The early morning traffic was crazy and they arrived at the school entrance a little late and several students were walking around, it was a school filled with elites and almost everyone came with a private limo or a vehicle of their own.
His arrival wasn't too conspicuous, and only those paying attention noticed the emblem of the empress on the vehicle.
Many people anticipated that the empress's child would be attending the school this year, he'd be turning ten and all the rumour about him made him out to be a genius, but when the silver hair and eyes, spoken of in the tails of the empress's child, didn't appear on the first day they assumed he'd only be coming in the next year.
Once the limo stopped, he contemplated the first step he needed to take, the first part of his plan was to meet the principal of the school, Telamon Dao, his mother's former teacher, after her announcement of raising Lirian on Xelia he requested to be transferred to planet Xelia and became the headmaster of the school, with his connections and past it was an easy thing to do and it surprised no one.
In truth people considered him to be a doting grandfather figure to the children of the empress, as he would always watch over her children as they grew up.
Anya vanished from sight just like the previous day and watched Lirian.
He stepped out of the limo in his formal attire, black pants, a formal white shirt, a tie with red, black, and silver, his vest and blazer were black with a red lining along the sleeves and the inner held a silver fabric, it was all tailored to his body precisely, and lastly, his golden earring hung from his right ear as he strode up to the doors, but suddenly he stopped with a slight frown and Anya felt herself panic that there was going to be a repeat of the previous day.
[You have stolen the heart off Lin Ming +4 fate particles]
[You have stolen the heart off Jarred Conner +5 fate particles]
[You have earned the envy of Helena Slate +4 fate particles]
[…]
[…]
Lirian frowned as he looked at the system messages, he knew that mortals were easy to influence, but all he had done was walk without interacting with anyone, the fate particles he earned were low but if the people maintained their feelings towards him, he would receive the particles every single day.
What had truly made him frown was the names of the people whose hearts he had stolen, all the names belonged to boys, and what scared him the most was the last message he received.
[Karen Judith has spotted her boyfriend looking at you, she has deemed you her nemesis +100 fate particles]
'I was released from the shackles of hate and now I have dawned the curse of earth-shaking beauty, what will I ever do with myself.' he mused to himself, when he reached the glass doors a couple of boys came up to him all taller than him and puffing out their small chests.
"Hello pretty girl, I'm Kli..." but before he could introduce himself, he was cut off.
"GIRL! Did you just call me a girl!" he snapped at the boy and shouted frantically; his reaction made the entire group of boys backtracked.
"Let me tell you something mister," he stepped forward and poked the daring boy on his chest, "The next time I hear someone call me a girl I will drag you into my home for a little session of torture with my personal maid and trust me when I tell you the world will never seem the same way when she's done with you!"
Anya froze when she heard him say that, '...he doesn't have a personal maid...', her eyes opened wide as she realised who he was talking about.
Lirian turned around from the group as felt a very angry gaze on his back and fled into the school, as he walked through the doors, he took note of his appearance in the door's reflection, 'I need to cut my hair, that should be helpful.' he thought.
His words were heard by everyone at the entrance and he looked at the system to see its changes.
[You caused Jarred Conner to feel embarrassed of himself, +200 fate particles]
[You have stolen the heart of Karen Judith +10 fate particles, you have turned Karen Judith from nemesis to friendly +1000 fate particles]
[…]
[…]
Many of the people's emotions flipped but what scared him were the ones that remained the same, he was happy to see that many of the boys were embarrassed it gave him a lot more fate particles but it was a once of thing.
The sight of so many emotions appearing on the system also left him in wonder, in the past, it was always, hated, feared, angered mortal enemies, nemesis, those were the emotions of everyone he interacted with, but now he had variety.
Playing the emotions of the people around him in school seemed to be a good method to gather points, but if he actively tried to make people feel a certain way about him, he would end up fuelling them with his own fate particles and instead of earning he would be spending a lot more that he gathered.
The corridors were wide and lockers lined the walls, he didn't even know which class he was in and he kept looking around as he tried to figure out where he was going.
He climbed several floors and along the way, he passed many dojos and several indoor gardens, a floor wide field, and many different sports fields, but he still failed to find any semblance of a school, his presence caught the attention of many people but he dodged them when they came to speak to him, he had no desire to speak to people he'd have to look up to, to talk with.
It wasn't too late so at least there weren't too many people, the most surprising of all though was when he came across a group of true elites, people that were raised on super worlds when they saw him they all stood respectfully and slightly bent their necks before continuing with their day.
He touched the earring and was impressed with its power when he felt tired of trying to figure out where to go and decided to ask for help, he spotted a group of kids, around the same age as him, and amongst them, he spotted an elvish boy who was slightly shorter than him, he walked hurriedly with sparkling eyes in his direction.
"Hey you, elvish boy wait up," he called out.
The boy turned around and so did two girls that were with him.
"u-uh... w-were you... … c-calling me?" he stammered out nervously once he looked at Lirian.
"Hey, relax man I just need to ask you something, really quick," Lirian said, doing his best to sound friendly.
The two girls beside him frowned at first, but then the one girl slapped her hands over her mouth in shock and pointed at the earring.
"Hey you're not allowed to gold," said the other girl with brunet hair, but she seemed slightly scared like being caught speaking to him would cause her problems, when she said that the boy looked equally terrified.
Lirian chuckled, but before he could say another word she continued, "The mother at the orphanage always used to tell us the story of Jack the Fool, and one day she even told us that it was based on a real story if you wear that the empire will..." she looked over her shoulder and realised that their little conversation was making a scene.
She quickly made a slitting motion over her throat.
"Commoner buffoon, stop breathing the same air as the prince candidate." the voice of a woman echoed in the hall and a group of beautiful ladies walked into the corridor.
"Sir Lirian, please forgive the foolish commoners, they don't learn manners in the orphanage, nor do they have any understanding of social hierarchy."
Lirian raised an eyebrow, it seemed that there were some competent people around, he glanced at the young woman, she was in her late teens and had black hair, on her left ear he spotted a golden earring, on the orb he identified that it was the Eden super worlds map engraved on to it.
He taught to the list of names he was given of all the important figures of his generation and quickly identified her, she was one of six candidates in the school and he was the seventh.
"No need to rebuke them miss Edith, it was I who approached them, and as I'm sure you're aware my mother is a proud supporter of the scholarship program for the unlucky children of the world," he said with a smile that was not a smile.
"Forgive my manners, I merely wished to offer my help to the empress's son and got carried away," she said tactfully.
"I appreciate the gesture, if I need your help in the future, I'll let you know, but for now I would like to get back to my conversation," he said dismissively.
The sound in the hall returned and people dispersed as the princess candidate, Edith, left, she came in a rush to try and score a point on the new candidate in school but he rebuked her and made her back down with a single sentence.
In the school, most candidates were treated like royalty so the only ones that could stand against them were other candidates.
"Forgive me for causing that scene," Lirian apologised sincerely, he really wanted a friend that was shorter than him and he had to make it work.
"You, you are a prince, not a pr..." the elvish boy spoke suddenly with a bit more confidence than before, but Lirian grabbed his mouth with his good hand.
"Don't finish that sentence," he said, ", don't even finish it in your head," he warned.
The boy nodded his head but his long antenna-like ears were flushed red all the way to the tips.
"Could you point me in the direction of the office I missed the first day and don't know where to go for my classes."
"I think it's the eighth floor." the pink-skinned girl said, Lirian wasn't certain of her race, pink skin, and purple nails, with a single horn.
"You think?", he asked.
"Sorry, it's only our second day, we still don't know our way around." the elvish boy said quickly.
He looked at them curiously, they were new here, which put them at the same age and they were orphans, "You three wouldn't be from Willders...", before he could even say the name of the orphanage, they were nodding away.
"Did any of us happen to share a ship ride when we were babies?", he asked with a grin.
The brunet girl and elvish boy both nodded their heads vigorously, they had grown up hearing stories about the time they traveled with the empress's son and it was surprising to see him in the same school as themselves.
"I guess that we might be classmates, I'll see you later."
"Sorry about earlier," the brunet girl blurted out.
"hahaha," Lirian chuckled, "Don't be, if anything I owe you for helping me score a point on that petty girl, I swear if all the other candidates are like her then the empire is in trouble."
He turned around and checked the system, he scored ten thousand fate particles of that girl, and when he multiplied it by the heavens chosen it was a full 100 000 effortless particles.
He also took note of those three's names, the brunet is Hinata, the elvish boy is Pollock and the pink girl is Eido."
The system gave him a brief warning that his future actions could turn the brunet Hinata into an enemy, but the danger level was negligible.