Chapter 84 - To The Gate Tower

Two weeks had passed after the Grand Selection, the students were finally divided into grades, and Aaris met his team for the first time.

"Let's start with the introduction, my name is  Historia Silencia, and I am the libra-,

Former librarian of the Ovyrus, and from now your team captain." Historia sat on the round desk near them and Hona came flickering in the air and poured her a cup of tea.

"Bonjour captain, my name is Styrmir Horus and from now on I shall be in your care!" Styrmir walked to her and kneeled while kissing the back of her hand.

"If you don't mind, can I ask you a question as your student?" He raised his face at Historia, 

"Go ahead." Historia freed her hand gently and rested on the table, 

"What are three sizes-" a hardback slap tossed Styrmir aside in the corner.

"This pervert! Um- excuse me, my name is Melvi Vinoske! I am from the east and um-" as usual Melvi was nervous and stuttering, Historia called her with a hand gesture and she hesitantly walked to her, 

Trembling as she was standing in front of her, Historia raised both of her hands and scared Melvi to close both of her eyes.

*squeeze* 

Historia began squishing her cheeks,

"Fuwa…what an adorable lump of cuteness."  Slowly fondling her, she looked at Aaris.

"My...my name is A- Rise Kier, I'll be in your care from now on." Aaris bowed and relaxed.

-- Aaris - PoV --

Damn, that was close I almost blurted my real name!

Historia sighed and moved her gaze to the upper floor of the library,

"Well then, that makes it three students, we are still short on one, so why don't you come out and introduce yourself, Miss. Iwand." 

We all moved our gaze to the top and saw a girl with silver-white hair and blue eyes gazing down.

She silently moved her gaze from us and jumped down right beside me, tall and charming. She looked like an angel from a fairy tale.

"Pardon my rudeness, my name is Zia Ivy Iwand from Kingdom Hadel, I'll be in your care." She bowed in proper etiquette and tone, but something is off, 

Why does it feel like I am missing something here? Hadel… Iwand…

'Ack!' 

I fell on my knees and after a strong sting pain ran through my head, 

"What happened?!" Historia jumped from her seat, 

'I am okay, just a bit of pain in my head.' Why does it feel like I am forgetting something important? I stood up and sat down at the table, Historia, Melvi, Zia, and Styrmir, sat along.

'So madam what were you talking about? The first quest? What do you mean by that?' I laid my head on the table, it felt too heavy for me to keep it straight.

"Alright, so let's commence our first meeting on our first quest, before that I'll explain a few things to you…

This will be our first quest as a team, and we will venture into such a quest from now on, for at least two years if things go well. I will spare the details about the quest when we head out from here, for now, I'll explain some trivial points."

She slammed a quest' request poster, on a yellow paper!

"Ma'am this yellow paper means…" Melvi turned blue in fear…

"Yup it's a Jack of Diamond class quest!"

A Jack class? 

Quest in all kingdoms is classified by two aspects, the first color of paper and a special mark taken from the deck of cards.

Spades are quests given by the kingdom itself,

Diamonds are quests given by a particular domain or a province, 

Clubs are the open quests requested by guilds associations, 

While Hearts are quests requested on an individual basis.

While the difficulty level is counted on numbers and rank of cards.  

Moreover, there are two types of papers a quest is issued, White means public request, Yellow means confidential request.

However you look, it's like we are jumping on the gun!

'Ma'am, you know it's bound to be a very difficult quest, will it be alright for amateurs like us to go straight on such missions?' I looked at Historia and she smirked.

"What are you saying, aren't you all students of Ovyrus these things shouldn't be any bothered to you."  Historia sipped her tea calmly, 

"But ma'am, however-" Melvi was already shaking and somehow mustered her courage to speak but was interrupted by Historia,

"Ah! Drop that ma'am, you can call me Lady Hiz, now what were you saying Melvi?"

"Isn't this quest only for 1st rank teams? I mean if it was between 10th or 5th level, it would've been perfect for beginners like us, and 2nd rank team, but since we don't even have proper registration, we aren't even a 3rd rank team, who can't even take the quest between level 2nd and 4th!" 

Melvi was shaking and tearing up now.

"Well, it's true that you have to be a 1st rank team to take a high-level quest! But don't worry my children! With the license and badge provided to you as an adventurer student, you can take any request disclosed to you. 

You see, there are some formalities done before getting approval for such a request, and because of that we weren't able to take this request-" Historia sulked in disappointment and sighed,

"That means!" Melvi face brightened up, 

"But! Thanks to a Seth, a top-ranked candidate, team member of the winning team in the 2nd trial, and course with a high-class mage as a captain in our team, we were able to get approval in no time!" She pointed at me, Zia and Melvi, and started laughing.

"What about me?" Styrmir pointed at himself, 

"Oh yes, and with a pervert in our team too!" Historia averted her gaze from Styrmir.

"So, it's apparent that we are going on this quest?"  Zia looked at Historia when she spoke her soft voice took our attention, 

"Yup! It will be fun, after all, I chose this quest keeping all of you in mind." Her sly smile sent a chill through my spine.

I sighed realizing there is no way out now, 

'So, what's the quest about?' 

"It's a simple and easy lost and find, request from our lovely neighbor's Dwarven kingdom, Goldmin kingdom."

The amount of sarcasm in her single sentence gave me another headache.

"So raise your sprints and pack your things, we will meet at Grand Gate tower today at 4 p.m. sharp and we'll begin our quest." Historia calmly placed her cup and took a good stretch.

'4 p.m.? It's only 1 hour from now! But Lady-' I tried to speak but interrupted me in between,

"You can always refuse a request but keep this in mind, once you deny a quest already taken approval of it would be bad for the grades of your first year of the academy." 

'Damn it!' I slammed my desk and started treading out of the library, and three of them came marching behind me.

"Rise… I am scared!!" Melvi was already crying and sniffling.

"Don't worry if something happens to you I'll be there to protect you, mademoiselle!" Styrmir was back with a pervy smile and creepy expression, can't believe such innocent looks are wasted on this guy, if only he didn't show his true face I would've mistaken him as a knight with a high principal.

"Rise!" Melvi was more scared now, 

After reaching the corridor we separate our ways and head to our rooms, 

'Damn I need to hurry now!' I dashed inside my dorm and went inside my room and rashly packed my clothes and necessities in the void crate.

I changed my clothes and I dashed out of my room and ran toward Grand Gate tower, one of the four towers of the academy.

It was the tower with a big teleporting Magus circle that can wrap anywhere around the world once activated.

It was already 3:30 p.m., I was almost there, I jumped from the corridor but suddenly everything besides me got swallowed by darkness, 

'A void space? But who's? Who are you? Is it to attack the magus academy?' I looked around but there was nothing but darkness.

"Attack the academy? I have no such reason to do that." This voice! 

'Zia?!' I yelled her name, it was definitely her voice.

"Don't!" Her voice echoed again from behind, turned to her and found her standing in front of me, with her sword pointing at me.

"Don't call my name so casually!" She squinted at me, 

'What...what happened? Are you upset about anything? Is it about the quest-' I looked at her and she stabbed my chest with her sword, the wound shallows only enough to make me bleed,

"Quite! Only I will ask questions here! Tell me where did you learn those spells?" 

'What spells?' What is she talking about? 

"The one you used in the fight against the crown prince! The Cold Grip spell!" She pushed her sword deeper into my chest.

I can't tell her the truth, what should I say?

'What does it have to do with you?" I grabbed her blade, 

"It was a spell only a single man can pull off a brave soldier of the demon army in my father's army-" she suddenly jerked and pulled her sword back in the sheath.

"Tell me how do you know about that spell?"