The castle was even more majestic on the inside than outside. The carpeted floors and the beautifully embroidered walls using hundreds different colors of marble, almost looked hand painted. The arched hallways were decorated with mandalas and flowers of black, red and blue colors on a beautiful white background which reflected the setting sun from the windows all along the hallway giving it a beautiful hue. Everything looked so good together that a village boy like Ranjha was caught lagging behind the group.
"I see you appreciate our castle boy, but we shouldn't keep the king waiting" Boro looked back and hurried.
"Wait the king!!!?" shouted Ruhi.
This snapped Ranjha out of the daze, he had heard that this king was the reason that Sath was part of Idnia, you see Sath used to be part of Idnia around two hundred years ago but Idnia lost a war to Dapi and it was given as part of that peace treaty, this was also the reason that Idnia was so small as after the war a lot of countries took advantage of the then weak Idnia and decreased its size to just the plateau which was a natural fortress and the only reason the country even survived. As years passed Sath became a battleground between Dapi and Massa because of its perfect positioning as a trade route between the cliff and the river. There was years and years of battle, then around 35 years ago King Gupta marched to the edge of the cliff with hundreds of the Royal Archers and declared using amplification magic.
"Sath belongs to Idnia, we can no longer see this much violence in the once proud city of Sath, we will continue friendly relations with both countries and keep low taxes, anyone got a problem!!"
The two opposing kingdoms agreed for the simple reason that despite hating each other. Massa and Dapi, were good friends with Idnia and as long as the opponent paid the same fine and tax, they were okay with it plus after losing great amount of money and resources on the war they both wanted an end without conceding defeat. Thus this was considered an acceptable solution.
"Yes, the king he meets all new hunters when they arrive, you are the last ones to arrive get ready to meet his majesty"
"Of course," Rohan puffed out his chest and straightened up.
Looking at him Ranjha brushed away at his clothes and straightened up too.
We were walking through the last hallway lined with saluting knight, Sir Boro nodding to each one of them. as we reached the end of the hallway the two knights at the large doors checked us out and finally opened the huge door, someone behind the doors shouted,
"The new adventurers from the village of Sath...".
The first thing you see before the ministers, before the raised throne and before the king himself is the huge dome over the hall. The dome was a perfect half sphere with a hole at the top, the dome was so big that it made Ranjha feel very small. As he walked in his eyes finally came down to ground level to see a similar hole in the ground which looked bottomless. After taking in the scenery and walking to the center of the room just past the hole Sir Boro stopped and bowed and the adventurers followed his lead,
"My king the new adventurers"
Then he lifted his head and introduced all of us along with our assigned roles.
"Lift your heads future heroes." the king said sounding majestic.
"Did that sound authoritative? I am not big on all the formality I just meet you all every year to let you know, you are important to me and the kingdom, if there are problems please talk to my personal advisors or approach me if you can, and this old man will try his best to help you guys"
"Your majesty I apologize but please do not give every adventurer disillusions only the best adventurers get to talk and discuss strategy with you, sure some of them might reach that point but someone like a secondary magician like him would never reach those heights" said his aid sitting nearest to the king.
"Nobody asked you anything Sanju" The king said back in a very commanding voice, the man who took a village with just his voice definitely showed bits of his capabilities. The king looked directly at Ranjha and said politely,
"You have great eyes of rage and fire, I see a bright future, you know these holes at the top and bottom represent a lot of things and one of them is that growth endless and can happen from any direction, I look forward to our next meeting and remember what Idnia stands for 'Together we Thrive'"
Ranjha was moved and awestruck at the same time, just nodding in response.
After this the adventurers were escorted outside the royal court and were being taken to the dormitory of the academy since the sun had already set. As they walked across the horse and army passage behind the castle under another huge door, Rohan was snickering,
"You grabbed all of the king's attention with your weakness and his pity, he probably says that stuff to everyone, I am happy you met him today because as Minister Sanju said, you will never meet him again with your low ass power level"
Ranjha just couldn't deal with that shit, so he ignored but he still had doubts. He still couldn't believe that he was walking towards the academy but as a secondary magician. As they walked through the doors of their new home for the next 4 months, they were informed that because there was no time left in the day, they will not be given a tour and will be expected to show up for orientation tomorrow morning at sunrise. Then everyone was escorted to their rooms and soon they went to sleep.
The true fun started the next day, all the students assembled in the open training ground that was apparently used for combat and weapons training. There were people from all types of households. Poor, nobles, even poor nobles and some tribes from unknown places. All the people were instinctively forming groups with similar people on the ground and Ranjha thus started looking for his Sath compatriots. He spotted Rohan already trying to chat with nobles and suck up to them.
"... ya ya my family is very rich, but we live at the edge of the kingdom so..."
"Hey Rohan!"
"Buddy somebody is calling you" said one of the obnoxious one.
"What me, I don't even know that guy, he might be fan from my village, I am a big deal there let me sort it out"
Rohan walked up to Ranjha in heavy steps and said "I don't know you and you don't know me, these four months I need to get a rich party so I can earn more with a big sponsor, so bye"
He walked off back and could be seen talking over-excitedly to a bunch of uninterested nobles. Soon though Ruhi and Sara came and were happy to greet me. Yet when Ruhi turned to spot Rohan, she said
"Turned into a dog, on the very first day... pity"
This made Ranjha smile, and Sara confused. Then on the stage Sir Boro showed up.
"Welcome one and all the next four months..."
"So that is Sir Boro" Ranjha heard a whisper from beside him, he turned to see a bespectacled guy with long hair and a head at perfect goblin height.
"I didn't notice you there" said Ranjha.
"I did, standing with two lovely ladies on the first day all confident, you must be an attack magician the worst people"
"Hey! I am secondary magician "
"Ooh so the sun can rise from the west"
"Hey! and why are attack magician the worst?"
"Shh! Sir Boro is speaking " he replied shushing Ranjha out.
"...So, I hope you all have a great four months and remember together we thrive" and thus Sir Boro finished his speech and another man in black robes and zero energy got on.
"Thank you, Sir Boro, my name is Hari (pronounced like hurry) I will be your traps and assist magic teacher or what we like to call TAM, but now I would like to ask each one of you to separate into your classes with the Secondary Magicians line up with me…"
"Now that's the real star" said the guy beside Ranjha.
"Why?"
"Because he is the only secondary magician ever to defeat an attack magician of the same level, in 1v1"