Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 9 | Day 7

Once we arrive at the Arcane Square, I immediately find Anabel standing at the front of a large group of cadets while talking with a man that I don’t recognize whose wearing the uniform of a colonel. But what really attracts my attention is the active portal within the arch behind her.

If I remember correctly, we’re supposed to head straight to the military headquarters of the Republic before splitting off into the bases that each of us will be stationed at for our internships.

So the question is, will that portal take us directly to the headquarters, or will it just take us outside of the Arcadian Gate?

My answer comes about half an hour later at the appointed time, after a bunch of cadets arrive when Anabel suddenly activates a spell before slamming her fist into the ground, causing a crack to form on it while shocking all of the cadets in the square due to the noise it makes. Meanwhile the man next to her seems rather pissed at her, considering the glare he’s sending her as she beings to shout, “It’s now 07:00. If any student isn’t here yet, then they will be taken off of the internship list and given a punishment personally by me when we get back!”

A shiver runs down my spine at the mention of a punishment from her before I remember that she can’t exactly do the things she’s done to me to the other cadets.

“Against my desires, the Chairwoman has decided to have you all portal directly to the headquarters for your assignments right away,” Anabel says with a glare plastered on her face. “So get your asses in the portal before I lose my patience and kick you all in myself!”

My eyes widen in shock at how violent she sounds right now.

Normally she just acts violent without saying it. Or she just bluntly says something without any of the anger in her words that’re there right now.

The cadets quickly file through the portal without much order to them, making the colonel at her side look angry enough that I’m starting to worry he might get an aneurism.

But I ignore the poor guy to walk through the portal myself before appearing high in the air above a very large, and very loud base on top of some sort of floating platform. This one has a much different design from the academy but is still just as large as it with a more modern layout. It has large, metal walls surrounding it in a star shape, with a tower at each corner of the star, and one enormous building at the center of the fortress.

There are also several smaller buildings scattered throughout the area between the large one and the walls, but as soon as the cadets stop filing through the portal and Anabel and the colonel walk through themselves, the portal closes behind them and the platform we’re on begins to lower itself down to the ground.

When I turn to look at the others, I find Sophia kneeling down and watching the platform at our feet lower with a look of awe on her face. The platform seems to be made out of some sort of solidified light, so if I had to guess-

“External Light Barrier, borderline Tier IV, and likely created by a powerful light magician,” Sophia mutters, speaking out loud what I was about to think.

This is obviously not Anabel’s doing, and the colonel was on the other side of the portal, so it couldn’t have been one of them…

I look down at the fortress in the direction the platform seems to be going before noticing a woman who I’ve seen on the news quite a bit in recent years.

“Amelia,” I mutter, catching her attention before nodding down and saying, “your cousin’s here.”

She lets out a groan the instant she looks where I am looking and finds her cousin standing in a clearing at what looks like the front entrance of the headquarters. Maria Luna – Alexis Luna’s daughter – has a bright smile on her face as she stares up at us with her hands held out in front of her and a large spell circle floating in front of her hands.

It’s honestly hard to miss her considering how much the news has been flipping out over her advancement to Class B. To the point that many of them have been going on about how she will become one of the next generals.

Although there are just as many news stations who disagree and are still supporting one of the other two colonel Class B magicians for the position.

But the main reason why I know her is that she was the only family member of Amelia’s that I had met during our time in school. In fact, she was the one who originally spilled the news about who Amelia was. After of course covering her body with an illusion for years to hide it whenever she went to our school events to support her dear cousin.

I focus on Amelia, who is actually hiding her face from her very clingy older cousin.

It was always rather amusing to watch their interactions.

Well, until Maria started picking me up from time to time back in eighth using her magic. Which made me extremely uncomfortable for obvious reasons.

I mean, who the hell picks up an eight-grader like a little kid? Especially when the eight-grader is about the same size as the girl picking him up!

It drove me crazy!

I was just glad she stopped doing that when we reached high school.

At that point I could just enjoy watching her embarrass Amelia. Even if she would still hug me and Aidan every time she visited.

Although now that I think about it…

I glance at Aidan, who is currently holding Sophia’s hand as she continues to geek out over the spell.

Just how will those to react to her?

Sophia is obviously already lost in her spell, but I wonder how she will react when she sees how familiar Maria is with Aidan?

My thoughts come to a halt once we get close enough to the ground to hear Maria shouting, “Ameliiaaaa!”

This’ll be interesting.