The incoming students of all three races that were cheering for each of the Student Council members fell silent when Tess walked in. With her gunmetal silver hair swaying behind her as each of her dignified steps echoed throughout the silent auditorium, she single-handedly changed the atmosphere inside this entire building.
As she bowed and tucked her hair behind her ear, a roar of applause erupted as both males and females alike cheered with admiration. I thought the cheers would last a lot longer but as soon as Tess started speaking, it was as if each of the students in the crowd covered each others' mouths so that they could hear her voice.
"My name is Tessia Eralith, and I am honored to stand here as this academy's student council president."
Murmurs started after the crowd once again cheered for our beautiful president. Next to me, a scrawny human boy spoke excitedly to his friend beside him.
"That's the Princess Eralith I was talking about. My older brother told me she's been on campus since last year as a direct disciple under the Director and will start formally attending this year with us!" He leaned into his friend so only he could hear but the volume at which he spoke betrayed him.
"Th-That means she was the first non-human to set foot on this campus. Wait... she's only a first-year and she's already the Student Council President? Is that even possible?" His friend, whom I couldn't really see, spoke louder and louder with each word, causing the neighboring students to hear as well.
"Yeah, I heard of her as well! She's supposedly a super-genius of some sort, right?"
"Why the hell is she so damn pretty when she's talented as well? This isn't even fair..."
"I wonder what I would have to do to get her to even look at me?"
suddenly the entire audience forcibly and their hair stood on end as a very real chill griped them along with an oppressive bloodlust. Arthur and Elijah looked at me with a mix of disappointment and approval.
"Kyuu~" Silvie chirped happily to the point Arthur had to hold her still.
"Wraaa~!" 'Dad it's mama!' Zeph roared in a tiny high-pitched voice of his when he made himself small enough to fit on my shoulder comfortably.
'Mama!?' I couldn't help but sigh in defeat at her excitement. Tess became pretty close to Zeph and Sylvie a bit after they hatched so I could see why he was so fond of her... but 'Mama? even I dint get papa'.
"Woah..." Elijah, who I had stopped paying attention to, firmly gripped my arm with both of his hands as if he needed me to support him from fainting.
"Woah," he repeated. For how smart he looked, he sure acted like an idiot at times like these.
"You okay there, Elijah?" I lightly nudged his head but it just bounced like a bobblehead toy.
"Wait isn't that the Tess you like Arthur?"
"yes, she's the one and only princess of the elves" Arthur confirmed having a daydreaming look in his eye.
How far did they get in their relationship already? or is Arthur just realizing he loves her now?
Arthur not wanting to deal with Elijah threw Sylvie at him, she promptly locked her jaw on the top of Elijah's head, causing him to start screaming more from surprise than pain.
"Oh, sorry..." With Sylvie still dangling on the crown of his head, Elijah let go of my arm and started focusing on the stage below again.
As the crowd settled down enough for Tess to start speaking again, Director Goodsky silently disappeared.
Tess spoke eloquently enough to surprise even me. She was only thirteen, yet she had the ability to draw the crowd's full attention with her unadorned words filled with maturity. She spoke about the principles of this academy, how this was a holy ground where students should feel safe to walk freely around. Tess emphasized the discipline one would face if anyone hurt another student outside of a consented duel.
"god forbid they try and fight you two," Elijah said seriously. to which I cracked my knuckles which made Elijah start praying for the person's safety ahead of time.
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After finishing up the ceremony, all the new students were dismissed to their dorms. Filing out of the auditorium, my eyes unconsciously looked for Claire as I could sense her nearby, but she was nowhere in sight. The students were all excitedly chatting amongst their peers, getting to know new people. Walking deeper within the campus to where the dorms were, I saw a few female students pass by the three of us, doing a double-take back at us and giggling with their friends.
Elijah sighed. "I feel like I become significantly less good-looking when I'm next to you two." Elijah's shoulders hunched as we walked along side-by-side, Sylvie pitifully patting Elijah's head, Zeph on the other had Spat on him and mentally said 'Pathetic' causing me to laugh my ass off and so did Arthur after Sylvie translated for him.
"Well, even if most come after me, some of the girls will have to eventually settle for you, right buddy?" Art teased, giving him a playful wink.
"Screw you." He hit me on the stomach as the both of us laugh.
Suddenly, a loud explosion startled both of us as well as the students walking around nearby. Something was happening at the end of the marble walkway. After a quick exchange of glances, the three of us shot off.
"I don't see how a short-ass dwarf like you can even hope to be a proper Augmenter. Why don't you stick to forging some weapons for real warriors like me?"
"What da hell didja say? Who do ya think ya are, anyway?"
I stopped running a good distance away and shook my head when I realized what was going on. it was these two dumbasses.
"Couldn't this become dangerous?" Elijah looked around were some of the students had to deliberately walk around the two of them.
"They wouldn't dare do something like a fight on the first day, right? Let's just go." Art tried to avoid the situation.
"nope their going to do it, lets just watch I'll step in when they do something stupid" I said slowly taking control of the atmospheric mana.
"My name is Nicolas Dreyl! Declare the duel, short-ass, so we can start! Or are you all bark and no bite?" the human smirked, placing his right hand on the badge pinned to his left breast.
"Tch! Yer gonna be sorry." The dwarf that was a head shorter than his opponent with a bulky build looked awkward wearing the blazer uniform but the way he carried his giant battle-axe with ease told me he was more than what the single stripe on his tie told us.
The metal badge on both the human and dwarf glowed brightly as the dwarf placed a hand on his badge and started chanting. "I declare a duel between me, Broznean Boor, and Nicolas Dreyl!"
"I accept the duel!" The two badges glowed different colors until they synced together, producing a loud 'ping' sound.
The human mage took out dual swords from his dimension ring and got into a stance as the people around started backing up to avoid getting caught up in the fight.
"HAAP!" The human student roared as his two broadswords glow a dim yellow color and the earth surrounding him started trembling.
"JAH!" The dwarf leaped up and propelled himself forward by pushing off of a nearby tree, charging his battle-axe as well with earth attribute mana.
"Ooh! Both are earth-attribute augmenters, Art!" Elijah got more excited.
"Tremor Smash!" the dwarf shouted, placing his left palm on the head of his axe and making the dull glow condense.
With a resounding boom, the power of the blow from the dwarf forced the human to skid back, even as he blocked with both swords. I could see his arms shaking as he grimaced.
The human boy lowered his two swords and dashed towards the dwarf who was already in a defensive stance. The dual swords scraped along the ground. As he got into range, he swung up, a trail of earth followed along, creating twin blades of earth after each sword.
Christ how slow are they? I know they are supposed to be ok fighters but holy shit I could hit them about 15 times in the span of their swings without augmenting myself.
"Shatter!" The dwarf's body glowed yellow as he stomped his right foot hard onto the ground, creating a ripple around him that broke the earth blade approaching him into fragments. The dwarf blocked the human's two actual blades with his axe but got a little scrape on his arm from the upward swing.
"Earth Pillar!" Nick exclaimed. Following the upward swipe, he stomped hard with his leading foot directly in front of the dwarf, creating a pretty fragile column of rock from the ground that hit the dwarf squarely in the stomach.
"Oof!" The dwarf's body lifted into the air from the force of the blow and his shield broke with loud shattering sound, signaling that the duel was over.
Cheers went off from the humans that gathered but the dwarves amongst the audience groaned in embarrassment.
I saw a slight smirk on the human's face as he once again imbued mana into his two blades.
"Do You Want To have your Mana Core Shattered?" my voice was laced with anger and bloodlust, combined with sound and Ice magic to terrify the poor bastard and the kids around me, Most fell back in shock and fear.
"Are you picking a fight with me or something, brat?" His voice was shaking in fear.
"And If I Am?" I Shot back, the confidence and pressure my voice carried made it seem like the question was an ultimatum with his life on the line
He snatched his hand away before he walked off, spitting on the ground in front of my feet.
"You know, a good piece of advice if you want to graduate. I don't think killing that dwarf boy would've done you any good." I stood still as Zephyr spat directly at the back of his neck.
He instantly whirled back around with his two swords in his hands once again. I could almost see a vein bulging out of his forehead like it would in a cartoon.
"Pfft." Oops, I shouldn't laugh in this situation. I took a quick glance back and saw that Elijah was just shaking his head, knowing it was too late.
"You dare—?" The thirteen-year-old boy with swords too large for his immature body dashed towards me in a manner I found more unrefined and sloppy than a dumpster home to a swarm of raccoons, preparing to cross-chop with his two blades, his face bright red in anger.
I raised a single augmented hand and caught the swords with no effort at all.
"well this is a disgrace to swordsmanship, I caught your attack in one hand and didn't even Augment myself."
I tightened my grip and Shattered the two swords sending fragments of the blade in all directions, His shocked and Ashamed face reflecting in the shards.
"Learn to hold a sword properly at least you disgrace."
"You Dare?"
The face of the dual-wielding boy visibly paled as he froze at the unmistakable voice. I turned to see that the whole student council was walking towards us through a gap created by the students.
Taking calm but hurried strides in the front was Tess, her doll-like face expressionless. Behind her, I spotted Lilia, who gave me a worried look.
My attacker immediately gave a respectful bow towards them, sweat beading down his forehead.
"What is going on, Alexander?" Jarrod is the one that spoke up, making everyone in the crowd raise an eyebrow in surprise.
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the whispers from the crowd. Even for preteen children, I had expected them to be taught manners to some degree since they were all from influential families.
"this disgrace to swordsmanship tried to attack an opponent after he won a duel, you should go take a look at that dwarf student lying over there—Boznean, I think that was his name." I pointed over to the tree where the dwarf was still groaning while clutching his stomach.
Elijah walked towards me, hoping to distill the situation. "Hi, Lilia. Sorry, we ended up getting caught up in this little scuffle after the duel between them ended. No harm done! Physically at least" He gave a slight wave at her as he started talking while directing his words at Tess, her face still shrouded in a mask of apathy.
"Still, this student was about to attack you when a duel wasn't even issued. This is a serious offense." Lilia stepped up, her gaze a bit sterner as she pulled out a small notebook and jotted something down.
While Lilia, Jarrod, and Elijah were talking about what exactly happened, Tessia's piercing eyes drilled into me, as if she was expecting me to do something. Honestly, even with extended life experience, I have no confidence in what to do when it came to these situations.
'It's Mama!' Zeph 'Wra~'d' on top of my shoulder, and I had to firmly tell him to hold still and not go to her.
Meanwhile, the crowd was getting rowdier and rowdier, the males doing the best they could to get a better look at Tess, hoping to engrain her image into their memories to use in times of loneliness or longing.
"You. I believed I asked you a question. Do you dare?" She took a step forward, her eyes boring down on the second-year student. I was thinking that the student was technically a level higher than Tess, but when I took a look at the ribbon that was tied neatly underneath her collar, it had two stripes as well.
"N-No. Of course, I would never dare break the rules like that. I simply wanted to scare the boy—I had planned to stop before my weapon would hit him. But seeing that I was still acting rashly, I apologize," he said, shooting me a threatening glare as he bowed to Tess.
My Hand Crackled with frost fire and He ran without a word or shred of dignity left.
"And you! Why are you starting a fight with a senior on the first day of school? You should know your place! No matter how rowdy he may have been, he is still your senior and he didn't break the rules when dueling with the other student. Did you not pay attention to my speech? Yet, you still chose to interfere, making these types of problems appear on the first day!" She knit her arms tightly as her stern gaze bore down on me, her face flushed with either anger or embarrassment—which of the two, I couldn't tell.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're lecturing me based on a presumption you drew from the last five seconds of stumbling upon this situation. And you think you have the right to lecture me?" I took another step forward and I could see Tess's once haughty face beginning to crumble.
"A murder case is more paperwork and damaging to your reputation than an illegal fight between two students," I continued, my voice coming out louder than I had wanted to.
"Im soooo sorry for the trouble I've prevented, Student Council President," I said in a mocking icy tone, stunning everyone, including Tess. as soon as I turned around Elijah followed closely behind as I kept walking.
What a lovely reunion.
"Hold it, first year." Clive Graves ran towards me, grabbing me by the arm as he tried to spin me back around. "Were you raised in a cave? Are these the manners your mother taught you growing up? Do you even know who she is?"
Holding firm, I stopped and looked at him over my shoulder.
I knew from first glance that I would've never gotten along with him, but his words somehow had the power to irk me more than most fools. Was I raised in a cave? was he insulting My mother?
"Let Go" The malice dripping in my voice startled even Arthur as he instinctively took a step back. Clive immediately released my arm, jumping away as he guarded himself with mana.
"A tiny bit of mana isn't going to guard Against that." I pointed up to the blotted-out sky Arcing with white bolts and howling with storm magic.
Clive looked up to see his impending death if he so much as breathed the wrong way, His eyes glazed in fear and regret for insulting the wrong mage.
I Stepped Forward Blanketing the entire Area With the Mist Of Elshire At full power. I had perfect vision in it but they had lost theirs entirely. I pulled out Tempestarii Dragging it along the ground, The scraping Noise of the metal on the stone refracted from every direction, My bloodlust being Amplified by the sound magic disorientation and Fear.
"AL DON'T KILL HIM!!" Arthur yelled being absolutely lost in the mist, even when using realm heart he couldn't see through it.
"Alright, Just this once I'll let him off the hook," I said coldly my voice sounding distorted like a demon in the mist.
I put tempestarii into my ring and conjured A field of spikes around Clive so he couldn't move more than an inch. and reabsorbed the mana I spent to make the Storm and mist.
I took a quick glance at Tess and realized she'd fallen down out of fear, I walked over and pulled her up to her feet and walked away to find my dorm room.
"President Tessia Are you okay?"
"Who the hell was that? I think Treasurer Jarrod called him alexander, right?"
"we need to stay away from that guy" Some people murmured in the background
Elijah took a few hurried steps to catch up to me, eventually walking by my side. "You know what you just did, right? Man, you sure love attracting trouble, don't you? First the dungeon and now this?" He shook his head.
"Arthur Said Sylvie was hungry so they went to go get some food and they will meet us at the dorm."
"Alright, guess we get first pick of the beds."
Elijah and I had managed to make it to our dorm building without further trouble. There were two male dorms and two female dorms within the academy. The two set of dorms were separated by underclassmen and upperclassmen. Underclassmen were students that were still taking their general education classes. These students were then moved into the upperclassmen dorms after they'd finished their general education courses and had formally decided on what type of student they were going to be.
"Room 394. We're here!" Elijah unlocked the door by placing his palm on a round stone above the handle. It looked to be a simple artifact used to read basic mana signatures. As soon as he had opened the door, Zeph bolted into the room, immediately making a nest out of one of the two bunk beds.
( Yes the one room is for the 3 of them big deal )
The room wasn't nearly as fancy as the one in the Helstea Manor but had a very homey feel. Walking in, to our right were three closets and to our left was a small bathroom crammed with two adjacent sinks, a shower, and a toilet. me and Art could use the same sink and just store our stuff in our massive Dimension rings.
the two bunk beds were placed side by side, separated by a nightstand placed against the left side of the wall while on the right side was a long drawer for folded clothes. The sleeping area and the studying area were divided by a wall that came up to our waist, with three elevated steps leading to an arrangement of desks and couches. The two desks were placed against walls opposite of each other so we would be seated facing away while studying. A long couch was positioned against the miniature wall, separating the desks from the beds. The far side of the wall was made almost entirely of glass, which instantly attracted me towards it. The view encompassed a big portion of the campus, which was currently a canvas of fall colors. Looking at it from here, I would have no idea that this place was an institute for mages without being told so.
I took a seat on the couch, somewhat excited about the days to come. Zeph made himself bigger to take up an entire bed for himself.
"Ahh! We didn't even have dinner yet but I'm already pooped! I wonder whose fault that is?" Elijah jumped on the far bed that was right behind the couch, the one that Zeph hadn't claimed as his.
I fell onto the couch, my body practically melting from fatigue. My eyes glazed over, staring off into the sky outside my window until I noticed the pile of luggage cases that were brought in by our driver beforehand. Letting out a sigh, I turned away and denied their existence, dreading the hours of unpacking to come, even though I brought my stuff in my ring Elijah had used all the remaining space for his stuff.
TESSIA ERALITH'S POV:
GAAHHHHHH! I screwed up. I screwed up. I screwed up. I TOTALLY screwed up!
I buried my head into my pillow and screamed my lungs out in frustration.
"MMMMMMMFFFFFFFFFPPPHHH!" I was supposed to have an emotional, romantic reunion With Arthur! Well, it was emotional, but in the complete opposite direction Because of Al! Why did I even say all of that anyway? Why did I lash out at him? I know Al would never pick a fight without a reason but I just went and told him off on something I didn't even see! Gah!! I'm so stupid!
I bet he hates me now...
Why did I say that! I even brought up my speech! Bahhh! I must've sounded like such a snob! But still, we were in a crowd like that and he did have some fault in the commotion. B-But...
I'm sure he hates me now...
If Art just greeted me or even just talked to me normally, I wouldn't have said that! That's right! It's all Art's fault! He even ignored me when I came all the way there to help settle the mess he was in! He didn't even say hi! I wasn't expecting a full-blown hug or even a k-k-kiss or something! Just a 'long time no see, Tess,' would've been fine! Who was that black-haired guy in glasses that reminds me of a raven, anyway? Is he his friend? Best friend? It seemed like both of them knew Lilia and Jarrod! Gahh! This is so frustrating!
I screamed into my pillow again in hopes of releasing some of my frustration. "MMMMMFFFFFF!"
A sudden knock on my door jolted me upright.
"This is Clive...I'm here to check up on you. Are you feeling okay?" I heard the muffled voice through the door.
I quietly cleared my throat before I responded. "I'm fine, thank you." I used my 'public' voice, as I called it, which made me sound much colder.
"Who was that first year, anyway? I can't believe he dared use that Terrifying magic like that when you were trying to give him advice! Should I talk to the director about this? We could get him punished and—"
"Don't Start Any problems with Alexander, he might kill you next time. Don't go to the director, either...that's an order." I spoke harsher than I usually did to get the point across. How dare he badmouth Al. Only I can badmouth him, mostly because anyone else would die.
I fell back onto my pillow after I heard the faint sound of his footsteps leaving. Dorms were separated by gender and class while before, it was separated by the type of student you were. For the student councils though, we each had our own room in a building that was right next to the Director's office. It was uncomfortable living with guys in the same house, but Lilia was here, and the guys were generally okay, so I didn't mind too much.
Stupid Arthur. Did you know how much I wanted to scream out your name and run to you when I saw you in the audience? Even if he was far away, how could I ever miss that bright auburn hair with a mana beast resting on top of his head! Sylvie looked really different from when she had first hatched but that didn't surprise me. The fact that she was a dragon was something that should've shocked me but with Art, nothing he ever did could surprise me... he was just like that.
"Haaa...." I didn't even have the energy to scream in frustration anymore. I wanted to blame Al for all of this but I knew he wasn't all at fault. they probably wanted to keep our relationship a secret for me since I was a public figure here. But still... Why was Art only dumb when it comes to a girl's heart?
Dummy...
I hope he doesn't hate me...
There were so many questions I wanted to ask him too. What has he been doing? How was his time as an adventurer? Did he get hurt anywhere? Did he miss me? Did he think of me at all these past four years?
I wanted to brag to him how much stronger I'd gotten too... After directly training under the director, my skills as a conjurer improved by leaps and bounds. I would've trained under Grandpa, but it wasn't the best idea because he was an augmenter, which limited what he could teach me. He taught me the basics of mana manipulation but as far as going down the route of a conjurer, the director knew a lot more. She was also familiar with the differences in elves and humans, which helped her train me specifically.
Grandpa knew I had great potential because, when I first awakened, I created an implosion that blew up my entire room and part of the downstairs kitchen. That was back when they used to live with us. That was when I had to wake Art up every day too.
I sniffled.
Oh no. I shouldn't start crying. Art wouldn't hate me just for that, would he? I should just clear things up with him and apologize. He wouldn't ignore me, right?
'Curse his ignorance and insensitivity towards the female heart!'
ARTHUR LEYWIN'S POV:
I watched idly as Sylv took a nap beside me on the couch, her tiny body heaving up and down with each tiny breath.
"It's not like Al to explode like that all of a sudden though, Al. It would've made more sense for you to just ignore her and walk off, right?" Elijah was still lying down in his bed, his hand propping his head up as he faced Al who was sitting on an ice shelf he made because the room was too hot.
"Well, I admit the blood lust was probably enough—"
We All turned our heads to the door when two brisk knocks interrupted our conversation.
"That's strange, who would want to see us on the first day? Maybe our neighbors are just saying hello?" Elijah got up to answer the door.
"Who is..." After a brief silence, I turned to see Elijah frozen still. Getting up to see what was going on, I saw Director Goodsky standing nonchalantly at the door, smiling at me.
"Good evening, Arthur. Elijah. Alexander. May I come in?"
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