As the carriage began to approach our destination, I glanced towards my still pouting sister who was looking out the window with an expression of nostalgia.
"Have you been here before?"
"Hm?"
My sister didn't bother to turn her head in my direction, but hearing my question I saw a small smile appear on her face as she responded.
"I have, why?"
I shrugged.
"Your expression seems like you're remembering a pleasant memory, and you seem to be in an unusually good mood."
Hearing this Athena nodded and before giving a cryptic explanation.
"I get to see a friend I haven't seen in a while."
I raised an eyebrow.
'She has a friend?'
'Maybe it's a boy~'
Hearing my daughters comment I just shook my head.
'It's not.'
Sylvie, who was resting on the bench next to me, glanced at me with a teasing glint in her eye as she said.
'I can already imagine it~ After the death of her dear brother, Athena Leywin, who was in need of some comforting, stumbled across Desimusious VIII who- AHHH!'
Fed up with my bond's teasing, I started to flood her mind with memories of her younger days when she revered me as her 'Almighty Papa', causing her to curl into a ball in embarrassment.
Sigh...*
'You were so cute back then... what happened?'
...
"We're here~"
My sister hummed cheerfully as we stepped out of the carriage, taking in the surrounding sights that were filled with hundreds if not thousands of students who were either enrolling or returning after summer break.
"Although I appreciate the enthusiasm, we should hurry over to the check in counter to get our student ID's before the line gets too long."
Hearing my words, she glared at me for trying to ruin her mood, but then took the chance to look at the already forming line.
"Hmmm, fine."
...
After about fifteen minutes of waiting in line, we were finally met with a young woman in formal attire who was responsible for handing out ID's.
"Name?"
She called out in a neutral tone while turning her gaze up towards my sister.
"Athena Leywin."
Hearing my sister's name, her eyes widened slightly before returning to normal as she smiled and commented.
"Nice to meet you Miss. Leywin, you should know that your only the second of the 'Myths' to check in~"
My sister raised an eyebrow.
"Pardon?"
The receptionist chuckled.
"You haven't heard? 'The Myths', is what people are calling the seven strongest of your generation!"
Hearing this, Athena grew curious and asked.
"How do I rank among them?"
The receptionist gave an amused smirk and said.
"I'm also quite curious as to where you place, so please, place your hand on the crystal ball~"
Her words seemed to confuse my sister, but Athena complied non the less as she placed her palm on a slightly opaque glass ball.
"Hm?"
After making contact with her hand, the ball began to glow with a bright multicolored light that lasted for almost ten seconds before dimming and displaying some text in a language I could recognize.
"Oh!? Silver core, quadra-elemental with triple deviancy!"
Because of the sheer volume of her voice, hundreds of gazes of different people in the hall shot in her direction before landing on my sister as she watched the receptionist with an annoyed expression.
"Ahem... sorry."
Despite the receptionist's apology, I could already hear the whispers of the surrounding students as they looked at my sister with a mixture of jealousy, awe, and fear.
"Sorry about that Miss. Leywin, this is the first time I'm seeing a Quadra-elemental, much less one with three deviancies."
Athena just gave the receptionist a dismissive wave as she said something about being exposed sooner or later, and asked her to go on with her explanation.
"Well as I was saying, every student's ID will not only be used for identity verification but will also be used to display a student's rank and abilities-"
My sister cut her off.
"Do I have to get a new ID every time my rank changes? And how do you measure one's non-mana related skills, such as swordsmanship?"
The receptionist laughed.
"I was getting there~ The student ID's will automatically update your ranking every time there is a change, although you will have to get a new one if you ever break into a new stage."
She paused before continuing.
"As for all non-mana related variables... you'll have to go out of your way to challenge someone who's above you if you think you can beat them, although you can only challenge someone if they're within one rank of yourself. Do you have any questions?"
As she finished her explanation, a machine on her desk let out a ringing sound and spit out a card that looked similar to an adventurer's ID.
"Oh, it seems you overtook the student council president for rank 1~ it'll be interesting to see if you can hold that position as more of the Myths arrive."
After checking the ranking displayed on the card, she passed it to my sister who pocketed it with an exasperated expression before quickly running away. And as my sister fled away from the overly energetic receptionist, I let out an annoyed sigh as I mentally steeled myself to deal with her.
"Oh? Aren't you a charming young gentleman~ Are you perhaps Miss. Leywin's boyfriend?"
As her absurd question registered in my head, I felt Sylvie break down in internal laughter as she accidently rolled off my head in amusement.
"No... I'm her older brother."
The receptionist looked at me with visible surprise and uncertainty before asking.
"Are you sure~ I didn't know that Miss. Leywin had an older brother, much less one her own age! What's your name?"
I glared at her.
"Arthur Leywin."
And hearing my slightly fed up reply she just chuckled.
"A snappy one aren't you~ although incessual relationships are frowned upon, I'm rooting for you! Love is Love~"
'Even when Sylvia's dead, her lackies are coming back to haunt me...'
Seeing my clearly unamused expression, she just pouted as she wrote down my name.
"Alright Mr. Leywin~ please place your hand on the ball"
Seeing as she was finally done with the teasing I placed my hand on the ball while simultaneously casting silencing magic on the receptionist to prevent her from yelling out again like she did with Athena.
After the ball glowed for around fifteen seconds, I watched the receptionist's face warp in shock as she tried to yell out in shock.
"???"
After a few seconds of her trying to scream, she realized that her voice wasn't making any noise and looked at me in confusion.
"I'm using sound magic to mute your voice."
My words seem to have no effect on her as her confusion remained, and after hearing a ringing noise from the machine next to her. I grabbed the card before she could check it and started to walk away as I canceled my spell, allowing her to speak again.
'I like her!'
I heard Sylvie yell in my head as she ran after me and hopped back up on my shoulder.
'Must remind you of your mother.'
Hearing my remark, I could feel Sylvie's confusion leak into me through our bond as her nails dug into my white hair, but I didn't bother to explain my remark and instead turned my gaze down to my new student ID.
'Rank 1... it seemed I failed to hide my mana properly.'
...
After checking in and getting my ID, I promptly followed a string of students into a massive white building where the entrance ceremony would be held and began looking for my sister amongst the people already seated.
'It's loud.'
Despite the fact that the massive auditorium wasn't even half full, there were still almost three thousand students seated all over creating a beyond noisy atmosphere.
'There she is.'
For some reason, my sister had opted to sit in the very last row despite all the open seats that were closer to the stage, causing me to take longer than expected to find her.
'This is...'
As I got closer to her I noticed a group of boys wearing battle mage uniforms surrounding her, causing me to slightly speed up my pace.
'Aww~ are you worried about her?'
I didn't bother to look at my bond and gave a mild reply.
'Why would I worry about her? It's those poor students who are about to be crippled on their first day.'
'Whatever you say~'
...
{Athena POV}
'Come on Athena! Self-restraint is a virtue and killing some low ranking nobles on your first day of school wouldn't look good on your report card!'
"So beautiful, would you like to get dinner sometime~"
My eyebrow twitched and I started to imbue mana into my arms.
'Their dead-'
"Excuse me."
Just as I was about to end the careers of students in front of me, I heard my brother's annoyed voice from just behind the nobles and managed to calm my mana.
"Hmm?"
Hearing his voice, the nobles looked back towards Arthur as the leader's face morphed in a displeased expression while speaking in an arrogant tone.
"Who're you?"
Arthur glared at him with small amounts of killing intent.
"I'm her brother. And if you don't want to die, I suggest you leave."
Hearing Arthur's apparent threat, some of the group laughed along with the leader who looked like he was about to throw a punch.
"Looks like this kid needs to be taught a le- !!!"
Suddenly, the entire group was encompassed in a mind numbing pressure that froze them in place and my brother's golden eyes took on a darker shade.
"Leave. Now."
"!!!"
After a few seconds Arthur released them from his pressure and sat down on the seat next to me, causing me to look at him with a smile.
"Thanks for their help!"
He shrugged.
"Always happy to save lives."
...
Another twenty minutes passed quietly as we maintained a pleasant silence between us and watched the increasing number of students enter the auditorium.
"She's here."
My brother's voice just barely reached my ears in the annoyingly loud environment as I was watching the last of the students get seated.
"Who's her-"
Halfway through my sentence I felt a wave of mana cover the room and my voice was suddenly muted, prompting me to turn my gaze towards the stage. As I did so and my eyes arrived at the lone figure who silenced the whole auditorium, I heard Arthur's bored voice reach my ears.
"Cynthia Goodsky."
———————————————————————————————
A/N
I wont be able to update from Tuesday through Thursday because of a mountain biking trip I'm going on with my friends. (This is the same trip that was postponed for a week.)
Any feedback?
Any idea's for the future?
!!!<Please Read>!!!
Also, I'm think of writing a second book that I can update on my own schedule and I'm stuck in between a few ideas. So after this chapter goes up I'm going to list the idea's on my account conversations for people to vote, so if you have an idea for a TBATE fic feel free to comment your idea on the conversation and if I like it I'll add it to the voting options.
Although I wont be updating, I'll still have Wi-Fi so I'll be watching the conversation until Thursday(6/29/23) when the voting ends.
That's all!
~1922 words