The gates of the academy city was busy even in the early mornings as traveling merchants with their escorts left for distant towns and cities and farmers left the town to head out and do their day job at the fields outside of the city walls, Mars, Varvei and Victoria was just about the only ones that waited to enter the city so the processes was fast with Mars paying for Varvei and so the 3 of them entered the academy city. Mars looked around and found the cobblestone road slightly nostalgic as he walked down the street with Varvei latched onto his right arm, Mars pointed out some of the good shops to her while they walked and after spending some time the 3 of them reached the gates of the academy, Mars was already wearing his red mantel when he walked up to the gate so the guard just let him in without any fuss"oh... is that you Mars?"
"oh my I"m happy you remember me Ca.s.s"
"only my friends call me Ca.s.s! call me by my full name!"
"okay miss Ca.s.sandra Skymaw"
"...you know what I mean"
"it"s either that or Ca.s.s"
Ca.s.sandra gave a sigh
"fine then call me Ca.s.s... by the way who"s this?"
"oh this is Varvei"
"h.e.l.lo Ca.s.sandra"
"Varvei, where have I heard that name before... well never mind nice to meet you, are you a new student?"
"no I"m just here with Mars to take a look around"
"okay, well I have cla.s.s now so I have to go"
"see you around Ca.s.s"
"see you around Mars, Varvei"
Ca.s.sandra walked off towards her cla.s.s leaving Mars and Varvei alone, Victoria had already run off somewhere
"well then... I"ll go drop off my bag at my room, want to come with?"
"sure"
Mars and Varvei walked towards the dorms, along the way Mars received the usual guarded stares as all tactical cla.s.s mages did, Varvei having horns and a long tail also received some stares but the stares she received was more curious then guarded. Soon both of them reached the dorms and walked inside Mars lead the way and soon he pulled out the key he hardly used and unlocked his room
"ugh... stale air"
Mars put down his backpack and opened a window meanwhile Varvei sat down on the bed and looked around, soon she spotted the formation materials on the desk and walked up and took a closer look
"you study formations Mars?"
"yeah just a bit"
"...I see maybe I could help you out, I happen to know a lot about formations"
"sure, I would like that if you have time... I was thinking about getting some food in the cafeteria want to come?"
"sure"
Mars walked out of the room and locked the door after Varvei walked out then he showed the way to the cafeteria that was relatively empty as it was still early in the morning but late enough that most of the students had gone to cla.s.s, Mars and Varvei both brought a tray with some food and sat down at a empty table and begun eating in silence, after they finished eating did Mars pick up the trays
"I"ll be right back"
"okay"
Varvei looked at Mars" back until he was obscured by the crowds, then she began looking around and soon made eye contact with a student wearing a red mantel, the student widened her eyes when she saw Varvei and pulled the arm of another beastwoman dressed in maid clothes that also looked over at Varvei and soon both of them walked over and sat down in front of Varvei, Varvei looked at the student with the red mantel and suddenly remembered something
"wait... your name is Chloe right?"
"yeah that"s me, so where is Mars?"
"he just left, said he would be back soon"
"oh I see..."
Chloe fell silent until the beastwoman in maid clothes poked her on the shoulder
"what is it Elsa?"
"shouldn"t you introduce me?"
"oh right, Varvei this is Elsa, Elsa this is Varvei"
Varvei gave a nod and looked over at Elsa
"h.e.l.lo"
"nice to meet you Varvei, has Mars been taking good care of you?"
"...what do you mean?"
"well it"s just I heard from Chloe that you wasn"t in such a good shape last time she saw you"
"oh right... yeah I"m in perfect shape now"
"that"s good, I wouldn"t want to beat down a weak thieving cat"
suddenly it clicked for Varvei, while Elsa"s smile seemed harmless at first glance there was a good amount of hidden killing intent in there, Varvei gave a wide smile as a cold light flashed in her eyes
"oh don"t you worry about that, what about you defeated dog aren"t you clutching that dagger rather hard? are you okay?"
Varvei slowly transformed her tail as she stared into Elsa"s eyes but suddenly both of them was interrupted as Chloe spoke up
"both of you look rather pathetic fighting like that, can"t you tone it down a little?"
""HUMPH""
both of them broke eye contact, Varvei swung her tail back and forth in irritation as she glared at Chloe but suddenly she gave a smirk and so did the other 2, the whole mood seemed to have suddenly improved a whole lot and then Chloe spoke up
"hey so how far have you gone with Mars?"
Varvei blushed a little and slightly averted her gaze
"I-I kissed him"
"ugh... so jealous, so I"m the only one that hasn"t kissed Mars"
"wait that means, you too Elsa?"
"yeah... it was so dreamy..."
"I know right..."
Varvei and Elsa both had stupid grins on their faces while Chloe seemed rather jealous, this was the exact moment Mars returned
"I"m back... oh Elsa and Chloe are here too"
""Mars!""
both Elsa and Chloe shot up form their seats and each grabbed a arm as they hugged Mars, Elsa"s tail seemed to have turned into a blur and Chloe"s long ears seemed to be trembling slightly
"wow there, take it easy I"m not going anywhere"
"but it"s been so long... ha... ha... Mars" smell"
"hey Elsa act properly!"
"like you aren"t doing the same thing Chloe!"
"easy Chloe, Elsa people are staring"
"how cares about that!"
"yeah we don"t care!"
it took some time for Mars to calm down Elsa and Chloe but eventually both of them sat down at the bench next to Mars of cause, Mars looked over at Varvei and asked
"do you want to enroll here Varvei?"
"here at this academy?"
"yeah we could take cla.s.ses together and stuff like that"
"but.. isn"t it expensive to enroll?"
Chloe gave a soft sigh and spoke up
"don"t you want to be with Mars?"
"yes I do but..."
"then no but"s!"
"...o-okay, Mars I would like to enroll here"
"good then let"s get your enrollment sorted"
"r-right now?"
"yes right now"
"o-okay"
Mars rose form the table and so did Varvei but Elsa and Chloe kept sitting
"what about you two, want to come with?"
"I want to tag along but I have cla.s.s now..."
"and I need to clean..."
"okay then we"ll see you later"
"bye Elsa, Chloe"
Mars and Varvei walked out of the cafeteria leaving Elsa and Chloe behind and headed over to the administrative building and soon found a teacher, Mars explained Varvei would like to enroll the teacher gave a nod
"we always welcome talented students, you just have to pa.s.s the test first"
"test?"
"you see we only accept strategic and tactical cla.s.s mages at odd times of the year like this"
"so i have to take a test?"
"yes follow me... Mars you can come as well"
"yes... wait you know who I am?"
"of cause I do, how many tactical cla.s.s mages do you think we have at the academy?"
"not a lot right?"
"right, so all staff is required to know them by name"
"I see..."
Mars and Varvei followed after the teacher and soon they arrived in a courtyard with a giant containment formation in the middle
"well then miss Varvei please use your most powerful spell at the middle of the formation"
"okay..."
Varvei walked forwards and stopped at a spot about 10 meters from the containment formation before she raised her arms and mumbled
"ring of fire..."
a gentle flame appeared a soon formed a ring that gradually grew larger until it was about 15 meters across then it started spinning around itself at high speed before Varvei pointed at the containment formation
"go..."
the ring of fire shoot forth with such high speed it almost seemed like it teleported when it arrived inside the containment formation activated and formed a transparent dome that was shattered as soon as it formed with the back up containment formation only just able to kick in before it also shattered under the might of the ring of fire, Mars mentally prepared for the ring to explode or destabilize but it didn"t, it just silently returned to floating around Varvei as if it was awaiting its next order. Varvei waved her hand and the ring disappeared into thin air before she looked over at the stunned teacher and asked with a smile on her face
"did I pa.s.s?"
"y-yes... yes you did"