After Daimon returned to his seat, the next ones to stand up were both Calvin and Michael, there weren’t too many guys in the elite class, but they already became brothers in weapons, so if one of them took a step ahead be it Daimon or one of the others, the rest will follow.
That being said Calvin ended up being too heated for the moment that he cut his finger a bit too much and dripped blood in the floor, making Michael sigh as he signed the contract first while Calvin went to get a mop.
Daimon judged their reactions and unlike him they didn’t show any uncomfortable expressions which caught his attention, but Evangeline explained to him that in their level is normal to not feel things related to the soul with very rare exceptions, one of them being of course those related to the system.
Calvin cleaned the floor and then signed the contract, “Damn I just wanted to look cool in front of Loren why does the world doesn’t want me to get a cute girlfriend”, he thought.
The girls followed after that, Daimon already told Aisha the contract won’t affect her so she didn’t doubt to sign it, as for Leslie, Yvonne and Liliana they didn’t feel the contract activating so there was no problem on their side.
Aliya took the scrolls signed with blood, she had special care to grab Calvin’s one which was slightly bloody and then threw them into her storage ring.
“Congratulations, you have all become “official” students of the Wild Claw academy”.
“Mm?”, Yvonne was quite interested in that last sentence so she asked what was in her mind.
“What would have happened if we decided to not sign that contract thing?”.
Aliya shrugged, “You would have been expelled from the academy, according to the rules to which all the noble families have agreed… there won’t be any opportunity for you to return, that’s the origin of the rumors that there are secrets kept by the academies”.
Yvonne nodded, it wasn’t hard to understand the origin of the rumors now, of course those that belonged to high ranked families wouldn’t refuse signing, the commoners had no option but to accept anyway.
So, the ones that probably spread the rumors where those whose families were at the brink of losing their noble status, thinking that they were being tricked into losing their freedoms or something along the lines they rejected the contract and stayed out of the academies.
Aliya sat down and started her explanation.
“You all come from noble clans, tell me have you seen knowledge about the Arch ranks in the libraries of your families?”.
It didn’t escape everyone’s eyes that the only one that didn’t nod was Loren, Aliya sighed.
“When the academies were created… the weaker families had to give up all their knowledge that surpassed the Lord realms, and those who were in the power at that time had to agree to not inherit their knowledge to their younger generations”.
Loren had a complex expression on her face, this story is well known in her family, they became weaker because after their books and records were confiscated, some radical guy destroyed them to prevent those with light affinity to “threat” the beast faction.
Of course, her family was given a monetary compensation and an agreement was also reached, so that when their Arch ranks were about to meet the end of their lives… they will be allowed to pass down their inheritance and it has been like that for at least ten generations of the Lefay family.
That’s why there are few Archmages on her family up to this day, because one needs to die for another to arise and this cycle will only break if they get a half emperor, for other families their situation wasn’t that horrible, they just had to enter the academy and their young generations will get the chance to reach the Arch ranks, the same for commoners.
Calvin frowned his brows.
“And why did they do all that, control?”.
Aliya shook her head, “No, the correct answer is “fear”, of what lies outside our stellar chart to be more accurate”.
…
All the students remained silent, four galaxies are already quite big, up to this day there are places that haven’t been explored, just like the magic ruin that was recently found, and now it turns out there is a completely unknown world out there.
Aliya told them the story of how the Wonder Myriad stellar chart was invaded once a long time ago, about the existence of the magus emperor and all the dagame it caused, the seal created by the ancestor of the Greenwich Sage, and the responsibility that each Archmage has to help reinforce the seal after a certain amount of time.
The version told by Aliya was practically the same Daimon knew, there were only slight details omitted like the fact that the magus kings were born thanks to the remains of the magus emperor of that time.
So far no one knew the requirements to become a half emperor once there was a person that shared its experience with its descendants but it was worthless, apparently everyone has different requirements, so while the Arch ranks are “monopolized” the half emperor realm is open or everyone.
Aliya judged the reactions of her students, on the girl’s side, Leslie was slightly pale after listening to all the massacrer caused by the magus emperor and his army, Yvonne looked rather indifferent and the same could be said of Liliana, lastly Loren seemed to be contemplating things.
Which was understandable, leaving aside the fact that her family was affected on purpose, she now understood why no one seconded their motion of abolishing the contract their family had.
Arch ranks already started touching the laws of space and after years of resentment accumulated no one in their sane judgement will give them the key to become powerful, that being said for the first time in the history of the Lefay family, someone of the young generation entered the elite class, so who knows things might be different this time.
Aliya saw the gaze of Loren changing from aggrievance to determination and she smiled, “Calvin might be an idiot, but apparently he’s got a good eye for girls, perhaps the Lefay family might be able to rise in the future”, she thought.
The rest of the class was a repetition in what they have already seen previously, since they had a new classmate, Loren needed to catch up, the only exception was that Aliya decided to wait a bit more before teaching her theory concept to her, but the recipe for the recovery potion and the part of focusing on improving casting time was properly explained again.
Once the time for the class finished Aliya stood from her seat.
“Loren if you have questions, you can ask any of your classmates, for potion brewing I suggest you to ask Daimon, for casting I would say either Yvonne or Michael”.
Michael laughed at Calvin, which made him feel miserable but then he smirked.
“Well, well, well, Michael my friend, since you are a trustable tutor, then I think you can also help me improve my casting time”.
Aliya nodded, “That’s a good idea Calvin, uncle Richard will be happy to know you are taking things seriously now”.
Michael nearly choked, he was just trying to mess with Calvin and suddenly he ended up being his tutor, the same applied for Daimon, he wasn’t fond in teaching others but Aisha gave him puppy eyes so he had no choice but to oblige.
“Happy wife, happy life”, he thought.
Although it was raining outside, the training grounds were roofed so they would be sheltered, maybe because Liz was with them Boris didn’t came to pick them up today, so Aliya guided them to the elite class training facilities.
On the way they saw other students walking with umbrellas, Calvin “casually” had one in his storage ring but when he approached Loren to try and share his shelter from the rain with her, he noticed the rain seemed to avoid their group.
“Mm?”, Calvin turned to see the sky and noticed it was still raining, but the drops of water seemed to be stopped by an invisible dome above their heads, he then suddenly remembered they were accompanied by an Archmage.
Michael laughed at him, “That’s what you get for annoying an Archmage”, he thought.
Once they reached the training facilities, Aliya used her token to open the barrier, inside they saw both Boris and Richard drinking and chatting.
Richard stopped drinking, he rose a badge that looked similar to the one used by Boris and then shouted.
“Yo brats, let me give you the good news, from this moment and onwards I will be in charge of giving you special survival-oriented training in preparation for the magic ruin exploration… in fact you won’t be the only ones, the elite classes of the second and third years will be the same”.
Calvin wanted to shout to the havens, previously the lessons imparted by Richard were extraofficial so there was no obligation to attend, but now that he was assigned by the academy then he had no choice but to obey.
Richard noticed the new face and he frowned his brows.
“Someone from the Lefay family… little girl please state your name”.
Aliya sighed; Richard had known two people from the Lefay family before, one of them left a good impression but the other one didn’t.
Loren took a few steps ahead and presented herself.
“Loren Lefay, it’s a pleasure to meet the legendary instructor Risha”.
Richard’s expression had a 180° change, he laughed out loud and then said.
“Little girl how is your father doing, has he become lazy after marrying?”.
Loren shook her head, “Father told me to give senior Risha his respects, he will come to pay a visit as soon as he has a chance”.
Richard nodded, “Everyone come here, today it’s raining so we will stay at the training facilities, but that doesn’t mean you will save from sweating”.
The sinister grin on Richard’s face made all the students had a bad premonition.