“Come Ragnar, take a seat!”

“No thank you, I’m comfortable here as it is.”

The gang had gathered in the cafeteria hall and had claimed a table for themselves. Amalia had tried to wipe off the ink on her face but there were still a few smears here and there. They were all eating dinner, some kind of rice porridge, but Ragnar didn’t join them.

“Serves you right,” said Amalia, still upset about what had happened. “That’s what you get when you mess with me.”

“You didn’t have to actually fry my butt, you know!” But Ragnar knew he got what he deserved. “Those were my best pants!”

“When you play with fire, you will get burned,” said Ariel with a sly smile. “I think this is the most appropriate saying for this situation, isn’t that right, Miss Burns?”

Amalia looked at the boy and didn’t understand what he was getting at. Sure, she favored fire magic, but that wasn’t really a big deal, was it?

“What do you mean by that?”

“You don’t know? Your family name, Kafsi, it means ‘burning’ in the language of the Ancients.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yup, just like my name means ‘panther’ and the Rena’s name means ‘second’. All Halram family names are based off of the language of the Ancients.”

“Awefome! What doef our name mean?” asked Theo with his mouth full.

“I don’t know every name, sorry….”

“That’s all right,” said Rena, “it’s pretty cool that you knew some of ours. What do you think it means?”

“I got no clue, it might be so-“

“Well, if it isn’t the blue haired dweeb and his lackeys.” Before Ariel could finish he was interrupted by the voice of a cocky Noble youth.

Everybody at the table turned around and looked at the source of the voice. Ragnar and Ymil immediately recognized him as the boy who they’d fought with in the dorms two days ago. Aleks…. They really couldn’t remember his name.

Behind the boy stood two other students that Ymil and Lance recognized instantly. One of them was the black haired beauty Kyra Grothia, the girl Ymil had fought. The other person was the beastly Luke Bellua, the one that had beaten Lance. Kyra was staring daggers at Ymil as she stood behind the blond Noble, she still hadn’t forgiven him.

“Oh my, it’s the great Aleks of puddingsville. Come here to get a proper beating, did you?” Ragnar walked in front of the boy and looked him straight in the eyes. “What happened to your lackeys? Did they drown in your cockiness?”

Alex’s face turned bright red as this boy insulted him. Did anyone really dare to insult Alex Chrysos? With great effort he was able to maintain his composure and the red in his face faded.

“Oh those two,” he said. “They went to check our next matches. Honestly, that’s all those goons are good for. I told them that, if they didn’t make the first cut, they didn’t have to bother coming back to me.”

“First cut?” asked Ragnar, honestly not knowing what he was talking about..

“Yeah, those that… wait a minute, you really don’t know? What kind of peasants are you?!” Alex faced the two behind him and said, “Look at these losers, they don’t even know how this thing works! Hahaha.” The trio started to laugh at the group’s incompetence.

“I’m willing to tell you, but it’ll cost you.”

Ragnar didn’t really feel like striking a deal. Neither did the rest of the group for that matter.

“Screw you, we’ll go check ourselves. Guys, let’s go!”

Everyone at the table quickly got up and stormed past the blond boy and his friends. As Ragnar walked past him, Alex stuck out a foot, hoping to trip the guy. Alas, Ragnar saw it coming and kicked it as hard as he could.

“Ouch! Why you….”

“I’m so sorry,” said Ragnar as he feigned innocence, “I didn’t see you there.” The group walked away without paying any more attention to the blond boy stomping his feet in rage. They walked straight to the bulletin board to see who their next opponent were going to be.

*******************

“Yes!” shouted Theo and Ariel as they saw their names on the board. Everyone’s name and picture hung on the board and were matched with other students. To avoid internal conflict, no matches would happen between students of the same classroom. When Theo and Ariel saw the pictures of their opponents they were relieved to find out they weren’t nobles.

“Seems like you guys got good picks, let me see….” Amalia scoured the entire board for her name and picture. It wasn’t incredibly hard to find as she was the only one with red hair in the entire student body. “Found me, looks like I got lucky as well.”

“Same here,” said Ragnar, “I get to fight some country bumpkin. Just look at his face!”

“My opponent isn’t noteworthy either,” said Rena, secretly relieved that her first fight wasn’t going to be difficult.

“Puu puu!” Gin was jumping excitedly on Rena’s shoulder.

“Well this is strange,” said Ymil as he found his name. “I thought we wouldn’t be paired up with someone from our own class.”

“How on earth would you… Oh, I see….” Theo’s words trailed off as he saw the opponent Ymil would be facing. He didn’t think Ymil would recognize a random face from their class, but this one kind of stood out.

“Who’s he fighting?” Theo’s reaction only made Amalia that much more curious. She didn’t recognize the face on the photo though. “Who is he?”

Everyone gathered round to see who it was, but only Amalia and Ragnar didn’t recognize him.

“Yup, that’s Luke alright,” said Ariel as he took a step back. “Talk about good luck.”

“Good luck? Didn’t you see how badly he beat Lance this morning?! How is Ymil supposed to fight that?” Rena had seen the fight and she’d felt sorry for Lance who was getting his ass handed to him. Lance had lost in a mere instant.

“H-hey g-guys….” Said a soft voice from behind.

Everyone’s eyes turned to Lance, the blond boy had turned completely pale. “W-what happens to you i-if your n-name isn’t o-on t-there?”

There was no way, was there? Everyone immediately turned to the board and started looking for Lance’s name and picture. They each ran to a specific column and frantically looked for Lance’s name.

After ten minutes of searching they still hadn’t found Lance’s name yet. How difficult could it be to find the picture of a blond boy among a world of brown and black haired youths?

“I think this is what that Alex dude was getting at,” said Ymil as he looked over the same column a billionth time. “I guess that means this morning’s fights actually did matter….”

“There’s no way right?” Theo was beginning to get desperate, he even took to scratching the pictures to see if there was blond hair underneath. “I mean, they would have told us, right? They must have told us, right?!”

“Calm down, we should go ask a teacher about this.”

“Yes, we’ll ask the teacher and he’ll tell us it’s all a mistake. He’ll make sure that Lance gets his fight and then….”

“Shut up, Theo, there’s no point in talking like that. We have to find teacher Michael, right now.”

****************************

“Is Teacher Michael available right now?” asked Ymil to the girl behind the desk.

The group had gone to the Teacher’s Building, an office building where every teacher held office. It was a magnificently white building featuring marble pillars and exquisite sculptures. Every teacher had a sculpture made of them and were all featured in the waiting hall of the building.

The girl behind the building’s desk wasn’t very helpful though. “I’m sorry, I’m afraid Teacher Michael is out of office today. Please leave a message after the beep. BEEP!”

“Could you tell us when he’s available again?”

“Not until next week, I’m afraid. There are rumors of wild fae running around the city and Teacher Michael was assigned to clean it up.”

“Are there any other teachers that could help us, then? We’re here to talk about a missing name from the Bulletin Board.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible, most teachers….”

As the girl was talking, she suddenly stopped mid sentence as a man and woman walk into the room. The woman wore an elegant dress that ran all the way to the ground. Her bare shoulders displayed the tanned smooth skin of the black haired beauty that wore it. She walked with a straight back and every step exuded with so much feminine grace that everyone in the waiting room fell silent. It was a woman they all remembered from their entrance ceremony, this was Delilah Roseblood, headmaster of the school.

“Welcome back, Master Roseblood. Master Berserk.” The girl fell to her knees instantly and kneeled in respect to the people before her.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Dorothy, just call me Ted. It sounds so much nicer.”

This voice came from Miss Roseblood’s chaperone, a tall handsome man with combed back hair. He was wearing pitch black clothes and bright white shirt. If the children knew any better, they’d have known this was called a Tuxedo, but that was far beyond them. This dark blue eyes and small scar on his left cheek only made the man look that much more handsome, and mysterious.

“I could never…” began the cleric girl.

“You worry too much,” said Delilah and a faint smile appeared on her face. “Don’t treat him as a stranger. He’s my husband, after all.”

“Ah yes, milady. I apologize. How may I be of service?”

Ted looked around the room and observed the seven children sitting in the room. He looked at each student individually, his eyes taking in every detail about these students as they could.

“PUUUUUUU!”

Gin screeched as Ted’s eyes looked in Rena’s direction. The little creature fell to the ground and dashed towards the nearest statue to hide.

A soft and gentle smile appeared on Ted’s face and then his attention shot to Ragnar. The bracelet around Ragnar’s wrist started to shake heavily as the man stared at the blue haired boy.

Ted nodded and turned to Delilah. “It would seem that these children were before us, why not let them go first?”

Delilah also looked at the children and noticed the same things Ted had. The bracelet on Ragnar’s arm started to shake even more as Delilah looked in Ragnar’s direction. Gin was nowhere to be found.

“That would only be fair,” she said. “Why don’t you help them first, Dorothy?”

“But madam, these kids are looking for Teacher Michael. They’re here about a missing name….”

“A missing name, you say? I can explain that to them, it isn’t all that hard.”

She turned around and walked up to Lance. Her dress swaying back and forth with every step. She pressed a finger to his lips and said:

“It means, little one, that you were deemed unfit for combat. It isn’t anything bad, you could always enroll into a gardening school, for example. You could even live the life you were meant to live.”

“That, or you could switch places with your brother when no-one is looking,” added Ted. He too walked into the room.

Lance’s mind had gone completely numb. He already had difficulty dealing with strangers as it is, but these two were such overwhelming presences that he could not say anything to what the woman was saying.

“There’s got to be another way!” shouted Theo.

“Not really, sweetie,” said Delilah, “These rules were implemented to minimize casualties in the future. It’s really for your own good.”

“But…” Theo really wanted to protest but he couldn’t find the words. He’d known the school was incredibly strict in this regard but he never imagined that his twin brother would be kicked out so easily.

“I-it’s all right, Theo. I was never fit t-to become a fighter anyways.” Lance place a hand on Theo’s shoulder. “I-I think I’ll be better o-off going to a-another school.”

“Alright,” said Theo and he hung his head in defeat.

“Glad that you’re taking it so well, kid,” said Ted.

“If that’s all, Ted and I will be going now.” Delilah turned around and walked towards the well-dressed man. Ted held out his arm and said:

“Madam?”

The woman linked her arm in his and together they walked away from the waiting area. But just as they’re about to leave, Delilah turned around and said, “And don’t worry, ‘Lance’, the future isn’t set in stone.” And they disappeared into the hallway.

When the duo left, the children realized they’d been holding their breaths the whole time. They all took long deep breaths and looked at each other confusedly.

“What just happened?” asked Rena, gasping between words.

“I have no idea,” said Ariel, “I’ve never met people with so much… presence before.”

“They were Master Roseblood and Master Berserk,” answered the clerical girl. “I’ve only seen pictures of them before. This is the first time in ages that they’ve come back to campus. The fact that she was there for the entrance ceremony was unheard off. But you got your answer, off you go.”

The girl shooed the children away and they all left quietly. They were all contemplating the things that were said. Lance would have to leave, and there was no way around it.