The day starts with a signal from the sun as it sprays its light across the surface of the world. Then begins the activity of the early morning life as the people stir from their sleep and begin their activities, moving about and minding their own business. That had been the case for the civilization of the Alzard World, who all got ready for work, school and other circular activities before they leave their homes, enter a transport vehicle of their choice and depart.

On this day, in the castle of the capital, there was already bustling of movement, as the butlers and maids moved about their daily business. The Royal Guards changed shifts every five hours in a rotational sequence to give the ones on watch at least seven to eight hours of sleep before taking charge. The rest of the occupants in the castle were still sound asleep, sleeping in their individual rooms while covered by thick blankets.

As the dawn rose over the horizon, rhythmic sounds began blaring in each and every room to wake its occupant. The king was the first to rise and was helped to get ready by the waiting maids and butlers, who lead him to wash him. The two princes, Bolten and Santa, along with the princess, Erza, woke up to the sound and groggily got ready in their own pace, Erza taking more time to prepare her appearance for the busy day ahead.

Meanwhile, a few minutes later, the same sound began occurring in nine other rooms that were occupied by the Nine Heroes of Legends. They each were sleeping in individual rooms that were positioned right next to each other and were woken up with different reactions.

* Martin, Fred, and William were woken with a start and looked around in alarm

* Gram, Natsu and Maxwell woke up with a strong alertness, ready for action

* Ward, Vikram and Lakshman slowly woke up and sat on their beds as if nothing was wrong

They each got up at their own pace, headed to the bathrooms and washed themselves before coming out when the sound of their doorbell rang. The butlers brought in their breakfast in trays that floated smoothly in mid-air without any kind of support. Once their breakfast was over, the butlers would take the trays away and leave them to switching on the large screens in the front of the room, which they learnt was called a Television.

“I’m not dumb enough to not know what this thing is!” Vikram had complained during the first time that a butler brought them all into one room and explained the items and their functionality in it.

“What a surprise? A country bumpkin knows these sorts of things,” commented Gram offhandedly.

“Dammit! You want to fight me?!” Vikram demanded angrily, glaring menacingly at him while Martin waved his hands between them to stop them.

As it turned out, he, Gram, Martin, Maxwell, and Ward knew what kind of device it was, which showed a moving display of things happening on the screen. The only ones surprised were Fred, William, Natsu, and Lakshman, taking some time to getting adjusted to the new device, which they used a remote to switch channels to different programs that played different things every hour.

That day, they switched on their televisions to watch some program to pass the time; until the butlers brought in a uniform that they would be wearing in attending the Hero Academy. To their surprise, they found the uniforms made with a soft material, making them feel very comfortable to wear.

“These uniforms are pretty good,” commented Lakshman, patting himself and looking around to check himself in the mirror. “What do you think, Asura?”

“You’re a twenty-year-old that looks like an eighteen-year-old who never graduated from his studies, but somehow ended up going straight to marriage,” commented Asura in a flat voice.

Lakshman clicked his tongue in annoyance and said, “True, I didn’t officially graduate due to me deciding to go on two long years of training, but do I need to pass just to get married, ah? In that case, my dad never attended any sort of academy and my mother’s the one who had ever graduated from an academy.”

“Cool down, Lakshman. I wasn’t being serious,” replied Asura with a light chuckle.

“Well, when you say something like that, it hurts the other person,” said Lakshman irritably. Then, he took a deep sigh and released easily before saying, “Anyway, this is it! The day I’ll be attending the academy.”

It had been a week since he was injured during the night party when he protected his dance partner from a severe injury because of a destructive wave. Since then, he had stayed in the hospital room for three days straight before he was discharged after the doctor’s check up.

“Good. Your injury is mostly healed, but I think it’s better you don’t use your right arm that much for one more week,” the doctor said, subscribing him a sling to make sure his right arm stays in place.

Lakshman, looking worried, raised a point by asking, “Ah, that would be bad, doctor. How am I supposed to write? I’m right handed.”

“Then, get someone else to help you, and besides, who uses their hands to write anything these days?”

“What? They don’t use their hands to write anything anymore? But then, how do they take notes? Memorise?”

For some reason, the doctor found it hilarious and chuckled to himself, and then he said, “It’s okay. You’ll understand when you see for yourself.”

This left Lakshman feeling disgruntled, making him commented in a quiet voice, “Talk about needless suspense.”

“Ignore the doctor and get ready ‘cause the butler guy will be returning soon. It’s already been ten minutes since he came and that was at seven-thirty,” replied Asura in his mind, a touch of humour in his voice, bringing him back to the present.

The time in this world is apparently recorded in digital numbers, where the alphabet was written in the Alzard World’s language. There was even a digital clock hung over the door that displayed the current time, but due to not being able to read the foreign numbers,

Lakshman was mostly ready by the time Asura advised him and it did not take him long to get ready completely before the doorbell rang. With the arrival of the butler, Lakshman exited the room in his clothes and found that the rest of the other heroes were ready as well. Surprisingly, the uniforms were tailored for each individual based on the dimensions that the tailor received during the night party event. For that matter, the casual clothes and the night clothes they wore were separately bought from outside that closely matches their dimensions for their everyday use.

“Man, it feels good to live a rich life,” commented Vikram happily as they followed the butler through the castle. “No financial problems, no living expenses and plenty of comforts that come for free. I love this life!”

“Keep in mind that we only get this privilege because we’re part of the Nine Heroes of Legends,” stated Natsu curtly, making sure all of this does not go to the Sonic Hero’s head.

As if a balloon was popped, Vikram’s face fell into annoyance when he replied with, “Yeah! I remember!”

“Just making sure,” Natsu replied back, ignoring the other person’s annoyance.

Martin was fidgeting with his fingers nervously when Ward telepathically asked, “Martin, stop that. People will think you have a body problem.”

“B-But… I’m nervous,” said Martin simply, which was already evident on the anxious expression on his face. “I’m used to this environment now, but we’ll be attending an academy that’ll be full of complete strangers and lots of them at that. Just thinking about meeting them is making me nervous.”

“How can you call yourself a hero when you’re so nervous?” Gram asked without care, not bothering to check whether his words hurt the other person or not.

Martin stopped fidgeting and clenched his fists tightly as those words hurt him quiet a bit while Natsu spoke roughly to Gram.

“Why do you speak to proudly and arrogantly, Gram? We’re all heroes that belong to the same group.”

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While still on the move, Gram turned to give a truly cold look at Natsu before replying, “Unlike the plebeians I’m surrounded by, I am a prince from where I come from.”

“From where you come from,” said Vikram, jumping at the opportunity to punch this prideful man with a return dialogue. “That doesn’t mean you’re the prince of this world! Ha!”

“I am better and well respected than the rest of you idiots,” said Gram coldly, turning back to face the front in the process.

Vikram was lost for words, and while he struggled valiantly to find something to reply with, nothing came. As such, he merely sighed heavily and folded his arms in apparent defeat. It appears that none of them could get the best out of the self-proclaimed prince from another world, leaving them to steer clear from him. While everyone was silent, Asura commented in Lakshman’s mind that surprised the latter.

“For some reason, he reminds me of Lagron.”

“Seriously?” Lakshman thought in surprise.

“Good morning, heroes,” said Erza, the princess of the kingdom, a bright and cheery smile that would energise anyone that were basked in it. “How are you all feeling on this wonderful day?”

“Pretty good, princess,” replied Fred with a similar cheery smile of his own. “What about you, princess?”

“Yes. It’s quite a nice day. I’m looking forward to our attendance together,” she responded in a bright voice.

While everyone cheered at her statement, Lakshman only smiled as he felt happy to see his future wife’s smiling face. Then, he noticed that a masked person wearing the female uniform, like the princess, was standing beside her. On closer inspection, he realised it was the dance partner that had been checking up on him every so often after the night party incident.

After seeing him, she ignored the rest and walked over to greet him with, “A very good morning to you, Asura. I take it you are feeling well?”

She indicated his wrapped up injured hand, and he smiled wearily by saying, “Good morning to you too, Raze, and yes; I’m feeling good today. As for this; no worries. The doctor said I shouldn’t use it much and that it’ll get better soon.”

“That’s good. I hope it heals quickly because I can understand how much of a hindrance it is for you,” she replied in a pleasant voice.

Lakshman smiled, and seeing that she was wearing the mask from before, curiously asked her, “Do you always wear that mask?” Then, realising that he had intruded upon a personal matter, he quickly amended by saying, “I mean, I saw you wear this during the hospital and at other times you visited me, so I was wondering whether it was some sort of fashion to wear it.”

For a moment, she did not respond, and he sensed that she was a little surprised by his question. She soon resumed her normal manner and spoke in a quiet voice so that only he heard her while the others were busily talking with Erza and the princes, who just arrived on the scene.

“I’ll let you know when the time is right.”

With that, she turned around and walked over to stand beside the three royal siblings, who each turned to lead the way. Lakshman blinked twice as he watched Raze walk away before coming to himself and hurrying to catch up with the rest of them.

They exited the castle and found a really long vehicle with a height that came around to Lakshman’s shoulder, which they discovered was called a Car. Behind that and in front of them, there were two different vehicles of different make, but they also could be identified as Cars. They were stationed at the front and the rear in order to escort the centre vehicle and protect it from any harm.

The two princes, the princess, Raze and the rest of the Nine Heroes of Legends entered the vehicles, and they found that it was quite spacious inside for all of them to sit in. While commenting about it, the vehicle door closed and the first prince, Bolten Flameheart, issued the order for the driver to take off, which the man did by bringing the vehicle’s engine into life by pressing a few buttons on his activation device, which Lakshman learnt were called the Magic Enhanced Devices, or M.E.D for short.

The front vehicle hovered off the ground and soared high into the air at a diagonal angle and the rest of the vehicles followed behind. Soon, they joined the throng of vehicles traveling back and forth high in the air, where the traffic was somehow guided by some kind of directional system because the traffic was moving in turns. Due to being royalty with an escort, their group zoomed above the rest of the traffic and lowered to join the rest after crossing the stop line.

They travelled for several minutes through the busy traffic while its inhabitants were chatting excited to each other. The heroes were being questioned by the two princes about the kind of power they possess and the worlds they used to live in. However, none of the heroes were willing to give their share amount of the kind of life they lead back in their world.

“Oh! Personal thing. Right. Sorry to trouble you like this,” said the first prince, quickly apologising in recognition of the uncomfortable silence.

“Still, I am pleased to find that one of them is a prince from another world,” said the second prince, looking intently at Gram. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name’s Santa Flameheart, second son to his majesty, Fedex Flameheart. Please call me Santa.”

Gram clasped the prince’s hand and shook it while introducing himself as, “My full name is Gram Dunkar. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Santa. Likewise, please call me Gram.”

Santa smiled and the two princes of this world and a prince from another world, conversed with one another. The others remained silent and looked out through the window at the remarkable spectacle of flying high above the city structures, even passing between several that seemed to touch the skies.

“This definitely is a modern world for sure!” Vikram admitted, looking at the scenery in awe.

“I’m glad you think so,” said Erza appreciatively, “because it wasn’t easy to reach this far. You see, it took well over 300 years for the generation of that time to discover a means to build tall buildings that touched the skies and then establish local and long-distance air travel. Of course, there are the monorails that run on the surface, but they are rather fast, safe, but it can disturb the person, may even result in an upset stomach.”

“Wow. That’s amazing,” said Lakshman, trying to take a chance to look cool and please her. “In my world, we manage to travel between cities via horse drawn carriages while we use these Teleportation Zones to travel between continents.”

“Eh?” Erza asked, looking mildly interested. “They travel the continents using magic? Don’t you have boats or monsters to travel by air?”

Lakshman shook his head and replied, “Unfortunately, only the merchant owned ships do most of the sailing and any other boats are disallowed to travel long into the ocean. You know, sea monsters that are quite dangerous exist and many ships were sunk and their crew went missing, never to be found again.”

This alarmed Erza, causing her to raise both of her eyes in alarm and say, “That sounds… dangerous.”

He had expected her to feel curious about his world, and instead saw a look of utter contempt from her. Feeling a sense of shock, he realised that his plan to impress her backfired and now, she was giving him a look that clearly suggested that she thought he was weird or something strange.

The one to find interest in his story was the masked woman with the name Raze, who asked in polite curiosity, “That’s interesting; dangerous monsters and all. But, I am confused about why you would need the Teleportation Zones. Isn’t your world’s magicians or adventurers capable of long distance travel? I imagined mages were capable of such feat.”

Lakshman was a little taken aback that the person curious about his world was not the person he was aiming towards. Still, he decided to reply to her question in regards to the damage that his world suffered due to the many destructive wars and the ensuing chaos that robbed much of their precious land. Hearing of that detail, Raze could only express her sorrow at the sad state that their world was in.

“It’s fine. We get accustomed to living in it since that’s our way of living,” replied Lakshman with a sad smile on his face.

For some reason, Lakshman sensed that the masked girl was giving him a look of sympathy. It was so unexpected, he blinked and looked quite surprised in her direction, and she continued to silently look at him.

Several minutes later, the group of vehicles tore away from the main traffic line and descended towards the road down below. A few seconds later, the cars gently hovered down and slowly moved a few meters forward before coming to a stop outside a pair of large gates leading into a really large area that was the Hero Academy. The streets were filled with many students wearing the Hero Academy’s uniform as the two princes, a princess, a masked girl, and the Nine Heroes of Legends got out of the cars.

The first thing that Vikram said upon catching sight of the Hero Academy was, “Wow,” and he stared at it in awe.

He was not the only one, as Fred, Ward, Martin, Maxwell and William stared at the Hero Academy with similar expressions. Lakshman was also equally surprised like them because the whole area of the academy was huge. In front of them was a garden leading to the centre building, where the path separated into left and right.

“Are you kidding me? The Hero Academy is massive!” William exclaimed in utter disbelief.

“Surprised, aren’t you? This is just one of the many branches all around the world and they are all built in similar sizes and fashion,” explained Erza brightly to the heroes, who were stunned at the amazing sight.

“Seriously?! There are many of these all around the world?!” William exclaimed in disbelief, turning to give her a look of wild shock.

“It’s only to be expected upon seeing this amazing sight on your first time,” said Santa with a grin on his face.

“We’d need this space to compensate for the buildings, training grounds, and field activities,” stated Bolten with a small smile on his face.

At the appearance of such a grand party, everyone on the street froze and turned their attention towards them. Then, a loud cheer exploded around them in cheering for the princes and the princess. In their turn, the three siblings turned around and waved at them easily while smiling genially at them.

After waving for a few seconds, the first prince faced the front and said, “Alright. The heroes need to visit the principal’s office to collect their things and be assigned to classrooms.”

“Yeah. Let’s go!” The second price said firmly, choosing to follow after his older brother.

The princess followed after the second prince, and the rest of the group followed behind her. Lakshman stood his ground and looked at the grandeur sight of the academy before clenching his fists firmly with determination.

“Here’s where it begins,” he muttered to himself before being nudged by Raze from behind and they followed after the rest of the group through gates and into the academy grounds.