Kazuma's day begins as a new student. Aside from him, the other 4 students are also transferees assigned to their class and so, they have 5 new students who are new to the eyes of the old student body. Kazuma sighed in relief that most of the eyes of the students are fixated on the other transferees and almost none in his direction.
There is only one who seems to be not on the same wavelength as the others and it's a girl with a long white hair.
'A foreigner?' Kazuma thought to himself. After all, white hair is a pretty rare hair color and unless it was dyed, he might be mistaken.
But Kazuma still wondered why does this girl keep staring at her? He does not even know her.
After Kazuma and the other transferees introduced themselves, in front of the class, we are now assigned to our respective seats. We are rearranged by our teacher who is Ms. Suzuka to ensure that every student does not just sit near their circle of friends and to also make us transferees able to make friends as well.
It was decided by lottery and Ms. Suzuka is prepared already that no one was able to complain. The changing seats run pretty smoothly and Kazuma was placed near the back, second to the last seat in the middle row.
"Guess I was not a protagonist, huh?" Kazuma muttered to himself and took his seat.
It didn't take long for everyone to be done with the seating arrangement and to Kazuma's surprise, the girl from earlier that was staring at him is currently his seatmate.
Before he can say anything, the girl handed him a small crumpled paper. Confused, Kazuma opened the paper, and inside it was a message.
"Meet me later outside the classroom this lunch."
He looked at his seatmate but his seatmate started to ignore him which made him confused a lot more. However, he has no answers to his questions so he decided to wait until later to learn what was the deal with this girl.
Homeroom begins and the first session of class started as well. The same goes for the other teachers after their respective times but most of them just started to give out their lesson plans and give attendance. Since it was the first day, they let everyone easy for now, so all of the students are still in lax mode.
It didn't take long before lunch break arrives. As expected, the students are flocking more on the other four students who transferred. Kazuma immediately understood why no one seems keen on talking to him because he is kind of looking strict. Kazuma is fine with that though. Being an introvert, having a circle of that many classmates would tire him down so fast. Besides, if he wanted a true friend, he would rather find someone who has similar interests compared to those who seem fake to him.
Kazuma took out his lunchbox and was ready to go to the cafeteria. However, when he went out of the classroom, the girl from earlier is indeed waiting for him. Kazuma almost forgot about the message he got earlier but it immediately jog back to his memory when he saw the girl outside.
"Follow me," she shortly said before she started walking.
Kazuma is still confused but to find the answer, he decided to follow while still holding his lunchbox.
They pass through a long hallway that separates the classroom building and the practice building where all the clubrooms are present.
"Wait...what is going..."
The girl didn't reply and they climb the stairs and ascended to the fourth floor. There, they walked up to the hallway until she stopped at one of the classroom doors. She opened it and gestured for him to get in as well.
"Anthology Club?"
"What are you dawdling there for? Come in," the girl with white hair popped out her head on the door and called for him again which prompted him to enter.
When Kazuma entered, he realized that the girl was not alone inside. There are other students there, and also two teachers as well. Not only that but he saw a familiar figure in the crowd.
"Yo, Kazuma. Welcome to Sakura High's Anthology Club. We have been waiting for you."
"Voltair-san?!"
"Hehe, in the flesh!" he grinned.
"Oh...so this was the newbie. Welcome, please take a seat. Don't just keep on standing there in the doorway. We are now comrades-in-arms so don't be shy about us," the male teacher greeted him and one of the students reading a book push a chair in his direction.
Then something clicks on him.
"Wait, comrades-in-arms?" Kazuma frowned.
"Oh, that's right. You must be confused. Let me properly introduce this club, Kazuma. Although the school recognized us as the Anthology Club, we are in reality the Kabbalah Club, the clubroom of the magicians attending Sakura High. Because you are a magician, you are automatically part of this club."
That's when it dawned on Kazuma. He was not led there without any reason. It was because he was a magician that he was called there.
"Does that mean..." Kazuma looked around and everyone looked at him.
"Yep. Everyone in this room is a magician and is in the group chat of Kabbalah. You are a new member so we immediately recruited you so that we can involve you in our activities immediately since you are the only one of us here who has the lowest ranking as a magician. With us helping out, it won't take long for your rank to rise."
"Wait, I am the lowest?" Kazuma then turned to look at the white-haired girl.
"Yup. The second lowest ranking from here other than the Malkuth would be Hod rank which belongs to Akari here. Her name in the group chat is Moonlight."
"H-hod rank?!" Kazuma couldn't believe it, she was the same grade as him and perhaps the same age as him as well, and yet, she is already in Hod Rank?
"Don't be too surprised, newbie. I was a magician a lot longer than you. It's only natural that my rank would be a bit higher than yours."
Voltaire laughed. "Indeed. She was a member a long time ago and she was still young when she became a magician so it's natural she would become high enough. Once she breaks through to her limit, her rank will soon increase to Tiphereth soon."
Kazuma couldn't believe his eyes. But then, a realization hits him. Since Hod is the second lowest, that means, the others are a lot higher ranked than them?!