Rishi had learned a lot of new things in the academy, it also required him to put more effort to comprehend everything. Every day in academy was special but today was extra special, today Rishi was preparing for his freshman party.
The theme of this party was traditional; everyone had to wear traditional clothes for the party.
Rishi decided to dress in a white kurta with black pajama and white sneakers. Rishi chose to wear the traditional pahadi hat.
He was combing his hair when he heard Lalit, "Rishab, let's go, we're already late."
Rishi looked in the mirror and realized that his purple eyes were attracting to much attention, so he decided to wear sunglasses.
Lalit was dressed entirely in black, from his kurta to his pajama to his sneakers.
"Let's go," Manu said. Rishi noticed he was dressed in a collared white kurta over a white Dogri suthan (lower).
When Rishi and his roommates arrived at the venue, they saw many first and second-year students dressed in various traditional attire. Boys wore mainly kurtas, pajamas, and lungis, while most girls wore lehengas, sarees, and ghagras.
He looked around for Kajal, wanting to see how she looked in traditional attire. When he was looking around, when he heard Lalit's voice. "Let's get some front-row seats, Rishab."
Rishi went with his friends and quickly took his seat. He decided to call Dev and invite them to join him, after some time Dev, Ajit, and Dilip too joined him. He introduced his roommates to his guild members.
"Hello, my name is Dev," Dev decided to take the initiative and introduce himself.
"Hello, my name is Ajit. You can come to me if you need anything," Ajit said.
"Greetings, juniors. I'm Dilip, and you can address me as Sir Dilip. If you get in trouble at this academy, just take my name and you'll get out of it," Dilip boasted.
Manu and Lalit introduced themselves, and they all soon became comfortable around each other. Rishi inquired of Ajit, "Do you know how it will be conducted? What type of games will be there?"
"Sorry Bro, I can't tell you; we all have promised not to reveal anything about it, so no spoilers for you," Ajit replied.
Soon after, a senior took the stage and announced, "Welcome juniors, we will begin the party with a dance performance by the senior students after which all juniors will come to stage and show their talent."
Some senior boys took the stage and performed well, entertaining all of the students. People applauded them. Following that, some new students took the stage to showcase their abilities.
Rishi was about to close his eyes because he was bored when he noticed three first-year girls taking the stage. He awoke with his mouth open in surprise when he saw Kajal dressed in a blue saree with a full-sleeve blouse with silver buttons and a red scarf on her head.
She looked even more stunning in a silver payal(anklets), necklace, and bracelet. Her friends were dressed similarly but in different colors.
The entire audience cheered when they saw the three beautiful girls take the stage, then the folk song was played and they performed a very well-coordinated and beautiful folk dance.
The audience stood up from their seats and applauded Kajal and her friends for their outstanding performance.
Many juniors came and performed, but no one could match the level of Kajal's group's performance. Only Aditya Tyagi's singing performance came close. Many girls clapped for him after his performance. 'Tyagi clan, isn't it a branch of the Dushta clan?' he wondered.
"Dev, which clan is this guy from?" Rishi asked.
"You don't know him; he is a rising star from a branch clan of the Dushta Clan," Dev responded.
'Dushta Clan' Rishi clenched his fists and looked at Aditya. His rage was boiling over as he considered how his father's death could be linked to the Dushta clan, but his passive awareness kicked in and cleared his mind. 'Calm down, Rishi; you'll have plenty of chances to exact your vengeance. You can't do anything to him right now because everyone is watching, and he doesn't appear weak enough to be taken out easily.'
"Rishab, are you okay? What happened to you?" Dev inquired, noticing a change in Rishi's expression.
"I'm fine," Rishi responded.
"Are you not going to stage?" Dilip inquired.
Rishi was tired of Dilip's nonsense, so he replied, "Senior, how can I go on stage before you? Why don't you go first and show us how to entertain everyone?"
Dilip responded shamelessly. "I would have already gone and demonstrated my talent, but I don't want to ruin it for you guys. I wanted to endorse you for the title of 'Mr. Freshers."
They all chose to ignore Dilip and focus on the stage. After a while, the junior students were asked to volunteer to play some games.
The winner of the games was then given a title. Aditya Tyagi received Mr. Freshers title, while Kajal received Mrs. Freshers title.
Rishi's already bad mood worsened when he noticed Aditya flirting with Kajal. He decided to set it aside and make other plans.
After that, all students were asked to dance. Rihsi didn't want to ruin his other friends fun, so he decided to spend some time with them before sneaking out.
He went to the food stall and saw Nina, as well as a boy bothering her. He decided to assist her and approached her, saying, "Nina, let's go; others are waiting for you."
Nina looked at Rishi, perplexed; he took her hand and led her to the side. Nina thanked Rishi for saving her from that guy.
He and Nina then chose some food and decided to eat together.
"Don't you enjoy dancing?" he inquired.
"No, I'm not good at dancing, and I don't have any friends to dance with. How about you?" she asked.
"Me, I'm not feeling well today, so I left," he explained.
They finished their meal, and Rishi took one last look at Kajal, his friends, and Aditya before leaving to train.
He went to a dungeon to increase his level to catch up to Kajal. The half-yearly exam was also coming close.
His second contract beast has also reached the advanced stage. He was an elite grade magic beast because of which it could directly reach the advanced stage without any evolution.
He and his magic beast started farming for Exp. Rishi forgot about all other things once he started fighting; he used his rage, anger and helplessness as a tool to motivate himself to work harder.