The red light faded as the group of three passed the two pillars. For a moment, it seemed like the surroundings connected with the red light, creating one red world. Even though the elemental energy emitted from the pillars was rapidly fading, the ground still maintained the red colour.

Keith looked at the ground and marveled at the sight. “The ground has bathed in the elemental energies of the pillars for such a long time that their affinity towards elemental energy has completely changed for some reason. That’s why it takes longer for the ground to return back to its normal colour,” Rinza remarked, looking at the observant Keith.

Keith nodded his head intelligently and then asked, “What is ‘affinity’, Rinza?”

Rinza blinked once and then smiled awkwardly, “Ehh, well, never mind.” He then simply continued walking alongside Dillim, making Keith follow them after he watched the red colour disappear from the ground. Rinza subconsciously used some relatively difficult words because he forgot about Keith’s age for a moment. Keith’s way of conducting himself had made Rinza think that he was dealing with an older kid, instead of just a nine-year-old child.

“Alright,” Rinza started. “Up ahead is the academy. You two chose the right timing to arrive, because after five nights, the year will officially start.”

The buildings that were pretty distant at first were starting to become closer and closer. Keith was able to see the silhouettes of multiple people by now.

Dillim looked at Rinza and spoke up after being silent for some time, “If the year will start after five days, what are we supposed to do in the meantime?”

“Well, you two are always free to explore the academy. There is also the city nearby that is frequented by the students, ‘Limana’. It’s not a very long walk from here and can be reached after only a few hours of travelling.” Rinza pointed in the direction where the main road continued. “Almost all the students live in the dorms, so normally when they need to buy special items they go to Limana.” He then suddenly remembered something and added: “You also won’t have to wait the full five days. The entrance test is actually the day after tomorrow.” He then looked at Keith and said, “I’m sorry, I hope you didn’t expect us to simply let you in. If you want to join the academy as a mage, you have to take the same tests that everyone else is taking.”

Hearing the word ‘test’, Keith couldn’t prevent his face from contorting for a moment. He actually didn’t expect to be facing another test so soon again. Even though he started to become nervous, it wasn’t on the same scale as he felt when he faced his test at home. For some reason, Keith had more confidence in facing this upcoming test than the one he faced before. It might be because he subconsciously placed all his hopes on becoming a mage, this made it easier for him to cope with the results of the heavenly prince test.

Rinza saw Keith’s face change for the worse and a frown appeared on his forehead. ‘Hm,’ he thought, ‘Did he really expect to simply walk in and practice magic with the absolute elite?’

“Don’t worry Keith, even though the entrance tests are very harsh, you will still be able to stay and learn at the academy. This academy is known as the absolute best academy in Erelath, which is why we can’t simply allow you to attend.” After saying that, a consoling smile appeared on Rinza’s face. It looked like Keith wasn’t confident in passing the tests after all, looking at the face he made when he heard the word test. This put Rinza in an awkward position too. “Even if you fail the tests, you will still be able to become a teacher’s assistant or a member of the staff here. That way you can still learn about magic, so don’t worry!”

Hearing this, a scowl appeared on Keith’s face. He didn’t expect he would have to go through a test, but it should still pose no problem for him. He had heard from Dillim that even their own court mage had confirmed a part of Keith’s talent for becoming a mage. But now it seemed like Rinza was already expecting Keith to fail! He didn’t even go through the test and Rinza never saw Keith have any interaction with magic, what made him think that Keith would fail like this?!

Dillim witnessed the interaction between Rinza and Keith and also spoke up. “Keith won’t fail. Our court mage has also approved of him.” Dillim stared at Rinza until the latter nodded his head, showing that he believed Dillim. “Will the tests be the same as most other academies? Or is your academy special?”

Rinza smiled wryly and responded aptly, “Well, we use the two core methods that every country uses in this academy. Our testing facilities are on a higher level though; this way we can confirm the talent of the students with more accuracy. I can’t really tell you more for now, it’s best if the students enter the testing areas without any prior knowledge.”

“Hmph,” Dillim snorted, but didn’t follow up with anything else. He thought Rinza was a good guy, but it started to seem like Rinza was on the naïve side. How could it be possible that none of the other students received any information about the tests. It couldn’t be that this was a well-hidden secret that people are unable to talk about.

Hearing Dillim snort, Rinza’s smile became a little ugly. He understood that there must’ve been some miscommunication that resulted in Dillim thinking that he was keeping some sort of information from them. The truth was that students who don’t know what to expect really perform better at the entrance tests. ‘Forget it, he won’t believe me anyway.’ Rinza thought, looking at Dillim’s indifferent face. “At least our academy has the philosophy that a written test is not necessary. That means that even without a lot of knowledge, as long as your talent is alright, you can study here.”

Both Dillim and Keith pretended like they didn’t hear him and kept on walking. ‘Since when did their teamwork become so good?!’ Rinza shook his head silently and followed after them.

At this point in time, the gate of the academy had already appeared. Noises of students wearing academy uniforms could be seen and heard. There were also multiple children strolling around. Remarkably most of them were wearing fine gowns, indicating they were nobility. Three enormous buildings could be seen, there was quite a bit of distance between them, indicating they all had a different purpose.

Rinza sped up a little and walked ahead of Rinza and Dillim. He then stood in front of the gate and spread out his arms, saying: “Well, now that we have finally arrived, let me officially welcome the two of you to ‘Aethruni’! I hope the two of you will have a wonderful time here and experience all of the joys our country can bring you!” He then stood there awkwardly for a second with his arms spread out, resulting in Keith and Dillim showing a small smile.

Rinza proceeded to wave his arm and urge them to hurry up. “Ahum,” Rinza coughed, breaking his own awkward posture. “Let me show the two of you around. That way you will know where to find everything and everyone.” He proceeded to walk towards the right, making sure Dillim and Keith were following him.

Keith watched his eyes out as he looked at the three buildings. They were positioned in a triangle formation, with a big plaza in front of them. Keith could even hear the sounds of magic and the occasional yells or chants that would accompany them. Those sounds came from the biggest building that was located right in front of the gate. They were now walking towards one of the two smaller buildings on the right.

Every so often, an older student would pass the group of three and stop. They would then proceed to make a curt bow, “This student offers his greetings to the vice-principal!” Rinza would make a small nod without stopping, not really paying attention to the students around him.

“I didn’t know you were the vice-principal,” Dillim grunted.

“Well, I just manage most of the internal affairs of the academy,” Rinza noted, before continuing, “but people always love to categorize. They probably thought ‘vice-principal’ sounded better than ‘internal-affairs manager’.”

After walking for a while, they reached an entrance of one of the big buildings. It had multiple floors and there were multiple great carvings on the walls. Keith looked up and almost strained his neck to see the top of the building. When he looked forward again, he saw two big doors that were already opened, showing the interior of the first floor. “Alright, this building is where you will be staying the upcoming years. These are the male students’ lodgings,” Rinza said, entering the building. When he stood inside, he pointed around himself and said: “This is the room where students normally gather. The first floor is used for meals. There are multiple big rooms, I think the students have made their own rules concerning who sits in what room, but you’ll find out soon enough.” He then continued walking to the stairs and said: “The other big building you saw towards the left is where the female students reside. It’s alright to spend some time there, or have them spend some here.” He then suddenly burst out into laughter while saying, “Just don’t get caught!” Dillim shook his head, while Keith had absolutely no idea what Rinza was talking about.

“Alright, follow me to the top floor. Most of the royalty or top talented figures stay there.” Rinza chuckled and continued while he kept climbing up the stairs, “Considering your background, it’s only fitting that you get a room there too.”

“How many people stay in one room?” Keith asked. He wasn’t interested in befriending other children at the moment, but he was still curious if he would get a roommate.

“Well, regular rooms have around eight people on average, but the top floor only has two people in each room.”

After climbing up the stairs for a while, the ascending finally stopped. Keith could see a very long hallway stretching out with rooms on each side. There were about ten rooms on each side. Compared to the previous floors they passed, this floor was a bit quieter. On the previous floors, there would always be one or two students entering or exiting their rooms, but this floor looked deserted.

“Alright, the last room is yours, I think someone else is using it too, but I’m not sure.” Rinza then looked towards Dillim. “I will show you your own quarters. It wouldn’t be appropriate for you to stay inside the students’ lodges. Keith, you can enter your room on your own, it’s the last one at the right side of the hallway.” Seeing Keith walk away, he added one more thing: “Also, if you want to look for me or Dillim, you can find us in the big building behind the building in front of the academy gate. The big building you could see when we entered the academy is used for lessons and the building behind that one is the staff building. Dillim will reside there from now on too.” He then frowned for a second and added, “Wait, you are staying here, right Dillim?” Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t considered if Dillim would leave again after dropping Keith.

When Dillim showed his power by defeating those wolfs, Rinza understood that he probably wasn’t a match for Dillim himself. It wouldn’t surprise him to see Dillim simply drop off Keith here and then move back to Lirix and help the king with some matters there. It couldn’t be that Dillim didn’t have a high position considering the power he possesses.

“No, I will be staying here and take care of Keith where necessary,” Dillim grunted towards Rinza. His tone then softened a little as he called out towards Keith: “Alright, I will be leaving for now. You can explore this building right now. Tomorrow I’ll call for you and we’ll explore the proximity together.” He then walked past Rinza and started descending the stairs. Rinza soon followed him down, leaving Keith alone in the hallway.

Keith was at a loss of what to do, but soon he recovered himself and walked towards his room. He didn’t knock but simply entered after looking at the number ‘266’ carved into the door. When he entered, he could see a big interior, with multiple sections. There was a bath section, a sleeping section with two beds and a big living section. There was a table and a couch with a few chairs in front of him, making a cozy sight. What surprised Keith was that there was already someone in the room.

A young boy with a fair face and blonde hair was sitting on one of the two beds. His hair almost reached his shoulders, but it didn’t look unkempt at all. He was sitting cross-legged with his hands cupped and resting on his stomach. He had his eyes closed and was seemingly meditating.

Keith didn’t feel like socializing these days, but his manners still took over, making him walk up and introduce himself. “Hey, I’m Keith. I’ll be staying in this room now too. Nice to meet you.”

The blonde-haired boy slowly opened his eyes when he heard Keith had started talking. When he heard the name Keith the look in his eyes changed for a split second. He then smiled grandly while he remained seated and introduced himself too. “Nice to meet you Keith, my name is Vaeryl. I think we’ll become good friends!”