Despite her less than the cordial attitude towards the fellow students staying with her, Christina still managed to get a favorable understanding from them. All because of her extraordinary magic proficiency.
Divinity department was afterall one of the best performing wings in the academy. Every year, this department produced at least one Nebula. Although they had the least number of enrollment, next only to Alchemy and Necromancy departments, each one of their students was exceptionally talented.
With such a record, it wasn't surprising that Christina received a lot of patronage in the hostel. Added to that, she was the direct disciple of Saintess Rhine. Even the girl who was annoyed at her snobbish personality maintained a superfluous smile on their faces.
"I will take my leave now." Making her way outside the building, she found people waiting for her already. Not caring about the girls that had followed her, she said her goodbye in a hurry and walked off.
"Good morning, Christina!!" Aron was the first to greet her as soon as she stepped out of the boundary of the girls' hostel. He was accompanied by Chris on one side and an unfamiliar guy on the other.
"Ahem.. good morning..!" Although at times Christina doubted her logic in labeling Aron as a sexual offender, she still chose to maintain a safe distance from this handsome devil.
"I missed you brother..!" Aron quickly lost his spot in her mind and was sidestepped by the girl as she jumped in the arms of her brother like a little kitten.
"Hahaha.. missed me? How long had we been separated exactly?" Chris tried his best to pull himself away from this naked display of sibling affection.
Aron remained scratching his head while Ben, standing next to him found himself speechless at the sight. This was Chris's sister? 'Damn she is beautiful..!' He screamed in his mind but on the outside retained his scholarly appearance.
"Let me introduce you to brother Ben here." Chris held his sister's hand and turned around. "He is our new roommate and had been kind enough to help us go through the formalities."
"Hello." Christina didn't think twice and offered her hand in return. Scion of the Gallant family had not expected the girl to be this upfront. With a discreet gulp, he shook the dainty white hands.
"Hello miss Christina. I am Ben Gallant, delighted to make your acquaintance." He replied with the utmost politeness. Too bad for him, Christina's face displayed no relative enthusiasm. If anything her expressions had only dulled down after Chris pushed her away.
"Nice to meet you. I am Christina Desmond." She answered as a matter of factly before swiftly retracting her hand back. Nonetheless, Ben can not feel any disappointment at that. He must leave a good impression on this young lady.
"How long have you guys been waiting out here? You could have called me out." Christina's question was directed toward Aron who she was a bit familiar.
"Haha.. They wish." Aron chuckled. To be able to walk inside of the girl's hostel without anyone asking a single question to him, was definitely the single most important perk he had received thanks to his slave status.
"We can't even walk inside of this door, Ms. Christina.. let alone call you out." Ben explained with a wry smile. "Hm.. these guys are quite strict with rules and regulations here.. I guess." Chris spelled out his judgment.
"I hope you can join us, Ms. Christina. We are making our way to the library to get both of them registered." Ben offered in anticipation. "Sure. Let's go. Also, call me Christina. We all are of the same age group, so no need for salutations."
This was probably the most she had spoken since the time she had been separated from her identical twin. Aron too noticed that and with that, the group left the place together.
Over the way, Ben offered his knowledge and experiences to them. "No matter what, you must return all books and techniques over to the library in two weeks. Remember, there is no exception to this rule, and don't make the mistake of piling up charges, you will go bankrupt."
Aron has had some experience with the strictness with which the academy protected its core knowledge. After all his basic education on mana was gathered from one such book that he smuggled from Julia.
"You can only borrow two items at once. No exceptions here as well." Ben added and Chris brooded over it. "Tell me, can I pick an awesome fire technique today itself?"
Ben rolled his eyes. "Today you can only apply for your personal pass. I don't think they will even allow you guys inside until you receive the pass." "And how long will that take?" Chris was quick to add.
"One week at least." Ben's reply drained all the excitement from the boy. "What a boring place.." Thinking over it, his gaze fell on the boy walking ahead of him with a small ponytail of jet black hair.
"What about the Radiance Arena? Can we access at least that today?" Ben can only massage his head talking to this over-eager kid. But seeing that even Christina was looking at him with those wet big eyes of her, he instantly melted over.
"Ahem.. Of course not." He waited for Chris to stomp his foot in frustration before smiling back at the twins. "But.. I have access to the arena. Rather, I am a member of the prestigious elite-500. I am sure with some pleadi.. ahem.. I mean talks.. I might be able to bring you in."
Ben didn't have much experience being in the company of a beautiful young maiden, as such the boy tried his best to boast of his achievements. What he could have never speculated was the look of disapproval from both Chris and Aron.
"Elite-500? Do they have something like that? I mean are they really going to rank up to 500?" Aron asked with the signature innocence on his face, failing to notice the increasingly sour countenance of Ben.
"Hmph.. what do you know? You think it's easy to rank amongst to top 500 talents of the entire academy?" For the very first time, Aron and Chris were having a fair amount of doubt about his words.
Seeing the boy was on the verge of desperation, both of them chose not to argue with him. "Okay, okay.. let's first head over to the library first. We will figure things out from there." Christina waved her hand, putting a stop to the rants.
Ben made sure to stay next to the cute girl all the way, trying his best to find some common ground to take the conversation forward. Alas, Christan was severely cold in that regard. It's like every single word of hers was prized.
It wasn't long when the four of them stood opposite to a massive structure named Central Library. "It's huge.." Chris had never seen a structure so humongous in size. "Yeah, it seems even bigger than the church." Christina supported his claim.
"I heard this building is single-handedly supporting the rich heritage of the Greenville Academy." Aron reiterated something that he heard from Julia. "Indeed. From the common mana traits to the extremely rare ones, there is no knowledge that can not be found here. All you need is proper access to certain regions in here."
Walking towards the holy grail of their new academy, the young mana cultivators can feel their hearts race. Especially the twins who have seen this place for the very first time in their life.
"Haha.. I am definitely excited." Rubbing his palms together, Chris sprinted through the entire staircase. "After you.." Ben can only sigh at the scene, making sure to let Christina take the first step, like a true gentleman.
Reaching the reception, Ben handled most of the talking. The new students had to show their initial selection document that old man Decan had handed over to them yesterday.
"Please return in a week to collect your passes." The lady over the reception informed them, leading them to step back from there. Chris on the other hand was almost drooling at the sight of the treasure of books stacked all over the place in such an orderly fashion.
God knew how many books he can find on fire magic in here. "Man.. it's a shame we can't get in after coming all the way." Aron can see the longing in the eyes of the twins and mulling over it for a second, he probed his breast pocket.
"Please wait a minute here. I will be back." Saying this he rushed back to the lady receptionist in a hurry. Left behind, a confused Ben scratched his chin. "What is he doing?" "No idea."
They saw Aron engage with the lady with great familiarity. At one moment, they witnessed the boy hand a small card to the woman and then point it back to them. "What's that?"
Ben didn't have to wait for long since Aron was back in the meantime with a wide grin spread over his face. "Hehe.. Come, we are allowed to get in." Not waiting for the three teenagers to register his words, he stepped over to the guards and showed them his credential.
Passing the two burly men, Ben and the twins can only watch their faces return to cold as they passed them. "Brother.. what's going on here?" Chris ran over to Aron, catching his shoulder. In return, he passed on the card to him.
Christina and Ben were just as interested in the small piece of paper. They slouched over to see the name on the card. "Nancy Burton.." Chris read out loud, gazing at the picture of a blue-haired lady to the side and trying to recognize the face.
"Head librarian of the Greenville Academy." Christina read out the rest of the designation, she too failing to recognize the face on the card, much like her brother.
"Mrs. Nancy.." However, Ben was not oblivious to the name like his companions. "This.. how can this be.." He could not believe his own eyes. This was obviously a custom pass, made on the name of Mrs. Nancy herself. As far as he knew, the value of this little card was totally astronomical.
"So Mrs. Nancy is the librarian here. Brother, how exactly did you land your hands on this thing haha.. you are the best." Chris jumped in joy. Had Aron not pushed him away, he would not have shied away from kissing his cheeks.
"Just call me lucky. Also, earlier I checked with the Mrs. Receptionist outside. Now that I am a regular student, I can even borrow 5 things from the library with this. You know what I mean, don't you?"
It took the twins some time to infer his intentions. "Ahahaha.. awesome. Being able to befriend you was certainly the best possible outcome of our screening trials." Chris remarked, the large glee on his face displaying his gratitude for Aron.
The slave boy didn't bother replying. Having accepted these guys as his friends, this was the least he could do for them. "Both of you must have an idea of what you want. Go ahead and find it. We will all gather back at this location once we are done probing around. What do you say?"
Aron offered and Chris didn't even wait for his to finish before running in the direction of the Elemental Magic section. "Ah.. Thanks.." Christina too offered her appreciation before separating in a different direction, now leaving only Ben alone with Aron.
"Even you can pick something if you want, brother Ben. I don't think I would be picking more than two books today anyway." Ben was in too much awe to properly respond to him.
"Me too?" He was a bit surprised to be offered the same treatment. "Yeah, why not? You have been helping us a lot lately. It's only natural you get some compensation for that." Ben can tell the boy said that in a humourous tone.
< Kudos!!>>