Realization

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As his eyes closed, the explosions went off.

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Laughter echoed in his ears,he himself was grinning. "Well done,Commander" Joseph smiled at him."I couldn't have done it better myself." Still grinning he winked at him,hurrying back to the altar.

As he entered everyone seemed to notice him, he wasn't a nobody anymore. As more people started milling up at the altar, out of the corner of his eyes he could see the new girl becoming more nervous. He couldn't blame her, it was definitely intimidating to be seated amidst the the students of the Bravodian Institute, with their perfectly pressed grey uniforms and their aura of ruthlessness.

He remembered his first day, his heart accelerating as every other student entered.Everyone seemed to notice him, the institute made sure of that, every new student had to wear a red uniform as a contrast to the grey ones, that is only if they survived.

He was brought out of his musings, when the amplified voice of general Elexia thundered through the altar. The general had always confused him,even though having a mild voice she seemed to be able to alert everyone in the room, her smile always soft, encouraging, but her eyes, a pale blue seemed to be holding a threat, almost as it the glint warned them about all the power she held. Most students try being off her radar as far as possible, but no matter how hard he tried, it always seemed that the general's calculating eyes were on him. Joseph slid onto the seat beside him, "Erwin, you don't seem alright, what are you thinking 'bout?"
"Eh.Nothing much to bother about. Look Elexia is about to call out the results of the season's battle."
The general's crisp tone made the announcement seem even more interesting. "At the end of this season's house wars, you all have shown incredible strength and knowledge, this season as always had ups and downs and the most unexpected wins, and I am proud to announce these results, out of the 20 houses we have, the third goes to...the pythons!"
Chatter filled the altar but stopped as soon as the general continued "Second place to the...porcupines!" All the students held their breadth, Erwin himself could only hope that he had won enough to make his house come first, finally the general's voice filled the room "And my hearty congratulations to" She dropped her voice to a whisper "the dragons."
Erwin's heart soared, as his friends congratulated him, his team had won, the entire altar was filled with enthusiasm, shrieks, whistles and shouts of joy.

The general stood there calculating each and everyone's reaction before she softly uttered the words"decorum." And just like that the hall was silent.
"I would also like to you all to welcome our new students, there are 40 of them, two will be assigned to each house." She looked around and caught Erwin's eye, and spoke in no more than a whisper. "The leaders of the first three houses will be able to select their candidates, the others randomly allotted , I request the leaders to go through their TAA reports and select 3 to 4 candidates, in case of overlapping. Report back new students and leaders in half an hour, others can disperse."
Joseph turned towards Erwin "Select the best commander, meet you at the mess hall." And he turned to leave.

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With steady steps Erwin and the other two leaders reached the desk with the files on them, they picked one each and started flipping through the pages. The first one Erwin picked bore the name of a girl "Emilia Heart", her profile picture showed a girl no more than 16 with curly brown hair and glittering gold eyes. Scanning through her TAA report, he could see she had excellent siege skills, he decided recruiting her, because of her skills of course , not because of her cute smile or shining eyes.
In the next 15 to 20 minutes the three had come to a conclusion on whom they wanted making sure that there were no overlaps, just as they started to run out of topics to talk about , General Elexia and the 40 new students walked in.

"Officers." The general started as she turned her face towards the three leader, "I will be calling each of you out, you have to take the podium, explain your houses and then call out the name who you want to join your house." The three leaders nodded simultaneously. "First, let me introduce you to officer Howard Keller, captain of house pythons."

Erwin grinned, reassuring Howard, "Recruits, it is my honour to be the first to speak to you about a house, it's what your identity becomes when you join the institute." And Howards voice filled the altar, Erwin shifted his concentration on the general, she was staring at the new students intently, almost as if trying to dig out their weaknesses, but somehow her gaze seemed to be stuck on one student, Erwin followed her gaze to find it fixated on the golden eyed girl, even she seemed to be aware of the general's stare. Howard was done with his speech, realising this the General called out James Trophine, leader of the porcupines. Erwin didn't really have an opinion on him, he had barely spoken to him twice in his 3 years of residence at the school. His gaze flitted back to the golden eyed girl, she seemed to be getting nervous under the generals scrutiny. Erwin wondered why the General kept staring at her, he was too staring, figuring out the puzzle which the General saw in her, with no luck solving it, his gaze turned towards the General only to find her pale blue ones locked with his greens. Erwin was tempted to drop his stare, but he didn't want the General to know how easily she had intimidated him. He heard James call out his new recruitments. So did the General, and before she could introduce him, he had already stood up and was beside the podium.

"Hey." Erwin started. "My name's Erwin, leader of the dragons, the other two leaders have explained the functioning and the importance of this academy quite well. And I don't have much to say, so I'll let this be short and announce the names of the students which I have chosen, Reliston Earling.." His report was almost perfect, too perfect if Erwin was being honest, but that didn't stop him from choosing him, he had promised Joseph that he'll bring the best. "And Emelia Heart." As soon as he said that he stepped down the podium. His work was done here, and he needed to be somewhere else now, rather than mingling with the students like the other leaders had, Erwin turned to leave. But before he could he caught the eye of General Elexia, she didn't stop him, worse just watched him leave.

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So this was the first chapter. I hope that y'all appreciated it. It does take a lot of time to type these down. And obviously constructive criticism is welcomed.
See ya in the next chapter,
Youaremistaken.