[Eon's POV: ]
"Oh? What happen-… hmm? Did you just?" She touched her lips gently for a moment and looked at me with a sudden surprised gaze.
[[ "Damn! You just kissed me in the astral realm! I was supposed to do that first!" ]]
And after she shouted that, I immediately felt a distinct sensation on my lips. A sensation many sadly do not know.
'She thought I did it just to have fun… well, it is better if she keeps thinking that w-'
[[ "Yeiii~! It's different and even cooler! We should do it at night again after you tell me what the fuck just happened and why the hack my ring reacted like that." ]]
She had a deep, warm smile on her face and she was serious at the same time while smiling like that. It was somewhat pretty from my perspective but, well, I knew she would catch up that something was wrong.
"Of course. It's complicated anyway so let's just talk about it when we are alone."
The expression on my face was rather convincing for her so she just gave me a suspicious look for a moment, then a sad look, and then a helpless smile and shook her head and patted my back.
"There there. It is natural people would want to have such an amazing person like yours truly. You will need to work hard to keep the flies away if you want to eat this sweet-sweet fruit all by yourself."
She smiled like an angel after that and, it was so pure one would think those words from before were spoken with innocent intentions.
'Well sorry for them, this witch before me is anything but pure like some angel.'
I gave her an unbelievable look and shook my head in clear denial of what she had just thought about. Then I looked around, and that nod of 'no' slowly turned into a nod of yes.
"I should do that actually. Not the thing you are thinking, dummy, but…"
I was looking around, and I was also looking at her with a distinct smirk that she recognized very well.
"You and your elaborate plans… haaa. Bad bastard."
She shook her head with a genuinely disgusted smile, which was some of the cutest ones from her, and focused back on the platform before us where the big, pretty, but intimidating vice headmaster was finishing her common gibberish and coming to the main point.
[ "Alright then. That should be enough boring things for now. The classes start the day after tomorrow but your classes will be assigned to you tomorrow and you will also have your inauguration ceremony tomorrow.
You can also rest for the day after we are done with the most exciting things for today.
And I know just how excited you all must have been for this after that long, tiring journey.
So~! Let's go in and begin the very first and definitely some of the most important events of your life in this humble institution~!" ]
-Papapapa~!
Musical sounds started coming from all over the place as the atmosphere also changed to a new festive atmosphere and some fireworks were shot into the sky at the same time from different locations.
-Boooooooooooom!
-Skaaaaaa-tatata.
A gorgeous artwork announcing our arrival painted the sky that also showed a message of welcome as people, teachers, and staff mostly related to the academy, came out flying with some magic item or skill related to flying and greeted us with their own magics.
That wasn't all though. Aside from mages, there were knights riding their unique flying mounts and tamers or summoners using their friends and partners.
Almost every member of this institution was here right now probably and aside from our vice headmaster, if I had to say who was the greatest authority present here, then it would undoubtedly be the person raiding that artifact that resembled a very advanced ancient artifact which can be simply explained as a 'robot' or gundam for those who wants a better picture but, this one wasn't the actual ancient artifact that the people of past were able to create perfectly.
'This one was a unique creation of his own, but my dear uncle El had also helped in this one's creation, and he thinks of it as the greatest honor of his life.'
Everyone knew it even if it wasn't on paper so anyway, that person, that dwarf, was uncle's teacher and probably the only one who can give competition to the headmaster and vice headmaster in regards to the time they had lived.
'Like, Sir Merlin is easily more than a thousand years old while lady Oddfird is around eight hundred years old.
The two of them are looking after the academy for ages now, and Sir Muller, the dwarf magic engineering grandmaster is also someone who has seen the world for more than six hundred years, even if he had only joined as a professor recently some three or four hundred years ago.'
Anyway, that was that, but the other unique thing about any and all these people who were once a student in this very place, were the houses, the community, their extracurricular activity sects, that they all once were part of.
'The eight great houses of the grand academy of hope. Something that also plays a major role in deciding your standing in the academy, and certainly in the social circles outside the academy too.'
It is lawfully stated that all of the eight houses of the academy are equal and unrelated to anything that students have to do during their school time but, that thing is mostly disregarded on the smaller scales and in the normal circles of the academy.
'Nevertheless, all houses have their own uniqueness. One's thoughts and feelings towards a particular house can influence which one they are assigned to but after assigning, they can't change it throughout their academic years.'
And I knew some pretty unique things were going to happen today.
'Like most of us being assigned to our individual houses that suited us the most.'
So it clearly also meant that Rein, Carla and group, the prodigies, the rising stars, and even I would be assigned to a house that would be unique for us.
"Hehe, good luck darling." Rein had an excited look on her face as we walked through the opening without gates in the golden wall and entered the outer parts of the academy.
"Wow…" Many gasps of surprise and amazement range throughout the area as most of the students present here watched the amazing scenery around them.
It was a lush green garden with many flower fields, trees, fountains, and also many roads passing through the place or connecting to the main wide road that we were on right now.
The place looked phenomenal. Something out of fairytale even for the nobles and royals standing here. But as we all looked around, one thing at the north end of the garden attracted more eyes than the marvelous castle gates of our school at the end of this path.
"Damn…" Rein gasped again, seeing yet another spectacular sight before her eyes.
"Quesnel. The ancient oak tree of the floating island of magic's wealth. Truly a more magnificent sight than I had imagined."
She was mesmerized by the great tree that although wasn't as tall as the ancient willow that I met in the past, this one surely was more mesmerizing with its bright colorful leaves and fruits, the countless branches coming out of him, and the wide area it covered.
Its body and branches were normal brown and there were also many small creatures hosing it.
The tree itself was a small ecosystem and from how its roots were spread out in this entire wide garden, there was no denying that this ancient tree had been a part of this academy from the time of its creation.
It was pretty and...
'I know the real beauty of this already gorgeous place in the astral realm would be far more stunning than right now.'
But we were going to be here for a long time so we can describe that when a good time comes so moving on to one of the primary things this ancient tree does: the house assignments.
There were only four core houses at the establishment of the academy but, as the founders had wished, the individuals who were the most qualified by their standards were to be given the right to create their own houses.
The ancient tree was also responsible for that task however, the ancient tree before us only became an ancient tree some five or six thousand years ago so the actual addition to the four primary houses started at that time and is still something this old tree before us is tasked to do.
However, the last time a house was founded was by our current headmaster when he was only a new student of this very academy.
So his house, [Facinated mages], is the youngest of the current houses. And also some of the most influential in today's time as its founder is still among us.
Then there was the first house that was founded after the four major ones, the [Eternal tigers], whose founder was genuinely a tiger.
After that was [Dark society], a perfect place for those rare few who carried pure darkness within them.
'And ironically, its founder was said to be one of the most famous and powerful darkness mages ever known to the current world… not that any of his known stories are actually true.'
After them was a unique case where a twin duo of fairies founded their house, something that now stands right under the top in the hierarchy: [Fusion stardust].
'As for the four primary houses of the academy, there is a great imbalance between them from how things used to be in the past.'
The [True dragon] that used to be second in the old times, has been the supreme overlord of the rankings of these houses while the one that had always been the best before their rise, the [Wisdom phoenix], now faces the dust at the bottom of the hierarchy.
[Aqua mirror] and [Turtle defenders] maintain their position in certain places but they too aren't anything like they used to be and mostly for what they were known for.
People forgot about the true meaning of these houses and there haven't been many great leaders to lead their suitable houses.
People want to join other famous houses so they wish for it from the bottom of their hearts and then the ancient tree doesn't have any choice but to give them what they desire.
'And this ancient tree before us is older and greater than the willow tree I met in the great forest. So it is naturally stronger than it too.'
The topic of the houses is deep and containing it in a single chapter is impossible so… with unique expectations in our hearts and feelings in our minds, we all stood before the giant tree, looking at its magnificence with admiring eyes and quickly beating hearts.
And as soon as everyone was gathered here every one of us simultaneously heard a deep and profound voice filled with wisdom and an unknown power that seemed so strangely unique that even I couldn't put it into understandable words.
[[ A long time has passed but it still feels like yesterday when I met the very first of the batch that belonged to this place. ]]
As we stood before the giant tree, a rough outline of a face with a big mouth and two eyes came out of the trunk of the great ancient tree and surprised many of us who weren't expecting anything like this.
[[ And from the looks, those powerful and unique auras, those hearts full of wishes and those mind baring certain goals… there are far more unusual ones this time. ]]
The voice was ringing directly in our minds and it seemed to know all about us.
It was slow, full of something that even I can't understand, unique and different from anything I had come across, and more than that, the strange feeling of being seen naked by someone was something I was feeling for the first time since my goodbye to my master…
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