"Wait!"
The sound was coming from an old man who was flying toward them.
"De...an, for what occasion you have to come here, Dean?" The old man who was assigned to be the head examiner stood up.
"Are you the head examiner this time?" The dean gave a cold gaze to him.
"Yes...yes." the old man stuttered. The dean snorted then he turned to Alex.
"Are you the one who was mentioned by the king? Is your name Alexander Sirius?"
Alex nodded. The others were shocked. 'Does the dean know this young man?' they thought.
After confirming that the young man in front of him was Alexander, he then looked at the letter in Alex's hand.
"Is that the king's recommendation letter?" He asked while pointing to the letter Alex was holding.
Alex nodded again. All people excluding Alicia were shocked by Alex's response. The letter in Alex's hand wasn't from normal nobles but it was King Carollus's recommendation letter. Many people wondered what made the king give such a recommendation letter to him.
"Can I see it?"
Alex handed the letter from the king to the dean. After receiving the letter, he opened the letter carefully like opening a treasure. Looking at the content, he was shocked.
"Ah... ah... King, you almost give me a heart attack." He then looked at Alex, "You know, the king had mentioned you earlier and he said that you would give me a big surprise with the letter you hold, aih..."
The dean took a while to calm down, then he asked Alex.
"Do you want to be my student?" The dean asked.
"Thank you for the offer but I am not welcome to be a student in the academy though." Alex shook his head.
"What... Who? Who said that?! I will butcher him." The dean roared. Alex pointed at the old man and Rio.
"You... you are not qualified to be the head of the examiner this year. You are already too old and still a rank 6, you can retire now!" The dean immediately dismissed the old man with just one finger from Alex. Everyone was curious 'What is the actual content of the letter?', 'Is he King Carollus's Illegitimate son?'
"De...an, I have contributed so much for the academy, please consider that too!"
"Then choose whether you want to sacrifice yourself or he should leave the academy. Even if you sacrifice yourself, he won't become an academy student this year." The dean pointed at Rio.
Of course, he chose to sacrifice Rio. He himself was an elder from Earl house too. So he wasn't afraid of Rio.
"You..." Rio shouted.
The dean ignored them and he turned to Alex, he then asked Alex once more.
"Do you want to be my student?"
After thinking for a while, Alex shook his head.
"I think it's enough for me to be a normal student in the academy."
All the people including Alicia were shocked by Alex's response. The dean was a rank 8 fire mage and didn't have any students. Many people want to be the dean's student, it was such an honor to become a successor of rank 8 fire mage. But Alex rejected him just like that.
When the dean read Alex's letter, he found out about Alex's talents. He was shocked by Alex's talents who possessed Pure Fire Element. So he desperately asked Alex to be his successor.
"Are you...sure? What if you think about it again? Look at me, I still don't have any successor. So…what should I do to make you my student?" The dean was still surprised by Alex's response, he never thought Alex would reject him.
When Alex was just about to shake his head. Alicia whispered something to his ear.
"Alex... are you stupid? The dean was one of the ten rank-8 of the kingdom. He's a rank 8 fire mage. He can teach you better about fire elements, spells, and others. It's so much better to study with him rather than my elder sister. Hurry up and agree to be his student!"
Alex looked at Alicia for a while, he nodded. Then he turned to the dean and bowed to him.
"Please take care of me, teacher."
Looking at Alex agreeing to be his student, the dean flew to cloud nine. A rank 3 warrior who had a pure fire element, if the other kingdoms noticed Alex's talent, then there will be a war to have Alex.
"Sure, of course, I will. Let's go, my student, we will immediately finish your arrangement. Let's go inside." He gave a thumb up to Alicia.
Hearing the dean's invitation, Alex looked at Alicia. He wanted to ask the dean to bring her too, but Alicia just nodded.
"Go on first, I will meet you later." She smiled.
Alex nodded, the dean and Alex flew to the inside of the academy.
In the dean office,
Alex and Dean sat on the sofa.
"Haiz... the king really gave me a big present this time. Just so you know, when the king mentioned you, he just said you would give me a big surprise. When you gave me his letter, I almost got a heart attack. You want to know what he wrote in the letter?"
Alex nodded.
"The content was about your talent. Haiz, a 17 years old, rank 3 warrior, pure fire element. If these words are heard by another kingdom, we will have a war to have you. So make sure you don't tell others about your talents. Okay?"
The dean concealed a later part of the letter. The second part was for him to have the same room as Alicia. The king also mentioned his engagement with Alicia too. Since the king was so amazed by Alex's talents, he wanted to pay him back. Alex must be surprised if he got the same room as Alicia.
"I will always remember the teacher's words." Said Alex with a solemn expression.
"That's good, you have to obey me or else unexpected things might happen and it can get worse." The dean was quite satisfied with Alex's response but he didn't forget to warn the young man.
The dean then explained the rules and environments in the academy. There were three grades for the students in the academy and for the freshman to advance to the second grade, they will need to pass a specific requirement. If they didn't fulfill the requirement after a year, then they need to leave the academy. The same with the advancement to third grade.
That was why the second-grade student only had 200 students, while the third grade had 30 students. It was designed that way so that whoever graduated from this academy, whether they were commoners or nobles, would have a great prospect because they were the elite of the elite.
Noticing it was already evening, he stopped explaining things to Alex.
"It's already late, here is your key. The dormitory was behind this building. The room number is already shown in your key." He gave Alex a golden key, with the number 401 written on it.
"Then, I will excuse myself, teacher." Alex left the dean's room after excusing himself.
The dean frowned after watching Alex leave. He noticed something dark within him, and according to his experience, it was most likely about his past. He was too dependent on other people. He needed to break the shadow inside his heart, but he felt the shadow was too big. It would take a long time before he was confident that he could do it. And the best way to do it was to make him independent. He couldn't help him and took care of his problems, and he shouldn't protect him too much as it might make Alex rely on him. Although this pained him a lot, for the great future of his student, he could only bear this alone. Of course, he would teach him anything about skills or magics he had mastered.
Alex went to the dormitory and he saw a lady in her mid-thirties with long black hair tied into a ponytail, wearing teacher uniforms and glasses at the entrance of the dormitory. So Alex decided to greet her.
"Greetings, teacher."
"Are you a new student?"
"Yes. I just got here."
She nodded, "Since you are a new student, then you must stay in this dormitory. What is your name? I will check any vacant room."
"My name is Alexander Sirius. Actually, I already have the room key." He showed the key that the dean gave him.
"Let me see." She took the key and saw number 401 on it, she nodded, "Your room number is 401. It's the furthest room on the fourth floor."
"Thank you, teacher." Alex then left.
"Hmm...401? I think that room was already occupied with a lady just now. Whatever." Seeing Alex already left, she didn't care anymore.
Alex didn't know when he got accepted as a successor of the dean, it became big news for the kingdom immediately.
--
In Pondria House,
Two middle-aged men were chatting, they were the grand duke and Marquis Pondria.
"I heard that the Grand Duke Raymond's guest hit my son. May I ask what was the intention of all this? Even if you are a duke, I will need to give my son justice." Marquis Pondria said with a menacing tone.
"But I heard another side of the story about that." Grand duke said in a carefree manner.
"Oh.. please tell me."
"Your son wanted to cripple my guest in front of my daughter. And another story said that your son was flaunting his title as nobility and humiliated commoners."
"Why I have never heard of that. You must be joking with me, Grand Duke Raymond." Marquis Pondria was surprised. His son didn't tell him about this and Nito only told him that he was hit by the grand duke's guest who was only a commoner.
"Haha.. how about you ask your son, then?"
"Butler Ji, call Nito here!" He ordered his butler. After a while, Nito Pondria got in the room.
"Tell me honestly, what had happened yesterday?" Marquis looked at his son.
"Father, you must get me justice. He hit our guards, and he even slapped my face." Nito pleaded.
"You see, Grand Duke. That was what actually happened yesterday. Now, I demand your explanation Grand Duke! If anyone can hit my son's face, how will we as a member of Pondria house stand for ourselves?" Marquis turned to the grand duke.
"Then, why was your son being hit?" The grand duke still continued his carefree manner.
"He... he was rude to me. He ignored me when I talked to him." Nito said.
"That was the reason why he acted in such a way, Grand Duke Raymond. Are you satisfied? Now I need an explanation from you."
"Then, let me tell you the story I heard. My daughter was accompanying my guest to the restaurant. But my guest was told to scram in front of my daughter. Not only that, your son didn't just ask him to get away but he asked my guest to break his arm. Because of that, he just ignored him. Then your son ordered his guard to cripple him. My guest only fought back, was it wrong for him to do self-defense?"
"But, my son still got hit." The Marquis kept pressing this matter.
"You..." The duke's face started to become solemn. But suddenly,
'Knock knock'
"Come in!" Marquis said.
His butler then came inside the room.
"Master, we got the news. The Dean of the Royal Academy got a successor." The butler informed him.
"What? The dean got a successor? Who is it? Male or female? Is he single?" This news shocked the Marquis to that extent. While the grand duke only sipped his tea, but if they saw him carefully, there was a slight smile on his face.
"His name is Alexander Sirius."
"So his name was Alexander. My daughter is also in the academy, right? Ask her to try to get closer to him."
"Yes, the little miss was in second grade in the academy." Then the Marquis turned to the grand duke, "I'm sorry grand duke for the interruption. Now we should go back to the matter beforehand."
After hearing Alex's name and his father's order to ask his sister to get closer to Alex, Nito got insane and he hated Alex even more.
"It's him, father. He was the one who hit me."
"What? It's him?" He turned to the grand duke, trying to confirm his guest
"Oh. I forgot to tell you that my guest's name is Alexander Sirius."
"You bastard!" The Marquis slapped his son immediately, Nito was blown away by the slap. He then turned to the grand duke and said with a solemn face "Lock him in his room, I will deal with him later."
"I will give you an explanation of this matter."
"Haha. I suddenly remember that I have something to do, Marquis. I will excuse myself then." After achieving his goal, the grand duke wanted to leave immediately. "Oh. I recalled my guest almost got assassinated yesterday night. I'm still investigating it though. Haha, I will excuse myself."
Hearing the last words of the grand duke, Marquis's face darkened.
"Butler Ji, send the guest out."
Though the grand duke wanted an explanation from the Marquis. He didn't want the relationship to become 'you die or I perished' one. So he still gave the Marquis a way out.
From that day, Nito was never seen again.
--
In Maroria's house.
"Father, you must get me justice." Rio pleaded.
"What happened?"
"Your son was humiliated in front of crowds by a commoner. I was banned for this year's enrollment while the commoner succeeded."
"What? How dare the commoner to do that to my son? I will get you justice. I know the dean, I sometimes chatted with him. I will make him expel that commoner. And get you into the academy. My son, you are a genius. I'm sure he will choose you rather than a random commoner. Son, you look tired, why don't you rest first?" The Earl said.
If the Earl knew the student he wanted to expel was the dean's successor. No one could imagine what kind of reaction he would give.