansens with Hood and the royal maids.
When Arthur finished his writing, he raised his hand to call the examiner to collect his written answer.
The Control Room
"Response 8, sandbags," a grader said.
"Response 21, toys," said another grader.
"Response 55, sandbags," said a different grader.
Most of the graders reported the numbered response with either "sandbags" or "toys" for a while.
After about 70 reports of "sandbags" and "toys" combined, "Response 34, human," reported a grader.
Unlike the two labels, for the first time, a label name using "human" appears on one of the responses.
The responses being labeled as "sandbags" suggested that the writer would treat the Kansens like sandbags, the objects to withstand punches, kicks, and other physical movements.
For the responses being labeled as "toys," the writer would treat Kansens like the toys for adults. What? There are adults who still play with toys? Well uh… there are toys made for adults. Quite popular items, especially the ones that one can play with oneself. Very effective tools for stress-reliefs.
Well coming to this far, it goes without saying that the response being labeled as human means the writer would treat Kansens like fellow humans, which includes decency.
"Send the response being labeled 'human' to me later, I will verify them myself," said the man wearing a black coat who escorted Arthur to the classroom.
The exam reaches the time limit. 8 out of 100 examinees' responses have been labeled as "human."
The man checks the 8 responses. Each response is written differently, but the writers all treat Kansens as humans to a certain degree.
An examinee wrote that he would train them like training soldiers who follow orders, maintain daily routes, and work together as a team. They protect the country and will be symbolized as peacekeepers.
Another wrote that he would require them to obtain various skills to engage in any situation and to maintain self-sustain. Every Kansen must learn combat techniques, first-aid treatment, and survival skills. They have higher performance than humans thus a commander should fully utilize their potential.
However, a response that takes a different approach caught the man's attention.
The writer of this response wrote that he would give them time to take a rest or enjoy some leisure. The war is not over yet so the Royal Navy still needs the Kansens to fight. Therefore they should be rewarded for their bravery, loyalty and sacrifice. A commander should arrange paid vacation, insurance, and even retirement plans for them.
Unlike other responses that treat Kansens as combat personnel, this one suggests caring Kansens instead of enhancing their abilities.
While the writers distinctly and validly supported their responses, the responses are merely the answers on papers.
As plausible as these responses seem, words can be easily fabricated into colorful messages. A mafia boss, for example, can easily disgusted themselves as a law-abiding citizen by writing and promoting positive messages.
The examinees will put their words into actions in the next phase.