First Day of School

Two months already passed since the entrance test at Varion Academy. The trees that surrounded Elsgard Kingdom started to bloom, heralding the beginning of spring season.

Ren walked leisurely on the path that straight to the Varion Academy. As he supposed to start school today, Ren wake up as early as seven in the morning, so that he would not late on the first day of school.

Upon arriving on the school ground, Ren saw a crowd of students was swarming the bulletin board on the school's foyer. With curiousity, Ren approached the crowd to see what it was all about. Ren realised upon that bulletin board were the names of all the freshmen who were admitted to the academy, as well as the classes that they had been assigned.

The list divided the freshmen into three classes - A,B and C. Ren surprised that his name was not on the either those three classes. The , he noticed there was another list of names that was separated on the other bulletin board. Finally, Ren found his name on the list, which the academy had assigned him to the S classes.

Class S.

Varion's split its students into C,B and A class where the students assigned to these classes according to their abilities and skills as magician. However, Class S was established for the rarest and powerful mage in their year. Looking at the list, Ren confirmed that the names on the list was exactly the same with mages that passed the test two months ago.

Varion also used the ranking system to decitate students' skills. The ranking was determined by numbers as the smaller number you have, the more powerful you are.

Ranking System - one of the system that had been practiced by Varion Academy since its establishment. It was an unfair system that discriminate weak people where students were assigned to their class according their ranks.

Starting with S class which was contained the most capable students, they would received excellent lessons from the faculty's most brilliant professors. And such, the students would be nurtured to become excellent magician in the future.

For A class the students there still would get great lessons from the faculty, but it still cannot be compared with S class while B class students would get a mediocre lessons.

The worst treatment from the faculty was given to C class which was the lowest in the school hierarchy. C class was mostly consisted of commoners who lack any education or training. In C class, almost none of the lectures had proper professors assigned to them as it was not subject of care or passion of Varion Academy's faculties. Because of this, the growth of lower rank students were stunted and they could not reach their full potential.

The treatments given was not solely on academic lesson only, the facilities usage, the food on cafeteria and many things were distributed unfairly according to the rank of the students.With this kind of system, the strong would become stronger and the weak would always be a weak.

Ren smiled bitterly, 'In my past life, I was a C class student'

Ren was a child from Milford Barony. However, when he was at eight, his family's land had been seized by Hilda, he marchioness of Fiennes family as Ren's father, Baron Greg Milford was accused as traitor and his title as Baron was relinquished immediately.

As the son of fallen noble, he was treated as same as a commoner. Of course, with his social status, he had been assigned to C class in his past life because he did not get any proper education or training before he came to Varion, same with other commoners. Without proper education, he cannot improve as he hoped. So, at the end of his final year, he had only been a 2nd circle mage.

'The system was at fault. If Varion treated its students fairly and not biased based on their social status and their abilities, many students would have been able to become stronger after they graduate. They wouldn't all have been massacred so easily when the demon army invade this world in the future.'

Yet, the irony was that Ren was the only person who had survived to the end instead of the so called talented magicians that Varion was proud of. Being reminded of such end results, Ren decided to change the biased treatment of Varion towards its students. He knew that if the students were nurtured and guided to the best of their potential, then they would be more ready to face the invasion of demon army later. 'To do that,' he thought. 'I need to become the strongest among the freshmen and then, become the strongest for the entire school '

*****

A woman on her 20s with black, long hair cascading down past her shoulders came to first years' S Class classroom. She was seen wearing a formal uniform for Varion's professor with a black scarf on her shoulders and black jacket on her back to hide her voluptuous body. A pair of glasses rested comfortably on the bridge of her nose.

All of the S class students including Ren focused their attention on the woman who was just entered their class.

"My name is Anastasia Beverly. I am your homeroom teacher and I would also teach you 'Magic History' class for this year," the woman introduced herself.

"Now, before anything, I would like for you to introduce yourselves. When I call your name, just tell us your full names, what is your magic circle and what magic you are confident with."

She continued, "Let's start with Elena."

Elena stood from her seat after her name was called up and gave a brief introduction to the rest of class.

"Elena Elsgard. 3rd circle. Ice magic."

That's the end of it. Simple and solid. Just like what Ren expected from Elena. There was an awkward silence surrounded the class as they don't expected how quick the introduction lasted from Elena. Even the professor got dumbfounded by it.

"...Ok, let's continue. Marcus, if you please," asked Professor Anastasia for Marcus to continue.

next.

Like Elena, Marcus was also 3rd circle mage and specialized in fire magic, same like how he shown during the test. After Marcus, the introduction continued with another students one after another. Ren took a mental note all the information he got from his classmates.

~ Vesto Aspas, 2nd circle mage and specialized in wind magic.

~ Hani Harrison, 2nd circle mage and used summoning magic.

~ Gavin Cobalt, 2nd circle mage and proficient in creation magic.

~ Luna Longbow, 2nd circle mages and utilized wind and earth magic.

~ Dylan Rafferty, 2nd circle mages and major in water magic.

Ren noticed that most of his classmates was at least a 2nd circle mage while the other two were already achieve 3rd circle.

"For the last one, Ren. Please if you don't mind,"

With relaxed manner, Ren stood and began introducing himself.

"My name is Ren Milford. I still on my 1st circle and I am generalist."

"Huh?!"

Most of Ren's classmates shouted in confusion. It was really unbelievable for a 1st circle mage joined S class, moreover he was also a generalist.

"What do you mean you are generalist? And are you really still on 1st circle?" asked Professor Anastasia, a little bit bewildered.

"I am not breakthrough to the 2nd circle, so yeah I am still a 1st circle mage. And I am a generalist, because I don't specialized on any magic," answered Ren honestly.

Generalist - a term to describe an elemental mage that is not specialized in any five nature elements - fire,water, wind, earth and lightning. Usually, people started doing an aptitude test as early as age of seven to check which of the five elements that they were natural with. Then, they would trained the specific magic only.

That's because when a mage using magic that was different with his natural element, the mana consumption for casting the spell was higher and the magic power would be reduced. That's the reason why mages were focused on their respective elements instead of learning the others.

With that, generalist mage was considered weaker than specialist mage. So, when Ren said that he was a generalist, his teacher and classmates could not hide their astonishment.

"In five years of me teaching in this academy, I had never seen case like this. Perhaps there was a mistake regarding your assigned class. Let me discuss this matter with chancellor and other professors. For the time being, I need all of you to stay in class and don't do anything."

Professor Anastasia started tidying up all the documents on the table and exited the classroom in hurry.

Ren just looking at Professor Anastasia got out of the class in blank stare. Although the reaction from his professor and classmates was within expectation, he a little bit disappointed when Professor Anastasia said his placement on S class was probably a mistake.

With a deep sigh, he sat on his chair.