Affea Mansion's Courtyard;
"Sweetheart, are you ready yet?" Affea hollered from downstairs, "It's your first day. Azzy is also getting late for orientation."
"Calm down, will ya…" As Oakley tried to soothe her, Avia replied from her room, "2 minutes, Ma…"
Meanwhile, Azzy supported them, "it's alright, Auntie. There's still 30 minutes left."
5 minutes later, Avia came downstairs and left for school along with Azzy and Oakley.
The school isn't far away and neither is the air traffic. By flying card, they reached the entrance quickly.
After dropping the two of them, Oakley left for his clinic.
Avia and Azzy entered the school.
"Take right and go straight. The orientation is in the auditorium." She quickly parted her ways with him, although she was walking in the same direction, implying they are strangers in school.
Looking at her back, he mumbled, "Is she still angry? Works for me either way…" He shrugged his shoulders and followed her.
A month ago, upon Snieca's request, Azzy helped her in training. But, since he doesn't know how to control his strength to her level, Azzy just focused on dodging to improve her attack speed.
Azzy who trained with a seven-star on a place where gravity is 44 times strong is now focusing on dodging against a non-awakened person.
What can happen…
As a result, she ended up crying in frustration and holed herself in her room for a while as she wasn't able to hit him for 3 hours straight. From that day, she stopped talking to him and ignored him whenever she could.
Back to the present, Azzy walked slowly, carefully, maintaining his distance from the little girl.
Since he was a new face on the campus, none of the students around greeted him until he reached the entrance of the auditorium.
There he saw the only person he knew on the campus.
Her eyes lit up as soon as she saw him, "Hello, Azrael. You are here…"
As a person who was used to getting greeted by even his elders, Azzy responded with a nod and then, looked at the handsome man who stood beside her.
Azzy wasn't able to figure out his Arcana rank but since a student at this school can't be six-star, Azzy thought he must be a rank-5 like this pretty sister.
"Did you know him?" asked the boy.
She replied with a wide smile, "Didn't I mention an exceptional genius entered the school?"
"Ah! The one with Mr. Oakley's recommendation?" The boy pointed it out in realization. His tone contains a little bit of disdain and sarcasm.
Azzy frowned upon hearing his statement but on the outside, he looked at him emotionlessly.
Strangely, the girl also didn't seem inappropriate and went with introducing him, "Junior Azrael, this is Leonard Light, fifth prince of this country's royal family. He's the current student council president."
Azzy stared at him for a while and nodded again as if he was saying, so what…
Leonard frowned at Azzy's behavior. As someone from a royal family, even the teachers talk to him with respect. Even if this kid before him doesn't consider the royal family, where's the respect towards seniors…
The girl whispered in his ears, "don't mind him. I looked up his info. It seems he grew up in an orphanage and being homeschooled until now. Three months ago, he was adopted by the Divine Physician."
At first, he was indeed taken aback upon hearing this is the adopted son of Oakley, but, still, he cannot lose his face like this. So, he directly confronted him about it. "Junior, you are supposed to greet a senior when you meet them."
Azzy still hasn't responded and kept silent, staring at him.
The students who are entering the auditorium glanced at both of them before murmuring between themselves as they walked through the door, embarrassing him even further.
The girl saw his veins popped on his hands. She quickly called him, "Azrael…"
Upon her probing, he came back to his senses.
"Oh! I'm just wondering, why a prince like him is studying at a backward school like this. I heard that the royal family will be invited to the Heavenly Academy of Arcana.
Anyway, nice meeting you. I'll get going."
As he left, the girl mumbled, "So, he can talk, huh! I thought he was too shy to talk…"
"Zona…" A low growl escaped from his prince, whose pride has been hurt further by Azzy's remark.
"Oops…" The girl realized her mistake and kept silent, continuing to greet the students entering the auditorium.
Meanwhile, Azzy found an empty seat in the grade-8 section. Just as he has taken his seat, a person who was walking behind him sat beside Azzy.
"Hmm?" Azzy saw a familiar-looking boy, who took his seat. He's a boy, shorter than him by a head, and wore round glasses. His pupils are grayish-green and have thick eyelashes, a trait unique to a Crescent clan.
He didn't know the name but he had seen him numerous times at the Violet Pavilion.
He was sitting thousands of miles away from the Death clan and yet, of all people, he sat beside a Crescent family member.
At that instant, Azzy once again thought about Chronos' words about the fate leading him to somewhere.
The boy was also taken aback upon seeing Azzy, although for a different reason.
As a person who was born with 160 IQ, he instantly figured out that Azzy was an exchange student in their grade. But, he was only 99% sure. To confirm the remaining 1%, he greeted, "Hello, are you a new student of grade-8?"
Azzy nodded in response.
"I'm Gideon." He introduced himself.
"Azrael," replied Azzy.
Azzy wondered why Gideon hasn't mentioned the surname. All of their clans are registered as Freyles nation's noble clans. They are allowed to speak unless this isn't an enemy nation.
Since Azzy doesn't know the diplomatic relations between countries, he thought it might be an enemy country. But, if that's the case, then, why he is attending here instead of Freyles Academy? Azzy fell into confusion.
"So, where are you from?" asked Gideon, bringing him back to reality.
Azzy replied, "Southern Qudour."
"No, I don't mean that. I mean, from what academy you transferred from?" Gideon asked.
"Oh! I'm homeschooled." Azzy's reply surprised him.
Their conversation was interrupted by the lights suddenly going off and was centered at the platform.
An old man appeared in their view and silence ensued in the hall.
He is tall, slim with wrinkles all over his face. He was escorted by a young man and a young woman in their twenties on either side.
Azzy thought he must be at least rank-7 but Gideon's words surprised him.
"This is our Principal, Barton Everglade, a peak seven-star Arcana Master. I heard that he's at the edge of becoming rank-8.
Can you believe that? A backward nation like this will have a rank-eight. In our Dea…"
He suddenly stops talking, realizing his mistake of almost blurting out. He quickly tried to divert Azzy with, "look. It's almost starting."
Azzy who already know what he was trying to say earlier pretended that he didn't hear him and placed his attention on the old man.