Random student's POV:
"Hey! Did you hear? Apparently the first years are supposed to be pretty powerful this semester. I heard one girl finished the marble test in under a minute, they say she even blew a hole in the western courtyard!" One of my fellow classmates excitedly exclaims. The first day of school had hardly even started and it was already the third time I'd heard the first years brought up.
Another of my classmates continues on, "That's not all though, there was apparently two silver haired twins amongst the first years as well. They say they're the twins that were adopted by the Emperor! I wonder what their personalities are like.. I heard they both tied for second in the test."
"Truly this year seems like it's shaping up to be an exciting one for our Academy. A Prince and Princess, as well as scions from all 6 high noble houses attending in the same year. I wonder just what the future will have in store with all this power gathered in one place?" I smile to my classmates. I'd actually gone to look at the western courtyard and seen the perfectly spherical hole where the ground had been seemingly vaporized and was still glowing red-hot, I wondered just what type of person could cause such a thing to happen?
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I along with the other first year students who'd managed to get into Class A were following Miss Alysia across the campus where we'd apparently be given our school uniforms.
"Oh my gosh, I can't believe I get to be in the same class as you! When I saw how fast you completed the test, and then how fast that pair of twins did as well, I began to worry my magic wouldn't be strong enough to get me placed in Class A." The girl who'd summoned an ice elemental during the test was currently bouncing up and down next to me excitedly, her curled twin platinum blonde pigtails following suit while she stared up at me with her big bright icy blue eyes. "My name is Ella Kren, and I really hope that you and I can become friends!" She says skipping in front of me before stopping and extending her hand out for me to shake, her freckled face breaking out into a dazzling smile.
"Holy shit, it's a real life loli. This girl looks like she could've been ripped straight out of some anime, how adorable!! Her overwhelming cuteness makes me wanna squeeze her.." Confronted with such pure cuteness my self control was rapidly diminishing, a devilish smirk appearing on my face, "You can be my friend... if you let me hug you!"
The predatory glint in my eyes seems to cause her some brief internal struggle, the smile on her face faltering for a moment. "O-Ok, you can hug me if you really waaNNTT~" I immediately pounced on the poor defenseless girl before she even finished her sentence, gathering her up into my arms and squeezing her petite form against me. "AHH P-PLEASE PUT ME DOWNNNNnnn~!!!"
Finally with my probably questionalbe desires to cuddle all things cute satiated, and long after her struggles to escape had ceased, I released Ella from my grasp. "Ahh definitely a life changing experience, I feel like I'm overflowing with energy and power," I'd have to keep this girl by my side until further notice, lest such a wonderful being was claimed by another.
"U-um.. so now that you got your hug," she seems quite embarassed for a moment before carrying on, "a-and since we're in the same class, we can be friends right? I really wanted to talk to you ever since the test and ask if you could maybe give me some advice about magic since you're so powerful." Her demeanor once again became as bright and cheerful as before, truly this girl was to be protected at all costs.
"Wo~oww, never thought I'd see the day that a high and mighty Kren begged someone for help, I guess you don't share the same cold-hearted icy demeanor as the rest of your siblings? You were even so eager to offer up your body, where's your sense of shame Ella Kren?" The red headed boy from the test, who's magic had reminded me of a welding tool spoke up, chastising Ella with a sneer, "How one of the 6 high noble houses has someone like you in them is beyond me." He then turns to me, although strangely his demeanor seems much more respectful now, "And you, I know it isn't my place as one of the Ashor family to judge you or speak out on your actions but I think your behavior just now sets a poor impression of how a noble should act. Those of more common standing may start to get the wrong idea if you continue with your loose way of interacting with those below your station."
Who was this twat and what was he talking about?? And something about the way he said the word 'loose' left me feeling like my chastity had been called into question. "Uhhh, alrightyyy then. I'll keep what you've said in mind, but I'm going to have to ask you to cease bullying my new friend, whoever you are." I say while giving the red headed boy my sternest stare, relishing as his face tenses up and he flinches a little. I wasn't sure why this boy seemed to defer to me but I planned to make use of it for Ella's sake, I wouldn't stand by while my newfound friends were insulted. I reach over and pat her head to show that she has my support, the action sends her adorable little pigtails bouncing.
"Ah.. right, forgive me for not introducing myself. I am Treyvor of house Ashor, although my bloodline is not of the main house I was adopted in at a young age due to my high affinity for fire," He gives me a slight bow as he completes his introduction. Treyvor stands significantly taller than Ella, and his spiky red hair makes him even a bit taller still, somewhere around 170cm in total, quite tall for a 15 year old, myself maybe being around 160cm in height while little Ella stood at barely 120cm. Judging by his dark skin, I surmised his birth parents likely originated from amongst the southern portions of the empire, I'd heard that darker skin was common in those regions from my parents. "And while I hardly think that advising those of lower social standing than oneself qualifies as bullying, seeing as you have taken her under your wing I shall abstain from such actions in the future Miss Illionan."
I couldn't help but feel as if I was missing something as he continued treating me like I was his superior, "Wait a second, how does he even know my last name?" As I had yet to introduce myself to any of my classmates yet, something about this whole situation seemed off to me. I bent down to whisper to Ella who was standing next to me, "Why is he treating me like that?" Maybe everyone had already been informed that I was to be the class representative and that's why he knew my name and was acting that way? "But that still wouldn't really explain why he mentioned his family..." These were things I'd have to continue to think about, the wholse situation really beginning to make me lament the more adventurer focused education I'd received from my parents. "I wonder if this is what it feels like for the people I'd show certain anime to when they weren't familiar with anime or japanese culture? Where the humor and tropes only made sense if you had some pre-existing knowledge or experience with them otherwise they'd just go right over your head... Or like anytime I'd try to show a meme to an old person and they'd just sit there holding the phone at arms length asking things like: 'Do you know this person? Did you make this? What does this mean?' and so on."
Thankfully Ella brought me back to reality and away from those cursed memories of attempting to explain years of internet humor to the elderly, "It's because your family technically ranks above the Ashor family in power and influence amongst the high noble houses, just as the Ashor family ranks above my Kren family." She then continues on conspirationally, "Treyvor is what I like to call a 'Pecksniffian'. Unfortunately there's quite a lot of them amongst the high nobles."
"A fucking what now?" The insult sounded so jarringly English that I half expected to look around my classmates and suddenly see a useless boy with a suspicious scar on his forehead being followed around by an awkward ginger and a know-it-all girl who was explaining how to pronounce her name. Thankfully nothing of the sort happened, "Let this be a NO 'chosen one' world, thank you very much."
"Ah of course.. a 'Pecksniffian', I'm definitely familiar with their sort." I inwardly cursed my parents for sending me here so unprepared, even my comprehension of the language we were speaking was lacking now, "So Ella, remind me of the current rankings of the 6 families please? Growing up, my parents and I never stopped in the capital so I fear my knowledge may be a little dated." Hopefully I managed to phrase the question in such a way as to gloss over my extreme levels of ignorance.
"But the rankings of the families have been the same for centuries-" she answers while smiling back at me, oblivious to my internal despair over my complete lack of knowledge on these topics, "-the only thing that's changed since we've been alive was the adoption of the Prince and Princess who're attending the Academy this year. Although I'm sure you already figured out who they were during the marble test. What's amazing is that you managed to beat them! You were really amazing during the test, I really can't help but to look up to you!"
I could practically see the stars dancing in the eyes of the little angel next to me, her adoration and overwhelming blind faith in me were near blinding to behold. "I must never let this girl down!" I internally vowed to myself, clenching my fists as I held back the tears in my eyes. "Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself. My name is Syllara but you can call me Syl since we're friends now," I give her a wink, holding back an internal squeal as she blushes and looks away from me. "Seriously how can anyone be this cute??"
"U-um thank you.. Syl," she says in reply, calling my name so quietly I can barely even hear her.
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Ella Kren's POV:
"Kyaa~ I can't believe I actually did that, and that she actually let me." I had to put my hands to my face while I was looking down in order to hide my blush. Even now I feel her hand pat my head affectionately. Nobles rarely used nicknames, typically doing so only between close family or lovers, so the fact that the beautiful and powerful girl who managed to outdo even the Prince and Princess with her magic had given me permission to shorten her name left my heart racing and my face hot. "But we're both girls, and we've only just met, how does she have the confidence to be so forward?" I wasn't sure I was ready to jump into any sort of relationship, I'd never been in this type of situation before and honestly I'd already gotten rather carried away as it was. Us both being women wasn't really a problem as the Empire didn't exactly frown upon such things, but it was considered as part of a nobles duty to continue to build the strengh of their families, so in the case of same-sex marriages, adoption of talented children was highly encouraged. But what was I even doing having such detailed thoughts about it already??
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As we made our way to our destination and split off from the boys to go receive our school uniforms I wondered why Syllara had been sent to attend the Academy. It's common knowledge that both the Elyir and Illionan noble houses preferred to educate their scions themselves. In the case of the Elyir this made sense as they tended to be incredibly powerful Light mages with strong healing magic. The extremely competitive nature of the Academy obviously wasn't very well balanced towards those with such high healing abilities and low offensive potential, typically the only healers at the academy were those who'd been employed in order to allow for more serious competitions to take place between the students. The Illionan's however were a bit different, although they were undoubtedly ranked first in terms of pure power amongst the 6 noble houses, they ended up considered as being the second ranked overall. This was due to the fact that they tended to not directly involve themselves in the affairs of the Empire, the fact that they weren't considered as being even lower in spite of this, spoke volumes of their magical prowess. "So what could've made that aloof house decide to send such a powerful scion of theirs to the Alterron Royal Academy?"
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Y'know I always hated the idea of school uniforms back on earth, I always found them ugly and I certainly never felt any pride at being apart of my school while wearing them. Looking at myself in the mirror now though, I couldn't help but have a slight change of mind, the uniforms appeared quite stylish in all honesty, and even more importantly it was comfortable and didn't impede my movements. The uniform was like some sort of fitted long-sleeve dress shirt that transitioned into a flowing skirt at the bottom, the shoulders and upper portion of which was a smooth dark grey, and then turned into a shimmering silver color as it went further down, with a black pair of calf-high socks and slip on shoes completing the outfit. On my both of my shoulders sat the symbol for Class A, a silver hand on which a black colored flower rested, the flower was similar to a lotus but the ends of the petals split into two points. "Damn, if I wasn't underage I might just say some inappropriate things about myself right about now," I twirled in front of the mirror admiring how well the uniform fit with my appearance. My obsidian purplish-black hair was about shoulder length and slightly wavy, a couple strands loosely hanging in front of and to one side of my face while the rest fell slightly messily down around my head and slightly onto my shoulders, the dark color and my luminous violet eyes made me look a bit emo if I was being honest with myself. "So in other words it's no different than the first time I went to high school," I snickered to myself at that thought, "If nothing else, I think after two lifetimes it definitely can't be called 'a phase' anymore." I had a fair complexion, my skin pale just like my mother's, and thankfully I'd been spared from the curse of acne in this life, "I remember father saying something about how a higher mana stat would keep people healthier, I wonder if that's why my skin has never developed any blemishes?"
With my outfit change now complete, and having already been told that I could leave my previous dress behind for now, I made my way back out of the building where the girls had been sent to change and over to where Miss Alysia was waiting for us. I took a moment to glance at the uniforms of the boys, which were unsurprisingly a bit different those which the female students were given. The sleeves didn't flair out at the ends, and the uniform was cut shorter as well, giving the appearance of a tuxedo at the bottom as opposed to a dress; a black pair of slacks and shoes completed their uniforms. The appearance was almost militaristic, but still managed to seem fairly stylish all-in-all, "The anime vibes are definitely getting stronger though, if people start spontaneously getting absurd power-ups right before being defeated or any would-be villains launch into random monologues instead of finishing someone off then I'm tapping out."
"Alright class, now that you all finally look like proper students of the Academy I'll let you know how things are going to work from now on. As I'm sure you all know, the Alterron Royal Academy is an extremely competitive school, we believe in providing consistent goals for student's to strive to achieve as well as obstacles to overcome and surpass. As student's of class A, for many other students you will likely become one of these obstacles; so I hope none of you turn complacent or overly arrogant," Teacher Alysia pauses briefly so that her words can sink in, "Our class will be continuously challenged, likely more than any of the other classes combined, so you cannot afford to slack off in your pursuit of strength. Even a majestic Gryphon could be harried to death by Wolves."
I take a moment to look around amongst the faces of my classmates, and I can see the pride and resolve building within the majority of them, "Well Treyvor looked plenty prideful before, but now he looks more 'resolute' if I had to put a word to it." Still, a couple do seem lost in their own worlds, the silver-haired twins a prime example of this "I think those two are the Prince and Princess, I guess they must be quite confident in their abilities. They did come in second during the test earlier, so I'm not too surprised. Still, aren't they a bit too vacant looking? As if none of this concerns them at all." Other than them I noticed the overly muscled boy from the test, seemingly trying to flex hard enough to rip his uniform and though the buttons across his chest appeared strained, thankfully they held. Last was Ella, it seemed like she was more focused on me than the teacher for some reason, her eyes widening as they briefly met my own, "Maybe she needs something from me?" I'd make sure to talk to her once Alysia was done speaking.
"-and so, for the first week of each month we will be holding regular classes, like those you'd expect from most other schools. These will focus on expanding upon your more mundane education, as well as providing you with the generalized knowledge of how our Empire works. Since most of you already come from the high noble houses, I expect that many of you will feel this week of the month to be redundant; if you truly think you have nothing to gain from these classes then you may opt to take a test that will cover the entire weeks' lessons. If you pass this test then you will be excused from showing up for the remainder of that week." Alysia carried on, ignoring several raised hands at the beginning of her explanation, all of which were lowered by the time she finished.
She must have already anticipated that at least several student's were going to ask whether or not there was any way to test out of the first week's classes each month. I was thankful that these classes would be a thing though, as it should serve to provide me with a lot of the knowledge that many of my new peers seemed to take for granted. "Here's to hoping I learn fast enough to avoid embarassing myself too badly," Although my sense of shame had long since dwindled to nearly nothing from my previous life, if possible I still wanted to avoid unnecessary sources of embarassment.
"For the second week of each month, you will be instructed on various magic and expected to practice it to some degree of proficiency." Her eye's momentarily singled me out, and I couldn't tell if it was meant as a warning of sorts or if she was pleading with me to not cause any problems, before she continued on, "For the third week of the month, you will be given the oppurtunity to challenge, or be challenged by other student's where you will then engage in one-on-one duels-" She looks my way again, and this time her eye's are definitely pleading, "-you will also be expected to train your body if you aren't dueling with other student's."
Was she implying that I shouldn't try to duel anyone else and should just exercise instead? "That hardly seems fair! Cause one little explosion and I've already gotten a reputation-" I huff indignantly, "-it's not my fault magic isn't my friend. If I were to personify magic then it'd be more like some cat; it looks all cute and cuddly and inviting, but when you go to pet it, its vicious nature is revealed and it tries to attack you instead."
"And finally for the fourth week of each month, you will be lead by our Class Representative to engage in team battles against other Classes. Occasionally we will also be taking short excursions beyond the academy in this final week of the month as well." Alysia paused then, clearly waiting for someone to ask the obvious question.
A skinny boy with bright golden eyes and brown hair who was standing next to Treyvor raised his hand before speaking with a strangely soothing voice, "Who is to be our Class Representative Miss Alysia?" Everyone clearly wondering the same thing, they all focused intently on our teacher, awaiting her response..
Miss Alysia looked briefly torn between a chaotic desire to hurriedly announce my name as the Class Representative and relish in whatever chaos would eventually ensue from her decision, and a desire to pick literally anyone else for the job. Eventually, her deep navy blue eyes seeming to glow for a moment; she spoke, setting Class A on an irreversible course for the future and sealing all our fates as well as her own with solemn finality, "The one who came first in the marble placement test will be the Representative of Class A, Miss Syllara Illionan."
"Yay, Syllara!! I just know you're going to do an amazing job!" Ella excitedly cheers me on, the melancholy atmosphere emitting from the majority of our class as they were all remembering who I was from the test at the start of the day seemingly having no affect on her.
I do my best to smile confidently and not look like someone on their way to the gallows before replying to the angelic girl, "Thanks for the support Elly, it means a lot. I'll certainly do my best to carry our class to victory, no matter the odds. So I hope we can all get along." The sweet girl blushes, stuttering out something about "nicknames" and "too soon" but I'm more focused on the rest of my classmates, it seems my simple statement had a surprisingly positive effect on more of them than I would've guessed. Many of them met my gaze with a brief nod or a friendly smile. Even Treyvor looks pleased at my declaration, probably thinking something about how my attitude was finally befitting that of a noble. I still hadn't thought much about that little bit of information, "Was I really a noble? And not just from any noble family, but from one of the 6 high noble families? I know dad took mom's last name when they married so it must be her family that're the nobles if it really is true. But why hadn't they told me? Being from one of the high noble houses seemed like a pretty big thing to just ignore... Had they been trying to keep me out of family politics or something by not telling me?" Unfortunately, there was just too much that I didn't know yet.
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Alysia Caireen's POV:
As I dismissed my new students for the day and they made their way to the dorms they'd be staying in, I couldn't help but wonder once again, "Why me?" I was neither the most qualified, nor the most powerful teacher at the Academy and yet I'd been tasked with teaching Class A. Initially I considered this a rather surprising but still welcome promotion, but here I was, less than a full day into the semester and already feeling like I'd been played for a fool by the rest of the teachers. "Damn them, they surely knew! I must have just been the only one foolish enough to not turn down the offer. I bet the dean himself had managed to see that it would turn out this way with his magic before the students even arrived," I sighed, knowing that if that were truly the case it was definitely too late for me now, but I wasn't one to just take it lying down. I'd find a way to pay them back before the end of the year, "We Caireen's may be ranked 6th amongst the high noble families; but our element is water, and like water we will flow to adapt and overcome even the toughest of obstacles."
Still though, how had one class wound up having members of all 6 houses, as well as the only Prince and Princess adopted into the royal family in half a millennium? If I were religious, I'd have sworn the gods were up to something. The Illionan girl was the most worrying by far though, I'd seen her stats, we all had; as well as the royal ban on using magic she'd been placed under since the age of 2. We had been given permission to allow the girl to practice magic so long as she was under direct supervision and had direct instruction to do so; in fact we'd been encouraged to do so in order to try and determine what her mystery affinity was, but after one single test I wasn't sure that was such a good idea anymore. The problem was that it just didn't add up, even with the 379.9% bonus to her magic, as well as her absurd 999 mana stat; the amount of power she managed to generate was abnormal. There were plenty of powerful mages with stats and affinities that granted them well over even a 500% bonus to their magic, I was one of them after all, but without the use of an actual spell I wasn't certain I could recreate what she'd done.
"I'm sure she can't cause that much trouble, she's just one teenage girl."