Seeing that Boris was now publicly acting as an Archmage, Alexander swallowed his complains, but that didn’t prevent him from giving Daimon a furious gaze before he focused in his own little group.
Daimon mentally laughed, “it seems that no matter in which planet or galaxy you are, there is always these kind of idiots at school”, he thought.
Boris waved his hand and a barrier made out of mana condensed around them, they all started floating towards the campus, Daimon stole one last glance at Erin’s carriage before he smiled, it would be a lie to day that he wasn’t excited to attend to a “magic school”.
After a couple of minutes, they arrived at the entrance of one of the buildings that conformed the campus, the style was pretty much that of a middle age castle, probably because the academy was created a long time ago before human modern architecture became popular among other races.
Contrary to the outside facade, the insides of the building were quite new which made sense considering how expensive was to study in the main campus, that’s why all the ones studying here needed a back up to pay for them, in the rare cases where some commoner turned out to have a big talent, it will be recruited by one of the families or forces and receive the proper support.
The other option was being sent to one of the many branches of the academy, since only those with a good enough background were allowed to study in the main campus in Lykos, of course that was clearly elitism but it was also a good way to get young unknown talents join the family.
While Boris guided them to the ceremony hall, Daimon curiously looked at the many classrooms and other facilities that were visible from time to time, like a library, the training grounds, etc.
The old man stopped walking when they reached the entrance to a big hall, a lot of noise could be heard coming from it and most of it were discussions about the elite class which was making them wait.
Boris laughed.
“First lesson, you might think that being in the elite class give you a lot of privileges, reputation and things like that, and it technically does, but it comes with a price… all the other classes will be chasing after your spots, right now there are ten of you ranked from the first to tenth place according to the judge of the instructors that evaluated you”.
“The elite class must consist in 30 people before the end of the first year so you can participate in the interschool tournament, but the other twenty people will be those that advance from the first class; however, they can challenge you at least once a day to occupy your position”.
Alexander’s eyes lit up.
“What is the current ranking… prefect Ogien?”, he asked.
The old man had a ridiculing grin in his face.
“I don’t think you will like the answer, so I will tell it to you right away, the first one is not you hahaha”.
The other members of the elite class resisted the urge to laugh, with the exception of Daimon, which of course earned him a hateful gaze from Alexander.
Still, Daimon didn’t know that they will be targeted by the students from other classes, which was honestly a pain in the ass to dealt.
“Old man, is there a way for us to stop others from challenging me?”.
Boris put on a wild smile on his face.
“Of course, you just need to teach them who is the boss and they will stop aiming for your spot and target others or just fight among themselves for one of the other twenty free spaces”.
One of the two guys that were with Alexander spoke.
“Can we challenge any of the other members of the class to get their rank?”.
Boris shook his head.
“Not right now, for the time being you will only be allowed to defend the rank which was assigned to you by the instructors, some time before the interschool tournament begins, there will be a period where you will fight to decide the final rankings”.
Alexander wanted to ask something else but the old man refused.
“Now shut up and enter the ceremony hall, go and see your new “fans”, hahaha”.
“You are supposed to be the tutor of the class, so why the hell do you laugh at our misfortune?”, said Alexander.
Boris didn’t bother to answer, he entered the hall followed by the other members of the elite class, the group from the Jolbaris family was left behind until Alexander mumbled.
“Be as arrogant as you want old man, I will make sure to make you pay in the future… let’s go you two!!!”, he said to his lackeys.
Inside of the ceremony hall, there were four separated groups, the classes “A-B” which or the first rank students, followed by the classes “C-D” forming the second rank students and finally the class “E” or the third rank students, which were those that barely approved the tests.
Of course, besides them, there was the “S” class also known as the elite class, even in this ceremony it was clear the distinction between the classes, first rank students had some luxury seats, the second rank students were using decent chairs but the third rank students were sitting on benches or on the floor.
Some of them were wearing high class clothes and the emblems of renowned forces and still, their results were so poor that they had no choice but to enter the third class and try to go up from that point.
Once the members of the elite class entered the room, all the gazes fell on them, some of them were of admiration, others were of jealousy but the majority were annoyed, specially the first rank students who were aiming to enter the elite class.
Their designated area was totally separated from the others, it was not an exaggeration to say that they were looking at the other from above, since their seats were in a private second floor from which they could see the whole place.
Boris gave the tutors of the other classes a mocking gaze before he went upstairs followed by his class, once they were in the second floor Alexander took the initiative to take the seat that was perfectly in the middle of the room, which also had the best view, unfortunately his happiness was interrupted by Boris’s voice.
“Jolbaris brat, I know you are a first year but we expect our new students to know how to read and write”.
Alexander was confused by the old man’s words until one of his companions told him in a low voice… that the seats had number and name, which meant they were assigned already, in his hurry to take the better spot he didn’t see it.
To top it off the seat he was using was labelled to say “Rank 1 Daimon Licht”, he gritted his teeth and under the eyes of the whole hall had to leave the seat to look for the one that was assigned to him, the group of three girls laughed in a low tone but the other two guys didn’t care about Alexander and laughed uproariously.
Daimon took his designated seat, Aisha sat at his right which meant she had the second rank in the class right now and surprisingly the seat at his left wasn’t occupied by Alexander but a skinny guy which was one of the two that laughed out loud before.
Only after them it was Alexander sitting with an unsightly expression on his face, after that the group of three girls, the other two members of the Jolbaris family and lastly the other guy that laughed at Alexander before.
Daimon didn’t pay attention to the others, so far, the only one with which he spoke turned out to be an asshole so he wasn’t too inclined to meet the rest of the class for now, Aisha leaned her head against his shoulder and then the entrance ceremony started.
The girl from the snow leopard tribe which evaluated Aisha before was the one welcoming the new students, she stood in behind of a little podium and used a magic device similar to a microphone to amplify her voice.
“All of you surpassed your peers and got accepted in the main campus, for the next years this will be your home and pride, in representation of the beast faction, I welcome you to the Wild Claw Academy, young mages and knights never forget to strive for the glory of the White Fang Galaxy!!!”.
Unlike what everyone expected the speech wasn’t too long, instead of that after the snow leopard girl finished speaking, some staff members entered pulling tables with tons of different dishes, each tutor gave the its class the green flag to participate in the banquet and start knowing new people, this day there was no classes, instead there will be students from second or third year giving orientation to anyone that asked for it after the freshman’s party so everyone was free to wander around the academy.
Well almost everyone, Boris gave his class one last warning before leaving them to whatever they wanted.
“You guys can go downstairs, if you need help, I will be eating with the other tutors… also don’t you dare to lose in your first challenge or I will personally kick your asses out of the elite class understood?”.
All of the class nodded before going downstairs, as expected they were still the hot topic among the other students, something that Alexander will normally enjoy if it weren’t for the fact that he heard many of the students from B class calling him “elite clown”.
While Alexander’s group started discussing with some random guys, the rest of the class each took their separate ways, apparently the ranked 3 guy wasn’t in a group with the ranked 10 contrary to what Daimon thought, since he saw him sitting alone in a table to eat only desserts.
Aisha dragged her son all the way to the table where meat was being grilled by the staff according to the petitions of each student, she ordered something for both of them and once she got it, they both sat to eat.
Without caring that other people were seeing them, Aisha cut some pieces of meat before personally feeding them to Daimon.
“Say “ahh”, darling”, she said.
Daimon happily accepted the offer and while he was enjoying the perfectly cooked meat of a fourth star ranked magic beast, he saw a disturb arising between the A class and Alexander’s lackeys.
Daimon was a firm believer of murphy’s law, “if anything can go wrong, then it will”, that’s why he wasn’t surprised when he heard someone yelling at him.
“You the ranked one from the elite class, I challenge you to a duel!!!”.
Daimon sighed, he stood up from his chair and shouted towards the table where the tutors were eating and watching the show and shouted.
“Oi old man Boris, how much am I allowed to harm those who challenge me?”.
…
Silence fell into, until Boris’s ruthless laugh echoed through the room.
“As long the other guy is still breathing and can be patched up in the infirmary, I don’t care about what you do hahaha”.
Daimon nodded, he turned to see the guy that was challenging him.
“You heard him, are you sure you want to be the first one to challenge me?”.
The other guy felt a bit intimidated, in the eyes of most of the A class students, those in the elite class were only there thanks to nepotism, his friends convinced him to challenge one of them to prove they were right… but he wasn’t so sure anymore.
Aisha was amused by the whole since she had to go through something similar back when she used to be a student in the red mist planet.
“Finish it soon, so we can keep eating”.
