Chapter 025:
“Isn’t this a bit much?” Alexander asked with some annoyance in his voice.
This morning, he was quite rudely awoken from his sleep by Ed and his retainers who, assisted by Carson and his own set of shady goons, dragged him out of his room by force.
As such, he was now standing in a lavish auditorium along with the other hundred or so students who passed the entrance exam.
The auditorium they were currently in was large enough to comfortably contain all the students; a distance away from them, a stage could be seen.
Alexander could see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd.
Besides Clive and Erika, the beauty he spoke with yesterday, Miranda, was among the students, chatting with her friends.
‘Little hero is here too,’ He thought, sensing a familiar gaze.
Lastly, Alexander spotted Rus who stood alone in the corner, fidgeting nervously.
‘I wonder how the two heroes will react, seeing each other,’ While Alexander was busy having such thoughts, a figure appeared on stage.
The man was plump in appearance and he looked like a total pushover. At least that was what Alexander thought.
“Greetings students,” His voice, despite being low and calm, spread to every student clearly.
Immediately, the rowdy crowd settled into their seats as they patiently listened to what fatso had to say.
“First, allow me to introduce myself, I am Professor Ike, and I will be one of the professors teaching you this year,” He said with a smile as he measured the students’ reactions, “Now then, I wish to properly congratulate you…”
Alexander was listening to the welcome speech haphazardly when he noticed something odd.
He lifted his head slightly, allowing him to notice the various balconies hanging off the walls.
He focused on a certain balcony high above the students; there he could feel a familiar gaze on him.
‘It’s the king…’ He thought with narrowed eyes. He recalled how the king was the only person to notice Alexander’s change in demeanor.
‘Shouldn’t a king be preoccupied with more pressing matters? Is he that free so as to attend an opening ceremony?’ Alexander thought, ‘Well, come to think of it since this matter also concerns the Graveclaws kingdom…’
“Tch. What a bothersome old man,” He muttered carelessly, but he was then surprised to feel an elbow sharply poke his side.
Looking toward Grim, the perpetrator, he was about to demand an explanation when something else caught his attention.
‘Why is everyone looking at me?’ He thought to himself as he studied the expressions of the students around him, some were shocked, while others were smiling with malice, most however simply seemed amused.
“What did you say, young man?” It was during this confusion that the teacher, Ike, spoke out.
Seeing the annoyed look on the pudgy man’s face, and catching some whispers from the surrounding kids, Alexander began putting the pieces together.
It seemed at one point during his speech, Professor Ike had posed a question to the students and had been waiting for someone to speak when Alexander casually slandered the king.
‘I wonder if he heard what I said…’ He thought, but as he spotted the bulging vein on the man’s forehead, he understood.
“I- uh….” He attempted an answer but the more he thought about it, the worse it got. ‘I could tell the truth but then I’d probably be executed publicly for besmirching the crown. I could say that I was talking about someone else, but I doubt he’d believe that…’
“...” Professor Ike was patiently awaiting an answer.
“Uh…nothing,” Alexander finally said after much deliberation. He clicked his tongue, frustrated with himself.
………………………………………………..
Prince Clive’s Point of View:
“I wonder what our teachers will be like,” Erika said, her face brimming with excitement.
“I heard that some of them are actually second-grade magicians! I wonder who they are?” One of her friends, a young girl from Graveclaws, replied back with equal amounts of anticipation.
Clive stood to the side with a pleasant smile on his face as he watched the two interact.
“It’s nice that your sister and Erika get along so well,” One of the Graveclaws boys sitting next to Clive muttered with a smile.
“Mmmm,” Clive hummed back in agreement.
After a couple of moments, Clive shifted his gaze over to the balconies above the students, in particular the one with a familiar presence in it; his father, the king of Graveclaws.
'Father…' he thought, squeezing his fists so tight he could have drawn blood. His expression was complicated.
In the background, he could hear Professor Ike pose a question.
A brief silence overcame the students as everyone hesitated to answer for fear of looking stupid.
Clive's gaze flashed over the students being asked with passing interest, but before he knew it, his eyes widened in surprise.
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"...tch, what a bothersome old man," a low, muffled voice, as if someone spoke under their breath remarked. Unfortunately, the words rang out clearly thanks to professor Ike's magic.
"Hey isn’t that…" Erika started after she noticed who it was.
"It’s Timothy," Clive continued, his eyes growing notably sharper. At the same time, there was a bit of apprehension mixed in; the memory of Timothy smashing his fist against the vice Captain-Commander's helmet left him with a deep impression:
'This person is unhinged,'
After enough time for the students to process what Timothy had just said passed, everyone tensed up and Clive felt his mind spin in shock 'This...this,' he couldn't even think properly.
Erika, who had made her way to his side, was in a similar state of shock and she gripped Clive's hand.
Looking into her eyes, he could see the worry and concern she had for the lunatic.
It wasn't just them, everyone reacted similarly in shock and soon, all the students gathered looked toward one spot.
"What did you say, young man," Professor Ike demanded.
Every other student gulped when they felt the clear anger in his voice.
Refocusing on the problem child, they waited to hear what he had to say.
"I-uh…." Timothy muttered haphazardly.
'He's trying to find an excuse!' Clive screamed in his mind and by his side, Erika was nearly in tears from secondhand embarrassment.
"Uh...nothing," Finally, Timothy seemed to give up, looking annoyed.
‘At least look like you regret it!’ Clive countered in his head.
“Tch.”
‘He even clicked his tongue like a common thug!’
He wanted to scream with exasperation. Not only did Timothy fail to think of an excuse, he even sported an annoyed expression as if wondering why the professor even bothered to pester him.
‘This crazy bastard!’ Clive once again renewed his resolve to not get tangled up with Timothy.
………………………………………………..
After some brief but tense moments passed, Professor Ike finally gave in decided to be the bigger man, and let the matter go but not before noting Timothy Baek’s existence.
He then went on to continue with the opening ceremony and elaborated on the general information all students should be aware of, such as there being multiple classes and that these classes’ distribution will be decided based on performance.
Alexander, who had been listening to the spiel with one ear, finally looked up at the word ‘Performance,’.
‘Looks like things are about to get interesting,’ he thought to himself in excitement. ‘Well, not that it’s any of my business,’
Harboring no thoughts of granduer, Alexander followed the rest of the students as they were now being herded out of the academy’s halls and into one of its main courtyards.
“Holy fucking shit,” One of the students in the crowd exclaimed at the sight before them.
In the spacious open yard, several ships were parked; only parked wasn’t exactly the right word as rather, they hovered a good distance above the ground, silent yet brimming with majesty.
“These ships must be a part of Graveclaw’s grand aerial fleet,” Grim muttered in amazement. Standing beside him, Ed was equally captivated and tongue-tied.
At the helm of the foremost ship, stood the king of Graveclaws and by his side, the king of Iron-wall. The sheer presence of these two titans of their respective homes pressured everyone greatly and the students couldn’t help but quiet down.
In the newfound silence, King Gregory nodded once before speaking, “I am not a man of eloquence, thus I shall speak short. It is my sincerest wish that, through this academy, the neighboring kingdoms of Graveclaws and Iron-Wall will be able to grow closer to one another. It is for this reason that we named the academy as such; dear students, we welcome you to Unity,”
As his final words rang out, the surrounding winds picked up and every floating ship had its sails lifted and their colours hoisted.
Before the students, the four large ships lined up in formation and people could be seen standing on deck. Alexander recognized a particularly troublesome pink-haired female professor among them.
“So those are our professors…” Grim asked no one.
Ed gave an exaggerated whistle before muttering “This sure beats our previous academy’s opening ceremony,”
Alexander looked around; besides them, the Iron-wall kids had amazed expressions on their faces, while those from Graveclaws held their heads up high in pride. Right now, there was no hate nor prejudice, just a shared feeling of awe toward a kingdom’s might.
Alexander looked through Timothy’s memories. It seemed Graveclaws was a kingdom whose citizens were gifted with magic, at least more so than Iron-wall which had more warriors.
While magicians surely existed in this kingdom, it was not to the extent as their existence in Graveclaws, thus it made sense for the latter kingdom to be further along the magical path.
“My fellow king’s sentiments echo my own,” Now it was King Henry who spoke “And it is in the pursuit of such lofty ideals that we molded our curriculum. With that in mind, I wish you all a good year,”
Cheers erupted, with those of Graveclaws being somewhat louder.
Amid the applause, King Gregory nodded once more before opening his mouth to speak, “Now, at the risk of prolonging this speech unnecessarily, I would like to address a certain non-issue. I’m sure that a good portion of you feel it unfair for this academy’s administration to sort students into classes based on their performance in the upcoming games.” At his words, the king of Graveclaw gave his fellow king a meaningful gaze which failed to escape Alexander’s notice.
‘Seems like that troublesome old man is going off script,’ Alexander thought.
“And it is because I understand your dissatisfaction that I ask for your understanding as well. Though the sorting games may place you in rank, it is always possible for students to advance beyond what they were initially labeled as. It is human nature to wish for advancement and thus this system was implemented not as a means to callously rank our youths but rather as a sincere wish to stimulate your desire for improvement!”
With the king’s final words, a wave of explosive voices, united in respect, washed over the students as the various knights standing around the king let loose the words “Long live the king!” With equal parts vigor and zeal.
“Now! Let the sorting games begin!” The final powerful voice, belonging to headmaster Gilbert, spread out.
The whole class burst into cheers!
With a couple of polite coughs, Professor Ike took center stage once more as he explained the rules.
“The first stage of the sorting games is meant to test our students’ agility and adaptability in perilous situations. Of course, we do not intend to place you in actual danger, we merely wish to simulate it, Miss Baxter will go into further elaboration,” With that, Professor Ike moved to the side and allowed another professor, an old woman with a kind smile, to take center stage.
“Thank you, Professor Ike,” The old woman spoke before laughing softly, “The fine magicians of our Graveclaws kingdom were kind enough to prepare a makeshift maze for you, young ones. That being said, worry not for your safety as the maze is pretty straightforward,”
After her words rang out, several robed figures spread out in a formation and each member spread their hands out wide while muttering a chant.
Soon, a rumbling came from below, and before anyone could say anything else, fissures suddenly formed, from which sturdy-looking walls sprouted. The walls grew and grew before finally stopping at the ten-meter mark.
Before the group of excited students, an impressive maze was sprawled out.
“The rules are simple,” Minerva regained their attention, “The goal is to reach the end of the maze, Fighting is allowed to a certain extent but victory will not give you bonus points. You will be monitored so measure your actions well, and finally…have some fun,” The old professor ended with a kind smile.
“Begin!” The headmaster, who had been quiet throughout the explanation, spoke at last.