Chapter 7: First day of school

After finishing touches on my uniform were done, me, Kiira and Taru headed out with Goli as our guard and Rikedo-san as a coachman.

"It seems Rikedo-san dressed up for the occasion," Kiira smiled.

"It suits him well," Taru nodded satisfyingly.

"Thank you, my priestess!"

"I told yout to stop... never mind, you guys never do…" Taru slumped a little and boarded the carriage.

I took one final look over people who came to send us off, the personel of the mansion, "If everything goes well, we will be back just before diner, see you soon!"

"See you soon and good luck in school young master," everyone bowed politely.

"Everyone is adjusting nicely, don't you agree?" Kiira smiled and placed her head on my shoulder.

"Yeah," Taru did the same on the other side.

I won't say anything against this bliss. I just placed my hands on their shoulders, hugging them closely.

Soon after that, we came to the academy and were instantly send to side entery of the auditorium. And even though I say it's side entery, it's as lavishly decorated with barok-like stucco.

"Sir Leonard Hirano Dragonrose, lady Kiira Drakera and lady Tarumipemi Seadraga I presume?" guard next to doors asked us.

"That's us," I answeared for all of us.

"Great, you are the last ones to arrive appart from their royal highness'."

"I see, thank you for the information," I nodded magnanimously.

We entered the room and were lead to the backstage.

The program was simple, principal would give few words to the students and their parents. Next the S class is called out and the head of the class, me, gives another speach. Finaly, the principal closes the ceremony for parents by presenting homeroom teachers and students goes to their classrooms with said teachers after that.

We entered the room and all eyes fell on us. I went with my eyes over everyone present.

There was Lionin, crown prince of Beastmen kingdom, Lionel De Sarte. He was rather slender and tall, his hair and had still long time until it could grow into respectable maine.

Next were two elves. No, an elf and a half-elf. The elf with short green hairs was Orion Elvieren, he didn't give me strong impresion, but for some reason he was looking at Kiira. The half-elf girl next to him had more of... balanced look. She didn't seem strong or weak. She looked perfectly even. But what kept me on my toes was that her posture didn't let me see any weakpoints.

Name: Elyon Magnala
Race: Half-Elf
Level: 25
Title: Unwanted child, Questioner

Skills:

Supreme: Eye of truth (5), Hide skill (5)

Rare: Light magic (5), Fire magic (5), Wind magic (5)

Uncommon: Long sight (5), Keen hearing (5)

Common: Marksmanship (5), Daggers (2), Hand to hand combat (4)

Oh, so this is questioner I heard so much about!, I smiled involuternaly.

Next to her, but still little further away was a man with strikingly dark cyan hairs, suprisingly he was a human named Perceval Trideen. And next to him were three other humans boys, Calcan Calcia, Gilbert Gareau and Simon Quatro, none of whoom were more interesting above the fact that they were local commoners, which also made them only common birth people in S class in last decade.

Next people that caught my eye were two girls chatting in the corner of the room. One was Foxkin named Shizuko Le Douce and the other one was Werewolf called Zalia Detta Leroux. She had familiar power called beastification, which reminded me of Tifaana.

"Just talk to him! You have to be clear about these things!" Zalia whispered to Shizuko's ear and I picked it up with my [Keen hearing] skill.

"B-but I, I don't know... what, what if he say no..." Shizuko answeared timidly.

Going from that little piece of information my eyes noticed that Carolina Ruby Tenébres, the vampire and daughter of a duke, was straight up ignoring me. Did I do something? I even danced with her on my house warming party and I didn't stepped on her a single time unlike her on me... Kiira...

I didn't do anything! Kiira mouthed at me as if she knew what I was thinking.

But there were others who instead of looking at us from far away came stright to us. Those were Alette, Nina, Yuni and William. When I looked closely, I could see bandages under William's shirt on his left hand.

"Sir Leo I saw the carriage so I instantly knew you were here. It feels like it was long time, but it was not even a week," Nina spoke like a proper noblewoman, which surprised us a lot. I mean, usually she was like 'Well, whatever.'

"That's true, miss Nina. Sir William, I see you are doing well. Were you training again?"

"Oh, so you noticed. Yes, my older brother was training with me until very late last night," Will smiled broadly.

"Ahem! Everyone, her high—urgh!?"

"Miss Victina doesn't need preferencial treatment of a royal...sir," Lulu seemed little on edge today, but that didn't stop her from looking stuningly beautiful in her uniform.

Wait... did my heart just skiped a beat? Me?!

Maybe becouse my face, Kiira and Taru pinched my bottom while pouting. Alette and Nina also looked a little displeased. Urgh, well, I have the cake for them so let's give it to them a little sooner...

As I took a step towards Victina, Lionel and Orion did the same and tried to get to her before me.

But, they didn't expected that Victina would shoot out as a dart in the same time stright towards me, without even batting an eye to the two. Oops, my bad. Sorry guys, but this one's already mine.

"Lord Leo! You won't belive it! I showed the spells you tought me to grand mother and she praised me!"

If I remember correctly, marchioness Bella Berita was back in her prime called [Middle Queen], becouse she could use all intermediate magics. Also she's known as the strictest teacher in history of this school. Some rumors say that she once let entire S class fail her class, becouse they didn't meet her high standarts. Accidentally, she was also homeroom teacher for Gavin and Hina back when they were in first year, but becouse her health got suddenly worse, she had to stop teaching.

"That's remarkable. It's good to know that your hard work pays off," I smiled at her.

"Also..." she grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes, "she requested to be in presence during the next lesson..."

Why is her voice quivering so much?

"Wh-what is happening?" the boys couldn't understand the situation, but the girls all went into uproar "Kyaa~ romance on the first day!"

When I went with my eyes around, I found Zalia fanning the flames in hearts of the rest from behind, while Shizuko was talking to Rinbell, Victina's brother. Is it me or is that Shizuko into Rinbell? After one quick glance towards Kiira, we had clear picture from Shizuko's wagging tail.

"I see," I responded to Victina, "you want me to be more gentle right?"

"No! The opposite is better! Please don't give us time to breathe!" Lulu jumped it.

Okay! Time out! Boys are getting really worked up right behind you two! Only one who had stronger killing intent than them is that forest dragon you know?!

"I see. Well, let's talk about what kind of space magic spells we should train next time. So far we covered Dimension box, Dimension slash, Teleportation and Warp. So I was thinking about starting with Warping bullet, Unseen javelin and some practical spells like Full clean and Quick change."

"Yes! That would be awsome!"

"And we need to start the sword techniques... actually... Will would you like to join?"

"Eh? Me? Are you sure Leo?" Will got all flustered.

"I am," I gave him a warm smile.

In that moment, a knock came to the doors and one of the teachers came in. Incidentaly it was the magic test supervisor.

"Alright everyone! I'm your homeroom teacher Misha Rosa Kalineli and I will teach you in classes on Magic advancements and familiar treatment. As for what will happen now, the director will call you out by name and number of your seat. We will go from the lowest seat to the highest."

We nodded to it and we started to line up.

What suprised me was that Yuni was first as the so called 'honored seat twenty'. This seat is usually mocked as the first A class seat. After her was Shizuko, Gilbert, Simon, Perceval, Elyon, Calcan, Orion, Lionel, Zalia, Rinbell, Alette, Nina, Caroline, William, Taru, Lulu, Kiira, Victina and then me. And yes, all my fiancées took six of the top ten seats, I feel a little proud.

♦

It was normal start of the school for the parents. The principal, even though he was getting older every time they saw him here, was passionately telling them about two tournaments that will be held this year here in this kingdom. Some of the parents here even remembered him being principal back when they were students here, so this kind of speach was nothing new to them.

But, then it happen. The S class presentation. As usual they started from the lowest place and as they got higher and higher in number of seats the audience grow tenser more and more. Reason for that was that this year there was someone called Dragonrose who slained dragon in Netrose duchy.

When prince Rinbell came out as tenth seat, some people relaxed a little. That was becouse it was usually considered faux pass when royal was somewhere else then in top ten students of the S class.

That being said, son of count, two chevaliers and one hononary viscountess occupied sixth to third seats. And then, princess Victina appeared. The tense atmosphere was instantly dispersed. The Dragonrose was head of the class, meaning he wasn't just about muscles, but he also had wits.

But then, the atmosphere grew even tenser then before. Sound of resolutly walking person made everyone look up to the pult with magic voice transmiter. No one even dared to speak up, the audience was silent as grave. There stood young man with brown hair and greenish silver eyes. He held his head high, but not to such extent to be considered rude, no. Everyone here knew instantly that he is strong, sofisticated and dignified.

"My classmates, guardians and teachers," his voice revibrated through the auditorium making everyone tense up even more, "I stand before you as the representative of our year and Head of the Class. As we are just starting to learn about the world around us and it's rules, I ask of you, in name of all the students to keep suporting and watching over our future endeavors going forward. Head of the Class, Leonard Hirano Dragonrose," he finished with a slight bow.

Everyone was at awe. For a twelve years old newly minted noble he gave impression of seasoned veteran.

In the silence of the auditorium, single person started claping her hands. Said person came from upperclassmen rows.

"You speak nicely head of the class, what do you say? Wanna go for a quick duel?" the woman in black uniform smiled devilishly.

♦

During my walk towards the pult, a wave of nervousness hit me and maybe due to that my Intimidation skill leaked weakly. After I delivered my speach, I was approached by troll girl in black uniform.

"A duel?" my eyes got instantly tired, but no one has realized it.

"Exactly. I heared you are the strongest person to enroll this academy in last decade so I want to test that out, as the current strongest."

"I see, well—"

"There is no reason to listen to her sir Dragonrose!" miss Kalineli tried to stop me.

"It's okay, miss Kalineli. I can humor her for a few minutes, if his majesty allows it, of course."

All eyes turned to king, who was silently sitting at the balcony, trying to hold back his laugh. In response to my words, the king stood up with serious face that had slightly curled up corners of his mouth.

"Ahem… In rules of school is said that duels can not be held between students of different classes with more then two class diverse. But as for sir Dragonrose and Miss Génin, they are both members of same class S. But, they are from different years, which gives a little sence of unfairness towards sir Dragonrose. That being the case, I prohibit usage of real weapons. Also, becouse sir Dragonrose is exceptional Space magic user, I would like for him to not use it."

Yeah, I get that...

"My deepest thanks your majesty," the troll girl bowed.

"My deepest thanks your majesty. Now, please allow me to help anyone who wish to see this bout, «Gate» If you enter one of these portals, you will came out right before the stadium."

The five gates were fixed in space and I opened additional one for S class stright to the arena.

♦

After about twenty minutes all tribunes were full of people. As I saw this, I cracked my neck and smiled.

"Are you sure about this Leo? She seems strong, she is daughter of knight captain after all," Victina and Lulu seemed worried.

"Don't worry, I will be back before you even know it," I smiled at them.

"Look, he talks big before the princess, upstart bastard," I heared Orion's whisper.

"Well, look closely everyone!" I waved my hand and entered the arena.

I took on leather armor that was prepared for me and a wooden sword. As I looked at the other side, I noticed the troll girl coming too.

"Let's spice things up a bit! If I loose you will join the Disciplinary comitee!" she yelled at me from the other side of the arena.

"Didn't you mean 'If you loose'? This formulation makes it seems like you're throwing in a towel."

"I just trust the old hag!" she laughed and continued seriously, "But, there are only three spells in space magic I know of, are you really as good as his majesty says? I don't mean to mock his majesty's judgement, but space magic doesn't seem really useful in combat I'd say."

I smiled and looked at the king and he nodded and said "Only one spell! And don't destroy the protection barriers like the last time!"

I bowed to the king and audience started to cheer.

"I will be referee of this match, Both of you have light magic spells: Protect body Protect magical body casted on you. If the spells break or you are no longer capable of fighting, I will end the duel. Now get to your position... And start!"

"«Lock on!»" As soon as we started I casted one of my original spells.

"Huh? It didn't do anything!"

"Spells don't have to do damage in order to be active," I smiled at the disappointed looking troll girl.

"Heh, here I come then!" the girl closed the distance in an instant and attacked with downward chop.

I parried it with light touch of my wooden sword and sneaked in my own hit from a side.

"Ugh!" The girl jumped back and prepared to charge in again.

In acordance with her stance, I corrected my own.

Another charge. This time after parrying I tried to hit her back, but she blocked it.

"You're really good. Let's see how you'll handle my spellcraft! «Flame sword!»"

"Oh, a sword magic I see. This is good. Maybe I should try little harder too, then «Haze Sword: Mirrage»"

My sword started to produce mist which enveloped me first and then entire battlefield.

"Obsuring my vision?! That's really low!"

"You haven't seen anything yet."

The mist started to condense into three same looking men. In other words, they created perfect copies of me. The downside of this is that these copies can't use any skills and rely only on my physical abilities.

But I've trained with Sword saintess for years now and Kiira isn't really a slacker too so they are not weak.

"Heh?! There's three of you?!"

From here, I started my counter attack. Given how much magic I poured in the haze mirrage they should be able to withstand two to three dirrect hits from her.

But still, within ten minutes, the three clones were gone and ended the mirrage.

"Heh... it seems like your Sword magic is truly scary... they even managed to expend my magic so greatly that I don't have much mana left..." the troll girl panted. "I didn't want to use my racial skill becouse it makes every fight boring, but you give me no other choice!"

Weak greenish light enveloped the troll girl as her stamina, mana and HP started to replenish.

"The regeneration skill of a trolls really intrigues me. Is it simmilar to Auto-heal? Or is it something different? But what interests me the most is, if I can surpass it," I gave her a confident smile.

"You want to surpass it? Don't make me laugh! It's racial skill you know?"

"I do, that's what intirigues me. So, let me show you little bit of my spellcraft «Little fire dart»"

I shot my spell. Little fire dart. It's a fire magic spell for begginers. It's mostly know for it's piercing capabilities.

"Urgh, «Magic shield!»" the troll girl conjured hexagon shaped shield between herself and the spell.

But that was just to be expected. My fire dart hit the shield. And broke through. After that it continued towards the troll girl and hit her squarely in her abdomen.

"Urgh?!" she fell down to her knees.

"That's enough! Protection on miss Génin is destroyed. The winner is Leonard Dragonrose!" the referee declared.

"H-how did you do that? My shield should've stop that begginers level spell!"

"Remember the first spell I used, [Lock on]? It's a spell that allows me to always hit my target no matter the distance or obstacles between me and the target."

"So... you planned for this from the begining?"

"But of course. My first hit was to determinate how much power I need to use in order to do damage. After that I created the Haze mirrages to deal continual damage and drain your stamina and mana. I would say that maintaining the [flame sword] was a mistake. I personaly would've changed to wind magic in that moment. After that I just had to force you to reveal your healing abilities of Regeneration skill so I could analyze it. When that was done, I just had to find your weak point and attack it with magic poweful enough to penetrate the protection magic, but not strong enough to kill you instantly."

"Ah... I see, seems like I got carried away, you really are strong... and that analyzing ability of yours, can you really spot weak points that fast?"

"Most of the times. You had good guard from the start so I had really hard time spotting it. Becouse of that I had to weaken you first."

"You sure are crazy strong. So what do you say? Will you join the disciplinary comitee?"

"I will think about it," I smiled and helped her to stand up.

The audience started cheering so we wave at them and returned to our previous posts. Defeating the Disciplinary comitee gave me quite a lot of student points so I was rather happy too.

"That was so cool!" Lulu zipped stright towards me with William right behind her.

"That [Haze sword] it's water atribute sword magic isn't it? Is that original spell?"

"Yes it is, Will."

"Good work out there, Leo," Kiira smiled.

"As expected of Leo," Taru smiled.

"That's my brother for you," Alette laughed and gave cold look to the rest of the class, especially the boys.

"The boys wanted to bet on your chances of victory," Victina whispered to my ear.

I looked at them and saw that they were all depressed. All, except for Rinbell. I looked at Victina and she continued: "Brother Rin was only one who bet on you."

Winning against your classmates on first day eh? Rinbell you are build different.

Seeing my face Rinbell gave me big grin and V sign. That girl Shizuko is really into him, isn't she? Look how happy she looks from behind him.

"Th-that was amazing, sir Dragonrose, those were your original spells?" miss Kalineli pushed up her glasses as she stood directly before me.

"Ah, yes, that's true..."

"I couldn't feel any magic depletation so tell me did you used Galimson's magic circle construction technique or Theory of Ludowell?"

"I was inspired by Ludowells technique, but it was more of my own take on magic circles."

"I see, forming those clones must've took a lot of magic, how did you created them without severe magic depletation and dispersing?"

"I placed Absorbtion runes in the middle of the circle so the clones who are created from those circles have the Absorbtion runes on their core. Those runes absorbs magic from air, which makes the clones more stable and usable..."

"I though that only Victina is magic geek but it turns out miss Kalineli is the same..." Taru smiled sourly.

"I get you. They are already in their own world... it pains me a little you know?" Kiira answeared her as she watched me, Victina and our homeroom teacher drift away into world of magic advancements.

"Ahem!" suddenly a voice snaped us back into reality.

The voice belonged to the King himself. We instantly went to a knee.

"Y-your majesty... I'm sorry for our rude display," miss Kalineli appologized.

"It's okay, I know how much you love researching spells so please think nothing of it. But, Leo, I haven't heard about that spell before, didn't I told you to report your new spells? Do you want to destroy another test grounds?!"

"I'm sorry your majesty, to be honest I thought about this spell during last evening so I wasn't able to write a proper report about it. Here are some notes I took while testing it last night."

King took papers I took out from my sleeve. "Couldn't this spell bypass any barrier?" he whispered into my ear.

"No it's not that powerful," I whispered back. But I somehow forgot to mention that only my barriers are capable of withstanding the hits.

"I see, write propper report and send it to my brother."

"As you wish, your majesty."

"Miss Kalineli, you may find yourself overwhelmed by these kids so please keep in mind that they are rather... unique."

I don't like that look...

"Understood your majesty," miss Kalineli bowed and excused herself from the room. Behind the doors I could see William and the rest of our class.

Currently in the room with the king was, excluding me, Taru, Kiira, Victina, Lulu and Rinbell.

"Urgh... that took wind from my sails... I came to tell you something, when the semester starts, the S class will have hononary twenty first seat delegated to princess of Sorcery kingdom."

"Wait, wasn't she supposed to come in the second semester?" Victina asked.

"That was the plan, but her father asked me to hasten her welcome due to some internal affairs of the Sorcery kingdom."

"Simply put, he wants to hide his daughter overseas until the affairs are resolved."

"So you understand it Leo," the king smiled and continued: "The problem is that we don't know what kind of problems they have so it could happen that she would stay in our kingdom for years."

"In other words she would need a cover for that time," I deduced.

"I don't like where this is going," Kiira whispered.

"Me too," Taru whispered back to her.

Me three, I added in my mind.

"So, I told him about you. And congrats Leo, you've became a guardian knight of her highness Gloriosa Litus Kawada."

"WHAT?!" was reaction not just mine, but of those outside of the room as well.