"O-Oi, look at that…"
"Since when does our school have students like them?"
"A bunch of cute girls showed up all of a sudden…"
"Are they from another school?"
A bunch of murmurs came from the students around them as the group walked down the school entrance. It was no surprise that this would happen, especially considering the people they had with them.
Lunaria aside, her siblings were the ones to steal the attention unintentionally. As princesses, they were also familiar with being the centre of attention, so this was no surprise to them. If it came down to revealing that they were also dragonkins, the problems that would occur was even larger. This was probably why Laevia trusted them because they wouldn't do anything as stupid as revealing their true identity.
The pressure was truly on Kaze's group as a whole this time instead of it focusing on Kaze as usual. Yuuji aside, the rest started to understand how it felt to constantly become the target of envy. It would infuriate anyone normally if they were spotted walking together with such attractive women. In the first place, the sisters weren't human so their beauty couldn't be justified normally, but no one else other than them knew it.
Multiple students came up to them almost immediately, introducing themselves as nobles or praising their beauty. Lunatea and her sisters only listened to their words casually, not taking them into consideration at all. In their eyes, they were already used to this sort of flattery and approach garnered by men and women alike. Much like Lunaria, the four had their fair share of marriage proposals in the past so they knew how to deal with advances like such.
The situation wasn't that bad when they first started walking, but started to become a problem when more and more people surrounded them to the point they were unable to advance. What that was supposed to be a fun lunch break together with their friends and exploring the festival turned out to be a bother for the dragonkin sisters.
"Lunaria, I think we need to clear the situation," Kaze whispered to Lunaria, hoping they could do something about it.
"You didn't need to ask, I was getting tired of this too," Lunaria sighed.
Silently casting a spell, Lunaria raised her hand and released two spells simultaneously. The first spell made a huge magic circle in the air which covered the entire area around them. Within seconds, a huge flash happened and at the same time the second spell took effect. To Kaze and the others in their group, nothing much changed but the students around them looked confused.
"Thanks, Lunaria-nee," Luniel giggled. "I was starting to regret coming out."
"What did you do?" Yuuji asked Lunaria.
"Just a simple temporary memory charm along with casting a secondary illusion over my sisters," Lunaria simply explained. "The people around us who saw my sisters would regain their lost memory of 5 minutes ago soon, so we have to move."
"What about the secondary illusion? I don't see any changes," Irene looked up and down at Lunaea for comparison.
"Ah, Lunaria-nee made it that we won't be affected by it," Lunatea helped to add to the explanation. "The secondary illusion works that anyone else who sees us will only view us as normal people instead of what we look like actually."
"Why don't you cast it on us as well?" Chris turned the question to Lunaria. "In my opinion, we are fine with it if it is not going to be too much a hassle."
"No. I prefer if you are able to see my sisters for who they are instead of a mere illusion," Lunaria smiled at the question asked. "You all are already our friends, so it would be a shame."
"That doesn't mean we can dispel our previous illusion," Lucentia added, referring to their human illusion. "In the case that Lunaria-nee's illusion magic disappears first, at least we still have backup for our appearance."
"Being royalty is hard…" Mitsui sighed. "I pity you all."
"As if you are one to say," Kaze sweatdropped along with a few others. "You are just lucky you don't show your face to the public as often as Yuuji does, otherwise you will receive the same treatment."
"Why didn't you cast it over everyone earlier if you anticipate a situation like this would happen?" Kaze secretly asked Lunaria to not direct the group's animosity to her just in case. "I mean… you should have experienced this problem before."
"I wanted to have faith that the students wouldn't freak out, but turns out I was wrong," Lunaria made a sad smile at him. "It's alright, let's move on."
Now that they were able to overcome the first obstacle, the group was able to move through the school grounds easily.
Their goal for lunch was aimed at eating together in a class café or restaurant, depending on what they could find. Since there were quite a few classrooms being used for business as well, it was likely they would be able to find a place that could accommodate a large group like theirs even if it meant they had to sit separately.
To add to the festive atmosphere, each shop had their own uniquely designed theme based on locations and events that happened throughout the legend of the Moon Festival. For example, an outdoor café had been decorated with all sorts of plants to make it look like they were in a garden to signify one of the events in the story.
The place that Kaze and the others chose was one that was in the building itself. Its theme was as if they were in a palace. Students acting as waiters and waitresses were dressed up like servants of the King themselves, wearing overflowing clothes that had intricate designs on them. Kaze was at a slight loss as to how they were able to come up with all the ideas and material necessary to transform the classroom. Then again, it was possible that this was done with sponsors from some of the noble's parents.
"Welcome back, your Majesty, your Highness," the waiter that stood at the front of the 'restaurant' addressed the group politely with a bow. "How would you like to be served today?"
"Table for… 14 please," Lunaria quickly counted the number of people available and smiled politely. "We can split tables, if you don't mind."
"Certainly. Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate such a large number, so the best we can do is seven each," the waiter made an apologetic smile before bowing once more. "Please, follow me."
Bringing them to the back of the classroom, Kaze could see that they made artificial walls with magic to make it as though the atmosphere itself were really in a palace. Shaping the surroundings with some ornaments and lanterns, the festive mood was easily brought right into the heart of the school. Much effort was put into the decision of decorating the classroom, whoever was in charge.
The group was brought to one end of the room where two long tables were next to each other. With each table being able to fit 8 people maximum, they were able to have lunch close to each other but in 2 different groups.
Food on the menu wasn't really that different from what they were used to eating. Other than a few changes here and there like with the design of the food, it was something they were all comfortable with eating on a daily basis. Even for dragonkins who preferred meat dishes, they were fine with the choices available as well since they were in a different nation.
The current sitting assignment was split with Kaze, Lunaria, Lucentia, Mitsui, Sera, Shoko and Albert at one table, and Yuuji, Chris, Irene, Rena, Lunatea, Lunaea and Luniel at the other. It was something decided at random. Since they were planning on sitting with each other to talk in the first place, they had not considered much about splitting and just chose whoever they were comfortable with.
If anything, Kaze felt like it was a weird combo and didn't feel natural. He was already used to talking with everyone, so this was quite the weird arrangement. Lunaria and the others didn't seem to mind it, even Albert who usually felt out of place. It seemed like the excitement to talk with their new friends had overwritten the usual analysis of sitting place.
"Kaze, how are you doing lately?" Albert initiated the talk at their table once they had placed their orders.
"Oh yeah, it's stressful knowing we will be performing tomorrow," Kaze sighed at the question itself. "I don't even want to think about how relaxed we are today."
"What is going to happen tomorrow?" Lucentia, the only one left out at their table, looked at Kaze for an answer.
"During the Moon Festival, which will take place over the course of 3 days, there is an event tomorrow that essentially is just a duel with the top 10 strongest students in school," Kaze quickly filled in the details for Lucentia's enlightenment. "Lunaria was selected by one of the top 10s to choose the remaining 9 people from a selection process. As a result, Albert, Yuuji, Shoko and I were chosen with the other 5."
"Oh, did Sera and Rena not join?" Lucentia widened her eyes at this. "I figured they would easily excel among the rest of the competitors."
"Yes, but they are apparently busy on the day itself," Lunaria smiled wryly. "As such, only Shoko got chosen. Chris and Irene chose not to participate while Mitsui simply didn't care. We will have them be part of the crowd to record and watch the fight for our reference later."
"Ah, a well thought out plan. As expected of Lunaria-nee," Lucentia nodded lightly. "Kaze. As Luniel had said earlier, you seem to be able to control pure magic instead of using normal magic in your sword skills. Is that correct?"
"It is something that I won't lie about, especially considering that only a handful of people can actually control pure magic as freely," Kaze put on his best serious look while answering Lucentia. "I wish I can demonstrate it to you, but it is inconvenient."
"Yes… and I don't blame you for it," Lucentia rested her head on her hand in a thinking pose. "Still, to be able to manipulate pure magic… are you born with this condition?"
"Who knows? All I can say is that my grandfather taught me the way, so he is the first person I know other than me who can use pure magic," Kaze shrugged. "Even the King himself seemed baffled. We fought once and he was satisfied with our exchange."
"Please don't remind Lunaria of that," Mitsui gulped nervously. "Have you forgotten how badly she treated the King?"
"Y-Yes, you are right," Kaze shuddered and glanced nervously at Lunaria. "Lunaria, do you… mind?"
"The incident itself is over and you received an apology, so I'm fine with it," Lunaria gave a light giggle at their nervousness.
"I can't imagine watching the Queen nagging the King over lunch…" Albert tilted to face the ceiling with pure dismay on his face. "Should I laugh that it actually happened or cry because I failed to see it…?"
"I'm… pretty sure it's not worth mentioning again," Sera sweatdropped at their response.
"Please, I'm sure Lunaria is pretty satisfied with the outcome," Shoko giggled at her friend. "She got to see the King getting officially lectured for his actions."
"I'm sorry, but you will have to explain to me what happened," Lucentia made an apologetic smile at this. "Why is the King himself getting scolded for duelling Kaze?"
"Because they were supposed to fight to judge Kaze's abilities, or so the King stated himself," Lunaria started her rambling immediately. "That meant pure sword skill and physical abilities, since Kaze is unable to use magic. In the end, the King himself broke the rule with a high-class sword spell while Kaze was forced to use pure magic… How is that a fair fight?"
"Lunaria-nee, you are getting too passionate," Lucentia held her sister down onto her chair as Lunaria was starting to stand from how agitated she got. "I'm sure it was a beneficial fight… right?"
"Not really, other than the fact the King acknowledged my strength," Kaze sighed. "He didn't need to get serious to push me into the corner so easily. The only reason I managed to last that long was thanks to the King sparing me for so long."
"You talk as if you didn't push back against Sir Ethan himself too," Sera smiled wryly at Kaze. "Didn't the fight conclude with you chipping on his sword? That is no easy feat Kaze."
"… A loss is still a loss, that was how strong the King was," Kaze wouldn't take no for an answer. "It only proves that I need to get stronger…"
"And yet you wouldn't accept the benefits of the duelling the system has, what is wrong with you?" Lunaria slumped her arm over Kaze's shoulder and dragged him to her side so she could drill her knuckle into his head as punishment. "If only you weren't so stubborn with your values Kaze~~~~"
"Ahhh!! Lunaria, that hurts!" Kaze tried to pull himself away from her dragon grip while his head suffered a painful beating. "Y-You said it was okay for me to not gain ranks!"
"I know! But… but… you aren't proving your words with your actions!" Lunaria sighed, letting go of him eventually.
"Lunaria-nee… what do you mean…"
"Oh, sorry Lucentia, we have a lot of things to explain…"
With their table getting livelier from the heated 'arguments' they had, Yuuji's table was somewhat diplomatic with their conversation.
"Lunaea, Luniel, would you mind telling us a bit more about yourselves?" Yuuji asked them politely. "Or would you like us to start? We could have Lunatea start too."
"I will go then," Lunatea accepted the chance to go first so that she could lead her sisters. "As Rena may already know, I train with the sword a lot. I am somewhat similar to Kaze in that sense, since he also uses the sword a lot."
"But the only difference is that you are great with magic too," Luniel added in with a cheeky grin. "You always like to downplay your magic skills just because you are better at fire magic than the rest."
"I don't see a problem with that," Chris felt a little surprised. "Most of the times it's better to be a master at one element than try to be good at everything else."
"I-It's my pride," Lunatea admitted shyly. "I can't allow myself to only be good at one of the elements, but all of them. Like Lunaria-nee…"
"Lunaria is a genius, you know that," Rena smiled at the second dragonkin princess and patted her head. "You can rest assured knowing that your fire magic is already crazy good. You can even overpower my wind magic with fire, which are both supposed to be neutral to each other."
"Wow, that sounds amazing," Irene stared at Lunatea with admiration. "If you are able to master fire magic to that degree than you can even beat Rena, I can't imagine how insane Lunaria must be."
"She didn't really have the chance to show off in front of us other than the centipede, but maybe we will get to see that tomorrow," Yuuji nodded and turned to the three sisters. "For context, tomorrow Lunaria will be fighting against one of the top 10 of our school. Other than her, Kaze, Albert, Shoko and I will be joining along with the other 5 chosen too."
"Oh, I already know the result for Lunaria-nee's fight," Luniel made a relaxed smile at the information she received.
"An… absolute victory," Lunaea made a shy gesture of pumping her fist into the air.
"What about the others?" Irene asked the three. "I am interested to know if you think Kaze, Albert and Shoko will be able to win their fight too."
"Honestly, I can't say for sure about Shoko," Lunatea sighed. "Based on her skill, it would depend on the type of opponent she is facing against too. If she is up against a versatile magician like Lunaria who can also wield the sword, it's probably an auto-lose."
"I agree. An assassin like Shoko would be able to handle herself if she was up against a magic opponent," Rena easily agreed. "Physical opponents would have to depend on whether or not they are an offensive or defensive type."
"Wait, I thought a magic opponent would be harder?" Chris stopped them to ask a question. "Since all the mage as to do is cast a barrier to protect themselves inside and infinitely cast magic… until they run out of stamina first."
"I believe you have answered your question," Rena giggled at his sudden realization. "Yes, the play is essentially either find a way to break the barrier or to let the magician run out of stamina first. You can't really run out of mana since you gain mana from the air itself."
"Wouldn't there be a serious lack of mana if the fight kept on going in the same area?" Lunaea asked, tilting her head curiously. "Do they have people to constantly maintain the flow of mana from outside?"
"I don't know, but that is likely how they are going to do it," Yuuji shook his head. "It is the only way to ensure a fair fight, even if it was just for performance reasons. The competitive part of the fighters wouldn't allow them to admit defeat."
"Hmm, that is interesting," Luniel mumbled. "I wonder if we will be able to watch the fight too… Oh, right, introductions. I'm Luniel and I like doing magical research."
"I prefer… fixing things," Lunaea added her part. "So Luniel does the theoretical part while I do the practical part…"
"It is more accurate to say that I have more knowledge theoretically while Lunaea for the practical aspect, but we both research together," Luniel grinned at her twin. "Together, we sort of lead the field for the technological research and improvement of Aravel in whole."
"Woah, doesn't that make you two extremely busy then?" Chris felt impressed by their portfolio. "I can't imagine doing that for a living."
"W-Well, we don't really push ourselves to research since dragonkins have a long life, but when we get caught up, we could theoretically go nights without rest," Luniel smiled nervously at this. "But the longest we ever went is 48 hours…"
"… before Lunaria stopped us," Lunaea looked away in shame. "She told us off every time we stayed up more than 24 hours, which happens more so than I would like to admit…"
"So, who is the one who is not as busy compared to the rest of you?" Irene switched the topic. "From what I hear, Lunaria is also pretty busy, but I am not sure about Lunatea and Lucentia."
"Both of us have our busy days too, but I would agree with you that Lucentia and I aren't as busy," Lunatea nodded. "Actually, Lucentia often does charity and offers to perform for the public on different occasions, so that would make her just as busy depending on the offers she has?"
"You are pretty busy yourself too, Lunatea-nee," Lunaea glanced at her elder sister. "You help out Lunaria-nee and mother with some work as training for being a ruler, right?"
"Yes, but I wouldn't count that as my official work. That is more on Lunaria-nee's side," Lunatea made a reluctant nod at that. "I train most of the time, if not find some way to entertain myself."
"Ah, then that would make Lunaria the busiest then," Chris concluded out loud. "She has to cook, do paperwork, care for her sisters, train with magic and sword…"
"Lunaria treats her cooking more as a hobby than anything, but these days she doesn't really train much anymore," Rena tried her best to explain Lunaria's state. "It's like she has reached a point where she gets bored? She still does the necessary training to maintain her current strength, but it does get boring for someone like her who has mastered most of her magic skills since young and still trains with the sword."
"For your information, all of us have fighting knowledge to a certain extent, but we choose not to focus as much on it," Lunatea explained. "After Lunaria-nee, it would probably be Lucentia and I. Lucentia trains pretty often with her sword as well, but I would say that I started earlier because I'm born second and she is third."
Shortly after, their orders began to arrive for both tables. It didn't take very long for their food to come due to it being lunchtime, meaning the chefs had to hurry if they wanted to take more people.
Their conversations continued in between meals until after they were full. Leaving the restaurant, they went on to explore the rest of the festival together without talking much about anything in particular.
The sky soon started to turn pink as evening came. The four sisters bid the group farewell since their time was up. Teleporting back to their parents, they promised to try to show up for the fight tomorrow as they were quite interested too.
"Do you think they will come?" Albert asked his friends when they left.
"Probably," Lunaria smiled. "Father would die to watch me fight."
"Really?" Yuuji widened his eyes a little at her statement. "That makes me wonder if father would come too… I wouldn't want them to cause a commotion tomorrow by having two rulers of different nations showing up for a mere performance."
The group then returned to the school for the main event of the day before heading back for an early rest.
It was time to reveal the lottery.