Rebirth

***

The school bell rang and everyone gradually left the class, I waited for Alexander by the door. He claimed he was packing his books, but his attention was on Ean who was leaving the class.

After the lunch break, she didn't initiate any conversations with us, and I didn't either.

But when she came back, she seemed a little paler than before.

Did something happen? I wasn't sure, and I didn't really care enough to ask.

Other than that, she seemed okay and behaved the same way she usually did, except she didn't try to annoy any teachers and just kept quiet.

When she passed by me, I glanced at her once then turned to Alexander who was walking towards me, "Xavier I'm done, let's go".

I nodded at him, and started walking down the hall.

Alexander joined me, and we headed towards the stairs in silence.

Alexander was probably thinking about Ean, and how much of a threat she was. He was busy with his problems and so was I, I was thinking about my appointment with-

Alexander suddenly spoke up as if he couldn't bear the silence anymore.

"Today was quite… exciting. And I have a lot of things to tell you about our classmates! That kid, the one who was uh trying to annoy you…", He was picking his words, he didn't want to mix his thoughts with what he heard.

To him, Aidan was a fool who didn't know better, to other people…

"What about him?", Xavier asked as they walked down the stairs.

"Well, I heard his name is Aidan. And that he's ranked fourth on the list of handsome looking guys in Arcane High. Maybe he just got jealous… that someone who could push him off the rankings appeared in our class… ", Alexander slowly stopped talking as he realized his information was irrelevant.

Xavier raised an eyebrow and continued the conversation, "How about the others? Don't tell me that was the only information you got"

Immediately he heard Xavier's question he responded with vigour, as if telling Xavier not to underestimate his information gathering skills.

"What? How could that be it?! The third ranker is someone called Mason Harvey, the second is someone called Kaylee Mitchell and the first is uh Damian Eliott. But the person who told me all this said that, the rankings for the most handsome could also serve as the most dangerous, for the top five at least", Alexander's current image was nothing like how a prince should behave or appear, not like he wanted to be appear like a prince or he cared how people viewed him.

As Xavier watched Alexander answer his question with enthusiasm, even if it was a wrong one, he could not help but feel glad they had come to this school.

Even though he was the one bearing the brunt of it all, it felt great seeing Alexander actually be happy…

"Who is the fifth ranker?", he asked and leaned back on the wall behind him.

Alexander stopped as well, he thought for a while before he replied, "Miles Jordan. I heard he has a backer from the Elite school, but they usually come to Arcane High. What makes him less dangerous than Aidan, is who backs him and what they do."

He paused for a while then asked Xavier, "Do you know the difference between Arcane High and the Elite School?"

Xavier shook his head.

And Alexander chuckled, "Of course you don't! The Elite School is for the elites of Arcane Elite High, and guess what?"

Xavier asked, "What?"

"The place we're currently in, is Arcane Elite High, not Arcane High! It might sound confusing, but it isn't. The school is divided into three, a regular High School called Arcane high, an elite High School called Arcane Elite High and the Elite School, which is called… the Elite School"

Alexander heard from the student who told him this information that since the school changed hands, a new branch was opened and that branch was called Arcane High. It was made for second generation heirs and was later called, the second generation section. While Arcane Elite High was shortened into Arcane High, and was called the next generation section.

That was when he finally realized why he did not know Arcane High. It was because it wasn't called Arcane high, but Arcane Elite High School.

It was a school that even he had heard of, a place where talents were gathered, trained, and raised in. And when you were talented enough you'll be able to go to a special facility, where the actual talents came from.

A mystic island whose location remained unknown. Back then, when he had met that person, he thought they came from there but it turned out they didn't.

The Elite School was known as a branch of the School of Elites, which was located on that island! While Arcane Elite High and the branch of the School of Elites, were founded by a native of the unknown island, publicly known as the Mystic Isles. Because it was made up of twin islands which joined together after the rebirth.

After the rebirth all those centuries ago, it was said that it was only those native to that island that managed to retain their bloodline.

While the rest of the world broke off, perished and went through a rebirth, turning them into mundane humans.

The world itself did not remain the same, countries were destroyed, islands were formed and various factions arose in the midst of the chaos, trying to reap the most benefits.

But of course, nobody succeeded, with the world being reborn and humanity divided, everywhere was pure chaos. And that chaos couldn't be controlled, just when everyone thought things would take a turn for the worse…

Those from the Mystic Isles stepped up and helped the original factions which had existed before the rebirth and managed to stay alive, and the recently formed factions which were powerful enough by their standards, to regain world order.

The world was currently not perfect and was a far cry from how it used to be, but at least there was a false veil of peace covering it, after the rebirth.

But a few years ago, something happened that disrupted the illusionary peace amongst all the various powerhouses and factions that existed.

As far as Alexander knew, it was that a new faction arose. And they managed to bring down multiple of factions that had existed since the rebirth.

Xavier was shocked by the information he had just received. He wasn't a complete hermit and had heard of the Elite school at least once, it was just difficult to associate what he was seeing into what he heard as the same thing, but if all Alexander said was true, then…

'Was that why his mum wanted him to come here? To go to the elite school?'

'If this was indeed the school's branch, why do they have such a complicated system?', he frowned.

Having three facilities for the purpose of schooling, just to select talents?! Did they need talents that badly? He thought they were just training the future generations to be able to react, if something like the rebirth were to ever happen again…

Not like it was too far away. He looked outside and glanced at the bright sun accompanied by the clear blue skies. As normal as the sky may seem, something about it felt ominous to Xavier.

Alexander felt smug when he saw Xavier in deep thought, he was impressed with himself and continued sharing the information he had found.

"Those from the Elite School are usually revered by the students of both Arcane High and Arcane Elite High. It's simple hierarchy really, but it's not just about status, but what they can really do. I heard Miles backer isn't as prominent as Aidan's, so uh be careful of that guy, it's not that I think you can't handle him, it's just better to be careful, okay?"

"Hm okay", Xavier replied after a while, then he stood up, and walked towards the eastern side of the school.

"And I hea- uh Xavier where are you going?", Alexander called out to Xavier in surprise. He didn't know much about the eastern side of the school, but he had heard rumors about it.

And he knew normal students weren't allowed to go to that place, because that was where the Elite School was located.

"I told you earlier, the principal asked me to meet her after school, and her office is located somewhere around there.", Xavier pointed at the empty hallway that was in the southeastern direction.

"Oh okay… are you in trouble…?", Alexander asked, whilst wondering if Xavier could have gotten into trouble on his first day.

"I don't know, but I'll soon find out. The driver is waiting outside, you'd find him in the parking lot, bye.", after Xavier said that, he walked off, and went to find the principal's office.

***

Xavier stood in front of a double door, made of unknown wood. He had just gotten here, and had already knocked but didn't receive a reply.

He knocked once again and received a reply almost immediately.

"Come in", A loud authoritative voice came from the other side, it sounded a bit annoyed, but the calmness the owner had could be felt through their loud voice.

He opened the doors and walked in, and what came into view was a large room, which was beautifully furnished with useful things and simple decorations.

There were three sofas arranged around eachother at the corner of the room, a small refreshments table was beside those sofas, and a tall shelf was right beside the desk, with a lot of files scattered around the room.

A tall woman was sitting behind the table, well she was sitting on the chair and had bent her body sideways, and was searching for something inside the drawers of the desks.

Xavier silently stood in the middle of the room and watched the principal search for whatever she was looking for.

After a while, the principal said, "Come in!", again but with a louder voice.

Xavier wondered what she was searching for, but replied after putting his curiosity aside.

"I'm here"

The principal looked up at once, the stern look on her face was instantly replaced with a smile.

"It's you, Austin! Why were you so quiet when you walked in? Here, have a sit", she pointed at a sofa at the corner of the room, and was strangely nice to him.

Right now, she exerted a higher authority over him, and even if she didn't, Xavier had no reason to be rude to the nice tall woman.

It just felt weird to be treated so nicely by her…

'Is it because of my identity?'

She called him Austin not Xavier, so she must know who he really is, and that kind of sucked.

He walked over to the sofa and sat down, and she followed with a file she had picked up from her messy desk in hand.

"Pardon the state you met my office in, I'm having a little bit of trouble with some students. By the way, do you know why I invited you over?", She asked wth a strange look in her eyes.

Xavier simply shook his head, maybe it was due to the similarities she shared with his mum, but he slightly disliked her.

"Well, I called you over to personally congratulate you and welcome you to our school", She bent down and opened the small refrigerator by the wall, and brought out a carton of milk.

She opened it up and poured it into a glass then offered it to Xavier.

Xavier awkwardly received the milk from her, and drank it under her unmoving gaze.

'Why was she giving me milk?', those were his thoughts but the words that came out of his mouth were different.

"Why do you want to congratulate me?"

Did he do anything worthy of congratulations, he did not know. Unless she was talking about his score… was he not supposed to get the cutoff mark?

Xavier thought he had screwed up again. In the first place, if he hadn't gotten it, he wouldn't have had to come to Arcane High no… Arcane Elite High.

But he would've signed the contract anyways, and his mum could have sent him here as a normal student.

The tall principal finally sat down and dropped all the papers in her hands on the table in front of them.

"Because you finally made it to Arcane… and I'm proud of you for getting into the top 3%", she paused after she said the first part of her sentence, and immediately followed up with the next part.

'Is that all?', Xavier doubted the woman's intentions because she was so nice to him, and he doubted them even more after she smiled at him.