After the girl who I thought was sleeping jumped into me, stealing the piece of meat I was holding from my hand I jumped backward in shock.

After devouring the drumstick without even using her hands except to pull the clean bone out of her mouth, the girl just stared at me intently without saying a word.

I tried to smile in response but that seemed to make her angry as she let out a low growl.

I relaxed my face and slowly gave her the plate of food I had gotten before which she took in excitement.

She eat the meat wildly without saying a word or looking at me making sure to regularly send pieces of meat to her pets so that they could eat as well.

I simply watched the entire situation play out in shock wondering why everyone I had talked to today was an anti-social nut job.

Before the realization of the problem hit me like a truck.

‘Oh, wait I’m an idiot.’

‘I specifically went after the people who stood in corners by themselves and looked homeless what the hell did I expect them to act like?’ I thought to myself while slapping myself on the forehead.

After realizing the fatal flaw in my earlier plan I noticed that the strange girl was simply staring at me now that she and her pets had finished their meals.

“You want more?” I asked a little creeped out by her attitude.

She simply nodded in response and I motioned her to follow me.

This was of course another fatal mistake.

Everyone in that section of the hotel was now looking at me as if I was some sort of alien creature with the small girl and her pet dogs walking behind me.

Any chance of forming meaningful connections with normal people was basically gone at this point.

“So what's your name?”.

More than likely any shred of good reputation I had just based on my nice clothing and family emblem was gone all because I wanted to befriend this freak so I had to get my money's worth somehow.

“Lupa what's yours?” she said excitedly as she walked behind me.

Ok… at least this one is enthusiastic about having a conversation. That's a step up from the last one.

“My name is Norman, how long have you had your dogs?”

“I can’t remember, these three have been with me for a while”

As we reached the area where they kept the food Lupa’s eyes were lit ablaze as she parsed through the menu filling her plate with food for herself and her dogs without paying the red-eyed adults around her any mind.

Seeing her sit on the floor to eat I told her to come to find me once she was done as I didn’t think we would be able to have a meaningful conversation with her distracted.

She nodded back with her mouth full of meat as I left.

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With nothing else to do, I went back to the hall looking to interact with at least one more person before we had to get ready to go to bed.

I avoided going back to the commoner group because of the cross eyes they sent me as I walked with Lupa so I went to the Nobel faction since it was the place I was technically a part of.

Everyone was in their own groups talking but a few of the people would periodically cast glances at me.

I still didn’t feel comfortable interacting with anyone who was in a group so I looked again for someone who was on the fringes and didn’t seem to be with anyone but was actually normal.

I quickly saw a man who was very strange but not in the way the two girls I saw early were.

The man stood up to the wall with a stern gaze that carefully studied his surroundings. Because of his intensity, he gave off a frightening feeling.

He had brown hair soft features and hazel eyes.

His clothes were plain but fit him well mostly consisting of blacks, whites, and a shade of brown that matched his hair color.

He quickly noticed me staring at him and returned my gaze gesturing for me to come to talk to him.

“Hey, how are you doing?”

“I’m good thanks, how about you?”

“I'm bored out of my mind, nothing interesting has happened since I got here”

“Really, What are your opinions on the competitions this year?”

“I don’t really have an opinion. The only reason I'm here is because my dad sent me. I could have been working a couple of new weapons or I could even be doing some hunting around my house but No… instead I'm here doing whatever this is.”

“Is your family important, like are they nobles as well?” I asked finally feeling like I was doing my job of gathering information.

“No, we're just a bunch of blacksmiths living in a small community we don't have a title or a family ability but we do tend to gain the same classes,” the young boy said in a bored tone.

That was already a juicy piece of information. Since classes were given based on your life choices most classes had very specific requirements for you to gain them.

If one realized what those requirements were they could essentially create a guide so that anyone coming after them could learn the same class.

In this way, a class could be passed down from generation to generation forming a sort of pseudo-family ability.

This practice was quite common among the common people since if you knew what a class did ahead of time it would be a lot easier to build your life around it.

“If your family isn't noble does that mean that you went to the preliminary events to qualify”

“Yea they weren’t interesting either no one was really on my level and more importantly they were all boring as hell”

The boy and I continued to speak to each other about this and that for about an hour before I finally decided that I need to go back to check on my sisters before it was time to go to bed.

I cut the conversation short and told the boy that I needed to leave.

“Oh don’t worry about it, we're in the same major group so we will probably be seeing each other again in the future.”

As I was about to leave I asked the young boy his name.

“My name is Wayland Steelarm,” He said with a light smile and a wave as I left.

***

I arrived back at the place I left my sisters and to my surprise, they were actually talking to a boy I didn’t know.

He had dark red hair and wore a neat white uniform with the symbol of a white flame embroidered on the back.

On his left shoulder was a flickering red flame that didn't seem to burn his clothes.

I tried to listen in but realized that I must have arrived at an awkward time because the two sides were just staring at each other without saying a word.

My sister was putting on a brave face sneering at the visibly nervous young man but I could see that her left hand was trembling as she held onto Emma for comfort who herself seemed completely dazed.

I tried to bring myself into the fold to cut the tension a bit.

“Rina, Emma, whos your friend here?” I asked with a smile and a wave.

Rina looked at me with an intense but ultimately relieved stare before she pointed at the young boy in front of her and claimed that he had been menacingly staring at them for a while before she confronted him about it.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean it like that my name is Ashton Flame. I am the heir to the living flame clan” the boy nervously replied while stumbling over his words.

“Since my family has been a vessel to yours for many years now I only thought it appropriate that meet with you personally to have a chat”

Looking at the nervous wreck of a boy standing in front of me I could say for absolute certain that that idea did not come from himself.

Before I could say anything about the situation though an adult shouted across the room indicating to us the free communications period was over and that it was time to head to our rooms.

Using that excuse the boy from the Living Flame clan quickly left without a trace.

Me and my sisters soon left as well following the directions of the adults around us and going our separate ways.

The boys and girls were put on two different sides of the hotel and then were further divided into groups based on how many advancements they had gone through.

Those with two like my sisters and I were in one group and the older kids who had already gone through their third advancement were in another.

I had already become accustomed to time away from home due to my experience in a previous life so unlike the other kids who frantically moved around and spoke to each other about this and that unable to sleep.

I went to bed as soon as possible knowing for a fact that the first day was always the hardest. I would need to be well prepared if I wanted to dominate the competition here though it felt a little cheap considering the fact that I was actually an adult.

As I drifted into sleep I saw a light green sky with a purple sun emitting light then a huge palace in the distance.

Whether by instinct or by the influence of some unknown force I moved toward the castle.