Kian Goldmaul POV

  It has been two weeks since I moved into my grandparents' house in the capital city.

  Today is officially the first day of the academy.

  I changed into some clothes that my grandma picked out for me; Godspire does have a dress code, but the actual clothes are provided directly by them.

  I come downstairs and see grandpa waiting for us, though Nicolas hasn't arrived yet.

  As for grandma, she left much earlier, and it wasn't for the Academy.

  Grandpa stares at me for a moment before giving a brief nod. After waiting for a few more seconds, Nicolas finally comes down.

  “Why didn’t you wear the academy uniform?” my grandpa asks.

  “I outgrew them.” Nicolas answers simply.

  My grandpa just nods in response. “Alright, let’s go,” he says as he leaves the house first and leads the way for us.

  After arriving at the Academy, my grandpa separated from us. Before leaving, he told me to just go along with Nicolas.

  As we arrive at the main entrance, we see a long line of people—a massive queue.

  But we don’t line up there, as Nicolas takes me elsewhere to a gate that has a sign saying, “Only students and special freshmen allowed.”

  After entering that area, Nicolas shows his identity through a phone that has the Godspire logo on the back. As for me, they scan my face and check my ID. After confirming my status, they hand me a phone, saying that this is my official academy phone and that I need to log into it using my ID and face verification before it starts working properly.

  I do as instructed, and immediately after, the phone shows my documents for me to confirm.

  After confirming everything, I look at the top of the screen and see a text that says, “Freshmen Ceremony, please head to the location on the map.” I click the notification and it shows me the detailed school map.

  “Did you finish?” Nicolas asks.

  I nod. “Yeah, it says I need to go to the Freshmen ceremony.” I say.

  He nods back. “Let me take you there, just in case.”

  I follow behind him as he leads the way through the campus. After walking for about three minutes, we arrive in front of an open door with people already entering.

  “It’s inside of here,” Nicolas says. “I will be leaving now; I have to go find my class's main teacher.” He nods at me one last time before leaving.

  I look around, taking note of the place.

  The location only has a podium at the front and is filled with rows of seats. About a third of the seats are already filled.

  Before entering, I saw a sign that read: “Please go to your assigned seat.” I look at the phone to see what my seat is, and it says H1-1.

  A front seat? I think to myself before heading down to the front.

  Finding my seat, I sit down and look around the room more thoroughly now.

  It is much bigger on the inside than it appeared from the outside. Well, that is no surprise, as it seems that space-enlarging magic isn't exactly rare, since I’ve seen it being used in many different places already.

  The room itself is quite plain, colored mostly white with a few banners hanging on the sides of the walls. The freshmen are all my age; it isn't like I thought there would be anyone older or younger anyway.

  I wait for what seems like twenty minutes before all the seats are finally filled.

  Woah, there’s a lot of people here, easily over a thousand. I think to myself as I look back behind me at the crowd.

  After waiting for another ten minutes, I see someone coming out from behind the podium, and it’s my grandpa. He seems to have changed his clothes and is now hiding his horns.

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  Even now he's still hiding his horns? I do remember when I first saw him in the academy he didn’t hide his horns, but that was probably because there was nobody there other than us and the teachers at that time, so he didn’t bother to hide them then.

  After everyone quieted down, he started talking.

  “Welcome everyone to Godspire Academy. You will be spending your next four years in here, so I hope you will like it,” he starts off. “Godspire Academy has existed for over 300 years and it has produced many of the current Knights, Mages, and politicians. Because of that, I can say with confidence that all of you are in trusted hands.”

  “We will do our absolute best to get the best out of you. You will all be placed in the best custom programs available. We will not be wasting your time on subjects or things that you have no talent for.”

  “And so, once again, we welcome all of you here.”

  …

  …

  …

  After that, he talked for about ten minutes before finishing what he had to say.

  “Well then, I will not prolong the ceremony any longer or it would start to get boring. I've already said everything that needed to be said,” grandpa says. “Now, please check your school phones to see where you all should go next. You will all be separated into different classes. Now, thank you all for listening; that will be all.” My grandpa finishes before leaving the podium and heading back to where he came in.

  After he left, I checked my phone. It says I should go and find my class; it’s on the first floor, class A-J1.

  I start heading toward there by following the map on the phone.

  The academy is really massive, and they still use space magic to expand it even further, huh...

  I remember Thaddeus telling me that I would be studying with other Semi-Pillars' and Pillars' sons. I also remember that if anyone asked who my parents are outside of that specific class, I should reply that they are Knights.

  I arrive in the classroom and there are three people in there already: one male and two girls.

  I take the seat that has my name on it and wait. After four minutes, the rest of them arrive and take their seats. There are less than twenty-five of them in here, I note.

  As we wait in our seats, our class teacher arrives. He is close to three meters in height, with blond hair and blue eyes. He looks to be in his 30s and is wearing what seems to be the standard Godspire teacher clothing. After arriving at the front middle of the class, he puts his things down before talking with a smile.

  “Welcome everyone,” he starts. “I hope you weren’t too overwhelmed today. I am Otso, Otso Otava. I will be your main class teacher for the following four years of the Academy.” He nods after he finishes talking. “Now then, I have to tell you what you will all be studying.”

  “For the next two years, you will be studying the foundations of your chosen path. Since you all chose the path of fighting, you will be learning Core control, Veythar efficiency, Battle thinking, Weapon mastery, Order following, etc… etc… a lot of different stuff,” he says while waving his hand.

  “Normally, in the third year, you would be split up into specialist classes depending on your best talents. This is done so that the students get what is best for them. But, this is extremely unlikely for any of you. You are all from military families, and I’ve seen the report cards of every single one of you. I see no reason to split you up.”

  After saying that, he opens the tablet he is holding.

  “Well then, since I have finished explaining this, you guys will start introducing yourselves to each other. I will be calling you one by one using your names. You will say your full name, your parents' names, and the region you came from. Don't worry; everyone here has the same standing as each of you, so there is no need to hide anything.”

  “Well then, let’s start…”

  …

  …

  …

  “Next is Rhaelor, please come down here and introduce yourself.”

  He comes down to the front. Oh, it’s that kid I fought at the end of the tournament; I almost forgot about him. I think to myself after seeing his face clearly.

  “Hello, my name is Rhaelor Grymon Altheryn. My father is Orhan Grymon Altheryn. I came from the Eastern region. It is nice to meet all of you, and I hope we get along.”

  After three more people, it is finally my turn. I get down and start speaking after facing their direction.

  “Hello, my name is Kian Balburg. My father is Thaddeus Balburg. I came from the Northern region. Nice to meet all of you.”

  After that, I return to my row and sit back down. As he finished calling us one by one, the teacher started talking again.

  “There is a chat group that was made on your phones. You can communicate with each other whenever you want, whether it is through direct messages or group messages. You don't have to worry, as we respect every student's privacy.”

  “Now I will be explaining what you will be doing for this month.” As he says that, he moves his finger across his tablet. After a few seconds, an image appears on the board TV and on the screens on each of our tables.

  “You all should have an idea of what a Core is. Cores are a machine that was created more than 19,000 years ago and was implanted into human soldiers and scientists during that time through surgery. After over 7,000 years, the cores started being born naturally within humans, as it is a mutation or an evolution caused by Veythar.”

  “The brain sends information to the Core, and the Core in response saves the information if it is within its capability and then casts the magic you want. The Core is extremely outdated, but we cannot give a surgery to every single human, and so we made guides for a person to upgrade their personal cores.”

  “You should all have read the guide where it explains how to purify the Core and compress the Veythar within it. The process is quite simple and easy after you reach a certain age. Black, Grey, White, and Silver—those are the purification stages. Take note that Veythar has no color and that is just a wording system. After that, there is compressing the core. It's an easier process: Entrance, Primary, Intermediate, Advanced, and Perfect core. The compressing process for all of you should take no longer than two or three weeks to finish.”

  “You all already have White cores. Getting to Silver will not take any longer than three days. After that, I will be explaining how to get a Perfect Core. Well then, that is what you will be doing for the next month, coupled with your other subjects such as Mathematics, Chemistry, etc…”

  After hearing the latter mentioned, I sigh helplessly.

  Chapter End