An hour had passed but the five young people still had yet to find additional senior acolytes who accepted their invitation to join their team. Some reasoned that they had already joined the people from their own world, but some were even worse for they had walked away even before they got closer to them, of course Klea was a different case, she managed to speak to some people but the moment she introduced the four young men from her team, the acolytes she had been talking to all suddenly made up excuses and disappeared from their sights.
Among the remaining senior acolytes in the stone platform, there was a group of seven people still looking for one more member. That was one of the largest groups so far. Another large group were those young men and women from the planet Kalios, which had eighteen people selected to enter the Magus Academy last year and again all eighteen had returned. They could have easily formed two to three groups if they wanted, but they seemed to be talking to themselves and have not left yet.
The five people from Emery's group still didn't give up and talked to the acolytes they hadn't met with yet.
A couple more minutes had passed and the crowd was thinning. It looked like the teams had mostly been set, for there were groups of people about three to six, leaving the area. As for the rare individual acolytes, none were present for they seemed to have already joined groups.
The same situation was still happening to Emery's group, none wanted to join theirs. In fact, the opposite was happening whenever someone walked to speak with them, in particular Klea, the people who had spoken to her were actually trying to poach her in joining their team, which of course, once the boys had taken notice of, quickly chased the poachers away.
Emery understood why people were asking Klea specifically to join their teams. She was once of the top acolytes in class 77, they all knew about her triple affinity and S aptitude talent. Even though she hadn't confirmed her current status yet to anyone, it was most likely she was one of them whom Magus Minerva had mentioned to have reached rank 6.
He took a moment to self-reflect, stepping back, Emery observed the remaining crowds until he finally noticed one particular oddity. Whenever he met someone else's gaze, they seemed to glance and step away immediately. This caused Emery's brows to furrow, could it be the reason why his four friends were having a hard time recruiting the last three members was because of his infamous B rank spirit aptitude? He curled his lips downwards, if that was really the reason, he actually considered showing his power to them.
As he was thinking, his four friends walked up to him and sat by the bench, exhausted. It was at that moment when one of the largest groups of acolytes walked up to them.
"You guys are still recruiting for a full team, aren't you? Heh, classic lower world problems," said a pretty boy who fought with them in the cafeteria a year ago. After doing some questioning from the other acolytes, they found his name was Rowe. He seemed to be the leader of this group of young men and women from Kalios.
Thrax, who had been in a foul mood since no one seemed to be recruited by him, stood on his feet and walked up. He snarled, "Go away!"
"Woah, woah, woah! Easy there. I think we got off on the wrong foot last year. I'm here to propose something. I want us to be friends! What do you think? Friends?" said Rowe, showing off his charming smile.
However, that seemed to tick off Thrax even more as he roared, "What sort of nonsense is this? Piss off!"
Julian stepped in between Thrax and Rowe before the tension rose further and said, "What my barbaric friend is trying to say here is thanks, but no thanks."
"Is that so? You lower world people should know the benefits of having friends in this place. Especially since the world you came from knows nothing but shit," said Rowe, antagonizing Thrax even further, who was being held at bay by Julian.
Klea was the next to stand from her seat. She paced around the pretty boy, Rowe, and asked, "Well if you have anything to share, then we'll listen."
"Now, now, pretty lady…" said Rowe with a smile, "first, I'd like for everyone here to know you're the only reason why I speak to these other lowlifes. Well, let me tell you why nobody wants to join your team."
Rowe then began to explain how not only the five of them came from a lower world, they were actually from the lowest of the lower worlds. He mentioned the reason how they could tell was just from the weapons Julian and Thrax had shown earlier.
"...your world, your civilization are just too primitive. Maybe in another milenia or two, only then will you all start to begin and grasp our understanding," concluded Rowe, finishing his explanation.
Emery didn't like the way this man had looked at him. It was him who stood up next and said, "If we're the lowest of the low as you've said, then what do you want from us?"
"Weren't you not listening? I said we want to make friends with some of you," snapped Rowe at Emery before adding, "we, the best youth from Kalios, has eighteen senior acolytes in this class alone. We're planning to create just one team and have the rest of us separate to help underprivileged groups such as yours. With that said, we would like for two or three from my group to join your team. I'm sure all of you will benefit from us."
At first glance, it seemed to be a good idea on the surface. Having two, three or even just one from these people from a higher world would probably indeed make Emery's group of five become stronger by a large margin. However, something felt off. What benefits would the people from Kalios have in having them join Emery's team. Something was amiss.
Julian seemed to have figured this too for he asked to discuss it with the others for a moment. After a round of discussion, in fact all five of them had the same thought. None of them bought the word of such a man from Kalios. However, the four were still hesitant in rejecting this young man.
Seeing this, Emery felt it was up to him to give the rejection set in stone. He was basing it through his accumulated experience of being with people who had a hidden, or more accurately, malevolent agenda when dealing with him.
Emery turned to Rowe and said, "Again, thank you for the offer but no!"
Rowe's expression turned into great anger as he shouted, "No one is asking your opinion! You B rank moron!"
Julian, Thrax, Chumo and Klea all faced the young man from Kalios with evident displeasure on their faces. Emery was their friend, a youth who came from the same world as them. The harsh treatment of this man named Rowe toward Emery and his constant reminder to them coming from the 'lowest of the low worlds' word seemed to give rise to their increasing urge to rebel against this entitled youth.
Thrax was the first to walk beside Emery and said, "You heard our friend! Our decision is still no! So piss off, now!"
"Hmpf, you lowlifes don't really know what's good for you." Rowe snorted again, walking away.
Emery turned to face the other four with his head a bit lowered. "I'm sorry, my friends, but I don't trust these people. And that is the most important thing. I'd rather we fight with only the five of us than work with them."
Klea jumped at Emery, wrapping her arms around his arm, and exclaimed, "Of course you're right! There's nothing you should apologize for!"
Julian and the others also nodded. Emery felt grateful to have such great friends.
While they were talking about what they should do next, a group of three young men walked closer.
"Hello! We would like to join," said the first.
"Yes, would like to join, we do," followed up the second.
"Please, let us join, we would like too," and followed up the third.
The group of five friends all looked at the three young men simultaneously and saw they the three all had the same facial features.
They were all struck into confusion for a moment when Julian coughed, bringing back the other four to normal, and asked, "The three of you, are you all brothers? Triplets?"
"No, we are not. We all are from the same world," said the first one.
"Indeed, from the same planet, we are," answered the second.
"Agree to that," mentioned the third.
Klea exclaimed, "But you all look so similar…"
"Well, we can say the same for you five," said the first. The other two answered with the same meaning, only phrased differently.
The five youth from Earth were speechless. "..."