The first person renjiro saw as soon as he entered the great hall was the principal and that was because he was hard to miss, it wasn't every day one got to see a human egg and the principal was known to be dramatic so he had most of the lights in the great hall point towards him.
Renjiro wondered how he could see with all that light, the rest of the instructors stood behind the principal including people he had never seen.
''I am sure you are all aware of the reason why you are gathered here, but since I have to follow protocol and also extra information to pass across, i have gathered you all here''
''the annual royal challenge will be held in about a month's time and i am sure majority of you are interested in participating, but like always only second and third years are eligible to register and considering the amount of people registering this year, we have decided to change the rules of qualification'' the principal concluded, stepping aside for professor nerrisa to continue
''during the last royal challenge we had a new record for the amount of registration and we are sure that the number would only increase this year considering the prizes that are to be won at the end of competition''
The students began to murmur at this point, a lot of students who were children of commoners or low lev el elites had hoped to register, using the opportunity to show off their talents and catch the attention of the high level elites or nobles present at the events.
The nobles and high level elites organized competitions like this to poach talented youngsters and train them, hoping they could join their family or become affiliated to them in some kind of way, but in the previous year the amount of people registered were so great the competition took close to two weeks to end, and to make matters worse majority of the participants involved were useless, only about two percent of the participants were selected and out many out of the two percent were children of elites and nobles, this made them change the qualification process.
Only when the noise in the hall died down did the professor continue. ''I know a lot of you are unhappy about the process but I am sure if you work hard enough, you would be sure to qualify''
''those who are interested in participating will form groups of five and you have two hours to form your group, numbers will be picked on first come first serve basis''
The hall became rowdy once again, with students trying to win over whoever they thought would be ideal for their group, after hearing that the winner of the challenge would have it easy with the ladies renjiro began to have second thoughts about his decision he wanted to avoid conflict but he had to get stronger and the only way he could do that was through sex.
''Have you made a decision'' lyra asked
''yes I am going to join the competition, but there is just one little issue''
''what is it'' lyra asked
''I am weak and the rest of the class is avoiding me like a plague''
''don't worry about that, we are three in number already we just have to look for two more people and then we are good to go'' lyra said happily
''easy for you to say and I wonder if the third person you are referring to is melora because she's a liability'' renjiro said in a bid to provoke melora.
''and so are you, that being said we need to look for assets for our group, but with our line up I doubt we'll be getting any'' lyra said and began walking towards shiro, who ran away as soon as he caught sight of her coming towards him, the same thing happened whenever she walked towards any other student. Then she saw oberon, she shrugged and decided to try her luck.
''don't bother, I am not interested in the challenge'' he said without sparing her a glance.
''good riddance, I thought you said we needed assets for our group'' renjiro said as he followed lyra, looking for someone to fill the group.
''beggars can't be choosers and these are desperate times'' she said catching sight of phoebe.
''phoebe, do you have a team yet?'' lyra asked while grabbing her by the arm
''no and I think it's because of phineas, I decided to stick with him thinking that between our abilities we would have a long line of people volunteering to join but it looks like I was wrong'' she mused
''you guys can join our group instead, the two hours we were given is almost up and no one wants to join our group'' lyra said gesturing towards renjiro and melora.
''them!'' phoebe exclaimed. ''at this rate we should give up on qualifying, but since there is no one willing to join either of our groups, I don't think I have an option'' at this point phineas walked over looking downcast.
''I take it that no one wanted to join our group'' phoebe said on seeing her brothers expression.
''After being sucker punched, it seems everyone has lost confidence in my abilities, did you manage to find a group he said looking at lyra.
''yes I decided that we would join lyra and the rest of her group'' hearing the rest of her group made phineas finally notice renjiro and melora who were trying to be as inconspicuous as possible.
''I take it that those two are the 'rest of the group'. father is going to kill me'' he bowed his head and walked away from the group.
Lyra and phoebe went to pick a number and they got the number fifty five, from what lyra could see they had about a minute till the two hours they were given elapsed.
A buzzer sounded and professor nerissa appeared on the podium with a smile on her face.