The banquet carried on with people conversing with each other. After it started, Yukina joined Ayato's table. She was late discussing things with Riku and Kiara.
Ayato's phone buzzed.
[2 minutes until the allotted time.]
Shic's voice spoke.
"Ah, sorry guys, I have to go."
"What was that voice?"
Isamu asked, slightly intrigued. Ayato brandished his phone.
"It's a personal AI that I created. I call it Shic. Say hi, Shic."
[Hello, Isamu Goto, Rika Kasai and Yukina Shirogane.]
"Oh..."
They were all intrigued by Shic. Ayato, of course, didn't delve into the details of what Shic did exactly. If Akashic Records ended up in the hands of the wrong person, then it would be disastrous.
"Well, I'm going now."
He tucked his chair in and walked out of the banquet hall. He walked on the pathway towards the centre of the courtyard. Akari Chiori wanted to meet there.
"Yeah, and..."
Ayato passed a group of boys. One of the boys stopped talking and took notice of him.
"Hey, aren't you that new World Magician?"
The boy turned around.
"I guess so."
"Heh, 'I guess so,' what type of answer is that? Want to hang with us?"
He shook his head and continued walking.
"Nah, I have something to do."
'He's acting nice but he isn't truly. That grey uniform means they're from Lotus Magic High School.'
Lotus Magic High School had the worst behaviour out of all of the seven. Ayato assumed that they were simply pretending to be nice to him.
That was what they were doing. They use trickery a lot when other schools are involved.
They started following him, pestering Ayato even further.
"Come on... We don't bite."
They laughed.
Ayato didn't have a single worry.
"Say something, won't you?!"
One of the boys swung his hand at Ayato's head. He ducked and sped forward, finally reaching the centre of the courtyard. There were benches surrounding a fountain. Three people were there.
"Oi!"
They finally lost their patience. The Lotus Magic High School boy put his entire body into the next swing at Ayato. The boy dodged it and continued to walk forward like nothing happened.
"You have some nerve keeping the Magician of Red waiting, boy."
Akari said, putting her Seeker into her pocket. It seemed like she was about to text him again. Besides the woman, there were two other people.
"What'd you mean? You're the one who suddenly called me out here."
She smiled.
"Hm? Everyone knows when you meet the Magician of Red, you come ten minutes earlier, right?"
The other two nodded. They were students from other schools. Akari turned her eye to the crowd behind him.
"Who's the rabble you brought along?"
"I don't know them. They want to hang out with me for some reason."
Ayato said sarcastically.
The Lotus students started shaking as Akari lightly smiled at them.
"I'm sorry, could you all leave?"
"Y-yes..."
They left without hesitation. They didn't want to meddle in the Magician of Red's business. Ayato predicted this would happen, which is why he didn't do anything to them.
"So, who are these two?"
Ayato asked.
Although he asked, he already knew who they were from information searching with Shic.
"I never expected you to be this conceited talking to a Council Elder."
The female one said. She seemed like the straight-laced type.
"I also don't think your tone isn't appropriate."
The male one chimed in.
The boy had a lighter complexion than others and a soft face. Girls would call such a boy handsome. His hair was light brown and wavy. His eyes were bright green. The uniform he wore was purple.
As for the girl, she was taller than others her age. She surpassed Ayato and the other boy, in terms of height. She had a subtle expression and sultry, blue eyes, giving her a mature look. She had long, silky, black hair with azure highlights on the end of the strands. Her uniform colour was cream.
"He's Kazuki Tsukumo, a freshman from Astrantia. She is Kaede Asanagi, a freshman at Lycoris. I called you three here because you three are the strongest freshmen in that hall."
"Elder Akari, can I ask who this is?"
Kaede asked the woman. Akari blinked a few times. Kazuki also joined in.
"Can I know too? He still hasn't been introduced yet."
The woman sighed. She expected them to already know Ayato.
"My name is Ayato Kyouya, I'm a freshman at Auralia."
"Ah, that name..."
"So you're that new World Magician."
Kaede said while scowling. Ayato averted his eyes when looking at her. He couldn't bear looking at her since...
'She looks like Mom...'
Saya Asanagi was the sister of the current patriarch of the Asanagi Family.
The girl activated her Blue Eyes, attempting to analyse Ayato. He activated his own, cancelling it out.
She blinked in pain.
"You... How do you have those eyes?"
"Your mother was from the Asanagi Family, right, Ayato?"
Akari instigated. The girl's eyes widened in surprise as Kazuki asked a question.
"If he became a World Magician, then has the standards dropped?"
He asked, also glaring at Ayato.
'Why am I always making enemies without doing a single thing?'
Ayato cursed his own position.
"Don't worry about that, I can confirm for you that it hasn't. Around two weeks ago, Ayato beat the Mirage Magician in what would've been a battle to the death."
"Huh?!"
They both exclaimed.
"Why have you called us here?"
The black-haired boy asked, trying to change the subject. He didn't want others frequently bothering him.
"Oh, I'll talk to 2 more people other than you guys since they're also strong. I'm going to put restrictions on 5 of you since you're stronger than ordinary students, especially Ayato. For you, Ayato, you won't be able to use magic at all while for Kazu—"
"About that..."
Ayato rudely interrupted Akari. Usually, she would be angry but she merely turned her head toward him in puzzlement.
"I won't need a handicap."
She curled her brow.
"You will. You're too powerful for the other students that it's unfair. I heard about what happened at the Midnight Banquet. I seriously worked hard to clean up after you."
"Well, thanks for that, but that's not what I mean. I mean that I'm not participating in any events."
There was a brief silence. It took a little while for all of them to process what Ayato had just said. Finally...
"Eh?!"
A shout of collective confusion.