Academy

Selene and Aurora made their way through the halls of the castle. Gazes of hatred constantly bombarding them from different angles. No words were spoken as they went through the maze of hallways.

Eventually arriving at the front entrance of the dukes castle, Selena and Aurora expected to see a carriage waiting for them to escort them to the academy. However there was nothing there. No driver or carriage in sight.

Selene slightly frowned, "Aurora..."

"It seems the guards are interfering mistress to make things harder." Aurora concluded as it could be the only explanation. Aurora and Helena made sure that the coachman knew when to be present which he never expressed problems to them, a rare event for even them.

"Lets head to the stables to see what the problem is." Selene began walking towards the stables, where the horses were usually tended too. Near the edge of the stables was a large garage like structure that held the different carriages for the duke to use and store for visiting guests.

Aurora followed behind to the right as Selene and her walked across the cobblestone paths to their location, they found quite a troubling sight.

"Ahh~ *cough*" Withering on the ground surrounded by multiple guards was the coachman, covered in dirt and blood. The guards were taking time beating the coachmen as they took turns hurling insults.

"Low life, if I say there was no notice of carriage use this wouldn't happen."

"Hehe, Brother go easy on him. He is new you know!"

"I don't give a shit! He needs to learn the ropes around here!"

"We should take an arm for his misconduct!"

Selene gracefully walked up to the group of guards who hadn't noticed her and observed for a minute to let them finish before interrupting their 'fun'. "Guards, you were notified that I would be using the carriage so leave him alone and scram."

The guards who were initially not paying, all turned to the voice coming from behind them. Undaunted the head guard turned around to see Selene and Aurora. A slight frown came to his face? This bitch to HIM to scram?

"Heh~ devilspawn have no use for carriages. You can walk to your destination like the pig you are." Smirking the guard stepped towards Selene. His body towering over her. Selene at age 10 was quite tall for her age, standing around 4'6 while the guard stood around 6'1.

"Im the dukes daughter, Im at least ent-*PAH~*" Selene tired to peacefully solve the problem yet, the guard did not care and backhanded her across her face.

Selene almost fell to the ground but was saved by Aurora from getting her dress dirty, a slight red mark adorned Selene's right cheek.

"A devilspawn bitch like you doesn't get to speak to me." The guard puffed out his chest as snickers and laughs resounded behind him. Waiting for a response from the white haired, red eyed devil the guards stood in their way.

Aurora was gritting her teeth in anger letting out an inaudible growl. It never ended, the absolute disrespect from the personnel of the castle when Selene simply stayed to herself.

Selene stayed quiet with an emotionless face. This wasn't the first encounter of the guards trying to provoke her so this routine was normal to her. The guards after a few more taunts got bored and left. They obviously knew the spawn was leaving for academy and requested a carriage for transportation.

The coachmen got up slowly and bowed towards Selene, "Forgive me young mistress, I tried to be on time but they refused to let me leave."

Waving her hand as Aurora pulled out a healing pill out of her pockets to hand to the coachmen, "It's fine Mr. Jun. This isn't the first time it's happened."

Smiling bitterly, "I-I see..." Mr. Jun could only reply. He was relatively new to the castle so such treatment was entirely baffling to him. He has worked for other noble households before but none treated their young masters or mistresses in such a way.

With an exprionless face and cold voice Selene hurried up the coachmen, "Hurry up Mr. Jun, we've already lost time. Aurora help him prepare the carriage."

"As you command, Young Mistress." Aurora quickly bowed and helped Mr. Jun prepare the carriage with what ability she could and within five minutes they were ready to leave. Perhaps feeling they got enough the guards caused no problems as they left, however, they all glared at the coachmen making him nervously gulp wondering what the hell is wrong with this place and if picked a bad noble to work under.

They left the castle and made their way to the border of the duchy which was next to royal territory. The academy was just a little farther away from the border so they arrived quickly at their location.

The academy was a castle in of itself. Pure gray stones with colored mosaic windows of different sizes. Surrounded by a relatively low wall, the castle grounds took up hundreds of square meters. The main hall stood in the middle of the grounds surrounded by many different sized stone square buildings that are attached by covered cobble pathways.

The gate, which had students guarding it were checking a piece of paper as carriages began to flow into the gate. When Selene was introduced as the daughter of Duke Silverhorn the students taking 'attendance' were rather surprised. However the papers checked out so they could only let them pass.

Once they arrived at the main circle of the gravel pathway in front of the main hall Selene disembarked and began to walk to the assembly that would happen in the main hall.

Once Selene left the carriage the multitude of hundreds of students began to look her way slowly. For the nobles, who usually interacted at an early age and were at least acquainted with their peers had confused expressions on their faces.

"Who is that?"

"I don't know, only nobles are allowed into the academy..."

"How can someone not know such a beautiful maiden~"

"Oi, pervert stop ogling!"

"She is definitely a noble but I didn't see her at the young noble gathering in the capital last year!"

The murmurs continued as Selene made her way into the assembly hall. Uncaring for what was being said around her, she made her way to her seat near one side of the hall so Aurora could stand next to her.

"It seems like you will be meeting a lot of people, Young Mistress." Aurora tried to tease to lighten the mood for Selene but she couldn't care less.

"I'm not here to interact with people, only to learn. The only reason I will be approached is because I am a dukes daughter. Once they realize that my father hates me, I will be useless to them and left alone just like I always have been."

Aurora could only let a small unnoticeable bitter smile appear on her inscrutable face. Selene merely was stating facts and felt no reason to continue on the subject which she understood. Aurora quickly realized that what happened in Selene's childhood would have great affect on her older years.

Who could blame Selene though? Constant beating and neglect from everyone other than three other women shaped her untrusting personality. Maybe she would be more lenient to other women but that was yet to seen. There were multiple maids that made it hard for Selene too.

Students began to fill into the assembly hall for the morning address, from freshmen such as Selene to seniors which were usually three years older. There were at least 400 different degrees of nobility children within the hall at this point which was the total amount of students at the academy. The Kingdom of Zeldeir was a large country and had hundreds of nobles from baron to duke. They were all required to send their children to attend to the academy from age 10 to 13.

Once the hall settled down teachers began to appear from a side door on top of the stage at the front of the hall which had a raised platform. Men and women of different ages all arrived with a rather old man with a deep white beard that fell down onto his stomach and white hair that draped over his head and shoulders. He gave off a rather intimidating aura as his presence simply quieted the students.

After observing the students with his blue eyes for a few minutes he began his speech, "Welcome young masters and mistresses to Brightstar Academy, here at the academy we raise and train you to be respected magical cultivators and nobles. Here you will meet future allies and enemies, fight in death and life battles to further your skills and hone you're etiquette to become a cut above the rest. It is up to you how far you can go."

A rather curt opening surprised Selene but she remained unexpressive at such words. This is exactly as she required so she can grow and protect her loved ones and herself from the terrors she is exposed to each day within her own home.

After a few more pleasantries, papers were handed out by the senior students to their freshmen so they could know their class schedule.