"Who's that?" A freshmen whispered to his friend.
"Who knows."
"Is she the first placer?" The other guy shrugged. "How would I know it's my first time seeing her. We never even saw her at the welcoming ceremony. Do you think she's a senior?"
"She could be."
I can hear every whispers thrown across the hallway. I can feel every eyes piercing through my body. If my debut was a bit earlier then everybody would have recognized me. I don't think any of the students attended my debut well it's not that I care. I think if nobody knows me for a while then they'll surely treat me differently until they find out who I am. That would be so much fun.
Dad complained how boring welcoming ceremonies are and advice me not to come. I'll take his word for it. I am not that fond of parties like I do back then. Because, now I will make sure I won't and will not make that damn same mistake again. I'll become stronger, strong enough to be able to defeat a demon lord. Because only then will I able to make sure I can protect my family. I wanted to protect them because I cannot do that before.
I've started learning magic at the age of 5 which is extremely unusual for kids that age. I hid it though, you don't know how my maid almost fainted when she saw me casting a water spell. Good thing she was sick that day so mom and dad brushed it off as her seeing things. They gave her an off day since they thought she is beginning to hallucinate and that they may endanger her if they continue to push her to work. She didn't want to at first until mom strictly forced her to rest. That's how loyal our employees are.
By the age of 8 I learned atleast 1 or 2 spells of all four elements. How is that possible? Because I'm an Cylphium Esper. Cylphium are magicians who can wield all four elements with another special element. My special element is light magic. It's lame if you ask me. Well, moving on during the entrance examination phase I passed the tests with barely any scratch. I got scratches because my magic is still uncontrolled. The beasts they tested us with are rather weak. If they were strong I would have released some of my mana enough for me to control.
Back to the present, I just arrived in the classroom and went to the available seat which is next to a girl who seems like the infamous Gallahan's daughter. Phew. Thank goodness my luck must be wonderful today no creepy seatmates!
I sat beside her and greeted her cheerfully which she returned with the same energy. 3 minutes later the instructor came and scanned the room and her eyes landed upon me she gave me a small smile. Clapping her hands the room fell into silence.
"I see, everyone this girl over here is the student who took first place!" It was silent at first and then they errupted into applause. Though it looks like it's just for politeness. I noticed how doubtful they are of me.
"I'm looking forward to the wonders you'll do here in the academy my lady. Shall we begin?" I sighed silently. This is gonna be a long day.
___________
I opened my eyes to meet another day. Hi, it's me Athanasia. Good to see you again. It's been 13 years since I came here in this world. I was confused at first, but I remembered souls are reincarnated after they finished their first life. It's a never ending cycle. Since it happened once before, I adjusted quickly. I retained my memories when I was 5 years old and began researching about this world.
I am birthed in an aristocratic family. First and foremost let me introduce myself. I am Athanasia Voleoti. I am 13 years old turning 14 this December which is 4 months away. Lucas once told me that if the entities who guard the worlds and the time think you deserve more of this life there is a chance you'll meet the people you love again in your next life. So my parents in my previous life are my parents in this life. Though our appearance changed but not completely. Our hair turned black befitting of our name Voleoti, our eyes are red glistening like red crystals.
Let me sum up everything I learned during my research:
First about this world. It is another fantasy world. Aristocrats as usual fight for the top in the social hierarchy. We debut at the age of 13-15. As for the fantasy part, the usual elements of magic: Air, Fire, Earth, and Water. At the age of 5 children will be called in the Imperial Palace to assess what type of magic do they wield. Those who doesn't have any magic or aura are called Valintas or simply Misfits. They are treated as an outcast, more often families disown them to avoid being embarassed.
Usually children learn to cast magic at the age of eleven. Average magic users master casting atleast 2-5 spells of their own element until they turned 13 before they enter the Academy. The Geniuses who are very talented people can cast 8-12 spells of their own element. At rare occurence they can manage to wield another element wherein they can cast atleast use 1-2 spells. Those who can wield magic are called Wizards once you enter the Academy you'll be a magician. Those people are treated highly. Ordinary people can only manifest aura though it takes them a long time, they are called fleurae.
Magicians are divided to 3 classes, Dolbios, those who can wield all 4 elements or just light or dark magic, Cylphium, those who can wield all four elements with another magic element and then a Demione, those who can create spells that never existed before. They were extremely rare that people considered them as a myth.
When a person enters the academy, they learn martial arts too, which is more on the art of sword. There are many martial arts that ceased after people stopped practicing it. Also, you study in the academy for 3 years the rest you'll learn through experience. After graduating you will then start making a life of your own like taking jobs or ruling your family. Magionas, is a magic class Demiones and Cylphiums can only take because it is a very advance one.
The Voleoti family has been entitled "Leon Dimolios" meaning Lion, the Punisher. The family takes the responsibility of punishing the criminals called thamien, and first in line during battles. We train the Imperial Knights.
Born in such a great family I couldn't ask for anything better! When I turned eight dad, mom, my grandparents, and felix and lily thought I was a genius when I started to cast magic. They began helping me too, and by this time I was pulling felix into my trap to teach me how to use a sword. Of course, I used the excuse that their are kids bullying me because I am a girl and don't know how to use a sword.
Yeah, it's dangerous and a huge risk. Dad almost massacred the whole continent but good thing I was able to calm him down thanks to mom's help. I told him I will handle them myself, I will show them who's superior between us and he gave me head pats. "Now that's a Voleoti." He says.
When I was 5-7 years old my progress in magic is rather slow because I have no proper teacher to teach me but at 8 years old grandpa hired me a magic instructor thus I managed to caught up at least 3/4 of what I should know at this age based on my calculations if I had a proper instructor back then.
I have mastered atleast 5-6 spells in both Water and Fire magic, and 2 magic spells for the water-fire compound spells. As for earth and wind I atmost managed to master 2-4 spells because these aren't my elements. I'm a Water Mage and a fire is my compatible element while earth and wind are my least compatible. If only I was a Demione I would have easily mastered them all. It's not the time to be jealous over something you don't have Athanasia!
I mastered the Voleoti Swordplay at the age of 9. Easy peasy, I have experience in handling a sword Felix taught me the Obelia Swordplay in my previous life. It's nostalgic and melancholic remembering my life with them in the past. I'm getting side-tracked focus! Because I've been so busy learning magic and swordmanship I neglected my social studies. I went back into them and reduced my training time for swordmanship to have enough time to study. After, finishing the intermediate books I moved on to language, then economics. At the age of 11 I've alternately studying the subjects in each day, for example I'll have social studies today, language tomorrow, then economics the other day.
However, I have to reduce my time for training and studying because I have to squeeze in etiquette classes which I finished in 1 and a half month. The Imperial rules are a bit similar to the Obelia's Imperial Etiquette so I was finished with it in 3 weeks I took a while getting used to the change however I need to learn the Voleoti one too which took another 3 weeks.
After that I got back to my studies and training. Then when I turned 12 years old I have to squeeze in dance practice for the debutante ball which didn't took long because once again it's similar. Mom was assisting me too to make it look even more perfect. Soon after I finished them all I started to halt it more and learn more about arts. I started painting and learning musical instruments. The harp was a bit uncomfortable for me because it's too big I think I'll have a craftsman make me a guitar in the future.
And soon I was entering the academy. By that time I can cast 9-14 spells of water and fire and 5-7 spells on earth and wind, I've mastered the Voleoti Swordstyle. It took a while than I expected.
y first day was not so welcoming with all the judging stares I've received. Aaaaaannnnnddddd today is my second day! Woohoo!! Yah....
"Heh, so this is the first place student. I didn't take the school for pranks. I mean a girl? Beating the Imperial Prince? Perhaps the prince is not so amazing after all I'm sure this...."