Today was the entrance ceremony and yesterday, Just a day before the Academic year started most of the students had come, not all but many. The dorms were almost filled, and it was a lot more livelier with people talking and walking. So many rooms were bustling with workers, the ones who decorate the rooms and the ones who move them inside.

Meh, must have been rich kids. These rooms must be way beneath their feats or something and they are likely making it somewhat livable I guess. Not too sure though, Leon is also a rich kid but there wasn't any disturbance in his room, well he is kind of an exception.

Just because there wasn't any disturbance it didn't mean there were no decorations, Darrick had visited Leon's room yesterday and it was nowhere close to being undecorated. There was a lot of high-quality and simple-designed furniture arranged there. As expected from the high-quality products, they were extremely comfortable. They must have been also expensive as preferred by Leon.

Even though all of this furniture was arranged, nobody had come here to do it for him. He likely did it all by himself even though he was supposed to be some noble highborn. Moving would have been a pain if he didn't have a spatial ring.

The bag he dragged the first day was absolutely unnecessary baggage. He could have kept everything in his spatial bag. Whatever, should I get going for the auditorium now or wait for him to come with me?

Darrick decided not to wait for him and just roam around until the ceremony started but the plan was thwarted when he saw Leon coming out of his at the same time as him. They stood a second there with a staredown, and they just nodded at each other and left for the auditorium.

When walking to the auditorium there was no conversation between them. Many things were weighing on their mind so they didn't have a mind to talk at all but they were still walking together and were heading towards the correct place.

Darrick's mind was on the materials that were used for the gold card. All but one material was the standard market material, he already had all of them but the core component of the artifact was not something Darrick expected to see. It was a soul.

I'm really surprised that they use the souls. Is there no ethical issue about it? Or they just simply don't care because the souls are of monsters. That must be their anti-counterfeit method, it's brilliant but using a living being's soul is weird to me. The silver lining is that, the soul was not sentient at least but it was programmed to follow the basic commands. Humanity is really wonderful and I would never even thought about it without my lovely system. It can be really handy in all kinds of things.

The system had scanned the gold card and one of the core materials was the soul. The expand option just above the screen showing material was tempting to use so he clicked to see further about the soul and how it would fit in this artifact. It may be concerning if what they used were human souls but it wasn't so it did not concern Darrick as much.

The souls were processed and somehow made blank slates, and then the commands were carved on them to do what they were told. There was a central axis that held the connection with all these subordinate souls to signal the transaction between two parties. That's pretty creative If I have to say, The methods may differ but not letting precious natural resources be unused is a pure human trait. If the magic engineers refined the souls then I also can use souls as materials someday but for now, this stingy system doesn't want me to know about it and that's probably better for now

There was a warning not to use the soul methods yet as Darrick was not experienced enough to use it yet so the system barred it for him. He was not allowed to access that particular blueprint until he found some clues and unravelled what it was by himself. Darrick was mad at the system for it, not for barring him from the soul method but barring him from a system function and was also mentally trying to negotiate with it but there was no result but he did not stop. He was still trying, even now.

***

When they reached the outside of the auditorium it was bustling with the students. A lot of students were coming from the path of the dorm but a considerably big number of people were entering from the central path. They must be the people who arrived at the campus today.

The timing of the entrance ceremony was ten o'clock in the morning. Darrick and Leon were about an hour early but Darrick didn't mind it a lot and found themselves some seats to sit. They chose an uppermost corner seat at the left side of the main entrance.

They sat there quietly without talking to maintain the integrity of the hall, probably. As there weren't any words between them, Darrick had some time to check out the auditorium. From where they sat he could easily observe the whole auditorium and Darrick did just that.

As expected from the auditorium of the Caladric Academy it was massively big. It was a grand and spacious hall designed to accommodate more than a thousand audience, with rows of cushioned seats arranged in a semi-circular manner. It was facing the raised stage at the front. The walls of the auditorium were decorated with ornate moulding, adding a touch of sophistication to the place.

Overhead, a series of soft lights cast a warm glow, illuminating the room without overwhelming senses. The stage itself was equipped with state-of-art equipment of unknown functions. The equipment was most likely to be a high-quality sound system so all of the audience could hear them clearly,

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The overall feel of the auditorium was one of refinement and professionalism, making it an ideal place for various events like concerts and theatrical productions to lectures and conferences. Currently, this place is a venue for an entrance ceremony.

The place was equipped with multiple magical artifacts. The stage was arranged in a fashion that welcomes the guests who are here for the inauguration. The stage was still empty as it was not the time to start the ceremony but audience seats were gradually being filled.

"I think we were too early for this, should have come here half an hour later," Darrick whispered to Leon.

"I wanted to be late for it. If you weren't there just outside my room signalling me to lead the way then I would've come here after a bit of time pass would have entered it when there were only ten minutes left for the ceremony to start. And don't whisper in my ears like that, nobody minds it even if you talk a bit more loudly." Leon accused Darrick of their collective mistake of coming too soon.

"I just came out when you were there and you also nodded also thought the same, hehe. You can't just make shit up. You did not even say anything, you just walked out straight from the dorms to here." Darrick retorted with a quick jab back at him.

Both Darrick and Leon knew they just came rushing here without thinking and it could not be blamed on either of them but they just talked shit to each other. Darrick followed with a suggestion,

"How about we just sneak out of here now? We will come back in twenty minutes or so."

"Not now. We are too late for that. I have a meeting with someone after the ceremony and they just arrived here. One of them is coming here towards me so sneaking out now would be rude to them." Leon rejected the suggestion because of his current predicament.

"Then we can't help it." Leon looked towards Darrick with the corner of his eyes. "I mean, I won't be going alone now."

"Yeah, I will meet up with my fiancée after the entrance ceremony. Only her brother is coming here for now." Said Leon nonchalantly. But Darrick was surprised to find this new piece of information.

"Huh? You have a fiancée?"

"I do and she is an elf from the central region. Just some noble things. We were engaged three months ago at that time we didn't even get to talk with each other. The elders said we will be studying at the same place so we can get to know each other then and here we are."

"Do you guys, I mean the nobles specifically, do you guys not marry someone after dating and falling in love?"

"I would say not really. We are rich and powerful. We nobles usually have bloodline powers and we have a duty to pass it down to the next generation. Love before marriage is not impossible but it rarely happens in noble households. Some people take it too seriously for them to marry some random girl they found somewhere."

"Really?" Darrick was surprised by these revelations and he asked Leon,

"What happens if I woo some noble girl? Will they send assassins for me or something like that?"

"Some actually would. They do not hesitate to do such things to keep things in line but not all. The best chance you have with it is if you become a really strong and successful person in society. I'm sure you have what it takes for that."

"Thanks, I guess but I don't plan on doing something stupid like that. Too bothersome for my taste anyway."

"Whatever you say, man." As they were talking a guy came up to them and sat beside Leon. The guy who sat beside Leon had a gloomy atmosphere around him. He had dark circles under his eyes. The golden blonde hair was messy and unkempt. The feature that stood out the most was his long, pointy ears. Just from his initial impression he did not look like the guy who would start a conversation with anyone and Darrick was correct.

After five or so minutes of waiting for him to talk Leon himself greeted him first. The gloomy guy returned the gesture with a greeting in a very quiet voice, so quiet it did not even reach Darrick just two seats away. Leon did not leave the conversation at that he continued with the talk but the confusion was filling the air.

The conversation was going nowhere. Whenever Leon asked something the guy would respond in a single word if not one sentence at most after that he goes quiet again. He was actively trying to discourage the talk and Leon was trying to maintain the talk but before long the gloomy guy succeeded and Leon gave up.

"Who is that guy? Why are you trying so hard to strike the conversation with him?"

"He is the brother of my fiancée, twin brother. She sent this guy to talk to me so he could socialize a bit with some humans. This guy would have just gone to some corner and would have spent all the time hiding there but now he is here. It would have been the same even if he sat somewhere else, just some wasted efforts from me."

"You didn't tell me his name and I don't think anyone would get an answer to that from him," said Darrick while glancing at the guy.

"Jasper Denver. He is from one of the prominent elf family from the central region." Leon was about to tell more about the Denver twins and just then the Principal of Caladric arrived on the stage, there were three more people behind him, even though there were a total of five chairs on the stage, and Darrick recognized one of them.

"Good morning my dear students. If you don't know me let me introduce myself here, I go by the name of August Valley but most people know me by the name of 'Reaper'. It used to sound very cool back in my days but now it's slightly embarrassing."

When the principal mentioned it a lot of loud cheers sounded from the audience. The guy must have been a famous public figure for them to cause a commotion like this. Then he introduced the heads of four departments.

"Head of Magic dept. Professor Zelkrat, Head of Commerce dept. Professor Nelson and Head of Humanity dept. Professor Wally. Applaud all these amazing people who work to make our Academy a better place and don't forget the Head of the science dept. Professor Carmen. He is absent because of a royal call."

"Now I'll congratulate all of you for reaching here and being present with us." And he talked some more. If you have to summarize everything said after that, it would be something along the lines of,

"The Ceremony is not as grand because there will be a massive festival at the end of the month so both of these days were celebrated in a single day." That was all there is to the Half an hour nonsense. Some were listening attentively and some were sleeping but the majority had the same opinion. They were practically ready to run out.

Next, the three heads congratulated everyone and ended the ceremony. Our duo did not waste a second there and hurried out of the auditorium and headed towards the central garden.

Just when they turned around a corner they were forced to stop as someone was standing in front of them. It was someone expected but also not expected, leaning more on expected.

"Where are you going?"