Speeches in any type of ceremony tend to be bothersome and, honestly, quite boring. Most people would agree with that notion.
It was especially more so in the case of new students, who had to stand for hours just to hear an overly enthusiastic principal give a speech about moral etiquette, a talk about himself and other important staff members whom no one would hope to see for their entire academic year, and of course the overbearing history of the academy, which they would learn the next day, first thing in the morning, but without the excessive praise to the founders probably, that entirely depends on the teacher, though.
It was honestly a pain to go through, and being the first thing to happen after a 6 hour long bus ride only made it more irritating , most were just waiting to check dorms
Classes were set to begin tomorrow anyway; today was an adjustment period to the unfamiliar environment and a rest day, as dubbed by the academy.
As the principal's speech dragged on, most found their focus shifting to the walls or the roof of the building, admiring the ancient beauty. The whole academy was a giant castle with towering spires and massive, opulent hallways stretching wide, where large windows could be found in abundance. There were archways connecting to the spires. The castle walls were made completely out of a smooth, black, stone-like substance.
While castles existed in many places across the nine continents, most were already remodeled with new essence tech that came out after the magi-tech revolution.
Glass was the new trend on the continent anyway; everyone these days wanted a building with outer walls made of glass, to enjoy the view, so they say.
So ancient castles like this, with little to no outward remodeling, were getting rarer and rarer these days.
This was especially more so the case after proper water channels and airways were established and reinforced for transport between the continents six centuries ago.
Which enabled the sharing of technology overseas, further bridging the gap between continents. All these factors contributed to the gradual disappearance of castles, which were now seen as a sign of old age rather than ancestry and bloodline.
But the lack of essence tech and remodeling did not make the castle, which was the academy, inconvenient it was quite the opposite. The castle was an artifact of a bygone era, so while it was incredibly old, ancient even, it was in no sense outdated.
It had ancient alien tech which was seamlessly integrated into the walls, hidden from clear sight. There were many castle functions, the purpose of which remains unknown to this very day. All this added to the enigma of the castle.
All this added to the fascination. There were glowing symbols on the walls which faded out, replaced by what looked like lines on a circuit.
The principal's speech was followed by the speech of the ranked one. It was an impressive speech, something improvised on the spot, but sadly the students had long since zoomed out of the words and were busy admiring the chandeliers which popped out of nowhere—most would say so. It actually came out of the roof itself, though.
Rowayne, however, had a different worry in his mind. It was about friends. What were they? How to make them? Where they came from? When does one become friends? How long does one have to talk to make friends?
Memories of Arius and Roanne didn't help in this case. Roanne was a shut-in princess, so there was no lesson to get from there.
As for Arius, that was even worse. Going by the memories, the guy was a bit edgy, and by the time he grew out of that phase, he was already thirty, with the philosophy of "beat the shit out of them, they will either hate you or submit."
So Rowayne had no experience in making friends. Thus came the excessive thinking session of an introvert trying to make friends.
The thoughts spiraled to the point that he questioned if Shen and Ariel could be considered friends. He did talk to them, but was ignored by one and only had a conversation with the other. And what were the chances that he would meet them again anyway?
So a new day, and a whole new problem of making friends. He was busy deciding which would be better: barging in and saying hello to everyone he sees, or passing around a slip of paper carrying his initials and mail ID. He needed preparation. It was an experience very different from a battlefield and/or being holed up in a library.
The ceremony came to an end, and the students were dismissed for the day. The apartments were very different from the old, ancient castle vibes of the academy. There were four groups of buildings, each group denoted by an alphabet. Each group was capable of housing 500 students, with four students on each floor, going up to 20 floors, while having seven buildings in a group. The last building was reserved for the top 20 among the group of 500 students, each of the top 20 students getting their own floor.
Rowayne's apartment was in the group named Sector R. It was probably a short form of something, since the sectors were in alphabetical order, the three others being Sector I, Sector C, and Sector O, respectively.