Chapter 7 - Emergence

Outside the Realm of Magic, another hour had passed and every student except two had come out of the Initiation. Children sat in their allocated groups, chatting excitedly as they thought about the incredible spells they would be performing in the future.

Second Year students were interacting with their new peers, and many were being tested by their seniors. This was common practise for people at MC Academy because of the biannual competitions held in the school's arena. Students were required to get into groups of four and would fight against other groups to win points. The more points a team had, the better the benefits they would receive, including better meals, better rooms and even access to better materials and equipment.

In each year, classes were split from Class S through to Class C, with the latter being looked down upon entirely, practically serving as mules for the higher classes. Interacting with future prodigies would ensure connections with some of the strongest in the Lower Academy, which was made up of the first and second years.

Students couldn't leave until the closing ceremony, but the closing ceremony wouldn't begin until every student had completed their initiation, meaning they all had to wait for the remaining two students to finish.

Whilst nothing had been confirmed, there was a general rumour that the longer one took, the more they were favoured by the Astral Spirits.

The overseers of the event were checking their watches, some checking the entrances of the partitions in worry whilst others made bets on who would come out last.

About an hour after the planned ending of the ceremony, a bright light enveloped the skies, shining in a blue hue tainted by small flecks of blacks, yellows and reds. About 95 percent of the lights were pure blue, spiralling up into the air dramatically before becoming a solid blue.

The members of the Mana class burst out in celebrations, jumping and hugging each other at the thought of getting one of the prodigies from the first year. These celebrations were cut short, however, as tensions returned to the last partition that had been occupied for the last two hours.

Muttering came to a stop as the partition opened and the new Mana member stepped out, smiling widely as she exited. She had glamorous silver hair down to her back and wore a specially tailored uniform that seemed to have been remade with more expensive materials than the default uniform that was given to the other students.

The girl was quickly identified to be part of the Sylvester family from the large insignia engraved onto the back and breast of her blazer. She had a smug look on her face as she walked over to the Mana section of the class, however quickly realised that she wasn't receiving the applause she had been expecting.

She scanned the crowd and looked for her attendant, finding her at the front of the crowd of Arcana students, fishing through a bag. The girl walked over to her attendant, arriving at her side before quickly whispering "Veronica, what is going on? Where's my applause?"

Veronica worriedly looked up from her bag, dropping it and spilling its contents in shock from her boss' sudden entrance.

"D-Diana... nice to see you? They aren't cheering because you weren't the last person out of the partition."

She held her hand out as if expecting something.

"Fine, Veronica, a bet's a bet."

Diana fished into her pocket and pulled out a platinum piece, holding it in front of her face for a second before slapping it down in Veronica's hands.

"Tell me more then. Who stayed in longer than me?" she whispered hoarsely.

"Nobody knows. That's the mystery about it," Veronica replied.

"Go find out then," Diana ordered.

Veronica waved her hands in mock annoyance, before working her way up the stairs to get a better view of the arena. She reached the top of the Arena and began to run calculations in her head.

Judging by Diana being in the partition for an hour and forty-five minutes, the person in the partition had probably been there for a similar amount of time. With that, the individual would've sat around the middle of the arena. They also probably would've been closer to the front, since individuals would cycle through the partitions 1-10 over and over as long as one was available.

Since the typical initiation took about 10 minutes, the individual was in the front 4 or 5 rows. Veronica had a photographic memory, so she could recall the figures that had been sat in the audience at the arena.

The first row had contained a brown-haired, simple-faced male with a rather round face as well as a rather narcissistic blondie with light blue eyes. The last, however, sent chills down her spine. He had matte black hair and eyes of the same colour. That wasn't what scared her, however. His eyes were the eyes of a killer. Someone who had looked a man in the eyes before taking everything from him and that scared her. It reminded her of a man she had sworn to hunt down, and a man she did not want to affiliate herself to, no matter what.

She scanned the remaining rows, making a note of everyone who was there before scanning everyone who had already been allocated to a magic class, but with all the movement, she found it was impossible to mentally cross off each name.

"This might help," a voice beside her said.

Veronica span towards the voice arms up in a boxing position and eyes darting for possible attacks.

"Easy there! I'm just trying to help out an Arcane prodigy," he said before muttering "At least one of my projects has to work..."

He wore circular-framed glasses and a white turtleneck that appeared far too itchy to be worn to any social event.(ED: Arcana…. You know that is kinda a low move right? Very disappointed.)

"Who are you?" Veronica asked, still suspicious of the strange man.

"Relax! I won't hurt you. Take a look at this."

He placed a stack of paper in her hands, containing images of every new student at the academy along with their new magic class. She scanned through the images, mentally checking off faces as she saw them in the documents.

She quickly realised that there was only one remaining face that hadn't been checked off. It was the murderous guy from the front row she had seen before.

Veronica turned to thank the man who had given her the papers, but he wasn't there. She looked back at the papers in her hands, but they slowly faded away in white light, turning into small white speckles that floated away before disappearing in the air.

She tried to remember what the man had looked like, but even with her photographic memory,, she was completely unable to remember who had given her the papers.

Either way, she realised she should probably go and tell Diana about her findings, but she was suddenly interrupted by a violent eruption of pure blue and red light that flew into the air, forming a column of intertwining spires that flew up to the roof before falling back down to the ground.

Smaller flares of black, yellow, white and green spluttered quietly in an incredible pure colour before falling into the ground. The audience's attention had been taken by the rising spire, and thus most failed to notice the smaller light show, or figured that it must have been an error with their eyes.

Veronica, along with a few other perceptive individuals, had seen everything. The headmistress seemed pleased whilst the rest of the attending teachers seemed to be on the edge of their seats, like hunters stalking their prey.

Teachers were given rewards and honour for the achievements of their pupils, so having a student as talented as the one about to exit the initiation partition could only be seen as a positive.

The lights continued strongly for about a minute before the red began to fade away, leaving a strong blue colour that blazed into the eyes of the audience.

The room remained quiet for a moment before the Mana section erupted in celebrations and the Pact section slumped back in disappointment.

The light solidifying into blue meant that the student had decided to study Mana as their major, and whilst they may possibly still minor in Pact magic, they would represent Mana in competitions and events.

Delta stepped out of the partition doorway, the lights in the hall blinding him temporarily before he could see the cheering fans around him.

Being a fan of gladiators, he raised his hands to the air and recited a line from one of his favourite gladiator movies.

"Are you not entertained?!" (ED: This guy is clearly way too bored….)

The audience didn't seem to understand what he had said, but they continued cheering anyway..