Chapter 493 Zodiac



[OP: ]

With hair as white as the pure clouds and eyes as blue as the clear sky, he looked at the students with a smile, and then pointed at a certain seat where a girl in common clothing was sitting.

"I sat there during our inauguration ceremony," he said.

Then he moved up his finger a bit and pointed at the very back of the seats where a boy in noble clothing was sitting.

"And this amazing vice president of yours sat there."

He sighed after saying that and the sigh was certainly deep, and filled with nostalgia.

"It was just three years ago and it feels so distant, and at the same time, it also feels like it was just yesterday."

The girl with short black hair that had white ends and emerald green eyes smiled as if she, too, remembered some good old days and shook her head.

He smiled at her while looking back and then returned to his fellow students.

"We were there and we are here now, standing with these amazing teachers that taught us, handled unique creatures like the two of us, and helped us reach the point we all are at.

It still isn't much different from you all though, we just have to do a lot of boring work now that we have this big of a student body to look after."

He made a genuinely sad expression that made many of them chuckle at his funny and confident way of saying it all while the teachers and the headmasters were still there.

However, some of them were also chuckling at his miserable look, actually knowing just how much more difficult the things they did were than he made them out to be.

Not just any person could handle thousands of students, teachers, facilities, other people, some core matters of this sky island, and while doing that, complete the unique tasks assigned by their headmaster.

The two of them were the best of the best from their batch, actually some of the best the academy had seen, and they were very much qualified to complain about their work.

"But it has been and still is a fun task." He scratched his neck while saying that and some of the students had a confused expressions asking what could be fun in doing those treacherous things.

He caught onto their questions and as a simple response to their same question, he answered in a low voice as if whispering to them, "You can bunk as many classes as you want, go in and out of the academy whenever you want, and even go off the island at your will, and it's the best privilege only the student council presidents have."

-WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHT!

Cheers, complaints, shouts, and curses erupted from the audience as they heard those words, and the teachers, headmaster, and vice headmaster, shook their heads in disbelief at his words.

They weren't allowed to get off the island whenever they wanted and they also had to have the required sum of attendance for the general and chosen subjects.

They basically had to attend a total of twelve classes in a year and of them, six were compulsory classes and the other six were of their choice.

They cannot change their classes midway and the required attendance was compulsory. And, the worst thing of that, that most of them knew was a fact, was that if you don't have the required attendance, you will be forced to have the classes however they can if the reason for the low attendance wasn't toooooo great.

You can't bunk classes too, which was an iron-clad rule of the academy.

If you came and sat in a lecture, whatever it may be, however it may be, you must sit till the very end. 

Because of these things, bunking the classes was something that rarely happened outside a certain volume, and here was their student council president, saying all those things as if mocking them, not in the bad way but at least teasing them in a bad way.

He didn't say it but what he said could also be interpreted as him having the authority of leaving the class whenever he wanted and that power could naturally be very helpful when attending the unwanted highest-level courses like the (Superior) classes.

He made them jelly with those simple words and Eon and Rein couldn't help but admire this unique person who had astonished them multiple times for so long.

He was an awesome person in their perspective, and the legen~dary president for Rein; however, the woman standing beside him was a bitch who tried doing something unforgivable from Eon's perspective, and a bad-bad girl from Rein's.

As the two looked at each other, they knew what the other party was thinking about them however, right now wasn't the time or the place to sort out their personal matters.

So… the student council president nodded at the crowd and continued with a happy nod at her.

"Alright, alright everyone. I know some of you might not believe me but I say it from the bottom of my heart when I say being a student council member, president, and vice president are tough tasks so exhausting that after every day of our work, we are drained beyond thinking… but that's not what we are here to talk about.

It's just your first day and I don't think you all have to stress over things just yet.

You will understand many things with your time here so for the most basic of things you should know about the grand academy of Hope would be your classes, all these amazing teachers present here, the facilities, the extracurricular activities, the clubs, and also last but not least, the currency points."

He then pointed at the teachers and gave a very brief account of his own experience with the teachers, then he stopped aside and the vice president started explaining the basic things about the classes, the available common facilities, the compulsory and non-compulsory extracurricular activities, the clubs, how to apply for one, how to create new ones, and after talking about her own experience with the teacher, she also stepped aside and the president started explaining the currency system of not just their academy but also the entire island.

"Alright, so I believe you all already know that trades on the island of magic's wealth only happen in currencies accepted globally or at least on our planet.

The wisdom coin <W> is the mostly accepted currency and just after that comes natural resources like some magical herbs or Mana stones, or maybe skill stones.

So yeah, bartering is the most common trading method here, and after that comes the use of adventurers association [M] points.

There are a few other globally accepted currencies but probably not all work in every place you visit inside or outside of the academy, however, one thing I can assure you all would be that the [Wealth] points are accepted throughout all the places on this island.

I can say for certain that every one of you will have to spend some money during your time on this island even with the free academic services and the result points you received during your entrance exam were added in the form of [Wealth] points in your account which you all can access through the ID stars you have.

Those stars are more than just some house identifiers if anyone didn't know. They are practically a highly advanced natural artifact that acts as your identification, a very small storage space, a common small light, your [Wealth] point holders, a direct link with the ancient tree Sir Quesnel, an emergency protection shield, and a special artifact that can work as a wonderous item depending on the usage.

So, yeah, I would advise you all to treat it as nothing less than a (level-12) artifact.

Alright so, one [Wealth] point is around a thousand [M] points, which is around a hundred gold in the western continent general currency, ten gold Shi eastern continent general currency, and around one blue ruby in the northern continent general currency.

It would also be equivalent to 0.1 <W> coin so you can estimate the value for other currencies with this."

He looked around the hall for just a short moment and observed some of the surprised faces that were calculating and coming up to some pretty unique conclusions on their own.

And yes, the vice president had a smile on her face as she looked at them but the cool president was good at heart so he couldn't let them go on some unrealistic wild path.

"Hold your horses' young blood. Your thoughts that you will become rich just by staying in the academy are perfectly true however, they are only good in fantasies.

It is naturally unrealistic that you will get an amount such as the one you got from your entrance exam just like that.

Getting the score points will be difficult as it is but an even more heartbreaking thing would be when the points you have gathered in your stars just vanished when you graduate from here.

You also can't convert or transfer it with some different method so it will be best to just spend what you have there and, there are countless things you can do to waste, or systematically invest that money.

But that is up to you and that is all I have to say to you all for today."

He sighed and looked back at the teachers and his headmasters and they all nodded at the two of them with a smile.

"Alright then. 

You will all get the information about your assigned classrooms on the general notice board or on the private terminal of the academy accessible through your stars.

You will have to submit the list of your personal classes by tomorrow dawn and you will have to do that with your stars too.

To the house captains and vice captains only; we will have a meeting tomorrow evening so please make sure to attend and if any of them don't come, please make sure to drag them to my office on the third floor you all."

He nodded with a fulfilled expression at everyone and then nodded at the vice president as the two of them walked a bit back from the podium.

"I know it is late but I'm your student council president for this year, the 3693rd batch of this badly good institution.

I go by the name Zodiac but you can call me whatever you like, curses and pseudo-names included.

I am a pure swordsman however having an eastern origin, I am pretty good with internal energy cultivation and utilization and some unique arts.

I have a partner and family like little snake but I'm more of his father than a master.

I like spicy food but mostly prefer things with a more diverse variety of spices so if anyone ever wants to bribe me, come with something delicious."

He bowed towards the crowd which though definitely surprised them, had a very positive effect on them than any of them had ever expected.

He was probably just as charismatic as the headmaster and the crowd loved him for most parts.

And though there were exceptions, well, there are always exceptions.

So most of those thousands of people were happy with him, and those who weren't, were at least somewhat charmed by their vice president who spoke with a unique authority or probably charm or maybe some kind of supernatural power behind her voice.

"You all little children can call me Cradle. Miss or ma'am will be accepted but nothing other than that.

I have pretty good tolerance but I wouldn't suggest you all test my patience. You might get hurt."

She only said them much and at her words, the president gave a nod of his confirmation. 

eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ They could see in both their eyes that neither of them was joking right now.

"Alright then, you can have fun, go look around the academy, and the island, and find a good dormitory to stay in.

The Coral dorm is the cheapest but isn't good if you have never lived in small and dirty spaces so I would suggest the Prawn dormitory for a low budget but the best overall experience.

For those of you who have just too much money to throw around, I would suggest Leviathan dormitory instead of Hydra.

I have experienced all of them so I can certainly say the Leviathan's food is more diverse and they have the most freedom and the least restrictions on student activities."

He waved his hand after saying that and the two of them turned towards the teachers as the room was filled with different voices again and many students started leaving the auditorium.

"Thank you for everything! Please take care of us!"

However, before any of them had reached the exits, Quin, the girl sitting beside Rein stood up, bowed towards the stage deeply, and shouted in a unique voice that strangely rang all over the auditorium.

And yes it surprised people, however, this voice had come directly from the house captain of the [Aqua mirror] so there was no way the other captains and the house members present there could just sit there or go out.

Eon and Rein knew she just did it out of her natural innocence and she didn't have much world experience so it was just an act of her innocent nature.

And thanks to that pureness of hers…

"THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING! PLEASE TAKE CARE OF US!"

Everyone, those who were still sitting in their places and those who were just by the door, including Eon, Rein, Carla and the group, and everyone else was now bowing to the people on the stage, thanking them for their work, something they probably had never seen or had thought to experience.

And everyone was doing this, so even the headmasters who had seen something similar many times in their lifetimes, couldn't help but smile happily at this effect created by a certain innocent girl and a certain boy whose tricks no one noticed.

But it was good, and their president and vice president were genuinely impressed with the bunch that was probably better than the bunch the two of them belonged to.

The teachers were joyous and the atmosphere had become far better than it could have been if they had just left the auditorium like usual.

It wasn't something they had to do but they all didn't know right now that this unique way of unified thanking was going to become something their batch would be known for, and also something that will become a tradition even after their batch graduates from this great institution.

Their school curriculum was going to start tomorrow and it was naturally going to be fun so they were all excited right now. But they had some free time before that, so… it is time for some fun fillers, don't you think~?