Ceremony

With Cynthia now here it seemed to signal a tidal wave for the new students to arrive as well. Me and the rest of the student council were hidden off to the side of the stage, but we could easily hear the buzz of chatter coming from them. Even I had a slight tinge of nervousness, though not due to the incoming public speaking.

No, it was due to the fact that we were now closing in on the darker parts of the story. I'll admit to my memory in the specifics becoming fuzzy due to it having been over 12 years now since I read the books back in my past life. I knew that strange things happen during Arthur's first year at the academy, and several other things outside it as well.

With my knowledge as the Shield I knew that Arthur had still given the plans of a steam engine to Gideon, which is fine to me. We'll need those in the future I suppose, though if they knew if the kind of creatures that lived in that ocean I imagine they wouldn't be building that ship. However the human thirst for knowledge and pushing past what they probably should is unquenchable.

"Please give them a warm welcome."

Cynthia gives us our cue and like that we begin filing out from our hiding spot. First Jarrod followed by Fable and Lilia just behind him, each keeping a space of 5 feet from the one in front of them, culminating in them forming a line on the audience's left side of the podium. Next came Claire who started the new line on the right side edge and Clive followed by Tessia would file in closer to the podium.

The various entrances of the fairly attractive people garner shouts and calls of appreciation. I could hear Arthur and Elijah call out Lilia's name and I could only chuckle when I heard the crowd go silent at Tessia's entrance. They were confused momentarily when she didn't take up the final spot at the podium, but that was when I walked out.

The previous silent admiration that Tessia had received devolved into shrill screams from the female audience members as I stepped out and made my way to the podium. I took calm even strides and I may have released some of my presence to seem more regal and dignified. It seemed to work as now the buzz had died down and I was received the same silent admiration that Tessia had.

Stepping up to the podium I look at my fellow student council members. Lilia to my immediate right followed by Fable and then Jarrod at the end. Then on my left was Tessia, to Clive, and at the end was Claire. Turning to face back towards the audience I gave a warm smile and saw the faces of some of the girls in front row redden slightly.

"Greetings, new students. My name is Jaron Helstea and I will be your student council president for the foreseeable future. It is with great honor and pleasure to be the president at the very beginning of the inclusion of the 2 new races at this prestigious academy.

With that being said, as their are strict rules on discrimination between student types there will also be strict rules on discrimination between races. As I'm sure you all have seen from the broadcast that the council, our former Kings and Queens of their respective kingdoms, our continent is not alone in this world.

Meaning that you all have a substantial weight placed upon your shoulders as the next adult generation, that very well may be tested by this new continent. As of now you have little to worry about other than enjoying your school life and preparing yourself for the future. However I think I speak for everyone when I believe most of you wish to become a Lance… or perhaps the Shield himself.

Lets this academy be that place were each of you, dwarf, elf or human, strive to reach your peak as a mage. Whether it be the prestigious scholar route that will go on to build many important artifacts or further develop our understanding of mana. Or even the battle mage route, who will be honing their skills to be able to one day stand on the front line with their fellow mages for a common goal. I shall be here to help you all every step of the way and I hope to be an example for you all to follow in the coming years

Please enjoy your tenure at Xyrus Academy, and let's all prepare ourselves for the future. Together."

With that I took a step back from the podium and the audience erupted into a quick buzz, but once me and Tessia had swapped places they immediately went silent. As if hoping to catch even the smallest sound from the elf Princess.

"My name is Tessia Eralith and I am honored to stand here as this Academy's Student Council Vice President."

She began speaking with all the dignity and attention grabbing expected of a noble, let alone a Princess. She touched on things that I had brought up, but mostly harped on the seriousness of what will happen if there is any discrimination between the races or student body.

"I will conclude this with one last, but important note. Though there has always been a set dueling system in place, it has been neglected and become benign. This years student council has decided to revive it, so to speak, and so before you leave be sure to pick up the badges signifying your respective group.

The badges are your Scholar mage and Battle mage badges, but they also are artifacts linked to an artifact held by our very own Student Council President. Each badge is voice activated to allow you to challenge other students to duels. The rankings are kept track of by the student council as well as the badge itself.

The rankings are as follows:

1 Stripe on Tie = Baron/Baroness

2 Stripes = Viscount/Viscountess

3 Stripes = Earl/Countess

4 Stripes = Marquis/Marchioness

5 Stripes = Duke/Duchess

6 Stripes = Grand Duke/ Grand Duchess

7 Stripes = King or Queen

Yes I said King or Queen as there may be only one person with 7 stripes at any given time. All of you will receive your ties that hold a single stripe on them in your dorm rooms tonight. The way to rank up is a lower rank is allowed to challenge any rank up to 2 ranks ahead of them. So since you're all Barons and Baroness', you would be allowed to challenge any 2/3 stripe you come across.

You need 10 wins without a loss against other 1 stripes.

You need 5 wins against 2 stripes to advance if you're a 1 stripe, and you don't have to go undefeated.

You only need 1 win against a 3 stripe to advance to 2nd stripe.

However once you reach 2nd stripe the requirements increase.

You need 20 wins without a loss against other 2 stripes.

You need 10 wins against 3 stripes, but if you lose 5 times you have to start your 10 wins over.

You need only 2 wins against a 4 stripe.

I don't think I need to continue for you to understand that the requirements for the next rank doubles for following rank, and your battles do not carry over. Each time you rank up, you start fresh. Though if you don't want to drudge through the ranks you are more than welcome to challenge the King directly. Any person of any rank is allowed to challenge the King once per stripe on their tie.

There are no penalties for challenging the King other than if you "use up" your stripes, you will have to wait until you rank up to be able to challenge him again.

Finally you may be wondering why this system has been implemented, and the reason for that is to spur growth in the student population. For so long the growth has been determined by the teachers and professors, but now we have this as well. There is a certain pride and prestige that will come with these ranks.

Stores, restaurants, nobles, and merchants are already being informed of the new ranking system. They will be offering discounts to anybody at 3rd stripe or above. The academy itself will also be contributing awards to the various ranks, such as money, artifacts, or perhaps even private lessons.

You may have noticed that I personally have 5 stripes on my tie, but allow me to direct you towards the Student Council President as he has 7 stripes, meaning he currently holds the rank of King."

Tessia waves her hand to me and I can see her let out a breath from the long winded explanation. I could only chuckle inwardly as I had tried to get her to let Jarrod take over halfway through, but she denied me at every turn. We traded places once again as I retook the podium.

"The stripes will never be a perfectly accurate representation of strength, but I'd advise all of you to think hard before challenging someone of even one rank higher than you. Especially if you're a recently awakened mage. Most of the 2 stripes are going to already be in the red core stage, with some already being orange.

The current ranks are heavily lopsided to the bottom 3 ranks and I believe this proves the difficulty of ascending. Rank 3 holds 30% of the current student population, rank 2 holds 40%, rank 1 holds 20%. I'm sure most of you have taken enough math to know that this equals 90%. Out of the 7 ranks 90% are ranks 3 or below.

Only 1 can be King or Queen. Only 4 can be the Grand Duke or Grand Duchess. Stripes 4 and 5 take up the next portion at being roughly 9% when combined.

(AN: it's not really stated how many student attend Xyrus, but I went with a rough estimate of 1 thousand just to make it easier.)

I will not hold you any longer, go and enjoy your school life. If you have any questions about the duel system there will be a booklet of the rules left in your dorms, with info on the tournaments that will come from it and we have a beginning of the year tournament that will happen tomorrow after everyone's classes. There another announcement will be held as well.

Also this tournament is completely optional, this is for the people that believe they deserve a rank higher than 1, you will get the chance to fight in a tournament style format against other rank 1s, 2s, and 3s. Your performance in the tournament will be judged, and if deemed worthy your rank will be increased. Again this is completely optional and you'll find the full format as well as how to register for the tournament in your dorm rooms. I wish you all luck on your studying at Xyrus Academy."

Ending my final announcement we all began to walk off stage and the students began exiting the building to explore the school and probably find their rooms in which they'll be staying for the school year. Tessia approaches me once we are completely off stage.

"I still can't believe we are going through with this duel ranking system. Isn't this just going to sow more discrimination between the lower ranks and the upper ranks?" Clive nodded along with her words and I could only smirk inwardly at the guy. He's in love with a girl who's completely infatuated with another.

"We've been over this Tessia." I start with a sigh.

"While yes it's another thing that is going to promote discrimination it's also going to provide a race and student type inclusion. Me and you both know how strong Arthur is, with him being a Scholar mage it's only a matter of time before battle mages start to respect them. Same with Elves and Dwarves, you are a rank 5 and on your way to removing one of the existing Grand Duchess's. Doradrea is sure to be right on your heels, though I don't see her defeating you or Kathyln for the other Grand Duchess spot.

It may be another medium for discrimination to brew, but it will work for the purpose that it was created." She frowns, but eventually nods.

"You're right, you're right. I just wish their was some other way because we can't be everywhere at once to stop every single instance of discrimination." I shake my head in solidarity.

"Nope, we can't. However we can make sure that the ones we do stop are as public as they can be, and equally severe." This garnered a series of head nods from the rest of the council and I gave everyone a sympathetic smile. They definitely don't have it easy working under me, but each of them demonstrate their capabilities flawlessly and without complaint.

"Now let's go see how the students are liking the campus. Who knows, maybe we'll be able to make an example of someone on the first day?" I say in a cheery tone as I begin to head toward the exit, Tessia and Clive are the ones to follow. Everyone else had their own duties they needed to attend to, so our trio headed out. Though I don't think they expected anyone to act on the first day, I feel like i remember there being an incident, but the details of it weren't particularly clear.

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Author's Note

So I know these 2 chapters got posted on the same day, but they were actually written 2 weeks apart lol. However this is my sign that I'm back, but my upload schedule will be limited to 2 times a week. Nowhere near my original schedule when I first started this Fic, but better than what it's been these last couple months lol.

The main inspiration for me to stop being a lazy procrastinating bum, is that Erebus( A force to be reckoned with Author) has announced he taking a break throughout September. I can't promise the story to be near as good as his since he knows the story a whole lot better than I do, but I will do my best to help fill the void until he returns.

Also I'm not sure how much I'm actually going to implement the ranks into the story other than it being a way to give general strength indicator. Similar to the adventurers guild ranks. I'll show a couple matches where someone challenges Jaron, but honestly nobody at the school will realistically give him any trouble so there won't be many. I will show Tessia's fight for Grand Duchess, as well Arthur and Elijah's fights in the tournament, though it won't be drawn out as they are quite OP compared to their rank 1, 2 and 3 classmates.

Next chapter should begin with the Nicolas Dreyl vs Broznean thing, with Jaron stepping in.

Glad to be back.

Thanks for reading.

-SocioPhobia