The Inhabitants of Shadow Realm

Roselyn was expecting Kaito to actually do something fishy for her to turn up as entertainment on the very first day of the new session. But to her surprise, the vampire played no tricks as she safely reached her classroom just a minute before it was bound to start.

She looked around the huge classroom that was lit by dozens and dozens of lanterns, torches, and finally, the two huge firestones that were hanging from a chandelier in the very center of the ceiling, filling the entire classroom with bright light.

She was left completely surprised when she noticed the entire classroom empty except for a girl who was sitting in the back with her attention on the book that she seemed to be reading with much attention.

She had long black hair that was pulled into a high ponytail. Her skin was slightly tanned as if she had spent some really good hours sunbathing and her slender fingers held a pencil as she scribbled something on her notepad. Looking at her yellow blazer, it wasn't hard to guess that she belonged to Magik House.

Once she was done studying the girl, Roselyn wasn't sure what to do next. So she stood fidgeting near the entrance as she felt nervousness creeping inside her with every passing second. She didn't like at all just how uncertain and nervous she was feeling at the moment, it was nothing like her true confident self. The Shadow Realm seemed to be making her more and more docile toward everything related to it, whether people or situations.

"If you don't want to get crushed into pieces, you should take a seat immediately." The girl at the back of the classroom suddenly spoke while turning a page of her book but not even looking up for even a second.

If not for the fact that there was no one else there except for the two of them, Roselyn would have thought that the girl was speaking to someone else.

"The clock is ticking newcomer." The girl added when Roselyn didn't move from her place for a while.

Not knowing exactly why she did it but Roselyn took the girl's advice and started moving as she contemplated where to sit. The entire classroom being empty wasn't making things easier for her at all.

In the end, she chose to sit on the seat in front of the girl who still hadn't looked up from her book even once. Right as Roselyn settled down on her seat, her ears registered soft crackling sounds which pulled her attention toward the front of the class and she watched in surprise as groups of students started walking into the room through the entrance.

It didn't take her long to notice that they all seemed to be using some sort of teleportation trick, though not exactly teleportation, to appear at the entrance before they walked inside.

Now, she could finally see what the girl meant when she used the term 'crushed' while advising her to move away from the entrance and settle down in a seat.

She wanted to ask the girl exactly what sort of dark spell the students were using but there was so much noise in the classroom that she just changed her mind and remained silent.

It didn't even take ten seconds before all the students had arrived and taken their seats, filling all the benches to the brim except for a couple of empty ones in the farthest back corner of the class.

The classroom became dead silent as another sound of sizzling energy filled the room and the very next second, a man wrapped in black robes appeared at the entrance.

He had round glasses perched on his pointy nose and his short black hair made him somehow look younger than his actual age. As he stepped into the class and stepped onto the high platform where his desk and the chalkboard were located at the front of the class, his sharp eyes scanned through the entire class and stopped right on Roselyn.

Thankfully, he didn't say anything and continued scanning further before he gave a quick nod of his head and started the class by taking attendance. 

The first chapter barely taught much to Roselyn as she was already aware of the context of the chapter.

It started with how the Shadow Realm was the Realm created for Unseelie races and about their control over Shadow magic and dark elements. Then there was a list of Unseelie races that had been living in the Shadow Realm from the very beginning - dark faes, dark elves, vampires, some particular races of shape shifters, sirens, witches, goblins, trolls, kelpies, giants, centaurs, beggars, red caps, ghouls, leprechauns, imps, harpies, dark pixies, and so on.

The chapter gave a rough glimpse into every Unseelie race and even made it clear which were of real importance - dark faes, dark elves, vampires, shapeshifters, sirens, and witches, as these were the races who had made their way to the very top of the Shadow Realm's society. While the dark faes clearly had been ruling the realm for thousands of years, the others had been members of the council for just as long.

As the class reached its end and Roselyn skimmed through the index, she noticed how half of the book was only about the royal lineage of the Vespertine family and the head families of the Shadow Council.