Stepping off of the plane made the whole situation feel even more unreal. Not only could she still see the mythical creatures dancing in the sky, but she also saw small animals she had never seen before, nor could she identify. Additionally, the giant forest that the pilot called 'Acelana Forest' was even more massive on the ground.

Many of the trees were the size of skyscrapers with the width of at least an elephant or two. She even thought she spotted curious eyes staring at them from its shadows. It was magnificent. She felt like she was living in a fairytale but she was also starting to get worried. 'The sun will set soon,' she thought to herself. They would arrive before nightfall, right?

Someone brought her belongings to her personally, as they did with every passenger there. It was definitely not what she would call 'normal' treatment from an airline. But looking around her, she was reminded that nothing about this was normal. The world had truly and completely changed in a short 4 years' time.

She felt a small tug on her sleeve and looked to see the girl she had spoken to on the plane looking much more nervous than before. "Do you mind if we stick together? My name is Emily. I know we don't know each other except from the plane but maybe we could be friends?"

She was very straight forward and obviously nervous. Caroline wasn't really sure if she was nervous of her or of what awaited them. Truthfully, it could be both.

With a small smile and a kind voice, she gave a nod to Emily, "I'd love that! My name is Caroline."

A condescending laugh interrupted Emily as she was about to speak, "Why on earth are you two acting like grade schoolers over here? Seriously, I bet you both were a part of the rest of those idiots that didn't know anything about Asura or the scholarship program."

A girl with fiery red hair and brown eyes and a fancy dress walked up to them. Her tone immediately made Caroline inwardly roll her eyes but her accent told her she was from Kumia. 'Apparently jerks will never die out.'

In the past four years, there have been countless deaths. Governments crumbled and many power vacuums were left in their wake, leaving humanity to war against themselves and the devils at the same time. Now that the vacuum was filled, humanity focused on the devils. But somehow there were still people that acted like this.

"And… you are? I don't think we asked," Caroline gave the girl a glare.

The girl looked shocked before anger resonated on her face, "You dare! I'm Lady Rosalie Lockridge, daughter of Baron Lockridge of Kumia!"

"Um, ok…" Caroline tried to salvage the situation, "Maybe we got off on the wrong foot…" It's not like she wanted enemies on her first day.

This Rosalie girl seemed to know more about what was going on than they did, so maybe she could get some information out of her. "You said we don't know anything about Asura or the scholarship program, does that mean you do?" Maybe she was a royal or something. At least, that's how she was acting.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

If she really was part of some sort of royal lineage, she was probably used to receiving undeserved respect. 'But why would someone from one of Kumia's royal bloodlines come here?'

The look on Rosalie's face was one of disgust as she turned her nose up and crossed her arms, "Fools, of course I do. I didn't come from the devils' streets like you two clearly did."

She looked away for a second before looking back, "The Cardinal Majesty is the one that started the program. They say the Cardinal does it to help families in need due to the war but as you can see," she gestured to herself, "I'm here too."

A look of confusion passed over both Caroline and Emily's faces before Emily asked, "Wait, the Cardinal Majesty himself? He sponsors us? But wait, wait, wait, why are you here then? If uh, not for money I mean…" She blushed as if embarrassed to say that she was here for money after Rosalie stated she had plenty of it.

Smirking, Rosalie turned around and started walking towards where the others were gathering on a rounded platform, leaving the other two girls to hang on her last words, "I suppose I'm hoping to get a little higher in life than just a Baron's daughter."

Blue and green eyes glanced at each other, but seeing that they were both equally confused, Caroline just shrugged and smiled, "I guess we'll find out. No reason to worry about it, right?"

"Right!"

They took their stuff and gathered at the back of where the other passengers had lined up. Caroline was trying to wrap her head around the fact that the Cardinal Majesty personally sponsored this program.

Rumors about the monstrous leader that no one had ever seen the leader of Asura except for Asurians themselves which included pictures and videos. Apparently his majesty had been at the forefront of the war and managed to make Asura into a Kingdom at the same time.

Everytime she had turned on the news during the war, it was about the Cardinal along with a few other names. Everyone back home was thankful to him because it was rumored that he was the real reason the warring amongst humans stopped so they could fight the devils. Those were the official news reports, but rumors said otherwise.

Everyone outside of Asura had a different opinion of him but they could be divided into two sections. Either the Cardinal was an angel that sought world peace or he was a devil in disguise trying to take over the world. Of course, none of the three major powers ever acknowledged it even after all this time but their silence was enough to tell the public what they needed to know. 'What need does the Cardinal have for this program?' She found herself wondering more and more as to why they were here.

She and Emily had been sticking close together in the crowd while some people casually whispered to each other. Caroline looked over to see that Rosalie was with a few others that she seemingly knew. The red head was even smiling at them!

Pushing her head a little closer to Emily's she whispered, "I guess those people over there must be high society like her or something. She seems to know them."

Emily nodded and giggled quietly, "They all seem kind of snobbish to me!"

The two girls proceeded to giggle to each other as they tried to guess what high society people like them could possibly be talking about. They didn't realize it, but doing so helped them to both calm their nerves.

Finally, the sound of wheels going at a high speed and screeching were heard as a state-of-the-art shuttle train shot out of the forest. It felt like it was coming right at them until it circled around the platform the group was standing on to turn and face the way it had come from before finally coming to a stop.

From the driver's seat, a woman with white hair came out and walked towards them followed closely by a creature that looked like a leopard except that it was dark green with three tails! Plants and flowers were in active bloom on its body, shocking Caroline even after seeing the dragons and phoenixes in the sky. 'Seriously… how much crazier is this going to get?'