Hiro scanned the room once more, the aura around his body flaring up, “I don’t belong here? What gives you the right to say that?”

Hiro raised his arms forward and pulses of blue light began to fill the air as he used his mana to scan the surroundings like a form of sonar. However, to his surprise, there wasn’t a single trace of residual mana around him.

As Hiro put his arms down he frowned, he couldn’t help but wonder just whose voice that was. And just what did they mean by `you don’t belong here.`

Ever since he started going to his family study these questions just kept piling up and up, and to this day he just couldn’t figure out just what in the world was going on...

~

After a week passed all the nobles that were invited to the academy had finally arrived and undertaken their exams. Hiro woke up early in the morning and put on his white and gold uniform, and quickly made his way over to the central part of the campus where they were holding a formal ceremony for the start of the school year.

During the welcoming ceremony, the new students were split into three divisions with the Magic Knight division being seated all the way at the front, the Magic Division being seated behind the Magic Knight division and to the left, and the Knight division to their right. The latter two divisions were also split up by social class as all the nobles stood in front of all the peasants. They were denoted by their red bracelets.

Hiro learned in the passing week that commoners required special permission to leave the school grounds since they didn’t possess red bracelets, aside from those in the Magic Knight division, while all the nobles could freely go as they please.

As Hiro looked around further he spotted Quinn and Collette in the Magic Division even though Quinn opted to take on a general education curriculum, while he noticed Francis was in the Knight Division all the way at the back. And finally, he noticed the child who was with him and Owen was sitting a few rows behind him in the Magic Knight division.

Hiro was rather surprised he got into the Magic Knight Division, he recalled the scene of all those children firing off spells at the scarecrows and he could only see a few familiar faces from the field sitting beside him. And all of the ones who got in were rather exceptional in some regard. He didn’t expect this pale black haired child to be capable of such a feat.

However, as he was trying to figure out how he was able to get into the Magic Knight division a loud clap filled the auditorium. Hiro turned around and noticed the Principal had appeared before the podium with the two headmasters standing behind him. The principal cleared his throat, before speaking into a small crystal in the podium which was used to amplify his voice,

“As the Principal, I would like to welcome you all to the Royal Academy. Over these next seven to eight years I pray that you may all grow up to be fine Mages and Knights. However, before we go any further let me make one thing clear.”

The Principal turned to Miss Campbell the Head of the Magic Division, and she nodded. She took the wooden staff in her hand raised it into the air. Suddenly, the auditorium turned pitch black and a light blue crystal floated into the air. The Principal continued,

“In the end, we are a military academy, whether you’re a noble or a peasant it doesn’t make a difference. What we seek are results. Because this is the reality we live in.”

The blue crystal in the air began to shine, and a ray of light shootout displaying several moving images in the air. These images depicted at times two armies clashing, magic being fire rapidly from both sides. Knights charged each other causing limbs to fly, and lives were lost every second.

While at other times the crystal would display the image of a giant surrounded by dozens of cavalrymen and infantry, and a whole squadron of crossbowmen and archers. There were also dozens of mages in the back either healing, casting buffs, or firing spells at the giant who for the most part wasn’t phased in the least. The giant would occasionally pick up a tree and swing it down on the Knights crushing them, or throw a boulder at the archers flattening them.

The crystal continued to play all sorts of bloody images one after another, and the principal continued, “As soldiers, as citizens, as nobles, you will all eventually face situations like this. It is simply an eventuality. So while you nobles might think the academy is a place for you to spend your youth and socialize and you peasants might think the academy is a way to get rich quick, just know that for every year you spend slacking off is another year you didn’t haven’t spent training.”

With those words, the auditorium grew deathly silent as more images began to play on the crystal. Afterwards, the Principal made a very short speech introducing the school’s facilities and explaining how the school year would play out. To put it simply, the Knight Division made up the northern part of the campus, the Magic Division the western part, and the Magic Knight Division the central part of the campus though this only included the classrooms on the upper floors.

More general purpose classrooms and facilities were either on the eastern or southern sections, and all students would undergo three years of general education.

~

After the welcoming ceremony, the Instructors split up each division except for the Magic Knight division into groups and led them outside of the assembly. Though this was primarily due to the fact that there were only about thirty or so students in the magic knight division.

When the rest of the other divisions had left, Owen and several other instructors walked off the stage. Owen stood before the students and said, “Alright, we’ve got a surprisingly large class this year. Anyway to start this off let’s have a little icebreaker.”

The female instructor beside him nodded and snapped her finger causing a barrel full of practice weapons to appear. “We’ll start things off with a little duel to familiarize ourselves with each other. Would anyone like to volunteer?”

“Me!”, a tall blond haired man raised his hands. He was probably around Hiro’s age since they were in the same class, yet despite this, the young man was already quite tall.

He walked over to the barrel full of weapons and turned around, he pointed his finger at Hiro and asked, “You, what weapon do you use!”

“Huh?”, Hiro pointed his finger at his face, “You mean me?”

He nodded, “What weapon?”

“Uh...a long sword.”

The young man fished through the barrel and dug up a wooden long sword and threw it at Hiro. Hiro caught it, and before he could raise his head the blonde haired young man had already grabbed a wooden greatsword and charged him.

Hiro quickly parried the blocked the great sword, and yelled, “Wait! You’re starting already!? There are people here!”

The blonde haired young man pushed down with using his body’s and the greatswords weight to apply to pressure Hiro. He smiled, “Of course!”

He quickly raised his sword and swung it down rapidly. Hiro was shocked at the weight of each swing and realized his wooden sword was already on the verge of breaking. Hiro clicked his tongue, and instead of blocking the heavier greatsword, he turned his long sword allowing the wooden greatswords blade to slide off to the side.

The Hiro quickly stepped in with his left foot and grabbed the young man by the collar of his uniform before throwing him over his shoulder. Hiro wiped his hands together, and sighed, “You could have waited ya know-”

But as he was about turn around, to his surprise there a hand gripping the right hand of his face, and suddenly he felt himself being dragged through the air before his head was slammed into the floor. Hiro felt shaken as his vision grew slightly blurry, but as he looked up he could see the figure of the young man he had just thrown earlier in the distance.

“Brother!”, a young girl called out, “What are you doing!”

The young man laughed wearily and scratched the back of his head, “My bad, my bad. The blood got to my head, and I just sorta...you know. But I’m sure he’s fine...hmmm?”

The young man turned around as his eyes grew wide as the child he threw with quite a bit of strength into the floor, had gotten up like it was nothing. Hiro looked at the young man, and bowed, “My bad, I underestimated you.”

“Huh?”

Suddenly, Hiro’s aura flared up, and he shot forward striking him in the chest. Hiro’s strike sent the young man flying backwards, however, he was quickly able to stop himself with his feet. The kid laughed, as a bit of blood fell from his lips, “You’re not bad either.”

However as he was speaking, Hiro had already closed in again and began raining down strike after strike on the young man forcing him to raise his arms in an attempt to shield his head. The young man clenched his fists, and swung his arms down and roared like a beast.

As he swung his fist towards Hiro, Hiro swiftly dodged it and gathered a large amount of mana into his fists and sent him flying into the wall.

“Well, that should do it.”

Hiro turned around, and as he was about to head back to the group, he turned towards the young man sister, and said, “Oh and my apologies.”

The girl turned to Hiro and replied, “No, it’s-“

However suddenly, her face grew paled and she shouted, “Turn around!”

Hiro quickly turned his head, and there again was a hand reaching towards his face. Hiro shouted, “Not this time!”

He quickly swung his left hand and gave the young man charging at him a powerful left hook, but to his surprise the young man completely ignored it.

The young man’s sister cried, “Brother don’t!”

The young man’s powerful hands gripped Hiro’s face once again and he tried to push Hiro forward. Hiro this time, however, used his mana to resist, he drew his right arm back and struck the young man’s liver.

However, just like with his earlier strike, the young man seemed to ignore it. Hiro clicked his tongue, and use his arms to pry the young man’s death grip off his face. He quickly swept the young man off his feet and threw him against the other side of the room with the help of some mana.

Then he quickly gathered a large quantity of mana around his right fist causing the aura around it to glow white, before shooting forward and striking the young man once again in the chest. He quickly backed up just to be safe, and as he stared at the young man on the floor, he asked,

“Are you sure you guys shouldn't have stopped me? I’m pretty sure I just broke a few of his bones.”

Owen laughed, “Don’t worry, our infirmary staff here are some of the best.”

“I see, then..”, Hiro watched as the young man whose bones he had just broken stood up, “Are you fine if I beat him half to death?”

“Well, don’t go too far now…”