Everyone woke up the next day ecstatic. This was because it was the first of five days of them attending Aravel's only higher institute academy.
Thanks to their daily schedule being listed on the pamphlets as usual, they knew exactly what to do in preparation for attending said academy. With most of the stuff already provided at the end of the treasure hunt, there was honestly not much needed to be done individually other than mentally preparing themselves for the irreplaceable experience to come.
"Oho? Someone's early today."
"… Really?"
The usual teasing towards Kaze began when Shoko entered the dining hall with her two elf friends and noticed Kaze already waiting there with Lunaria. Remembering the small fiasco over dinner the night before, Shoko couldn't keep her curious nature hidden. She proceeded to tease Kaze about getting 'busy' with Lunaria the night before to the point that he would have woken up late today. As such, Kaze had a slightly annoyed expression on his face since he got teased first thing in the morning.
"Shoko, we simply cuddled," Lunaria answered the question for Kaze with a smile on her face. "As much as we like to make fun of 'that', we aren't always doing 'it'."
"Ahaha, sorry," Shoko gave Kaze a hearty smack on his back as she walked past him to her seat at the dining table. "Anyway, I truly wanted to ask if you got any sleep tonight over anticipation of what would happen later today."
"Hah… wouldn't it have been better if you just asked it that way?" Kaze heaved a huge sigh of exhaustion, contrary to it being only the start of the day. "Yes, I managed to sleep quite comfortably thanks to my training with Lunatea."
"Oh? Did Lunaria wake you up then?" Sera asked politely. "Not to imply you weren't capable of waking up yourself, but I understand the feeling of exhaustion from training so hard you accidentally oversleep."
"Well, yes," Kaze admitted, his cheeks turning a little red from the fact that it was true. "Thankfully, we're the earliest at the table."
"I sure hope the rest don't show up with dark circles round their eyes," Rena giggled. "It would be hilarious if that were true."
Thankfully, Rena's prediction didn't come true. With each of their friends showing up at the dining hall wearing their new uniforms, it gave off an entirely different vibe than their usual student selves in Tristania. Even Reginsleif had a double take upon his guests all wearing something so uniform and sat properly at the table, no pun intended.
"My, the outfit looks great on all of you," Laevia enthusiastically praised the group. "I'm glad that the sewing turned out alright. It had been a while since our team needed to make uniforms for humans. This sure gave them a good memory jog."
"Laevia-sama, would Lunaria and her sisters be joining us for classes?" Irene pointed out since Lunaria herself was wearing the uniform too, albeit a slightly varied design compared to theirs. "Not that w-we would need the princesses themselves to join, but it would be great if they could."
"Well, they certainly would be. After all, they had personally requested to join despite graduating long ago," Laevia happily nodded at Irene's question. "That being said, where are your sisters Lunaria? I believe I reminded everyone to be punctual."
"Lunaea and Luniel have already left early on in preparation for our arrival," Lunaria confidently explained their plans. "I believe Lunatea is currently checking on our transportation and Lucentia is making some final arrangements. They will be joining us for breakfast shortly."
"Alright then, we shall eat first," Laevia nodded at Tuarle, who left with Ilesta to bring their dishes out from the kitchen. "To start off the day, why don't we all reminisce about the time when we were all once in school? Well, for those of you here who are still schooling, simply think of how you would prepare for school back in Czech. For us dragonkins, we definitely start the day with good old breakfast."
As if on command, the maids re-entered the dining room in an orderly fashion with mouth-watering platters of freshly cooked food. Immediately, everyone began salivating from the alluring smell of the palace-prepared food. What they were used to eating everyday had been fancy and exotic at best, but today was definitely a simple and familiar meal that brought everyone back to their schooling days.
Scrambled eggs, strands of fried bacon, grilled sausages, toasted bread with a variety of condiments, fried noodles. Everything that had been brought to the table screamed 'breakfast', no matter how one looked at it. There were also a few mixes of Aravelean breakfast food that the others weren't used to, but that didn't stop them from indulging in the classics.
Lunatea and Lucentia joined halfway through breakfast. 30 minutes later, the group departed from the palace in similar carriages that they had sat on their trip to Aravel. While it might seem excessive at first glance, this simply reminded the group that they were considered national guests. The way they were treated the past week had completely thrown that exclusive title out of their heads as soon as possible due to the warm hospitality shown by the two rulers.
The trip to the academy didn't take long at all. Everyone barely had time to digest the excitement growing among themselves when the carriage came to a slow halt, signalling their arrival at the academy. With the sound of the street outside gradually dissipating to form a slightly nosier environment, the carriage drew up to the entrance of the academy and allowed them exit.
"Here we are," Lunaria, acting as the leader of the group, announced to her friends. "Welcome to Aravel's only academy: Leiscatie Academy."
In front of the gates of the academy, a parallel line of teachers and student representatives could be seen awaiting the group's arrival. Every single one of them were dragonkins with a few exceptions to various species, but the clear thing was that there were zero humans present. That wasn't much of a concern for them, other than it being the first thing they noticed after growing up in a human-based environment. The sudden transition felt weird at best.
Lunaria led the group down the line of teachers and students, all applauding and welcoming them warmly. As they passed the line, everyone got overwhelmed with the friendly attitude shown by the students and teachers alike. While it only seemed like they were acting this way due to the presence of the three dragonkin princesses, their emotions were genuine. After all, so many years with the absence of humans in the academy had passed, for them to finally receive human guests as visitors and becoming students temporarily together.
Leiscatie Academy was nothing short of impressive. Much like how its palace was constructed, the academy was massive and filled with all sorts of infrastructure. The outside appearance alone spoke volumes about the history of the academy as well as how it survived the test of time. Everyone here was familiar with the civil war that led to Aravel dividing into factions, yet that part of history didn't seem visible within this studious place.
They headed straight to the grand hall of the academy, where they would receive a welcoming speech and several briefings to start the day. By the time they arrived, they discovered that it had already been packed with students of different species and ages. In Aravel, where lifespan wasn't an issue and filled with tons of other races with varying lifespans, the age of schooling had been lifted along with several other restrictions normally found in human kingdoms.
Compared to the hall they had in Czech's First Institute, the Leiscatie Academy Hall they were in now was made in a rather traditional manner. The hall they were used to was made out of several elevated platforms leading to the back of the hall, allowing for easier viewing of the stage or the front of the hall from the back. They also had chairs that were built into the platforms, allowing for there to be less hassle in trying to gather any seats needed since they were all already prepared and perfect for accommodating more than a thousand students at a time if necessary.
For the academy, there was no such setting, nor was there a fancy or modern design incorporated into the build. Numerous huge pillars constructed out of marble and stone were seen surrounding the rectangular hallway, acting as the main support for the building. The floor was also made of similar material, except it had been polished and carved into hundreds of huge monochromatic tiles that formed the interior floor. From a bird's eye view, one would be able to see the tiles formed a black engraving of a curled-up dragon icon, the exact same one that was on the national flag on Aravel.
"Man… I know I'm repeating myself here, but Aravel's super impressive," Chris muttered out loud for his friends to hear. "How is it that an old building like this rivals our school's more recently built hall?"
"It's all about the aesthetic, perhaps," Mitsui guessed. "And one's personal taste. If I were to make a guess, the architects of the hall must have dedicated quite a lot of time to implementing such a design."
"You would be right on that," Lunatea agreed with Mitsui. "Father and mother often spoke of their time in the academy when asked about it. They agreed that the architects did a splendid job out of their passion to create a one-fits-all institute for learning. After all, the planning of the nation was essentially left to them after becoming the nation's leader."
"Ah, that would make a lot of sense. Are the architects still alive then?" Yuuji asked, interested in the brief mention of history. "From what you have said, then this school was built around the time the international war ended?"
"They sure are. I heard that the architects have helped with developing the rest of the nation for centuries now," Lucentia helped answer that question. "Though no one really questions what they are doing now since us dragonkins view living for a few centuries as something normal."
Arriving at the front of the hall where a row of empty seats was, the group took their seat in a random manner since there was no listing where one should sit. For the princesses, they were given special priority away from the group as royalty. Even Sera and the other two received the honour of sitting apart from their human friends, proving that their contribution to the nation and recognition must be just as big for them to have special seats on par with the princesses.
Once they were seated, the principal of the academy took the stage to begin their speech. Aldwolf, who was an ex high-ranking adventurer and close associate of Ethan, was a male principal in the school the group studied in. The principal of Aravel's academy was also a male, except that he was unsurprisingly a dragonkin. In fact, he looked to be the same age as Reginsleif, who was around his late 40s in terms of human years.
As the principal gave his honorary speech welcoming the special guests of the day, the group listened closely to not miss any detail. While the whole thing was just a formality, it was treated with respect by everyone who was in the hall currently. It helped that wind magic had been implemented to amplify the principal's voice, allowing everyone to hear what he was talking about. That way, there was no need for the principal or any of the speakers to raise their voice as much if it could be heard so much better through magic.
After the speech was over, the next person to take over was a dragonkin involved in the school student affairs department. What was basically said related to how the school welcomed the arrival of Kaze and friends for the next few days along with some relevant information for the student body present, namely reminding them to treat the group properly and ensure their manners was upheld. This caused some of the group to exchange wry smiles, knowing that school everywhere had the same nagging and lecturing done by the teachers.
Finally, the last teacher to step up was a female dragonkin. Why it was surprising was because Lunaria's voice suddenly filled Kaze's head. This wasn't a surprise, to be honest. Lunaria and her sisters were capable of telepathic communication, as proven during their rescue situation during the devil attack. Using this telepathic way of talking with Kaze, Lunaria had already taught Kaze how he could 'send' his thoughts over to her using minimal amount of magic since she was doing most of the work to maintain their connection.
"That's Lune-sensei," Lunaria's voice stated. "She was my teacher when I was in the academy during my youth. I… owe her a lot."
"Was she someone who helped you?" Kaze questioned his lover.
"Something like that. She teaches a wide variety of subjects due to her position as a homeroom teacher. Back in the day, she was one of the few teachers who actually cared about my state long before the civil war started. I can guarantee she is someone you wouldn't want to miss."
"Lune-sensei huh… Got it."
"I hope we will get her for class. Even I don't know what exactly we would be doing for the next five days."
The reason why Lune-sensei was invited as the third and final teacher to give a speech was due to her current position as Head Faculty of Magic Research and Cultivation, one of the more important topics universally learnt by students. A proud smile formed on Lunaria's face when she realized the accomplishment that Lune-sensei had made for herself after decades of teaching.
Soon after the speech ended, Lunaria acted as the representative of Kaze's group in welcoming and introducing them to the school. This was soon followed by Yuuji, representing both their group and Czech in giving a speech of his own. For someone as young as Yuuji, he was cool and collected as a prince, allowing him to deliver his piece without an issue. Throughout the speech, it seemed as though he had managed to impress the student body from the loud applauds given at the end.
Following this was time for classes to be introduced to them. The curriculum plan for the next few days weren't as tedious as they had imagined. Since they were guests, there had been a slight shift in the usual weekly classes the academy would have to suit the needs of entertaining the group. Furthermore, all five dragonkin princesses were going to be attending at the same time, elevating the needs to heighten the quality of their time in the academy.
The group was then split up into different batches to accommodate a different learning experience. It would be boring if they all simply stayed together throughout their five days, hence why they would be drawing lots to determine which of them would accompany each other over the next 4 days or so with the last day being a joint teaching class. It was the best unbiased way possible without outside intervention to spice things up.
To help ensure that there would be an equal distribution of expertise in each group, all five princesses were going to split up and act as their group captain. Excluding the five, the remaining total of 10 of them would have to divide themselves to 2 per group. This also meant that 3 out of the five princesses would be gunning for a chance at getting Kaze exclusively into their group, since Lunaria, Lunatea and Lucentia each wanted Kaze for themselves for the next 4 days.
The surprising outcome of the lucky draw came when Kaze put his hand into a box to take a ball labelled with a specific number that would designate his group. Frankly, Kaze didn't mind which of the five princesses he ended up with, but his heart wanted to be with Lunaria. Lady luck certainly wasn't on his side this time when he drew the number '5'. This caused him to pair with Luniel and Noel, a very unexpected combo on his end.
"Mou… why did it have to turn out this way?" Luniel pouted, shivering from the icy glares she received from three of her eldest sisters. "D-Don't worry Kaze, I don't blame you… I already accepted that you have terrible luck."
"And on what scientific basis did you use to prove that?" Kaze asked her with a huge sigh, unsure if she was serious or just fooling around as usual.
"I think she is referring to how you ended up getting involved in so many unfortunate events all at once, Kaze," Noel sweatdropped. "Like with the centipede thing and the devil attack."
"A-Ah, well, I can't deny that," Kaze gulped, realizing that Luniel's statement certainly had a specific basis for it. "But doesn't that mean you think it's unlucky for me to end up together with you and Noel?"
"Of course! On the aspect that I might be tormented by Lunaria-nee, Lunatea-nee, and Lucentia-nee," Luniel giggled nervously. "B-But… of course I'm happy to team up with you Kaze."
With another sigh, Kaze gave up on trying to understand the sisters. It honestly wasn't that big of a deal since school was only going to take up half their time together throughout the day. School ended in the evening based on their schedule, meaning they had ample time to hang around and cuddle if needed back in the palace. Perhaps Lunaria and the other two had gotten too attached to him.
On the other hand, Lunaea could only give Kaze and Luniel a smile of sympathy, for she could tell what they must be going through. As someone who had already announced her being open to the harem plan Lunaria wanted, she was honestly also curious how her feelings would change if she spent more time around Kaze. However, with the way things were lined up, it seemed more likely that Luniel lucked out on this one. As such, she would simply observe things from her end.
For the time being, the groups that were now decided had to split up to join their new classmates in class. Kaze felt exposed due to how he now had very few friends to depend on and hide behind. Unlike what most people thought about Kaze, he actually wasn't a very sociable person. Only when he was pushed to do so would he try to openly interact, otherwise he would keep to himself most of the times.
It didn't help that the moment they entered class, they were immediately greeted with a barrage of new students. Despite the class's small size relative to the average number of students per class in Tristania, there were still quite a number of students in the academy itself. With everyone attending the assembly briefing earlier, it was obvious that they were already aware about the possibility of their new guests entering their class. It didn't help that the lucky draw predetermined 5 classes to accommodate their guests, leaving the classes chosen to speculate which of the 10 new students they would receive.
"How do you do?" A dragonkin girl came up to Kaze and shook his hand. "The name's Kaguya. I'm the academy's Disciplinary board President."
"I'm Kaze, it's a pleasure to meet you," Kaze shook Kaguya's hand and smiled. "Unlike your prestige position, I'm just an ordinary student."
"It's alright. I understand that not everyone is able to take up the level of responsibility I have," Kaguya made a small smile at his words.
"Ho~? Already making friends with the new exchange students?" A cheerful girl with long ponytail and smooth black hair popped up beside Kaguya. "Nice to meet you! I'm Yumi, a cheerleader as part of the academy's cheerleading club. Hopefully we will have time to visit the club together!"
"Hi Yumi, I'm Kaze," Kaze nodded at her words and shook her hand as well. "And yes, I would like to visit your cheerleading club if we have time for it. Are we supposed to be in lesson right now?"
"Yep. Lune-sensei hasn't arrived yet though, so I don't see it as a problem," Yumi grinned and nudged Kaguya. "But Miss President here usually wants us all to sit quietly and wait for her to arrive. Today, we have an exception, so everyone wants to take advantage of it."
"Are you trying to make my image crumble from the first second we have guests, Yumi?" Kaguya sighed, feeling tired that she had to deal with the cheerleader so early in the morning.
"W-Wait, hold up. We have Lune-sensei as our homeroom teacher?" Kaze widened his eyes at this, completely ignoring Yumi's discriminating statement.
"Uh, yeah. I suppose we never mentioned that huh?" Kaguya addressed Kaze's question with a polite smile. "Sorry. I am surprised that you know Lune-sensei. I suppose she did give that speech earlier, but what is it about her that made you react this way? If you don't mind me asking."
"No, it was just that Lunaria told me a little about her," Kaze admitted. "It gave me some sort of expectation, I guess."
"Ah, that makes sense. If Lunaria-sama herself was your informant, then we have nothing to be worried about," Yumi let out a sigh of relief upon knowing this. "Do you address all of our princesses informally?"
"Yeah. Not to brag, but you could say I was Lunaria's first human friend when she was at Czech," Kaze admitted shyly. "It was purely by chance she accepted me though."
"I wouldn't say it was by chance that happened, nor was it by chance you and your friends are all accepted by our princesses," Kaguya politely denied Kaze's thoughts. "If you are already on informal basis, please call me as you wish."
"Same here," Yumi agreed. "Why don't you sit with us during class?"
"Really? I would like to accept that offer," Kaze then turned to Luniel, who was happily chatting away with some of the classmates as well. "Luniel, are you alright if I sat with the others?"
"Oh, go ahead. I'm not here to babysit you," Luniel casually waved her hand, permitting him to sit with the others.
"Now that I have Luniel's permission, I supposed I would," Kaze accepted the offer given by Kaguya and Yumi, who both happily nodded at his reply.
At the same time, Lune-sensei walked into the classroom and immediately noticed her students crowding over the three new students. To get their attention, she clapped her hands twice, causing everyone to quiet down and returned to their places instantly.
"Alright, I don't believe I have to explain who these three are, do I?" Lune-sensei announced to the class, gesturing to Kaze, Noel and Luniel. "You are in the presence of the princess and guests, show your respect. Even though I just said that, I suppose we will still need a proper introduction, don't we? Luniel-hime, why don't you start?"
"Thank you, Lune-sensei," Luniel nodded and stepped forward. "Hello everyone. I believe most of you already know who I am. The name's Luniel, let's get along for the next few days in class!"
"I'm Noel, the daughter of a knight from Czech. I hope to be friends with everyone here in the next few days," Noel placed a hand across her chest and bowed 45 degrees forward, letting her presence be known.
"And I am Kaze. I don't have any interesting background like Noel here, but I definitely to have a good time with each other," Kaze also made a humble bow, concluding his part properly.
At the end of his introduction, they returned to their seats and class began.