"Zenith, why are you here now?"
With her fingers pressed against her temples, the white-haired woman asked with a deep frown. The man in question, Zenith, smiled as if he could not notice how she disliked his presence.
"I'm with you in the same classes, Avi."
'That doesn't mean you need to be with me here, okay?'
Although she wanted to say that, Avian held herself back and just shook her head. Zenith was no longer annoying to her, but his actions seemed obnoxious no matter how she thought about it.
She disliked how he casually ruined her planning.
His presence seemed to be the only variable that she could never predict. Perhaps the only way for her to have a solid plan would be by joining hands with him, which would allow her to finally include him properly in his plans.
But it was too early for that. Instead, she asked him calmly.
"Can't you listen to me for once? I asked you to leave me be during our stay here."
"Not really; I believe it doesn't matter all that much. I'm always helping you for the best, isn't that enough?"
'Why can't he take the hint?'
As much as she did not wish to feel irritated with him, her hand itched to leave a beautiful mark on his pale cheek, and then more he talked. She held back another sigh and gave him a hard glare.
"No, it's not."
Zenith smiled brightly while sticking close to Avian; he knew this was not to her liking, but he considered this level to be mischievous teasing and nothing else.
They were now in one of the classes, he observed. Carved golden walls, intricate engravings filled with rubies decorated them. In addition, the huge colored windows gave the room a unique atmosphere.
These together made the two newcomers, Zenith and Avian, a bit dizzy, but they hid it skillfully. Avian's eyes narrowed as she observed Zenith. She was impressed by his attitude and wondered,
'Where did he live before?'
Curiosity got her. The way Zenith was acting, from what she noted, did not lack etiquette. And it was not the one that middle classmen or commoners knew and used; it was the one that had been taught to nobles for years as soon as they were five years old.
"Zenith, how did—"
"Welcome everyone, please take your seats."
The instructor came in, interrupting Avian's question while asking the students to quiet down and get into their respective places. Helpless and unable to do much in this situation, Avian sat down and pulled the two spiritual devices Carlos had given her before coming to the academy.
The two devices were a notebook and a pen. To be more specific, the device that resembled a notebook was made of a flat rectangle; the middle part was black, while the frame was a beautiful lilac shade. The other device looked like a normal pen; however, it did not have any ink or something similar; it was also black.
Avian picked the pen up and tapped the notebook once, causing it to glow faintly,
『Welcome.』
The word soon faded away, showing another screen. The scenery was of a beautiful night sky with a handful of colorful icons. Zenith looked at that with wide eyes for a few moments before mumbling,
"Isn't this something only the royal family has access to?"
"Yeah, that's right. It's a tablet."
Tablets.
That was a spiritual device designed through a delicate process, and almost nine out of ten attempts at creating them ended in failure, which made them very rare and only provided for royalty.
Knowing that, Avian had exposed the tablet.
The one supporter behind her was the Crown Prince, one of the royalty, and so no one would dare to go against her. A subtle warning was her intention.
With a smile, she forced Zenith to look ahead.
"The instructor will start soon. Focus on that."
"Okay," although a bit bothered and concerned, Zenith did not inquire anymore. He obediently moved his gaze to the instructor, who was finally satisfied with everyone's attention on her.
As she noticed the students curiously looking at each other and at the beautiful white-haired 'man' in the corner, the instructor started to worry.
'The new kid is clearly being supported by someone. What if the other students looked down on him, thinking he only reached here with bad ability?'
Although she believed her students to be smart enough to know that without a good ability, no one would be able to enter the royal academy, the instructor was worried they may belittle Avian nonetheless as they do not know her ability.
A quick thought came to her mind, and she did not hesitate to spring into action.
"Dear students, today we are giving you a special task. We will be reevaluating your abilities that enabled you to join the royal academy in order to record the progress that you've achieved in your stay here. Please be prepared; we will start in twenty minutes."
"Oh?"
"Wow, that was so sudden."
"Perhaps due to the vacation starting soon?"
"I guess so."
The students all wondered and whispered to each other before casually standing up and getting ready for their test. Avian and Zenith looked at each other in bewilderment; they had just arrived here and were ignorant of a lot of important things, but they assumed that this test may be helpful for them.
Not only to prove themselves, but also to know more about each other.
"Would you like to accompany me?"
"Sure thing, Avi."