"What do you mean what?" Eric whispered in response to Alix's confusion.
"Isn't this place a spellcaster's University?" Eric nodded.
"Of course. That one is the spellcaster's University." Eric pointed to the blue decorated building. Alix's suddenly realized that she had made a grave error in her understanding of Marconix.
She had assumed that it was a school only for spellcaster's which in hindsight, was flawed thinking from the start. This was the Royal Academy. The best educational institute in all of Pesin, so it had been foolish for her to assume that it would be limited to teaching magic.
"Wait, then the red badge is?"
"That's the Martial University. I tried to tell you but the speech started so I couldn't. Speaking of why haven't we been hearing the speech while we've been talking."
"I simply stopped the speech so that you all could finish your conversations." The headmaster responded to Eric's question as though he was directly beside him. It was at that moment that Alix noticed that she was clearly not the only one that misunderstood the state of this school.
"Does everyone understand now?" The students answered the question with their attention.
"Good. I will now explain the ranking system for the school. As each of you should have noticed that you received the engraving of a letter and number on your badge."
The students nodded in confirmation.
"That number is your year and the letter is the ranking that I just mentioned. These rankings are split up from D to A with A being the highest that you are currently able to get." Alix frowned.
'What about her?' Almost as though he read her thoughts the headmaster motioned for three students to walk onto the stage. The girl in question being one of them.
"Some of you may have noticed one of these three students amongst you with an S engraved on their badges." Students nodded confirming that they had in fact seen at least one of the three. Alix's gaze locked on the girl from before.
The girl noticed Alix's gaze. She smiled and waved just her fingers at Alix. She didn't know why but this felt like some sort of provocation to Alix.
"These are your senior's and the Assistant Professors for your year. They along with a few others have showcased exemplary skill in their first year and achieved a new ranking. That ranking being the ever coveted S-rank!"
Expressions of intrigue and confusion spread amongst the crowd. Alix...was still glaring at the girl on stage. She was now getting a bit uncomfortable from the intense eyes of her observer. This girl had been staring at her from the moment she stepped and has yet to waver. Has she even been blinking?
'Ya good?" Mo didn't understand why Alix was seemingly trying to burn a hole through her.
'I'm committing my enemies to memory."
'...Okay." Mo gave up on trying to understand the girl. She seemed to form rivals and enemies wherever she went. He was surprised she didn't pick a fight with the trees on the way here.
Though that was probably because the plants were picking fights with her instead.
The headmaster raised his hand signing for the students to quiet down. Once the crowd was silent he continued.
"You too can achieve S-rank by standing out. We will have several opportunities for you all to showcase your growth and enlightenments. One such event that I will go further in detail about later. Though do tread carefully." The man became intensely serious scaring a few of the students.
"If on your mission to stand out you break the rules of this establishment there will be punishments." He slammed his hand on the stand.
"On your first offense you shall be warned to not break the rules a second time. Should you not acknowledge the warning and dare to break the rules a second time..." Edgar Noslen snapped his fingers summoning a new trio of students to be brought to the stage.
These ones...they did not seem like students. They wore chains on their arms and legs like criminals. They were covered in filth with their faces hidden under old tan cloaks. The man gestured to the people before him.
"These are the members of F-rank. The lowest that one can be and still attend this academy. You are allowed to take classes but you life will not be comfortable. You will work as a servant of the academy day and night.
Cleaning grime from the floors, fetching the food for the students and staff, and should any student need a test subject or a practice dummy you will be first in line. You will be exiled from the dormitories and instead placed within the dungeon where you eat and sleep. You will live as the Fools of Marconix." Edgar seemed utterly disgusted by the students in front of him.
"I hope that you understand. This could happen to anyone that dares to cross my authority. I welcome any and all attempts with an iron fist. Just remember that you have been informed of the consequences of such actions." Alix finally shifted her gaze away from her enemy. She had thoroughly memorized her features.
She analyzed every F class student closely and notice something that irked her. They all wore chains and dirty cloaks but they didn't seem distressed. In fact, they seem rather comfortable for being in what was similar to slavery.
Also, those cloaks looked oddly familiar. 'Is that not the same cloak that was worn by the person from this morning?" Mo squinted his eyes to try to observe the cloaks better.
'Seems like it. I thought they couldn't leave the academy?"
'That is what the headmaster just told us. Maybe they can be sent on errands or something?" Alix decided not to focus too hard on the F-class students.
'Best to just not fall into the class.' She moved her gaze to the final member of the class. This one was shaking slightly. Okay, maybe the F-class was terrible if someone was crying on stage. Wait, Alix analyzed the person demeanor and realized that something was still amiss.
It was like they were not crying. No, this person was...laughing? Why would anyone be laughing in that situation. The person turned their head to face Alix. She couldn't see entire face but their mouth became visible to her. That person was laughing!
The person looked to the sides sneakily and then mouthed something to Alix. Alix hadn't been able to decipher the person's message but she didn't need to as they person pulled a pair of glass vials from under their cloak.
One clear and one red. The person uncorked the clear vile and poured it onto her chains.
The liquid in the vial seemed like water originally until they started to corrode the chains at an unnatural speed. Within seconds the chains came apart and the cloaked figure sprinted toward the headmaster.
"What the?!" The man was caught off guard as the student dove at him and threw the red vial directly at the man's face. The glass of the vial shattered on impact allowing the liquid to splash across his entire face. The man began to wipe the liquid and glass off of his face.
"What is the meaning of this! How did you get your hands on acid? What di..d...you..." The man looked at the hand that was wiping the liquid and glass. There in his hand was hair. His hair.
The hair from his mustache. Then the hair from his eyebrows. The some of the hair from the frontal half of his head. Quickly all of the hair that came in contact with the red liquid began to fall off. Leaving the man's face hairless with a hairline pushed so far back that older men would express their condolences.
The students in the crowd stood in silence for only a second before bursting into an uproar of laughter.
"He looks like a sick baby seal!"
"What the hell! Who is that person?!"
"Where did they get that potion from?"
The person in question now stood at the forefront of the stage. They stood with their hands on their hips proudly. In a single swift motion they ripped the cloak off of their heads revealing their identity.
With dirty blonde hair that fell just to her nape. Skin so fair that she almost looked like a baby despite the dirt. Green eyes with a trio of silver crosses in each eye. Though the most shocking feature were her pointed ears.
She stood grinning ear to ear as she announced herself. "Hello newbies!" All the students focused on her. She lifted her arm and proudly pointed her thumb to herself.
"I'm Alisa Normandy, leader of the Fantastical Fools! And I'm gonna be the best Alchemist that these lands will ever see! Here's a sample of my most recent work!" The girl called Alisa snapped her finger and several red glass vials began to arise from the bags of serval students in the crowd.
Alix suddenly understood what the person from this morning was doing. They were bumping into people with open bags to plant these vials on them. 'Quite the prank.'
All of the vial ascended until they were floating above the crowd. "Hope you newbies packed umbrellas. Today's storm may just make your hair fall out!" She snapped again prompting all of the vials to flip over, thus pouring their contents onto all the students below.
Several students started to scream. Alix on the other hand used the Abysal Sea to form a barrier over her, Mo, and Trouler's heads.
Eric was also defended but that was more by luck than anything.
Most of the students had managed to avoid the liquid but the few unlucky began to scream as their hair began to fall out. Alix watched Alisa Normandy with interest.
"Haha! It worked! Nasak! Denver! Did you see that!? It really-ACK!!"
Vance Warren and one other teacher tackled the girl to the ground subduing her. "How do you always do this?!"
What a brilliant end to a somewhat boring introduction.