The entrance examination took about four hours to complete. When it finished, an announcement was made requesting us to get into groups of five children so that we may board the flying beasts that would take us to the academy. Although the entrance exam was held in the capital city of Aquieta, the academy itself was not in the city. Instead, it was located on the mountain next to the one the city was on.

Elwin and I turned to bid farewell to Mr. Arnold before joining the others to head to the academy.

"Thank you Mr. Arnold for taking care of me for the past week. I wouldn't have been able to come here without your help" I said, with voice full of gratitude as I bowed to him.

"Don't worry kid, it was my job to do so. Besides, your dad and I are good friends" he said while ruffling my hair.

"Bye!" I said as Elwin and waved towards him while walking towards the rest of our new schoolmates, excitement burning within our eyes.

Out of a total of about 3,000 children applying, only 500 had passed the exam. Since each group had 5 students, 100 groups were formed. We were assigned into group number 65 with 3 other students by the staff when we arrived. As a result, we had to wait sometime for our turn to board the beasts as the academy had brought only 20.

Taking this as a chance to get acquainted with the rest of the group, I walked up to them and introduced myself.

"Hi, my name is Aelene, and the one beside me is Elwin." I said with a smile. Elwin just gave a small nod in response. I shot him an annoyed glare.

The dwarf among the group was first to introduce himself in response. "My name is Dekdras, nice to meet you." Dekdras was about a head shorter than me. Despite having a wider physique than the rest of us, not a trace of fat could be seen on his body. Instead, all of it was completely made up of muscle, probably having acquired it by forging metal since an early age.

The next person to introduce herself was a beastkin. I got to know her name is Urea. She has a pair of fox ears on top of her head and a tail jutting out of her at the back. Looking at her, I had a desire to touch her ears and tail, however, I refrained myself from doing so as we just met.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Lastly, there was a human who had a haughty look on his face. Even though he was about 5cm shorter than me and had cute appearance, his eyes held a look of superiority on it, as if everyone was beneath him. Probably, he must have hailed from some rich and powerful family.

Going up to him, I said "Hi, what's your name?"

He replied, "It's none of your business."

Flabbergasted that a kid would have this kind of attitude, I decided to just ignored him and went back to the rest of the group to get to know them better.

"So, have you forged any metal before?" I asked Dekdras.

He replied, "My parents had made me learn it from the age of 6. I have been practicing how to craft basic tools ever since then."

"Cool! Then promise me you will forge me equipment when you get better" I said, giving him a pat on the back.

He nodded.

I then turned to Urea and said "Urea! Is there any hobby that you also have?"

She replied shyly, "Y-Y-Yes. I-I like to play the h-harp."

Her reply stunned me. It made me remember my past life where my hobby was to play the violin. I really liked to play it as it helped to heal my heart when I was depressed and overwhelmed by pressure to do well in my studies. Thankfully, I did well enough that my parents did not stop me from doing my hobby. Even though I liked this life better, I was a bit sad when I found out violins did not exist. I had wanted to make one myself but was not confident enough to do it. Now that the topic of music was brought up in front of me and having met Dekdras who despite being the same age as me knows how to forge, the same desire was rekindled in me to craft my very own violin in this world.

Sensing my mood change, Elwin came up to me and asked, "What happened?"

Shocked out of my reminiscence, I turned to him and replied, "I'm good."

Urea had been panicking to herself when she saw me going silent thought she said something wrong and quickly apologised.

With a smile I said, "No, I'm the one who should be sorry for making you worry. You did nothing wrong."

She was relieved upon hearing that.

Seeing her expression, I got the urge to rub her ears again, but I held myself back.

After chatting for a while more, I got to know them a bit better. Dekdras had a polite and steady attitude. while Urea was very shy. I had to actively speak to her to get any replies. As for the human, he was just in the sidelines minding his own business. Soon, our turn came and we got on our flying beast and headed for the academy premises.