Chapter 33
House Selection
Vanessa had informed Hans in advance of the Initiation ceremony, where the Houses are chosen for the first years. This was carefully chosen by taking several characteristics of the students into account like their personality, talent and mostly potential recognised by some mysterious thing.
Hans was in deep thought but the announcement of the lady in green broke his trance
I am professor Martha. Before you belong to the MAGE department or KNIGHT department, you all will be in the Foundations for a year which is under my jurisdiction. The foundation department has already divided you according to your earned scores into A, B, C and D sections with Recommended students all being in A with some of the regulars that exceeded the scores in admission.
Martha was glaring at the Recommended students, she hated the fact that these high nobles who were born with privileges, overshadows the hard-working regular students. She has heard that there was a special admission this year and was granted admission before even reaching the age.
Her eyes fixed on Hans, who was staring nonchalantly at her, which angered her even more. This act of Hans came as arrogance in her eyes but the boy was just following his belief of not getting intimidated by anyone.
Martha couldn't just stare at a single student the whole time so she turned away her gaze from him and Hans got relieved because the staring competition was just a few breaths away from giving him hiccups. He couldn't understand why everyone here is out to get him, not knowing his actions were the ones that incited this.
Martha continued with her explanation,
At the end of the year, the Foundation class will evaluate all of you and decide whether to promote you or send you back. All of you will be provided with the quality education needed, so there will be no difference in your skills in the end. Our institution boasts to have no discrimination but that is just a ruse, the hard workers are cherished and pardoned and the lazies are thrown out even without the mistakes.
She looked at everyone and declared,
From now on, you will all be designated a House and you will move through your House areas as your name is called...
Hans looked at the sides, there were separate areas where a few senior students were already present. Each House area was named differently, the first one where Hans glanced was the area filled with elves and humans mixed. It was his first time to see the race that boasted of their beauty and it was not just an exaggeration, they were all lean, tall and unnecessarily beautiful.
The house of mages known as Sentinels was capable of turning a mage into a powerful weapon in the shortest amount of time.
Hans turned his eyes on the next house which had the fewest people, this was the house of leaders, Prophets. These people practically ran Concordia in administration, so mostly nobles and heirs of the houses are chosen here who focussed on succession rather than combat.
The next one was the house of knights, Talons. This would have been his dream place if he was a knight, a place where Rudolf used to belong but that was not going to be the case. He sighed and turned his head to look at the next house, it was the house of rangers, Seekers. This is the place where the archers, scouts and assassins were made.
The last one was called the house of protectors, Keepers. This house specialised in defence. Hans wanted to be a part of either sentinels or seekers because it aligned with his speciality. Professor Martha started speaking again,
To build trust among yourselves, all of you will share a common dorm in the foundation department's castle and move to House Castle only after promotion the following year. Your houses are already decided for you and I won't be hearing any whining about not getting the house of your choice. Your houses have been selected by the omniscient stone after carefully observing your destiny.
Hans also has heard about this treasured stone of Concordia, capable of predicting the destiny of others. Its location was secret even within the Concordia itself. Martha started reading the list from the bottom, it was clear to everyone that she hated the Recommended students but no one dared to talk back to her because the Foundation department was her absolute authority.
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Chad Walsh - Keepers
Margot Corbyn - Sentinels
Prunella Mccarthy - Talons
Chris Holdger - Talons
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Hans was carefully observing the individuals, almost every elf was chosen in sentinels, proving the common notion that Elves were born to be mages. He didn't know when the HouseMasters arrived, but they were sitting in their designated areas. He caught sight of the Sentinels' housemaster, an elf woman, feeling uncomfortable with the vast population of elves in the Sentinels, his desire to be one of them already started fading away.
His name was finally called,
Hans Richardson,
He stood up and many eyes were looking at him, Martha finally announced,
Prophets.
Hans's expressions were as if he had eaten something bad, this was the administration, a non-combatant house. He was not the only one with this expression, the Sentinels' Housemaster stood up upon hearing the decision. She wanted the child to be a part of her house.
Suddenly there was a sound of clapping and everyone turned to look at the source of the sound, it was the Prophet's area and the clapper was none other than Walter Jimenez. The Director of Information and House Master of the Prophets wanted to pull some strings to get Hans into his house but it turned out that luck was already on his side.
Martha didn't understand what was so special about the boy that both the Housemaster showed this much interest. In her eyes, Hans was nothing but an arrogant brat that doesn't even have an ounce of mana within.
Seeing how happy his future HouseMaster was, Hans accepted his fate and moved to his House area. Walter welcomed him with enthusiasm. He was glaring at the Sentinels’ HouseMaster, it was a widely known fact in Concordia that both of them never got along. Walter always suffered in the past because of the lack of combatants in the house so he was happy that a child of Hans's calibre was in his House.
He believed that a child of a behemoth should at least be a monster and that's what Aredhel, Sentinel’s HouseMaster was thinking too. He patted Hans’s back and said,
I am Walter, your HouseMaster. A word of advice, If you find any troubles.... don't seek me out, solve it on your own but just don't murder anyone, it's a bit hard to resolve. Solve it with your wits not by fists. Got it?
Hans didn't know where he had heard his name but he nodded positively to his words and Walter ended their conversation by saying,
Don't let me down, kid. Remember our words are “Victory isn't everything but the only thing”.
Hans smiled on hearing his words, he understood why the omniscient stone had chosen this house for him. Their way of thinking aligned with his own. Hans tested him by saying,
So as long as I am not caught, I can do anything, right?
Walter didn't say anything but just grinned softly. if Hans was going to be as domineering as his father then this professor was eager to see that happening.
Hans turned around to see who the others selected to join this house but out of more than 200 children, only three were assigned to Prophets. One of them was a familiar face sitting in the front rows, a girl who was royalty from Sunfall kingdom. She had an air of high and mighty around her and chose not to talk with her peers. The other one was a dwarf who was also emanating the same vibe as the Sunfall princess.
Hans thought it was finally his time to get some friends but making friends seems harder than he thought. He remembered Vanessa’s words, friendship seeks no exchange but the same emotions and with the first impressions from these houseMates, he unconsciously decided not to be close to them.
Walter wanted the three of them to be at least acquainted so he coughed and told the newest members to introduce each other and their seniors who took precious time from their busy schedules to make the newbies welcomed.
The princess of Sunfall took the initiative like a true leader,
I am Cassidy Clive, a royal princess of the Sunfall Kingdom, a two-circle mage of ice and thunder mana.
Having two attributes of the advanced family was surprising, this situation was itself declaring how much potential this girl possessed. The seniors were happy to see talented people among them and Walter was showing visible happiness.
The dwarf was next and with an arrogant tone he declared,
I am Garen Ironborn, I use a Warhammer, a knight of grade 10 with a magma Aura.
Both of them were special and possessed mana from the advanced family. Everyone turned to look at the last entry into the House. Hans smiled at them and said,
I am Hans, a mage of wood mana, I don't need stupid circles to do the magic.
The people were staring in surprise, possessing the wood mana was enough to be the unique in current time but not needing mana circles was a blasphemous idea. Even his arrogant Housemates were looking at him with surprise.
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