«Aizen»

«Earlier that day»

“Time to go,” Gerard firmly stated. Ari and I got up and said goodbye to Kuro. We left the mansion, I grabbed Ari’s hand along with Cecil, who also wanted to hold my hand. In the end, I held both of their hands, I kind of felt like Kuro somewhat. Gerard seemed to have stayed in the mansion for some reason. Well, I have Cecil here, so I guess I don’t have to worry about the potential troubles Gerard had warned me about.

“So, the academy is starting?” I asked as I looked at the dark blue sky.

“... Yea…” Cecil did not seem to be looking forward to it.

“Why am I coming along? Wouldn’t it be better if I went with Yami?” Ari asked with doubt, however, I just silently waved my finger side to side.

“K-Yami will be busy today and probably won’t be able to take care of you Ari, besides, you probably won’t get a lot of enjoyment from her rock monologues,” I firmly stated.

The girls tilted their heads. “Rock monologues?” I just nodded.

“Yeah, she has a thing for metals if you girls haven’t realized already.” I scratched the back of my head. It was truly weird, Kuro hasn’t really been the same since I met her, something changed. Well, a lot has changed, but something is oddly different, she is not the same rock fanatic I used to know. It’s weird. Well, I don’t dislike her, and she accepted me when I needed her the most. There is no use worrying about it; people change after all.

I continued walking without thinking too much about it. Even though we went out early a lot of children started coming out of their houses accompanied by butlers. A few seemed rather embarrassed and some ordered the butler around. I saw one ask to be carried, I couldn’t help but think it was silly. If you wanted to be carried around it’s better to bring four butlers and make them all carry you as if you were the top of the world, just a thought. Otherwise, it looks like you did not commit. Pitiful.

A few of the kids sent curious gazes at me and Ari, Cecil as well. A lot of them used the sailor uniform thing. It was okay, a few of them used their tailored clothes of extravagant colors, but that did not stop them from watching what I was wearing and seem confused. I was wearing the same thing as always, but it seemed that coats were somewhat unusual, well honestly. It’s a good coat, although, I never get cold nor hot, it was comfortable.

We eventually arrived at the academy which wasn’t as much as en eyesore due to the lack of light. It was nice, I also noticed the fountain was missing and it was replaced with flat ground instead. The mini-plaza of the academy became like an event thing; a platform that was erected with a somewhat tall stand. I saw some kids stop by and curiously watch, we were no exception. I curiously looked at the stage that was made with some sort of condensed earth magic, although it wasn’t an ugly brown it was just as white as the floor.

I absentmindedly watched, Cecil seemed to understand what was happening and quietly told us what it was about. It was for an announcement of sorts. The place started to be filled with random kids; the ones that noticed me looked at my hair before looking away. It was getting me annoyed, however, my annoyance did not last long as the director showed up. It was the old man. As soon as the other kids saw him, some of their gazes were filled with shock; awe; respect ⁠— among others. Meanwhile, I looked at him with an annoyed expression. He matched my gaze and smiled. Damned old man.

He activated a simple wind spell and began talking. “Welcome, new young mages!” Everyone seemed in shock due to being able to hear his voice, even though it’s just simple wind magic. 'I wonder how would they react if they saw something more advanced? Hmm...' The old man continued as I thought.

“I, the Grand Mage Lynn, have come to wish you all good luck through your path of wizardry, a few of you might know me already from the entrance test. Some of you are very promising, some of you aren’t. However, don’t be discouraged! Magic is for everyone, no matter their talent, origins, beliefs. As long as there is a heart and a soul, there will be magic!” I frowned from his lame speech, however, other people did not think it was lame and cheered for him. Then he turned into a shadow and melted into the ground. Some people looked shocked.

[You have been assigned class 301 ⁠— A class for new and aspiring mages.]

I was taken aback by the random message that resonated in my head, it was kind of like telepathy if I had to think about something. I had never experienced it, although Kuro did talk about something like that when trying to explain how she communicated with people, although it was in the old world. As I reminisced old memories, I noticed a lot of people had weird reactions so it was probably some type of magic I did not recognize, this was what I wanted to see. Something new that I had not seen before, perhaps this was the right place? Well, whatever.

“We all got class 301 I assume right?” I asked the girls. Cecil nodded, Ari was hesitant.

“I am… 302…” she said reluctantly.

“Hmm…” I pondered for a second and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, you are class 301 now. What can the old man do anyways,” I said with confidence, Ari cheerfully nodded, Cecil, did not seem to agree about the uselessness of the old man. But that wasn’t my problem.

Stolen novel; please report.

With the guidance of Cecil, we got to class 301, which was on the top floor. I noticed something rather peculiar about the building. It had a strange and totally useless layout as well as no elevator. It was basically a six-floor building that worked as a three-floor building. Students only had access to three floors and the other three were for teachers. So basically, a classroom occupied two entire floors, but teachers would access through the bottom. I did not understand, was it to look cool or something?

I continued following Cecil to the third floor. She looked at one of the doors and pointed to it. I just nodded, Ari did the same. We entered the desolate classroom and I decided to sit on the front row next to the window. I wanted to be able to look outside in case the thing got boring. It was new mage stuff after-all. I did not really hope to learn much, worst case scenario I can just bother the old man about the telepathy magic thing, which was the only thing that piqued any interest.

I noticed well-dressed kids started entering the classroom, some looked as young as Cecil, some looked as old as Kuro. The age was varied, there were more males than females for some reason. I thought about it and the only conclusion I could think about was ⁠— magic is geared towards combat and whatnot. So it was probably more appealing to males, it was something like a primal instinct. Well, I did not understand humans completely, all I could compare them to were dragons. And female dragons were…

‘No nevermind, those were crazy.’ I snorted over the thought of a female dragon. ‘They were truly scary. Although the gender rule did apply; male dragons did prefer fighting. I should probably stop thinking about it before I confuse myself.’ I hurriedly nodded before I remembered the nightmares I went through.

As the classroom was getting filled, some kids noted our presence. No one really seemed familiar with each other, but they quickly divided into groups that seemed to follow some sort of hierarchy, I could not be bothered to pay attention to the aforementioned hierarchy. I was looking outside the window as I heard footsteps and then they came to a stop.

“Hey…” I heard a child voice close to me, causing me to look towards the source. It was a boy that was maybe around my age appearance-wise, with well-kept blonde hair and blue eyes. He seemed to have a refined attire; not wearing the sailor uniform. As well as just general cleanliness. I looked at him without much interest. I didn't even know why he talked to me, was it an unconscious behaviour to speak to me because of my odd hair color?

He seemed to be waiting for something as I saw him frown.

“Are you not going to say anything?”

“No?” I tilted my head.

“Sigh. I am Sam Toule, as you can guess. I am from the Toule family, pleased to make your acquaintance.” He was polite, but eh.

“I see.” I did not really care.

“Are you always like this?” he asked in annoyance. “You should be a lot more respectful you know, I am pretty lenient compared to the other nobles. Getting in bad relations with one could mean life or death you know?” He dropped the facade as he informed me with a bit of trouble. I looked at him dead in the eye.

“I don’t care, noble or whatever,” I said without interest.

He froze for a second before snapping. “Suit yourself!” He left in annoyance.

Some people looked at me with interest and others with hate. It seemed I had gained a few enemies already.

“That was the Toule family! One of the highest-ranked families…” Cecil informed me with a bit of despair. Well, what power do they have? Political and wealth? I could probably get a nice position in this kingdom through despair and fear anyway, what was the point.

I felt a lot of varied gazes still pierced on my back; I shrugged and looked back at the window. It was looking at the forest and the mountains. The view was okay, at least good enough to keep me entertained. However, the view that the old man had in his office was so much better. Can I have his office instead?

As I questioned the ‘teacher door’ opened; as Cecil called it. I pierced my eyes on it, and my heart started beating faster, I was getting excited. It was the elf! I felt a rush of happiness, maybe it wasn’t all that bad. It was the elf after all.

He groggily walked into his desk and sat down, quickly glancing over the classroom. Then he pulled a pestle and mortar, he started grinding plants. I heard elves had a thing for plants, but I did not expect him to do that. As I quietly watched him with interest a kid raised his hand. It was the Toule guy. The elf looked at him and frowned.

“What do you want kid?”

“Aren’t you going to teach us something? I mean you are the teacher and all…” His voice lost strength as the elf glared at him with annoyance. The elf stood up and slammed the desk.

“RIGHT! Right… I am a teacher. Very well! We will be seeing dispelling of spells! Since you are all supposed to have mana control I assume there is no problem” He sent an inquisitive gaze at Cecil. “It begins now!”

Suddenly a shroud of darkness covered my vision and sent me to a flowery field, it was illusion magic. However, it dispelled without me trying to do anything. I saw a message on my vision.

[Resisted abnormal status effect.] I couldn't help but tilt my head, I had never seen something like the text floating in my vision before, or rather, the 'resisted' part. I would've resisted it anyway, but there was nothing that notified me when resisting it per-say. It was confusing, to say the least.

The elf grumbled and went back to his plants. Ari’s breathing quickened but she snapped and looked back at me. Then she hugged me with teary eyes.

“Ari are you okay?”

“... Don’t ever leave me… please…” She said as she whimpered on my shoulder.

I caressed Ari’s hair with warm eyes and whispered to her.

“Don’t be silly, I am the one that should be asking that…”

I kept hugging her as I thought about what had just happened. I was annoyed, but I had to remember what just happened. Looking around, everyone seemed to be quietly suffering, or at least from what I could tell from looking at their faces. I recalled the 'abnormal' thing, and the only thing I could quality as abnormal status would be a darkness spell, well, if it was a darkness spell, then it would be better to not dispel it.

If my memory serves right; darkness spells don't leave any effects on their victims if it dispells on its own, if it's dispelled manually then it's another story. Or that was the best thing I could think of. I was in quite a predicament, Cecil was sweating but I think it would have been better if she forgot about it. I did not dispel her status effect.

I put Ari down even though she wanted to keep sticking to me. I looked at the elf, he went too far too fast. He had to be put down on his place, as I looked at him he noticed I was standing up and rejoiced.

“Oh, looks like we have promising individuals!”

“Shut up, you stupid herbalist.” I was glaring daggers at him. He flinched, well all the classroom was out-cold. The amount of bloodlust used did not matter.

“Tch… I recognize you girl, or whatever you are. You are respectable. Unfortunately for you, I am also Grand Mage!” He informed me expecting me to back up.

“Is that so?” I paused as reconsidering it. “I don’t care.”