Chapter 5: Rank Assessment

Zach sat down in the only available seat in the classroom, which happened to be in the frontmost row next to Julius, who nodded in greeting. Zach politely returned the nod before turning his gaze to the Instructor.

"Ahem." The Instructor cleared his throat.

"For those of you who missed it, my name is Jarron. You all may address me as Instructor Jarron. During the four years you will be spending here, setting aside unforeseen events such as early graduations, expellings, or deaths, I will be your homeroom teacher. I will also be teaching you the basics of summoning." Jarron looked out at his class and made eye contact with all the students.

"As some of you have already noticed, I am a lenient teacher, and since it's your first lesson of the first day, we won't be doing anything complicated. As some or most of you already know, we will only be assessing the ranks of your familiars today." Jarron turned and pointed at a seemingly ordinary glass orb lying on his desk like a paperweight.

"We'll be using this projector. It's as simple as you and your familiar touching it at the same time. It will project the familiar's rank. Any questions? No? Good.

Let's get started." Jarron rolled the projector to the front of his desk before grabbing a list with the names of all the students.

Jarron didn't waste any time and immediately started calling down students and their familiars.

"Violina Systine." Eventually, Jarron reached the name of one of the more famous people in the class.

Zach looked up and followed the blue-haired young lady's graceful descent to the front of the classroom. He recognized her. She was one of the descendants of one of the other ducal families in the empire, the daughter of the Systines of the South.

She and her floating block of ice, which was surrounded by visible cold air, touched the projector. It didn't take long before a dazzling blue 'A' popped up in the air above the projector.

Jarron nodded. After all, it was already known that Violina and two others had summoned A-rank familiars.

"Would you like to share or keep your familiar's identity a secret?"

"I won't bother concealing something so obvious. It's an Ice Spirit."

"I see." Jarron nodded again and wrote down Violina's rank and contracted familiar before gesturing that she could return to her seat.

A few students after her came the next A-rank.

Anerias Corom wasn't as graceful as Violina, but he was twice as cocky, seemingly to make up for it. He and his oversized dog with matching black color schemes confidently made their way to the projector. After the black 'A' popped up, Anerias didn't even wait for Jarron to ask before loudly announcing his familiar's identity.

"Blackfire Hound."

"Okay."

However, he didn't cause much of a stir since most already knew about it. However, Zach looked at the large, black, sleek-furred dog with a thoughtful gaze. He wasn't sure what, but he could feel something from the dog.

It also seemed like the dog could sense something from him.

'No…'

Zach followed the dog's large black eyes as it looked in his direction. It wasn't sensing something from Zach. It was focused on the angel behind him.

Zach frowned for a moment before shrugging. He could just ask Yanael about it later when they were alone since he didn't want anyone else to find out she could talk just yet. It would be too much of a bother if it came out that she was an S-rank, a variant, and she could talk at once.

Fortunately, the Blackfire Hound didn't seem more than interested in Yanael, and it happily trotted back to its seat with its master.

Zach glanced around the room. There weren't many left, and it should be his turn soon. But he was curious about the third A-rank. He had an idea of who it might be since only one familiar stood out the same way the Blackfire Hound and the Ice Spirit had done.

But the person who had summoned that familiar seemed pretty indistinctive in comparison, so Zach wasn't sure.

"Dukiel."

However, he would soon get his answer. The unremarkable young man with short brown hair made his way to the front of the class with hunched shoulders and a nervous look in his eye. In stark contrast, his familiar, which was a floating elliptical something made of a strange pale grey material, seemed unfazed by everything. Sёarch* The NôvelFire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

When the familiar bumped against the projector at the same time as Dukiel, a light grey 'A' popped up, confirming Zach's suspicions.

"That's an interesting familiar, Dukiel. Do you mind sharing it's identity?"

Dukiel shook his head.

"I don't mind. It's a sentinel."

Jarron nodded thoughtfully while writing it down.

"A sentinel, huh. There aren't much information on them, but I'll make sure to find out as much as possible to help you."

"T-thank you."

Jarron nodded again and sent Dukiel and his sentinel back to their seat.

Next up was Julius and his D-rank mannequin. Zach wasn't sure what he had expected, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Then, finally, after the rest of his classmates had gone, it was time for Zacharia Evandiel to take the stage with his maid.

'Did he put me last because I was late?'

Zach didn't mind, but he gave Jarron a quick look before reaching out and grabbing the projector with Yanael doing the same.

Surprisingly enough, Yanael's rank didn't pop up at once like it had done for almost everyone else. It took enough time for Zach to start worrying that his so-called luck was interfering again.

He had just started looking forward to the easy life with an S-rank maid, regardless of the attention it got him.

However, after around ten seconds, a golden 'S' glowed in the air above the projector, calming Zach but stunning Jarron and the rest of the students.

Jarron had been a little worried when the projector was slower than usual, but it was within the error margin. However, he had never expected to see an 'S' appear just like that. The other students weren't any better, especially since they were expecting a dull 'D.'

What happened to the beautiful but useless homunculus that the unlucky youngest son of the Evandiel ducal household had summoned?