Chapter 32. Year Two

“Ken! You are suffocating Emma! Stop hugging her so tightly.” Genesis shouting while trying to get Ken to wake up.

Since Ken told the two that he shared a bed with Lovetta the entire time he stayed with her. Genesis and Emma simply decided they would stay in Ken’s room for the rest of the days they were at home. Obviously, Ken had no reason to refuse the two and the three simply slept together crammed into his bed for the past ten days.

“Sorry Emma! You should have woken me up if I was squeezing you too tightly!” Ken said while looking concerned at Emma.

“Genesis was just lying because she got jealous that you never hugged her as tightly.” Emma replied while giving Genesis a side glance as the three got ready.

Pretending she couldn’t hear Ken scolding her, the three headed downstairs to get breakfast with the family before it was time to head back to the academy for the start of their second year.

Saying goodbye was never easy and today was no exception. With his siblings only getting to spend a little over a week with him, they were not ready for him to leave. Gwen, who is now 13 years old, had to act as the big sister of the group. While she was also sad that Ken and Emma had to leave, Gwen comforted the younger siblings as Ken went over the final checklist.

After confirming with their mother that the family’s got more than enough money for food and letting the kids go to the small school in the nearby village, Ken decided to keep the money he had left for himself. With money no longer an issue, Ken was glad that his siblings now had the chance to go to school and at least get some sort of an education.

Wishing everyone well and telling his siblings to study and train hard, the three disappeared from the tiny village back to their now familiar common room that’s entirely empty due to school not starting for a whole nother week.

With the new students arriving on Monday morning, Ken spent the day with Genesis and a few others at the stadium getting the arena backstage ready for the new arrivals tomorrow while Emma spent the whole day with the housekeepers getting a new wing in the academy setup to be the common room and dorms for the class of 2001.

After a whole day of work, Emma showed up at the stadium to meet up with Ken and Genesis so the three could grab some dinner in town.

Without the students around, the town was extremely empty compared to its normal hustling streets. With most of the restaurants and shops closed and the owners who are only here for business home to be with family during the school break, only a few shops and restaurants were open for the small population of permanent residents that’s always on the island.

Since Emma had a reliable source of income and the family had been provided with more than enough gold for most situations, Ken was no longer as frugal as he used to be and the three happily ordered food from one of the few restaurants that was still open for business. The trio ate, chatted, laughed and said their goodnight once they got back to the common room so they could be ready for the new students that will be starting tomorrow.

Early next morning, Emma and Genesis showed up to Ken’s dorm room to wake him up like always and the trio headed to the stadium to get ready for their jobs taking care of the newly selected.

While Emma went with the housekeepers to set up the buffet table for the newcomers, Ken and Genesis sat around the stadium with other volunteers waiting for the new class to be teleported.

What Ken believed was a group of professors when he was the one down there, now he knew it consisted mostly of students looking to make some easy money with a few important positions handled by professors and of course, the headmistress was present to give the newcomers their opening speech.

The pair didn’t have to wait long before a group of freshly selected students were teleported into the arena and from the way most are dressed and the way they stood around judging those around them, Ken was sure that once again, the majority of those that got selected are from high class families or are of noble and royal birth.

After the new students got settled and got their introduction from headmistress Evelynn Dragonspire, Ken and the rest quickly got down to the arena and began the process of registering all of the students and getting them their bracelets so they would be set up for the academy lifestyle.

The job was rather easy, all Ken had to do was register the person, verify their name provided matched what the records showed, advise them to set up a password to activate their bracelet and provide them with the 100 academy points for the first month allowance.

One by one, Ken registered the new students and those that have completed the registration headed back to take their written exam. Most paid Ken no attention and were more interested in each other trying to figure out where they ranked on the hierarchy and Ken was also not particularly interested in any of the first years he registered as he quickly got them setup so he could move on to the next.

“Name please.” Ken asked without looking up to see the next person who walked up to him.

“Seraphina Aragoth!” A cheery voice spoke loudly.

“Does all this information look correct?” Ken asked while showing the girl the display just to realize that he was speaking to a giant of a girl.

Standing almost as tall as Boris, the giant girl had flaming red hair, deep black eyes, a long thick scaly tail, while her face looked young, her body was fully developed and her figure stunning. However, what was the most unique about the girl and drew Ken’s full attention was the pair of enormous fleshy red wings she had covering her entire back.

According to the history books and lessons Ken had learned, no one knew why even though birds were all over the world and in massive populations, there are only a small number of isolated birdmen territories around the world. However, the wings this girl had were nothing like those of a bird and with her tail, Ken wondered if she was some type of a lizardman mix.

“What exactly are you? I am very intrigued by your wings.” Ken asked as he couldn’t stop staring at her wings.

“I am a dragoon! My race is super rare! What do you think about my wings?” The girl replied happily.

Before Ken could reply, Genesis gave him a hard nudge and told him to focus on the job and not flirt with the girl.

“Sorry, got a job to do here. I do think your wings are super cool but can’t chit chat right now. Good luck on the exam.” Ken replied disappointedly while getting all of Seraphina’s information ready so she could go take her written exam while he moved on to the next student.

After getting all of the students registered, Ken and Genesis got busy helping setting up the arena for the physical portion while Genesis kept grilling Ken about his interest in the dragoon girl.

“What is a dragoon anyways?” Ken asked, couldn’t contain his curiosity.

“Never heard of that race before. Must be a super rare race for me to have never heard of it from history class when they went over uncommon and rare races. Don’t get curious Ken! I don’t have enough backup to keep you away from her.” Genesis warned, fearing Ken would get too curious and end up with another love interest.

“I think all of you are just overreacting, I haven’t attracted a single girl since you all and that was so long ago! Besides, I’m just interested in her race and why her wings are so awesome looking. Nothing happened between me and Indra right? And she’s been hanging with us for months!” Ken replied defensively.

After some more back and forth bantering, students began to show up from backstage and one by one, Ken and Genesis watched and recorded the new students completing their elemental and physical practical exam.

As Ken watched the new students perform the practical portion full of interest trying to gauge just how strong the new students are, while some are definitely quite strong and already have better mastery than him before their first year even started, no one impressed him like Clare or Lovetta did so far.

When Seraphina showed up however, Ken’s interest in the dragoon girl got that much greater. Unlike any of the others, while her mastery on three of the basic elements were average at best, instead of shooting out a fireball from her palm like normal, she gave a roar that startled those around her and a intense fireball flew out from her mouth and blasted the slab with enough force that Ken knew right away it was the strongest spell performed today.

Befitting her giant size and figure, her performance on the physical portion was so amazing that Ken was sure she had to have some sort of natural advantage or else her level of enhancement would have already been way above expert, maybe even master level with how powerful, strong and fast she was.

With the entire group done and scores sent in for compiling, Ken, Genesis and Emma joined the students and the group got teleported to the dining hall for a free lavish lunch at around 2pm.

Knew that the free lunch was on the way, Ken saved his appetite all morning and was not holding back packing plates full of food on his trays while doing the same with Genesis and Emma.

Satisfied with the amount of food he managed to pack, the three headed for an empty table away from the new students and began enjoying the food while chatting happily about the day and everything else.

“Can I join you all?” A happy loud voice asked.

“Sorry, you can’t.”

“Why are you being so mean to her, Genesis? Sure thing Seraphina, tell me about the dragoons while you are here! There is no way your natural power, strength, and speed are at normal level.” Ken cuts in, extremely impressed by what he saw the dragoon girl did earlier.

After Seraphina sat down with a massive amount of food, even more than what Lovetta would be able to eat, Ken gave a simple introduction for the group and the pair started chatting away excitedly.

“So your race, are you some sort of a lizardman with wings?” Ken asked curiously.

“If my dad hears you calling me a lizardman, he would have killed you on the spot.” Seraphina replied with a laugh.

“Well, glad I’m not talking to your father then.”

“As I have told you, I am a dragoon. We are the descendants of those that fused with the dragons during the Great Reset.”

“What is a dragon?” Ken asked curiously.

“You don’t know what a dragon is? Dragons are the most powerful being to ever exist! They are the most mystical and majestic of all creatures! The large ones can grow to hundreds of feet long yet all have the ability to fly! Thick hide that most magic and weapons could never penetrate, natural affinity to magic while also having the strength, power and speed that’s unmatched, the dragons ruled the world before their eventual fall to the humans.” Seraphina explained excitedly.

“Why haven’t I heard about dragons if they are this powerful?”

“Well, after losing the war with the humans way before the Great Reset ever happened, the remaining dragons went into hiding far from most civilizations to avoid getting hunted down and eradicated. The population remained extremely small and when the Great Reset happened, most of the dragons left pretty much all fused with the remote humans and only those in the most isolated and deserted parts of the world managed to survive to today.

I am guessing that most people never learned about dragons today because there are so few left that they might as well be a legend. Same even applies with my race, after ten thousand years, we barely have a tribe of a thousand and my dad believes that we are the only tribe of dragoons in existence.”

With her happy go lucky attitude and Ken’s fascination, over the next week before classes started, Seraphina became fast friends with Ken and the two spent the whole week together training while Seraphina was more than happy to answer all of Ken’s questions about dragons and dragoons.

Like Ken predicted, Seraphina was able to verify that just like how vampires are born twice as strong, powerful and faster than an average person while giants are up to ten times as strong and powerful. Dragoons are born up to five times stronger, more powerful and faster than that of an average person.

Along with their enhanced natural abilities, like Lovetta’s tribe, somewhere along the line, a mutation happened where one had the ability to transform into a dragon under the right circumstance and with such a small population, it’s no surprise, that every current member from Serapina’s tribe can turn into a dragon under the right circumstance.

Not only did Seraphina have the potential, she was also blessed with the upper limit on her physical abilities and a natural affinity towards fire magic. When Ken tested his strength, power and speed against her at their base level, she was about four times stronger in all the fields.

At Ken’s current intermediate enhancement abilities, when he goes all out, he is barely able to match Serapina’s base levels. Of course, with her own intermediate levels of enhancement, she turns out to be four times stronger and faster than Ken even when they have similar levels of ability.

“This is so not fair! We are basically equal on all aspects of enhancement but because I’m a regular human I need to reach divine level mastery to simply match you at expert level! How is anyone going to beat you if you ever reach holy level?” Ken wondered as he grew frustrated trying to spar with the dragoon girl and getting absolutely destroyed.

“That’s the whole point! I am simply born superior! Due to our small population, my race has always stayed out of the spotlight and lived in secrecy but when my father became the leader, he decided that we should be proud of our strength and show the world and of course, I got accepted to the academy and will eventually become the number 1 hero. ” Seraphina replied happily while beating Ken easily as the two sparred.

“Well, I am sure Clare will not be happy to see you tomorrow.”

Like Ken predicted, Clare was not happy to see Seraphina when she and the rest of the girls arrived on Sunday before the new semester started but she wasn’t the only one.

“Ken! Who’s the giant lizardman girl! Why is she so close to you and why haven’t the two of you stopped her!” Alice complained the moment she met up with the group at the dining hall.

“Alice! I tried my best but she is like ten times stronger than me! I can’t do anything even if I wanted to.” Genesis replied defensively.

“Hi Alice! Clare! Lovetta! I missed all of you so much! Hope you all had a great break even though I wasn’t around! You too Indra! Good to see you are well!” Ken said happily, finally able to see his girls after a month away.

After greeting Ken and giving him a tight hug, the girls turned their attention to Seraphina and demanded Ken to explain who she is and why she was here.

“This is Serapina, she is a dragoon! Do you even know the dragoon race, Clare? Anyways, I have been sparring with her for the past week and we have become pretty good buddies.” Ken replied casually.

“No, I have never heard of the dragoon race. Frankly, I don’t care right now. All I want to hear from you is how do you feel about her.” Clare asked, clearly not happy that Ken picked up a new girl when she just had to deal with Cecilla at home during her break.

“We got along very well. For now, I don’t know about her but I think of her as a friend, a training partner. I don’t know if it will go anywhere romantic but that’s how I feel right now.” Ken answered honestly.

“How do you feel about Ken?” Clare asked Seraphina suspiciously.

“I think he’s got the potential to be my husband! I know my father would not approve but with such a small population, my options within my tribe are extremely limited. When I get back home, I think I should be able to convince my dad to let me look outside of the tribe for my mate.” Seraphina answered cheerfully like she had done all week to everything.

While the girls got riled up by her response and piled on Ken for an answer, Ken was helpless and defenseless against their bombardment.

“Why are you all blaming me? I didn’t do anything! I even told you all I don’t even have any romantic feelings for her yet!” Ken replied.

Obviously, his answer wasn’t good enough as the girls would not let up and continued to complain while also trying to reestablish their own hierarchy after a month of separation. As the group slowly settled back together, Ken told them about his awesome time with Lovetta, about how freezing cold the forest was, how cool Zeev’s wedding was and how much he learned from Boris while the girls mostly just complained about how much they missed him.

After spending the full day chatting and catching up, the group headed to town late afternoon to enjoy a feast as a celebration for their union and the start of a great second year together.