The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 45

The incoming students of all three races that were cheering for each of the Student Council members fell silent when Tess walked in. With her gunmetal silver hair swaying behind her as each of her dignified steps echoed throughout the silent auditorium, she single-handedly changed the atmosphere inside this entire building.

As she bowed and tucked her hair behind her ear, a roar of applause erupted as both males and females alike cheered with admiration. I thought the cheers would last a lot longer but as soon as Tess started speaking, it was as if each of the students in the crowd covered each others’ mouth so that they could hear her voice.

"My name is Tessia Eralith, and I am honored to stand here as this academy’s student council president."

Murmurs started after the crowd once again cheered for our beautiful president. Next to me, a scrawny human boy spoke excitedly to his friend beside him.

"That’s the Princess Eralith I was talking about. My older brother told me she’s been on campus since last year as a direct disciple under the Director and will start formally attending this year with us!" He leaned into his friend so only he could hear but the volume at which he spoke betrayed him.

"Th-That means she was the first non-human to set foot on this campus. Wait... she’s only a first year and she’s already the Student Council President? Is that even possible?" His friend, whom I couldn’t really see, spoke louder and louder with each word, causing the neighboring students to hear as well.

"Yeah, I heard of her as well! She’s supposedly a super-genius of some sort, right?"

"Why the hell is she so damn pretty when she’s talented as well? This isn’t even fair..."

"I wonder what I would have to do to get her to even look at me?"

The audience was filled with different talks about Tess but while, for the males, it revolved around how much of an unobtainable star she was, for the females, it was a mixture of admiration and envy. Sylvie was going crazy on top of my head as she recognized Tess down onstage.

"Kyuu~" ’Papa! That’s Mama! She’s down there! Let’s go say hi!’ Sylv was jumping up and down so I picked her up and wrapped my arms around her.

’Who’s your Mama!?’ I couldn’t help but sigh in defeat at her excitement. Tess became pretty close to Sylvie a bit after hatching so I could see why she was so fond of her... but ’Mama’?

"Woah..." Elijah, who I had stopped paying attention to, firmly gripped my arm with both of his hands as if he needed me to support him from fainting.

"Woah," he repeated. For how smart he looked, he sure acted like an idiot at times like these.

"You okay there, Elijah?" I lightly nudged his head but it just bounced like a bobblehead toy.

"...Art...I think I’m in love." He suddenly released the hands that had firmly gripped my arm to link arms with me, as if to imagine I was Tess.

Okay, this is getting out of hand. I released my bond to attack and she promptly locked her jaw on the top of Elijah’s head, causing him to start screaming more from surprise than pain.

"Oh, sorry..." With Sylvie still dangling on the crown of his head, Elijah let go of my arm and started focusing on the stage below again.

As the crowd settled down enough for Tess to start speaking again, Director Goodsky silently disappeared.

Tess spoke eloquently enough to surprise even me. She was only thirteen, yet she had the ability to draw the crowd’s full attention with her unadorned words filled with maturity. She spoke about the principles of this academy, how this was a holy ground where students should feel safe to walk freely around. Tess emphasized the discipline one would face if anyone hurt another student outside of a consented duel.

"While I may be a first year as all of you are, having given the privilege to be inside the academy a year longer made it all too apparent to me that there is deeply embedded discrimination against the scholar mage students by the battle mage students. I, for one, will not tolerate any sort of aggression or bullying based on the trivial fact that one is a scholar mage student." Tess’ voice never wavered as she stood behind the podium.

The crowd grew a little noisy at this statement, as everyone present had heard rumors of the hardships one may face as a scholar mage student.

"Starting this year, while uniforms and the upper courses required may be different, for the first two years, general education, that contains a mixture of both scholar mage classes and battle mage classes will be mandatory, for better assimilation between the two different types of students. After the two years are up, one may choose to switch their education specialization by taking a test, although it will be quite a difficult one." This last statement drew in dissatisfied complains from amongst the students in the crowd. While both Elijah and I didn’t have to take a test due to my special connection with Director Goodsky, most students, regardless of background, had to test for either a scholar mage or battle mage position.

To get in as a scholar mage, an incoming student only needed a basic foundation of magic, which was mana gathering. While they had to take a written exam to test their mental acuteness, the practical portion of the exam was much more simple. battle mage students, however, had a much stricter practical exam, and actually performed basic spells or techniques depending on whether they were a Conjurer or Augmenter. It may have seemed like a cakewalk for someone like Elijah, Tess, or me, but I admit it could be quite a challenge for someone who had just awakened.

The tall, stern-looking student stepped up next, silencing the crowd with a wave of his hand.

"My name is Clive Graves and I am your Student Vice President. As the President mentioned, this year contains many changes. Along with the assimilation and freedom to move between the two student types, there will also be no limit on how long a student can attend this academy. While in the past, the professors here pushed students to graduate after four years, it is becoming more and more apparent that many graduating mages’ capabilities are becoming less than satisfactory. Therefore, the Director has declared that instead of a time limit on graduating, in order to graduate from Xyrus Academy, one needs to fulfill a list of requirements and pass the graduation exam.

While the conditions to graduate have become many folds harder, the time limit to graduate has increased to ten years. In that time, we fervently hope to produce top class mages in both theoretical and combat fields. We welcome everyone here—humans, elves and dwarves alike—to this Academy." Clive bowed, the rest of the Student Council following him.

The last part of the announcement wasn’t exactly news for any of us. It was announced quite recently though, which made me think that it had something to do with the new Continent. Was this Academy being used to produce higher quality mages in case of a future battle against the new Continent?

"That’s the firstborn son of the famous Graves family! Make sure you don’t get on his bad side," the boy next to me whispered, again, in a pointlessly loud volume.

After finishing up the ceremony, all the new students were dismissed to their dorms. Filing out of the auditorium, my eyes unconsciously looked for Tess, but she was nowhere in sight. Outside, the trees arched over the marble walkways producing small showers of fall-colored leaves. The students were all excitedly chatting amongst their peers, getting to know new people. Walking deeper within the campus to where the dorms were, I saw a few female students pass by Elijah and I, doing a double-take back at us and giggling with their friends.

Elijah sighed. "I feel like I become significantly less better-looking when I’m next to you." Elijah’s shoulders hunched as we walked along side-by-side, Sylvie pitifully patting Elijah’s head from on top of mine.

"Well, even if most come after me, some of the girls will have to eventually settle for you, right buddy?" I teased, giving him a playful wink.

"Screw you." He hit me on the stomach as the both of us laugh.

Suddenly, a loud explosion startled the both of us as well as the students walking around nearby. Something was happening at the end of the marble walkway. After a quick exchange of glances, Elijah and I shot off.

"I don’t see how a short-ass dwarf like you can even hope to be a proper Augmenter. Why don’t you stick to forging some weapons for real warriors like me?"

"What da hell didja say? Who do ya think ya are, anyway?"

I stopped running a good distance away and shook my head when I realized what was going on. It was just stupid posturing between two students. The explosion had been made by the human, hitting his fist on a nearby tree with mana.

"Couldn’t this become dangerous?" Elijah looked around where some of the students had to deliberately walk around the two of them, just in case they started fighting. We were amongst the last to leave the auditorium so most were already deeper within the campus or inside their dorms, so there weren’t many people around but if they did start fighting, some of the students in the vicinity may get caught up in the mess. _{ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom}

"They wouldn’t dare do something like fight on the first day, right? Let’s just go." I tried to nudge my friend to a roundabout route avoiding the two arguing students.

"Come on, we have nothing to do besides unpack anyway! Let’s just see how good they are. Look, the human looks to be a second level augmenter." He pointed at the brawny human.