Chapter 19

The trip ended uneventfully, there was just continuous sparring and meditation for me to do within the carriage, and once inside the royal capital I saw a whole new scenery; Unlike the city of Ariandel, this place looked majestic,as if everyone here was of noble origins, the streets were clean and water was flowing from fountains and grand gardens that littered the place, it was beautiful almost a heaven on earth.

The houses were well organized in various districts. Unlike noble houses that had huge spaces, these were of lesser sizes but never lacked in decorations or prestige.

The paved stone road would guide you anywhere into the various places of the city, and our destination was a grandiose school that was on the rims of the city.

It was situated on an open space with several kilometers of open field, a majestic three-story building that hosted hundreds of classrooms, and two enormous buildings, one on each of its sides.

Behind the central building was a vast paved stone floor, it was squared and was surrounded by rows of seats.

This was an arena inside the school, due to the nature of the school various duels would be upheld every now and then.

This place, I was certain that I will be visiting in the near future.

Once passed the steel gates, I saw several caravans entering and leaving, they were carrying people from prestigious houses.

All of them were followed by their guards and servants like high-class nobles. These Young masters and mistresses were the daughters and sons of the most prominent and influential nobles.

Once it was our turn, I was asked by Melinda to leave the caravan and wait outside.

The carriage holding our luggage was guided by some of the school’s personnel towards one of the two buildings that were on the sides of the main school building.

As for us we were asked to move forward toward the entrance and guided toward a grand hall.

The nobles and the servants were separated in there as we stood behind them in ten perfect rows of twenty servants per row.

Two for each noble, meaning that the new batch of nobles consisted of one hundred noble.

This was of course only a quarter of the total students that would be enrolling this year. Meaning that the total of the enrolling nobles were more than four hundred with eight hundred servants.

It would have been, too much if it was that each of these nobles was of different houses, but many of the nobles would enroll several of their children this year.

And only 10 of these twelve hundred will be eligible to become an active enforcer. Without doubt the nobles had a lot of backing and power behind them so they will certainly secure several of the spots for the final 10, however it is not rare to find some of the servants within those ranks, after all the powerful houses always try and are the strongest servants to accompany their children so it will not be weird if they are amongst them.

And I will be needing to get a spot there.

A man walked forward, he was veiled and looked rather imposing, he wore a white attire that covered his entire persona and a black veil on his face, both his hands were crossed into each other while the long sleeves of his white robe were dangled.

The first rows of students were all nobles of the most dignified and prestigious houses, amongst them was lady Akari of the House Ling.

“Greetings young ones, I am the vice Headmaster of this school, and I will be welcoming you to Visania. Where your mettle will be tested and your knowledge enriched. Your role in this place is to become more understanding toward yourselves and towards those around you. You should become more proficient in the art of war, to help become our leading figures in times of crisis. You must all know that the calamity will soon prevail this land, and we are all here to ensure that our most gifted and strongest will be there once the time comes, so train well, and know more. For it is only that that will aid you in venturing into the unknown future.” Said the man

After a brief pause, he then added

“You should all know, that here, your class or status is irrelevant, high, or low nobles, servants or not, you are all here to learn, make sure to abide by the rules of this school, for all differences this school shy not from proving one’s worth through combat, and I am sure you all know about the ranking system for high classes. Your status will be measured and your class will be assigned, once that is completed you will prove yourselves by attaining higher classes. Sadly contradicting what I just spoke before about the school not discriminating between nobles and Servants here the rule falls short. For the servants, you will only be eligible to attain high classes if you prove your worth through challenge. Once you will you shall obtain the loser’s position in their class. The school library is divided into seven segments, once your student cards have been issued you shall be given a rank according to it. The higher our rank the more floors of the library you shall be able to access, this card will also enable you to access higher classrooms. They will be your keys to your dorm and your way to rank up, you can initiate a challenge with another student once you press both cards on each other, the rank swap will be initiated once the duel ends.”

Ah, now I understand this way they can keep track of everything.

“Now the ranking ceremony shall commence, all of you step forward in an organized manner first row first.” He said as two men that were wearing school personnel clothes moved forward carrying a small floating orb, it looked like a blood orb but was white.

“Press your hands here and your potential will be tested, based on it you will be assigned a class. State your names and your household before it.”

The first was a young handsome man wearing a black jacket that hung all the way to his knees, he had the emblem of a tiger on his back.

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“First Prince of the Sun Kingdom. Dior Visania.” Said the man as he pressed his hand forward.

Once he said the words the room turned to whispers and low speaking, many must have known of his existence and many must have wanted to get closer to him he was after all the royal prince.

So this is the king to be. The son of the current king Roland Visania.

The white orb crackled with lightning as it gave signs of great magic power. I was using monochrome eyes to see the fluctuation of the magic in the air.

‘This place holds many talents’ said Nocturne as he swept with his gaze through everyone. ‘However…’ he said as his tone grew heavy

‘I saw them… there are many of them here…’ I replied as my heart sank… not only amongst the servants even amongst the nobles, many gave staggering and unholy signs of defilement… they are here… why would the school permit their existence? Did they not know?

‘Don’t make a move Basara, and make sure to not alert them, let's see first what they want and how the school will handle them, if they are not exposed, we shall hunt them down one by one.”

‘Do you think we can do that? There are many of them here, you can see for yourself.’

‘Attacking them all at once is suicide, but we can with their numbers one by one.’ He said ‘You still need more power in order to fight against them…’

“As expected of the royal lineage, S class magic potential with A class potential for swordsmanship,” said the Vice headmaster. A card then emerged from the orb and fell into the prince’s hand. It carried the emblem of a tiger and had an S and A letters one on each of its sides.

“Next!” said the headmaster as the boy walked forward and waited in line. It seems that the ceremony will have to continue while everyone remains in this room.

“Lissandra Visania, first princess of the Sun Kingdom,” said a girl that had black silky hair, who resembled the boy by a lot… they must be twins…”

Once her hand was on the orb, it also sparkled in a somewhat less imposing lightning than her brother, but the results were not less in any aspects as the Vice-headmaster said

“Splendid indeed, A class magic potential with an S class potential for swordsmanship! Indeed the royal lineage is most powerful.” You may take your card.

So the boy excels in magic while the girl excels in swordsmanship, they must be quite powerful indeed…

The ceremony continued, with various and prominent figures showing their overflowing potential

‘I thought that it should be impossible or rather hard for anyone to be able to wield both blade and magic at once.’ I said to Nocturne remembering what he told me before.

‘It is hard indeed, but you should know that that orb only verifies their potential, though they have the potential in mastering both the sword and magic, if they follow that route they will find themselves unable to master any of them, thus why they will mostly focus on one or another.’ Replied Nocturne.

“Akari Ling, of the fire dragon household,” said Lady Akari as she was now next in line.”

The orb then illuminated the room with a bright red light, it was her power.

“Amazing talent from the city of fire Ariandel! Lady Akari, S Class magic with a B class potential for swordsmanship” said the Vice-principal.

Oh, lady Akari sure is amazing, already securing a high position and gaining herself a lot of admiration.

Since the royal lineage first got their hands on the orb, it was rare to find anyone with an S class after them, I even thought that only they would be able to get access to the S classrooms. However, it seems that Lord Ling’s daughter had betrayed his expectation that his daughter will be stuck in the A class, and managed to attain higher ranks.

“Lady Akari sure is amazing.” Said Melinda next to me

As I was wearing the emblem of the Flame of dragon obviously once the results were said, many servants gave us looks of awe, we were from her entourage after all.

A card with a coiling dragon was soon handed to her.

“It will be really difficult to reach where she is,” I said to Melinda.

“Yes, it will be but we must reach that point else we will be left behind.”

The ceremony continued, even the girl that once attained that bloody dinner was here… but I never got to know her. She had an A class for magic and c for swordsmanship, it is rather impressive to say.

Only a dozen nobles managed to get an S class and were added to the ranks of the Highest classes.

Then began the assortment of servants, for this they had to make it faster, and several orbs were placed. Though they will all be assigned the F class and they will have to start from there through challenges, it is better to make the hierarchy known, and for the most powerful servants to advance they should know their own power.

Surprisingly there actually were several servants with an S class potential, they were taken in by the most powerful of nobles, two of them were from the royal family.

“ A class for magic and…Negative for swordsmanship” said one of the ones that were assigned the cards to the servants.

“What is that? A negative?” I asked Melinda

“Ah, a negative is for those that have an extremely low potential in one of either magic or swordsmanship. They are not rare.”

“I hope I don’t end up as a negative…” I said

“Ah, don’t worry about that, the fact that you managed to cast even low-class spells using chants is enough for you to be an F class at least, while your swordsmanship is lacking due to your inexperience I was told by Master Shen that you managed the first kata of his Lotus swordsmanship so you should be exempted from being a negative.” She said in a comforting tone.

“Oh, that is truly comfortable,” I said as I breathed a sigh of relief.

Melinda’s turn was next.

As the daughter of the Lin has scored an impressive result her servants must be of proper caliber. That is a minimum requirement for us, though I know I will not be of the level at least Melinda will be capable of tilting the results.

“S class for magic and C class for swordsmanship!” said one of the managers.

Oh! Quite impressive! She managed to hold the honor of the Lin house herself with just her potential, I just hope that my results are not that horrible else I would be the doom of lady Akari’s reputation.

Then it was my turn.

‘Whatever the results Basara, those are only numbers. What rules over your potential is your dedication and your hard work, even if given an impressive result it will only lead to arrogance and will hinder your progress.’ Said Nocturne before I could touch the Orb.

‘Well no matter,” I said as I pressed my hand on the orb.

First, there was nothing, then a small speck of black was floating inside the orb, the spec grew until it became a miniature floating orb, strangely resembling my sea of consciousness, then the orb slightly shook and a wave of dark light washed over the room, instantly turning day into night, while everything became shrouded in darkness…

The light soon retracted, while everyone felt rather surprised the results actually were quite frightening.

“D- Double negative!”

Huh?

Haaaaaa?!!!!

The room broke into laughter

What the hell! Double negative?!

‘I told you do not bother with those results Basara…”

The card I was issued was a white one with a dark orb inside it. It had a negative sign on it without any Letter.

“What does this mean?” I asked the man who was holding the orb.

“As a servant… no matter what your Rank you will be assigned to the F class first. So even if you are not worthy you will still be able to enter the class… however you must still prove yourself worthy of your class I have no idea why the Ling house would put an incompetent person like you with their servants, but still, you are now one of this School’s students. You should still strive to become better, Next!” he said as he dismissed me without giving me a second glance.

“What was that?! I think that orb is faulty.” Said Melinda trying to comfort me, but I couldn’t give it any thoughts… I mean a double negative! Sigh… I was trying to keep a low profile, but somehow during that blackout, I grabbed the attention of everyone in the room, then with this stupid result I managed to be the laughingstock of everyone.

I took a glace at the face of Lady Akari and saw a look of disappointment on her face… which just broke something inside me…

What a stupid way to start the school year…