Zorita felt a gentle tap repeatedly bop her on the cheeks as she drifted into consciousness. Zorita fluttered her eyes open, and Zael continued to tap Zorita's face until she looked up at him.
"Is something wrong, Mr Zael?" Zorita asked as Zael tapped her face one more time.
"No, we're about to arrive... we think?" Zael said as he placed a hand on his chin inquisitively. Zorita gazed out the coach's windshield to see the beaming city surrounded by a glistening crystal-clear lake with small reverse waterfalls flowing out from it and into the sky. The line coaches drove over one of the many metal bridges which connected the island city to the surrounding fields.
"Ooh, the city of Zalkurophe, it's almost unreal we're here," Meona remarked as she lightly clapped her hands.
"City; we thought it was an academy?" Zael muttered.
"It's technically both. Apparently, a long time ago, the city was built around the academy for convenience given how remote it was. But after a while, they sort of got melded and are now considered one and the same," Meona explained.
"Couldn't have been that long ago," Zael remarked as he saw the large floating TV-esque holographic billboards, the floating holographic traffic lights, and all with metallic-rimmed diamond-shaped black and white crystals on the corners of the holograms.
"Well, I did hear the academy and city recently finished getting renovations last month for the upcoming school year, my Lords," the humanoid female haloviel sitting on Zael's head. (A fifteen cm tall humanoid haloviel [half-fairy/half-pixie]; she has crystalline-looking radiant pure white skin long knee-low hair with drill-like pig-tails on the side of her head, the left half of her hair is dark silver and the right half is golden blonde, she has transparent butterfly wings [the right two are dark silver and left two are golden], she has glowing golden eyes, black scleras, and the ends of her limbs have a glowing golden effect [her hands, feet, forearms and lower half of legs])(She is wearing an oversized pink hoodie which goes down to her knees)
"And why didn't you inform us about that, Sovi?" Zael asked as he poked Sovi The Haloviel in the face while Meona stared at Sovi in wonder as her eyes sparkled.
"Woah, is she a Key Spirit?" Meona asked. Sovi put a smug smirk on her face and proudly crossed her arms as her wings fluttered about.
"You betcha, and not only that, but I'm the best of the bestest," Sovi stated pompously as her wings wagged like a dog's tail. Meona half-heartedly chuckled at Sovi's statement while rubbing the tip of her ear.
"At least you have a lot of spirit," Meona murmured with Zorita smiling at Meona's unintentional pun.
The line of coaches arrived and circled the large fountain filled with crystal clear water at the centre of the academy's entrance courtyard. The sea of students filed out of the coaches and made their way to the large open area at the base of the wide staircase leading to the view-spanning academy. Zael clicked his neck and stared at the modern-looking metalic academy with a European-castle aesthetic and size.
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"It may look a little different from the reference image we got, but the feeling's still there," Zael remarked mentally as he tapped his chin. Zael glanced back at the fountain with playing card diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs iconography. Zorita poked her head out from the back of Zael's fur jacket as the coaches drove away.
"Woah!" Zorita said in amazement and excitement as she gazed upon the academy; however, Zorita's excitement was cut short as she noticed a tall elder elf gentleman and a short kid-looking elf woman descending the stairs while throwing snarky japs at each other.
(The male is a tall seventy-five year-old-look half-human/half-elf; he has glowing elbow-low grey hair, orange eyes, and fair skin)(He is wearing white robes with his Key of Heaven on its left chest[a silver key which has a cracked willow tree-shaped handle with a white diamond-shaped crystal in it], a golden silk scarf, black and white vertically striped knee-low shorts, and golden crocks)
(The girl is a short twelve-year-old-looking half-elf/half-fairy; she has glowing waist-low glowing black hair with glowing golden ends, golden-coloured eyes, and tanned skin with tan lines)(She is wearing an open black zip-up oversized-black hoodie with glowing dark grey highlights and inside, a dark grey crop top with a cartoony cat with spy glasses on the front, black fuzzy leggings, and a dark grey silk cloth wrapped around her waist tied down using her Key of Heaven[a silver key which has a bonzai tree-shaped handle with a black ace-shaped crystal in it])
"Honestly, how can you like looking that old, Xino?" the female half-elf asked as she held her hands in her hoodie's pockets.
"One can not have a cane if they don't look the part; otherwise, people would think I was lazy now wouldn't they, Miya?" Xino stated smugly.
"They wouldn't be wrong," Miya stated snarkily as the duo stopped at the sixth step of the staircase and looked upon the sea of students. Xino placed both of his on the top of his silver wood cane and slammed the base of the cane against the stairs. The slamming of his cane sent out a loud firework-like bang and diverted all of the student's attention to himself.
"Greetings and salutations newcomers to Zalkurophe Academy. To get the introductions out of the way I am your Head Master Xinoraphin...". For a few seconds, Xino waited in silence before he tapped the side of Miya's leg with his cane. Miya groaned and rolled her eyes bombastically as she simultaneously gave Xino the side eye.
"...and I'm also your Head Master Yumiya," Miya said unenthusiastically. Xino smirked at seeing Miya's reaction before he placed his cane back on the stairs.
"I'm sure all over you a very tired from your long journies and would like to spend the week before the semester starts to get settled in; but before we can let you leave, I would like to request any students who have chosen the Astrolider course to please follow my sister to do the mandatory evaluations tests for sorting purposes, if you would," Xino requested.
The students chattered amongst themselves, and a collection of them made their way out from the crowd. Zael smirked before he turned to Meona and the groggy Luona.
"It seems this is where we part ways for now," Sovi remarked as she led on Zael's head and pointed at Meona.
"For now?" Meona asked as she tilted her head to the side.
"You said your dorm room was room D-43, right?" Zael asked.
"Yeah?".
"Ours is D-45," Zael explained. Meona let her mouth go slightly agape before she rubbed the tip of her ear.
"What a coincidence... who'd thought we'd be neighbours...," Meona remarked cheerfully as she grabbed Luona's hand to stop her from drifting too far from her. Zael gave Meona a two-finger salute before walking off while Zorita and Sovi waved goodbye to Meona. Meona waved back before pausing her waving as a thought crossed her mind.
"Wait... I only mentioned my room number to Mari before we had to get on different coaches... didn't I?" Meona muttered as Luona grumbled about wanting to eat some chocolate.