There was one day left before the academy started. Steven got ready and prepared all his belongings and important clothes inside a storage ring.
After two months from the start of the test, an acceptance letter and an academic uniform with a small brooch engraved with the owl emblem of the academy were sent to the address written in the academy entrance exam form. Of course, Steven had written his old house address. If it wasn't for Byron, he wouldn't have known about the arrival of the letter and the academy uniform.
The letter didn't contain Steven's ranking; it only included congratulations for being accepted.
As for the academy uniform, after Mark insisted, Steven tried it on.
The uniform was beautiful and simple — a white shirt with a black sleeveless vest designed elegantly, decorated with golden patterns and buttons, and black pants trimmed with golden embroidery. Even though it didn't look suitable for combat, when worn it was strangely comfortable for movement.
Steven received a lot of praise from Mark at that time, which made him feel embarrassed.
...
Mark stood beside Steven, frowning. He wasn't in a good mood. His brother was leaving for several months, and he wouldn't be able to see him. That was the worst thing for Mark. And after Alisa came, he could barely see his brother because of that girl.
He knew his brother was cautious of her and of her sharp observation. There were many enemies lurking around his identity as "Black Crow." His brother couldn't afford to be careless about hiding his identity.
Steven looked at Mark, smiled weakly, approached, and patted his hair.
"Don't be sad, you can call me and talk anytime you want."
Mark bit his lip and spoke in a low voice.
"But I won't be able to see you or even eat the food you cook."
Steven laughed and spoke playfully.
"Oh right, your cook will disappear, so of course you'll be sad."
Mark quickly defended himself.
"No! It's not about the cooking, I… I'll just miss you."
Steven laughed more and spoke, trying to calm Mark down.
"I know, I know, I'll miss you too."
When Mark saw Steven laughing, he frowned and turned his face away.
"You like to mess with me."
Steven stopped laughing and tried to make it up to him.
"No, I just think you're cute when you get nervous."
Mark was still frowning. Steven sighed and patted his head again.
"Come on, don't frown, you should send me off with a smile."
When Mark was about to reply, both heard a woman's voice speaking:
"You have to call me a lot, and if I don't answer, send me messages about your day."
"Make lots of friends there, ah, and don't let boys cross their limits with you. Any guy who says he likes you, just hit him like I taught you, and don't go easy on him."
"I've prepared lots of daily stuff for you and put them in this ring, use them well."
Alisa spoke quietly:
"Okay, Izzy."
Izzy used to visit Alisa sometimes. Of course, she was frowning. She wanted Alisa to live with her, but she wasn't home most of the time and lived with her family of ten members. Her family was really chaotic, and she didn't want the little Alisa to meet those lunatics, so she arranged a place for her inside the guild to live in.
But Alisa suddenly disappeared, and that damn old man kidnapped her and convinced her to live here with those two strange kids. Maybe he was greedy for her to join his guild and steal her from them. Izzy had tried to convince her to come back, but she strongly refused.
She had brought her the academy uniform and her acceptance letter happily. Of course, she already knew her smart, talented, and beautiful girl would be accepted, but that didn't stop her from feeling happy when she saw the acceptance letter. She was so proud that she even brought a cake and celebrated with her.
Alisa stood in front of Mark, looked at him, and spoke quietly.
"I'm going to the academy."
Mark spoke a little awkwardly.
"Yeah, good luck."
Alisa stayed silent and stood in her place for a while, then turned and left, getting into Izzy's car. Izzy followed quickly.
Mark looked strangely at the departing Alisa, then turned his gaze to Steven and asked nervously:
"Is she acting weird, or is it just me misunderstanding?"
Steven shrugged.
"I don't know, she always acts weird."
Izzy's shout interrupted them:
"Come on, boy, we're leaving!"
Even though Izzy was annoyed with the boys, when she found out Steven had also been accepted into the academy, she offered to give him a ride too.
Steven had no reason to refuse, so he accepted.
Steven said goodbye to Mark once again and got into the car.
It took only ten minutes to reach the academy; the house was nearby, so of course they arrived quickly.
Both of them got out of the car, and Izzy waved from inside. She didn't want anyone to notice her so she wouldn't cause chaos or trouble for the kids, then turned and drove away quickly.
The two stood in front of the academy wearing casual clothes. It wasn't necessary to wear the academy uniform upon entry — it was only required when classes began.
Steven didn't look at Alisa and entered the academy gate after showing his acceptance letter. They took his eye and palm scans, and he was able to enter.
The academy's security wasn't simple, even though anyone could easily enter or leave.
What greeted him was a huge scene: many magnificent buildings with splendid designs. The view before him was completely different from when he took the test.
The exam had been held at the back of the academy, where there was nothing special — just some gardens, a few buildings, and one very large hall filled with many virtual reality capsules.
But the main side of the academy had many buildings of different shapes, arranged precisely and harmoniously. In the middle stood three large statues — two men and one woman — carved skillfully.
Steven couldn't help but be a little amazed; it was different from how it was described in the novel and different from what social media showed. Seeing it in person was truly refreshing for the eyes.
After taking a look around the academy, he now had to find the main hall where the students' rankings and dorm allocations were displayed.
As he walked forward, he noticed a medium-sized glowing screen. When he approached it, he saw its contents — a map showing the academy layout neatly, with the names of the buildings and other details.
It seemed that the distance from his current location to the main hall was about half an hour on foot.
While heading there, he saw many students wandering around. Some had arrived a week ago, some came right after receiving their acceptance letters, and some, like Steven, had just arrived.
Some students were so excited they were already wearing their academy uniforms even before classes started. Well, their excitement wouldn't last long — the Hope Academy wasn't easy to survive in.
After Steven arrived at the main hall, he first went to the screen displaying the rankings.
His eyes immediately went to the top of the list — first place: Kai; second place: Alisa; third: Ira Arnua; sixth: David Fabian; seventh: Leonard Taimor; eighth: Evelyn Taimor; and tenth: Nathan. Agnes Ferdinand was ranked 27th.
'Hmm, there are some changes in the rankings, but not much. And Kai is still in first place.'
Steven searched for his name and found that he was ranked 319th.
"This… is higher than I expected."
Suddenly he heard a girl's voice:
"Your rank is lower than I expected."
Steven looked toward the voice and saw Alisa standing quietly, looking at him.
Steven spoke calmly:
"I'd prefer we don't meet in the academy. We don't even know each other, so you don't need to pretend you do."
Steven turned around and walked toward a bigger screen displaying the student dormitory divisions.
The screen showed groups of a hundred students each, distributed among several buildings from C1 to C15.
Steven's building was C6. When he found his name there, he felt relieved that it wasn't one of the main heroes' buildings.
Then he glanced at the rest of the names, and suddenly his eyes landed on one that made his body freeze.
'This… impossible.'
'No way. What are the chances of me and him being in the same room? One percent?'
'Yeah, it's fine if we're in the same building, but being in the same room? Impossible.'
Steven tried to reassure himself — no, his luck couldn't be that bad.
He headed to the dormitory building C6. After entering, he went up to the receptionist.
"Excuse me, I want to know my room number."
The receptionist smiled a professional smile and spoke kindly.
"Of course. Tell me your name."
Steven replied,
"Steven Raold."
"Okay, wait a second… found it. It's room number 43."
The receptionist took out a key and handed it to Steven.
"Here you go, this is your room key."
Steven took the key and went up the elevator to the ninth floor.
The dorm buildings each had ten floors, and each floor had five rooms.
Some buildings were for girls only, others for boys, so it was impossible for them to share rooms.
Steven reached the seventh floor, exited the elevator, and stopped in front of room number 43.
He stood there for a few minutes, then finally lifted the key, inserted it into the lock, and opened it.
After that, he grabbed the doorknob, turned it, and opened the door.
...