Chapter 62 - 25

In the morning at Piqmentia Grand Academy. Thousands of people have gathered there. They all stared at the large screen made of magic in front of them. Their reactions were different, some were crying, some were smiling broadly, some were laughing, some were screaming hysterically and looking depressed and some were just silent without showing their expressions.

"Ken, I passed and was placed in class S!" Clara said cheerfully to Ziel. She subconsciously jumped up like a child and hugged him.

"Congratulations, my lady." Ziel let Clara hug him until she was satisfied. After a long time they hugged, Clara finally realized that she was hugging Ziel.

"Ah.... I'm sorry Ken." Clara immediately let go of Ziel and kept her distance from him. She turned her face away and didn't dare to look at him directly. She couldn't hide her blushing face that reached the tips of her ears from embarrassment.

"It's okay, my lady. Let's put that aside, you're great to get into class S." Ziel diverts the conversation so that Clara forgets what happened earlier.

"Thanks, Ken. How about you?" Clara still looks embarrassed. But now she has dared to look at Ziel even though her face is still red.

"I passed in class D." Ziel pointed at his name on the big screen. He was placed in class D with hundreds of other participants who passed. Only a thousand people are accepted into the academy out of many applicants. And out of the thousand people it was divided into 7 classes based on their grades.

The class that has 100 students with the highest score from the accumulated of 3 exams is class S (special) the order after that is class A, B, C, D, E, F. So the value of the Ziel exam is in the middle.

"Clara!" Clara heard someone calling her from behind. There, Princess Iris was running over to them.

"Iris!" Clara waved her hand at him.

"Congratulations on passing the exam and getting into class S. We will be classmates in the future. Please take care of me from now on." Princess Iris looks very happy, maybe because she thinks Clara is her first friend at the academy or one of those people who wasn't swayed by her mana.

"Congratulations to you too, Iris. But... Ken isn't in the same class as us." Clara's previously happy face turned cloudy after remembering that her class and Ziel will be separated.

"I can come to your place during break or after class is over. So, you just have to focus on your studies, lady. And you still have princess Iris there." Ziel from the beginning never intended to be in the same class with Clara. He knew Clara would be aiming for the top class. So he supported her with the artifact. If a butler from a duke's daughter could enter class S too. It will make him stand out. He knew class S must be filled with noble sons and daughters and genius children. They all sound annoying to Ziel. Although different classes, Ziel can still provide full protection for Clara.

"Ken is right Clara. You don't have to be sad like that. Have you taken your uniform?" Princess Iris tries to change the subject so Clara is no longer sad.

"Not yet, so where can I get it? I didn't get any notification at all." Clara shook her head and opened the student manual book. There only appeared the number of her dorm room in the white tower.

"You can pick it up in the white tower, and for the men in the black tower. After picking up your uniform you can immediately see your room in the academy." Princess Iris explained all the information she knew to Ziel and Clara.

"Then what are you waiting for, let's go there right away. Ken, I'm going with Iris to the white tower. You don't have to drive me, I'll be fine. You can go straight to the black tower." Clara grabbed Princess Iris' hand and went towards the white tower without hearing Ken's answer.

"Wait, Clara..." Princess Iris wanted to say something, but she smiled and stopped her words, she just let Clara take her hand and walk towards the white tower.

"Yes, my lady." Ziel's eyes turned red, he looked at princess Iris who was walking with clara to the white tower. Then a thin layer of membrane envelops her and seals her mana completely for a while.

"Hopefully there won't be any problems later." Ziel left the crowd of people who saw their exam results on the screen and went towards the black tower.

***

The black and white tower at Piqmentia Grand Academy is used as a residence for students who have passed the selection exam. The black tower is a dormitory for men while the white one is for women. The shape of the black and white tower is somewhat different from the other 5 towers. The two towers are like huge inns with hundreds of rooms that have a strong magic barrier to protect the students living there. Every student who has passed the exam and is accepted as an official student will be registered and can enter and exit the barrier freely.

When Ziel arrived at the black tower, he entered and went straight to the reception desk.

"Excuse me... I'm a student who has just been accepted into the academy. I'm here to pick up my uniform." Ziel spoke to the pink-haired girl with an oval face behind the reception desk.

"Ah... May I see your manual book?" The girl awkwardly asked him. Looks like she's not used to talking to other people or maybe people she doesn't know.

Ziel gave the manual book to her. The girl checked his manual book with a magic tool on the reception desk. It was a magic tool to identify the authenticity of the manual book and show the identity of the owner.

"Ken Nijisaki, Class D. Here are 7 sets of your uniform. Your room number is 111, isn't it? And the manual book given during registration will be replaced with a student ID book." The girl handed him another book which was smaller in size than the manual book the academy had previously given him.

"Thanks." Ziel took his uniform and ID book and headed to his room.

Room 111 is on the 2nd floor of the black tower. And it looks like he won't be alone in that room. Each room will be occupied by 3-4 students. When Ziel arrived at the room, he heard a noise coming from inside. It seemed his roommate had arrived first.

Knock... Knock... Knock...

"Excuse me..." Ziel knocked on the door and the person inside immediately opened the door.

"Ooh, you are the third occupant in this room? Please come in..." The person who opened the door was a boy with short black hair that was neatly cut.

When Ziel entered the room, he could see the room was quite large. With 3 beds, 1 living room, kitchen, and bathroom. This room is arguably much better than the inn room Ziel previously stayed in.

"Welcome, you are the last occupant of this room. We will be roommates from now on. So, how about we introduce ourselves first? Ooh, my name is Dalvin Baurice. I am the son of a merchant from this kingdom. And he is ..." Dalvin greeted Ziel with a smile while introducing himself. He looks like a friendly person. While the other boys...

"My name is James Borilo, I'm just an ordinary person. I come from the Cirlus Kingdom. nice to meet you." He introduced himself nonchalantly. As if not caring about Ziel.

"My name is Ken Nijisaki. I'm the butler of a duke's daughter. I'm also glad to meet you." Ziel offers them his handshake. Dalvin accepted it gladly, while James looked a bit dubious.

"Please don't mind his rudeness. He's a nice person, it's just that he has a hard time expressing it, and your bed is that one." Dalvin pointed at the bed in the corner of the room. it's the only bed left there.

Dalvin thought Ziel would be mad at James' attitude. so he tried to explain to her for fear that Ziel would misunderstand. While James the person he was talking about could only click his tongue after hearing it. What he doesn't know is that Ziel doesn't care what kind of attitude he gives him.

Ziel only nodded slightly at his explanation. He carried his luggage to the bed located in the corner of the room that Dalvin had shown him.

"Ken, you must change your uniform immediately. Because this afternoon all the students who have passed the exam will be gathered at the SkyDome for the new student acceptance ceremony." Dalvin and James have been wearing their uniforms since Ziel came into the room.

The student uniform of the Piqmentia Grand Academy is black with gold and silver ornaments. The thing that distinguished the uniforms of each class was the emblem on the right arm of the uniform. Class S has 7 stars. Class A has 6 stars and so on until class F which only has 1 star. Ziel's emblem is 3 stars which means he is class D. Dalvin also has 3 stars on his emblem while James has 4 stars which mean he is in class C.

"Ooh... Ken, you're also in class D? Then we'll be classmates too. Meanwhile, James seems to have better grades than us." Dalvin is depressed and looks at James, to be exact the badge on James' sleeve.

"Noisy... Let's go quickly!" He got up from his seat and walked out of the room.

"Ken, do you want to go there together? I can wait for you if you want." He stood at the door waiting for Ziel's answer.

"No, thanks. I haven't changed into my uniform yet. You'd better go first. I'll catch up with you later." Ziel shook his head refusing his offer.

"Alright then, see you in the SkyDome hall." Dalvin closed the door left the room and went to the SkyDome.

After the door closed. Ziel changed the clothes he was currently wearing with the academy uniform. After that, he left the room and came out of the black tower. Since there were still less than two hours left, Ziel decided to go around the academy first. He saw that there was a small lake just behind the black tower. Ziel sat under a tree by the lake while looking at the scene in front of him.

Ziel took out his fishing rod from his storage space and started fishing in the lake. He could feel that many fish were living in the lake. He did that to pass the time before the ceremony started and lure the people who follow him

"How long are you going to hide there?" Ziel who had been silently watching the lake view suddenly spoke.

"Since when did you notice?" A girl's voice answered from behind a tree not far from where he was fishing.