Aanya

After the little fighting, Elior only levelled up once. He had expected as much and was not so vocal about it, unlike his friend Shin, who complained half a dozen times about not getting what he wanted. In the end, the stare from Ford silent him.

They were on the sideline now. Before them was Ford, watching over all the students. Their time of two hours was almost finished here, and now the upperclassmen were showing their skills with the ants that had their first evolutions.

Ford considered this as a good experience, so he let the freshmen watch their upperclassmen at play. Most of the students were impressed and dumbfounded on the showcase of eight students just a year older than them rampaging against two metres tall ants.

"They seemed to be having fun," Shin said with envy at the upperclassmen.

"Yeah," Elior muttered.

He had to beat down the impulse to sneak some attack in between with his [Abstraction of Void] and gain enough karma points to reach level 20. But he chose not to, as Ford was standing before everyone. Even though he was confident that he could hide his play from the upperclassmen, he was not so for the instructor. After all, Ford was a Guardian of the fourth-order with the expertise to reach the fifth order in a few years.

Elior sighed inwardly. He had to reach fifth-order as soon as possible. Although third-order or above Level 100 was the criterion to be a guardian, Fifth Order was the true benchmark that sets the Guardian from the rest of the others.

"I hope I can get more fighting next week," Shin said.

Elior shook his head. The institution would not let them. They were very strict in protecting their cubs. After all, they were the future of the earth. Even a single unfortunate event would hurt them badly.

"You can only wait for the next trial," he added.

Shin turned his head towards Elior as the words interested him. "And when is that, by the way?"

"Two months from now one, if we are lucky and work hard," Elior said, smilingly. He knew Shin would be interested in the trial and hoped it would motivate the wannabe delinquent to be more diligent.

The Trial was the only place they were given free reins to showcase their skills and abilities. It was organised by the denizens of the motherworld and the fairies overlooked it so that there was no death, too. At least that was true for the first three trials. Who else would not be interested in it? They would get rich rewards and will level up at the same time. A win-win situation for everyone.

"I got the hard part, but what luck had to do in there?" Shin asked, arching his brows.

"Other than the criteria, there were other things you need to worry about," Elior said. "You have no say in this if the institute thinks you are not ready for this. In the next trial, you will not only be facing people of the lower world, but the apprentice of the Motherworld will be there, and you have seen how arrogant and autocratic they were before. So it was not unfounded that the institute would delay your participation for the next trial or more."

"How do you know all this?" Ileana asked on the other hand, as she had got none of the news through the classes.

"You guys need to do some digging," Elior said, not mentioning where he knew all this.

"That's not important now," Shin said. "So what are the criteria for entering the next trial?"

"Succeed in the first Class change and above level 6 in mana application, and there are a few more that I forgot."

The upperclassmen almost finished up the battle with only the cleaning left now. Ford again led the students back from the grade 1 dungeon at a steady pace.

"That seemed easy enough," Shin said in a lower tone. "If only the institute let me fight more freely."

"There is still about two months of time. Getting to level 20 would be easy even with all the watch over, but it is not enough for you," Elior whispered. "Like I mentioned, you need to show the institute you can take care of yourself against the apprentice of the mother world."

Shin nodded with a bitter expression as they walked. They left the dungeon behind and Guardian Silva closed it. The sun was still scorching on the outside, though with the wintery weather it was more on the pleasanter side. Other than Guardian Silva there was another person waiting there. It was a female who may only be a year or two older than the students there.

"Ah, Aanya, what are you doing here?" Ford asked immediately when she noticed the girl.

Elior stopped on his track when he noticed the female. Head full of silver hair, stunning as the sunrise and a long, almost perfect oval face, and the eyes that sparkle in the sapphirine-green glitter. The girl was not short, almost as tall as him, with long legs. She wore the suit of a warrior now, leather jerkins and a similarly white breastplate complimenting her white hair.

Elior knew this girl. And he was not the only one. She was like a celebrity among the students. Everyone knows her. But the way Elior knew her was different from the rest.

She was the daughter of his teacher. Not Aleister, but Issac Neldor. On his previous timeline, he had talked with her a few times and could be considered as friends, though not that close, like he was with Shin or Ileana. Unfortunately, their friendship was not for long, not because one of them broke it, but because she died.

Well, every single one of his friends did die at the end, but her death was premature even compared to the rest.

Aanya Neldor was considered to have even higher talent than he or Leroy or anyone on the entire earth. She had inherited the best of qualities of her parents in looks or in talents. Unfortunately for her, she died two years from now in the horrifying calamity, protecting the earth.

Elior palms were made into fists unconsciously when he recalled the memories.

Meanwhile, the silver-haired girl in warrior costume came closer toward Ford. "Uncle Ford, I was waiting for you here." She said with a pleasant smile. "I just finished my training and heard you are here, so I waited for you."

"Right, I forgot you are training here," Ford nodded. "Are you coming back to the academy? I can give you a lift if you want and in the meantime, you can talk to your former classmate the juniors."

Aanya thought for only a moment and nodded, giving a side look to all the students. "Let's go then. I was training here alone for a weak, and bored to death, finding nobody to talk to."

Ford nodded and led the students again while Aanya talked with the upperclassmen. After all, she was the current student president and held the most authority among all the students.

"El, stop staring at her like that," Ileana said, nudging Elior on the shoulder.

Only then Elior found out he was thinking about all that staring at Aanya. He shook a couple of times and heard Ileana's voice again.

"Are you smitten by her looks or something? Or it is the bad habit you picked up from a certain someone?"

"Hey, why are you pulling me into this?" Shin grunted from the side.

"I did not call your name, but it appears you know how El got this bad habit," Ileana said and looked towards the silver-haired maiden and all the other boys in the pack staring at the same person. "Well, I can't blame you for this. Her looks are satisfactory for all the admiration."

"On another note, I recall, she was your idol to be a guardian, is it not?" Elior asked the chestnut-haired girl who was still stealing looks with all the boys. "You should talk to her."

"No," Ileana said immediately. She feared if her idol was not like she had imagined, then she would only be heart broken.

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The book might go premium from 28th of this month. Meaning the chapter will get locked soon, but all not is bad about it. From then on the chapter will be scheduled well and there will be more chapters. Thankyou.