As Allen walked into the classroom, he saw the all too familiar face he had seen for almost the entire academy year. But when she looked back at him, she had only a somewhat irritated look on her face.
"H-Hi Ms. Florence," Allen scratched the back of his head as he let out a small awkward laugh as he walked into her classroom.
She only offered him a sigh as she quickly turned back to her desk, in which she continued to read the same book she had been reading the entire year.
Just how many times is she going to read that book anyways?, Allen shook his head as he took the seat he had sat in for most of the academy year.
"Guess I'm back here," Allen mumbled to himself as he took his seat, and wiped off the dust that was on his desk. "Haven't forgotten about this dust yet"
With Ellen Marion, Rose's mother, now appointed as the new Head Director of the academy by the Triumvirate, Allen was forced back to an F ranking, with the classic "1F" silver pin now once again dawning his uniform instead of the "1D" pin he had recently earned.
Luckily, because of the conditions placed on him by William Windblade, their previous head director, Ellen was not able to expel him outright from the academy. Whether she will be able to later, is up in the air for now.
Of course, the conditions that he received was starting at F rank, has to make it to C rank, and must win four consecutive duels in the upcoming magical knights tournament. The first condition was instantaneous, and he even managed to make it to D rank. However, with Ellen now here as their head director, he was sent straight back to F rank where he started.
Allen will once again have to climb back to D rank, and then eventually C rank if he ever wishes to make it to his second year at the academy he's come to love so much. But with Ellen now in charge, he realized it will now be a much tougher time to get back to D rank, as he is sure Ellen will do everything she can to keep him where he is, or even worse, later try to expel him if the opportunity arises.
It did not help that Ellen turned out to be the 'client' Reynold Windblade, the "Demon of Finance" had warned him about. She was the one who had sent a request to Reynold to do everything in his power to get him expelled from the academy. Luckily Reynold chose to remain neutral, but now that Ellen was the head director, that did not tip in his favor.
"Wow, this class is so empty now," Allen mumbled to himself, as he looked throughout the room. "Guess I must be the only F ranked student now…"
Now that Allen thought about it, it made sense he was the only student left in the class now. Allen, Thomas and Cecily had advanced to D rank together. In addition, the other second year, water mage had turned out to be Nicholas, who was a covert magical knight that revealed himself during the fire mage attack on the academy.
That had left only the first year, earth mage, that Allen had found strange for the entire year. However, that she was nowhere in sight, must mean she could have already advanced to D rank, or perhaps left the academy on her own accord.
Regardless of the reason, Allen was now the only F rank attending the academy, as far as he is aware. Adding on top of all of the things that went down with Ellen, he instantly had mixed feelings about the situation.
There probably wasn't much to do now, now that he is the only student in here. Ms. Florence didn't really seem to care that they were in her class originally. If anything, they were an annoyance to her. Now that Allen was the only one here, he couldn't really tell if he was still an annoyance to her, or she would just choose not to care.
Regardless, with nothing else to do, there was only one thing left that Allen could do to alleviate the anger and frustration he is feeling from everything going on.
"Guess I'll head to the training room," Allen mumbled, as he got up from his desk.
As he began to walk out of the room, Ms. Florence seemed to look at him for a moment out of the corner of her eye, but she did not say anything.
"Wow, things are really changing fast around here," Allen mumbled to himself as he walked to the training room, the same room that their former club would meet in. Ellen may have forcefully disbanded their club, but fortunately for Allen she was still unaware that he still had the key to the room. She may find out eventually, but for now Allen will enjoy a room to himself.
The walls of the academy had cracks here and there, from the damage the academy sustained during the fire mage attack. Several of the students were working with the magical knights to begin to fix the academy up.
In addition, the feeling Allen got while walking the halls was much more different now with Ellen in charge. He could feel the tension in the air as he walked the halls of the academy, as the students had to do everything they can to stay in line so the student council or even Ellen herself wouldn't intervene.
Luckily, no one paid attention to Allen as he walked over to the training room, as everyone else seemed to be too focused on other tasks or activities.
"Well, here it is," Allen sighed as he unlocked the door to the training room.
The training room was as same as ever, with it being a decently sized indoor room, where their training room used to train together, while also being the room where the preliminaries were held. Allen's footsteps echoing on the floor became much more evident to him as he was the only one within the training room.
"Time to blow some steam off, I guess," he mumbled as he drew his sword, and began to practice swinging his sword in place, the same thing William used to have him do constantly back when he was younger to get him used to it.
As he swung his sword downwards constantly, he immediately thought about his friends, who he hasn't been able to see recently either.
While Ellen advised Thomas and Cecily to no longer speak with Allen, that didn't stop them from talking to each other. They also recently found out that Stephen was advised of the same thing, so the four of them have been keeping in contact with each other when they can.
Stephen also managed to keep his A ranking, however he gets the cold shoulder from Ellen whenever she's around them, which makes sense as William is Stephen's father. This technically works in their favor, since Ellen will be less likely to catch on to what they are up to.
No one has heard anything from August, and they've barely heard anything from Alice, or even when she's her other personality, Sarah. Since Alice is a Rivertide, it makes sense she wouldn't be able to see them, as Ellen is very much for the "prominent families" staying away from the "bottom" of the rankings. But at least when she's Sarah, she can find it a bit easier to see them.
And lastly of course, no one has really heard anything from Rose, nor have they really seen her since the incident. Stephen had also added that he is no longer allowed to help with student council work like he used to, which is both a win and a loss for him.
Of course, all of them are worried about Rose, especially Allen. Now that her controlling mother is here, very evident based on what she did to Rose, there's only so much they will be able to do to help Rose.
"I already miss everyone," Allen mumbled to himself, as he lowered his head towards the floor.
Their training club wasn't the only one that faced treatment and was forcefully disbanded. Basically, any other clubs that were not focused on solely elemental magic, or were not up to Ellen's standards were immediately disbanded. This of course included Sarah's "fan club", but in the end she wasn't too upset since she claimed she "still had her Allen". Regardless, most of it comes down to those who are of high rank receive favorable treatment, while those who are of lower rank are facing the issues Ellen is imposing.
While their training club was focused on what it was called, Ellen of course had it out for Allen and removed it completely, resulting in the scenario they are in now.
"Think I'm done for now," Allen mumbled, as he decided that more than anything, he probably just needs some rest to cool off, and get ready for the weeks coming ahead.
After getting a good night's rest, Allen once again returned to the F ranked class, and with no surprise he was still the only student attending the class.
Ms. Florence seemed to get a small glance at him out of the corner of her eye when he originally walked in, but Allen wasn't too sure.
Allen once again took a seat at his desk, right after wiping off the dust that accumulated while he was gone. After taking his seat, he started to debate what he would do for the day.
"Hmm, I guess I could just go back to the training room," he mumbled to himself. "Or I could, I-"
He realized there really wasn't much he could do. He could study, but study what? There wasn't much he could really study that he didn't already know. Anything he could learn would be more practical things, but he had no one to train with now.
"Man, this really sucks," he mumbled to himself, as he rested his head on his hand.
William, wherever you are, I hope you are okay, he thought to himself, as he started to wonder what's going on outside of the academy.
While pondering in his own thoughts, he came back to reality when Ms. Florence had out of nowhere sighed very loud.
Just before Allen could wonder what was going on with her, Ms. Florence had gotten out of her chair and turned her attention to Allen.
"Alright, I've finally had enough of you being in my classroom," she rolled her eyes.
"Wait, what?," Allen asked, completely caught off guard. Maybe he hadn't been the best student in her class, but what did he do to annoy her this much?
"I don't mean this in a bad way Allen, but you of all people should not be in my classroom," she advised him, as she sat on top of a desk in front of him.
"Huh?," Allen said, as his eyes were still wide in surprise at what Ms. Florence had said so far.
"I have something very important to tell you that I think you should hear, considering all that has been going on recently with Ellen now in charge," she explained. "However, I am only going to advise you of this once, so you'd better listen"
"Wait- I-"
"Do you wish to hear it or not?," she asked, the annoyed look on her face returning.
"Yes, of course I'll listen!"
"Good," she said, as she crossed her legs.
Before a deep sigh, she finally began.
"Let's go back about twenty years ago, back when William, Ellen and I were students of this academy…"