"Pshh... What a bunch of show-offs." Elijah grumbled as we Arrived at the academy, we can see students exiting different types of luxurious carriage, flaunting their nobility. With decorated weapons to signify that they were either augmenter or conjurer.
We can also see some students with their chin-up posture, as if looking down to the other students.
"Huh... The air tastes the same here... Thought it'd taste better." Elijah said while smacking his sleep.
"Don't be stupid." Caera pushed Elijah forward as we followed the students on the bright marble path.
We fall in a single line in the front of white central building. For attendances, and to attend the entrance ceremony. Arriving at the front of the desk we put our hand on an orb so the girl can examine us.
"Welcome. Student: Elijah Knight. Battle mage candidate, affinity for earth magic."
"Welcome. Student: Caera Denoir. Battle mage candidate, affinity for fire magic."
"Welcome. Student: Eleanor Leywin. Battle mage candidate, affinity for... Fire and wind magic?!" The woman blurted out in shock after examining my sister.
Ellie at first just know how to control pure mana at first. But after entering the dark-yellow stage, she unlocked her elemental affinities which are wind and fire.
"Is there a problem?" Caera asked in the sidelines.
"N-no. Please go on ahead. Next please." The woman replied.
"Welcome. Student: Noah Wilson. Battle mage candidate, affinity for earth and fire magic?!" The woman said in shock but quickly composed herself.
"Welcome. Student: Arthur Leywin. Scholar mage candidate, affinity for Earth and wind?!" The woman was dumfounded after, witnessing three dual-elemental mage in one group.
We then enter the auditorium for the entrance ceremony. The auditorium is already crowded inside.
"Wow! I didn't think it'd be this crowded already inside." Elijah said after looking around.
"Let's find a seat." I used sound magic to deliver the message to the four of them.
Looking around, I was surprised at how many dwarves and elves I spotted, chatting away with those around them.
"Wow, I've never seen full elves until now. Looks like it's true that all three races can fully attend this academy now." Elijah excitedly looked around, scouting for a potential soulmates among the crowds. We just shake our heads on an expected behavior from our friend.
"I can see five seats over there brother." Ellie said pointing at the five seats at the back.
'Sylv, go and secure those seats for us' I ordered my bond who was sleeping on my head since we arrived.
'okay papa' she replied jumping off my head and running to where the seats are. Then she started scaring those students who try to take the seats.
As we finally arrived on our seats and sat down. I took the middle as Noah sat on my right beside him is Elijah, and to my left is where Ellie sat with caera beside her. Sylvie then nestled on Noah's lap before sleeping once again, While Noah caress her fur.
I almost forgot how noisy those kids around my age. I then conjure a sound barrier around the five of us.
"Thank you. Thought I will become deaf on our first day of school from the noise." Noah grumbled after the noise were gone.
"Yeah, I thought my ears are going to bleed from the noise." Ellie said before she start chatting with caera.
I can see some students were eyeing Ellie and Caera. Looking at my right I can see that Noah was also angered by them. We started directing our intent to those students as they look away.
We continue our action to scare this students away. Suddenly, a sharp blur focused into form and I saw Director Goodsky standing behind the podium.
By this time, many more of the incoming first years noticed her and began talking even louder, some cheering, but when Director Goodsky's hand reached the level of her head, suddenly, everything went dead silent.
Looking around, everyone had expressions of surprise, because while everyone's lips were moving, no sound was heard from anyone in the audience.
"Excuse me for my rudeness but I do hate speaking up. Not good for my throat, no it is not," she said in a pleasant voice that—while soft—was heard perfectly clear, even from here in the back row.
"I welcome everyone here, the future leaders, scholars and powerhouses of Dicathen, to this humble academy. I am Cynthia Goodsky. Please call me Director Goodsky and do not be afraid to say hello when I walk around campus. I am no good with speeches so I stand here before you mages today to say hello, and introduce to you the Student Council that represents this academy and takes part in making important decisions along with me. Please give them a warm welcome." She waved her raised hand and one by one, members of the council started walking out.
Jarrod was the first one walking out confidently looking straight ahead. Followed by a very playful and cheerful guy.
"Look! There's Lilia we need to cheer her." Elijah and my sister said in unison, before they started cheering for Lilia, Caera doing the same while Noah and I just clapped our hands. I used some sound magic to amplified their voices, Lilia noticed us and wave her hands toward us before bowing.
Behind her walked out a tall student with long, parted bangs. His face was frozen into what looked like a stern grimace with a sharp gaze that seemed to be looking down on everyone, giving him a rather pompous appearance.
Finally, the last to arrive actually made the crowd silent. The unmistakable gunmetal silver hair that reflected the lights in the auditorium gave her a serene glow as her peachy-cream complexion made the boys around me gape. She turned to face the audience so that her round, turquoise eyes captured the hearts of every boy in this auditorium.
She was only thirteen...right?
"My name is Tessia Eralith, and I am honored to stand here as this academy's student council president."
It seems Sylvie was awake because of Elijah's movements. She looked to the stage before jumping at me.
"Kyu!" 'Papa! Look that's mama she's down there let's go say hi!' Sylvie was jumping up and down so I wrapped my hands around her.
'who's your mama?' I couldn't help but sigh in defeat at her excitement. Tess became pretty close to Sylvie a bit after hatching so I could see why she was so fond of her... but 'Mama'?
"I see, it seems like sylv likes your childhood sweetheart." Noah whispered to my ear. Before I can reply Elijah caught our attentions.
"Woah...." Elijah, who we stopped paying attention. Were sitting on his chair gripping the armrest.
"Woah," he repeated. For how smart he looked, he sure acted like an idiot at times like these.
"You okay there, Elijah?" Caera asked Elijah.
"...Guys...I think I'm in love." He suddenly released the hands that had firmly gripped on his armrest, then link arms with Noah, as if to imagine Noah was Tess.
This was getting out of hand. Before I can make a move, Noah picked up sylvie from my arms and throw her to Elijah, as she started attacking Elijah letting go of Noah's arm.
...
The entrance ceremony was finally over. And we are walking toward Director Cynthia's office, when we heard a loud explosion ahead of us. We looked at each other before we start running where the explosion happened.
I stopped running as I can see what was happening ahead. The others also stopped after they realized what was going on.
In front of us, is a human and a dwarf both battle mage students. But the human had two stripes on his tie while the dwarf had one. It seems like the explosion had been made by the human, hitting his fist on a nearby tree with mana.
"I don't see how a short-ass dwarf like you can even hope to be a proper Augmenter. Why don't you stick to forging some weapons for real warriors like me?"
"What da hell didja say? Who do ya think ya are, anyway?"
"Blatant racism already I pity Lilia and the others for this." My sister said shaking her head.
"Couldn't this become dangerous?" Elijah looked around where some of the students had to deliberately walk around the two of them, just in case they started fighting.
"They wouldn't dare do something like fight on the first day, right? Let's just go." I tried to nudge my friend to a roundabout route avoiding the two arguing students.
"Come on, we have nothing to do besides unpack anyway! Let's just see how good they are. Look, the human looks to be a second level augmenter." He pointed at the brawny human.
"My name is Nicolas Dreyl! Declare the duel, short-ass, so we can start! Or are you all bark and no bite?" the human smirked, placing his right hand on the badge pinned to his left breast.
"Tch! Yer gonna be sorry." The dwarf that was a head shorter than his opponent with a bulky build looked awkward wearing the blazer uniform but the way he carried his giant battle-axe with ease told me he was more than what the single stripe on his tie told us.
The metal badge on both the human and dwarf glowed brightly as the dwarf placed a hand on his badge and started chanting. "I declare a duel between me, Broznean Boor, and Nicolas Dreyl!"
"I accept the duel!" The two badges glowed different colors until they synced together, producing a loud 'ping' sound.
The human mage took out dual swords from his dimension ring and got into a stance as the people around start backing up to avoid getting caught up in the fight.
"Go dwarf!" Elijah started cheering in favor of Broznean, getting dirty looks in the process.
I studied the two augmenters and saw that the level two human was a red core stage mage while the dwarf was still at black stage. This should be interesting.
"HAAP!" The human student roared as his two broadswords glow a dim yellow color and the earth surrounding him started trembling.
"JAH!" The dwarf leaped up and propelled himself forward by pushing off of a nearby tree, charging his battle-axe as well with earth attribute mana.
"Ooh! Both are earth-attribute augmenters, Art!" Elijah got more excited as leaned closer towards the fight as Sylvie curled up, sound asleep on my head.
"Tremor Smash!" the dwarf shouted, placing his left palm on the head of his axe and making the dull glow condense.
With a resounding boom, the power of the blow from the dwarf forced the human to skid back, even as he blocked with both swords. I could see his arms shaking as he grimaced.
The human boy lowered his two swords and dashed towards the dwarf who was already in a defensive stance. The dual swords scraped along the ground. As he got into range, he swung up, a trail of earth followed along, creating twin blades of earth after each sword.
Not bad. While it wasn't surprising that the dwarf could already use his earth attribute element, it surprised me that a human in the red stage could already augment his earth attribute to that degree. He was talented in that sense.
"Shatter!" The dwarf's body glowed yellow as he stomped his right foot hard onto the ground, creating a ripple around him that broke the earth blade approaching him into fragments. The dwarf blocked the human's two actual blades with his axe but got a little scrape on his arm from the upward swing.
"Earth Pillar!" Nick exclaimed. Following the upward swipe, he stomped hard with his leading foot directly in front of the dwarf, creating a pretty fragile column of rock from the ground that hit the dwarf squarely in the stomach.
"Oof!" The dwarf's body lifted into the air from the force of the blow and his shield broke with loud shattering sound, signaling that the duel was over.
Cheers went off from the humans that gathered but the dwarves amongst the audience groaned in embarrassment.
Elijah just sighed and started to leave with the others, but before I turned to follow them, I saw a slight smirk on the human's face as he once again imbued mana into his two blades.
That fool wasn't planning on finishing it with that. He was going for the final blow.
"The fight is already over. So I advise you to stop what you are doing so there's no casualties that will be reported." I threatened him while holding his hand. The other students were shocked to see me appearing behind the human boy and stopping him.
"H-how did he do it?"
"He suddenly appear out of nowhere."
I used the technique I invented after mastering the mirage walk that my father teach me. Resulting to short-ranged movement that is mostly undetectable. I called it burst step.
"Are you picking a fight with me or something brat?" It was the human who was dueling earlier said, After he noticed my uniform.
"You know, a good piece of advice if you want to graduate. I don't think killing that dwarf boy would've done you any good." I stood still as Sylvie spat directly at the back of his neck.
He instantly whirled back around with his two swords in his hands once again. I could almost see a vein bulging out of his forehead like it would in a cartoon.
"Pfft." Oops, I shouldn't laugh in this situation. I took a quick glance back and saw that Elijah was just shaking his head knowing it was too late. While Noah is also laughing along with my sister and Caera,
"You dare—?" The thirteen-year-old boy with swords too large for his immature body dashed towards me in a manner I found clumsy, preparing to cross-chop with his two blades, his face bright red in anger.
I raised my brow at this this, before sending some vibration shattering the swords. The kid and the other students were baffled After they see me doing it without moving.
After shattering the swords I hear a voice from my left. It was the voice that all of the new students heard not too long ago, and the voice probably every male had fallen in love with. It was also the voice of my childhood friend.
"Do you dare?"
Turning my head to the left, I saw the entire student council the others were shocked after witnessing me shattered the sword effortlessly. Except Lilia and Tess.
"What is goin on, Arthur?" Jarrod was the first one to spoke, making the others raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Looks like the scholar mage knows someone from the student council."
"No wonder he was so rampant."
"No, nothing much happened, although you should go take a look at that dwarf student lying over there—Boznean, I think that was his name." I pointed over to the tree where the dwarf was still groaning while clutching his stomach.
Elijah walked toward me followed by the others, hoping to distill the situation. "Hi, Lilia. Sorry, we ended up getting caught up in this little scuffle after the duel between them ended. No harm done!" He gave a slight wave at her as he started talking while directing his words at Tess, her face still shrouded in a mask of apathy.
"Still, this student was about to attack you when a duel wasn't even issued. This is a serious offense." Lilia stepped up, her gaze a bit sterner as she pulled out a small notebook and jotted something down.
'Its mama," Sylvie 'kyu'd' on the top of my head, and I had to firmly tell her to hold still and not go to her.
"Ms. President, me and my friends were just walking when we heard an explosion coming from here. We decided to check it out, and when we arrived we saw this human boy taunting the dwarf which ends up to a duel resulting the human boy to win. But the human boy didn't want to stop and want to inflict some injury to the dwarf, causing my friend to stop him. Which angered the boy and decided to attack him which caused his sword to be shattered." Noah explained seeing that even if Tess and I are childhood friends, that didn't mean she will try to lecture me in public.
Tess nodded her head, before looking towards the boy and stepping forward.
"You. I believed I asked you a question. Do you dare?" Tess said as her eyes boring down on the second-year student. I was thinking that the student was technically a level higher than Tess, but when I took a look at the ribbon that was tied neatly underneath her collar, it had two stripes as well.
"No, of course I will never dare to break the rules I was just planning to scare him. But I didn't expect him to shatter my swords. But seeing that I was still acting rashly, I apologize," he said.
"Leave." Her eyes continued to look down at him as he shuffled a good distance away before he turned around and ran out of sight, a few of the boys in the crowd following after him; most likely the ones that fanned the flame in this whole scuffle.
"And you! Why are you starting a fight in you first day of school? You should know your place he is still your senior and he didn't break the rules when dueling with the other student. Furthermore, he is a battle mage student while you are a scholar mage student. Did you not pay attention to my speech about discrimination between the two sects of students here? Yet, you still chose to interfere, making these types of problems apparent on the first day!" She knit her arms tightly as her stern gaze bore down on me, her face flushed with either anger or embarrassment—which of the two, I couldn't tell.
"What?" My gaze narrowed as I asked, unsure if I heard her correctly.
"What do you mean by that? Didn't you hear what our friend said over here? Or you just didn't care?" This time Ellie was the one who said in anger.
"Watch your tone brat, your talking to the President." The vice-president whose name is Clive chimes in pointing his finger at Ellie.
"I advise you to take back your finger or I will cut it." Caera said stepping forward.
"Guys, all of you should calm down a little. We're not going to solve anything if you guys were all mad at the same time." The last member of the student council named fable said, trying to ease the mood.
"No, it's obvious that your President over here was the one that is wrong for not listening to the report. So even if we calmed down nothing will change." Noah said a bit mad.
"Fufu... What a lovely meeting between my favorite students, and my student council."