The trio had changed clothes to their much nicer clothes. Today was the day they arrived at the capital city of Thedifell. They could see it off in the distance by this point, Akai and Kidd and many of the others in other carriages were leaning out the window to look. The road they were on ran parallel to a large river and the city was built around where many smaller creeks and flows formed together to create the calm river. They were passing by many farm fields with grain, vegetables, and livestock that had sprung up outside the city. They could see a large, towering castle within its walls and a number of other large towering buildings as well in other parts of the urban sprawl.
Soon the caravan met a checkpoint at the outermost border of the city. There was not a proper wall built this far out but there was a noticeable military presence. Watch towers and the likes to keep watch for smugglers trying to evade checkpoints. The caravan was only stopped for a moment before continuing further. The caravan rode through without issue and turned soon after, taking a side road and not heading to the city proper. Another hour and they soon came to a stop. Looking outside, they were settled outside a clearly noted campus. Large wrought iron fencing surrounds multiple hundreds of acres of property. As they stepped out of the carriages, they stood in front of the main gate with a metal sign reading “Royal Legonian Academy”. Standing before the gate were many different people. Supposed teachers and instructors at this academy. There were many weapons masters visible standing at attention alongside individuals wearing marvelous robes, numerous scholars, and at the forefront of the staff were an immediately notable few.
There was an elven woman draped in dark blue robes with patterns of the stars embroidered into it with silver thread. She had an aloof gaze as her eyes wandered absently over the amassing arrivals.
Opposite was a tall and burly man wearing armor with the royal symbol embossed on the breastplate. He had scars from many previous battles visible on his face as he stood with a smile, short black hair moved in the breeze as did a braided black beard.
There was a short, stout man. A dwarf. Trying his best not to scratch while looking visibly uncomfortable in a proper cloth suit of clothes. He still had traces of soot visible on the edges of his face where he failed to wash it off.
Along the sides was a youthful looking Elven woman wearing a vibrant green short dress and knee high boots, long braided auburn hair swaying in the breeze as she seemed more interested in looking at the clouds than the arriving students. She didn’t look much older than a teenager herself. Though, Akai didn’t know how long elves actually lived, so her real age was a mystery.
A human woman with brown hair in a bun stood by, she held her hands together in front of her staff uniform, one of the few head members of staff actually wearing the school’s uniform, as she watched the arrivals through round glasses.
On the tail end was a quite thin & skinny blonde man wearing a blue robe over his uniform. Well groomed blonde hair, piercing green eyes, he gave off the vibe of a snooty noble. His robe did have a visible magical glint to it.
Then at the very front was an absolutely ancient looking man. He was leaning on a cane for support. He had long white hair and a clean shaven face. A kind smile rested on his face but one look at the elder and you could feel the deep mass of power hiding within him.
“Welcome, young blessed awakened. Today marks the first day of your stay with us in the royal academy.” The elder said, his voice carrying despite no effort to speak up. As if part of the world itself bent to his will to be heard.
“I’m sure you have all been told this already, but our school will be your home for the next three years. I am the Academy Director, Triblessed Magnus. I have been blessed thrice over, as the name entails, but please don’t feel intimidated into excessive formalities. You can simply refer to me as Director Magnus.”
The elderly man gestured to the sides and the other heads of staff began to introduce themselves. The armored man stepped forwards.
“My name is Sigurd Hjarlson, retired chief commander of the royal guard. I will be teaching all of you with an interest in physical combat the ins and out of being a proper warrior.”
Sigurd stepped back and the elven woman in arcane looking clothes said in a very soothing voice.
“Camilla Yelmaris. Any and all of you with an interest in the use of the arcane arts, whether or not you have been blessed by Goddess Andarta, will be under my tutelage.”
Camilla stepped back and the dwarven man stepped forwards. He bellowed out
“The Name’s Grinwald Cragfall. Vice Head of the Thedifell chapter Artisan Guild. Forgemaster and any of you that will be working with your hands will be working with me.”
Grinwald stepped back, scratching where the collar of his shirt brushed his neck.
The human woman with brown hair and glasses stepped forwards, she stuttered for a second before speaking with a faintly flushed face.
“I am Lady Mirella Gloomshade, member of House Gloomshade. I am primarily a historian, but I and my staff will be working with you all during your academic studies..” She then quickly stepped back into line.
There was an awkward pause before Mirella gently nudged the side of the youthful elven girl, who didn’t step forwards but did look over the new arrivals and say cheerfully.
“Oh, My name is Nyria Riza. I do a lot of the gardening and I’ll be teaching you the ins and outs of that, or alchemy, if you want. And no, I’m not a kid either.”
Finally, the man at the end stepped forwards. He said with a formal tone “I am Sir Vagras Wynever, Heir to house Wynever, and I am the foremost enchanting master in Legonia. I will teach you the three main forms of enchanting and how to do it. Runecrafting, Imbument, and Artifice.”
After he stepped back, Director Magnus gently tapped his cane on the cobblestone and the gates to the academy grounds began to open. “Boys, you will follow Sigurd Hjarlson, he will lead you to the men’s dormitories. Girls, you follow Lady Mirella, she will lead you to the girl’s dormitories. Today, you settle in. Tomorrow, you will tour our grounds. Overmorrow, you will begin your first lessons.”
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He then tapped his cane on the floor again and everyone felt the world respond to his will. He was there, but the space around him shifted to fill in where he stood. Then he was gone. Vanishing without so much as causing a disturbance to the air. If everyone didn’t see it, they would have never noticed beyond him intentionally letting them feel his power.
The groups of teenagers were separated and brought to the dormitories. Each was a collection of communal housing buildings, though the boys and girls were well over a mile apart from one another. Akai could see the grounds of this academy were very large. There was a forested section, training grounds with a lot of space, and what even looked like a small village for the staff members to live in near the actual study halls. Dedicated sections for their education, military training, martial combat, magical combat, crafting, and a very large garden that looked overgrown with various different kinds of weird plants.
Akai, Kidd, and most of the other boys were brought over to the dormitories. Sigurd Hjarlson stopped in front of the buildings and said “This year we had received many more of you than expected. Over 100 total new awakened this year. Because of this, to make space, some of you will have to share accommodations with the later years. Until we get new buildings in.”
After a moment of people’s confusion, Sigurd said “the few of you over 16, you get the 3rd year building.” pointing at one building over his shoulder, then about 7 people separated out. He counted the rest, and picked 12 others. When they stepped forwards, he said “You 12 get the 2nd year building. The rest will fill out the 1st year building.”
Akai took a moment and he was among the remaining 36 people moving into the currently empty dormitory building. Everyone was currently carrying the belongings they had brought with them, and began to carry them to their respective buildings.
“Sort amongst yourselves where you’re staying, There’s 7 rooms per floor, 3 floors, 2 beds per room. You lot going in the other buildings, you don’t pick a room that already has someone’s stuff in it.”
After those basic instructions, everyone began to move. After everyone finally settled what room they’ll be staying in, Akai and Kidd getting unlucky and getting a room on the 3rd floor, everyone came back out. Sigurd said “Dinner will be served soon. Follow me to the dining hall. Afterwards, you are free to do as you please until sundown. Then it’s to your dorms. You are not permitted to roam the grounds after dark unless you are being escorted by someone. Understood?”
About half of the students gave out a lazy ‘Yes Sir’ in response, which caused him to scoff. Sigurd knew they were just kids right now, but once lessons began he was going to knock some respect into them.
After a while of walking, they ended up at a large building. Inside were many long tables for the academy students to eat at, a large kitchen in the back where they could see quite a few cooks currently working on preparing food. This building was close to an infirmary. There were many different small buildings that just held a classroom inside. They saw many of the other awakened students going through their day, moving between classrooms for education, or heading to the training grounds for physical training. There was a distinct order to things while being quite different than what they imagined the academy would be like. Akai and Kidd sort of envisioned a bootcamp style education, but it was more formal than that.
A few minutes later and they noticed the girls being led to the dining hall as well. But before they could get close enough to have any kind of conversation, Sigurd was leading them away. He led them to the training grounds and when finally coming to a stop in one of the large fields that, other than scars on the ground from many empowered fights in the past, was empty. On the far end of the training ground there were people running laps. Akai’s attention was brought forwards when Sigurd spoke.
“These are the training grounds. This field is the sparring field. Fighting on school grounds outside of this field is strictly prohibited. You ever get in a disagreement, you come here.”
He scanned his eyes over the group of teens, Sigurd was definitely a military man the way he was treating them. He spoke to them like they were recruits and not kids.
“If I ever hear about any of you getting into a brawl even one step off this field, I will beat you black and blue before dragging you to the infirmary.”
As he spoke, an aura of red power radiated from him and this time all of the students following him said “Yes sir!” in response.
Later when dinner was being served, Akai found himself in the dining hall. The kitchen staff had laid out not quite a feast but there was plenty of food already laid out on the tables. Bowls of stew, loaves of bread, servings of cheese, sausage, roasted fish, autumn fruits, and leafy salads laid out for people to actually eat their fill.. First year, second year, and third year students all were hear to eat. Eventually Akai found Lamorie at a spot and he sat by her with Kidd.
“There you are.” Lamorie said with a sigh, before Akai could respond she said “Some of these people I swear.” she complained. Akai looked at her as kidd was already filling his plate with food.
“That wolf girl, she is so pretentious. The whole time she wouldn’t shut up about being the strongest person here. She wouldn’t stop claiming she would become the Immortal Hero’s champion and beat everyone else. She wouldn’t leave me alone either, she kept talking about challenging me for it.”
Akai listened to Lamorie vent her frustrations as they began to fill their plates with food and eat. Unfortunately, their time together was cut short by a red haired and wolf eared girl approaching with a plate of food, sitting down by them. She gave a glare at Lamorie, then Kidd and Akai.
“I have learned you are also blessed by the immortal hero” She touted, pointing an acusatory finger at Akai. Before he could speak a confirmation, she said. “I will not allow you to continue to act with such arrogance.”
“Arrogance?” Akai asked, a bit shocked but unsure what she meant. She leaned onto the table some as she said “Yes! You walk around with that smile like you don’t care about anything. Like you are above worrying about peers growing stronger than you and taking your place”
Akai stared at her, he had been a little aloof lately, but he didn’t think that was arrogance. He wanted his friends to be stronger so they would be safe from danger. As he was staring in confusion, Lamorie groaned and said “Listen, Lang whatever.” and immediately they could all see a vein bulge on Langyao’s forehead at the remark. “I don’t know what you think is going on, but Akai here is a great guy. He isn’t arrogant or pretentious like you are!”
Langyao turned her head away and waved a hand dismissively. She said “I will not acknowledge the opinion you have. It’s clear to everyone it’s far too biased to be reliable.”
Lamorie was about to get up but Akai gently rested a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Lamorie, just drop it.”
Before either girls could speak more, Kidd offered up the idea “We’re in an academy. Why not just let our performance judge who’s the better one.”
Lamorie turned to look at Kidd as she was sitting back down, giving him a glare. But Langyao only gave a soft but snooty sounding giggle before saying “At least one among you three are respectable.”. Langyao stood up and grabbed a roast fish from their section before turning and leaving to sit elsewhere and eat.
“Ugh, see what I mean?” Lamorie said, gesturing at the girl as she walked away. Kidd and Akai nodded in response. Unfortunately for them, they knew this wasn’t the last time some kind of trouble or issue would come up involving her.
After dinner, the kids were sent back to their dorms. Settling in and making their space. Akai and Kidd settled to share a room. Across the hall, Candell had a room with another teen. They didn’t have much to unpack. Once they were set, it was already sunset. So the two decided to relax before heading to bed.
