"Hello, please come in. I just entered my room and didn't have time to sort out of my things so it's a bit messy now. Hope you won't mind." Erza greeted back.
The blue hair girl just smiled and went inside the room. She was surprised to see a short table and seating cushions in the living room. "I put the sofa and the table provided by the academy in my storage ring because I prefer this kind of furniture." Erza explained.
"Good taste." The girl praised then continued "Let me introduce myself first. My name is Elsa Menzel. I'm a mage apprentice specializing in ice magic."
"I'm Erza Valentine. I'm a sword mage, currently also at Apprentice realm. Nice to meet you." Erza introduced herself.
"Cool. Do you have any friend also joining this year?"
"Nope. There might be other youths from my clan joining the academy this year but I'm not close with any of them. Why?"
"Perfect! Let's become friend then! You will be my very first friend in this academy." Elsa happily said.
"Okay." Erza smiled in return. As a result, Elsa became her very first friend in this academy. In fact, Elsa might also be considered as her very first friend in these 12 years of her life.
Before she showed her potential, other youths in the clan treated her as an outsider. She only had Third Auntie and Grandpa Qing. Then after the incident 6 years ago, she was treated as the holy daughter.
No other youths around her age who could stand as her equal. They were beaten badly until there was no point to do sparring anymore.
Lance was her closest rival but he also could not beat her despite being 2 years older. Of course in terms of academics, war strategies, schemes, and any intelligence related subjects, Lance was way ahead of Erza.
They talked about general topics for a short while before Elsa excused herself. "Good, I won't disturb you any longer then. You can continue to arrange your things. Let's meet again at dinner time."
"Okay. See you at dinner time." replied Erza.
"Well, she seemed like a good friend." Both girls thought in their hearts after saying goodbye. Originally, both girls were not the type who could easily recognize a stranger as a friend. However, they were aware of each other backgrounds and it was always better to have more friend than enemy.
They were also not fools. They knew that those who could stay on the top floor of the dormitory were definitely students with the highest talents and potentials. After all, there were only 10 rooms on the top floor, compared with 50 rooms on each of the lower floors. Both girls did not afraid to clash against fellow geniuses but they were not keen to find troubles left and right.
They dined together on that night and started to know each other more. During the next few days, they kept getting closer and began to truly treat one another as friend. They talked about general topics like fashion, recent issues or rumours in the empire, favourite movies and their hobbies.
Of course, they also talked about academy related subjects. Elsa would choose Ice Magic Class as her selective, while Erza was still confused.
She wanted to understand more about her Eyes of Chronos and Time Magic, but Eastern Sage Dynasty had fallen and the Eyes of Chronos was the imperial clan trump card. Thus, the detailed information on how to master it was not available for public.
As for the Time Magic, it was a rare and profound magic in the first place. Time Mages usually were reclusive experts. They would not be teaching in an academy. In addition, the magic was related to her eyes. Without improving her mastery of the Eyes of Chronos, she would not be able to progress much in her Time Magic study.
Considering the fact that she was the master of Heavenly Flame Sword, she should choose Fire Magic Class as her selective. However, since the meeting with Elder Black, she always had a feeling that she would need to study Dark Magic under the elder.
She could not find a reason to justify her feeling, but it truly existed. Therefore, she was stuck in her dilemma between following her logic or her feeling.
Days passed by and finally today was the last day of enrollment. As usual, at dinner time, both girls arrived at the dining hall together. They were not wearing any make-up but it did not diminish their beauties, instead it provided different flavours.
They came to the food stall and the chef gave them similar foods with the rest of the new students. They could request for better foods if they were willing to pay more, but they didn't. Even though both of them were not short on money, they did not feel it was necessary to eat fancy foods all the time. Once in a while was fine though, especially on big occasions.
The enrollment had practically ended right now. As such, the dining hall were full of new students. Most girls were already forming their groups of new friends while few were still sitting alone.
Overall, there were not many empty spaces left. Erza and Elsa approached two new students and asked "Excuse me, can we sit at the two empty seats next to you?"
"Ah, yes." The two girls nodded.
While the four girls were eating their dinners, someone came to their table and shouted "Move away! My Lady wants to sit here." Similar things were also happening at nearby three tables.
There was a group of girls numbered about 15 people standing around the four tables. They were the biggest group in the dining hall and seemed pretty strong, especially the red haired girl standing at the back.
Elsa remembered the red haired girl and the other two girls in the group were also living on the top floor. Two tables were emptied immediately. The rest of the girls in the dining hall seemed eager to watch a good play.
Actually, this was not the first time this kind of thing happened. Previously, similar things also occurred and some ended with expected results, while few had good surprises.
"Who do you think you are?! You think just because you are in a big group, then you could do whatever you want?" A girl from the opposite table roared back. She had a big figure filled with toned muscles. She was clearly a warrior.
"Hmph, someone who doesn't know her place" replied a green haired girl from the big group. She then started to cast some spells.
'Venom Bite!' A green light illusionary teeth was heading toward the warrior. The warrior girl avoided the spell but a girl sitting beside her got hit.
"Laura!" The warrior cried out to her friend. "How dare you?!" She then dashed toward the green haired girl.
'Quagmire!' The mage casted another spell.
'Venom Bite!' The warrior lost her footing and ended up as an easy target for the following attack. The small group was forced to leave in a sorry state. They would need to spend some efforts to dispel the poison.
"What are you bitches waiting for?! Move it!" The girl who previously shouted to Erza's group flared up.
The two girls sitting beside Erza and Elsa seemed want to fight back. However, Elsa cut it first. "One more word and you will be spending the rest of tonight freezing in an ice block."
Everyone stunned. What a bold statement! The red haired girl and the other two leaders grinned.
"Wait for us to finish our dinner first, then you could have our table. Otherwise, I don't mind to play along with your scheme. But keep in mind that you would be exposing your own powers and gave free advantages to the other people." Erza calmly said.
The red haired girl and the other two expressions changed. They did not think Erza could realize their true purpose. They were indeed intentionally targeting both Erza and Elsa. They wanted to know more about their rivals' strengths in preparation for the upcoming New Students Championship.
However, as Erza just said, they would be taking a risk and might end up benefiting others. As a reult, they started to hesitate.
"Another fools who do not know their places." The the green-haired mage and the annoying girl rebuked.
'Venom Bi….', 'Frost Bite!' The green-haired mage was going to attack but Elsa casted first. The girl ended up as an ice statue.
Before anyone could react, there was a loud slapping sound reverberating in the dining hall and the annoying girl was sent flying across the room. She ended up hitting a wall and lost her consciousness.
"What a dirty mouth." Erza chided back.