The announcement of the Lances greatly motivated the continent, it excited many about the potential of our futures, six white core mages being capable of carving our future. I was even excited about the idea of it, but what many people were concerned about was the other continent and the potential threat they posed. The leaders did a great job at keeping the continents worry about a potential war low but it is never enough to remove all doubt or concern among the people.
A few days have passed since then and Vincent has been working hard to get me and Lilia into Xyrus Academy. Yesterday night during dinner he told us he had a surprise for us today and for us to be prepared. I had a few ideas in mind but what had happened surprised me.
There was a knock on the front door and the maids let them in. In walking an old woman dressed in elegant conjurer robes with a conjurer's hat, I couldn't sense her mana core meaning she was at a higher stage than light yellow. If the robes weren't enough to tell me she was a conjurer the wand on her waist gave that away immediately.
"Ah! She's here," Vincent said as he descended the stairs.
The looks on everyone's faces made it obvious to me that this person was extremely important, I had no idea who they were after living in Sapin for nine years now though.
Vincent continues speaking after he gets to the bottom of the stairs with everyone, "Everyone, meet Cynthia Goodsky, the director of Xyrus Academy."
The director smiled at me and in a polite tone said, "It is nice to meet you both, Arthur and Lilia."
'So she is the Director of Xyrus Academy, I read about her in the books I read about Sapin but they never had any pictures of her. To be the Director of an important academy meant she was greatly hailed as someone to be on good terms with. I remember back when I trained with Curtis he said he was going to be a student there.' Seeing Lilia next to me get down for a bow in respect towards the Director I copied her to not mess anything up.
"It isn't often I make a home visit for a potential student, but since this was a request by Vincent I simply had to agree. Since I don't have much time to be here, is it fine if we begin the demonstration?" Her gaze fixated on both Lilia and me.
"Of course, please follow us to the training platform in the backyard, Director Cynthia," Vincent led the way. Both our families followed behind us as we went to the backyard.
In the backyard, everyone took their seats beside Lilia, me, and Director Goodsky. We stood on the training platform.
"To make it simple I will have both of you face me at once, to both see your teamwork and save on time, if you don't mind," Cynthia spoke.
Lilia just shook her head agreeing to the terms, I then asked a question before the demonstration began, "Are you not going to use your wand?"
"It wouldn't be fair of me to use a weapon in this situation." She states. I could see her point, although Lilia had her wand, I didn't have any of my weapons on me and I had left my dimension ring back inside 'What the point of me having a portable storage when I don't even have it on me?'
"If you both agree to the terms we can begin the demonstration now." The director says.
Lilia's job here was obvious since I was also here, since there was an augmenter around me, she would back me up and provide support. It would be a different case if I wasn't here.
I stomped down on the ground and up came pieces of rubble floating around me, I launched them all at the Director as I began running towards her behind the rubble.
A wall of wind appeared instantly blocking the rubble, 'Instant casting'
I will a gust of wind under my feet and dash around the wind wall and I augment my fist in fire. This surprised the Director immensely. I throw a punch to her right side, only for me to be blown away by a current of wind.
I had come close to being launched off the side of the platform if it weren't for Lilia using a water wall to catch me. I look back at the Director to see she has willed several small twisters to approach me. I use wind attributes to make the wind around me spin in the opposite direction of the tornados as I make my way past them.
When I get past the twisters I see the Director and Lilia in a battle of spells launching different wind and water spells at each other in an attempt to outplay the other. As their spells either collide or miss the other person, I use this opportunity to conjure put blades of wind in my hands, and launch them towards the Director while she is facing away. She had reacted to the blades of wind as expected, but to my surprise, she had instead used her spell to redirect the blades of wind towards Lilia. Lilia by now was already being overpowered in their battle of spells and the wind blades that I had launched were the last attack Director Cynthia used to defeat her.
"That's one down, you both are impressive, I see Vincent was not lying when he said there were two gifted mages here. Since I already defeated one of you, I'll give you one last test." The director said, I was unsure of what that last part meant but I had soon learned when all of a sudden I was knocked back, my ears ringing and my vision unsteady. She was using sound deviant magic! My ears soon began to bleed from the sharp intense ringing and it was then she stopped. If my entire body was augmented I would have suffered permanent damage to my ears there. She stared at me with an impressed expression, she released the spell and I was saved from the pain.
"I'm amazed Arthur, you manage to use three elements with such skill. You may very well be the first tri-elemental on this continent. As for you Lilia you possess great skill and control over your water element, I say you both pass, and I would be happy to accept you into my academy-,"
I rudely interrupted when I summoned a ball of water in my hand, the director was shocked to see me use the water element.
"You're a quadra-elemental…" She said stunned, she could hear her breath stagger in surprise.
"Yes, I can use all four elements." My parents already knew from back when I trained under Kaspian. I continued to say, "DIrector Goodsky, there's a reason I didn't hide my capabilities today."
Hearing my seriousness she nodded in understanding, It's then I noticed that she has put up a sound barrier to stop my family from hearing what I have to say.
"I do wish to enter your academy but I do not wish to draw attention to myself, not just as a Quadra-elemental but as a commoner."
"I see... For a second I was hoping to flaunt my quadra-elemental student around but I will adhere to your wishes. I understand your concerns about being a commoner attending my academy, while we have been working hard to remove any form of discrimination from the academy it will take a while for any real progress to come. Might I ask, how do you plan to overcome this obstacle? You spoke like you had a plan in mind?" She asked.
I reach under the top of my shirt and pull out a necklace that I was given many years ago by Kaspian Bladeheart, "With this, my previous teacher, Kaspian, gave me this and told me I can use their family name. I wish to join your school not as Arthur Leywin, but as Arthur Bladeheart."
My explanation felt unnecessary as I saw the look on her face when she saw the necklace, at that time she seemed to immediately understand my plan. Then she asked an important question, "What do you wish to achieve coming to my academy Arthur? You obviously have this all planned out, so please indulge me on your plan."
"I wish to grow my skill in magic so I can protect the people I care about," I look over at my family for a moment, "To do this I will increase my skill in what I am lacking, which is my wind and earth elements and how I use mana as a whole."
"How do you use mana as a whole?" She asks, confused.
"I will pretend and train as if I were a conjurer and learn how to more efficiently use magic in ways I could not think of before."
"How do you plan to do that augmenter can't-." She stopped talking and took a look at my mana core, it was as of now a light yellow stage soon approaching silver. Since I am so far in the mana core stages there are few differences between augmenters and conjurers meaning I can use mana the way they do. It's all a matter of learning how.
After realizing my strength she simply nods and begins to speak again, "I see… Arthur I will help you reach your goal and be a powerful benefactor in helping you, but I want you to promise me this, If or when the continent ever comes in danger, please use your strength to protect and fight against the enemies."
The way she spoke told me that there was something she knew that I didn't, that was obvious. Just what could this threat be, there isn't anything it could be besides the other continent that was discovered. If so, how could she know these things? Even so, I still agreed with what she said, "I promise for when that happens, I will help the fight against them."
***
My entire family and the Helsteas were excited over the fact that Lilia and I got accepted into Xyrus Academy. Vincent and my mother did ask what exactly I spoke to the Director about when we were in the sound barrier but I simply told them just that we discussed specifics on my enrollment.
My mother was worried I had done something wrong but was calmed down when Vincent said that I did nothing bad and probably did a good thing.
Later that day I asked Vincent if he could get me two seals to hide the fact I could use Fire and Water magic. He was confused at first but I explained that I didn't want to draw attention by being a Quarda-elemental, he understood and agreed with my request happily getting me the seals from a famous artificer he knows. It sure is handy knowing someone that has connections to everyone is important. Vincent basically knew everyone important, the royal family, Director Goodsky, important artificers, and so on. It didn't take long for him to come back with two bracelets made of string, each of them had a small bead or rock attached to it which I assumed would be doing all the work of hiding my fire and water elemental attributes. The reason I'm hiding my Fire and Water is that I am already deviants in those. I want to learn how to use earth better for one and maybe even learn sound and gravity magic along the way. When I put on the bracelets I can feel my fire and water attributes disappear in the sense that I can't sense them anymore.