The journey was long but not tedious. The demigods got together and talked about trivial matters, like who else was recommended for the Celestial Star Academy, which universe was the "best" in terms of power and technology and things like that. Because the academy was at the center of the universal system, like the sun at the center of the solar system, Sophie and Nathaniel passed through many different universes; with that, the purple was able to delight admiring the sky of several different universes together with her friend.
After a few short hours, Sophie and Nathaniel finally arrive at the Celestial Star Academy; the purple one with water in her eyes, thrilled to finally have one of her dreams come true, while the redhead keeps his gaze neutral and objective, but with a small smile on his face.
The driver gets out of the carriage and takes the bags of both demigods, Sophie's 4 bags and Nathaniel's 3 bags. Meanwhile, a woman with sun-blond hair and sapphire blue eyes comes towards the future god couple to welcome them.
"So you must be Sophie uni-Zepta and Nathaniel uni-Alpha. Nice to meet you, I'm one of the directors of the most dignified Celestial Star Academy, Claire uni-Sigma! Welcome to the academy" She says sweetly and cheerfully, with a genuine smile on her face
"Thank you!" Sophie and Nathaniel say in unison, but Sophie thanked him more enthusiastically, emphasizing the word.
The headmistress smiled, being genuinely glad to have those two demigods there with her.The Sigma Universe was known for being "the Universe of Joy", with light colors, with a predominance of light yellow. So it was more than common for that woman to be happy out of nowhere, as it was something characteristic of Sigmelians.
Claire introduced the academy, labs, classrooms, fields to train skills... The academy is huge, which took a long time to introduce everything.
After the CSA tour ended, the director showed the rooms. It had simple and luxurious rooms and, obviously, the demigod couple chose one of the most luxurious rooms. This one had three beds (two in one corner and one in the middle), a huge closet, two dressers and a bookcase. The room also had two windows, which overlooked the sky of that place, which had several colored dots, representing each celestial body of that huge universal system.
"Well, I've already introduced you to everything! I wish from the bottom of my heart that you have a unique experience here" She gives another genuine smile and blushes -- Ah! And one more thing...
With that, the headmistress' eyes turn white and her magic stone (a yellow diamond ring) starts to glow; she invokes with her power a gold necklace with a white pearl in the middle, the size of a tennis ball.
"This will be your map. To activate it, say the words: 'Star map, activate!'"
After saying these words, the map opens. The map appears to be a kind of GPS, which gives away the location of Sophie and Nathaniel. They were in the luxury lodge, in one of the last rooms.
"Amazing..." Sophie says with bright eyes, excited by all that technology.
"Yeah, all thanks to Betha's technology, right?" Nathaniel asks the director
"Exactly! The Bethas have state-of-the-art technology, thanks to them we have the best equipment today"
"I see..."
"Well, feel free! I'm going, if you need me, I'll be on the board!"
"Okay!"Sophie says with enthusiasm
"Right" Nathaniel says promptly
And just like that, the headmistress teleports, leaving the demigods there, alone. Sophie and Nathaniel enter the room and choose one of the beds; the purple chooses to be in the middle and the redhead stayed in the right corner. Afterwards, they organize their things in the closet and arrange their books on the shelf.
After finishing organizing everything, the couple of demigods decided to go to the garden of the academy, which was right in the center of the huge campus. The garden was surrounded by colorful flowers, white wooden benches and some marble tables. In the very center, there was a statue. A statue of a girl. She wore a witch's outfit and a hat with a star drawn on it. It was the witch Helena, the heroine of the Universal System.
Nathaniel stared at that statue, transfixed, as if admiring it. His look went from neutral to sad. He felt a huge tightness in his chest, began to gasp and almost passed out. Luckily (or not), Sophie was with him and pulled him out of that trance, drawing his attention to her.
"Nathan?! Are you okay??????" Sophie says, shaking her friend
"Oh... Ah!!! -- he finally snaps back to reality "Sorry Phie..." He looks away, embarrassed
"Ah! Okay, hahaha... I was just worried, it's just that you're not the type to get distracted from nothing, you know?"
"Yeah... you're right. Sorry, it's just that looking at this statue makes me sad..."
"Why???" Sophie asks confused and worried about her friend
"Ah... I think because she died or something... I really wanted to meet her..." He gets nervous when he answers, so he stutters a little while giving the answer.
"Ah, I see..." Sophie is sad to see her friend like that, she didn't even know what to say to him at that moment, so she hugged him. She felt she needed to do this.
"Thanks Phie..." Nathaniel returns the hug and smiles sadly as he stares at the statue.
*minutes later-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many demigods had arrived. Many girls flirted with Nathaniel, which made Sophie slightly jealous. He was from the Alpha Universe, the fire universe, one of the strongest and most powerful universes, and that made the demigoddesses crazy to taste the uni-Alpha fire. There was one in particular that didn't stop flirting with him. Sophie didn't know who she was or which universe she belonged to, but she deduced she was from the Omega Universe by her green robes with flowers in her hair.
Sophie swallowed her jealousy and went for a walk in the garden. He was huge, so it wasn't hard for her to get rid of that vision.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel couldn't stand that bunch of girls all over him, but he was too polite to dismiss them all. So he just kept his eyes neutral and responded dryly to the girls' teasing, which made them give up on the fire demigod.
However, the girl in the green robes, Nath uni-Omega, don't get off him. She keeps hugging his arm, forcing him to make contact. He tried to be polite, but patience has a limit. Nath asked:
"That girl with purple hair, is she your girlfriend ??" she asked him boldly.
"Uni-Zepta and me don't have anything yet, and even if we did, it wouldn't be your business."
With that answer, the uni-Omega gave up altogether and walked out with a sullen face plastered on her face.
Soon after all that, the siren rang. A voice came from a speaker hidden in the garden:
"All recommendees who want to watch the college entrance exams must go to the gym's main training ground in 15 minutes" It was a female voice, but thick, quite different from Claire uni-Sigma's voice.