The Azure Academy

"Come in everyone let's talk inside my office." The old man led the way.

As soon as they entered the gate, Alan saw a simple sentence written on a board in between the two tall pillars .

"Knowledge is Power"

Pheonix smiled at the phrase he read. This was the same one his master always told him. When he looked around, he was stunned to see the vast academy campus. The uniformly looking buildings built in neat rows, with lot of spaces inbetween each other as they moved towards center and some buildings near the academy looked larger and even had a huge backyard with larg trees covering the contents of the backyard. Wide and cobblestoned roads added to the beauty the houses on the sides, The scene infront were a truely spectacular sight to behold.

The Academy buildings stood out from the other houses and buildings, as they were built in a different style. He saw many bakery's, dinners, coffee shops and other shops spread across the campus. There were few amphitheatres for practice and performances. There were even a few arenas, healing halls, a few weapons shop and much more. The campus itself was neatly maintained and self sufficient. It even surpassed most of the villages to which Alan had been to.

The administration building was one of the biggest one inside the campus. It was the place where not only the administration work was taken care off, but also had one of the largest library and magical item store in the entire Kingdom.

Pheonix stood for a moment looking at the building. "Headmaster, why is there so much mana fluctuation here?"

"Oh, can you feel the mana fluctuation!!!" The headmaster was surprised. When Pheonix nodded in confirmation, the old man shook his head in disbelief and beaconed everyone inside the building.

Once inside the office the four elders took the seat opposite to the headmaster and the two kids stood behind their parents.

"I know the two of you know me well, Wesley and Simon. Let me introduce myself to the others first. I am Marcus Arulius. Headmaster and the founder of Azure Academy. And as Pheonix asked, me and Remus are like brothers since a long, long time.

Both of us promised to teach and help young ones to grow in our own ways. Me being a visionary since my childhood, started this Academy with Remus's immeasurable help during the initial stage of the course.

Remus, as you know prefers to be free, unbound and sometimes wild, chooses only those, whome he deemed worthy of teaching personally. And honestly those whom he picks turns out to be the most capable and outstanding people to ever set foot in this academy."

"How many students had Master Remus taught till date headmaster?" Pheonix asked, unable to suppress his curiousity.

"Hmmmm.... let me think...."

"Honestly, I had met only 10 people who studied with Remus, including yourself and Simon.

The remaining six were spread across not only this Kingdom, but the whole continent and are living a peaceful life after all these years, lad. I oftern receive message from these people and pass on their messages to Remus."

Pheonix nodded his head and stood there silently. His father and grandfather continued their conversation with the headmaster. After a few minutes, both got up and they all took their leave from the headmaster.

"Son, These three years are critical for your growth. Make sure you study hard, eat well and also give proper rest to you body and let it recover naturally. Don't use any shortcuts to recover your body, unless, its an absolutly necessity. Students are not allowed to go to their home in between the year unless it's an emergency situation. Even though you will get a month break inbetween the year, students generally stay here itself and improve their knowledge or take aome task from the adventurera guild. We will make sure to come by every year and meet you my son. No need for you to come as it will waste more than half of your time in travelling."

"Ok father, I will keep all the instructions in mind." Pheonix hugged his father, then his mother, his grandparents and finally came and stood infront of Fiona.

"Fiona..." Before he could say anything further, Fiona, burst into tears and hugged him.

"Brother, you were away from me for 5 years and now after only a few days you are again staying away for 3 more years. It's not fair."

Pheonix smiled warmly and consoled her. " Don't worry sister, whenever you feel like seeing me, ask grandpa, he will bring you here. Besides, you will aslo be starting your lessons once you reach home."

After a few more minutes of crying and consoling, Fiona reluctantly left with her family waving her brothers a sad goodbye till he went out of sight.

Sighing deeply, Pheonix went to the gathering hall and took a seat in the corner of the room. When he looked around, there were hardly a dozen students, some looking nervous and some talking with their friends animatedly. Slowly the room started to fill up and Pheonix noticed a pattern in the seating arrangements which was happening naturally.

Kids from the Rich, influential and powerful families sat in the front couple of rows. Kids with well established families and rich merchants sat behind them, admiring the front row kids. The kids from middle class families and kids with no background or wealth were sitting behind them silently.

Pheonix sighed inwardly and started to count the number of people inside the room. There were 60 students, 6 senior students who were organizing things and guiding those who were coming.

A middleaged man entered the room and immediately all 6 senior students bowed to him in respect and all 60 new students stood up and bowed following their seniors.

"Please sit down everyone. I am professor Glaxy Halls. You may address me as Prof. Halls. I will be teaching Economics and Trading for the First year students. Even though most of you are aware of the study pattern, let me refresh your memories once and give a brief details for thoses who don't know, before giving you further details.

You will all be divided into 3 Groups. Irrespective of your outside status you will be placed in a group based on your performance today. And you will be in the same group for the whole year. If you improve your standings during the final exams, you will be able to go to a different group and similarly if your performance is poorer you will be shifted to a different group.

If a student fails in the final exams, they will be given another chance. He or she can take the exams in a month. If they fail again, then they will be sent out of the academy. Am I clear?"

Everyone nodded their heads at Prof. Halls explanation.

"Now, based on your performance today, you will be divided into Class S, Class A and Class B. Like the Adventurer's guild the class also has it's own perks. Which I will be explaining to you later.

Let me remind you once again. This is "The Azure Academy". Whatever social status you have outside this town doesn't count here. You may be a prince or a begger outside this academy, everyone will be treated equally here. And if anyone were caught showing off his/her status or doing misdeeds using their family name or their status, that person, irrespective of his status will be brought infront of the Headmaster of this academy and will be punished accordingly. So mind your manners and reign down your egos here. Your ego or pride will not work even if you are the son of our emperor. So it's better not to use your family name here unnecessarily. Just your given name would suffice." He surveyed all the classroom with a stern gaze after completing his speach to make sure everyone their understood his point.

When he did not found any adament or defiance face, he smiled and continued speaking. "Excellent, now that all of you have understood the basic rules about the academy, let me breef a few more things about the academy and its layout."