>Chapter 32<

Hot, mid-day sunlight shone down upon the masses that were currently gathering in front of a big, black steel bar gate, which was connected to a shiny, white wall. All the people, around 300 of them, were waiting for the gates to open.

In the crowd were a lot of young people, all the way from the age of 15 to 20. They were all dark-skinned and were wearing white military-style uniforms. The only difference was that the males had long white trousers and the females had long white skirts. On their right breast pocket were black badges. The badges all had a drawing in the middle that was surrounded by a white pentagon ranging from the number one to three.

While the students were all impatiently waiting, their attention was stolen by an approaching carriage with the insignia of the royal family. Their palms immediately started to get sweaty.

What was the royal family doing here? They all thought.

The carriage stopped when it was a reasonable distance away from the crowd of young people. A butler, probably in his middle years, came out of the front and went to open the door.

Coming out of the carriage, Caedis straightened the sleeves of his royal blue military uniform before looking back into the carriage.

"What are you waiting for? Aren't you coming out?" He asked.

A sigh filled with nervousness was heard before five silhouettes came out of the carriage. They were all wearing the same clothes as the crowd in front of them. All of them had a black badge with a one white pentagon inside of it and a picture in middle.

Humans? The crowd of dark elves practically screamed.

It was not a weird sight to see humans inside of their city. In fact, it was quite common. It wasn't like they hated all the humans just because they were fighting a war with them. Most of the humans who live in their city were betrayed by their own kind, that's why they are still accepted into here. Of course, they have some restrictions, for example, they cannot gain a position in military that is too high, or a position that contains secrets that are better left unknown.

Either way, it was still a shocker to see humans being allowed entry into the academy. There are a lot of secret that the academy contains as well, which is another place that humans accepted into their territory cannot enter, not even thinking about actually studying there.

But, since they came out of the carriage of the royal family, no one let out a single word of complaint. Especially when they saw who was the man who came out of the carriage before the humans. So, they all just stayed quiet and rood stiffly in place, trying to avoid his gaze. Though, there are always some exceptions…

The five humans, our group of boys, looked at the huge gathering in front of the gates and they couldn't help but feel nervous. This is the first time they had seen such a huge crowd since they came here. And not interacting with a lot of people, or just not being in their presence for nine days can do wonders for humans.

Actually, for the past four days, their contact with another intelligent being was minimal. The only people they actually talked with were Albert and Caedis. Other than that, all they did was train their control of magic particles and learn the dark-elven language.

Their thoughts were interrupted when they saw the gates opening and the students getting into five orderly lines. They just stood there stumped until they heard Caedis's voice.

"What are you waiting for? Go and get into the line."

Their bodies unconsciously moved by themselves hearing the devils order and they all lined up in the left-most of all the lines. The students in front of them then started to move, so the only thing they could do was to start moving as well.

They went past the long gravel road and into the misty forest surrounding the actual building. After a while, still standing in the five lines, they found themselves in the middle of the battle arena that Caedis showed them a few days back.

All of them just continued to stand there, completely unmoving. It was as if a single movement was supposed to cost someone their life.

A few minutes later, a large podium made out of rock appeared in front of them all. In the next second a person appeared on top of it. It was a dark-elven woman, most likely in her middle 30's. She was wearing a red-colored military uniform, the same color as her crimson hair, but instead of a skirt, she was wearing normal trousers.

She then opened her mouth and started to speak.

"Good day to you, my dear students. My name is Alexandra Architriclinus and I am the headmaster of the Veneficia Academy."

Though her voice was somewhat quiet, it resounded throughout the whole battle arena and created an echo.

"For the now second and third-year students, I welcome you all back and am happy to see you. As for the first year students, I officially present to you the Veneficia Academy. I hope that we will have a nice time, studying the next three years together." She continued. "You will all be divided into four classes, since we have about a hundred new students, with some additional ones."

She said that last part while quickly taking a look at the five humans at the end of one of the lines.

"All of your names will be written on board next to the entrance of the first-year building. Your room number will also be written next to your name." Pausing briefly, a happy smile surfaced on her faces. "I hope you enjoy your stay here, now you can go on and get situated."

And then she just disappeared from her place, as if she wasn't there in the first place.